by M. V. Kallai
“That is bizarre,” Ganesh said. “The dream thing. It’s just weird.”
“Could you imagine not knowing if you were awake or asleep?” Quinn asked. “And he said that you are the killer? I wonder what that means. Maybe he doesn’t even know he killed all those people years ago. He was quick to pin it on you though, huh?”
“That’s enough, Quinn,” Ganesh said.
“No, I doubt any of it means anything. The man is crazy…it’s just that…oh, never mind,” Camden said.
“What?” Ganesh and Quinn asked in unison.
“It’s going to sound ridiculous, but he seemed to recognize the drawing, before he recognized me. It wasn’t until he looked at the picture that he was even aware I was sitting there.”
“You’re right,” Ganesh said. “That does sound ridiculous.”
Camden threw his hands up and then interlaced his fingers behind his head and Quinn, as always, was too amused to contain his laughter.
“Keep it together, Quinn,” Ganesh said. “I mean, it sounds ridiculous because the man is seriously crazy. He may have had his eyes on that paper, but he could have been looking at rainbows and unicorns, for all we know.”
“You’re right,” Camden said and sighed deeply. “Of course, you’re right.”
Quinn stepped out of the room to use Camden’s bathroom and Ganesh wasted no time in bringing up the subject of their earlier conversation.
“Can you get the money? We need to hire Maeve, and soon,” Ganesh whispered as soon as the bathroom door closed.
“Yes, I can get the bloody money. I’ll have to send a letter with your boy, Bearden, to get to the lady at the desk in Tripple Laboratories. Tell me again why we need this ‘daughter’ of yours.”
“We need to get Mace out of the way. Pike won’t be as effective without him doing his dirty work. It will buy us some time. And, we have to be able to get things from Lee when he figures out how to stop the biomachines. Bearden does okay with passing notes, but we need someone flawless to transport any vital technology.”
“You don’t trust him, do you?” Camden asked. “Bearden.”
“Between you and me, I saw him talking privately with Mace Magner two days ago. So, yes, I have my suspicions.”
“Too bad, he seemed like such an honest boy,” Camden said, not taking any part of this plan as seriously as Ganesh wanted him to.
“Look, if you can help get Maeve into the Tripple Laboratories, she can do the rest.”
“Lee won’t like it. I’m sure he wouldn’t object to the reason, but having those kind of eyes in his lab, I doubt he would allow it.”
“Then we’ll have to do it without his knowing.”
“That will be tricky. He barely leaves and then there is the girl, Dana, who is always there.”
“It won’t be a problem. Just get her in and Maeve can take care of the rest,” Ganesh said.
“Greeatt. I can’t wait to help a highly trained assassin break into my best friend’s lab and steal his work.”
The bathroom door opened and the two quickly changed the subject back to Rhys.
At 7:00, Andreas arrived at Charisa’s home. It was a small, but quaint looking townhome in a very clean and safe part of town. There were wildflowers growing in the front and delicate yellow curtains in the windows. Her door was bright green and the cheerfulness of the place settled some of the nerves Andreas was feeling about his date. She opened the door wearing a white and pink sundress, even though it was still the cool season. He’d brought her flowers and a nice wine that she eagerly accepted, then kissed his cheek. Charisa’s cooking smelled delicious and she blushed with delight when Andreas told her so. He poured wine for both of them while she arranged the flowers she’d place on a painted blue wooden table. They chatted a little about their work, grinning at each other while sipping their wine, and then Charisa served dinner. The evening was going as pleasantly as anyone could hope for on a first date. They made easy small talk and exchanged stories from their childhoods. They laughed at each other’s jokes and when Andreas helped her clean up, he stole a kiss right there in the kitchen. Charisa poured them each another glass of wine and asked him to come and sit with her on the couch. Then, the mood changed.
“Andreas, I want to talk to you about what happened in my office this morning.”
“It’s okay, I know now that you’ve had a terrible week.”
“No, not about the crying… about Mace Magner.”
“The Major?
“Yes. When you saw him in my office this morning, he was…threatening me.”
“What? Are you sure? What would he have to threaten you about?”
“Keeping my mouth shut about Luke, apparently.”
Andreas looked confused.
“What about Luke?” he asked.
Charisa explained everything to Andreas, starting with the morning that Mace had met her in the coffee house, to the plan of planting a self-destruct code into the new biomachines, including her new suspicions of him kidnapping Luke. When she finished, she just looked at him with wide hopeful eyes and waited for him to respond.
“Wow,” he said finally. “That is a lot to take in. I think I need a moment.” Andreas began to pace around her small living room with both hands on his head.
“I know it’s a lot, but I’m going to do something about it,” Charisa said.
“Like what? Are you even one hundred percent sure that you were threatened and…and…you can’t be sure about the Luke thing. It’s very sad, but this isn’t the way to deal with a death.”
“I am sure and I was dealing with Luke’s death the way any good friend would… for a whole week, but he’s not dead. I know it. I have to take Mace Magner down…go to the press or something.”
“And in the mean time you will destroy the military’s weaponry program,” he said with a hint of mocking.
