Chapter 20

We arrived in a large room, obviously some type of laboratory. Solomon immediately led us into a much smaller room. This seemed to be a combination lounge and occasional quarters. It had a couch that could serve as a bed and a door leading into a bathroom and changing room. Solomon opened a closet, which held some spare clothing. He handed me what looked like a jumpsuit, only fancier. As instructed, I just stepped into it, pressed the two ends together in front, and it sealed itself together so I couldn’t even see the seam. Then he led me into a medium-sized office.

A man with shoulders that looked like he was wearing football pads was sitting at the desk, his hand totally engulfing a cup of coffee. As we entered he stood up ... and up, and up.

“Barney, I’d like to introduce you to...”

“Teknos Thanatopolous! But he – I mean, I thought he was ... Oh, boy.”

“What is it, Barney?”

“I thought he had died in the assassination of some high level female official,” I said, feeling like a combination of a fool and an idiot. “At least, that’s what the scene showed.”

“Oh, yes. You mean those vids the SF created to discredit me.”

“Uh, yeah. Those things.”

“Well, as you can see,” Solomon said dryly, “reports of Teknos’ death were greatly exaggerated.”

“I know, I know,” I said testily. “Still, the scenes were real for me, remember? It’s just kind of weird to meet someone I mentally accepted as dead, even though you explained the whole thing was just special effects.”

“Well, they obviously never expected you to travel into the future and find out they had created such a blatant lie. If nothing else, I guess this proves what they were willing to do to get you to help them catch me.”

“I guess,” I responded ruefully. “At least I hope this is as bad as it gets.”

Even then, something told me those guys I had met were capable of even nastier things. Little did I know!

Solomon evidently explained our conversation to Teknos. The man laughed with a rich, baritone bellow. As I turned shades ranging from rose petal pink to beet red, Teknos slapped me on the back, nearly knocking me to the floor, and told me not to worry about such silliness. For my own peace of mind, that’s what I assumed. I never did ask Solomon to translate exactly what was said. Instead, he made a suggestion to eliminate the need for translation.

“May I suggest you have a translator implant immediately? That way, you won’t have a problem being understood.”

“Oh, like those Security Force guys had? Well, they made it sound easy. Is it really?”

“I assure you it’s a quick and painless procedure. Once it’s done, you won’t even notice you had the implant.”

If that was true, then I figured what the heck. If I managed to live and return to my own time, I would be able to speak any language in the world, once the little computer had gathered enough words and speaking patterns to reproduce it. That would be really cool if I ever decided to travel much. Without any further discussion, I agreed.

“Very good. Teknos will take you to an out-patient surgery clinic. One of the doctors is very sympathetic to the cause, and he’ll perform the implant. You should be back within two hours, and then I’ll introduce you to the rest of the group.”

That got me excited. I was really eager to meet this band of non-violent revolutionaries who dared to challenge the entire world government.

Teknos and I went up this chute, which I guess was their equivalent of an elevator. Although I had no idea of why we went up instead of down, or why we stopped right where Teknos wanted us to, the machine obviously worked perfectly. Then I really got shocked.

We walked through this huge room that was like “Sodom meets Gomorrah.” I’m no prude – oh, alright, so maybe I’m a little prudish – but this was way over the line! I don’t know how to explain it. It wasn’t really raunchy. A connoisseur of such things would probably have described it as ‘extremely erotic, sublimely sensual, graphic without being overtly obscene.” Whatever. It was definitely decadent. I was totally shocked that Solomon would get within ten miles of such a place. He had mentioned something about his ‘cover’ when telling me his life story, of course. But, as he had not specifically prepared me for such a scene, it nearly knocked me for a loop before we got out of the building.

The best way I can describe the rest of the new world, at least what I saw of it, was ‘seamless’. Just like the clothes they wore. The moving sidewalks were like little rivers of some sort of plastic that flowed into one another, and yet were perfectly solid to stand or walk on. No matter how large they were, the buildings all seemed to be made of one solid sheet of whatever. I never could determine the material. They didn’t even seem to have any kind of internal structural reinforcing I could figure out. Teknos walked with long, bold strides along the moving walkway, and I tried my best to keep up while my head and eyes were moving in multiple directions.

Far above, I could see the dark sky of the night. No stars were visible, of course, because of the glaring, pulsing, multi-colored lights blazing from every point. As late as it was, however, it seemed to me like walking the streets of New York City in the middle of a business day. I had no idea of where we were.

People of all colors, sizes, clothing patterns, and other strange and exotic differences jostled and flowed and confronted and contrasted as we moved along. It was a good thing the streets were a maelstrom of humanity. Otherwise, I may have stuck out like a rube on his first visit to the big city. I may have reinvented the concept of gawking with an open mouth! Fortunately, no one paid any attention to me.

Teknos finally led me into one of the countless buildings in competition to see which one could rise the highest into the clear sky. It seemed pollution was a thing of the past in this seamless world, which was just fine by me. Although the elevator tubes were extremely fast, this one took a long time to go up to whatever floor we exited on.

