by Zara Zenia
Sure, Dray lied at the start, but he wasn't lying now, was he?
I couldn't explain it, but there was a feeling in my gut that told me he was telling the truth. He was a complicated man in an even more complicated situation but no matter what happened, I wanted out of it alive and I'd need him to help me.
As Susan returned and topped up my wine glass, I gave her a hug and squeezed her tight.
"Thanks for being here," I said. "You're a true friend."
Chapter 17
Draygus
The red light of the facility was in front of me. Parked out in the middle of the desert, I was close enough to see the goings on in the satellite control center but was far away enough to not be immediately spotted. The night gave me an extra layer of concealment, the matte black finish of the car's chassis blending with the velvety darkness of the sky.
Somewhere nearby, a rattle emanated from the nearby rocks. A rattlesnake maybe, or possibly my imagination adding some sort of soundscape to the desolate land. You'd be forgiven for thinking it was Mars out here, an arid place where nothing but machinery can thrive. Even then, the cogs and technology were partial to being clogged by the specks of dust, micro-particles of disobedience that flew with the wind and clung to the back of your throat.
I turned up the air conditioning and felt the cool breeze on my face. It smelled like the outdoors, like dried up vegetation and decaying skeletons. Earlier, on my drive out here I had noticed the dried-up carcass of a bull, it's horns raised up toward the skies, while the rest of its body lay in a tangle of bones. It was hostile out here, almost as hostile as Mars, more so if you were me.
From where I was sat, I could see the blacked out police vans in the parking lot and the extra security that had been brought on board after my infiltration. They had searched every inch of the building for me, had processed every surface looking for my fingerprints, but of course, they found nothing. I was as much of a mystery to them as the anonymous, alien agent they found dead in the basement. Looking at my own fingers, I saw the smoothed out area of my fingertips. There was no print to be obtained from me while in my human flesh suit. I had often likened my human fingers to a mannequin's; soft and interchangeable.
For a long while, I watched the blinking red light and saw how it moved in time to the flashing light on my laptop screen. Balancing it precariously on my lap with the screen resting against the steering wheel, I regarded the map of the area in front of me with a boyish enthusiasm.
To add an extra sense of danger to my illegal entering of the satellite facility, I had planted a bug in the radio control room, something that was obviously remaining undetected. I laughed to myself at the vastness of human stupidity. They were no doubt so busy trying to discover my whereabouts that they had left so many areas still unprocessed. A human phrase popped into my mind, not being able to see the forest for the trees. It had been Alison who first said it when she was engaged in conversation with Benzen. Although she had attempted to explain it to us at the time, it had meant very little to me. Now it seemed to make sense.
The bug I had planted, a device no bigger than a fingernail, was situated right where I left the bodies of those corpulent and ignorant security guards, the ones that had been more interested in deep fried pastries than the safety of the facility.
It was lightweight and compact, as black as onyx when you held it in your hand but able to merge with any color once fastened to the furniture of your choosing. It was now safely glued to a chair leg, rendered almost invisible, but conspicuous in its placing. I often found that the more obvious you placed something in human view, the more likely it was they wouldn't see it. I had read somewhere it had something to do with associating safety with what was visible, although in the moment I couldn't recall the source.
Looking back to my computer screen, I watched the bug in action. It not only recorded everything the computation hardware did in its presence, but it also picked up on incoming spacecraft, debris, and signals not perceivable to the human ear or eye.
Twenty minutes ago, when I thought sitting out here was going to be a futile attempt at reconnaissance, I saw the light blink. It was signaling incoming traffic, something that was so fast, it was virtually undetectable to the human software that was designed to view its burrowing through the Earthen atmosphere.
Every blink signaled an extra mile and it was gaining pace as whatever it was, was gaining speed. I imagined it reaching the speed of a fireball as it burned up on impact. So, when I finally did see the crafts arrive, I was mildly disappointed to see they were not on fire.
The blacked out crafts with the golden glyphs along the side were unmistakable. Obviously receiving my transmission, Palzu must have sent his best and brawniest men to find me. Little did he know that I was waiting for them the entire time.
I rubbed my hands gleefully as the crafts descended into the desert causing a whirlwind of sand to encircle them. It was time to see what they were doing. It was time to bring them closer until they were in my net. Yet, when I thought there were no more to arrive, I suddenly saw another light, then another. Soon there were dozens of crafts landing in the dust with endless waves of sand being blown over the car. The sound was deafening, the whirring of the engines and the smell of jet fuel pounding into my head until I became nauseous. I slammed off the air conditioning but it made little difference. The smell and taste were overpowering and with little else to do, I dragged myself into the back seat of the car and crouched down with my jacket pulled up high over my head.
"Oh... fuck..." I stammered as the dust penetrated every gap in the car and stuck to the minuscule hairs within my nostrils.
