The guard takes off his helmet, revealing a smooth, asian face. He can't be more than twenty. His parade ground bellow is replaced by a peaceful, friendly sounding voice.
"Please be at ease. I am Officer Kwan of the Al Amarjan Peace
Force. Let me take a minute to explain things to you. We're
going totake the elevator up to the fourth floor, which is where Customs
and Immigration is. You will each meet with a caseworkerwho will
process your paperwork and clear your visa. Once that's done you
can head to the hotel for the night, turn in your questionnaire, and enjoy
the rest of your visit.
Your luggage is being delivered to your rooms for you.
"Part of the package that may not have been mentioned to you in Bankok is that you will be settled in adjoining rooms at the Airporter, and will be eating your meals together for the first day. This is part of the Tourist Board's attempt to make sure that all the newcomers on Al Amarja have a passing acquaintance with someone on the island. It makes your stay more pleasant when you aren't all alone... that sort of thing." Kwan gestures to an apparantly blank wall. "Now then, let us proceed upstairs."
With that, he leads the tourists to a nigh-invisible door in the far wall, and manipulates one of the bits of chrome next to it. Moments later the door opens onto a large elevator, again the color of bone and chrome. The group gets in, the doors close, and the elevator rises. The doors open onto a small waiting room, featureless except for a dozen post-modern looking chairs. "Have a pleasant stay," says Officer Kwan cheerfully, and the elevator doors close once again.
The room is featureless in that way that only rooms in dreams or nightmares are usually featureless. There is no sound but that which the various people in the room make themselves, and even that is strangely muffled. Once the elevator doors close, it appears exactly as though the room has no exits.
Ghishu, a bald 20-25 year old man, is wearing simple battered out clothes and ragged shoes. Not clothes that one would see on a street bum, but not much more. In spite of the name, Ghishu doesn't have an oriental face, but rather something more like a European. Once the group has entered the room, he sits down in a calm air that is really surprising in this situation. The calmness he is radiating is a result of a meditation he is conducting to both help himself to calm down and sharpen his psychic powers.
Suddenly, a look of pain and shock crosses his face. Simultaneously, blood begins to trickle out both nostrils. After an instant of gasping surprise, Ghishu takes a handkerchief out of his pocket and wipes his nose.
After the psychic shock, he decides to raise back his mind shield.
Erecting a mind shield has an immediate effect somewhat akin to sticking his head inside a large oil drum just after it has been struck by a trip-hammer. For an instant, anything that was rattling around inside his brain is reflected and magnified back as it bounces around inside the shield, increasing it to brutally painful intensity (rather like driving an ice pick through his temple). Then the effect fades, and normality - almost - returns. One thing he notices - the muzak stops playing.
A section of the apparatly seamless wall swings open, and a woman dressed in a tan uniform steps through. Those in the room get a quick look at a busy office behind her as the wall section swings shut.
The woman is in her early twenties, with waist-length black hair and attractive asian features (korean for those who can tell such things). She carries a clipboard in one hand, and a pen in the other. Upon entering the room, she smiles prettily at everyone in general. The nametag on the uniform reads "Pak".
"Good morning, and welcome to Al Amarja," she says pleasantly (those who can tell such things will have her racial background confirmed by her accent). "I am Miss Pak, and I will be making sure that your trip through C&I is as pleasant as possible.
"In a few moments, each of you will be meeting with a case worker, who will be handling your paperwork while you are here on the island. The interviews are almost always quite brief, and unless some difficulty arises, you should be on your way soon."
"Each of you has chosen to participate in a survey rating C&I for its efficiency and helpfulness. When you are finished with your interview, your caseworker will give you a questionnaire to fill out. Please complete it and return it to your caseworker, who will give you a voucher for a night at the Jean Christophe D'Aubainne Airporter Hotel."
"Before we begin, does anyone have any questions?"
As soon as the C&I lady enters the room, Ghishu lowers his mind shield. He doesn't want C&I trying to probe his brain and finding out that he is holding a mental protection of some sort.
After a polite pause, the woman in the C&I uniform nods once and says, "Then if you will all please follow me..." With that she turns back to the seemingly blank wall, manipulates a bit of the chrome on the wall, and a door opens, revealing the busy office beyond once again.
