“I’d forgotten how uncomfortable a bicycle seat can make you after a long ride,” commented Mark who was gingerly pacing back and forth as the vendor inspected each bike before storing them.
“I feel like I’ve been horseback riding,” said Wayne who was hobbling around bowlegged trying to loosen up.
When the vendor had finished inspecting and storing the bikes, they walked back to the hotel. Everyone decided a shower before dinner was in order, and after cleaning up they met in the lobby and decided to eat at the hotel restaurant. Once they placed their orders they turned their attention to the events of the day and the two pressing questions. How to get to Numaria, and what to do once they got there?
“How do we know Anonoi isn’t lingering about?” asked Mark as he looked over his shoulder at a shadowy area formed by two wings of the building. “You can barely see him during the day when it’s full sunshine much less when it’s cloudy. He could be sitting at the next table and I wouldn’t be able to see him.”
“If he is here I don’t think he would be lingering too close,” replied Blackie. “Besides, I’m sure it doesn’t matter; Anonoi is supposed to accompany Joules. If Joules decides she is going to Numaria he doesn’t have much choice but to go along.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t have to agree to transport us there,” remarked Amelia.
“He doesn’t,” replied Joules. “But, I think we can convince him,” she finished with a satisfied look on her face.
While eating dinner, they discussed ideas about how to find the Zin Charr warehouse without arousing suspicion. How they were going to get in once they found it? How would they handle resistance that was sure to occur? And, most importantly, how would they reanimate Nita’s dad and brother?
“We don’t know anything about their technology,” stated Amelia. “Once we are inside we have to figure it out, or give them a compelling reason why they should help us.”
“I don’t think they are going to help us voluntarily,” remarked Wayne, “why would they?”
They sat around the table and talked until two hours after sunset and decided they would try to meet with Anonoi the next morning, at the same roundabout where they met before. Eventually everyone trudged off to their suites and went to bed. The combination of bicycle riding and a four-course meal made them all drowsy, and they were asleep in no time; everyone but Nita.
She tried to remember exactly what her uncle had told her when her father and brother didn’t come home. Did he know what had really happened to them, or did he deliver the exact information he had been given without question? She revisited everything that was said in the cave earlier that day about her father and brother and tried to make sense out of what she had learned.
“The edge of nothing and everything,” she thought, “what kind of nonsense is that?”
She dozed off into a fitful sleep with vivid dreams that disturbed her so much she never fully rested. The next morning seemed to come earlier than normal, and Nita had no recollection of her dreams. They were like ghosts that drifted by and left no lasting imprint.
“How did you sleep?” asked Mark as Nita sat down at the breakfast table.
“Not well. I tossed and turned all night. But I don’t feel tired. Where is everyone?”
“They’re probably sleeping in for a while. I thought I heard Wayne’s alarm go off, but I also thought I heard it get smacked against the wall. It may be a while before he comes down.”
Mark had a wry grin on his face; he was going to use that little incident to his advantage at a later date. “Blackie was in the shower when I left; how about Joules and Amelia?”
“I thought they were down already,” replied Nita.
Within fifteen minutes everyone was seated at the table sipping coffee. No one was very hungry owing to the size of the dinner they ate the night before, so they ordered a basket of croissants with butter and assorted jams from room service.
“Where do you think he was last time?” asked Mark.
“Who?” asked Wayne.
“Anonoi, he didn’t show last time we went to meet with him.”
“No telling,” said Wayne. “Maybe he was flitting around and met a Ms. Shade and lost track of time.”
“How do you know Anonoi isn’t a Miss?” asked Joules.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” responded Wayne. “Maybe he is a she. Regardless, we should probably hike over to the roundabout and see if he’s there.”
When they reached the roundabout, there was no sign of Anonoi. They sat on benches outside a restaurant and waited. At noon they went to the upstairs restaurant that overlooked the roundabout and had sandwiches. Still there was no sign of Anonoi. As they were about to leave Blackie glanced out the window and there he was, hanging in the air over the middle of the roundabout.
“We want to talk to you about our trip,” said Wayne as they approached the Shade. “We’ve decided we want to go to Numaria on the way to Gafcon-49 if that’s possible.”
“It would be better to take a more direct route to Gafcon-49,” replied Anonoi, who communicated this to everyone.
“Yes, there may be a more direct route but we want Numaria to be our first destination,” said Wayne.
“That is reckless,” replied Anonoi, “Numaria is a dangerous place. One does not go there for recreation or curiosity, or vacation. It is a dangerous place for Numarians, and more so for outsiders.”
“Joules you want to weigh in on this?” asked Wayne.
“Anonoi, we want to go to Numaria to look into the disappearance of Nita’s dad and brother,” explained Joules.
Anonoi hesitated to respond. He had been instructed to not contact Joules directly. But circumstances were far different than they were before. They were no longer at the lake on Gafcon-49, and it seemed to him a change in circumstances necessitated more interaction than had been prescribed. “A trip to Numaria should not be taken lightly. I don’t advise returning to Gafcon-49 by that route.”
