“But I have no clue about that file, Johan! How can I … let me download it. I’ll just give it a quick look, and then you can write it back to my brain and wipe out Kir again!”
“Considering your former occupation, I didn’t expect you to turn into an idiot under stress. Didn’t you see this, my brilliant idea generator?” Johan shook his garbage bag. “All my state of the art equipment is here. Not to mention that we don’t have much time before a swat team shows up.”
“How could I even have believed you?” The setback was so devastating that Nick started shouting in Johan’s face, “There is no file! You are lying to me to make me go back to Earth, to get me out of your hair!”
“You have to believe my word, buddy. Makes it thrilling, doesn’t it? But then again, you have every right to assume I’m lying and give up … though I expected a stronger spirit from you, my failing Orpheus. In any case, I don’t have time to argue.”
Johan picked up the bag and started quickly making his way to the exit. He was right, thought Nick, and there was no time to waste, but for some reason he kept standing still, silently admiring the shape of the red trace left by the wine-soaked trash bag; it was a perfect curve as Johan dragged it across the room, keeping a maximum distance from Nick. Nick bit his lip so hard that it shocked him into reality. It was shitty, all around, but it was the only reality he had.
“Johan … wait … how do I get the file out … assuming it’s there?”
“Glad that your brain is back on. I don’t like quitters,” Johan stopped and rested the garbage bag on the floor. “When you are ready, close your eyes, and concentrate on your favorite color. Your brain waves will trigger an export to Kir.” He paused and then said in the same harsh voice, which he had used to argue with his invisible nemeses earlier, “To answer your question – why I even gave a damn. As you rightly guessed, I don’t care about your romantic story, but …” his face suddenly lost all its mocking plasticity, changing into a ferocious scowl of a small predator. “They fucked up my work, and I get a bit touchy when it comes to that subject. I even hold grudges, irrationally enough. It’s my extreme pleasure to help you fuck them, using whatever shit bomb you happen to have in your recording. So that’s why I am helping. I just gave Kir the security breach detector that I designed for myself. Watch for the red light in the corner of your vision field. If it’s blinking, it means they are breaking in; if it’s solid then it means that Kir has been hacked. These radars have been around, but mine is different – these fucktards won’t notice its presence even if your implant has already been taken over completely.” He caught his breath. “And don’t waste time getting your money from the vault. I transferred more than enough into your account – just get the fuck out of this sector as soon as you can.” Suddenly Johan jerked his head aside, as if hearing something through his internal channels; and his mouth twitched in the closest approximation of real fear that Nick had seen on his face. “How charming… they just dropped the idea of a raid. They already figured that it’s not in the city, so they are planning to blow up a whole plant once they zero in on the exact location. This cuts my time to get the fuck out of here to … well, not to a lot. Have to leave now,” he made a step toward the exit.
Nick involuntary lurched towards the door too, but Johan sharply turned in his direction. “No,” he said, “don’t move!”
Nick instantly stopped, remembering the exploding pain in his head, and Johan dashed out. The hatch shut behind his back and its outlines gradually blended with the wall.
Nick clenched his fists, but Johan’s disembodied voice came through right away, “Don’t panic, once I reach my getaway flyer I’ll open the door and return Kir’s controls. Now, so long and let’s hope we won’t see each other again.”
Nick forced himself to stand absolutely still until he saw a widening crack of the opening hatch.
It was almost noon, and there were no shadows to hide from the direct heat of the sun, but Nick covered the distance between the building and his shuttle at a dead sprint.
“Kir, unlock,” Nick braced himself in anticipation of a refusal, but the door obediently opened.
“Fly to the ship, and start the departure protocol,” he exhaled, landing on his seat.
The shuttle darted towards the Hub in a straight line and was quite a ways away from the ground when a sudden shock wave almost threw it out of balance. Nick zoomed in the rear camera on the symmetric plume of smoke rising from the remains of the abandoned factory, and shuddered.
As his ship shot up into the sky from the parking hangar, he didn’t bother to glance at the retreating surface of Earth3. It was safe to say that he hadn’t fallen in love with the place.
Earth
The front door of the fast-food inspired installation opened, and Riph hastily scrambled to his feet, oafishly slipping on the tile floor.
“Slept right through it, my friend,” said Hilgor in a reproaching tone and got up, expecting to greet Nick.
But it wasn’t Nick. The silhouette in the entrance clearly belonged to a Mirror World woman, and Hilgor recognized her even before she stepped inside.
“Reish?” but the surprise on his face quickly faded away. “Oh, he must have called you too,” he said, sitting down again.
“He did,” Reish gave Riph a brief pat. “I was a little surprised at his choice of the meeting place,” she critically looked at flashes of headline news and advertisement clips on the tabletops. “But it’s you, of course. Missing Del’s collection of lame art, aren’t you?”
“Did he tell you what he wanted?” asked Hilgor, ignoring her question.
“He said he needed help,” she replied, sitting down across his table. “To think, he’s been gone for three months without a word and now he needs help from us, of all people?”
