“Why?”
“Juno!” Evelyn snapped.
Juno shrugged.
“I only ask.”
“Is something happening, girls?” Professor Kerr asked from the other table.
“Nothing, Professor,” Juno answered. “We're fine, are not you, Fury?”
* * *
After breakfast, accredited at lunchtime, Eve offered to show Caleb the Agency's facilities. They started on the lower floor, because the dining room was there. Evelyn pointed to the kitchen door, but did not take him inside because she had never entered that place before. They continued.
“Then is it true?” Caleb asked.
“What?”
“They all come from the future.”
“Not all. At first, I believed the same.” Shrugged. “The professor and his wife, the doctor, are from this Time; and also the shelters ones. Tadhg, Rhys, Dawit and Juno comes from the year two thousand forty-eight: thirty-one years in the future. And they have been two years in this Time.”
“Does that mean they've also been absent for two years?” Caleb commented.
Evelyn had not thought of that.
“Surely.”
“And what are pyxis?” She continued. “Dr. Claire has said that they come from another dimension, that they are the closest thing to monsters that come to take over our world.” He frowned. “But I did not see any monster in the edom.”
“There are several pyxis races,” Eve began. “In our time, there are only three of those races: avalh, olrut, and szoth. I have never seen a szoth, and I do not know how they are.” Smiled. “The avalh are a more discreet race, and therefore, more dangerous. They possess human bodies and subjugate them to their will. Last night in the edom, for example, there were two of those pyxis'avalh in the bodies of two innocent boys. They wanted to kill you.”
Caleb stopped in the act and frowned a lot.
“Why?” He asked.
“I do not know.” Evelyn also stopped; she shrugged and tried to comfort him by putting a hand on his shoulder. But how could she console him with that simple gesture? She pushed her away immediately. “Apparently, you and I will be...” She paused and thought: husbands “…important for the future," she said instead. “And do not ask me why.”
"I was not going to do it," Caleb laughed.
“Good.”
Evelyn composed a smile. They continued walking through the rooms' corridor.
“And who is Sally?” He asked.
“Who?”
“Sally,” he repeated. “Dr. Claire said that agents of the future communicate with their time through Sally. That through her, the agents know who they should rescue at the opportune moment, as happened with us. Do you know who she is? I have not seen her in the dining room. Does it also come from the future?” Apparently Dr. Claire had not gone into details.
“In a way, yes.” Eve said. “Sally is what Professor Kerr calls his time machine. So far he has designed twenty-nine models of the machine, and it is this latter model that has allowed him to receive messages from the future, but not to send them. The time machine will have to arrive at its eight-year and new update to bring the agents of the future to the year two thousand and five.”
“And how it works?”
“Professor Kerr will explain later,” Eve replied, and smiled. That, because I still do not fully understand the process. Sally is the most complicated girl anyone can meet, with the obvious exception of Professor Kerr.”
Caleb smiled. He was laughing because she had provoked him. The emotion in his chest barely fit him.
Once the laughter was over, they continued in silence. They were going up the flight to the upper floor when Evelyn heard Caleb breathe deeply.
“Everything is so white here,” he said, filling his lungs again. “The air is nice; also the color.”
“I thought the same when I arrived,” Eve said. “And even more it is impossible for me to believe that everything is under the New York Public Library. At least twenty meters below the surface of Manhattan. “
Caleb gave a whistle of surprise. They both laughed.
“The Public Library, really?” He said, incredulous, and Evelyn nodded. “Wow, I did not know that information.”
“Of course not,” Evelyn replied to herself. “You were drugged and unconscious.”
“How long have you been here?” Caleb asked.
“Four days. My extraction...”
“Your extraction?”
Evelyn explained what she meant by extraction. Caleb listened with total attention.
“Ah,” he said when Eve finished speaking. “And you extraction” he did specially emphasized the term “was as traumatic as mine, or worse?”
