The Post-Humans (Book 1): The League

by Bassett, Thurston

  Andrew stood and grabbed a tea towel to dry himself.

  “That would be me.” Athan said with a smile, straightening his thin black tie.

  “How is that possible? That isn’t a possibility!” Andrew said disbelievingly. Then he looked down at the lino floor and shook his head. “But, I guess there’s a lot of impossible getting around recently.”

  Athan nodded.

  The man had been through a lot.

  “Where you saw me last isn’t important. The important thing is, that the people who put you to sleep don’t find you again. They will kill you next time, and I’m here to try and stop them, if I can.”

  Andrew sat down and covered his eyes with his hands.

  “You know they want to kill you, don’t you?” Athan came over to the little table to sit down opposite Andrew. “How do you know?”

  Andrew sat back and looked across at Athan and took a deep breath. “How do I know that I can trust you? How do I know you aren’t one of them?”

  Athan shrugged. “I was in your dream, remember? I helped you escape from that mental prison. You were living out a fake memory that seemed to go on forever, right?”

  “Maybe…” Andrew sniffed.

  Athan shook his head, at a loss.

  “Okay…” Andrew said hands palms up. “Let’s say that perhaps I choose to trust you. How do you propose to help me and my family?”

  Athan played with his jacket sleeve. “If I knew who was trying to kill you, it’d help me find them.” He explained, hoping that Andrew could give him the details he needed.

  “You don’t know who they are?” Andrew scoffed. “How’d you find me?”

  Athan took a deep breath.

  The introduction was happening a little slower than he had hoped. At least he didn’t need to reason with the poor guy while dealing with a headache. He was so glad that was gone.

  How do I get through to this guy?

  “I…work for people with special abilities, and we are trying to stop these evil bastards from doing whatever they are doing. One of my ‘abilities’ is to be very sneaky,” Athan gestured to the space behind Andrew, “which I have demonstrated. Now you have to help me finish this jigsaw puzzle so we can help you.”

  “You don’t even know who they are.” Andrew shook his head.

  Athan sighed and shrugged. “No. Not really. Not names or occupations anyway.”

  Andrew took a deep breath and examined him.

  He was still obviously reeling from seeing Athan in his dream, but his logic was telling him that it wasn’t possible.

  “What do you know?” Andrew said, leaning back.

  “Okay,” Athan raised his eyebrows, “we know who they manipulated to put you and a few others to sleep and we know that it is linked to some kind of international corporate company and that the and DPHR are also part of it.” There was a moment of silence while Andrew chewed on his lip and stared at the tabletop and the cut credit cards.

  “Hmm…” Andrew blinked. “I thought I was the only one they got. Is that DPHR a government group?”

  Athan didn’t want to go into detail explaining Post-Humans and their abilities. If he didn’t know already, it was too much for him to have to deal with right now.

  “Sort of… What’s your story? Why were you a target?” Athan gestured to the fridge. “Mind if I? I’m really dry, I haven’t had time for anything…”

  “Yeah, knock yourself out…”

  Athan gazed into the little crowded fridge. Only two drink choices; orange juice or beer. He pulled out a beer can and went back to the table where Andrew was sitting.

  “Well, my name is Andrew Campbell, which I’m sure you know. I work at…worked at IT International, and did some work for an American group called Next Step Communications. I’ve done a bit for a Japanese company as well. There’ve been massive developments and mergers to raise the bar in communication technology recently.”

  “Cool, and…” Athan urged.

  “…And it has been very sudden,” Andy said looking thoughtful.

  “Okay,” Athan said, feeling lost in Andy’s deliberate pause. He took two mouthfuls of beer.

  “Look,” he used the edge of his hand to divide the collection of cut credit cards, “these companies have been at odds and in competition since they started, now they suddenly rally together and share software.”

  He took his mobile phone out and tapped the screen a few times before showing Athan.

  “This is one of the new ventures.” Andrew held out the phone.

  On the screen was the homepage for a company called NewTech Consolidated. “Why would these multi-billion dollar companies all suddenly climb into bed together?” Andrew asked.

  “I’ll have to check it out…” Athan was a little baffled by the relevance.

  “It didn’t make any sense to me either.” Andrew nodded. “Then they started following me around, which was what peaked my curiosity.”

  “Following you?”

  “Yeah, like monitoring me. Where I went and who I spoke to. So when I was in New York doing some jobs I caught up with a guy I know, Don Stakes. He works in the same area as I do, sort of, been doing it for longer. Anyway we had a chat about what the corporate giants were doing, and he told me that he was doing a similar project. He told me the government had been watching him for ages. That freaked me out of course. I have a family back here.”

  “Why were they following you? Do you think they were following all the people that had ended up comatose?” Athan squinted.

  “Well,” Andrew shrugged, “until now I didn’t know that there was anyone else. Who were they? Have you spoken to them? Why am I the one you came to, one of the others might have been more helpful?”

  “I can’t find any of the others Andrew. There were eight that I was aware of, and…I can’t find them. There might be others overseas, but here, you are the only one I could locate, that’s why I need to learn what I can from you, so I know who we are up against.”

