Bermuda

by Karim Soliman

  "Burke."

  Heather's soft voice woke him up. He rose to find himself lying on a grassy terrain. Facing him she stood, a lake behind her by a few meters.

  "It's you," he said coldly.

  She arched an eyebrow. "Who do you mean by you?"

  "I don't know if it's your species name or how your parents called you, but I know you're the Shomrunk."

  She laughed, and he knew it wasn't Heather. Burke had no idea how he figured that out, but his awareness of the Shomrunk's presence was growing.

  "My parents didn't call me a Shomrunk." She chuckled. "I never knew I had any parents in the first place."

  "A different form of life, huh?" Burke scoffed nervously.

  "Interesting." Heather gazed at him for a while before she continued, "In your sleep, you can recall our last encounter, although you forget everything when you wake up."

  "I recall it as broken scenes." Burke rubbed his forehead. Being aware he was asleep was an awkward feeling. It was a dream that looked so real. "What's this place?"

  "Can't you really recognize it? I have just removed the wires that ruined the view."

  Burke looked around. That house looked so familiar.

  "Are we in Maine?" His jaw dropped when he recognized the place. Everything was the same; the small villa, the garden, and the lake. The difference was the absence of wires at the perimeter as well as those brawny agents.

  Heather grinned. "This is where we first met. Remember?"

  "Stop messing with me. You know that I know you're not Heather," Burke snapped. "Why do you insist on taking her form in my mind?"

  Heather laughed. "I searched your memory. She is the person for whom you bear the most positive feelings."

  Positive? Burke never thought of his feelings for Heather. He liked her no doubt, but his feelings did not go any further.

  "You lie to yourself," Heather scoffed.

  "Stop confusing me," Burke warned her. "Tell me, what the hell are we doing here?"

  Heather shrugged. "I just love the lake view."

  "You love nothing."

  "You don't believe me? I love and I hate like you, Burke."

  "Stop pretending to be human. You have no feelings at all."

  "How dare you?" Heather blamed him nicely. "My experience with human feelings is much longer than yours."

  She turned her back to him, gazed at the lake, and filled her lungs with the cold breeze. "I'm just like you. I love beauty. I enjoy it."

  "Impressive for a virus-like form of life."

  "Stop it." She looked annoyed when she looked over her shoulder at him. "You know I have nothing to do with viruses." She gazed again at the lake. "Besides, it's not decent from you to see me off like this."

  "Really?" He chuckled. "Are you going to leave me at last?"

  "I'm not," she slowly said, her tone making him feel anxious. "You are."

  "Me? Leaving?" That didn't bode well. "Where?"

  "You didn't hear them in your sleep, but I did." She turned, giving him a crooked smile. "As we speak, they are moving you to your final destination as a source of bio-energy."

  "What are you talking about?" he blustered. "Who are they?"

  She sighed. "Things went mad while you were tied to your stupid chair. Your friends are found by the Atlanteans, and now those Atlanteans are about to launch a double attack on the Griseos."

  Surely, Burke would love to know how Heather and her crew were doing, but where the hell was the answer to his damned question? "And where am I in all of this?"

  "Sometimes I lose my train of thought." She chuckled. "Akmenios is done with you. He failed to benefit from your mind, so he decided to exploit your body."

  "No kidding. You're telling me I am going to be fed to the Griseos, yet you're laughing."

  "Hey! Chill out." She tried to cup his cheeks, but he pushed her harshly, her smile betraying her carelessness about the situation. "As long as you remain asleep, you will never feel any pain. It's like general anesthesia."

  The way she lightly talked about his death drove him mad. "What about you? Will you just dissipate?"

  "Don't worry about me. That part of mine buried in your mind is so negligible I can do without it." She shrugged. "Besides, this may be a whole new experience for me."

  "My death is a whole new experience for you." Burke ground his teeth. "Even a parasite would show much more concern about its host than you do."

