Lost in Amber

by Esther Rabbit

  “Gotcha!” Alex winked, leaving Emma baffled at his sudden display of humor.

  “Such a prude!” Lilou retrieved her mug and took a sip.

  Back in the bedroom, Zoey pulled a hexagon-patched sweater over her head and blew some rebellious curls off her face.

  We’re coming for you, Sam, she thought and pushed her bedroom door open.

  Across from her bedroom door was her bathroom door, which swung open at the same time only to reveal Jasper stepping out fully geared, an uneasy look clouding his features.

  “Morning!” They both stopped a little short before proceeding to the living room.

  Zoey hurried to jump into Emma’s arms, met by a warm embrace. It was reassuring to see her so composed.

  Emma’s thoughts were a one-way street. Optan tech wasn’t hard to manage, she even felt semi-comfortable now that Alex was not treating her like a primate, and found his complex commands challenging. In the short time she spent with optans, she found they were really not that different.

  They stood for values that were meant to protect humanity, not harm it. They were there to retrieve their friend and help with whatever they could. She felt compatible with their goals and made it her personal mission to be of service in rescuing both Sam and Zoey.

  They all had little interest in food that Sunday, so they spent their remaining time in setting up the workstation and going over the strategy of getting Beck where they wanted him.

  4:17 p.m.

  Trenton Beck looked at himself one last time in the mirror of his bathroom. It was almost time. No award, nomination, nor recognition could have brought him closer to this rapturous sensation of having his life’s work almost brushing his fingers. He managed to align events so well that all pawns would fall into place on his board like chess pieces.

  It had taken time earning Etienne’s trust, carrying the mission alongside him and taking the lead in the grandeur happening on the only planet he knew as home. His professors had told him he was destined for greater endeavors. Little had they known they’d come so soon. At the age of thirty-seven, Trenton Beck looked like he hadn’t aged a day over thirty. Good looks, however, were secondary to his hungry grey matter.

  Etienne had been a witness to Beck’s yearn for discovery and use of engineered nucleases and recombinases for genome editing when he’d posed as an investor in the company Beck worked at. Science needs money, so Beck was the lead scientist to convince this mysterious investor to take his chances ploughing money into editing primary human T cells, DNA assembly and cloning methods.

  The whole lab needed him to pitch the perfect speech to this young rich boy who was probably looking for a way to get his filthy rich parents to fund another party on another exclusive island and get him a hotel or two in return for his hard work.

  In the name of Mother Science, undeniably worth it. He went in completely convinced Etienne was just another pretty boy for whom SLIC and Gibson were nothing more than common surnames. He was even prepared to dumb it down for the sake of bringing in the bacon. What Trenton Beck found that day was a door to unimaginable progress.

  “It can’t be!” he blurted out in complete shock after one glance at Etienne’s report. He took another look at the pictures he’d brought as evidence, draping a hand over his mouth.

  “If you’re in, we start working immediately. Money will never be an issue for you again. Time, however, you won’t have enough of. Full commitment is required; you’ll eat at the facility, sleep there, and work by my side for as many hours as your brain can cope.” Etienne stood up and rested his hands on the chair.

  Trenton Beck’s background in Molecular Biology and Immunology made him a possible match. His determination to leave everything behind made him the perfect match. They had that in common, and his mentor held the key to exceeding his average capacities and making Professor Trenton Beck a better version of himself. Etienne gave him the tools and enhancements he needed to carry out what needed to be done. Ethics only stood in the way of tangible progress and this was visible to the naked eye. Evolution needed sacrifice and Trenton Beck was going to be the chosen one to deliver it.

  Beck now walked into the study where Sam, still tied to the same chair, gave him the stink eye for the millionth time. He offered a soft smile in return.

  “You wouldn’t hold this against me if you had the slightest vision of the ample universe you live in, you know.” He leaned to brush the hair off her face. Sam scowled at him and jerked away from his reach.

