Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

Kat drove the route to the university on autopilot. She was only vaguely focussing on the road and the other traffic. Her mind was not clear right now. So many confusing thought crowded her brain. Try as she might she could not keep the image of Mario out of her mind. Her heart pulsed a little quicker the more she thought of him and with a start she realised her hands were clammy on the steering wheel.

“What is wrong with me?” she thought to her self.

She tried to focus on the road ahead of her but instead of clearing her mind she found that she was wondering if Mario was a good driver.

“Stop it now” she actually spoke out loud this time. “I will not fall in love. I do not need a boyfriend. I am going to finish my degree.” She intoned this mantra for the next few kilometres before she had to focus on getting through an intersection and once again thoughts of Mario spilled unbidden into her mind.

”This is ridiculous,” she told herself.

Finally pulling into the crowded student carpark she forgot about Mario as she located a park and reversed her car into it.

Kat was a good driver. Her father had ensured that she had had competent lessons and then before he helped her purchase her car he had arranged a series of advanced driving courses for her. Chris had been promised the same deal, but as he was refusing to cooperate and had not studied for his driving test, there were no driving lessons and no car. Chris appeared not to care, but Kat thought that secretly he might have been upset at the lack of independence that having a car would solve. On the surface his defiance of his parents was not rocked by the threat of losing the chance to be given a car, but Kat could see that that he envied her ability to come and go as she pleased. Sure he did the same, but it was on foot or skateboard with his mates, none of whom had cars.

Kat locked the car and headed to the lab where the tutorial was to be held. On the way she stopped at the small kiosk and purchased a packet of chewing gum. She didn’t usually eat the stuff but she reasoned to her self that she wanted to have fresh breath for Mario.

“Arrghh! There I go again,” she cried.

Arriving at the lab building Kat used her access card to gain entry and went to her lab slowly. She hoped Mario wasn’t there and at the same time she hoped he was. She was confused. Opening the door she peered nervously in and then came all the way in as she saw her friend Robin. Mario wasn’t in evidence and she was able to make small chat with Robin while they started getting ready for the experiment they were going to run today. Kat was studying human sciences and this experiment was to develop a test that they could run on campus to gauge reactions to hypothetical disaster scenarios. Today’s session was about designing the audio visual presentation that they could use in a sealed booth while the participant was wired to various physical receptors designed to assess his or her level of stress as a result of being required to make choices between two bad scenarios.

Kat and Robin continued to chat for the few minutes it took the rest of the class to dribble in. Robin’s partner arrived and they headed off to the audiovisual equipment to continue editing the sound score they were going to use. Kat and Mario had been assigned to the job of locating the receptors on the participant for the best possible analysis of physical responses to the scenarios and decisions. As she watched Robin head off a voice behind her with a cultured accent spoke.

“Good morning Princess Katarina.”

She spun around awkwardly, losing her balance as she turned too quickly and saw Mario standing there. He reached out a hand to steady her and the touch of his hand on her skin sent electric shocks charging through her. Already embarrassed at being caught unawares by the honey tongued Italian, she felt a crimson blush rush through her fair ski toward her face, and his brief touch ignited that into full fledged embarrassment. Knowing that she was giving away her emotions so openly only served to further embarrass the girl. Jerking her arm away she brusquely replied in a haughty tone.

“Morning. Shall we get started then?”

Mario looked amused and a mocking grin swept over his classic Italian features. He emulated her haughtiness by lifting his chin a little and peering down his long roman nose.

“Your wish is my command Princess Katarina.”

“I wish you wouldn’t call me that.” She responded. The more she reacted to him the more annoyed with herself she got. She knew that this was his intention and she felt flustered to be the centre of his attention.

The remainder of the session was a blur. Mario’s constant touch as they attached, disconnected and reattached the sensors to each other and recorded the signal level strengths kept her body on fire and her brain was overwhelmed with the physical input. They finished recording the last set of data and put the equipment away in silence. All through the work Mario had kept the conversation to the barest minimum, but the looks he gave her were ravishing. She knew that he was watching her from under his long black eyelashes as she worked. This flustered her so much that her focussing on neat writing became her mechanism for controlling the emotions coursing through her.

