The glowing cubes appeared all over the world. It was later estimated there were over a million of them. Most appeared in or near populated areas, often causing panic.But some people were more curious than afraid.
On the outskirts of Mumbai, a young married couple read the message on the cube, looked at each other, then plunged their hands inside.
In London, England, a bunch of half-drunk, half-hungover teenagers began pulling out timon implant kits and hiber beds without bothering to read any of the doc.u.mentation.
In a field near Aburi in Ghana, West Africa, a farmer put aside his hoe and reached out hesitatingly to the glowing cube.
In Lima, Peru, vendors and shoppers picked and splashed their way through the water-soaked debris of the collapsed stalls of an outdoor market, and formed a circle around the glowing cube. A fat, middle-aged woman was the first to touch the cube, shaming the two policemen who had been too scared to even come close.
In Sydney, Australia, an old man stared at the ruined, half-cooked meat surrounding the barbecue grill lying on the ground. Then he looked at the glowing cube that had materialized in the back yard of his house, looked at the gaggle of his dear old friends huddled around him, wiped the rainwater off his face. He put his hand into the cube, saying loudly and clearly:
"Four steaks, a dozen jumbo shrimps, and four lamb chops please. And make it snappy."
Inside the United Nations building in New York, delegates in the general a.s.sembly chamber were all busy reading the doc.u.mentation from the cube. The great room wasn"t completely dark any more; it was illuminated by the cube and the hundreds of glowing scrolls in the hands of the delegates.
Some read slower, and some read faster. Olaf Troll read very fast, and he had also started reading before anyone else. He got to the end of the text on the scroll first even though he was Norwegian, and English was his second language.
He walked up to the cube and plunged his hand in and withdrew a narrow silver cone. It was the size of an average cigar. In the center of the cone"s round base, a tiny bead glowed with an icy blue light.
Before anyone could stop him, Olaf Troll raised his arm and put the sharp end of the cone just behind his right ear. It looked as if he was stabbing himself in the head with the cone.
Then he pressed the glowing blue bead with his thumb.
His mouth fell open and his eyes glazed over. He dropped the cone, and no one noticed that it didn"t make any noise at all when it hit the ground. This was because there were many voices shouting:
"Don"t do that!"
"Someone stop him!"
"Security! Guards! Hold him!"
"He"s dying!"
Two security guards - a man and a woman - stumbled onto the stage. But Nelson Odongo stopped them with a look and an upraised palm.
He was right next to Olaf Troll, and he could see that Troll was very much alive.
"Olaf! My dear fellow!" Nelson Odongo said, putting on his Cambridge mask.
"Shut up," said Olaf Troll. He started to shake very slightly and grabbed himself, crossing his arms over his chest.
"My G.o.d!" he said, although he did not believe in G.o.d. He was staring at something far, far away with unseeing eyes. He started speaking, very fast:
"I am communicating with my second self in the New World. It"s so cold! I am, he is completely naked. He is telling me there patches of snow under the trees. He is in a forest. He can hear water. He is running towards the water. Everything is happening very fast."
"Olaf! Where are you?"
"Shut up! I"m here of course. He is here, too. The same exact spot, but in the New World. Read the doc.u.mentation! You are replicated in the New World wherever you are in on Earth. That water he can hear must be the East River."
"But you said he"s in a forest!" cried Sonia Patel.
"It is a forest. There"s no New York. It hasn"t been built yet. Yes! He can see the river. He is running to the river. He has stopped!"
Olaf Troll fell silent and immediately many voices started asking questions. Within a couple of seconds almost everyone was shouting.
Olaf Troll uttered a terrible, piercing scream.
Everyone fell silent. Everyone watched Troll as he trembled, and sank down until he was kneeling on the floor. Suddenly he threw his head back and inhaled sharply, like someone who has been suffocating.
"f.u.c.king unbelievable," whispered Olaf Troll. He stood up and dusted his knees with his hands. Then he screamed:
"f.u.c.king unbelievable!"
There was a stunned silence. Then a voice spoke from the back of the crowd of delegates around the stage. It was a deep, strong voice, a voice that commanded respect. The voice said:
"Enough of this bulls.h.i.t."
The voice belonged to Carlton Brock, president of the United States. Carlton Brock was a former action movie star who had gotten elected precisely because he always spoke as if he meant whatever he was saying.
He said to Olaf Troll:
"Pull yourselves together, man. What happened? And no foul language. Please."
Olaf Troll giggled and looked towards Carlton Brock and said:
"I died. I mean, he died. I commanded him to go on when he stopped and he fell into the river. And he drowned."
An excited buzz rose among the delegates. The no-bulls.h.i.t voice of Carlton Brock cut through the chatter:
"But you didn"t drown."
"Obviously."
"You"re very much alive."
"I hope so, yes."
"And you"ve suffered no injuries."
"It doesn"t seem so."
"Then you must replicate yourself again. My a.s.sistant tells me, uh, wait a moment... Yes. She"s read through that thing and she says you can replicate yourself in the New World again if your second self dies."
"I"ve read all of it too," said Olaf Troll. "I know that. I also know I"m not going back, er, I mean replicating myself again over there until it gets warmer. He was naked. You understand? Naked. And it was very cold. At best a few degrees above freezing. Why don"t you go, I mean replicate yourself? It will quickly shrink those over-sized b.a.l.l.s of yours."
"I resent that remark," said Carlton Brock.
Nelson Odongo quickly moved in. He had a special talent for moving in quickly when it was needed. That was why he had been chosen as the secretary general. He said:
"Ladies and gentlemen. Please! Let"s get organized. We must elect a committee that will formulate a plan for settling the New World. I think ten minutes are enough for everyone to get fully acquainted with the doc.u.mentation they"ve received. I will be asking candidates for seats on the committee to step forward exactly fifteen minutes from now. In the meantime, I shall organize and send out parties to find out what"s going on outside. On our own planet Earth."
"Ask them to turn on the power," said Carlton Brock, as determined as ever to have the last word.
Nelson Odongo looked in Carlton Brock"s direction. He could not see him; the light from the cube and the scrolls wasn"t strong enough. He decided it would be shrewd to pretend that the president of the United States had been joking to create a lighter atmosphere. He said:
"Quite so. I"ll also see whether we can get some candles."
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