The Post-Humans (Book 1): The League (18 page)

“Yes!”

Athan was startled awake.

“Yes, what?” he demanded rubbing his eyes. He couldn’t remember the last time he had had a decent sleep.

“I found a bit on your Lucas and Associates, but it isn’t much.” Brad pointed to the screen. “They are international; somehow they have no real country of origin, none that is documented anyway. It was founded by a Clayton Lucas, Benjamin Fellows and Theodore Rose. An Australian, an American and a Brit. It is currently under the leadership of Dereck Lucas, the son of Clayton. It was started in the 1950’s sometime. It doesn’t say when exactly, but it does say they were doing some very dubious experiments with technology.”

Athan nodded thoughtfully, then stretched his neck.

“It looks as though its founders wanted to keep it under the radar. I did a regular net search, then checked some recent business publications.”

“Business publications? I thought you said they keep under the radar.” Athan sat up to look at the computer screen.

“Their recent stuff is flashy and public, very clean. No one keeps their dirty laundry in public. So I went backwards to pull together its origins. I had to use the Shadownet to locate some of the more
private
details. And these guys have been keeping very clean. I had to dig
deep
.” Brad swiveled on his chair to face Athan. “It also says that there was a fourth founding member named Ernst Schertel, who worked with the science and occult division during the rise of the Nazi regime. He experimented on people and Post-Humans during the Second World War. From the little information I could find, this name was associated with the experiments that were going on in China in the ‘70’s. These could be our guys.” Brad finished looking lost in thought.

Athan crossed his arms. “This is getting big and crazy too quickly. And it’s not getting us any closer to stopping them from using this Seeker to find us, Brad. If she is turned into their sniffer dog, we are stuffed.”

“And Furnace. Or have you forgotten about rescuing her?” Brad reminded Athan, knowing that thinking about the girl brought sour memories to both of them: Ian’s death, the end of The League.

“Of course I can’t forget Kiranda, she is one of us.” Athan said rubbing his jaw.

“You loved her once Athan. She was more than a comrade.” Brad offered soothingly. “And we will find her, somehow. This information may paint us a prettier picture than we originally had. Lucas and Associates has its primary offices in Melbourne, It’s a flashy place. It’s very public and probably very secure. If this company is the head of the snake we’ve been chasing they were smart. Hiding in plain sight. It will be even harder if this company is being used by the PHC. They will have it guarded by experienced officers who know how to spot a Post-Human snooping nearby.”

“I wonder what the connection is there…” Athan pondered aloud.

“Well, we know that Lucas and Associates used to experiment on Post-Humans, and we know that the DPHR, or PHC as we say, was responsible for making Post-Humans go away. And the U.N approved their establishment as a private sector department to quell the spread of Post-Human related fear. But it appears that Lucas and Associates had the DPHR working for them…” Brad rubbed at his short beard and ran his hand back through his shoulder length hair, his standard thinking gesture. “…Dan did say
if you climb the ladder, there is always further to go, and someone uglier the higher you get
. If businesses own enough of a country’s resources and revenue, they effectively run the government. Maybe these companies own the governments of the world, and Lucas and Associates has united them. The only way you could unite multi-billion dollar corporations like that is if you had leverage or something they all wanted.”

Athan thought for a moment. “Us.”

“It has to be. Why else would they be using the Indonesian girl and threatening you?” Brad said.

“Well, there is the radiation…” Athan remarked. Remembering Andrew Campbell’s career responsibilities.

“What radiation?” Brad asked.

“Sorry, didn’t I mention that? Andrew said the Lucas and Associates had been sending techies around the world to different communication companies and technology giants doing stuff to their telecom towers or their control programs.”

“
Doing stuff
?” Brad said with a raised brow.

“Umm… Upping the output to some crazy amount for the internet and mobile phones.” Athan shrugged.

“You didn’t think to mention this as you walked in?” Brad jumped back on his computer.

“The Lucas and Associates part seemed like the more fun part. Mr Campbell also mentioned that this tech originated in China during the late ‘70’s” Athan smiled. “Sorry.”

