The New World

Void Messiah

"Hotel Mercy room 1531."

Mens jerked out of his refuge. He knew that voice. It was that of Senator Goldwater, whose children he had induced long ago. Was this voice dreamy or real?

"Mens, come quick. They're going to kill me. I'm at the Mercy Hotel, room 1531."

His mind snapped out of the sleep that engulfed him. The internal clock read 4:11. He sat up in bed, his heart pounding. That voice, Senator Goldwater's, was in his head, in direct thought.

"Mens, come quick. They're going to kill me. I'm at the Mercy Hotel, room 1531."

"Just hold on. Marc, we're coming," Mens stammered, leaping from the bed.

He quickly changed into clean clothes and headed for the kitchen. Thinking directly, he contacted reinforcements and sent them to the Hotel Mercy. Then he swallowed an amphetax tablet with a glass of cold water to finish waking up.

He went down to the parking lot and ran to his scooter, which he jumped on and started up. As he rode along, he contacted the special intervention units to check on their progress.

Twenty minutes later, he arrived at the Mercy Hotel in a hurry. At the same moment, in his thoughts, an interrupted message came through: "Mens. They're going to...". He gritted his teeth.

Two police cars were already parked out front, flashing lights cutting through the pale dawn with great swirling sprays of cold light.

He ran into the lobby, adjusting his bulletproof vest as he went. At the reception desk, several hotel employees, some of whom had obviously been awakened by the irruption of the police, were bustling about, talking loudly and clearly. Without waiting, Mens headed for the elevator bank, his police badge brandished above his head.

In the elevator, he received in his mind's eye the plan of the corridor and the room. The 15th-floor landing was silent and dark as the elevator door opened. A crouching policeman beckoned him to get down. Mens crouched down to him, his weapon in his right hand and leaning on his equipment bag with his other hand.

The other whispered, "I've been instructed not to intervene".

Mens looked at him in astonishment and, without asking his opinion, ran to the door of room 1531.

He fired three blows into the electronic lock, then delivered a powerful heel kick to the door, which swung wide open and then slid aside. He was well advised to do so, for a powerful gust of wind came out of the opening. Passing his hand through the doorway, he took a guess, basing himself on the plan he had visualized. Silence fell. He reached into his bag and pulled out a black cube, which he tossed into the room. The cube unfolded into a small spider-like robot. The images captured by the machine showed that the situation was calm. A body lay at the far end of the room. Commanded by Mens, the robot moved an explosives detector over the body. Mens insisted on a bag that the rebel was clutching.

After donning surgical gloves, he entered the room. There was an appalling smell of butchery. He covered his nose. As his gaze wandered slowly to the bed, he knew what he was about to see. A headless body lay across the blood-drenched bed. On the wall above it was written in scarlet letters: "False believers - you will lose your head!

The policeman had joined him.

"Void Messiah" Mens murmured.

The two men stared at the nightmarish scene before them.

"The...the man's bag," stammered Mens.

He crouched down beside the fallen fugitive lying in the middle of the room and, forcing the fingers of the dead man's hand, picked up the bag. Weighing it, he already knew his hunch was right. He carefully opened the bag. A head lay there, eyes wide open and mouth twisted in a rictus of pain. It was Senator Goldwater's head.