Chapter 4 – Just Visiting
A loud bang woke Arowin up from his sleep inside the forest that is his home. He is an indigenous inhabitant of that forest. One of the few left in this world. The trees are gigantic, and Arowin’s shelter is inside a cave whose only exit is the side hole near the top of one of those gigantic trees. The tree serves as a tunnel to the exit at the top. He removes his blanket which is the skin of a wolf-like creature. He decides to go check out and see what is going on. He skips over stepping rocks across the underground river then climbs up through the slanted tree that curves up after about 30 feet. Arowin then grabs onto a thick vine hanging down from the top. He swings side to side on the inside of the 25 foot diameter tree, climbing a few steps after reaching each side. Keeping the motion going and swinging from side to side, he then grabs onto a hole near the top and peeks outside and sees a group of soldiers passing by with one soldier shooting indiscriminately with a weapon that looks like a bazooka. The soldier is trying to shoot at a hidrome, a creature that looks like a moose but with a thick shell on its body. They obviously want his shell to use as an armour.
Arowin recognizes the army; they are from the rival clan of Arowin’s people. They are obviously unaware that they have entered Arowin's tribe territory. He will have to alert his tribe. He could blow a whistle that sounds like one of the exotic bird here. But he chose not to make any sound for fear of alerting the trespassers. He sent a skuadia instead, a chameleon-like animal with long flexible back legs like a kangaroo. It can jump between trees and over long distances without making any noise. The bottom of his feet are tiny pores that allow it to grab onto a tree. Like a pigeon, it has a homing capability, able to find its way back home even over long distances. This made them ideal for delivering messages. Arowin attaches an animal skin to its back with a specific symbol to alert the other members of their tribe. As more and more members are alerted, a unique bird sound was sounded. Arowin recognizes that as a ready signal. The next sound would signify an attack.
The trespassers don’t know what hit them immediately after the second weird bird call sounded. They are being attacked from all sides by indigenous people wearing only loincloths. Arowin sees their leader in full armour and grabs onto a lianas vine and swings toward the leader. The leader turns around just as Arowin lands. Both of them draw their swords, and a duel ensues. Arowin's head is an inch away from being chopped off if he have not swerved and back off. The leader quickly recovers and sweeps the sword right back at Arowin. Arowin swings his sword up in time to block the sword but the force throws him back a bit. He can see from his peripheral vision that one of the trespassers has pointed an arrow in his direction. He quickly flips several times dodging the arrow and the leader’s sword. He ends up beside a dead soldier. He quickly picks up two throw knives laying beside the dead soldier. Arowin quickly makes an advance to attack the leader again but at the same time throws the knife to the side impaling the arrow man who was trying to grab a new arrow. Arowin jumps to attack the leader. The leader smiles, thinking he has him this time for sure. As soon as Arowin jumps, he throws the other knife that was hidden below his arm. The knive heads in the leader’s direction. The leader's eyes widen, and he quickly uses his sword to block the knife. As he tries to raise his sword again, Arowin's sword lands right on his neck, the part that does not have any armour. The wide, shocked eye of the leader just stares at Arowin as he slowly falls to the ground.
Arowin quickly moves to help his clan members. But he suddenly hears a loud horn. “Darn!” He exclaims in frustration. He knows what that is and know that only he can hear it. He signals to one of his clan members that he is retreating. His clan mate nods in acknowledgement.
Arowin jumps back into his tree and pulls aside the thick branches to reveal the entrance to his home. He jumps down into the tree and sees flashes of lights, like a wormhole passing through. He lands in a crouching position. Then everything turns black.
He removes his cover-over eyeglass, and his eyes are greeted by a bright light. “Darn, I forgot to shut the blinds.” Cedric O'Ryan puts down his eyeglasses and steps down from the platform. He is sweating a lot. He runs to open the door and is greeted by a smiling Eldon.
“So how is my little brother doing?” Cedric smiles back, “Good to see you. But I thought you would not be here until later.”
“Yeah, I was going to stop by to buy something but thought I could do that later. And what are you up to sweating like that?”
“I was just playing the game 'Izaron's Realm' on the Exploratron.” Cedric then shows his brother the gear. It consists of a big round platform with a bit of railing in front and the back. The bottom part looks like a treadmill with rubber that can move and rotate. It has an eyeglass covering up to the peripheral side to simulate a 3D environment including his peripheral vision. Overhead, a few feet up is a rope that Cedric used for the game. Other games’ specific paraphernalia and other add-ons can be installed on side or overhead.
“Impressive.” Eldon observes.
“Yeah. A good workout too.” Cedric says flexing his arm and shoulder muscle.
Eldon then tugs on the rope hanging down and asks, “So this is the vine you used in your abode?”
“Yeah. You want to try?”
“Nah. Maybe some other time.”