“Well,” she said. “That's when I had my first encounter with the pyxis. It was not pyxis'avalh, but the race olrut...” Eve began to tell him what happened that night; she spoke a little quickly, partly because she did not want to omit any details, partly because it was the first time she could vent to someone who was standing on her shoes. At some point they had been standing in a small circular room flanked with three doors, and Evelyn realized how much she had been in that last quarter of an hour. “And so we ended Tadhg and me attending the opening party of the edom.”
Caleb looked down, as if pondering, and frowned.
“Then it was worse,” he said. “Much, much worse.” He looked at her, and Eve noticed the spark of amusement radiating from his gray eyes. “It's crazy,” he added with a stunned laugh.
Evelyn agreed. Yes, it was crazy. And the craziness had wrapped them both in straitjackets. Each day that they spend locked in it, the shirts would tighten against their bodies, preventing them from breathing, talking and even moving. But if they let the true madness into their heads, then they would be lost. Everything would be lost.
Eve blinked. She knew that Caleb had asked her something, but she had not heard it.
“What?”
“That man," he repeated. “Tadhg, he's called. It seems that he does not like me. Did I do something stupid last night to earn your contempt?”
“Nothing, Caleb,” Eve answered evenly. “Most of the time you were unconscious.” Sigh. “Tadhg carried you to the back of the club.”
“Really?”
Evelyn nodded.
"Then I should feel ashamed for having fainted like a drug..." He broke off. He fixed his eyes on Evelyn, smiled, and squared his shoulders. “So, why do he hate me? Also, what kind of name is Tadhg?”
Evelyn had asked the same thing.
“You'd better not say anything about his name when he's near,” she warned. “Tadhg is not a bad name. His grandfather has put it on him; that’s what he told me. And I do not think I hate you. Tadhg is...” She paused and thought for a moment, “like a rock: hard, gray and cold. But he's a good man. We would not be here if it were not for him.”
There was a moment of silence. Evelyn did not know what to do or what to say, whether to continue the journey or...
“I have one last question,” Caleb inquired. “Why did that girl call you Fury?”
“I wish I knew the answer,” Eve thought.
“Apparently I will become the first agent of the future of this Time," she answered. “And each agent has his own nickname.” Then she quoted the words of Rhys and Professor Kerr. “The nicknames are almost always placed by affection; but, in the agency, each nickname means our respect for one another. Respect is earned, and nicknames, as such, must also be earned. Each one has a nickname inspired by their personality or derived from their true name. Tadhg is not the real name of Tadhg; just as Juno, Dawit and Rhys were not born with those names.”
“And what are your real names?” Caleb asked.
“I thought you had already asked your last question.”
Caleb laughed.
“Well, that's the last one.”
“And I would not know what to answer you.” Shrugged. “I do not know t
heir true names.”
“Then you owe me an answer.”
* * *
Evelyn decided that she had to confront Tadhg. It happened after leaving Caleb in the lab, with Professor Kerr. She slipped quietly when the professor started to explain, basically, what Sally was.
Evelyn toured the Lower floor, waiting for Tadhg to be in his room. On the way there she met Rhys, who told her that her brother was in the training room with the devilish humor. Eve paid no attention to Rhys's warnings, and went to the training room. She found Tadhg alone, reclining on a comfortable iron and lifting weights. He was shirtless. His skin shone. Evelyn gasped.
She swallowed and moved toward him.
“What... what are you doing here?” Tadhg grunted, leaving the pair of weights on the back of the iron with an exhausted gasp. He straightened up; all the muscles of his chest and abdomen tensed. Evelyn gasped, again. Tadhg snorted. “Come on, tell me.”
Evelyn sighed deeply.
“I want to tell you that you are a jerk for having left this way from the dining room.” The words came out without strength, Evelyn was aware of it; she was messing up. “That you're a jerk for not telling me that Caleb would be my husband.”
Tadhg frowned; she had a thin flick of sweat on my forehead.
“That’s all?” He asked.
Evelyn did not move.
Tadhg made a move to continue his exercises, but Evelyn stopped him.
