21

Professor Kevin Slarj Owhn sat pensively on his bed in his room. It had been another long day writing, and although he knew that during a holiday one was meant to enjoy themselves, he could not help but focus himself on his work. His Comprehensive Theory on the Fundamentals of a Just Society was almost done. However, he sighed as he reflected on how many may actually read it, and what impact it can possibly have in the world. It was a world ran by corporations and AIs. Academia was slowly dying; only privileged persons such as himself ever attended higher education, and few of his kind would actually stay in academia. It seemed that the materialistic nature of their society has slowly eroded the natural tendency of people to peruse the cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, and most importantly, justice.

Just as he was about to go to bed, he heard sounds of gunfire on the roof above. Since he lived on the top floor, sounds on the roof could be heard easily. Kevin opened his window and looked up, and the sound was only amplified. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but worry filled his heart. He himself was not afraid to die, it was a consideration which he took seriously when he decided to publish articles against the status quo in a time when free speech was almost non-existent. However, he had not merited an assassination perhaps as he was not the most influential figure.

Kevin had been offered press coverage multiple times, but have avoided them all, partly because he cared about his privacy and partly because he stuttered when speaking in public. As a result, he was not well known outside of the universities. Now though, that someone has sent people to kill him. Even though he didn’t put too much care on his own life, Kevin worried about his family and his work. It would be his fault if they died while he was the real intended target, and it would be a shame if he was not able to get his work published. At those thoughts, Kevin stood up from his bed, took his brown leather jacket off his chair, and walked out of his room.

After ten minutes, Kevin was able to wake up and gather all the residents in the house, which simply included his sister Zeta, and his two nephews from his sister’s side Bryce and Joyce, of ages nine and eleven respectively. The reason that there were so few people was because the rest of the professor’s family all ran their own businesses and were busy preparing themselves for the possible announcements of the Estos TAC IIs in New York for the new decennial plans for the de facto world government which is Bureogis Corp. Kevin himself was of course, against Bureogis, although Zeta was only here with him and her children as she recently had a divorce and decided to take some time off. In addition, they did not hire security guards for the vacation since they were effectively in the middle of nowhere, and the large iron gates of the castle will keep any wondering intruder out at night.

As his family gathered in the living room, Kevin told them about the gunshots, which Joyce said that she also heard. Kevin decided to be honest with them all and said it was probably better if they left now with the mag mobile. Zeta argued that it did not make sense for it to be an assassination team since that does not explain why the assassins are shooting at themselves. In fact, no explanation can explain why people are shooting at each other on the roof of the castle. Kevin simply responded by a rhetorical question asking his sister whether she wants to be around when there is a firefight. He told his family to rush back to their rooms and take five minutes to grab their identifications and the things which they absolutely needed, and then meet at the front door.

Five minutes later, his family was all there. Kevin was impressed at the children’s ability to keep calm, as he would expect them or cry or something. Yet perhaps the children could not comprehend the danger which they are in. Kevin told himself that he can consider that later when they are all safe. For now, they had to open the door. The problem was that the house was very old, and had not been fitted with any security systems at all. Thus, if the intruders were outside simply waiting to come in, Kevin would not know. However, the family’s mag-mobile was parked right outside the front door. He told his family to hide in the spandrel under the staircase near the main entrances. Then, Kevin braced himself as he opened the door.