On the floor in front of me lay a rag, something that at one time or another had been used to clean the windows. I stuffed it into my mouth to stop the sand entering me, then I clasped my hands over my ears to stop the noise bursting open my eardrums. Meanwhile, the car never ceased to stop rocking from the force of the crafts, moving back and forth like a mechanical mother rocking a sleepless baby to slumber on board a ship on a stormy sea.
When I awoke, the commotion had ended and all I could hear was the distant hum of the crafts' engines as they lay idle. For a moment, I was certain it was my ears that were ringing, but as I removed my hands and spat out the rag, I saw how the dust had settled around the ships and I could feel the magnetism coming from them, hear the high-pitched whirring that emanated from their electrical bowels.
It would seem as though the second part of my mission was about to start. Except, no matter how much I tried to focus on the task at hand, I couldn't stop thinking about Anya.
Every glimpse of the facility reminded me of her, every flash of the red beacon made me think of her red lips and the way they spread into a tormented o-shape as she cried. I had made her cry, had made her feel as though her existence was worthless. She had made it clear what I had done to her heart and mind. She thought she was nothing but a pawn in my game, a person to be used and discarded for my own needs but that wasn't the case, and I didn't know what I could do to make her believe otherwise.
"Anya..."
I whispered her name into the night as I climbed out of the car. There was a stinging behind my eyes, the feeling of desperation in my gut that was soon becoming familiar. Japhinx had told me all about heartache and how, although it was merely a conjunction of emotional and metaphysical glitches, it felt physical. Right now, it was more than physical. It was all encompassing. It permeated my mind and body, made me feel as though I could drop to my knees and never rise again. It made me feel as though everything was pointless, as though there would never be a moment of happiness again. Even now, as I stared at the ships of Palzu's men and saw my master plan come to fruition, it still meant nothing. Even if Palzu himself were to fall to his death at my feet it would mean nothing because I wouldn't have Anya by my side.
"Anya..."
Saying her name gave me something to fight for. I'd fight for her until I died if I had to. Somehow, I had to convin
ce her that I truly loved her, that everything in the past was just that, the past and that I wanted us to have a future together, one in which I would never betray her again.
For a few minutes, I lingered in the darkness and smelled the familiar essence of Orba. There was nothing like it. Palzu's ships smelled like the landscape of my childhood; machines, rust, and glowstone. There was nothing like it here on Earth, and as I took a deep breath, I was transported back to being a young boy. I imagined myself playing amongst the graveyard of ships in the Old Town, a place that was held in the public eye with much reverence but to me was my home, a safe place to play. Of course, it was the Old Town that made me. With its high crime rate and ever-present sense of danger, it crafted a strong man out of the boy who made a home in the rusting carcasses of disemboweled spaceships. To say you were from the Old Town made people instantly recoil in fear. No one from the Old Town was seen to be normal or rational. We were wild specimens of Orban inequality, animals that had been raised amongst the dirt and debris of the most impoverished part of the planet. Now, as I watched Palzu's men make their home amongst the dunes, I thought about returning to the Old Town someday. I'd show the young boys that resided there that there was hope. The Old Town could never hold you prisoner. It could, however, teach you to be as strong as you dreamed of being.
Palzu's men were pulling fencing around their ships, creating a makeshift border as they began to build their settlement. Meanwhile, to my left the sirens were starting to blaze as the humans at the facility became fearful of the intergalactic intruders.
Edging my way over to the fencing, I reverted to my original Orban form. If one of the men were to see me in my human form they would no doubt kill me on the spot assuming I was a rubbernecker. Not that my fate would be much safer in my Orban body, but it would at least give me a few seconds to spare once they saw I was one of them and not some alien human.
Looking down at my blue body, I pulled my fingers along the edge of my tail.
"I missed you," I said to the appendage that I had become accustomed to only seeing on Earthen animals such as dogs. Now feeling comfortable in my skin once again, I was ready to begin my infiltration.
The fencing was thin and strong but luckily, I was too. It took precisely three seconds to climb up and drop down over the other side. My feet landed in the dirt below, crackling as I began to traipse over to the ships.
"Hey, did you hear something?" I heard one of the nearest men ask.
He was standing at the entrance to his ship with his gun pointed to the sky. Looking over his shoulder, he spoke to his friend who was more interested in studying the nearby rocks.
"Hey," he repeated. "Did you hear something?"
"Yeah, I heard you yapping," his friend replied.
"Very funny. What you got there anyway?"
"I'm not sure," his friend said as he crouched down by the ship. "Some sort of sedimentary rock but I can't identify it."
The other guard wandered over and crouched down beside him.
"Oh yeah. That is kinda weird looking. They were so entrenched in what they were looking at that they didn't notice me creeping up on them from behind.
"Hey," I said. "Fancy seeing you guys here."
They both spun around in shock just in time for me to kick them both full-force in the face. Their unconscious bodies flopped back into the sand, the rocks in their hands tumbling out of their limp fingers.
Chapter 18
Anya
There was something in the air. It surrounded me, made the hairs on my arms stand up to attention and make me feel as though someone was breathing down my neck. Of course, every time I turned around, there was nothing there yet it didn't stop me feeling it.
