Prey for Us

by Geoffrey Neil

Throughout their meal, Morana felt both relief and concern that Thane hadn’t mentioned her purse or the lipstick-concealed camera in it. His relief about resolving the situation with Everett seemed to have been an ideal distraction—unless he was planning to drop that on her later. If Thane knew that she had breached his precious privacy, there’s no way he would have allowed her to stay for dinner no matter how grateful he was about Everett.

  When they finished eating, Thane announced that it was time for the experiment and reconnected the thin wire tether to the bottom corner of the table slab.

  Morana cleared off the table, filling a plastic trash bag. She slowly carried the bag toward the entry door to dump it in the bin she had seen outside the garage. On her way to the entry door, she tried to subtly scan for her missing clutch. With her back to Thane, she held her head steady, scanning either side of the path, checking beside some stacked tires, sawhorses, large spools of wire and chains that Thane had positioned in neat rows on the floor. She saw no sign of the clutch.

  When she reached for the doorknob, Thane said, “Wait. Keep the trash bag in here. We’ll need it after the experiment.”

  Morana used the opportunity for another brief search for her clutch on her way back to him.

  Thane slid his hands into his pockets, as the faint hum from above resumed. The slab that had been their makeshift dining room table smoothly ascended, returning to its original position between the open beams within inches of the ceiling.

  “Aren’t you afraid that could fall,” Morana asked as she came to stand beside Thane.

  “No.” Thane shrugged and walked to his workbench.

  Morana followed him. “Can you at least tell me—in general—if you’ve discovered some sort of anti-gravity mechanism?” she asked.

  “Nice try,” Thane said, wagging his finger at her. “I will tell you it involves gravity, but anti-gravity is too blunt to describe the process you’ve observed.” He opened a drawer and removed several items for the experiment and placed them on a tray. He brought the tray to his work block and set it down. “Let’s begin.”

  On the floor beside Thane’s chair, Morana noticed some travel magazines and brochures for tours of Egypt that she hadn’t noticed during dinner.

  “What’s this?” Morana asked, picking up a colorful tri-folded piece with the Great Pyramid on the front.

  “Clay gave me those before he left. He said he wants to send me to visit Egypt.”

  Morana poked her tongue into her cheek and said, “Unbelievable. Do you plan to accept his offer?”

  “I’ve always dreamed of visiting the great pyramid. I want to touch it.”

  “Why do you think Clay is offering you such an elaborate gift?”

  Thane shrugged. “Maybe because he’d like to go, too. He’s been generous with me. He tips me well. When I told him that I knew the secrets of the pyramids, he said he’d like to visit them in person with me.”

  Something out of the corner of Morana’s eye pulled her attention from Thane. Behind him, about ten feet away on a shelf, sat her clutch. She moved to one side, positioning Thane between her and the clutch, so she could examine it while still facing him. It was tucked between the wall and a small metric scale. She considered pointing it out to him and then decided against it when she realized that its new placement was at a perfect angle and closer to Thane’s work area than it had been on the distant chair on which she had placed it. If the clutch remained in its new position for one more day, it could make all the difference in obtaining telling footage of Thane’s secret work in the shop. If she was lucky, the camera had already recorded plenty of footage from its first location and now could potentially give her some prized footage from a completely new angle.

  “Hello,” Thane said, waving his hand in front of her face. “Are you ready?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Absolutely,” she replied.

  Thane took some aluminum foil-wrapped wooden sticks, wires, and tools from the tray and arranged them. When the setup was complete, he said, “Today I will show you an experiment Master Leedskalnin performed to illustrate the Biefeld-Brown Effect.”

  “I can’t wait,” Morana feigned interest.

  Thane launched into the experiment performing each step with the same scientific jargon he had used in the previous experiment.

