All Rights Reserved © 2018, Rick Haydn Horst
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
CHAPTER FOUR
It took thirty-five minutes to arrive at David’s home-away-from-home near Trafalgar Square, the likes of which deviated from my expectations. David lived in the penthouse suite of a fantastic hotel and had done so for ten years.
The spacious suite had many windows with splendid views, contemporary modern furniture filling the room, a dark maple dining table for six to the left, and a king-size bed toward the front of the building overlooking the best view, along with the balcony. I couldn’t see the bathroom, but I would need it soon enough. It had many amenities one would find in a home, but its lack of a stovetop and oven disqualified the space as a flat.
“You live here?” I looked about the lavish suite to find Maggie on the couch, glass in hand, and a bottle of wine on the coffee table.
“Rick!” Maggie ran to me for her customary hug. She gasped. “Qu’est-ce qu’ils vous ont fait? (What did they do to you?)” She lightly touched my cheek. “I’m so glad you’re okay.” Maggie kept hugging me, but I just wanted to sit down.
“I have no wish to sound pretentious,” said David, “but this place is an expensive dump. My real home is far superior. I’ll get you some ice, Rick. Is either of you hungry? I can order room service.”
Maggie and I were starving; tea and tiny sandwiches would only take someone so far.
“You think this is a dump?” I asked David.
“I would live in this dump any day,” Maggie said, smirking.
“The furnishings I accept as typical of hotels,” he said, “but I’m referring to the building structure and the lack of attention to detail. I would cringe with embarrassment if I built or owned this building. I know it sounds like I’m a snob, but if you live someplace long enough, you’ll notice every single flaw.”
I shrugged. “It looks like all the other buildings I’ve seen.”
“No doubt,” he said, “it’s a sad state of the industry.” He handed me the bag of ice.
We ordered dinner and sat in the living room. “Okay, let’s get to business,” I said, holding the ice bag to my cheek. “What happened after I disappeared?”
David insisted Maggie begin. “I had heard some noise in the hallway, but by the time I could investigate, it had stopped. I waited a couple of minutes for you, and then David came around the corner.”
“I searched the building but couldn’t find you,” said David. “I called your mobile; it went straight to voicemail. You would not have left, so someone had to abduct you. I brought Maggie here in a taxi, just in case. With difficulty, I requisitioned a government vehicle and drove all over London searching for you. The tracer doesn’t have a strong signal, so I had to get near you before it would register. I drove for several hours, growing more alarmed that I had no signal, but then I had an indicator on the tracer near the city airport. I kept driving and followed the blinking light until I reached you. I feel lucky to have found you at all.”
“How long were you there before you shot that man?”
Maggie gasped, glaring at David. “You shot someone?”
“I moved into position just after he slapped you.”
“It’s okay Maggie, David saved me from a severe injury.”
“The man was a brute; one punch might have killed Rick.”
“Well, what did he want?” she asked.
I looked at David, not knowing what to say. Would David want to keep the portal secret from Maggie?
“He wanted the location of the portal,” he said, “but Rick doesn’t have that information.”
What portal?” she asked.
“The portal will take you to Jiyū, my homeworld, around another star somewhere in this galaxy.”
She turned to me with suspicion. “Is this British humor?”
Once dinner arrived, we ate at the dining table while David told Maggie the whole story, and omitted nothing, non-disclosure agreements be damned. David said the secret belonged to his people. No government had the right to co-opt it, mark it as their private property, and silence anyone with a gag order. They were interfering and making things difficult.
The conversation returned to the abduction. “It concerns me that the man I shot, Theo Roberts, had Clement O’Byrne as one of his contacts, and had received a call from O’Byrne only two days ago.”
“Who’s Clement O’Byrne?” I asked.
“O’Byrne is known as Lefty Handler, something he would deny,” said David. “He is one-stop-shopping for criminal activity, as a heavy, a fixer, an assassin, whatever you need. O’Byrne used to take a more active role, but these days he sub-contracts others to do it for him, and he keeps his hands clean, so they can never arrest him. If Lefty is involved, then the American government hired him. It always had corruption, but since the dominionists came to power, it’s gotten worse.”
