The Incubus, Succubus and Son of Perdition Box Set: The Len du Randt Bundle (70 page)

‘Are you tired of waiting in queues? Is it a bother to
carry your smart card with you everywhere? Can you imagine touring in a foreign
country and lose your card, or have it stolen?’

‘This is not a documentary,’ Trevor said disgusted.
‘It’s a stupid infomercial!’

René shushed him. She was intrigued and wanted to know
more about the Shield.

‘Cash has become obsolete,’ the voice on the television
informed them. ‘Soon, using it—no matter in which country in the world—would
only get you taxed, causing you to pay up to five times more than you normally
would have. So what option does a low to medium income person have in times
like these?’

‘Any points for guessing right?’ Trevor asked with just
a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

‘You need
The Shield of Victor!
It’s the
only
protection for you and your family against an unsure and unstable financial
future.’

On the television, a busty blonde woman casually walked
into a grocery store, packed a basket with some random items, and then headed
for the till. Only there was no one at the till. Instead, there was a
mechanical archway that she had to pass through. Trevor noted that the archway
looked like a futuristic Airport metal detector.

‘Hey,’ René said and sat up. ‘That’s one of those
thingies that we saw today!’

‘It’s a
Shield Line
,’ Trevor reminded her.

The woman on the television proceeded to the Shield
Line and passed through it. She then walked right out of the store, and
straight to her car. The infomercial voiceover boomed again. ‘What you just
witnessed was a customer using the new
Shield of Victor
technology. What
is this amazing technology that enabled this client to just walk out of the
store without any delay or human interaction of any kind?’

Trevor sat up. The infomercial was busy working its
magic on him.

The woman stood at attention and the camera zoomed to
her face until her entire face was splashed all over Trevor’s television. The
camera then panned to her forehead, and zoomed in even more. Just below her
hairline, a small purple circle with a Y in it came into view. The narrator
returned. ‘The Shield of Victor is the latest miracle in molecular
Nanotechnology
,
and uses sophisticated state-of-the-art engineering that combines electronics
with living tissue.’

‘Wow,’ Trevor said and whistled through his
teeth.

‘Nano what?’ René asked.

‘What might at first glance appear to be a
birthmark or small tattoo is in fact the most sophisticated technology in the
world. Everything that you would
ever
require is stored in the Shield:
your banking details, driver’s license, credit status and history, residential
address, and much, much more.’

‘This really is impressive,’ Trevor said.

‘And here’s how it works,’ the commentary continued
dramatically. ‘Anything from a pin to a truck is marked with similar Shield
technology. Shield Line scanners and other scanning technologies are then used
to calculate the costs and automatically deduct it from your account, giving
you the freedom to stay on the move.

‘But wait! There’s more! If you install the Shield
today,
all
your debt will instantly be wiped clean. Yes, you heard me
right.
All
your debt will be reset to zero so that you will begin on a
clean slate.’

Trevor looked at René with no effort to hide the
yeah,
right
expression from his face.

‘Do you have a house that you’re still paying off? A
car? Well, if you get the Shield now, you will owe nothing more. Get the Shield
today; it’s the right thing to do.’

‘It really sounds like a good deal,’ Trevor said, the
sarcasm totally gone from his voice, although the scepticism still lingered. ‘I
think I’ll check this out more thoroughly tomorrow.’

‘Yeah,’ René said, almost as if in a trance. ‘Me too.
In fact, I might even go get one.’

The voice from the television continued, ‘The procedure
is clean, fast, cost-effective, and totally safe. No needles are used to make
this wonderful technology a part of your life. There is no pain. It’s simple,
and instant.’

‘That’s an added bonus,’ Trevor said.

‘Don’t delay! Get your Shield of Victor today, and have
more freedom to do what you want, when you want, while staying on the move.
Have us take care of the paperwork while you take care of life.’

The remainder of the infomercial dealt with places
where the Shield could be obtained, more benefits of having the Shield, and
even more technical information on how the Shield works.

‘Imagine that,’ Trevor said and sunk back into the
sofa. ‘No more plastic cards, no more cash, or carrying that irritating
driver’s license around. No bulky wallet to lug everywhere or lose. Me likes.
Me likes a lot.’

- - -*  *  *- -
-

It was late, but Andrew couldn’t
sleep. He put on a slack tracksuit pants and tee shirt, and went for a stroll
down the empty street. All around him, people were either watching late night
television, or have been sleeping for some time already. He liked going for
long walks whenever he couldn’t sleep or when he had to clear his mind from
something that bothered him.

When he and Kate decided that they wouldn’t see each
other anymore, he walked for three and a half hours. He missed her at times,
but he knew that it was best that they weren’t together anymore. Their
relationship had become extremely volatile, and even though he would never
bring himself to hurt a woman, he at times wanted to literally strangle her. At
the end of his three-hour walk that evening they broke up, he found it easier
to come to terms with the fact that he would never see her again.

Norman was delighted to hear that they had broken up.
He never liked her and had warned Andrew on several occasions that she was bad
news and he had to let her go. Andrew always just shrugged off Norman’s advice.
Could it be possible that love could be so stubborn? So blatantly blind?

Andrew had found her really pleasant when they first
met; innocent and sweet. She was beautiful, and when the sun caught her hair
just right, he would have sworn that she was an angel from Heaven. An angel she
had turned out to be indeed, but not from Heaven. As time went by, they began
to quibble about small things. That soon turned into huge fights, and soon
after that, fits of rage. The end result was betrayal. He caught her in his
bed, cheating on him with one of his best friends. He wanted to leave her then
and there, but his heart melted when she pleaded for his forgiveness. She cried
the whole night, promising her devotion to him, and like a rebellious son, he
kicked against Norman’s warnings and took her back.

