by Zara Zenia
"Who are you?" he demanded to know as he approached.
Anya looked as though she was on the brink of bursting into tears. She held her hands up to show her innocence with her employee pass hanging from her fingers.
"We're not doing anything wrong!" she insisted. "We were just... I'm here for work and-"
"Bullshit!" the guard snapped as he yanked the pass from her hands.
He eyed her details suspiciously and shook his head disapprovingly.
"I'm going to have to call your supervisor," he said. "He'll have to hear about this and the police will be informed."
"No!" she cried. "We're not doing anything wrong!"
"Yeah, just let us go," I said.
The guard placed his hands on his hips and sighed.
"I don't know what you guys are up to, and quite frankly, I don't want to. You could be terrorists for all I know."
"Terrorists?" Anya gasped. "No! I work here!"
"And this guy?" he pointed his flashlight at me.
She opened her mouth to speak but in her state of panic nothing came out. Looking up at me for help, I saw the desperation in her eyes and knew I had to do something.
"Don't worry," I said. "I got this."
And swiftly punched the guard in the face. His legs buckled beneath him and he fell straight to the ground, the flashlight and Anya's pass falling from his limp fingers.
"What did you do?" she screamed.
"I'm getting you out of trouble," I explained as I dragged the guard's body over to the door.
"He's unconscious!" she cried.
"He'll be fine. No doubt he'll wake up in a few hours with a migraine but he'll be okay."
Raising his arm toward the fingerprint scanner, I pressed his forefinger against the green glass and waited for the beep.
"How do you know he'll be fine?" she asked as she watched. "Do you have experience of doing this kind of thing before?"
I didn't reply. The beep sounded and the door glided open.
"Come on," I said. "We're in."
I took off running with Anya close behind me, her heels clacking along the linoleum.
"Wait!" she gasped as she struggled to catch up. "Dray, where are you going? The observation tower is that way!"
Looking over my shoulder, I saw her pointing down the corridor in the opposite way of where I was running.
"I know, I'm looking for the communications room."
She cocked her head to one side and said:
"But you said you wanted to go to the observation tower and make love beneath the stars."
Again, she looked as though she was close to tears. Realizing my story was about to unravel, I reached for her hand and pulled her close to me.
"I changed my mind, but I have a good reason. I have something planned, something even more romantic. Sorry, I should have told you sooner, but I wanted it to be a surprise."
She frowned and squeezed hold of my arms.
"Well, aren't you going to tell me what it is?"
Thinking fast, I came up with the most romantic thing off the top of my head.
"The communications room can send signals into space, right? I was thinking we could send our own signal to the stars. Maybe somewhere, someday, if there's another life form out there, they'll hear it and know how much we love each other."
"Oh, Dray! You should have told me what you were thinking."
I didn't know what to say and kissed her instead.
"Come on, we don't have much time and you need to show me the way."
"The radio center is this way," she said as she began to drag me away. "Hurry!"
Through the darkness, I could see the green flashing light that signaled the entrance to the communications room.
"Can you wait here a second?" I asked as I made my way over.
"Why?" she asked.
"I just want to go in first, make sure it's safe for you," I explained.
"Okay," she huffed and narrowed her eyes. "But be quick. I don't want to be left out here in the dark."
"I'll be quick. I promise," I said as I kissed her and pushed open the door.
The radio control center was bigger than I anticipated and a long desk spread out across the length of the room. there was the crackle of static electricity in the air and it tingled up my spine. It would seem I was exactly where I wanted to be and have everything I needed at my fingertips. Then I heard the noise.
"Yo, Gary, you say something?"
"Nah, you're just hearing things again."
Two guards were sitting at the controls, one of them eating a donut, while another flicked through a magazine. Shit, I thought. More guards. Although, these two didn't exactly look like trained fighters. Falling to my knees, I scrambled a little closer to them and hid behind the nearest desk.
"Gary, I swear to God I can hear something. You think we have rats?"
"Rats? Really, Dave?"
Dave seemed to be looking around the room but, being too lazy to actually get up, he seemed content with leaning back in his chair and pulling out his radio instead.
"I'm going to see what Jerry's doing?" he said. "Maybe he's heard something too."
"Yeah, you do that Dave," Gary yawned. "I might take a nap."
Dave's radio sounded as though it was spitting into life before he spoke into it.
"Radio control to Zone A, do you copy?"
The radio crackled but there was no response.
"I said radio control to Zone A. Do you copy?" he repeated.
Again, there was no response.
"Jesus Christ!" Dave moaned as he flung his radio on the desk. "The lazy son of a bitch is probably asleep."
"I'm trying to sleep too!" Gary moaned and placed his magazine over his face to block out the minimal light that was emanating from the controls. As Dave leaned forward for another donut, I took my chance and lunged onto him, pulling his radio off the desk and slamming it into the side of his head. He fell to the ground with blood spilling from his temple just in time for his friend to jump from his seat.
"Who the fuck are you?" he yelled, although I could see the terror in his eyes.