“Can we know the name of the man who got away?” I asked him.
David shrugged. “Theo may have the contact information on his mobile.”
“What about the name on the slip of paper?”
David shook his head. “He didn’t sound like a Helen to me.”
I laughed. “I wouldn’t think so. Will you call that number?”
“I was thinking about it, but that could cause trouble. I would prefer to know who owns the number first,” David said. “I need to check it with the reverse directory.”
The three of us sat on the balcony that overlooked an incredible view of the Thames for several hours and made proposals of what we could do to recover Cadmar’s body. David said that the British government held many sites, but he hadn’t known them all. They would require an autopsy laboratory and a body freezer. The location where they held Amaré had no such equipment. The government had an autopsy lab they used often, the main one everyone knew of, but that made them less likely to store it there. If they refused us permission to view Cadmar’s body, or some other means hadn’t presented itself, they had us stymied.
By 11:30 that night, we all felt exhausted. I hadn’t blamed Maggie when she wanted to go home to sleep, and with the slim possibility of danger to her, David sent her home, paying the cab fare. I wasn’t that lucky; they might know where I lived, so I couldn’t go home no matter how much I wanted fresh clothes.
After we saw Maggie off, David hugged me for several minutes inside the door of the penthouse and whispered. “I’ve tried to understand why they abducted you.”
“Any ideas?”
“They knew better than to kidnap me. Perhaps, they asked you on the off chance I told you. They would want the portal, but they would also want Cadmar’s body, maybe they abducted you for leverage, to coerce me into obtaining it for them. I might have had an unpleasant phone call from them if I hadn’t paid a call on them first. We kept our dating as rather cordial and low-key, but someone may know my feelings for you. How could they have known that?”
“You pretty much told me in the lab,” I said, “what if it has a monitor?”
“No one monitors the room,” he said. “Of course, that wouldn’t mean someone wasn’t listening.”
“You hadn’t mentioned the portal to me,” I said. “How would the talking man know about it?”
“I don’t know. We have nothing but speculation, not enough information.”
I needed to clean up. After David gave me some soap and a toothbrush, he offered some of his clothes to wear on the way to the flat the next morning.
They had encompassed his bathroom in various dated and unattractive shades of blue ceramic. I saw a dozen or so cracked floor tiles. The builders left grout haze on the upper wall, which detracted from the entire bathroom’s appearance. They installed the glass surround for the shower at an odd angle, and someone in the cleaning staff had used an abrasive on every tap, leaving them terribly scratched. I began to see why David referred to the place as an expensive dump.
When the time came for sleeping arrangements, David made a considerate and generous offer of the bed, while he slept on the couch like a proper gentleman. However, I felt that it made little sense for him to remain a gentleman the entire evening.
Displaying a bare muscular torso and wearing a pair of pull-on shorts like those he loaned me, he said goodnight on his way to the couch from the bathroom. As he passed where I sat on the bed, I grabbed his hand. “The living room is too far. What if someone scales the balcony and carries me off in your sleep?”
“Then I would save you again,” he said without a hint of a smile. He waited there staring me in the eye for a moment. The dim light cast shadows on his handsome face and beautiful body, but the muscles of his torso couldn’t compare to the thighs bulging from under his shorts. I stood and pulled him to me by his hand.
He wrapped his arms around me, but his eyes never left mine. “Tell me what you want.”
“I want you,” I said.
“What does that mean?”
“I want to be with you.”
“You are with me. I’m right here.”
“Must I spell it out?” I asked, smiling.
“No, but this is a big step for you, and I never do one-nighters. How do I know you’re ready?”
“Are you ready for this?” I asked.
“That depends on you,” he said, but if we do this, we’re mated; we belong together, and there’s no going back.”
“I want to be your mate. I want to be with you.”
He held me close. “Permanently?” he asked. “I don’t play around. This is a commitment that I take seriously.”
“Permanently,” I said. “I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you.”
He kissed me and laid me back on the bed. He removed my shorts and his own. I saw him naked for the first time. It looked the same as my six-inch cut cock, but it had a larger knob. It certainly looked more than a mouthful.
