Mika and I left the gym, were our combat lessons were taking place. We were both thirsty, we needed to quench our thirst, two to three glasses of water were enough to bring us back to life.
"I didn't know you could fight like that? "said Mika, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
"Well what can I say? Growing up in the rough streets of Joburg. You eventually learn how to walk, talk and fight like all kids from the ghetto. I was once attacked by a group of innocent looking men. They wore classic blazers, you could swear they owned businesses as in large corporates." I said.
"They stole my white bag pack, which had all my important art books in it and the clothes on my body. I was left naked and ashamed. Just as u thought they were about to leave, one of the men decided that he wanted more, he grabbed me aggressively with his large hands, he pinned me to the to a corner and began to rape me, his buddies cheered him on while taking their turns on me.He they were satisfied, they left me there bleeding. I became angry with memories it tormenting me, I could not even defend myself, I then secretly watched self defence videos on YouTube video. That's how I learned to fight."
"Wow, I'm sorry about what you had to go through but I am glad something good came out of it. I'm proud of you."
Mika hugged me just as we were about to separate.
Lessons with Kaila continued for the two months, by then I had learned much more than I had taken from You tube. I could punch and kick like a fighter, come up with fighting tactics like a military soldier, but to be better at my new skill I had to keep training myself even at home. Mika suggested I train with him and I accepted the offer, he was good at combat, we trained and trained for days.
"I enjoyed this experience with all of you and I hope you also enjoyed the experience too. But now I will have to end our session." Kaila announced.
The entire class applauded.
"You have learned how to use your brain as a weapon, then you learned how to use combat as a weapon, now you will learn how to use technology as your weapon. This will be your third and last lesson, it will be offered by Mr Benjamin Temo. The Professor announced, pointing to an open space.
The class marvelled, then they whispered "is he mad, no one is there "they said.
Suddenly a blurry image formed into the blank space, black cube shapes accumulated one another to form a human being, the black colour was slowly being replaced by a human image, the figure became clearer and clearer till it was fully formed into a quality image, It was Ben's image.
The class was amazed and so was I.
"If Ben Is not human, then what is he?" I wondered
"Hello class I'm Ben,I will be your Artificial Intelligence Guide." The image said.
"There are two the human Ben and what we call a Hologram Bot Ben. The actual Ben is unfortunately building security software that will act as a holobot shield for the GOH agency of all the nine provinces in South Africa. The hologram bot or HBot in simple terms has already been programmed, all lessons have been recorded in its system, Lessons will only take thirty minutes, every single day for two weeks and then it will be the end of all lessons. "Professor Phenyo explained.
The class applauded.
"I will be showing you ways of identifying and maintaining your electronic tool's. A guardian must always carry three tools with him, an HBot, a recorder, and a weapon. Without these tools a guardian is likely to face defeat by an enemy at 70% probability. "the HBot stated.
Within two weeks of attending the AI sessions, I had gained plenty of knowledge. When the lessons ended came to the class personally, with two HBots pushing large covered trolleys into the classroom.
"I'm glad to see you all here today, I have a few helpful gadget's for you "he announced.
Ben gave each and every student a spy kit, it had in it an audio recorder, binoculars and a book filled with setting up of booby traps.
The class was happy. Each student was awarded with a Certificate for partaking in all the three lessons. There was no graduation to maintain the discretion of the agency's existence.
Mika and I celebrated our achievement at a concert later that day. Training was completed!!
You can't help but admire a woman who works hard to keep her family fed.A woman who would risk her life to ensure that her children are kept safe from danger. My mother had such qualities. She and I hardly talked after I found out my father's secret. Deep down I felt shame for lying to my mother, whenever she would ask whether my father had asked me to move in with him, I would tell her "not yet" I would then hang up the phone. I kept all my conversations with her short as I was preventing endless questions that could lead to unwanted suspicion. I was often tempted to reveal the truth about my new life, but I knew she would not take the news well. She was too protective, anything that involved violence would not sit well with her. I couldn't allow her to ruin my career plans. Belinda reminded me a lot of my mother, I often wondered about the type of parent she was and whether she ever missed her children. I would always see her working for long hours, it seemed she enjoyed working for my father more than visiting her family.
"Does Belinda have children!" I asked my father, one day. A moment after picking up his morning paper from the mail box.
"No, well that's what she told me when I asked her" my father replied
"What about siblings?"
"I don't know, You can go to her and inquire, may I attend my business, You can ask me anything else later as long as it does not involve my helper"
I was too afraid to ask Belinda anything, she looked unapproachable. I stopped inquiring and minded my own life.
The GOH was a family for those who didn't have children or caring siblings. The recruits were either lonely, looking for a purpose or in need of a family's love. On my arrival at the GOH,I had noticed something strange. The nurse who was attending Ben,was the same woman I saw carrying files to her office at the GOH site. But she was too far and she hardly looked in my direction, it all occurred too fast. I realized later that the whole incident where I met Ben hurting was staged. Him disappearing into thin air was the work of his holobot, which could speak very similar to a normal human being. I thought.
One night as I was sleeping I had a bad dream. In the dream, I saw Belinda. On the left side of her face she was human, on the right side of her face, she was an orange coloured snake, with green eyes.
