Project Ouroboros (13 page)

— Jack! Jack! You came back! — a blonde girl ran toward El'Athar in the long corridor of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and joyfully shouted the name of her lover again and again.

Oh, dear Sophie, you've become more beautiful.

— War is over! — She was very close. — I've been expecting you! Happy Birthday!

A shot.

El'Athar was speechless. He stood and watched as Sophie stumbled and fell on the parquet floor.

Another shot. Pain. And darkness.

It has been exactly ten years since that day.

— Mr Getterbørgen! Mr Getterbørgen! Can you hear me? You're lucky you're alive! — Someone shouted in his ear, but he didn't have enough strength to open his eyes. The body was paralyzed. And it was getting so cold...

— Mr Getterbørgen! Your wife is dead!

Wheezing. The lungs were full of blood.

Exactly ten years ago.

The person who did it was his best friend, Aaron.

Whenever El'Athar thought about Aaron, his lungs were filled with blood again, and it hurts to breathe. Friday visits to the bar, trips to the mountains, long conversations, and plans for life... best friends... Defending each other, they went through the war together.

El'Athar hardly remembered what Aaron looked like — only a blurred silhouette; But always remembered, how the loved one betrayed him for promotion.

— You have to kill Jack Getterbørgen.

— No problem.

When El'Athar was discharged, he came to Aaron and killed him, not listening to any explanations or excuses. Special Agent consigned to oblivion the last meeting, he remembered only the shot. And the pain that followed. A faint hope that if he killed Aaron it would become easier, perished immediately. It was worse. Even after so many years feelings were so strong that they completely isolated El'Athar from the outside world and other people. Even after his death of Aaron remained not just a best friend, but the only family he had ever had.

"Hello, Jack. Are you glad to hear me? "— A new record on the answering machine. No matter how he changed the number, location, names — he always received this message on December 22, El'Athar's birthday. All these ten years.

— Today is your birthday, Jack.

— And the day of death of Sophie.

— How old are you?

— Twenty nine.

— Are you sure?

— No.

Aaron's sonorous melodic voice all these years pursued El'Athar.

Hello, Jack, are you glad you hear me?

Hello, Jack ...

Hello...

***

The sea roared loudly, and the sky was overcast with clouds. On the beach there was no one, only a lone figure in dimensionless shirt and jeans stretched out on the sand and violated the silence of the desert coast. A man lay his hands over his face.

He liked to lie down so earlier, when he was homeless... Sometimes Aleph even missed those days because his only concern was "where to stay" and he did not have time to think about "what to do."

A strange feeling ...

Surrounded by other Lamashtu it became more sad, it was much easier on his own. And Aleph much less understood how to behave with El'Athar and avoided him, trying not even to talk to special agent. Sometimes the young man thought he would suffocate from this silence in the house that he could not stand the cold piercing eyes and a wry smile in any attempt to defuse the situation. Aleph understood that all El'Athar's care was only a part of his work, and did not expect sincerity, but why didn't it get any easier?

El'Athar suffered. And it was not just because of a broken leg. The last few days, agent was lying in his bedroom and watched TV, ate nothing and came out only when was summoned by Aine Soph. Aleph was worried, he did not know if he could do something and why he wanted to help so desperately. But he didn't have enough courage even to talk to El'Athar. It was easier to pretend that all was well.

That morning, Aleph found special agent in the kitchen with a cup of coffee. He sat with his feet on a stool and stared out the window. His bent figure, thin back with protruding ribs and shoulder blades, tousled long hair floated over and over again in his head. All he could do at that moment was to escape.

The young man remembered that El'Athar's birthday was that day. He was unbearably ashamed of his behaviour. He wondered how old the agent actually was. "Probably not less than me. And maybe more. Yes, probably more. "

— Actually, how many years old are you, Aleph?

— I don’t know. I do not think it matters. Just ... a lot.

Where did El'Athar hide a piece of the cradle, if there was nowhere to put it except for the jacket? Asking this rhetorical question, Aleph immediately found the answer. He cursed loudly, knowing that no one would hear. The inner jacket pocket, probably. There, he had had no time to check yet.

The boy rubbed his nose and the images he had seen in the laboratory on the lower floors of "Enki" and that all this time trying to forget surfaced in his mind like a terrible dream: a big sad humanoid monkey, which once had come to hold his hand and a long time had been staring with its monkey eyes in his eyes. He would like to know that it was all right.

Aleph hid his face in his hands and relaxed again.

Bright artificial light blinded the eyes, and someone's head hung over Aleph. He could not figure out who it was: he could not see the face. Only a dark spot, which was so close that one could feel the breathing. But the shadow was not breathing, it was not blinking. The words sounded as if out of nowhere.