He sucked mine for a few minutes ensuring not to make me cum yet. “You taste good,” he said.
“I don’t want to cum,” I said. “I like to not cum.”
“Why?”
“It keeps my motor running hot.”
“You enjoy feeling horny all the time? Interesting. How about I rev your engine for you?”
He flipped me over urging me toward the headboard. He lay behind me on the bed and dug his face into my ass. I arched my back giving him as much access as he wanted. His tongue stimulating me for what I knew would come next. He would want to fuck me, and that’s what I wanted most; it had been so long. He kept his face at my hole for half an hour.
“I think you’re ready,” he said. Right behind me, he pulled me up to my hands and knees. He tapped his cock on my saliva-soaked hole. “Do you want this?”
“Yes.”
“Last chance to back out. Once it goes in, it’s not coming out until I breed you, and there’s no turning back. We’re mated, and it can’t be undone. Are you sure you want this?”
“Yes,” I said. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m already your mate.”
He pushed his cock in, and I hadn’t fucked in years. He stretched me, and I could feel the head of his cock. Once he settled in all the way, he began to fuck me slowly with an ever-increasing pace, and then fucked me as hard as he wanted. He drew back to the enlarged head and rammed it back into me repeatedly, fucking me for longer than anyone else had. He pushed me forward onto my stomach and followed me down laying atop my back. His weight and muscles felt so good as he continued. I felt lost in the pleasure he gave me for I don’t know how long. He wrapped his arms around my torso and held my shoulders for leverage as he thrust into me, and I could hear his rapid breathing in my ear.
“I’m about to breed you,” he said, “and we will be mated.”
He thrust into me one last time and held it there. I could feel the head expand further as he filled me. When he finished, his arms still wrapped around me, he turned us onto our sides, his cock slipping from me.
“I don’t want to wear you out the first night,” he said. “It will become easier from this point.”
“I love you,” I said.
“I knew that a week ago. That’s why I chose you for my mate.”
“Will it always be like this?” I asked his hot breath on my neck.
“No, it will be much better,” he said. “We’re just getting started.” He kissed me.
“When we get to Jiyū-”
“Hush,” he whispered into my ear, “you should sleep now.”
The next morning the sun rose, and my sleep-deprived eyes hadn’t liked it one bit. Even with the curtains closed, the penthouse had so many windows I would have found it impossible to sleep without a mask. David lay next to me on the crisp white sheets, and their temperature had reached that cozy I-don’t-want-to-get-out-of-bed level of comfort.
My experience of David seemed –I don’t know– unbelievable, maybe. Things felt right with me for the first time. I hadn’t known where David would take me, but I knew then, I would go with him anywhere.
He called down the previous evening to order breakfast that morning while I scrubbed at the grime acquired during the abduction. Breakfast came promptly at seven o’clock in the morning. He ordered omelets, toast, fruit, juice, and tea. We had an enjoyable Sunday morning, just the two of us talking and laughing about anything that came to mind. Then the conversation moved toward his choice of accommodations.
“I live here because I lack domestic skills. I’ve tried my best, but my cooking would result in an insurance claim somewhere at the end of it.”
“I can cook,” I said, “but living in London has kept me out of practice.” We sat and stared at one another for a minute because I hesitated to ask, but I had to know. “Tell me something, how can you afford this place? With all this space and that amazing view, you could pay a few thousand pounds a night.”
My question hadn’t fazed him. “Oh, that,” he said. “Money has no meaning on Jiyū. I understand that to most people here, it seems extravagant to live in a hotel penthouse for ten years, but we rarely use words like cost, extravagance, expensive, affordable, or cheap in my world.
“We have an entire planet of the same elementary resources that Earth does. Whenever we need them, we have automated underground extractors. Robotic workers bring them to the surface and carry them to our small refinery. It has no monetary value; no one pays for them. Here on Earth, however, I rented the penthouse from the owner on the condition that they include all their services.”
“What did you pay him with?”
“At the market prices of the time,” he said, “the equivalent of one million pounds in gold every year.”
