by Micah Thomas
She spat at his feet.
“You have something to say? Surely, this is not one night for Sheharzaad. Will you now attempt to ply me with tales?”
Cassie collected herself and said, “I have a message for you from a mutual friend.”
“Oh? I haven’t many friends.”
“Wiseman says the others have found a new home and they are coming here. I don’t think they want to play nice.”
“Hmm. Thank you for the message,” he said and as if the light left the room. He was distant, lost in some alien contemplation.
“Didn’t you hear me? They are coming to break you.”
“He’s done with us. This is what it’s like,” Sanders said.
“Christ. How could you work for this fuck?”
“It’s done, Cassie.” Sanders escorted her back through the grand entrance to the terrace beyond.
“So what now? Am I under arrest?”
“Not at all. You have a week to take in the city. You’ll have a Copper escort, but no restriction on movement to any sector or instance. You could visit India for dinner and China for breakfast. As long as you are back here in seven days at this time, it’s up to you.”
“You’re really different, you know?”
“I’ve been told.”
“You’re kinda like him in there. I mean, I appreciate that you tried to warn me, but you act just the same. Like everything is inevitable.”
“Look Ms. Lima—Cassie—I believe what he said in there about Henry. You have a deal now. You can honor it or run. I’m not saying you should go back to the other side, but Hakim hasn’t shown any interest in life outside the wall. I’m done.”
“What do you mean ‘done’?”
“I quit. I’m handing in my badge. This has been a long day and I’m busted. Empty.” He started away, then stopped. “Tell Henry I’m sorry.”
“He knows.”
There was much unsaid between them. Too much, Cassie thought. All this way to see a fellow Phoenician—someone she knew just a little bit from when life was simpler. The deal was on her mind along with the fact that Henry could hear her. Jeff. He saw all between them. Her weakness. He wasn’t avoiding her at all, but there, protecting them both from…what? Would the fire consume them? Would it be so bad?
“Hakim, can you hear me?” she said out loud. “I accept.”
She wasn’t surprised when nothing happened. None of this made any sense.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
WHEN CASSIE WOKE up the following day, the afternoon sun was in her eyes. She couldn’t remember a time she’d slept so long and so well. She had to pee, and almost did in the bed when she saw him. Henry, in psychic projection form, was lying in bed next to her. It was all true. He looked nearly solid with his black t-shirt and faded, black denim jeans, legs crossed and boots on the bed. She smiled so hard it hurt and she thought she might cry.
“Hakim contacted me while you slept,” Henry said with his familiar nonchalance, as if this were no big deal. “He’s lending a hand in holding back the fire. He might be a scumbag, but hey, for now, I’m yours.”
“Look, I’m sorry,” she said.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“No. I mean…yeah, all the other stuff, but I’m going to piss myself if I don’t go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”
“Oh, yeah. I noticed the feeling.”
She jumped up and wasn’t surprised to see Henry sitting on the edge of the tub in the bathroom.
“This place. It’s not natural, Cassie. I can see lines of force everywhere. All pointing back to him. Like metal filings and a magnet. We never had a chance to stop him in Vegas. He is as powerful as a god compared to me. I can’t imagine why he didn’t take over the entire world.”
“You think he’s a good guy now?”
“I have no idea who is good or not,” Henry answered. “People here certainly seem more chill, if a bit weird. They are eating him—not in a communion wafer way, either. The lines of force are in every artificial thing here. The food, too. He’s part of everything here. Everyone.”
“Welp, let’s not think about him too much. It’s not our job to save the world. Not anymore.” She finished up and reached for Henry, touching his projection along the cheek. “Where do we want to go?”
“I’ve never been anywhere. Let’s see it all. Get packed up!”
“Henry, no one needs to bring anything here. Not even sunscreen.”
“Then let’s go.”
Cassie pulled on her comfy shoes and jeans and called a gondola to take her to Union Station. Though no one could see Henry but her, they gave him room as if he were there with her. They held hands and it felt real. Their instant communication—the internal, unspoken sharing of thoughts—had returned. With it, Cassie felt more complete than she had since he’d left. Together, they were together. She was giddy as a girl. She should have felt worried about the future, but the moment was too sweet to think about anything else.
“This is where we came in,” Henry said.
“Yeah. It looks smaller now.”
“You’re just used to it.”
“Here we go,” Cassie said, stepping up to a transport platform.
An automated voice accompanied the map of Eden locations: “Welcome, travelers. What’s your destination?”
“I want to be near water.” Cassie selected Mumbai.
They dissolved into blue light and rematerialized in a grand hall. Cassie dizzied as she looked up at the dome above. It had to be close to a hundred feet high. A refreshing sea breeze filled the air, telling her she was on vacation now.
“Well, this is nice,” Henry said. “Where are we?”
An Indian man smiled at Cassie and waved his arm in greeting. “Welcome to Mumbai! This is the Gateway of India. Construction started in 1911 and completed in 1924. This is an important place. Would you care to know more of the history? Gaze only to the gorgeous evidence of multiculturalism embedded in the architecture.” He walked with Cassie, adding more local color as she made her way outside and gazed over the Arabian Sea.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Indeed, Miss. It is true our lord Hakim—his name be praised—protected Mumbai first among all of the cities in his kingdom.”
