Mindguard (35 page)

Many people ask me
what I would say to Sheldon Ayers if he were still alive. My answer is:
nothing. I believe the beauty of our historic confrontation lies in the fact
that no words were needed. It was a conflict of intellects, that did not
require the emotional baggage of spoken words. It’s true, I’ve read his works
and studied his life. I will continue to do so as long as I live. He certainly
possessed one of the minds that shaped me. In a way, he still does.

Tamisa Faber,
The
Minds That Shaped Me, an Autobiography

Sophie would not
have been more surprised if her father himself had suddenly shown up. Ross was
wearing only a pair of shorts. She could see that his skin was burned in
several places.

“Mac… how?”

“There’s very
little time, Sophie,” the giant said, forgoing an emotional reunion. Sheldon
did not seem at all taken aback by his friend’s sudden reemergence. “The
enforcers are here,” he said calmly.

“Right behind
me. They took me hostage, but I got away. Damn Sheldon, you look like crap!”

“He’s dying,”
Sophie said.

“I’m afraid we
both are, honey. They’ll try to kill us the second they see us. I only hope we
can stave them off long enough for you to get through the gateway. Time,
Sheldon?”

“Fifteen
minutes.”

“Why?” Sophie
cried. “Why do they want us dead so badly? And how did you even escape?”

“There’s no time
to explain.”

“It’s all
right,” the mindguard said. He proceeded to thoroughly read his friend’s
thoughts, claiming all of his memories, from the moment they parted ways in the
woods of Noriado.  

“What the
hell?!” Ross yelled.

“There’s no time
to explain,” Sheldon mocked. “If I’m going to die for this, I want to know why.
You
owe
me, Mac.”

The bodyguard
said nothing. He nodded grievously. Sheldon looked at Sophie, then back at
Ross. He seemed like he suddenly got an idea. “The woman will come alone,” he
said, with the confidence of an oracle.

●

Tamisa no longer
had command of her actions. She had been possessed by a strange demon made
entirely of rage and hate. It had a thirst for blood. It didn’t think like a
human being, but a wild animal, controlling her every move.

She parked the
vehicle right behind the one Ross stole and ordered the holocomputer to display
a map of the cave. She memorized it and dashed out. She opened the compartment
that served as a trunk. In it were two massive, man-portable energy weapons.
Their purpose was to pulverize anything that might block the vehicle’s way.
They had not been intended for use on human beings. She picked one of them up
and took it with her, to kill Maclaine Ross.

She climbed the
rock wall and found the narrow, tunnel-like opening. The voices of Ross and
Ayers could be heard in the distance. She advanced through the narrow passage,
until the cave opened up in front of her. She could already see them. Hands
that were no longer her own pointed the gun at Sophie
Gaumont.    

“Sophie,” she
yelled, “I’m Field Unit Commander Tamisa Faber. I want you to put your hands up
right now and step away from Sheldon Ayers and Maclaine Ross.”

Like frightened
prey, the girl froze in place. “Now!” Tamisa ordered. From the corner of her
eye she saw Maclaine Ross’ grip tighten on the gun he stole from her. “Ross, I
can kill her, then turn around and kill you, before you even have a chance to
finish the thought of pointing that weapon at me. You know that.”

He seemed
conflicted. He wanted to fight, but he knew that she was not bluffing. Strength
is a burden, stamina is irrelevant, only speed is key. Villo’s words had never
been more true.

“Start moving
right now, Sophie!”

The girl started
moving away from her protectors and Tamisa was just about to say ‘good girl’
when she felt a strange, familiar feeling in her head. There was a presence,
slowly creeping in. It wasn’t aggressive, like the times before, but it was
just as foreign, just as dangerous. Sheldon Ayers was walking towards her with
small, slow steps.

“What are you
doing? Back off, Mr. Ayers!”

His influence on
her mind was starting to grow stronger. “Back off,” she yelled again and
pointed the weapon at him, but he continued walking and his mind continued
spreading inside hers. She didn’t want to kill him like that, not on
his
terms. She wanted to do it on her own terms. But what if he took over her mind
completely? She remembered Isabel Mensah’s last message to her: “A gift.”

With what was
left of her own willpower, she made a decision. She dropped her gun. She didn’t
want to use it on him. It would obliterate him, turn him into pieces of flesh.
She refused to kill him like that; not Sheldon Ayers.