Finally the session was over and she was able to say goodbye to Mario and rejoin Robin and 2 other girls Kim and Lara. The 3 girls immediately crowded around her and their voices dropped to conspiratorial whispers.

“Did he ask you out?”

“I saw you touching him, what does his skin feel like?”

“I would love to get my hands on him, you lucky girl”

Kat dismissed the questions with a wave of her hand and tried to pass it off,

“Oh it’s nothing much, I don’t really like him you know.”

The other girls were having none of that.

“Come on lets go get some lunch and you can tell us all.”

The 4 of them shouldered their bags and headed off to the cafeteria. Kat felt as if she was heading for the inquisition as her previous endorphin overload from being around Mario faded away.

As they walked Robin nudged Kat and they fell behind the others a pace or two.

“We still going to the beach today?” she asked quietly so the other two girls wouldn’t hear.

Robin didn’t have a car but she did have a boyfriend. He was a lifeguard at the local beach. She wanted to go so she could see him. Kat didn’t mind taking her because they got the use of the surf club facilities and that included an air-conditioned bar.

“Sure” she said, and lifted her t-shirt to show her bikini to her friend, “I am already dressed for it.”

Wolf whistles from two passing lads made her blush with embarrassment as she quickly dropped the t-shirt back down and ignored them.

Robin laughed and as they turned into the cafeteria entrance the other two girls, Kim and Lara, who had turned round at the sound of the whistles, said in unison, “Mario will be jealous” and all 4 girls burst out laughing!

Kat felt she was finally relaxing after the stressful morning of keeping her emotions in check.

Strange harmonic sounds came faintly to Jord’s ear, distant and close at the same time. The source was impossible to determine. His brain had not really processed what had happened, but now he had time to think he realised the smell was gone. So was the uneasiness he had experienced. By using his hands and legs he could tell that he was resting on a ledge of rock. He could feel nothing below him when sitting on the edge and dangling his legs over. The wall behind his back felt strangely smooth and the ledge itself was around half his body length in width. It seemed to go either side of where he was sitting in an arc that joined with the wall about one body length away. Standing up he felt that the smooth wall at his back was seamless and had no opening. Now he remembered what he had done, and realised that he had been in a dreamlike state when he had crawled through what felt like a small door in the sacred stone. Not being able to see his surroundings didn’t scare him, he was used to that. What did scare him was the complete absence of the sounds of his home. The brutes’ growls and screeches were gone. Gone too was the rustling of the trees, and the bird noises. Most disconcerting was the absence of sound from the tribe. No voices or familiar sounds, Old Rab snoring or Lena arguing with Marick.

He tried calling out now as panic began to set in. With no reply his voice became more frantic. Suddenly a voice sounded. It was an alien voice, with raspy intonation and sibilant tone.

“Jord.”

It was a calming sound but Jord was too panicked to be calm. Flinging himself back against the wall he tried to face the source of the sound. It seemed to come from in front but its source was as equally hard to place as the faint harmonics. The voice spoke again.

“Jord.”

This time it sounded more directly in front of him and was accompanied by a gentle touch on his forehead. Instantly Jord could see. He was unsure just what seeing was as he had always imagined things based on their feel and sound. But he knew instinctively that he was seeing the being that appeared in front of him. He knew because his mind was instantly calm and he felt a deep sense of peace flooding through him from the touch. The being was still touching him and Jord’s view was partly obscured by its hand and arm. Not so obscured however that he could see straight through it. It appeared to be made of swirly flashing light, muted and dim, and apparently encased in a translucent shell. It was roughly humanoid, having limbs, approximately 6 Jord guessed, though as they kept shifting it was hard to tell. The being was not apparently standing on the ledge but seemed to be floating just off the edge. Jord’s instinct not to step off was well founded. As he glanced over the edge he saw an apparent drop of hundreds of feet to a dark still lake. This initial rush of sensory input overloaded Jord’s brain so much that he brought his hands up to his face and covered his eyes. In doing so he saw his hands for the first time and was momentarily amazed before closing his eyes and sinking to the ground in an almost faint. The touch on his forehead did not cease, the being simply extended its limb to maintain the contact. It spoke again.