“He’s Indian, yeah?”
“Correct again.”
“Can we swim here?”
“Not here, but there are many beaches.”
“Is there one that’s a little more private?” Cassie asked. Mumbai, from what she could see along the coast, was as built up as Chicago; lavender towers of ephemera strata, more city up and out it seemed.
The man thought—or Cassie guessed he was thinking. His eyes were blank which she recognized as meaning he was accessing some implanted data stream.
“I’ve summoned you a transport to Marve Beach. The sand is white, the water is pure, and I have faith that the voyage north—short of an hour—will give you a view of our home that will stay with you forever.”
Cassie thanked him profusely. A gondola took them north, and Cassie couldn’t stop smiling. Henry was with her. They were on vacation. This was a dream. They didn’t talk, but the couple watched the land below them. It was a city made from a palette of colors so different from Chicago. More intentional. The sky was pink as they descended to Marve Beach with its white sand and sparkling waters.
“Are you hungry?” Henry asked.
“Are you?”
“I think so.”
“Let’s get something.”
A row of food carts lined the road up from the beach and Cassie’s mouth watered at the smells. She chose one based purely on whim—it was the vacation thing to do to try something new. She was offered misal pav, and they said they had the best spicy curry, sprouted moth beans, and buttery rolls she had to try before even sitting down. They called it pav.
The vendor recognized them as the tourists they were and said, “Once, you could not swim here. The current too strong. The pollution too severe
. Now, look.”
Cassie did look, and the beach curved into an inlet or bay of some sort—or maybe it was a river. Spotted without being over crowded, families played in the sand and splashed in the water. She should have come here sooner. They’d spent too much time in the desert.
“Are you going to eat that or what?” Henry asked. “I want to know if it tastes as good as it looks.”
“Come here and find out.” Cassie sat on a bench looking out over the water, taking her time enjoying the flavors in her mouth.
Henry let himself merge with her sensations, share with her body as she experienced it all. It was wonderful.
After their meal, they walked into the sand. White capped waves rippled on their gentle journey up the shoreline. The afternoon sky was a shade lighter blue than the water, but there were so many blues in the mix. Azure. Cerulean. Phthalo. Everything was beautiful. Cassie willed herself to hold this in her memory. Maybe she’d try to paint it someday. She was crap at art, but her mother would have been able to capture this.
Cassie knew Henry had never been on a vacation in his entire life. His projected self-changed clothes—from the jeans and t-shirt he always wore to the boardshorts showing his skinny, white legs. His loose tank top had a garish floral print of his own imagination. He walked with her down to the water, though his bare feet left no prints in the sand.
“Our baby could swim in this ocean one day,” he said.
Cassie also knew that Henry understood the child growing in her belly wasn’t his by blood, but they both wondered if part of his essence hadn’t been transmuted into the mix. Their experience had taught them the hard way that they were not entirely creatures of flesh and blood.
Henry said, “He’s not lying, you know. Neither of them were—Wiseman about the others out there and Hakim about the deal. He can do it. I know it. I don’t know much else. The world is big, but small. You’ll be free.”
Cassie thought about this. Freedom. She wasn’t so sure. There was more to this deal, though. Some price not yet named. “Ever since I met you, my life has been an adventure. Part of the time, I’ve rolled with it, but I’ve never wanted anything like this. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I never wanted to be on the road, always seeking, always running. I don’t regret meeting you because you are the love of my life, but this has been a huge pain in my ass.”
“I know.”
“When I got to Eden, things felt different. For the first time, really, I knew I wouldn’t have to take care of anyone except myself. Like, no huge plot needed me. I could get some therapy and raise my baby in a happy place while someone else figured out what’s wrong with the world. Are you angry at me?”
“No.”
“I love you,” he said.
“I don’t want you to go. Not again.”
“I know.” Cassie felt Henry deliberate his next words. She felt them come from a deep place within him. “Cassie, if things had been different, if we had met like normal people…”
“We aren’t normal people.”
“Yeah, but if we had, it would have been a matter of time before I fucked up. But then we were joined and no matter what, it’s not as if you could move out. I wanted to tell you…” Cassie felt her own chest heave with the weight of the burden Henry was unloading. “My being with you is not healthy. I’m hurting now. I’ve always been hurting you and I can’t stop it.”
“Listen, stupid, I love you. Things happened like they happened. I don’t regret it.”
Henry sent out waves of relieved acceptance. That was how it had been between them, shame confessed and forgiveness returned.
Cassie let out a long, slow breath. “No matter what happens, we’re going to be okay. We’ll find a way through this. Promise me whatever cuckoo bullshit happens next, we’ll find our way back.”
Henry didn’t answer with words. He vibrated inside her with the encompassing warmth of love—the total acceptance they’d shared almost since the moment they met.