Even Sophie felt it and she was now curled up beneath the comforter and refusing to come out of the little den she had created. As I lay in bed, I pushed my hand down by my ankle to comfort her but she shrank away, not wanting even me to touch her.
"Come on, Soph. It's not that bad. Come up here and give mommy a cuddle."
But she refused and curled herself up even tighter until I could feel her as nothing more than a bump pressing against my leg. But I didn't blame her, I wanted to do the same. It was almost three in the morning and every attempt I'd made to fall asleep resulted in me being jolted awake by something I couldn't see.
"It's just your imagination," I tried to tell myself. "It's running away with itself, making you paranoid. There's nothing to worry about."
But deep down I knew that wasn't true. There was something coming, something watching and I could feel it all around me.
When the clock beside me showed it was three o'clock, I gave up trying to sleep and climbed out from the warmth and comfort of my bed and made my way to the stairs. As soon as my fingers touched the banister, there was a shock of electricity against my fingertips and I jumped back, shaking my singed fingertips as I tried to cool them.
"Ah! What the fuck?"
I sucked on the end of my fingers and wondered what the hell could have caused the shock. Maybe I'd built up static in my body from the polyester in the bed sheets, maybe it had come from Sophie's fur. Perhaps it was just a freak of nature or maybe it was something else. There was no point kidding myself anymore. The electricity in the house was almost tangible. At times you could hear it crackle in the air and bristle through your hair, at other times it was a distant hum with no discernible source.
With exhaustion catching up with me, I slumped onto the sofa and switched on the television. Surely there was something on that would comfort me. Behind me, a floorboard creaked and I flinched, terrified of the possibility that something was behind me.
"Get a grip on yourself. Just calm down."
But my heart was hammering in my chest.
"Just turn around and see what's there. It's probably nothing. Houses make noises in the dark all the time."
My heart beat faster. My tongue became dry as I ran it over my teeth and a solitary bead of sweat began to form on the side of my head. I reached a hand up and pressed it into my skin.
"Just turn around, Anya."
But no matter how much I wanted to prove to myself there was nothing there, I couldn't do it. I knew there was something there. It had been watching me all night, licking its lips lustfully as it honed in on me alone in this house with nothing but my fear.
You should have let Draygus stay here with you, I thought to myself. He would have kept you safe, made sure nothing happened to you. He could kill anything in the blink of an eye and you need that now. You need someone to protect you, but you're here all along because you're too stubborn to accept that a man can be anything less than perfect.
"He does love me," I said to myself as though I was thinking the words through clearly for the first time. "He does, and I told him to leave me alone. I'll probably die in here now, die of fright and it all could have been prevented."
He did love me. He'd made that perfectly clear. Falling for me may not have been his initial intentions back at the club, but it was now. Suddenly, I was aware of what a terrible mistake I had made.
Behind me, another step creaked and I began to sweat profusely, the thin pajama shirt shrouding my shaking body becoming damp where my back pressed against the sofa.
"Just turn around and see that it's just your imagination."
But my own words were doing nothing to strengthen me. I felt paralyzed by the fear, so completely consumed by the terror that one of the agents was waiting here in my house. I imagined him only inches behind my head with a gun pointed at me, ready to kill me in an instant.
"Okay, at the count of three, turn around. If you don't, you'll be rooted to the spot forever and you can't stay on this couch in the same position for the rest of your life... One..."
I clamped my hands into fists to stop them from trembling. Looking down, I saw my knuckles turning white and felt the pain of my nails digging into my palms.
"Two..."
Something bumped on the stairs, a footste
p maybe. I held my breath and felt the bile rise in my gut.
"Three!"
I spun around and gasped. Sophie was sitting on the bottom step of the staircase innocently licking her paws. Her eyes swiveled up to mine when she heard me.
"Sophie! You scared mommy!"
She gave me a haughty look that cats are so fond of before sauntering over to me and brushing up against my leg. I let her jump up on my lap before scratching the spot between her ears. She began to purr happily and nestle in closer.
"It's just you and me in this big house," I said. "And I don't reckon you're a very good fighter, but you'll need to be. It isn't long until someone comes to find us."
Outside, a crunch sounded on the gravel drive and I felt as though my heart stopped.
Sophie dove off my lap and scrambled for the stairs with her claws clicking on the wooden floorboards. I was alone again in the living room, fearful of everything around me. Outside, the crunching intensified until it began to sound like quickening footsteps. Maybe it was Dray!
I rushed to the window and the footsteps matched my movements on the other side of the wall. Whoever it was, was only on the other side of the window.
"Hello?"
There was no reply.
My fingers curled around the edge of the curtain and clung onto them as though my life depended on it.
"Hello?" I asked again but there was only silence. "I'll call the police," I said with my voice trembling. Again, there was no response.
Outside the window, there was a scuffle as though someone was walking through daffodils. I held my breath and sunk my teeth into my sleeve. Fuck, I thought. It's an agent. It has to be. He's going to kill me. This is the end!