by Viola Grace
Maira felt the engine engage, and then, she was just hanging on. The cycle moved swiftly around the trees of her orchard and the other plants she had used to try and block sound. It didn’t work, but the gardening kept her busy, and she enjoyed the fruit.
The cycle slowed and pinged to her. “To increase speed, use the right grip, twisting it toward the front wheel. To decrease, flex it downward, and to stop, use the metal levers.”
“You came with a tutorial.”
“I did. I am a creation of the engineer Tabba. She is enjoying her work and the opportunity that the preparation of a new team is giving her.”
“New team?” Maira was working on controlling the speed with her hands, and it was difficult but not impossible.
She practiced the acceleration and deceleration with the cycle guiding her. When she graduated to the foot pedals, it was a relief.
It took her an hour, but when she pulled up at her house again, Investigator Jianik was sitting on the porch and petting one of the stray cats who frequented Maira’s home.
“To turn me back into the orb, just press the glassy black button below the steering column.”
Maira supported the cycle and pressed the button. The vehicle disappeared, and she ended up straddling a small marble.
She bent down and picked up the small orb. “Thank you.”
The orb gave a small buzz in her grip.
She held it in her palm and looked at Jianik. “Can I keep the cycle?”
“After your shakedown mission. I will take it from you for a few diagnostics, and it will be returned to you, with its personality intact.”
Maira exhaled and relaxed. She had been worried about it being replaced. She liked the voice in the cycle.
Maira sat in a chair and stroked the cat that jumped into her lap. “Tell me about the mission.”
Jianik’s posture showed her relief, and she began the briefing. “Girls as young as sixteen have been going missing, and the one thing that is absolute for all of them is that they are gifted.”
“Physical descriptions?” She knew that Arcon had been specific in his tastes. Dark hair, dark eyes, and height were always the same, but the skin colour was variable. He wanted to look into dark eyes framed by dark hair at a certain angle. If women of that description began to disappear, Maira wanted to know.
“Variable. From a variety of worlds in the cluster.”
“So, unrelated to my case, but the girls are disappearing.” Maira frowned. “Can I see the files and footage?”
“Certainly, I am sending it to your tablet.”
Maira looked at the images and watched a few of the kidnappings, and the visual record lost all trace of the girls when they were a quarter of a mile from the original abduction site.
“So, they have gifted working with them.”
“At least two. The obscuring gift and another person with a presence that can either convince or threaten young women.”
Maira nodded. “Which is why you can’t tell what is going on. The girls appear calm, but they leave their groups. Is it always groups?”
“Sometimes, there are four girls going spontaneously, but it is always the gifted one that is taken.”
Maira exhaled. “Right. So, I have to be in place at the facility and be installed before anyone arrives in the morning. I don’t think I have ever scanned for that amount of time. How will I know which girl is the target?”
“When the scanners identify who has entered the facility, you will be sent the dossier on the gifted members of the party.”
“And if they are an unidentified gifted?”
“Find any young woman being spoken to by a pervy older male or female with a suggestion that they leave the premises.”
Maira winced. “I am feeling a headache coming on.”
“Your expenses for a year, plus twelve more mature fruit trees.”
Maira smiled. “And I keep the cycle.”
“Done.”
“When do I leave?”
“You will be collected in three days. A wardrobe will be provided before you step through the portal.”
She nodded. “Right. Okay. I will have the headache and try to save the girl.”
“I am trying to find other weapons for you that are portable, but they will require more training than the knuckle bands.”
“Like what?”
“Blades are good. A tracking projectile might also be useful. I will discuss it with a few of the designers and see what they come up with.”
Maira gave her a dark look. “I am only going to do these very occasionally.”
“Well, the instructor would come with the weaponry. So, that would be part of your payment for the next assignment.”
Maira snorted. “Sure. You need me to do this stuff and expect me to pay for all my training.”
“Well, there is a way around that.”
“What?”
“There has been a request for another hero team, and if you can get enough useful practice with your acquired gift, you would definitely be a very suitable candidate.” Jianik smiled and shrugged. “If you can control it.”
The taunt was a challenge, and Maira gave her friendly acquaintance a glare. “I know what you are doing.”
“Of course you do, you are not an idiot. You are also no longer a victim. You have a choice right now. You have a chance to stand between these young women and harm, and you might be able to save others. So, what are you going to do?”
Maira got up, paced back and forth with the wild cat in her arms. She paused and stared at one of her trees, listening to the rustle of the waxy leaves and nothing else. There were no satellites above her head, no people, no signals, it was silent when she was alone. She was going to protect this piece of peace, no matter what happened. As long as she could return to this chunk of silence, she would do what they wanted, when they wanted.
She returned to Jianik, and she nodded. “What time are they picking me up?”
