Wake Me In The Future (29 page)

And when I suggested it would be a good idea to have a small party, to finally bond with my other friends Ankit was almost enthusiastic. It was something that people didn’t seem to do any more, but he agreed to get together as soon as they were all available. So the party was on. Ankit seemed to be finally coming out of his shell and moving on.

Simon was the last to arrive and after Ankit had provided him with the beer he was so fond of, the subject of parties came up and Rachel asked me, ‘what sort of things did you used to do at parties in your day?’

‘Well we used to listen to music and dance of course, but we also played party games.’

‘Games!’ Rachel said, feigning surprise.

‘That’s right. Not all games are for children you know.’

‘Jane was quick to jump in, ‘Yes please, can we play some?’

‘What sort of games Richard?’ Jennifer prompted me.

‘Well, we used to play one called
Spot the Leader
,’ I said, ‘where one person leaves the room and is the guesser. You put on some music and choose one person to lead the others clapping or dancing. The leader has to regularly change the rhythm and which body part to clap against and the others have to follow until you’ve established a pattern. Then the guesser comes back into the room and has to guess who the leader is. It’s not as easy as it sounds.’

‘It sounds like fun to me; I’ll go first then.’ Rachel said hastily, almost appearing nervous, ‘I’ll pop into your study if that’s all right Ankit?’

‘Certainly,’ He said, smiling at her enthusiasm.

‘Do you mind if I access my records through your terminal while I am waiting for you to shout me back?’

‘Of course not, help yourself.’

She told me later that as soon as she entered Ankit’s study she crossed the room and nervously accessed the terminal to input the details she’d been given. Hoping it would be over quickly; she was awash with nervous energy. But as she selected the final option that should have bought up the information she was trying to retrieve, she was presented with the same message I'd encountered.

The information must have been blocked to anyone below a certain rank, not just Cryogens. But just as I had, she tried a few times more, before eventually giving up.

After she’d returned to the living room she went along with the game for appearances sake and waited until Ankit took his turn to go into the study.

As soon as he was out of sight Jane was once again tuned out of our conversation and Rachel explained that she hadn’t been able to get to the information.

‘Oh well,’ at least we tried,’ said Earl. ‘Jon will just have to come up with another plan.’

‘Is this what you’ve all been trying to get at?’ Ankit’s demanding voice came from behind us, as he stood there waving an info-sheet.

We all started looking furtively at each other, guilt ridden and I suddenly felt overcome with shame.

‘I am so sorry Ankit, will you let us explain, or are you going to call the authorities?’

‘I think you’d better explain. Jane, would you go into my study for a few minutes while we talk?’

When Jane had gone, looking totally confused, I timidly revealed our suspicions about Ramoon and the evidence we’d found in his office.

‘You know as well as I do,’ said Rachel almost pleading, ‘that there is an anti Cryogen element in our society Ankit, even my parents are a little like that.’

‘Very well, I admit that I’ve had my doubts about Ramoon for a while. There’s many adjectives I could use to describe that man but harmless isn’t one of them. If he’s up to anything then it should be bought to light. And because I consider all of you my friends I am willing to help you.’ He held out the info-sheet to us, ‘You can give this information to your contacts and tell them I am available if there's anything they want me to do.’

Jennifer was ecstatic, ‘really Ankit? Oh, thank you.’ She said clapping her hands excitedly.

‘Thank you Ankit,’ said Rachel kissing him on the cheek.

After we’d left his apartment I thought to myself how lucky I was to have the support of all these wonderful people that I was beginning to love.

But unknown to me, standing in the centre of the main room of his apartment, Ankit was looking at the floor as if he had the guilt of the world on his shoulders; because he'd just finished talking to the vid screen on the wall. It held the image of Ramoon, and as he stared out of it he said, ‘well done Ankit’.

