by A. S. Anand
Having spent many a holiday with her father, Katherine knew that Henry believed this ability made his choices of restaurants and bars superior to that of any locals. They could not be objective about such things, he would say, whereas he had no prejudices and only focused on impartial criteria for judging particular places.
Therefore, Katherine felt that the best way for Richard to impress Henry would be to take him to places that Katherine knew Henry had read about or mentioned that he wanted to take Katherine before her business trip was delayed. Richard had been reluctant to agree with this plan as he knew the majority of these places were overpriced and/or mundane, but agreed to Katherine’s plan as she convinced him that it would create a lasting impression of him with Henry.
It had been a perfectly pleasant evening so far; the ice cream parlour that Richard took Henry to after their Korean meal delighted Henry. Richard could sense his future father in law’s ease, yet he was saddened that it had been manipulated in such a manner.
The one location he was excited about visiting was the Library. As one of the first Sectors to have been built, Sector 2932023 had initially contained a public library. But as with the other early libraries, it was barely used and made a significant loss, so the Global Government sold it to private investors.
When the FOWJUDND conglomerate came up with a plan to convert all of the libraries into whisky bars called The Library, the Global Government accepted their offer. The FOWJUDND conglomerate covenanted to maintain the exterior, ensure a strong brand franchise as well as ensuring the identical of use of the Library building in each Sector.
The sweetener that led to FOWJUDND conglomerate being chosen as the preferred bidder by the Global Government was their promise of free membership and unfettered access to the Library to all Senators and former Senators as well as their immediate family members above the age of thirty five (the membership fees were the highest for any bar in any Sector). And given that Katherine’s father had been a senator; he had access to the Library himself.
They exited the taxi and Henry had his eyes and two hands scanned by a motion sensor machine. A large, red windowless door opened in front of them as they were greeted by a narrow staircase. Richard’s eyes circled the room for a lift, but by the time he finished searching the room Henry was already climbing the staircase; above the entrance to the cloakroom at the top of the stairs hung an open-jawed shark’s head.
Having handed in their coats they were directed to the room where Henry had reserved two seats at the second floor bar for them.
Richard sat rigidly in his high-stool chair while flicking through the old fashioned paper menu as Henry partook in a lengthy conversation about the fermentation process for perfecting the sweetness of good bourbon with the bar man. It was going to be a long night.
15th December
The early seasonal winds shot through Harry’s double hung windows, abruptly awakening him from his admittedly light slumber. Despite living on Island50 for twenty two months, the sudden changes in climate always surprised him. The night before he had been sweating profusely; despite sleeping in his underwear and turning his two fans to their highest settings. Now his legs wobbled as he reached for his discarded blanket. Still too cold, he leapt from his bed, shutting the window before searching his small closet for his warmer clothing. Glancing at his ceiling laser clock, he was annoyed to realise that the next submarine would not dock for another three hours.
Before Harry came to Island50, he had been in control of Sector1994021’s State Zoo for six years. As with the majority of the globe’s population, he had been under the impression that when the Global Government converted the six continents into today’s sectors, any island smaller than what used to be known as Greenland would be converted into a military base. When he landed on Island50, he learnt that this was a half truth.
As the helicopter that brought him to his new home on Island50 had hovered a few hundred feet above the main part of the island, alongside the submarine dock he also noticed cages and fences that were identical to those that were used in his old zoo, except there were humans inside their perimeters.
The General who accompanied him on his journey to Island50 then swiftly explained that the people in the cages were all of Indian descent. When the Sector Stratagem was implemented, the new Global Government secretly decided to preserve a select amount of the cultures and races that were being eradicated for The Greater Good. Island50 housed what scholars then considered being the eighteen major Indian languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. They had brought ten males and twelve females to Island50 to ensure the preservation of each language; each person was between the ages of eighteen and twenty five.
Initially, Harry was told, they were provided with basic housing, and a group of scientists and linguistic specialists observed their behaviour, reporting back all findings to the navy. The subjects' relief to still be alive combined with the academics' intellectual inquisitiveness, which ensured a relatively harmonious community was established. During this period Island50 had only established 85% TVOE, leaving several blind spots on the island where the authorities could not watch the subjects' or academics' actions.
When two of the Gujarati and three of the Kannada speaking women were found decapitated and mutilated in a cave on the south-western side of the island, the atmosphere on the island inevitably changed.
Although the navy conducted a detailed investigation and hurried through implementing 100% TVOE on the island, a palpable tension could be observed among the various Indian 'tribes'. Each tribe began to keep to themselves, developing negative slurs for the other communities, distrusting the slightest action or gesture. The scientists too were now distrusted, and where before the tribes were willing to cooperate with the scientists, there was now a clear divide between the two groups, which meant the scientists could only collect data from their cameras rather than in person.