“Jord.”

Now Jord opened his eyes again and looked directly at the being. It didn’t appear to have a head as such, but rather a central mass of light, swirling and sparking just above the section that the limbs joined to.

He responded weakly, “What do you want?”

“It’s not what I want but what you must become.” The voice intoned. Its alien sound was even more disconcerting this time not just because it spoke in an absolute monotone but also because Jord couldn’t see how it was making the noise. No visible mouth appeared to move when it spoke. Jord’s exceptional hearing skills told him that the sound didn’t even appear to come from the being at all.

“Come,” it said and it drew Jord to his feet as if he had no will of his own. The limb was still attached and Jord now realised that maybe that was how he was hearing and seeing. It floated away from the ledge and Jord felt the solid ground disappear. He screamed in anticipation of falling but he just floated alongside the being.

“Don’t be afraid,” it intoned.

Jord looked now for the first time around the cavern as that was what he realised this must be. Roughly the size of the meeting place across it was several hundred feet high. A dark still lake covered the entire bottom while the walls were lightly lit with an orange glow. The roof arched over him. By the time he had taken all that in the being had drawn him over half way across. Jord looked back to the ledge that his had been on and saw it was high up near the roof. They were now quite a bit lower and he realised they were slowly descending as well as travelling across the cavern. Shortly he was able to determine that there were a series of ledges similar to the one he had entered on. They were headed directly towards one on the opposite side of the cavern and as they drew close Jord could see that these ledges were slightly different from the one he had entered on. Approximately twice the size for a start, and the walls, while still smooth were not featureless. What could only be described as control panels were sunk into the wall at regular intervals. Jord was not overly astounded. Being a tribesman as well as this being the first time he had seen anything in his life he had nothing to gauge normal against. This alien technology was no more abnormal to Jord then the Whiteface’s healing station had been. The being drew him onto a platform that seemed larger than all the others and looking left and right Jord could see that this platform also had more controls than the others. Three separate panels were embedded into the wall. The being stopped moving once Jord’s feet hit the ground. Another limb extended from it toward the central panel and began manipulating it. Short sparks of light of various colours flashed brightly in Jord’s eyes. Shortly the creature extended a second limb to the panel on the left. After a couple of seconds of flashes two things started to happen. Jord saw a recess open under the left panel. It contained a pile of folded cloth. The second thing he saw was a section of the wall above the central panel dissolved and turned liquid black. It flickered momentarily white and black and then resolved into a featureless grey colour. Suddenly as Jord watched in fascination the grey turned into colours. Moving vibrant colours. Jord had never experienced anything so amazing. Sound accompanied the colours and suddenly he realised that he was seeing the meeting place. Arutha loomed large immediately in front of him and then suddenly vanished. Now the picture showed Lena and Marick. They appeared to be praying in front of the sacred stone. For once Lena wasn’t arguing with Marick.

Jord watched in amazement as the creature continued to manipulate the controls. It reached with another limb into the recess and removed a square of folded cloth. As he shook it out Jord saw that it was a coat. The creature pulled it around Jord and he instinctively thrust his arms in. Suddenly he felt tingling in his arms that quickly extended itself over his entire body. The tingling feeling was gone as quickly as it came and now he realised that the creature had withdrawn the limb that had been attached to his forehead. The picture of the meeting place on the wall expanded to around 4 feet high. The creature spoke again in its flat drone.

“Go and bring peace to your people.”

