by Elin Wyn
“Was it?”
“My brother served on Search and Rescue in Fraga for three years. Not once did any higher up ever recognize his efforts. After the first year, things started to take a toll on him. His messages were shorter and fewer. I once went three months without hearing from him. I wanted to go visit him but he always told me to stay in Kaster and finish my schooling.”
“He probably wanted to spare you from seeing how far he’d fallen,” Jalok said softly. I bit my bottom lip and nodded.
“Is he still in Fraga now?”
This was the hard part.
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “When the Xathi attacked Fraga, they destroyed almost everything. The lists of the dead and the missing are still incomplete but I haven’t heard from him since before the attack.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that.” Jalok reached for my hand and pulled it away from my wrist. The area I’d been absentmindedly scratching looked red and angry. I took my hand from his and placed it flat on my lap.
“I don’t talk about it often.” My throat felt thick and clogged. Words didn’t come easily.
“Understandable. We don’t have to talk about it anymore. Thanks for telling me. I promise not to use this against you for leverage.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
“Thanks.”
I blinked away the tears that started to build up behind my lids.
“Are you hungry?” I asked in an unnaturally perky voice. Jalok didn’t comment on the forced cheerfulness.
“Skotans are always hungry,” he grinned.
“Great. I have no food in my refrigerator. We’ll have to go to the market.”
“Don’t you have to be at the lab?”
“The whole city takes the day off today. It’s when the fishermen bring in the best catches of the week. Like clockwork. It means the market is going to be crazy busy.”
“Not a problem. I can part a crowd,” Jalok smirked.
“Give me a minute to get dressed and we’ll go.”
Once in my room, I opened my closet and sighed. All of the clothing I owned was practical for either lab work or field work. I didn’t have anything a normal person would consider pretty.
Not that I wanted to be pretty.
Why would I want to be pretty?
Ridiculous.
I was just going to the market. A linen shirt and denim pants would be just fine. Still, owning a flowy, floral dress wouldn’t kill me. Maybe Alinda the seamstress would have one at her stall today.
Jalok stood in the kitchen with his head in the refrigerator when I came out of my room.
“Trying to cool that hot head of yours?” I joked.
“Trying to figure out how you derive all necessary nutrients from the contents of your chilling unit.”
“I eat out a lot,” I explained. “Let’s go before all the good fish are gone.”
I grabbed him by the forearm and pulled him out the door.
The market square was bustling by the time we arrived. Just about every citizen of Kaster was out and about today.
“Why didn’t the rioters pick today to act?” Jalok wondered.
“I bet the brains of that operation wasn’t from here. Don’t you love this?” I gestured to the shouting, jostling, laughing crowd as everyone bartered for goods.
“It’s chaotic,” Jalok said. “Part of my job description his to make order from chaos.”
“That’s awfully vague and poetic for a soldiers job description.”
“I took some creative liberties,” Jalok shrugged. “How do people avoid getting robbed?”
“No one here would rob anyone,” I scoffed. “I could go up to anyone and ask for a few credits and they’d oblige. This is a community built on trust and friendship.”
“Must be nice.” Jalok’s smile didn’t hold any trace of sarcasm.
“Dottie!” I turned to see Hudd calling me. I hurried over with Jalok in tow.
“Hey, Hudd. How’s the haul? I’ll bring back the WindJet when there’s not quite such a crush.”
“Excellent. I saved you some of the best specimens.”
Hudd led me over to a small ice chest teeming with glittering fish.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I grinned. “I’ll take the three little ones. Can you wrap them?”
“Of course.”
I started to move away from Hudd when he gently grabbed my arm.
“I wanted to warn you that a few marketgoers are staring at you and your companion,” he murmured. “Normally, I wouldn’t think much of it but since that riot…” he trailed off.
“Thanks for the heads up.”
As I waited for my fish, I casually looked around the market. Sure enough, a few people were giving Jalok and me odd looks. Knowing none of them would dare try anything with Jalok nearby, I elected to ignore them.
What else could I do?
“Hold these.” I dumped the wrapped fish into Jalok’s arms. “We have a lot more to buy.”
“Dottie?” Jalok called after me. I turned back to look at him.
“Yeah?”
“What’s your brother’s name?”
“What?” I blinked in confusion. Why did he want to know?
“Your brother. What’s his name?” Jalok asked again.
“Adam.”
Jalok
“Give me a moment,” I said and, before Dottie could reply, I started moving back.
I kept my eyes on her as I stepped into a side alley and, once I was happy she wouldn’t move out of sight, I grabbed my comms unit from my belt.
I waited as I got dialed into Nyheim’s system, Rokul’s ID number flashing on the little screen, and a couple of seconds later his voice boomed through the intercom. “Jalok? Is something wrong?” He asked, his tone showing more concern that I was expecting.
“No,” I hurried to say. “I just wanted to ask you for a favor.”
“A favor?” His voice came slightly garbled through the static, but I could still notice the surprise in his voice. “What’s this about? You’re not the kind of guy to go around asking for favors. Are you in trouble?”
