by Kin Asdi
Meldea ducked instinctively to ensure that she wasn’t seen by whoever it was out there. As the man came closer to the field, she heard him humming a strange tune. His voice was low, and the melody was a simple one that he repeated constantly.
The song had a soothing quality, and Meleda wondered why he would risk standing so close to the gorse. Her question was quickly answered when the man was suddenly surrounded by four vines. He was still humming the tune and the vines seemed to be caressing his legs. One of the vines slowly moved up to his face, and the man stroked the vine as if it was a cat.
She was mesmerised by the gentle: almost loving movements of the vine and was shocked to the core when the man gently guided the vine to his neck. Meleda heard him gasp and shortly after that he slowly collapsed but the vines wrapped around him to keep his body straight. The vine at his neck shot away as if it had been bitten and the man quickly regained his posture. As soon as he stood up straight, the vines retracted back into the field, and with sturdy paces the man walked away from the field.
She realised that it could only be Tancred, and it suddenly made sense to her why he had asked to remove the cameras. Meleda knew that Haruz had complied with his request, but she wouldn’t be surprised if he had other means of secretly recording everything. She knew that she was going to have to be discrete when speaking to her brother later.
Meleda suddenly felt cold, and longed to be back in the comfort of her warm bed. She stepped into her room and closed the balcony door as quietly as possible hoping that she wouldn’t wake Haruz.
As she was lying comfortably in her bed, she couldn’t help but mull over what she had witnessed. It looked like Tancred had been injected with something, and she was certain that he had been unconscious for a short while. Meleda was convinced that the vine, he had stroked, had administered some kind of potent drug.
The fact that the aliens had downgraded Earth to a planet where it was easy to get a quick fix, terrified her. All she wanted to do was sleep but was unable to quiet her mind. Why had Arnost allowed the aliens to build those fields? Did he know about the drug production? The one thing that surprised her most was the fact that the fields weren’t guarded. Even though she had heard numerous rumours about people disappearing she struggled to believe that people weren’t curious enough to take a look. She continued to toss and turn, and it was a long time before the reassuring veil of sleep descended upon her.
Lunn had the hangover from hell. He knew that he had messed up big time. He had never felt as depressed as he did at that moment, and he didn’t blame Haruz for knocking him out like that.
He had ordered two more whiskeys to ease the pain of his bruised eye when he had regained consciousness. He desperately wanted to speak to Danette, and he had stumbled while still bleeding from his nose to her apartment. It felt as though he had waited for ages, and the effects of the whiskey quickly began to take hold. Staying awake was a struggle, and he had forced himself into an upright position. He knew that if he were to sit down, then he would quickly fall asleep and had been completely drunk by the time Danette had arrived. He was angry that she had dismissed him so abruptly and that she seemed to be unfazed about Andena’s unknown fate. He was sure she knew what had happened to her.
It was only when she threw up so violently that he realised just how badly affected she was. Her stomach was her weak point. Whenever something wasn’t right, her stomach played up. But this time, there was something else: something that he was unable to put his finger on. She was hiding something from him, but he would probably never find out. He had gone too far, and he was sure their relationship had ended. He knew she would never forgive him. Now he had lost two women that he liked.
He could blame the alien flower but knew that his behaviour was to blame. He sighed as he distractedly massaged his neck in a desperate attempt to alleviate the throbbing pain in his head. A light knock on the door interrupted his reverie. Believing it to be his head of security, he shouted a little gruffly, “Go away. Let me be.”
The soft melodic voice replied, “As head of security I need you to let me take a look at your eye, Lunn.”
“It’s nothing, just a little cut.”
Lunn loved Alice’s soft voice: conceding that her voice was the primary reason she had secured her job. However, her seven foot height body and her masculine build came in a close second. She had already entered the office, when she said, “You think it’s nothing but the state of your shirt says the opposite and I think that I should have a look.”
Lunn felt her large and strong hands on his shoulders pulling him softly away from his desk. She slowly reclined the chair, and Lunn was able to look straight into her eyes. She looked concerned, and there was more than a hint of compassion in her eyes as she asked, “Why did you decide to have a fight?”
“I didn’t.”
She briefly stopped her ministrations and slowly raised her eyebrows, “That was not what I’ve heard. When I got the message to pick you up from The Haggert, I knew you were in trouble. Now lie still, this will sting a little.”
Lunn snorted, “The guy who sent you the message had knocked me out cold.”
“Did he now? I bet you provoked him,” she chided softly.
The cold cloth on his open wound stung, but was also refreshing, “Hmm, I don’t know why he reacted so strongly to what I said.”
“Who was it?”
Lunn opened his eye and asked surprised, “Haruz. He didn’t tell you?”
Again Alice held still for a brief moment, and she clicked her tongue before she answered, “He sent me an anonymous text message. So I checked your quarters and after that, I tapped into the grid.”
“What did you see on the grid?”
“You were leaving The Haggert so I assumed you were fine.”
