The Light-Field

  Taren was amused by her choice of creature, which had long rippling fins down both sides of its body that changed from one vibrant colour to another, and looked like fabric billowing through water as it moved. ‘Something about me says dragon to you?’

  Amie reacted as if that thought had never entered her mind. ‘I just find them very beautiful and soothing to watch.’

  ‘Well, it was a lovely thought, Dr Nardone,’ Taren said, picking up the tank and disappearing into her bedroom with it.

  ‘Call me Amie.’

  Taren entered the bathroom where she plugged the sink and ran the water. Into the little pool she placed the tank — if it was bugged, the reception would be muted.

  ‘Amie.’ Taren returned to the living area, closing the bedroom door behind her. ‘I have to warn you, I don’t agree with keeping any innocent creature contained, so I am bound to set it free.’

  Amie was once again startled by Taren’s reaction. ‘Did I mention they are quite expensive?’

  ‘You have now. Can I get you a cool drink?’

  ‘Just water.’ Amie looked a little lost until Taren directed her to the lounge. ‘Look … I just wanted to say that I am so embarrassed by my behaviour at lunch. I’m so excited about this project that I think I got carried away trying to impress. I know finance is not my department, I was sincerely just trying to help.’

  Taren handed Amie her glass of water and sat down, perplexed by the apology. ‘Sorry, back at you,’ Taren began, ‘but what I don’t understand is why you would be speaking to someone about funding for the project, when you knew the project had already been fully funded?’

  ‘Because …’ Amie’s eyes conveniently caught sight of the Juju stone, atop of the bowl of beach pebbles on the table. ‘How unusual.’ She reached for the stone undulating with coloured light and taking it in her hand she was utterly delighted with it. ‘Wow, this has amazing energy. It makes you feel … happy,’ she noted.

  Taren began her mysterious yarn. ‘I was given that by a Phemorian.’

  ‘Really?’ Amie was intrigued.

  ‘It’s a truth stone,’ she said, ‘you cannot lie while you hold it in your hand.’ Taren smiled triumphantly and Amie looked a little spooked. ‘The question is, are you afraid to hold it while you speak with me?’

  This was a very precarious situation for Amie. ‘Why don’t you trust me?’

  ‘I don’t trust anyone,’ Taren assured her. ‘So tell me, Amie, why were you really speaking with Khalid Mansur?’

  Amie went ghostly white as she focused very carefully on answering, and yet she repeatedly faltered.

  ‘I told you, you cannot lie, so stop trying and just tell me the truth.’

  ‘The truth could see me locked up,’ she whispered, tears forming and spilling down her face.

  One of Taren’s past experiences with Amie flashed through Taren’s mind. You don’t know everything about me, Amie warned her once. At the time Taren had thought Amie meant that they had underestimated her ability to play hardball, but at this moment, Taren suspected Amie had meant something very different. ‘You have a Power and Khalid is holding you to ransom with it.’

  ‘Shit!’ Amie was stunned that Taren could have guessed. ‘How could you …’ She stopped herself short of confirming the guess, looking about warily.

  ‘Your gift is sitting in water in the bathroom.’ Taren guessed her concern. ‘No one can hear us, you may speak freely. Are you already Mansur’s Puppeteer?’ This had once been the code name to awaken the sleeper agent within Amie.

  At first Amie shook her head, but then she began to weep and nod as her programming broke down. ‘I don’t love him,’ she quietly gasped, ‘he repulses me.’ She looked to Taren, with horror in her eyes, as subconscious memories of her true association with Khalid Mansur melded with her conscious thought.

  Taren moved around to hold Amie, who was visibly shaking with fear. ‘You don’t have to answer to him anymore — now that you are aware of your sleeper name it cannot hold sway over you.’

  ‘He’ll just make up a new one,’ she answered wearily, yet with spite.

  ‘Do you really wish to be free of him?’ Taren turned Amie’s face toward her, so that they were eye to eye.

  ‘I would do anything,’ she declared, and the conviction in her eyes and voice convinced Taren that maybe they could work together after all — but the situation was precarious. ‘I suspect that, whatever your Power is, it will not work on Khalid.’

