Paragon

by Rob RodenParker

  Saro chuckled, "Just the usual 'What are we investing in you for, if you can't keep the peace?'"

  James smiled. "But still, this is quite a tricky situation. This Morian person really rose out of the ashes big time. We all thought he was dead."

  "Have you put the surveillance team in place?" asked Saro.

  "Yes. I've also sent two Paragons with them. I reasoned that if they can get Morian alone, we may be able to extract some useful information from him."

  Saro nodded. "A bold move. They must be very careful though, or else the situation will escalate further. It's a shame that things have had to come so far already."

  "The scale of the demonstrations aren't too great so far, estimates place it at around a hundred thousand people around the world so far."

  "These things have a habit of snowballing however, so we must be careful."

  Saro stroked his clean shaven chin thoughtfully, before changing the subject.

  "Tell me. Where is Kepp? I wish to speak to him."

  "I sent him on the mission."

  Saro tutted, before shaking his head slightly. "That's not good."

  "What do you mean?" James was confused at Saro's response. Why not send Kepp? He was one of their best.

  "Kepp will almost certainly try and kill Morian."

  "What?" said James, raising an eyebrow.

  "I should have told you earlier. You remember when we asked Kepp to join Paradigm? And he agreed on the condition that he would be allowed to keep Jess as a dependent?"

  James nodded.

  "Well, there was a second condition, which was that he would be allowed free reign to hunt for Morian. You know we don't usually allow personal issues to get in the way of Paradigm's work, but Kepp had an exceptional score in the brain scan and aptitude tests, and we all believed Morian was dead back then, so I agreed."

  James took the information in silence, and then thought for a moment about possible resolutions.

  "I'll send a message to him. We'll tell him to abort the mission."

  "If that works, I would be very surprised."

  James rubbed his temples. "We could mobilize a squad of SAS?"

  Saro put out a calming hand.

  "Leave it to me. I shall make some arrangements."

  With that, he got up and strode out of the office, moving with a speed which belied his late sixties age. James shook his head at the situation, before refocusing his attention back to the paused data flow.

  Liza steered the car expertly through the evening traffic, as they slowly caught up with Morian's vehicle, the location of which was transmitted to them by other members of her team. They were in the second lowest lane, passing thirty or forty meters above the well-lit pavements, which were jammed with people.

  "We should be right below him now." said Liza, glancing up out of the transparent roof.

  "How many other cars on your team?" asked Haur.

  "Two. They're following."

  They trailed Morian as he made his way out of the central business district of London, and onto the express airway towards the North. The traffic began to thin out, as concrete sprawl began to be replaced by small pockets of green. Liza dropped further behind the car to avoid being obvious. Eventually, Morian turned off the highway, onto a small air-road leading west. They followed, the only two craft on the airway.

  "Where does this head?" asked Haur.

  "The nearest town to here is Cambridge," replied Liza, glancing down at the GPS system, "If he's going there, that'll be an issue; Cambridge is a no fly zone. We'll have to set down on its outskirts and drive in on the ground."

  "Tell your other men to keep back then," said Kepp, "Let's not make it too obvious."

  Liza uttered a few words at her datapad, which obediently sent the message.

  A few minutes of silence followed, as they flew along the guided pathway, keeping a long distance between them and Morian's aircar. Aside from the engine whine, the surroundings were eerily quiet. The countryside around them was dark, the meager green guide lights of the airway didn't illuminate any details on the ground. The headlights of their car pierced into the night ahead of them, revealing only emptiness.

  Kepp startled slightly when Liza's datapad buzzed suddenly with an emergency audio transmission from her team, which had stopped at the highway exit junction.

  "Ambu-!" came a garbled voice, then the sound of a man screaming. Rifle fire could be heard in the background, the transmission ended.

  "Shit..." whispered Liza, as she realized her team had just been gunned down.

  "We can't afford to turn back, go faster," Kepp commanded. He couldn't let Morian get away, not this time. He took out his pistol and cocked it. Haur followed suit.

  The whine of their engine increased in pitch as Liza turned up the throttle. She increased their altitude, as Kepp and Haur kept a wary eye on the airway behind them.

  "We're catching up to Morian," said Liza, "What should we do, Kepp?"

  "It's pretty simple isn't it? We become the hunter, or else we become the hunted."

  "Shit, wait," said Haur, "You want us to attack Morian's car? We can't do that."

  "Or else what? We follow him, eventually the chase car catches up and shoots us out of the sky?"

  "No. We're supposed to observe, and then if...IF we get the chance, then we confront him. This is not that chance. We need to abandon this chase and hide somewhere," replied Haur.

  Kepp gestured angrily at him.

  "Fuck that, okay? I told you what happened, we can't give up this chase. It could be the best shot."

