The Post-Humans (Book 1): The League

by Bassett, Thurston

  Cynthia tried desperately to struggle from the grip of the two burly men, but they easily overpowered her and pushed her into a glass cube. The door of the box snapped shut and the big man grinned as he fixed some sort of latch.

  “Won’t be hurtin’ nobody now, will ya, Miss Deadfall?” He chuckled a little as he climbed up into the back of the van followed by two other soldiers. Then the door was slammed and the space turned dark.

  Cynthia gritted her teeth with rage, at herself for being so careless and at the arrogant hick that had locked her up.

  She felt her skin burning, glowing slightly in the dark. She wished more than anything that she had wrapped her bare hands around that man’s throat and stolen his life from him a little bit at a time.

  She screamed into the emptiness.

  No one escaped from the PHC to be able to talk about it.

  She ran her super-sensitive fingers over the inside surface of her glass cage. There had to be a weakness. There had to be.

  And when she found it she would kill them all.

  Chapter 16

  ATHAN SHOOK HIS head.

  They were supposed to meet Brad’s contact at the front a dingy little bar in the centre of the city.

  It was one of those concealed bars, where you had to be told about it to know about it.

  A word of mouth meeting place.

  Brad had told Athan that it had been a long time since he had been in Melbourne, despite the fact that he knew every change that the city had undergone in the last few years, he still felt out of place. They both felt a presence, a kind of foreboding that crawled over skin like a thousand little spiders.

  “This doesn’t feel right,” Athan said looking at the way the streetlights made glittering patterns on the wet asphalt. “Are you sure this guy got the message?”

  Brad nodded. “Yes, of course. I’ve kept tabs on him for a while, and we’ve communicated through safe means.”

  “You sold him information didn’t you?” Athan accused light heartedly.

  “Maybe. Sometimes it just feels nice to get a dollar or two for knowing something. I feel like my ability is wasted hiding in a basement.” Brad’s expression turned dark. His self worth was obviously something that he was trying to deal with.

  “I suppose.” Athan sighed. “I did start freeing people from their own heads for a few bucks too you know?”

  The two men scuffed their feet and looked down the street, not enjoying being exposed in public view.

  “What exactly were you spending the money on? If you don’t mind me asking?” Brad raised an eyebrow.

  “Not much…” Athan thought of the savings account that he had never touched.

  “What do you even buy?” Brad shrugged. “It’s not like you ever pay rent… For that matter, where do you sleep?”

  “Your house, when you’re asleep,” Athan said smiling.

  “What?” His eyes enlarged in mock surprise. Brad stayed up so long that he’d know if anyone decided to arrive for a sleep over.

  “I just sleep in the other plane, mostly.” Athan rubbed at his nose, then slid his hands into his pockets.

  “Isn’t that a little strange?” Brad asked, knowing it was something Athan had always done, but he never understood it.

  “Maybe, I don’t know, it feels normal for me. It’s warm, quiet and soft if you find the right place. I know it’s odd, but I guess it feels like being in utero.”

  “And all your belongings?”

  They were both silent as a pair of young men with moustaches and waistcoats came down the alley and entered the club.

  “At my Mum’s, in the shed. Packed away neat and secure. It’s mostly books and comics and a few old clothes and some DVDs.” Athan made a mental note that he needed to catch up on movies. He hadn’t watched one in ages.

  “I suppose I’m a little sentimental about my old things. My books for example, I’ve read them once, and I know every word, but I still like to have them on the shelf. Most of them are first editions and rarities. Belinda says it makes me look smart.” Brad said with a slight smile.

  “Dude, if anything, trying to look smart is incriminating for you,” Athan said with a laugh.

  Brad smiled wider at that.

  His ability was strange; being able to remember everything he read or saw. It had saved lives in the past, but compared to Athan’s ability, it didn’t seem very Post-Human.

  “There?” Athan whispered.

  Brad looked to where Athan was referring, the entrance to the dimly lit alley.

  A man in a leather jacket and jeans was walking in their direction.

  He had dark skin and his black hair was slicked back.

  “Yes, that’s him.” Brad breathed with some relief.

  The man in the jacket strolled over to the door and looked at the sheet in the window that stated dress code and closing time. He then turned sideways to address the two men waiting in the cold.

  “Late. Sorry.” Then he pushed open the doors that led to the hipster bar inside. “Follow me.”

  They followed Brad’s contact through the foyer and between the tables and across the small dance floor to another door at the back that was labeled staff only. This led them upstairs to a mezzanine that overlooked the dance floor. There was another door that took them up more stairs.

  They kept following the stranger through the rabbit warren of doors and stairs until they came to a collection of desks in a small office that was dimly lit with a few desk lamps.

  “Where are we?” Athan asked. He thought it was a fair question after the maze they’d been through.

  “Welcome to The Hub. I am Aadi. My colleagues and I are the city’s self-appointed watchers.”

  From the man’s thick accent, he was clearly from somewhere near India. He gave them a friendly smile.

  He gestured around the room at the people at their computer screens.

