Lia’s files 1
Presumed extinct
Lia’s files 1
presumed extinct
by Kathrin Kilambya
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Lia’s files 1: presumed extinct
Copyright © 2017 by Kathrin Kilambya
Cover: Blazenka Kostolna (www.blazenka.ch)
All rights reserved.
Publisher: Amazon Kindle
To Jonathan, my fellow traveller through life
Chapter 1 – the countdown starts
Chapter 2 – more information
Chapter 3 – preparing ourselves
Chapter 4 – a secret to keep
Chapter 5 – a holiday
Chapter 6 – it starts
Chapter 7 – time zero
Chapter 8 – a necessary betrayal
Chapter 9 – witnessing a killing
Chapter 10 – Steve’s back
Chapter 11 – the vigil
Chapter 12 – together again
Chapter 13 – love finally
Chapter 14 – cut off
Chapter 15 – bombs
Chapter 16 – our plane
Chapter 17 – Steve again
Chapter 18 – a present
Chapter 19 – more killings
Chapter 20 – waiting
It was the email to Alice that woke Ninian and me up to reality – we finally understood that all this crazy talking by Dad and Uncle Phil might be relevant and might bear on our future.
But for reality to sink in – that took a while.
And afterwards, nothing was ever the same again. And the nightmare began.
I have decided to write things down; as they happened; as faithfully as possible.
Now that it seems like there will be a future, it might be worth the while.
Otherwise, at least I will have told our story.
Lia, December 2072
Chapter 1 – the countdown starts
Saturday, 5th March 2072
We had all spent the day together, soothing Alice who was still sad that Mum and Nate had not taken her with them to this congress in Berlin. Of course, the real issue was that the twins but not Alice had gone with Mum and Nate to Berlin. Alice perfectly well understood that there were valid objective reasons for this – like that the twins Ben and David were only eight months old – for example. But it still rankled with Alice. She’d been so used to being the favourite little darling of everyone, that she really had had a hard time adjusting to this new family situation.
Mum had remarried two years ago. Nate, her new husband, was a teacher at the same local English school where she was working, teaching English and History. They had met at work, fallen in love and all this. And with marriage and the arrival of Ben and David last August their new family was complete. Everyone understood that Mum and Nate now needed some time with Ben and David as a family, without us. And that this trip to Berlin was just such a little time bubble of their own.
Part of the reason why I had come back to Switzerland last year instead of completing my graduate studies at some University in the States, and an ivy league one at that, if Dad could get his way, was that Mum had asked me to stick around a bit and babysit Alice, help her adjust. Therefore, I had come back to Switzerland in late autumn after my visit to Dad or more so to Uncle Phil and Aunt Kamene during the summer.
Mum and Nate still lived in the house on the outskirts of Berne that my Dad had built more than twenty years ago. It was a spacious house with quite a big garden and a separate one-room flat in the basement with a separate entrance and its one bathroom. At the time, they had planned to rent it out some day, but that had never happened and we kids had always used this studio as our get-away place, when we wanted some privacy with friends, to party or some such thing.
And now that’s where I was living. A bit apart, to give Mum and Nate some breathing space, but still close enough for Alice to have someone nearby anytime. I was jobbing a bit, but mostly I was a nanny-like sister to Alice. Because Alice, normally quite mature for her nine years, had suffered a bit of a relapse recently and regressed more towards a four year old in her behaviour.
The issue of the congress in Berlin, which Mum and Nate had to attend in relation with their work, had sort of been the last drop for Alice. She’d thrown quite a tantrum when Mum first told her about it. And she’d needed some serious talking to in order to recover from her subsequent sulking.
It hadn’t helped that Mum and Nate planned to stay with friends in Berlin or some place outside of Berlin for a fortnight after the congress. Alice took this as proof that she was no more loved by Mum and Nate, that she was unwanted and so alone. It had taken Nate an entire evening of reasoning with her to make her understand, at least in theory. She loved and adored Nate, and where she never could have been convinced by Mum’s or my arguments, Nate’s gentle ways and love had finally won her over. Plus, she’d been promised an extensive holiday à cinq in Southern France some time toward autumn, inclusive pony riding, which had certainly helped a lot, too.
But yesterday morning, when we had brought Mum, Nate and the twins to Belp airport, she’d had a bit of a relapse. So, Ninian, Yuki and me had tried to keep her entertained, by indulging her a bit … well, okay, a lot, in fact.
And because Ninian, Alice and Yuki were just enjoying their spring holidays, we had ample time to spend together. Today we had all gone to the local zoo and Alice had especially enjoyed the snow leopards. I could never bring myself to like these institutions; the pacing of some of the locked up animals, the cramped conditions most of them had to endure always made me cringe within, no matter how much zoos try to take into account their charges’ individual needs when designing their living conditions. But Alice was still too young to see this and there was no need to enlighten her to my maybe unreasonable notions about animal husbandry and wellbeing. So I kept quiet and we spent a nice morning at the zoo, ate something at the little restaurant by the river and then walked home along the river.