‘Your wife will be pleased…’

Chapter 30
- Capture

I was a little disappointed to say the least, at Jon’s reaction, when I told him the news about recruiting Ankit to the cause. I’d expected a bit more of an enthusiastic response, but Jon seemed to be treating the whole thing with a high degree of scepticism and distrust.

'Are you absolutely sure of him Richard? We can’t afford to leave ourselves exposed now that we've got this far.'

‘Yes, I promise you Jon. I’ve never known anyone as honourable as Ankit. He'd lay down his life rather than betray the people he cares about.'

‘And you’ve not given him any information about us, or this facility?’

‘No don’t worry, you can relax. I knew you’d want me to play it close to my chest so I told him that any detailed information would have to come from you. And anyway, he only pledged his support, he never asked questions. You really don’t have anything to worry about when it comes to Ankit.’

'Alright,’ he said half-heartedly, ‘in that case, I suggest I meet with this friend of yours. After all, he’ll be the highest ranking Manooran we'll have working with us. And anyway, a meeting will give me a chance to assess his sincerity.'

You’re going to take some convincing
, I thought.

Nevertheless, I smiled in appreciation at Jon's display of confidence in my decision to ask Ankit to help. Even though I’d not really had a choice; we could have just asked him to keep quiet of course, but surely it was better to have him on side?

'I'll let Ankit know you want a meeting.'

As I made my way out of the facility I started to feel uneasy about reaching the jump point that the protesters used to move in and out of their headquarters.

I’d been told that jumping was safe and straightforward but it hadn’t got any better for me since the first time I’d done it. I always felt sick, both at the anticipation of it, and during the process. I wondered if I had the future equivalent of the fear of flying; at least that's what the feelings I experienced made it seem like.

The Moon had developed considerably over the years, and where
there
was
a
once
forgotten storage site
; there
was now a thriving city. The jump point was some way from the headquarters in a busy shopping area. It was situated in a large storeroom in the basement of a shop run by a sympathiser and it contained all the spare bodies they needed. It was considered to be safer to jump in and out of this location, and then take a different route to the headquarters on each visit, to ensure no one was followed. Of course, it was possible to jump directly to the headquarters, as I’d experienced myself, but the jump point provided additional security, and now that I'd become adept at jumping, I had no option but to adopt their security protocols.

Ankit was, what I could only describe as
under-whelmed
at the news that Jon wanted to meet with him. I’d totally misjudged the reactions I’d expected from both these men.

‘I thought you were looking forward to helping us find the truth Ankit?’ I said to my distracted friend. ‘Do you want me to tell Jon that you’ve changed your mind?’

That seemed to bring him back from wherever his mind had taken him because he blinked and said, ‘No, I am sorry Richard. Thank you for setting this up. If Jon lets you have the details you can pass them on to me and I’ll make myself available.’ And then he smiled - that smile people give you that says they’re not quite telling the truth – the corners of his eyes never moved.

I sighed inwardly.
He’s still not got over Amira
, I thought;
he’s just not admitting it to himself
.

Two days later Ankit and I were walking down the familiar main corridor of the library on the way to meet Jon. In the distance, the faint humming of the air conditioning system or whatever the equivalent was, gently chased the silence into the background and masked the thumping that I was convinced was coming from my heart.

I’d never displayed any criminal tendencies in my previous life, even the high jinks I was involved with as part of the gang at school was far from criminal. No, this was the first time I'd ever felt like this.

But laws are just rules created by people, there's nothing natural about them. So is it wrong to break them if you think they're unjust?

It was yet another one of those dilemmas I had to struggle with. That old saying that one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. It must be down to the degree of action that people were prepared to take, there surely has to be a point beyond where most people would agree it was wrong to go; and that has to be part of human nature. I hoped so anyway, for humanities sake - or what was left of it.

We were approaching the end of the corridor now, where Jon had arranged for a room to be available, and as we walked towards the librarian’s station, she looked at
us
knowingly over the spectacles that were perched precariously on the end of her nose. Nodding towards the very end of the corridor, she almost whispered, 'the last room on your right, you’ve got an hour.'