“Anonoi, we are going to Numaria,” stated Joules bluntly. “If you won’t help us, we’ll secure black market transportation to get there. That’s where we are going, with or without your help. Maybe it’s a dangerous place,” she continued, “but we are going so you might as well take us and find a way to help. If you can’t bring yourself to take us there, we understand, but we are going to Numaria. I hope you will help us.”
Anonoi didn’t respond. For a moment Joules thought she may have been too forceful. He was supposed to look out for her and she was making his assignment much harder. He didn’t sign up for a trip through Volcanon and Lindone, he was just supposed to watch over them while they were at Mountain Lake. “This must be like volunteering to work at the museum and eight school buses show up with 400 students the day you’re there,” she thought.
Finally, Anonoi responded to Joules’ plea. “Black market transportation is exceptionally dangerous. I will take you to Numaria.”
“Thank you, Anonoi,” said Joules, who felt like hugging him, but didn’t know exactly how she might accomplish that, “and please forgive me for being so forceful. If it wasn’t for the chance we might be able to help Nita’s father and brother I wouldn’t have asked you to do this.”
“When can we leave?” asked Wayne.
“Whenever you are ready,” replied Anonoi.
“We need to pack and check out of the hotel. We can be back here in…” Wayne hesitated looking for input from the others.
“Two hours,” offered Amelia, “we can be ready in two hours.”
“I will meet you here,” replied Anonoi, and the shadowy essence standing before them began to fade.
They stood mesmerized watching the last bits of him suspended in the air like dust particles glinting in the sunshine, then he was completely gone within seconds.
“Let’s go,” said Blackie
They walked to the hotel and straight to their suites where they quickly packed. Amelia checked three times to make sure the Jump Starter was in her bag. M
ark ran downstairs to the sundries shop and bought bottles of water and snacks.
“Where did you go?” asked Wayne.
Mark tossed him a bottle of water and a large bag of nuts. “Just in case we get hungry,” said Mark who dropped a bottle of water and bag of nuts in Blackie’s open backpack.
“Should have known,” remarked Wayne. “I’m done.”
“Me too,” replied Blackie. “I’ll check on the girls.”
“Give them these,” said Mark as he passed a bag containing three bottles of water and several bags of cheese flavored snacks.
“They’re all packed and ready to go,” said Blackie as he stepped back into the suite. He collected his pack from his room and followed Mark and Wayne out the door and into the hallway where the girls were waiting.
“We’re early,” said Wayne as he navigated the roundabout. “Let’s park and have a seat on those benches until he shows up.”
“There he is,” said Amelia, pointing across the street just as Wayne was parking the Nomad.
Anonoi was hovering over the roundabout near the curb closest to where they were parked. He moved across the street toward them before Wayne could pull out. “We should leave immediately,” he said with a hint of urgency. “If you are prone to motion sickness you may want to close your eyes.”
As soon as he finished communicating, it began. Anonoi positioned himself in front of the Nomad and the area immediately around them began to oscillate slightly, as if the air and ground and pavement were mounted on a skid that was moving back and forth while the adjacent area remained motionless. It was a little unsettling; Amelia closed her eyes.
“He looks like he’s thickening,” said Joules. “Is it because the Nomad weighs so much?”
“I’m not sure…” ask Amelia, “she’s the one with the math degree,” replied Blackie.
The oscillating area around them suddenly twitched. Amelia showed them the palm of her hand, as if to say, wait a moment, but she didn’t utter a word. She was in a delicate state and a simple gesture was all she could muster. The area around them twitched again. Joules closed her eyes immediately. Blackie looked out the window and across the street to where a dark gray transport pulled to the curb. Its windows were darkened, so dark you couldn’t see inside.
The transport had no distinguishing features. It was plain like the old cars where everything, the fenders, the hood, the trunk, even the side panels were rounded. Blackie noticed the registration plates were missing. Just as the transport stopped, the back door swung open and two dark creatures stepped out from the backseat. They were short, no taller than the top of the transport, and so broad two of them probably filled the entire back seat.
“Shumbrans,” thought Blackie as he glanced at Joules who still had her eyes tightly closed.
What happened next was hard for them to describe. They moved, but it wasn’t flowing movement like walking, or being on an escalator, or a moving sidewalk at an airport. It was jerky movement, as if they were moving instantaneously from point to point like in an old stop action photography film where the resolution was grainy and the surrounding images were slightly out of focus.
Amelia opened her eyes briefly but quickly closed them and uttered a low groan. Joules still her eyes shut, and after hearing Amelia, wasn’t even slightly tempted to open them. Wayne wasn’t affected in the least. He was fascinated by the staccato like movements and couldn’t take his eyes off them. They were not only mesmerizing, but he was sure there was a subtle repeating pattern. Not like twelve bar blues, but like a song by Rush.
Often, he narrowed his eyes, straining to try and see ahead to the next stopping point before they twitched to another location. Several times he thought he could see ahead but finally decided he wasn’t really sure what he was seeing. Nevertheless, he was completely absorbed by their hypnotic movements and the snippets of images from places along the way.