Smacking the radio into his nose, it burst open and blood poured down his shirt as he eyes crossed and he, too, landed unconscious on the floor.
"Finally, it's time to get to work," I said as I pulled the guards over to the corner of the room.
Taking my place at the control, I took a deep breath. It was time to do what I came here for.
Chapter 10
Anya
Oh, my God. What have I done? The question bounced around my mind as I stood shivering in the darkness of the corridor with the green light flashing above me. I had made a terrible mistake, one that I was going to pay for with my job.
On the other side of the door, Dray was in there, doing whatever he had planned all along. Now it was obvious that he never did want to make love under the stars or send a romantic message to the universe. He wanted to use me to break in here for whatever weird reason he had. Was he a terrorist like the guard upstairs had thought? Or was he just some nutcase? Maybe he was one of those conspiracy theorists I'd read about online who thought this building was an alien testing facility and that we kept their corpses out here. There were others too, who thought the earth was flat and that the moon landing was fake. Now, as I thought about all the things he said, I realized that he could very much be one of those crazy people. The vague back story, that bullshit about him working for the military. It was all fake and so was he. Susan was right. I should have slowed down and gotten to know him. Just wait until she heard about this. She'd probably kick my ass.
"Fuck," I said to myself as I hung my head in my hands.
It was too late to run away now. No doubt someone had noticed the guard's body and there were people looking for us everywhere. It would only be a matter of time until someone came down here and found me. Looking at my watch, I saw it was almost four in the morning. If I could maybe just hang on for another few hours and re
main out of sight, then I could head to work as usual as soon as the office opened and no one would be any wiser. That's what I'll do, I thought. I'll hide out down here and make my way upstairs as soon as the clock strikes seven.
Now all I had to do was make sure no one found me. It was bad enough that I was even in the building, let alone all the way down here. And once I was connected to the knocked-out guard and his fingerprint that had been used to open the door, it'd be over for me.
"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit."
I paced up and down in the darkness with my heart rate going as fast as the flashing light. In the dim green glow of the beacon, I looked almost like an alien myself and wondered if Dray really was a conspiracy nut. What was he doing in there anyway? Trying to contact his home planet? I laughed away the thought and paced some more. As soon as he was out of there, I was going to give him the hardest slap of his life.
How could I have been so naive and stupid? He didn't love me. Of course, he didn't. He took advantage of me and I was too dumb and so desperate to be loved that I fell for everything he said.
"Making love beneath the stars..." I whispered into the darkness.
Now that I said the words out loud, I could truly hear how stupid they sounded. After this, I was never trusting another man again. As far as I was concerned, I would remain a spinster for the rest of my life, would buy a horde of pets, and become the neighborhood's crazy cat lady. That way I could never be hurt again. I was so deep in thought and so consumed by anger, that I barely heard the noise at the end of the hallway. Footsteps. Light ones that sounded quick and nimble.
"Shit!"
I crawled back into the darkness with my heart feeling as though it was beating in my mouth, and my hands clenched so tightly, my nails were starting to dig into the palm of my hand. My knees knocked together and my breath escaped from me in short, sharp blasts of panic. Meanwhile, the footsteps were quickening, coming closer until they were just behind me, then stopped beside me.
"What do we have here?" a voice floated down to me.
I didn't dare look up, couldn't stand the idea of seeing who was about to slap handcuffs on me. Staring straight ahead, I hoped that if I remained perfectly still, he'd leave me alone. But I wasn't to be so lucky. Something cold pressed against the back of my head, there was a click and a mechanical whirring sound. It took all my strength to look behind me and when I did, I felt as though the blood was being drained from my body. There was a gun like no other I'd ever seen. It was thin and compact and onyx black. Yet a blue light shone from the end and burned through my eyes. Behind it, a figure loomed. There was a glimpse of his suit, the shine of his patent leather shoes. I saw the deep tan of his hand and smelled the hair gel that smoothed his buzzcut down across his scalp. He was no security guard.
"Who- who are you?" I stuttered. "Are you the police?"
"Maybe," came his gruff response. "Or maybe not."
What was happening? I felt as though my legs were about to give way. The vision at the sides of my eyes began to blur as a panic began to set in and I started to hyperventilate.
"You are a scared little thing, aren't you?" he said as he lowered his gun.
It was then that I saw his face. It should have been a friendly face. There was nothing unusual about it. His features were bland and indistinct while his voice was regular and monotonous. But his eyes. They were like a feral animal’s, bright and alive and a color I never knew existed. When I felt as though all my breath had evacuated my body and I was about to faint, he clutched a hand around my mouth to silence my screams. Then he dragged me away, my feet kicking as he escaped into the darkness.
Chapter 11
Draygus
I thought I heard a noise outside.
"Anya?" I called over my shoulder as my hands continued to move across the controls.
There was no answer. She was probably annoyed at me and she should be, too. I acted like a real asshole, tricking her into coming here and playing with her heart. As I sat with my mind focused on the task at hand, I couldn't stop thinking about her and what I'd done.