  Morana’s thoughts returned to Clay’s conniving and how he had been working completely out of bounds to pander to Thane. Perhaps he hadn’t intended to completely cut her from the picture, but his attempts to win a contest for Thane’s loyalty couldn’t be more flagrant. Her angst diminished when she considered her experience with Thane so far. There was no way a trip to Egypt would get Thane to give up his secret. And asking Thane directly only fanned his paranoia, making him clam up. This task would require more than coaxing.

  Thane was still focused on the experiment, and eventually levitated a small metal apparatus after applying an electrical current to a plate below it. Morana made a show amazement that seemed to please him.

  When he finished, he said, “I have some work to do. You should go.”

  Morana released a small laugh, still unaccustomed to Thane’s occasional raw bluntness.

  He walked her to the door, and when he opened it, Gus ran in. “Thank you for the food,” he said.

  “My pleasure.” Morana took her phone from the bowl. “I hope I can see you again soon.”

  “Maybe that can happen.”

  “Great, then I’ll give you my secret phone number,” she said.

  “Why is it secret?” Thane asked, looking at her suspiciously.

  “You’ve already forgotten that I guard my privacy almost as much as you guard yours.” She took a piece of paper from beside the phone bowl and jotted her burner number on it. She handed it to him before going outside.

  “Thanks,” Thane said, smiling.

  As Morana walked away, she waved goodbye over her shoulder and noticed that Thane’s smile had deepened as he watched her.

  She stopped. “Why are you looking at me that way?”

  Thane brought her clutch from behind his back, holding it up for her to see. “Did you forget this?”

  “Oh, my God!” Morana said, infusing as much surprise as possible into the words. “Of course! I’ve been looking everywhere for that.”

  She came back and took it, studying his face for any sign that he might have gone through its contents, but Thane telegraphed nothing in his expression. “Now you probably know more about me than you wanted to,” she said.

  “Why?”

  “I mean, what a girl carries in her purse says a lot about her.”

  Thane flashed a frown. “But if I had examined its contents, how would you ever trust me again?”

  Morana tucked it under her arm. “Of course. That is so admirable.”

  “My mom taught me to never look inside a woman’s purse. It’s private. For me, a woman's permission is the virtual key to her purse.”

  “Well, I can tell you there isn’t much to see unless you are into pocket mirrors and lipstick! You are a true gentleman.”

  Thane slid his hands into his pockets, rocked on his heels, still smiling at her.

  Morana hesitated, trying to sense any suspicion from him. If Thane had gone through the purse and discovered her micro camera, then he was testing her honesty at this moment. If she failed the test, regaining his trust would be impossible. She needed to erase the possibility of suspicious developing if Thane didn’t already have it. She cleared her throat. “Thane, do you want to look inside my purse?”

  He cocked his head. “Why would I care what’s in your purse?”

  “I don’t know—you said my permission is the key, and I know you love to use keys!”

  “It isn’t necessary for you to show me what’s inside.”

  “I know, but I want to show you,” Morana eased past him to re-enter the garage.

  Thane shrugged and followed her, then watched as Morana emptied
the contents of her clutch into the phone bowl. She pawed through the items, holding up one at a time. A pack of chewing gum, a set of keys, tissues, some hair clips, a granola energy bar, a pocket mirror, a pamphlet about Edward Leedskalnin and, of course, the lipstick.

  Thane didn’t seem interested in any of the items. Instead, he kept his eye on Morana until she had finished.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” he said.

  “I wanted to use my virtual key.”

  “Do you feel better?” Thane said.

  “Yes, I do, thank you,” Morana said.

  “Good, because I have work to do.”

  When they went outside, they heard Mrs. Perkins. “There you are. I knew you’d come out eventually,” she said.

  “Not again,” Thane mumbled.

  They went to the side of the garage and found her peering over the fence at them again, this time shining a flashlight down into Thane’s yard.

  “Can we help you?” Morana said.

  “You can’t,” she said, swatting her hand at Morana. “Thane, I told you before to keep your damned cat off my property. I just caught it digging itself a new toilet in my African lily garden less than five minutes ago.”