It was one of the first really warm days of spring and we greatly enjoyed being in the sun, feeling its heat and getting a first glimpse at the soon to come warmth of spring and summer. When we’d come home, we played a bit in the garden with Alice, checked for early spring flowers, decided that the roses needed some cutting – Mum would probably be horrified by how we’d done it – and simply enjoyed each other’s company.
Now Ninian and Yuki had disappeared to their rooms. They needed some alone time; plus, they had papers to write.
Yuki had been living with us since October. Her real name was Umiko, what with her mother being Japanese, but everybody called her Yuki. Her father, a member of the American diplomatic corps, had these last four years been stationed at the America Embassy in Berne, and Yuki had attended the English school of Berne. There, Ninian had met her and they’d fallen in love. And when her father had been posted to Japan, her mother’s country of origin, last autumn, Yuki had simply declared that she wanted to stay in Berne, finish her courses here and then, next summer, move with Ninian to the States to begin her studies. Disrupting the courses and beginning anew in another country and all the lot would slow her academic progress too much.
These had been the objective reasons she’d given; but, of course, mostly, she wanted to stay with Ninian. They’d been together for three years now. They had been “only” seventeen and eighteen respectively when they’d become an item, and a lot of people had expected their “teenage love” to cool after a while.
But here they were, still together and st
ill very much in love. Actually, and to be honest, it was more than that: their relationship was not just about being in love, but about mutual loving, respect and commitment – and, frankly, wonderful to watch. The way they were together, dedicated to each other, but not in a gooey way, was very touching and inspiring. Sometimes I was envious, but mostly I was just happy for them both, because I loved Yuki like a sister and we were great friends. And they certainly also matched very well physically: beautiful, petite Yuki, with her jet-black waterfall of thick hair and her Asian complexion, and my handsome brother Nin, with his red-brown mane, dark eyes and tall leonine figure.
So, when Yuki had declared her intentions of staying in Switzerland, no matter what her parents thought about, it had been quickly decided, between her parents and Mum and Nate, that she would stay at our place. Not that Yuki and Nin had ever expected anything else, but I had still thought, at the time, that this had been a very generous move on Yuki’s parent’s part, and had told Nin so when he was flippant about it. He, naturally, had thought that this was the only reasonable solution But he had, when it had been pointed out to him, at least conceded that he was very happy about Yuki’s parent’s decision nonetheless.
Nin and Yuki were planning to move to California next year and start their studies there – Nate in engineering and physics, Yuki in linguistics. Having lived in quite a number of countries in the course of her life, Yuki’s natural talent for languages had been thus enhanced and she was now not only fluent in English, Japanese, German, French and Spanish, but also in Arabic and Swahili. When Uncle Phil had visited us last year, he’d been very pleased that he could communicate with Yuki in Swahili.
And, come to think of it, he’d also made some positively embarrassing remarks about her language skills at the time. That they would come in very handy once we’d have to travel to his hideout. Thankfully, Yuki had not heard this, or, more likely, had pretended not to have heard it, which was very good of her and had spared us all some highly unwelcome lecturing on his favourite subject by Uncle Phil.
He was the black sheep of our family. He’d given up a promising career with the US Geological Survey to pursue his own private scientific investigations, some of them rather controversial, to put it nicely, or, simply over the top and crazy, to use some of his old friend’s wordings. Anyway, thanks to the financial independence that Dad and Uncle Phil had inherited from their dad, Uncle Phil could afford to do as he liked – and he certainly made the most of it.
He spent most of his time in East Africa studying rocks and fossils. He had a house and quite some land in Kenya – we’d spent holidays there on several occasions – but he often disappeared for some months without us knowing where he was or what he did. Maybe Dad knew but he wouldn’t tell. And Nin and I sometimes preferred not to be told too much – we’d received enough lectures by Dad and Uncle Phil about their crazy notions and could well do with a little less exposure to their ideas.
I had frequently wondered how Nin and Yuki were planning to stay away from Dad’s interfering habit and his ambitious plans, which, I was sure, he harboured for them once they’d moved to California. He was based at the Caltech and would certainly try to coax them, especially Nin, into doing as he though fit and appropriate for a son of his.
But for the moment, this scenario was still some months away, and Yuki and Nin were clearly enjoying their time together here in Berne. They had only some few months to go to finish high-school and were busy with this exciting time of live, without much room for thought about what would come afterwards. And they still had some serious work to do, like these papers that would be due straight after their holidays.
Alice had first wanted to follow them to their room, but after I had hinted at their need for some privacy, she had declared her intentions to go and contact Dad instead. She wanted to tell him about her day. And she’d assured me that she could start the computer and find her way about all by herself and needed absolutely no help by me, thank you very much! I’d let her be, because I thought it would do her good to chat with Dad a bit. She was his special little darling; he truly loved her, even though he had left Mum and us, again, before she had even been born.
