The bartender showed up with his drink and put the glass on the counter.
“On me,” she said, giving the waiter a quick nod, and then turned back to Nick. “Please indulge me – I don’t get to talk to someone so fresh from Earth very often.”
“How did you know that I just got here?”
“Trust me, I can tell … and it’s not just your accent. But don’t worry – you’ll blend in, in no time … if you want. I would know, I’ve been here for a while. This place is a lot of fun, no doubt about that,” she glanced at him, and for some reason an image of a slow-circling hawk flashed across Nick’s mind. “But I miss people from Earth. The men, especially,” she smiled lightly, rotating the glass stem in her hand. “These guys,” she nodded towards the room, “are lacking a certain – sophistication.” She leaned back and gazed at him without any ambiguity.
Nick quickly looked away, breaking eye contact. What’s wrong, he immediately asked himself with irritation. She was a great information source, and he should’ve automatically tried to connect with her. But he was sick of his manipulating women. She was right – ordinary people with normal lives didn’t end up on Earth3. Maybe she also desired something strange, just like he did, and, who knows, maybe even due to the same genetic flaw. Maybe she was like him.
She kept looking at him, lightly tapping her fingers on the glass stem, and then she smiled and her armor of cool perfection shattered, and he recognized the type right away. She was a fragile warrior, both sensitive and cynical, a proud soul that wouldn’t be caught dead wearing her heart on her sleeve. In this way, she was exactly like him and that was why she was able to see through his veneer of light nonchalance. With a dizzying feeling he thought that it was an absolute miracle that she even existed, let alone that she happened to be right here, close enough to touch.
He reached toward her hand, and she let go of her drink, responding, and something snapped inside his chest. A bandage lifted from his eyes, revealing a dazzling world, filled with delight and pain he had never known, and she was smiling at him from the center of it. He took her hand in his, and, suddenly losing control, he began stroking it insatiably, desperately, as if trying to convince himself that it wasn’t a dream. His frenzied caress seemed to be more than his heart could handle, but it still wasn’t enough. He stood up and said, “Let’s go.”
“Yes,” she replied, not taking her eyes away from his face. “Let’s get out of here.”
They left the bar without saying a word and joined the thick pedestrian flow outside. She walked a step ahead of him showing the way; he followed not asking any questions.
It was impossible, and he was afraid to jinx it, but he knew that from now on they would be together forever, or, at least, for as long as he was alive, because he wouldn’t let any force in this universe take her away. For a moment he imagined her gone, and blood rushed from his head, making him lightheaded. Wait, he told himself, he’d had that exact same feeling before – at the thought of losing Lita.
The fog in his brain abruptly lifted as if Lita’s name had flipped some sort of switch. He was on Earth3 because he had gone rogue; he had put everything on the line, and he was doing it for Lita. But at the same time, there was no mistake about his deep, true, absolute love for the woman walking in front of him on the unfamiliar street of this tucked away world. It wasn’t adding up. Something was very wrong, and he had to figure it out fast, and somehow he knew that he shouldn’t let her notice his confusion. He’d met her in the bar, he told himself, and something must’ve happened during that conversation. He concentrated so hard that the street went out of focus, and then the mental image of her fingers tapping the glass shocked him by its unexpected familiarity.
It was something he had done on his Mirror World missions when he wanted to secretly send Kir a prerecorded command. And then it came to him in a flash; she must have launched a bio-transmission that was affecting his brain. Blood fled from his head again, and this time it was a sign of fear, which had a genuine chill about it … but then again, there was no way to know. He couldn’t trust any of his reactions anymore.
She was still walking slightly ahead of him, her face invisible at this angle. He glanced at their reflections in the window they were passing and caught a glimpse of her profile, and his heart instantly responded with a splash of impossible tenderness, drowning the fear – but the knowledge was there now. This feeling wasn’t real, he thought, it was a symptom of a mental injury.
“Eve,” he called, slowing down at a random shop entrance, “let’s drop in here; I want to buy a drink.”
She stopped and abruptly turned around. Careful, don’t change your body language, he warned himself, and made a calculated step in her direction. There was an instant explosion of butterflies in his gut, and then a sudden wave of desire knocked down any remains of self-control like a sandcastle. He pictured pushing her against the wall, running his hands down her back, over her thighs, up her ribs, and made another, this time, involuntary step forward almost closing the distance between them. Some nagging voice in the back of his mind told him to stand back, and he deeply inhaled, clearing his head. She noticed and tensed, searching his face with increasing suspicion. Don’t fight it, a rational thought went though his mind, ride this wave just like in a rip current. He gasped and let go with blind abandon, tightly squeezing her head in his hands, impatiently prying her obedient lips open, thrusting and writhing his tongue inside her responsive mouth. The street disappeared in a scorching haze, and melting sensations began spreading all over his body, but then she gently freed herself from his arms. He stepped back, slowly sobering, and saw her satisfied smile.
“Of course,” she said, “we are blocking the way, Nick.” She took his hand and pulled him inside the store.
