The Mendelssohnian Theory: Action Adventure, Sci-Fi, Apocalyptic ,Y/A (18 page)

The American Adventure Station docking (AASD) base was a
technological monster that had taken years to construct, patch by patch. Its
original purpose to serve as a research station, had been long abandoned and it
became a mining station and a transport base that served all Americans, as well
as all superpowers who did not have Martian bases. Once the European leaders
and the leaders of the great Arabic Nation had signed an agreement with the
American President, they leased entire quarters of warehouses and offices in
the business district. However, the American commitment to provide ongoing
mining and Earth transportation services made the physical presence of
Europeans and Arabs on Mars unnecessary, and the business district quarters had
become derelict and neglected. Their location next to the docking base had
turned them into a destination frequented by smugglers and trespassers. The
place harbored an entire industry of commercial smuggling, subcutaneous
passport forgeries, identity change surgeries, sponsored murder services and
many other barely legal and mainly completely illegal activities. For a proper
fee, one would be able to infiltrate a freight shuttle with a false identity
and an outer appearance that will be almost impossible for the authorities to
recognize, in the rare case of an identity scan. For an additional fee, one
could ensure such random scans will not take place, or won’t be especially
thorough.

Natalia continued to wear her protective suit but folded her
sealed head covering. She waited in an alley, semi illuminated by a white led
lighting fixture, for the personal smuggler she had hired, who was supposed to
board her onto the next flight to Earth. She had communicated with him through
her body’s subcutaneous relay (Inmodem ©) as soon as she’d entered the station
and paid an astronomical price for the full disappearance package he’d offered
her. They had scheduled a meeting at the exact spot in which she was now
standing, and then, so he’d promised, he will upload her new identity to the
recognition chip in her arm. He was late. Natalia knew that the last shuttle
for the day was about to take off in a short while. It was essential that
she’ll board it. The commander had taught her that one must evacuate the scene
of the operation as soon as possible, so as not to be required to answer
questions that will surely arise later on. Any moment now (perhaps it had
already happened) the Russian agency will send an official request to the
American one, demanding a search for her. It was better for her not to be in
the area. A hand was placed on her shoulder and caused her to turn around
quickly in a ‘duck and assault’ movement. She gave a hard blow but hit only
empty air.

He was standing in front of her, at a safe distance. He must
have anticipated her reaction and quickly jumped back. She inspected him
quickly and changed her posture. “You don’t trust anybody, do you?” he asked,
and she recoiled in amazement.

“You?” Natalia, who had immediately recognized him according
to his voice, was surprised. The man burst into a carefree laughter.

“At your service my lady warrior,” he bowed to her with a
mock official air, “I told you I’m not one of the Americans, didn’t I?”

“Yes,” Natalia nodded, “I don’t believe in coincidences. Were
you following me?”

“Yes,” the smuggler admitted, “but before you develop
theories regarding my objectives, I’ll be happy to provide you an explanation
while loading your new identity into your chip. As you probably know, our time
is brief.” Natalia hesitated for a moment, then decided to put her trust in
him. It wasn’t like she had other choices.

“What’s your name?” she asked and rolled up her suit’s right
sleeve.

“My name’s not important. It’s changed so many times, I can
hardly remember it. You can call me any name you’d like.” He took out a
syringe-like instrument from his coat pocket and held Natalia’s outstretched
arm. “I really followed you after I saw the Russians chasing you.”

“Then you just happened to pass by, right?” she remarked with
cynicism.

The man flashed a broad smile. His face temporarily lit up
when a ground hovercraft had slowly passed them by. He took her in his arms and
to the casual onlooker they would’ve looked like an amorous couple, or at least
two people busy with a sexual exchange. Natalia froze in his embrace. She
wasn’t used to such proximity and did not wish to recall the last time she’d
found herself in a similar situation. But his scent enchanted her. An undefined
smell of flowers she recognized from Earth, mixed with his manly bodily odor.
The hovercraft passed them by and the man detached himself from her and
continued with the uploading of the identity chip in her arm, as if the
hovercraft hadn’t passed them by, as if they hadn’t embraced a moment ago. “I
didn’t say I just happened to be there. Let’s say I had my own reasons to be
there, reasons that have nothing to do with you.” She didn’t argue, although
her suspicions were not eased. “The moment I saw you leaving the blasted cell
and hurrying to get out of there, my curiosity was aroused. I admit it. When I
saw them chasing you, I thought perhaps I could gain from the situation. But
when you plunged down the canyon, I jumped after you.”

