“He’s drugged,” Tom said. “They gave him something strong, but other than that, he seems okay. He’s breathing, anyway.”
“Lucky devil. He’s been sleeping throughout this mess. Saved him some headache. I need something to drink,” said Mary, and walked out. We followed her to the living room, and I dropped into an armchair. All of a sudden, now that we were safe even if only temporarily, and the tension had dropped a notch, I felt exhausted. Tom stood beside me, as if he needed a special order to sit down, so I told him to grab a seat or something, and he took the most uncomfortable chair in the room. The three of us kept silent, each with his or her own thoughts. Mary went to a nearby cupboard from which she took a bottle of liquor with a label I had never seen before. She uncorked it and gazed inquisitively at us.
“No, thank you. I only drink for fun, and this doesn’t qualify,” I said.
“I don’t drink on duty,” Tom volunteered.
Mary shrugged and poured a good measure into a glass. She took a sip, and then she came to sit with us. “Start to explain,” she said.
I collected my thoughts and started at the beginning.
“So you were in my head when Vlad and I …” said Mary.
I thought that she was blushing a little, but with the subdued lighting it was hard to tell for sure.
“Yes,” I said.
“And you saw everything?”
“Saw, heard, felt, tasted. Everything. It was nice. More than nice, actually,” I said, and smiled encouragingly, to break the ice, so to speak.
“This is kind of embarrassing, I must say. And you can read my thoughts?”
“Yep.”
“What am I thinking now?”
“I’m not actually reading you right now. I don’t do that unless I have to.”
“Do it now. Show it to me.”
“As you wish.” I closed my eyes and jumped into her head for a moment, then I opened them again and said, “You are thinking that I could be very useful to you, if what I’m telling you is true.”
“Okay, I’m convinced. This is amazing.” She got up and paced the room.
“She’s much more amazing than that. She saved you when she took control of that thug’s body and stopped the other one from using his knife on you,” Tom said, joining the conversation uninvited, which was uncharacteristic of him.
That earned him an annoyed glance from Mary. I smiled at him, to balance that. I thought he was being a dear, rooting for me like that. Then I turned back to Mary. She was more relaxed now, maybe the effect of the alcohol, and looked younger without the furrowed brow that she had worn during my explanation. Now that my attention was not monopolized for a while by the need to stay alive, I had the time to take a good look at her in person. As I had noticed before, seeing someone right there with you was different from seeing her through her own eyes and those of others, and right now Mary came across different from before. She was taller than me, probably five foot seven, but then virtually everybody is taller than I am. I come in compact size. She had managed to change as soon as we had arrived and was dressed in smart business attire, much nicer than what she had in her hotel closet, which, in my opinion, would make her look like an old maid. She had even put on some lipstick and combed her hair. She would be attractive, I thought, if she lost that bossy attitude.
“You know how amazing I am? I’m so amazing that your colleague, Quinn, wants me dead. I told you. And he doesn’t know the half of it. All this started with an experiment using a device—what I call a ‘pisspot’—that amplified my natural extra-sensorial abilities. It was only after using it for a while that I discovered that I could function without external help. Quinn still thinks I need the pisspot to function. When he hears that I don’t need it anymore, he’ll freak out on the spot.”
“Quinn is an idiot and a pig, and he’s dangerous. Ambitious and therefore dangerous. But I can handle him. We have to do it right, though.”
“We?”
“Of course, we. We can’t afford to waste your talent. But first things first—we need to find a way to get Vlad safely back home with us. He’s very important. Normally, I would get all the help I need from our people on the ground, but because Quinn is involved, I’m not so sure. Can you get into Quinn’s head and find out what he’s planning?”
“I can try. It’s four in the afternoon here, which means that depending on where he is right now, he may or may not be awake. He’s far away so I have to concentrate to find him. It’s not as easy as reading you when you sit right next to me.”
“We’ll give you quiet. See what you can do,” said Mary, and they both left.