With greater
speed than even Sheldon’s mind could manage, she pulled out one of Villo’s
spikes from the pouch on her belt and threw it at him like a dart. Her aim was
perfect, just like Villo had taught her. The spike went through Sheldon’s right
eye and punctured his brain. She felt his mind instantly vanish from hers, as
if it had never even been there. Life left Sheldon Ayers in a fraction of a
second. No drum roll, no goodbye. His body fell to the ground with a pathetic
thump that sounded unworthy of the world’s greatest mindguard.

Sophie screamed
and Tamisa was distracted for a brief moment. Ross took advantage and fired a
blast, but her body absorbed the energy and then immediately released it, just
like Villo had taught her. She picked up the large gun and fired back. Ross
moved out of the way and the energy blast hit the cave wall behind him. The
incredible force of the blast caused the walls to shake and send tremors
through the whole cave. An enormous chunk of rock broke free and landed on
Ross, crushing him underneath.

Maclaine Ross
was dead. With that realization, Tamisa felt like she had just woken from a
dream. At the last moment, she stepped out of the way of another large rock,
that almost landed on her. She tripped and fell but quickly got back to her
feet. She realized she had to move quickly. Parts of the cave ceiling were
breaking loose and crashing left and right. The cave was collapsing.

With Ross and
Sheldon dead, the mission was almost over. Sophie Gaumont was defenseless. All
Tamisa had to do was seize her. She looked around but the girl was nowhere to
be found. It took her a while but she finally spotted her. Only her right arm
could be seen from under a large rock that had fallen on top of her. Her open
palm revealed that she had been clutching a small wooden object, a clumsy
sculpture shaped like an elephant. 

“Damn it,”
Tamisa yelled. She actually felt sorry for Sophie, but she was also aware that
now she could no longer retrieve the content of the information package. There
was no more time to ponder the situation. She started running towards the exit.
Even with the girl dead, there was at least one more person who knew the
content of the information package. Tamisa was determined to finish her
mission, even if she had to break into Horatio Miller’s home and torture him
for it.

She ran as fast
as she could, as the cave collapsed behind her. She didn’t even remember how
she got out. She found herself back in the rover, driving madly, as if death
himself was behind her. She felt terrified, though she didn’t know what exactly
she was trying to get away from so desperately. Perhaps the ghosts of her
enemies? She drove all the way back to the Enforcement Unit spacecraft, without
remembering to do so. She found the surviving members of her team, waiting for
her outside the ship.

When she climbed
out of the rover in a daze, she fell to her knees. All her team mates were
looking at her, shaking their heads in disbelief. “They’re dead,” Tamisa
managed to say, before she choked up and almost had to vomit. “Sheldon Ayers… Maclaine
Ross… Sophie Gaumont… are all dead.” She spoke the words with great difficulty.
“Delivery of the information package has been prevented. Retrieval of the
package has failed.” She finally managed to get to her feet. 

“We haven’t been
able to restore power,” Timekeeper Kernis said. “I sent a distress beacon to
the nearest Enforcement Unit vessel. They will be here in a few hours.”

Tamisa didn’t
answer. She suddenly lost all color in her face and scurried back to the rover
under the puzzled gaze of her team.

“Ma’am, where
are you going?” Muench said. She ignored him. She was possessed. “Activate
holoscanner,” she ordered the vehicle’s computer. “Perform a neuralfield scan
for Maclaine Ross!”

Her pulse was
rapid and her body was drenched in cold sweat. She had the terrifying feeling
that everything had been just a dream. Maybe she had hit her head when Ross
threw her out of the rover and she was in the infirmary in a coma. Or maybe she
had gone insane and  just imagined everything she saw in the cave. What if
Ayers and the rest just pretended to be dead to deceive her? She knew it was
irrational - she had seen the bodies - but there was the pressing thought that
they had tricked her, that everyone had just played dead until she left.

“Neuralfield
scan negative.”

Maybe the cave
walls made it difficult for the computer to pick up Ross’ signal. She was
determined to drive back and see for herself.

“Ma’am?” Dieter
Muech’s voice brought her back to reality. She couldn’t drive off again, her
team would probably think she was crazy. That is, if they didn’t already. She
had seen them die with her own eyes. But she couldn’t calm herself. She felt
like she was having a very violent panic attack. Suddenly, the solution came to
her.

“Display a map
of the cave!”

The computer had
nothing to display. The cave was no more. In its place, stood the grave of
Sophie Gaumont, Maclaine Ross and Sheldon Ayers. 

A simple mind
accepts a piece of information and forms an attachment to it because it detects
a pattern. A mindguard will reject the information and avoid attachment for the
very same reason.

