Rewritten

Chapter 23

According to the phone in Daniel's ear, Niyan arrives at the law building precisely at 1 in the morning. The time is indicated by a ding and the time, announced verbally in a robotic voice. Daniel realizes then that time isn't as distinguished here in the Link as back home. The street is beautiful at night though. Thin, dazzling beams of light stripe the borders in electric blue, green and white.

Niyan walks in the glass doors and walks confidently towards Daniel. Without a word, she grabs his wrist and drags him out the door. He seems lost. He looks back at the lady at the desk who doesn't say anything to him about the phone. She just lets him walk right out the doors. Niyan opens the front of a white 2-door hovercraft that has a cream, faux leather interior and a chrome dashboard.

"It's old," Niyan commented, buckling into her seat. "You should see some of the new ones. No seat belts, they have forcefield strips instead. I would love to not have to put a seat belt on." She smiles.

"Niyan, what's going to happen to me?"

She frowns. "It will be fine."

"That's not very reassuring." He stares at his shoes, the same ones that he wore that rainy night in the café.

"If you want, I can get you a notebook to write down some thoughts to remember after the Extraction."

"I won't remember?"

"No, you will remember parts of your childhood, like baking a cake with your mother or sitting on a beach. But, anything we need will be removed. You will not remember the war and unfortunately most of the past twenty years of your life."

"Niyan, do you know how old I am?"

"Of course, I understand that the Extraction will be more severe for you considering the percentage of your life you will forget."

"I'm only twenty-five years old."

"You will remember nearly all of the memories you have from when you were five and younger."

"I barely remember anything from when I was that young."

"I'm sorry, but that's just how the Extraction works." She watches the road, expression blank. She's gone back to the emotionless robot of a being that she was before. She had seemed so empathetic but not anymore. "You will be staying in the Extraction building for a few more weeks until the Extraction."

"Fine," he looks at her. "Just please tell me one thing." She glances over at him, then back at the road. "Why do treat the past the way you do? What happened?"

"We can't have that history yet. It's too soon. We can only learn from the past 50 years back. It's clear in the laws of the Link. Everyone is eagerly awaiting the day when we Extract it from Alaia, the one that we took from 50 years ago. She will be having her Extraction very soon." Niyan parks the craft in a car port at the base of the towering glass building. "That's it, let's go get you a journal now, shall we?"

Niyan leads him, first, to the front desk and grabs a journal off the stack of countless journals and shoves it into his stomach. "Here ya go, one journal," she turns around, grabs a pen and hands it to Daniel with a slight flick of her wrist. He takes it and hooks it into the journal.

As soon as Daniel gets to his dorm in the Extraction building, he goes to Patrick. After talking for a while, Daniel asks him about Alaia.

"Alaia, I've heard that name. I've heard so many of the guards talking about her. She's a big deal. They are all talking about her."

"Do you know where she is?"

"I can't be certain but, I think they are keeping her on the top floor, behind specially enhanced force fields and guards, so many guards."

"You can't be certain but you have that big of a hypotheses?"

"Well, it may have been exaggerated by the guards."

"I have to get up there."

"Why?" Patrick looks him in the face, shocked, but excited.

"I don't know yet. It's just, there is something strange about this all. I need to talk to her."

"Whatever you say..."

Daniel leans back against the wall on the bottom bunk. The door opens seconds later. A man steps through, strong and armoured in iron cells that are able to bend with each motion. It's as if they form to his clothing.

He steps forward with strip of textured metal or plastic, it was hard to tell from the bed. The man grabbed Daniel's wrist and slipped the strip across his neck.

"Excuse me!"

"The neck is the most compatible part of your exposed skin."

"For what??"

"DNA cataloguing"

"Why would you ever need that?" Daniel asks, rubbing his sore neck.

"We need to be able to identify you somehow."

Behind the guard, Daniel spots a man sneaking out the door, attacking a guard who is standing outside. Everyone turns to see it and they all start to run towards the door.

"Oh great!" The guard moans. He pulls out a gun and starts shooting people that are running for the door. They drop to the floor and electricity flutters around their bodies, stinging them before they finally pass out.

Patrick takes Daniel's forearm and screams over the commotion. "We need to get out while we can! They're going to get more guards here soon!"