by Simon Rose
“Yeah,” said Stephanie. “Wasn’t he supposed to be very fit for his age?”
“Yes, I believe so,” said Angela, “but I guess we never know when it’s our time. There’s something else too. It’s about Dad.”
“What about him?”
Angela paused and took a deep breath before continuing.
“I was speaking with the police earlier today. Officer Marino thinks at some point we may have to come to terms with the fact that your dad may be dead.”
She reached over and touched Alex’s hand.
“No,” said Alex, pulling his hand away, scarcely believing what he was hearing. “No, this can’t be happening.”
“I’m sorry, Alex. I just wanted you to be prepared for the worst. To be honest, I’m not sure if I could ever accept it, especially since they still haven’t found a body or anything. I need to go and talk to the police officers at the station and learn more in person. I wanted to tell you both myself though, before I left. Are you going to be okay?”
“Yeah, sure,” said Alex, although he really wasn’t feeling very good at all. “I’m fine, honestly.”
“Okay,” said Angela, although her expression indicated that she wasn’t entirely convinced. “I won’t be too long at the police station. Can you stay here until I get back, Stephanie?”
“Yes, of course, no problem,” Stephanie replied.
Angela stood up from the kitchen table. She was clearly holding back her tears as she gave Alex a peck on the cheek before quickly leaving.
“ARE YOU OKAY?” said Stephanie, once the front door had closed.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Alex felt as if a million thoughts were running back and forth in his mind. His stomach was also churning at the thought that his dad might really be dead.
“Really?” said Stephanie. “I’m so sorry to hear about your dad.”
“It’s not true,” Alex shot back. “You heard what my mom said. I mean, Dad could still be alive and . . .”
They were both startled by an alert from Alex’s phone. Alexander had sent another text message. Alex quickly opened it.
I’m going to try and connect to the wifi in the house and communicate with you through the TV. Turn it to Channel 3 please.
Alex and Stephanie left the kitchen table and went into the sitting room. Stephanie picked up the remote and activated the TV. She and Alex watched in amazement as an image of Alexander flickered into view on the screen.
“Can you see me okay?” he asked.
The room behind him was filled with a bewildering array of scientific equipment in varying states of repair, including computers, monitors, and some gadgets that neither Alex nor Stephanie immediately recognized.
“Yes,” said Stephanie. “It’s very sharp this time.”
“Is it true about Dad?” asked Alex.
“Ah yes,” Alexander replied. “Your mom just told you about what the police suggested, didn’t she? I remember that so well.”
“Is it true?” Alex repeated. “Is he dead? I mean, will he be declared dead?”
“I’m afraid so. I didn’t want to tell you until the time was right.”
“Alex, I’m so sorry,” said Stephanie, placing her hand on his arm.
“So he’s really gone?” Alex asked.
“Yes. I recall that chat with Mom when I got back from Castlewood. It was tough to learn about Robert and Dad in the same day. If it’s any consolation, Alex, I really do know how you feel.”
“Yes, I suppose you do,” said Alex.
He was still trying to fully comprehend the insanity of what was happening. Alexander cleared his throat before continuing.
“It all seems so long ago now,” he said. “And now so much has changed since then. Mom refused to accept that he was dead, despite the official verdict, since no body was ever found. She kept the cause alive for years but then eventually died quite unexpectedly.”
“She’s going to die soon too?” Alex asked, beginning to panic.
“Not soon, it’ll be a while yet,” Alexander reassured him. “It was very sudden though, and I’ve always suspected that she died from the same poison that killed Robert Castlewood.”
“She’s going to be murdered?” said Alex, his voice shaking.
“Veronica only had patience for so long. Mom’s insistence that there was a suspicious unsolved disappearance kept the story about Dad in the public eye. Mom never had any prospect of finding any evidence to support her claims that Dad had been kidnapped and might even still be alive. She also couldn’t hope to prove that he’d possibly been killed and buried somewhere secretly. Veronica eventually decided to silence her. At least, that’s my opinion.”
Alex didn’t know what to say anymore. He simply sat on the couch in stunned silence.
“What about me?” asked Stephanie. “Can you tell me what happens to me?”
“I shouldn’t really reveal anything about your future, Stephanie,” Alexander replied.
“Why not?” said Alex. “You’ve told us so much already. If you’re worried about us knowing things that’ll affect our future, you’ve left it a little late.”
“I suppose that’s true,” said Alexander, with a sigh.
“So what happens to me in the future?” Stephanie asked again.
Alexander swallowed hard and paused before replying.
“I lost touch with you and your family once we’d both grown up. I didn’t see you again after I reached my early twenties, but I do know that here in the future, you and your family are dead.”
“Oh, my God,” Stephanie gasped. “All of us?”
“I’m afraid so,” said Alexander.
“Were they murdered too?” Alex asked.
“I’m not sure,” admitted Alexander. “It’s a possibility that they were killed because of their connection to my family but I don’t know for certain. So many have died since Veronica began her mission.”
