Mindguard (9 page)

“Yes, he will be
attending the meeting. He is having lunch with a colleague right now.” She
seemed relieved.

“Ma’am,” White
insisted, finally capturing her attention. “The training… you’ve completed it,
right?”

“I’m sorry, yes.
Yes I have.”

“All right, ‘cos
you need to have every minute of it done and you need to be able to prove it
before we leave.”

“I will make
available the documents that attest my participation in the training course,”
she said. “Also, you don’t need to worry, I have accompanied my father on many
of his travels. I have extensive survival experience, even in deserts.”

“Not the Djago
Desert ma’am, that’s a whole other story,” the old man said, shaking his head.

“Well, we’ll
leave that for the briefing,” Mac said. “For now, Sophie, why don’t you join me
in my office? Since we have some time, I’d like to have a conversation with
your father. I’d like you to be there as well.”

“My pleasure,”
she said and turning to Alex: “I’ll see you later.” She smiled again and Alex
was stunned.

“Mac’ll kill you
if you hit on one of the clients,” Francois whispered, smirking. “Believe me,
I’ve been there. It almost got me fired.”

“Really?“

“Yeah, well, I
had it coming. Mac likes to joke around but he won’t tolerate any
unprofessional behavior.”

“Oh, it’s not…
it’s not the case,” Alex said. Francois laughed. “Damn shame though, she’s cute
as hell.” Alex nodded but said nothing.

“She’s also
smart, so I probably wouldn’t have a chance in the first place. She doesn’t fit
the profile of my usual companions, if you know what I mean,” Francois said,
pointing at his head. Alex laughed. He had heard numerous stories about
Francois’ conquests and the hilarious catastrophes that often followed.

“Are you going
on the mission?”

“This one? Yeah,
I’m on the team.”

“Lucky bastard,”
Alex said. He was sure that Francois assumed he was talking about the beautiful
Sophie. In reality, the young mindguard was more envious of Francois’
opportunity to work alongside Sheldon Ayers. 

●

“So, I take it
you’re having fun mothering the new mindguard,” Sheldon said, taking a sip of
local, ruby red Cabernet. They had just finished a wonderful lunch of quail in
rosemary, garlic and red wine sauce over quash risotto.

“He’s a very
capable young man,” Isabel said. “But he is a bit too enthusiastic at times.
That makes him reckless.“

“Well, so was I,
at first.”

“I wasn’t,” she
joked.

The restaurant
was seventeen floors above their office. It offered a stunning view of the
skyline of Essa Ronas, the largest city on the planet Anderra. There were several
restaurants in the same building, but Sheldon and Isabel always preferred this
one. In addition to the lovely view and good selection of wines, the restaurant
was one of the few on the planet that still offered dishes containing actual
meat and not synthetic replacements. They chose a table next to one of the
enormous windows so that they could occasionally take a glimpse at the
breathtaking view, as they ate.

Essa Ronas was
an expensive metropolis with a friendly tropical climate which reminded Sheldon
of certain places on Old Earth. When he and Mac had to choose a planet for
their main office, Mac insisted that it not be anywhere on Terra Antiqua, for
fear it might distract Sheldon from work. The mindguard chose this city. He had
visited the planet before and had greatly enjoyed its urban landscapes and its
culture. Aside from Mac, Sheldon, Isabel and Kriss White, who all afforded
personal transporters and could thus reside anywhere they wanted, the other
employees were required to move to Essa Ronas. None of them complained since
the place was a tropical paradise. Francois was especially satisfied with the
wide and impressive selection of women in the capital city. He flat out told
them that, if they were to move their office somewhere else, he would not be
joining them.

Taking a last
sip of wine, Sheldon resisted the temptation of ordering another glass and
punctuated the decision with a deep, tortured sigh.

“So, how are
things coming along?” he asked.

“You could come
by more often and stay in the loop.”

“Yes, well, I’ve
been busy with my research.”

She looked out
the window, at the horizon. “Yes, so I’ve been told. Still, it is always much
better with you around.”