While I was mulling these things over, I was preparing dinner – spaghetti with tomato sauce and vanilla crème for dessert, of course, on Alice’s request, plus a big bowl of salad.
I felt strangely at a loose end at the moment. Had been so for several months now. Dad kept pestering me about starting my graduate studies. My career could with his help, contacts and influence – I knew full well – turn out to be truly brilliant. I was fully aware that he could arrange for way above average opportunities for me. Yet, strangely, perversely maybe, I didn’t feel like following his advice. Of course, I knew that I wanted to complete my studies. But at the moment I couldn’t bring myself to move away from my family. I felt a strange urge to stay close to them. Dad had tried to reason with me a lot, this summer. He’d accused me of lack of professional ambitions, about the worst imaginable crime a daughter of his could commit.
And, strangely, Uncle Phil had been the one to defend me, when I’d lashed out rather angrily and impulsively that not everyone could be as he was and that I was not as brilliant as Nin or gifted as Yuki, but just an ordinary girl with an overambitious father who had been willing to sacrifice everything to get his professional way. Uncle Phil and Aunt Kamene, his wife, had intervened and Uncle Phil had told Dad to leave it be and let me find my own way. Which had been a very nice thing of him to do, and I greatly appreciated it.
Dad had left us a long time ago, when Nin had been five and I seven years old. He had claimed that he needed his freedom, space and room to work and that a family just cramped him down. So he’d left us to pursue his brilliant career in the States. To be fair, he had always kept up a close connection with us. And he’d never remarried, his work being too important to him to allow time for such distraction Plus, everyone always said that Mum had really been the love of his life, that after their divorce he’d no interest in other women – but I didn’t buy this heroic picture. I was convinced that he was simply too egoistic and egocentric to share his live with someone else. Or, rather, for someone to put up with his ways.
Anyway, after some years of separation, he and Mum had tried to get together again; but it had worked only form some few months. Alice was the happy result of that rather unhappy time. Dad, with his attitudes and his overpowering need for freedom, had put quite a strain on us all during these few months. After he’d left us for good, Mum, Ninian, and I, and later Alice, too, had done fairly well without him and grown very close; closer probably than was usual.
Then, Nate came into Mum’s life and she had truly found happiness. I was so happy for her, and Nate, of course. And also for Ninian, who had found Yuki. And now, for some strange reason, I felt very reluctant to leave them all. It was inevitable, sure, but I wanted to prolong the happy times as much as I could, before we would break up and all go our separate ways. The way our family worked, we would always stay close, of course, but from a distance. And I wasn’t yet ready for that. Call me a coward, but I had felt very content, when Mum had asked me to stick around a bit and babysit Alice. It suited me just fine to look after my darling little sister, also named tiger kitten, not because of the wonderful titian-red mass of curls she had, but rather her way of behaving as if she were a tiger, when really she was just a little kitten. And it gave me the perfect excuse, mostly when Dad was pestering me again, for not having to take any real decision just yet about my immediate future.
Mulling over all these things, I’d finished with preparing dinner and was laying the table, when suddenly I heard Alice cry out in a frightened voice “Lia!!!” and start sobbing.
I dropped whatever I was doing and ran toward the office at the back of the house where I knew she was. At the same time, I heard Ninian and Yuki running downstairs. They, too, must have heard Alice. I reached the office first and Alice ran straight into my arms, burying her face in
my chest while slinging her arms tightly around my neck, still sobbing hard.
“What’s the matter with you? What happened, tiger?” I anxiously enquired, but she wouldn’t answer, just kept sobbing.
Ninian now burst into the room with Yuki close behind. He glanced inquisitively at me and Alice; but I shook my head and I beckoned toward the computer. He immediately understood and headed over there to check what Alice had been doing. Yuki came over to me, patting Alice reassuringly on her back while watching Ninian who checked what Alice had been reading.
“What a complete moron! How dare he!” He suddenly swore. “Just listen to this, it’s absolutely unbelievable! I could kill him!”
“What! What are you talking about?” Yuki and I exclaimed in one voice. And Alice just clung on to me even tighter and tried to bury her face even harder in my chest. I patted her back soothingly, kissed her hair and kept murmuring “It’s okay, darling! It’s okay! We are here! It’s okay.”
“Listen to this,” Nin exclaimed, “Alice has been checking emails and Dad wrote her something – it’s incredible! Listen: ‘Alice, my little darling, I love you very much my little one, and I am missing you terribly. I am happy that you are having a good time with Lia, Yuki and Nin. But you must do something for me: Tell Nin and Lia that they must prepare for you all. There is no time to lose. You must all be strong now, and you must survive at all costs, promise me! Tell Lia and Nin that it is starting now! They’ve got the virus and they will start spreading it soon, all too soon. There is hardly enough time! Do not delay! Prepare for it as if it were a war! And call me immediately! I love you all very much, and you especially my little Alice! Tell Lia and Nin to call me! Now!’ What a complete and utter moron!”
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