The Coming of Enki VII
Part seven of a previously unpublished science fiction story
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Now, the next part of ‘The Coming of Enki’. Here are links to Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V and Part VI. All previous parts are free for now. Please give the post a ‘like’ and share widely if you enjoy it.
The Coming of Enki
XI
“Serena!?” Jonathan Lieb felt a wave of relief to hear his wife’s voice again over the house speakers. “Thank God! Listen…”
“No, Jon. Please listen to me. I know you picked Chloe up from school. Is she still with you?”
“Yes,” Lieb said, the anxiety and urgency in her voice bringing him up short. “What’s the matter?”
“You’re in danger. I think the Movement might be planning to kidnap Chloe.”
“What? Those crackpots? Why?”
“I don’t have time to explain. Summer Mont Securities are sending a car for you. It’ll take you somewhere safe. It should be there in under five minutes. I switched off Haus and everything else with sensor systems so the Movement couldn’t hack them to get to you. I can’t see Chloe there in the kitchen. Can you get her?”
“Sure,” Lieb said, shaken to the core. “She’s upstairs. I just came down to fix her a snack.” He bounded up the stairs two at a time, calling his daughter’s name.
“Whenever I try to talk to her, all I hear is gibberish,” his wife said. “Is she OK?”
Lieb had never known Serena to be like this. He was the worrywart. She was level-headed. Rational. She said it was her scientific training. A couple of years ago, when Chloe got really sick, he had accused her of not caring. He was beside himself with worry. While he was trying to comfort their child, Serena was searching the medical literature.
“What kind of Mom are you?” he had asked her, with tears in his eyes. But it was Serena who had correctly diagnosed the brain aneurism and got the surgical drone to their home in seconds. A few minutes more and Chloe would have been left permanently brain damaged, another half hour and their girl might have been dead. There were, he had realised after that, other, perhaps better, ways of caring than his.
“Yeah, she’s fine. Better than fine,” Lieb said, a little out of breath. “But Vāc’s failing really badly. Haven’t you noticed? Ah, there you are!”
Chloe was sprawled on the floor of her room, staring at the chessboard he had left in mid-game.
“You’re &%fs th&* game, Daddy,” she said without looking up.
“Now don’t be smug, chicken,” Lieb said, smiling despite himself.
“You understood that?” Serena asked, astonished.
“Yeah I think so. Chloe says I’m gonna lose real bad. That right?”
Chloe nodded. “That’s what I wanted to tell you,” said Lieb. “Chloe’s teacher sent her home because of er… behavioural issues. She told me to switch off the nannoid and our translators.”
“She told you to… what?”
“Uh-huh. Weird huh? But even weirder, it kinda works. We don’t understand each other perfectly but with a mixture of sounds and gestures and looking at each other’s faces, we’re working it out. And we’re getting better at it all the time.”
“That’s great Jon,” Serena said, distractedly. The company car was four minutes sixteen seconds away from the house now. “And you’re playing board games?”
“Not just any board game. The game of kings!” Lieb said proudly. He noticed that it was getting more and more difficult to understand his wife. Many of her words were being mangled by the algorithm now too. “Say, maybe we should switch the translator off too when we talk?”
Serena was silent, then, as if making her mind up about something. When she next spoke, she formed her words slowly and carefully.
“Listen, Jon, Chloe’s teacher, Emily Sterne, is a high-ranking member of the Movement.”
“What?”
“A follower of Enki. She’s a terrorist. The car’s coming for you in four minutes, two seconds and counting. Make sure you’re both ready to go. There’s something I need to do first but I’ll see you soon.”
Lieb began to stuff clothes and personal effects more or less at random into a duffel bag. “Chlo,” he said, breathlessly, pointing to the bedraggled bunny lying on her bed, “you need to grab your things.”
Chloe shook her head.
“Chlo, we have to go,” Lieb said slowly, motioning with his hands. “Now.”
Once again, the girl gave a small shake of her head. Lieb, feeling himself getting angry, left the room to finish packing. Two minutes and twenty-four seconds later, Chloe was still sitting on the floor of her room. She had her tablet open in front of her and Lieb noticed that on the screen was a string of letters, numbers and symbols. He had the bag over one shoulder and he hefted her onto the other, then made his way down to the landing with her screaming and fighting him every step of the way.
“The car’s going to be here in less than a minute.” It was Serena again. “What the hell’s going on?”
“MAMA!”
Lieb had never heard his daughter scream in this way before. It was a wail of terror and desperation. She held the tablet up to one of the numerous cameras scattered through the house.
“OK, Chloe, I see it. Jon, wait a second. I need to check this out.” The speaker went dead. Five seconds later, Serena spoke again.
“Jon, don’t wait for the car. Get out of the house. Get out now.”
Now read Part VIII.
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