I closed my eyes and concentrated on Quinn’s face but immediately stopped. Liv hadn’t heard from me for too long and must be worried sick. Quinn could wait; I had to get in touch with her first. She was an early riser, so I hoped that she might be awake. Recalling her face and making contact with her came naturally to me, and in a moment I was in her head. To my surprise, she wasn’t in her room or someplace else at the base; she was outside. What’s more, it only took me a second to recognize the place. She was sitting on the grass at the bottom of the hill and gazing at the porch of the chalet that was our operation base in Flims. How she had got there and why, was something that I’d have to find out, but right then all I needed was to be with her.
I didn’t want to give her a shock, so I first took control of her hand and stroked her cheek gently, and when she squealed “Tessa!” I made her speak my words. “It’s me. What are you doing here? Don’t say it, think it.”
“The director sent me. He said that you are in danger and that I need to warn you.”
“I know,” I made her say. It was a weird way to have a conversation, but without writing implements, that was the only way we had. “Can you get away?”
“Yes, but where are you? Doctor Alexander refused to tell me anything. He said it was classified, and I was at my wits end what to do. I have a rented car and I can leave right now, but where to?”
“Take the car and drive toward Zurich. I’ll give you more directions while you drive, okay?”
Liv had already got up and was walking toward the cars parked by the chalet. “I’m dying to see you,” she thought, and so was I.
ESA15 was in my corner, after all. Surprise! That placed a completely different light on the whole situation and gave me new hope that I might be okay, after all. Or … maybe this was a ploy, and he was using Liv to find me and do Quinn’s dirty work. I had to consider that possibility, including that Liv was perhaps being followed through some electronic location bug.
I turned my attention to Quinn and found him, but he was sound asleep, and his mind was in complete confusion. I couldn’t get anything coherent from him so I gave up and returned to Liv, who meanwhile was driving away from the chalet.
“Listen,” I said through her own mouth, “on the highway to Zurich stop at the first big gas station, one that has a convenience store. I need you to buy some stuff when you are there. Don’t use a credit card. Do you have cash?”
I have a few hundred Swiss francs.
“That will do. I’ll get back to you in a little while. I have something that I must do now.”
I called for Mary, and she came in, carrying a cup of coffee for me, which made me like her more than ever. I explained the situation to her and laid out my plan, which she approved.
“You’re a smart girl, you know?” she said, speaking appreciatively. She got up, paused to give me a smile, and left the room.
I don’t usually care for praise, but this time I felt a warm glow growing in me, as sometimes happens when I drink strong liquor. Mary seemed to have that effect on me.
I got back to Liv, and as soon as I made contact, I saw that she was parked next to a large store beside a gas station.
“I’m back, girl,” I said. “We need to go shopping.”
For what, exactly?
“Everything. You need to buy a full set of clothes—shoes, socks, everythi
ng. I’ll explain when we meet.”
I’ve already had the opportunity to say that Liv is a practical girl who doesn’t argue unnecessarily. She got out and stepped into the store. Buying clothes with her was fun. She would point at an item that I didn’t like, and I would force her to pick up a different one. She was a real sport and laughed every time I did that. Some twenty minutes later her basket had a full change of clothes and a few more trinkets that she had picked up for fun. She paid cash and went into the restroom. You must hand it to those Swiss people—they are so clean that you can eat on the floor of their restrooms. Liv picked a large bathroom stall, with a “disabled” sign on it. It’s the only one with a mirror, she thought. Once she locked the door behind her, she dropped the bag with her purchase on the floor and thought, What now?
“Now you undress down to your skin,” I said through her mouth. I was whispering. We were alone in the restroom area, but better safe than sorry. “Then, you dress in your new clothes and stuff the old ones in the bag. I’ll watch as you do it, to make sure that you do it right,” I said, jokingly, hoping to lighten up the atmosphere.
Have fun!