  “Bloody hell. Do you think they could kill seven people?” Andrew rubbed at his new stubble.

  “I don’t know.” Athan lied.

  “I don’t know who they are,” Andrew’s eyes sparkled with tears. He rubbed at his cheeks and gazed out the window into the dark.

  “There must be something.” Athan suggested softly.

  “I don’t know who is trying to make us disappear. We were doing a job, that was all.” Andrew shrugged again.

  “There must be…” Athan sat back and shook his head.

  Andrew’s eyes were wide when he leaned forward. “Wait, I did hear that there were a few ‘high ups’ that opposed the progress, or mergers, or whatever they were calling it. They were corporate reps and marketing managers, there were others that didn’t believe the moves were profitable or legal. Don said that he saw an email broadcast by someone named Killroy. It had various statements about safety being compromised.”

  “Interesting,” Athan said. There was finally a picture growing from this.

  Mary Killroy was on the list.

  She was a coma patient.

  Athan began to see that these people were all connected to this corporate union.

  “Well, things are moving very fast with modern tech. Not everyone wants to get on board. There is always something that’s a bit iffy, something that has proved that it works, with unclear long-term side effects. The Internet is still an unknown from a lot of perspectives, and mobile phones of course. They work all right, and with every generation of them they get better and better, but they have not been part of our world long enough to prove they aren’t as harmful as they are helpful. They have been talking about boosting the output.”

  Athan nodded.

  Andrew leaned back in the chair and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and blew his nose before continuing.

  “The disagreements that have arisen have usually been from the people that know the most about new tech, or the ones that make it. It’s the ones with the money
that own all the names of the advancing tech, they’re the ones pushing it forward no matter the cost.”

  “Of course, but this doesn’t give us anyone to concentrate on,” Athan said.

  He really needed a nudge in the right direction. “Companies in particular? Exact technology? We know it’s all dark and gloomy and evil, but we need something we can work with or we’re just gonna be running in circles.”

  Andrew nodded slowly and begun to fiddle with the camera on the table.

  “Anything…” Athan finished the beer and sat the empty can on the table.

  He didn’t want to leave here without knowing something new. Andrew was his only coma patient alive, after that, they were taking guesses.

  “Hmm… I’m thinking.” Andrew sat wide-eyed in a daze as he searched his memory. “Lucas and Associates.”

  “Pardon?”

  “Lucas and Associates. It may not be them, but they came out of the blue with a lot of money and united several corporations within four months.”

  “Was that fast?” Athan said. He had never been interested in the commercial world.

  “Oh, yeah, yeah. These were big guys, really big. International fingers in all kinds of pies. It was like Lucas and Associates waved a magic wand and everyone was on the same team.” Andrew blurted.

  He put his hands on his head and closed his eyes with relief as he leaned back again.

  He was almost chuckling.

  “Lucas and Associates, eh?” Athan shrugged.

  That’s a start I guess.

  “Yeah. There was Comm Tech International and Spears. Also NTLU and Takahashi. Maybe more, but Lucas and Associates was the reason Don and I had to travel recently.” Andrew nodded.

  “I know none of those.” Athan cringed.

  Brad would have to look more deeply into this.

  Andrew crossed his arms. “Well, unless you are in certain circles, I guess you won’t.”

  “What were you and Mr Stakes doing?”

  “As in working on?” Andrew raised his eyebrows. “New radio wave stuff, we organized the programs to operate it. It’s for communication mostly, mobile phones, data and Internet speed. It’s the programing that will control the radio waves that they are going to amplify.”

  “That doesn’t sound as ominous as I hoped it would,” Athan said. “Is it dangerous?”

  “No, not really. Maybe you’d get brain damage if you sat next to the transmitter, but that is generally at the top of a tower.” Andrew shrugged.

  “So this new technology is not dangerous? Why are people killing and kidnapping then?”

  “It isn’t new.” Andrew shook his head. “It hasn’t been utilized publicly or commercially, but they came up with this tech in the ‘70’s. The Chinese, from memory.”

  “’70’s? Chinese?” Athan was reminded of what Dan Dangerous had been telling them, about the group of people flown from the U.S to China for experimental stuff during the late seventies. Dan didn’t say anything about special radio waves. He wondered whether the tech linked to Post-Human psychics. And was this Lucas and Associates related to the original project, or had the company just picked up where someone else left off? He needed to get back to Brad. “Is this all you know?”

  “Yeah, I think so. Is that DPHR thing a threat to my family?” Andrew asked.

  “Umm… not to you. To me maybe, but we know the DPHR are working with whoever is after you,” Athan said as he gazed down into his empty can.

  “Will I be safe, running away with my family?” Andrew asked hopefully.

  “I don’t know, Andrew.” Athan shook his head.

  He felt responsible for Andrew’s safety, but he was in as much danger as the Campbell family.

  “Can you, and whoever you represent protect us from these people?”

