NAAN (The Rabanians Book 1) (32 page)

I looked at the taxi rolling along beside me. He moved the horse closer to me and shoved me with his leg. I got in the taxi and it accelerated throwing me against the back of the seat.

“Close the door,” shouted the driver.

I tried, but my aching body could not handle the speed and the uneven surface of the trail. I was thrown all over the back seat. A small cardboard box that was on the seat opened and the clothes that were inside it scattered all over.

“Close the damn door,” he shouted as the car turned onto the belt road. I balanced myself on the seat, reached for the door and slammed it shut.

   He turned left into the city and I was pushed against the door. If I hadn’t managed to get it closed, I would probably have flown out of the car. He looked at me in the mirror and started to laugh.  “I see you found your clothes?” he said still laughing.

I looked at the clothes that were spread around me.

His laughter died and he was suddenly serious. “Change your clothes. Now.” he ordered. “In a few minutes I am stopping and kicking you out of my car.”

His driving became less erratic after I’d changed out of my clothes. I leaned back and tried to relax. I felt intense pain from my shoulders and thighs. My nose was completely blocked.

At one of the stops he turned his head back and looked at me. “You look like a rag in a suit,” he said scanning me from head to toe. “I will stop in front of the Glance hotel shortly. In your pocket is a card with a new name. Learn it before you go in. There is a room reserved under your name.”

He stopped and I jumped out. I watched the car leaving and let out a deep sigh. The Hotel Glance towered over me. I pulled out the card and looked at the name. Leamsy Orap, my new name. I walked towards the entrance and the tension started to fade. Weariness took its place. A day in the desert with aching body, on the back of a horse in the company of a group of sadists can really drain you completely, I thought. But this was not the only thing that made me feel so exhausted.

I checked into room 314 and took the elevator up to it. A premade dinner inside a warm oven was on the table. In spite of my hunger, I took off my clothes first and stepped into the shower. After a long shower I ate, fell on the bed and fell asleep.

I woke up in panic late in the morning and left the room. A uniformed hotel employee passed by, smiled, and said good morning. I returned his greeting and went down to the lobby.

As soon as I left the elevator a second employee passed by smiling and nodding at me. I nodded back and walked towards the small information center that was off the dining room. I sat down at a terminal and started to surf. A few moments later two waiters stopped beside me. One of them opened a small table and the other placed a tray on it. The tray was loaded with several pastries and a steaming cup of tea.

"I didn’t…” I started to say.

“This is part of the service,” interrupted one of the waiters.

They smiled and left. I thought for a moment about the smiles that had been showered on me from the moment I’d left my room. The words of Oziri-Dos came back to me.
We are everywhere
, he’d said. I looked around and thought of all the friendly service people around me. They were the eyes and ears of an information network serving the rebels from the desert.

I checked the news. The report about the lost shuttle was all over the news. It made me wonder again why they had taken such a risk. Was it Oziri-Dos megalomania? Had he been trying to regain his self-confidence, and lower mine? Or maybe he was simply irrational. Either way I could not understand how is was possible that the shuttle had returned to Mampas and landed in the desert without anyone noticing it? It was not a small hovercraft that could disappear without a trace. It would have been off the network during takeoff and landing but still it must have been equipped with dozens of sensors that would have been constantly sending and receiving information.  Were the Desertians that sophisticated or were the Mampasians just that incompetent?

The reports in the network claimed the shuttle had been kidnapped and that there were signs it landed on a remote planet.  The reliability factor of these reports was around 0.5, which meant no one really knew if they were true.

There was also a reliable report about a guest from Seragon that, due to the recent events, arrived on Mampas in order to strength the relation between the two planets and to coordinate their battle against information scrambling.  For a second I wondered what would happen if I accidently met these visitors in the street.

After reviewing the general news, I scanned through the airport news as well. A few shuttles were scheduled to leave Mampas that evening but none of them would stop on Naan. This was not a surprise. Naan was not a common destination. I knew I would have to wait. I was certain that Oziri-Dos would not help me leave Mampas. With all of the explosives in my body I had doubts that he would let me live.

After an hour in front of the terminal I left the hotel and walked to the same
messenger
agency where I’d fallen into the trap set by Su-Thor. Her image came into my mind and with it came my anger. When our eyes had met back then I should have seen the danger. It should have been enough for me to leave the place.

When I arrived at the agency four agents sat beyond the low fence. Three were busy on their terminals and one was speaking to a customer in a white shirt that was stretched over his muscular body. I wondered why she was not there. Oziri-Dos had said she was a former agent now. Maybe she was exposed when they sprung the trap.

I sat down at a terminal and started surfing, wondering if I was going to leave Mampas alive. If could find Mampas’ spies I could hide the list in the network and offer to trade it to Oziri-Dos for a ticket on a shuttle leaving Mampas. I thought he would probably agree. After all he could simply blow me up whenever he wanted. Click. Boom. There was no need for me to be around for it. With even basic scrambling knowledge he could transmit the required code through the network to a transmitter wherever I might be. I was completely his prisoner. Using the information as a bargaining chip was the only idea I had. At the very least it might buy me some time to build some sort of protection or maybe scramble the codes.

I cleared my mind and started to surf. This time I checked in on what the agents were surfing. I assumed they were all Desert people but I decided to paly it safe. Then I checked the people around me. No one was doing anything suspicious so I zoomed out to the information circles of the government offices. When the way seemed clear I went deeper, focusing in on the defense offices. With a twist of my neck I created a door and went through it into the defense office personnel lists. Within the names were some addresses that led to a blocked database. The information I was able to uncover from outside the security wall hinted that the database contained private information about outside contractors working for the office. 

