by Zara Zenia
I took a deep breath. “Which might explain some of her underlying jealousy to all the people she’s attempted to sabotage.”
Yadav said the words I was thinking inside my head. “Ariana included.”
“But it doesn’t make any sense.” I frowned and glanced down at my hands. “I’ve never had any direct contact with Nora Morse. Ariana has never mentioned her either. Why would she single us out for a target?”
David’s lips curled at the edges. “That’s what you don’t understand about this woman. She will stop at nothing to make sure she crumbles any relationship between a Trilyn Prince and a human woman. She wants the role so bad herself, that she attempts to sour anyone’s lives who get a leg up on her.”
“She sounds competitive.”
David nodded. “Indeed, she is very competitive, in a vindictive way. But do not mistake, this woman deadly.”
I rubbed my temples and sighed. “It sounds like we are going to have our work cut out for us.”
David switched the screen to what looked like a biography on Nora Morse.
“My team and I have been digging up everything we can With everything she has done, we are determined to find her and prosecute her for her crimes against the US and against the Trilyian.”
“Good.”
I approved. David was on top of things. It should be that way. He was our computer crimes expert. It was his job to be involved in any issues regarding intercontinental tech crimes.
“This woman,” Yadav declared angrily as if he had a personal bone to pick with her, “is a sociopath. She has the annoying ability to escape being caught or killed. She hires people to do most of her dirty work, but when that doesn’t play out, she makes her own attempt or escapes. We’ve been trying to track her since the incident with Lortnam, but she’s evaded up until now. She is very good at hiding. I believe, now that she’s making another play against the Trilyian, against you by taking Ariana, that we’ll be able to find her.”
“I can’t stand people like that,” I admitted. “Those who think they are above the law, or at least assume they are crafty enough to work it to their advantage.”
“Nora Morse fits that description astutely,” David said. “She will sink her teeth into the weak and use them to get what she wants.”
My heart plummeted into my stomach. I was hit with an instant wave of nausea, thinking about the vulnerable and easy target that Ariana made. She was a soft spoken poet who had never been anywhere. She was naïve and most likely too easily trusting of others.
“Ariana was probably an easy mark for someone as devious as Nora,” I said through clenched teeth. “I suspect that it wasn’t difficult for Nora to manipulate Ariana if that is the case.”
“There might be other factors to explore too,” Yadav said. “Give Ariana the benefit of the doubt. Nora probably wanted to keep herself and her identity a secret from Ariana.”
“Are you saying she might have drugged her or something?”
The thought was simply horrifying for my mind to explore.
“It’s plausible.” David was professionally aloof to my emotions, shrugging as he keyed in all the factors.
Nora was a snake in the grass. She had to be stopped before she destroyed anymore lives.
“I want to show you something that you might find helpful yet disturbing to this circumstance.”
I gave Yadav a wary glance. “Okay.”
David wiggled his computer mouse across the screen.
“As I began to say earlier but then got off track, from what we discovered, Nora’s current line of research at the tech company she owns involves a virtual reality simulation. They are working to advance the applications in both therapy and interrogation when it comes to the virtual reality world and humans.”
“Interesting.” I looked at the screen. Her company had quite a respectable resume that I hated to admit on the surface, looked quite impressive.
Of course, that might have just been a façade. Perhaps her accomplishments and the esteemed reputation of her electronic engineer company might have just all been a front for the deceitful acts she schemed behind closed doors.
“Morse Systems,” I said, reading aloud the title and partial mission statement to Nora’s company. Then, in a slightly more sarcastic tone, “paving the way to groundbreaking technology.”
I scoffed. “More like paving the way to deceptive technology.”
Yadav tossed me a look of agreement and then sighed. “This woman knows all the tricks of the trade to make herself look like an upstanding citizen. When in reality…” he trailed off and his eyes narrowed and darkened, “she doesn’t deserve to be in society with the rest of the good people.”
He shook his head as if it was a crying shame to even utter Nora’s name.
“We can fix this,” I told him reassuringly.
Yadav gave me a careful glance. “We need to be mindful of her guiles.”
“We will be,” I said with a confident nod. I wasn’t going to allow someone like Nora to stand in the way of me achieving true happiness with Ariana.
It wasn’t fair. I hadn’t even had a chance to meet her in person yet, and Nora had disrupted my hopes and dashed away my dreams. They weren’t shattered yet. I knew that Ariana was out there just waiting for a way out.
“Nora’s engineers have been diligently working on fine tuning the tweaks and flaws of her virtual reality programs,” David mentioned. “I have been reading up on her teams. They are diligently working around the clock, day and night to perfect the software. Because of that, I believe she is somewhere nearby, somewhere where she can keep an eye on their work.”
“Do you think that Ariana’s trapped in some kind of virtual reality world?” I proposed, thinking it outlandish but not entirely implausible.
David typed something into his keyboard, switching the screen over to a search engine. He typed the words The Manchurian Candidate into the search display. When he completed the action, he looked up at me.
I frowned and cocked my head to the side, reading the words. “I’m sorry. I don’t follow.”
