Kane repeated his encounter with Mordant that morning. The trio decided to stay the night at the Wockhart’s but Sati and Mr. Wockhart thought it best to leave the three alone. Sayan took them upstairs to his old rooms. “It has never been the same after the flares last year.” Sayan moaned.
A ravager gave a low howl from the outside. Sayan sniggered and sat down rubbing his hands together. A stifling heat was issuing from the cealing above.Kane pulled the two closer and said, “Mordant came to visit me today”“What?” Indrani screamed.“Wicked!” Sayan said with his mouth hanging open.“Turn on your weather conditioners and I’ll tell you what happened”Indrani pulled out her comm, pressed some buttons and with a soft chime her special weather conditioner whirred somewhere above their heads. The room instantly cooled down. Indrani slumped on an armchair with Kane and Sayan on either side.“Tell me about it!”Kane told them about his trip to Effie’s home and peacekeeper Robert Debransky’s report on the Parson’s fire. He explained how he thought the fountain maker could give him a clue about the chest of Pridewen, deliberately missing the part where Mordant named her as an approver for the changed design.“That son of a raveger! I wish I was there. I could have been your double for real”Kane grunted!“I’ve not been recording for the radio for three weeks now. It’s like I just can joke any more. My audience need new skits every week. I think I’m exhausted. ‘When the Wockhart’s Wink’ eh? ”“It’s the best radio show their is” Kane patted Sayan’s back.“Focus Kane” Indrani said, “did you find out anything about the chest?”“I hoped you’d help me there.” He said to Indrani.“Yeah! What is all this about?” Sayan said, rooling his eyes.Indrani took a deep breath and in a monotonous voice said, “The dwarfs enjoyed a superior position after the fall of the Vulcans, the rulers of the ancient’s in the 3100’s. After the ‘Kritakash Landing’…”Sayan raised his eyebrow at Indrani and she added kindly, “When the humans first set foot on the planet on their vessel Kritakash. Anyways, the dwarfs had close ties with the ruling class of the eleven kingdoms of Canneti. Evidence suggested that among the eight tribes of the dwarfs, King Aethelwulf the bold, from the house of Wessex, unified the eleven kingdoms and established their tribe as the rulers of the realm. For two centuries, the dwarf’s ruled the men and aliens and developed a social structure that had the Royals of Wessex as the Monarchs, the Warriors, the Healers and the workers.After Edward the Confessor, the eighth king of the dwarfs died childless the council appointed an alien, Nennius Ambrosius who claimed descent from Sturgis the Great, as the ruler. The dwarfs rebelled but were soon overpowered by the aliens. Once the most powerful creatures, the dwarfs across the planet were massacred, mercilessly. The humans (or earthlings as we know them today) realized they would be killed too and asked help from an exceptional human commander of the Canneti army, William the Conqueror who killed the second Alien king Harold Godwinson and established his reign""Wait, what happened to Nennius?" Sayan interjected.
"Dead! Killed by his commander-in-cheif" Kane said dryly.
"There were riots all across the planet and the Aliens were dragged out from their homes, burnt alive and murdered. The aliens went into hiding on the island of the dead alongside the dwarfs. The one who left behind, married with the humans to save themselves from the massacre, “the demiliens’. Most of the aliens went extinct probably because they considered sex a taboo.”
Kane said in a deep voice, “They would have disappeared anyway, intermingling with humans was the only choice of survival”“The source of William the conqueror is a topic of intense debate. Humans believe it was sheer machismo and celebrate him as Saint Luso” said Sayan.Indrani nodded, “some believe it was the wand of Sturgis that gave Willian the Conquerer power over the Aliens and the dwarfs.” They sat in silence for a minute in which Sayan and Indrani snuggled closer and Kane fidgeted with a copy of the Canneti Dwan.There on the first page was the picture of the Power Plant Engineer and his stacks of stoners being loaded in a peacekeepers truck. Kane suddenly felt for his pocket and jumped.“What is it?” screeched Indrani.Kane looked at her and said nothing. He rummaged in his coat pocket deeper. His butcher’s knife was missing.It was stiflingly hot on the streets, and Kane’s raging heart was not helping. He felt like a sizzling steak, salty and ready to eat. He raced towards his island of solitude and flung open the door. It had to be here somewhere. He scattered his fine collection of knifes and daggers. No sign of it. He proceeded to rummage inside his bag but the force of his eagerness ripped it open and the contents fell on the floor with a clatter. He dropped to his knees and looked. Nothing. He had to trace his steps back from the pier. Going back to a crime scene was as good as suicide. How could have he been so careless. Wild theories of Sati finding out his hobby each one more absurd that the other formed inside his head. He went back to the deserted pier at the harbor but with least hopes of finding it. It was too crowded and anyone could have picked it up. After an hour of frantically searching for the foot long shiny blade, he decided to return to the crime scene. He went back to t
A handsome three tiered concrete dome rose in the distance, blazing white in the blatant morning sun. A lawn stretched out in front where a fountain was playing in the center. Gravel crackled beneath his feet as Broot dashed towards the front door. A tiny dwarf bowed down and flung the gate opes as Broot waved his hand to enter. The hallway was large, lines of dusty portrait of look alike goblins adorned the walls, the stone floor was covered in a moth eaten carpet. A rank smell of decay hung in the air. The hallway ended and a heavy door blocked his path. He took a deep breath and turned the stone handle. The room was dark and full of dwarfs sitting at a long stone table. At the far end of the table, a goblin sat beside the central figure. A thin dwarf with pointed ears and a blue half jacket. “Broot” the dwarf said, “Come, we were waiting just for you.” Broot walked in closer and the face of the thin lean dwarf with watery blue eyes shoe through the gloom.
