Thirty Four Minutes DEAD (28 page)

“From now on, main MC-vault explorations will largely be a thing of the past. On occasions we will get a front-line team to access images from dead minds when we are ushering in new project recruits, but our mindsight vault-extension work is going to take a heavy precedence. Seeing into the living thinking mind is obviously our route forward, and our primary function will involve us detecting potentially dangerous intentions before they result in lawless actions. Mindsight scanning will therefore enable us to penetrate evil minds before their sick intentions have been incarnated. A testing program has already been set up with potential felons in mind. We have started to catalogue deviants who represent a threat to moral society and wider Western security”.

Fearston and Vain had caught each other’s eyes when Denison had revealed that mindsight testing was to be increased. They were both thinking of the membrane-penetration factor that Fearston had discovered, but neither of them felt it was worth risking Denison’s wrath by explaining the fall-through discovery in front of such a large project audience. Their leader would almost certainly condemn them for undertaking ‘hidden-agenda’ type work, and his attack would be strengthened by the fact that Fearston’s work illuminated cracks in his beloved project. Leif Denison was nearing the end of his verbal address, but he wanted to close by paying his respect to the Designation ‘B’ casualties.

“I know that facial changes and going back underground have hardly pleased you folks, but at least you are still alive. Six of your colleagues weren’t so fortunate in the fire that condemned Designation B. In a moment, we will observe two minutes of silence for all six collectively, but two of the dead were well known to all of you and they deserve a brief verbal testimony from their leader at this massed gathering. We have lost the skills of Mr Mason. His charred remains were found in the Lower Chamber of Designation B and we will miss his pathological expertise greatly. He hardly took a day of his leave entitlement and his tenacious commitment to our cause will be fondly remembered. Mr Mason was an MC Project member from day one. A second corpse was discovered close to Mason’s remains, that of Matthew Braddock. This man had the kind of guts that set him apart from most people. He volunteered to be our first full-scale mindsight test subject, being willing to allow his mind to have a real deep reading. This man didn’t flinch from the responsibility he had chosen, and he maintained his cheerful disposition up until the day he died. Jeez, I bet Matt Braddock went to his grave smiling!

“Food for thought, you guys - two fellas who had no qualms about personal sacrifices. If your eyes change from brown to blue in a few weeks time, is that anywhere near the same kind of sacrifice? Hell, no!

“Let us remember our dead”.

After Denison’s words, the two minutes of silence were observed and then the assembly made their way back to their respective sectionalised areas.

Vain and Levene left the hall together and each of them surveyed the other, with a gaze that envisaged the possible physical changes that might soon beset their lover. Marcia usually rode above repressive directives with a shrug of her shoulders, but the facial change edict had left her visibly shaken and she shook slightly, taking Vain’s arm as they moved through the Designation corridors. When the pair entered the room that they were temporarily sharing, the woman spoke in a clinical icy tone.

“Christ Greg, they can have my soul, but they can stick their scalpels up their fucking arses! I don’t want some Rochaux bastard throwing an ugly sister spell in my direction. I am what I am, and I fucking love it. Unless they make any changes my prerogative they can kiss goodbye to Marcia Levene. If I don’t look like the Marcia I moulded I don’t want to play ball anymore. Do you get that, Greg?”

“Yeah, I can follow your drift, but you’re no wrist slitter and if you were, Denison is in the sort of mood that would bury you not barter with you. He sure as hell wouldn’t crumble if you approached him, and don’t you think that we’ve used up all our cards anyway. A fair bit of his address was coming smack-bang in our direction you know. Perhaps it
is
time to play it their way for a while, I’ve got others to look out for you know”.

“Yeah I know, Mr family man, I noticed your family loyalty bond back in my London residence! I bet my housekeeper is still wiping your semen from the carpet now!”

Levene turned away angry at Vain’s line of referencing. After a short silence she spoke again in softer tones, looking deeply at her lover, playing him with her new modified style of speech.

“Look Mr Vain, I think we’re both locked in egocentric confines right now, don’t you? Me with my face, you with your family. Part of Marcia Levene really kicks the dark lust Greg Vain inspires in her, part of her wants more, and maybe part of her needs to shed his presence on a physical level. Right now she’s trying out a third-person type of reflection and maybe you should do the same”.

Levene left their room with that line, and the ensuing three days became a kind of mutual separation for the pair. This was agony for Vain though, as his state of mind had started to become more and more dominated by thoughts of his project lover. He knew in his heart that his family should be the dominant ingredient in his thoughts but he had become entranced with Levene to a significant level. At times he felt that physical lust was the sole reason the two enjoyed each other’s company, but this reasoning was always broken down by a realisation that a deeper bond existed between them. Vain was in need of time to ‘escape’ to his family, and he hoped he would re-discover the ultimate love he had once reserved solely for them. Greg really needed to do exactly what Levene recommended but surely following her advice was another part of her spell!

When Greg was placed on the convoy to rejoin MC-Project loved ones he was still in a state of flux, a confused individual with his heartstrings and sexual urges pulling for two women.

The convoy pulled out of the Designation in darkness and Gregory Vain’s thoughts turned to the family that had been denied him for the last couple of months. He had missed Gary’s eighth birthday and Rachel’s tenth birthday during his absence - two more key dates that the MC-Project had stolen from him. In six days Tanya would turn thirty-three, and he looked forward to sharing her birthday to the fullest level, especially as his lengthy absences had rendered her a ‘virtual’ wife for the best part of the last six years. He tried to envisage their new project-sectioned domicile, and he wondered how Tan had coped with the pressure of his recent media status. She would have seen images of him brandishing the Uzi at reporters, and the papers had profiled his university years in licentious accounts that thrived on his womanising. A fair amount of lies and fiction had made up the bulk of the reports, but he felt sure that Tanya would have dismissed the trash amidst the truisms. Sinquiry would have terrified his wife, of that he was certain, but he was content in the knowledge that his family would have been protected before the lynch mobs traced their address - surely that would have been the case!