“And it never occurred to you that might be excessive?”
He laughed. “I only gave him some gold. He was happy with it, but I feel like I wronged him. We may not use money, but we know what has value. I’ve had a roof over my head, clean clothes, a bed to sleep on, and food to eat for ten years. What I gave him just doesn’t seem enough. I know that sounds silly to you, probably. I’ve never understood monetary value; it makes no sense to me. It tends to place a higher value on things that serve no real purpose.”
He sounded like someone remorseful because he tricked Jack into trading his cow for some useless beans. He had an attitude as alien as I’d ever heard, but the things David told me, while strange, further endeared him to me.
A little past ten o’clock in the morning, I was inspecting my cheek in the bathroom mirror. The swelling had gone down after several ice treatments, but I had purple and yellowish discoloration near my eye. I came from the bathroom to find David making a phone call. He stood there, letting it ring. He shook his head.
“No answer,” he said, ending the call, “I’m trying to reach Pearce in the United States, my American counterpart and best friend growing up on Jiyū. I hear from him every two weeks. I heard from him two Sundays ago at 10:00 a.m. on the dot, as I have the last ten years, but it’s well past ten o’clock now. He hasn’t called, and he doesn’t answer his mobile. He has always called. Perhaps, they’ve caught him, and he told them about the portal.”
David’s mobile rang. We thought Pearce had called him, but I heard the voice of Amanda Newton from the Home Office when he put the call on speakerphone so that I could listen in.
“Hello, Amanda,” David said, “you don’t usually call me. Is something wrong?”
“I have a problem,” she told David. “Can I speak with you?”
“Yes, of course. What can I do for you?”
“Please, not on the phone. I must see you.”
“Alright, I can do that. I do have one request, though. I must bring Mr. Heiden with me. It’s necessary; I’ll explain that when I see you. Upon my word, you can trust him.”
“If you say so, David. I trust your judgment; that’s why I’m calling you. Where can we meet?”
“I have one of the company cars. We can pick you up in an hour. How about in front of the Royal Albert?”
“I’ll be there,” said Amanda.
I could guess David’s plan. The Royal Albert Hall lay close to my flat. We would have ample time to drop by, change my clothes, and pack a bag.
When I first arrived in the UK, I lived out of a suitcase for way too long, and I hadn’t liked the idea of going back to that. I was paying an absurd amount of money for the flat for it to end up a mere storage locker, but I had no alternative. The circumstance reminded me: the flat. If I intended to go with David, the flat had to go. I had no idea what I would do with it. Selling it on seemed reasonable, but that would have taken time, and I had the impression we wouldn’t have time to get it off my hands.
Every flat in my building came with one designated parking space in a nearby garage, which I think made a significant contribution to its ridiculous price. We parked and walked to the flat. In its current form, the building’s interior resembled a new structure. My two-bedroom flat hadn’t had much of a view unless someone enjoyed gawking at the shops across the street. Inside, it came with the typical modern decor of many urban spaces. I never took the time to paint, so it remained the mid-toned matte grey preferred by the previous owner. The living room had a stunning electric fireplace built into the focal wall. I intended to use it that winter as I cozied myself on the loveseat to read the latest novel –the one feature I figured I would enjoy most.
As I changed into my dark gray, striped tweed suit, I grew curious, so I thought I would inquire, “What can you tell me about Amanda Newton?”
“I like her,” he said. “I consider her a good work-friend, and I know she thinks a lot of me, although I wouldn’t say we had a close relationship away from work. I usually follow her lead when it comes to how close we treat one another at any given time.”
“That’s considerate of you.”
“Well, thanks to her, I have my job.” David left the bedroom.
“What is your job? You never did tell me.” I had to shout to David, who snooped about my apartment as I finished dressing and began packing.
“I have difficulty defining what I do,” he said from the kitchen. “I don’t even think the position has a name.”
“Well, what constitutes the bulk of what you do there?”
“Oh, a little of this, a bit of that. I call myself ‘helping,’ but people have referred to me as all sorts –Amanda Newton’s pet project, a bloody nuisance, the British government’s Dutch uncle.” I heard him inspecting the contents of my refrigerator.
