‘Make sure that you do … all this hugging has to stop,’ he stated in her wake.
Taren closed the washroom door without comment and then leant against it. ‘Oh my stars, he’s exhausting!’ Ten minutes in his company was an emotional roller coaster, and it was a ride she kept allowing him to take her on — but no more. It was time to withdraw into the cool, calm and collected shell that she had learnt to cast around herself during her time as an agent. No more tears, no more tantrums, no more distractions — it was time to focus on the mission at hand.
When Taren joined Zeven in the kitchen, washed and changed, he appeared rather surprised. ‘If they are your old threads, your fashion sense was way ahead of its time.’
Taren grinned; she’d learnt a new trick. ‘It’s just some old gear that I modified with my mind.’
‘Well, if you ever get sick of the spy game, you could make a fortune in recycled rags,’ Zeven suggested, but Taren was more interested in the breakfast he was laying out.
‘Where did all this come from?’
‘The café down the road,’ he replied and Taren freaked.
‘You went to the café down the road?’
‘Just long enough to pick up the order,’ he replied. ‘No one saw me, no one knows me. I didn’t speak with anyone.’
‘Then how did you place an order?’ Taren queried and sat down at the big kitchen table to eat — the apartment was rather large as besides herself there had always been at least a nanny, a governess and two bodyguards living with her.
Zeven shook his head and grinned. ‘You really do think I’m a bit new, don’t you? I know how the secret service track people, I’ve worked for them too.’ He took a seat opposite her.
‘It’s not the secret service that I am worried about per se,’ Taren clarified. ‘I’m much more concerned about Jazmay. She is as powerful, and more versatile, than we are. To escape our detection she need only touch the closest person … she could be anyone, anywhere.’
Zeven felt very put in his place. ‘I admit … I did overlook her.’
Taren nodded to agree that he had and then shrugged off the incident. ‘But thank you all the same, I was starving!’ She finally hoed in and as she ate she pondered her new concern. ‘Jazmay was right about not being able to get back to Kila, you know.’
‘Well, Kila, pretty as it was, wasn’t exactly a barrel of laughs for me,’ Zeven commented, none too eager to return there.
‘How am I going to deliver the information about the Orion weapon defence system?’ Taren pushed her concern. ‘I don’t know whether preventing the tear is such a good idea now.’
‘What?’ Zeven was shocked to hear her say so. ‘Have your Powers gone to your head? Fallon will warn the Chosen of the threat if you fail, you know that! The tear was not meant to happen. We caused the tear, so we prevent the tear, end of story!’
‘And if I cannot get back to Kila?’ Taren argued.
‘You were never meant to warn them,’ Zeven stated, ‘did that thought ever occur?’
Taren, although she didn’t want to abandon Kila, had to concede. ‘You’re absolutely right.’
‘Don’t sound so surprised.’ Zeven grinned, glad she’d seen reason. ‘And don’t scare me like that … I don’t need another nemesis either!’
Taren shook her head. ‘I think we can safely say that we are on the same side … we’ll stick to plan A.’
‘So you have a plan for getting into where the sample is being housed?’ Zeven queried.
‘Not exactly.’
‘And how are we to protect ourselves from being found by Jazmay?’ Zeven was only now considering the full potential of their adversary in this affair. ‘She could find us with a thought at any time!’
Taren cocked an eyebrow to state, ‘Well, I got the vibe that she intended to wait for me to chase her.’
‘She didn’t exactly strike me as the patient type.’ Zeven didn’t trust it.
Taren frowned, as she tended to agree, yet her memory served to remind her that it was not impossible to shield oneself from the psychic sight of others; they had seen it done before.
Zeven clicked his fingers. ‘What about those amulets your uncle used to shield himself and the Viceroy of Phemoria from —’
‘Zeven!’ Taren was amazed. ‘I was just wondering exactly the same thing myself. Still, the protective power of those amulets was drawn from a seething pit of murdered souls, much as the cursed crown my mother wears is protected by the tortured souls of our persecuted foremothers. Both these protective spirit sources have their own dark and twisted agendas and are not to be trusted.’