  “Sorry,” Thane said.

  “Yes, you’re always sorry, but you never do anything to stop it,” Mrs. Perkins shouted. “If that cat keeps destroying my garden I’ll make sure you are sorry.”

  “Hold on,” Morana said, stepping closer. “Next time you see the cat, why don’t you just call him instead of yelling threats at him after the fact?”

  “He doesn’t answer my calls even when I know he’s home. I can hear the phone ringing over there,” she aimed the flashlight at the house, “and over there,” she aimed it at the garage. “Anyway, his damned cat is ruining my African lily garden. If you don’t believe me, come and look.”

  Thane waited behind while Morana approached the fence and looked over it. Mrs. Perkins wore a pink bathrobe and fluffy slippers. She pointed at three rows of tall green stalks about knee-high, each clustered at the top with blue and white flowers, and some of them toppled. “You think my lilies would be safe on private property, but apparently they’re not.”

  “I’ll try to keep my cat away,” Thane hollered as he came to stand beside Morana. “Let’s go, Mo. Nothing will make her happy.”

  Mrs. Perkins aimed the flashlight at the place on the fence behind which she thought Thane stood. “Oh? If your cat doesn’t stop destroying my flowers, I’ll be more than happy to trap that varmint.”

  “What a bitch!” Morana said.

  Mrs. Perkins gasped, putting her hand to her chest. “I beg your pardon?”

  “If you keep harassing my friend, you will be begging for my pardon.”

  “You don’t intimidate me, lady.” Mrs. Perkins yelled. “Thane, I know more about what you’re doing in there than you think.”

  “She doesn’t know anything,” Thane said to Morana.

  “Oh, yes, I do. I’ve recorded it, and I’m going to share it with the authorities.”

  “Stop harassing me!” Thane yelled.

  “Shh, shh, it’s okay,” Morana said.

  Mrs. Perkins’s face dropped below the fence, and they heard her cussing as she stormed toward her house.

  Morana took his hand and guided him back to the front of the garage.

  Chapter 12

  AS MORANA DROVE from Thane’s house, she rested her hand on the clutch she had tossed to the passenger seat. She nibbled her lip while reviewing her strange conversation about it with Thane. Something didn’t feel right.

  She pulled the car to the side of the road, then unzipped the clutch. She removed the lipstick that contained the micro camera. The lens at its base and its SIM card were still in place. She wondered if Thane was technically savvy enough to remove, view, and copy the footage before returning it to the clutch.

  She turned the lipstick dial until it clicked and detached. The micro camera fell out onto her lap, still attached to its tiny circuit board. If Thane had opened it, he had done a masterful job of perfectly reassembling it. If the camera functioned properly, she’d enjoy a fascinating movie of Thane’s secret work with the blocks, even if it ended with him reaching for the camera.

  She passed by a busy hospital, pulled into its parking lot and parked. Inside, with her laptop in hand, she found a seat near a power outlet in the corner of the crowded waiting room. She booted up and inserted the micro camera’s SIM card. Her leg bounced while she waited for the video file to appear. She took a deep breath, willing it to hurry.

  When the video box popped up, the footage flickered a few times at the beginning of the recording. Morana held her breath. A moment later, she saw herself walking to Thane who stood at his work block. Perfect. The camera had not only worked, but she could confirm that her camera placement had been right on as they were centered in the shot.

  She watched Thane perform the experiment. She saw him drop the tray and watched his reprimand when she tried to help him pick up the items. She fast forwarded to the point where Thane walked her to the door, passing right by the camera before moving out of the shot.

  A minute later, the footage showed Thane returning to his workbench alone. He began jotting something on paper. Occasionally, he paused from his writing to look up, tapping the pencil on his chin or the block while thinking.

  For over an hour he stood there, writing, drawing, and thinking. His only other movement from the block was to pick up a small ruler from a pen holder on a countertop.

