by Giger, S. L.
Themba’s eyes wandered to the top right corner. “I will figure something out. I will return to my tribe and talk to them, and then we should have more information about hypnosis.”
“Yes, I could get you in touch with Claire for that,” I offered. “She’s an expert. If you could find out more, that would actually be great!”
“It’s good if I can be of help. Plus, I want to keep an eye on their work.” He eyed Cathy and Luke.
“How long until you can be in Europe?” I asked.
“Four days, maybe. I can let you know through e-mail.”
I chuckled. That remark sounded so out of place after everything we had just heard. “All right. Thank you.”
“My pleasure.” He smiled broadly, showing his white teeth. “It was an honor meeting you.” He took my hand with both of his and shook it.
“Likewise,” I breathed. I walked to the door with him and then he was gone. I stared out at the empty courtyard for a while. When I returned to the lab, Cathy was sitting on the counter.
“What did you mean Dr. Palmer is being hypnotized?” she asked me.
I quickly filled them in about our visit. “And what were you thinking bringing Themba here?” I asked at the end. “He was intimidating.”
“He was angry when I talked to him in Brazil, as well, but I thought he was angry with the Orbiters. I didn’t know that he was so against the creation of male Sirens.”
“And at the same time, he seems to be able to function on his own without a problem,” Luke said.
“He’s guided by a higher power,” I said. “A path he chose as a human, which is anchored so deeply inside him that even after his human side died, that part of his spirit was still in charge.”
“So,” Cathy sighed. “If we can’t find enough lovers, we can also recruit tortured souls with strong beliefs.”
I shook my head. “‘Recruit’ is a very unfitting term.” After what Claire had told me about responsibility, I was even more convinced that we should transform only the ones who were necessary. So that we could see whether Cathy’s and Alex’s mixture worked. “We have to agree once and for all that your project won’t be about creating an army.” I searched for both of their gazes until they reciprocated my stare. “Are we clear on that?” I narrowed my eyes and held my breath.
Finally, Luke lowered his gaze to the ground and Cathy threw her hands in the air. “I don’t see a point in a war, either.”
“Good,” I replied, starting to breathe again. I hadn’t felt comfortable voicing my thoughts out loud, especially in front of Cathy. But our main concern had to be the message that Dr. Palmer’s puppet-master was spreading across the world. If anything went wrong with a Siren we created, that would only support him and prove that magic was dangerous.
Chapter 22
I found Alex pacing around the living room area in his apartment. He paused his step and his eyes fell on me when I opened the door. “Phew, good, you’re all right.” He sounded relieved.
“Yes, why wouldn’t I be?” I asked, perplexed.
“Didn’t you find that guy daunting?”
I approached Alex and wrapped my arms around his strong neck. He always made me feel safe.
“I don’t have a heartbeat that could annoy or attract him.” My hand wandered to his chest, and I enjoyed feeling the vibration his pulsating heart sent through his skin. “On the other hand, what I did find odd was that he was convinced I was some kind of chosen leader.”
“Ha, yes, the seclusion in the jungle must have had a negative effect on his brain,” Alex joked.
“Hey!” I nudged him in the side, and he laughed even more.
A moment later, his face grew serious again. “Really, you need to start believing in yourself. You seem to be the only one who isn’t convinced that you’re here to do something great.”
I sighed. “If I finally have an epiphany, you’ll be the first one I’ll inform.” I dropped onto the couch.
“What else did you find out?” He sat on the coffee table and placed his hands on my knees. That simple touch spread a warmth within me, and I remembered why I couldn’t get enough of this guy. He wandered a hand's width up my thigh. The air in the room electrified and a heatwave passed through me. The way he looked at my body let me know that he had also noticed the change in the atmosphere. It was as if we were taken back to the time before we started sleeping with each other when the tension between me and him was almost unbearable.
He wetted his lips. “Actually, I think your recount can wait for a little.”
I released a breath. “Yes,” was all I managed to say. I swallowed and he moved forward, pushing me further down on the couch.
“Here? Somebody could walk in!” I protested, flushed. He didn’t budge away from me.
“You’re the fast runner, so it would only be embarrassing for me if anyone chose to come home now.” He kissed me again and took the last bit of my breath away. I dug my fingers into his hair and enjoyed feeling his weight on me. We were both lost in the moment. It was exactly the escape we needed from these troubled times.
Ultimately, there was the final straw. When two families died of the night flu after a visit to a Broadway show, the TV and radio broadcast that all public state institutions in Massachusetts and New York would be closed until the situation had improved. Finally, I didn’t have to worry about school anymore. Luke got in touch with a ghost at The Library to ask what he knew about these deaths. After all, the ghosts heard many of the conversations that took place inside The Library. And indeed, the ghost told him that they had been two families of form-shifters — creatures who could change to look like any object or person they wanted. Again, only magical creatures had died of the virus.
A nice side effect of the schools being closed was that Sam had returned to Orleans. Thus, I didn’t have to worry as much about him falling victim to a bombing anymore. Orleans was much quieter than the big cities. I invited him over to the house on Cape Cod to have a long-overdue reunion.
