Ntshona (9 page)

“Shit bru! How did you do that?”

“I attacked him with this baton,” he pulled the baton from his sleeve.

“Where did you get that from?!”

“Another policeman”.

Tan was utterly surprised. “Okay, you might need to explain that more”.

“Wait,” said Eve, “how did you keep that up your sleeve?”

“There’s a hole in the seam where I put the handle through,” said Lon, lifting his arm to show them.

“Wow, that’s lucky,” she said.

Lon nodded. “By the way,” he turned to Tan, “Is it safe to just sit here? I mean, this car stands out; if someone saw us get in-”

“Don’t worry,” interrupted Tan, “the car’s silver”.

“What?” said Eve, understandably confused.

“Just look out the front window,” said Tan.

Both Lon and Eve did as Tan said, and the car was indeed silver.

“I take anonymity seriously,” said Tan in a confident, firm tone.

“What about your number plate?” asked Lon, “It’s probably been caught on camera”.

“Nope,” Tan quickly responded. “My plates are digital, so they’re extremely easy for me to change, look,” he tapped the screen on the dashboard and brought up a different display on the glass. “You can write one yourself, or choose a randomly generated one. I change mine every day”.

“Wow, pretty clever,” said Lon, “but what about the car colour?”

“Well, keeping it simple, it’s something like the number plates, but a bit more complicated,” Tan said.

There were few pedestrians in the street as most of them had run away.

Several police officers dashed past the car in pursuit of two people who they could no longer see. Tan’s camouflaging car worked exactly like they had hoped.

The congestion in which the vehicle was temporarily engaged began to ease, and made room for them to move forwards.

“Ah, looks like we’re starting to move,” stated Tan. “It may take us a while to get to where we’re going, so you’ve got plenty of time to tell me about what happened today”.

Both Lon and Eve explained the day’s events so far, and how they believed the man on the news who had ‘committed suicide’ the night before had actually been murdered.

They were leaving the city centre headed south around the time they had finished explaining to Tan.

“So, how did you know that the police would be searching for you two?” asked Tan.

“Well,” said Lon, “I’m guessing that they killed that guy because they knew that he survived last night’s attack and got away. As far as I can imagine, the only reason they knew he’d escaped was because he used the NGT system; he probably checked in when he left the shopping centre, and the police must’ve been monitoring the NGT database to see if anyone who had gone in went back out”.

“Oh, and you two had to check out at the other end, so they realised you had escaped too,” deduced Tan.

“I think they were initially only looking for me,” added Eve, “because Lon didn’t use his real ID to check out of the NGT to enter the shopping centre. There was no way of proving he was there without meticulously searching through the surveillance footage, and even then they probably would have needed to know who they were looking for”.

“So whoever attacked us last night, and wants us dead today, probably has some level of control over the NGT company, and has an influence on the police
; more than likely the government,” posited Lon.

“Not necessarily,” said Tan, “as you saw last night, it’s not difficult to hack the NGT usage database. And it only takes one senior police officer to issue a warrant for an arrest; a senior officer who could have ties with the people who want you dead, or at least can be encouraged to do their bidding with large sums of cash. It’s not uncommon in this part of the world you know”.

“If that’s the case, then we still don’t know anything more than we did last night!” Eve said frustratedly.

“Well, at least I’ve got some guns now,” stated Lon while grinning, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Eve sighed. “That doesn’t really help us very much”.

“Hey! Usually you’ve gotta
bribe the police for firepower, but I got all these for free!” he said.

“But what happens when the bullets run out, should you actually get a chance to use them?” she said.

Tan laughed, “I think it’s great Lon! There
is
a chance you’ll need them”.

Eve’s eyes widened in concern.

Lon dropped his sarcastic attitude, “Eh? I hope you’re joking”.

Tan simply laughed again. “Just relax until we get to our destination,” he temporarily released control of the steering to the autopilot system so he could stretch his arms behind his head. “Load playlist ‘Metal of the Gods’,” he commanded the onboard computer, which responded with an affirmatory bleep followed by heavy riffing.

Chapter 5

The car rolled to a stop in a small, dusty parking area belonging to a lone diner surrounded by an expanse of artificially placed sand. The immense mega structures of the city were far behind, however, remaining visible. To the left, more road. To the right, the way back to the metropolis. A small path led to a lookout area by a barrier, the physical edge of the city.

Hundreds of metres below lay the Atlantic Ocean, which, from so far away, appeared to be peacefully still. The scene resembled a beach in some ways, a desert in others.

The place was practically deserted; something rare in this city. Only the cafe owners and a female patron were present when Lon, Eve and Tan arrived.

“How come we’re all the way out here?” asked Eve.

“We were gonna meet in the suburbs, but seeing as your circumstances changed, our rendezvous point did too”.

“It’s pleasantly quiet,” said Lon as he stepped out of the car.

Tan too left the car. “It’s a Saturday morning close to Christmas; everybody’s too worried about Christmas shopping to leave the city”.