Vain fell into a light sleep whilst contemplating the last three days without Levene. Somehow their parting had seemed more than reactionary bickering, and maybe her last hint was the direction the pair should follow.

The jarring motion of the MC-Project vehicle woke Vain and he saw Mr Voight individually conversing with each project member, speaking in hushed tones. In time he reached Vain’s seat. The air felt rather chilly for a mid-English summer and the countryside looked alien to that of the greenbelt type Vain had expected - too green, too beautiful. Voight spoke.

“Welcome to Scotland, Gregory”.

“What? I thought that the Guildford region was going to be our new project corral!”

“Merely a bluff, Gregory. Mr Denison played it that way in case any wayward project member felt impelled to fuel the press with details of our whereabouts. Sure, there is a decoy educational institution set up around Guildford, but it’s just a charade. Plenty of coaches going in, but no actual project children on board them. You see, some of those who got leaks out did so despite our heavy security cordon, and so Leif chose to throw all of us in the wrong geographical direction. In two hours we’ll reach our real base, a highland locale - our first project village!

“A masterstroke, don’t you think? Our convoy will split soon, so we reach our destination in small batches that won’t excite any untoward media attention. Now enjoy the glens, my friend, through your single-view window. You will soon see your loved ones again in the village”.

After a duration that was closer to three hours rather than the stated two, the vehicle carrying the MC-Project contingent which included Vain, entered a tunnel that bore into a verdant hillside. After a few minutes of travelling through the dimly lit tunnel, the transportation vehicle slowed to a halt. The reason for the stop involved a roadblock that was manned by a heavy MC security cohort. All project members had their papers checked by two of the guards who had boarded their vehicle, and after Voight had verbally reiterated all the names of the personnel aboard once more, the cohort were granted passage. This form of document checking was repeated when the vehicle reached the last stage of the tunnel. When daylight was finally encountered, a breathtaking sight met MC-Project eyes.

The tunnel road dropped down into a heather-dominated landscape, and dotted amongst the greenery were a collection of imposing white stone villas. The design of these villas added a surreal dimension to the typical highland panorama that held their foundations. The MC-Project personnel alighted outside one of the white stone buildings and Vain started to scan the wider terrain.

On three sides, sheer granite rock faces towered upwards to a height of several hundred metres, and lower mountain slopes accounted for the remaining valley side. This most distant side involved a fern clad hillside, which initially rose up in a more leisurely climb. After a distance of three or four kilometres, this gradual climb started to develop into a steep rise, echoing the sheer faces that accounted for the other valley sides. The fourth side eventually rose to a height that dwarfed the other flanks, culminating in a mountain peak of over two thousand metres. Vain thought that this craggy ‘lock-in’ represented one of the most beautiful landscape visions that he had ever encountered.

A posse of jet fighters roared overhead, breaking Greg’s concentration for a moment. The grey planes were reflected in the river that meandered through the settlement, and as the fighters split to patrol different valley sides, Vain was dragged back into his less aesthetic reality. Voight placed his hand on Vain’s shoulder and ushered him toward a white villa close by. As the two walked, he added more details pertaining to their surroundings.

“Call it what you want Gregory, a village, a settlement, even a refuge! Either way it’s now home to over two hundred MC-Project members. In addition to the houses, we’ve installed a school, some food stores and a doctor’s surgery. Right now things may be a bit spartan outside the residences, but the houses themselves are upmarket luxury. The only thing that they really lack is ‘live’ media - for obvious reasons”.

Voight hadn’t lied. The entrance hall had a black and white marble-tiled floor and mahogany-panelling rose from the floor to the ceiling. Black wood trappings added an embellished degree of finish, and the downstairs was split into open-plan glass partitioned sections. A spiral staircase was located centrally in the hall, and the overall effect seemed compromised somewhere between retro-Bauhaus and deconstructionalist minimalism.

After ascending the staircase, Vain entered the sleeping quarters. All four bedrooms were empty and he started to feel uneasy - first the silence, now the absence. The sound of juvenile laughter broke his pessimistic train of thought. The sound came from above him and as he progressed back onto the landing he located a second staircase, this time straight in form. He proceeded to climb the stairs and was rewarded this time by finding all his family together, watching a ‘Laurel and Hardy’ video on a laser screen. They hadn’t heard his quiet footfall, and so Greg had the rare privilege of being the first to speak.

“Has this breakfast club got room for another bum gang?”

“Daddy” chorused the children and Vain was swamped by the hugs of his children.

After Gary and Rachel had greeted their father, Tanya Vain took her husband in her arms and loved him with her eyes, saying nothing initially. With the video forgotten, the family filled in the key domestic details that had taken place in Greg’s absence. Although all the family members now had some idea of Greg’s nature of work, the conversation stayed on birthdays and juvenile milestones. All the Vain family had experienced what life had been like as a ‘public enemy’, but this first precious reunion day was spent walking along the margins of the valley river and fun-wrestling in their heather clad surroundings. The day had subsequently been a celebration for Greg and Tanya’s children and the ‘expected’ conversation didn’t ensue until late in the evening when the adults were in their bedroom. With the children asleep in their adjoining rooms, Tanya spoke to her husband in colder tones than the daylight hours had witnessed.

“Do you think your project buddies ever played ‘happy families’, Greg?”