“Well we have to assume that this radiation output has something to do with Post-Humans. Maybe it makes us more visible to special scanners they’ve made, or to our Indonesian Seeker.” Brad mumbled as he typed.

Athan shrugged and came to stand next to his friend. “Well it had something to do with the deal made by the united companies, Brad, that’s all Andrew told me. He said Comm Tech International, Spears, NTLU and Takahashi were some of the companies that had approved the merger.”

“Interesting.” Brad said with brows raised. “There are some big players there.”

“I had a feeling they might be.”

Brad sat back and ran his hand through his hair. “I think we need to get into the hornet’s nest and find the source of this. We need to visit Lucas and Associates in Melbourne.”

“Yeah, Melbourne is where this all seems to be going down. All the people that were abducted were taken in Melbourne. It was only after I woke a few up, that they turned up in the Ballarat hospital,” Athan said, crossing his arms. “They must have been moving them away from suspicion.”

“At least Lucas and Associates are based in Melbourne. Bad luck if they were operating from their Boston or Beijing branch. I hate travelling by plane.” Brad said as he sat back and looked up at Athan.

“I don’t like travelling by car,” Athan said remembering how tedious the drive to Hawkesdale had been with Brad, the day before.

Brad looked about his room in search of something while Athan collapsed onto the lounge. “Will you take Belinda?”

Brad stopped for a moment and stroked his beard. “I would, even just to look like an inconspicuous couple, but if we are pushing ourselves closer to this ‘new weapon’ of theirs, it would be for no good reason.” He looked in the direction of the room where Belinda would be typing her assignments. “I don’t want her hurt.”

“I agree. We will need weapons, Brad, like the old days, things might get rough.”

“Not if they don’t find us. We will be like anyone else, unless we bump into your friend from the metaphysical plane, the figure in black.”

“Well I call dibs on the brass knuckles,” Athan said smiling ironically.

Brad and Athan were not the muscle in The League, they were the brains and the operative for behind enemy lines. Brad always had the intel and control of the tech and Athan could jump from mind to mind and open up the way for the real speed and muscle.

“This is going to be hard without the others, Apollo.”

Brad looked back from a cupboard he had been raiding, and his eyes glazed slightly.

“I know, Sleepwalker. I feel like we are running blind. Without Whirlwind, Furnace, Cal or Deadfall we are like the tender nerds trying to break into the girl’s dorm on one of those ‘80’s teen movies.”

“What?” Athan laughed.

“You know in those old movies where the nerds keep trying to see the girls naked, and as soon as they get close one of them always end up triggering some catastrophe or another and they get caught or they hurt themselves.” Brad smiled.

“I think I might remember seeing one of those.” Athan shook his head and smiled. “If only it was as easy as all that, my friend.”

“If only, indeed.”

Athan looked down at his suit. At least he could pack light in the clothes department.

“We cannot kill.” Brad said as he came back to the lounge holding a bundle. “At least we must do our best, not to.”

Athan was a bit miffed about Brad having empathy for the PHC, or whoever the enemy was. “What if we had no choice?”

“There is always a choice, Sleepwalker, it may not be an easy one, but there is always one there nonetheless,” Brad said with finality.

Athan looked longingly as Brad unwrapped the bundle. A bone handled Bowie knife was the first item he withdrew.

Really, he didn’t want to have to stab someone, but he knew that they were up against people who had killed before and would kill again.

“What are our options then?” Athan crossed his arms.

Belinda padded out of the bedroom holding half a bottle of beer.

Athan raised his eyebrow in surprise.

“What?” She laughed “I sometimes have a beer while I type. It helps me focus.”

She looked at the seriousness of the two men and the large knife resting on the arm of the lounge. She knew there must have been something dangerous coming.

“I can’t go hon,” she said taking another sip.

Brad sighed with relief.

Belinda took a mouthful of beer and ruffed up Brad’s hair. “I have work to do boys. If you had jobs, you’d know all about it.”

“Harsh.” Athan laughed.

On her way back to the bedroom she turned to them and pointed. “The only reason I’d be going on a field trip with you is to keep leashes on you two, so you don’t do anything stupid. And since you guys don’t party at the best of times, I guess it’s to do with your fancy magic powers.
That
I will keep my nose out of, as long as you promise to be careful.”

