Under Vanishing Skies (15 page)

“
That sounded like a threat, Viyaja.”

His eyes narrowed even more. “You did not misunderstand me. We cannot allow the fate of our people to rest in the hands of a few foreigners.”

My heart raced and I resisted the urge to punch him. “Don't you mean infidels?  Look, if you think you can scare me then you're stupider than I thought.” I took a step toward him and said, “In the last few weeks I carried the mutilated body of my best friend back to his family. A couple weeks later I watched two young men die right in front of me. And yesterday—” I took another step towards him. “Yesterday, the same bastards who killed them tried to kill me. So if you want to scare me, you’re going to have to do better than that.”

I took another step forward. I now stood inches from his face and his stench engulfed me. But I didn’t give a shit.

“
If you want me out of the picture, then you better kill me. Go ahead. I won’t even try and stop you.”

I shoved him in the chest and he stumbled back against the door.

“
Just be sure to do it right the first time, because I swear to God if you fuck it up, I’m going to be really angry...and you don't want to see me angry.”

I grabbed his shoulder and shoved him away from the door and with my other hand I opened it.

“
Why don’t you get the hell out of here and tell Ahmed what I told you. Okay?”

His jaw clenched. Then without turning his back on me, he sidestepped in front of the doorway and stepped backward into the hall. I moved forward and grabbed the door.

“
And Viyaja...” I slammed the door in his face. “ 
Ma’a salama,
 asshole!”

 ***

I didn’t sleep much. Not because of Viyaja’s threat, but because my brain wouldn’t shut down. It was stuck in an endless loop, trying to figure out Jin’s plan. I was exhausted, but I had picked up where I left off in the morning. Maybe it was the lack of sleep or maybe Viyaja had gotten into my head, but I was no closer to figuring out this out than I was yesterday. I needed to get out of here and clear my head.

I thought about borrowing a kayak and seeing if I could catch anything, but the temperature was even colder than it had been last night. Running was out of the question. There were too many people in the street being joyful. So I decided to go perform a few systems checks on the servers in the tower. Mindless diagnostics might be just the thing to clear the log jam in my brain.

The noise from the streets had already invaded my room, and it was only noon. By nightfall, I wouldn’t be able to hear my own thoughts. I filled my backpack with the fish jerky and plantain pancakes that I had scrounged up last night. I wrapped my bottle of moonshine in some blankets and shoved it all into the backpack. If the blankets didn’t keep me warm, the moonshine would.

I zipped up the pack and made sure that I had Jin’s data mat before I headed down to the lobby. As I opened the front door to the hotel, I was assaulted by the sights and sounds of happy people and the smells of street food. I took a deep breath and then headed out into the chaos.

Throngs of people brushed past me, some dancing and singing. A few tried to get me to join them. That didn’t happen.

This was so bizarre. Yesterday, these same people moped around crying and mourning the deaths of their loved ones. Now they were jumping around and singing like they were at a Synthetechnic Wave concert. 

I pushed through the mob and ignored every wish for a “joyful tomorrow.” There was nothing joyful about today, tomorrow, or the day after that. The atmosphere, what was left of it, was burning off. The oceans were cooling down and sea life was dying. In another few years, we’d all join the sea life. For the love of God, didn’t they feel how cold it was?

Finally, I emerged from between two tall, stucco buildings and stepped out onto the beach road. Out here, along the shoreline, there were only a handful of people. Most of them were heading into the city center to join the party. And the salt air replaced the aroma of fried foods. I could finally feel my shoulders begin to loosen up.

I looked up. The clouds looked like they might open up any minute.

I walked faster, hoping to raise my body temperature. Goddamm it was cold!

Up ahead, at the farthest point from the city, stood the main communications tower. The stainless steel sheathing reflected the gray and white clouds. Up on the roof, I spotted a tall, omnidirectional antenna. It appeared to cut a gash in the clouds that floated by. I picked up my pace.

I entered the stairwell and began my climb up to the observation deck on the fifth floor.  A young couple came down the stairs and squeezed past me on their way down. They avoided eye contact, but started to giggle as soon as they were flight below me. The observation deck was Male’s version of Lover’s Lane.

As I entered the observation deck, the musty smell of damp concrete mixed with the fresh scent of sex filled my nostrils. A flattened cardboard box was carefully laid out on the floor near the far wall. I noticed a few damp spots on the cardboard. I smiled. 

I walked to the far side of the room and climbed the rusted ladder.  Up on the next floor was the main data center for the IICN.  I punched in the combination and heard a click.  I turned the handle and lifted the hatch, After I climbed up, I closed the hatch behind me.

Evenly spaced along the data center walls were a dozen directional VHF antennas, positioned in front of the ventilation openings. A cable from each antenna snaked its way to the servers in the center of the room. My eye followed two thick wires from the servers up to the ceiling, where they disappeared through a small hole. The wires were connected to the two omni-directional antennas up on the roof.

Those antennas were used for voice and video communications. The ones down here were the backbone for the IICN message service. The six, bulky servers blinked silently as if to say welcome back.

I dropped my backpack on the floor and walked over to the servers. As I checked the display lights, I noticed something new, a white cable that snaked its way over to the corner and up through a hole in the ceiling. I walked over to another metal ladder on the fall wall.  This one was in even worse shape than the one that led up this room.  I climbed up and onto the roof.  There were no railings up here. My knees felt wobbly the moment stood up. 