“No, I’m fine,” I repeated. “Do you know the woman I’ve been assigned to? Dottie?”
“I’ve heard of her. Some scientist, right? I heard she’s working on the Puppet Master.”
“She’s working with the Puppet Master,” I corrected him.
Dottie had frowned and wagged her finger at me after I had made the same mistake as Rokul’s, and it seemed like that had stuck with me. “But never mind that. I just wanted you to take a quick look at her file.”
“Her file, huh? What’s this about? If you’re interested in her, I suggest you ask her out for dinner or something. A way to a woman’s heart isn’t exactly through her private files.”
“Seems like you’re quite the expert,” I grumbled. “It’s nothing like that. Can you pull her file or not?”
“Fine, fine,” he said, and seconds later I heard the mechanical clacking of a keyboard. “Right, I have it in front of me. What do you want to know?”
“She has a brother, right?”
“Yes, the name’s Adam,” he replied. “He was part of a Search and Rescue unit in Fraga.”
“Is there nothing else?”
“Not really. What’s this about?”
“Apparently her brother disappeared after the attacks on Fraga. She hasn’t heard from him ever since.”
“Oh, I see what you’re doing.”
“I’m not doing anything,” I said, trying to sound as resolute as I could. “Can you just dig into this and see what kind of intel you can find?”
“Sure can. I don’t know how much information I’ll find, though. Most of the records were destroyed during the invasion, and I know some field units have started using pen and paper to update their case files. Can you believe that? It’s madness, if you ask me. The tech guys have been working day and night to get the databases up and running, and those idiots on the streets ar
e making it all so—”
“Just let me know if you find something, alright?”
“Alright, I got you, Don Juan.”
“What?”
“Don Juan,” he repeated. There was a slight pause, and then I heard him sigh. “Never mind that. It’s just something women call guys like you.”
“Guys like me? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing, really,” he said, and I knew I wouldn’t get a straight answer out of him. Not that it mattered, anyway. “I’ll keep you updated, Jalok. Be safe.”
“Thank you.” Clicking the comms unit off, I strapped it to my belt again.
Dottie remained in front of the same stall, chatting it up with the vendor, and I slowly made my way through the crowd and toward her.
I wasn’t really sure on why I had decided to help her find her brother, but it didn’t really matter.
Finding him would be tough and, even though I trusted Rokul to make the impossible happen, I didn’t have high hopes.
“Where were you?” Dottie asked me as I closed in on her, a couple of bags hanging from her hands. “I thought you never left your post.”
“I wasn’t that far,” I replied. “I was just giving a quick update on our status.”
“Did you tell them I bought some fish and vegetables?” She threw me a smirk. “Do you want to have a bite before I cook them? They might be poisoned.”
“That’s not funny.”
“That’s because you don’t have a sense of humor,” she continued, and her smirk slowly turned into a smile. “Now hold this.”
Without waiting for me to say something, she pushed her bags into my hands and strolled down the market.
Sighing, I followed after her, watching as she haggled with the vendors. For someone that looked so delicate, she sure knew how to handle herself.
She verbally wrestled with the vendors at every stall, somehow buying her groceries for less credits than I would’ve thought possible, and it didn’t take long before I looked like one scarecrows that dotted the fields outside Kaster, dozens of bangs hanging from my forearms.
“Is this going to take much longer?” I asked her, already growing impatient.
“No, I’m done,” she smiled. “Let’s just drop these things at the apartment. I want to take a quick shower, but then we can head to the lab.”
We made our way through the market at a leisurely pace. Dottie didn’t seem too concerned with getting to the lab on time, and I felt she was only going there to punch the clock. Her real work happened in that dimly-lit cavern, and I suspected she saw her time in the city lab as nothing but a necessary evil.
Once we were back in her apartment, I placed the bags on top of the kitchen counter. Dottie would’ve never been able to carry all the bags by herself, and I was pretty sure that she was taking advantage of me.
I didn’t really mind it. As annoying as I had initially found this assignment, I was slowly starting to enjoy being around her.
“I won’t take long,” she said as she walked inside the bathroom and, just a couple of seconds later, I heard the sound of running water.
I sat on her old couch, the springs complaining as they took my weight, but I quickly found myself up on my feet again.
From the inside the bathroom came Dottie’s shrill voice, and I rushed out of the living room as fast as I could.
I pushed the door open fast and, with one hand resting on the butt of my weapon, I stepped inside Dottie’s bathroom. She was standing under the running water of the shower and, before I could see anything but the vagueness of her silhouette, she grabbed the curtains and covered herself.
“What the hell are you doing here?” She cried out, her eyes shooting daggers at me. “Get out, you maniac!”
“You were screaming.”
“Because the damn water has gone cold again,” she said. “The plumbing in this building has lots of issues. There’s no murderer hiding behind the toilet, but you can check if you want.”
“And how the hell was I supposed to know all that?” Shaking my head, I was about to leave the bathroom when she cried out once more.
