Tabula Rasa

by Filip Forsberg

  Somehow, Malin's response gave him new powers. The pounding pain in his leg slipped back in his consciousness and his body was empowered by a strange force. With one leg dragged behind him, he managed to cover the distance to the car. He banged on the passenger door. Elisabeth banged back.

  “Watch out, I will try to open the door.”

  He took a steady grip and pulled, the door did not move a millimeter. The handle was slippery and covered with mud. He wiped his hands and grabbed it again. Just when he was going to pull he saw in the corner of the eye how something big came closer. He quickly looked up and saw a rotor-less helicopter approaching a bit away. The powerful engines whipped the big palm leaves with their airflow. Denver became increasingly frightened when a black dressed man jumped out of the craft and smoothly rolled when he landed and got up. A sense of panic grew in Denver when he saw the man.

  “They are coming!”

  Malin’s voice sounded muted through the metal.

  “Open the door! We have to get out from here!”

  Denver saw the man approaching; he was not far away. Maybe ten meters. Denver's fingers slipped over the handle and he had to struggle to hold onto it. The taste of blood penetrated into the mouth. His body went on pure adrenaline. His heart was pumping like a jack hammer in his chest and he gripped and pulled so much so that the tendons in his fingers almost broke. He pulled and the door flew open with a loud bang and fell to the ground. He saw a glimpse of Malin sitting next to a lifeless body who must be Elisabeth. Richard were not seen anywhere. He stood up to see where the man who jumped out of the helicopter had gone but did not see him. He spun around and was just getting around the corner of the wreck when a hand grabbed his collar and violently pulled him backward. Denver tried to stay on his feet but his injured leg buckled under him and he was thrown headlong from the car and he landed hard.

  The air was knocked out of his lungs and he gasped for breath as he rolled around like a rag doll. As through a haze, he saw the man lean down toward the open passenger door lying on the ground and reached into the cabin.

  Malin screamed and with a superhuman effort, Denver managed to get up on his feet again and heard Malin's panicked voice again. The man's torso was halfway into the car and while Denver watched, he violently pulled out Malin from the cabin.

  She screamed and fought, but the man seemed almost untouched by the effort. Without apparent discomfort he held Malin hard by the collar and with one hand lifted her up in front of him. With the other hand, he went through the pockets of her jacket and pants. He was obviously searching for something.

  When he found nothing of interest, he pulled her down to his face while saying something Denver did not perceive. Malin glared at the man and shook her head. While Denver watched the man shrugged lightly on his shoulders and with one hand threw the screaming Malin more than five meters away, where she collapsed in a heap.

  Rage stormed up from within. He looked around on the ground, saw a long piece of metal torn from the truck when it was thrown to the side. It was barely half a meter long and one of the ends narrowed to a nasty, sharp tip. Denver threw himself forward, infused by the adrenaline and drove the long metal piece into the man's back.

  The man's body tensed like a spring, and he staggered forward, then backward. Small blood drops sprinkled from his mouth and colored one trim on the car in a red-spotted pattern. He opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out of his mouth. He swung around and Denver saw blood flowing out of the man's throat, over his teeth and running down on the chin.

  * * *

  Gerard saw how the man quickly approached Fredric from behind. Before he could warn Fredric, the man had driven a sharp metal part into Fredric's back.

  “Brother!”

  Powerlessness washed over Gerard like a giant wave. While he struggled to keep the craft upright, he saw how his brother turned to the man who attacked him and blood gushed down his mouth.

  “Fredric! Brother!”

  As in a dream Gerard saw Fredric falling backwards against the car and how the blood spattered on the edge of the car. Gerard shouted repeatedly in the cockpit.

  “Brother! No! No!”

  Something inside him snapped. Like a rubber band that broke. A violent bang, a hard flick and pain. Infinite and endless pain.

  He turned to the man who killed his brother. Focused on him. The world around him was out of focus until only that man filled his whole mind. The powerful engines worked under him. The wind pressed the helicopter and he automatically adjusted the controls.

  He became the craft and the craft became him. Gerard looked at the man and knew that he would die. It was the only thing that was important to him now when his brother was dead. Gerard took a tighter grip on the control stick and steered resolutely the helicopter against the man below.

  * * *

  Denver looked at the man at his feet. He did not move. Blood still pulsed from the man's chest so the heart was still beating. But that would not help. He would be dead within a few minutes. Denver almost jumped on one leg off to Malin where she laid in an abnormal pile. She did not move.

  “Malin!”

  He came up to her and gently turned her over on her back. He stroked her hair that clinged to her forehead and his fingers became sticky with blood. Gently, he talked to her and she began to move. Slowly she sat up.

  “What happened?” her voice was unsteady and dazed.

  Denver pointed toward the bloody man.

  “He seemed to be angry with you.” He hesitated, “what did he say to you?”

  Malin rubbed eyes and tried to remember.

  “Do not really remember, he talked about where it was or something.”

  Denver nodded. Malin looked past him at the truck.

