2400 AD

All Callum had to do was carry out his duties respectfully and honorably. It was as simple and clear-cut as that.

“Can I be excused? Need to use the bathroom. Sorry.”

Kendall nodded and Callum dashed out of the room into the corridor. Walls. Thank god for walls. He used them to keep himself upright. If he buckled over, he’d puke all over the floor. He reached the bathroom and made a dash for a cubicle and slammed the door shut. He leaned into the toilet bowl and released everything in his gut until there was nothing left. Clenching his fists, he began to mumble: “Why? Gideon, why? Fuck!”

The door clicked quietly as it closed.

“I need a few moments alone.” Callum said.

“You are not the only one who has suffered like this, and you believe no one will ever be able to understand your pain.” Indranil approached him. “We see loneliness as perceived social isolation that triggers fight-or-flight stress responses that can lead to illness and premature death.” Indranil smiled and touched the back of Callum’s neck.

Almost immediately his anxiety settled, “It’s not that kind of loneliness, Indranil.” Callum laughed.

“Foreign Legion, I understand the predicament, others might not.”

“Without Gideon this place will go to hell.”

“Correction. Without Gideon, Foreign Legion will go to hell. You miss him and that has a negative impact on your decisions.”

“True. What am I going to do?”

“We must rescue Gideon. If you love him you must be prepared to give up your own life if needs be.”

Callum checked himself in the mirror above the basin. He was sweating. Dizzy. He ran the tap of cold water and splashed it onto his face over and over again and wiped his face with a dry towel.

“Straighten your shirt.” Indranil ran his hands over Callum’s shirt. “Come, let us face this hurdle and jump it like a horse.”

They returned to the War Room as if nothing had happened.

“How do you see us playing this out, Callum?” Volbrecht spoke.

Callum thought for a moment. So many scenarios crossed his mind. He cleared his throat. “I have some questions first. Just some things I need to put into perspective.”

“Sure,” Kendall said. “What is leadership without knowledge. What is knowledge without leadership?”

The others agreed. Callum scratched his chin and posed the first question. “How much room do we have in Denizen 1 for citizens?”

Tshabalala, head of Incoming, said, “Currently we have four thousand five hundred citizens. We can accommodate up to fifteen thousand.”

“And why don’t we have a second in command? Is this the Vatican?” Callum asked.

“We’ve chosen not to have a second in command due to conflicts of interest. It’s like parents. The child gets a no from one parent and a yes from another parent. It doesn’t work for us.”

“That’s not true democracy,” Callum said.

“Our leader is chosen for life, like royalty, he may abdicate in which case we’ll vote in a new leader, or he may die and we do the same thing,” Kendall said.

Callum turned to Volbrecht. “You asked me earlier how I see this playing out. The solution is twofold. I need a team to rescue Gideon. Whilst I’m doing that, a team needs to be working on Thespian and Jacob. Get as much information from them as possible, and act.”

“And how will you save Gideon?”