  “Watchers?” Athan said looking about at the few men and women in the dark. “You mean you spend your lives watching TV’s?”

  “We watch and we contact the people who are best able to…diffuse certain situations.” The man smiled, his white teeth flashing bright against his dark bronzed skin, looking eerie in the dim light.

  Brad turned to Athan. “These are the guys that would give us the call back when The League was fighting villains.”

  “Yes.” Aadi nodded. “Your group was effective, but things are different now my friend. Crime is as rampant as it was. Though recently there have been…unsavory characters appearing around the city. Concentrated in the centre from what we can ascertain. They are committing a whole range of petty crimes and assault. These crimes however, are growing more violent. There have been more murders around the city in the last three months. The police have not made it public and it has been kept very quiet. We only know what we do, because we have seen the results of these vicious crimes.”

  “Seen? Cameras? You are surveying using existing camera installations aren’t you?” Brad asked as he skirted around behind one of the people sitting at the monitor.

  “We watch. We have hacked into every security camera in the city. We watch four per monitor, and there are eighty of us working at three monitors each. We are the eyes of the city, Apollo. Silent judges, of the deeds of the many. There are groups like us in every city in the world. I am responsible for this particular branch.”

  “That’s incredible Aadi! I had my suspicions about your intel and how it was acquired, but I didn’t think your reach was so far.”

  “It’s brilliant. I don’t know how it got by you, Brad,” Athan said.

  Aadi crossed his arms and smiled. “We go to great pains to make sure our access to information is not traceable. Thanks to your friend, Apollo. He wrote the software that made us invisible.”

  Athan looked at Brad who ran his hand through his hair. “It’s true, I did. But I didn’t ask about its purpose. It was simple software. A basic scaffold.”

  “A scaffold that gave us somethin
g strong to build on. We could not have told you anyway,” Aadi said smiling.

  “Then why now?” Athan said as he walked between the watchers in their chairs staring at the screens.

  There were silent men and women sitting still with headphones on their ears so they could not get distracted. Their eyes flitted about as they followed the movement occurring in each picture.

  “Besides these violent murders, we have a screenshot of something… We do not know what it is,” Aadi said looking at the floor.

  “What do you mean you don’t know? You seem worried.” Athan was a little surprised that the man was struggling with an issue this small when he sees everything in the city.

  “I can only show you, I am sorry,” he said as he typed in a series of passwords on a keyboard that loaded another monitor.

  Brad and Athan looked at each other with a little confusion as they came over to look at the image that Aadi was loading. A black and white scene took shape. It was underground, a subway.

  Two naked and one clothed figure were pulling a person off the train platform, dragging them further into the tunnel. The pale, spindly limbs of the perpetrators quickly dispelled what could have been mistaken for an adolescent prank, or a gang attack. Athan saw one of them was biting the victim’s hand. It was like a scene from a horror film.

  “What are we looking at here?” Athan said squinting. “Is this for real?”

  “We do not know, Sleepwalker. We are too afraid to go to the site and look. That is why I thought I would show you. When Apollo emailed me this morning, I knew you were the ones to see,” Aadi said looking hopeful.

  Brad nodded and took a closer look. “I’m honoured you thought of me for this Aadi, but I cann’t identify these things. Drug addicts perhaps? Have they been starving underground? There are societies around the world that have sprouted from poverty and they live under the world’s big cities.” Brad added hoping he was helpful.

  “I too have read this, but Melbourne is not an old city. Her roots are not deep. This is new.” Aadi looked a little disappointed. “I have the blueprints you asked for, Apollo. The Lucas and Associates building and the list of employee names and office locations.” Aadi handed the folder to Brad. “Do you mind telling me what these people are doing that has you so interested?”

  “We are not even sure yet, Aadi, but it’s big, and when we know, I will make sure you are the first to find out. You do good things here, I am proud to be part of it.” Brad said crossing his arms and looked at the glowing screens, then back to the mysterious black and white image taken on the train platform.

  “Thank you, Apollo. One does what one can,” Aadi said with another bright smile. “Do you have somewhere to stay?”

  “Well…not yet. We…” Brad shrugged.

  Aadi held up a hand. “You are welcome to stay here. We have rooms. Some of us live here.”

  “If it isn’t any trouble…” Brad muttered.

  “Not at all!”

  “Hang on,” Athan interrupted. “Aadi and his team could be of more help. We will need to get past security cameras. I can avoid people if I need to, but I’m not invisible, and you only have your own two feet, Brad.” Athan crossed his arms. “Can your people turn cameras off? Is that too much to assume?”

  “No we can do this. If this is for you, I know it is for a good purpose,” Aadi said nodding.

  “Yes, it will be.” Brad could see what Athan had thought of. “Your team may be needed Aadi, I’m so used to doing these things on my own. Your help will be very much appreciated,” Brad said with some relief.

  “Well guys, let’s check out Lucas and Associates,” Athan declared, happy that they weren’t going into the mission alone.

  Brad, Athan and Aadi all stood around the table in an apartment that belonged to Aadi’s team. The watchers had several full apartments and extra rooms for their staff. This one had its own little kitchen and a dining area.