I assumed the hidden list contained the names of employees involved in the security of Mampas, although it was only reasonable to assume that the Desertians were not the only security issue Mampas was dealing with. I tried to break in and the network detected me. My movement through the network became heavier. After a short struggle I deceived its defenses and the pressure let up enough to allow me to break in and hide the entrance. I scanned the names. Some of them sounded Desertian and I hoped they were the people I was looking for. I copied the list and exited the database. The surfing in the network around the defense office was slow. I assumed the system was on high alert after I’d disappeared. I threw out a few baits to distract its defenses and ease my exit from the government network. Once I was out, and hidden among other surfers, I changed direction several times. Eventually I surfed into the local system of the clothing store I’d visited on my first day in Mampas. I created a database to hold the list, and was about to drop the data into it, when a strong hand landed on my shoulder and another pulled the sensor from my neck, tossed the sensor aside, and returned to choke me. I pushed him away with everything I had and we went over backwards, falling against one of the terminals behind me.

I rolled away and skipped towards the door staring back at him. It was the man in the white shirt. Two of the
messenger
service agents skipped over the fence and ran towards the terminal. I noticed one reaching out towards the neck sensor, but nothing more than that. The man in the white shirt recovered and jumped over the table. I ran outside and continued running down the street. After a few moments I lost him in the crowd. I walked for a bit, regaining my breath. A few Flyeyes flew over the street. I didn't think they were looking for me, but I made sure to not look up. I went along with the flow of the crowd and changed direction from time to time. I had nowhere to go. 

The people in the agency were Desertians. I had no doubt about it. I didn't think they knew where I’d gone in the network, but then again they really didn't need to know. All they needed was to wait for my return. To them I would have disappeared and returned, hopefully with the information that they needed. Maybe that was how she had spotted me before. Maybe she’d watched me disappear into the news network. When I’d returned and the scrambled news stories had begun to appear, it was enough to assume I was behind the scrambling.

I let out a sigh. It didn’t matter anymore. If they got their hands on the information my life would end, blasted to pieces while walking along the streets of Mampas.

A few cars suddenly stopped on the street. Men in black suits and helmets jumped out and looked around them. Periodically they glanced at screens on their arms. I turned and walked away. Some Flyeyes flew over me and I rushed into a narrow alley to hide behind a garbage container. The men in suits spread out along the street. Flyeyes shadowed them from above. When I heard their conversations I was suddenly confused. They weren't Desertian.

I waited until they were gone then walked along the alley and out onto a parallel street. Confusion and helplessness filled me. If they weren’t Oziri-Dos people then they had to be Mampas security people. But if so, then either they were onto me, or Oziri-Dos was playing a totally different game. 

I thought about the airport. For a second I found refuge in the thought that maybe I could sneak into one of the shuttles and leave this damn place.  But the airport was far away and there was no way I could get there without being exposed. I walked without any purpose. I felt completely lost, expecting my life to suddenly end. If Oziri-Dos felt merciful he could activate all the detonators in my body at once. If he was not he could play with me, maybe activate only one of the ones in my legs. Then death would surely be a longer slower affair.

As I walked my strength and thoughts ran out. So did the city. The buildings became shorter, their number smaller. Fewer people were walking in the street. My steps carried me towards the belt road. I wondered at how little it disturbed me that I was walking straight into a predator’s mouth. I wondered if maybe there was still a chance to make a deal with them. Maybe I could provide some services in exchange for my life. Was I that desperate?  Was I thinking of making a deal with the devil?

  Dion started to set. My legs hurt, but I walked until I felt the sand under my feet. When my steps got heavy I stopped and fell to my knees. A pleasant feeling of looseness spread over my body. After all of my walking and thinking the only thing that had come to mind was to beg for their mercy. I heard Oziri-Dos’ laughter in my head. I gritted my teeth, lay on the sand, and closed my eyes.

A minute passed and then I heard a faint noise. I lifted my head. A spot of light moved along the desert’s dark horizon. It was moving away and when its sound faded I rested my head back on the sand. Seconds passed then I heard it returning. I lifted my head again and watched it approaching. It was a hovercraft. I rose to my knees and was buffeted by its wind. It raised a small cyclone of sand into the air. The hovercraft maneuvered and landed some distance away. Its engines cycled down but they didn't shut down. When the cloud of sand dispersed I noticed it was nothing more than a small junker. Its body was rusted and bent in several places. Some of the lights on its exterior were out, and the rest flickered. 

Suddenly I heard cars stopping on the belt road. There was shouting and two of the vehicles turned onto the desert trail and started to move towards me. I stood up and started to run wondering how they knew I was here. I ran parallel to the belt road.

The hovercraft lifted off the ground with a whistle, and began to parallel me. I knew I didn't have any chance but still I ran. My strength gave out fast. A small hill appeared in front of me. It was enough to send me to my knees again, but I stood up and continued. The hovercraft was always beside. From time to time there was a roar from its engines as if beneath the rust it was a racing hovercraft that was about to jump into the air in an instant. A door on its side opened. I expected uniformed soldiers to jump out any minute and end this pointless chase, but no one was there.

Bullets kicked up sand around me. The people in the cars coming from the belt road were firing at me. The hovercraft roared again. I looked at it wondering. The door was still open and there was a faint light in the small space beyond. More shots. This time I heard the bullets ricochet off the hovercraft. It gained a little altitude in response. When it dropped down again I ran to the door and jumped in. The door closed behind me, the hovercraft roared, the roar turned into a whistle and it shot into the sky. Its acceleration threw me against the back wall and I lost consciousness.