“So you mentioned that recent events in our time set all this in motion,” Stephanie said.
“Can you tell us what’s going to happen?” asked Alex.
“Yes,” Alexander replied. “In fact, you need to know as much as possible if we’re to have any chance of stopping her. After Veronica poisoned her uncle, she took over the company and used Dad’s research for her own sinister purposes. I never discovered the truth, but assume that Veronica arranged Dad’s kidnapping to get him to reveal information he’d been holding back.”
“About what?”
“I think he’d been getting suspicious of her motives. He’d decided to leave for Hartfield Tech and take his research work there with him.”
“That business card that was on her desk for the other company,” Stephanie said.
“That’s right,” agreed Alex. “She must have known what Dad was planning to do.”
“Yes, I think so,” Alexander confirmed. “The details about Dad’s disappearance are very murky. However, he did have some crucial material on his laptop. Once Veronica accessed that she made her move. The robotic technology that had previously been developed in the Castlewood labs was subtly altered. Castlewood Dynamics steadily cornered the market in civilian robotics. They originally worked very closely with Dominus, but Castlewood soon completely absorbed them. Eventually all the world’s other major companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, and many others were taken over directly or came to be controlled by Veronica’s subsidiaries.”
“Wow,” said Stephanie. “So she controls just about everything?”
“In my time,” Alexander replied, “Castlewood Dynamics doesn’t exactly rule the world, but the company is far more powerful than most national governments.”
“You mentioned something before about robots in your time,” said Alex.
“Robots swiftly took over many of the world’s menial tasks,” Alexander continued. “In theory that’s a great idea, but in practice it also put tens of millions of people out of work. This soon created severe social problems but Veronica an
d her company solved this. In my time, people who are no longer useful are simply eliminated.”
“Eliminated?” said Stephanie.
“Robots now do most of the work, serving an extremely wealthy elite,” Alexander replied. “Those unable to contribute to society are simply rounded up and killed, as are dissenters. People are easily identified and arrested since all the planet’s technology is so connected these days. Population numbers are also tightly controlled in order to conserve the world’s dwindling natural resources.”
“How do we know you’re telling us the truth?” asked Alex.
“You don’t,” Alexander admitted. “I know how hard this is to believe, but perhaps I can show you.”
Chapter Nine
The Shape of Things To Come
ALEXANDER TYPED SOMETHING into the keyboard of his computer.
“Keep watching the screen,” he said. “I’m going to show you the future.”
His image vanished from the TV and was replaced by scenes from a busy city. The bustling sidewalks were filled with people, and the streets were congested with traffic. According to some of the surrounding buildings and subway signs, it appeared to be New York City. The streets and buildings looked much the same as they did in the present, but Alex and Stephanie agreed that there were a few subtle differences. Some of the names of the stores and restaurants looked familiar, while others didn’t. The cars and other vehicles looked similar to what Alex and Stephanie were used to, although there were some futuristic designs. They noticed that some of the fashions in the future resembled ones from their own time while others were different or appeared to be a combination of old and new styles of dress.
“As you can see,” said Alexander, providing a voiceover, “the world hasn’t changed that much. After all, it’s only been thirty years. Things changed quite dramatically at the turn of the century with the advent of the Internet and everything else related to computers. The pace of technological change seemed to be getting faster every year back then. However, once Veronica tightened her grip on everything, technological innovation was all in the hands of one group of people. Developments that could be of real benefit to the general public were few and far between.”
The screen then altered to reveal a closer view of the people walking up and down the street. Alex and Stephanie were astounded as holographic images of objects or talking people abruptly appeared on the sidewalk out of thin air. Most people walked straight through the images that then simply disappeared. Sometimes the images remained in place and continued talking to the next passing pedestrian.
“I guess this is the equivalent of TV or radio advertising in your time,” said Alexander. “The holographic images are everywhere, trying to sell people things. They’re all tailored to a person’s tastes and previous buying history. Phones and all the other networks are all interconnected. If a company knows you purchased something once, they pursue you relentlessly.”
“How can people stand that?” said Stephanie.
Alexander simply shrugged.
“I guess they get used to it.”
On the TV screen, four objects came into view in the sky above the street. As the objects drew closer, Alex and Stephanie could see that they were small grey aircraft, around the size of gaming consoles. They appeared to be equipped with a number of retractable devices on each side, along with lights in a range of colours. The aircraft also had legs tucked underneath them. They had no rotors and the objects just seemed to glide silently and effortlessly through the air. As they hovered above the street, each one emitted a pale blue beam. This was slowly shone up and down random individuals as they moved along the sidewalk. The pedestrians appeared unfazed by this and simply continued on their way as if nothing had happened. The aircraft then hovered for a few seconds above the street before zooming away at high speed and disappearing into the sky.
The city scene then vanished and the view on the TV resumed showing Alexander.
“What were those?” said Alex.
