"Lock the doors to the balcony," Garry said over the transceiver.
"What for?" Xeno locked the sliding glass doors to the penthouse balcony, as instructed.
"I want to try something. We might be able to get a fix on Trianne's location with the aura of of that alien locket."
"Why did you have me lock the doors?"
"We don't want you walking off the edge of the balcony, while you're in trance. Turn the dial to "3."
Xeno backed away from the balcony doors, stopping in the center of the living room, then slowly turned the main dial of the black box to "3." He cupped the tracking device in the palm of his hand, gazing into the black almond eyes of the plastic alien face. His body grew hot in his clothes, perspiration turning his hair moist and veiny on his forehead. The flesh of his palm beneath the alien locket began to blister, swelling in bubbles, scalding from the inside out. He dropped the locket to the carpet, horrified by his disfigured hand, looking it over, anticipating the searing pain of a burned flesh, but it never arrived.
He tore off his coat, unstrapped the black box from his chest and tossed it on the sofa, then tore off his shirt, wadded it up in a ball and wiped the sweat from his face. As he dried himself off, he looked over the palms of his hand. The blisters subsided as quickly as they had formed. The flesh of his hand reverted to its normal consistency, the scalding nothing more than a visual aberration.
He turned to the telepane to see a looped segment of the bungalow sequence from The Tiki Tocki Motel, redrawn from his bad trip on Holly's pleasure dome, shaking with constant jitter, marred by scratches, jerky edits:
INT. TIKI TOCKI MOTEL BUNGALOW — DAY
XENO and TRIANNE appear in the Tiki Tocki Motel bungalow, as they did during XENO'S pleasure dome hallucination.
TRIANNE
I ditched Holly on a neural pathway, and
merged with your implant. Now, we can have
a little privacy.
TRIANNE leans in, holds XENO close, kisses him.
XENO
How did know about my implant?
XENO pushes TRIANNE back a step.
XENO (CONT'D)
I never told you about that.
TRIANNE
We're all alone.
TRIANNE snatches up her Bloody Mary from the dresser, sips a few inches from his lips.
TRIANNE (CONT'D)
That's all that matters.
XENO
Who were you talking to in the bathroom,
just now?
TRIANNE
(whispers in his ear)
I think Drinama's code has bugs.
TRIANNE turns from XENO, standing in the Tiki Tocki bungalow, to XENO, standing in the Boutique penthouse, gazing at him through the fourth wall of the telepane screen.
TRIANNE (CONT'D)
What do you think?
The balcony doors slid open behind Xeno. He turned to see Trianne standing in the entry, wearing a cosplay sailorette costume, with blue jean collar, fat red bow over a white blouse, mini star-spangled skirt, and leggy crimson boots.
YOU ARE READING
Xenoman
Science FictionXeno yearns to have access to The Nth Dimension like The White Boys, famed telepaths who suffered brain damage when they made contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Out of work as a bartender since the Shoki Pao dance club mysteriously burned d...