As we approached the room, I once again thanked Ankit for his support. 'I know what you're risking for us Ankit and we'll never be able to thank you enough.'

He just nodded and I made a mental note to myself to try to get him to open up more about Amira. His depression seemed to have returned and if anything, got worse. He now looked as tormented as I felt every time I thought of my own situation.
It can’t be good for him bottling it all up like this
.

When we entered the room it was empty. Jon and the two men that were going to accompany him would arrive slightly later and use separate doors from adjoining rooms, avoiding the risk of using the public entrance.

As we waited for Jon to arrive, I contemplated telling Ankit about the ring I’d found amongst Jane’s possessions. After all, he was becoming almost like a brother to me now, and it might give him something additional to think about and take his mind off Amira. However, as I was trying to formulate the right words, two doors appeared on opposite sides of the room, through each of which appeared a man. Both of them were unfamiliar to me and as I was about to ask them if they were Jon’s colleagues a third door began to materialise, through which I thought I’d see Jon appear.

Instead, the man that did step through was yet another stranger, and as I was about to say ‘where’s Jon’, a booming voice filled the room and vibrated the very walls.

It was only one word but to me it sounded like it had been wrenched from the throat of hell itself.

‘NOW!!’ it echoed around the room.

It was accompanied by the movement of the whole room. The ground beneath me shook and my legs buckled before giving way. Even the strength contained in these new bodies couldn’t keep me upright under the force of this, this…..whatever it was.
Was it an earthquake
?

Everything became chaotic around me. Five other entrances appeared in the walls and Upholders came storming in. They were all shouting loudly and pushing everyone to the floor. I’d only seen this sort of thing happen on TV before and never imagined it could be this frightening. I followed all the orders that were being screamed at me and I soon found myself lying face down on the floor, where I’d been thrown, with my hands bound behind my back. The right side of my face was pushed into the cushioned flooring by a vice like grip on my neck.

Then the room stopped shaking, but something inside of me was simulating the effect of a sudden increase in adrenalin, because the pounding from my chest was having an equal effect on my body. I saw the three protesters being held in the same position as me, but where was Ankit?

I managed to move my eyes to look up at the men that were still standing, and there in front of me, unharmed by the Upholders, was Ankit! My friend couldn’t keep eye contact with me and looked away in shame as I realised what had happened.

I closed my eyes hoping it would all go away. I would have bet my life on Ankit’s loyalty up to just a few moments ago and the disappointment I now felt was almost enough to distract me from the enormity of what was happening. Because I may very well have bet my life!

As I struggled with my bindings and the hand that was clutching my neck, Ankit knelt down beside me. The strained quality of his voice almost pleading for forgiveness, ‘I am so sorry Richard,’ he managed to choke out as if he was about to cry. ‘I had no choice, Ramoon’s got Amira, she hasn’t left me at all; he’s holding her captive and blackmailing me into helping him with his plan. He won’t let her go until he's caught all the protesters. Please forgive me.’

In the short time I’d known this man I'd come to appreciate all of his qualities and virtues, and understood that only something like this could have led him to betrayal. I’d not been wrong about him after all, I told myself. Ankit would probably lay down his life for those he cared about, but he would betray everyone to save the one he loved. I knew I’d have done the same for Helen, Rachel or Jane. How could I have been so stupid? I just wanted to reach up and wipe the tears from
his
cheek.

‘Take care Ankit.’ I said with a feeling of genuine warmth and sincerity, and looking over at the three men who’d entered the room I wondered what Ramoon would say, or do, when he found out that he’d not captured Jon after all, ‘And be careful’ I added.

I wondered what the penalty was for colluding with the enemy. Was I facing being reborn? Or worse still, would Ramoon really try to destroy me completely. Whatever the official charges they would use, I knew I was in serious and deadly danger.