“Brainwashing,” Yadav stated it simply.
“Brainwashing?” I stared at him.
“Yes.” He nodded. “I believe that Nora might have had people kidnap Ariana and perhaps is now attempting to brainwash her in some kind of virtual world.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and squeezed my eyes shut. “It’s…more than I can wrap my head around.”
“I know.” Yadav gave me an empathetic nod. “That’s why I brought up The Manchurian Candidate.”
“What is that?” I asked and shook my head with budding frustration.
“It’s something, if I am correct, that has the potential to ruin your future relationship with Ariana,” Yadav stated with sinister foreboding.
“Is it some kind of method that she is using to fool Ariana? To get inside her psyche and destroy her from the inside out?”
My voice was high pitched and shrill. I didn’t know how to react. I was a basket case inside, losing it by the second. I was unraveling like a ball of yarn.
I ran a hand through my hair and took a couple of paces around the room. Yadav glanced at me as if I was an animal caged to observe in a zoo. To him, everything was science, everything was explorable. If only he had the answers that I was looking for right now and I wouldn’t have to feel like putting my head through a wall.
“Tell me more about this Macho thing…”
“It’s Manchurian Candidate,” Yadav corrected.
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. What does it represent in Ariana’s case?”
Yadav cleared his throat as if preparing to go on an extremely long-winded declaration about the unknown topic.
“In my research about the study of human life, art, theater and all other things, I discovered a novel that was so compelling as a thriller and a drama that it was made into a movie, not once, but twice.”
“Okay.” I looked at him. “I’ve never heard o
f it.”
“The book is based on a son of a prominent family who has ties to the political scene.”
“I’m still not following how this has to do with Ariana—”
“I’ll get to that part in a second,” Yadav advised.
“Right.” I nodded and allowed him to continue.
“Anyway, the son is kidnapped and brainwashed by Soviets during the Korean War in the nineteen-fifties.”
“That happened here on Earth?” I asked.
“Yes.” Yadav nodded and adjusted his wire rimmed glasses once again.
“The main character was brainwashed into becoming an assassin for the communists.”
My heart plummeted through my chest. “Are you saying that you think that it’s possible that this Nora woman might be manipulating Ariana into believing that I’m the bad guy here?”
I touched my palm to my chest. I felt truly appalled. Was it really a possibility that Nora might attempt to convince Ariana to hurt me?
“What kind of things happen in this virtual world?” I asked. “Will Ariana be aware that she is not in reality, but only in a game of sorts?”
“That’s the problem.” Yadav looked frustrated as he tapped a pen against the edge of his desk. “When I did research on the applications used by Nora’s company, I found that she has Artificial Intelligence, or A.I. creatures and people that will make the person under the spell of the virtual simulation believe that they are actually placed in this world. She’s using some of Akrawn’s technology. I don’t know if her AI’s are sentient like his, but it’s possible.”
“So, ultimately the brainwashing is taking place right now?” My heart drummed with despair.
Yadav shrugged as if he hated to be the bearer of bad news, but somebody had to do it. “Unfortunately, that is probably the case. Although I have not personally seen Nora’s virtual simulation pods, so I can’t say for sure. I know that she probably has Ariana hooked up to modules that alter the connection between what’s real and what’s not in her brain. The sensors probably feed Ariana with a constant array of vivid colors, shapes and textures.”
“Will she be able to feel?” I didn’t want to imagine her suffering in whatever hell Nora brought her to.
Yes.” Yadav nodded and scratched his chin. “The virtual simulations connects to the sensors in the brain. She will be able to feel everything, pain, happiness, joy all across the spectrum. That’s why she won’t realize that she’s trapped inside of a virtual reality.”
I sat down. My head was swimming. I felt dizzy. I clutched the sides of my head and propped myself up on my knees, rocking back and forth. I wished there was a way that I could reach her, that I could console her and tell her that everything was going to be alright.
I gazed back at Yadav. Maybe there was still the underlying hope that she wasn’t with Nora after all.
“And you are absolutely sure that Ariana is under the control of Nora Morse?”
“All the connections have been made and point to Nora as the culprit,” Yadav stated confidently. “She’s been nothing but trouble for us and your brothers.”
I had no choice but to take his word for it. He had all the resources, the wealth of information at his disposal. He was head of the intercontinental computer crimes division. David Yadav knew what he was doing and wouldn’t tell me otherwise if he wasn’t one-hundred percent certain of Ariana’s current whereabouts.
“So, how do we find her?” I asked. “I’m imagining that someone as conniving as Nora wouldn’t be stupid enough to bring Ariana to her company’s headquarters.”
“You are correct.” Yadav nodded. “She has probably taken her to an alternate location where she had the technology and the virtual simulation pod available in secret.”
“Now we just need to find where that is,” I said. I stood up and walked over to the window. “She could be anywhere out there…”
“Don’t get discouraged,” Yadav said behind me.
I swiveled around and looked at him. “I’m far from it. I’m more determined than ever. I also wanted to thank you for your hard work and digging to at least fit in some of the missing puzzle pieces.”
