Mindguard (3 page)

At the mention
of the Djago Desert, Ross’ face revealed a slight twitch; Sheldon’s remained a
petrified mask. In space travel, any ‘desert’ was a region outside of the
control of the Interstellar Federation of Common Origin. Because of that,
telepathy wasn’t at all monitored. Deserts were stretches of space containing
planets sunken in postwar anarchy. Mindcrimes were rampant and the survival
rate of travelers was virtually non-existent. Ross didn’t know what to say.
Miller hadn’t mentioned the Djago Desert when they had first spoken. Sheldon,
however, knew exactly what to say: “No!” Miller smiled with confidence, as if
he had just been issued a challenge.

“Now hold on -”
Ross said but was abruptly interrupted by his client, who addressed Sheldon
directly: “I was led to believe that you have crossed information through level
5 danger zones before.”

“Only in
government-issued missions,” Sheldon said. “We generally avoid it.”

“You are
supposed to be the best.” From his tone, Ross was certain that Miller had just
meant Sheldon in particular, but the mindguard responded in plural. “We are,”
he said. “Part of what makes us the best is a well developed ability to
evaluate risks, in order to avoid foolish ventures. Unless the mission is
issued by the government of the IFCO, we don’t access level 5 territories.”

“Is this a
politically backed mission?” Ross asked, trying to help out his potential
customer. 

“You could say
that,” the businessman answered.

“No,” Sheldon said.
“You need a holorecorded and DNA-encoded dispatch from the Presidential Office.
Do you have or can you produce such a document?”

“That will not
be possible,” admitted Marcus Miller, who had thus far remained silent.

“Then we
decline.”

“No,” Ross said
loudly. He cleared his throat. “Not accepting level 5 missions without a
dispatch from the Presidential Office is an
internal
regulation of our
company. We can make exceptions, given the proper circumstances. As co-owner
and Head of Operations, I decide that this mission qualifies as an exception.
We will take the case.”

“Then I’m out,”
Sheldon declared.

“Perhaps I can
convince you to change your mind,” Horatio Miller said. Ross thought his voice
sounded odd. He seemed uninvolved, as if he were merely repeating a
conversation he had rehearsed in his head many times. “How about a twenty-five
percent pay increase?”   

“Money?” Sheldon
said. It had been a question but had sounded like a statement. Miller calmly
smiled, as though he had foreseen the man’s reaction. Ross was surprised at how
composed the businessman was around Sheldon. Something about the mindguard’s
demeanor usually made people uneasy.

“I have access
to holosense material that is - let’s say - hard to find on certain planets,”
Miller said.

Ross knew that
his partner had understood exactly what the man had meant. He half expected
Sheldon to spit in Miller’s face. Instead, he simply said “I’m out, thank you
for the wine”. Then, turning to Ross: “Good luck Mac!” He got up and proceeded
towards the exit. With the tone of someone announcing a checkmate, Horatio
Miller slowly said: “I have unrestricted access to the archives.”

Sheldon froze in
his tracks.

●

When Sheldon
turned around, his usually inexpressive face was a mask of disbelief. Like a skilled
prizefighter delivering a knockout blow, Miller did not waste a second.
“Perhaps I can arrange for the Council to grant you access to your beloved
grandfather,” he said, smiling in certain victory.

Ross didn’t know
if Sheldon was going to start yelling and cursing or crying, or if he would
attack Miller or run away or perhaps curl up into a fetal position and just
rock back and forward. At that moment, all those reactions seemed equally
possible. His friend did none of those things.

“That’s not possible,”
Sheldon said, struggling to remain calm.

“I’m sure you
can imagine, Mr. Ayers, that I am a very well connected man.”

“You know what I
mean!”

Sheldon silently
looked at Miller for a long time. His stare was so cold that Ross was surprised
Horatio didn’t ask his brother to fetch him a sweater.

“You have, no
doubt, heard the rumors,” Miller said. “Now I’m telling you that they are
true.”

Sheldon looked
like he wanted to hit the man. Ross could not remember the last time he had
seen his partner even remotely angry.

“You’ve found a
way to communicate with the uploaded minds,” Sheldon half whispered. His voice
was cold and it sounded hollow; he seemed to be trying very hard to control his
anger. 

“To a very
modest extent. But it
is
possible. My company developed an algorithm
which enables limited two-sided communication in the form of single-line
true/false responses from IDIs – Individual Data Identities.  

“People can
communicate with the memories in the archives,” Sheldon said slowly, as if he
were formulating an accusation before a court of law, “and you kept the
information to yourselves?”