“No, only if the biomachines get out of control. Really it’s more like an insurance plan that the government doesn’t know it has,” Charisa answered. She took a deep breath. “So?”
“So what?”
“Will you help me?” Charisa asked. Andreas burst into a short frantic laugh and sat back down.
“Look, my loyalty is to the government and you shouldn’t even be saying such traitorous things…especially to an almost stranger.”
“You saved my life, we are definitely not strangers.”
“And I would do it again, but if you start pursuing this and get caught, I may not be able to save you again. This is very hot water you are trying to jump into.”
“And I will dive in head first if Luke is still alive and needs my help. We’ve been partners for eight years. He is my best friend.”
“Then I may not be willing to help you, Charisa. Don’t get me wrong, I like you…more than I care to admit right now, but I cannot become involved with this. But I won’t say anything either. I’ll keep your secret.”
“That’s not good enough,” she said.
Her response surprised Andreas.
“I need your help. I need you to keep being my hero; I can’t do this alone. Please, I’m begging you.” Charisa knelt down on the floor in front of his chair and grabbed his hands in hers. She looked up at him with pained eyes.
“Oh…damn…” he said, clearly unable to tell her ‘no’. “You are going to ruin my life, I can feel it.”
“Does that mean you’ll help me?” she asked.
“I’ll think about it. That’s the best I can do.”
“Thank you,” she said kissing his hands. “Thank you. Thank you.” She got herself to her feet and sat in his lap throwing her arms around him.
“So, what do you plan to do first?” Andreas asked with a combination of defeat and propensity in his voice.
“First, I need to find that nurse,” Charisa said. “Surely she will remember Luke not being dead during the chaos. He was helping her take care of you.”
“I guess I can ask about her when I go back to the unit hospital to
get my leg checked on Wednesday.”
“Perfect. I’ll try to send Luke a coded message through the Major. I will tell him that the work he gave me from his ‘outside programmer’ needs a revision, so he’ll have to take it back to Luke. I’m also working on hacking into his personal files.”
“Charisa, it really sounds like a long shot and I don’t feel comfortable with any of this.”
“And you think I do? What if that biomachine had shot you higher up than your leg? You might be dead right now. I might be dead right now. You asked me that day if I could fix this…well, this is me fixing it.”
Andreas could feel Charisa’s hands quivering and he held her close, resting his chin on the top of her head as she leaned against his chest. He felt like he needed to be alone and think.
“It’s getting late. I should go,” Andreas said to her.
“Please stay,” she said with a wavering voice.
Andreas sat up and lifted her face in his hands to look at her. He was caught way off guard with her request and she could see his confusion.
“I don’t know if that’s appropriate, especially with you going through such an emotional time right now,” he said.
“I know, Andreas, you want to be a gentlemen and I want you to be, too. I think you misunderstood. I’m not ready to be intimate with you…it’s just that…” She looked embarrassed all of a sudden. “I’m afraid to be here alone.”
The look on her face and the change of tone in her voice grabbed his sympathy and suddenly two things clicked in his mind; one, how close the major had been standing next to her in her office that morning, and two, Charisa’s insistence that the major had threatened her before he’d walked in and she had broken down.
“What exactly did Major Magner threaten you with?”
Charisa folded her arms protectively around herself, bit her bottom lip, and shook her head. She looked like she might start crying again.
“Okay, okay, you don’t have to tell me. I’ll stay…on the couch if you’d like.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
They stared at each other in silence hoping that the awkwardness of the moment would pass. Then, Andreas said, “I’ve gotta be honest here, I’ve wanted to know you like this for a long time, and I’ve imagined what our first date might be like. I knew you were complicated, but this…this is just beyond absurd. I don’t even know what to think about all this. This is not how I …”
Charisa pressed her finger against his lips, then leaned in and kissed him.
Chapter Forty-Seven
The Darkened Path
Early the next morning, Camden and Aldretti made their way up to the thirteenth floor to make another attempt at soliciting Rhys’s help. Camden had his folder of drawings under his arm and smiled with a self-concocted optimism. Even Aldretti seemed mildly interested in what the outcome of today’s meeting might be. They walked down the stone corridor to Rhys’s room and peered in the window. Camden’s optimism was fueled by what he saw. Rhys was sitting loosely strapped to a table, and drawing. Every few seconds, he would lift his head up, look around, and make odd motions with his hands, like he was explaining something. He was talking nonstop. Terry was sitting on the floor in the corner of the room reading a book and Rita was sitting cross-legged on the bed looking at a computer. Rhys was clearly talking to himself.
Approaching footsteps echoed through the corridor drawing Camden’s attention away from the window. He sighed and his good feeling waned when he saw Ganesh and Quinn walking toward him followed by Mace Magner.
“Good morning Camden, Aldretti,” Ganesh said.
“Good morning, Gentlemen,” Camden answered. He only glared at Mace who returned an evil smile, knowing that his presence made Camden’s skin crawl.
“What’s he doing here?” Camden asked Ganesh.
“I thought I’d come see how things with the lunatic are progressing. So I can give a thorough update to General Pike,” Mace answered before Ganesh could speak.
