Project Ouroboros (19 page)

— Were you there, in that room?

— Yes. It was very cold. So cold it was only in Greenland.

— There have been freezers with human bodies, right?

— Yes. How did you know?

— Tekhina told something similar. She was scared by that too. But she said that the bodies were preserved in formalin or something. I am not qualified in this field.

— I remember exactly the room with the freezer the time before, but this time there was no such door. It was covered with a closet. I couldn't find it.

— What do you think is there?

— I don't know.

— And what were you doing there?

— I don't know.

El'Athar continued to sit in a chair, watching as Aleph was trying to get out from under the rug. His blond hair was mussed and his shirt wasn't suitable to wear anymore.

— Rada called, — said the agent. — Asked me to convey that you're a pig.

— Why does she care? — the blond snapped.

— I do not know. I surely don't. What does this cuneiform say?

— I have not found it yet...

— Have you not been looking in all sorts of dictionaries?

— I was looking for it, but found nothing. The style is the same, but I haven't seen specifically those characters.

— So maybe they do not exist? Maybe it's a pastiche of the serial number.

— No, there must be some meaning. I'm sure. And they are all very similar, but differ in the last letter.

— We'll find it, do not worry.

— All right, thank you.

— Did you sleep well?

— I would like to sleep a little more. The last three days I have been looking for other Lamashtu, and I do not have any forces to go on.

— How many have you found already?

— All of them.

— All of them? Wow, congratulations. That was fast.

— It's easy enough. I feel them. I know where they are. I just felt, you know, as if I did not have time, and if I did not summon them, everything would be in vain.

— Are they in "Enki"?

— Yes.

— You stay here as long as you want, just call Rada. It's you who live with her, not me. I'll have to leave, so I leave the house for you. I have things to do today, but I'm waiting for you to wake up. Tomorrow there will be a meeting of the Order, so if you want, you can accompany me, otherwise I would die of boredom.

— All right... And where are you going?

— I have to get to the archives of the Ministry of the Internal Affairs.

— Would you like me to keep you company?

— You'd better didn't. My visit is unofficial.

— Fine. Only I beg you, leave the archivist alive this time.

— I cannot promise — El'Athar smiled and left the room.

The agent knew that the Ministry closed at eight o'clock, and he still had an hour to get inside and sit unnoticed in the department of archives as long as necessary. Many employees of this department spent the night at work, if they were heavily loaded, so no one would notice the difference.

El'Athar told the driver that they were to leave then, he put on a suit, dark glasses and gathered his hair at the nape.

Suddenly, everything darkened in his eyes. The agent managed to grab the mirror to keep his balance. The mirror trembled.

What had just happened?

Jack, you almost fainted like a girl. — No, it's something else.

What? — I felt something. As if... something has happened, not here.

Jack, you're talking in riddles. — I think that it has already begun.

What have? — The Ultimate correction. I can feel it.

You are a fool or something. What is so special about you? — I don't know.

El'Athar sighed, adjusted his bangs that were out of the ponytail and left. He did not know how the Ultimate correction happened, or what it in fact was, but he was hoping that he had a little time. Just to return back to the house the next day.

Already in the car, he quickly dialled a message to Aleph on his phone, so that he read it when he woke up.

"Wait for me. I'll be there in the morning. Do not leave. It is important."

Then El'Athar saw a notice about messages received on the answering machine.

"Hello, Jack. Are you glad to hear me? "

Hello, Jack ...

Jack...

Tick-tock ...

Darkness.

Someone was staring into the eyes, but was not visible. At first it seemed that it was a cat.

It seemed... It was a man, but his face was not visible. It was so bright, too bright. Only his eyes as dark spots could be discerned.

The tears. Too much light. And one could not say anything. The mouth was open, but the words stuck in the throat.

Not so much light!

Jack... Jack... Can you hear me?

A familiar voice, but who was it.

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

Darkness.

Cold.

Dampness reached to the bone, as if you were somewhere in an abandoned basement.

It stunk of mould.

Again, these hypnotic eyes shone in the dark.

— So are you better, Jack? .. Don't you think that you allow yourself too much? Who are you at all! How dare you get into business that does not concern you? Why did you kill Lydia Lugal? What have you done, arrogant idiot! Do you understand that now you cannot be saved?

