Lack of air.
Bile rising in her throat.
It’s not that she didn’t expect her James to have a past, because she did. But she just couldn’t picture Lilou’s sister as his past. Whom he helped fake a death so she could be with the one she loved. Romantic and sinister because that was the new James and she couldn’t have been more freaked right now.
“Huh.” Zoey managed to blurt out between hyperventilating and trying to figure out how she felt about all this. Curled up on the bed, knee to knee with Lilou, she stared into those eerie blue eyes, still unable to articulate.
“I’m not sure you’re really ready for your ‘no more lies’ policy.” Lilou pulled a lopsided smile. The best she could muster under the circumstances. “Must be hard for you, not being able to see him all evil nor all good but most of us aren’t.” Lilou bit her lip before she dared to continue. “The life you’ve known and the one we have, well—they have nothing in common. I’ve killed beings under my oath to the Alliance, Etienne did too and Jasper will as well, any day now. It changes you, Zoey but you know you’re fighting for a better world, for the greater good, for a world where the people you love don’t concern themselves with safety.”
“Because you’re in charge of that.” Zoey sniffed and pulled off a brave face.
“Yeah.” A resigned smile caught at Lilou’s lips. “And I am grateful to Etienne, I really am, and without him my sister probably wouldn’t be alive right now but—”
“But if he’s a threat to the Alliance you’ll kill him. Because you’re a soldier.” Zoey nodded. She was quick to catch on this time around. There was nothing she could ever do or say to stop Lilou from being who she was. At the end of the day, the Alliance was who they served and Etienne had gone AWOL. “You didn’t give your best to kill him on Sarasate because he saved your sister, didn’t you?”
“And I still regret it. Jasper was this close to death.” She gestured. “You’re smarter than they give you credit for, Zoey.” The corners of Lilou’s mouth turned upwards. “Jasper thought I was being cautious since we don’t really know the extent of Etienne’s enhancements. I would’ve died trying to end him otherwise but I did feel I owed him this much.”
“When did things get so complicated?” Pulling her knees to her chest, Zoey contemplated what the future had in stock.
“Speaking of, the new Chancellor is here and wants to meet you.” Lilou pursed her lips into a thin line, sensing Zoey’s anguish. “… but I suspect you’d like to see Jasper first.” His name made her insides shake and Lilou read her like an open book. There was nothing left to do but nod and push herself up.
Returning to the capsule came with a foreign flutter.
Expectation and anxiety crept up her fingers which seemed to twitch uncontrollably, so Zoey clasped her hands together in an attempt to steady herself. By the time the door opened on the third floor, she straightened her shoulders, trying to shake the growing panic away.
Five optan scientists raised their eyes to greet her, so she was quick to get her earpiece on and greet them all with a nod as she quickened the pace to follow Lilou. The same shell-like fabric wrapped their bodies from neck to toe in a purplish bodysuit, and unlike the strategists, they didn’t make her feel as self-conscious. Maybe optans on this floor were more accustomed to other species. The layout was similar to the tech and maintenance floor, all white, lab doors on each side and the occasional optan crossing rooms on their way someplace other than the hallway they were now on. They walked in silence and turned right at the end of the corridor, entering a massive room. More kalenium than Zoey ever imagined possible greeted them next, screens covering every wall in the dim blue and amber lit space.
Graphs and charts were on display, constantly changing patterns on every wall. As they advanced, Zoey caught a glimpse of the warm dim light in the center of the room and a blueish hue reflected from the walls. And silence. So much silence as if she could smell it.
Her breath stopped short as she grabbed ahold of Lilou’s arm and sank her fingers in. Jasper was no fewer than ten feet away, enclosed in a glass capsule. Floating into thin air four feet from the ground.
She heard herself gasp.
“It’s okay.” Lilou draped a hand over Zoey’s as they paced forward. Nodding, she traced his outline, as the distance dissipated. “Etienne’s little party trick shattered part of his shoulder, clavicle and jaw, so Jasper is now in an induced coma.” She sensed Zoey getting tense and turned to her. “He’s fine, the crew got there just in time and he was attended immediately. He’s just hours away from a full recovery.”