“You have lightsenses (lightsense ©) in your eyes?” Natalia
realized and he laughed again.

“I suppose you can understand in my line of work, such
information is classified, in the same way you wouldn’t tell me who your
employer is and why he’s insisted on getting this particular merchandise.”
Another hovercraft approached, and he held her to him again. After the vehicle
had passed, they held onto their embrace a moment more. She removed herself
from him and met his amused gaze. “Are you always so stressed?” She smiled, and
he turned serious at once, held her again in an embrace and muttered: “Keep it
up, they’ve stopped.” The hovercraft stopped about a hundred and fifty feet
from them and began to glide back. “Border Police,” he whispered in her ear. A
spotlight ignited on the hovercraft’s roof, cut through the darkness and
flooded them with light. She turned him toward the spotlight and kissed him
with fervor, giving the finger to the light while continuing to fondle the
man’s body. That was enough for the cops, who’d decided she was a prostitute
entertaining one of her customers. They turned off the spotlight and continued
to glide away. She’d planned to stop the game, but the smuggler drew her closer
to him and continued to kiss her. Her muscles tensed, but he wouldn’t let go.
She melted into his arms and yielded to his kiss. “Wow,” he muttered while
regaining his breath, “that was close.” To her surprise, she discovered he was
just as embarrassed as she was, beneath his carefree and arrogant appearance.
“You’re late,” he said and led her toward the entrance of the freight
hovercrafts’ landing strip. “Your gate number is six. You’ll find the rest of
the information in your microchip. Check everything later. Your name is Debbie
Harry, and you’re from New Dublin. I hope you’ll have enough time to calibrate
the accent adapter in your throat, before running into any officials.”

She waited a moment more, looking at him with concentration.
“Thanks,” she said and knew he understood exactly what she meant. He smiled the
same crafty smile he had on his face when they’d first met, bowed in front of
her and pretended to take off a hat.

“At your service my Arabian princess,” he said, and she
recoiled, startled and surprised. How did he know the secret of her origin, a
secret she was able to hide so well? He recognized her anxiety and hurried to
soothe her: “Your secret is safe with me,” he said, and when he saw this only
served to enhance her suspicions, he hurried to explain: “The instrument that
inserted the identification card into the chip in your arm works both ways.
That’s the way it’s programmed.” He turned the head of the syringe-like
instrument. “Now it’s deleted forever,” he said, “and I swear no one will ever
get a single word out of me.”

Natalia knew she had no choice but to trust his word; she
wanted to trust him. He awoke a yearning to a distant dream in her, a dream
from which she could recall only that ambiguous scent of flowers. She got
closer and kissed him. He immediately responded and pressed her close to him.
Natalia felt the need to cuddle up in his arms, “If you ever get to Earth,” she
said, “look for me,” and she was serious, even though both of them knew it
would be an almost impossible task, considering the size of the planet’s population
and her undocumented line of work. But, she felt if anyone would be able to
find her, he was the one. “I owe you my life,” she added, “and I swear to repay
my debt.”

Adam smiled. “You don’t owe me anything,” he waved off her
words with a gesture, “just keep yourself safe, that’s the main business.
Besides,” he added laughingly, “you’ll probably forget all about me the moment
we part.”

“I won’t,” Natalia became serious, “that’s an oath for life.”
Adam nodded to indicate his understanding. He distanced himself from her, stood
in front of her a moment more, then turned and walked into a side alley. Just
before he was gone, he turned to her again and called: “My name’s Adam, Adam
First,” and immediately turned and was swallowed in darkness, leaving her
behind with the taste of his lips and his rousing scent. She looked a moment
more at the place he disappeared in and mumbled: “And I’m Natalia,” then
immediately turned around and walked through gate number six into the huge
freight-shuttle, which will lead her, courtesy of the Government of New
America, back to Earth.

