Lemuria by Burt Clinchandhill (most popular novels of all time .txt) 📗

told him the keys would be behind the visor. Until now, he’d been quite impressed by all that intelligence in technology, but now he was developing serious doubts as the trees began to crowd the narrow road. Was he still on the right track? Then he passed a small cabin with a sign that read, ‘Welcome to Logynous.’

Lea appeared on the screen at precisely the moment he passed the cabin. “Welcome to the Logynous grounds. In a moment, you will see the entrance to our main building where you can park your car in front of the lobby. Please leave your keys in the vehicle, so we can park it for you. I will meet you inside.”

Suddenly, the tree line ended and the enormous green concrete structure—nicknamed ‘The Eye’—appeared in front of him. Impressive, he thought. De Cremonese drove through the roundabout, up to the large glass doors, and stopped the car. As he got out, he took a moment to take in the scenery and wondered how they got all the materials to this remote location. They must have cut down part of the woods and later regrown it. He walked through the automatic glass doors.

“There you are again. How was the drive up?” the Lea hologram welcomed him.

“How do you...?” He realized his question was probably too complicated for a piece of technology to answer.

“How do I know?” Leas asked, surprising De Cremonese.

“Um, yes?”

“Simple,” Lea said, sounding cheerful. “I am happy to explain. I took your picture from different angles. I cross-referenced that picture on the Logynous search engine, giving me 7.315 comparable results. Of that, there was a reference to Brother Lamberto Natale De Cremonese on 5.312 results.” Lea raised her hand, and above it, pictures of De Cremonese appeared, rotating fast. “I found references to postings on social media, by yourself or people who tagged you. I found pictures and videos from lectures, book covers and even a copy of your driver’s license. Do not worry; your private information is carefully blacked out. That’s why I was quite sure it was you.”

“Thank you for the explanation.” De Cremonese realized he was being polite to a piece of technology, simply because the technology had been civil to him. Where will this lead?

“Can I show you to your meeting?” Lea asked.

“Please do.”

“If you look over there”—Lea pointed into the left hallway—“you will see a blue light on the wall moving into the corridor. Please follow the light, and it will take you to your meeting.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. If there’s anything I can do for you, please feel free to contact me via your phone any time of day.”

De Cremonese shook his head a couple of times as he walked into the corridor and wondered who would be the first to lose their jobs when they were taken over by this kind of new technology. On the other hand, when computers made an entrance in the eighties of the previous century, people thought it would create mass unemployment. Now it’s the biggest industry on Earth, employing hundreds of millions. As he stepped into the corridor, the blue light moved forward.

Lea’s voice sounded from the ceiling. “Please follow the blue light.”

Obedient, he followed the light. Left and right, he passed offices, meeting rooms and a recreation room where two people were playing Ping Pong, and another one on a bean bag was playing a game on an Xbox.

Lea spoke again. “Did you know that in the center of our perfectly round headquarters, we grow all the vegetables needed by our restaurants, to prepare nearly fifteen thousand lunches every day?”

“I did not know that,” De Cremonese mumbled.

As they passed a crossing, he wondered what would happen if he were to stray from the blue-lighted path? Would Lea materialize to lead him back to the mandatory path? He decided not to try it out.

“Here we are. Mr. Mulder is expecting you. Please feel free to contact me again if you ever need me in the future,” Lea said as the blue light stopped moving and started flickering next to a set of double doors. “I wish you a good meeting.” The doors swung open.

“Thank you, Lea.” Mulder’s voice echoed in the dark room behind the doors. De Cremonese took a few steps in when a faint light came on, and he recognized he was in a theater. From the top row, he looked down, passing some twenty-five rows of chairs, before he could distinguish a large stage. A spotlight lit the stage with Mulder in the center.

“Welcome, Father.” Mulder’s voice echoed through the empty theater. “Forgive me for the echo. Normally the theater is filled with hundreds of people, and the acoustics are better. Please come down.”

De Cremonese took a deep breath before slowly finding his way down along the empty rows of seats. Behind him, he heard the doors close with a soft wheeze.

“Please sit down,” Mulder requested, pointing to a seat on the front row. De Cremonese sat down and looked slightly up to Mulder on stage.

“Why the theatrics?” De Cremonese asked.

“No theatrics,” Mulder responded. “Though I must admit....” He looked around the theater. “The explanation is simple. I figured that maybe at some point, I wanted to show you something on a screen and, believe it or not, all our meeting rooms in this timeslot were booked solid, so here we are. You like it, the Lancaster theater?” He spread his arms over the stage.

“It seems nice.”

“This is the place where I walk onto the stage every fall and do the introductions for the following year’s new products. People love those introductions.”

“And you don’t?” De Cremonese’s voice pitched.

“Well, I think they serve a purpose. But if I believed the company could do without them, I know I could.” Mulder walked across the stage where the spotlight followed him.

De Cremonese looked behind him.

“Not to worry, Father,” Mulder assured him. “The light is completely automated. It will follow me wherever I go.” He jumped left and right a few times, and