“I know you and Becca are together,” she said.
Tadhg stood up again and looked at her with an impassive face.
“I know that you know it.”
Evelyn did not expect it.
“How?”
"You are not very prudent, Evelyn.” He raised an eyebrow. “At breakfast you confirmed what I noticed this morning as I left Becca's room.”
Tadhg thought himself very clever. “I discovered it before that,” she said to herself. “I saw when you caressed her back while you kissed her.”
“I thought the agents could not have relationships with people who were not their time,” she said aloud. “Which that was one of the laws of the agency.”
Tadhg smiled, pleased. He stood up.
“Did Rhys tell you?”
Eve nodded.
Tadhg took a couple of steps toward her, and as he approached her, Evelyn’s legs gave more and more. Tadhg wore only sweatpants and sneakers. Its back was uncovered; he had him gone, as he had foreseen even through his clothes, and sweated from his head to his waist.
“It's true,” Tadhg agreed, less than a foot from her. “The law of the agency prevents us from having love relationships with people of this time, and even more, with some of the protected.” Shrugged. “But it's not like Becca and I were getting married.”
“And she knows it?” Eve snapped.
Her words erased Tadhg's smile from his lips. He had not expected it.
“I thought so,” she went on, biting, and raised an eyebrow. “What would Becca think if she knew that she is just one of your lovers, someone with whom to satisfy your needs?”
Tadhg took another step toward her, six inches apart; then another, five centimeters.
“She will not know,” he promised as he approached Eve. “Unless you let her know.” He stood very close to Evelyn, so much so that she could feel his breath on her forehead. “Will you tell her, Evelyn?”
Evelyn nodded several times.
“Well,” said Tadhg. “It would not be the first time you do something stupid, Evelyn.” He paused. “But I do not understand why you care so much about my relationship with Becca. Is it a kind of loyalty to femininity that would motivate your stupid impulse?”
Evelyn did not answer; her lips were dry. Her throat was also dry.
And Tadhg was so sweaty; he smelled of salt and soap, and he shone like a huge rock rammed by seawater. She opened her mouth and closed it again, almost immediately; she was terribly vulnerable there, in front of him, so much that he could not speak or look up to find her.
Tadhg tensed. He pulled away from her, striding backward as the door to the training room opened, causing a loud bang. Evelyn turned to see who it was.
“He has escaped,” Rhys announced, as he entered the room; her breathing was startled. She approached Evelyn and Tadhg, and looked at them from landmark to landmark. “It has escaped.”
“Who? “Tadhg asked, frowning. The sweat had almost completely disappeared from his body at the moment of tension. Rhys was breathing fast, as if she had run a great distance; once calm, she fixed her eyes on Evelyn.
Then she knew who.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“I can’t believe he escaped,” Rhys said. “Where could he have gone?”
Everyone turned to Evelyn, who shrugged.
“Calm down,” said the professor. “We will find him.”
Apparently, Caleb had gotten strange in the middle of Kerr's explanation and asked him to tell him where the bathroom was. Of course, he never went to the bathroom. He quickly slipped down the elevator to the Public Library, where the security cameras saw him leave and warned Juno, who, in turn, informed the others.
They were in the laboratory. Dawit, Tadhg, and Juno were standing near the large desk talking in low voices, but not too discreetly. Rhys, troubled, was standing next to Evelyn, wrapping her arm around her shoulders in a gesture of support. From time to time, Eve received a murderous look from Tadhg. He raised his eyebrows and approached them.
“I thought they were neighbors,” she heard him say as he approached.
“That was a long time ago,” Evelyn said. “Also, how do you know? You were not there when I told Dawit and Juno.”
“That was just what we were talking about a moment ago," Tadhg replied, without hesitation, and signaled to his companions.
Evelyn shifted the weight from one leg to the other.
“So what are we waiting for? She asked.”
“Claire,” Rhys said. “She has the Caleb tracking code.”
“Tracking code?”
