by Kin Asdi
She chastised herself for not using any protection when she had picked up the vines. However, she quickly set her concerns to one side because she was feeling perfectly okay. In fact, she would go as far as to say that she felt wonderful and was looking forward to surprising Lunn with her little present. It was still light, and she wanted to see Lunn’s face when she presented him with the vines.
Her heart was beating a little faster as she remembered his warm embrace and it made her walk a bit quicker to his quarters. She was wondering what he would do if she asked him to spend the night with her. It wasn’t long before she was standing in front of the door to Lunn’s quarters. She was always surprised at how easy it was to enter his place. It looked like he never bothered to lock his door.
Trembling with anticipation, she was surprised when the door didn’t budge. She tried again but the door failed to open, and the only thing she could do was knock at the door. When he still didn’t respond, in spite of her knocking three times on the metal door, she angrily started kicking it. She was truly pissed off and was going to have to rush home to ensure that she was home before the curfew.
She was still feeling annoyed as she hastily prepared something to eat. Her plan was to retreat to her secret place where she would examine the vines without the risk of getting caught. She was confident in her ability to complete this task by herself and told herself that she didn’t need Lunn! While she was eating her simple dinner, she remembered to get her set of scalpels ready for use.
Her secret place was just opposite her apartment, and she had to pass through the airlock to get there. She knew how to overrule the security and bypass the alarm at the airlock. The last time she had been there she had stayed for about an hour before her headache became impossible to ignore. It was a small room with a small desk next to the window frame which was only covered with foil. There was nothing to be gained from bringing a canister of oxygen because the seals of the window frame had basically rotted away.
After placing her flashlight into the holder, she neatly laid the set of knives on top of the desk. She knew she was about to conduct a dangerous investigation and she probably shouldn’t do it, but she couldn’t care less at that moment. She had to prove to herself she was smart enough to do this research. With trembling hands she opened the seal of the roll and carefully removed the lid.
So far so good: nothing had happened, and the vines were still as rigid as before. She let them slide down onto her desk and turned them in such a way that the sharp thorns were facing away from her. Andena was both fascinated and excited that she was finally going to get a close look. She was amazed to see how smooth the surface of the vine was and that the grey colour was a mix of different thin stripes. There were all kinds of different colours intertwined with thicker black lines.
Andena was mesmerised by the way in which the patterns gave the vine its lively grey colour. The soft lustre made the vine seem as though it were made of silk while in reality, it was a thin layer of a somewhat sticky wax. She was tracing one of the thicker black lines with her finger and was wondering what the inside of the vine would look like. As she was tracing the stick with her finger, she saw something moving in the corner of her left eye. Slowly turning her head sideways she saw the lines slowly turning towards her and was horrified to discover that the thorn had turned itself upwards.
This could not be happening! How was it possible for a dead and sturdy vine to suddenly become so flexible? Before she could fathom what was happening she felt the vine latch onto her arm while coiling around her wrist and the next instant, she felt a wonderfully warm tingling sensation spreading over her body.
She gasped knowing that she was doomed.
It was over!
Andena was starting to feel dizzy, as she slowly collapsed against the window she heard the cracking of the seal which had become brittle.
She became even more euphoric when the second wave of bliss shot up from her leg. Andena sighed knowing that she had lost the fight but she didn’t care anymore because she loved how she felt.
Then another tingling sensation soared through her relaxed body and when it reached her head, the darkness was upon her. She was too far gone to realise that the bottom of the window frame had given away and that she had started to slip through the gap. Her boot prevented her from falling for a few seconds until her ankle twisted a little and her lifeless body fell like a ragdoll from the nine hundredth level.
Lunn was travelling up in the lift to Andena’s apartment. He had managed to overrule the control panel, and as such, it now wouldn’t stop until it reached the designated destination. He hated the fact that he was the one that had to deliver the bad news to Andena by telling her that she was no longer on his team. He had considered ignoring Danette’s demand, but her input and the massive amount of work she had done for the group was too valuable to ignore. He was going to have to hold his hands up and admit to Andena that he had messed up. Deep in thought, it was a moment or two before he realised that the lift had stopped. Gathering his wits, he walked in silence along the narrow hall to Andena’s small apartment.
He felt rotten having to be the one to shatter her dreams: especially when she had given up her ordinary life to be part of their elite group. He sighed, aware that she was unlikely to ever forgive him for this. He knew he was on the verge of losing one of the best recruits he ever had, and that made him angry. If it hadn’t been for the damned aphrodisiac and the fact that Andena had carelessly left her thong in his bedroom, then Danette would never have found out about their fling. Sometimes life could be extremely unfair. He breathed out forcefully. He knew it was time to face facts and start showing some leadership. Straightening his back he knocked softly but firmly on the door. He waited for a while and then knocked louder when Andena didn’t respond. Perhaps she was simply reluctant to answer her door to strangers. After he had knocked for the third time, he called out in a clear voice. “Andena. It’s me! Lunn.”