  “You’re sick out of your mind!” she spat back, watching his men tense at the sight of her movements. There was nothing she wished more than to be able to get ahold of that chair and whip the living shit out of him and his delusional ideas. “What can Zoey give you that I can’t? There’s no point in dragging her over here since you already have me.”

  “Now that’s a mighty display of friendship right there, Sam.” He arched his eyebrows, ridiculing her every word, and turned to his men. “We’ll be back in no time, gentlemen. I trust that our frisky friend will be in good hands until I send for her…” He trailed off, watching the men nod, and pushed his way out the door and up the stairs to retrieve Mia from her bedroom. He unlocked her door from the outside only to find her tapping her foot anxiously.

  “It’s time,” Beck announced.

  4:50 p.m., 32 Tallroad Drive

  Zoey did exactly as instructed. She left home alone and drove to the address, sweaty hands holding the wheel, heart throbbing in her chest.

  You can do this, you must save Sam. She kept repeating it like a mantra to keep from collapsing as she pulled over by an industrial warehouse area.

  Of course it had to be an industrial warehouse district, like where they found bodies on crime documentaries. The typical place where nothing seems to happen until it does.

  Everyone else would follow and stay hidden until Beck appeared. Emma and Alex would be monitoring everything from her apartment. Everyone had done their homework and she was not going to screw this up if her life depended on it.

  The place looked deserted. Not a soul, a car, not even the slightest noise to give away any sort of presence. It was cold enough to wear a coat, but she didn’t. She couldn’t feel anything else except adrenaline and anticipation tearing at her insides, tying her stomach in a knot as she searched the perimeter.

  “I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced.” A man’s voice came from behind her and she instantly turned to face him. “Of course, last I saw you this close, you were lying unconscious from that nasty hit to the head you got while rafting. You made a speedy recovery from what I can see…” Beck darted in her direction.

  Zoey couldn’t believe her eyes. She was disarmed at the sight of him, recognizing his features in an instant—the eligible bachelor laughing over an overpriced cocktail with her Sam. A few steps behind him stood a girl probably not older than herself, dressed in white from head to toe and looking as if she’d been plucked out of the first row of a fashion show. She stood there, between pissed off and half bored.

  That’s why I didn’t remember. I was unconscious, she thought, still unable to articulate a full sentence.

  “Funny, because that’s not the last time I saw you!” She regained herself and scanned him whole. There was no doubt he was the same person she’d seen at the Green Palace having a blast with Sam; his casual manner and easy smile, however, were long gone.

  “Where’s Sam?” Zoey straightened her shoulders and demanded herself to ask the right questions and make the right moves.

  “Ahh…the ultimate perennial question! I have some questions of my own, you know. To start with, why are your friends hiding? Come out now, fellas! You must have plenty of questions and I am here to answer at least some of them.” He spoke on a higher note, a little too sure of himself.

  This wasn’t the right time for that knot growing in her throat, so Zoey swallowed hard.

  He knew. He knew she was not alone and that might affect Sam’s safety, altho
ugh he didn’t seem disturbed by the alteration of events—all the opposite in fact. Beck paced, calm and smug, adjusting the sleeves of his grey shirt.

  He twisted his mouth in a grin and rubbed his chin as the optans came from hiding. They all took defense positions and tensed, lining up with Zoey. Lilou looked fierce, her knees slightly bent and fingers arched up as if about to perform a magic spell.

  Only a step behind, another optan girl with amber eyes in dark blue coveralls laid a hand on her kalenium belt, menacing fingers arched. She was as beautiful as she was untamed, thick platinum blonde strands sticking to her face. According to Jasper’s description, this had to be Aline, one of the field soldiers tracking Beck. Beside her, her partner followed at a casual pace.

  Trenton Beck took a superior stance, crossing his arms over his chest while studying them all as if trying to figure out their ranks.

  Jasper came forward until he reached Zoey’s left shoulder, Rufus by his side. Behind him, Aline’s partner tightened his jaw.