  Amie appeared amazed by her insight. ‘That’s right … it works on anyone but him.’

  Taren was fairly sure it would not work on herself either, nor any who wore the Juju. ‘The stone you hold in your hand can offer you the same kind of protection from him as he has from you,’ Taren advised, and Amie’s hopes lifted considerably. ‘But if you betray me, or this project, you will lose that protection and Khalid will hold sway over your fate once more. Wear the stone next to your skin, yet out of sight. Khalid must never see it.’

  Amie was astounded by this strange twist of fate. ‘Who are you?’

  Taren smiled. ‘I’m your guardian angel … unless of course your loyalty truly lies with Khalid and the MSS, and not with Swithin Gervaise and this project, as I suspect.’

  ‘I have no loyalty to Khalid Mansur,’ she repeated, ‘but why single out Swithin Gervaise in particular?’

  ‘Because,’ Taren wondered how blunt she should be, ‘he’s your true lover of the moment.’

  Amie laughed to cover her gasp, and her first reaction was to deny it, but as Taren seemed to know everything about her, she shrugged. ‘We’ve had a bit of fun, I don’t know if that makes us lovers —’

  ‘Or you have designs on Lucian perhaps?’ Taren thought she’d test the waters on that count. Had Amie been truly attracted to Lucian or had he merely been a MSS directive?

  Amie laughed out loud. ‘What would be the point — the professor is clearly besotted by you?’

  Taren was startled; she wasn’t aware that their attraction was in any way obvious to others.

  ‘What? You don’t know this?’ Amie was surprised by Taren’s reaction. ‘How could you know so much about me and so little about the man you’re working with?’

  ‘I think you are avoiding the question,’ Taren interjected.

  ‘No, I am not interested in the professor.’ Amie cracked a smile, even though she was cornered. ‘And yes, I would kill Khalid to be with Swithin any day, just tell me what you want me to do.’

  ‘In that case.’ Taren returned to her own seat. ‘You can start by telling me what Power it is you have and how you can use it to the benefit of this project?’

  ‘You are not frightened by psychic power?’ Amie queried.

  ‘If I were, you’d be dead by now,’ Taren replied. ‘So, spill.’ She urged with both hands.

  Amie placed the stone on the table and frowned. ‘Why should I trust you?’

  ‘Would you rather trust Khalid?’

  ‘At least I know who he works for and what his agenda is. Why would you want to help me? There must be something in it for you?’

  ‘Oh, there is,’ Taren nodded to concur. ‘Full autonomy of the future of this project, its research and discoveries. That is what is in this for me, and if I cannot trust my people, they will not be my people … if you get my drift?’

  Amie nodded to assure Taren that she did.

  ‘So, if you don’t feel you can help me keep Khalid Mansur and the MSS off our back, then I’m letting you go, right now,’ Taren stated. ‘You’re already on the scopes of the MSS and are therefore a huge risk for me … don’t think I don’t know that you could turn double agent on me without you even knowing it. But if Khalid doesn’t discover we’ve broken his conditioning, he will have no reason to try to brainwash you again. The other deal breaker here is you telling Khalid anything about me, beyond that I am the financial manager of this project — as far as you can discern, there is absolutely nothing extraordinary about me.’


  Amie nodded.

  ‘I am being as honest with you as I can be, Amie. This is your chance to take back control of your own life and destiny, all you have to do is trust me when I say that our interests are very closely allied.’

  ‘You’re in love with him, aren’t you?’ Amie guessed at why their interests were so closely related. ‘The professor?’

  ‘I, perhaps, should have said that our professional interests are closely allied.’ Taren avoided the query.

  Amie nodded, not convinced, but after a moment’s consideration, she retrieved the stone from the table and looked back to Taren. ‘Khalid will not discover this stone, or anything about you, from me.’ Turning the stone in her hands a few times, she resolved to confess. ‘On the Psychic Monitor Database I was code-named the Impressionist, because I can make people forget, or remember events that never happened.’