Yadav beamed. He loved encouragement and thrived on praise. He cast me a noble bow. “I can assure you I will continue to diligently work to figure out where Nora took Ariana.”
“I have some of my advisor team members like Vas going to the airports and pulling surveillance footage,” I mentioned.
Yadav smiled. “Every little bit helps. We can get to the bottom of this. Nora wants to believe that she’s staying one step ahead of us, but we will soon prove her wrong.”
I exhaled slowly and shoved my hands in my pockets, looking back out at the graying sky. It was overcast now and looked of rain. It was only fitting to reflect my mood.
“I certainly hope you are right…” I trailed off.
It was a nightmare inside my head to think of Nora planting falsehoods about my reputation and honor into Ariana’s head.
I chuckled at the irony. “After all this time talking to her and getting excited for her arrival, and now she is probably being fed lies about me by a sociopath who wants to destroy my reputation and my life.”
“Ariana is a strong woman,” Yadav said. “I don’t know her personally of course, but she has to be in order to capture your attention.”
I smiled. “She is wonderful. Charismatic, charming, sweet. She is the gentlest and kindest person I’ve ever talked to.” I looked down, feeling disheartened all of the sudden that I was robbed of meeting her.
“You will get your chance.” Yadav spoke softly as he stood up and approached me. “Nora is rash. She can be aloof when she gets carried away. She’ll make a mistake.”
I firmed my jaw. “And when she does make a mistake, I can assure you that I’ll be ready for it.”
There was a fire of urgency burning inside of me.
Yadav pumped my hand. “That’s exactly what I mean. If you aren’t going to give up hope, then you can’t expect Ariana to either. She’s out there. She’s not as impressionable as you think. She’ll wait for you.”
I cracked my knuckles and took a deep breath. “Good. Because I’m coming for Ariana. Nora Morse may be getting away with hell right now, but she hasn’t met her match yet. I’m going to make certain that she pays for what she’s done.”
Chapter 8
Ariana
I peered over the awning. All was quiet. Where had the dragon flown off to? I certainly didn’t want to find out. I was afraid of walking out from under the awning to expose myself, but at the same time, I knew I needed to get out of here. I needed to explore my options.
“Come on, Ariana,” I encouraged myself. “You can’t stay here forever.”
Where was Queen Nora anyway? She just left me to fend for myself when I was supposedly a prisoner under the tyranny of a prince named Jinurak?
I found it exceptionally hard to believe that Jinurak was behind this capture. He wanted me to come to Baltimore to visit him. It was winter in Baltimore, and not rural. It just didn’t add up. Unless he had me taken to a different location where it wasn’t winter time. I couldn’t still be in upstate New York. There was two feet of snow on the ground underneath at least another six inches of ice.
No, this world was different. There were butterflies fluttering through the air. The grass was vividly green. The warm sunshine hit my back and it felt so good. It seemed as if I hadn’t seen the sun in months.
Why would Jinurak bring me to a pleasant place, aside from the dragon of course, and not lock me away inside of a frigid and dim dungeon? I just couldn’t wrap my head around it.
I couldn’t have been gone for long enough to be on his home planet of Trilyn. At least I didn’t think that was the case. It didn’t seem like much time had passed since I had arrived in this weird, extremely vibrant world.
I stepped one foot out from underneath the awning. I held my breath and froze in place, but nothing happened. No vicious dragon was
there bearing its teeth and saliva while spewing neon green fire.
I took another brave step, exposing myself completely. I breathed a sigh of relief after realizing that I wasn’t going to be ambushed on the spot by the dragon, to which its current whereabouts were still unknown to me.
I craned my neck around the castle. It was enormous. There were windows everywhere. The castle itself was practically a village on its own accord.
I saw the three fairies who had come to my aid suddenly fluttering back toward my direction, fancily spinning, swirling and doing little flips in the air. I stared at them in awe. I blinked and rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t just imagining things that weren’t there, but wouldn’t that go for the dragon too?
What if it was just my subconscious conjuring this scenario? The only probably solution I could give myself was that I had to be located on a different planet. It still didn’t make practical sense. Wouldn’t I remember intergalactic travel? I hadn’t been asleep for that long.
The three fairies began to flap their dainty little wings all around my head. I didn’t want to swat them away. They were beautiful and elegant, but a little annoying too.
They were a fantastic trio of twinkling lights. The gold one let out a giggled whisper as it breezed past my ear and flew high into the air, only to plunge back down in a spinning move only a few seconds later.
They looked mischievous as they playfully buzzed around me.
“Who are you?” I asked, wondering if they were able to talk.
They blushed and grinned but didn’t say anything. I knew that they understood me because there was a connection of recognition flickering in their eyes.
“Are you here to help me?” I asked again.
The blue fairy hovered directly in front of my face, only a couple of inches away. It let out a crisp chuckle and nodded, swirling away a few seconds later. It returned and nodded again with a gleeful smile.
“Where am I?” I asked, not expecting to receive an answer from them, but trying anyway.