“I thought that Quinn was reporting to the general.”
“Okay, you caught me. I just came to watch your utter failure at trying to reason with a madman. Thought it might brighten my day.”
“So glad you made it,” Camden snapped.
Aldretti stood at attention next to Camden, hoping that the major would acknowledge him, but he did not. Camden returned his focus to the window and Rhys. He tapped it with his finger to get Rita’s attention. She looked up, smiled when she saw him and came to the door to let him in.
“What’s he doing?” Camden asked her.
She walked out of the room and closed the door behind her.
“It started very early this morning. I was shocked when he asked for paper. It’s been three years since he wanted to draw. But he’s been at it for almost six hours now.”
“Interesting,” Quinn said. “Don’t you think that is more than a coincidence, Professor Riles?”
“Let’s hope so,” Camden said.
“Ha! You are all idiots. A crazy person draws a picture with crayons and you are ready to break out the champagne,” Mace said.
“Hold your tongue, Mace,” Ganesh said and held up his hand to his face.
“Can I go in?” Camden asked Rita.
“Um, yes, but, just you today. He’s sensitive to crowds and with this new task, I don’t want to upset him. Poor thing has been sedated enough lately.”
“Understood. I will be as brief as I can,” Camden said and walked in the room with her. Mace pushed himself to the window until Ganesh calmly tapped his shoulder and asked him to step back. Mace grudgingly obliged to his superior.
Camden approached the babbling madman with cautious respect. He pulled his drawing out of the folder and squatted down beside Rhys’s chair. Before he spoke, he tried to get a good look at the drawings Rhys had been working on for six hours. Camden’s hopeful expression sank into disappointment, as he saw nothing but random scribbling on his pages.
“Damn. It’s nothing,” he said, then held his picture up to Rhys’s line of sight. “Good morning, Rhys, it’s me again, Camden Riles. I really would like you to look at this drawing. Can you tell me anything about it? Yesterday you said it was ‘all wrong’. Do you remember?”
Rhys continued his self-indulgent drawing and rambling but acted like he did not see Camden. Maybe he didn’t. Camden continued to try and get his attention, but it was useless. Rhys was in his own world and obviously did not want to be disturbed.
“The angle is thirty-seven degrees, rotate it over forty-two, then the monsters can have it. They will come at night and want blood, obviously the forty-five is useless…” Rhys rambled.
After a half hour of wasted effort, Camden stood up and put his sketch away. Rita shrugged and mouthed ‘I’m sorry’ as he let himself out.
“I’ll come back tomorrow,” Camden said. Rita nodded and Terry looked up from his book and waved. In the hall, the other four men that had been waiting were engaged in a forced conversation led by Quinn, of course. The hatred in the air was thick enough to feel, but they all remained civil.
“Let’s go,” Camden said. “I got nothing.”
“What was he drawing?” Ganesh asked.
“Childish scribbles. Nothing coherent or recognizable. If he decided to draw after I showed him my blueprint yesterday, it’s probably because of suggested mimicry.
“That’s a damn shame, Camden. You’ll try again tomorrow,” Ganesh said. “Let’s go get some work done, you’ll figure out this space travel thing without him.”
“Your confidence in me is astounding. I hope you’re not too disappointed when I fail.”
“You better not fail!” Mace said, interrupting the two. “General Pike is counting on this to happen.”
“Major. You are dismissed,” Ganesh ordered. Mace gave a weak salute and walked away.
I have more important things to do anyway, Mace thought as he headed to the lifts. It was time he paid his daily visit to Luke to collect his wo
rk from the previous day to take to Charisa. He smiled when he thought of how she would squirm when he walked into her office.
Early the next morning, before dawn, after another long and exhausting night of transferring biomachines to their secret room in the empty wing of the TRU Building, Mace, Luke, and General Pike all rested in their respective offices. Their mission was going off without a hitch so far and Phase Two activations were on schedule in the training area without further incident. General Pike felt confident that the heads of government were not going to shut him down. In fact, he was laying down the groundwork for an isolated test drop of two of the Phase One units on Tyrinian territory…a town on the outskirts known for coordinating small attack missions. He would keep his plan secret from the director and the regent until the mission was complete and successful. For now, though, he would put his feet up and catch an hour or two of sleep before the sun came up.
Mace was the first of the three night workers to wake and he went directly to Luke’s room, knowing he would make him a good cup of coffee. Mace slammed the door open and turned the lights on, causing Luke to wake with a jump.
“What time is it? Man, I feel like I’ve only been asleep for five minutes.”
“Get up, Luke. Did you fix the programming Charisa sent back?”
“Not since I last saw you. I’ll need some time to look it over. I’m not a machine, you know.”
Luke walked clumsily to his coffee machine and started a fresh pot. Mace sat down at his desk and waited.
“So you really have no idea why Charisa sent this work back to you? I thought you were the smart one.”
“I am…I mean, we both are, but everyone makes mistakes…especially in extreme conditions.”
Mace raised his eyebrows and Luke continued.
“You know, like being forced out of your home without prior notice to be locked away from everything and everyone…for a top secret project that you don’t know the details about.”