Like many events in human history, the two thousand and
twenty-third revolution, which had led to the dismantling of the old
world-order and the growth of the Mendelssohnian movement, began in the city of
Jerusalem under discouraging circumstances. The world financial crisis and the
awakening of the revolutionary street movements, a decade before, first in the
dictatorial Arab countries and later on in the United States and Europe, had
finally reached the state of Israel. They abated quickly, thanks to a powerful
centralized government and tycoon oriented media, quickly bored with yesterday’s
news. What remained after the street revolutions had died was a gray trail of
pessimism and a feeling that ‘nothing will ever change’. Citizens of all
countries experienced first hand the futility of the attempt to change their
destiny and their failure to create a better future for themselves. A sense of
apathy spread among human beings, wherever they were. Religious preachers and
missionaries quickly discovered the fissure that had wounded the public’s trust
in the government, and they filled it up with seeds of hope and promises that
faith in God will redeem humankind. The developing worldwide trend was
explicit: seclusion within national boundaries had replaced the global village
vision. Xenophobia replaced business relationships, and military pacts were
signed and breached on a daily basis. Suspiciousness became a global trend.

Then, as if by divine decree, the temple mount collapsed in a
sudden blast, and with it were buried three of the most important foundations
that had bound the three major monotheistic religions to the ancient city. The
fact that many militant groups had simultaneously taken responsibility for the
terrorist attack, only served to add to the confusion and chaos that broke out
following the blast. Paranoia, the constant companion of ‘fear of the unknown’
had made its weight felt as well, and the Great War that had waited around the
corner for so long, finally found the trigger which ignited it. Dozens of
residue-free nuclear missiles (LRON-Lack of Nuclear Residue) were launched and
hit many strategic and civilian targets, more than forty million people had
perished before the war died out, in almost the same speed with which it was
born. At the end of this short-lived war, five superpowers established
themselves as the human world’s exclusive rulers. Israel ceased to exist as a
country the very day in which the bomb had exploded in Jerusalem. In return for
the protection it had been awarded, it became a protectorate of America, the
new superpower that merged the United States, Canada, Mexico and later on, the
rest of the Southern and Central American nations.

Following the war and the processes that preceded it, world
leaders predicted that nationalistic religiousness would overflow humanity. But
the destructive results of the Jerusalem blast and the two-week war that
followed it had actually served to create a sense of religious confusion that
crossed borders and continents. Out of the confusion, emerged a small movement
espousing a new theory, one that amalgamated various religious concepts and
contained the scientific perception of things as well. The theory was suitable
for most believers of common religions who had remained shepherd-less. It did
not deny the existence of God (any God), but assimilated it into itself and gave
it new meaning.

In the new world-order, Jerusalem remained outside the
borders. None of the superpowers wanted to take responsibility and control over
it, and it had quickly lost its stature and appeal. The halo of divinity that
had once surrounded each of the ancient city’s stones had evaporated with the
smoke of the blast and following the short war, its denizens had begun to
abandon it. The first ones to leave were the few non-religious Jewish denizens.
The wealthy Arabs hurried to follow suit and moved to expensive neighborhoods
in the Palestinian cities, leaving Jerusalem at the hands of confused
ultra-orthodox and poor Jews and Moslems. The city, emptied of most of its
dwellers, became a ghost city, whose filthy streets and derelict marketplaces
were a pilgrimage site for beggars, the sick and the deformed. One would assume
the city would sink into the oblivion of history, had it not become a hotbed
for forgers and people of the black market, who had found in it a refuge from
the long arms of the law. In the alleys of the old city, any man or woman could
find themselves a new identity, implant their bodies with nanomicrochips
(Improve Nano Microchips ©) to enhance their physical and sensual capabilities,
as well as act & react software (Act& React ©). Jerusalem was nicknamed
‘the Mecca of Forgery’, after another city that had lost its glamour in the
great war.