Samuel Weixman,
Strengths
and Limitations of the Mindguard

When he opened
his eyes, Nikolaos immediately knew he had overslept. His biological clock was
usually flawless, waking him at six thirty every morning. He checked the time
and saw that it was almost forty minutes past that hour. He didn’t regret it.
It had been so long since he had allowed himself a small luxury, like sleeping
in. His body was understandably exhausted, following the events of the previous
day.

After watching
Sophie and Sheldon step through the Muench-Henriksen gateway to face an unknown
future, he felt anxious the rest of the evening. Now, lying in bed after a good
night’s sleep, he was still thinking of them. He wondered what had become of
their mission, if they had finally managed to reach their destination. He was
especially concerned about Sheldon, whose wound was most likely going to kill
him in very short time. Only a miracle could save him.

And yet,
Nikolaos himself had been saved by a miracle. He felt like a great weight had
been lifted from his chest. He was certain now that he had served a higher
purpose. God had wanted him to be there at that moment, to help the two
travelers continue a journey which he himself had once started. If it was God’s
will for them to finish the mission, then nothing could stand in His way. Not
even Horatio Miller. 

Destiny!

He finally got
up and went to the mirror for his daily ritual. He thoroughly examined every
inch of his skin, like he had done so many times before. The ritual was always
the same, but it was necessary. He finished inspecting his neck and lifted his
left arm. He studied his fingers as though he were seeing them for the first
time. He inspected his palm, then the back of his hand. The process was
calming, like meditation.

His gaze worked
its way down the length of his arm, when something caught his attention. He
couldn’t tell if his eyes were playing tricks on him, so he took a step closer
to the mirror. Above his left armpit, that’s where they were. He probably
wouldn’t even have noticed them, if they hadn’t broken the monotony of a two
year ritual.

Three tiny red
spots. If he were not on Kalhydon, he would have dismissed them as mosquito
bites. He stopped his little ritual, for there was no more need for it. He got
dressed and prepared for his day. He had promised Brother Meddin he would help
him build a new shed for his chickens.  

The most tragic
flaw of an imperfectly constructed universe: on the rare occasions when an
exceptional intellect reaches its full potential, it also begins its journey
towards an inevitable collapse.

Sheldon Ayers,
Thoughts,
Reflections and Patterns

Tamisa’s feet left
angry echoes on the halls of the Enforcement Unit Detention Center. Her
destination was the level 7 security area, located seventeen stories below the
ground of mankind’s oldest and most cherished home. There waited the man who
could finally provide her with answers. A man who was now her enemy.

Her head was
spinning. She felt queasy. Her body hurt as though it had been crushed under
tons of rock. She had slept throughout the entire journey back home, dreaming
of pain and death and loss and dark caves. Two hours after landing on Terra
Antiqua, Dieter Muench had requested to speak with her in her private quarters.
She agreed to see him, even though she was still exhausted and barely clothed.
Her former second-in-command did not betray whether or not he had noticed she
lay sprawled on the bed, wearing only her undergarments. 

“May I speak
freely, ma’am?” The mission was over, she was no longer Field Unit Commander,
but he still called her ma’am.

“Go ahead,” she
said.  

“Several
important events have taken place while we were away.”

“All right…”

He remained
quiet for a few seconds. He seemed reluctant to continue, but Tamisa was too
tired to urge him to talk, so she just waited.

“When we left
Terra Antiqua, the commander was still missing. He reemerged fourteen hours
ago.”

“Then I want to
speak with him,” she said. She had no idea what she was going to say, but she
knew that she was very upset and she had no intention of hiding it, come what
may. She blamed him for the whole mission spiraling out of control. In a
strange way, it felt like his mysterious disappearance triggered all the
unexplainable events that followed, starting with Villo going into business for
himself. Something inside her told her that the commander was the key to all of
this.    

“He is being
held in the detention center, ma’am, awaiting trial.”

“What?” With
great effort Tamisa managed to sit up on the side of the bed.

“The commander
killed Horatio Miller.” Muench sounded like he could not believe what he was
saying. “Yesterday morning Educator Miller announced a press conference to
address his legal situation. It seems that Commander Anderson infiltrated the
conference under the guise of a reporter. He used an EMC field emitter and
biosoftware to hide from genetic trackers. During the conference he stood up
and shot the educator.”

“In plain
sight?”

The veteran
nodded and Tamisa shook her head in disbelief. “What… what did he shoot him
with?” she asked with a broken voice.

“An energy
weapon ma’am. Four times.”

“I don’t
understand.”

