by Dawn Dagger
We began toward the marble stairs that wound along the sides of the circular room, up toward the near empty balcony. I figured not many drunks would want to be perched so high in the sky. I wondered how the balcony was even allowed. Didn’t people get hurt?
We started up the steps, quicker now, both thrumming with anticipation. This was it. This was the start of everything. It took everything to maintain our steady, echoing footsteps as we ascended the stairs. We had to keep our calm, I realized.
We stepped onto the balcony and Dierdre kept a casual face, stepping determinedly towards the railing. She leaned her forearms against it, staring out at the crown below. I stood nearby, loitering, watching their backs. If I looked over the edge, I would fall. I was dizzy enough as was.
“How is the weather back on Earth?” the main said in a hushed voice, addressing no one in particular.
I tilted my head, waiting for Dierdre to speak. What the hell was he asking? The weather was different everywhere? Hot, as always?
She stiffened, her sharp shoulder blades poking at the silk of her dress, and I saw her shift uncomfortably. “I’m not… the weather… The weather is different, than I remember?” she squeaked softly.
The man turned and I saw his bushy brows lift over his shadowed sunglasses, his mouth turning into a frown. It was a code. She failed the code. I suddenly felt panicky. He would walk away and not tell us what we needed to do!
“She had a seizure,” I offered, stepping forward. The man now tilted his head down, and I could see his piercing, black eyes glaring daggers into me. I hated the way it felt like he was peering into my very being.
Dierdre stiffened and stood slowly, straightening her dress nervously. Her lips had pulled into a twitching frown. I felt my face flush with heat. That was something for her to say, not me. I bit my lip.
“I’m afraid my mind reset. My name is Dierdre, and I am aware we must meet you, but I’m sorry sir. I am not aware of whom you are, or what the code is.”
The man slowly pulled off his sunglasses, saying nothing. He closed each arm of the glasses individually, with slow precision, then stuffed them into the front pocket of his jacket. He moved sideways, picking up a large, black briefcase. A long scar stretched from his eyebrow to his chin.
He began to turn away from us, when Dierdre reached out a gloved hand. “Wait, please. We are with Thomas.”
The man stopped, but did not turn around. His jaw moved as if he were grinding it, then he gestured us with black gloved hand. He began to walk away, and Dierdre and I dashed after him. He walked into a dark hallway behind the balcony, and towards a small, red door illuminated by two sconce lights.
He slid a keycard from his pocket into the door, then it clicked open. We stepped in through the door and he led us past a long row of lockers to a small changing room illuminated in red. He set the briefcase on the counter, then entered a lengthy code on the keypad on the side.
The briefcase clicked and he pushed it open, revealing a large piece of foam with a small velvet bag nestled in it. He lifted the red bag with two fingers, then held it out to us. “Only one of you can touch it. One of you must hold it. The other cannot. That is the rule.”
I glanced at Deirdre and she shrugged, then held out her hand. He placed the bag into her palm and and she moved to uncinch it. She poured a small, purplish figure onto her palm. It was a small, mottled gem formed into the shape of an owl. It looked like the oversized pendant for a necklace.
“What is it?” I asked.
The man looked at Dierdre, telling her to answer, but she was too busy staring at the figure. Her eyes were sharp and violet in the red light. She brought it closer to her face, then with her teeth suddenly pulled off her glove. She let it fall to the ground, then, with an air of reverence like a person touching someone they had not seen in a very long time, she moved her hand to place the gem into her bare palm.
She shakily bit off her other glove, letting it fall to the floor, then cupped both hands around the gem. She looked pink in the light, her hair falling around her face in red strands. She looked so captivated on the gem it made me feel uncomfortable.
“Hello?” she whispered to it.
Her eyes suddenly widened and she let out a cry, tossing the gem. I moved to catch it, but the man pushed me aside. I fell hard into the carpeted ground as Dierdre crumpled. “What did you do to her?!” I cried, crawling towards her.
She began to convulse, and I felt my heart stop. She was having another seizure! This time, for certain, she was going to hurt herself!
The man stood, doing nothing, with a coldness that made me angry, but I was too busy crawling toward her to engage him. Just before I could touch her, something hard landed between my shoulders. I choked as my lungs were crushed, the air pressed from them.
He had one foot on me, preventing me from helping her!
“LET ME GO!” I screamed, thrashing under him, but unable to get up beneath his weight. I felt light headed. I had no air. “LET ME HELP HER! YOU HURT HER!” She continued to shake, just inches from my fingertips, her eyes rimmed white with fear.
The man pressed his booth deeper into my back, until I could no longer breathe. I stopped struggling, going limp. My lungs were flattened, I could not draw breath into them. Black wavered at the edges of my vision.
Then Dierdre stopped shaking. The man took his foot off of my back and I launched forward, gasping and coughing. I scooped Dierdre’s shoulders into my lap, examining her face. Her neck had a red line on it from where her necklace had been pulled taut against her skin, but she seemed to be unharmed otherwise.
I held my breath as she lay still, then her face twitched. Her eyes slowly opened, and she moved one fist to rub at them. I gently laid her head on the floor and scooted back to give her space. Had her mind reset again? What happened if it happened to many times? Would she forget everything, forever?