“I have the skipping duck game. You just have to jump, that's all.”
“Haha. I can take you on a more challenging game than that.”
“Your pick.”
“Maybe later. I want to go out for some fresh air.”
“By later are we talking hours, months or years?” said Arowin playfully.
“I'll find a game I can beat you on one of these days, and we'll see if it would wipe the smirk on your face.”
Cedric laughs and Eldon smiles and throws a towel at Cedric. “Do yourself a favour and wipe off that sweat.”
“So where do you want to go?” Cedric asks.
“Just walk around the mountain.”
“I have an idea. Let's go to my garage. I want to show you something.”
Cedric opens his garage door. Inside is a recumbent bicycle. A bicycle with a seat that is low to the ground, providing a low centre of gravity. The rider is seated in a laid-back position. It is wide with flexible wheel that can tilt and adjust to different terrain. It has a sail mounted on a pole above the rider. A computer display and processor rest in the bar between the legs.
“What's that?” Eldon wondered.
“A Sail bike I am working on. Hop on. I need a test subject”
“After you.”
Cedric then hops on. The processor in the dashboard lights up. As Cedric hits the pedal, the sail starts to adjust as the processor determines the wind direction and wind speed. The battery power is complimented by power from the pedal. The processor automatically adjusts the sail to meet the rider speed setting. It can adjust the tightness of a rope to control the speed. The rope is equivalent to the main sheet of a sailboat. The sail can be retracted or automatically compressed to reduce drag. Cedric heads to the mountain and he is glad that the wind direction and gust is perfect and it helps the bike climb with ease. He then turns around and heads back to Eldon.
“OK, give me a parachute in case I go over the cliff.” Eldon says.
“The processor will take care of everything, just set your speed and turn where you want to go. You can also press the arrow on both handle to point where you will be turning like a signal light. Helpful if you want a quick change of direction.”
“Great, put my life in the hands of a machine.” Eldon complains but quickly starts pedalling. He then climbs up the mountains.
Banff, Alberta
Eldon and Cedric rise early the next day to drive to Banff, few hours away from Cedric's place. They reached their destination to get their gear for some glacier rafting down the Kananakis River.
Eldon has kayaked a few times before but with a shorter kayak and not on a class 3 river. Beyond cla
ss 4 would be a great challenge even for the experienced kayakers. The water of mixed blue and green flowing down from the glacier is cold to the skin. But the brothers have wet suits on to keep them warm. The suits fit snuggly. They both jump into the water to let the water seep into their suits. It is intentionally designed to let some water in and stay there. The water inside the suit eventually warms up, providing a layer of warm water as insulation from the cold water outside.
They make their way to the first rapid called Widow Maker. The flow is strong like a void sucking all the water towards a hole creating a big drop. It looks like a big tongue sticking out with water flowing down and lots of white water pushing up like a strong boiling motion. Eldon quickly moves his kayak to point downward. The drop down the rapids is exhilarating. They then make a run to the “Hollywood” hole to the left of the river. They move upstream in the eddy. Cedric digs the front of the kayak into the water and does a trick called cartwheeling. His kayak turns perpendicular. Using his body to turn the kayak, he digs the back into the water getting the same result. They go onto other similar play areas. One is called Point Break with what appears to be two waves of water downstream and upstream colliding creating a big ruckus and rolling waves. They play there for a bit, practising their cartwheeling.
They then approach a rapid called Santa Claus, the largest wave yet. The surfing, rolling waves at the drop to the hole is pretty strong, throwing them up a little bit. Some more waves follow them over stretch of several more feet down the river. The stretch of moving water appears like Santa Claus’s beard.
With adrenaline still pumping, they go to Green Tongue, a lighter Point Break, to play some more. Cedric then borrows a surf board from one of the guys resting there and does some surfing at the Green Tongue. He stays up for a good 3 minutes before falling and being swept away.
They then just chill out and take in the sights. Eldon takes a few pictures of an Elk with his new zoom lens. He zooms in on its head appreciating the huge antlers. He then starts to shoot videos.
As the sun is setting, they prepare their tents and start the campfire. As they sit there, Cedric says with a serious expression on his face, “I am going back to the U.S.” Eldon gives him a puzzled look. Cedric continues, “I cannot pretend everything is OK. This place offers a good escape but I have to face reality.”
Cedric moved to Alberta after one of his friend died in a rally. He felt responsible for bringing his friend along and getting involved in politics. The rally was against the CEO of Pegasus Electric Corp who defrauded investors of millions of dollars causing a lot of people to declare bankruptcy. The corporation had contributed millions to the campaign of the current president. He is also rumoured to be close to the Secretary of Treasury. The Senate hearing was blocked and deemed as having insufficient evidence to proceed although no evidence have been presented yet. The day the decision was made, a group of black cloth hooded man charged in to join the rally and started rioting. One of the rubber bullet inadvertently hit his friend in the head.
