The Mendelssohnian Theory: Action Adventure, Sci-Fi, Apocalyptic ,Y/A (5 page)

“From the moment he came into our house I knew this would not
end well, the people who killed his parents will bring a disaster on his head
and the heads of everyone around him. Only he knows where Naomi is,” the mother
continued, “he should tell us where she is.”

“He doesn’t know,” said Amir and held Adam’s hand. “Go and
lie down,” he called resolutely to his wife and led the boy to the porch,
closing the pixelated sliding door. They sat in two recliners on the porch and
stared at the yard.

“What did she mean?” asked Adam after they were both silent
for a while.

Amir didn’t answer the boy. He caressed his beard
distractedly and Adam could hear him humming an unclear melody to himself.

“They died because of me?”

“Did you know your father and I used to work together?” Amir
broke his silence. Adam allowed him to continue. “We researched the use of the
Mendelssohnian Theory to locate computer viruses. Actually, we conceptualized
the virus as a damaged or erroneous Mendelssohnian chain. It was your father’s
idea, he wanted to publish it as an open code on the worldwide-web, but I
objected. I thought that sooner or later one of the corporations would try to
claim the rights for the software we’d developed and in order to protect it we
must keep the rights with us.” He was silent for a moment, breathing heavily,
his gaze fixed somewhere beyond the yard. “When they were found dead, we were
in the middle of registering the patent for the application of our research,”
he continued, “I was convinced they were murdered by corporate agents, but the
police report established that they committed suicide, and I couldn’t prove
otherwise.” Adam shrunk at the sound of the decisive statement in Amir’s words.
Even to himself, he had never fully admitted his parents may have been killed
in a different way than the one told him. They were dead and that was that.
“Now I think it was about something else, something darker that has to do with
you and who you are.”

“I’m the same person I’ve always been,” called Adam in a
voice that begged recognition, “You know me.”

“You need to run,” said Amir, “they know you’re here and will
get here any minute. Leave the reservation the same way you managed to get
inside and do it quickly. Don’t let them catch you.”

“But what about Naomi?” Adam insisted. “How can I leave
without finding out where she is,” he begged.

Two black dots appeared on the skyline of the city spread
before them and gradually grew until materializing into two air-ground
hovercrafts.

“I’ll keep on looking for her,” Amir said quietly, “you just
worry about staying alive. Now go,” he finished, “get away from here.”

The hovercrafts flew toward them quickly.

“Run,” called Amir and jumped to his feet, “quickly, I’ll try
to delay them.”

Adam lunged from his chair. “I’ll find her,” he hissed at
Amir, “I swear I’ll find her,” and he leaped beyond the porch banister and
quickly turned toward the rear gate of the yard, a green and ancient looking
wicket. For a brief moment, he turned around and looked back at the house. Dr.
Lev sat bent within the small chair in the dim porch. He turned toward the gate
again and quickly left the yard on his way back to the tunnel through which he
had managed to enter the reservation and through which he intended to leave it
again.

Everything that can be documented on the face of the globe had
been documented long ago. Few things could pass ‘below radar’ and become lost
within the information stream pouring through the various communication
networks. All human beings were connected to one another and to various
electronic components with the aid of subcutaneous cards. The supervision over
them and the war against their forgery were done by a semi-private police
force, operated by the super powers and the corporations.

The value of human life had never been cheaper. The most
common way was to make people who did not comply with the politics of the
nameless governing elite, disappear without a trace. The Jewish reservation was
one of the last places in the world in which the direct supervision over human
beings did not exist. The bubble almost fully blocked such attempts. Almost.
Someone had apparently located Adam and the boy was now on the run. And now,
outside the reservation, the danger that he would be located by his pursuers
was even greater, at least that’s what Joseph had claimed just before Adam had
managed to slip away from the elderly scientist. Even though he had managed to
escape them once, Adam knew that the next time, Joseph would not come to his
aid.

He ran. He’d been running for almost two weeks. His last
strength was exhausted long ago and now he was motivated only by the need to
breathe. At first, he ran away from Joseph. Now he was running from the unknown
abductors Amir Lev, the elderly scientist, had warned him about.

Adam ran as fast as his feet could carry him, glancing
behind, seeking his pursuers. The few times he had stopped to rest and drink
were brief and for the past two days, since he’d recognized signs of his
pursuers, he hadn’t stopped at all.

He detoured inhabited locations, avoided running on paved
roads, hid within groves and every time he saw people around him, took care to
hide from them. He stole food from isolated farms and mostly ate berries he
located on the road. From the very beginning of his flight, he had decided not
to give up. No matter what might happen, he wouldn’t let anyone catch him.