The tourists (there are only four) all follow the woman across the office, to a door marked "Interview Rooms". There, she addresses them once more. "Mr. Tetsuo, you are in interview room A; Mr Gishu, you are in interview room C; Mr. Lake, you are in interview room E; and Mr. Smith, you are in Interview Room F. Have a pleasant stay!"
With that final comment she opens the door, revealing a corridor that stretches out all the way to the vanishing point, with doors periodically along either side. The door behind the group swings shut with a "CRASH!" of great finality. When the group turns to look in that direction, there is no door leading back to C&I anymore - just a blank wall. The corridor has been designed using the "Brutalist" design theme... The doors are all of 15 feet high - the doorknobs are set just about at eye level, and visitors have to crane their necks to even SEE what's written on the doors.
In other words, everything is designed to make one feel very small and very insignificant.
Save for the sounds made by four people breathing, all is absolutely silent in the corridor.
Having nothing better to do, all four tourists begin wandering down the long corridor, past doors marked with various strange symbols (none of which appear to be in the arabic alphabet). After ten minutes or so, someone spots something lying in the hallway in the distance. As the party approaches, it resolves itself into a human skeleton clad in bermuda shorts and a very loud hawaiian shirt. The party passes by the skeleton and continues to hike. After passing inumerable doors of one sort or another, eventually they spot the comforting arabic letters they seek.
Ghishu walks slowly, examining the weird doors and corridor. While walking, he is facing up trying to read the writings on the doors. Judging from the manner in which he walks, it looks like he is admiring the art work that it took to create this strange place.
When he reaches door C, he takes a 'here goes nothing' glance at the
group, and opens the door.
Sitting in the large leather chair is a woman. She wears a colorful, long flowing skirt, a white men's dress shirt, and a corderoy blazer with leather arm patches. On her head she wears a silk scarf which clashes severely with her dress. Her face is large, round, and ruddy, as if the woman had just recenly ran someplace. Her eyes are small dark pinpricks on her face. She is heavy set and muscular. A large, dark, hairy mole sits on her jaw, disfiguring her face.
She sees the new arrival and , without moving from her seat, motions him to sit down. "Good day," she says with a heavy russian accent, "my name is Ms. Boronova, and today, I will be aking you questions."
Ghishu walks over to the chair and sits down. After sitting ,he raises his head to face the woman, but in a way that is avoiding eye contact, looking at her forehead or at her nose.
After a couple of seconds he is nodding slightly, acknowledging her to continue.
The woman clears her throat, and in low, measured tones, says "What is your name? What is your nation, place, and date of birth? Please hand your passport to me now for verification."
"My name is Ghishu. I don't know where or when I was born because I was found as a baby by monks and was raised in a monastery in Japan. Here are my papers."
Ghishu raises himself from the chair just enough to be able to hand her his passport and visa. "I think you'll find everything is in order". After a couple of seconds waiting for her to start examining he papers, he sits back down in his chair.
She takes the papers and places them on her desk. She then asks, "What is your puropose for this visit to Al Amarja? Will you be visiting or immigrating to this nation? If your visit will take less than two weeks, please take the pink Personal Information sheet and fill it out. If your stay will be longer, please take the navy blue Information Packet and fill it out. If you will be immigrating, please take the violet Information Booklet and fill it out. You will not be permited to leave the C&I offices untill you have filled out one of these forms. You will not be given a form untill this inverview in complete. Due to your unfortunate lack of knowledge about your parents, you must complete a fluorescent green Orphans and Foundlings addendum in adition to all of these forms."
The mole on the side of her face catches Ghishu's eye again. It's quite grotesque.
Trying to disguise his disgust of the mole on her face, he says: "I'm here as a tourist but I haven't decided how long I will stay, so I guess I'd better take the navy blue Information Packet. And, of course, the fluorescent green form."
"I'm sorry, there must be some confusion. As I clearly stated, the forms will be given to you once the interview is complete, and not before. This is stardard Customs and Immigration procedure. Thank you for your cooperation," she says. "Lets move on. What was your last empoloyer and your last place of residence?"
"I lived all my life in a monastery in Japan, until about six months ago when I realized that my destiny lies elsewhere. I've been on the road since then touring Japan. Then I came across an advertisement on Al Amarja and decided I want to go there - it looks like you have a very interesting island here," Ghishu says with a smile.
"Yes, yes it is. A VERY interesting island," comments Ms. Boronova.