I got to my feet and turned toward the black-eyed man, shaking. “Why the hell did you do that to her?” I gritted, feeling my hands ball into fists. I couldn’t hurt this guy. I understood that. But I was too angry.
He said nothing. Dierdre slowly stood, unsteady on her high heels. “Clayton…?” she moaned, still rubbing her left eye. “Where are we? And… Duke? What are you doing here?”
I turned to look at them both. The man, she recognized him?
“Good, you weren’t lying.” He crossed his arms. “Who is this punk?”
“Clayton.” She crossed her arms in response, her gaze cold. Something calculated in the deep blue of her eyes. “Where’s the pendant?”
“You very nearly chucked it into the wall.” He tilted his head toward the owl, which now lay beneath a red and gold sofa.
She pursed her lips, then crossed the room and snatched up the owl. She shoved the gem into the pocket of her dress, then turned back toward the man. Duke. “Where is the next one?”
He shrugged. “I was told to tell you you would figure it out once you had that gem.”
“Wonderful. You’re so helpful.” Her voice was as cold as her gaze. “Let’s go, Clayton.” She began to march out of the room and I followed, tripping over my shoelaces, which had untied at some point. My back ached.
Dierdre descended the stairs, then marched through the casino, towards the doors. I followed her, and we stepped back out onto the cool street. She was making a beeline for the hotel, and I had to run to catch up with her.
“Dierdre! Wait! So, you have your memories back? What is the gem? Who was that guy? Dierdre, slow down!” She retreated back to the hotel, nearly let the elevator doors close on me as she rode up to our room, and didn’t bother to hold the door for me once we had gotten into the dark room.
She emptied her pockets onto the nearby counter, slammed down the gem, then stormed into the bathroom. I stared as she slammed the door shut, then waited nervously. Had I missed something?
I couldn’t have, I didn’t think.
I didn’t know what was happening, so I retreated to th
e flannels I had unceremoniously dumped beside the bathroom door, then quickly dressed in them. I felt much more comfortable out of the suit, and reserved to sit and wait for Dierdre to come out of the bathroom.
I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the owl across the way. In the dark I could see it was made of a mottled, turquoise blue material. It was really quite beautiful. I wondered why it was important.
Had it returned Dierdre’s memories? Or was it just a freak accident? Did the man, Duke, know that she was regaining her memories, or was he truly just an ass?
I heard Dierdre call something from the bathroom, but I couldn’t make out what she said. It didn’t sound urgent, so I didn’t investigate. I didn’t want to intrude.
The bathroom door swung open and steam curled out, followed by Dierdre, now dressed in a blush pink pair of silk pyjamas. She was running a hairbrush angrily through her long, wet hair.
“Did you say something?” she asked.
“Hm?”
“When I was showering, I heard someone say something. Did you call in the door?”
“I did not…”
She shook her head, flinging water droplets, then crossed over to the owl. She sat down hard on the bar stool behind the counter, then stared at the pendant. I hopped off of the bed and crossed over to her. I rested my elbows against the counter.
She was mumbling something under her breath, staring at the figurine. She reached out and poked it, but nothing happened. “What did he mean by ‘we could figure it out with this gem’?”
“Dierdre? Why did you write on your note that it wasn’t Thomas, and not that it was… whoever that idiot was?” Once I asked the first question crowding my mind, the rest came flooding out. “Why did he stop me from helping you? Who does he work for? What are we doing with this?”
I bit my lip to stop from asking any more questions. She sighed and rubbed at her forehead, then gestured weakly. “I wasn’t absolutely certain it was Duke. I’ve told HR multiple times I don’t want to work with him. I just knew that it wasn’t Thomas. He’s sort of the head of all this.
“Duke stopped you from helping me because he is an idiot, like you said. No one understands how my… memory seizures work. So he does nothing. We work for the MMEA… a… secret service group that saves the world from problems different than wars or famine, and operates higher than normal governments.” She was keeping some piece of information from me, I could tell. I didn’t press.
“As for this,” she continued, lifting the owl, “I’m not entirely sure. There are four of them we have to find. There is an unnamed man seeking them out, but we have to obtain them first. I don’t know what they do, if anything, or why, but I suppose they’re important.”
She mumbled something about an ‘orb’ under her breath, but I didn’t press, I just tried to process what she told me.
“How do we find the other three?” I asked, nibbling at my fingernail.
“I’m not sure. I’ll have to see if I can get into contact with Bernadette back at…the office. For whatever reason, in your world, the service to my watch doesn’t work that well.” Her eyes suddenly widened, as if something occurred to her. “I guess we could check the origin of these things, you’re right. We can trace them to their possible locations.”
I glanced behind me, wondering who she was talking to. Herself? She didn’t seem to talk to herself too terribly often… “Um, what?” I asked.
“Your suggestion! We could trace the origins of this artifact, if it is one, and see where the other ones are. And, and if they do do something!”
I stared at her for a moment, then just nodded. I still had a headache from the casino, and I may have just been hearing her wrong. I hadn’t made any suggestions I had known of. It was a smart idea, however.