‘But surely there is a collective good energy spirit somewhere in our universe?’ Zeven reasoned, and Taren’s heart leapt for joy.
‘There is, and AMIE is floating above it as we speak … we have to go back.’
Zeven cracked half a grin. ‘That hot-spot of goodwill is not real happy with us at present, and neither is the captain for that matter.’
‘We really don’t have to involve AMIE, I can go straight to the surface of Oceane.’ The realisation made Taren a little sad.
Zeven frowned, feeling she’d overlooked one small point. ‘Don’t you need a telepath to communicate with the being on Oceane?’
‘No.’ Taren was fairly confident about that. ‘I have communicated telepathically with Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi before.’
‘The what?’ Zeven felt she’d broken into another language. ‘Never mind.’ He waved off an explanation, eager to return to the steamy little planet where they had once nearly fallen in love. ‘Let’s go then.’
‘Oh no.’ Taren remembered their last adventure on Oceane all too well. ‘I’ll go alone.’
‘And what if Jazmay comes for me while you’re away?’ Zeven posed and Taren was frustrated by his argument. ‘Besides, my psychic abilities could always use a boost. This is our opportunity to get the psychic jump on Jazmay, and acquire a shield in the bargain.’
‘Oceane will be a very different experience this time around,’ Taren insisted, knowing the fertile, virgin planet had a tendency to bring out an individual’s reproductive urges, which was exactly why she wished to go alone.
‘Last time we crash-landed and discovered a corpse,’ Zeven raised both brows to emphasise his hope that she was right, ‘which really kinda killed the romance for me.’
Taren just rolled her eyes and whacked him in the shoulder for being a smart arse.
21
THE JUJU STONES
The weather on Oceane proved predictable — steaming hot, torrential rain.
As soon as Taren and Zeven manifested on the surface they sank to their ankles in cold mud and to their knees in warm water, while the rest of their bodies were pelted by just bearably hot rain. Around them huge tundrells rose high into misty clouds that were tightly veined with coloured lightning bursts.
‘Yep, this is pretty much how I remember it,’ Zeven commented, shielding his eyes from the downpour — there was no point trying to wear a mask or goggles as they would only steam up.
Taren began wading towards a large rock formation.
‘So what’s the plan then?’ Zeven followed her through the steamy swamp. ‘You know how to infuse Juju into an amulet, do you?’
‘I’ve got some idea.’ Taren hauled herself out of the water and onto a large rock, where she took a seat. ‘I learnt quite a bit about the psychic arts from viewing the histories of Kila.’ She spoke loudly to be heard over the rain. ‘I now know the crown of Phemoria was fashioned from metals dug from the Abyss of the Obstinate because that way the metal is strongly imbued with the spirits of the site. I will bet my life that Khalid’s amulets were fashioned from metals found at Dead Man Downs on Sermetica.’
Zeven nodded, catching her drift. ‘So what you’re saying is we need to find something on Oceane to fashion an amulet from.’ Zeven looked around and was uninspired. ‘Tundrells … water … rock.’
‘Rock it is,’ Taren announced, loo
king about for smooth pieces as amulets had to be worn next to the skin. The rock was slate-like and split easily into flat pieces.
‘Okay, now what?’ Zeven queried as they held their rocks in hand.
‘I need you to leave me in peace for a bit.’ Taren took Zeven’s rock from him.
‘How long?’ he grumbled.
‘I’ll come and find you.’ She patted his shoulder and took a seat.
‘I may as well go sightseeing then.’ He willed himself to the next large rock in his vision, and then repeated the procedure until he was out of sight.
Left alone, Taren felt at liberty to breathe deep the virgin air, so pure and invigorating that it made her tingle from head to foot, and with every inhale she felt herself draw nearer to her soul source, which permeated everything on Oceane. ‘I request the protection of Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi, so that I might return the missing parts to the whole.’
