by Lazlo Ferran
***
As I left the mess for my cabin with a grin on my face, some of the officers were still arguing over something but again I ignored them. Closing my door I put the ruby ring, a present from Jena, on my second finger on my left hand and yawned before putting on the headband and saying, “Download.” I skipped the message from Jena but played again the message from my mother:
“A peculiar thing happened the other day. I was in the main terminal, collecting your cousin, when this army type, tall, dark-haired and good-looking, tapped me on the shoulder and asked for directions to Frisco South. Well, it is really obvious to anybody with a modicum of intelligence, it's right there on the board, so I was suspicious. I thought, forgive your old mother for being vain but I thought that maybe he was chatting me up so I humoured him. We chatted for a few minutes actually. He asked me what it was like living on J5 and then he asked if I knew any other army types. I thought perhaps I should say that I didn’t know any at all but he seemed so charming so I mentioned you. He asked about you and I really felt quite uncomfortable at this point. He seemed far too interested in you so I cut it short. He was polite enough and I didn’t think too much of it. The funny thing though was that he was unshaven and looked as if he had been sitting there for days. He had shiny glasses on so I couldn’t see his eyes but there seemed to be something familiar about him. I couldn’t place him though. Perhaps I have seen him in a paper or something. Anyway I wouldn’t have thought any more about it but two days later, I could swear I saw him again loitering on a street corner while I was doing the shopping. I could be wrong. Do take care. Love Mum x”
I lay on the bed and closed my eyes.