  They all tensed their bodies in defensive positions except for Jasper, Rufus, and Zoey, who was biting the inside of her cheek. She found herself tense, but not afraid for her life. There was a certain adrenaline which made her focus on the pressing matters at hand. Professor Beck looked nothing like a scientist, nothing like she’d imagined him to, his tan complexion and flawless jawline closing a full circle of new questions. He could have been a Portuguese swimsuit model, he could have been your nextdoor neighbor, he could have been anyone except Sam’s kidnapper. And how wrong she was to judge a book by its cover yet again.

  Beside her, Rufus gasped at the sight of Mia. They were searching each other with their eyes, love and hope and despair crowding the space between warehouses and the asphalt under their feet. There was intensity, agony and a crushing ache as they fought the sole desire they had—to touch each other again, to forget what was expected of them and run to each other as if time ceased to exist.

  Neither of them reacted and swallowed their feelings in favor of their missions.

  Mia had to retrieve Rufus and portal him to the lab where Beck would strip them of their enhancements and set them free.

  Rufus had to save his girl from Beck whatever it took.

  “You must be Professor Trenton Beck,” Jasper acknowledged with a stern look, approaching him.

  “And you must be the joke of an ambassador they chose instead of Etienne.” Every cell holding Beck’s body up was intimidating for Zoey. “And here you all gather, weary and fearful because you don’t really know what I’m capable of—good!” Beck raised an eyebrow in utter satisfaction. “You also need me alive to answer all the questions Etienne wouldn’t. So relax your fingers, pawns of Opt. I assure you, you won’t be happy to see what happens if I lift mine.”

  “We demand you release all the altered subjects and turn yourself in, Beck. You are surrounded.” Jasper said.

  “You demand, yet what right have you to demand anything on a planet which is not yours to begin with? Your kind brought toys to the table and later accused us for playing with them. But there’s a fundamental truth you left out…” Beck tapped his temple with his index finger, half amused. “Mia, be a darling and take us to the lab.” He turned his eyes to Mia in expectation.

  “Mia, no!” Rufus spoke for the very first time as he watched Mia kneel and press a hand to the ground faster than he could blink. She looked back at him, her eyes big and torn. Her submissive days were counted, that was the thought which kept her going.

  In a whirl of blue light, the ground pulled their weight in like a magnet. They all felt it shaking and shivering in shades of blue as they sank in, pulled by a consuming force into the intense vibration of the unknown.

  All Zoey could see was blue, seconds of blue and trepidation, the feeling of changing altitude causing her ears to pop. It felt like being pushed at a high speed in an elevator only to be released into nothing until her body slumped to the hardness of dark marble. By the time she came to her senses the rest were already up. Rufus helped her to her feet, never losing sight of Mia. This was his Mia, cashmere sleeves rolled up to reveal the hope of her doves and bruises. So she had been hurt.

  “You son of an apocalyptic bitch!” Rufus turned to Beck. “What have you done to her?” He was infuriated, his features scowling and tone menacing.

  The room they’d portalled to revealed no clue that this had been a lab. Kalenium walls showed graphs and pie charts constantly changing percentages under a white-blue neon light that cast its glow on the dark marble. There was nothing else except the empty space that held them all: Jasper standing perfectly composed, calculating; Zoey digging her fingers into Rufus’s forearm as she watched all his body tense; Lilou and the two optan soldiers arched for battle like ninjas.

  On the other side, Beck pressed his hands together, nodding appreciatively towards Mia.

  “Hit me with your best shot, Ambassador.” Beck glared at Jasper, his narrowed eyes provoking as he spread both of his arms to reveal an exposed chest.

  Jasper’s look went from inquisitive to rigid. He flexed his fingers and glanced at Lilou. Zoey could see the helplessness of her features accumulating on her face as she stared right at Beck.

  “This was one of Etienne’s greatest gifts.” Beck gestured at the amplitude of the room. “Your optan enhancements are worthless here.” He grabbed Mia’s shoulder and squeezed her into his side like a proud coach.