Blackie had his eyes wide open, but he was so deep in thought about the Shumbrans that showed up on Lindone, and worried about how they had been found, that he didn’t seem to grasp the visual oddities playing out before him. Wayne later told him he had missed a really good show.
The movements didn’t bother Nita, but she didn’t want to see them, or the scenes along the way, or anything else for that matter. She wanted to be alone with her thoughts, eyes open or not. Deep in her heart she had always believed, or wanted to believe, her father and brother were coming home. But it had been a long time since she last saw them and her desire to believe had dwindled in the face of day-to-day reality and the slow passing of time.
Part of her wanted to embrace the excitement that came with the prospect of seeing them again, but the other part, the careful part, knew that without help there was no chance this trip would have a fairy tale ending. She sat next to Mark slowly opening and closing her eyes, completely oblivious to what was happening around her. “Amelia was right,” she thought, “we are a pretty good team. Now we get to find out how good.”
“Oh, that’s ugly,” said Wayne. He waited for a moment but there was no more oscillating, no more twitches or flashes of scenes from places he would probably never, ever, get to visit. “This must be it,” he said. “Somehow, I didn’t picture Numaria this way.”
“We are on the spoils,” said Anonoi. “Much of this planet has natural beauty, but not here. Here it is desolate and barren. There is virtually no water and the wildlife here fights for survival every second of every day of their lives.”
“Why did you bring us here?” asked Amelia. Her eyes formed thin little slits in case things began to twitch again and she needed to shut them quickly.
“This area is rarely visited, so it is likely our sudden appearance will go unnoticed. From here you can take your transport to town and obtain housing. The area east of town is covered in trees and rolling hills, and there are streams of clean water. The warehouse you seek is located there, but it will not be easy to find, and it is underground.”
The sound of deep breathing alerted everyone to the fact that Mark had drifted into a deep sleep.
“No sense in waking him until we find a hotel,” said Wayne. “How will we find you?” he said to Anonoi.
“I will be close by at all times. You must be exceptionally careful. My warning about the dangers here were not exaggerations. Don’t discuss the reason why you have come here with anyone. There will be few here that are sympathetic to your cause.” Before anyone could say another word Anonoi began to disappear and in seconds he was gone.
The drive to town took about twenty minutes. Until they reached its outskirts they didn’t see one living thing, then suddenly there were people, and animals, birds and grass. The transition was dramatic. The city had been founded near a river and spread out equally in all directions until it came within 2000 meters of the spoils. From then on it grew westward into the rolling hills. Somewhere out there in those hills was a well-kept secret. A secret they had every intention of breaking into.
Downtown wasn’t a long drive from the edge of the spoils and they were soon booked into two suites in the largest hotel in the city. At the check-in counter Amelia took the opportunity to look at their card balance. Tugurro must have been selling a fortune in toast at the restaurant. Amelia wondered what it would be when the other fifty restaurants opened. On the way to their suites Mark asked her about the number of credits in their account. “About twice what we had when we first arrived on Gafcon-49,” was her reply, “Tugurro must be working day and night.”
The next day everyone met for a midmorning brunch. Inevitably conversation evolved from how good the pancakes were to a discussion of their next move. Honestly, they didn’t know where to begin. You don’t just march into the local police department and ask directions to a secret warehouse containing criminals and innocent victims whose bodies and spirits have been sheared apart. That approach would get you thrown into jail; or worse, get you a one-way ticket to the warehouse.
But that was exactly where they wanted
to go and what they thought they might have to do – get sent to the warehouse. Once they were inside…once inside they would…that’s where the plan stalled. There was no clear plan for what to do once inside. Joules was sure they couldn’t keep her bound. She was positive the energy beams she generated could cut through just about anything and suggested they test it on hardened titanium handcuffs.
But what if they were drugged before being taken to the facility? What if they were unconscious right up to the time they were disambiguized? None of them had an answer for that scenario and they found themselves back to square one – they had no viable plan. The best they could hope for was to somehow find out where the facility was located and use Joules’ energy beam to cut their way in.
So how do you find a secret facility? The upshot of their discussion was this — they would have to find the conspiracy theorists and pretend to be allies. They would have to research local groups and their leaders and start hanging out at places conspiracy theorists might visit. Wayne was confident he could spot the kinds of places conspiracy freaks hung out by simply observing the employees and clientele. He said they had a special craziness about them, like his Uncle Lester, that was easy to identify.
They decided to pretend to be interested in an entirely different conspiracy; mentioning the warehouse would be too direct and might put people off. But eventually, given enough time someone would whisper something about the secret warehouse where bodies and souls were being stored. It might take time, but barring a change in circumstances they had plenty of time.
They even discussed the idea of asking Anonoi to spy for them. Not that he would agree, but his ability to lurk about without being noticed would be a big advantage. If you needed to overhear a conversation or find out where someone was going and follow them, being almost invisible was a distinct advantage.
Mark suggested they tell Anonoi if he didn’t do it Joules would. Blackie suggested that sounded like a form of blackmail, but Wayne thought it was a good idea. They didn’t have to send Joules, they just had to propose doing it and see if Anonoi would commit.
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