There was a silence while Alice was cleaning the last bit of blood from his face. She suddenly asked, “Do you know why he was so emotional?”
“Emotional?”
She chuckled softly, before she retorted, “Men don’t just punch you in the face for nothing.”
Lunn sighed again deeply and moaned, “I don’t know Alice. All I know is that I have fucked up big time.”
Alice slowly moved the chair up again, and as she handed him a glass of water, she ordered, “Here, drink this.”
As he drunk the water, he looked at her blue-grey eyes and was pleased to see that he could trust her. He felt a pang of anger rising again. What had happened to Danette? Why was she so indifferent to the fact that Andena was missing? Why was she so extremely annoyed with him?
Why was she so jealous?
They had an open relationship where sex with other partners was tolerated. He still couldn’t believe that Danette was so upset about it all. She was certainly short-tempered, but he loved to play with her fickleness.
Lunn was startled out of his thoughts when Alice asked, “Can you get up?”
He grumbled, “Of course I can. I’m not that drunk anymore.”
He heard her stifle a giggle and her voice sounded joyful, “All right then! Get up, big boy, off to bed. You need to sleep off the alcohol.”
It took him more effort to climb out of the chair than he had anticipated and he was grateful when Alice kept him steady as he stood. Still dizzy he walked, accompanied by Alice, to his bedroom.
When he saw his bed he knew that he was going to have difficulty sleeping, and he asked somewhat meekly, “Can I ask you for a favour?”
She stopped walking and hesitantly replied, “It depends on what you want.”
He knew that she thought he wanted to have sex, but he was too whacked to even think about that and answered, “I would like you to listen to my story and perhaps even give me some advice.”
Alice queried, “Why here in the bedroom?”
He had to chuckle inwardly: his reputation was seriously returning to bite him on the backside. However, his voice was calm as he replied, “Because I’m too tired to sit in a chair.”
He flopped down on his bed, and as he lay down with a soft moan, he patted his hand to indicate that Alice should sit down too. “Please sit down. I won’t bite.”
She slowly sat down and stared at him for a few seconds and then reminded him, “I’m listening.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
When Andena woke up, she was alarmed by the fact that she was unable to move her body. Her breathing seemed to be controlled, and she couldn’t feel anything. It was as if her body was detached from her. Only her main functions seemed to be present: she heard her heart beating, and knew that the very fact that she was conscious meant that she was being given enough oxygen.
She tried to open her eyes but she couldn’t. To be honest, she didn’t care that she was unable to do anything. Being in a void felt strangely relaxing. The only awareness Andena had of the outside world were the sounds of her heart beat and her steady breathing.
Even smells were lacking.
She had no recollection of the events that had led her to this and no great urge to find out either. She was happy to simply wait for the next event. Assuming of course, that there would be a next event.
Haruz was unable to stop his face from contorting into a painful grimace as he sat down at the breakfast table. He could also see by his sister’s huge grin that he had failed to hide his discomfort from her. They were too close for secrets. Ever since their parents had died, they had decided to stay together until one of them had found a partner. He had expected to be alone by this point, but it was still just the two of them. He thought that his sister was smart, beautiful, elegant and she exuded a confidence that made every man desire her. He was surprised that she never went out on dates, and whenever he raised that subject, she made it crystal clear that the subject was off limits.
As soon as the servant had left the room, Meleda said, “After you had returned home last night I went out onto the balcony, and there was an amazing full moon.”
“Oh, I’m sorry that I woke you up Meleda. I’ll try to be a bit more silent.”
She smiled and said, “Don’t. It’s nice to know when you’re home safely again.”
She leaned closer to him and whispered, “I want to know if you have any recordings of what happened next to the field last night.”
Haruz was flabbergasted by her question and looked at her for a moment wondering how she knew. Her smile was a joy to watch when he nodded slowly. Her voice was hardly audible when she asked, “When do you have time?”
It was strange speaking in hushed tones, but Haruz understood that she was wary about placing him in an awkward situation.
He took a sip of his coffee and said, “You know, it’s been ages since we had lunch together. Why don’t you come to the office at noon?”
Meleda said enthusiastically, “That sounds wonderful! It’ll do you good to have something substantial for a change.”
Haruz laughed and pulled himself to his feet after he had finished his coffee. Meanwhile, he reflected upon her words and knew that she was right; he needed to pay attention to his health after taking so many booster pills. He put his hand on her shoulder as he said, “See you at twelve. I’ll make sure that the front desk is aware that you have permission to come to my office.”
“Good,” she said with a twinkle in her eye, “At least I can drag you away from your monitors.”
As he walked away, he murmured, “It might be the other way, my lovely sister.”
It was only a brisk short walk to his headquarters, and he liked that he had to take a road which was outside the complex. The smell of the outside air was always different, and since they had created the field, the air had a pleasant sweet tang. Haruz was convinced that the field was deliberately releasing the specific odour to make people relax so they would accept the structure more easily. It made him uncomfortable that alien technology was controlling the population on such a subtle level. Who knows what else they were capable of?