“Dutch uncle?” I asked, unfamiliar with the term.
“I’m not that bad. I think I acquired that one from an incident years ago. Mr. Haywood had it coming, and I know he still hates me.”
I finally finished packing and dragged my suitcase into the living room. “So, should I believe you lack popularity where you work?”
“Popularity is only important in beauty contests and elections,” he said. “I have something far more valuable.”
“And that is?”
“Their grudging respects. I’ve earned every ounce of it. Never underestimate the power of the respect people give you, regardless of how they feel about you otherwise. It’s kept me at a job that has no name, doing something I’ve enjoyed, almost nine years.”
It had been sprinkling all morning, and Ms. Newton was standing at the edge of the sidewalk waiting for us, holding her umbrella. She wore a classy-looking checked grey dress with a matching jacket. She took the front passenger seat, as I had sat in the back to give them room to chat.
“Amanda, I believe you remember Rick Heiden. Rick; Amanda Newton.” David reintroduced us and drove on. “I know you have something important to discuss, but I must catch you up, Amanda. Two Americans abducted Rick yesterday afternoon at two o’clock.”
She turned toward me with eyebrows raised. “Are you okay?”
“Thanks to David, yes. I appreciate your asking.”
“Do go on,” she said to David in interest.
“I can’t leave him alone. They took him to a warehouse east of the city airport.”
“What did you do to them?” she asked with passivity.
“One of them mysteriously died. The other got away.”
“Damn,” she said.
“Have you something I should know?” David asked her.
She said, “I’m glad you told me. I received a call on my mobile yesterday afternoon, a little after four o’clock. The man disguised his voice, but he sounded American. He told me that if I wouldn’t release what he wanted into their custody by Monday night at midnight, they would harm my daughter. He said his dangerous friend had lots of patience, and if I try to hide her, I couldn’t hide her forever. I must take threats seriously, David. I can’t hide my daughter at all; she’s twelve and has autism. It has taken us years to get her to the current level. She must have consistency, so we cannot hide her.”
“I never knew you had children,” David said.
“Few do. When my ex-husband and I divorced ten years ago, we decided that she should live with her father. Government service keeps me away too much, and he planned to live closer to the school she would need.”
“Who knows about her?” David asked, pulling into a parking space.
“Very few.”
“Who knew at the facility yesterday?” he asked her.
“Only Katheryn Elliott. I’ve known her for several years. We share the same yoga class. She requested to lead the team that’s studying Amaré.”
“Amanda, there’s a possibility that Katheryn is giving secrets to the Americans,” he said.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“It’s possible but uncertain.”
A thought occurred to me, and I figured I would share it, but first. “Ms. Newton, what’s your daughter’s name?”
“It’s Helen,” she replied.
David and I locked eyes in the rear-view mirror. He pulled the piece of paper from his pocket, handing it to Amanda. “The dead man had this in his pocket. Is that your number?”
She nodded. “My private mobile number. If the man is dead, would that mean my daughter is safe?” I could almost feel her holding her breath.
“I don’t know,” said David.
“Did the man on the phone specifically use the phrase lots of patience?” I asked.
“Yes, he did. Does that matter?”
“I think David hadn’t arrived when the man said it to me, but the man who did all the talking said the dead man gave me too much in the injection, which put me in a deep sleep for several hours. He told me the other guy waited because he had lots of patience, but it was wearing thin. I don’t know why the dead man had the paper with your mobile number and your daughter’s name, but I think the talking man called you.”
“I agree,” said David, “but it does seem curious that the talking man had the dead man to play the ruffian. I couldn’t guarantee anything, but he may be unwilling to pull any triggers himself.” He pulled out his mobile. “I took a video of the dead man’s recent calls and contacts from his mobile. The talking man might be among them. If I ask, Mr. Haywood won’t do it because he dislikes me, but if I send you this video, could you have MI5 check the names and give us a background on them?”
“Of course,” she said.
“What will happen to Katheryn?” I asked.