When he still failed to get a reply he knew for certain that she wasn’t in her apartment. Lunn took his phone from his pocket in the hope he could reach her in that way but to his dismay, there was no signal by which to connect with the normal communication network. He had forgotten how lucky he was and that most people in the city had no means of contacting anyone because network connections were just too expensive and as such, they couldn’t afford it.
He sighed at the prospect of having to travel back down. He was annoyed by the fact that he had been unable to reach her and found himself wondering where she might be. He decided to visit the bar where she used to work in the hope that he would bump into her.
Danette was staring at the android lying on her worktop. She was having a difficult time focusing on what she was doing and found herself constantly thinking about what had happened earlier that morning. She had been shocked when she saw herself in the mirror when she’d first arrived at her apartment: her red face and puffy eyes were a gruesome reminder of the fact that she had been crying.
The long shower had helped, and she had managed to eat something despite not feeling hungry at all. She had been replaying the events in her head from the moment she had demanded that the little bitch had to go. Danette couldn’t help but wonder what she had done wrong. Had she really behaved that badly while Andena was there? She remembered the shocked expression on Andena’s face which had then changed into a strange combination of jealousy and determination.
It all made her feel very insecure.
She had seen the hunger in Lunn’s eyes when he looked at the redhead. It was all the more unsettling because she had sensed that Lunn was almost oblivious to her presence. It drove her mad, and she knew that she had overstepped the mark when she had tried to fire him up by dry humping him. She had played with fire and lost. There was nothing left to do right now but lick the self-inflicted burns.
She knew that theirs was an open relationship, and while she had been happy with the arrangement in the beginning, it was no longer working
for her. Now it felt as if someone had well and truly come along and burst their relationship bubble. It was broken, and Danette found herself struggling to believe that it would ever heal let alone be the same again.
While she didn’t have all of the solutions she was clear about one thing: Lunn owed her an apology. It was down to him to admit that he had broken the terms of their agreement. He needed to understand that she had totally lost faith in their relationship. Even though the flower had clearly affected him, he had been wrong to have sex with Andena. Danette could feel her anger slowly building as she realised that the bitch had not just taken away her stud, but her best friend and slumping down into the chair she began to cry.
Lunn tried connecting with Andena’s phone as he walked towards the bar. However, in just a few seconds he knew that her device was not responding. He sighed, and presumed that she was simply one of those women that lacked the organisational skills to keep their devices charged. This was not his lucky day. As he turned into the dirty street where she used to work, Lunn was shocked. He’d had no idea that the area was so run down. The buildings were all boarded up with posters attached, stating that they were to be re-developed. He leaned against one of the boards and pondered what to do.
He was out of options and hadn’t the faintest clue where she could be. He tried reaching her again, but her device was still not connected to the network grid. He was surprised when he saw Danette’s device pop online and wondered briefly whether he had the courage to contact her. Lunn knew that there was no point asking her whether she had seen Andena as it would only make the situation between them worse. He was going to have to hurry back to his quarters if he wanted to avoid getting into trouble with the authorities.
Arriving back at his quarters he noticed several black lines at the bottom of his door. It looked like someone had attempted to kick the door down. Feeling incredibly pissed off he quickly entered his office and checked the recording from the surveillance camera to see who was responsible for causing the damage. He was completely taken by surprise to find footage of Andena becoming increasingly frustrated as she banged on the door. He felt incredibly guilty by the fact, that nothing that he could have done or said would have changed the situation. He had removed her from the list of people who were allowed to enter his quarters. He had stopped the recording as soon as he realised that it was Andena kicking the door. He could see by her clenched fists she was furious, and he was relieved that he hadn’t been home at the time.
He had seen enough angry women for today.
It was only then that he realised that Andena was carrying a metal tube on her back, and it took a second or two for it to dawn on him. She must have gone back to the field to retrieve the veins she had cut off with her machete!
He checked the time that she had visited and realised that they must have only just missed each other. He reckoned that she must have returned to her apartment, just as he was leaving. He also knew that he had no alternative but to go back and check that she was okay. With just minutes remaining before curfew, he ran out of his apartment, hoping and praying that he would be in time to prevent Andena from doing something stupid.
Lunn rushed towards her apartment and knocked urgently on her door. He waited for a short while and knocked louder when Andena didn’t respond. Again there was no response and Lunn tried to open the door but it was locked. He knew he was breaking one of his own rules when he removed his special access card from his pocket to override the lock on Andena’s door. This time, he had to know that Andena wasn’t hurt or needed any help.