They looked at each other, and Hilgor shrugged. He didn’t know what to say. There was the obvious explanation that Nick had forgotten about their existence the moment he received his bounty money. But it didn’t seem to match the Nick they had gotten to know during their flight from Y-3. Another possibility was that something bad had happened. Given Nick’s situation, it wasn’t a far-fetched assumption.
“Maybe he wants to use our influence for something, maybe he needs money? Reish, give him a break. He had other things to do.”
“Like what?”
Hilgor shrugged again. “I guess we’ll find out soon.”
Riph curled in the aisle between them, sighed and doze off. For several moments they sat in silence, and Hilgor once again thought how drastically Reish had transformed since they had arrived on Earth. She had cut her hair and changed its color to a golden blond, and her light open dress was an obvious antithesis to the protection garbs of the past. But, of course, the main difference was this new carefree expression on her face.
“Let me check if he’s gotten through border control,” Hilgor glanced at the opaque bracelet on his wrist.
“Wait! That thing is so … cumbersome,” winced Reish. “Let me – Kella, reach Nick,” she addressed her implant in an almost loving tone and looked at Hilgor with pity. “Don’t you hate wearing it? Why refuse to have the hardware installed? Worried about a personality split?”
“It’s not that … but what if Riph gets jealous?” Hilgor smiled, dodging the question. He didn’t know why, he just couldn’t do it.
Reish stared into space. “Thanks, Kella.”
“You don’t have to do that,” said Hilgor. “This thing doesn’t appreciate your manners. It’s a program.”
Reish just waved him aside, focusing on the received information. “This is strange,” she was perplexed now. “He is still offline. Why would a routine check be taking so long?” she looked at Hilgor’s empty glass. “I guess I should perk up too. It’s been a long day.”
She got up, went to the vending machine and surveyed her options.
“I i
magine he didn’t tell you about Lita when you talked either, did he?” she said, not turning her head.
“No, it was very brief. I didn’t have time to ask.”
She returned with a glass of something greenish and sat across the table, “I guess we’ll find that out soon too …”
Hilgor imagined that Nick was coming to tell them that Lita died and felt a chill run down his spine – there was something very unsettling in facing raw human despair close up. Come on, maybe things weren’t that bad, he told himself and decided to change the subject, at least for the time being.
“How have you been lately?” he asked Reish.
They officially “split up” two months ago, citing the traumatic effect of the move as the catalyst for their break up. Hilgor continued to enjoy the regal privileges of his outlier status, while Reish was given a modest government support subsidy. But she never bothered to collect it. She immediately became better off than Hilgor.
“By the way, I just saw the reviews of your latest release. Bravo!” In fact, Hilgor expected something like this to happen when he saw her emerge from the doors of the medical center the day after their arrival. There was a reckless happiness in her eyes, as if she had just tasted immortality.
Of course, she was informed that life expectancy on Earth albeit long in comparison with the Mirror World standards, was finite. But it wasn’t about the logic.
Back on Y-3, she would occasionally think about her death and the amount of time she had remaining. But it was like trying to gauge the water level in a lake whose shores were obscured by fog. The moment she received her diagnosis everything changed; suddenly she was looking at a pool that was getting shallower with every minute. The finality was absolute and definitive, and it was confirmed by the feeling of weakness that gradually increased with every passing day.
She wasn’t doing very well when Nick showed up. It didn’t feel real when Del first explained the deal to her, and even after Reish boarded the decidedly alien-looking spacecraft, she still couldn’t allow herself to believe. But all of the darkness lifted without a trace as she underwent the reconstruction procedure on Earth. Even her memory of days filled with the awareness of her impending death melted away when her physical symptoms disappeared. Time wasn’t a pool or even a lake anymore. It was an endless ocean.
Hilgor wondered what practical form this transformation would take, but he had become immediately immersed in the kaleidoscope of his new activities and didn’t see much of Reish. He knew that she was gone for hours a day enjoying the warmth of the late spring in the gardens that weaved through the fabric of the metropolis. But he didn’t know that she had asked for a small favor from their assimilation team. And he didn’t see her face when she watched the plastic bottles with the Beta Blue painkillers melt and burn in a fire that was arranged for her in the nearest park clearing. Otherwise he would have noticed the deep darkness in her eyes while she watched the last evidence of her illness as it disappeared for good.
He also missed her request for neuro-art equipment and image-generating software, so he had no idea what she was concocting in the far wing of their residence until after she had moved out. Only when Hilgor came to visit her new place did he realize what she had been up to. He held his breath as he experienced the flourishing life that was pouring from her new work. She was presenting him with emotions that he had never had, and which could only reliably come from someone who had lived facing the definite end and came back alive. And the public appreciated it very much – her first release propelled her to stardom right away. She became a sensation overnight.
“Thanks,” she smiled, “but you know, these days I don’t need any validation. I don’t feel anxious about my work at all.”
“It’s great, seriously, but still, Reish, why don’t you just take the outlier assessment? That way it won’t matter what the public thinks, you’ll be set forever.”