A few weeks before Harry's arrival on Island50, two events occurred which necessitated his hiring to run and control Island50. Firstly, several of the scientists had attempted to remove some of the captives from the island. Little did they know that they too were being observed; the offending scientists were neutralised. A week later, torrential downpour flooded the island, and much of the housing, along with the entire Sindhi, Marathi and Gujarati clans were wiped out. The appetite for researching the various Indian languages among the senior figures of the Global Government had diminished significantly since the project began with, which meant that a minimal amount of funds were released for providing new housing on the island.
The floods had also removed the majority of the capabilities of the TVOE system, which led to a spate of intertribal killings among the surviving people on the island. The authorities decided the best way to solve all the problems would be to place the remaining tribes in cages and fenced perimeters. This would prevent future killings, but most importantly, it would mean the cost of reinstalling the TVOE problem would be slashed to a fraction of its original cost. All of the academics were removed from the island and ordered to conduct their research from the mainland.
Within a week of looking at all of the paperwork and examining the facilities on the island, Harry worked out that on its new budget, the island would only manage to sustain itself for a further two months. He had been told that once the island stopped being able to finance itself it would be shut down.
It was also clear to him why the violence had began, the women of various Indian ethnicities possessed a wild beauty that was striking to those unfamiliar with such skin colour. In his mind, he was certain that it was one of the scientists who committed the initial murders.
He came up with a solution that would address all of the islands issues: employ the Indian men and women as prostitutes. Having spoken to many of the members of the navy who had stopped at the submarine dock, he managed to find out how much
the top admirals earned, and set his prices accordingly. When he presented his proposal to his superiors and he told them that the project would mean the island would be both self-financing and pay his own wages, they were more than happy to give him their approval.
He spoke to each Indian community individually, and told them that if they did not accept this proposal the island would be shut down and they would be killed. But suspecting that such a threat would not be enough to appease them, he made two promises. Firstly, they would receive a decent cut of the money that was earned and could buy whatever they wanted, subject to his approval. Secondly, after each year, the person who earned the most money would be allowed to go free. The majority of the tribes accepted the offer, but there were a few suicides among the Sindhi and Kannada speaking Indians.
Harry had to invest the majority of his savings to get his scheme up and running. Individual bedrooms had to be installed adjacent to each cage, with sufficient security protection to ensure that there would be no escapees. The biggest problem arose when several of the women got pregnant within the first few months of the scheme’s start date. If the island had been fully TVOE and if he had not developed contacts in the navy as quickly as he did, there would have been little chance of him poaching a doctor from the mainland to set up a small abortion clinic on the island.
Once these initial problems were dealt with, Harry’s brainchild flourished. Within six months, there were three times as many submarines docking at Island50 then there had been before. And it only took the project thirteen months to attract the top naval brass to Island50; they were so impressed that they arranged to build a temporary headquarters there so that they could spend more time on the island.
The Indians were miserable for the first year, but when they heard the news that Harry had kept his word in releasing the wildly popular Punjabi girl Giaan, fierce intertribal competition began. Giaan had in fact moved from her cage to a lavish new bedroom in the new navy headquarters. Although she was initially distraught when she was moved to her new location, the provision of proper shelter and a fivefold increase in wages meant that she was eventually appeased.
Although Harry himself was always tempted by the beauty of many of the Indian women, he refused to indulge in their services as he felt this would result in a conflict of interest on his part which could jeopardise his expanding business. The money was an undeniable attraction, but it was not his primary one.
Several cameras were installed in each of the adjacent bedrooms for security purposes, and he had access to the footage of each camera. At first he could only watch one feed at a time, but now he had sixty seven live feeds projecting simultaneously in his basement.
And this is where he chose to go to when he realised he had three hours to spare. Given the time of morning, only a fifth of them were active, but it was enough to keep him entertained for the next few hours.
Seventeen minutes into his viewing experience, the phone rang.
“Drop your cocks and grab your socks.”
“I musta had one too many Barney Clarks this mornin’ coz I swear that’s the H.M.F.I.C. on mid-watch. I thought folks like you didn’t need no vampire liberty to come down to Island50?”
“With my Whidbey whale and my new found status as a buddy fucker I got myself a free ticket for an LBFM.”
“They’ve been feedin’ ya too much roast beast or jerkin’ off in ya pillows of death cos I ain’t ever heard a no buddy fucker gettin’ no free ride.”
“You goddamn right, I’d a been shark shit by now if I was some sorta treacherous motherfucker.”
“I didn’ meant to step out sir, I’s jus’ playin.’”
“Well son, you better get ya pussy pills as the ready, coz everything is F.U.B.A.R.”
“I’m sorry. I...
“Things are fucked up beyond all recognition. Looks like that Azureus jus’ won the lottery coz he’s been given the green light to run the Global Government while the incident gets swept under the fuckin’ rug. You ain’t heard nothin’ through mess-deck intelligence ‘bout this?”