Adam didn’t know where he was heading and how he would be
able to evade his enemies, mainly because he had no idea who they were. He
believed that their reconnaissance/monitoring devices (Recomonitor©) were able
to identify him anywhere and anytime. But, he did not intend to make it easier
on them and gradually came to the realization that sooner or later, he would
have to fight them. As they got closer, his strength diminished. If at first he
randomly slalomed his way, now he simply ran in one direction, as fast as he
could. Running and hoping for a miracle that would release him, draw him out of
the pit he had found himself in. Even though his life had gotten him used to
not expect miracles, he had no other choice but to maintain an unfounded hope
for salvation.

On the border of a cornfield that stretched to the limits of
his eyesight, he stopped for a moment and examined the way he’d passed in the
last few hours. To his great anxiety, he saw a hovercraft advancing toward him
with great speed, closing the gap that separated it from him; soon, it would
catch up with him. He lunged between the high corn stalks and began to make his
way through the plants ordered in endless rows. The yellow corncobs bumped
against his body and his face; the leaves left marks of thin and bleeding
scratches on his skin. He zigzagged between the rows, hearing the hovercraft
arresting on the border of the field and the voices of his pursuers, jumping
from within and spreading across the lines. He heard them advancing toward him,
about to close in on him from all directions. Adam realized he was doomed, but
still did not give up. He dove into a pile of dry branches and tried to diminish
his presence as much as he could. From his hiding place, he counted six
pursuers passing by and knew that there must be at least one additional driver
in the hovercraft hanging above the verge of the cornfield. He hoped that they
would continue on their way without noticing his hiding place, but one of the
pursuers came back. When the man approached and stopped next to the pile of
branches in which Adam was hiding, the frightened boy held his breath until he
was less than three feet away. Adam didn’t know where he was able to draw
strength from, but just as the agent lifted his weapon toward him, he jumped at
him and hit him in the stomach. The man doubled up, choking, the protective
aura (Shiny Shield ©) of his suit blinked and was turned off. Adam did not
waste a single moment and grabbed the agent’s weapon, a military looking drill
(Drill ©), from his hands. He aimed and fired, just as he had done countless
times during childhood games. But this time it wasn’t a game and luckily
enough, the safety catch of the weapon that was about to harm him, was open. An
electric bolt hit the belly of the agent and he doubled up and fell shivering
on the ground. Adam did not delay to check the condition of his enemy.

It was clear to Adam that the sound of the struggle was heard
from afar and that the remaining pursuers would hurry to close in on him and
catch him. He jumped from his hiding place and ran toward the hovercraft,
without attempting to silence his gallop between the dense corn stalks. All at
once, he came out of the field and onto the dirt road and saw the aircraft in
front of him. Without hesitating a single moment, he jumped and entered it. The
startled hovercraft driver turned toward him just as Adam had fired and hit him
in the head. The driver collapsed immediately and Adam held the wheel and
without thinking twice, turned it around quickly. The hovercraft complied and
turned. He was able to see the rest of his pursuers lunging at him, attempting
in vain to grab onto the chassis of the vehicle, but he managed to slip away.
They fired their weapons at him, but their hovercraft was programmed to be
invulnerable and their bullets missed their mark. When he got away from the
Pursuing agents, he stopped the float, opened the vehicle door and pushed out
the unconscious pilot. Seconds before he took to the air, Adam noticed one of
the company placing a finger to his ear and whispering something, probably to a
hidden microphone, ‘the commander’ he assumed, as the hovercraft vanished
beyond the edge of the horizon.

Adam didn’t know how he had the necessary knowledge to drive
the aircraft and had no time to think about it. He only knew he must distance
himself from his pursuers as quickly as possible. They must have already
reported their failure and other pursuers would soon be sent after him. He held
the control stick, just like he had seen in numerous movies, and navigated the
small aircraft away from the cornfield in which he had almost been caught. The
aircraft yielded to his implorations and obeyed his guidance, accumulated speed
and height, and increased the distance between Adam and the danger that had
almost caught up with him. All this time, bothersome questions were ceaselessly
running through his mind and he could not understand why they had decided to chase
him of all people. In what way was he different from other boys his age? Why
was it so important for them and for Joseph to kidnap him from his home? To
murder his parents? The Jewish reservation now seemed to him so remote and
blurry, just like he imagined the cities of Amsterdam or London his mother had
once told him about. She was born in London to parents that were descendants of
the great escape from Amsterdam while the city had been drowned beneath the
waves of the rising ocean. When he was younger, and his parents were still
alive, his mother used to tell him about the great cities, especially
Amsterdam, a city she sorely missed although she had never visited it. When
Adam had told Naomi about Amsterdam, he’d shifted his mother’s birthplace to it.
It sounded more mysterious and he wanted to impress her, which he had. Naomi
was fascinated by the story and requested him to describe the city again and
again.

