Random book chapter : Chapter 17 - The Two Men

from book "Future Imperfect"

by Adrian Tanase

Alan opened his eyes slightly and looked around. He was home. He had woken up quite late today, it was almost one o’clock in the afternoon. He had dreamt that he had been with Cynthia in an alternate where they had to keep running from the pursuers who wouldn't leave them alone. He didn't know who they were but he was always on the run, trying to protect her. The dream had exhausted him but somehow he had woken up very peaceful. He waited a few dozen seconds before the dream haze lifted. He began to think how his life had changed in the last month or so. Before, he had memories of a repetitive life, where he did little more than walk around the Colony, or go to the club with the boys and eat out, but now everything changed.

He got up and started making himself a cup of coffee. This would definitely wake him up, he thought, and get him back on track for today. He made it in a hurry and all the while managed somehow to think of nothing. He had started experimenting with this for a few days, especially in the morning, because he had noticed that it made his mind clearer during the day. He took his coffee, still hot, and sat down at his terminal. In the ashtray there was still a leftover flavored cigarette from yesterday. He took it and began to puff on it, relaxing back. Today's sunny day was beginning to take shape in his mind. Today he planned to search Alandra's online library until he found what he was looking for, something that would be relevant enough for K.

He knew it could be anything that caught his eye, and that he could be looking all afternoon. He just had to take it slowly until he found enough information, he thought to himself.

He began tactically, typing in the most precious piece of information he had so far: "black energy". It was a simple, general search for these terms, and he found the same short, informative articles, 5 to be exact, in the main alandran database. There was a mention of a scientific presentation where scientists, and that would mean mostly physicists, had met, at the University of Quantum Physics in Alandra, and where the technical aspects of this new type of energy were discussed. You could find out in a nutshell what it was, what was involved in its production, the safety of working with this type of energy and some other interesting facts about it. Then, he found of course the news in the main newspapers that mentioned mostly the novelty aspect and presented it already as a possible revolutionary invention, in their characteristic style.

"Newspapers and their way of making something extraordinary out of anything however trivial," Alan muttered, sipping on his coffee. "They probably don't even know what it is, but for the sake of sensationalism they present it that way."

He remembered about K. He'd told him that the easiest way to influence society, at Alandra's current level of development, was financially. He began searching the main resources of the online library for current financial trends in energy, specifically electricity. He began jotting down in a notebook any piece of information, no matter how insignificant, that he found relevant to what he was looking for. The relationship between wind power, for example, solar power and fusion power; the stock market prices of the various types of power, the cost of maintaining the equipment that generated them, and anything else he could find of even the slightest relevance. It was certain that in addition to the assassination attempt in his timeline, it was quite possible that a financial coup was also being attempted, perhaps a merger of several firms, or a coup on the stock market. Anything was possible when the stakes were so high. From what he understood from K., even if he couldn't tell him much, it was clear that the stakes were high. He spent nearly 30 minutes searching, noting down stuff and analyzing. He even made a diagram with arrows and squares in which he wrote key words on a clean piece of paper, so that he could better understand, visually, what the electricity market was and who the big players were.

At one point he stopped, leaned back and stretched. The back of his neck and his back already hurt, as the concentration had made him tense up. He looked at the paper and realized he hadn't found much, but still now he knew that besides Trias Berg, there were four main competitors in the energy market, two of which, Ripber Fern and Roc Sabre, had caught his attention. In 45% of the populated areas of Kalara IV, they had managed to take the lead in alternative clean energy, such as wind, solar and controlled waterfall turbines, in the last five months alone. This seemed to him to be a very important thing, in what he had found today. In those areas, Trias had only 15% of the market. Indeed, Alan thought, fusion-generated power is clean, quite a lot of it, but the technology to build these generators is quite expensive and only Trias had it on Kalara. That, he thought, made the two of them direct competitors, and on the stock market he had noticed that their stocks had risen significantly in the last two months, with a significant spike on the very day Trias had been attacked.

Alan was determined to find something, anything that would support his idea, which was now shaping up. But apparently, nothing pointed the way he would have wanted, directly, to an upheaval so great as to justify Berg's murder. He looked through what he had written in his notebook and leaned back again. He needed a break. He got up and walked over to the open window next to his desk and lit a classic tobacco cigarette, looking almost disinterestedly at the passers-by in front of the building. From the first floor he could see a very wide radius of the street ahead. In his mind were running all sorts of possible scenarios related to the present financial and even political climate of Alandra, but everything seemed normal, and that puzzled him. In a way, he thought now outside of the Colony, beginning to see more of the alandran political and economical space. He thought about abandoning his plan, at least for today. But then what was he going to say to Mr. K.? He felt he owed it to himself to investigate the current situation as carefully as possible, especially since K. had not condemned him for his unauthorized trip into 4220. Had he searched everywhere he could?