“You haven’t answered my question,”
Sheldon insisted.

“Hmm?”

“About work. How are things?”

She looked into his eyes and
slightly nodded. “So, you have felt it too.”

“Yes,” Sheldon
said, having no need to ask what she meant. “When Mac came to me, I sensed he
was tense. He seemed worried. It’s not like him to accept a mission of this
nature. ”

“What about
you?” she asked.

Sheldon stared
at his empty plate for a while. “I had my reasons.”

“I suppose
Horatio Miller promised to give you access to the memories of your
grandfather.”

Sheldon smiled.
He was not surprised that his friend had figured it out so quickly. She
returned his smile. “I heard the rumors, that communication with the ancestral
memories was possible. I tried to see if I could arrange to talk with one of my
ancestors who had been a great warrior on El Agadez. He is the only member of
my distant family whose spirit was allowed to join.”

Sheldon thought
it was endearing how she referred to the Human Knowledge Archives as ‘ancestral
memories’, as though they were some sort of divine forces and not merely
incredibly powerful computers. He was aware of Isabel’s spiritual beliefs. Her
form of ancestor worship had even fewer practitioners than Mac’s Christianity.
Sheldon suspected that Mac and Isabel thought of each other as kindred souls,
united by their spirituality in a time when most of mankind had little interest
in ancient mysticism.

“Yes, I was
promised an opportunity to communicate with my grandfather’s memories,” he
said. “Apparently, people like Horatio Miller have access to the archives.”

“You do not like
this Educator Miller.”

“No,” he replied
flatly.

“It bothers you
that Mac has accepted his business proposal?”

The term
‘business proposal’ sounded strange coming from Isabel’s mouth. It felt like Mac
was speaking through her, like he had brainwashed her into using this
ridiculous corporate-speak.  

“It bothers me
that Horatio Miller gets special treatment,” he said. “It bothers me that he
has access to a service we would never have provided for anyone else under
these circumstances.”

“So, why do you
think Mac took the mission?” It was as if she was guiding him towards a
conclusion.    

“I’m not sure
yet, I was hoping you could tell me.”

She nodded, more
to herself than as a response to what Sheldon had said. “Officially, everything
is fine,” she said after a long pause. “But if you look carefully… there are
certain signs.”

“Signs?”

“The company is
on a downward path.”

“I know nothing
of this.” 

“It’s almost
imperceptible, but business numbers are steadily declining.”

“Profit
fluctuates, it’s normal.”

“Yes, I know.
But I sense that this time it is different.”

“How so?”

“Sheldahn, you
must understand, Mac has never spoken to me about this. But there is something
different about his behavior lately, I have sensed it. I’ve checked the numbers
myself and, indeed, profit has steadily declined over the past two years. It is
still well within stable parameters, there’s no question, and we’ve had periods
like this before but… I don’t understand the numbers at the level that Mac and
Kriss do. I believe Mac thinks it is different this time, that the agency’s
long-term survival is in jeopardy.”    

“Is it because
of me?” Sheldon asked, though he already knew the answer. 

“Partly. Since
your decreased involvement in field missions, market interest in our agency
started waning. Right now, the effect is barely noticeable. But in a few years,
your prolonged absence coupled with Mac’s refusal to use artificial mindguards,
will alienate a significant part of our clientele. It will create the image
that we are against progress and it will cause a decline of trust in our
services. Mac is a brilliant businessman but he does hold certain moral values
that are not the values of the market. He refuses to compromise and he will not
compromise in the future. We both know that and so does he. It feels like a
spear that has been thrown in the air and is now starting its slow descent.”

“So, you think
Mac accepted this unnecessarily hazardous mission for prestige?”

“Perhaps he believes
it will improve the company’s image and alter its jeopardized future.”

Sheldon felt a
pressing need for another glass of wine, not because he craved the alcohol but
because the ritual of drinking wine helped him calm down and think more
clearly. He was a man of ritual. Even his movements had a ceremonious pattern.
His mind sought an anchor in this behavior, so that it could withstand the
strain of its own complexity. Otherwise, he sometimes feared, it might collapse
under the enormous pressure of its own capacity. He was the best in the world
and remaining on top took great sacrifice. He knew that from his grandfather.