“Look, Mr.
Ayers, it is a very recent breakthrough, still in the early stages of
development. I’m sure you understand that access to the memories cannot realistically
be made available to everyone.”

“I’m sure you
make it available to yourselves.”

“Now listen
here,” Marcus barked. “If it were not for funding from Mylonas Industries, most
of the technology that even makes it possible for the vast quantity of data to
be stored in the archives would not even exist. The funds are provided by my
brother. Now, if you don’t believe this entitles him to certain privileges
offered by the technology
he
helps to develop, then that is merely your
own opinion, Mr. Ayers.”

“Also,“ Horatio
stepped in with an appeasing voice, “at this stage the main priority is
developing a faster and more complex method of communication. Our scientists
are collaborating with the archive itself to make that possible, hopefully
sometime in the next five to ten years. But this can only be achieved if we
benefit from discretion.”

“And people like
yourself decide the boundaries of this discretion, Educator Miller?” It was the
first time that Sheldon referred to Horatio as ‘Educator’ and it had sounded
like an accusation. Ross, who was quietly following the conversation, could no
longer remain silent.

“Enough!”

He raised his
voice at Sheldon, like a father at a misbehaved son. “Listen, Sheldon, you either
take the case and get the opportunity to communicate with what’s left of
Kinsey’s mind, or you walk away, but you are
done
splitting hairs and
you are
done
wasting everybody’s time. You got that? Now, what will it
be?”

“All right,”
Sheldon said, without even so much as looking at his partner. “Show me to the
bathroom,” he ordered Marcus Miller, who unenthusiastically got up and led him
out of the cellar, understanding now that the mindguard was a prototech.
As
if he needed any more reasons to dislike Sheldon
, Ross thought. He waited
for the two men to exit before confronting his host in private. “You know, I
yelled at him but, with all due respect, I should have also yelled at you,
Educator.”

“And why is
that?” Miller asked, feigning curiosity.

“You were way
out of line.”

“Was I?”

“That is not how
you conduct business, Educator.”

“That is
exactly
how you conduct business, Mr. Ross. Especially with a man like Sheldon. He must
be intercepted like an adversary, he leaves one no other option.”  

“You knew where
this was going from the start. You
baited
him by offering him things you
knew he would refuse so that he’d let his guard down. If you had mentioned his
grandfather from the start, his anger and resentment might have caused him to
impulsively decline. You knew that a man with Sheldon’s pride would never have
accepted later on if he had already declined. You manipulated him from the
start.”

“I did. Would he
have accepted otherwise?”

“You have lost
his respect, Educator,” Ross said. The whole conversation left a bitter taste
in his mouth.  

“I don’t care
about his respect, Mr. Ross, I want his services. Now, are we free to ‘seal the
deal’?” Horatio poured Ross and himself another glass of wine in anticipated
celebration. Ross felt like he wanted to empty the whole bottle right over
Miller’s head.

●

In Horatio
Miller’s luxurious guest bathroom, Sheldon was splashing water on his face from
a faucet he figured cost more than his antique violin from Old Earth. That
didn’t bother him, but everything else about the situation did. He was going to
receive something he would have never thought possible: the opportunity to
speak with his grandfather again. Kinsey Ayers - the man who had taught him
everything worth knowing, the man he had loved more than anyone else in his
life.

The fact that
this opportunity came through a person like Horatio Miller made his skin crawl
and his entire body shake with anger. He kept aggressively splashing water on
his face, as if he could wash away the frustration and drown out the voice of
his conscience, berating him for selling out. Horatio Miller was a man all to
accustomed to getting everything he wanted. Another splash of ice cold water,
another deep breath.

He raised his
head to look in the mirror, to face the accusation in his eyes. He hated
himself for accepting the mission. He hated himself for feeling like he had no
choice in the matter. He stared at his reflection for a while, losing himself
in the details of his own face, until it became a face he no longer recognized.
He took a step back. He had no idea
who
he was, where he was or how he
had gotten there.

Panic set in
instantly.

We are going to
emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the
body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign.
The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of
the other man who uses his mind ...

Marcus Garvey

Ross was beginning
to worry. He and Miller had just finished the glass of wine meant to ‘seal the
deal’ and Sheldon still hadn’t returned from the bathroom. He might have gotten
angry, but he was not in the habit of being unprofessional. Perhaps, unhappy
with having been manipulated, Sheldon had just up and left - through the
transporter and right back to his office. Ross had a hard time believing that.
First of all, no matter how upset Sheldon was with Miller, he would never have
disrespected his friend by leaving him behind. Second, Ross was sure Miller
would have gotten a holosense alert if the mindguard had tried to use the
transportation device. In fact, Ross was sure the device didn’t even function
without a password from Miller. That begged the question ‘Where the hell is
Sheldon?’

