Transfer

By Paul Stevens

In the near future, disaffected youth have finally rebelled and violently taken over control, consigning the old to their new status as second-class citizens.

A recently retired doctor, his wife and friends struggle to survive in this new society, until one day they make a shocking discovery that threatens to give the young a permanent advantage.

Transfer is a gripping tale of survival and resistance in a world where age is no longer respected.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781398495210

Paul Stevens

There is a favorite line from my novella Dinner Party For Eight in which Angela asks Harry:“What do you think I am?”Harry considered this for a moment. What was she actually?“Well I suppose you are a very beautiful cook.”So if I have to answer the same question what am I actually? I would also need to consider this for a moment. I would like to say I’m an ex astronaut, have more degrees than a thermometer, have competed in the Tour de France without any EPO, surfed Teahupoo in Tahiti and emerged unscathed, sailed round the world, am an ace Alpine skier, am a member of Mensa, have a beauty queen wife and gorgeous kids, and started my own corporation which has listed on NASDAQ. I could go on but like Arnold Schwarzenegger I don’t want to boast.Well to be honest, I have gone some of the way towards all those things. I do have a letter from Wernher von Braun, I do have three degrees in Physics, I have flown in a jet plane (Emirates Air), I do cycle the mega steep hills here where I live but unfortunately can’t get EPO anywhere, I am a keen surfer who has almost managed to break his neck, I am an ocean going skipper and I did own my own yacht though if it was me I wouldn’t sail with me as captain, I do ski but you need to get out of the way, I do have a beautiful wife (though her agreeing to marry me has to be my biggest piece of luck ever) and two great kids, I do have my own software business but no stock exchanges alas and I would like to take the Mensa test but I’m pretty sure I would fail and then I wouldn’t be able to live with that so I would rather rationalize. I live in that sapphire city – Cape Town.

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About the Author

A retired professional, Paul Stevens is married and lives in Wiltshire. Paul enjoys a range of pursuits including walking and golf. He is a film buff and a devoted cricket follower over many years. As a writer he is particularly interested in the psychopathology of behaviour.

Copyright Information ©

Paul Stevens 2023

The right of Paul Stevens to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398494954 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398495210 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

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Chapter One

January 2024

I suppose it was just after the New Year that I first noticed it. There had been a particularly cold spell with frost and fog.

As usual in our part of the south-west, this had not ended in snow, although other areas north of us had suffered the odd flurry.

The papers had been full of a boisterous series of celebrations, not just celebrating the New Year but rather violent and intimidating scenes involving young people.

I am a doctor, 60 years old and on the point of retirement from my modest-sized country practice.

I have to be honest. My two daughters are grown up, long married and have moved away.

I don’t have any day-to-day contact with the young. Inevitably, my daily patient roster tends to be heavily weighted towards the elderly and infirm.

I see a few pregnant mothers-to-be and the occasional unfortunate young man involved in an accident.

My wife, Honor, and I like to feel a certain sympathy towards the generation that seems to have so little in the way of material advantages compared to our own.

It is just something at the back of our minds because our daughters, Stella and Jane, have married quite well and have no financial worries.

There are as yet no grandchildren to worry about. If there were, we would no doubt start to worry about the kind of world they would be facing in the near future.

When I go in a few months, I will have a secure pension, and Honor can cease her parttime work as an assistant school secretary whenever it suits her.

My practice has never had much difficulty in recruiting, as we live in a desirable country area where there are no big city stresses to face.

‘Come and have a look at this,’ I heard my wife call from the kitchen.

She always insists in reading the local paper quite thoroughly. I strolled along to join her and saw the headline on Page 8.

It seems that the revels which had been enveloping big cities all over the country had filtered through to Blackington.

Something like 20 youths had gathered in the Square, the worst for drink and possibly drugs.

They had made a half-hearted attempt to attack the war memorial and had defaced the statue of one of the town’s historic figures.

There had been some rumour of his links—however tenuous—to the slave trade.

Two passers-by had been sworn at and one attacked and