In Icarus' Shadow

by Matthew Jones

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Nearly an Hour Earlier...

  "No."

  "Miss Lawson, if you would just-"

  "No. No way, no how."

  "You are being-"

  "No!"

  Orion sighed, drumming his fingers on the dashboard while he waited for her to get the word out of her system.

  Nadia obligingly continued her rant. "No. No, no, no! Definitely no! These are my parents on the line here; you are not going in my place and putting them at risk."

  His expression suggested that she was trying his patience. "I can appear exactly as you do, McClane will not know any different."

  This only agitated her all the more, really. "That's if that's who it is, you didn't talk to him, and I did. And anyway, looking like me doesn't make you me; there are things that people do, little things that nobody can just pick up."

  Orion crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow. "I have had a great deal of practice; furthermore, I know you fairly well. I should be able to make an excellent duplicate."

  She stuck her tongue out at him. "Excellent doesn't mean perfect."

  He rolled his eyes. "You are being very obstinate about this."

  She sighed in exasperation, leaning back in her seat and staring at the car's ceiling. "They're my parents, Orion. I care about their well-being; having a gun pointed at them threatens their continued wellness. So I'm not going to make this any riskier than it already is, it's as simple as that."

  When he did not answer, she frowned and looked in his direction; and then frowned some more. He was hesitating. She hated it when that happened, it meant he was deciding whether or not he could tell her something; and she had just about enough of being 'evaluated.'

  "Look, Orion, you told me you were seeing if you could trust me, right?"

  Looking at her uneasily, he nodded. "Yes?"

  She straightened up, turning to face him head-on. "Well, I don't know if anyone's mentioned, but trust is a two-way sort of a thing. I need to be able to trust you, too; and don't think I haven't picked up on the number of times you've kept things to yourself. I'm a reporter, I spot these things."

  He sighed. "This is not the best time for-"

  She held up a hand. "I know, believe me; this isn't the best time for anything. But if you want me to let you do this, you need to give me something; and it had better be good."

  Orion took a deep breath, and then nodded. Gently taking her face in his hands, he steadied her as he undid his seat-belt and began leaning forward.

  Nadia felt her eyes tugging upward, involuntarily staring into his, which seemed almost to glow as they pulled her attention to them. "Uh... Orion?"

  "You will not be harmed," he replied, his voice sounding several octaves lower and far more languid. "I promise."

  Realizing it was becoming hard to focus on anything other than his eyes, she just nodded; hey, she had said trust was a two-way street. Somebody had to take that first step towards the other side. His eyes continued to brighten, the luminescence they were exuding expanding until it filled her entire field of vision. She felt herself slipping into a sort of drowsy haze, the sort you had when you were still half-asleep and unsure if you were dreaming or awake. Saturated as she was by the crimson light, she was unsure how long, exactly, she sat there. It felt like forever, but she wasn't bored; it felt almost like she had zoned out in the midst of a conversation while the other participants kept talking, half-heard.

  When the end of her scarlet eternity finally came, it was abrupt, like the popping of a soap bubble; rubbing at her eyes reflexively to clear them, she froze when she lowered her hands and found herself watching her. That is, another Nadia; a second her. Blinking, she tilted her head and started as her doppelganger did exactly the same thing, but in the opposite direction; after all, she nearly always tilted her head to the left. Straightening up, she again watched her double do exactly as she did; and it wasn't just imitation, there was no response time. The other 'her' was moving exactly as she did.

  Trying to deliberately throw her clone off, she did the first thing to come to mind and stuck out her tongue; her reflection did, too. Nadia tugged her ear; so did she.

  "Okay, I'm impressed."

  She froze again when she saw her duplicate's mouth moving perfectly in sync with her own and heard her voice, doubled, echoing through the air. Shaking her head to clear the weird effect, she frowned as she was again mimicked. "Okay, I get it, stop that."

  The other Nadia just smiled sweetly. "Hey, you wanted to be sure you went. Now you are. Sort of."

  Nadia blinked. "You even talk like I do."

  Other-Nadia laughed, poking her original on the nose. "Of course I do, silly. The hell kind of double would I be if I walked into your house talking like a robot? Lawson family, I am your daughter and I will save you. Beep beep."

  She giggled quietly, and then quickly stopped when she realized her double was doing it, too. "That's actually a little disturbing. You're... perfect."

  Her mirror-image grinned. "Well, thanks for the flattery, but I think we both know that nobody's perfect; mom told us that, remember, when we brought home that book report and got a B+ instead of an A?"

  Nadia laughed. "Yeah, I... Wait. That was in third grade! How could you possibly know about that?"

  Winking, her double patted her on the shoulder. "I told you; I'm you. But we're wasting time here; are you satisfied?"

  She nodded. "I can barely tell us apart and I'm sitting here looking at you; you'd fool anybody. But... how in the world did you do it? I mean, I know Orion... you..."

  Other-Nadia laughed quietly. "Having trouble?"

  "I don't really know what to call you," Nadia admitted sheepishly. "You're worlds different than Orion, but how can I call you 'Nadia'?"

  She giggled again. "Fair enough, I guess. And to answer your question... actually, it would take too long to explain, your parent's place is like half an hour from here and I've got to get going."

  Climbing out of the passenger side, Nadia's duplicate moved around to the driver's door and knocked lightly on the window. Climbing out, Nadia stood eye to eye with her fake for a moment. "You've got to give me something; I'm going to start doubting my sanity in a minute."

  Her twin rolled her eyes. "Trust me, I know all about it; you really need to be more open minded about these things."

  Nadia felt her jaw slacken for a moment, but recovered quickly. "More open-minded about what? Talking to myself? Literally talking to myself?"

  Other-Nadia giggled, smiling teasingly. "Oh, come on, it's kind of fun and you know it. Not that we have time for fun; is it usually this hard to keep yourself focused on one thing at a time?"

  She raised an eyebrow at her clone's comment, but decided it was better to ignore it. "Fine; explanations when you get back. I'll-"

  "- go down the street and call Chief Roman, so he's ready to move in when you get a call from your cellphone, which I'll have because your purse is between the front seats like it always is."

  Nadia blinked at her again then poked her in the nose, gently but firmly. "You're having way too much fun with this."

  Climbing into the driver's seat, Other-Nadia buckled up and winked. "Hey, I'm only doing what you would."

  She sighed. "Yeah, yeah. Go save my parents; and try not to get yourself killed, all right?"

  Serious at last, her other self smiled back at her. "Don't worry, I'm all over this. Your parents might be a little confused, but otherwise they'll be just fine."

  Nadia returned her smile, though she couldn't shake the butterflies beginning to congregate in her stomach. "Say, Orion?"

  In the midst of turning the car on, her double couldn't quite look up from slotting the key into the ignition. "Hmm?"

  "I trust you, all right? I mean, it's sort of obvious, but in case anything happens... I just thought you should know."

  'He' blinked at her, quiet, but nodded. "I will try to keep that in mind, Miss Lawson. In all honesty, I believe I have alr
eady decided whether or not you are trustworthy, myself."

  She tilted her head slightly. "Oh? What's the verdict?"

  Her double suddenly grinned. "No fair asking, lady. I've got places to go, people to save; all that good stuff."

  Watching her blue Prius driving away, Nadia shook her head slowly, hiding her grin; the man drove her nuts, but he certainly kept things interesting. Not that he was a man just now, though that was, in itself, the perfect example of what she meant.