— I just carry out orders, Mr Daath. Now nobody would be saved.

Darkness.

— What are you doing, Jack? Do you want to save someone?

— Yes. Myself.

— You already know what has started ... Soon no one will be left, neither you nor me, why then?

— Tell me, Daath, what should I do? I do not know what to do, but I feel that I must do something!

— Do not be afraid. You feel sorry for yourself again. You'll know what to do. It's in your head.

— You know who I really am?

— Yes, I do. And your power frightens me. I admit it.

— But Daath...

— You're a human, do not worry.

— But why then?

— Soon the time comes. Do you feel that it has already begun?

— Yes, I do.

— You are an unusual man, Jack.

— Then my inner voice...

— ...Yes.

— Why are you helping me, Daath?

— You don't understand.

— No, I don't.

Darkness.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

The ocean rustling nearby. It seemed so close that one could reach out a hand and feel it. The sky was overcast with clouds, the storm was about to start.

El'Athar loved thunderstorms. It was a respite between the hot days in the desert of Elam, where without the help of people only palm trees could survive. The storm gave a sense of comfort. How much El'Athar loved the diversity of nature and weather on Earth! Those who grew up here, would never understand his feelings, his joy from every breath of wind. He never could get used to this.

Jack Getterbørgen grew up in a poor semi-abandoned colony where the only good thing was the view from the window gallery in the main hall. However, even great galaxy Alpha Centauri could not replace the sunlight, rain, wind and sea... He wanted to live by the sea, away from people, in a beautiful house with an open balcony. To drink coffee there in the morning as he had seen in old pictures and films, which were sometimes shown during the holidays for everyone willing to see.

It was wild and incomprehensible how people once had lived, and only as an adult, he realized that the life was wild in colonies, not in the old movies.

...the first drops of rain. Out of habit, he wanted to get up and find some shelter, but El'Athar didn't. He lay there with his eyes closed, knowing that if he opened them, the hallucination would disappear, knowing that it was not real, but only a vision that Mr Daath offered.

Darkness.

Mongolian prison on the outskirts of civilization, in the desert where there was nothing for thousands of kilometers around. The only big city was three thousand kilometers to the south of the scorched desert sand. One could not escape ...

— Why am I here again?

— Because you are thinking about it. Think of the sea, and you find yourself back on the coast. Why are you thinking about this terrible place?

— It's where I first met you, Daath.

— Why do you think that I was here?

— All the "Elohim" were here. I remember your voice. It stood out among the monotone whisper of the others. Too sonorous and melodic to dissolve among them.

— Here you aspired to freedom.

— Yes, but I only got into another golden cage.

— You had a choice.

— A golden cage or a painful death? This can hardly be called a choice.

— All your life you killed people, Jack.

— Maybe that's why I live so long?

— No, that's not it.

— What is it then?

— Hmm ... You had to be one of the keys of the Correction, do you understand?

— So I am also a key?

— You are an unusual man, Jack. It is a pity that you have spent two thousand years to ensure that the hand does not tremble when you press the trigger. Sorry, you're just an ordinary mercenary who does what he is told.

— Are you trying to make me feel guilty?

— I do not need to do that, as you feel guilty already. Your problem is that you have not stopped feeling sorry for yourself for so long. You are worried that you do not know what you do now, not in order to save the world, the loved ones, if you didn't kill all of them, but not to feel guilty. That's not what I expected when I was looking for you.

— So, the Correction has not begun, and I lived only to be key in the next one?

— Yes. Now you do not have to spoil anything. Then we might be able to survive.

— Go to hell. I do not have to help you, Daath.

— If we are in hell, Jack, then I am the Devil and you have no choice.

Darkness.

A dark, unsettling feeling as if something cold and slimy filled the body. It was numb, as if in anticipation of a sinister horror. Blue, clear eyes were wide open and unblinkingly stared into space. Had it really started? Like that? And one could not feel anything but fear and astonishment, and did not know what to do. To lie down on and on, realizing that you were to live... a few hours, days, weeks? How long would it last and how would it happen?

Panic grew inside. Only externally: the same look, the same lack of facial expression. How long was El'Athar away? Six, eight hours? And he lied there all that time. Dazed. Tired of struggling with fear, which did not allow to sleep. Lord, how much he wanted to sleep, but that sticky, ugly lump in his breast was growing.