“I’m glad,” said Eve slamming her door shut. “I like the peace, and nobody will recognise us here”.

“Yeah, I don’t see any cameras either,” said Lon.

“Not only that,” added Tan, “but this is the only place I can find apple pie in this city,” he began walking towards one of the few sombrero canopied tables adjacent to a small wooden fence that separated the diner’s property from the road.

The diner’s single customer sat eating a fresh apple pie accompanied by a cup of rooibos tea. She had bright red hair and light skin.

Tan joined her at the table. The other two did the same.

“Howzit?” said the woman in a very calm, casual manner.

“Alright?” Tan greeted her in an equal fashion. “Catalina, this is Lon, this is Eve,” he gestured towards them respectively, “Lon and Eve, this is Catalina”.

Eve stood up to shake hands with her.

“No need to be so polite,” said Catalina, taking Eve’s hand nonetheless. “Call me Cat, by the way”.

Eve reseated herself.

“Do you like apple pie?” Cat asked Lon and Eve.

“Yeah,” said Lon.

“Sure,” said Eve.

“Good! Because this is the only place in the city I can find any!” Cat said.

Lon and Eve looked at each other. They were mildly amused at how she had sounded like Tan.

Cat turned around in her chair and waved through the window of the diner to catch the attention of the waitress. She then turned back to Lon and Eve, “I’m not in a hurry, nor should you two be,” she noticed they were tense, “and you should relax too. This is the closest you’re likely to get to being near a beach around here, so enjoy it while you can”.

The sun was perpendicular to the ocean, and in this part of the summer was relentless at midday. The parasol canopy gave slight comfort as a shield from the sun’s stinging rays, yet the surrounding atmosphere still resembled an oven.

“What would you like madam?” inquired the young waitress.

“Can we please have some apple pie each and something cold to drink? These two look like they could do with it,” she pointed at Lon and Eve who had been covered in perspiration practically all morning.

Although running around the city was indeed a sweaty pursuit, the sun’s rays could rarely penetrate most of the skyline, making urban temperatures cooler. Out here though, there was nothing of the sort.

Lon rolled up his sleeves as far as he could.

The waitress left to deal with their order.

“So tell me the story,” said Cat.

Lon took a deep breath and began to recount the ordeal, beginning with the previous night.

“So,” began Cat after listening to what Lon, Eve and Tan had to say, “basically there was another disappearance, which was in reality a mass abduction, you two survived, and now whoever did it wants you dead, right?”

Lon and Eve couldn’t believe how casually this woman was taking in the information.

“That’s it, basically,” said Eve.

“Okay, it makes sense,” said Cat.

By this point everyone had had their orders of apple pie served, along with ice cream and ice-cold granadilla juice.

Lon took a large swig of the drink and looked out towards the horizon made up of various shades of blue. “What now then?”

“What do you mean, ‘what now’?” asked Cat, still tranquil.

“Well, how do we get our friends back?” he said.

“There are still some things we need to figure out before we can do anything,” stated Tan.

“Like what?” asked Lon.

“Like, who did it, for one thing,” Tan said.

“But it must have been the government,” said Eve, irritated, “all the evidence we have points to them”.

Cat quietly breathed in deeply, and as she released the air from her lungs she sat back in her chair and also looked out towards the horizon. “Okay. It’s true that our government is pretty much an evil institution. However, there are more things to be aware of in this country. Many people here don’t realise, or don’t care to realise, that millions of us are oppressed not only by the government, but by the social class system. One of the results of this is that we don’t know nearly as much as we think we do, about the world, about our country, in fact even this city. For example, did you know that somewhere in the old city centre there’s a large, dark hole between buildings that descends for hundreds of metres into ‘nothing’? Have you heard of it?”

Lon furrowed his brow, “Yeah, I think I heard an urban legend about that once”.

“Have you ever wondered what’s down there?” asked Cat.

“Well, no, it’s an urban legend,” he said.

She made direct eye contact with him for the first time, “There are many secrets in this city”.

“Not only that,” added Tan, “but we’re not as technologically advanced as those higher up would have you believe”.

“What do you mean?” asked Eve, slightly irritated, “we’re at the cutting edge of science. Even our Science Centre is the largest building in the world!”

“Yeah, Eve’s a scientists, she works there, she has insight,” said Lon.

“Look, I’m not saying that we’re in the
Stone Age,” said Cat, “It’s true that a lot of our medical science is pioneering. Nevertheless, generally, our technology is pretty basic compared to other developed countries”.

“How?” asked Lon.

“Put it this way,” continued Cat, “the only thing that has drastically improved in this country is architecture. Most other things have barely changed in almost two-hundred years”.

“I’m not sure I believe you,” said Eve.

“Are you two so indoctrinated that you believe nothing other than what the state tells you?” Cat asked, finally fracturing her placid temper.

Tan said, “We do have some amazing architecture which is among the world’s most impressive, but the fact is there are arcological wonders larger than the Science Centre in countries like Japan, Russia, Brazil-”

“Tell me what you think of humans living on the Moon?” interrupted Cat.