Somehow, Lilou’s soft smile was not enough to stop the erratic panting, the growing knot Zoey felt in her throat. Her temperature dropped.
“How—how does he breathe?” There was nothing attached to the perfectly closed capsule levitating above the floor. The closer she got, the scarier it looked. Like the perfect evidence they belonged to different worlds. When his shoulder came into view, she could make out the restored tissue’s distinctive pink shade. Like a healing burn wound patching his shoulder along with part of his neck and jaw.
Lilou’s warm fingers draped around her hand in an attempt at comfort. “Trust me, he does.” Three short steps further and Zoey’s face drastically changed color, causing Lilou a greedy giggle. “Yes, patients need to be naked in the restoring unit. Hey! It’s okay!”
Jasper’s naked body floated above her eyes like it was the most natural thing in the world. She couldn’t even look Lilou in the face.
Her giggle morphed into a belly laugh. “Ha! I should have known. Only humans are ashamed of exposing their genitalia. Sure, we walk around in uniforms but trust me, there’s no shame for us whatsoever! Blame it on cultural differences…” she didn’t let go of Zoey’s hand as she went through several shades of discomfort. This brought Lilou a memory of startled Rufus refusing to be healed by her, given the wound extended to a private area, and as a consequence, refusing to be examined. Humans were funny creatures for this particular soldier.
It almost felt wrong laughing around Jasper in this state. “I won’t look where I’m not supposed to!” The words precipitated out of Zoey’s mouth as she took a sharp breath. She just wanted to see him.
Even in his unconscious state, Jasper was breathtaking. Under the soft glow, his body faintly moved with each breath, making Zoey lose a little sense of gravity. She didn’t really know how long she sat there, tracing the line of his jaw and the curve of his shoulders. Blonde strands of his bun swayed in careless waves around his face, almost contrasting the bright pink areas of his neck and jaw. He looked peaceful, lost in deep sleep like the beautiful hero that he was.
“Having feelings for him is wrong, Zoey. It’s wrong for the both of you.”
A pink flush spread over Zoey’s face, although her eyes refused to leave him. “Do they know?” She feared for Jasper’s future within the Alliance as much as she feared for her own safety at this point.
“No. Does Etienne know?” Lilou smartly returned the question with a meaningful stare.
“He might suspect something, but I haven’t really told him anything.”
“Explain this to me… How does one heartbroken human get to have these feelings for another in a matter of days?” Lilou folded her arms across the chest and threw a quick glance around. This was not the type of conversation they should’ve been having with an audience.
“I don’t know, Lilou. It freaks me out as well, I can’t put a name on this, I don’t know what it is. We haven’t really spoken about it either. All I want is for him to be safe. For all of you.”
“Yet you don’t look at me like at the last unicorn.” She winked, all smug. “Joke aside, you want to be careful when you have a whole team monitoring your everything. Especially while the Chancellor’s around.” This brought forward a fresh wave of anxiety for Zoey. Controlling how she felt was primarily out of her hands.
“What’s the worst that could happen?” Panic crept in her voice. “Will the
y terminate him?” Zoey spun on her heels, watching Lilou’s frame succumbing to the white marble in a yoga pose. She didn’t think twice and joined in.
Lilou was terribly hard to read, her blue eyes pinned on Jasper. “You can get a clear view of his ass from down here, see?” Excelling at teasing was a clear sign of spending too much time around Sam, and Zoey felt her cheeks flush again.
“Is my presence here a danger to Jasper?”
Lilou leaned into her, bumping shoulders. “Nag much?” She draped a hand on her knee and glanced at Zoey from under her eyelashes. “Not if you guys keep it in your pants. If anyone finds out, he’ll be dispatched to Opt and assigned to another mission. You need to do something severe to be terminated.”
It was enough for Zoey to stiffen. “Like what James did…” She’d called him James instinctively, causing Lilou to raise an eyebrow. He was two people in one after all.