Eldon sighs, “There will always be corruption in this world. You cannot fight them all. It is part of nature.”
Cedric starts laughing, “I am sorry, but parasites and bacteria are part of nature. We don't just let them spread. We treat them and get rid of them.”
“All I am saying is you have to look after yourself. Let others take care of themselves.” Eldon says as he point his camera to shoot a video of the milky way above.
Cedric eyes are transfixed at the sky. His mind is somewhere else. Half a minute passes before he says anything. “That's what I thought when I moved here. But my mind can't rest knowing injustices are going on. I would hate to live in a world where everybody just look after themselves. My friend's death made me realize how abruptly our life could end. Just like that.”
Cedric flicks his finger then looks back up at the stars. “Look at all the stars, we are just like a small stars in the huge galaxy. If we perish, our energy and light will just continue to shine. Like a star, it might seem small in the wider scope of things, but together it enlivens the world.”
Eldon knows his brother well. He knows there is no way of talking him out of it. “Whatever you decide. But just be careful.” Eldon then stops shooting video and tucks the unit away.
Cedric looked him in the eye and nodded.
They then do some catching up over campfire, talking about good old times and laughing. They drink until they finally stumble their way into the tent and fall asleep.
Barcelona, Spain
It was a nice sunny day in Barcelona. Not a cloud can be seen in the sky. A group of friends are strolling down La Rambla, a famous pedestrian street in old town part of Barcelona. The huge middle lane is bustling with people and street performers. People just sitting down in chairs under the umbrellas. Cristobal was especially upbeat today. He is glad to see his childhood friend Angelino come for a visit from Italy. They are joined by Cristobal's friends Diego, a short guy. But what he lacks in height he makes up for it in width. His girlfriend Paulina that Cristobal had a crushed on in high school is holding Diego's hand and swinging them as they walk along the street.
After a few drinks and some chat, they decide to head to another friend's place. Jacinto invited them over for dinner and to just hang out for the night. Two other girl are also there, Julia and Leticia. Jacinto introduces them to his friends. And Cristobal introduces Angelino to his friends. Julia started flirting with Angelino, touching his thin v-shaped side burns. “I like your hair. It's so smooth, it's like painted over.” Angelino just smiles. Angelino reminds Julia of one of her classmate. High hairline, narrow eyes, octagonal face with mouth that is a bit protruded. She used to tease that classmate that he looks sophisticated like a Spanish Dick Tracy detective type. “Julia snap out of it!” Jacinto flicks his finger in front of her face. Everyone laughed.
“So who wants to come play futbol with me on Sunday?” Jacinto inquires.
“I can't on a Sunday morning remember?” Diego replies.
“Oh yeah the church thing.” Jacinto smirks.
“You should start believing in God Jacinto or you might go to hell.” Paulina interjects.
Jacinto thinks to himself. “Here we go, Paulina is being preachy again.”
“I go to church regularly but I don't think that necessarily makes me better than people who don't go to church or believe in God.” Leticia, a petite lady, spoke. Her voice is as soft and cute as her appearance. “In fact, I think if there is a judgement day, people like Jacinto will probably be let in instead of some religious leader like that Reverend David Patrick who swindles naive people's money and calls for people to be murdered. He is the agent of devil for getting conscientious people to lose faith in God. I think it's not what you claim to believe in but what you do that matters.”
“OK this is getting too deep for me. I am just going to go hacking.” Cristobal says.
“Aren't you scared of getting caught?” Julia asks.
“No. Hacking simply means tinkering with stuff. That's how it has always been. Either it's a hobbyist trying to study how electronics work, or modify a device or build their own. It used to be you can just play around with stuff without worrying about breaking the law. The late founder of the once famous Apple firm, Steve Jobs, hacked his way to fame. And computer programming took off because of open source developers. People are free to program without fear of facing patent charges. So people can improve other works and build on it. That's innovation! By encouraging tinkering or hacking, you help encourage future innovators. Not this anti-competitive, monopolistic and protectionist patent treaty that the Common Market Consortium is trying to push nowadays. Now you can go to jail for breaking a digital lock that the company put in to prevent you from discovering flaws or malware in their programs. Or figure out that the their program itself was stolen from others.” Cristobal senses he has lost Julia so decides to stop. Angelino just nods.
Jacinto then offered Cristobal a drink.
“Everyone who likes to innovate is a hacker.” Jacinto paused before continuing. “You know when lots of otherwise law abiding citizen are being accused of breaking the law en masse then maybe the law is broken and unfair.”
Loud steps can suddenly be heard from the stairs outside. Jacinto was just going to walk toward the door to see what's going on when their door suddenly swings open and group of SWAT police charge in.