  Haur exhaled in frustration.

  "You were exactly the wrong bloody person to send on this mission. Humanity before self, Kepp, that's why we're Paragons, personal issues don't come into this. You're really going to put your revenge above the stability of human society on Earth? I won't let you."

  Before Kepp could react, Haur had leveled his pistol at him.

  "Liza, turn off the lights, silent running, see if we can just disappear into the fields down there and hide for a bit."

  Liza complied, banking the car away from the airway.

  "So, if I don't comply, you’re going to shoot me in cold blood?" demanded Kepp, his eyes boring into Haur's.

  "Yes. I would kill you to save lives of others; it's not fucking rocket science. You know if you were in my position, you would too. So stand down, I'm the senior Paragon here, and I'm telling to follow my lead."

  Liza flew close to the ground, the bottom of their car scraped over the tops of the trees, juddering the passengers. She glanced at the situation in the back seat through her rear view mirror, her heart hammering in her chest.

  Morian's getting away, he's getting away. He killed her, and he's getting away. The recurring thought pounded through Kepp's brain as he stared down the barrel of Haur's pistol. Why won't he understand? He needs to be stopped. He's in my way.

  "Fine," said Kepp finally, apparently complying with Haur's demands. But as Haur relaxed, Kepp suddenly activated his implants, and banged Haur's gun against his head. In that moment of opportunity, Kepp grabbed Haur's gun hand and then leveled his own weapon at the other Paragon. Haur tried to retaliate with his own implants, but Kepp was the more adept user, and kept Haur's projected field at bay.

  "Liza, turn this car around, get us to Cambridge. Screw the no fly zone, smash the checkpoint; just get us in."

  Liza spun the car on its axis, and then stopped, hovering in mid-air.

  "Then what?" she asked, "What's your plan?"

  "Just fucking obey the order," Kepp's voice was low and laden with menace.

  "With all due respect, sir. No. You're just sending us to our deaths. I lost a lot of my men today already, I'd rather not throw away my own life too, especially at your whim," she glared at him, her green eyes set and determined. She set the car down in the middle of a field, defiantly, "Now I think we managed to get away without being followed, so I think we should calm down, regroup and stop this in-fighting, it's
not helping. I thought I was working with professionals, but you're just like a baby!" she couldn't hide her disgust.

  Kepp lowered his gun and stepped out of the car onto the soft grass. Her outburst seemed to have calmed him down.

  "If someone took someone important away from you, Liza, and you had the chance to avenge that person, what would you do?" he asked, his voice soft.

  The sudden change in Kepp's demeanor caught Liza off guard, and she didn't quite know what to say.

  "You probably saved our lives there," Kepp continued, "But I'll let you know now that I would have traded it all in to see him die."

  Liza kicked her door open, and jumped out of the car. It now stood between her and Kepp, who had his back to her.

  "What kind of person deals with grief like that?" She slapped her hand down on the metal roof of the car to make a point; it sort of hurt, "You're nothing more than an angst-ridden teenager! And we're supposed to look to you to safeguard humanity? What a load of bullshit!"

  Kepp whirled around, and stalked towards her, prowling around the side of the car. His figure appeared as a dark silhouette against the blacker night. He grabbed her arm, and leaned in. She was glad it was too dark to see his eyes right now.

  "You might find it sad, but this is the only way I know how. So fuck off with your judgments." He pushed her, sending her stumbling back a few steps.

  Kepp sat roughly down on the grass. Silence reigned.

  Haur stepped out from the vehicle, with a little shake of his head.

  "Let's make a call to Paradigm," he said, "Get them a sit-rep and debate on a next move."

  There was no reply, so Haur took that as a yes.

  He concentrated as he made the uplink to Paradigm. Liza leant on the car, staring upwards at the starless sky. She wondered if any of her men had survived. If they didn't, I need to avenge them, she thought, spontaneously, surprising herself with the intensity of that emotion. Then she looked in the general direction of Kepp. In that moment, she felt she understood him a little better.

  The King's College Chapel was an iconic building, its gothic architecture towering over central Cambridge, which had remained mostly untouched by new building developments due to its heritage. Inside, the great fan-vaulted ceiling spanned the length of the building, and the medieval stained glass windows sparkled in response to the sparsely placed lights, dim as they were. The interior was filled with rows upon rows of pews, lusciously furnished, and the center of the building was dominated by an organ, its polished pipe tower bisecting the room. It was empty, save for six men, gathered around a circular table located at one end of the chapel. By the dim light, it could be seen that five of them were quite old and wizened, and the sixth appeared to be man in his early thirties, smartly dressed with medium length blonde hair.

  "We have seen the news reports. You have done well, Morian," said one, his face almost inhumane in the dim light.