  "Your death is not what I mean." She waved a careless gesture. "Though I may have liked you a bit, I'm used to this. I witnessed so many dead generations of your race replaced by new ones." Staring at him, she grinned. "I can't wait until they connect those tubes to your body. I'm so curious to see what happens when I flow into the minds of those Griseos."

  So, that was the whole matter to her; exciting. She should be keener on his safety though. Alive, he could be more useful to her if she decided to use him inside the Griseos' headquarters as a Trojan horse. But damn! He was too optimistic. She found an alternative that seemed way much better.

  "You're not sure how this is going to work." Burke desperately tried to discourage her from abandoning him. "This already negligible part inside my mind will be obsolete when it is diluted into many brains."

  "You think you know what you are talking about, but you don't." She laughed as she approached him and laid her hand on his shoulder. "Let me worry about this. You have no idea how strong I feel thanks to the energy I acquired from those mind sessions. I guess it is worth trying, and who knows? Instead of having one Trojan horse, I may have ten or even fifty."

  "No, you won't." Burke tried to look confident. "You'll be too weak to handle all these minds. Letting me die means losing a golden opportunity to have someone inside their headquarters. You just have been waiting for ages for this moment."

  "You're right about the second part." She lifted her hand and slowly ambled in circles in front of him as if she was pondering what he had said. "I have never been that close. I always knew there was something about the region you call Bermuda Triangle. I was sure the Griseos were behind its mysterious events, but I didn't have any clear clue about their exact location, their head count, and their equipment. Thanks to you, I was able to get close enough to Akmenios, and I got all the information I needed from his mind."

  More bad news to come. According to what he had just heard, his mission was accomplished, and now he was a dead soldier.

  "Oh please!" she begged playfully. "Don't take it personally. I'll always remember you, sweetheart." She held his chin. "And to prove that I appreciate all you have done, I'll stay with you in your last hours, unless you want me to leave."

  His last hours? He wished this had only been a nightmare. But regarding what she was saying, he understood that his death was an inevitable fact, and it was just a matter of time.

  "Does it worth it?" he muttered, his head down. "All those who die in your quest?"

  "I don't wish death on anyone." She shrugged. "I just have nothing to do about that."

  "You should have just come to the island yourself and finish your task, instead of putting so many lives on the line."

  "That was not possible." She shook her head. "I would have drowned if I had done that myself. Why do you think I've sent you here in the first place?"

  That bitch. Burke had been so close to death when he had gone nine years ago to Bermuda. Heather's expedition was just another experiment to reach the so much desired island. Now, the Shomrunk knew the way to his salvation.

  "Bingo!" She must have read his thoughts. "I wasn't sure of the HG-3 chances to make it through the Storm Shield, but the vessel proved it wasn't bad after all. With fine improvements, the next expedition is going to be a success no doubt." She leaned forward and continued, "I may not need another expedition even." She winked.

  "Congratulations," he said impassively. Pondering the notion of having a small army of gray-faced humanoids controlled by the Shomrunk was horrifying. The whole Bermuda matter was almost over. Whet
her the Atlanteans' double attack succeeded or not, the Shomrunk was definitely the only winner in this mess.

  Standing by the lake, Burke brooded over his current situation, over the journey that had brought him to this moment, to the view he had been watching for eight years. To be honest, it looked much better without the wires around the lake.

  "You know what?" Burke weighed his steps into the lake. "For years in my exile, I never wished anything more than wetting my feet in the water." He looked over his shoulder. "How much time do I have?"

  "Twenty hours, more or less."

  He swallowed. "Then?"

  "Then your body systems will start to collapse. In a week, you'll be nothing but a corpse."

  A week. He was terrified. That would be an unbelievably slow death.

  "Unfortunately, the energy suction process is a bit slow." Her voice betrayed a hint of sorrow he almost bought.

  "A bit?" he echoed, allowing a nervous chuckle. "Are you sure I won't suffer during that week?"

  She paused for a moment. "You really don't want to know that."

