by V. E. Lemp
“Really?” Mark pulled a comical face. “You think I’m getting better looking?”
“Stop it.” Karen waved the brush at him. “I’m trying to be serious. What I mean is I doubt Alex will lack female companionship for long. So his feelings for me are bound to fade over time.”
Mark’s expression changed. “Don’t count on that.”
“Why not?” Karen laid down the brush and turned to face him. “It makes perfect sense.”
“The situation’s a bit more complicated than your scenario, sweetheart.” Mark regarded her seriously. “I’m not his greatest fan, but I’ll concede Alex isn’t so shallow as to only care about youth or beauty. Not that your appearance isn’t as lovely as ever, of course…”
Karen narrowed her eyes. “Uh-huh.”
“But despite the passage of time, I suspect Alex’s love for you won’t fade. And, to be honest, I rather doubt other women are going to change his feelings significantly. He could’ve had his pick of women when you were involved before. Was he seriously tempted then?”
“Not that I could tell.”
“So why would it be different now? Besides, I think I’m better qualified to evaluate this matter since I am, after all, also in love with you.”
“That’s different. You know me and accept me as I am.”
“And you think Alex doesn’t?” Mark shook his head. “I remember seeing you two together back then, and I also saw how he looked at you today. Honestly, I’m not thrilled with this turn of events, but I think it’s better if we face reality. Your relationship with Alex is always going to be difficult. I only say this because I don’t want you to cling to a false hope of a fairy-tale ending where we’re all friends, holding hands and singing campfire songs together.”
Karen looked up at him with a frown. “You were the one who told me people can love more than one person in a lifetime. So why can’t Alex find someone else to love, just as I did?”
Mark smiled gently. “Ah, but you were in love with him. That’s certainly not as difficult to get over as being in love with you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s exactly the same thing.”
“No.” Mark lifted his hand and traced the contours of her face. “It isn’t. And I imagine”—he laid his fingers over her lips—“if you asked Alex he’d tell you the same.”
Karen sighed. “We’ll see. Anyway, I’m willing to put up with all sorts of crap if it means Alex will help us expose Vance and Exocorp and their collaboration with the Oneiroi.”
“I know you are. As am I.” Mark kissed her bare shoulder.
When he straightened Karen stared up into his brown eyes. “Another thing, I just wanted you to know … about that kiss …”
“The excessively passionate one, you mean?”
Heat blazed in Karen’s cheeks. “I don’t want you to worry.”
Mark raised his eyebrows. “Do I look worried?”
“No, but …” Karen fidgeted with the tie on her robe. “I didn’t plan to do that. It was like something just came over me—I can’t really explain. I don’t want you to think I deliberately embarrassed you. It just happened, like a time slip or something. As if I’d fallen into the past.”
“Is that what it was? Well then, perhaps I should bring you back into the present.” He pulled her close and kissed her until Karen had to grip his arms to keep standing upright. “Now,” he said, releasing her, “let’s get dressed for this dinner. I’m staying casual.”
“Very casual.” Karen’s heart was drumming so hard she felt sure Mark could hear it.
Mark shook his head. “Dress down all you want, you’ll still need to be on your guard. And I”—he grinned—“will still need to avoid leaping over the table to pulverize him. I don’t know which of us will have a more uncomfortable evening, to tell you the truth.”
“Never fear,” she said when she’d finally gotten her breathing back under control. “I’ll prevent you from doing anything too rash.”
“Stick close to me, then.”
“Oh, I plan to do that,” she said. “As close as physically possible.”
Mary greeted them in the front hall of her small house.
“So good to see you again. The others are in the family room. Everyone’s already here. Well, except for Ariel and Elena. They decided to go out to the movies, and I thought it best to allow them their fun. I had to set up a table in the family room,” she added, as she led them down the short hall. “We don’t really have a dining room. Hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course not,” Mark said.