“The pick up will be here at nine in the morning on Thursday. I would recommend that you use your simulator to practice your boxing. It will come in handy with the knuckle bands if you know what it feels like to land a hit. It can magnify the force of the impact and send the person you strike flying back several feet. The harder you strike, the further they fly.”
Maira nodded. “Good to know. I will practice. What is the power source?”
“Classified and relatively unlimited. It is also not toxic and won’t leak.”
“Good. Nice to know.”
Investigator Jianik got to her feet and collected her tablet. “I will see you after the assignment. I know you will do well. All updates to the file will be sent to your tablet, and as your cover, you will be provided with an office to work from, but you may be required to actually do some restoration or repair on a painting.”
Maira quirked her lips to the left. “At least it will keep me calm while I search. Now, with that in mind, I have a project that is nearly finished. I bid you good afternoon. If I am leaving in three days, I need to get back to work.”
“Of course. I will leave you to it. Just remember, Maira, everything that happens from here on out is a choice. Your choice. We may want you to do your best, but we want it to be what you choose. You have already acted to save one life voluntarily when your own hung in the balance. You chose her, and you saved her. Remember that.”
Maira blinked to clear the tears. “Right. I have to remember that part. Thanks for the reminder.”
Jianik nodded and didn’t touch her. She turned and left, climbing into her sleek vehicle and driving off on a column of air. When she was gone, there was no trace that Jianik had ever been there, except for the files on Maira’s tablet.
She used her voice as she so rarely did when she was alone. “Time to finish that painting and get it back to the museum. I have somewhere I need to be.”
She walked back into her studio and set up the specially fo
rmulated adhesive and got back to work, teasing the flaked paint back into place on the cleaned canvas. It was time-consuming and tedious. She loved it.
Chapter Three
She sat in the back of the automatic vehicle with her small bag containing her weapons and the compressed cycle.
Maira changed her clothing in the back of the vehicle and altered her persona into Mara. Mara had been an excellent way to hide when she had first stepped back into the public eye.
She had cropped her once-long hair and had to admit that life was easier if she didn’t have to fuss with it, the heat of the straightening alone saved her hours every week. Her mother may have cringed at the natural hair, but her mother wasn’t talking to her.
Maira sighed and slipped on the low heels that completed her outfit.
It was nice to be transported in a driverless vehicle but slightly eerie at the same time. The secure portal wasn’t accessible to the public, she would be let out at the facility, and the implant in her arm would allow her to pass to Dlio; another shuttle vehicle would take her to the museum that had finally been settled on.
The girls were the only ones left that were attending a museum today. Across the cluster, all other expeditions to museums and art galleries had been cancelled for all girls schools.
Maira had no idea what kind of pull had to be engaged to get all the field trips cancelled, but if girls around the cluster were in danger, she was glad they had narrowed it down to a primary target. However, now she was on the hook to make sure that all those girls got home alive and well.
She exhaled softly. “No pressure.”
The vehicle slowed as it approached the secure portal. She pushed back her sleeve and scanned her wrist at the edge of the gate, and her vehicle slid inside the narrow opening in the high-powered repulsion field that would most likely kill anyone attempting entry without the embedded chip.
Inside the protected area, her transport parked, she got out and walked to the building that housed the portal. Another scan that included biometrics was completed, and she watched the display set itself for Dlio.
When the portal was set, there was a chime, and she had five seconds to step through before she would have to go through all the scans again. She stepped forward with her tiny clutch and kept walking until she was standing in the secure facility of Dlio.
The display indicated the world, and she had arrived predawn. There was time enough to get her to the museum, and she could actually enjoy the artwork and settle in.
She slipped the bands on her hands as she settled in her transport. A holographic driver was engaged, and they drove through the darkness at mind-burning speeds.
She had spent two days practicing with her knuckle bands on scrub trees and rocks. She knew what they could do and knew what it took to activate them. Her compressed cycle was tucked in her breast band. The purse was just for a pay card, a lipstick, and her magnifying lens for examining paint composition and canvas condition. Her flashlight was also tucked into her cleavage.
The drive through the city was quiet. Almost no one was on the streets.
Maira hadn’t been to a lot of cities, but she had learned to recognize them from the artwork she restored. Dlio’s architecture was elegant and ancient. The city of Morlo was the oldest on the world, and it showed. The ancient buildings were featured in hundreds of works that had managed to survive to the modern age.
She sat back and watched the buildings as she passed, the surreal glow of the minimal lighting on the streets cast everything in a magical ambiance.
The vehicle slowed and stopped in front of the museum of Dlio. Well, it seemed that the magic was over.
Maira got out of the vehicle and stepped onto the walkway at the base of the museum steps. She took one step at a time, heading for the front doors where a liaison was waiting for her.
“Miss Mara Den Hav?”
Maira smiled. “I am. Restoration specialist, at your service.”
The woman smiled in relief. “Right. Sorry. These off-world specialist greetings are always awkward for me. I am not a morning person.”