“We have no evidence, so for now, nothing,” said David, “but she seems the best candidate. It may be a case of having to keep your potential enemies closer.”
“Indeed,” said Amanda, “and I’ll have MI5 check her further.”
“One last thing, Amanda,” said David, “where have you kept the body of the man like Amaré?” David pulled into traffic and drove us back toward the Albert.
Amanda paused for a moment. “Facility3 with Amaré. He had head trauma, so the emergency services took him to the hospital in Queen Square, but he died, and they held the body in their morgue for a few days so that they could scan and x-ray it for us. When Amaré showed up, they took him to Facility3 as well. I like to keep things tidy.”
“But Facility3 doesn’t have a morgue,” said David.
“No, but they make portable versions of everything these days, even body freezers. By the way, Mr. Heiden, since you met with Amaré yesterday, he has been talking to us, so thank you.”
We pulled into the lay-by at the Royal Albert Hall. As Amanda thanked David for coming, she stroked his cheek and smiled at him before leaving the vehicle. It seemed an odd gesture, which I hadn’t quite understood, but seemed consistent with her barnacle-like behavior at the party. Once out of sight, David expressed his frustrations. “Why must things have so many bloody complications?”
I jumped into the front seat. “They put them both in the same facility, isn’t that good? Why couldn’t we tell Amanda the situation, get her to let us take Cadmar’s body, get Amaré and Maggie, then head for the portal?”
“Oh, Rick, I wish things worked with such simplicity,” he said, pulling out into traffic. “I appreciate the body’s convenient location, but it would change everything if we told her the situation; the government is her priority. The list of things to do before we leave continues to grow. If we don’t want that list to have exponential growth, we must keep things to ourselves. Even after your abduction, we could have ignored the talking man, but not if he’s threatened a child. Now we must take care of the talking man and the informant, retrieve Cadmar’s body and then free Amaré from his cell. That’s enough to cope with, I should think.”
“Couldn’t MI5 get the talking man and the informant? It’s their job,” I said.
“Yes, and no,” he said, “it’s MI5’s job, but I have a connection to the cause so I cannot absolve myself of responsibility without honorable reasons. You have many things to learn about Jiyū. We must willingly take responsibility for our actions and protect our honor. We do not have the litigious society that exists in this world. We have no government to uphold contracts, so we do not use them, and no one sues anybody. So, your word is your bond, the effects of your actions are yours to deal with, and how you deal with them reflects upon your honor. Cadmar came here to take me home, but he died in the attempt. My involvement places the responsibility upon me, so I must fix this.”
“If you have the responsibility, why did Amaré come here?”
“He would have requested that Cadmar come,” he replied.
“I see,” I said. “So, why did Amanda stroke your cheek?”
“She has a fondness for me.”
“Right…,” I said.
“Oh, your mention of Maggie joining us reminded me,” he said. “I did a cursory examination of your associates during your background check, and I noticed something about Maggie. It’s nothing bad, so don’t worry about that, but when the time comes, she may not want to go.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“I don’t think you’ve thought this move through,” he said. “We won’t move you to the opposite side of the planet, but another planet altogether, a permanent move, and not an easy one. Jiyū has a larger circumference than the Earth, and its gravity is 1.375 times as great, which at first will present a challenge for you. But you shouldn’t assume she will want to go. People live complicated lives.”
“Oh, I’ve thought about it,” I said, “but I admit not having considered certain aspects of it. I do know I want to remain with you. Wait, you said we would have 1.375 times as much gravity.” I made a quick calculation in my head. “I’ll weigh 220 pounds there! That sounds exhausting. So, how long did you live there before you came back?”
“My parents and I moved there when I was two years old, and I came back at thirty, in Earth years anyway, but the time differential caused only five and a half years to pass on Earth.”
“What? I don’t understand,” I said.
“We have an anomaly near our solar system, which distorts how time passes around it. It’s a 5:1 ratio. Five years there has a rough equivalence of one year here, give or take some days.”
“That sounds wild. What does that feel like?” I asked.
He shrugged. “It feels like it does here. Can you feel time moving five times slower here than it does somewhere else in the galaxy?”