“Nobody does.
After the deed, he calmly walked outside, where he was intercepted by first
lieutenant Martin Anderson and several other enforcers. He did not resist
arrest. He was taken in under charges of murder, absence without leave and
conspiracy to undermine the Enforcement Unit.”

“Undermine?”
Tamisa said the word as if it were a powerful spell that could wake her from
this nightmare. “Commander Anderson
is
the Enforcement Unit.”

Dieter Muench
sighed. “Nobody knows what to make of this ma’am. He refuses to speak to
anyone, even Lieutenant Anderson. The lieutenant has also been questioned
extensively, because of his own unexplained absence after the commander’s
disappearance. He claims he suspected the commander was planning to kill the
educator, but was afraid to tell any of the other enforcers for fear that he
would not be believed and would be accused of treason. He figured out that the
commander might attempt the assassination at the press conference, so he
summoned a few men to the Educator’s home. They got there too late.”

“Is he telling
the truth?”

“The Council of
Presidents authorized the use of neuralfield scans. The results determined that
the lieutenant is indeed telling the truth. He demanded to see his brother
after his release, but the commander refused to see him.” Muench stopped but
Tamisa had a feeling that he wasn’t done speaking. Her suspicion proved
correct. “You’re the only person he wants to speak with, ma’am,” he said
eventually. 

On her way to
the commander’s cell, Tamisa was reliving in her mind the entire conversation
with Muench. Commander Anderson trying to undermine the Enforcement Unit; the
mere thought was sickening. He wanted to speak with her, only with her. She had
felt it from the start - everything revolved around this doomed mission. Now
she would finally get her answers.

The commander
was being held in a neurochamber. If he tried to get within three feet of the
walls, they would react like powerful neurostunners. The two enforcers guarding
the entrance looked like orphaned children. Without the commander’s leadership,
the entire Enforcement Unit was in chaos. 

“Ma’am,
Commander Anderson requested to speak with you off the record,” one of the
guards said. “Interim Commander Gracian Moss said it is your decision.”

Off the record?
That meant the holocams would be turned off and the sound barrier activated. It
was not a privilege usually granted to prisoners, but Commander Anderson was
not a regular prisoner. Tamisa was surprised that Gracian Moss allowed her to
decide whether or not  to accept the conversation. Since returning from
the mission the other enforcers treated her differently. 

“I accept the
conditions,” she said.

The massive
doors opened without a sound. Tamisa found herself in front of a long hallway.
She had to pass through three more such doors before getting to the chamber
that held the prisoner. The room was quite large. A red line marked the point
beyond which the prisoner was not allowed to step.

Thomas Liam
Anderson looked like a changed man. He was sitting on a small chair in front of
a metal desk. Unshaven, with ruffled hair and wearing a white detainment
uniform, he still managed to look peaceful. He smiled at her like a loving
father.

“Have a seat,
miss Faber,” he said, pointing at the chair opposite his. The table in the
middle contained a holoprojector which offered only the daily news. On the
right side of the room, a hand-scanner would produce a bed, which would rise
from the floor when needed. Tamisa chose to stand. 

“I don’t
understand,” she said, shaking her head. Out of the thousands of things she had
wanted to say to him this felt like a very disappointing first choice.

“I know you
don’t,” he said calmly, “But you will shortly. I promise.”

“You’re not
crazy,” she said. It was an accusation. If he were crazy, that would at least
help explain his actions. But she could see in his eyes that he was as lucid as
ever.  

“No, miss Faber,
I am not. But that must remain between you and me.”

“What the hell
are you doing, Commander?”

“I am no longer
commander of the Enforcement Unit.”

“There
is
no more Enforcement Unit,” Tamisa shouted. “You’ve destroyed it, you son of a
bitch!”

“Quite the
contrary. I have saved it.”

“Murdering an
educator… abuse of power… the people were starting to turn against us anyway.
We’ll never be able to recover from this!”

Anderson’s smile
widened. “You are concerned about the future of the Enforcement Unit. Even
though I am no longer part of it.” 

“Bullshit! You
are the Enforcement Unit. Without you it all goes to hell.”

“Wrong. I
was
the Enforcement Unit.”

“Goddamn you!”

“All right,
Tamisa, calm down. I’ll explain everything and I know you will do what’s
right.” For the first time, the strain of centuries could be heard in his
voice.

