It was a late evening. Claire sat in the living room watching television via the home entertainment system, waiting for Cyrus to get home. Being late was becoming his habit.
After her favorite show finished, she picked up her comms device, saw that, to no surprise, there were no messages from Cyrus, threw the device to the side and lay down on the sofa, stretching her arms. Awww that feels good. She fell asleep.
Clare was awoken way after midnight, when a message tagged as ‘important’ came in. The messenger on the communications gadget beeped annoyingly.
What the hell, who would write messages so late? With effort, which in her eyes looked heroic, she unwillingly picked the device up.
The message said: “Do not believe a word he says. S.”
Claire looked at the message in disbelief. A good joke Mr. S.
She turned the message tone off and attempted to put the device away. It vibrated. C’mon what now?
“Do not believe him. He sold his soul to Ermac. S.”
Ok, ok, whom should I not believe, eh?
The front door of her house smashed loudly, she heard someone falling and the door closed. Claire ran to the entrance. Cyrus was on the ground, trying to suppress the bleeding from his abdomen with his hands. Claire froze for a moment.
“D...d...darling what happened?”
“Quickly, bring me some towels and the med kit from my room.”
She came to her senses and acted instantly. Claire ran to the bathroom, falling once after stumbling on the doorstep, then she sped to Cyrus’s room and got the med kit.
“Here.”
“Thanks, don’t worry, it's nothing, it only looks terrible.” Cyrus wiped his wound and took out a medical gadget reminiscent to a flashlight, from the kit. He turned it on and a warm light beamed on the wound, sewing it up. “See, it’s ok.”
Claire clenched her fist and hit his shoulder as hard as she could.
“Where in the world have you been? I was worried sick! And here you jump in bleeding like a stuck pig." She took a second to calm down. “I can‘t decide – should I kill you or should I kiss you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“What have you gotten yourself into?”
“Nothing, I swear."
"People rarely get stabbed for no reason at all."
"But I was. Listen. I was working late; then I heard someone’s steps outside of my lab—"
“Right…”
“I opened the door and saw my colleague walking towards the exit, the one I told you about, remember? That idiot followed me when I left the lab, he stabbed me and ran away, can you imagine that?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Go, clean yourself up, we will continue our conversation in the kitchen.”
Claire went to the kitchen and heated the dinner. As she was pouring the coffee to the cups Cyrus came in and sat on the other side of the table.
“Here.“ She pushed the cup towards him. “Now, start it all from the beginning, tell me, what was it that you were doing so late in the labs anyways? Doesn’t matter what the story is, first thing tomorrow we are reporting the incident. “
Cyrus nodded, took a sip of coffee and started talking. “I have this research project that I need to finish on a certain deadline. The project is related to the muscles and their ability to absorb energy from blood cells. We think if we altered blood cell structure quite a bit we could make energy transfer be more efficient, the problem is that if we tested our altered cells on a human subject he could die. Life threatening tests are not allowed on—" He looked at Claire, she was not amused. "Anyways, I was comparing samples taken from our test subjects, when I heard a noise. Someone was walking in the corridor. I opened the door and there was this man I had told you about, the one who killed his wife and daughter by an accident. “
“Right, can you remind what was his name?“
“Simons, his name was Simons.“
“So, you saw Simons and then…“
“Then I followed him, but he ran off out of the building before I could say a word. I finished checking the samples, locked all the doors and went home. Two blocks from here someone grabbed me by the hand and stuck a knife into my stomach. I turned to the attacker and It was him. He stabbed me and walked away as if nothing had happened.”
“Any idea, why would he do that?”
I don’t know what’s going in that messed up head of his, perhaps he started blaming me for his loss. How should I know?
“What was the incident that his family had? Do you know the details?”
“One day he brought his daughter for a tour at our labs. She must have snatched a poisonous compound and brought it home. The compound somehow managed to get to their supper table; they died instantly when it got to their stomachs. Imagine the surprise Simons found when he got home. Your people found traces of the poison in pockets of the girl. It was his fault he did not watch over the kid.”
There was nothing else to talk about that night. They ended their conversation and went to sleep. Next day Claire brought Cyrus to the security HQ and asked to repeat the same story.
After making a report Cyrus went to the labs; she went to her office.
The message I received yesterday. What was the meaning of that? Claire looked at her comms device puzzled. Did ‘S’ stand for Simons? Was the message saying the truth and her Husband did lie? Cyrus was acting weird lately. She loved him but not as blindly as she did at her youth.