He turned back to his desk. He decided to take another approach: look where ordinary people didn't usually look. The people he was looking for, who were already acting, knew how to cover their tracks. How had he never thought of that before? Things that were important and that influenced long-term history usually existed in mundane, out of sight, simple places of almost no interest. A thought popped into his mind: he should look in scientific journals all over Kalara, not just the main ones on Alandra.

The newspapers were also indexed in pure text form, so he could search by keyword. He entered "black energy" in the search field and selected all the electronics and quantum physics journals he could find, which he had never heard of before. The search returned 389 results.

He started reading. In the first 10 results displayed, which were considered the most relevant to his search, it described much the same thing; it was about the physical reactions involved in this type of energy production. The oldest article listed, with which the search began, was from two months ago. So this stuff came to public attention recently, Alan thought. He thought he'd have a better chance if he added another search sub-key, as he found it very hard to follow all the results, which were also very technically written. He added the subkey "scientists". The search took about 6 seconds and returned only one result. He expected more but one was fine. He started reading.

It was from a 20-page periodical that came out every two months, from one of the smaller cities, quite far from Alandra, that he had never even heard of, called K'Aliran. He began to read curiously. It described in the most technical way the transmission of black energy through pipes of nano-resistant material. He was halfway through the article when he came across the next sentence: "...the two researchers who claim that they invented this type of energy, Jaali and Andreas, two recent citizens of Alandra that came from a near-by planet, claim to have succeeded in transmitting energy through a 0.5-inch-thick AX9 nano-material pipe over a distance of 15 m, without any problems, in their own laboratory, located in Alandra ...".

Alan flinched. He didn't know how to react. He had found what he thought he would never find.

"This is it! This must be it!" he shouted helplessly with joy.

Remi began to weep gleefully at Alan's reaction. Alan looked up at him beaming with joy.

"Remi! Can you imagine that? I found it! The two men behind the invention! They sure didn't want any publicity, that's why they're not mentioned in any of our major publications." He felt like a private detective who had found a major key to the case he was working on.

He quickly opened the video phone app and dialed Jeeves' number.

After a few short ringing sounds, Jeeves appeared on the monitor screen.

"Alan? What's going on, old man?" he took it in his usual cheerful tone.

"Jeeves! We need to meet. How soon can you get to the club?" Alan took him quickly.

"Well … as a matter of fact, I really wanted to pass by over there, today. I think maybe … about an hour? I'm doing a transport now, I have one more and then in 15 minutes I can be there. I have to go to the far corner of Alandra to drop off a package. I'll meet you there ... say, around 6?"

"Perfect. I'll be there. I'll be waiting for you. We really need to talk."

"Should I bring something specific?" Jeeves asked.

"Oh, no. Everything's fine. Just you, that's enough."

Jeeves looked at him with an amused face as he drove.

"Okay, Alan. See you in an hour. Jeeves out."

Alan knew he had to be as secretive as possible, especially on unencrypted channels like this. There were things going on around Alandra that neither he nor most people had the slightest clue about, but he didn't want to be targeted, knowing for sure that Alandra's security knew and sometimes investigated even the smallest things. From now on, until K. tells him that everything is okay again, he will have to act as if he knew nothing. As far as he was concerned, there could have been a lot of people involved in this whole Alandra thing already, especially since Berg's assault had taken place. There could have been cops working undercover in the Colony, because it was usually a place where crime could develop and hide very easily.

He went to the terminal, looked carefully at the names of the two, and wrote them down in his notebook. Then he deleted from his computer any search for black energy he had ever done, as anyone who searched for any evidence would find nothing. Then he tore the sheet out of the notebook and stuffed it into the inside breast pocket of his grey suede jacket, near the device.

He dressed in the clothes on the chair left over from yesterday, grabbed his comfortable blue running shoes, put a few things back in place and hurried out of the apartment. He wanted to be at the club before Jeeves arrived.

When he got downstairs, he felt as if he had some very important data and anyone could suddenly appear and arrest him. He pulled his hood over his head and tried to look like some sort of settler walking aimlessly down the street. He felt followed. He wasn't sure yet if it was just a temporary sensation or if his intuition, which had been growing a lot lately, was right. He remembered that he had left the device in the room. Should he have taken it? And if he'd taken it and met with the wrong people, it would look very suspicious. No, no, I'll leave it home, he thought hastily. He should have talked to Mr. Bill about putting another lock on the door, just to be safe.