  32. A Mental Duel

  The view on the huge screen was split into two, enabling Akmenios and his deputy to follow the scene on both fronts: the warehouse and the headquarters.

  "Everything at the warehouse is under control now. Only two Atlanteans survived the proton blast and they are fleeing already."

  Akmenios listened to Cudelios while he was watching the unexpected updates near the headquarters. More than ninety Atlanteans were killed by two blasts. But after losing one proton cannon, Akmenios couldn't declare that everything was under control on that battlefield.

  "This is not logical," Akmenios pointed at the screen. "These five dots were retreating before this sixth dot joined them and destroyed the cannon. Now they are moving forward, and I wonder what their destination can be."

  For two minutes, he watched the slow advance of the six Atlanteans before they stopped completely.

  "They are following the incomplete signal, it seems." Akmenios retrieved the source of Burke's signal on the screen. "Now, they're standing just above us."

  "We have no underground gates in that area," said Cudelios. "No threat they can pose to us."

  His second-in-command was right in his rationale. Gates would be vulnerable access points for the Atlanteans. . .

  What was that? Akmenios gazed at the screen, trying to interpret what he was watching at the moment. Somehow, those homines were approaching their headquarters.

  "Drillers." Akmenios tapped the screen.

  "What?"

  "They're digging. If we leave them like this, they will breach this room in three hours." There were no measures for such an attack. All of Akmenios's defense systems were designed to stop aerial and ground raids. The underground area itself was defenseless, and that simply meant that the Atlanteans drill would pursue its journey unopposed.

  "Send twenty guards up at once," Akmenios demanded. "The battle must end up there, not here."

  * * *

  "What if I die here?"

  The thought came into Burke's mind as he wetted his knee in the lake. He was sure the Shomrunk had read his mind, even without uttering the idea. But the reaction he saw on Heather's face surprised him. She frowned and tilted her head, an inquisitive look on her face. Was she wondering about his seriousness?

  "Excuse me?" she asked.

  "You heard me. What if I drown in this lake?" He trudged into the water until it reached his chest.

  "You'll never do that," she said flatly.

  "Do you notice you don't answer the question?" He felt victorious as she did not look happy with his suggestion.

  "Is death what you seek?" She shrugged. "Go ahead then."

  "You're lying." Walking backward, he faced her. "I'll wake up because my brain won't let me think I'm dead."

  "And why do you want to wake up anyway?" Heather scoffed. "To torture yourself before death?"

  "I won't listen to your mind games." He covered his ears with his hands. "For some reason, you insist on making me believe I'm a dead man. Something inside me tells me to take my chances." He pointed at his chest. "I'm a dead man if I stay here anyway."

  "You're dead in both cases, so try to make your last moments less painful." She curled her nose. "Trust me, you won't stand the torture of asphyxia."

  "We shall see about that." He grinned, giving her one last look before he dipped his head into the water. He hadn't taken a breath before his dive to make his suicide as short as possible. Last time he held his breath underwater had been ten years ago. Seventy seconds was his best record.

  But not this day.

  His lungs began to cry for air. It was time to swallow water, but he didn't dare to open his mouth. The more the time he stayed, the more his lips tightened. Suddenly, he couldn't take it anymore, and up he went. He gasped as his head rose to the surface. With the splash he made, he could hear Heather's giggle.

  "Why am I not surprised?" She covered her mouth. "Suicide needs balls."

  He looked ridiculous, but who would care now? Losing face in front of the Shomrunk wasn't his biggest problem at the moment. It wasn't an issue at all. Actually, her joy confirmed his doubts. She doesn't want me to leave her in my mind until I die in real life.

  He trudged toward the lakeside with his water soaked clothes. He ignored her completely, trying to focus his thoughts on accomplishing the task in hand: killing himself. Drowning in the lake seemed to be the best possible option he got in such a simple terrain.

  What about those trees in the garden? Perhaps, crushing his skull in one of those trunks would do.