— ... What does it consist of? Is it pure synthetic? — Cold as ice, fingers have touched his neck — it does not seem so... feels like real .... Is he real?

— ... How much does it cost, this creature? .. The rest were created in the image and likeness? He-he ...

Aleph, have you heard? You are real. And the rest, they are only your clones.

— ... Well, why are you crying... Mr Daath promised you that everything will be fine...

Everything will be fine...

***

— Ophite community has existed on Earth from the beginning of the new era — already 2060 years. We were the ones who had created and financed the research center "Enki", which, in addition to our projects, had made many useful discoveries for mankind. The "Enki" scientists found a solution to the problem of immunodeficiency, they created the first organic prosthesis. And all this time, Mr Aine Soph, you have been their leader. Why do you want to leave now?

— I know someone who could be a better leader than I am.

— Do "Elohim" and Mr Daath personally know about this?

— This is my own initiative.

— We depend on them.

— I take full responsibility.

— Well, Mr Aine Soph, we are happy to serve you.

***

Hello, Jack, are you glad you hear me? ..

El'Athar turned the record on again and again, until he was not tired, and then he threw the phone out the window.

Hello, Jack ...

How long has no one called him that...

Jack...

Already ten years had passed since the terrible events, so much had changed ... The name, appearance, life.

El'Athar was lying in bed, having turned on the TV for background. He never had the second lens restored, and only Mr Director General could look him in the eye. Even his secretary Rada, sincerely in love with El'Athar, turned away whenever they met in "Enki".

It could be said that he even liked it more like that: no need to pretend that other people interested him in any way. He liked to feel their embarrassment when they averted their eyes and tried to pretend that all was well.

And there was a new job, that gave him an official status in the eyes of "Elohim" and Mr Daath personally, revived interest to what was happening around.

El'Athar stood up and stretched. It seemed that he finally wanted to have and could have lunch. In the last four days his entire diet consisted of coffee and... no, perhaps, only coffee.

... having broken the window, a bullet flew past the agent's face. Another almost hurt his arm. The glass clinked and scattered from the third bullet that nearly hit the target.

El'Athar fell to the floor and crawled toward the door. He had to get out of the apartment before he became a sieve.

Hell, no! Not this day!

Bullets flew and flew.  There was nothing left of the large window in the bedroom, the bed, the TV and wallpapers — too.

To run, run away from there!

The house opposite was too far away to see where he was shot from in a moment.

To run.

El'Athar crept into the hall and rose to his feet, left the apartment, slamming the door. He shouldn't have thrown the phone from the height of thirty-eighth floor, because there was particularly nowhere to run, otherwise he could call Tekhina, or Aleph, or just God knows who.

A laughter came up to his throat. Perhaps hysterical. From despair.

What did they want from him? To appoint a head of the Ophite community or his death?

Without the crutches it was hard to go down the stairs from the twenty-fifth floor, the pass to "Enki" was also left in the bedroom. However, the desire to return was not very acute — too dangerous.

Suddenly, as if in reality, he heard behind him:

— Hello, Jack ...

Many, many years ago...

Narrow settlement halls were always crowded with people. Idlers often gathered in small companies to drink beer, play backgammon or chess at little tables in the corners of the common rooms. And when all the tables were occupied, they stood right in the crowded aisles. There were more than enough idlers: there was not enough work, and many were virtually starving, getting modest social rations.

This was the main problem of the first colonies: estimates and plans looked flawless on paper, but in practice they failed. It was not only the error in the calculations, but in human nature: wherever one could save — they did, and all that could be stolen from the budget — was stolen. It didn't take much time, until everyone who could leave the Jericho-2, left this depressing place in search of work and better life.

Among idlers there were a lot of teenagers who were restlessly hanging around at the station, because the work was found for them last. Most often it was unskilled labour for peanuts, which did not correct their financial situation. That is why mainly those were working who was simply tired to wander around.

One of these teens, Jack had become a local legend: he always had somewhere to work, and when he got tired of it — joined any company. Every time the company  got worse, and if at 13 he taught neighbourhood children to play chess, at 14 he was stealing from the dining room, and at 15 already helped to sell drugs that his older friends cooked in one of the cellars in the technical compartments. They ran this profitable business until they were caught and moved to the "unreliable" part of the colony. As usual, Jack was lucky — one of the "teachers" knew his mother, so he returned to his parents just a month later. However, now he preferred to play backgammon with the kids and not to get involved in anything of that sort.

Many mocked him on that subject, asking, whether he didn't become a killer or something like that. Jack never got angry. His good-natured smile lit up the grey radiant concrete walls of the settlement. There was something in this teenager that made everyone, young and old, sympathize this boy.