Suddenly Jord felt himself propelled forward into the screen. He thrust his hands forward to stop the impact and they disappeared straight into the screen offering no resistance at all. A split second later the rest of his body had flowed through the transparent portal and Jord was back in the meeting place, standing in front of Lena and Marick who were still praying kneeling in front of him. Arutha he saw was behind him to his left and Old Rab had gone back to snoring on the bench. There were other tribe members scattered around in small groups, some standing and some sitting. As one they turned to face him and their mouths dropped open in surprise. Jord wasn’t sure who was more surprised, he or they. He could see!

“I can see!” he called out raising his arms victoriously.

This broke the spell and suddenly the tribe surrounded him. Lena hugged him close and Marick rubbed his head and shoulders. Arutha peered at his face and suddenly poked two fat fingers toward his eyes. Jord jerked back in surprise and Arutha’s face burst into a grin as his voice rose above the babble of excited questions and exclamations. “It is true, he can see!”

The four lads were sitting back watching TV. It was a fairly quiet night. They had eaten dinner, and proceeded to get stoned. After they had cleaned up the equipment, they had played games on the TV for some time. Then they had passed a joint around as they sat back to watch TV. They didn’t pick a channel, but rather just turned it on and watched whatever showed. For some reason, there was an old documentary on about the Moving Rocks, the biggest rock band 15 years ago. As they watched it Chris noticed that the leader of the band was staring right at him. The leader suddenly stared directly at the camera.

“I am Darzzlegough leader of the Krecht,” he said.

“And I am Sryjan, second in command,” said the drummer. The camera turned to the bass player, who just stared and in a guttural voice growled, “I am your worst nightmare.”

Chris stared petrified. The other guys were all watching the TV blankly, but none of them had seemed to notice what was going on. As far as they were concerned, the documentary was simply showing a music clip of one of the band’s live performances.

The keyboardist was on screen now, and he said, “If you don’t join us we’ll get you.”

Suddenly, a news photographer was at the front of the band taking photos. His flash was mesmerising, and Chris just stared. His body was in stasis, but his mind was overloading. Suddenly, the photographer turned around, and pointed his camera right at Chris. There seemed an eternity before he pushed the button, and the flash exploded in Chris’s face, and the nightmare began.

The huge reptilian figure was covered in scaly plates of hard bone. There were a number of squat double-jointed legs around the semicircular base of the body. The body was actually oval in shape. It rose to a peak in the middle where four eyes bulged under a hard crest of bone. It looked more like a short centipede then anything else, but Chris was not noticing things like that. He was screaming harder than he had ever screamed before, long gut wrenching screams as he saw the four eyes just staring at him. In his peripheral vision, he noticed that he was lying on a cold wet sandy beach that stretched as far as he could see either side of him in both directions. The sea was sucking hungrily 20 feet behind him, and there were only low featureless dunes covered in a scraggly sea grass on the inland side – except for the creature. The sky was grey and featureless, he couldn’t tell if it was day or night or if there were clouds or any thing. He couldn’t move any part of his body except his face. He suddenly realised that he couldn’t hear his own screaming anymore, and then it occurred to him that no one else could either. The creature’s eyes all blinked suddenly. It was as if a piece of the hooded bone had shut; then as suddenly as it had gone down, the eyes were staring at him again. Although it didn’t move, Chris knew there was absolutely no way he could get away.

“Join us,” boomed a voice. The creature hadn’t opened any orifice, and Chris couldn’t see any remotely resembling a mouth. It still hadn’t moved, and then he knew that its voice was in his head. “Oh yes you are smart, but not for long.” Suddenly, an arm like tentacle uncoiled out from the body of the creature. The end was rounded and about the size of a pool ball. “Come on, we won’t hurt you.” The voice was seductively soft and sweet now, but Chris seemed immobile, unable to control even what his brain did. He screamed again, and realised that he wasn’t even controlling that.

“You’re not hurting our pretty one are you?” came a new voice. Chris’s eyes swivelled from side to side, but couldn’t locate the speaker. Suddenly a shadow loomed over him from behind. Looking back, he gagged, and then vomited violently as he caught a whiff of the stench of the new creature.

