Kayleb surveyed the authorities head office with dislike. He had been here before with his mentor Conrad one weekend, when Helen had first become ill. Conrad had let him wander through the vast building while he caught up with some outstanding reports. Kayleb looked up at the huge reinforced doors ahead of him. Back then he had been curious to see what lay behind them but today was different: these doors represented everything that was bad with their society; they were blind to human feelings.
Kayleb wondered if he would be taken straight to Conrad or whether he would be questioned and then sent back to the wilderness with David and the others for being a collaborator. Kayleb looked at his friends. They all looked terrified, except for David; he looked calm and pleased to be at the headquarters.
As they waited to be let in, Cornwall grabbed Kayleb’s arm. ‘Don’t think of running. I promised Conrad I would get you here in one piece. Annoyingly, you chose to come with David and now my report is going to be twice as long! I wonder what Conrad is going to do when he discovers you are a rebel?’
‘What do you mean, get you here in one piece?’ Kayleb asked Cornwall. ‘Did Conrad send you out to France to look after me? Why did he do that?’
‘I was out there anyway but, yes, I was asked to keep an eye out for you and help you if you looked like you were going to fail, which you would have had it not been for me.’ Cornwall sounded irritated. ‘Maybe Conrad loves you in some warped kind of a way,’ she added.
The doors of the building opened and the captives were led into the logging-in bay. Kayleb’s head was whirling. He had not needed any assistance; he would have found a way to get home. Mentors were not meant to love their charges. They were there to guide and support them and in return received respect and status points. Kayleb wondered why Cornwall would say such a thing about Conrad. With Helen, it was different. Kayleb was concerned that he felt more for her than he was supposed to. He knew that Helen was his natural mother and for that reason he knew that they had a different kind of relationship, but he kept any emotions hidden as he knew that Conrad would not have approved. Kayleb then realised that if he saw Conrad now he would be able to find out how Helen was and would then be able to explain to Conrad that David wasn’t a threat and could help her.
‘I need to see Conrad,’ Kayleb said to Cornwall. ‘Don’t you see? David can help us all. David doesn’t want to take over. He cured you, didn’t he?’
‘You’re having a laugh,’ replied Cornwall. ‘David wants one thing: to bring the entire population of another planet here! There’s barely enough food for us, let alone anybody else. David is a parasite.’
Kayleb knew that Cornwall had a point. There wasn’t enough food to go around and, although Conrad was a fair man, Kayleb realised that, for all the good David could do, it would not be enough to compensate for accommodating a whole planet’s population.
The reception area of the police headquarters was busy. There were lots of people who had been arrested standing at different desks. Some were logging in and having their palms identified, while some offenders were being connected to lie detectors. Others were being logged into the ‘Fair Trial’ programme and some were waiting anxiously for their statements to be processed by the computer and their sentence to be announced.
David was taken to one of the desks first and asked to place his hand onto a reader. David obliged and the officer looked at his monitor but no handprint appeared on it. The police officer became agitated and held David’s hand down firmly. Still no print appeared on his screen. The officer grabbed David by the wrist and dragged him over to a colleague’s desk and forced David’s hand onto another plate reader. Again David’s palm did not register.
Kayleb watched and became alarmed. David had submissively allowed the officer to drag him about and had not put up a fight or complained once. For a moment, Kayleb was cross with David for being so passive. He wondered what Conrad would think of David, as he was so well mannered and laid back. Kayleb feared that Conrad would think that David was some sort of simpleton.
Kayleb could bear this no longer. He pulled away from Cornwall’s grasp and strode over to the officer who was dealing with David. Cornwall followed.
‘How dare you treat David so badly. Commander Conrad is my mentor. I need to see him immediately or I will ensure that there is a report filed about David’s treatment here,’ Kayleb said defiantly.
The police officer looked at Cornwall for guidance.