These thoughts passed in his head as he walked to the board game club. He realized he was still a slave of his own mind, which made him suddenly remember again that he was free. That calmed him a little. He had to risk everything to move forward. A shiver down his spine suddenly gave him courage. He was free, he was a simple man in a colony of outcasts, that just had a very important personal mission, and he had to put that above his personal safety.

He arrived at the board game club. It was already 5 PM and the club was starting to fill up with players. He went inside and greeted the few he recognized.

"Alan, are you on time? Let's go to the table. We'll find you a seat in a minute," said a yellow-skinned, reptilian settler with thick, high-set, almost unreal silver hair.

"Not right now, Jeeby. I'm waiting for Jeeves," Alan said hurriedly as he pulled his turned-up leather jacket off. "But I'll leave this at the table." He suddenly remembered he had the paper in it. He pulled it out and quickly stuffed it into the back pocket of his plaid pants.

"Ah, Jeeves. Our good friend," Jeeby continued with a smiling, almost forced face. "Well, we've been waiting for him, too. He said he'd be here around six."

"Yeah, yeah. Maybe I'll play too. I don't know, I'll see," Alan said hurriedly.

"But what's the hurry?"

Alan realized he was too nervous for a day of board games.

"Well ... I don't really feel like playing today. I've got some work to do later at home. I just came by to say hello."

"Whatever you say," Jeeby told him and turned to face the table.

Alan walked over to the next table and said to a slower player.

"If Jeeves comes, tell him I'm in the back, on the patio."

The man looked up and nodded. He walked to the back exit of the club and out, through the massive wooden door, to the back of the building.

He found the terrace a little damp from the rain that had probably drenched the streets of the Colony in the morning. The wood of the benches that were placed on all sides of the terrace had turned a dark brown, in places almost black. He went over and leaned against a wooden pole that was still dry. He searched through his pockets and found the cigarette packet a little crumpled and the paper on which he had written down a lot of data including the names of the two men: Andreas and Jaali. He took out a cinnamon cigarette and lit it slowly. He tried not to think about anything for the 4-5 minutes he smoked it.

At one point, the door opened slightly and Jeeves appeared behind it.

"There you are! The boys told me you were here."

Alan's face lit up.

"Jeeves! Good of you to come. You know I don't have much patience when I'm waiting. I got here first straight, but it seemed like ten minutes took half an hour."

"I know, I know. I don't like waiting either. But what's all this secret? I'll meet you at the club, I can't tell you more. I thought it wasn't any secret between us," Jeeves joked.

"Jeeves. A lot has happened since we last saw each other. Since ... you brought me my last vial."

"Do you still have some? That's what it was about, wasn't it?" Jeeves asked.

"No. I have plenty more. But you have to help me. I really need your help."

"With what? If you tell me, I'll understand what it's about."

Alan realized he had to tell him everything and didn't know where to start. K. hadn't warned him about telling anyone else about them and their mission, but Alan realized that any propagation of this kind of information could jeopardize the timeline … which he himself had already jeopardized. He had to lie to Jeeves. But how? What could he tell him?

"I have to ... find two people. I've done an investigation and ... I want to help find the truth about these two."

"What truth?" Jeeves asked suddenly interested.

"Well … do you know about the assassination attempt on Trias Berg?"

"Ah, that's what it was about. I know, yes. It rarely happens on Alandra like that, but here it is. Trias is a man with a good reputation. I saw it on the news a few days ago, I think just a week ago. Maybe even a day after the last time I stopped by."

"Yes … and I … would like to contribute somehow … "

Jeeves laughed.

"But I didn't know that before. Alan, the detective. Really?"

Alan looked at him with an ultra serious face.

"Yeah. I don't know why. Don't ask. Maybe it has something to do with the Substance, maybe it has something to do with me or with everything."

Jeeves saw that Alan was quite serious and approached him.

"All right, partner. But a detective always needs a little help, right?"

Alan looked at him confidently.

"Yeah … that's right. Will you help me?"

"Is there any doubt? You know I like a little adventure. But tell me, really, what do you want to do?"

Alan sighed as if a stone had been lifted from his heart. He'd managed to say everything and yet he still hadn't told Jeeves anything.

"I think … after researching for a few days in Alandra's Library … I think it all has to do with the new type of energy, called black energy. It's something very new and it seems to be in the testing phase. I think it has something to do with this, the assassination attempt, I mean."

Jeeves became interested.

"Yeah? I've never heard of this ‘black energy’ thing."

"It exists, believe me, it has been already invented but it is in the laboratory phase. All we have to do is find these two people." Alan pulled the crumpled sheet out of his pocket, on which he had written down among other details the names of the two men. He handed it to Jeeves.

Jeeves took the sheet and began to look it over. When he reached the bottom and read the names of the two, he shuddered in surprise.

"Jaali and … Andreas?"

