Eve was still fast asleep and unaware of anyone else’s presence in the room.
Lon slowly walked towards the bed, not bothering to tiptoe because he wanted to wake her, although she was so serene in her slumber that he felt like he would be depriving her of something special if he did. Nonetheless, Lon tried again to wake her with his voice, “Eve it’s time to wake up”.
Still Eve did not respond, but Lon did not want to shake her awake out of worry of being impolite, so instead he altered the window settings using the control panel by the window in the corner of the room opposite the bed.
The window pane lightened, as did the room and Eve’s face.
Lon tried again to wake her. “Eve, time to wake up,” this time there was a result.
She slowly opened her eyes.
“Good morning,” said Lon. “Sorry to wake you, but Chris is making breakfast and it’s almost done”.
She was not at all bothered by being awoken by Lon. She simply said, “Okay,” then smiled at him.
“I’ll leave you to get dressed,” he said, and left the room, closing the door on his way. He returned to the living room and kitchen area where Chris had started dishing out breakfast for the three of them. He took a seat at the breakfast bar that separated the kitchen from the living room. “She’ll be here in a minute, she’s just getting dressed,” said Lon taking and biting into a slice of bacon.
Chris poured three glasses of apple juice.
Lon ate another piece of bacon.
Eve entered the room, dressed in the same clothes as the previous day, the same as Lon.
“Good morning,” said Chris, “did you sleep well?”
“Yes, thanks. I can’t even remember hitting the pillow, I was so tired,” she said.
“Good”, said Chris. “If either of you need to take a shower, I suggest you do it straight after breakfast, because I need you to meet up with someone at eleven”.
“Oh? Who would that be?” asked Lon.
“Someone who should be able to help us,” said Chris.
“Who? How can they help us?”
“I’m not gonna say, you’ll have to wait till you meet her”.
“Where are we meeting her?” asked Lon.
“Somewhere quite far from here,” said Chris, “out in the suburbs”.
The rest of breakfast time was uneventful.
“Can I please borrow some of your clothes?” asked Lon, “These ones smell like canal water”.
“Um, yeah, I think I have some spare that you can have,” said Chris.
“And is there by any chance anything of Sonja’s that Eve could borrow too?” asked Lon.
“I’ll go and take a look,” said Chris, and he left to go to his bedroom.
“I finished fixing the palm screens,” said Lon to Eve.
“Oh, that’s good,” she replied.
Lon walked to the workstation and picked up both devices. He first handed Eve hers, then carefully fitted his own, trying to make it as close to his skin as possible without trapping any air.
“Thank you,” she said as she fitted hers.
“To use ‘ID masking mode’ you just have to open the menu and select ‘Masquerade Party’. After that your ID will always be secret”.
“Oh, great! Let me see…” she said as she followed Lon’s instructions. She gestured on her wrist to bring up the display, opened the main menu and pressed the “Masquerade Party” option.
“Welcome to the party,” said a single popup window, before disappearing and re-displaying the main screen.
Eve made a gesture to turn off the palm screen. “I hope it helps us”.
“It should,” said Lon, “I’ve already put my number on there, as well as Chris’. To be safe I’ve put my number under the name ‘London’, and Chris’ under the name ‘Cross’”.
Chris re-entered the room with several items of clothing, only one option for Lon, including a sleeved t-shirt, but several choices for Eve, which he handed to them respectively. “Sorry Lon, that’s all I’ve got that’ll fit you. Eve, you’re lucky, my girlfriend leaves clothes everywhere she goes. She has a similar build to you, so they should fit nicely”.
“Thank you so much,” she said in gratitude.
“Cheers Chris,” said Lon
“You’d better hurry,” said Chris, “you should leave soon. If you need a shower, one of you should get in now”.
“Okay,” responded Lon, “then Eve, you should get in first. I’ll check the news while you I wait”.
“Right. I’ll try to be quick,” she said.
“Just use anything in there that you need. Towels are in the cupboard under the sink,” advised Chris.
At this, Eve left the room.
Lon turned on the television to check the news. Unfortunately for them there was nothing new to be heard or seen.
Almost an hour had passed before the two were washed and dressed in clean clothing and ready to leave.
“Okay, we’re ready to go,” stated Lon.
“Good,” said Chris. “The first place I want you to go to is a cafe called ‘Caixa de Café’ where you’ll meet Tan,” he handed Lon a business card taken from the establishment, “then he’ll tell you what’s next”.
Lon opened his palm screen and scanned the card to load the cafe’s co-ordinates onto the device’s map.
“It’s not far away, within walking distance. I doubt surveillance cameras will be searching for you two after just fare dodging, so there shouldn’t be much to worry about. Also, it will be safer if you don’t use satellite mode on your palm screen to navigate there,” explained Chris.
“I gathered that,” said Lon.
“Okay then, you’d better go,” Chris said, “I’ll get Tan to delete your presence on the surveillance system when he comes back to work on Monday”.