‘Is this true?’ the officer asked Cornwall. ‘Is he Commander Conrad’s charge?’
‘Yes,’ replied Cornwall ‘But don’t worry! We’ll have his head cleared in no time; he won’t remember a thing.’
The officer smiled cruelly and was about to speak to Kayleb when he noticed that the plate reader on which David’s hand rested was starting to smoke. The officer looked around for assistance. Everyone just stared at thick smoke. The officer then pulled the power cable from the plate reader. Smoke continued to pour from the plate; it was becoming thicker and darker in colour. The other plate readers in the room all began to burn too. Max barked frantically to be let out of the building.
David continued to keep his hand on the plate reader. All the plate readers were now white with heat. The officer look at David dumbfounded and appeared startled when the fire alarm started to ring.
‘Everyone out of the building! Please leave the building in an orderly fashion,’ shouted the officer.
Police officers and detainees ran towards the exit, and jostled and pushed as they waited for the doors to be opened. As the doors opened, Max bolted out of the gap between the two doors, narrowly avoiding being trampled on as everyone escaped from the suffocating smoke.
Kayleb’s lungs hurt. It was good to be outside. He watched as the people that had been arrested made a run for it. Their captors were too preoccupied with their own safety to care. Max was waiting for Kayleb across the street out of harm’s way. He barked at Kayleb to join him. Kayleb looked around for Cornwall; she was nowhere to be seen. He went over to Max and they hid behind some bean plants and waited for David to come out of the police headquarters.
Kayleb waited for what seemed like ages for everyone to leave the building. He was surprised to see how many people actually worked at police headquarters. The street was beginning to look like a turbulent sea, as everyone was wearing blue. Kayleb hoped that no one would spot him and Max hiding among the vegetable plants.
Neither David nor Conrad came out of the building. Kayleb decided that he would find another place to hide as everyone’s attention was now on the fire service spraying foam in through the doorway and into reception. Kayleb and Max slunk through the crowds and slipped into a side street. Kayleb wondered where Conrad could be. Conrad always worked long hours. It was almost dark and he usually worked later than most. He had his own hover scooter and did not rely on the work tram to take him home in the evening. Kayleb thought that it was strange that he had not seen Conrad leave the building and he wondered what might have happened to David.
A horrible thought rushed through Kayleb’s mind. Perhaps Conrad was with Helen at home. Perhaps Helen was about to die. Kayleb’s heart was pounding. He felt that he had to get back to his apartment to see her, before it was too late. He looked up and down the street, not knowing where to run. At the far end of the street, Kayleb could see someone waving. It was dusk now and it was quite hard to see who it was. Kayleb looked behind him to make sure this person wasn’t waving at anyone else. There was no one behind Kayleb. The figure continued to wave at Kayleb. Kayleb walked towards the figure. It was a man. He was wearing a white tunic, sandals and had brown shoulder-length hair. Kayleb was curious and wondered who it could be. Kayleb did not get too close to the man in case he was walking into a trap. The man stopped waving and just smiled.
‘What do you want?’ Kayleb called to the man.
‘David says that you are to go to the east side of the police headquarters and he will let you in. You don’t have much time. Be quick!’
Kayleb looked towards the police building to try and work out which was the east side. He thought it was the nearest side to him. When he looked back to ask, the man had gone. Kayleb stared at the spot where the man had been standing; there wasn’t a trace of anyone having been there at all.
Kayleb looked down at Max and breathed in deeply, trying to get some oxygen into his brain. ‘You saw him, didn’t you?’ Max wagged his tail, pleased to get some attention at last. ‘I don’t know what Conrad and Helen are going to say about you, Max. It’s a good job nobody likes eating genetically modified meat in our household. There’ll be plenty of our meat rations left for you. Let’s go and find David,’ Kayleb said to Max as he began to walk towards the police headquarters again. Kayleb looked for the man in the white tunic as he went but it was almost as if the man had disappeared into thin air.