Roughly man shaped, although twice as tall as an ordinary man, this creature was menacing. His eyes were focused on Chris, and there was only hate in them. Suddenly Chris noticed the drumsticks in the creature’s hand, then realised that the clothing it was wearing, although ten sizes too small and ripped from stretching onto him was the same as the drummer from the Moving Rocks.

“Oh yes my pretty” it whined again, its honeyed tongue laced with menace. “Remember me? My name is Sryjan.” It reached out with its mind and Chris knew a moment of agonizing terror, as the creatures mind probe struck him. He caught glimpses of boiling mud, vast armies of similar creatures, fiery explosions, and agonising screams and through it all in the background, a maniacal laughter that grated every nerve in his body. Chris had no screaming left. He tried but there was nothing. The tentacle from the first creature started to caress his body. It oozed a substance that seemed to be acidic. As it touched his clothes, they dissolved in a small cloud of steam. The tall creature moved closer and bent his face over Chris’s, and this time its voice was all menace. “You have one choice, come willingly or we will make you.” Chris wanted to come willingly, he would have done anything, ANYTHING the creature asked, only to get away, but he seemed to have no control over his body, and with absolute terror, he felt his body hawk a lump of spittle up and his eyes saw it flung into the creature’s face. It never moved a muscle, but simply let the spit slide over its cheek muscles, and then it exhaled in a short sharp breath. Once again Chris smelt the fetid breath, and almost fainted as it passed over him. But his fainting would have been short-lived if he had fainted. Almost without moving the creature suddenly beckoned to the oval shaped one with the tentacle. The tentacle lifted up and the end morphed. From being a hard round ball, it suddenly turned into a pair of tongs, with crystalline knife-edges. They quivered poised above Chris’s abdomen, then with a single motion sliced into his skin, grabbed his right kidney, and wrenched it out. Once again it hovered motionlessly, the kidney glistening and viscera dripping onto Chris’s chest. There were no holes and no visible scar. Chris’s back arched in agony, and he uncontrollably thrashed on the ground. He wept and screamed, but his throat was so hoarse no sound came out, and then he retched. Vomit spewed up from his mouth and landed back on his face and streamed to the ground. The tall creature laughed unpleasantly. It reached for the kidney and plucked it from the tongs, which morphed back into the hard round ball again. Standing upright, the tall creature howled with maniacal laughter again and throwing his head back thrust Chris’s kidney into his mouth and started chewing. His every bite seemed to be agony for Chris; it seemed as if he was still connected to the kidney now rapidly becoming mince. “You are,” said the ovoid creature, and fresh terror swept through Chris as he suddenly realised what these two creatures planned to do.

Mercifully he fainted and the creatures and the pain faded away. With a sharp jerk he awoke in terror throwing the sheets off the bed as he realised it was all a dream.

At the same time Jord was stirring from his sleep behind the dumpster in the alley, Kat was stirring from her sleep in her bed. She lived in a 5-bedroom brick house in a wooded suburb of the city, in a fairly affluential area. Her parents had 2 cars, plus her car garaged in the 4-car garage, her brother had a dirt bike and there were 2 jet skis on trailers in a shed. She had her own room with a wide screen TV, sound system and her own computer. Her parents employed a cleaner, a gardener and a pool man to help with the maintenance of the property. Dad was a lawyer and Mum worked on charity events as an organiser and fundraiser. They were not socialites, but were fairly well known around town.

Kat was in her second year of university and at 19 had pretty much had life handed to her on a plate. However she was far from the model student and daughter she appeared to be on the surface and in public.

As she came awake to the dappled sunlight filtering through the blinds she could hear the noise of the leaf blower and guessed that the gardener was here.

She rolled to her side and reached for her organiser on the bedside table. Thumbing through to the entry for the day she remembered that she had to be at Uni early today for a tutorial before her lecture. The upside was that she had an optional afternoon session and had decided to go to the beach with some friends. Rising she showered and dressed in her bikini before heading downstairs. She would get the rest of her clothes later but for now she was hungry.