He couldn’t wait to see what Meleda had witnessed. It would take some time to generate the pictures, but he was very pleased he hadn’t removed the particle array.
He was happy to see that Gwendy was manning the front desk when he entered the headquarters. She was one of the few who only needed a few words to understand what he really wanted.
“Hi Gwendy, good morning. My sister will be visiting me around noon.”
“Hello Mr. Haruz, Good morning. I’ll arrange the necessary steps for Miss Meleda. May I assume she will have lunch with you?”
He loved how attentive she was, and he smiled warmly at her as he said, “You’re right, Gwendy. Do you have any suggestions about where we should go?”
He could listen to her talk all day, “Oh yes I do! There’s a new lunchroom which is said to be very special. I’ll reserve a table right away.”
Haruz chuckled pleased that she was always so straight forward, and he said approvingly, “Perfect Gwendy. I’m looking forward to that.”
She purred, “You’re welcome Mr. Haruz. Have a nice morning.”
“You too, Gwendy.” Haruz nodded and walked to his office in a much better mood.
At his office, he started his special program to extract the visual data from the particle array that was mounted on the wall close to the field. He knew the exact time that he had arrived home last night, and he reckoned that Meleda would have gotten out of bed a few minutes after he had closed his bedroom door. He entered the time and estimated that half an hour would be sufficient. After he had started the extraction, he checked his messages and was a little disappointed that Alice hadn’t come back to him. It was a little strange because she was consistent in the fact that she sent a brief report early every morning. He sincerely hoped that she wasn’t caught or compromised in any way because she was the only source he got to keep an eye on the major rebel core. He got up to get himself a cup of coffee and reckoned that by the time he returned the particle program should have finished.
Lunn woke up feeling warm and sweaty. He realised that he was holding a hand which was as large as his. It dawned on him that the large, warm body that was cocooning him from behind was Alice’s. He felt the soft fabric of her cardigan, and he was pleased that they were both still dressed.
They had talked for a long time, and Lunn had come to respect Alice more than ever before. The situation with Danette was the most delicate subject they had talked about. He could sense that Alice was uncomfortable expressing an opinion about it.
Lunn wasn’t surprised that she made him arrange to clean up the vomit at Danette’s door and leave a bunch of roses. She agreed with him that he had messed up massively, and he could only hope that Danette might be a forgiving person. He knew Alice was wrong about that, but he couldn’t blame her for not knowing Danette that well.
When she found out that Bionex was involved, she became nervous and lowered her voice as if she were afraid. It still brought goose bumps to his skin when he recalled what Alice had told him about Mr. Yousima the CEO of Bionex. He had always known that the CEO was ruthless, but he had underestimated his ability to manipulate people with his power. It also helped explain why Danette had insisted on continuing with the androids: Danette was no longer in control of her own mind.
Together with Alice, Lunn came to the conclusion that Bionex was now a serious threat, and he learned from Alice that Datanex, a provider of secure data connections, was owned by the same man. That news blew him away because it meant that Bionex was eavesdropping on roughly eighty percent of all secure connections. They certainly had the resources to harvest whatever information they desired; enough to take control of the entire country. Lunn now understood that it was going to be a race against the clock to see who would be the first to develop a deadly weapon.
He sincerely hoped that the schedule to complete the ring was still on target. He had kept it from Alice, and wanted to keep it that way because it was too dangerous to share such sensitive information with anybody else.
Alice was very intrigued by the story of the alien flowe
r. In fact, she was visibly upset that Lunn hadn’t shared that information earlier. He knew she was right, and it took him a lot of carefully chosen words to prevent a breakdown in trust. They both agreed it was unwise to investigate the flower at this moment, and he was very pleased that she understood the potentially lethal power of the flower. He realised that being an effective leader required a wide range of skills.
After Lunn had shown her the video of the field, Alice was in shock because she had seen her brother intertwined with one of the plants. It was agonising to see her with such conflicted emotions; her brother was still alive but held captive in one of the fields.
It felt strange when he was holding her to comfort her. It was very soothing and felt just right. They had been comfortably silent for a long while and apparently they had fallen asleep.
He had been stroking her hand absentmindedly and was a little startled when she squeezed his hand softly. She took a deep breath and said with a dark and sultry voice, “Good morning.”
Lunn was surprised when she didn’t move away from him. He had to admit that he liked the way they were lying and decided not to change his position either. He replied with a warm voice, “Good morning Alice.”
“You don’t mind me lying like this?”
Lunn thought about it for a moment and then decided that it didn’t feel strange: it actually felt rather nice. This was totally new territory for him. He had never experienced this with any other woman. Squeezing her hand softly, he retorted, “No, It feels very comfortable.”
Alice asked with a little voice, “Can we stay like this a little longer?”
Strangely enough, he was very happy that she wanted to stay like this as long as she felt right with it. He softly rubbed the palm of her hand as he said, “Sure, why not.”