‘I find it rather amusing that she was so caught up in her obsession to escape that she did not once seem to truly question why she was here in the first place,’ Dr Ogilvy commented with a smirk. ‘You told her that you had kidnapped her because you needed her medical skills, correct?’
The General nodded with a sly grin.
‘And it was never mentioned to her again,’ he said. ‘Strange, is it not, how tunnel vision can capture a mortal’s attention so wholly. She knew after a while that my kind cannot fall ill, that we have no need of medical skills or medication. Yet she was so obsessed with escaping that it did not even seem to cross her mind that there may be another reason why I’d captured her. In truth, this was the weakest part of my plan. I was worried that she’d figure out her kidnapping had been done for another purpose, but thankfully she did not discover this.’
The corners of Dr Ogilvy’s lips curled up into a subtle smile.
‘Thankfully indeed,’ she said. ‘Now, what about our Canadian friends in Bafa?’
‘They are ready to pull her from the river, and their Land Rover is ready to go. They will act, of course, as if they are shocked and surprised. It will be perfect; she will be taken through the border – the guards have already been paid off – to the American embassy in Uganda. And from there, after spending some time recovering in a medical institution of some sort, she will be flown straight back to the United States.’
Dr Ogilvy’s eyes sparkled with savage delight.
‘And then everything we have been working toward these past few years can truly be realised. It’s all going to come to fruition.’
‘You are absolutely sure that the virus is undetectable?’ the General asked.
‘All of our trials have indicated that it is indeed completely undetectable. There’s no way they’ll pick it up, no matter what blood tests they run on her. And I don’t imagine they’ll be getting too advanced or digging too deep in whatever hospital they put her into in Uganda.’
Now it was the General’s turn to smile eerily as he peered again through his binoculars.
‘She’s in the barrel now, and she’s pushing out into the river. There, yes … she’s caught the current, and is starting to move faster. That’s it! She’s going, going … gone.’
‘Well then, there we have it, General,’ Dr Ogilvy murmured. ‘We have just successfully launched what is going to be the greatest attack on the North American continent in all of recorded history.’
59
THE GENERAL
8th October 2020. T’Kalanjathu
The General emerged from his two hour deep meditation session with slow calm, like a butterfly easing itself from the warm confines of a gently broken cocoon. Seated in the lotus position, he was clad only in a white boxer briefs. He had meditated, as he usually did, in the centre of his small room, which was spartan in both décor and furnishings; the only items in the simple chamber of stone were a reed mat on the floor, on which he slept, a basic clothing rack, a large and well-stocked bookshelf, and a desk with a computer and writing equipment, where which he could work, conduct research and communicate with his agents across the world. On the floor next to his sleeping mat, within easy grasping reach, were his weapons of choice in case of an emergency: a single-handed war-hammer and a Glock 21 .45 pistol. On the clothes rack hung his dress uniform, camouflage fatigues, combat armour and some coveralls for manual labour. A pair of dress shoes, along with two pairs of boots – one for battle, one for fieldwork and maintenance – had been placed, neatly cleaned, next to the door.
Standing in one corner, wrapped in a shroud of linen, though, was one more item in this sparsely furnished chamber. And when the General stood up after his meditation session, he headed over to this long, thin object and picked it up. He then carried it to the opposite corner of the room, where there was a ladder leading up to the ceiling, in which there was a trapdoor. Gripping the item in his left hand, he ascended the ladder, opened the trapdoor and climbed through it, emerging onto a flat roof.
His room was one of the highest points in the whole city. Originally designed as a sentinel tower, it commanded an expansive view over both the interior of T’Kalanjathu and the landscape without. Now, at around four o’clock in the morning, the entire city was dark and silent, and since most of the bioluminescent fungi had stopped giving off their light, it reminded the General of when he had first returned to T’Kalanjathu many decades ago.
I spent my first evening back here on this very spot, alone in the ruins, these ruins that had been almost entirely devoured by the jungle. Yes, this very spot where my mother used to take me as a boy all those centuries ago, showing me the constellations and telling me of all the galaxies and solar systems of which our wise women and astronomers had great knowledge. So much was lost, so much knowledge gone forever. So much fell because of war, because of lies, because of envy, jealousy and greed. And lust, oh yes, lust too … lust for power.
Humankind has not changed, not at all. Not in the two thousand years that I have lived on this planet. These same dark urges continue to dominate, continue to blot out what little light there is, the light that struggles like a lone candle in the dark against a howling gale. But I must remain dedicated to keeping that flame alive, however horrendously the wind and darkness rage against the light. This is my purpose, this is why my soul was sent to this plane. The energies of the universe are deeply concerned about the greatimbalances of light and dark in this place,