Brad smiled at her and gave her a reassuring speech about how he would never do anything dangerous. Then she shook her head and walked away doing the ‘I don’t believe you for a second’ face.

Brad turned his attention to the issue of weapons.

“Sedating and electric shock,” he said with an evil smile.

Athan wondered if he meant Belinda.

“You realize I can’t carry anything extra when I travel through minds?” Athan reminded him.

“You can carry a little. It’s will power, I think. When we were The League, you managed to always wear that black balaclava mask and that long black coat.

Athan shrugged, “I don’t really remember how. I guess I just really wanted them so they came with me.”

“Was it your Matrix phase?” Brad teased.

“Shut up! That movie was freaking awesome.” Athan smiled.

“Well, the weapons will be based on sedation and electric shock.”

Athan nodded. “Sure.”

“I have a few things I built for fun a year or two ago. I didn’t know we would need them for this, but I guess deep down I knew that we couldn’t get through our lives without some kind of unpleasantness.”

“How do they work?” Athan asked hoping that there could still be some violence to inflict on the PHC officers if they got into a pressing situation.

“My favourite is a shock glove. It is fingerless and has a pad in the palm that produces enough power to stun a man.” Brad tossed it to Athan who tried it on. “On the back of the glove, the knuckles have smaller pads that can produce a fairly heavy shock as well. It would improve a punch, six-fold.

Brad took out the second weapon for himself.

“A set of two torso quivers of poisoned darts and forearm-mounted gun. The gun projects the darts with just enough speed to take a man in heavy clothes down. They won’t penetrate armour or go through a naked body, but as long as the dart tip breaks skin, there should be about six seconds before the target is unconscious.” Brad wrapped his weapon up in the fabric it had been stored in.

“Brad, you are a badass,” Athan said giving him a mischievous grin.

“I know. I’ll carry a small toolkit in my boot as well, just in case. For picking locks and such.”

“Awesome.” Athan took a deep breath and slid the glove onto his right hand. “When do we leave?”

“In the morning.” Brad said as he collected some other items. “We can’t afford to waste any time. If they are turning that girl into a weapon, things may become more dangerous if we wait.”

“CONGRATULATIONS DARLING! THEY’RE gorgeous!”

Cynthia Abell was distracted from staring into her glass of champagne. “Pardon?”

“Your work darling! It’s gorgeous!” It was Matilda Crisp.

Matilda seemed to turn up at every exhibition opening in Melbourne and she was always impressed with everything.

Unfortunately Cynthia’s exhibition had not escaped the woman’s notice either. She was the kind of obnoxious person everyone dreaded.

Always drinking too much champagne.

Always talking everyone’s ears off.

Her hot topics were how amazing the current exhibition was or how hard it was in Melbourne for a struggling artist. No one in Cynthia’s circle of artist friends had ever seen Matilda’s work, or even knew if she was an artist at all. It was Cynthia’s conclusion that she was just lonely or bored.

“I love what you’ve done here darling! There are so many good pieces that I could not possibly decide which are the best!” Cynthia smiled back and told her she was too kind.

She noted the outfit, one that was so Melbourne cliché it was sickening; frizzy dark hair, black frilly blouse and red lipstick, always the red lipstick. It was that shade of red that isolated a mouth and made it an entity on its own, so when you spoke to her you didn’t know whether to talk to her face or to her mouth.

“So have you?” Matilda pursued.

“Pardon?” Cynthia had missed every word.

“Have you been working on this collection long?” Matilda shook her head and performed an upside down smile with her red mouth. “Deary, you’re off with the fairies,” she laughed.

“Champagne I guess, sorry,” Cynthia said apologetically.

Something had been growing in her mind the last few months, broodiness or an impending sense of despair. Her paintings had become a little darker, even a little abstract. She felt compelled to paint blank faced beings in the backgrounds of all her works. She didn’t know why she included them, or who they were.

In the opening speech her friend Julie had described them as being
a self-portrait of the artist in the fringes of society
, or some other nonsense, but Cynthia knew they had no meaning.