  This was very interesting to Taren, who could see the future or psychically change the past; Amie could do the same thing on an individual basis, and changing someone’s memory of past events was practically the same as changing the past, but not as drastic to the overall scheme of things. ‘Is that what you came here today to do, make me forget my mistrust of you?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Amie, with a sly grin. ‘And to bug your unit.’

  ‘Naturally.’

  Amie wiped the tears of pain, joy and relief from her cheeks. ‘So where to from here, boss?’

  Arriving home after dinner in town, Lucian and Swithin were very surprised to hear the laughter of the two women they’d been concerned about all evening, echoing over from Taren’s unit veranda.

  ‘Am I hearing things?’ Swithin asked, sure that it was Amie’s voice being carried on the wind from next door.

  ‘Taren was pretty dark on her?’ Lucian was baffled.

  ‘Well, it certainly sounds like they’re getting along now.’ Swithin bravely ventured onto Lucian’s balcony, and Lucian followed.

  The two women in question were reclined on seats with their feet up, drinking fruity cocktails as they watched the sunset and chatted — the remains of takeaway strewn over the table.

  ‘Hey,’ Lucian yelled to get their attention. ‘How come Dr Nardone gets invited to dinner? Where is your all work ethic now?’

  ‘That’s discrimination!’ Swithin backed up his brother’s protest.

  The two women looked to each other and, conversing in whispers, had a chuckle to themselves.

  ‘They’re drunk,’ Swithin said with a smile, inspired by the possibility.

  Taren rose from her seat and approached the railing to address Lucian’s accusation. She was very steady on her feet and did not appear at all inebriated — more exhilarated. ‘This was a business dinner,’ she rebuffed, ‘and it might please you both to know that Amie and I have decided that we’ll be able to work in harmony after all.’

  With the announcement, Lucian gave an inward sigh of relief. His brother’s attraction to their new marine biologist was plain, and they’d both feared there were going to be problems.

  ‘That is good news,’ Swithin voiced their unanimous sentiment first.

  ‘I should really be getting on then.’ Amie rose to address Taren. ‘Thanks for hearing me out, and for your vote of confidence — it is not misplaced.’

  ‘I feel confident that you’re right about that.’ Taren gave her a hug, and then Amie waved to Swithin and Lucian in leaving. ‘Gentlemen.’

  ‘I really should be getting some shut eye too.’ Swithin made his excuses to leave in time to meet up with Amie out the front of the units.

  This left Lucian and Taren alone, facing each other on their separate balconies.

  ‘Well then.’ Taren stared at him a moment in the same alluring way she often did. ‘All’s well that ends well.’

  ‘Why the sudden turnaround?’

  ‘Just a little miscommunication that we got sorted out.’ Taren appeared very satisfied with the outcome. ‘Sorry if I freaked you out earlier, but I am very passionate about keeping our autonomy on this project.’

  ‘I understand that,’ Lucian ventured, ‘what I don’t understand, is how you could mistrust someone so much this morning and be best friends with them by evening?’

  Taren drew a deep breath and her grin grew — he felt he’d put her on the spot, which was even more curious. ‘As I said, I just needed to establish Amie’s true intention, and now we are clear.’

  ‘But why not do that before you accuse her of being a spy?’ Lucian folded his arms, fully aware that he was not getting the full story.

  ‘My bad,’ Taren admitted, holding up both hands to accept the fact. ‘I could have handled the situation better and I apologise.’

  Clearly, she was now perturbed, which was not Lucian’s aim; he was hoping she’d open up a little. ‘I was not trying to reprimand you, I am just trying to understand —’

  ‘There is nothing to understand, beyond that I’ve had a trying day.’ Taren began cleaning away the rubbish on her table.

  ‘Why do I feel like I had something to do with that?’ Lucian wondered; he suspected he understood why she insisted on being so distant.

  ‘Last night has nothing to do with it, really,’ she assured him. ‘I’ll see you in the morning. Goodnight, Lucian.’