“Everyone down on the floor now!” shouts one of the guy who looks like their leader. “Who is Angelino!?”
Angelino slowly raises his hand while lying on the floor in his stomach. They quickly charge him and handcuff him. The SWAT leader then informs Angelino of his rights and his charges. One word stands out that makes him cringe like someone hit him in the stomach. “Murder of Alfredo Costa.” He is quickly taken to the police precinct. If there is any silver lining from his arrest, he is being arrested for murder, not terrorism under the Motherland Defence Initiative treaty of which Italy and Spain are signatories. That means he can talk to his family and get a lawyer and find out what is really going on. Because there must be some serious mistake.
Police Precinct in Barcelona
Cristobal rushes to the precinct as fast as he can, but he has to wait until the next day before they let him see Angelino. Glass windows separate both of them. Both are glad to see each other. Angelino looks distressed. They pick up the phone. “Cristobal, they are deporting me to Italy. They said I killed a person named Alfredo Costa. I think he is the person I got in an altercation with. Which is impossible since he was perfectly fine when I left the bar.”
“Maybe they will sort this out. They'll realize they make a mistake.” Critstobal says trying to sound positive for his friend.
“No, Cristobal, they said they have my fingerprint on the gun.”
Cristobal eyes widen. “Listen, Cristobal. Look at me.” Cristobal does not know what to think. He thought he knew his friend. “Look at me!” Angelino repeats sounding agitated. Cristobal raises his head up and looks at his friend's eye. “I did not do it! I am being framed. Remember what I told you about what I referred to as the Godfather file?” Cristobal nods nervously. “I think it has something to do with that.”
Cristobal whispers, “But the fingerprint...”
“I can't explain it nor do I understand how that is possible. But I need you to trust me.”
Cristobal stares into his friend's eyes. He has known Angelino long enough that he can easily detect if he is lying. But he is pretty sure he is telling the truth. The Godfather file would get people killed but didn't Angelino said no one know about it?
Their visiting time is up. “Help me.” Angelino begs.
“I believe you. We'll get to the bottom of this.” Cristobal promises.
Buffalo, New York
Gracy can see that Ray is still pretty down. He has talked to his friend Oleg over the phone and he won't meet him until two days later. But Oleg told Ray about the charges and the raid. Gracy thought Ray could use some distraction. So she brings Ray to her company's laboratory at Buffalo, New York.
Gracy works at a technology firm called Spheres Inc. It has achieved a great reputation for their innovation and new discoveries. As a result, they get lots of orders and funding from the military. Gracy wants to wow Ray out of being down, so she decides to show him something extraordinary. She brings Ray to the top security clearance laboratory where there is new technology that is in development and is classified. It catches Ray's interest and his look of bewilderment over the day's event is turned into a look of amusement.
Ray is especially awed by the invisible sphere. It is made from nanomaterials that allows manipulation of materials at the atomic and molecular level, producing unique characteristics on a finished product. This material is designed to divert light off the object and what is inside it. Lights and objects surrounding the object are projected into the sphere making it merge with its surroundings. The object inside can then be shielded and cloaked. But it is far from perfect. And it works best with darker background. There are still lots of artifacts, reflection that give away presence of the object. But it is an interesting project nonetheless. Gracy then shows Ray other projects including various weaponry and gadgets.
Another item that Gracy shows Ray is what looks like the ordinary tablets that are pretty much standard now. Desktop and laptops are pretty much obsolete. These tablets are several times more powerful than the most powerful desktop of the old days. The latest tablet are either cereal box cardboard thin, for those who want a sturdy screen, or a rectangular unit that is a foot long, two inches in height and an inch deep with two built-in projection. The height is higher than necessary to accommodate a bigger screen projector so that it can be displayed onto a whole wall if the unit is moved back far enough. It automatically adjusts to keep the display at a very high resolution. The other projection is onto a table with a layout of a customizable keyboard.
But those are the ordinary computers. What Gracy has that will be hitting the market soon is similar to those cereal box cardboard thin tablet but with a slightly bulkier 0.5 cm screen display. The whole screen is a solar panel made of nanomaterial that has been modified to absorb not only the light from solar and house lights but also any heat. It has conversion efficiency of more than 50% and significantly reduced the square area required by a solar panel. While you can hardly tell the screen is a solar cell, its internal parts are several layers of micro solar cells equivalent to having a house roof full of early 21st century solar cells. It also absorbs any heat generated by the unit or the surrounding area and convert that to electricity also. Other gadgets can be charged wirelessly by switching wireless power transmission ON and pointing the gadget at the unit's transmission dot.
One other item is a transparent tablet used by doctors for imaging patients or for precise surgery by directing microbullets to the organs or parts displayed in the transparent tablet.
All the nice gadgets offer a good distraction for awhile but soon Ray decides he wants to head back to New York in case there are any new developments.