The Gardener of Nahi

Chapter 31

     “Of course.”

     “Empods to take out the cameras?”

     “Yes.”

     “Good.”  He turned to me while pointing to him with his thumb.  “Doctorate in chemical engineering.”

     “My wife and daughter,” Seung continued stoically, as if he was summoning his nerves to speak.  “If there is any trouble, the blacksuits will know I am helping you.  They will therefore assume I am UpMove.  You should know that I am willing to jeopardize my safety to help you, but I will not jeopardize my family’s.”

     “Give me your address,” Cyris said while touching his temple with his finger.  When Seung relayed it, Cyris repeated it to himself.  Bringing his hand down again, he looked at the man with a certain seriousness and I had hard time determining if it was fake or not.  “They are home tonight?”

“Yes.”

“We’ll take care of it, Lei.  I’m leaving shortly to take care of the rendezvous agent.  You will only be responsible up until the tier boundary, like we discussed earlier.  Don’t cross it or they’ll notice the tier breach and later ask you why you were working this late.  We’re having another man on Canopy take over for you.  Since I am leaving, I will also setup an agent at your home.  If anything goes wrong, which I am sure will not happen, we will move your family immediately.  Set up new IDs and so forth.”

“Thank you.”

“It is I that should thank you.  I am hoping this burrow will last a long time.  It certainly took long enough for you to create.”

“Does it have to be tonight?” he asked quietly, still looking down.  “I would like to see my family one more time.”

Cyris laughed.  “Don’t worry, Lei.  It’s going to be fine.  In a matter of hours you’ll be waking up your wife to have the best sex with her in years.  All of this will be past you.  I know you’re scared but we do this every night.  It’s only new for you.”  He looked at Lei closely before standing up at the edge of the table.  “But don’t drink too much saké.  That’s enough for tonight.”

     Seung nodded.

     Cyris looked towards me without any trace of emotion.  “We will probably not see each other again,” he said.  “You know what you need to tell Blue before you cross over.”

     I nodded.

     “The rendezvous agent is expecting my green light.”

     “You’ve said as much,” I said.  “And I’ve told you it’s not going to be a problem.”

     Cyris smiled and then slapped the table gently.  “Good luck then everyone,” he said.  And with that, he turned around and casually walked out of The Canopy Garden.  On the way out a table of rowdy men in the center called him over and he shook hands with them, pointing to them and smiling as he walked out.

     “Dr. Lei,” I said softly while leaning in.  “Where is the burrow?”

     Blue immediately shook his head and started waving his hands.  “No, no, no.  We’re not talking about that until we get there.”

     I ignored him and touched the table to activate the ordering system.  “What do you have there, Lei?  Whatever it is, it looks good.”

     “House saké,” he said.  “Click warm.  It’s better that way.”

     “Thank you,” I said, following his instructions.  Turning to Myria, I asked her if she wanted anything.  While she looked at the pictures on the table monitor in front of her I explained what had been transpiring and why Cyris had left, and she nodded.  She asked me if they had a few drinks which I had never heard of, and so I ordered her a water instead.