“See you later then,” said Lon, and he left the room.
Eve did the same, but not before saying, “Thank you so much for all your help”.
The workshop was void of people, as was the reception area on the other side of the workshop. Lon and Eve continued to the ground floor using the lift and exited the building, the security guard not paying attention to them.
The air outside the building was cool and clear. The sun lit up as much of the main shopping plaza as it could while projecting long shadows across the ground due to the immensely tall buildings surrounding the square. It would have been a perfect day to relax in the city, had it not been for the current circumstances.
“Does it seem like there are more police to you?” Lon asked Eve.
“I’m not sure,” she replied, “there are always a lot on Saturdays”.
“But I’m sure there aren’t usually this many, we should be extra careful”.
There were indeed a large number of police personnel located throughout the plaza, something common on busy days, especially in the run up to the holidays.
The pair proceeded west of their current location and exited the vicinity of the building in which they had been hiding. Just as the previous night when they had been walking through the plaza to get to Chris’ workshop, the two were extremely vigilant and stuck to the crowds. After several minutes walking they took a left turn out of the pedestrianised plaza and into a long business street lined mainly with office buildings and banks.
“Damn, I never realised how annoyingly slow crowds are,” said Lon. “We need to get to Tan as quickly as possible, but we need to avoid the police as well, just to be careful”.
“Tell me how we got into this situation,” said Eve.
“I have no idea,” Lon said sombrely, “and I don’t have a clue how we’re gonna get out of it either. All we can do now is what Chris tells us to. Thankfully he’s not an idiot”.
The time flowed quickly, much unlike the pedestrian traffic in which Lon and Eve were encapsulated.
“We need to get a move on if we want to meet Tan and get to the suburbs before eleven,” said Lon as he took a mental picture of the m
ap on his palm screen. Using his free right hand he grabbed Eve by the wrist. “Come, we need to leave this crowd”.
Eve was removed from the safety of numbers and directed around the crowds by Lon, who was still scanning his field of vision for potential threats. Thus far, their presence in public had not been contended. “Are you sure it’s safe to literally stand out from the crowd?” she asked. “Couldn’t it look suspicious?”
“I don’t know,” replied Lon, “but so far everything’s normal. Maybe we were worrying for nothing”.
“Okay,” said Eve, “but we should still be careful”.
The two walked past several very wide buildings, and passed over several crossings.
The morning was very slow and uneventful, in contrast to the traffic on the pavements and the roads; thousands of cars whizzed past thousands of people. It would be like this for nearly twenty-four hours on weekends, and weekdays were mostly similar.
Eventually, after many minutes of walking, Lon and Eve came upon another crossroad, this one more significant than the last due to it being situated near the entrance of the parliamentary buildings complex partially shadowed by the huge pillar-like towers that rose behind it. Here was an abundance of greenery and water features, surprisingly not so uncommon in the high-tech, high altitude city, but certainly more lavish and extravagant in style, typical of the self-loving, self-pleasing, self-promoting, self-righteous government. Yet the place’s significance was not due to its aesthetic beauty, but in fact owing to the level of security around the area.
“Eve,” said Lon, “we need to be really careful here, we should mix back in with the crowd”.
There were far fewer people in this area, but perhaps still enough to shield one’s self from the eyes of onlookers if so was needed. Facing towards the parliament buildings before the intersection were two small greens, large enough for small families to picnic on, one to the left, one to the right.
Lon and Eve followed the road to their west, orientating themselves so that on their left was one of the small fields, and to the right the parliament buildings.
Many things were running through both their minds; thoughts of what happened yesterday, what was happening today, and what would happen tomorrow.
There was something that was present somewhere in Lon’s consciousness, hiding, only partially showing its face. What it was bugged him. It felt as though it was playing a game with his reasoning. What was it?
Lon tried hard to think. It was a memory of something. With all the thoughts flowing quickly through his mind it was not easy to differentiate one from the other, old speculations from new feelings. At the same time he was trying his best to be wakeful of danger, as well as trying to navigate through thousands of people, and find some cafe he had never heard of.
Something poked its head into his mental awareness. He remembered the man on the news the previous night, the one who had jumped out of the window of his father’s building, Somebody Winters. Although he could not remember the man’s name, he all too easily recognised his face, and could still recall how distinctly angular his features had been, in addition to how unnatural his blonde hair had seemed.
“Fuck!” exclaimed Lon.
Realisation had hit him like a brick wall.
“We have to leave here now,” he said alarmedly, and again grasped Eve by the wrist to quickly pull her across the field in the direction contrary to the parliament complex and its masses of surveillance.
“What the hell?!” said Eve suddenly perceiving danger.
Lon’s heart was racing and he felt sensation recede from his face and limbs. “Remember that man on the news last night who killed himself?” he was breathing hard and fast.