Adam had visited the old city several times in recent years.
The first time was when he accompanied Dmitry to deliver the small nuclear
device they’d rescued from the ghost satellite to the Dutch gentlemen, who were
supposedly alternative platform and server developers (Alternative Modems ©),
but were actually arms dealers. Then, as now, the neglected alleys appeared
grim and dangerous to him. This is how the city must have appeared to Joseph,
who was walking beside him; this was his first visit to Jerusalem.

After Dmitry had died in a battle between his own group of
smugglers and that of his sworn enemy Flint, Adam became the company’s leader.
At first, Dmitry’s soldiers had apprehensions regarding Adam’s leadership, but
his courage in battle and his correct management of the tribe had taught them
to trust him and rely on him in everything. His revenge on Flint was not late
to come and served to magnify the ethos surrounding the young leader. Time and
again, it was his smugglers who took the largest loot, and the contracts he had
signed with his clients were the most profitable. More than once, when one of
them had gotten into a bind, it was Adam who came to the rescue. And after a
while, they began to openly admire him and their confidence in him even
exceeded that which they felt when Dmitry had led them. The ‘old’ smuggler had
trained him well, and the pupil surpassed his teacher. He developed new
fighting, evasion techniques, brought the timing levels of their operation to
perfection, and the number of failed missions during the time of his leadership
was close to zero.

He’d returned to Earth on various occasions, always in
disguise, careful not to be exposed, always for a brief time and in constant
movement. Jerusalem was the center of his business on the planet, but he hadn’t
visited it in a long time since the city had become unsafe for him. A contract
was placed on his head by one of the forgery barons who ruled the eastern part
of what was once the ‘Mahane Yehuda Market’. Even though the misunderstanding
had long been settled, Adam still felt unsafe in the former holy city and
avoided it. Till now.

Life as a smuggler were dynamic and satisfactory and the time
that had passed helped to ease the grief he felt each time would recall the
loved ones he had lost during his flight. Jewel and Naomi and his parents, and
those who’d helped him on his way and remained alive, Joseph and Elizabeth.
Adam did not intend to return to Earth permanently and, therefore, had doubts
about whether he’ll ever see them again. Only once did he allow himself to
imagine a different ending to his story, an ending in which he would return to
Earth. It was after he had parted from Natalia. The meeting with her and the
moment in which she’d disappeared from his eyes in the American freight shuttle
made him dream about coming back and finding her and then… he never dared to
imagine what would happen then. He hurried to shake the thought from his head
and headed out to another raiding and smuggling journey, one of many. However,
the question ‘what would have happened if?’ had remained unsolved and
occasionally returned to bother him.

The change occurred when he’d found out through the national
web that Dr. Amir Lev, father of his youthful love, had passed away and that
the funeral was about to take place soon. He immediately decided to leave
everything and return to Earth, realizing his days as a smuggler were over. He
appointed his deputy as the new leader and established contact with Elizabeth.
She was delighted to hear from him and hurried to act. When he’d landed in the
Australian docking base, she was waiting there for him along with Joseph and
Chapalcharie. Adam seemed taller and stronger to her, his features were harsher
and sharper than they were when she had sent him away. ‘He’d changed,’ the
thought passed through her head, more calculated, tense and sad. But then he
smiled at her and embraced her warmly; she knew everything would be fine. She
was certain he hadn’t forgotten the mission he was intended to complete and
that he was now mature enough to accomplish it.

Adam shook Joseph’s hand and gave Chapalcharie an official
bow, greeting him in aborigine, the dreamers’ language. Chapalcharie was
impressed by the youth’s fluency in the language sacred to him and the official
tone with which he’d spoken. He gave him the ceremonious reply and offered him
his hand. They shook hands warmly, and the Prime Minister led them to the side
hovercraft, which connected with the cargo unit, moving on top of the Southern
time ring, leading to the Jewish Reservation.