“No sir.”
“This’ll mean us navy folk’ll be livin’ the dream.”
“Y’all alright with this?”
“Just got out of an emergency global AOM and we’ve decided to get some of y’all of the island. The instructions are simple; by the time we dock, you’ve gotta grab a bun and a hot dog from each race n get em to the dock by the time we arrive. In our eyes Giaan no longer counts under no race, so she can be the one extra passenger.”
“With all due respect sir, that’ll cause a riot.”
“Its fuckin’ grape duty compared to the cluster fuck nuclear bomb Azureus will drop on your ass the minute he takes his oath and makes his speech, which could be any fuckin’ day now. Do what you have to do to get it done and most importantly if there’s a single 2-10-2 I swear to God you’ll be fried calamari the minute you step on my fuckin’ ship.”
“Aye.”
“And don’t go sabotagin’ nothin’ or thinkin’ we ain’t got shit all to do for you. Those hajis of yours are gonna be our beetlejuice n we need you to keep em in line. I guaran-damn-tee that you’ll be havin’ a steel beach picnic on vultures row in no time.”
23rd December
The lengthy and vigorous body search failed to subdue her enthusiasm for this occasion. She had yearned to visit one of the training days at her Sector’s space shuttle facilities for as long as she could remember. While other kids scoured the internet for a variety of cartoons, advertising placements and video games, her attention had been fixated on space travel from the age of seven. Despite her father being constantly told by friends and family to inhibit her interests in what they considered to be a dangerous field, he cultivated her passion.
To compensate for losing her mother, he had always treated Portia with a degree of deference that surprised his family members. Her startling precocity only served to galvanise his efforts. He supplemented her school work with activities that he usually assigned to his college students. And although her answers possessed the diction of someone of her age, her line of thinking hinted at a potential greater than most of his college students.
Somehow, she managed to channel the diversity of material (comics, poetry, logic, hip-hop, art, electronic D.I.Y., physics, table tennis, philosophy, book-binding, cello lessons, web designing and yoga) he provided her into the prism of her main interest. She hit puberty two years earlier, and he had assumed that her enthusiasm in space travel may wane or at least deteriorate the mutual understanding and affection they shared. Yet puberty too was pulled down by the gravity of her passion.
Having submitted a detailed and passionate video application form to the space station three months earlier; not only was she being allowed entrance to the training day four years earlier than any previous person, but she had been promised one to one training, which was previously unheard of.
As she entered the shuttle, her eyes widened and filled with a blankness that allowed her to absorb the entirety of her surroundings. As her proud father looked over at her he mistook her rapid absorption for blind astonishment; but as she methodically approached each piece of equipment, she recognised each minute detail, from the endless streaming footage of this particular prototype space shuttle from the video feed she had been watching daily for the last seven years.
They had been allowed access to the mid-deck level of the shuttle, but her head kept tilting upwards as she was desperate to visit the flight deck. She planned to be the youngest commander of a space shuttle (the current record holder was 28 years old) and had a five year plan to reach that goal. As her excitement multiplied, she pictured buying her father the house he deserved and the qualifications he could not afford to study.
A freckled, skinny young man, who was paler than a white candle, approached them and said,
“Good morning sir and welcome young ma’am, pleasure to have yer both on board today. We’re pretty stoked ‘bout today’s session, yer vi
deo damn near blew us away. We had to pull a lotta strings to set this day up, but once the bosses saw your tape, every door jus’ blew wide open. Sir, the gentlemen approachin’ to yer right will escort you to the sleep locations where we’ve set up a nice big screen so you can keep yerself occupied fo’ the day.”
“I was hoping to be able to observe the activities that my daughter partakes in, the gentleman I conversed with had explicitly...”
“Daddy!”
“We were hopin’ ta hook you up with a video feed so you could keep an eye on yer lil’ girl but I’m ‘fraid we’ve had a couple a hitches with the power system since you know what...”
“I do understand, God knows what an effect it has had on all our lives so I do understand and do not want to jeopardise this absurdly important day for my young Viola...but if I cannot follow the feeds can I not observe the training sessions in person?”
“I ‘ppreciate the concern you gots for yer baby girl sir, God knows I’d be hollerin’ and jabashakin’ if I’s in yo’ bootz. But cuz a you know what security’s extra tight so it jus’ can’t be possible today, no sir.”
“I understand. Can I have a quick word with my daughter?”
“I insist.”
“This is the start of something momentous my dear. I know how long you have waited to be here, but remember the importance of maintaining a steady temperament. Your ability is unquestionable, just try not to get over-excited and everything will be yours for the taking. There is not a drop of pressure from me here; whatever happens today, my love for you remains infinite, as does your mother’s. Just enjoy yourself.”
“I love you daddy.”
“Good luck Viola.”