  Morana fast forwarded through another hour of the recording until the footage went black. Her heart jumped. She rewound it. The last visible footage showed Thane putting the pencil down before he ducked out of sight behind his work block. A moment later, again, complete darkness. Morana checked at the video time counter—it was still running. She fast forwarded 10 minutes, then 20, then an hour. Finally, after one hour and twenty-six minutes, the footage resumed, showing Thane standing on the opposite side of the block. All the footage of his movement to that location had been blacked out. Morana’s heart pounded as she wondered if Thane had indeed doctored the video.

  She rewound to a place right before the footage went dark and watched it in slow motion, studying each frame. Thane put the pencil down and slowly ducked until the block obscured him. During the next moments, she realized that the lights hadn’t turned off. The last three frames before the screen went dark showed motion. An object moved upward, blocking the camera lens. She zoomed in and saw that the footage went dark, but not completely black—and it was textured. Something in the shop had moved to block the camera. It remained motionless for too long to have been Gus.

  She fast forwarded to a point after the footage resumed, but after Thane reappeared, the camera stopped. Dammit. The camera’s memory card was full. With no options to lower the resolution, she was limited to capturing only two and a half hours of recorded footage.

  Another idea came to her. She slammed the laptop closed and hurried from the hospital. She started her car and crossed her fingers on the slim chance that her lost footage might not be needed after all.

  Chapter 13

  MORANA SPENT THE night hunkered down under some blankets in the back of her Explorer, parked inconspicuously in a crowded motel parking lot. Her frustration with the failed attempt to capture video footage of Thane working had prevented any sound sleep.

  She needed a better solution. After fishing her phone from her bag, she dialed Clay.

  “I hope this is you,” Clay answered, his voice groggy.

  “A trip to Egypt is incredibly generous.”

  “It’s 4:30 AM here. What do you want?”

  “I need something, but first, why didn’t you invite me to Egypt, too?”

  “Very funny—so I gave him a trip. He’ll love it, and with my company discount, it’ll cost next to nothing, so the extra cash made sense. I was planning to tell you.”

  “Y
ou should leave the finessing to me—unless you were trying to hide all this from me.”

  “It’s not like that, Mo. Is this your way of asking me to cancel the trip I promised Thane?”

  “No, it’s too late for that. The disappointment would distract him too much.”

  “Mo, what’s the harm in doing something good for Thane? I thought I was rather generous.”

  “What you fail to realize is that fear will squeeze more out of him than excitement, or gratitude and it will do it faster.”

  “You want to scare him to talk?”

  “I’m not going to hurt him. If things keep going as planned, I know we can eventually make him incredibly happy after a brief rough patch. Your gift is a distraction.”

  “Whatever you say.”

  “Good. Now, I need your handiwork. I need a camera that can record on battery for over 24 hours.”

  “Now you’re into my surveillance?”

  “I was never against it, I just don’t want to star in it.”

  “Fair enough, tell me what you want to do.”

  Morana told him about the micro camera in her clutch and leaving it in Thane’s shop. She updated him on the mysterious footage and the recording limitations of her memory card.

  “Nice effort,” Clay said, “but you need better hardware.”

  “You mean more like the camera that was in your shower head?”

  “I mean something with a live feed option to skip the need for any media at all. The lipstick was a fair idea, but we can go smaller. I know something that will blow your mind.”

  “See? Now that’s why I agreed to work with you. Tell me where to buy it.”

  “Hold on, you don’t just purchase something like this off the shelf. I need to tweak it.”

  “This can’t wait until you get back.”

  “It’ll have to. There’s no way we can—”

  Morana’s phone beeped with another call. The ID read: T. Sykes.

  “I have to take this call.”

  “Who’s calling you?”

  “Goodbye, Clay… Hello?”

  “Mo, this is Thane.”

  “Hi, Thane! What a nice surprise.”