Dronikus, a novel set on a burning planet called Earth.
Rator patrol
They rode across the flatlands for many miles, both seemingly asleep, both deep in thought. Both had left Shangdu, both had chosen to step outside the Pandoke realm and into the world as outlaws – not in a legal sense, but having flouted the wishes of Enrike they were now to be hunted and persecuted. Enrike would not forgive and Pandoke was immensely powerful. They had both taken a big step and for both, in Abednigo, travelling under the burning sun, there was no going back.
Zola embraced the unknown that lay ahead. He sensed that the challenge, huge as it was, whatever it was, would test him. But as his mind rolled and danced to the rhythm of the moving car, he warmed to the feeling that he was not alone. He began to believe that he may actually be able to trust the untrustworthy Nur. And, somewhere down the track, there waited two intriguing people, both of brilliant minds, whom he knew instinctively would play big parts in what was to unfold – one a gorgeous young woman/man, the other a small shaggy old fellow in baggy clothes.
But what concerned him was Leilu. He wondered if and how she was able to maintain her independence from Enrike, as she insisted was the case, despite her obvious dependency. How deeply was she involved in whatever it was that Enrike was doing? It was hard to believe her when she said that she didn’t do work for Enrike, that they ‘used her brain’ as if it were an extra computer while she slept. Enrike had said she led the research in the ‘creation’ of Panduan? And Hoxha, in a cleft between a single-minded unscrupulous employer and a cyborg attached by a cable to a machine. Could he really be in love with Leilu?
Zola pulled off his dark glasses and looked across at Nur. She was staring at him.
‘What are you thinking?’ she asked.
‘Have you been to Visiwa Island?’
‘A few times. Always with very controlled access.’
‘You want to go again? With me?’
‘What? What are you going to do there?’
‘I’m going to see Leilu.’
‘But you’re a fugitive now.’
‘Also I’m going to see what’s going on at Sesanti.’
‘No Zola! It’s too dangerous. You will get yourself killed,’ said Nur.
‘I’d love you to come with me.’
Nur considered for a moment. ‘How far are you prepared to take this, Zola?’
‘All the way, of course.’
Nur looked at him, trying to read his face, searching for clues – about his commitment or, perhaps, about her own destiny or both.
They rode on in silence again.
‘So, are you coming?’ he asked.
She nodded.
‘There was only ever going to be one answer, wasn’t there?’
She nodded again.
‘Excuse me, Madame Nur, dronikus are attacking Car 1.’
‘Oh shit. Abednigo, can you see signs of the car ahead?’
‘There is smoke.’
She considered for a short moment and then got on the Eyeto controls. ‘Pull over onto the side of the road. There, by those trees. I’ve told Car 3 to do the same. Power down – nothing live.’ She then turned and woke Shadrack and Mishack and explained to them what was happening. ‘We’ll just wait.’
They sat in anxious silence, staring to the skies, but they saw no dronikus. Then a vehicle came past them. It slowed and stopped a short way up the road.
‘Double shit-shit! A rator patrol,’ said Nur. ‘Abednigo open the rear. Quick! Shadrack and Mishack out! Quick! Move! Avoid being seen.’
As the rators jumped out, the patrol car reversed and stopped some 20 meters in front of them.
‘Ok, not so bad,’ said Nur. ‘It’s a government patrol, not Pandoke.’
Two military rators alighted and came walking towards Abednigo. Zola was sure they walked with a swagger just like they did in old time cop movies.
Nur grabbed Zola and lasciviously wrapped her body around him, rubbing him and kissing him. He responded as if he were indeed in a cop movie. Following the script, came a tapping at the window and the rator, raising his aviator shades, peering in through the glass.
As Abednigo dropped the window, Nur sat up looking embarrassed and then angry. ‘What the hell? How dare you?’
‘Just checking, ma’am,’ said the rator. ‘Please step out the car. And the gentleman too.’
Its colleague stood between the two vehicles, leaning against the back side of the rator patrol car, not engaged in any way until, that is, a volley of shots dropped it to the ground and the patrol car reversed at high speed, catching the rator under its wheel. The rator at Abednigo’s window leapt towards its car but, as it approached, it too fell in a hail of bullets fired from within the vehicle.
‘Brilliant, Shadrack and Mishack,’ shouted Nur, as the two rators emerged from the patrol car. She called in Car 3.
They loaded the two expired patroller rators into the patrol car and set a charge on both it and Car 2. They all got into Car 3, now called Abednigo, and continued down the road as both the patrol car and Car 2 exploded in large balls of fire. Zola turned to look back at the scene, thinking that cops fried in exploding vehicles would probably have been standard fare in a video game or a cop movie back then. Death, no harm done.
‘Can I send an encrypted message from the car?’ said Zola.
‘Abednigo. Show me the terminal.’ Nur said.
A monitor folded down from the roof and Nur began entering data. ‘Give me the code and the message.’ Zola gave this to her and she entered it. ‘Gone. It should be safe.
“Ballie”? Why do I know that name?’
Dronikus is a novel published in 2023, now being serialised here on Substack. You can read a chapter every week for free.
Liking what you’re reading? Don’t want to wait to see what happens next? You can read the full book now by purchasing a digital or print copy of Dronikus from:
AndAlso Books (print edition)
Amazon (epub), Smashwords (epub), Apple Books (epub), Barnes&Noble (epub)
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