"Imagine if someone tricked you into falling in love," I whispered to myself. "It takes a special kind of scumbag to do something like that. A special scumbag like me."
Leaving the controls alone for a minute, I let my thoughts catch up with me. Outside, I thought I heard a voice, but then realized it was probably my imagination or my conscience tapping me on the shoulder, reminding me that Anya was out there waiting for me. And of course, she was waiting. She thought we were going to send a message of our love out to the stars in some romantic spectacle of adoration. It was such a stupid idea, so ill thought out and childish, but she'd believed that's what I wanted to do because she'd believed everything I'd said to her. I could probably tell her that the Earth was flat and she'd believe me. Humans were fragile and naive at times and once their heart had been won over, there was no end to the betrayal they faced. I knew that and I took advantage of her, making her fall in love with me when I could have gained access to this place in an easier way without breaking her heart.
Now it was time for me to feel stupid. If I wanted to, I could have merely stolen her purse back at the nightclub and used her employee pass to come here by myself.
"Idiot," I cursed myself and slapped my hand into my forehead. "Why did you have to make things so complicated? Why did you have to involve the girl?"
Taking a deep breath, I resumed my work. I came here for a purpose. There was no point in letting this opportunity go to waste now that I had suddenly developed a conscience and felt bad.
The controls were simple to use and I was almost done. After encrypting the message I had so carefully memorized in my native Orban, I tapped it into the deck and pinged it out from the satellite toward the four recipients who would be waiting for my call. If you were sitting beside me, you'd be unaware of the magnitude of the sound, but with the headphones pressed against my head, I could hear everything.
Audio electricity beamed up from Earth and bounced between the stars and space debris. It sounded like mechanical music, technology marrying emotion as my words became auditory code and traveled through space and time. It reverberated through the atmosphere and resonated in my chest. For the most fleeting of moments, I felt as though a tear might have escaped my eye, then I pulled myself together and finished the job. The last message I pinged out had no recipient, but was instead intended to float through space as a more general means of contact.
"May this fall on the most honorable ears," I said as I pulled the headphones off.
My job was done.
"Anya?"
I stepped out of the communications room and noticed that she was nowhere to be seen.
"Pssst, Anya?"
Looking around the corners, all I saw was darkness.
"Ah, fuck."
She'd obviously guessed that I was using her and angry, she'd left me behind. Suddenly, I felt like even more of an asshole. I'd upset her, and now worst off all, she was aware of my treachery. It wasn't like I had planned on being a bad person and using her in this way. It's just that I had a job to do and in a way, I did it pretty badly. Still, the messages had been sent and Anya was free to go.
I began climbing the stairs as I readied myself to step out into the cold air of the desert. The sun would be rising soon and it would warm up fast until the sun bleached everything it touched. Until then, I had a couple more hours in which to enjoy the quiet solitude of the night time sky.
Reaching the cool outdoors was the only thing on my mind until I reached halfway up the staircase and a thought jolted through me. I stood still and felt my heart begin to beat faster.
Anya... If she knew I lied to her to gain access to the communications room then she knew I was up to something. She could tell the police! That's probably where she was heading now. Not to mention she certainly had a motive to turn me in since I had betrayed her.
"Fuck!"
I dashed up the stairs, hoping that
she wasn't too far away. She needed to be found fast. If she told a soul, it could compromise my plan and I could be captured. But what was I to do when I found her? If it was anyone else, I'd have to kill them on the spot but I couldn't murder Anya. She didn't deserve any of this. She just wanted to be loved and now she's caught up in this.
"You moron, Dray. What have you done?"
Racing from one end of the floor to the other, I checked every room and dark corner for her, but she was nowhere to be found.
"Anya?" I shouted and my voice echoed back to me. "Anya! I'm so sorry. Please, can we talk about this?"
There was no response. I ran a second lap across the floor then raced down the stairs. She wasn't down there either.
"Looking for someone?" a voice came from behind me.
Spinning around, I saw a figure at the end of the hallway, the green light flashing against the pale irises of his eyes.
"Think your trail ended the moment you killed the others in the desert?" the agent's voice mocked me.
"Who... What the…?"
He laughed and raised his gun.
"You had no idea I was following you, did you? And to think you're supposed to be one of the best. I guess the lesson here is that no matter how good at your job you think you are, there's always someone better."
The blood began to heat up in my veins. I never liked being belittled, especially by one of Palzu's agents.
"What are you doing down here?" I asked with my hands curling into fists. "Are you going to kill me or not?"
"Hmmm... What am I doing down here?"
He smirked and tapped the barrel of his gun against his smooth jawline.
"Well, I was making friends, of course."
Leaning into the shadows, he pulled at a figure that collapsed at his feet, whimpering.
"Anya!"
I moved toward her, but he raised his gun again.
"Don't move a muscle," he said. "One more step and I'll shoot her right in the head, the same way you did to the other agents."