The sensation of the rain pelting down upon her decreased in intensity, as did all the earthly discomforts of Taren’s five physical senses. Like a chill, a vibrating sensation crept over her body. Every molecule of her being began to vibrate faster, perfused and quickened by an internal fire that burned away her tiny physical shell, allowing her subtle body to expand and connect with the much larger entity that was her higher self. Her perception soared up through the colourful cloud phenomenon in the stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and into the exosphere, where the mighty creation deva she would one day become had been residing for centuries. There her consciousness expanded again to a point where Taren felt herself fully immerse into the entity with which she wished to converse. There was no need to communicate, however, as her questions and concerns were absorbed into the great seething mass of electro-chemical activity.
In an instant, her consciousness withdrew into her tiny physical form, still being pelted by the steamy rain, and Taren burst into tears. At first her tears were of anguish at her return to a constrictive, physical form — but when she saw the flat rocks in her hands glowing with a colourful gaseous vapour, her eyes flooded with tears of joy. She had the blessing of Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi, for this pretty cocktail of electrochemical reactions was how she had come to identify the physical presence of the entity. ‘Thank you.’ She held the treasures to her heart, for the close essence of the entity incited memories of all those people dearest to her, in this universe and the next — Lucian most of all.
However, Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi could only extend them protection for a little under two standard weeks when the entity would detach from Oceane, taking anything still in contact with it into the universe parallel. After that Taren and Zeven would have to find another way to shield themselves from the psychic sight and pursuit of others.
‘More than enough time.’ Taren recovered her sensibilities quickly, of a mind to get back to Maladaan. ‘Starman.’
With the thought of Zeven, Taren found herself waist-deep in water. ‘Aw, what are y—’ When she saw Zeven standing next to one of AMIE’s deep space pods, which was near covered by water, she gasped back her complaint. ‘Oh shit.’
‘How did you do?’ Zeven was eager to know.
Taren held up their Juju stones.
‘Whoa.’ Zeven took hold of one of the stones, surprised to be able to see the enchantment clearly.
‘Who do you think is in here?’ Taren was more concerned with Zeven’s discovery.
‘You hope it’s Amie,’ he guessed.
‘I hope it’s no one,’ Taren insisted, although it was doubtful the pod had misfired with no passenger.
‘Shall we raise it up and find out?’ Zeven asked, in a not-so-eager fashion.
The way Taren saw it, if there was no one inside it was just a misfired pod and they could head back to Maladaan. If there was a dead body inside, there was a murderer loose on AMIE and they would have to return to the project.
She nodded to second Zeven’s suggestion, whereupon he raised the submerged pod with a thought, to a height where the exterior control panel and the passenger hatch were above water. He opened the control panel and began punching in an instruction code that would open the hatch door. ‘You know, the last time we were here —’
‘Please, don’t mention that right now,’ Taren appealed for mercy, as the fertile atmosphere of Oceane was arousing her urge to procreate and once again Zeven was looking like a most desirable prospect. Why do I never get stuck here with Lucian?
Zeven laughed, delighted by her distress. ‘I knew you’d have to be feeling it by now.’ He refrained from pressing the last digit of the instruction code, knowing that the contents of the pod would definitely kill the mood. ‘Maybe I should hold off for a bit?’
‘You promised you wouldn’t be a hindrance,’ Taren reminded him, in the hope he would snap out of his intoxicated moment; for if Taren was feeling the effects of the amorous atmosphere of Oceane, Zeven surely was and had shown amazing restraint until now. ‘There could be a murderer loose on AMIE! Please f—’
‘Focus,’ he urged himself to press the last digit, and the hatch unlocked and began to open.
Taren was sick of wading through the mud and swamp and rose up to walk on the water’s surface. Zeven gave an ironic laugh and joined her.
‘We really are a bit slow sometimes,’ he commented as he followed her around to view who was inside the pod.
‘We’re just new, not sl—’ Taren’s jaw dropped as she spotted the body slouched in the pod.
‘Colbers?’ Zeven was rather startled to find the tech inside, with a neat, bloodied, laser wound right through his head. ‘But, if Colbers was the murderer last time around, then who is the murderer now?’