***
Thelon’s processing into the system was done while he slept. They’d put him in a chamber and gassed him with some drug better than any he’d ever taken. He had no idea what to expect from prison. No one he knew had ever talked about it firsthand and No one he knew got in trouble for anything in the city. For all he knew, it was a death penalty, but it didn’t line up with the city philosophy as he knew it. Fuck, people should talk about this, at least a little. Right? Everything he knew about prison was from TV shows preRaid. However, as the chemicals worked, his fear faced and he felt fine.
They should offer this kind of sleep medicine to the public, he thought and then it was lights out for him. When he awoke, he had no idea how much time had passed. Thelon was in a cell. It could have been in any prison he’d ever seen on TV. Clean white sheets on a flat as a board mattress—he was on the bottom bunk but alone. He wondered if he’d have a roommate. Thelon was dressed in a uniform resembling scrubs, but at least the light blue uniform was clean. No blood stains. The cell door was open, so he walked out. He saw other prisoners each wearing similar faded scrubs, but they didn’t say shit and barely gave him a wary glance.
If this place was as dumb as the police station, he wondered if he could walk on out of here. Except the damned place was a maze of hallways. There had to be a logic to this layout. Thelon half-walked, half-jogged until the hall opened to a cafeteria. Good. Progress. Follow the biggest hallways, he thought. Municipal design was so weak-headed. Still, no one barred his motion. No shouts of ‘fresh meat!’ Was he good or just lucky? He didn’t care. He had to see if he could get out.
Eventually Thelon’s path took him to an isolated hall. No more off shooting corridors, so this had to be an entrance. He was away from the cell area. There were fewer people around, and Thelon still hadn’t seen a single guard or Copper. He opened the heavy door, but it wasn’t an exit; it led to a domed viewing room. The whole damned wall and ceiling was a window. Oh, fucking Christ, he thought as he walked into the center of the room. Black sky, and out there in the dark, bright pinpoints of light. Stars.
A laugh behind him scared the shit out of Thelon. A man in his 50s of undeterminable ethnicity stood before him. His face told Thelon he was a grizzled old con. He said, “You see that bright one?”
“What? No.”
The man issued commands to an unseen computer. “Adeline, give this young man a better view.” The screen turned slightly and magnified with a fast zoom effect. Earth came into focus like some National Geographic space photo.
“No.”
“You on the moon, baby.”
Thelon felt the oxygen leave his lungs.
“It gets worse. You didn’t get up here through a magic jack portal either. You took a one-way shuttle pod up while you were sleeping. We are not connected to Eden. We are cast out of the garden.”
Thelon felt the wind knocked out of him. “The actual fuck.”
The man laughed. “Come on, I’ll take you to orientation.” The man extended his hand for a firm shake. “I’m Jim.”
They walked back to the community dinning hall.
“Welcome to Hell. It’s not so bad. The food is better than it was back in Ohio. There are some bots here since the antigrav, air systems, and Adeline couldn’t live without her, but we mostly take care of ourselves.”
Jim took him through another double door, into a room with cheap looking plastic seats which were bolted to the floor and a large monitor. “Used to be, there were groups of intakes coming up together, but things must have slowed down, down there. We use this room for movie night sometimes.”
Thelon took a seat.
“By way of introduction, I’m a convicted murderer under both the courts of United States law and the whatever the fuck laws of Eden—of our alien invaders. I’ll show you around until you know your ass from your elbow. Right now, you’re gonna see this here video, but here’s the real rules. We’re left to ourselves for organization and there’s a fuck ton of us up here, so you have to follo
w what we got going on. There’s a council at the top: me and some strong leaders. We make the big decisions and don’t bring the piddly shit to me. Beneath us, there’s about 30 coordinators. They manage the work schedule over groups and the official jobs. Below that, you have a family.”
“Work?”
“Fuck yes, son. We all do our part—and well, you’ll do things for your family.”
“My family?” Thelon thought for moment Jim meant his folks back home.
“You’ll meet them soon enough. Your block mates. Come on, you’re a bright guy. Society doesn’t work without families in some shape or form.”
Thelon sat with a sullen look on his face.
“Well, you don’t have to be happy about it. Watch the video. I’ll be back in a bit to pick you up.”
The video started as Jim left the room. “Welcome to Luna. The state of the art, one of a kind, lunar rehabilitation center,” a voice intoned to a backdrop of the full moon, as seen from space. The image cruised closer, revealing the prison entrance. There was no indication of the size of the place, but Thelon knew it was bigger. It had to be mostly underground or modeled after lunar landscapes. Clever.
“I am Adeline,” said the voice. “I am here to assist in all resident needs, provide communication back to Earth, manage shipments of new residents, and provide program direction.”
Scenes played of spacewalks in sleek suits, prisoners doing work, carving out rock with manual tools; interior shots of horses and other farm animals being cleaned by prisoners. Mostly, they all had smiles on their faces.
“You are here for the single reason that your actions directly caused substantial injury to another human, but your past is behind you now. Through hard work and the community of your peers, your antisocial tendencies will fade into a distant memory.”
“Sure,” Thelon said.
“The kitchens are provided with revolutionary technologies capable of generating any raw ingredients you should desire, but it is up to you and the kitchen staff to craft them into delicious meals contoured around any special dietary needs.”