On his sixteenth birthday Jack lost his father. He was sick for a long time, coughing, very weak. Many who worked in the mines, ended up like that, with a cough. They died after a long severe illness.

Getterbørgen-senior's funeral was a cremation and a pompous speech of the head of crematorium, which he repeated several times a day. Then they threw the plastic box away on the surface of the planet: there had been a whole dump of the cremated.

Jack did not want to go home, he wandered alone around the floor counting the doors and tiny flats in the  unnumbered sector.

Jericho-2 was the first Earth colony, probably that was why it was so bad. Poverty, lack of space and food, diseases that killed so many people, including his father...

Jack remembered that he had once met an artist on the steps leading to the common hall. He said that the boy didn't just have an antique profile, but he looked like a statue of Hermes Logiosa from the Roman Museum, the artist had once seen it in the book. Jack was always curious to know what the "Hermes" was and how it looked like, but then he did not even want that.

Two weeks later, his mother died and his younger brother too. They did not cough, did not work in the mines, just... there they were, and then they were just gone.

— Jack Getterbørgen! — The commissioner, finally, found the boy. — Come with me, the management wants to see you!

— Did I do something?

— You are a fool if you think that you alone will get the whole apartment.

— But...

— You will be sent in the sector for orphans. Come on, let's go.

They walked in silence along the glass tunnel to the other wing. It was Jack's favorite place — here he saw the world as it was outside the walls of the colony: a bright, blue-violet sky, studded with stars, and a colourful desert of stones and crystals.

At this time, it could not escape his thoughts.

Jack did not want to go to the sector for orphans. He remembered those poor children in rags instead of clothes that looked with glowing eyes at a blackened piece of bread and he felt uneasy. But it was not of pity for the orphans — Jack did not want to be one of them.

— You're an adult, — said the commissioner — you will work. When does the "Cassiopeia" come? — He said to his colleague.

— In three days.

— So, you will help, do you understand?

— Help?

— I do not know. As a handyman. You will carry things and have all sorts of orders to fulfill. Or do you want to mine?

— No, I don't.

— Then you will be a handyman.

Jack wilted.

He sat in the police station, as if battered and bent, and his social guardian with his boss were loudly talking about the arrival of one of the biggest cruisers "Cassiopeia", which was supposed to land here for some passengers to get off.

— There is a word, that there would be a project "Ouroboros." Have you heard about such?

— Yes, everyone is talking about this, as if there are no other topics to discuss. I just cannot understand, who would be involved in this project.

— Professionals who want to work.

— And what about Jericho?

— We are not concerned. We are left on our own, it's obvious.

— Well, bastard, will you carry the suitcases of the Jericho government? Remember to wash before you show to those people — The commissioner was mockingly staring at the ward.

Jack hunched even more. Water was a luxury.

The shelter was dirty, damp and cold, instead of the bed there was a kind of junk with rags. Twenty beds in the room, no personal belongings. Jack could not say that was so bad, like it was said: he knew many people and little children were good-natured, and always called him to eat sweet, boasted of their toys.

The most difficult it was to sleep. Hungry all the time, after curfew it got colder, and old blankets were so thinned that there was no help from them at all. These few days before the arrival of the cruiser "Cassiopeia" to fall asleep, Jack closed his eyes and dreamed about the project "Ouroboros".

The night before the arrival of "Cassiopeia" Jack could not sleep a wink. He went to his favourite alley where he indulged in the idea that the world was not grey concrete and hungry people, it was a whole universe with millions of stars, with the blue-purple sky and the planets to which there was in fact thousands of light years of travel.

He sat there until morning, when people started to pass by him. They were surprised that one could stare out the window, because the outside of the planet had the same stones as before. They had seen them all their lives. There was nothing unusual...

— Getterbørgen! — The commissioner kicked Jack with his foot on the back, hanging over his head. — Why should I look for you?! Go wash your face, the head of the colony has left a cabin free. And quickly, you know how many people are willing to get there. Go out of the line, you are waited for. The working uniform is on your bed. Come on, you have only twenty minutes.

The boy dutifully left and turning an escape plan over and over in his head. How to make sure to stay on the "Cassiopeia"? But it didn't scare him the most, but what to do next. It was not hard to escape, it was hard not to starve to death... But it was impossible to stay. Every day dozens of people died of coughing, and nobody was going to fix that...

El'Athar opened his eyes.

On that day, to fulfill his simple escape plan, he killed a man for the first time. He put on a form of "Cassiopeia" and no one noticed the difference: workers on the cruiser were valued no more than the miners of Jericho.

The killed — a youth, junior engineer named David El'Athar.

Special Agent knew that he regretted nothing.

He killed a lot of people over the years. And he was not sorry for any of them.