The Mendelssohnian Theory: Action Adventure, Sci-Fi, Apocalyptic ,Y/A (19 page)

Adam was curious, “What’s crosschecking?”

“I’ve already told you they can follow the probability chains
backward and forward into the future. As you probably know, there are principal
probability chains and secondary chains. They’ve managed to track the major,
significant rings and follow them; the entire Mendelssohnian theory is based on
them. But,” Joseph continued to explain, “the secondary context rings are more
difficult to follow. Actually, when I left, they’ve managed to progress three
probability rings forward and only a few months before the events related to
them actually took place. Obviously, it’s been a few years, which is an
eternity as far as new technology is concerned. I can only assume they’ve
progressed several rings more and widened the gap of time between the discovery
of a ring and its occurrence. Supposedly, all they should have done is wait in
the area of one of the major rings, allow you to complete it and then simply
collect you from there,” the scientist explained, “that’s what they did seven
years ago when they tried to kidnap you. Unfortunately for them, I got to you
first, they’ve been chasing you ever since.”

“So now they know in advance everything I’ll do?”

Joseph examined the subcutaneous screen (Underscreen ©) on
the back of his hand. “We still have time,” he said, “come on,” and he urged
Adam to continue down the narrow alley. Adam obliged, and they continued to
walk in silence.

“How much time?” Adam broke the silence with a seemingly
indifferent tone.

Joseph could sense that below the surface Adam was a restless
and agitated person. “I don’t know,” he answered, “we’d better hurry up and get
to your doctor, and I hope he knows the process.”

“I told you there’s nothing in human medicine the doctor is
not familiar with.”

“All right,” said Joseph, restless, “the main thing is that
we’ll get there.”

“We’re here,” said Adam and stopped next to a wide iron door.
Joseph examined the fancy door and muttered cynically: “Here’s someone who
knows how to conceal himself well, a real master of secrecy.”

“He doesn’t need to hide,” Adam explained, “those who need
his services are the ones that don’t want to be discovered. That’s the beauty
of his business. He’s protected by all superpowers. Actually, there’s a joke on
the street that says the status quo between the world powers is maintained only
thanks to the doctor.”

“So how come I haven’t heard about him before?” Joseph
persisted.

“Perhaps because you never required his services,” Adam
fired, “whereas I have.” Adam knocked on the heavy door, which immediately
opened with a silent movement. “Come on,” the young man led the older
scientist, and they both entered the darkness beyond the iron door. Immediately
after they had disappeared into the darkness, the door was closed with the same
silent movement with which it had opened seconds before.

Further down the alley, a black-clad figure wearing a
purification mask emerged from the shadows. The figure touched the back of its
hand and said, “They’re here.” It listened to the instructions received in its
inner-cranium earpiece (Ossicles ©), “Yes,” it added after a moment, “doctor
Khaled has admitted them.” She pressed the back of her hand again and got away,
elegantly leaping from shadow to shadow.”

The entrance of Dr. Khaled Jalal’s clinic did not look anything
like any other lobby Joseph had ever visited. The place looked more like a
carpentry shop or an acrylic glass cutting factory than a doctor’s clinic. You
wouldn’t expect a human clinic to have recycled cardboard boxes and electronic
chips scattered all over the floor. The heavy smell of mold hung in the air and
the place emitted a dusty and unhygienic atmosphere. The reception room was
empty other than a tired looking bored receptionist who stared at an ancient
led screen. Till now, Joseph was convinced Led technology screens were gone
from the world for over a hundred years. His fear of Dr. Khaled intensified
even more. They passed the reception area and entered another room through a
low door. The doctor was waiting for them there. Adam smiled and embraced the
short and hairless man who smiled back at him wholeheartedly and kissed him on
both cheeks. Dr. Khaled wore round, frameless sunglasses with dark purple
lenses that were fashionable years before Adam had been born. He held Joseph’s
hand with both of his and shook with a wide pendulum-like motion. “Welcome to
my humble abode,” he announced with a wide grin.

“Ahlan bik,” Adam completed the greeting, “may you always
prosper and find livelihood.” Khaled seemed pleased with the reply and led them
to a wide and comfortable looking floating couch (floating couch ©). They sat
comfortably as the air-balanced furniture fitted itself to their bodies. The
doctor signaled for another floating sofa to advance toward him. He sat in it,
situated it opposite them, removed his glasses and wiped them with the edges of
the engineered cotton-fiber shirt he was wearing. Joseph noticed that Khaled’s
eyes were in tactical mode and couldn’t help but wonder why. On the other hand,
since he wasn’t familiar with the doctor and had never heard of him before, he
left his own eyes in a similar mode. The fact that Khaled was overtly nice had
merely served make Joseph even more suspicious. He’d never trusted people who
were too nice.

“So what brought you to me, my friends?” asked Khaled.

“We need a blood replacement,” answered Adam, “can you
perform this kind of process here?”

Khaled became serious all at once. “Blood replacement?” he
asked, “someone here is planning on disappearing for good?”

Adam didn’t reply, and the doctor turned to Joseph, smiling
again: “I assume you’re also interested in the process?”