“How are you doing?” I pressed my lips together. His eyes had a haunted darkness in them. Very different from the exciting glimmer of less than a year ago, when we were getting ready for prom. My friends were so convinced that they would have the time of their lives at college.
“The last days have felt surreal. Like in a video game.” Sam sat at our kitchen table with a cup of instant coffee in his hands, the only thing I could offer him. “You walk through the streets, and everybody could be carrying a bomb under his coat.” He snorted. “Two bombings in Boston alone last week,” he exclaimed. “Not to mention New York City. We lived in such a safe country. I never thought that could change so quickly.”
I took a breath and shook my head. “The world leaders underestimated people’s naivety. So many are blindly following anything Dr. Palmer’s group says because they’re so afraid of the virus.”
“I don’t think it’s just the virus anymore. People are afraid of people.” Sam furrowed his brows. “Even if the police lock away the people who haven’t died in suicide bombings, there seem to be more and more attackers. And really, anybody could be a terrorist.”
“We all know whose words they’re following.” I pressed my hands flat on the table as I heard Dr. Palmer’s nasal voice in my mind. “Why hasn’t anybody locked Dr. Palmer away yet?”
Sam frowned. “He must be a very well-protected man. Plus, he’s never actually said that people need to go out and kill Alternatives. The terrorists just interpret his words that way.”
“But he’s clearly a public influencer. Why is anybody still giving him a voice?” I exhaled sharply.
“It’s a circus. Entertainment.” The corners of Sam’s mouth wandered downwards. “Everybody is watching and listening and can’t wait to see what happens next. That’s how low we’ve sunk.”
“But that’s what I’m saying – the media shouldn’t be allowed to even give him a platform.”
“Again. Freedom of speech.” Sam sighed.
“At least I know you’re safer now.” I smiled weakly. “Stay home as much as possible, and if the war sirens go off, you have to hurry to a shelter,” I urged him. The war sirens were the warning sign the government provided if a bomb was found in the area or if somebody found out that an attack was about to happen.
“We might be safe from the bombs in a bunker, but in there, we’ll wait like trapped rats to die from a flu epidemic.”
“The bunkers are more sanitized than many people’s homes,” I said.
“Why are you staying here, then? This is a dead end, and you’ll never make it to the shelter in town if anything happens.”
“Out here, it's quiet. It's not a place of interest.” I rubbed at a piece of dirt on the table as I tried to think of more convincing reasons why my Siren family – of which he hadn’t the slightest idea – wasn’t going into any bunker. “Plus,” I sighed, “my dad isn’t good around people. He’s extremely claustrophobic. So, we’ll stay here.” I shrugged. I couldn't tell him that Luke might kill everyone in the bunker if he was locked in there for too long, or that besides that, we were faster than the detonation of a bomb.
I continued. “If Joe and Phe want to go to Australia, they need to leave soon. I heard they might stop global air traffic so that each country can deal with their own national security.”
“They’re staying here. Their families wouldn't come with them – and it's a bit too hard, after all, to leave everyone here, not knowing when they’ll be able to come back or if they’ll ever see them again.”
I laughed, though it was more like a snort. “Yeah, I couldn't do that, either.”
“I'm pretty sure Joe's parents are members of a special bunker.” Sam’s eyes widened. “You know, a long-term one for the rich, with more space and better amenities. And they might share their space with Phe's family.”
“I didn't know Joe was rich,” I said, surprised. Neither his house nor his clothes showed it.
“They’re just modest, but both his parents work great jobs. They have to spend their money on something, and that's travel and safety.”
“Wow, I had no idea. Good for them.” I nodded.
“I’m surprised schools stayed open so long,” Sam said.
“I guess they wanted to keep a sense of normalcy, and schools are filled with innocent kids. To attack a school would be the most inhumane thing anyone could do,” I replied. So far, we’d only had emergency drills. The war sirens would ring, and we'd march to the assigned public bunker at the firehouse.
“The problem is that doing terrible things while afraid is very human.” Sam took a breath. “We saw it in Nazi Germany and in the Stanford Prison Experiment, where people were told to torture others.” He pursed his lips.
“It's still incomprehensible how quickly everything went downhill.”
“The mysterious flu is the main problem. We need a remedy and strong political leaders who’ll bring the world back in order,” Sam stated.
“You think it's that easy? The world could be in this state for years. This could even be the end of the world as we know it!”
“Maybe. But it escalated so fast – there’s no system in this. As soon as this horrifying trend starts crumbling, people will go back to a system they know,” he said.
I frowned. “I hope you’re right.”
“Could you ever have imagined a year ago that we would be having a conversation like this?”
We talked about the good old times until it was time for him to leave so he could still get home while it was light outside.
“This is goodbye for a while, then?” I asked.
“I guess so.” He took a deep breath and wrapped me into a shy Sam hug. “You keep me updated about what’s going on out here, though. At least through the Internet, we can still stay connected.”
“Of course.” I squeezed him against me again. “We’ll be okay,” I tried to convince us both. It was scary that we had no idea how the immediate future would look. There was a chance that not all of us would survive.