Taren’s eyes narrowed, she knew in her gut who had done this. ‘Amie.’ She backed up a few paces. ‘I need to protect Lucian,’ she said, her voice breaking over the thought that it might already be too late.
‘I’ll get this to the launch bay.’
With one last deep inhale of Oceane air, Taren sensed, deep within her being, that Lucian was still safe and in that knowledge she found her calm and confidence before willing herself to the captain’s side.
This was turning out to be quite a day for Lucian, as the mysterious dramas on board his vessel continued to unfold. At present he had Professor Kestler in his office, who, of all people least likely, was suspected of being an MSS agent.
The captain, unbeknownst to any, had planted a tiny camera inside the quarantine lab where the gas sample was to be housed in the hope of capturing the MSS agents that Dr Lennox claimed were on board. His gamble had met with mixed success, as, according to reports, the sample had mostly been destroyed by Dr Lennox before it ever got to the bio-lab. Dr Cardea had fled with a small sample of the gas, and Bonar Colbers had been exposed as Cardea’s accessory in the theft. Thus, Colbers had been locked up in the bio-lab the captain was monitoring instead of the sample.
This morning Bonar Colbers was discovered missing and his whereabouts were still unknown. According to the camera footage of the bio-lab recorded on Lucian’s workstation, the person who came to spring Colbers from his imprisonment was the frail, old, and highly respected scientific genius, Professor Eleazar Kestler.
As Professor Kestler was viewing the footage of himself releasing Colbers, Lucian voiced his suspicion that Colbers had escaped AMIE via a pod, as there had been an unscheduled launch of such a vessel in the wee hours of the morning.
‘I don’t know what to tell you, Captain.’ Kestler was bemused by the footage. ‘Either I am living another life that I am not aware of, or I have finally gone senile, as I cannot account for any of this.’
Lucian felt very uncomfortable doubting the word of the man he’d always respected above all others — if Lucian had had a father this man would have been his choice. He suspected that Kestler was a sleeper agent and not the ringleader he sought; the MSS would have targeted Kestler for the very reason that Lucian trusted him so implicitly and had done all throughout his scientific career.
The other shock of the day was learning he had two self-professed telepaths on board, who both swore blind that Amie was the traitor in their midst. Their claim had been confirmed by Zeven Gudrun, who claimed to be time-hopping along with Dr Lennox.
‘This is insanity.’ Lucian shook his head, as reality as he’d known it crumbled to dust around his ears. What was even more astounding was that he really didn’t care. Since Dr Lennox had arrived on board he’d been in a state of wondrous shock, watching his perfectly ordered world of deceit collapse into the chaos of one huge eye-opening revelation after another. After very little sleep, the adrenaline rush of it all was becoming addictive. Lucian had not been able to stop fantasising about Taren ever since she’d professed her love to him in leaving. Even Zeven, who obviously adored Taren, had confirmed her devotion, and Kassa insisted that she had perceived from Taren’s memory glimpses of Lucian and Taren together in the future that no longer was.
Lucian shook his head as he realised he was drifting off into another little Taren fantasy when he was supposed to be tracking down his missing crew member. ‘I am afraid I am going to have to confine you to quarters, Professor, until such time as your memory improves.’
‘I would never betray you, Lucian.’ The old man was annoyed to see doubt in the captain’s eyes. ‘But I will do as you wish.’
As Kestler slowly rose to stand, he and Lucian were startled when Dr Lennox appeared in between them, soaked to the bone.
‘Dr Lennox!’ Lucian nearly had heart failure — he was so elated to see her. ‘Where did you spring from?’ She appeared even more beautiful all dripping wet.
‘The surface of Oceane,’ she replied very amicably.
‘You’ve been on the surface of Oceane?’ The captain nearly had a heart attack for the second time over.
She smiled to confirm. ‘I would love to take you there sometime.’
‘That’s an offer I will take you up on,’ Lucian replied, barely aware that he spoke at all. Dr Lennox was exuding the most attractive energy and the thought of kissing her was all-consuming.