Paradigm Rift

Chapter Four - As Daylight Dies

We drove back across the Golden Gate Bridge, a sight I didn't think I'd get to see again; at least not under the same sky. I held tightly to the steering wheel as my hands still shook from the near death experience I had just gone through. I hadn't stepped through a rift yet and I had already seen how dangerous it could be out there. The people that followed Iris, would they be following us nonstop if I were to leave with her? Could I really live such a life?

"I never got your name," Iris said, looking out the door window.

She caught me off guard. That was the first time she spoke since we were in the woods. "It's Adam. You're Iris, right?"

"Yeah. I need you to take me atop the tallest building you can find," she ordered.

"What for?" I asked.

"You want to find another rift as soon as possible, don't you? You're going to have to learn to stop asking questions. If I have to answer every little question, we're just going to be wasting time," she said with an irritated voice.

What was her problem? I helped her when she could have easily died and she repaid me by using me as bait and treating me like trash. I didn't care for a thank you, I wasn't expecting it, but I didn't know what I had done to deserve this kind of treatment. I really needed her help so I would take her attitude for as long as I could.

Once we got back to the city, I took her to Millennium Tower. I figured I'd bring her here since Kai had a fancy apartment here and we could always go there when she was done doing whatever she was doing.

I stood atop the skyscraper, staring at Iris as she stood at the edge, watching over the city. The glow of day was still present as night was beginning to creep in. Her long golden hair was swayed by the ocean winds. It was always cold; it was always windy. She began to walk along the ledge, never taking her eyes off the city. "You should be careful," I said.

"If you want to be standing there, please do it in silence. I don't need you interrupting me," she said without even turning to look at me.

"Shouldn't we, I don't know, be looking for another rift?" I asked. She complained about not wasting time; well this was a waste of time.

"That's precisely what I'm doing."

She didn't even have a rift locator so how could she be looking for a rift? I had worked at North Star for two years, working on various programs, so I knew about rifts and about the technology used to detect them. What could she possibly be doing that would help us find another rift?

"There," she said, pointing down below.

I approached her and looked to where she was pointing at. "I don't see anything."

"Not yet, but tomorrow there will be a rift in that precise location."

I took out my rift locator and tried searching, but there were no rifts anywhere. "How can you be sure?" She turned to me and that's when I saw the small lights inside her eyes, "What in the world?"

"Amazing aren't they? Don't be shy; have a look."

At first glance her eyes looked like normal human eyes, but as I looked closer I could see smaller red lights embedded inside the iris of her eyes. They moved about and after staring for a moment I saw what the lights were, machines. Her eyes were flesh and machine fused into one. I'd never seen anything like it.

"Hold it there," she said, breaking me from my trance. "I said you could have a look not kiss me. Don't make me throw you off the building." I hadn't realized how close I had gotten. Our lips were nearly touching.

"Are you a..." she didn't let me finish. It seemed to be a habit of hers.

"I'm human in every sense of the word, well, except for the eyes, of course. They help me find rifts, as well as show me where they might be forming and where they have formed before."