A large folding table had been set up in the middle of the room. The table, positioned over the rag rug, was covered with a pristine white tablecloth and a mixed assortment of china. Sam was already seated at the table, talking with Will. As Mary headed off toward the kitchen, Karen glanced around the room. “Have we dodged a bullet?” she whispered to Mark as they sat down.
He shook his head. “Kitchen. I saw him head that way when we came in.”
At that moment, Alex walked out of the kitchen, carrying a large casserole dish. He was smiling and talking to Mary, who was laughing and gazing up at him admiringly.
“There it is,” Mark said under his breath. “The old charm at work.”
Karen tapped his knee. “Now, don’t start,” she whispered.
Alex set the dish on the table and graced Mary with another of his brilliant smiles. “Looks delicious.”
“And you need to eat,” Mary said. “You’re much too thin, you know.”
“I know. But you see, I haven’t had the opportunity to experience wonderful meals like this in many years.” He surveyed the table, his eyes coming to rest on Karen’s face.
Mary sat at the head of the table. “Do you know everyone, Alex?”
“Indeed, I do.” Alex chose a seat directly opposite Karen’s. “Some of us met recently and some of us”—he looked into Karen’s eyes—“are old friends.”
“I thought perhaps, if no one minds, we could make this a working dinner,” Myron said as Mary began passing bowls and platters around the table. Sam frowned darkly. “Oh, don’t worry,” Myron assured him. “We may speak freely. Mary and Will know everything.”
Alex shot Myron a sharp look. “Do they?”
Will ducked his dark head over his plate. “When I was younger I had some encounters with these alien beings, or at least some of their agents.”
“Yes.” Mary’s expression grew somber. “Will went missing when he was eight.”
“For how long?” Alex spoke with surprising gentleness.
Will looked up and met Alex’s searching eyes. “A month.”
“That’s unfortunate. I’m truly sorry.”
Mary stared at Alex. “But you—you lived with them for some time, didn’t you?”
“No, not really.” Alex spooned some of the casserole onto his plate. “I did live on one of their ships for the last ten years, but in a habitat specifically created for me. A few of their avatars were with me from time to time, but the Oneiroi—as I suppose we must call them for clarity’s sake—were never there. They can’t be, just as they can never actually step foot on Earth.” He took a roll from the bread basket and examined it for a moment before placing it on his plate. “I’ve never had to deal with their scientific probes, or any of those machines that are their face to most humans.” He fixed Will with a sympathetic gaze. “I wouldn’t wish such encounters on anyone.”
Alex’s concern for Will had softened the sculpted contours of his face into a semblance of the man Karen once loved. She realized she was staring and looked away.
“Yes, I’m very sorry to hear that, Will,” Mark said. “My niece was abducted as well, but only for a day. That was traumatic enough.” Karen glanced over at him, and he met her gaze and held it for a moment.
“So, Myron,” Sam said, “what was it you wanted to discuss?”
“Well, I thought perhaps Alex could answer a question or two. If he feels up to it, of course.”
“I don’t mind,” Alex said.
Mary shook her fork at Myron. “But you need to allow him time to eat. He really does need to eat, you know.”
Karen stared at Mary’s concerned face and fought the desire to roll her eyes. Alex had collected another admirer without really trying. Despite his years of isolation he’d not lost his ability to charm. It was a talent so integral to his nature nothing could diminish that skill.
“I can manage talking and eating, I think.” Alex demonstrated this by polishing off a large forkful of green beans. “I certainly do want to have time to enjoy this food though. It’s excellent, all of it.”
Karen glanced from Mary’s beaming face to Alex’s. He was smiling one of those well-remembered, dazzling smiles, the kind that had entranced her when they’d first met. She’d been a twenty-two-year-old art student, and he’d been a thirty-two-year-old professor and researcher on the Morpheus Project. So much had changed since then, but not that smile.
Alex caught Karen staring, and his lips tightened. Karen flushed as the intense scrutiny of those aquamarine eyes raked over her face.