Liv undressed slowly, strip-tease style, which made me smile and realize how much I missed her. When she finished dressing in her new clothes, I had to go back to dealing with practicalities.
“Now the hard part,” I said. “You need to dispose of all your belongings. We don’t know what kinds of trackers may have been planted there, so now you have to go back to your car, take out your bag, and leave it behind.”
I travel light; that won’t be a problem.
Practical again. She went back to the rented car, picked up her bag, and dropped it in the large trash bin behind the parking lot, together with the bag of old clothes.
“Listen. Now drive to Zurich to one of the car rental locations and return the car. A man will come and pick you up. His name is Tom. I’ll be with you until you get there and so I’ll know where you will be waiting.”
Will I see you now?
“Very soon, baby, very soon,” I said, and felt expectation mounting in me.
The pick-up operation went smoothly, and soon Tom ushered Liv in. I had butterflies in my belly that started when I realized that she was near, and now I could not speak. I rushed to her, hugged her, and planted a long kiss on her lips. I managed to get a side glance of Tom, who stood impassive and non-judgmental, and of Mary, who almost imperceptibly lifted an eyebrow.
“This is Liv,” I said to the room, quite unnecessarily.
“Welcome, Liv,” said Mary, extending a hand for her to shake. “Tessa will catch you up with our situation here, but first we want to hear what you can tell us.”
We sat in the living room, Liv and me on the couch, Mary in an armchair, and Tom in his usual uncomfortable chair.
“I don’t have much to tell,” Liv started. “The director called me to his office and said that I was one of the few people whom he can trust, because of my relationship with Tessa—he knows that we have been … friendly, Tessa,” she said, almost apologetically.
“Don’t worry,” I reassured her, “ESA15 always knows everything that goes on around him. I’m not surprised, and I don’t care. Go on.”
“Anyway, he said that you are in mortal danger and that I should go to Switzerland, find you, and warn you, and then I should take you away from Flims, without saying anything to anybody. He didn’t explain the nature of the danger but said it was serious. He gave me an address in Germany where we should go for help. That’s all I know. He didn’t give me any details of what waited for us there and ordered me to leave immediately. I was worried sick, and it never crossed my mind to argue or ask for more details. All I wanted was to find you and keep you safe.”
“You did well,” Mary said. “Now I suggest that we all take some time to rest. I am organizing our lift away from here, but it may take a while. There are only three rooms in this house, and one is taken by Vlad. Tom will sleep on the couch, I’ll take the smaller room at the end of the corridor, and you two girls will take the larger one near the shower. Meantime, Tom will go and get supplies so we don’t starve.”
“Shower!” I yelled. “I have first dibs!” I had never needed it more than then.
Nobody argued, and two minutes later I was under the tepid, but still heavenly, jet. I needed that shower to wash away not only the sweat and dirt that had accumulated on me during that insane day, but also the images and the weirdness that went with them. By the time I unwillingly got out of the shower, I felt a little better, but just a little.
We had some pizza and panini, washed down with a surprisingly good red Swiss wine, and by nine o’clock I was ready to call it a day. I was truly exhausted, and little wonder after all I’d been through. Liv jumped into bed after me and said nice things to me, but all I wanted was to snuggle down and go to sleep. She held me close, and I felt myself slipping away into a dreamless sleep.
CHAPTER 21
I won’t bore you with the details of the tale of how we managed to smuggle Vlad out of Switzerland and to take us all back home … or sort of, since we ended up in a secluded farm in a rural area that looked like Chernobyl the day after. As Tom had said, Vlad was drugged but eventually came to, luckily just as we were preparing to carry him to the airplane, so he walked it. He was confused and spoke sparingly. His speech was hesitant, and he didn’t act at all like the man I had come to know from the night he had spent with Mary. Perhaps he needed more time to get the drug out of his system.
