“Come on. We haven’t had any exercise. Let’s go for a swim around the headland,” Mariko said, stripping off her bottom outers. Even the sight of her naked didn’t change the thought. I climbed out of the sleeper and went to get my swimmers. I walked out to the deck and down to the beach and realized that I had forgotten the Devstick. After I went back and got it and returned to the deck, Mariko was gone. I couldn’t see her in the water but then she’d probably already reached the cave.
I jogged down the beach a little to reduce the distance I’d have to swim. Then I cut in to the edge of the surf and dived in. The water felt good, cool and alive against my skin. Pulling against it I made up for missing the run this morning and went for it, striking hard, hands cupped to get maximum pull. Dipping my body through the larger waves, I was at the headland and took a dive. Going deep, using the breathing technique Mariko had taught me, I aimed for cave, swimming along the bottom of the ocean three meters deep and pulling strong for the opening of the cave. I was through the entrance and my world went black.
The sound of my breathing echoed with the slop slosh of the water in the cave. I swam to our ledge and felt. Nothing. I reached along the ledge further, and further until I came to the wall. Nothing.
“Mariko!” I shouted, although it didn’t matter. All I got was my echo. My heart raced and my breathing was more like fast sips of air as I pulled myself up onto the ledge and fumbled for the Devstick in my pocket. Don’t drop it — slow down, I told myself. Finally I got it open and the weak white light from its screen washed into the cave. What I knew became true. She wasn’t here.
I dropped off the ledge, taking a deep breath as I went, and hit the water with my knees tucked under me, diving immediately for the entrance. As soon as I was through I came up and swam as fast as I could back around the headland to where I could see the beach. Hope and panic. Oh no. Oh no. These were the thoughts that came the strongest.
I stopped and scanned the beach. Far down toward Abdul’s restaurant there was a person but it was a man. A fisherman by the look of his outers.
I swam. The Devstick a hindrance, I dropped it. I had two more back at the house and now I just swam as fast as I could thinking, It’ll be all right. She changed her mind. We passed each other swimming. While my logical brain dismissed my hope with ease: you would’ve seen her. No, I ran down the beach. I cheated. I’ve never done that before. You still would have seen her. No! Suddenly my hands were scraping sand. I lurched to my feet, lost my balance and hit the water again.
I got up and started running for the house, powering through the powdery white sand. I hit the deck running and shouting, “Mariko, Mariko.” I went inside and said, “Mariko,” in a slightly softer voice. I went down the stairs to the ground floor but she wasn’t there. I went out the door facing the jungle and only the Titan was there.
I ran back around the side of the house and out onto the beach again. I stopped. Footprints in sand are easy to spot and usually the only footprints on the beach in front of the house were ours and usually they were made with bare feet. These were footprints made with a boot of some kind. Thick zigzag tread evenly spaced down to the heel. I followed them. It looked like there were two people, maybe three, but it was hard to tell as in some places they were scuffed and hard to see clearly; the sand was deep and soft. They led to the deck of our house.
My heart racing, I searched for other signs but there were none. That was it. I looked down the beach and walked out of the line of the jungle to see more clearly. It was empty. I turned back to the house, walking and then running. Back up to the steps through the open doors. It was the same as I’d left it moments ago. No. No. No. Think. Do not panic. Think. Call Sir Thomas. I went to the sleeper side table and grabbed the Devstick that was lying there. Turning it on and thumbing for contacts. 10:35am.
“Get me Sir Thomas!”
The Devstick’s screen changed to the image of Sir Thomas sitting by his desk and I noticed that I had a message from him received at 10:31am. While waiting for him to pick up I opened the message.
Jonah,
Good morning. Hope you’re feeling all right after all that whisky we consumed last night. I’m off traveling on official business for a few days. Attached you’ll find a file with images and archive footage of me when I was younger. Please discuss with Harpers whether they can handle the new launch date. I expect they’ll need at least a week to take care of things but at least they can get the packing done in advance. Good luck with getting the memoir finished — at least you won’t have any distractions to tempt you away from your duty. Mariko sends her love, says she’s fine and will see you as soon as you’ve done what you have to do.
My Honour is my Loyalty.
Your Uncle, TBO
Cancel request.
I sat on the sleeper. Oh fuck. What have I done?
Chapter 32
Australasia Levtube approaching Melbourne Air and Lev port
Thursday 6 February 2110, 3:30pm +10 UTC
It took an hour and fifteen minutes to go from Sisik to Melbourne with stops at Changi, Darwin and Sydney on the way. I’d booked a direct Lev and I was lucky as all the seats were taken. I felt strange that normal life was going on around me. People were traveling to their contributions, taking vacs, and just doing what people do. I moved among them with my relentless thoughts, and acted normal while my life was in chaos.
I’d achieved what I had set out to achieve. I was in the Hawks, but Sir Thomas had outsmarted me or at least upped the stakes. I didn’t know if he was setting me up, or if he just wanted insurance, but either way he had outplayed me. In the time that Mariko had been gone, I had tried to keep my routine. I needed to be strong to get her back and so I ran where we had run and ate what we had eaten. I was strong. I was a wreck. I had no choice.
If before I had been playing a high level game, Sir Thomas taking Mariko had just made it very personal and very real. Until then it was all talk. Even what Gabriel had told me hadn’t really sunk in. I suppose it was too long ago and somewhat removed from me. It was almost as if I had an evil image of Sir Thomas that hadn’t meshed with my reality of him. But now the image and the reality had become one, and I understood just what an evil sick fuck he really was. I also knew now that I was capable of killing. He had taught me that.
I hadn’t been stopped yet, so I could only assume he hadn’t put Mariko through Truth Treatment or had Cochran probe her mind. I wondered about that. It could be that he had put Mariko through Truth Treatment and was having me followed to see who else I could lead him to.
I wanted more than ever to get in touch with Gabriel. I was sure that I was under very tight surveillance, tagged and my every move analyzed. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that Sir Thomas didn’t already know of my association with Gabriel, and that my killing someone was just his way of getting rid of me, but it didn’t really matter. If I sent any strange messages anywhere I was sure they would be traced. So that ruled out getting in touch with Gabriel.
For the past five and half days I’d written practically non-stop and slept four hours a day. This morning I’d fired off the memoir manuscript to Harpers with instructions that they had to get it together for February the 15th no matter what. I copied Sir Thomas on the message and told them that I was traveling and would be unavailable. I’d done what I could but I had a feeling I wouldn’t be winning any Pulitzers for the writing.