“Yes, why?” sad Eve in utter confusion. Why was he bringing this up now?
“I know why we recognised him,” continued Lon in a panicked voice. “The reason we recognised his face isn’t because he was the son of a famous banker,” he paused his speech to inhale deeply, “the reason we recognised him is because we saw him last night at the shopping centre!”
This hit Eve hard as she instantly remembered who the man was. He had been standing with the man who punched Marcus. She and Lon had presumed that every other person in the shopping centre had disappeared or had been taken away, but this man, it would seem, was a survivor, just like her and Lon. However, the fact that he had been found dead after the event instantly implied to them that he did not commit suicide, but in fact was murdered, presumably as a silencing measure.
“Then who killed him?!” asked a frightened Eve.
“I really don’t know,” said Lon, still holding onto Eve’s wrist and pulling her across the field, “we don’t have time to think now, we need to get away from here first”.
“Where are we gonna go?” asked Eve.
“I don’t know, but we just need to get away from here,” said Lon.
“Do you think whoever did it will be after us?”
“Probably”.
“Do you really think the government has something to do with it?”
“I really don’t know, but it’s possible, and it’s better to be careful,” said Lon.
They had almost reached the road on the opposite side of the green when two patrol cars slowly rolled past their immediate field of view in the traffic.
Lon pulled Eve away from the car so their faces could not be seen. Analysing their periphery, they noticed that there were in fact several police patrol cars around them on each of the four roads which enclosed the small field.
“This is hard!” said Eve, beginning to panic more, “Maybe you were right, maybe there are more police around today”.
“It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” said Lon. “Why are there more police around today?”
Unfortunately for the pair, the crowds surrounding the two greens, as well as those passing by the parliament complex, were thinning and probably not large enough to blend in with completely, therefore a different form of camouflage was necessary. In another stroke of bad luck, the two were not wearing any clothing with hoods or other items that could have been used for masking their heads or faces.
“What should we do?” asked Eve.
“First of all we should try to stay calm so that we don’t stand out,” explained Lon before taking a deep breath, “this sounds stupid, but cover your face with your hair”.
“What?”
“Just cover your face with your hair so it can’t be seen, then keep your head down and walk”.
“But that will make us stand out too! It will look suspicious if we’re trying to hide our faces,” said Eve.
“Put it this way, would you rather look suspicious and have a chance of getting away from here, or would you rather look like someone they might be searching for and get arrested?”
“Okay,” said Eve as she compliantly moved her hair across her face, leaving a gap wide enough to see through with one eye.
Lon did the same.
They both dropped their heads and again began to walk in the direction opposite the parliament buildings, to where there was less surveillance. Due to their hair disguising their faces they lost all their peripheral vision, something quite worrying for the two as they were no longer totally aware of their surroundings.
Eve’s hair was very thick in comparison to Lon’s, which made it more difficult for her to see, so Lon continued to guide her, not by grasping her wrist this time, but rather with his hand on her upper back, something he considered to be more natural and which would attract less attention. They managed to make their way to a group of pedestrians thick enough to blend in with for a short while, however, they were walking in the wrong direction. There was nothing Lon and Eve could do but follow them completely off the course they were on.
“Are we going the right way?” asked Eve.
“No,” replied Lon, “the quickest way is to go around the parliament buildings the opposite way. At this rate we’re gonna lose a lot of time”.
But this was a
ll they could do in light of the revelation that they too might be caught and killed by an unknown entity, one that may well be linked to the police and the government.
Eventually, after several minutes of accidental bumping and nudging of their fellow walkers, the two found themselves not in the line of sight of anybody or anything in the area of the parliament complex, but again in among the shadows of tall office buildings in a very long street where the pedestrian traffic was greater.
“I think we’re safer now,” said Lon. “It’s times like this that I’m glad I have long hair”.
“But there are security cameras everywhere,” said Eve, still worried, in a shaky voice.
Lon too was still worried; feeling was only starting to return to his limbs, and despite his forehead being damp with sweat, his body felt cold. He was still frightened, yet was trying hard not to appear so. “Somehow we’ve managed not to get caught so far,” he said in a trembling voice, not unlike that of Eve. “If the cameras are on the lookout for our faces, then we’ve been extremely lucky”.
“So, what? Do we continue sticking to the crowds?” Asked Eve.
“We have to, even back alleys have security cameras, and seeing as there aren’t usually many people there, we’d be easy to spot,” said Lon. “But keep your face covered”.
Because a substantial part of the city was built in a grid system, it was not exceedingly difficult to find a path back to where Lon and Eve needed to go, however, the length of each street affected the length of the journey. They were running rather late.
Lon kept an eye on his palm screen map while they walked. He was trying to calculate how long it would take them to reach their destination based on slightly different routes. He eventually chose one, and decided the two needed to cross the road in order to turn a corner. “We should cross at the next crossing,” he said.
There was no response.
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