10

The guard was direct with his language and told Liam that his brother Aiden was freezing to death, and needed immediate medical attention which the guard himself could not supply. The guard then informed Liam of his location and reiterated the need for a quick response. Liam could not believe what he was hearing and for a moment thought that perhaps it was a scam or a setup. And yet, Liam realized that he would never be able to forgive himself if his actions could have saved his brother’s life. The whole situation could only be described as surreal, as Liam could not imagine why Aiden was back in their old neighborhood, and how the guard could still possibly have his contact.

“Mr. Raycevick, do you understand what I am saying?”

The guard’s comment awoke Liam out of his thoughts.

“Yes, of course, I am on my way immediately with a medical team. Thank you, sir.”

After Liam ended the call, he was still not sure if the guard was being honest. From the voice, Liam was almost sure that it was the same guard in the community which he grew up in. Liam considered his options and decided to tell the AI to call his private medical team, as well as his security team in case the situation was a setup. The men and women would not appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night and it would take them at least half an hour to get ready, but they would listen since they probably did not want to lose their jobs. Liam sighed as he walked downstairs to his dressing room. He thought about how if there was still a public medical service, the response would be much faster. He also thought about how his brother would have probably died if Liam was not in a position of power, and how many more innocent lives are lost on such a cold winter.

The AI notified Liam that his team would be ready with the sky-mobiles on the roof in around 20 minutes, which was faster than Liam expected. Still, Liam had some time to prepare himself. When the team arrives, he wanted to explain the situation in person and ask them to not divulge anything which happened tonight. Although what they were doing was perfectly fine, Aiden was appearing in an unusual location, and it was better that no questioning eyebrows were raised back in Bureogis. Next, he had to talk to Aiden about the firings, and Aiden probably would not like to hear that of all people, Liam Raycevick, chief engineer of the Bureogis corporation, cannot prevent The Curator of from firing a security officer.

Liam dressed quickly, grabbed a cup of cold cappuccino from the fridge and went up to the roof. He still had a few minutes before his team arrived, and so he took a long sip from his cup while sitting cross-legged near the sky pads near the miniature golf courses across his swimming pool. Soon Liam heard the humming of the engines of the sky-mobiles and saw 4 large steel vehicles next 20 meters from the edge of the room. One of the vehicles approaches the landing pad, and when it was around 2 meters from the edge of the roof, the door opened, and Jamie, Liam’s head of security and an older man in his early thirties, leaped across the empty gap, and landed with a roll. Liam could not figure why the man had such a love of thrilling actives, but he let them go for Jamie was as capable of a personal security officer as any, who had saved Liam’s life once. The occurrence happened two years ago when organizers from an African company decided to transport Liam via a mag-mobile instead of a sky-mobile to the light zone of Cape Town from the airport. Terrorists from the HLF decided to attack the convoy and almost killed Liam if it was not for Jamie physically blocking the bullet. Luckily, Jamie was wearing body armor and the shot didn’t harm him, but Liam was wearing a suit and had no protection at all. From that incident, all transportation from airports to light zones were done with sky-mobiles instead.

Jamie stood up from his roll, and smiled. But that smile quickly faded as Jamie realized something.

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“It must be important for you to call us boss. The docs and my boys are ready now, tell us what you need done.” Jamie said, now serious.

“My stupid brother has decided to go to my old neighborhood and is apparently freezing to death,” said Liam in a matter-of-fact tone. His mind was now surprisingly calm form the cold coffee. “I will give the coordinates to navigation, and erase them later. I will need you to tell your team that whatever happens here, stays here. It is not against regulation for me to ask you to do this, but my brother has no reason to be in the dark zone, and I want to keep things quiet. Is that clear Captain?”

“Yes boss,” answered Jamie.

The two men stepped onto the sky-mobile and the door closed behind them. The journey took only 15 minutes since they were flying at maxi men thrust, and Liam took the time to brief the doctors over their com-specs to keep the events down while Jamie did the same to his team. Liam also told the doctors to prep the equipment to deal with hypothermia, which Liam knew was part of the standard equipment list in an emergency medical sky-mobile.

When they arrived, Liam saw his bothers body. Realizing that it was not some sort of setup, he pointed to Aiden’s body and told the medical crew to get ready as soon as the sky-mobiles landed. At the same time, he couldn’t help but wonder what Aiden was doing here in the first place. When the sky-mobiles landed, Liam ran towards his brother and was horrified to see that Aiden was completely unconscious, downright wet from the snow, and with a tint of blue on his skin. The medical crew rushed to his side and dragged his brother away. Liam was worried when he received the call about the possibility that his brother might actually be dying. But seeing his brother here on the brink of death, or perhaps already dead, brought in a completely different feeling. He looked at the old guard, held his eye contact, and nodded in gratitude. Whatever way this turned out, Liam was going to make sure that the guard’s timely call was rewarded.

When Aiden, the med crew, and Liam were all inside the main medical sky-mobile. They lifted off, as fast as they landed. The old guard returned to his post, and the only trace that one of the sky mobiles even landed was a rectangular shape on the snow, which would melt away with the heat of the day.

When they arrived back to Liam’s penthouse, the sky-mobiles all hovered over the roof as the doctors continued to operate on Aiden. Liam watch for the whole time he saw all sorts of tubes and pills inserted into his brother, and as he saw the heartbeat of his brother slowly recovering from almost flat-lining, to normal. Thirty minutes later, the doctor briefed Liam quickly on what they did and assured him that his brother is now safe.

“I can safely say that if we came ten minutes later, Mr. Scivit would already be dead. His heart and lungs were weak when we took him in, but they have now been stabilized. As you saw while you were with us in the vehicle, we had to withdraw some of his blood, rewarm it, and put it back into circulation. We have also inserted warm intravenous fluids which help accelerate the recovery. His symptoms have changed from serious to mild, and all he needs now is a warm bed and a day of rest and he should be fine,” the doctor said.

Liam read her name tag, and replied: “Thank you, doctor Brenna.”

Although the reply was short, the sincerity in his voice was clearly genuine, and the doctor nodded with a smile. Together with the rest of the med crew, they lifted Aiden out of the sky-mobile and into Liam’s bedroom. Doctor Brenna helped Liam set the temperature for the room’s environmental controls, as well as for the heated mattress of the bed. Then, they took off Aiden’s wet clothes and changed him into Liam’s shorts and shirts, and lifted Aiden into bed. For a few seconds, it looked as if Aiden was going to wake up, but he simply made some groans here and there quietly but didn’t open his eyes. Brenna assured Liam that these symptoms were perfectly normal, and should disappear after a few hours of rest.

Liam thanked the doctor, Jamie, as well as their teams when the sky-mobiles finally lifted off and Liam watched them disappear under the night. He looked at his watch and realized that it was almost dawn. On the distant horizon, he could see faint hints of light breaking. Liam returned to his bedroom and saw that his brother’s colors have returned to his face. Liam sighed in relief and fatigue and told the house AI quietly to inform Bureogis that he and Aiden would be calling in sick. Liam wanted to rest and decided that he and his brother needed a day to talk after what happened. He thought about going to one of the many guest bedrooms, but was too tired and did not wanted to leave his brother. So he went to the window, closed the curtains, and slumped onto the bed next to his brother, quickly falling asleep.