“Well, one of my major questions concerns the factions of the Oneiroi,” Myron said. “I thought you might know something of that. I’ve guessed they have their societal divisions, especially since I know some of their avatars have assisted us while others have actively hindered us. But I’m not really sure what’s going on.”
“Truthfully, I’m not sure either,” Alex said. “Sorry if that sounds flippant, I don’t mean it to. It’s just that the Oneiroi have rather complicated societal structures. I haven’t been able to completely comprehend the complexities of their society even after all these years. What I can say is you’re correct in your assessment that there are those, like Alice, who are working in direct opposition to Exocorp and its backers.”
“Alice was the one who arranged your return. Does that mean you’d already been working with Alice and her supporters to oppose Vance and Exocorp?” asked Mark.
Alex pulled his gaze from Karen and turned his full attention on Mark. “Yes, for some time. That choice hasn’t endeared me to Ian Vance, as you can imagine. I did travel with the Oneiroi at his request, but it didn’t take me long to learn what was actually going on. Not the scientific exploration I signed up for, but rather a way for Ian and his compatriots to make as much money in the shortest amount of time possible.”
“So you worked with Alice and her contingent of the Oneiroi behind Vance’s back?” Myron asked. “Rather dangerous game, wasn’t it?”
“Oh, Ian doesn’t have nearly as much power as he’d like you to think.” Alex passed a platter of sliced beef without placing any on his plate. “There are Oneiroi loyal to Exocorp, of course—those who wish to continue their rather extreme methods of investigation into human physiology and behavior. They have some control over what we might call the Oneiroi’s government. But then there are others, like Alice, who oppose this type of research. They have power as well, of a different kind. More spiritual, I suppose you could say.”
“No meat, Alex?” Mary asked. “You could use the protein.”
“I’ve gotten out of the habit of eating meat. It wasn’t something the Oneiroi provided on my ship. Too difficult to acquire, and truthfully, they find the notion rather repellant.”
Sam had been examining Alex with suspicion all evening. “So Vance couldn’t touch you because Alice’s colleagues wouldn’t allow it?” he asked. “I’m dubious, quite frankly.”
“It wasn’t just Alice and her supporters in that case. None of the Oneiroi would have allowed Ian to harm me. I was a valuable asset. A very unique lab rat.”
Karen, who remembered when Alex had last used that phrase to describe himself, met his gaze and shook her head. “Alice doesn’t think of you as an experiment. She claims to have a soft spot for you.”
Alex raised his eyebrows. “She does? How extraordinary.” He sat back in his chair with a puzzled look.
“So in your opinion,” Mark said with great deliberation, “Alice and her followers, or whatever they might be, are truly interested in working with us to bring down Vance and Exocorp, even if that action exposes the Oneiroi to the world?”
“Definitely. That’s why they engineered my return. Not based on their great love for me, whatever Alice might say. They’re counting on my support to aid and abet their movement.”
“And ours?” queried Sam.
Alex turned to look at him. “And ours. It’s my fight as well, Mr. Lester. I am not, nor could I ever be, one of the Oneiroi. I’m just as human as you are.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Although I imagine you’re somewhat changed by your experiences.”
Alex busied himself pushing around the food on his plate with his fork. “Changed? In some ways. In other ways,” he said, looking straight into Karen’s eyes, “not at all.”
“Well, Alex,” Mark said, laying his hand on Karen’s knee, “we’ll undoubtedly need several more sessions with you to develop some strategies based on your knowledge of the Oneiroi, not to mention Exocorp.”
“I assumed you would.” Alex focused his attention on his food.
Karen surreptitiously covered Mark’s hand with her own. “You do realize your knowledge may make the difference between success and failure in our efforts to free humanity from the Oneiroi’s control? I hope you know how much we appreciate your willingness to help.”
Alex eyed her, a smile quirking his lips. “I’m glad to be useful to you in some fashion.”
“Not just me.” Karen tightened her fingers around Mark’s hand. “All of us.”