  “Here we are, maybe for the first time in Earth’s history, when you’re at a disadvantage. How does it feel, Ambassador, when someone else holds the upper hand?” Beck took a step closer, fingers intertwined at his back.

  “We don’t need our enhancements to be rational. I do not need an upper hand to face you, Professor nor do I feel we are at a disadvantage.”

  “Ahh…what we fight for makes us who we are…Was that the speech you were going to deliver? Save it! You know nothing about Etienne yet here you are, doing what you were trained to do without will of your own, without questioning the Alliance’s policy, without knowing what you are truly fighting for.”

  “Will you enlighten us, Professor?” Lilou managed sarcasm better than Zoey had guessed.

  “Politics! You didn’t have a choice in becoming who you are and now you want to take away Earth’s ability to choose allies or make any of our own choices. Optans, my friends, are pawns of the Interplanetary Alliance to grow a union of planets loyal to them and only them!” The professor flashed a smile and continued, “Why is it that new planets get an ambassador from the Alliance and aren’t allowed to develop without any alien interference whatsoever? What would happen with alien interference if we were to live in a free universe?” He rested his thumb on his chin, awaiting an answer from his audience.

  “Surely Etienne told you how exposed Earth would be without the help of the Alliance.” Aline’s voice pierced the growing silent tension.

  “If your kindness stretched to that extent, you’d have given us the tools to defend and govern ourselves rather than spy on the human race and report back to your superiors like petty weasels.”

  “Like when you give a baby a weapon, Professor? Because that’s exactly it!” Lilou cut in.

  “We’ve fought our own wars for centuries now, but above all we had a choice, which is something you optans never had—and grown to accept.”

  Lilou took a step forward to glare at Beck, his features unmoved. “Precisely, Professor. You’ve fought your own wars here on Earth and we have not interfered. We did, however, stop Earth from being shattered by NEOs, four gamma ray bursts, and prevented a catastrophe or two. Where would you be now without our interference?”

  “Do you think we are here because we don’t have a choice?” Jasper sounded calm. “What choice did you give your victims?” The sternness of him didn’t match his youth, but little had matched with anything Zoey expected in the last forty-eight hours. She looked at Jasper with the corner of her eye, afraid he might say something to jeopardize Sam’s relea
se.

  The air was damp and there was an unusual pressure Rufus felt in his gut. He shielded Zoey as much as he could, never taking his eyes off Mia. She was as beautiful as he remembered. She hadn’t asked for any of this, yet there she was, pulling the strings Beck wished her to pull and accepting a fate that was entirely unchosen.

  They were all set in an uneven V-shape, the kind that reminded you of flying ducks. The kind of ducks that were now face to face with their hunter.

  “I could just say I was merely trying to prevent a Malthusian catastrophe, but, sadly for your kind, I am not a victim, Ambassador, and neither are your protégés. They’re simply pioneers of evolution—evolution which never comes without sacrifice, does it? And we have done it all for the greater good—a fact that you are oblivious to because you’ve never bothered to look beyond the lies you were fed. Optans were made submissive by a system they don’t even understand.”

  “Explain yourself, Professor!” Aline demanded, this time pulling a translucent knifelike weapon from her belt and holding it defensively. If her powers didn’t work, a knife could do the job just as right.

  Beck was enjoying prolonging the agony curling in Zoey’s and Rufus’s chests, the anxiety of having the people they loved torn away from them. He relished in parading like a peacock in front of the now enhanceless optan team, all under Mia’s judgmental gaze. She felt it all, she knew him all too well to figure out he was going to put on a show, play the smartass and get all Othello about it, too.

  “You want a history lesson, soldier? You shall have it!” Mia’s assumptions came true as Beck eagerly stepped closer to the blonde soldier. He raised his perfectly shaped eyebrows and tilted his head, narrowing the distance between their eyes until he could almost smell her.