We entered an office that epitomized the whole society. It was large and sterile looking, with very sparse, utilitarian furniture seeming to grow out of the floors and walls. Yet, as late as it was, it was packed with the same variety of humanity that teemed through the streets below.

Another difference I noticed immediately was the efficiency of this medical clinic. In spite of the huge crowd, I don’t think anyone waited more than ten minutes before they were called in to see a doctor. What really got to me, however, were the people who left the office in a steady flow. The outgoing patients almost all seemed to be walking out on their own, and in pretty good control of themselves. Whatever they were using in the way of anesthetics and surgical procedures, I fervently hoped would be just as effective when it came time to use them on me.

I needn’t have worried. When my turn came, I was led straight into an operating room that defied description. They didn’t even make me change my smock before I lay down on a very warm, comfortable table. A whiff of some sort of gas totally paralyzed me, although I felt like I was gently floating on a cloud of pure bliss. I barely even noticed when the incisions were made by a tiny, intense light source. Both my throat and ears were implanted with the translator devices. Then they sealed my skin back together without any trace of a mark. There was another whiff of some gas. Suddenly I was back in the world, totally aware of myself and the very slight discomfort in my throat and ear. Lost in amazement over the ease and lack of pain of the whole procedure, it took me a moment to realize I understood every word everyone was saying.

As we headed back to the hideout cum porno parlor, I was the ultimate rube. The gawking was nearly gone, but now I was bending my ear to catch every silly phrase every person on the moving sidewalk was saying. Teknos had this mildly amused pucker on his puss the entire time. Fortunately, I was far too entertained by the totally mundane, boring, even silly chatter these future people were making to worry about the entertainment I was providing for him. So maybe it all worked out even, as I was both providing and being provided entertainment.

We finally got back to the hideout, as I called it, and the group eventually picked up that archaic term. By that time, I was really pumped. Honestly, I hadn’t felt this much nervous excitement, this much uncertain anticipation since the first few days I started using the TDM to make my fortune. Since then, it had all seemed like predestination, being totally confident of everything Solomon had told me would happen exactly according to the script. Now, it was all up in the air. I was in the future. After the next few months, even Solomon didn’t know what would happen, give or take a few days. It was all a major crapshoot, and I was once again hoping to become a major player.

Magnificent mandala! It was good to have some serious excitement back in my life.

There was a downside to the operation, naturally. As we once again walked through that den of iniquity to get to the drop tube, as I learned it was called, I understood a lot more of what was being said, which embarrassed me even more. Ignorance can be bliss sometimes...

Now much later than when we had left, the porno parlor was packed with wall-to-wall sex seekers. This ran the gamut from closet voyeurs to people actively trying to join in with the performances. These seemed to be equally divided between men, women and ‘other’. I couldn’t even begin to describe all the variations of ‘other’ I saw.

Still dazzled and more than a little disturbed from this experience, I silently followed Teknos down the drop tube. As excited as I had been to meet the rest of Solomon’s group, the events of the evening had made me completely forget about his promise. I suppose that’s what made the meeting twice the surprise.

When we entered the office, I saw Solomon with two other people. One of them was a wizened little fellow in what looked like a fancy wheelchair, although it floated off the ground. The other was a young woman whom I immediately recognized.

As I looked at her, I now understood what had captivated me when I saw her ‘image’ on the vids the Security Force had manufactured. Solomon’s mistress, the Numbers Brothers had said. Well, I could see why. Katherine was not beautiful, or even really pretty in the traditional sense. She was what I would have called striking. By that I mean most people would have had their eye drawn to her in a crowd for at least a moment, without being dazzled by her looks or even knowing why she had attracted their gaze.

Her eyes were very large, very soft and vulnerable, like a young doe just starting to learn there were dangers lurking in the world around. Her features were somewhat sharp, yet delicate at the same time. They reminded me of renderings you might see in a book about elves or fairies or some other sort of fantastic creature. Yet the body was all woman.

Katherine was at least eight inches shorter than me, standing maybe five feet two inches tall. But what a figure! She went in and out in all the right places, and I thought she did it quite nicely. She certainly wasn’t what you’d call voluptuous, but absolutely what anyone could have described as well proportioned.

“Hello, Barney?”

“What?”

“Are you there?”

“Well, of course I am. Where did you think I would be?”

“I don’t know. You seemed to fade out on us for a moment.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, don’t take this unkindly, but you looked like a character I saw in this ancient movie about a hunchback in some cathedral staring down at a girl.”

“I looked like nothing of the sort!”

“You were doing everything but the drooling.”

“Solomon, are you trying to start a fight?”

“Don’t be silly. You know I’m a pacifist. I’d like you to meet the rest of the Revos,” he continued without a hitch in his delivery, although I could hear the smirk behind it. “You’ve met Teknos Phillipe Thanatopolous, of course. This is Waymond Antonius Sampras, better known to us as ‘Wafer’, as you know,” Solomon said with obvious affection in his voice.

“I’ve heard a lot about you, Waymond Sampras,” I said. Knowing that sounded really stiff, I added, “But may I call you Wafer?”

He smiled broadly. “I’d be honored. I’ve also heard a lot about you.”