by Robert C Ray
“Not yet, sir,” he replied, and was glad that the Captain was still on their team. He didn’t understand a word of it, but he was given an order, by a superior officer, and he was happy to do as was told.
* * *
“Did you miss me?’ Viper stated, as she strutted back into the dining area. Her stature may have been tiny, but her ambitions were large, and she carried them on her shoulders.
“Good to see you again, sister,” Mirage replied.
This took Viper by surprise. She had called her “sister”, though, until now, she had never believed that Mirage had felt the same way. She even thought that she might be toying with her, but she would have sensed her, within her own mind, if that had been true. She had learned to sense the mind of her sister, when they had first met.
“If you are my sister, than you should join me.”
“And if you are my sister,” Mirage added, “you will not kill the man that I love.”
Now Viper could see where the witch was going with this. She was trying to create sympathy, not for the two of them, because they were together unique, but rather to prevent her from harming the last human that had been a part of her deep torment. She had some tricks of her own, and psychology was something that she understood very well.
“I will do no such thing, yet,” she stated, as she carefully walked over to the window, that had been carefully removed, and grabbed that glass of water that was sitting on the table, “until we have a moment to resolve some issues.”
At this, she threw the water at Ryan’s face, and he quickly became conscience once more, shaking the water from himself, as he found himself dangling, high above the Seattle skyline. Viper had never lost sight of Mirage, and she had not begun to approach her. Her heartbeat still placed her where she was standing, and she began to trust her, if only slightly.
After a brief struggle, before he regained his composure, and determined his situation, Ryan finally spoke.
“Anyone mind explaining why I am dangling out here?”
“Your princess has something to tell you,” Viper began to explain, without ever losing the gaze of Mirage’s eye, nor the sound of her beating heart. “She was about to tell you why she loves you, though is pregnant with a child, that is too far along to be yours.”
“You didn’t think that I would miss that smell upon you, when we first met, did you?” she asked, in the direction of Mirage.
She sat down near the window, seeming delighted to hear the explanation that might proceed. In fact, she was as curious, as she expected that he might be, and the answer must certainly be an interesting one. If nothing else, it might tear away the hold he had on her, and they could become the sisters that they were meant to be.
“It is true,” Sang began to explain, as she approached, “but not as she has made it sound. The child is yours.”
Viper’s expression seemed almost as puzzled as his did, so he asked the obvious question.
“How, when we haven’t actually… you know?”
Mirage stopped a short distance from Viper, for she knew better that to get too close to her.
“Do you recall that night on the island,” she asked, “and how you made love to me there?”
Certainly, he did. It was one of the most fondest memories of her, for the passion was overwhelming, but that didn’t change the fact that he was in a coma, at the time. Suddenly, a smile came over his face, and he could clearly see her begin to blush.
“You didn’t,” he spoke with a slight laugh.
“I did, my love,” she replied, with slight embarrassment, “yet our child develops faster than normal, because I am not normal.”
At this, the rage began to swell within Viper. Not only had she failed in driving a wedge between them, but she had done quite the opposite. She had inadvertently strengthened their bond, which left only one final solution. No more than one action made sense, anymore.
She launched herself from where she sat, knowing well that the witch would see it coming, but she did it anyway. Her fury would be more than Mirage could bare, or so she had hoped.
Viper's kick was swift to her face, but she found that her face was not where she had seen it, and then felt the leg sweep that knocked her to the floor. She used her hands to project her body, feet first, yet again, she hit what was not there, and this time, she felt a foot hit firmly against her face, and the force sent her tumbling backwards.
“You are certainly a clever witch,” Viper explained as she stood back to her feet, slowly, “But I have a few tricks of my own.”
It took her only an instant to clear her mind, and upon doing so, she pulled two small orbs, from a hidden location, and threw them at the floor. One was five feet in front of her, at eleven o-clock, and the other was at two o-clock, at the same distance. They were percussion devices, and Viper's body was stronger than one would suspect. Her adversary’s, however, was not made to be as tough.
She saw Mirage standing there, stunned by the devices, and she did not hesitate to plant a stomp kick within her chest, sending her across the room. Instantly, she leaped from where she was, and landed upon her, with her hand grasped firmly upon her throat.
“Show me something now, bitch,” she snarled harshly down upon her, “that could keep me from choking you to death.”
Viper was distracted. Her senses were not attuned to everything around her, as they should have been, and the shot came as a surprise. It was Captain Jacobs, and the shot hit her hard in the shoulder, and she fell off of Mirage. Unfortunately for him, her reflexes were still extraordinary, and the steel dart that she sent back his way, struck him directly in the heart.
“Nooo!” Mirage screamed out, as she turned her gaze back upon her.
Viper grinned, at first, until she saw the two chairs raise up from the floor, hovering behind her sister.