Two months later, he caught her in bed again with
another friend, and eventually took her back again. It was only a matter of
time before he realized that it would keep on happening for the rest of his
life, and they thus made a mutual decision to stop seeing one another.

‘Nice night for a stroll, eh?’

Andrew’s blood froze for a second and he quickly spun
around. He relaxed a little when he saw a smiling face standing behind him.

‘My apologies,’ the man said. ‘I didn’t mean to startle
you.’

‘It’s okay,’ Andrew said when his heartbeat returned to
normal. ‘It’s just that I didn’t expect to see anyone on the streets at this
hour.’

‘It’s such a lovely evening,’ the man said, ‘that I
just couldn’t resist taking a stroll.’

‘You and me both,’ Andrew said and forced a smile.

‘I’m Alistair.’

They shook hands. ‘I’m Andrew. Pleased to meet you.’

‘Likewise,’ Alistair said in a friendly voice.

They continued walking down the street. ‘So what do you
do for a living?’ Alistair asked.

Andrew didn’t go for a stroll late at night just to
hook up and chat to a perfect stranger, but something about Alastair made him
more open to conversation. ‘I have my own clothing line,’ Andrew said. ‘And
you?’

‘Community service.’

‘Court ordered?”

Alastair laughed out loudly. ‘Goodness, no.’

‘Ah, okay.’ Andrew said, still not really clear on what
it was that Alastair did exactly. ‘Does it pay well?’

‘In a sense,’ Alastair said and smiled warmly, ‘but the
best things in life are not always about money.’

‘I realized that abruptly the day of the alien
attacks.’

‘Alien attacks? What alien attacks?’

Andrew stopped walking. ‘You’re kidding, right?’

‘Not at all,’ Alistair said, still smiling.

‘How can you not know anything about the alien
attacks?’

‘Oh, I know what they
claimed
had happened, if
that’s what you mean.’

‘Well, I don’t know what
you
mean. Who are the “
they”
that you’re talking about
?
’

‘The powers that be,’ Alistair sighed and leaned
against a wall. ‘Put it this way: have you actually
seen
any of the
so-called ‘aliens’?’

‘No,’ Andrew said. ‘But I have also never
seen
my brain. That doesn’t mean that my brain doesn’t exist.’

Alistair laughed. ‘That’s true.’

‘So what do
you
think is the ‘truth’ behind the
alien attacks?’

‘Do you read the Bible?’

‘Not really, but I don’t see what that has to do with
anything.’

‘It has
everything
to do with anything, Andrew.’

‘But there’s nothing in the Bible about aliens. I don’t
see—’

‘You still don’t get it, do you?’

‘Get
what?
’

Alistair sighed. ‘In time you will,’ he said softly.
‘But until then, just read the book.’

‘What book? The Bible?’

Alistair turned and started walking away from Andrew.
‘I have to go now. We
will
talk again, I promise.’

‘
What book?
’ Andrew asked again as Alistair
disappeared around the corner of a building. It then struck him which book
Alistair was talking about. ‘How did you...?’

He was alone, the only sound being the soft rustling of
the leaves. His mind raced with millions of questions, all bombarding him at
once. He contemplated running after Alistair, but decided against it. It was
getting very late, and he wanted to take another look at Trevor’s book.

As he walked back, he replayed their conversation
through his mind, trying to figure out what vital clue he had missed. As he
walked, the last words of Alistair echoed in his mind:
We will talk again, I
promise...

- - -*  *  *- -
-

A lone figure paced up and down the
dark hallways of the huge forty-two room mansion. After a while, Ryan stopped.
How
could I have been so stupid?
He asked himself.
How could I have been so
blind?
He started pacing again; unable to come to terms with the fact that
his master was who he claimed he was.

Ryan was smart. He could figure out complex puzzles and
riddles in record time, but how could he have missed this? All the signs were
as obvious as sand in a desert, and yet, he had failed to link them together.
With the healing of his alcohol problem, he knew that there was something
different about Victor, but never in his life would he have come to
this
conclusion. Victor was smarter than anyone that Ryan ever encountered. No
riddle could defeat him, no person could win a debate against him, and winning
a chess match against the best in the world was like brushing his teeth. He was
a human genius, and it only started making sense to Ryan now.

‘Something wrong?’ a calm voice asked from somewhere in
a dark corner of the hallway.

Ryan’s heart leapt into his throat. ‘My...my Lord?’

From the shadows, Victor emerged. He was in his
nightgown, but even still, his hair remained perfectly combed. Ryan noticed a
whiskey glass in his hand as he approached.

‘Did I startle you?’

‘No,’ Ryan said, his mind racing. ‘Not at all, my Lord.
I just couldn’t sleep, that’s all.’

Victor just smiled. ‘It’s okay to be confused.’

‘I...I...’

‘It’s okay.’ He extended the glass toward Ryan. ‘Come,’
he said. ‘Have some.’

‘I couldn’t...’

‘Yes you could.’ He gave the glass a nudge in Ryan’s
direction. ‘You know you want to.’

Ryan extended his hand toward the glass, struggling
hard to resist. He hesitated, pulled his hand back, and then reached for the
glass again. Finally, he took it.

‘Atta boy,’ Victor said with a grin on his face. He
watched Ryan wash down the whiskey in one big gulp. ‘There, now didn’t that
feel great?’

Ryan wiped his mouth. ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘it did.’ He
felt a bit more relaxed now.