I wrote down the dream in my diary. "Belinda is untrustworthy" I thought, but I sought to find the truth. I did as I was taught during the AI lessons, placing hidden cameras in unlikely to be searched areas. There were three camera's, I placed a name tag on each to identify each. The cameras were as tiny as my forefinger nail, I made a ceiling hole opposite the main entrance door, next to the portrait of a man pointing a gun to himself in order to be able to see the people who were entering and exiting the house. The wall facing the upward stairs was decorated with glass tiles the size of a brick, in between the bricks I placed camera B,then hid it behind a small transparent glass that couldn't interfere with the quality of the images I wanted to see when anyone dared to approach my bedroom as it was slightly on the left of the stairs. Placing camera c was the most challenging part. Even though Belinda appeared to be an innocent woman who dedicated herself to work for my father, I still did not trust her, especially after having a horrible dream about her in the way that I did. As she was out on her usual lunch break's, I snuck into her room. Which was 6 meters away from my father's house. Getting into her room was not hard, as she had mistakenly forgot to lock her room and it wasn't her first attempt, it seemed she was beginning to forget important duties, but I suspected that it was all probably intentional. I observed the entire room before attempting to place camera C, there place looked tidy, but as I approached the bed, I was disturbed by an awful smell, as if a rat had been burned alive, I removed one sheet, a horrific scene is all I could notice. A transparent plastic bag was filled with a rats head, tiny particles of black fur, a small needle and tobacco particles. I took a photo of the items. "Yoh,this woman is a witch!" I said., trying very hard not to scream.
Finally I found the perfect spot to place camera C,there was a television sitting on a chest of drawer opposite the bed, I would be able to see any witchcraft she does on her bedroom. The camera was wireless, flat and round therefore I pressed it onto the power led, since it was transparent, no one could see it was there except the person who put it there.
15 minute's had passed since Belinda had gone out, my father was also not around at the house as he was attending a meeting at the GOH site branch in Johannesburg. Just as I was on my way out, I heard the entrance gate slowly opening, I quickly ran towards the bathroom, there was a window fit enough for me to perform my escape. Belinda opened the door, while I made a quick landing on the soft grass outside the bathroom window and ran towards the back of the main house, I climbed up the house and entered from the back window that lead to the kitchen, I continued to run until I finally arrived into my own bedroom. "that was close" I said.
To avoid looking suspicious I began preparing lunch, when Belinda entered the house, she saw me sitting on the couch eating a sandwich.
"Sorry mam I should have come earlier traffic was heavy today, it seemed there was a collision." She said, looking concerned.
Deep down I knew she was not being honest, I too became dishonest.
"don't worry, you are a wonderful worker. I was in bed sleeping then I woke up feeling hungry and I decided to prepare my favourite, peanut butter sandwich." I said, hoping she would at least be foolish enough to believe my lie. Her only reply was a soft nod with a pretentious smile on her stone cold face.
During the evening as I was laying down in bed trying to meditate myself to sleep, I heard a beeping sound on my laptop which indicated an activity taking place where I had placed the camera's. I looked into my laptop and noticed that the sound was coming from camera B, Belinda was approaching the stairs, she was walking towards my bedroom, I quickly checked whether my door was locked, then. I put a dark face cloth on the door handle to prevent her from looking through the keyhole. I heard her mumble some words in Hebrew, I knew it was Hebrew because I had studied a tiny bit of that language. I wrote the words down. Ajitu,odot,much..she spoke those words three time's, sprinkled powder on my doorstep, then she left. I recorded everything I saw.
A blatant shock hit me, Belinda was indeed a witch, I thought. I couldn't wait to expose her to my father, I made a copy of the video into another memory stick then placed it inside the ceiling in my room, in case I lost the original evidence.
As I was about to leave my room, I experienced a dreadful pain at the back of my throat, I coughed three times, until I spat out blood. Both feet began to swell, I couldn't stand upright, instead I fell to the ground. My hands became numb I could not move. I tried to scream, but my lips were swelling and too heavy for me to even take out a sound, my heart rate decreased with each movement, I remained still and prayed I get through the horror.
As the sun rose, the swelling had stopped, my limbs we're fine I could move again. I stood up quickly to show my father the evidence of Belinda's witchcraft, but before I could even go down the stairs, I saw Ben and Belinda speaking together.Ben had a frown on his face.
"What is going on, have any of you seen my father?" I asked.
Belinda smiled. "Its nice to see you up this early" she replied.
The confidence she had was one I hadn't noticed in her since the first day I met her. She reeked evil.
"I don't know how to tell you this but I will say it anyhow. Your father had a heart attack and this was not the first time it happened. Fortunately Mr Temo came in time, he has now been admitted into hospital hopefully he'll survive again. " she said.
"I only came to collect my gloves from him before going to work, then as I opened the entrance gate, I saw him laying down on the carport, experiencing what looked like a cardiac arrest. Fortunately the ambulance was around the neighborhood,they arrived within ten minutes." Ben explained.
I tried to hold in the pain, I sobbed for a while, but remained cautious, I had to be smart when revealing the truth about Belinda.
"I hope he gets better soon, I should go and check on him, Belinda could you please look after the house I will be gone for a while. I will as ask my dad to increase your salary for being such a wonderful help" I said hiding the real anger I felt towards her.
"Will do mam,please send my love. "she said.