  The three men pondered over the blueprints that lay out on the table in front of them while sipping chai.

  “Here,” Athan said pointing to a door that was for electricians. “Sometimes these are separate from the main building. This is an unusual case.”

  “And you know this from your years of breaking and entering?” Brad said sarcastically.

  “I was curious in my youth, thank you very much.” Athan laughed.

  “Well either way Sleepwalker, I think you are correct. This entry is not a weak point, but it is less conspicuous. Apollo can pose as an electrician and you can do your mind to mind thing from outside,” Aadi said.

  Athan nodded. “That sounds pretty good to me. I can find someone that is definitely going in and use that person as a conduit to get further. My suit will need a clean and press though.”

  “We have the means to do that here. If you change now I can have someone take it momentarily.” Aadi nodded.

  “Awesome.” Athan removed his suit jacket.

  Oh, to be clean…

  “Electrician?” Brad asked, referring to a disguise. Aadi smiled and waved his hand.

  “Covered, my friend. One of the boys on floor two is an electrician. It’s his day job. He’ll have spare clothes and gear.”

  “This is good, Aadi. Thank you.”

  Aadi smiled. “The League always had the greater good in mind, and we respect that.”

  Aadi stepped away from the monitor to go and finish organizing the infiltration. Brad stopped him. “One more thing, I was going to request that someone look at the footage from all the cams in the Lucas and Associates building. It could save us a trip.”

  “Already done and documented, Apollo.” Aadi gestured to the kettle behind him and offered them seconds and they nodded. “There is no unusual activity in this building, but I do not know what you are looking for,” Aadi said as he made them another chai. “In India I was part of a group such as this, so was my brother. We found that companies that didn’t want prying eyes did not have the same security systems as other buildings. Experts in electronic espionage designed them, often with only two people in the company having access to the material recorded. My brother was very good at this job, and he dabbled, if you will, in complex electronics. He found one of these private loops and monitored, it was his right as a watcher in Delhi. He had not been watching long before they found him.” Aadi looked uncomfortable for a moment as he stared down at the steaming mugs in front of him, blinking away the rising sadness.

  Aadi took a deep breath. “These are rare security loops, we can find any that are operating, but it isn’t safe to watch for too long. There are sometimes programs in place to signal when they are being hacked. It is rare, but possible in places where people are doing their best to remain secure. They don’t want to be seen. Your Lucas and Associates, it is full of blanks, empty points where cameras should be. They should link together so that you can almost see the layout of a building through video footage. Here,” he pointed to a place on the map, “you cannot. Either they neglect to maintain damaged units and use them as duds or there is something afoot here gentlemen. From here we can change footage feeds for all the cameras we can see, which is eighty-six. It will take man power.”

  “What happened to your brother if you don’t mind me asking?” Athan asked tenderly.

  Aadi took a moment before answering.

  His eyes glazed over.

  “We don’t know. He was found in a Mumbai dead in the streets, infected with disease, like so many poor people are. We do not know how he got there or when he died. We know it was linked to his surveillance work.”

  Athan nodded. He suspected that maybe Aadi’s brother had seen something he shouldn’t have.

  “I know the cost of this job, Sleepwalker,” Aadi nodded, “but I do miss him.”

  Athan gave Aadi a half smile and nodded.

  He remembered the concept of the ‘cost of the job’. It felt like it was rising for them all the time.

  Chapter 17

  9:15

  AADI H
AD MANAGED to get a man inside the Lucas building to phone for a city electrician to do a routine inspection.

  In the building it was business as usual, and there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary happening.

  As Brad sat in his electrician’s van he saw two office workers come and go. They would come in with their satchels and brief cases and some would come back outside and cross the street to the cafes to get trays of takeaway coffee. Two of the early arrivals came in sports cars, and drove them around the building’s left side to the underground car park. These must have been executives from high up, or managers.

  Brad grabbed his tool case and checked his reflection to make sure he looked the part.

  “Time,” he said as he pressed the receiver on his bluetooth earpiece. Athan gave an affirmative response.

  It was the old days back again, The League doing reconnaissance.

  Brad slammed the driver’s door of the van and checked the street before crossing. He needed to be around the left side near the car park ramp. He marched down the footpath and turned to follow the ramp down to the maintenance door.

  It had a big hazard sticker at the top.

  He checked the handle; open.

  Aadi had sent a guy down there before dawn to open the lock, and he had done his job.

  It was almost too easy.

  He opened the door and took a quick glance about before ducking inside and closing it behind him.

  “In,” he whispered into the mouthpiece.

  The room was dark and full of switches and pipes, but thankfully he had an LED torch in his top pocket.

  Always be prepared, Brad thought to himself.

  There was a small corridor then steps that went up to the service area, where they probably kept reams of paper, trolleys, dodgy photocopiers and outdated computers.

  Brad climbed the steps and opened the door at the top; the corridor was mostly empty, except for some of the office paraphernalia that he had expected, and a young man moving boxes of paper.