Once more, he remembered Naomi. What had happened to her? Why
did they kidnap her as well? What has she ever done to them? Joseph himself had
said that she was not part of the equation. Adam only had a faint idea about
what the elderly scientist had spoken about, but he hoped the fact that Naomi
was not part of the equation would be to her benefit, and that the dark clothed
abductors would soon release her, also because she was the daughter of one the
city’s dignitaries.

He had already spent some time outside the reservation,
flying in a stolen hovercraft, chased by unknown forces and in his heart and
thoughts, he was determined not to give up. They won’t catch him again. Where
will he fly to? Even before the question popped into his mind, he had already
known the answer: Amsterdam, the sunken floating city. He typed the name of the
former Dutch city onto the computer monitor and the hovercraft tilted to the
right and rose higher in the air. Adam felt his eyes shutting. He was afraid
that the hovercraft would be tracked, but could not maintain his alertness.
When his head bumped against the control panel for the third time, he gave up,
pushed back the backrest and allowed himself to sink into deep sleep. The
hovercraft continued on its way, navigating automatically, crossing the
Mediterranean in a low altitude, taking a course that avoided contact with
other aircraft or the coast guard of the sea that divided European and Muslim
territories.

Adam slept. He did not wake up when they passed the skies of
the French territory of Europe, nor when they passed the former Belgium or when
the hovercraft finally reached the area of the city of Amsterdam and prepared
for landing in the hovercraft complex, attached to the floating city. This time
of day, slightly after sunrise, the large dock was almost empty of any sea or
aircraft. The hovercraft gently settled on the floating platform, automatically
allotted it by the city’s computerized traffic control (Traffic.Com ©).

Adam kept sleeping when three hydrofoil boats had emerged
from the shadows and circled the dock from all directions. The boats progressed
toward the small hovercraft, attached themselves to the floating dock and
turned off their engines. The doors of the boats opened silently and twelve
men, wearing black protective suits, got outside and with catlike strides
advanced toward the hovercraft. The first of the men to arrive reached the
hovercraft’s back door, raised his hand toward the opening lock’s touch screen
and tapped the entry code. The door remained locked. He tried to release the
lock once more and again failed.

Suddenly, the stolen hovercraft awoke to life. Adam was still
sunk in deep sleep, but to his great fortune this was no ordinary civilian
hovercraft, but a vehicle equipped with an ‘intruder recognition’ system
(Intruder Exile ©). Two things occurred simultaneously to the hovercraft. It
took into the air and flew in a wide arc beyond one of the ships docking next
to it, and then, almost at the same time, plunged into the sea. Water
immediately covered the small aircraft, leaving ripples around the place where
it had just sunk. The men in black did not have the opportunity to respond to
the activity that had taken place in front of their eyes and when they were
finally able to wake into action, it was already too late, the hovercraft
disappeared.

Adam woke up, confused from the bumping of the aircraft
during its evasive maneuver, seconds before it hit the water. A quick look at
the front window made it clear to him that he was quickly sinking. The vehicle
wasn’t intended for sailing, and certainly not for diving. Even though it was sealed
and there was no danger of water penetration, Adam quickly realized his
condition was worsening by the minute and the more he would sink, the more
difficult it will become to exit the hovercraft. He was overcome with dread and
felt arrows of panic spread within him, puncturing his entire body. The vehicle
continued to sink more and more and Adam felt helpless. He tried, to no avail,
to restart the hovercraft’s engine that choked and turned off as soon as it
came in contact with seawater. With nervous movements, he searched a button or
lever that would eject him from the hovercraft. When he had finally found and
sent his hand toward it, he noticed, at the corner of his eye, a movement in
the water outside the sinking vehicle’s window… He raised his eyes, examined
the gray water surrounding the hovercraft and realized that its sinking was
almost completely arrested. Actually, it cruised the water horizontally,
apparently heading toward a specific direction. How was that possible? he
wondered and then saw that someone was outside. A diver in a strange suit. Then
he noticed that there were actually a few divers. The hovercraft was tied to
another watercraft, a type of open submarine around which circled a few divers
wearing diving suits the likes of which Adam had never seen. In fact, other
than pictures on the web, he had never seen diving suits since until now, he’d
never left the reservation.

He had no other choice, and in spite of the fear he was
feeling, Adam raised his backrest, sat comfortably and watched the divers with
curiosity. He hoped they were not among those who had chased him, but knew that
the chance of that was close to zero. Weak and tired, he waited to be caught.