Terry Neale - Jo-el

“ Really?”

I nodded. She looked like she wanted to query my decision, but then I could see a steely look of delight in her eyes.

“ Now?” she said.

I nodded again.

“ The clip thing, right?”

My mind was swimming in a lake of alcohol; it took a while to surface. “ Oh yes, right. The clip. No mess.” Then I added. “You’ve never done this before, have you?”

“No! I’ve never had someone…. I mean…. you’re the first director I’ve had.” There was a pause. “ He’s in the shower.”

“What? Oh, Fuentes. Okay. Do I have to be there?” That had a sobering effect on me. I had no wish to see Fuentes die.

“ No, oh no. I can do it from here.” She said.

Unbelievable.

That was perfect I thought. It occurred to me that was how all military and political leaders operated. They just ordered it done. No need to get their hands dirty. No wonder it was so bloody simple to kill people. Pangs of guilt flared up in my chest, but were dulled by the alcohol. Sally’s face changed, even though these were my private thoughts, she could read my face. She knew what I was thinking and I’m sure she understood. She didn’t say anything, but she raised her eyes and creased her forehead awaiting my approval.

I accented with a nod of my head.

“ It’s done.” Sally said to me and even through her thoughts I could hear a change in her voice. “ Do you want to see?”

I raised my hands up in front of me. I must have looked stupid, sitting alone in the restaurant, gesticulating to no-one.

“ No !” I exclaimed in my mind.

I woke at ten on Friday, my head thumped. I could hear rain falling in the street outside and the sloshing of cars through the puddles. All I remembered about the ride home was the spinning of the train, like a corkscrew, every time I shut my eyes. I’d fought to keep them open. Coffee was a help and by the third cup I was feeling alive again. I hadn’t thought much about the events of the previous evening, but now they rushed by me. It was so quick and so easy. The sense of power was colossal and yet deep down so wrong. I called up Sally.

“ Sally, what’s the news on Fuentes?”

My heads-up glowed in front of my eyes. The scene was an ambulance, outside the Union Hotel, just around the corner from where I’d enjoyed the pasta and merlot. A body, covered in a white sheet, was being loaded into the back of the ambulance. I young Hispanic girl was being escorted to a police car behind the ambulance.

“ They’ll do an autopsy and say he died of a heart attack. His girlfriend is booked on a flight back to Chicago tomorrow. She doesn’t know much about Fuentes, not even where his mother lives. The trip to San Francisco was for her, thanks for some great sex, she’d only known him for a few weeks, so she’ll get over it. She didn’t stay with the body long, she looked bored and made some excuse that she felt ill. Can you believe, she went to a bar and ended up with some other guy. She was a prostitute for a while in Chicago, but now made money running crack cocaine for a bunch of local hooligans. I could give you more?

“ Okay, enough.” Really, what did I expect. Then I realized I hadn’t believed that Fuentes was dead. He was, end of story.

The image disappeared, but Sally appeared on the screen, more demure than yesterday, a dark blue dress below the knee, no cleavage. Hair pinned back in a pony-tail, matronly. “You need more instruction.” She said it out loud. She wanted to be sure I understood it was important. I wondered if she’d been told by Ka-el, but I didn’t think they could have real time conversation, or send instructions that fast. It didn’t matter, I wasn’t in the mood. What more did they want to show me? I glanced at the container, still there on the carpet, in my family room. I need to hide that damn thing. The contents were still on the coffee table, un-opened packages, containing I don’t-know-what. I didn’t feel good about what had happened, yet I couldn’t muster any deep-down concern for Fuentes, either. He was a child killer, the worst of our society and his death probably meant someone else would live.

I didn’t respond to Sally. Instead I went upstairs and showered slowly and dressed even slower. She didn’t repeat the shower episode of yesterday, she had learned.

Downstairs again I fixed some cereals, cornflakes and blueberries, no sugar. More coffee. I checked my cellphone, still sitting on the kitchen counter-top, I hadn’t taken it into the City. Three messages, two from Maggie. I checked the voicemail. First one was a heads-up that Adam was sick and had cried off Saturday’s visit, but she was still coming. She didn’t want to catch whatever Adam had. The second one asked if we could go out to a restaurant on Saturday. I texted her back, said sorry about Adam and of course we could go out. Did she want me to book something? The third message was Jimmy. Was I going to church on Sunday? Church this week was the 3-Zero café in Half Moon Bay, adjacent to the airport, a great place for breakfast. I texted Jimmy that I planned to be there.

I’d avoided Sally and my further education, but I knew that it had been temporary. I fixed some more coffee and made myself comfortable in my usual spot on the sofa. But I wanted an answer before any more of this instruction stuff. I asked Sally to appear, full size. She wanted to speak, but I raised my hand. By the look on her face I think she knew what was coming.

“Why?” I said, emphatically. “I want to know why the people of Cirion have decided now, 2016, that Earth is in danger and you need me to do whatever it is you want me to do. And what the hell is it, why me, what do you want from me?” I’m sure she registered the forlorn look that overtook my appearance. I fell quiet, I watched this thing, this computer hologram of a beautiful woman. I had to remember that Sally was fake. I was still struggling with the concept.

“Dave,” just the tone of that one word told me she was going to sidestep the question. “You will be told, trust me.” Yea right! “Everything. But I can’t tell you just yet.” I was pissed, and I’m sure it showed. “After all of your instructions. That’s what Ka-el wants. You need to be aware of your position. You need to understand how protected you will be.” I thought of Fuentes and how easily Sally had taken him off the table. “I can tell you, the people of Cirion do not have any evil intentions toward the people of Earth. You are both the same race. You are both human, in form and beliefs. Of course there are differences, your differing environments ensured that you each developed to best conquer your worlds. There are other human civilizations, the Cirion people want to embrace the human form. There are dangers in the universe that your people have yet to discover. We want you to survive those dangers and become a part of human expansion throughout the universe.

“You will never meet the people of Cirion. Even with their advanced technology, they have not discovered a way to travel faster than the speed of light. Maybe one day in the future. They have reached out to many worlds, just as your astrobiologists are sending out probes to try and discover if there is intelligent life outside of your planet. It is just one of many projects they are conducting on Cirion.”

She stopped there, I felt a little more comfort but couldn’t help wondering if she was telling the truth. If the Cirion people had evil intentions to the people of Earth would she tell me? Then again, what I’d seen of their technology would indicate to me they could wipe us out in a nanosecond. I guess I’d have to finish whatever instructions they still had and find out the answer to the sixty-four-million-dollar question after that. One thing did occur to me, I hadn’t caught the Cirions in a lie as yet.