“Nope,” answered Joseph,
“my blood’s fine just the way it is.” His liking for the doctor diminished by
the second, but he still wasn’t able to find a logical explanation for his
aversion. Perhaps the fact that the process they asked him to perform was dangerous
to Adam and the risk that Adam might die during the process of draining the
blood from his body was much higher than normal. “Can you replace his blood
with an untraceable liquid?”

The doctor turned serious again and answered: “I can. But it
will cost you,” he immediately added. Joseph took an ancient looking magnetic
card from his pocket.

“I’ve got the rights for the pneumatic door handle of the
General Surface hovercrafts (GS Hover ©),” said Joseph, “You think that’s
enough?” The doctor took the card and examined it closely. “It’s original,”
Joseph assured him, even though he knew Khaled was examining his card with his
ineye decoder (Ineye Searcher ©).

“Ok,” said Dr. Khaled, and accompanied Adam to a treatment
bed semi-obscured in the corner of the room. He fished out an encoding card
from his pocket and handed it to Adam. “I’ll need your signature here.”

Adam examined the card hesitantly. “What’s that?”

“It’s a binary signature that will super-codify each nano
entering your body and transform it so it will be loyal to you alone. No one
will be able to turn it against you.” Adam attached his thumb to the card,
which beeped once it’d completed its mission and handed it back to the doctor.
Khaled motioned toward one of the walls and a hidden door immediately opened. A
male nurse entered, pushing a wide cart laden with blood exchange containers
and a medical control box (Medical Xbox ©). “You need to get out of here now,”
he instructed Joseph while inserting Adam’s encoding card into a slot in the
control box.

“I’m not leaving him,” Joseph announced, “you’d better start
with the preparations.”

“The moment I’ll start working, I’ll need to be focused on
the patient alone,” Khaled said and motioned with his head toward Adam who was
aided by the nurse to settle on the treatment bed. The nurse connected him to
the medical control box, attached the two replacement arteries and connected
the two draining tubes. He passed his finger on a touch-button at the back of
the box, and an anesthetic began to flow from the system into Adam’s body. “I
can’t be diverted. Either you’re getting out of here right now, or the whole
deal’s off. Joseph began to protest, but Adam’s gaze stung him and instructed
him to concede. He mumbled with insult and headed back to the lobby. “Your
friend is a pain in the ass, he’s all stressed out,” Khaled turned to Adam,
“doesn’t trust me.”

Adam smiled tiredly. “He doesn’t
trust anybody,” he said, getting drowsier by the second, “he’ll be all right,”
he added, “let’s get it over with.” He closed his eyes, allowing the doctor to
secure the anesthetic mask. His mind had nearly sunk into a great darkness when
a light flickered at the edges of his mind.

• Do we trust the doctor?

It was the voice in his head,
speaking to him again.

• The data indicates a high-risk percentage

I trust him, thought Adam.

• Yes, but do we trust his expertise?

• Who’s we?

• Us, him, me and you

• Where are you?

• Everywhere

Adam felt an itching sensation
all over his body. Somebody or someone was neutralizing the influence of the
anesthetic.

• Are you inside me?

• We are inside everyone, outside as well. You know who we
are

And then Adam realized:

• You’re… you’re the computers?

• We report to you, our Nagid

Adam immediately came to his
senses. He was painfully aware of the danger involved with communicating with
the computers. They could easily bring about his death by giving the wrong
directive inside his body. The supposedly foolproof nano and micro particles
could easily become destructive to their host body.

• Report

• Dr. Khaled is not experienced enough in performing the
process and may make a mistake that will bring about your death.

• Can you help him?

• We will do as you order us, Nagid.

• Nagid?

• You, our Nagid

The light at the edges of his mind died out and an
unconscious sleep returned to engulf Adam, leaving him to wonder why did the
computers had chosen to expose themselves to him and what it all meant to the
human race that was flooded with tiny intelligent super-computers.

Dr. Khaled Jalal waited for the nurse to leave the room as
well and then began to pump the blood from Adam’s body. He knew the next few
minutes, in which he would drain the red liquid, would be crucial to the
patient’s fate. Adam’s life will depend on his own functioning as well as that
of the medical control box.

Blood replacement was the common name for a complex medical
process with a much longer and cumbersome name. In actuality, the treatment had
little in common with its popular name. The blood wasn’t replaced, but
filtered, then underwent a few stages of purification and re-initialization of
all systems flowing in it. In each and every stage, a group of microbiological
nanocells that were inserted into the blood sometime during the patient’s life
was separated from it. Each such cell group was responsible for a different
improvetegrated activity, therefore, it was important to gather all the cell
groups and re-initialize them so no infected cells will remain in the system to
re-infect it. The process took about an hour in cases in which there wasn’t a
wide variety of improvetegrated cell types and about two and a half hours when
the patient possessed a large variety of cells. Such was Adam’s case. In spite
of his tender age, the amount of improvetegrated cells in his blood was much
higher than average. Normally, there weren’t many complications involved with
the process, but the Doctor took extra care and closely supervised each and
every stage of the process. His resume didn’t include any failures, and he had
no intention of ruining it now. Actually, Khaled himself injected some of the
additives that flowed in Adam’s blood into it. These, the doctor simply
replaced now, on the house, to more advanced versions, a fact he would proudly
mention to Joseph, had he been next to him. A flicker in his eye-screens
indicated that Joseph had sent him a message. He replied voicelessly that the
process was progressing to his satisfaction and returned to check the control
box data.