But that came later. We spent the second night after Liv joined us, catching up in the chalet. I felt rested enough by then to tell my tale all over again from the beginning and to answer questions, so by the end of that evening, everybody was on the same page. By midnight, we tired of each other’s company, and everybody went to his or her room. At one point, I suggested bringing poor Tom, who was sleeping on the couch, in with us, as a token of my appreciation for everything he had done for me, but I read Liv’s mind and saw that she wasn’t liking the idea, so I dropped it. Thanking Tom would have to wait.
Mary was a miracle worker. During the day and a half that we spent in her safe house, she managed to come up with a cover story to tell through her “secretary,” who smoothed out her disappearance from the Davos talks. She also managed to arrange for a private flight from Zurich, which we took early in the morning of the second day, to a destination in the Balkans that I am not at liberty to disclose. Through her contacts, she produced in a matter of hours fake papers for all of us to take along. The only beef I had was about the name she had come up with for my fake passport: Annabelle. Do I look like an “Annabelle” to you? That, and the takeaway food that we had to eat, although the strudel that Tom brought back with the pizza and other nondescript stuff, was mighty tasty.
On arrival, Vlad was taken by a couple of men in black coats and hats to an undisclosed location, after a whispered farewell from Mary, and the rest of us headed for a minivan parked at the airport. A man who looked like a shoeshine had approached Mary and handed the keys to the minivan to her.
Getting back felt great. Here I wouldn’t have to deal with Victors, Uglies, and mixed unidentified goons, who wanted God knew what. I still had to survive Quinn, though, and I didn’t forget that even for a second. You forget, you’re dead—that’s what they had taught us in basic training.
Tom drove as directed by Mary, who sat in the front with him, while Liv and I used the trip to catch up on our sleep. I had been too worried to be able to sleep on the last flight, and that shows you how hard all this business had got to me. I’m normally asleep well before the safety movie is turned on. I woke up when Tom hit a bump in the road and sat up. Outside was the wilderness, or the closest thing to it. We were driving along an unpaved road, and I had to close the window to keep the dust out. Mercifully, after a couple of miles, we arrived at our destination. I don’t know if you have ever seen a movie in which a serial killer hides in an abandoned farm away from civilization, b
ut I did, and that’s the picture that came to my mind when I saw where the road had taken us. We got out of the minivan and piled onto the porch, waiting for enlightenment from Mary as to what was coming next.
“Welcome to our temporary home from home,” she said, with a crooked smile. Mary didn’t have a knack for jokes. “It’s not as bad as it looks, and inside it’s actually pretty comfortable, with air conditioning, TV, and all that. Seeing that we don’t have any baggage, you’ll be able to organize quickly. Pick any room you like; they’re all the same.”
She was right that all rooms were the same, and they all stunk the same. A squeaky bed and a small chest of drawers, with a night lamp that wasn’t in the mood for lighting more than one square foot, were all the room had to offer. I dropped the little bag with my documents, real and fake, which was my only belonging. It bounced on the bed, and I watched it bounce, worrying where a change of clothes would come from. Liv had taken the room next to mine, and she joined me in the living room, where we waited for Mary to tell us what we were supposed to do here. Mary wasn’t talking shop, but to our delight she took us to a large walk-in closet, with drawers full of underwear and with assorted farmer-looking clothes hanging. I took a set that looked decent back to my room. The kitchen was furnished with all kinds of food, and whatever else happened to us, we wouldn’t starve. Tom impressed us with his prowess at the skillet, which produced large omelets for everybody.
We had just settled down in that God-forsaken farm, when a faraway column of dust announced the approach of a car. I wasn’t at all surprised to see ESA15 step out of it. Mary went out to greet him, and I waited on the porch. I had a bone to pick with him, about letting me go into the machine that he knew would eventually fry my brain, so I surprised myself by realizing that I wasn’t looking forward to annoying him. After all, he had gone out of his way to help me, and sending Liv to me had been a kind gesture. So I decided to be civil to him, and when he “Hello, Tessa-ed” me, I responded, “Hi,” as politely as I could manage.
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