They walked in, passing a booth with a bored store clerk at the door, and Nick let go of her hand shifting to the lead position. His pulse slowed slightly once he was no longer looking at her, and he managed to focus on the scene inside. Straight aisles stretched from the entrance in a funny spoke-like fashion, which, as he guessed, had a very specific purpose. Electronic surveillance hadn’t been allowed on the Commonwealth for centuries, but this layout allowed a single store clerk to keep an eye on the entire customer crowd, which was very sparse at this particular moment.
Nick located the drink section, and slowly moved along its shelves, pretending to examine the rows of bottles, and carefully watching Eve’s reflection in the mirrored panel that sealed the aisle on the other side. They finally reached the last rack with her just a step behind him, and then he quickly reversed their positions trapping her in the dead end. Her eyes widened in surprise, but this maneuver put him too dangerously close to her once again. He suddenly realized that the whole thing was pathologically inverted, and that, in fact, he was the one who was trapped in this store. He clenched his fists in frustration because he couldn’t strip off her clothes right there in the aisle, lean her against these shelves, ignoring the cascade of dropping bottles, push apart her strong thighs with his hands, and, falling down on his knees, covering that tender slit between her open legs with his burning mouth. He shook his head, gasping for breath, and helplessly tried to remember why he was torturing both of them, wasting time in this random place, while they would have already been alone, away from all these people, from that watchful clerk at the door. Because he was being manipulated into something, reminded a sober voice in his head. Nick swallowed hard and looked aside to avoid facing her straight on, but it didn’t help. Why did any of this matter if he would gladly do anything she wanted anyway, and all the logic in the word gave him an approving nod. That’s exactly it, you stupid idiot, the rational part of his mind shouted in panic – she is dangerous precisely because of that.
“What are you using to induce … this?” he asked hoarsely, still looking past her. It seemed that his mind had regained some control the moment he openly dropped the pretense, and he s
harply exhaled, clutching at the edge of his returning sanity.
It suddenly felt safe to face her again, and he saw that she had appreciated the change in the situation immediately.
“How did you … guess?” there was genuine surprise in her voice, and her eyes instantly became narrow and alert. “You’re good for a greenhorn; I have to give you that.”
He realized that he no longer liked having her physically close. Good, he thought, it meant that the obfuscation spell was largely gone. He didn’t back off, however, staring at her with a hard smile.
“Ok, fine, it was just an amplifier,” she said quickly. “It only amplified your natural feelings towards me. I just liked you … and it makes sex wonderful. It’s not a big deal, just not very ethical.”
“You’re using mild terminology here, Eve. Owning bio-transmission software is a pretty serious crime, we both know that.”
She looked over his shoulder at the security guard at the entrance.
“Don’t make a scene, Nick. This program doesn’t work long term. It’s probably wearing off now that you are fighting it. Calm down.”
“Don’t you practice anything else on me,” he said through clenched teeth. An image of the dead soldiers scattered along his way to Lita’s van on the empty Beta Blue road flashed through his mind, and beads of cold sweat broke out on his forehead. Relax, he ordered himself, she wasn’t about to attract attention by using something like that here … but he wouldn’t have time to stop her if she decided to go for it. He looked at his face in the reflective panel behind her back and saw the sheer dread in his eyes. Damn this bitch, his rage steadily rising, he should kill her for making him feel like this.
She blinked and suddenly looked genuinely frightened. “I can’t,” she quickly stepped backwards, bumping into the wall. “Trust me, I wouldn’t want to amplify your current emotions, and it’s really the only program I use. Just for fun, I swear. Just let me pass.”
“I’m going to pretend that I believe you,” he said in an even tone.
Her eyes quickly surveyed the geometry of their position, but he was standing right in the middle of the aisle, not allowing her to pass him without creating a noticeable commotion.
He nodded, seeing her realization. “Now … help me, and we’ll keep this small incident between us.” Nick glanced past her at the reflection of the entry area in the mirrored surface and noticed that the guard was looking in their direction. “I have some questions. Where did you get this – amplifier?” Nick stretched his arm towards the closest shelf, keeping his eyes glued to her face, and grabbed a random bottle from the stack. She understood and quickly did the same.
“They are sold on the Darknet, all kinds of things like this.”
“How do you get in?”
“I didn’t buy it there, actually I bought it from a dealer. Normal people don’t enter the Darknet. It’s not safe.”
“Who can show me how to get in?”
“Don’t do it,” a frightened expression crossed her face again. “I went once, long ago, out of curiosity … a friend had given me the access software. It’s bad … even for Earth3. I also heard that somebody who had gone there disappeared for good. Nobody would know, or care. The police just leave Darknet alone, mostly.”
“Do you still have your friend’s program?”
“I do, but …”
“You really care about my safety, do you?” Nick couldn’t contain a sarcastic smile. “Just send it to me, and I’ll forget all about our – adventure.”
“Nick, whatever you suspect about me, I actually just liked you.”
“Listen, I don’t give a damn about your real intentions. Just send it, now.”
“Darknet is bad news. I’m telling you, Nick,” she shook her head and muttered something under her breath.
“Nick, you’ve just received a copy of unlicensed software,” informed Kir. “It appears to be an access portal to an encrypted network.”