He carefully opened the door an inch and when nothing happened he pushed it open further with his foot. He slowly moved into the small place, and he quickly realised she wasn’t there. As he looked around more carefully, he noticed the scattered drawings on her bed. He examined the beautiful drawings, and he knew that they had been stored in the drawing roll that Andena had been carrying on her back. He found it weird that Andena still hadn’t returned, and he anxiously wondered just where the hell the woman could be.
He decided to wait for her in the hall because it was better that she didn’t know that he had been nosing around in her apartment. As he sat down and leaned his back against the door, he figured that he might be in for a long wait. As he wondered what he would do if Andena returned with the vines, his eyes drifted to the airlock opposite her apartment. A little red light was supposed to flash every ten seconds or so, but it seemed that the lock was out of power. Lunn got up to have a closer look at the lock. He could see minute scratches which proved that the lock had been tampered with, and when he looked at the disabled security panel he became convinced that someone had used the airlock to gain access to the area behind it.
He consulted the plan of this building on his device and found out there was a storage room which was not used anymore because of a broken seal. Lunn knew he could stay there for a few minutes which would be enough to see if there was anything of interest to be found. He tested the lock, and he wasn’t surprised to find that he could open it effortlessly. He took a few deep breaths before closing the door behind him and then slowly opened the other door hoping that it didn’t trigger any alarms.
He noticed the cold air flowing into the small airlock, and he quickly moved out to find himself looking at a desk which was standing close to the only window in the room. The flashlight which lit the room was still bright and Lunn saw two sticks lying on the floor. He realised that the sticks were the vines that he had seen on the video, but had now lost their fullness. It looked like that the vines had lost all their fluids. Taking one of the vines he saw traces of blood on the thorn. When he looked at the other, he saw a little drop of blood on the floor at the place where the thorn touched it.
Now he was absolutely sure that the vines were responsible for administering the fluids into a human, but found the absence of a body puzzling. It looked like someone had been here before him and had taken the body away.
He knew that he needed to get out of here quickly as his breathing was becoming increasingly heavy. He glanced around one final time but didn’t see anything that would tell him whether or not Andena had been here. Just as, he decided to go back, his eye fell on the little pouch next to the knives. He opened it and saw the text written at the rim, “For my lovely Andena. Dad. XX”
His vision was starting to get blurry which was another sign that his body had been severely deprived of oxygen for too long: he knew that he needed to get out of there as quickly as possible. As he slowly stomped back to the airlock, he looked around once more to be sure that there were no traces of him to be found. Although his special gloves wouldn’t leave any traces, he had to be sure that nothing else would point to his presence here.
Lunn practically fell out of the airlock, and he knew that he had to go down to the ground floor as fast as possible to prevent an enormous migraine attack. He was amazed to find that one of the lifts was available, and as soon as he was inside the lift, he slumped down onto the floor and commanded the machine to descend without making any further stops.
After a few minutes breathing in more oxygen, his brain started to work again, and he began to wonder who could have taken Andena. It had to have been someone as observant as him to notice that the airlock had been compromised. The more he thought about it, the more he realised that there was only one person who had known that Andena had visited the field: Danette!
Lunn couldn’t believe that Danette would have done anything to hurt Andena. She might be stubborn and difficult at times, but she would never do that to another person. However, he suddenly remembered that she had popped up online when he was in the bar. She must have been with Andena when he’d tried finding her. It all made sense and was proof enough for him that she had taken Andena.
CHAPTER SIX
Arnost was pacing up and down his office while he waited for his head of security to arrive. He had summoned him because there had been a breach of one of the fields. His emissary, Tancred had confirmed that
someone had managed to take video footage and had escaped. As Tancred looked out of the window, he said. “Your plan to leave those vines in the hope that someone would take them has worked.”
Arnost stopped his pacing instantly. He still had difficulty understanding Tancred’s heavy accent and asked, “When did this happen?”
“Today.”
“At what time?”
“That is hard to tell. Most probably this afternoon.”
Arnost sighed because it was so frustrating to deal with Tancred who didn’t have any sense of time.
He sighed and asked, “Okay. Can you tell me what happened?”
Tancred’s smile looked strange as if he had copied it from a comic book and he said, “They have been moved, and both vines managed to administer the initial compounds for integration.”
Arnost shuddered a little and asked, “Do we know where they have been taken?”
“Not yet we have sent two sniffers to trace the scent.”
“Does Haruz know about this?”
“No, but I assume we are waiting for him?”
Arnost growled softly with frustration. Since Tancred had arrived the quality and speed of communications, in general, had diminished considerably. The well-oiled system had practically ground to a halt, but since assuming the highest possible position of the Archon he had managed to repair most of the damage.
A sharp knock sounded at the door of the room almost causing Arnost to jump, and he yelled, “Enter!”
Arnost looked at the man who had entered the room. He always had envied Haruz’s spectacular muscles. The suit Haruz was wearing didn’t hide the well-built proportions of his body.