Tadhg snorted. He was dressed again in black from head to toe. He was handsome, as always. He cast a knowing glance at his sister, a mocking grimace, and made a sly nod that boiled Evelyn's blood.
“When Caleb was unconscious at the clinic,” Rhys explained patiently, “Dr. Claire implanted a tracking chip around his neck. All the shelters have one. Thus, we can find them wherever they are.”
“I…?” Evelyn began, involuntarily taking her hand to the back of her neck; then she thought how stupid she looked, when Tadhg laughed.
“No, Evelyn,” Rhys said; it was evident that she was refraining from imitating her brother's laughter. “We trust your good judgment. Also, at what time could we have done it?” She raised an eyebrow.
Evelyn had asked herself the same question. She lowered her hand.
At that moment Claire entered the laboratory, with a tablet in her hands and the white coat fluttering at her sides. Then, she approached the desk, tapped the tablet and looked up. Everyone approached to look at the screen of the huge monitor on the desk.
A map of the entire country was drawn. A red dot flickered in the East. Claire manipulated the tablet, and at the same time, the monitor responded to her. An approach to the state of New York occurred. Manhattan. The red light flickered. Tadhg glanced at Evelyn in anticipation.
* * *
The city roared merrily; the streets, late at night, were filled with overwhelming lights. Evelyn, Rhys, and Tadhg were in the agency's black van on East 34th Street, on their way to where the chip implanted in Caleb's neck had indicated.
“The central hospital?” Snapped Tadhg angrily. “That idiot could have gone to Dr. Claire if he felt so bad. Maybe he had the period...”
“Close your mouth, Tadhg!” Rhys replied, glaring at her brother. Evelyn had not seen her so angry in the short time she had known her. “I think Evelyn already knows the answer...” She turned to her from the pa
ssenger seat. “Isn’t that right, Eve?”
Maybe it was the suggestive gesture on her face that made that impression on Rhys. Eve remembered what Tabita had told her a few days ago. “I heard that his mother is sick and that he keeps her company. Who'd say?” Caleb Goodbrother, the most handsome and popular boy in high school, is also a gentleman caretaker of the poor and homeless,” were her words. Also, if that was the case, Caleb could have remembered Cassie, his nine-year-old sister... or he might have remembered all of a sudden the state of his mother's health.
“His mother,” Eve said, “is sick, or so I heard.”
The brothers exchanged a look more than strange, suspicious. What did they know?
Later, Tadhg stopped the car in the parking lot of the central hospital. The lights of an ambulance siren splattered the black night with its red and orange flashes. They left the van behind and crossed the parking lot to the emergency access door. Rhys, with her incredible appeal, persuaded two assistants who approached them while Tadhg and Evelyn strolled through the clear corridors of the hospital, which, though broader, reminded her of the Agency's corridors.
They stopped at a semicircular counter where there were a couple of receptionists. One of them, red-haired and freckled, approached Tadhg smilingly in her face. The other, dark and low, approached also to notice the handsome specimen that covered the attention of her companion. Evelyn had to swallow bile.
“We look for the room...” Tadhg began. He stopped and turned to Eve. The two girls on the counter blinked repeatedly at the sight of her, as if they hardly noticed Evelyn's presence and were suddenly wrenched from a dream. Tadhg raised his eyebrows. “What's the name of Caleb's mother?”
“Renata,” Evelyn said. “Renata Goodbrother.”
Tadhg turned to the receptionists, composed his most mischievous smile and repeated the name. The brunette went to a monitor, pressed the keyboard several times and, after a few seconds, returned with them with the requested information. Renata Mendoza Goodbrother was in the East wing of the hospital, in intensive care, room 204. Tadhg thanked the two young women with a radiant smile, that Evelyn boiled blood, and his phone number. The latter was funny because, given the circumstances of the true origin of Tadhg, it was obvious that he did not have a telephone, and in addition, he had written down more numbers than were really necessary, without the girls noticing. But Evelyn did notice it.
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