Claire replied to the message: “We need to talk.”
‘S’ answered in a minute: “Meet me on 11 a.m. at the central park. I will be waiting by the whirlpool.”
Claire tied her scarf and put on the coat, it was freezing outside. The first days of winter had finally come.
The whirlpool was a place where all the ‘rivers’ went down the drain. Claire arrived earlier and saw a man in black coat. Claire clenched a Taser in her pocket just in case the man attempted something fishy. She got a glimpse of his face and ran it through the criminal database in her head. He was already on the ‘dangerous individuals’ to be arrested list. She recalled, meeting him in the labs a few times when visiting her husband. The man turned to Claire, the gaze from his dark brown eyes pierced her. He was bald, his face rough and masculine.
“Miss, I‘m glad you came.”
“There.” She pointed at a bench nearby.
When they sat down ‘S’ spoke up.
“Miss, my name is Simons. I do not know what your husband had told you yesterday, but it must have been a total lie.”
“Why would he ever lie to me?”
“Because he loves you, but there is another thing he loves more, I guess he cannot live without you both.”
“What is there for him to love besides me?“ Claire answered ironically.
“Look at the people in control of the mission. Look at the Navigator, look at Tom Landau and then look at Cyrus. Do you think he is any different? Every high politician, every leader on this ship is in his place for a reason. They all are loyal to the system and so is your husband.”
Claire took a moment of thought, deep inside she knew, this man was telling the truth. “I see... Now tell me. What were you doing last night at the labs?”
“I have my reasons. I am preparing for something.”
“Sure, I don’t care. Just tell me what happened that night.”
Simons turned away and stared at the whirlpool.
“It was ordinary evening. When everybody left the facility, same person who visited him every day for the last two weeks came to the labs and Cyrus began his ‘crafting’. You see he did procedures on that man, who, I speculate, was sent by the Navigator. I figured, that night they were finished. I waited for them to leave the building and followed, trying to overhear the conversation. When they were about to split ways, the other man took out a knife and stabbed Cyrus. I ran as fast as I could to chase the attacker away. I tried to help, but Cyrus ignored me and ran away. Then I remembered you, and wrote the message, if I would have done it after he came home, you would not have believed a word I said, right?”
“Probably.” Claire looked suspiciously at the man. “Why did Cyrus say it was you who attacked him?”
“What I find crazy is that people in the top positions of this small world reason in a weird way. Even if Cyrus was attacked by someone who works for Ermac or his security program, he would not rat on him. His instincts do not allow him to lift a hand against the system, but he would try conveniently disposing of me, the threat. Also by doing it, he increased chances that the incident does not occur again.”
“If you are so dangerous, why no one from my office is informed about you?”
“Perhaps Stacy thinks she can handle me on her own, or maybe she doesn’t want for Landau to find out her secrets. From what I know, for some reasons she does not like him.”
“You seem to know a lot about the commanding officers. Where did you get that information?”
“After the incident I had some time to look into things. I found my own informants.”
“Sorry for the question, but I need to know…”
“Go ahead.”
“Can you tell me about your family, what had happened to them?”
“Oh, that... It's ok. They tried to dispose of me since I knew too much. They failed miserably and now those responsible are going to pay.” He looked at Claire. “Don’t worry; my plans do not involve your husband. Claire, are you listening?”
“Yes.” She stared into the distance. “What was it that you found? Why would they attempt to dispose of you?”
“The Navigator’s security program must have caught me sniffing. I found its traces all over our databases. She was messing with them. Her fingerprints, almost invisible, are everywhere – in the drug formulas, in the genetic research, in the bio-engineering procedures. I found nothing harmful in her interventions, but I have a strong feeling in my gut – she’s up to no good.” He stared at devastated Claire for a moment. Was she even listening? “Do not go to Landau with this information. You cannot tell him anything yet, you can’t possibly understand how he would react. I contacted you because you are the only one of the security I knew I could trust.”
“I won’t…. I won’t say a word,” Claire said, lost in her thoughts.
Simons stood up.
“I believe we are not going to meet again.”
“I…”
“Bye.”
Claire did not hear his last words, she forgot the cold. All her muscles went numb, she felt tired. For some reason she believed in every word that man said.
Her husband was a mindless tool of the system and there was nothing she could do about it.