The Educator had
prepared an encrypted file that constituted their contract. All it required was
a DNA sample from Ross, as Head of Operations.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Ross said,
“but I’d like to wait for my partner before I sign this.”

“Of course,” Miller answered. “Do
you think your partner might be unwell? He
has
been missing for quite a
while.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not sure. I’ll go
see if I can fetch him, if you don’t mind.”

“Certainly, I’ll wait for you
gentlemen in here, then.”

Ross used the map of the building -
which had been made available to his retinal insertions - to find his way to
the ground floor bathroom. He figured that was where Sheldon had gone.

●

Desperately
trying to back away from the face in the mirror, Sheldon hit his head on the
wall behind him. He was breathing heavily, his eyes were wide and he was
drenched in sweat. Staring at him from the mirror was the face of a stranger.
The mirror itself could just as well be a window to another room. Sheldon only
recognized that it was his own face when he saw on it the look of utter panic
and likened it to his own state of mind.  

Yes, it was him,
most certainly
him
, but who
was
he? He looked around and saw that
he found himself in a bathroom. He searched for any clue that would help him
figure out how he might have gotten there and why he couldn’t remember
anything. He found nothing. With his face in his hands, moaning like a
frightened child, he crouched on the floor, if only to escape the horrified
gaze of the face in the mirror.

He felt his
pulse accelerating. A horrible pain seemed to exist in every single cell in his
body.  It was as if his very
mind
was hurting. It was all there,
all the information about his identity and his whereabouts, but between his
mind and that information stood an impenetrable wall of pain.

He stood up and
started screaming. He pounded the walls with his fists. He fell on his knees,
rocking back and forth. Everything hurt. The pain and the fear were becoming
unbearable. He heard a knock at the door and it snapped him out of his state.

“Sheldon, are you ok buddy?”

He recognized
the voice - it was his best friend. The voice conjured up a name: Maclaine
Ross. With the memory of that name, everything started coming back, including
his own. He was Sheldon Ayers, the world’s most accomplished mindguard. He was
in the home of Horatio Miller and had come here at Miller’s personal request.
Horatio Miller needed his services. In exchange, he had offered to place him in
contact with his grandfather’s virtual consciousness. Sheldon stood up and
faced the mirror again.

“Sheldon!” Mac’s
voice became impatient. Sheldon heard him test the locked door.

“Sheldon!”

●

The door opened
and Sheldon calmly stepped out. He was pale and he seemed to have sweated
abundantly. His gaze was wild and his pupils dilated.

“Are you all right, man?” Ross
asked. 

“Fine,” he said, walking past his
friend, paying him no attention.

●

“Ah, Mr. Ayers, I
half expected you’ve run away. I was terribly concerned that perhaps you didn’t
enjoy my wine.”

Miller’s joke
was lost on Sheldon. “The wine was fine,” he said and promptly sat at the
table. He seemed unwell. He appeared to be shaking.

“Are you all
right, Mr. Ayers? You seem ill. Should I get you anything?”

“Nothing, thank
you,” Sheldon answered, avoiding eye contact.

“All right,
well, let’s finalize this then,” Miller suggested.

Ross, who had
thus far simply stared at his partner expecting an explanation, turned around
and placed the palm of his hand on Miller’s holopad. The device collected his
DNA and proceeded to encrypt the contract.

“We leave in
three months,” Ross said. “I suggest you start preparing as soon as possible.
There are biweekly training camps and you can find a spot in one of them next
week, but I’m sure you already know that.”

“That won’t be
necessary,” Miller said smiling.

Ross knew of
Horatio Miller’s reputation as an adventure traveler. The man had explored many
new worlds, together with his friend Nikolaos Apostolos, co-founder of Mylonas
Industries, until the latter’s mysterious disappearance on one of their trips.

“With all due
respect to your extreme survival experience, Educator, this is a desert region.
It’s probably more dangerous than anything you might have encountered on your –
“  

“It’s not him!”
Sheldon said abruptly. Horatio Miller gave him a look that Ross couldn’t
decipher.

“It’s my
daughter,” Miller told them, never taking his eyes off Sheldon. “She will be
joining you on the mission, not me. The information package you need to protect
is inside her mind.”