Without looking at me the big black guy in front of me said, “Gabriel sent me to get you. Don’t ask questions. Follow me and stay under the cover of the taxi rank. Follow me now.”
He started walking away and, shocked as I was, I followed him. He got in the taxi, leaving the door open, and I climbed in headfirst after him. I heard him say something to the Dev in the cab but didn’t catch what it was.
“You got a Devstick on you?”
“Yes.”
“Give it ‘ere, lie low in the seat and strip off,” he said in a low voice, smiling. I blew out my cheeks in a sigh and rolled my eyes. Does everybody I meet have to see me strip? I undressed, lying low in the seat, and as I did so, he picked up my discarded outers and inners and tossed them in a bag. The taxi had pulled out of the airport. All I could see from my position were the lights lining the Travway. Naked as the day I was born, I turned to him, spreading my hands.
He raised a finger to his lips and shook his head. Then he reached into a backpack that I hadn’t noticed and pulled out a pair of shorts and a t-shirt with an ‘I’ a big heart and ‘Pussy’ written on it. I put them on, but when I started to rise from my low position he shook his head again. He smiled, his huge white teeth gleaming in the dark of his face, indicating with his hands that I should lower my head. I did. I felt his hands smoothing over the tops of my head, down around my ears and then around my neck. He gave me a thumbs-up and pulled a large floppy white hat out of the backpack and jammed it on my head. He patted his hand, palm downwards, to indicate I should lay low. I lay and watched the travlights and blue sky go by.
Wondering if this was an elaborate ruse by my uncle, I decided I was giving him too much credit, but also wondered why he would go to all of this trouble. With Mariko under his control, he could simply ask me and I’d tell him what I knew. Or would I? I didn’t know the answer to that and didn’t really want to. I was cramped, squatting on the floor of the cab below window level, but I stayed where I was. Suddenly the taxi picked up pace and I felt myself pushed against the back edge of the back seat.
About five mins later, we slowed. All I saw was a ceiling and then lights on a wall as we turned and then descended. I knew this because I was thrust forward sharply against the back of the seat in front of me. And then we stopped and the doors opened. I looked at my companion but he was already climbing out of the cab so I followed suit. The cab turned around and pulled out of what I now could see what an underground parking lot.
The black guy walked over to a large tanker. Written in gold on the white tank was, ‘Vanishing Point Vineyards’. He continued to the rear of the tanker, and pulled a handle while pushing another button. The whole rear end of the tanker swung free. He smiled at me and shifted his eyes to the inside of the tank and then raised his eyebrows at me.
I walked around him and looked inside. It had a compartment built into its mid section about two-thirds inside the tank. The compartment had another small door in that with a big round handle set in it. I jumped in and went to the door. I turned the circular handle until the door swung free and then, once sitting inside what was probably roomy enough for cramped four adults, I closed the door and locked it shut again.
I was now inside a tin box, inside another tin box, and being driven somewhere. I should count to keep track of the time, I thought, and began counting. Wait a minute, this is pointless. You have no control over where you are going or what time it will take to get there. So what is the point of knowing the time? Right, think of something else. Mariko. Images of her. At the Nineveh sitting across from me in that pool. In the book shop in Orchard. On the beach in Sisik. Naked under me on the floor in the house. I’ve got to get you out of this babe, and I will. Or die trying. So this is why people believe in God? So they can have someone to ask to help save someone they love.
I slid forward on the seat. We’d stopped. I heard three raps on the tank. Opening the door of the compartment, the rear of the tanker was already open and I could see we were in some kind of building.
I jumped out of the tanker and the black guy hugged me. “Oh mate, it’s so good to see you. When we heard Gabe’s bro’ was still alive, we were all so happy for him and now to meet you. Just a beauty, mate. Eh, let me look at you.” With this he pushed me away from him with his hands clasping my shoulders. I realized with his push just how strong he was. “You look like yer old man,” he said, smiling even broader. I smiled back, it was impossible not to, his face was so warm.
“My name’s Maloo, mate. It means ‘Thunder’ in English, but you can call me me Loo if you wants.”
I waied him. And he grabbed me again. “No mate, no wais, just hugs. I wanna feel you.” I smiled and he threw a massive arm around my neck and pulled me towards a huge stack of barrels. There was a Porsche Diablo and a couple of white BMW Airbikes that looked very close to what UNPOL use but without the lights and sirens.
Maloo did something on his Devstick and the stack of barrels moved across the floor of the warehouse. Underneath them, in the floor, a metal plate slid sideways. Steps led down into a passage. Maloo pushed me in front of him and I went down the steps. It was a thin passage, just wide and tall enough to walk slightly hunched over. If another person came the other way, you’d have to turn back or climb over each other.
There was a single line of strip lights leading the way around a curve up ahead. The curve kept going and the tunnel looked the same.
“About two hundred and fifty meters down, we’ll come to another set of steps but there’s a fork up ahead. Take the left fork. OK?”
His voice echoed in the tunnel. The only other sound was our footsteps on the concrete floor. I took the fork and, after walking another fifty meters, saw the steps. I went up these and came to another door which opened just as I approached the top of the stairs. Standing in the light of the doorframe was Gabriel. I recognized his shape.
He smiled and held his arms out wide. I realized in that instant how alone and lost I had been these past few days. A hard lump hit the bottom of my throat and my eyes teared. We hugged and I held him tight. I sniffed and breathed out loud still hugging him tightly.
“He’s got Mariko.”
“I know. I read the message he sent you. It’s going to be OK, my brother We’re going to get her back.” He squeezed me hard and then with his arm around my shoulder led me into the room, which was another warehouse but this one was all flying vehicles and a rubber dinghy on a motorized trailer.
“Come on. There’s someone I want you to meet, and we have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time, as usual. But let’s get to the house and we can talk there.”
We crossed the warehouse and this time a workbench moved sideways and a flight of stairs appeared. It was obvious that this wasn’t set up as a temporary place.
“Is this where you've been living?” I asked Gabriel as we walked down the flight of stairs which were wide enough to fit both of us side by side.
“Yes. I’ve lived here for about twenty years. I trav a lot but always under assumed identities. I’ve never used my real identity. I knew that Sir Thomas was just waiting and that would have been the end of me.”
We came to a set of doors that looked like they were sealed with fat black rubber-like bands on either side of them. Inside was a four-seated pod.
“You’ve got your own Lev tube!” I exclaimed. I had never heard of anyone having a private Lev tube, but of course buildings had them.
“Yes, the house is about ten kiloms away and this is the quickest and most discreet way of getting there.”
We all took a seat and with a command to his Devstick, Gabriel shut the doors. We took off fast — I slid over on the seat to Maloo who was sitting next to me. He laughed.
“Not quite as smooth as commercial Levs but it’s safe. Don’t worry about that,” Gabriel said this and I realized he’d braced himself against the sides of the pod, as had Maloo. I nodded and smiled at my brother. It was great to see him. Just when I needed him most.
The Lev rapidly decelerated but I was ready and braced for it, coming to a stop with a thump against something that gave. We rocked back a bit until locking into place. The doors opened and there was another small platform with concrete steps leading upwards. I followed Gabriel out and we went up the steps to a door at the top.
The door opened into a small room with another door. When Gabriel opened that one inwards, I saw that it had various cleaning equipment hanging off it and then he opened another door and I realized the access to the Lev was hidden in a cleaning equipment storage closet. What a life he must have had to live like this, I thought.
The cleaning closet emptied us out onto a wooden floor passageway with white doors at both ends. Gabriel