  “Elisabeth and Richard. They are alive, you have to get them out of there right now!”

  Denver looked over toward the truck and saw Elizabeth's body glimpsed in the passenger seat. He got up again and jumped over to the car and reached in. Elisabeth was moving under his hand.

  ” Come, come now!”

  Elisabeth did not answer, but she raise her torso by using elbows and crawled out. Denver heard the sound of the helicopter growing in strength. He turned around, looked up and saw the helicopter coming straight at him. In a few seconds, it would have arrived at the car. He got up, looked at Malin still lying on the ground with the blood flowing from a gash in the forehead. He looked at her and knew what he had to do.

  * * *

  Gerard lowered the nose of the craft straight towards the wreck and the man who killed his brother. Slowly he increased speed. He did not think. His whole body reacted like a robot and as someone else had control over it. The man in front of the car wreck began to quickly jump from the car wreck, toward two big palm trees which stood by the side. Gerard adjusted the course and increased the speed further.

  * * *

  Malin barely had time to react. She saw Denver jumping over the road and she saw how the man in the helicopter changed the course and followed Denver. She realized in horror that the man in the helicopter would not stop but instead use the helicopter as a big missile.

  “Denver! Watch out!”

  But it was too late. As she watched, the helicopter flew violently into Denver. Both Denver and the helicopter disappeared in the huge fireball while Malin screamed his name over and over again.

  * * *

  He was gone, but she was still alive. She stared at the burning wreck and sobbed. She did not realize how long she had been standing there when she heard something. A faint voice brought her back and Malin ran up behind Jonathan where he was sitting next to the van.

  “I thought you were dead?”

  Jonathan turned to Malin.

  “I thought so too. I must have been ejected from the wreck. I passed out when I was thrown out and woke up over there.” He pointed to a palm tree by the roadside.

  “Where is Denver?”

  Tears welled up in Malin's eyes again. />
  “Dead. The helicopter flew straight into him. He's gone.”

  Jonathan saw the pain in her eyes.

  “I'm sorry.”

  She nodded quickly and wiped away the tears.

  “Let's get away from here before they come back.”

  *

  Outside Tabula Rasa, Madagascar.

  2048-12-30

  The wait had been nerve-racking. Silas Boomer opened the deckhouse and put out his head. The tepid wind ruffled his hair and he glanced up against the road that went from the harbor up against the forest.

  The soft waves hit softly against the hull. The road disappeared into the dense forest and the thick, small palm trees waived in the wind. The sun was still low in the sky. It was early in the morning and the real heat had not set in yet.

  He put on some clothes and walked over to the portable radio that was on a table inside the cabin. It was on. He had not heard anything from Jonathan yet. They had agreed upon that Jonathan would try to notify Silas when he had found the people he was taking out from Tabula Rasa. But if he could not do it while he was inside Tabula Rasa he would try to do it during the way down to the harbor. It would give Silas some time to prepare and make the boat ready for departure.

  He checked the radio again. It was working as it should. His eyes were dry and he rubbed them, he had barely got any sleep last night when he had tried to find the reason why the damn engine did not start. His boat was old and worn but he had maintained it throughout the years so it used to work as it should.

  But just yesterday the engine had died when he was to take it out for a little reconnaissance tour. He had spent several hours with looking after oil leaks and other reasons but he had not found anything. While he stood there wondering what to do now, he heard a faint sound of a vehicle that was getting closer from the forest. Silas looked up against the forest and heard the sound increasing. A flock of birds took off from a place not far from the edge of the forest.

  Silas were just about to turn around when he heard a violent explosion. The shockwaves rippled out from the forest and he instinctively recoiled. He stretched to see what it was that was happening but he could not see anything. After a couple of seconds a black cloud of smoke rose from the forest. Silas stared in horror at the rising cloud.

  He spun around and a freezing cold spread in his stomach. He ran down and looked at the powerful engine in the boat and all small parts and tubes that was scattered around it. During the nights work he had not managed to find out why the damn engine did not start so he had in desperation dismantled all circuits, tubes and other things that he could reach. It was a desperate act, he knew that, but maybe there had entered water or something else in the engine that made it unable to start. The smell of smoke drew down to the boat and stung in his nose.

  He stared at all the small parts that laid scattered before him. He squatted down and started to reassemble the parts he had taken off the engine during the night. He slipped several times and had almost mounted on the last water hose when he dropped it.

  He cursed, reached down after the hose that had fallen down next to engine, down on the floor. When his fingers touched it he heard another deep rumble from the forest and he froze. The deep rumble grew in strength and then slowly resided again. He quickly stood up and looked sideways out through the deckhouse and saw a glimpse of another smoke cloud, closer this time, rising from the forest. Quickly he sat down again and fished up the hose from the floor.

  * * *

  Silas hurried and tighten the last part that he mounted and closed his eyes while he tried the ignition. The engine coughed a couple of times but then it started. He breathed out and the relief washed over him.