Once they’d reached the reservation, they went to the
National burial garden grounds on the outskirts of the capital and situated
themselves a safe distance from the small square in which the funeral ceremony
was taking place. They watched the small crowd gathering around the narrow
burial box. Amir Lev’s body was temporarily buried in a preservation box, until
it will be processed so its material can be returned to the earth, as part of
the recycling burial contract (Eco Recycling Burial) he had signed long before
his death.

It was a brief and sad event. Adam recognized Alona, standing
tall between two women he wasn’t able to recognize. Around them stood a group
of people, unfamiliar as well, and looked at the Mendelssohnian Rabbi, who
eulogized the deceased. The Rabbi sealed the box and two youths lifted it in
their hands and carried it to a quadrilateral opening of a matching diameter.
They pushed the narrow coffin through the opening until it disappeared. The
funeral was over.

“We should get going,” Joseph said.

“Yes,” said Elizabeth, “you should.”

“You’re not coming with me?” Adam was surprised.

“No,” answered Elizabeth, “we’re pretty sure Skil are
following us regularly in order to find you. It’s better if I stay clear of you
as much as possible. Joseph will accompany you.”

“They’re trying to follow me as well,” said Joseph, “we’d
better hurry up and disappear before the place is crawling with corporation
agents.” Adam nodded slowly. He gave Elizabeth a hug and went with Joseph to
the ground hovercraft they’d reached the burial garden grounds with. Elizabeth
remained where she was until they’d left, then ordered a hover-taxi to take her
to the reservation gate. There, a ‘Freedom’ ground hovercraft was waiting to
take her to a new base, next to Bangalore, India.

Adam knew that the chances he would be recognized by anyone
in the old city were slim to nonexistent since he had changed his identity
several times from the time he’d been sentenced to death by the largest forgery
barons in the world. But, he thought he shouldn’t take any chances and,
therefore, had agreed with Joseph that his identity should be better concealed.
The scientist determined he should replace his blood. Blood was engineered and
encoded from the day of birth and could be detected from afar by governmental
bodies and those associated with them.

“Are you sure I’m encoded?” Adam asked time and again, knowing
what the answer would be. His voice was muffled by the air purifying mask he
was wearing on his face. Wearing a personal purifier had become non-obligatory
in Jerusalem for several years now, as the city authorities managed to overcome
the severe air pollution that had developed after the epidemic of twenty-six,
but its residents and visitors preferred to continue and breathe through the
purified air slits, until wearing the mask had become habitual. Not wearing a
mask was considered distasteful at best and may even be interpreted as an
insult, dishonoring the local residents.

“We’re all encoded, chick,” said Joseph without looking at
him and Adam smiled to himself. It’d been awhile since he’d heard the nickname
and now that he had heard it again, he discovered, much to his surprise, that
he’d strangely missed it. “That’s the law,” Joseph added.

“You too?”

“I was,” answered Joseph, “I replaced it long ago.” He
stopped for a moment and waited until Adam had arrested as well and turned to
him. “Are you sure this doctor of yours knows the process?”

“No,” Adam answered calmly, “but I know that if a treatment
like the one you’ve described exists, he’ll know about it and will also be able
to perform it. He’s the doctor with a capital D, if you know what I mean.”

Joseph wasn’t especially pleased with the answer he’d
received again and again from the young man but knew that for the time being,
he had no other choice but settle for it. They continued to walk side by side,
navigating their way through the narrow alleys, avoiding contact with the
beggars and the rest of the people on the streets of the ancient city of
Jerusalem.

“And if I’ll replace my blood,” Adam continued to interrogate
him, “they won’t be able to locate me?”

Joseph hesitated a moment before answering: “Well, look,” he
began, “it’s true for anyone else but you.”

“What do you mean?” Adam stopped in his tracks.

Joseph seemed undecided, considering whether he should share
the information with Adam or keep it to himself. “They can crosscheck.”

“Crosscheck?”

“It’s very expensive,” Joseph explained, “but obviously, they
have the necessary financial means.”