  "Thank you, my masters," replied Morian, with a flowery bow.

  "Praise should not be given so lightly," cautioned a second, with a slight raise of his hand, "This is only the start of a very long path."

  "A long, but inevitable path, I should think though," said the first, "The pieces have been set in motion. The outcome is pre-determined. Through trial and fire, we shall awaken poor humanity from this ignorant, sleepless trance. Knowledge will once again become the currency of power."

  "We've had a hiccup however," said Morian, "though nothing I can't deal with. I think I was followed, my rearguard said they discovered a Paradigm surveillance team. This could mean Paragons are involved."

  "Paragons...how meddlesome," said the first, languidly. "Deal with them as you see fit."

  "Then that is what I'll do," Morian bowed, before departing, leaving the six men in silence.

  Morian accessed his datapad as he strode out of the Chapel, the doors closing behind him with a heavy reverberating clang. After slotting his datapad into a long distance communications pack, he dialed into a secure channel.

  Requesting AuthID...

  User~Agent_M

  wait...success.

  Agent_M~Password:***********

  verifying...success.

  Accessing Paradigm Network...

  ...success.

  1 New Message:

  "Two Paragons dispatched to follow you. Hook into the usual stream for their coordinate traces. -Hao"

  Agent_M~ hook /tracer /all /sencrypt

  wait...success.

  He curled his lips into a smile, as two coordinates began streaming onto his datapad. He overlaid the positions described by them onto a map. His smile grew. It was time to go hunting.

  Chapter 9 – Predation

  Excerpt from an advertising leaflet - circa 2140:

  "When asked in a mass survey what most people wanted in life, out of several options, most responded saying that they wanted to "enjoy life". To that end, we have set up the new "Life Enjoyment Center" scheme! All around the world, vast swathes of land are being converted into complexes where you can just sit back and enjoy life. We cater for everyone, whether you are the sports enthusiast, the avid virtual reality gamer or just someone who likes to spend their day being massaged and pampered. How might one pay for this you ask? The answer is simple, you spend half of your time working for others at the Life Enjoyment Center, and you get half of your time off. We work for each other’s happiness, and thus everyone is happy. So don't delay, sign up for the Life Enjoyment Scheme today!

  To find out more, visit our website."

  The clouded sky hid the moon and stars, leaving Kepp and the others sitting in a darkness which was nearly pitch black. Kepp pulled at the grass around his legs absently, as he waited for Haur to contact Paradigm. Liza leaned against a tree a few feet away from him, staring at the clouded sky. Stupid, he thought, you can't see anything anyway.

  Haur was quiet, setting up the communication link with Paradigm. As the link was established, he was surprised to find James Danuwa on the other end of the line; usually, all field calls would be answered by mission control.

  "Haur, what's the problem?" the voice was curt, and a little marred by static.

  "Mr. Danuwa, sir?" Haur wanted to ask why it was him answering the call, but decided better of it, "We're on the outskirts of Cambridge. Liza's observation team has been ambushed by Morian's men, but we've managed to elude them. They know we're coming now, and they'll be prepared. Can you advise the best way to proceed?"

  "Hold on, Haur," replied James, "Saro wants to be patched through to you."

  Saro? Just what in the world is going on here, thought Haur.

  There was some more static, and then Saro's voice came on the line.

  "Haur. Hold position for now. Do you understand? I am on the way with a squad of special forces operatives. We'll make a sweep of the city once they are there. Just hold position for now."

  "Roger that, I'll leave the comm station running."

  "No need, we have your co-ordinates already, just hold tight."

  "Have you got an ETA?"

  "Around 3 hours."

  "Roger that, Haur out."

  Haur shut off the communications link. His eyes, aided by the implants, could make out the figures of Liza and Kepp standing near him.

  "Hold position. 3 hours. We have backup coming."

  Kepp sighed, and lay down on the grass. He muttered something to himself, then fell into silence.

  Haur rolled his eyes; Kepp was probably just sulking, although he was glad that he'd calmed down. The fight in the car had been quite unsettling. Liza's words crossed his mind. How can someone this impetuous be trusted to act as an arbiter for humanity? He didn't dwell on it for too long though; obsessing over something out of his control was a waste of energy.

  "I'm going to have a look around," he said, before walking off into the darkness.

  Liza heard, rather than saw, Haur leave. The soft sound of his boots flattening the grass faded away as he walked off.

  "Jeez, ho
w can he see where he's going?" she muttered to herself, as she sat down cross legged on the grass.

  "Implants."

  Kepp sounded calm; it was such a change from just a few minutes ago. Liza wasn't sure if that was because he really was calm, or whether he was still pissed off with her and just hid it beneath a veneer of civility.

  There was silence between them. A small breeze rustled the leaves of some nearby trees.