"Are you
transporting firearms, controled substances, or anything else that
you intend to sell in Al Amarja? Be advised the the possesion, transport,
or sale of firearms in Al Amarja is illegal and is punishable by imprissionment
not under ten years in a maximum security prison and up to summary execution.
To avoid prosecution, surrender your firearm now. Be also advised
that the possession, transport, and sale of controlled substances such
as cannibis, LSD, Blue Shock, MDA cubed, cocaine, heroin, Nightmare, Zoroaster,
relapse, and the combat enhencing drug Slo-Mo is illegal. The sale,
possesion, or transport of Slo-Mo is especially harshly punished and rigorously
enforsed, with penalties not under fifteen years imprisonment and up to
sumary execution. To avoid prosecution, surrender your controlled
substances now. To import any other item for sale, declare your intention
and you will receve a grey Import Tariff form at the conclusion of this
interview."
Ghishu calmly says that he doesn't possess any firearms or drugs, nor does he intend to possess, transport or sell any. "I'm here for a vacation, not to conduct business of any sort."
The woman nods. "Are you a carrier for AIDS or any other communicable disease? Do you use drugs intervenusly or have you had sex, even once, with another man in the past seven years?"
Ghishu listens carefully to the questions and then answers "No".
"Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of any communist party? Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of any national socialist party? Are you a member, or have you ever been an member of any of the folowing groups: the IRA, Hezbollah, the PLO, the Rosicrucians, the Michigan Militia, Shining Path, Greenpeace, the Black Panther Party, the Weathermen, the Khmer Rouges, the CIA, The KKK, Om Shenrikio, the Unification Church, the Scottish Lliberation Army, the NSA, the Front de Liberetation du Québec, ARM, the Freemasons, the Department of Energy under U.S. president Jimmy Carter, the Department of Education under U.S. president George Bush, or Amnesty International?"
Ghishu listens to the woman as she recites the list. He doesn't even know all of the names and organizations she is referring to. Anyway, after she finishes he again replies with a "No".
"Do you exhibit any psychic or supernormal powers? If so, at the conclusion of this interview, you must report to the Center for Paranormal control to register your supernormal power. Possession of a unregistered supernormal power is a felony, and is punishable by no less than five years in maxiumum security prison and up to summary execution. Avoid prosecution by declaring your supernormal power now." The C&I caseworker is observing Ghishu very closely.
Ghishu, like he answered to all the other questions so far, answers "No". This is the moment he's been waiting for ever since he entered the airport. He uses his meditation techniques to remain calm and look inside his own brain to see if anyone tries to invade it, but senses nothing.
Ghishu seems quite calm.
Very calm.
Unnaturally calm.
Normally Ms. Boronova expects people to be at least a little surprised by the question.
She stands up, goes to the file cabinet, and brings out a series of flash cards. She then sits down again. "The government of Al Amarja is conducting a study of tourists and immigrants to this nation. Your cooperation is appreciated. Please look at the images on the following flash cards and say the first thing that comes into your mind."
She turns the volume up on the tape recorder. The sound of sea surf envelopes Ghishu. She then says in low, measured tones, "Speak." She turns over the first card and it shows....
A tree.
Ghishu stares at the card for a second and says "A forest in a clear night. The wind blowing gently on the leafed branches and the sound of a howl of an owl".
The woman places the card on her desk. She takes another card from the pile and reveals it....
... a western style split level house in Hallowe'en orange...
Ghishu again takes only a couple of seconds to reply. "A costume party with lots of noise is taking place in the living room on the first floor."
... A white, snow capped mountain...
"A lone skier going down a slope, the wind blowing hard on his face."
... A single white candle in the center of a circle...
"Several people hunched around the circle, murmuring during some sort of religious ritual."
"What kind of religious ritual?" Ms. Boronova asks. She places the card on the table, but does not reach for a new one.
"I don't know. Some sort of divination ritual - they hope the light of the candle will show them the way in the darkness."
He's been waiting for it - here it is. Something is in fact, messing with his mind. Not someone, but something - more like a force than an actual person. More than that, the force actually succeeds in infiltrating, though not by much.
"Why do you think that this is true?" the caseworker asks.
"I'm not sure this is true," says Ghishu. "They might be performing
some sort of Satanic ritual. Maybe the candle is there to guide the
soul of the goat they sacrificed a while ago to whoever they sacrificed
it to!" After saying that, Ghishu stops for a minute with a confused
expression on his face.