It only took me a second to spot the white wire. It led to a small parabolic satellite dish in the center of the roof. I walked over to it and knelt down. I’d only seen this type of dish in text books back in college. This was a technology from the turn of the twenty first century. I remembered a professor once describing how these dishes were once used to communicate to satellites back in the late Twentieth and early Twenty First Centuries.

I knelt next to the dish and examined it like an archeologist would examine a sarcophagus. It was smooth and elegant in its simplicity. On the base, I spotted two green lights that blinked on and off. It was operational.

I felt the dish rotate slightly and I pulled my hands away. It was tracking something. Jin must have configured it to follow the satellite signal. Damn, he was good.

I felt tiny drops of water on my face. I thought that it was raining, but as I looked closer I noticed that the rain was falling much slower than usual. I held out my hand and watched in disbelief as tiny snowflakes landed in my palm. They melted as soon as they touched the skin, but it was definitely snow. Not the thick heavy stuff I remembered from our family ski trips to the Sierras, but a wet snow mixed with the drizzle.

I watched it for a few minutes and wondered what the crazy bastards who were partying in the streets thought about this. They probably thought it was a sign from whatever god they worshipped.

I looked at my hand again, but there weren't any more snowflakes. It was just sprinkling now.

I headed down the ladder into the data center and closed the hatch behind me. The patter of rain on the metal roof filled the room. I peeked through one of the many long, vertical ventilation slots along the wall and watched the rain fall for a little while. I didn’t see any more snow.  Maybe I had imagined it.

It didn’t matter. The rain was coming down harder now.  I could tell that it would last for another couple of hours. So I settled onto the floor, pulled out my blankets, and opened the data mat. It was time to get back to work.

*** 

“
Aron? Aron, are you up there?”

Someone pounded on the hatch.  It pulled me from my erotic dream about Shannon. 

“
Aron, come on! I know you’re up there!”

It took me a second to realize that the voice I heard was the same one from the dream. 

 “
Yeah, just a second.” I crawled to the hatch and opened it. “How the hell did you find me up here?”

Shannon popped her head through the opening and climbed up without waiting for an invitation. “Where else would an antisocial techno-geek like you go during the only decent party this island ever throws?” She dusted herself off and looked around. “I like what you’ve done with the place. Very...postmodern shitty.”

“
If I knew you were coming I would have cleaned up,” I said, smiling. 

“
I’d offer you a seat, but as you can see...”

“
I wouldn’t have taken you for minimalist. I figured you more the late twentieth century romantic type.” She plopped down on the blankets that I had slept on.  Then she patted the ground next to her. “Come on. Have a seat. I promise...I won’t bite.”

I sat down next to her and said, “That’s not what I hear.”

“
Lies and rumors spread by my enemies.” She spotted my backpack, reached over, and grabbed it without asking. She found my bottle of moonshine on the first try.

“
What’s this?” She said as she unscrewed the cap. She sniffed it before taking a swig. “Mmm. Just what I needed.” Raising one eyebrow, she said, “Weren’t you the one who criticized me for smuggling booze onto the island?”

I grabbed the bottle from her, took a drink, and then said, “I have a prescription for this stuff. It’s for my blood pressure. Besides, it’s keeping me warm.”

“
I know, can you believe it? Snow…in the Maldives. Everyone is talking about it. Some think it’s a sign from a God, a new covenant that things will get better.”

I knew it. Shaking my head, I asked, “And what do the others think?”

“
You know…another sign that the end is near. I don’t know, I just hope that this isn’t a new trend. I hate the cold. That’s one of the reasons I left Ireland.”

“
Well don’t worry,” I said. “A few more sips of this and you won’t feel the cold anymore.”

“
I can think of better ways to stay warm,” she said with a wink. “But it’s a good thing that you brought it along,” she said. “You’re going to need it after I tell you the news.”

“
What news?”

She shook her head and motioned towards the bottle. “First you drink and then we’ll talk.”

I took a sip and savored the warmth that it spread down through my chest. I handed the bottle back to Shannon who gulped it like it was water. She wiped her mouth and said, “You drink like a girl.”

“
Just give me the bottle and tell me what you know,” I said.

I drank while she spoke. “This morning, before the celebration kicked off, I saw Ahmed in the square. He called me over and told me that Michio had resigned.”

I coughed.  Booze filled my sinuses. I squeezed them shut, but managed to ask. “Resigned?”

“
I know,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it either. I made him show me the letter of resignation. It was definitely from Michio.”

I blinked a few times and could finally see again. “Goddammit! It was Viyaja.”

“
Viyaja?”

“
Yeah.  He came to my room yesterday and tried to scare me.”

“
He threatened you?”

I polished off the last of the bottle and said, “Yup. For a little guy, he has some big balls. He said they were going to take action if I didn’t do what they wanted. I’ll bet he threatened Michio too.” I put the bottle down and looked over at her. “Did they threaten you?”

She shook her head and smiled. “No. Viyaja knows better.  I’d kick his ass if he threatened me. And Ahmed...well, you know him. He’s too smart to get his hands dirty.” Then she frowned. “Whatever they told Michio must have scared the shit of the poor guy. I sent him a dozen messages, but he hasn’t replied to any of them. I don’t know, Aron…” She looked away.

“
You don’t know what?”

“
I think we should quit while we’re ahead. You said it yourself…what’s the point?”