When the re-insertion stage arrived, a shrill beeping sound
was heard in the room, cautioning against an intruder and warning lights began
to flash on the doctor’s eye-screens. A tremor passed through the walls of the
room and Khaled had to lean on the patient’s bed so it won’t move. Joseph
stormed into the room. “We’re under attack,” he shouted, “how much time do you
have left?”

“Three minutes,” the doctor said in a more relaxed tone than
he actually felt, then added, “you need to delay them a bit longer.”

“I’m not sure I can,” said Joseph, “they’ve already broken
the entrance door.”

“It will take them a while to locate this room,” said Khaled
and began the process of separating Adam from the instruments. “How many of
them are there?”

“I’ve seen three,” answered
Joseph, “but I may have not seen them all.”

• Report to the Nagid

• Report

• The process has been successfully completed. Your blood is
clean. The clinic is being attacked by hostile elements who want to harm you.

• Time?

• Two minutes and fifteen seconds

• Chances of survival?

• Above fifty

• Observe and report

• It shall be done

An additional blast was heard, and the room’s concealed door
flew and almost hit the treatment bed. A figure barged into the room and before
Joseph had a chance to raise his weapon, stunned him with a well-aimed blow to
the diaphragm. Khaled continued to disconnect the instruments, as if nothing
else was taking place in the room and began the sequence of reviving Adam. The
figure approached the bed and examined the waking patient. When the doctor
removed the anesthetic mask that had kept Adam dormant and sustained his life
from his face, the figure recoiled and nearly lost its balance. Adam breathed
heavily and blinked his eyes. He smiled to the doctor and sought Joseph. When he
couldn’t see his friend, he raised himself until he was seated and examined the
room with confusion.

“You’re back to life,” the doctor said.

“Yes,” Adam mumbled, then he noticed the figure standing next
to him. He smiled at her and said, “So now you’re working for them, my
princess?”

The warrior removed the mask from her head, and Natalia’s
face was revealed to Adam’s eyes, the assassin from Mars. “How did you know it
was me?” she asked, surprised and excited. Adam didn’t answer and continued to
smile. “I didn’t know you were the target.”

“And now that you know?” he asked. Natalia didn’t answer.
It’d been years since she crossed paths with him for a brief moment. Her first
assignment under the commander’s leadership had been successful only due to
that fateful meeting with Adam. She approached him and placed her hand on
Adam’s. She remembered well that kiss, the last one, just before they’d parted.
The chances they’d meet again were so infinitesimal that Natalia had chased
Adam from her memories. Only in her dreams did she allow him to be her
companion.

Khaled went to aid the recuperating Joseph. He wasn’t
concerned about himself or his clinic; he knew well that he was protected from
any threat thanks to the services he had more than once offered this or that
corporation executive and military and government officials who wanted more
than their position could offer them. Someone would pay for the renovation of
his clinic, and his good name wouldn’t be damaged. On the contrary, the
impression such an incident would create will merely serve to enhance the
attraction to his services and increase the number of his clients. Of that he
was certain.

Natalia sat on the bed next to Adam and caressed his hair.
“Do you remember what I’ve told you when we parted on Mars?” she asked, and
Adam nodded. “And here I am and so are you…” without interrupting her speech,
she lifted her gun and shot the warrior that had emerged at the entrance of the
room and drew his weapon. The warrior fell dead on the spot. “I still intend to
keep my oath.”

“You don’t have to,” said Adam, “I’ll manage.” Natalia fired
another shot, and another body fell to its death at the room’s entrance.

“Quickly,” she hissed, “before Sato gets here.” She helped
Adam to his feet, covered him with a large robe Khaled had prepared in advance
and turned to the doctor: “Do you have an emergency exit?”

“Touch the wall next to you, a little higher, yes, over there,
press it.” Natalia pressed the wall and an opening appeared on the floor.
Stairs were leading downstairs. Natalia hesitated. “This section is
unmonitored. Run till you get to the end of the tunnel. Its opening is right
below the great memorabilia market. You’ll be able to disappear there. Khaled
helped Joseph to get up and accompanied the three of them until they
disappeared down the stairs. Then he pressed the wall again and closed the
hidden opening. He gathered the medical instruments that were scattered all
over during Natalia’s attack, and organized them on the bed, sorting them
according to their usage, when an Asian looking man wearing a black outfit
entered the room. Khaled tried to remember what Natalia had called him, Sako,
Sacho, no, he decided, she called him Sato. The man walked from one end of the
room to the other, and it appeared to Khaled as if he was recreating the
sequence of events that had taken place in the room in his absence. Khaled was
certain the recreation in the man’s mind was perfect.