He thought back
to the day when Mac decided to quit being a mindguard.

“I can’t afford
the tiniest glitch,” Mac had said that day, many years ago. Kriss White did not
take the news very well. “Tiny glitch, what the bleedin’ hell are you talking
about?” he yelled. “Everything’s clean, there is no goddamned glitch!”

“I can’t have
even the possibility of an error, do you understand that, White?” Mac replied,
struggling to remain calm. Everyone in the company had been upset with him and
some had even quit but Sheldon had understood. He had understood perfectly.

On his last
official mission as a mindguard, Maclaine Ross and his team had been ambushed
while carrying government information through the Merrian Desert. At that time,
Mac was the only man in the world who functioned simultaneously as a mindguard
and bodyguard. Both were immense responsibilities but he handled them
excellently. His company was known as the absolute best in the field of
thoughtprotection.

On that
particular mission, the team got ambushed by desert dwellers, who attacked them
with rocket launchers, to everyone’s surprise. The attack was so brutal there
were even casualties among the bodyguards, a rare occurrence in Mac’s agency.
After sheltering his surviving team members in a cave, Mac remained outside to
cover them. A rocket was fired straight at him, missing his head by only a few
inches. It hit the wall of the mountain, dislocating an enormous rock, which
fell right on Mac’s head. The impact should have killed him; it should have not
only broken his neck, but shattered it completely. Because of his muscular
insertions and all his genetic advancements, the rock broke into tiny pieces
and Mac’s head did not. He did, however, fall to the ground and lose
consciousness. Francois, who was on one of his first missions, hurried out of
the cave and carried him to safety. Kriss White - back then still an active
field member - assumed command and guided the mission to success, completely
slaughtering the desert dwellers in the process.

When they
returned home, Mac was put through a number of medical tests. The doctors found
no damage to his brain, at least none that could be recognized by modern
medicine. But Mac was cautious. He took himself off active duty for a while. In
the following days he had two instances where he forgot certain things. They
were trivial bits of information: the name of a planet, the exact departure
hour for one of the future missions. Trivial, but decisive. Mac took the
painful decision of quitting his career as a mindguard.  

“Listen, you
shithead,” White had yelled, “if the scans say there’s nothing there, then
there’s
nothing
there. You’re probably still in shock. That’s why you’re
forgetting stuff.”

“I won’t take
the risk, White.”

“Do you have any
idea how much it will hurt the company?”

“Do
I
have
any idea?” Mac yelled. His outbursts were rare but very intense. Even the tough
old veteran was intimidated when Mac started screaming at the top of his lungs.
“I build this goddamned company with my hands…
my
hands, every second of
every day. This company is everything to me!”

Mac had
completely lost it, his veins protruding from the side of his forehead. The
team was afraid he’d attack White. “Do
I
have any idea how it hurts
my
company? Do you think you know anything about what it takes to be a mindguard?
Do you think it’s like being a bodyguard, where you just pay for genetic
modifications that do the work for you, and then train for a few hours every
day and that’s it? Do you have any clue about the scope of… of… the
preparation… the dedication and conditioning, the responsibilities we have, the
way we’re always walking on thin ice? No, you don’t, you don’t have
any
idea! But
I
do and it’s
my
company and I’m well aware of how it
will be harmed. Not an ounce of my energy goes into anything other than trying
to find a way to protect it.”

“You
are
this company, Mac,” White said calmly, holding his ground. “That’s all I’m
saying. The name of this company has been built around your fame as the only
man in the world who is both a bodyguard and a mindguard. If you step down now…
Given the competition and the recent rumor of a market move towards artificial
mindguards, we could be wiped out in a few years.”

“I will get us
out of this,” Mac said with all his heart. “
All
of us.” Sheldon was sure
he had been the only one who had believed Mac. Back then, just like now,
Sheldon had the greatest faith in the ability of his friend. Now, like then, he
was still worried.