  As he watched her turn and head inside, he was so tempted to call her back and have the conversation he’d been wanting to have with her all day, but he bit his tongue. Part of him wanted to trust her completely and yet she was keeping secrets. Every instinct he had told Lucian she was hiding something and until he knew what that something was he could not help her, trust her, and he would be a complete fool to love her — still he feared it was already too late to avoid the latter.

  That night Lucian’s erotic dreams about Taren took a strange twist and he saw himself enraptured with Amie instead. They were lovers, project partners, and then the beautiful erotic tone of the dream ended with Amie aiming a weapon at him, and accusing him of being an unfaithful husband. Lucian turned to view the woman beside him, whom he’d betrayed Amie with, and found Taren Lennox.

  Lucian woke with a start, covered in sweat and panting in shock. It took a moment to take in his surroundings and realise his reality at this time. He was so relieved to discover he was not on AMIE — construction on the Astro-Marine Institute had not even commenced. He was not married to Amie, and he’d not betrayed her by having an affair with Taren.

  ‘Thank goodness for that.’ He sat up and gave a huge sigh of relief. Still, the dream had been so real, as all his dreams about Dr Lennox were.

  This night’s dream did stir the memory of another he’d had the morning after he’d met Taren. In the vision he and Taren were naked in an underwater bedroom and he’d said to her: ‘I don’t want to go back to being strangers. I don’t want to go back to being ignorant and used.’ To which Taren had replied: ‘Stop worrying about your marriage. I’ll destroy it, I swear to you!’

  The memory sent shivers down his spine, as clearly his dreams were sending him mixed messages. Or maybe there was no message, just his imagination playing tricks on him? As a scientist, Lucian believed that dreams were just a mishmash of information the brain took in throughout the day; but if that were true, he had feelings for Amie that he was completely unaware of consciously!

  Even considering the erotic dreams he’d just had about her, Lucian was very sure he had no interest in marrying Amie — if he did, he knew the nightmare he’d just had could easily become reality. If he had to wait a decade for Taren to let him in, he’d rather do that than get involved with anybody else. Not to mention what Swithin would do to him, if he knew Lucian was having dirty dreams about his would-be girlfriend.

  ‘Augh!’ The professor released his angst as he stood. ‘I am so very confused about this woman.’ How could he get her to open up and trust him?

  Lucian looked to the clock to discover it was about an hour before dawn and, feeling he had no chance of getting back to sleep, he decided to make the most of th
e extra hours and get on with his day.

  Taren’s first priority this morning was to get rid of the sea creature in her bathroom, hence she found herself knee-deep in the ocean.

  The crystal-clear aqua water was lovely and calm today, and Taren was rather glad of the excuse to be paddling in the early dawn sun. ‘I should do this every morning,’ she decided, unscrewing the lid of the tank and tossing it back onto the sand where she would retrieve and bin it later.

  ‘Well, Spectrum,’ — the name she’d given the creature — ‘have a great life!’ She lowered the tank to the water and made ready to tip the sea dragon in, when something large suddenly broke the surface before her and startled her to refrain. Her shock quickly melted into pure lust, as Lucian rose out of the water and removed the scuba gear from his face to smile at her.

  ‘Good morning,’ he said, oblivious to the fact that Taren was inwardly hyperventilating.

  Lucian was much fitter now than he’d been after five years in space, and with the suntan, that dark hair and those intense dark eyes, there was no denying that he was absolutely gorgeous! She found her voice. ‘Hi.’

  ‘Um.’ Lucian frowned pointing to the tank in her hands. ‘May I ask?’

  ‘Oh,’ Taren had totally forgotten about the sea dragon. ‘It was a gift, but I don’t like keeping innocent things in cages, so I am going to set it free.’

  ‘Well, I wouldn’t do it here,’ Lucian advised. ‘If the birds don’t get him before he finds shelter, bigger sea predators will.’

  ‘Oh?’ Taren hadn’t considered that.

  ‘And as most creatures prefer a mate in life,’ Lucian added, ‘he’ll be hard-pressed to find one around here.’

  ‘I see.’ Taren felt the professor was having a dig at her refusal to date. ‘Well, where will my friend here find the great love of his life?’