“Accept,” said Nick.
The guard was now openly staring at them. Nick figured that time was up, and stepped aside, letting her pass.
He caught a faint whiff of her perfume as she went by, and his heart made a wild somersault. He stood still, watching her lithe body move in an effortlessly graceful stride towards the exit, and felt a lump in his throat, thinking that he would never see her again. The doors opened, and she walked out without a parting glance in his direction.
He bit his lip and counted to ten.
When he went outside, she was gone.
He walked a short way from the storefront and then stopped to collect his thoughts, pressing his back firmly against a nearby wall. He still didn’t fully trust himself, so he tested his condition by running a kaleidoscope of recent images through his head: the dull glow of desire in Eve’s half-closed eyes, her parted lips red and puffy from his kisses, the yielding curve of her breast under his hand – but the feelings elicited by these flashes were becoming more and more elusive, like memories of a quickly disappearing dream, until they had vanished completely.
He shivered and couldn’t help a nervous giggle at the irony; the tables had turned, and he would finally get to appreciate a neuro-transmission program from the other side. It was an unpleasant feeling indeed, especially considering the fact that, according to Eve, he had been broadcasting his newbie status rather openly. An amplifier wasn’t a big thing in itself, but it meant that other, much more dangerous programs were likely to be around as well. He again remembered the still bodies on the deserted Beta Blue road, and looked at the passing locals with a lot more respect. He was an easy mark, an obvious sitting duck here, and he needed to get the hell out of neuro-transmission range as soon as possible.
All that being said, his progress was good, he told himself encouragingly. The Darknet was a solid lead, and the next step was clear.
“Kir, show me the list of temporary public accommodations,” Nick asked, and reviewed the available options. He checked the amount of his remaining money and told Kir to pay for a one-night stay at the nearest place he could afford. The description of the so-called “guest house” conformed to the true definition of basic, but it was located just a couple of blocks away.
The building curiously reminded him of Y-3 by its pure practicality. No imagination had been applied; the stairs led into a straight corridor with identical shutter gates squarely facing each other. One of its frames flashed, showing the availability, and the door lifted as Nick approached.
The room also reminded Nick of Y-3 with the no-frills efficiency of its actions; the moment he walked inside, the ceiling lit up and packages with disposable bedding rolled down from a chute in the wall onto a simple cot below.
Delaying the beginning of the unpleasant task, Nick slightly rattled the single chair at the modest table in the corner as if checking its sturdiness and sat down.
The initial steps were reassuring in their safe simplicity. First, he moved his remaining money to a bank vault that required his physical presence to initiate a reverse transfer. Then he wrapped Elisabeth’s picture into a cocoon of maximum strength encryptions, tagged it with a “Help Wanted” label, and positioned it in the most conspicuous place inside Kir’s shell. He was about to initiate Eve’s program, but a sharp spasm twisted his stomach, making him double over in his chair. Once the pain let go, he slowly straightened, and admitted that he was afraid.
Earth didn’t have a Darknet, at least not to his knowledge, so he had no idea what to expect. But there was something particularly dreadful about diving into this virtual underworld, even without assigning any serious weight to Eve’s semi-hysterical warnings. It felt like being pushed out, blinded and unarmed, into the center of an abandoned amphitheater, whose steep rows shrouded in the darkness were filled by the most dangerous people on this planet. He was fine with the gangs of criminals gathering here to run their illegal businesses, but his blood
curdled at the thought of bored freaks with sadistic tendencies lurking in this crowd.
But he had to find Elisabeth, and Darknet was the only crack that Nick had managed to discover in the Commonwealth’s façade of wholesomeness. In theory, there were probably less dangerous ways to go about his search, but he didn’t have time – the departure date of Lita’s ship for Beta Blue was steadily approaching.
“Kir, run the Darknet program,” he said, sitting back in the chair.
“Warning, my security can be compromised,” there was a programmed concern in Kir’s voice. “Are you sure you want me to proceed?”
“I am offering you as bait, Kir,” Nick said. Then he switched into his usual mode of nonchalant banter, “It must be an unpleasant feeling for you, I get it … well, ok, I know you can’t feel. Just trust me then, it doesn’t feel so good. Yes, go ahead.”
The room disappeared in a flash, and wildly enhanced colors and sounds rushed at Nick from all directions, changing their brightness and volume as they whooshed past at incomprehensible speeds.
“Nick, the software you loaded is out of date and unable to communicate with the current interface,” Nick barely managed to make out Kir’s words through the screeching noise.
“It’s alright, just keep me logged in,” said Nick.
Kir began to reply, but his voice was abruptly cut off and the program jammed all of Nick’s personal feeds. He leaned forward and grasped the edge of the desk, hoping to maintain at least a spatial point of reference, but the notion of up or down jerked away, and he felt as if he was clutching a small dinghy being kicked around in a psychedelic version of raging surf. His ability to track time was gone; it seemed that he had been out there for eternity, but it might just as well have been seconds, there was no way to tell. Rolling waves of nausea hit him one after another, and he kept fighting them off until he couldn’t hold the urge to vomit any longer.
Fire of the Dark Triad Page 21