“Many years ago,
the Enforcment Unit was created to protect mankind. Our goal was to keep order
in a universe of chaos, to ensure mankind’s freedom and protect its moral
values. I was put in charge of this great number of soldiers and told to turn
them into a powerful and effective army, which I did. I devised the system
according to which we function. In order to implement it, I had to
become
this system. I had to become indistinguishable from the values I was trying to
promote.  Thus, the driving force behind the Enforcement Unit became its
loyalty and dedication to me. Not to mankind, not to any ideology, but to me as
a
person
. You see, miss Faber, while passion for causes, lands, culture,
gods and other abstract notions can be more fierce, I believe that love for a
fellow human being is more enduring. That is why gods need prophets in order to
make mankind love them.”

“You have
destroyed that love!”

“I did,” he
said. His voice carried a sadness which almost brought Tamisa to tears.

“Why?” she
cried, struggling to remain hostile towards this man she once loved like a
father.

“Because nothing
in life is timeless. I am growing old. I am tired. When the day comes that I
become inefficient, the Enforcement Unit will too, because my weakness is its
weakness. We can’t allow that to happen. Stability is such a fragile state. It
is transient, like everything else. Any philosophy that does not teach the
transience of everything, the inevitable death of any being, system or belief,
is a failing philosophy. I am well aware that the Enforcement Unit will not
exist forever. One day it will perish. But on that day, mankind will have lost
a safety and stability it had never known before us, and will never again know
after we are gone. We won’t exist forever, but we must fight to exist for as
long as we can. For mankind.”

“Then why? What
you’ve done has destroyed the Enforcement Unit. You’ve taken away that safety.”

“But I haven’t
destroyed the Enforcement Unit, my dear. In fact, I’ve prolonged its
existence.”

“It will never
survive without you.”

“Yes it will. I
did exactly what I had to do to in order to make sure it survives. When I
created the enforcers, back when we were still called the United Earth Army, I
had to build them in my image. The key to the Unit’s success is that all the soldiers
think like one single person. That person was me. Mankind needed a leader, a
real leader, not the bureaucrats in the Council of Presidents. But I am growing
old, and I don’t know how much longer I can be an efficient leader. The world
needs someone new.”

“You
orchestrated everything.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I think you
know, Tamisa.”

“You thought
this was the only way…”

“This
is
the only way. I can’t very well retire.” He laughed like he had just told a
great joke. “The Enforcement Unit will recover from this blow and it
will
be
more powerful than ever. But as powerful as they are, the enforcers do have a
weakness. They can’t think. I have to think for them. They’ve become a cult,
blindly following me. If I had simply stepped back, they would never have stopped
following me. That would have undermined the authority of the new leader,
because their love for her would never have been as powerful as their love for
me.”

Though she was
fighting to understand, to remain calm and focus on the commander’s words, the
most important one eluded her.

“And if you had
died, we would have turned you into a martyr,” she said mechanically.

Anderson smiled.
“The only way to get all of you to stop loving me, was to betray you. I had to
break the very rules I created. I had to turn my back on everything I once
stood for.” 

“You’ve
destroyed your own legacy. You will go down in history as a traitor. They will
forget everything you’ve ever accomplished and remember only your crimes.”

“My legacy is
the safety of mankind.”

“So you just
murdered an innocent man.”

“It seems that
Educator Miller was not as innocent as everyone believed. But that really
doesn’t matter. What matters is that he was loved and respected. For years, I
have worked on distancing myself from the Enforcement Unit. I’ve deliberately
made certain moves that could be considered controversial, to turn public
opinion against me. Then, I had to make even the enforcers forsake me. I would
have done it sooner, but I had to wait for the right time. I had to make sure my
successor is ready to take my place.”

Tamisa knew that
she would not be standing there if he weren’t speaking of her. 

“I can’t!” 

“You must! You
belong to mankind and your duty is to protect it.”

“I just had my
first mission.”

“Yes, you are
young. That will not be to your disadvantage.”

“What the hell
do you mean? Of course it will.”

Once again,
Anderson smiled. Tamisa realized she had just unwittingly indicated that she
was considering leadership.

“Your young age
only ensures that your mind is not burdened with decades of being conditioned
to follow mine.”

“But how could I
ever compensate for years of experience?”

“Because you
were born to do this.”

“You know
nothing
about me.”

“I know
everything, my dear. I was there when you were born, and I have been with you
ever since.”

Tamisa felt a
cold shiver running down her spine. Something strange was happening. She felt
as if she had just been transported into a bizarre new world. She sensed that a
great mystery would be revealed to her, one of whose existence she had not even
been aware until then.

“The safety of
mankind is not something that can be left to chance,” Anderson said. His voice
was different. Tamisa had a strange thought: 
The world’s greatest
artist is unveiling his life’s work
. It came to her like a cold revelation.