“American propaganda,” Lon instantly replied.

Cat sighed. “Okay, let’s bring it closer to home. Do you know that we’re on a mountain?”

“What?”

Lon and Eve looked at each other confusedly.

“We’re on a mountain,” Cat repeated.

Lon glanced at Tan, who nodded. They then surveyed their environment for obvious large deviations in ground level, yet everything was relatively flat.

“Think about it,” insisted Cat, “we can build streets and towers and skyscrapers hundreds of metres high. So don’t you think it would be easy to cover a mountain? I did say the architecture in this country is good”.

“Why’ve we never heard about it?” asked Lon, remaining sceptical.

“Obviously somebody doesn’t want you to know,” said Tan.

Cat stood from her chair and began to walk the path through the sand to the nearby lookout point. “Come here a minute,” she said to them.

The other three followed her through the thick, hot rays of the sun towards the glass barrier bounding the lookout point.

“You see that beach down there?”

She stretched her arm across the barrier and pointed far below them to the shoreline, which had a strip of greenery on the opposite side of the sand to the ocean with white specks here and there. It appeared as though there may also have been a road running alongside the sand.

“From there you can see the mountain,” she said.

“If that’s the case, then why hasn’t anyone who’s been down there ever told anyone?” asked Lon.

“You see those white dots in the greenery down there?” Cat asked, “They’re mansions”.

“Is it?” exclaimed Eve.

“Yes, and who lives in mansions by the beach in this city?” Cat added.

“I don’t know, because I’ve never heard of it,” said Lon.

“Exactly. You’ve never heard of it because the people who live down there are either those from the high echelons of the government, or their billionaire supporters. They have no reason to want you to know that there’s a mountain”.

“Surely this information would be on the internet,” posited Lon.

“It was,” said Tan, “it was on the internet since the internet was invented. In fact, it’s still there”.

“Then why don’t we know about it?! Somebody must have read about it by now,” said Lon, who was starting to get annoyed with his lack of this new possible knowledge.

“This is the point we’ve been trying to make Lon,” said Tan, “everything that the government doesn’t want you to know, for whatever reason, is removed from public knowledge, and our internet and media access are
restricted
. It’s not difficult for them to do; even if there’s a huge demonstration somewhere in the country and the military are deployed to silence the protesters with bullets and tanks - which has happened before - the government will make sure no one finds out. And what’s worse is most people won’t believe such an event ever happened, even when presented with proof!”

“Obviously I know our government are capable of terrible things,” admitted Lon, “and I’ve always maintained that, but some of the things you’re telling me just don’t sound plausible”.

“That’s exactly the problem,” said Cat, “you as well have been brainwashed!”

“Actually,” interrupted Eve, “I can believe that. Something like that has happened in China a few times in the last couple of hundred years”.

“Yeah, and there have also been other countries that were completely cut off from the outside world due to their government policies,” appended Tan.

“If you don’t believe us now, you soon will,” asserted Cat.

Lon and Eve were both feeling bewildered at the prospect that all they had ever known to be true was possibly a lie.

“Anyway, I’d better go,” said Tan, “I told Thandi I’d be back by lunch. By the way Cat, I
passed on
some potentially useful data to your palm screen. It wasn’t difficult for me to obtain, but I processed it and added annotations”.

“Oh, that’s nice,” Cat said, ever committed to her casual demeanour, “I’ll check you later then”.

“You’re leaving?” asked Lon. “Where are we gonna go?”

“You’re going with Cat,” Tan said.

“Going where?” asked Eve.

“You’ll find out when we get there,” Cat inserted.

Tan began to walk in the direction of his car. “Keep me posted”.

“Will do!” said Cat and gave him a slight wave.

“Oh, before we forget,” added Tan, “Lon, you need to get your stuff from my car”.

“Oh!” exclaimed Lon when he remembered the weapons he had left on the back seat, “what should I do with them?”

“You’ll have to put them straight into my car, the doors aren’t locked. I’ll go pay while you do it,” said Cat.

“Okay,” he said, and walked over to join Tan at his car, as did Eve. He opened the front door first and picked up the pistol that Eve had left there, then he opened the back door and leant in to grab the other pistol, “Eve, can you please grab these for me?”

She initially felt uneasy as she complied with his request; never had she even touched a real gun before that morning, yet now she was holding two. She examined them. These two relatively small pieces of longstanding technology felt like they could offer her a large amount of protection. She gave the handles a squeeze. Although not particularly lightweight, they felt as though they had been crafted for her hands. She became a little less ill-at-ease handling them as she imagined how much less useless they could help her to be.

“You look kinda cool with those,” said Lon, holding the baton and machine gun.

Her cheeks turned slightly red. “I don’t like weapons,” she quickly retorted.

“I don’t like guns, but today those pistols really helped”.

“But we wouldn’t have needed them if the police didn’t have guns either,” she said.

“You’ve got a point,” agreed Lon.