“Where do we start?” I asked. I still felt awake, despite the hour. I had slept most of the day away.
“Well, all the libraries are closed now, aren’t they?”
“I think so, yeah.” I nodded.
“Where else could we look?” She stood and stretched.
“The Knowledge Centers?” I offered.
“They have computers there?”
“Yeah.”
Dierdre nodded, picking up the owl. “Well, get dressed, I’ll do the same. We’ll take the metro to one of the Knowledge Centers.”
We quickly dressed in the clothes from the day before and went out of the hotel. I began to wonder how much the hotel room was costing us. We boarded one of the metros, a quickly moving, silver train that sped underneath the city, and rode it for about ten minutes, to the edge of the city, where the international buildings were.
Every big city had a Knowledge Center, a large park, a Culture Experience, and some other things I had never done. Their purpose was to spread knowledge and understanding, and to provide a place for people to feel safe.
We stepped off the metro with a trickle of a few other people, and began toward the towering, silver building that was the Knowledge Center. Dierdre glanced around at the fountain illuminated in the night, and the grass that grew dark green around the cobblestone sidewalks, looking mildly impressed.
“Have you ever been to one of these sections of the city?” I asked, glancing at her.
“I-um,” she paused for a second, swallowing. “No.”
“Okay,” I nodded. “It’s pretty impressive.”
We followed the cobblestone walk up to the glimmering Knowledge Center, then quietly opened one of the doors. We stepped inside the comfortably cool building and I glanced at the map beside the door.
There were about 10 stories, and each of them were segmented into sections of the Knowledge Center. Stories one through three were all books, four through six were computers and large, interactive screens, seven and eight were interactive floors that taught about ecology and international relations, and I wasn’t sure what the final two where. I had never been on them, and they were not detailed on the map.
“Computer levels.” I drew a line from level four to six. “As many times as I’ve been here, only three, there’s never been anyone on level six. I think they think it's cursed.”
“Six it is then,” she nodded.
We crossed over elevator and climbed in, pressing level six. Within 30 seconds the elevator dinged, and we stepped into the large room. It was mostly dark in the large room, with the only bits of light reflecting through the glass walls. The room was filled with desks with computers on them and printers. Alone one wall there were seven or eight silver panels lying in the dark wood floor. Those were for virtual tours, or more closely examining information.
Dierdre clapped her hands as we walked into the room, but nothing happened. She shrugged and sat in one of the rolling chairs beside the desks. Dierdre scooted up to the computer and pressed the button to activate its power.
I sat beside her and turned my own on, waiting for them to boot up. Once the computers had woken up, Dierdre navigated to the browser on the touch screen, then pulled the small out of her pocket and set it beside the monitor on the desk.
“Where do we even start?” she muttered to herself. “I don’t even know what century this is from. It looks ancient… Indian? Mayans?”
I stood and reached for the figure, but she slapped my hand. “Ouch!” I cried, hopping back. “What was that for?”
“Don’t touch it!” she gasped, snatching it up. “Just don’t… Only I can touch it. Isn’t that what Duke said?”
“He said only one person could touch it, yeah…” I admitted, scratching the back of my neck.
“So, I’ve already touched it. Don’t. What is it you wanted to do with it?”
I pointed to one of the plates on the floor. “If you put it on those, it’ll magnify it, and scan it. It’ll search for anything like that on the entirety of the internet and databases. We can start there?”
She nodded and stood, then followed me to the silver plate. She set the owl on the floor and I pressed one of the buttons on the floor. A light
shone from beneath the plate and scanned over the figurine. Green lines wrapped around it as it was mapped.
The screen against the wall came to life, revealing a question. It asked what color it was exactly. I tapped the screen on the blue that reflected closest what the owl was, then confirmed its permission to test the chemical composition of the object.
Light blue jadeite. the screen read. Originated in the 15th century.
“That does narrow it down.” Dierdre nodded. I didn’t think it did, since I didn’t know the 15th century had ever been a thing. She wasn’t being sarcastic, however, so I just nodded along.
“Find similar results,” I told the machine.
It whirred softly, then lists and pictures flew across the screen. ‘Olmec, Maya, Aztecs, Incas, artifacts, museums, jade, powers, magic’ were just some of the possible paths we could go down.
Dierdre looked distressed, but quickly erased the look from her face when I glanced at her. “Well, it’s better than where we started originally. Can you transfer it to our computers?”
I nodded and pressed the button, directing it to the only two computers that were powered on. We crossed back over to the desks and Dierdre repocketed the figurine.
It was gruelling work, looking for any leads to the small thing we had, and the other three we had to find. I hadn’t researched anything since elementary school, so it was as foreign to me as it was Dierdre.
After what seemed like forever, Dierdre finally pointed to her screen. “Boom, baby. We found it.”
“Well, what’s it say?” I asked, rubbing my eyes. I had been staring at the screen for entirely too long.
“There were four artifacts, all different animals. The pictures are here. They’re rumored to have had magical powers, but there’s no evidence there was. An owl, a turtle, a jaguar, and a rattlesnake. All different elements, all created by the Aztecs. Now that we know their names, we can start tracking where they have been!”