“You’re not capable of that,” she stated, as her moment of fear gave way to her normal state of mind. “I’m not fooled by your Illus…”
This was as much as she could utter, before the first chair smashed into her, sending her flying across the room. When she stood up again, and looked to Mirage, it was already too late. The second one sent her even further, and the force was so great, that it dazed the hardened body that they had given her.
She struggled to get back to her knees, and when she saw her sister approaching, there were six large kitchen knives that hovered around her. Three were to one side, and three were to the other, and each one seemed to have a purpose, and that purpose was her.
“Two are real, and four are not,” Mirage explained, as she stood above her, with a look in her eye that almost made Viper proud. “Stop the two, and you live… guess the result if you do not.”
Viper smiled. Death was something that they had taught her very well, and there was no fear there. Death was the very thing that she had wished for, before she had found the truth. Death was something that they made a part of her, and she was ready for it.
There was an awkward silence between them both, as the knives stayed hovering. Viper was trying to see inside of Mirage, and the expression that she was perceiving was only anger. It was a deep anger, and she thought that if even she were to die, it would bring the mind of Mirage closer to her own. She would begin to understand what they had done, and she would become more like herself.
There is little honor in dying, and she focused, as the blades came at her. She considered everything. Certainly, the one that chose her heart had to be real, so she reached for its hilt first. After that, she guessed that the second one was the one that aimed for her throat. Her decision, however, should she live through this volley, was quite clear.
On the first guess, she was correct, and she caught the blade that was sent to her heart. Her second guess was not so lucky, and one of the blades sank deeply into her shoulder. There was also another decision to be made, and it was how she would respond, should one of the non lethal targets be hit.
The large chef’s knife that she had caught,
she instantly sent back in the direction of Mirage, and just as she had assumed, Mirage had easily side stepped the reply. Viper's target, however, was not Mirage at all, and as she turned to see the blade cut the rope that held Ryan from the ground, her heart sank.
Mirage didn’t even have time to run, and save him. All that she could do, was step slowly to the window, and gaze down at what she already knew to be true. She began to weep, and at this moment, the tip of the knife from Viper’s shoulder, came piercing through the front of her chest.
“You should have joined me, sister,” she whispered into her ear, before shoving her out the window, to join her love.
Calmly, she now turned to the others, who now sat off in the corner, wondering where they fire had gone, and directed them.
“We still have much to do.”
CHAPTER 22
Truth Be Told
The knock at the door interrupted their moment. Room service had arrived with their dinner, and though it was ill timed, it was somewhat welcomed. Ryan was famished after such an eventful day, and he was ready to put it behind him. The passion of Sangmu would have done well for that, but for now, he would have to settle with burying his thoughts, and his teeth, into a perfectly medium rare New York strip. For now.
When Mirage answered the door, all the young man could see was an elderly couple, seemingly quite comfortable in their surroundings, and moments later, he left to attend to the other tasks of the evening.
She set the plates on the coffee table, and sat down in front of her own. Hers was the king crab legs with tarragon garlic butter, along side of a baked potato sprinkled with rosemary and chives, while the hand cut potato wedges sat golden brown beside his 20oz strip.
As he looked over at her plate, he was reminded of a much simpler time. It was a time when he couldn’t even remember his own name, yet it mattered little, as he fell deeply in love with her, on the island that he later understood as her beautiful mind. He longed for such a peaceful time, but knew that there would be a lifetime filled with them, once they made it past this little obstacle know as Viper.
“I’ll take you back there tonight,” she told him with a smile, as she dipped the flesh of the crab into the sauce, and bit into it. She, too, was more than eager to get back to a more peaceful environment, and her words were reassuring.
The mood, however, was quickly to change, as an expression of fear overcame her beautiful face, and she reached over to firmly grab him by the wrist. With one swift tug, he was out of his seat, and hastily pulled to the other side of her. As he pondered the reasoning behind her action, the answer came in the form of two steel spikes that came through the window, and embedded themselves within the sofa where he had been sitting, only to be followed by Viper, who came crashing through the glass.
Her head felt heavy for a brief moment, as she gazed into the eyes of her prey. There was fear there, and it delighted her. Only the witch now stood between the two, and she was not about to fall for her trickery again. This time, she would employ a little trickery of her own, if not for the fact that she had fallen helplessly to the floor.
Ryan ran over to her, and pulled his pistol, eager to end this moment in Viper’s life, but Mirage was quickly upon him, and pulled back his hand.
“It is over, now,” she softly whispered, but he was not so easily convinced.
“What do you mean?”
Mirage gently eased him back to the chair, as his hand still firmly grasped his pistol, while his eyes remained focused.
“I knew that she was coming here, from the very beginning,” she told him, as she sat in his lap, and cupped his face, to draw his attention back to her. “She would not be coming through the front door. That is not her style, so when I left, I returned, and coated the outside of the window, with an odorless and colorless resin, that would render her unconscious, should she use this route.”
“What if she wakes up,” he returned, “like she did in the lab?”