  “You should run with your family, go somewhere remote, and throw away your phones and credit cards.” Athan nodded to the cut up cards on the table. “Your instinct to run from these people was a good plan. Stick to it. I will be getting far too close for you and your family to be safe. You are smart and you know these people. Running will give us the time we need to make this public or take them down.”

  “Of course.” Andrew took a deep breath and nodded. “We’ll run.” He tapped the mobile phone on the table. “I helped build the software that they will be using to hunt me. I know its loopholes.”

  “Just out of interest, that dream you had when you were in the hospital, was it based on a repressed memory by any chance?”

  “What? No. It was about a guitar and a cat,” Andy said screwing up his nose. “It was pretty visceral, I remember it vividly. Why?”

  “Curious, that’s all.” Athan extended his hand to the other man. “Good luck Mr Campbell, I will find you when it is safe to return.” The other man squeezed Athan’s hand and nodded.

  “How on earth will you find me?” Andrew asked.

  “I have ways. How do you think I found you now?” Athan flashed a brief smile before getting up off the chair and stepping away. Andrew turned around to see the empty caravan, the man in the suit was gone, and he didn’t even ask him for a name.

  Chapter 13

  One month ago

  IT WAS BLACK.

  No light.

  Kiranda Till sat back and closed her eyes to listen to the rhythm of the truck. It bumped along the same way it had for the last few hours.

  She tried to stretch her arms out either side of her, but they were stopped at elbow width. They had confined her in a box or container of some kind.

  She took a deep breath.

  The air inside her prison was hot and stale.

  She rubbed and her calves and her knees. They ached from being unable to stretch for more than a day.

  She knocked her head against the side of the box in frustration and felt the heat in her fingertips.

  The box was made out of some kind of glass, fireproof glass. How did these people know who she was or how to find her?

  ***

  Kiranda had been living an adventurous life in Java since she caught the boat over from Bali.

  Originally the plan was to forget about powers, The League, Ian’s death and Athan, but her holiday just seemed to get longer and longer. At first it was about drinking away her sorrows and partying all night, then it became a thrill-seeking venture and she would climb the mountains and trek through the rainforests. Not long after this, she left Bali on a little fishing boat and crossed the straight to Java and began her journey through Indonesia exploring everything it had to offer.

  It was when she was exploring a volcano near Bandung that a sixteen-year-old girl named Nadya approached her.

  Nadya was a student from the local high school, and she had been hiking at Tangkuban Perahu with a school excursion. She had been watching Kiranda during the hike, and after a while she approached her and asked, in quite good English, who she was and why she was so different to other people.

  Of course Kiranda was a little shocked that someone had suggested that she was any different to anyone else, she had not summoned fire in a while, and was very discreet about being Post-Human. Nevertheless this suggestion peaked Kiranda’s curiosity about the young girl.

  Nadya had invited her to stay with her and her family for a little while.

  Kiranda had no plans, so decided to meet Nadya’s family and was readily accepted by them.

  It was during this period that Nadya and her family taught Kiranda how to speak a little of the local language, and she in turn helped them improve their English.

  Nadya and Kiranda became firm friends, and would always go exploring the villages around the city of Bandung and Tangkuban Perahu together.

  It was on one of these adventures to a tea plantation that Kiranda showed Nadya her ability to summon fire, and this led Nadya to believe that she had a special ability too.

  She was too young for Post-Human abilities to be fully developed, but all the same she was able to feel when Kiranda was near, or when her emot
ions were heightened, especially when the tongues of fire erupted from her palms and licked her fingers.

  Kiranda and Nadya bought an apartment in Bandung a year and half later and began to experiment with Nadya’s ability.

  They went on long train rides to Jakarta and Surabaya to walk the streets and try and detect any other Post-Humans.

  For a while this was fun, and they were almost convinced that her power was only a connection to Kiranda, but one day, on the streets of Jakarta she stopped dead in her tracks and dropped her can of soft drink onto the sidewalk. Kiranda had to shake her to get her attention back.

  Nadya said that in that building was a man who was able to manipulate lead. He had kept it a secret all his life, and Nadya knew this from outside the building. She couldn’t even see him.

  This confirmed for the two girls that Nadya did have a Post-Human ability.

  They never spoke to the man in that building because Nadya said he was very old, but they had been inspired to create a group of individuals that could use these abilities to make the world a better place and Kiranda brought her experience to the table.

  Kiranda’s plan was to recreate The League with none of its failings.

  Together they began to trawl through crowds of people looking for Post-Humans that could join their group.

  That was when they encountered a young man with silicon bones named Gilang, he was extremely excited about creating a crime fighting force. It just so happened that his family also owned a warehouse that they could use as headquarters.

  Once again Kiranda took on her alias, Furnace. The League may have died, but her team was strong, and getting stronger.

  It was shortly after that the PHC showed up and killed everyone and burned everything.

  Now Furnace was in a glass box in the dark.

  Her bones rattled against the floor of the glass case constantly. She knew she was in a vehicle traveling to some unknown destination.

  It really did feel like the bumps and potholes of a road, especially a typical Indonesian country road.

  Since Kiranda had woken up she had been filled with panic, feeling her body banging up and down on the smooth hard floor.