Terry Neale - Jo-el

“You know we are videoing this meeting,” Colin Alberton again.

“Yes, of course. I would expect nothing less. I except that eventually most of the people in the world will know who I am and why I’m here. But be careful, if the media gets wind of what I’ve told you today, they’ll never leave you alone.”

“That’s for sure,” said the Colonel.

“Anyway, let’s move on. I can operate the computer using just thought. So when something on the screen changes, you now know why. I can also communicate verbally with my computer, as you do with the rudimentary software that has recently been introduced to smart-phones, but my software is vastly superior. I call my computer, Sally.”

“ I hope I don’t have to make an appearance?” said Sally in my ear. “ But that Major is pretty cute.” I ignored her again.

Pippa looked fascinated. I’m sure there was a question on her lips, but she kept quiet.

“Sally, show a live video stream of each hostage on the screen.”

The monitor split the screen into seven rectangles. In all but one screen the picture was very dark and you couldn’t see much other than a vague figure lying on the ground or a bed in what appeared to be a tiny room. The one stream that was lit was the Dutch girl, she was being raped, two men were watching.

“Shut down the rape.” I yelled, it disappeared.

“Shit!” I said and similar expletives resonated around the table. “I’m sorry.” I said. “Sally, show me the area around where the girl is being held.” The video showed a tall building on a dismal, deserted street. “Where is she?” I stood up.

Sally answered out loud. “She’s on the third floor, there’s eight men on the second floor, all awake, just the three on the third floor.”

The five Marines and CIA staff around the table were glued to the screen. I heard the Colonel mutter, ‘this is unreal.’

“I’m going there now; I’m getting her out. Get ready to bounce me.”

Pippa leant forward, but didn’t say anything, I wondered what she wanted?

“What’s the status of the three?” I asked Sally.

“All bad.”

“Terminate them now, and bounce me.” I shouted.

Those around the table saw the three men collapse and fall, I caught the end of it as I bounced into the tiny room. The Dutch girl was lying on her back, I’m not sure she was aware of me, her eyes were shut, she was in a filthy condition. Her face was bruised, her mouth split. Blood stains were apparent around the bed, the room stunk of human sweat and feces. The man who’d been raping her was lying on the floor by the bed, the other two were crumpled in a heap by the door.

I heard Sally in my ears, “ there’s two guys coming up the stairs, they heard them fall.”

I inserted my arms underneath the girl. “ Back to the hangar.”

A second later I was standing a little away from the table, the Dutch girl in my arms. The group around the table had witnessed everything on the screen. They were speechless.

I placed the girl on the table and Pippa covered her with her overcoat. On the screen we watched the two men who’d run up the stairs to investigate the noise. They were standing in the tiny cell, dumbfounded, searching around as if what they were looking for would suddenly appear.

“Sally, monitor the other six, you know what I need.”

I stroked the wet hair from the face of the bedraggled young girl, tears welled up in my eyes. I saw Pippa staring at me, I saw a fondness in her eyes.

“We need to get her to Portsmouth.” Alberton was on the phone, ahead of me, I was warming up to the man. I gazed at Pippa, “are you ready?”

She nodded. I turned to Alberton, who held his hand up for me to wait a moment. After a few seconds he removed his phone from his ear. “They’re ready, a team is in the lobby.”

“Sally, find us somewhere by the hospital.”

Sally’s voice came back, “ready.”

“I picked up the Dutch girl and told Pippa to hold me tight around my arm.”

“ Better not mess up this bounce, eh?” Sally needling me, again.

Seconds later the three of us were standing alone in a hospital patient’s room. Sally told me where to go and we walked to the lobby where two nurses and a doctor were standing alongside a rolling bed. They were surprised to see us coming from an internal corridor, but said nothing. Alarm grew in their eyes when they saw the condition of the girl. They immediately took charge of her care, nothing else mattered. Relief swept over me.

We stood for a moment in the lobby, speechless. A few individuals glanced in our direction, but when the bed was rolled away they lost interest.

“I can’t believe what I’ve seen today, Jo-el” said Pippa, “I don’t understand who you are or why you are here but I can see you really care about whatever it is you’re trying to do.” She kissed my cheek. “I better go and find Alberton’s contact, Dr. Frinton.”

“Thanks for your help, Pippa. I’ll be back soon,” I said. “It might be better if I had a place to bring the others, if you can work that out?”

“Sure, I’ll see what I can do.” I left by the front door.

I bounced back to the hangar where the remaining four men sat mesmerized by the events of the last few minutes.

“That whole thing took less than five minutes,” exclaimed Alberton. “You went to Syria, was it Syria? You killed three men. How the hell did you do that? You brought that girl back here and then took her and Pippa to the hospital. What did you mean when you asked about the status of those men? Who on earth are you?”

I sat down at the table and addressed Alberton directly. Behind me the monitor was quiet. “It’s crazy, isn’t it?” He didn’t reply. “Okay, lets cover a couple of things. I have defined a status for what I call ‘bad’ people. Murderers, rapist, it doesn’t matter. If they fit my criteria I’m okay with terminating their lives. Sally does the termination.”

“How?” he asked, bewildered.

“She fires a stream of atoms at them, which penetrate their bodies, forms into a sort of clip that attaches to the aorta. Cuts the blood flow to the brain, instant blackout, followed by death. The clip disappears, an autopsy would indicate death from a heart-attack. Painless actually.”

“How can she do that, Jesus, I mean how can the computer do that? Where is it?”

“Maybe I should make an appearance, Jo-el?”

“Not now, Sally, they’ve got way too much to digest already.”

“It’s everywhere, Colin. Like the internet, it’s a global network.”

“So, you’re telling me you can kill anyone, anywhere in the world just by telling your damn computer to do it?”

“Basically, yes, but there are safeguards.”

He looked at me and then at the two Marine officers, who were visibly shaking.

“That makes you the most dangerous person on the planet. Jesus Christ, maybe the General was right?”

“I’m on your side, Colin. I’m not going to start terminating people just because I don’t like them. There are safe guards.” I repeated. “Why would I meet with you and tell you all this stuff? Think about it.”

“What safeguards?”

“Sally, or the computer if you like.”

“ I like Sally, Jo-el.”

“Okay, okay.”

“ Sally, won’t carry out my orders to terminate if the individual is a ‘good’ person.”

“And we know that, how?”

“Because I’m telling you. Have I told you anything that’s not true?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” he repeated, no doubt trying to think of something.

The Colonel said, “you have the ultimate Star-wars weapon.”