Chapter 23
After my talk with Sam, I went to my shift in The Wild Rover, with a plan to ask for a break. With spying on Dr. Palmer and keeping an eye on what they were doing in the lab, work was the least of my concerns. On that day, I could count the customers in the pub on one hand. Paula and I played tic-tac-toe behind the bar while waiting for them to finish their drinks. Two waitresses were definitely too many when people were scared to leave their houses.
Suddenly, a piercing noise filled the air, drowned out the pub music and hurt our ears.
“What is that?” I yelled at Paula, who was pressing her hands to her ears with her face contorted in pain, like my own.
“Oh, my God, it’s the war sirens. This means the police detected a bomb in the area.” She looked around frantically. “What are we supposed to do?” Her eyes were filled with fear. Some customers had also realized what was going on and headed to the window. Our cook, Josh, emerged through the kitchen door, wiping his hands on a dishtowel. “Come on, we have to shut the blinds and head into the cellar.” He ran to the door and pulled down a thin blind to cover the glass. I did the same thing with the closest window, but before I completely covered it, I tried to see whether there was anything unusual outside – anything where my Siren speed would be able to help. But the street was empty as if we were in a ghost town.
“Hurry up, Nat,” Paula yelled, then clapped her hands to get people’s attention. “Okay, I know this is not how we imagined tonight going, but it’s safer in our cellar, so let’s relocate down there. Follow me.” She turned on the basement light and I watched them all disappear down the stairs. I frantically racked my brain for something better to do. Down there, we’d all be trapped like rats if a bomb went off.
“What are you waiting for, Nathalie?” Josh appeared again, out of breath.
“If that bomb goes off, we’ll be buried under the house. We can’t escape by running through walls.” I was paralyzed with fear. It was one thing to hear about bombs on TV or even when a friend of a friend had been in an attack. Even though there was an alarm every other day on the East Coast now, I never mentally prepared myself to be within the danger zone when it happened.
“That’s the emergency protocol for this building.” Josh tugged me by the arm, awakening me from my petrification. As he pulled me downstairs, I started sweating. What if that bomb was because of me? What if the underground organization had figured out that I wasn’t human? I almost stumbled down the steps as my legs weakened.
Paula shot me a worried look when I entered the cellar. I slumped against the wall and sank to the cold ground like the others. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my breathing. I, with my superpowers, had to be the strong one. The leader. Not the one who needed to be saved. I wandered across the others with my gaze. Never would I panic in such a moment ever again, I swore to myself.
Josh turned off the light and switched on a flashlight, as described in the emergency protocol, and moved the beam across a white sheet of paper. My eyes needed a moment to get used to the otherwise dark room. It was cold down here, and much quieter than upstairs had been, with the music and the people talking. Now I only heard the subdued noise of sirens and the fast-beating hearts of the humans in the cellar with me.
“Oh, my God, I don’t want to die,” Paula breathed.
“We won’t die. This might be a test,” I said.
“There wasn’t supposed to be a test,” another guy said. “Somebody must have found an explosive charge in the area and now the bomb experts are disarming it.”
“Well, we did everything exactly like this protocol states,” Josh said. “We are as safe as we can be.”
“I bet we’re all thinking we should have gone home directly after work today,” another one said. And then everybody went quiet and the only sound was from the sirens. My mind wandered to Alex and I swallowed, hoping that he was fine, wherever he was. Images of my family appeared in front of my eyes and I kept busy
swallowing my tears. How could I have been so reckless, thinking that Switzerland must be fine, after my last visit to Europe? The situation could change so quickly. I had to bring the magical whistles to my parents and my sister, Isa, before anything happened. I gulped again and decided that I would escape to Switzerland as soon as I was out of this bunker. It was time to finally tell the truth to my mom, dad, and Isa. I had three magical whistles with which they’d be able to protect themselves. There was no use for those whistles if I kept them in my pocket. I leaned against the cold wall. My body more relaxed now that I had made up my mind.
After a while, I felt Paula stir next to me. We were all sitting on the cold ground, leaning against crates filled with beverages, Josh still playing with the flashlight. None of the men who usually were so fond of tippling asked for a drink, though.
“How long do you think we have to stay like this? My ass is starting to freeze,” Paula said.
“I don’t know,” Josh said, “and I’ve lost track of time. I couldn’t say if we’ve been in here for twenty minutes or an hour.”
“It’s only been a little over ten minutes,” one of the guys said.
“Damn, this will be a long day, then,” Paula said.
Another ten minutes later, the sirens finally died down.
“Phew,” somebody breathed.
“Can we go back up now?” Paula asked.
“I guess so,” one of the men answered, and we all got up slowly. I shook my arms and legs to get rid of the cold and stiffness.
Back upstairs, we opened the blinds and again peered through the colored glass. This time a few other people paced nervously around the entrances.
“I guess I’ll go home,” one of the guys mumbled, and the others joined him until only Paula, Josh, and I were left.
“I’ll call Jimmy to ask if we can close early. There’s no need to stay open today,” Paula said gloomily. She dialed his number and, after talking for about a minute, she hung up and her shoulders sank. “He’s coming here and told us to wait. I think he wants to close The Wild Rover for a while.”