“Drones,” Alexander replied. “Developed by Dominus and based at least partially on designs by Castlewood Dynamics, including Dad’s ideas.”
“What were they doing?” asked Stephanie.
“Scanning people. The drones can learn everything about someone with those beams. Physical, financial, legal, medical, you name it.”
“What for?” said Alex.
“Were they looking for criminals or something?” Stephanie asked.
“No, probably just a routine scan,” Alexander explained. “These days the population’s so tightly controlled. It’s very easy for the authorities to make someone just disappear so everyone’s learned to try and stay out of trouble. Some of the drones are armed with energy beam weapons. The ones you saw are just the patrolling models but they can easily call for back up from their more lethal counterparts, if needed.”
“Why would they do that?” said Alex.
“Despite all the restrictions on society, there are still some dissenters, but they don’t last long. Unless they’re like me and can stay one step away from the law.”
“What do you mean?” Stephanie asked.
“I have lots of ways to stay hidden,” said Alexander. “But even I have to go out sometimes to get food and other supplies. I have to make sure that I don’t get scanned by one of the drones.”
“How do you do that if they’re always checking up on people at random?” Alex asked.
“With this,” replied Alexander.
He held up slim, chrome-coloured metal bracelet. It had three very small buttons set closely together.
“This is a mobile molecular scrambler.”
“A what?” said Stephanie.
“I program it here before I go out,” Alexander began. “It scrambles my molecular pattern, my signal, if you like, so that the drones can’t read it. If they get too close, I can also confuse the drones by mixing my pattern with that of someone nearby. This means that the drones never scan me. If they did, I’d soon be arrested. They’ve been looking for me for years.”
“Can you show us more?” Alex asked.
“No, that’s enough for now,” said Alexander. “I just wanted to give you some assurances that I was telling the truth. As I said, I can accept that this is very hard for you to believe. So you’re sure the laptop wasn’t there in Veronica’s office?”
“No, we couldn’t find it,” replied Alex.
“I still don’t understand that,” Alexander said, frowning. “It was supposed to be there. All I can think of is that my instructions to you are making subtle alterations to the timeline in your era. I’m not sure why that would have affected Veronica not leaving the laptop at Castlewood though. Changes in your time will also make things more unpredictable for me here in the future.”
“Is that bad?” asked Stephanie.
“No idea,” Alexander confessed. “I’ve never done this before.”
NONE OF THEM heard Angela’s car arrive. They were all startled at the sound of her key opening the front door.
“I’ll contact you again in the morning,” said Alexander.
His image disappeared from the TV screen and was replaced by a car commercial.
“Hi,” said Angela as she walked into the sitting room. “Who were you talking to?”
“No one,” said Alex.
“I thought I heard somebody’s voice,” said Angela.
“Oh that,” Stephanie replied. “It was just an interactive game on the computer, that’s all.”
“What did the police say?” asked Alex, quickly changing the subject.
“Not too much actually,” Angela replied. “They just repeated what they said before. You know, about declaring your dad to be officially dead, but I’m just not sure if I want that to happen.”
She frowned as she gently massaged the bridge of her nose.
“I’ll tell you more about it later. I’m getting a really bad migraine and need to lie down for a hour or so.”
“Okay,” said Ale
x.
“Bye,” said Stephanie.
Angela smiled at them before turning to head upstairs.
“SHAME WE CAN’T talk to Alexander again now,” said Alex, once Angela had closed her bedroom door. “I guess we’ll just have to wait until tomorrow. Maybe by then he’ll have worked out why we couldn’t find the laptop.”
“I guess,” said Stephanie, with a shrug.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just don’t know about all this, Alex,” she replied. “I mean, how do we know we should really be listening to him?”
“Wait a second. I thought I was the one who doubted him? You’ve been telling me that we have to go along with this.”
“I know, I know,” she said. “But we still haven’t see any real evidence that he’s telling the truth.”
“But he knows about things before they happen. How else could he do that if he’s not from the future?”
“I don’t know,” Stephanie snapped, in frustration. “Maybe he really is on the level, but I still don’t know if we should trust him.”
“And what about those scenes from the future that he showed us?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. If he really is from the future, he’s admitted that he has access to advanced technology. All that could have been faked.”
“But why would he do that?”
Stephanie paused before continuing.
“What if he’s not trying to stop Veronica at all?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if he’s actually working for her in the future? What if everything he’s telling us is just designed to get us to do things that will help Veronica’s plans come true?”
“Hold on a second,” said Alex. “This is weird enough as it is. So you think he’s just giving us false information on purpose?”
“I’m not sure,” she replied. “And this thing about him not knowing where the laptop is got me thinking. He’d have to know about that, surely, if he’s really trying to help us.”
“I suppose so, but . . .”
“And if he’s part of an evil empire in the future, he’s at least partly responsible for killing millions of people, including my parents and your mom. If we do nothing to help him, that future won’t happen.”