Opening the stainless steel double door fridge to get some breakfast she had a sudden sense of being watched and quickly looked around. Maybe the gardener was peering in the window at her. He was a tribesman and as much as her mother complained to her father about them, nothing would sway his decision to employ the man. No one was there however and she turned back to the fridge a little uneasy. She had never liked the gardener but she did get on well with Amy the cleaner. She was a robust woman, loud and cheerful and her presence made the usually cheerless house seem full of sunshine and laughter. Today it appeared that Amy was not here, but as usual she had left the house spotless. Her parents had obviously eaten out last night, as the only plates on the bench were hers from last night. Settling onto a barstool at the bench Kat spooned the yoghurt into her mouth morosely as she glumly considered the upcoming tutorial. She had not studied for it but that shouldn’t matter too much. No the reason for her glumness stemmed from her dislike of a classmate who had been assigned to work with her on the tutorial by the lecturer. Reaching for a banana she peeled it and bit into the top. Rising from the chair she put her bowl on the sink edge and turned to leave the room. A wave of goose bumps swept over her as she once gain felt as if she was being watched. There was no noise from the garden and looking out the window she could see the gardener just disappearing out the side gate dragging his equipment with him. What was causing her to feel like this? Silly girl she told her self – there’s nothing to be afraid of. Yet despite her forced courage, there was uneasiness at the back of her mind. Walking back upstairs she paused by her younger brothers room. Chris was sprawled on top of his bed fast asleep. He was younger than her by 18 months and as immature as a baby still in her opinion. He had dropped out of school in the last year and spent most of his time hanging out with his mates playing basketball, skating and surfing. He was growing his hair long and was turning into a right brat. Not that I am all that much of a goody two shoes she thought. While Chris was open in his defiance of his parents, refusing to attend school, look for or a job or stop bumming around as his Dad put it Kat was more secretive. Chris appeared to live to party with his mates and she was sure he was taking money from her room to augment his allowance. She could smell cigarette smoke, unwashed sweaty clothes and worse and wrinkled her nose as she headed back to her room. Slipping on a denim mini, fashion-t and low-heeled slides she headed for the bathroom to complete her makeup routine.

Looking into the mirror she spent a moment contemplating her reflection before busying herself with the routine of skincare and cosmetics. Looking back at her in the large mirror was a thin face surrounded by straight sun bleached blond hair. Her eyes were the only pretty thing she decided and she spent a moment making sure that she used mascara to enhance her eyelashes. Pleased with the final look her mind switched back to the upcoming tutorial and her unease returned. Maybe that was why she had felt as if she was being watched. She was sure that Mario had a crush on her. The way he looked at her when he thought she wasn’t looking. She really disliked the smooth faced teen with the charming Italian looks. He had shoulder length black hair in bangs and deep brown eyes and a way of charming the ladies that made her feel sick. The other girls in the class thought he was wonderful and he was always surrounded by a bevy of them giggling and hanging on his every word. But he seemed to only have eyes for her and that disquieted her. She had never had a serious boyfriend and was not sure that this smooth Italian stallion was the type she wanted. She certainly was not going to fall in love with him she told herself sternly. Concentrating on the tutorial would be hard with him there but she just had to do it.

Completing her self-analysis Kat grabbed her keys, her handbag, her book bag and her personal communicator before heading downstairs. Passing the linen cupboard she grabbed a beach towel for the afternoon. Heading for the garage she once again had the uneasy feeling but this time convinced herself that it was nothing but the thought of today’s tutorial. Her mood brightened momentarily by thoughts of the beach and her friends returned back to the gloom that the upcoming tutorial caused.

Once in the garage she opened her car door and hopped in as she thumbed the remote door opener for the garage.

As the sunlight flooded into the darkened garage, she flipped her sunglasses down and looked over her shoulder as she reversed out. Hitting the street she thumbed the remote again. Kat never saw the dim figure standing in the corner of the garage watching her leave.