  A couple of minutes later a battered group came staggering out from the jungle and approached the boat on foot. Silas squinted and tried to determine how many it was that came but it was too hard to see for all the smoke. He definitively saw Jonathan who seemed to support an older man whose arm seemed to be broken. He also saw what seemed to be two women following closely after the men. All seemed dazed and ran with staggering steps towards the harbor. He ran up to the edge of the boat and waived at Jonathan.

  “Here! Over here!”

  The small group of people staggered ahead on the dock and Silas helped them down into the boat. Malin exhaustedly sank down on a bench and looked blankly up towards the gravel road they had come from. Two large, military vehicles drove fast out from the clearing and large dust clouds whirled up when they were getting closer. She saw to her despair how Jonathan took a big leap back up on the dock.

  “What are you doing? They are coming!”

  Jonathan looked down to her.

  “My mission isn’t over. There is another one inside Tabula Rasa that needs help.”

  Elisabeth was dumbfounded.

  “But they will kill you?”

  Jonathan smiled at her and gave her the thumbs up.

  “Not if you’re asking me.” he turned to Silas, “Come on, get out of here.”

  Silas put the pedal to the metal, the boat shoot off and Elisabeth saw how Jonathan set of against the jungle. He moved fast and a weak hope returned to Elisabeth but with horror she saw how another helicopter silently rose up from behind the tree line and fired a football looking projectile against Jonathan.

  She did not react fast enough to shout out a warning to him before the football had unfolded itself to a big net that hit Jonathan in the back and instantly wrapped around him and she saw him fall. Despair came over her when they quickly accelerated away from their fallen savior.

  *

  Paris, France.

  2048-12-31

  Back in safety their closeness to death seemed to be far away. Twelve hours later, they were in the group's headquarters outside of Paris. After they had managed to escape they arrived at a village on the east coast of Africa. There, Backmann had arranged for a plane to be waiting for them and it had taken them to Paris.

  They had received medical help and Richard's arm had been put in bandage. They had been received by Backmann and had in recent hours gone through what had happened. Elisabeth sat and sipped a cup of tea. The soft chamomile scent calmed her, she was still upset that Jonathan had been captured.

  She found herself in what she thought was a gathering room and stared at the holoscreen. On the screen three people sat and discussed the development in the last hours in Hong Kong and Macau. At the bottom of the screen an update rolled of the recent clashes that had resulted in more than a hundred deaths.

  * * *

  Richard was down in the lab with Malin and Elisabeth. They stood in front of a metal table and looked at each other. It was hot inside the room.

  Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead and ran down his temples. Small weak electronic humming sounds was heard sporadically in the round room.

  It was hard to locate where the sound was coming from as there were no visible electronic equipment anywhere. The walls were covered with what looked like large beveled mirrors and Elisabeth saw infinite copies of themselves that went in and out of each other in a surrealistic dance. It was one of the strangest room that he had ever seen, he had been in the room several times but he still was fascinated every time he saw it.

  The floor was made of white metal that gave a mute, muffled sound when you walked on it. All of the round ceiling was covered by what looked like an oversized lamp and gave a constant, cold light. From the floor went a massive metal pillar straight up a meter. The surface on the metal pillar was shining, it was so polished that Elisabeth could see every detail in her face.

  A weak, clicking sound was heard and one of the wall mirrors fell in and then slid in behind the other one. In the opening Julius Dann stepped in. The long white coat with the small strokes softly caressed his body. He was tall and thin, on the limit to skinny. But behind his fragile appearance there was a razor sharp brain. Julius had studied space technology in Lulea and he had one year left of his education when he dropped out, recruited by Backm
ann to come and work for the Amber group.

  He looked at Elisabeth.

  “What’s this you have found?” and held up the holocube. His eyes shined with expectation and he could barely keep his enthusiasm controlled. Elisabeth saw Julius put it on the table and he pushed on something on a control panel.

  Elisabeth looked intently at the surface of the holocube but could not see what it was made of. The surface had an opaque, silvery appearance but it had at the same time what seemed like small whirls drawn on the surface. After several seconds she saw that they were not drawn nor static. They seemed to move around on its surface. She gasped. They glided against the edges of the holocube and without being affected they glided over the edge and continued as if nothing happened. His hands got sweaty and she instinctively pulled up her shoulders. The holocube looked like it was alive. Julius raised his hand.

  “Wait, watch this.”

  They watched when Julius walked over to a cabinet, opened a box and pulled out something wrapped in soft velvet. Without a word he walked back to the table and gently put down the wrapped object he was holding in his hand. They gasped when Julius pulled out the Skydisc from Nebra from its velvet wrapping.

  Julius carefully lifted the Skydisc and laid it on the table next to the holocube. They stared bewitched on the beautiful green-golden bronze disk and the small holocube. At first nothing happened and Richard were just about to ask Julius what he meant when something occurred.

  They stared at the holocube that slowly rose up and over the Skydisc. It seemed like gravitation had decided that just now, just there, for the holocube in front of them, would no longer be in effect. It was free to do what it wanted. Her finger trembled as she pointed at it.