From the corner of my eye I saw her grabbing at the curtains, and her body went out of balance in a flash. She had slipped on the slick tile, but before she could fall on her head, I closed the distance between us and held her up.
She fell on my arms, the wet shower curtain wrapped around her body, and I felt my heart kicking against my ribcage as I looked down at her. Her wet hair was plastered to her face, and tiny droplets of water ran down her rosy cheeks.
The flimsy curtain stuck to her body, showing me almost every single detail of her naked figure, and that was enough for a comfortable heat to spread all over my body.
My eyes landed on her slightly parted lips, and I felt that now familiar hollowness inside my mind. Before I even knew what the hell I was doing, I leaned into her.
Our lips touched, hesitant and eager at the same time, and I was about to pull back when she threw one arm around my neck. Pulling me into her, she parted my lips with her tongue and kissed me in a way I had never experienced before.
Our tongues danced in frenzied lust, and I ran one hand down the side of her body, that damned curtain the only barrier between us.
I felt her breasts pressed against my chest, her nipples hardening with each passing second, and that heat inside my body turned into a raging inferno.
I grew hard then, every fiber of my being desperate for her body, and I had to use all of my will power to stop myself from yanking the curtain back.
Keep it together, Jalok, I shouted inwardly.
Somehow, I pulled my lips from hers and helped her to her feet. For a moment, none of us said a thing, the only sound that of the running water.
“I...I’ll be out in a minute,” she said. “I’ll finish showering in an instant.”
Clearing my throat, I found that I couldn’t look into her eyes.
“I’ll be waiting outside,” I said and, with that, left the bathroom and closed the door behind me.
Inside my chest, my heart felt like a hand grenade.
What the hell had just happened?
Dottie
Jalok chuckled as I breezed past him standing in my living room and went out the door. I was anxious to get back to work. Most people dreaded going back on their days off but not me.
It had nothing to do with that kiss in the bathroom.
Nothing.
I was especially excited because now that Jalok and I had broken the ice, so to speak, he’d probably agree to let me go see the Puppet Master.
The lab bosses still didn’t want me to leave the premises for work but I believed that had more to do with Dr. Kroner’s insecurities than my safety.
“What’s the plan for today?” Jalok jogged to catch up to me once we were on the street.
“I’ve been called into a meeting as soon as we get to the lab,” I explained. “You’re probably allowed to come in with me unless you want to take the time to flirt with Eluna.”
“Will it piss you off if I do?”
“Not really,” I shrugged.
But it did bother me. Just a tiny bit.
“Where’s the fun in that then?”
I rolled my eyes and muffled a laugh.
“I have half a mind to make you talk to her just for that.”
“She’s likely more entertaining than a meeting anyway,” Jalok agreed.
When we entered the lab, Jalok made his way to where Eluna sat. She did her best to pretend not to notice him as he approached.
I entered the spacious office of the lab founders.
“We’ve received an interesting message from the lab in Nyhiem,” Dr. Braithwaite said with a smile.
“Is everything all right with the data I sent over?” My brow furrowed.
“The lab techs there are more than satisfied,” Dr. Hodgins reported. “So, satisfied that they’ve sent over a request. A Dr. DeWitt would like an organic sample from the
Puppet Master.”
“Nyhiem has plenty of organic samples,” I frowned.
“They want blood.” Dr. Kroner clarified.
I blinked.
“I’m not sure that the Puppet Master has blood. He might have sap,” I offered.
Dr. Kroner pushed a datapad in my direction.
“Read for yourself.”
I picked up the datapad and scrolled through Dr. DeWitt’s notes. I noticed that the notes in question had not been sent over to my person console.
I went ahead and forwarded them to myself.
“I’ll go talk to the Puppet Master. If anyone knows whether or not he has blood, it’s him.”
I set the datapad back down.
Dr. Kroner’s eyes flickered to the screen. From where she sat, she could see that I’d sent the notes to myself. Her thin lips pursed but she didn’t’ say anything.
“Take your bodyguard,” Dr. Braithwaite said.
“Of course,” I nodded. “Is that all?”
“You’re dismissed.” Dr. Kroner said curtly.
I left the office and walked over to where Jalok stood talking to Eluna.
“Good news, we’re going on a field trip.” I clapped him on the shoulder.
Jalok turned away from his conversation with a grin.
“Good news, indeed. Where are we going?”
“Back to the crater. Do you have anything in that fancy base camp of yours that can transport two people?”
“Certainly. The real question is, do you trust me to pilot it?”
“Absolutely not,” I snorted. “The better question is, do I have a choice?”
“Nope! Let me call the camp and see what I can scrounge up.”
Jalok stepped away to bark questions into his radio. Eluna gave me a strange smile.
“What?”
“You two hated each other a few days ago. What changed?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” I squared my shoulders, suddenly feeling defensive.
“You’re practically best friends now.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. We’ve simply come to a mutual agreement that getting along is more conducive to a productive work environment.”
“That’s not a sentence a normal human would ever say,” Eluna laughed. “Say whatever you want, but you two like each other.”