“Why do you have to bring that up again? You know what I think about it, together with the rest of the Commonwealth, I am sure. People don’t call it the Dark Triad anymore; everyone is using euphemisms these days. But everyone knows what kind of personality a positive score means. No, thank you.”
“Aren’t you even curious?”
“No, I’m not curious,” she said firmly, her voice sounded a bit strained. “In any case, thanks for your concern.”
“It’s Nick. He is calling me back,” said Reish, focusing on her internal feed.
In a moment she turned to Hilgor with a look of slight annoyance.
“I’m on my way, see you soon …” That was short! Why couldn’t he explain more? Not fair,” she said. “I’ll call him for details.”
“Don’t. Please, Reish, patience. He did say that he was on his way. Maybe he wants to explain himself in person. Anyway, it shouldn’t take him very long to get here now.”
“Fine, let’s wait,” she took a sip of her drink. “Tell me how you’ve been. It’s crazy – we haven’t talked for almost a month. Anything new about work? And other things?”
Hilgor clasped his hands behind his head and sat like that for a moment staring into the distance. “I’ve been alright.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked immediately.
Hilgor slouched on his bench, crossing his arms over his chest and focused on a section of the tile floor. “Everything is fine. That work I’m doing for the Defense Department is very interesting. It seems that I found a fix for major space shield instability. People think it’s a very big deal. And my personal research is going pretty well too.”
“Okay, Hilgor, what’s up?”
“Well … no, it’s all good. It’s just that …” he seemed really fascinated in the tile pattern. “I don’t enjoy working as much as before,” he said reluctantly, “in spite of the fact that I’ve never had a better setup.”
“Can I guess?” asked Reish. “Nobody interrupts. Del is not here to interrupt.”
“No, she is not,” Hilgor nodded in agreement. “But maybe it has nothing to do with her. So, Reish, please don’t start apologizing. You know she wouldn’t have come with me in any case.”
Reish figured that he wasn’t going to continue with this topic. Avoiding an awkward pause, she turned towards the aisle and looked at the dog.
“How is your assimilation going, Riph?”
He instantly raised his head and tensed, all ears.
“He misses other dogs,” said Hilgor gently. “On the plus side, he’s discovered squirrels.”
Riph gave a soft whine and darted towards the opening door.
Nick received a series of body checks even before he fully entered the room – the dog saluted his long-absent friend with overflowing exuberance. Nick bent and gave Riph a firm hug. Reish and Hilgor exchanged quick glances – Nick seemed perfectly fine. Only when he started walking across the room did they notice that there was something different about him. A certain smooth lightness was gone from his step, as if his body now obeyed gravity a little more than usual.
But his expression was as disarming as before, and his voice was as friendly as always, “I’m very glad to see you both,” he said and sat down at the table across the aisle, turning to face them. “And I’m sorry that I disappeared without saying goodbye. But, honestly, when I was leaving for Earth3 I wasn’t in great shape.”
“Earth3?” asked Hilgor.
“No problem, Nick. You know we love you anyway,” said Reish at the same time, and quickly added, “I hope everything is fine.” It came out unintentionally flippant, so she desperately looked at Hilgor for support.
“We know that you need help.” Hilgor hesitated for a moment, “But first … how is Lita?”
Silently chastising herself for being a coward, Reish pretended to watch a cheery advertisement for some ancient oral medication on her tabletop.
“Lita is alive,” said Nick in a perfectly normal tone, an
d they all looked at Riph who sprang up from the sphinx position at the door and trotted down the aisle, wagging his tail, acknowledging the sudden relief in the room. He settled on the floor between the three of them and put his head on his paws with a content sigh.
Nick suddenly winced at the especially wild colors of the video clip that flashed across his table, “Hilgor, you have strange taste, I must tell you.”
Hilgor shrugged, “Del’s influence, as she said,” he said, nodding towards Reish.
“What do you need help with?” Reish’s patience had finally ran out, “Nick, enough of this suspense.”
“Listen, thank you both for responding to my call. I really need your help, but there’s a lot I need to explain first. The least I can do is make it comfortable. There’s a really cool place I rented on my last vacation, an antique chic, mid-21st-century beachfront cottage, and it happens to be available right now. How about dinner on a Pacific island?”
At the sound of Nick’s last words Riph lifted his head and looked up at him with fresh interest.
“Sure,” said Hilgor immediately, “how about you, Reish?”
“I mean, it’s a bit far, but … I owe you more, Nick, than a dinner on a tropical island.”
“Reish, you owe Hilgor. I was just the pilot. But thanks. Shall we, then?”
The dog was already at the door, wagging his tail in great excitement. They went outside, and Hilgor almost whistled, seeing a flyer parked right next to the restaurant door. It must have cost Nick an arm and a leg – no civil vehicles were normally allowed on the pedestrian side of the holographic wall.
“Nick, you’re very extravagant,” whispered Reish with admiration. “Do you always rent one of these?”
Fire of the Dark Triad Page 24