Endearingly, she gazed into his eyes. She needed to comfort the man that she loved, and she explained it in the best way that she knew how.
“I planted a scenario within her mind,” she went on, “that will consume her thoughts, for what will seem like the next twenty-four hours, yet will take ten of our years for her to complete. If it takes her five seconds to figure out what has happened within her own mind, five of our hours will have already passed, and I assure you that I paid much attention to detail.”
Naturally, this made no sense at all.
“I’m not convinced that she wont wake up before then,” he told her, as he gritted his teeth, and gazed back at Viper, with his pistol still gripped firmly in his hand.
At this, she knew that she needed to prove it to him, so that she would not have to witness him taking a human life, and there was something that she felt deep inside of herself, that she needed to release as well. Gently, she turned his head, and softly kissed his lips, before she arose, and walked over to Viper’s motionless body.
“This is for Charlie,” she stated sternly, before kicking her firmly in the face.
Ryan was a little stunned, having never seen Mirage act out violently towards anything. He was now convinced, and wrapped his arms around her, in an attempt to console her, but as she turned around, she had one more surprise for him. One that would change him, at the very core of his being.
“There is something else that I need to talk to you about,” she said with a smile, as her hands pulled his own, and placed them upon her belly.
* * *
Quietly, Ryan sat in the small sanctuary, staring out into the jungle. There was such peace in this place, and he was beginning to perceive it as a place that he would call home. Not just the sanctuary, but the entire island, as well, for he saw it as the inner mind of the one that he held so dear.
Playful jumped into the chair beside him, and began to eat from the bowl of nuts and berries, which sat between them. She could have them, for all he cared, because his mind was far from his stomach, or his taste buds. At least not the ones on his tongue.
“I brought you something to drink,” Sangmu told him, as she entered to room from the rear, and when he turned to see her, she was carrying two coconuts. He neither expected, nor wanted anything less.
Once again, she was adorned in her fur clothing, what little there was of it, and after handing him one, Playful was quickly upon her shoulder, as she sat down beside of him. Both were a sight for sore eyes, and though he now understood exactly where he was, his emotions were every bit as exultant as they had been before.
“It’s a strange feeling knowing that I could travel the world with you,” he told her with a smile, “while still being so close to home.”
She actually blushed this time, for she had not seen that coming. She told him that, when their ordeal had ended, she would not look into his mind anymore, and she held to that promise. She had also guessed how pleasant it would be, and was not disappointed.
“I do have a question, however.”
She sipped from her drink, as she turned to him, and awaited what he might have to say.
“Now that I am officially retired, what kinda work should I do to support us?” he asked. “Certainly, you would not use your abilities to cheat people, unless you absolutely had to.”
At this, she snickered a little, and blushed again, as she turned away for a moment.
“What? What did I miss?”
She sipped from her own coconut, before turning to reply.
“Just moments ago, a night merchant donated much to our cause,” she told him, “before he tried to sell some of his goods to a uniformed officer.”
It took Ryan a moment to figure out what she was saying, but then it dawned on him. She had just made a drug dealer give her his money, before making him do the unthinkable. He could not help but to laugh as well.
“I may not be able to change the world,” she continued, “but I can do what little I can.”
At this, he simply leaned back
and smiled, as he gazed out into the jungle, once more. He had so many things to think about, and the most urgent one was what type of wedding they would have. It would not be an actual wedding, for to any government, she did not even exist, but it was still a ceremony that he was entrusted to conceive.
She had already chosen the honeymoon spot, which was a place called the Forbidden Gardens. It was a museum, she had said, that had to do with ancient Chinese culture and history, as it existed more than two-thousand years ago, so his thoughts were leaning in that direction. Perhaps a traditional Tibetan wedding would impress her.
“There is someone that I would like you to meet,” she said, before standing, and walking in the direction towards the beach, and as he began to follow her, he began to remember how sensual she appeared in such fur clothing.
As they traveled down the narrow, dirt path that lead to the beach, his curiosity began to get the best of him. As far as he knew, he was the only one inside of her mind, and was beginning to wonder who she may have also allowed inside. He was also grateful that she was no longer reading his thoughts, because he would not have wanted her to see his insecurities. She was more than the best woman he had ever met. She was the best human he had ever met, and he knew that there must be a good reason.
As they reached the sandy beach, he saw a girl with dark hair, maybe seven years old or so, playing in the sand, and before he could say anything, Sangmu spoke up first.
“Iha mo,” she called out. “There is someone that I would like you to meet.”
At this, the little girl sprang up, and began to run to them. Ryan, of course, was relieved to see that it was not another man, and from the girl’s Asian eyes, he began to understand.
“This is your father,” she told her, and the little girl was quick to embrace him.
Naturally, there was a bit of confusion in his mind, yet he could not help but to embrace her back.
“She seems a bit older than I would have imagined,” he directed to Mirage. His wife to be was not only still with child, but hardly showing, as well.