NEXUS POINTS : Chapter 5-6

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Chapter 5

It was becoming difficult for Derin Serpius to hide his disdain towards Nolan Zod. With his expensive suits and arrogance stance, he acted as if the whole world had to bow to his superiority. If not for Draco de Leon, Zod would be nothing. 

For now, unfortunately, Derin had no choice but to put on a happy face in front of him. Too much was at stake here. Just a little longer, he told himself. Just until Draco recognized his true value. 

Either way, by this time next year, it would all be over and he could retire on some small private island that had its own water supply. And so Derin waited. He studied the three figures on stage. 

Assembly Woman Divya Verma was talking nonsense behind the podium, as usual. She and her idealistic views. Good thing she wasn’t too hard on the eyes, with that dark olive skin, curly dark hair and voluptuous body of hers. And those lips, those full, ripe, ruby lips. Too bad really. What a waste of her beauty.

Still, he preferred blondes. The busty kind, like the young admin he had started seeing recently. Derin smiled to himself. She knew what women’s mouths were really made for.

Next to Verma, Majority Leader Danny Wilcox looked uninterested. His Viceroy Rodrigo Casco seemed downright bored. 

Derin liked Casco, he had a forceful stance and a powerful presence. Despite his short stature, his chiseled face and dark hair made him look powerful and distinguished, unlike Wilcox, whose hooded pale blue eyes and thinning brown hair made him look  rather meek.

Derin looked around the State Assembly Hall. The semi-circular amphitheater was built so long ago it was still lined with what looked like real maple wood. It baffled him why anyone would voluntarily come to these public hearings, and on a Thursday morning. Didn’t they have better things to do? But then he supposed the Water Initiative would have a major impact on people’s lives, unlike the other bullshit bills politicians concocted just to win elections. 

He took a long sip of his coffee.

“Good morning, Derin!” 

Derin jumped. He almost choked on his coffee. He checked his white linen shirt for stains. 

There he was, sitting in the seat to his left. The grey pinstripe suit Zod was wearing had some kind of metallic thread in it that gave it an expensive luster. His salt and pepper hair was neatly combed to the back of his head. 

Derin forced a smile. “Good morning.”

“Sorry I’m late. Did I miss anything interesting?”

As if.

“Not exactly. At least nothing interesting. Just Verma’s usual babble about why the underwater desalination plant is a bad idea. Why we need more cooperation between the states. Same old pitch.”

Zod glanced at Derin. He gave a half smile. “None of that really matters now, does it?”

“I suppose not.”

“Tell me about the latest round of test subjects.”

Derin chose his words carefully. “They responded to the triggers well, but…” He paused, searching for the best way to break the news.

Zod raised his eyebrows. “But?”

“The fatality rate is still too high. The triggers are working too well.” 

“How many did you lose?”

“About…forty-five percent. Fifty-five subjects.”

Zod’s face darkened. His brown eyes bored into Derin’s. “That’s unacceptable. Our plan hinges on the target surviving the attack.”

“Not to worry, Nolan. I just need to tweak the formula and the dosage to make this work.” 

“The trigger must be ready for deployment before the Water Initiative Vote. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of the consequences if we fail.”

Derin swallowed hard. It felt as if the temperature of the hall had just dropped ten degrees. “The trigger will be ready. I just... need a little more time, that’s all.”

Silence fell between them.

“Very well. I’ll let Draco know,” Zod finally said. 

Applause broke out around them. They turned their heads in time to see Danny Wilcox take the podium. 

Derin had always thought he was a terrible speaker, with his soft voice and slow tempo. It was anyone’s guess how he got elected in the first place. He was certainly losing ground to Verma, who was the biggest opponent to the Water Initiative Bill he’d proposed. Nonetheless, Derin was glad Wilcox’s appearance diffused the tension between him and Zod.

“Any news about the aberration?” Zod asked. 

“He seems to be an isolated case. It could just be some random mutation in his genome that’s causing the resistance. I’m running more tests. The only problem is that his body is failing.”

“I’ve told Andre to keep an eye out for similar cases.”

Derin was irritated. Why can’t he let anything go? “Whatever you think is best,” he said with a smile.

Zod shot another glance at him. He stood up. “Keep me posted on your progress.” 

As quietly as he had come, Zod left the hall. 

Derin exhaled a sigh of relief. He really needed to decompress. He called the young admin using his auditory implant.

Chapter 6

Kora awoke naked on the cold shower floor. The alarm on the water meter was chiming repeatedly. She had exhausted her water quota for the month. 

She could smell gardenia in the air. It was the fragrance in her shampoo. The opiate had worn off, leaving her with an awful headache. 

Kora's eyes slowly came into focus. She tried to stand, but a wave of dizziness overwhelmed her. Spots appeared in front of her eyes. She grabbed for the support bar that ran the length of the tubular shower, sinking back to the floor. 

Kora turned on the heater above her. Blood began returning to her head, arms and legs. The shaking of her body subsided as her core temperature rose. She sat motionless on the floor, waiting for her hair to dry. 