“Neither am I. May I ask your name?”
“Oh, of course. I am Administrator Rill. Liida Rill.”
“Let us get some tea or coffee or whatever you drink in the morning. After we are set, you can show me the painting that I am to work on, and then, you can forget I am here.”
“That simple?”
“That simple. I am here for my steady hands and keen sight. The materials that you have on hand will be sufficient for my purposes.”
“Oh. Excellent. This way.” Liida Rill led her into the museum, past several security measures, and up to the offices where a very wide and pleasant breakroom was located.
Maira—or rather Mara—got a flask of tea and a cup. Ms. Rill smiled. “I will have someone bring you a snack when they bring in the sweet rolls in the morning. For now, let’s get to the masterpiece.”
She nodded. “What happened to the painting?”
“It was being moved for its one-century cleaning. The curator tripped and dropped it on the edge of a banister. There is a puncture right through it.”
Mara smiled. “It happens. Usually, they are kicked when they have just been removed from a wall.”
“They are normally very careful, but a guest was taking a tour, and she sneezed, sending them backing away. I don’t know where she was from, but sneezing is a major taboo here.”
“I will keep that in mind.” Mara smiled.
“Good. There is nothing more disrespectful than letting your soul fly around like that.”
Mara blinked rapidly. “Right. Of course.”
She was privately amused until she was on the repair level, the windows open for public viewing. Folk could watch her work while she tried to tease the fibres of history back into something that viewers would recognize.
“Here you are. There is a full list of materials in the room here on the tablet. Anything you add in will be brought up from stores as soon as they can lay hands on it.”
“Thank you. Is this it?”
The door opened at Ms. Rill’s touch, and they entered the space reserved for the ancient artwork and the restorers.
Mara was eager to get her hands on the image the moment that she saw the damage. “Oh, this will be simple but tedious. My favourite kind of repair. I will just check out the supplies, and then, you can leave me to my work.”
“Right. They said you also needed a monitor with the front door on it. So that is to the right of the painting.”
“You are aware that I am not just here for the painting.”
Rill smiled and lifted her hands up. “We get a painting repair for free, and we just need to let you monitor our population for a day. It is a fair trade.”
“I am glad you think so. How many hours until you open?”
“Four.”
“Wonderful. I can do the bulk of the reinforcement by then and will only have to work the fibres back into position after that. A light caress of paint will make the repair melt away.”
“I will leave you to it but look forward to the finished product.” Rill nodded and left her alone with the picture.
Mara picked up her headset, got her flashlight, and took a look at the tear that had sliced a building in two, split a street, and decapitated a few passers-by.
She smiled and got the tools of her trade together, and then, she began to remove the image from the frame. Moving carefully and precisely, she had the painting laying out, and she was able to place the reinforcing fabric behind the tear with light nudging from her synthetic tweezers.
She hummed lightly and kept her light, tuneless sound going until she had set the reinforcement and had matched up the fibres. The lightest touch of adhesive matched the torn edges, and she finished it and sat back with a sigh. She had a few minutes while the adhesive set up, and she set the frame back in place, ready to replace it when her fingers stopped throbbin
g from the precise positioning.
The cleaning solution would be used after the painting was back on the stretcher frame. From there, she would test the cleaner on a small corner on the side and see if it took off more than the soiled varnish. If it did, she was going to have to make up her special brew. That might take a while.
She walked to the empty workbench where she had stashed her tea, and she sipped at it before flexing her hand and prepared to meet the challenge. Her lens also projected the display from the entry doors, and the museum was not yet open for business.
She set the painting back on its frame, tightened the stretcher bars and tried the weak solvent. Thankfully, it was just what she needed.
Mara felt the moment that someone was looking. She ignored them and kept her focus on the small corner of the painting she was cleaning while she worked with the cotton swabs on a long skewer in slow circles, removing a fine layer of yellowed varnish at a time.
She waited for the school to arrive with the girls in the age group she was watching for, and as she waited, her work proceeded apace and was admired by the folk who came into the viewing area to watch the process.
Every minute or so, she looked up and did a slow sweep of the museum. She gave herself time to examine every layer of the conversations, and it was only when she ran into a few who were completely silent that she paused and checked their locations on the monitors.
If an abduction were planned, they would need to stage inside the museum and have some outside to cage their target in.
Researching the logic behind kidnappings had helped her get a grip on what had happened in the café. He had selected her, watched her habits, and the authorities guessed that he had encouraged the attack as a distraction so he could catch her in the rush of folks heading to the shelters.
There were other means and other motivations for kidnapping, but in every case, there was a greater payoff for the kidnappers or at least one that they perceived as being attainable if they gained control over their target.
Breaking it down into the emotionless supply and demand made it easier for her to face the demons of panic that tried to press on her when she thought about it. She thought about it a lot, and working it into steps was her only way to stay sane, though her therapist might disagree that she had achieved that level.