“Not that I’ve noticed,” I said.
“That’s because you’ll only notice a difference after having traveled between the two planets. Since I’ve lived here, nearly ten Earth years have passed, but on Jiyū, it’s been fifty.”
“Fifty years? Might your parents have died by now?” I asked.
“They died not long after we arrived. My parents hadn’t survived the transition. Some people have difficulty with the increased gravity, and enhancements take time. My mother had an undiagnosed heart condition, and my father had led a sedentary lifestyle and was far too old. We’ve ensured that won’t happen again. My father was forty-six when we left Earth, and my mother was forty-one. After the age of forty, humans begin a steady decline to middle age. We made forty the age limit for transitioning to Jiyū, and while I’ve been here for ten years, I was enhanced long ago. So, I won’t have a problem upon my return.”
“I’m sorry about your parents.”
He turned to me, and I noted his sad smile. “I don’t think about it much. After they died, an amazing, loving couple adopted me. I consider them my parents since I barely remember my biological ones.”
“In this context,” I said, “what does enhanced mean?”
“It means that parts of my body have similarities to the X-ray of Cadmar. I’ve gone through a technological alteration so that I can live on Jiyū. We evolved to live in Earth’s gravity. Without enhancements, younger people can cope with the higher gravity on Jiyū for a while, but it has significant side effects. Over time, it will age you faster, wear out your joints, strain your heart, and damage your bones. We’ve corrected those problems and even managed to stop the aging process long ago for those people who want it. I’ve not had that enhancement, but I will upon my return, and over time, my body will revert to a younger state than it is now.”
“You’ll never grow old?”
“Not if I don’t want to,” he said, “and you’ll have the same opportunity.”
“They could make me immortal?”
“Not really, you would have provisional immortality,” he said. “You will die one day. However, barring some accident or incident that causes catastrophic homeostatic failure, if you continue to receive food, water, and oxygen, you will endure.”
I thought I could no longer find amazement in anything that David told me. I was wrong. The revelation had consequences that even I could see would bring nothing but disaster for the people on Earth should they get their hands on that technology. If the population hadn’t rapidly exploded, it’s because the rich would make immortality only available to themselves.
It also distressed me that Maggie would not want to come with us. If true, I wished to get that news over with. I called her to ask if I could come to visit. She agreed, and David took me there, as he had something to do that could not involve me. It made me curious, but I figured I would find out later. He asked me to remain vigilant and not to leave her apartment until he returned. I had no problem with that as I wasn’t seeking re-abduction. He saw me to her door and kissed me a bye-for-now. Maggie smirked when she witnessed it.
“I knew it! You told me you hadn’t had sex with him.”
“I never lied,” I said. “I hadn’t…not at the time, anyway.”
“So, you have now.”
“Yes, but I hadn’t come about that. I’m here about you.”
“Me? Why?”
I told her the astonishing things David told me. She hadn’t known whether she believed everything he said. I told her that I had seen the weapon he used to kill the man who hit me, but most compelling of all, I had stared into Amaré’s eyes. They did not come from Earth with the current technology.
“Yes, I know you never saw those things,” I said to her, “but for the sake of argument, let’s suggest you had, and you knew it as I do. David offered us an opportunity to go to his home planet, and I, your best friend, want to go with him. Will you go?”
She looked at me with a blank stare. “It sounds like an opportunity that only comes once, and for as much as it sounds like a grand adventure, I could not.”
I had a tightness in my chest as if someone were squeezing my heart. I wanted Maggie to come with me. She was my family; I couldn’t lose her.
“Would you tell me why?”
“My grandmother,” she said. “She took care of me when I had no one else. Now, she’s elderly and unable to work. She has her pension, but it doesn’t cover the cost of all her needs. Every month I send her money from my salary to make up the difference. If I left, she would have no one to help her. I cannot go, but I would never want that to stop you. I will be fine.”
She and I talked for several hours. We sent out for Chinese and had a satisfying meal together, and as we did so, it reminded me of David and his cup of tea. I thought to myself then, that could be the last meal that she and I shared. I would miss that.