  "I'm quite sure it will be fun watching this." She chuckled. "You will really ruin your shirt with your blood."

  Again, she read his thoughts and was mocking him, but he insisted on ignoring her. However, he realized how ridiculous his idea was. He would lose his conscious before committing his suicide.

  He wanted something faster.

  A glance at the one-story house ahead might have brought the solution he was looking for. A fall from four meters high might not be deadly unless the fall was on his head.

  "You won't do that." The way she hissed scared him for a moment before he pulled himself together. He averted his eyes and strode to the house. To his astonishment, he heard her hurrying footsteps behind him. Suddenly, her hand gripped his arm.

  "Out of my way." He shoved her, but she did not fall. Instead, she stepped back twice before she lunged forward and punched him in the nose.

  Feeling surprised more than hurt, he stared at her while checking his nose, which was fortunately not bleeding. "What was that for?" he mumbled, and she didn't reply with one of her usual snarky comments. The smiling Heather was gone, and a stern one replaced her.

  "You really want me asleep so bad, don't you?" Burke grinned and clenched his fist. He punched, but she simply blocked his blow with her palm.

  "I'm in your mind, you idiot," she snapped. "You can't surprise me."

  A surprise was all he needed to outrun her to the roof. There was no need to beat her in a hand-to-hand combat.

  But how could he possibly trick her? The only way was not to think.

  "Just do it." He threw himself on her, squeezed her neck with both hands, and bit her ear until she bled. "Block this, bitch." He stepped on her nose when he rose to his feet, kicking her face with his heel. "I'm surprised myself."

  He sprinted upstairs toward the door without looking back, her hurried footsteps cracking the wooden stairs after him. He pushed the door leading to the roof and slammed it behind him. The way to the fence looked clear.

  But that was not the case one second later.

  From nowhere, a brawny young man appeared in his way. It was one of his former guards; Burke still remembered his face.

  "It's you again." Burke stopped, staring at the huge guy who stood still, waiting for his next move.

  "Heather is not working with you anymore." The guard's smile looked familiar.
/>   "So, you didn't need to run after me anyway." Burke took a deep breath after this short sprint.

  "Some fun won't harm, sissy." The guard smirked.

  "Is your ear still hurting you?" Burke grinned cynically, judging the distance to the edge from both sides.

  "After all you've seen and you still think of outrunning me?" The Shomrunk in the guard's form raised his eyebrows. "I know you don't have balls, Burke, but at least you still have a brain."

  He's trying to confuse me, he reminded himself. Whether the Shomrunk was a she or he, that thing was messing with his mind.

  He had to surprise the Shomrunk, as he did in the previous time. He must act before he even thought.

  "Right or left? Right or left?" Burke muttered. One more fast short sprint was all he needed.

  "Come on, you—" the guard yelled with a mocking smile, but Burke's unexpected move interrupted him.

  He ran directly to the huge guy, bending his back forward, trying to gain momentum to give his larger opponent a powerful headbutt in the chest. With his huge palms, the guard received Burke effortlessly and held his shoulders to stop his advance.

  But that was not the end of the show. At the same second, Burke punched the guard in his balls. The huge guy stepped back, leaving a room for Burke to reach the edge.

  There was no time to think twice. Burke jumped over the fence, letting himself fall with his head down.

  33. Awakening

  Guarded by the Atlantean cannoneers Tolarus had sent with her, Heather and her crew were still on their march, the cold breeze of the coast kissing her cheeks as they approached it. Along the way, she couldn't help picturing the gray humanoids intercepting their escape with their extremely destructive weapons. Even with those cannoneers on her side, she wasn't sure if they might stand a chance against the Griseos.

  "Tolarus gave you this when he saw you off?" Daniel nodded his chin toward the palm-sized blue glass cube in her hand, a pointer hanging in the vacancy inside it.

  "Yes." Heather squinted at the pointer. "It's kind of a compass."

  "Why would we need a compass?" Daniel asked. "His men are guiding us anyway."