“But I’d rather have your … appreciation, Karen, than all the world’s,” Alex said. “Truthfully, it’s what I value above all things. I’d be happy to spend some time discussing the matter with you, if you’d allow it.”
“Have you finished?” Mark asked politely. Karen glanced at her husband’s composed face. Only his narrowed eyes betrayed his anger.
“Now, look here.” Mary glanced from Alex to Karen. She didn’t know their history but obviously sensed the undercurrent of tension in the room. “I think it’s time to allow Alex to eat something, and the rest of you as well. Why don’t we discuss Alex’s knowledge of the Oneiroi another time? It’s bound to be too much for one evening. In the meantime, Will can tell you what we’ve experienced over the years. He’s been keeping a journal of all the sightings and strange events.”
“Oh really?” Sam asked. “I’d like to hear about that.”
While the rest of the group concentrated on their food, Will talked for some time about his research on the UFO sightings and other unusual activity that surrounded Archuleta Mesa. “It’s been going on all my life, but I didn’t get interested until after my abduction. Some say the U.S. government and the aliens have a joint base under the mesa. I haven’t found evidence of that, though.”
“And you won’t,” Mark said.
Sam looked at him. “I could provide evidence of a real installation.”
“But not some collaborative effort at Archuleta Mesa, since that’s a carefully designed disinformation campaign.”
“True. I think I may know who created it. But there’s evidence of the Oneiroi using this area as a staging site. I’ve been trying to dig out some information about that, although perhaps I should focus on what I know about the Montana site. In the past I’ve agreed to appear on some television programs—the typical UFO hunter shows—but I haven’t come out with everything I know. Perhaps,” Sam added, taking a sip of his water, “it’s time I did.”
Alex glanced up from his plate and stared at Sam. “Do you have a death wish, Mr. Lester?”
“It’s Sam, and no, I don’t.”
“Well, you’d better not put your face out there speaking of such things unless you’re prepared to be hunted by Exocorp’s hired guns.”
“I’ve some experience in protecting myself, Dr. Wythe.”
“Alex. And your experience, excellen
t as it may be, won’t protect you from Vance’s assassins.”
“So, your suggestion is that I do nothing?”
“Not at all.” Alex laid down his fork and leaned back in his chair. He appeared drained, as if the stress of the day had finally sunk into his body. “But I’d recommend using discretion. Appearing on some speculative television program makes you a target but does little to actually advance our cause. I prefer Mr. Tarrow’s concept of an internet campaign. We may still become targets for Exocorp’s wrath, but in my humble opinion, such a move may be worth the danger. On the other hand, the only people who watch those UFO-hunting shows are already believers or at least half-convinced. Getting the information out to as many people as possible, regardless of their initial skepticism, is a better strategy. In fact, I have a suggestion for another participant who may provide the legitimacy you’re seeking, Mr. Tarrow.”
“Please, call me Myron. Who do you suggest?”
Alex’s gaze swept around the table, finally coming to rest on Mark and Karen. “Jasper James.”
“You can’t be serious,” Karen said sharply. “He’s Vance’s right-hand man.”
“Was,” Alex said. “He’s retired now. And feeling very guilty these days, if my information’s correct.”
Mark examined Alex carefully. “You mean he’s expressed a desire to make amends after all this time?”
Alex took a sip of water. “I suppose that’s it. Karen, you know Jasper. A gentle soul, really. I don’t know how he was able to work with Ian so long. I’m sure his conscience tormented him for years.”
“He was always kind to me,” Karen allowed, still skeptical.
“But would he be willing to turn on Exocorp so completely?” Sam asked. “I’m sure the company pays his pension.”
“Jasper doesn’t need a pension. He’s very wealthy now, thanks to his association with Ian. But I don’t think he cares about money anymore. My sources claim he’s quite tortured by what he’s done, or allowed to be done. I believe he’d give up his entire fortune for some peace of mind.”
“Your sources?” Mark repeated. “I assume you mean some of Alice’s friends?”