"Yes, that's their names. I found their names with great difficulty, don't ask me where, it doesn't say anything about them in any major publication in Alandra."

Jeeves looks at Alan in surprise and said.

"But I know a guy Jaali and this guy … he's staying with another guy, which I happen to assume he’s called Andre, at least that’s how Jaali called him at some point. They're kind of weird. And they have a really weird accent, plus they talk to each other in a language I've never heard anywhere else," said Jeeves with a serious face, this time

Alan was puzzled.

"You … know them? How is it possible?"

"Well … actually I don't know if these are the ones we're looking for. But I have two clients, who ask me for significant amounts of the Substance every week, and one day I heard one of them shouting Jaali several times at the other, and that one saying back Andre. When I was in their hallway in their house. They have a very big house. I don't know what they're both doing there, but they're the biggest Substance L customers I have."

Alan's mind was already starting to make plans. He was going to take two or even three more days of his vacation, spend half of this month's credits on a nice hotel room, and they were going to drive to the couple's residence. If it turned out to be a false lead ... But the fact that the two of them looked suspicious to Jeeves and were also ordering the Substance, and still in large quantities ...

"But what do they do with the Substance?" Alan suddenly asked. "Did they ever tell you?"

"They told me they needed it for lab research. I didn't ask any more. To make sure I get them the amount they need every week, they pay me 30% more each time. What I give you is about 4% of what I give them every week. I think you can imagine..."

Alan's face lights up.

"They are, Jeeves, for sure! I found them!" Alan gloated with happiness. "I just wanted,” and suddenly tried to abstain from the happiness, “I just wanted you to help me look for them, since you live in Alandra and have a very fast transporter."

"Well … let's hope so. But how do we know for sure it's them?"

Alan knew. With so much of the Substance, they could only use it in a lab for testing, and more, for alternate travel, with the right device, maybe even in the main timeline, who knows.

"I know. They look like they're from another time, don't they?" Alan asked confidently, without meaning to.

"Yes, that’s right! That's what they looked like to me. From another time, or another planet from who knows where in the galaxy that has no connection to Kalara or even systems close to us. And they're also very tall, over six feet tall. And they have fine, orangey-yellow scaly skin, but very close to our skin tone."

Alan was running out of patience.

"When are we going?"

Jeeves looked at him.

"Well, in a couple of days I really need to get the usual shipment of the Substance to them again. What do you want to do?"

"Perfect. We're going. Can you swing by Nemi's in the meantime? Like ... maybe tonight, just for five minutes?"

Jeeves looked at him, startled.

"I'll go if that's okay with him. But why? What's Nemi got to do with it?" Jeeves asked a little puzzled.

"Well, he does. I need two professional scanners. One for me and one for you. I could get some from the Colony but I don't know how sensitive they are and I need all the credits I have at the moment."

"You want to borrow two scanners from Nemi, I understand, but knowing that we will return them in the same condition. You know Nemi … "

"We will, be sure of that. Then it stays that way? In two days? I'll contact you by video-phone or on my personal comm. tomorrow. I have to run home now."

Jeeves was still amazed at the conversation he'd just had with Alan.

"Aren't you staying for another game?"

"I'd love to, but I have so much work to do today … and I promised the building manager, Mr. Bill I'd help him with some sheets, he's got a lot to do this month. But I'm sure I'll see you in a couple of days and get back to you tomorrow to see how we're doing."

"All right, old friend. That'll do. I'm staying for a few games, besides I just got here.”

Alan greeted Jeeves and hurried out the massive wooden door. Inside, he greeted the players and exited the building. A lot of players were gathering tonight, but he couldn't stay. His mission was approaching a critical point, he could feel it in every pore. He felt like his destiny was simply unfolding, he had no choice but to take it as it is, and move on.

All the way back he hurried along the sidewalks of the Colony. He hadn't had time to think about anything, but somehow he was rejoicing inside that he had managed to find a lead to the two possible individuals.

The road back was short. When he got home, he took off his jacket, threw it on a chair, and lay down on the couch. He thought he knew everything now, but in fact he knew nothing. His intuition told him he knew everything he needed to know right now. He wondered if he should take a leap now and meet K. That seemed like the best thing he could do. But what was he going to tell him? That he'd found the names of some scientists and suspected they were the root cause of everything that was happening? What did that have to do with anything? It was indeed related to Trias Berg and his assassination attempt but that was a simple detective case and Mr. K. and his men were dealing with things he had no idea about. He needed more if he was going to contact K. A lot more. He needed some evidence, some data, some figures.

He fell asleep thinking of all sorts of possibilities that could happen under the conditions he already knew. Slowly he entered a dream where he'd given Cynthia a diamond ring and she'd kissed him all night.