Everything spun as Kora staggered out of the bathroom into her bedroom. She collapsed onto her bed without putting on her nightshirt. She wanted to call Peter but decided against it, not knowing what to tell him. 

The smell of blood hung in the air. How could that be? It wasn’t real. Yet she remembered the man she saw, what he looked like after the bullet tore through his skull... 

Kora started shaking again. She pulled her blanket around her. If only the room would stop spinning... 

Hours passed. She finally drifted to sleep, but it was a restless slumber, plagued by distant voices and strange faces. It was as if she were living an alternate existence in her sleep. She woke repeatedly, only to fall back into semi-consciousness again.

*

Kora could feel the warmth of sunlight on her face. Her alarm was chirping nearby. She tried to open her eyes, but her eyelids refused to move. She drifted again. When she finally woke up, she could tell from the light in her room that it was late. 

“What time is it, Oscar?” Her voice came out hoarse and unrecognizable.

“It is 10:40 a.m. Thursday,” the AI replied. “Your work agenda indicates that you have a meeting to attend today at 11:00 a.m.”

“Oh, no! I am so late.” 

Kora forced herself out of bed. Her head threatened to explode. She could tell she was running a fever. 

IDL was coming to the meeting today. There was going to be hell to pay.

*

Kora opened the door to the conference room as quietly as possible. She was almost thirty minutes late to the monthly protocol meeting. 

Tanya Grover was grilling Sid Tawfig about some procedural discrepancies. Tawfig had his left arm folded under his chest, his right hand pulling on a small, dark curl on the side of his head, something he did whenever he was nervous. He shot a quick glance at Kora as she entered the room. 

Grover turned to Kora, her eyes shooting daggers. In her late forties, Grover was quite striking with her high cheekbones, wide brown eyes and smooth dark skin. If only she would smile once in a while, she might even have been considered beautiful. 

“How good of you to join us, Dr. Amelli.”  Grover's tone dripped with sarcasm.

“Sorry I’m late!” Kora sat down next to Yong Liu. She had called him on the way to work. 

Liu smiled at her. 

Grover went around the long oval table, asking questions, picking on every little detail she found suspicious. 

Finally, it was Kora’s turn to present her data. She streamed her reports onto the holo displays of the other fifteen attendees. As she got ready to present her data, Kora panicked. 

Flipping quickly through the series of screens again, she confirmed the problem. A crucial inventory report of the human tissues she had used for her last round of experiments was missing. In her two years at NID, she had never forgotten any data in her monthly reports. 

Grover jumped on her immediately. “Dr. Amelli! Where’s the inventory report for the tissue samples you used?”

Kora blushed furiously. “I... I thought I included it. It must have gotten left out when I recompiled all the data.” 

Grover’s already long face seemed to get even longer. “Dr. Amelli. You are aware that proper inventory of all living tissues is absolutely essential in order for us to maintain compliant status with the State, are you not?”

 Kora felt anger rising inside her. Uncharacteristically, she glared at Tanya and snapped back, “Yes, I am aware of that.”

Surprised by the tone of Kora’s voice, Grover raised her head to look her in the eye.  “Are you saying this oversight is deliberate?”

Maybe it was the stress as a result of the strange experience she’d had last night, or maybe it was the headache and the fever, but Kora’s whole body tensed. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. 

Grover wouldn’t let up. “I also see some unusual use of resources for your experiments. Do you care to explain?”

The urge to jump out of her chair and strangle Grover was almost too hard to suppress. “It’ll only take a minute for me to access the inventory report. Your accusation...” Kora stopped mid-sentence. 

Something inside her, a small voice, one that she hadn’t noticed before, whispered, “Don’t make her your enemy.”

For reasons she couldn’t explain, Kora swallowed the rest of her sentence. Suddenly her vision blurred. Her head began to throb. Images flashed before her eyes. She caught glimpses of the man she’d seen last night. One instant his mouth was moving in silence, the next instant his head was exploding into a thousand pieces of flesh and bone. 

Kora closed her eyes. Voices began to flood her ears with words and fragments of sentences coming from all directions, all at the same time. She tried to make sense of what she was hearing: “... crucial... self-sufficiency... protecting Virgoans’ interests... the Water Initiative...”  

Then came the most terrifying sound, the high pitched whistle of a projectile zooming past at supersonic speed. There was the sickening thud of the bullet hitting something standing in its path. Chaos erupted around Kora. Someone screamed. She opened her eyes. 

Kora looked around the room of faces staring at her, questions in their eyes. “I’m... I’m sorry...” she stammered. “I’m not... I’m not... well today...”

Liu spoke up. “Tanya, I’m sure we can rectify this situation amicably.” 

He turned to Kora. “Dr. Amelli, why don’t you go back to your office and locate the report for Ms. Grover?”

Kora woke completely from her trance. She opened her mouth to protest. 

“Don’t!” the small voice inside her said, rather sternly. 

She got up from her seat, then walked out of the conference room defiantly.

- End of Chapter 6 -