“Zoey, you do know he will be captured and terminated one way or another, right?” She didn’t need to elaborate, the evidence spoke for itself. James… Etienne came back from the dead to raise hell, all because he loved her. She’d been the muse behind the killings, the alterations and havoc he’d caused. “There are over sixty optans in this building.” Lilou continued. “Strategy and Tech, the Timeline crew, our Medical crew and top soldiers. Everyone’s under extreme pressure to figure out how to go against Etienne and they will.” She gave off a shrug as she propped her arm against the floor and leaned back. “My guess—they’re expecting to use you as bait.”
It wasn’t an easy thing to say but it was the truth and Zoey had asked for it. It almost felt wrong saying it out loud. “So I’m expected to take part in planning his murder?” God. She felt all kinds of stupid. And angry. Of course she was expected to pick a side, but going from teaching art to being an accomplice to murder caused her insides to feel like they were being squeezed by a fist.
It all dawned on her. Of course they had called her in to see if James was smitten enough to follow. If the Alliance ever had any doubt, it dissipated the moment he put himself on a plane next to her.
The air left her lungs. Nothing was certain. She couldn’t trust anyone. Her heart raced, thinking of Sam and Emma arriving tomorrow.
Unfucking real. She’d been doing that a lot lately—trying to fight back tears. The thought that James was going to die, violently echoed through her whole being.
Lilou bounced off the floor and straightened her shoulders. “I need you to get a clear head, the Chancellor just buzzed. He’s ready to meet you.”
It took around twenty minutes for Zoey to find some sort of balance and Lilou was patient enough not to rush her. Despite the clearly red eyes and nose, she swallowed her worse fears and pushed forward.
They walked in silence and took the capsule slash elevator to the fifth floor where unsurprisingly, another white hallway awaited. Following Lilou’s narrow frame left then right, they were now standing in front of yet another pristine white door. Everything intensified. It almost felt like a change in pressure and Zoey’s ears congested with a loud pop. James had said the words ‘lion’s den’ and it didn’t feel far from the truth. She nodded and Lilou pressed her fingerprint on the door’s handle. A soft buzz followed and Lilou was in. Instinctively, Zoey steadied her earpiece and stepped through.
There was nothing but adrenaline creeping up her chest like a predator. Three glass walls surrounded the office. The view would’ve been breathtaking on any other day. Except for the two intersats strategically placed on the desk and the huge screen on the single wall that was not made of glass, it all looked pretty normal. Human even. The Chancellor though, was nowhere in sight.
Lilou signaled one of the modern looking chairs on the visitor side of the desk and Zoey took a careful seat, mapping the surroundings with a wary eye. She nervously pulled at the hem of her sweater.
Before she could say another word, the door made a piecing noise and he was in. “Good afternoon, Zoey.” A seemingly friendly voice greeted, almost startling her as she got on two feet.
This was not the man she’d expected to see. “Um, hello.” She clasped her hands together like a good student and felt stupid for doing so. The Chancellor couldn’t have been older than thirty, thirty-one tops, no wrinkle on his chiseled face, his silver blonde hair combed back in perfect straight lines. The symmetry of his features aligned to display a beautiful, poreless face just like the rest of the optans’. The more optans she got to see the more she came to the conclusion their skin was different. Better, no sun spots or imperfections overshadowing their features. Or freckles for that matter.
The Chancellor was a good head taller than her, his slender figure wrapped in a body suit which Zoey saw fit for comic-con. He was dressed like some sort of capeless superhero in shimmering pearly white.
Not weird at all. Despite having seen the rest of the optans in the building in body suits, the striking color made all the difference.
His mouth moved in a different rhythm than the words he produced and he was quick to notice her bedazzlement. “It’s the earpiece. Comes handy for the rest of us who haven’t been blessed with the gift of interplanetary language.” A soft smile escaped his lips as he made his way through, stopping at an arm’s length from Zoey. Watching him speak was like watching a dubbed movie. Unsettling.
He extended a hand. “I believe this is how you greet, if Lilou instructed me correctly.” She was caught off guard and shook his hand awkwardly.
“Yes.” Friendly manner aside, she found him intimidating, possibly still due to his uniform. “How do you greet each other?” Strangely enough, he was still holding her hand.