Kane was wandering in the passover, diamonds bouncing off his shoulders and flying into blue smoke. He walked in the rainbow lights flickering off the falling rain. He had no sense of where he was going, the cogs of his brain whirring and moving as he traced every detail of his adventures with the power plant engineer. He was not in that shell that walked on the maglev roads, shining wet. And yet when the comm rang he knew it was Sati and he knew she would be bitter. His hands were already sweating as he grabbed the comm and answered. “Yes,” he said.“Where are you? Sayan said you left hours ago?” the annoyed voice said“I’m at work,” He said as casually as he could.“Really? You take me for a fool, huh?. Kane, tell me the truth” she yelled.“What truth” Kane said heart pounding, Harry had to go, he had made up his mind.“You are sleeping with her, aren’t you?”“Who… What are you talking about?”“That girl from the news, Effie. I know you were there last night”
Kane Morgan sucked deep on the greenish smoke from the leaf cigar and leaned back on the bed. The darkness of the room pressed on in the feeble light from a lone lamp in the corner.It had been three days since he set foot outside. Efiie sat beside him on the bed. Luckily she had a virtual job. Kane found it amusing. He was the hardworking, bring-it-on kind of guy and didn’t understand how she could work wall those emotions in the soulless digital world. He offered her a puff and put his arms around her. She put out the cigar and he kissed her gently on the lips. Her mouth was sweet and he gents pulled her down on the bed. She closed her eyes and Kane felt her heart drum against his. They made love until it was time for lunch. After lunch they made love again and Kane asked, “what do you want to eat for the third meal?”She pressed against him “Just you” she said. “What will you say to your wife?”Kane had
The tracer took four hours, sometimes five to return a search. Effie would be finished by then. Kane took a deep breath and decided to clear the air between him and Sati. It had to be done, no matter how much he hated her. He left the building and in fifteen minutes was at his destination. Everything around him flashed white blinding him for an instant and then he was back in a dim lit hallway of the Wockhart's residence. The tall form of Sayan Wockhart was standing right in front of Kane, eyes groggy and red, wearing a electric blue night robe with tiny hats printed in black all over it. A stone basin was shimmering in the corner. Sayan looked like he had swallowed a toad. “Where have you been, you moron!” Yelled Sayan raising his eyebrow. “You should try it sometime, funny how it makes you take the plunge” Kane looked at him with dull eyes and sighed. "Try what? Cheating on my wife? Disappearing for weeks
Sati walked out of the Wockhart house and went straight to her office. She closed the door and making sure there wasn’t anyone in the hallway outside, she pulled out a piece of paper that had a code on it. She dialed the code and a wireframe three dimensional image of the 404 CONTENT NOT FOUND popped up over the comm. A deep voice answered, “I was waiting for your call”“I have news. He has moved in with her. That’s where he was for two weeks”“I told you he’s cheating on you”There was an awkward silence broken only by the static of the comm.“What should I do now?”“Listen to me. Do as I say and we might still get him.”“Get him how?” Sati screeched. Talking about separating was one thing. Being separated was other. She felt like a broken piece of furniture nobody cared about. “He has an empire and you were with him when he built it. You deserve your share. I’ll help you with the court case, but I need hard evidence. Stay at his home for a while and gathe
Kane even with all the technology of this day wouldn’t have found it possible. The plethora of information recorded over the centuries, and classified genealogically. It made him swoon over the earthling. Satellites were useless in the intense heat of R-786. It made radio communication impossible. But earthlings had found the way out. They sent short burst of signals for a kilometer, captured it at small foot long heat attenuators or HAR and sent the signal forward. A network of these HAR poles all across the planet was what the earthlings had established. And for what? To allow someone like him to track down and kill the corrupt among them. He was certainly enjoying himself for he received the tracer back with data. Data that corroborated with the request for TASK. And he was flying at an altitude of about two metres above the shining slag covered giant magnet strips under the asphalt that the humans used to ride their wheel based vehicles. He preferred flying
Fate had done Dilip no favors this morning. He'd dashed from his office into the open road. A mysterious man had walked into his office seconds ago and demanded to know all about the Pridewen’s chest. He refused. The maniac pulled out a lighting gun and aimed straight at his heart. Dilip was holding a hot grubbly root drink. He flung the glass cup straight at his face and dashed out. The curb of the walkway had stopped him mid stride and swung him hard left before falling. Dilip was suddenly stumbling off balance into the blinding sun. When he’d looked up, he was heading straight for a cluster of trees across the road. He had a weak heart and his left knee was broken years ago in a freak accident. The gift of the chest. He jumped over, brushing a loosely hung rope and dashed in. By the time he realized where it led, it was too late. Now he stood in a confined cell of trees and caught his breath. His side burned. Narrow slats of sun streamed through the openings in the grove. He