“With a most ordinary nod, I’m afraid. No handshake, no peck on the cheek—I found that particularly cute here. I haven’t had the full integration course on human interaction, just the pure basics—hopefully, enough so that you won’t label me as the office weirdo.” Hence the two minute long handshake, she figured. “Have a seat.” He finally let go of her hand, moving swiftly to the other side of the desk. “You know on Opt we don’t have names per se, but Lilou tells me I look like a Richard.” His glance switched to Lilou as if he was somehow seeking her approval.
Of course she does, Zoey bit her lip, eyeing not-so-innocent Lilou who strategically placed herself in a military posture by the door. “Richard, I’m Zoey. Why did you want me here?” The seat suddenly felt rigid under her weight. So did her dark jeans and navy sweater for that matter.
Richard leaned back in his chair, still scanning her features. “I’d like to formally apologize on the behalf of the I.P.A. What James has done is ruthless and there’s no excuse for this type of behavior.” He steadied his elbows on the desk as he leaned forward. “You must have a lot of questions.” The Chancellor exhaled as he deepened his stare on Zoey. He was also the first optan to call James by the name most familiar to her. Not Etienne, but James.
“James said you were going to retreat your crew from Earth, causing us to be exposed without your, um… help.” She wasn’t really sure how a twenty-four year old human should carry a conversation over the safety and future of her home planet with an alien official, but that was that. “He also says you are unsure what to do with the remaining altered.”
Lilou cocked an eyebrow from behind. She hadn’t expected to see Zoey dive right into it like she had. Her eyes fell on the Chancellor as he spoke. “You know our objective: shield and protect until a planet reaches the necessary evolutionary stage to join the Alliance. You are also aware our priorities have shifted and we can no longer allow ambassadors who do not possess the necessary skills to take over missions such as this one.” James hung like a dark stain on the Alliance’s white cape. That was more than obvious. “But in this case, I’m willing to negotiate.”
Negotiate? Throwing this word in was definitely not random and Zoey was quick to catch on.
“I know what our former ambassador was to you Zoey, and I find myself in the very uncomfortable position to ask for your help, so
I’m prepared to extend a hand as well, so to speak. I don’t usually do war, I do politics, so in a twisted and sometimes unfair way, everyone gets something.”
She bit her lip. If ever there was a moment to carry herself in a professional manner, she was smelling the roses. “What do you offer?” Showing this man any kind of weakness was not in the books. Not if she wanted a life for the people she loved, so she tried to play the part.
Richard steepled his fingers together resting them on his bottom lip for a second. “A chance for your planet. Under normal circumstances, I’d speak to Earth representatives, forge an agreement, hold a common vote with the one hundred and as of yesterday, fifty-seven planet members and shake hands.” He drew a sharp breath. “Today I need to convince a human whose life we’ve altered beyond repair to help us trick her life partner into surrendering. I think it’s a first for both of us, Zoey.”
Lilou kept a straight pose through it all, watching Zoey from behind. She handles herself well, she thought. So far.
“So what you’re really asking is for me to be an accomplice to murder.”
Here we go. Lilou rolled her eyes to herself, foreseeing Zoey’s reactions.
Richard’s face on the other hand, showed no expression Zoey was remotely familiar with. If anything, he looked startled. “I’m asking you to do a very difficult thing in exchange for the safety of nearly eight billion humans. Their lives are at your mercy right now and I’m not being dramatic.” The Chancellor's words, although unintended, fell on Zoey’s shoulders with the weight of an entire planet. “If you detach yourself from the whole situation, we’re offering the deal of a lifetime: guaranteed shielding until Earth can join the Alliance.”
The knot in Zoey’s throat was growing by the second. “What about Rufus, Mia and the other boy?” There was no backing off now. “We’ve all been altered.” And we’re all a risk to you, she thought yet never voiced the latter.
“If the former ambassador is gone, so is the possible threat. I doubt any of you feel up to picking fights with the universe. What for?” His lips mustered what Zoey read as a resigned smile. Despite the power play, she perceived empathy in his eyes. “I’m taking risks too, Zoey, we all are.”
Found in Amber Page 4