Silence.

Suddenly all sounds disappeared. No more noisy cars on the road, he could not hear the voices of people and rustling trees near the house fell silent, too. Absolute, cosmic silence. Like a vacuum.

Aleph was finally able to move. His look passed from the wall to the window and he saw that there the leaves still rustled, but he did not hear it.

Tick-tock ... tick-tock ...

Somewhere in the distance a cabinet clock was ticking for the last minutes.

And what then?

What would happen then?

— Have you been lying here all this time? — The silence was broken by El'Athar's hoarse voice that sounded overhead.

— Something is happening — Aleph did not move.

— What do you feel?

— Fear. And you?

— I do not know. I am as if in a dream. I came for you, it's time.

— What about the meeting of the Order?

— We have time. If it, of course, takes place.

Aleph reluctantly got up from the couch. He did not want to ask where El'Athar was in such a hurry, it seemed, it was understandable.

— What are you most afraid of? — Suddenly, even for himself, said Aleph.

El'Athar, nervously looking for something in the book that the night before he had left on the table, stood still. He did not know whether to say something or just pretend that he heard nothing.

— I'm afraid of silence — continued Aleph. — I do not even know why. Maybe it has surrounded me for too long.

They went down the stairs and left. El'Athar had one last look at the house, knowing that he would not return there. There would be no meeting of the Order that day. All that was left to do — was to go to "Enki".

Already in the car, after a pause, El'Athar was finally able to say something:

— Perhaps it is because of loneliness. You are afraid of loneliness, not silence.

— Silence for me is not only the absence of people around. This vacuum in space. Sometimes all sounds disappear, even my own voice. I cannot say a word. At such times it becomes really scary.

— Panic?

— Yes.

— I am afraid of darkness. I lived most of my life in the darkness in my impoverished childhood, when electricity was a luxury, working on cruisers operating in exploration.

El'Athar stopped. He hated the darkness for entirely different reasons, but he was not going to talk about it. Agent was thinking about completely different things: did Mr Daath come to Aleph?

The silence lasted until the end of the trip.

In "Enki" it was almost empty. El'Athar knew that then even Mr Aine Soph was not there — everyone was at the funeral of Lydia Lugal. It was important that no one interfered.

The agent knew that there was no one in the "corner of Moreau".

— I hope you know how to get there. — Aleph was not sure he wanted to look for a room with a freezer, which he had once seen.

— I've got the keys.

— Why do you need me, if you know where to look?

— We have nowhere else to go. Are all Lamashtu here?

— Yes.

— Except for Tharsis and Tau, right?

— Yes. They have decided to work and live separately.

— You need to call them. We all need to be together.

They passed the checkpoint of the Sector «F», where the "corner of Dr Moreau" was located, and went down to the basement. Old iron staircase began to squeak indignantly, but as a member of the security department, El'Athar knew that there were no cameras, as well as throughout the sector, as opposed to the elevator. Apparently, the work of Lugal family was so secret that even the common areas did not have security cameras.

Another floor down, the passing through a narrow hall, and there it was, a treasured steel door, behind which there were shelves with formalin. El'Athar began slowly and carefully selecting the right key in the bunch that he had taken from Lidia Lugal. Finally a nondescript little key managed to open the lock, and the agent with the boy went inside.

The feeling of inner panic grew with every step to the secret closet, which was supposed to hide another door.

Cold glass shelves along the walls were covered with frost, frost crunched underfoot, it was hard to breathe. A broken leg ached from such cold. He wondered if they could push the cabinet at the end of the corridor aside.

— I won't be a great help here — Aleph complained when another attempt was unsuccessful.

— That's fine, it is heavy, but not bolted to the floor, it's the most important thing. A bit more.

Fifteen minutes later, tired and frozen, Aleph with El'Athar began to pick up the key to the heavy sealed door. But none of them suited the lock.

— Damn, I think I've killed all those who knew what to do — cursed El'Athar, trying to find the key for the second round. In vain.

— I have the right key — first came a familiar voice, and then steps on hoarfrost.

Dingir Lugal, son of doctors Lugal, walked slowly, and in his hand there was a gun.

— I wonder if you are closed in the room who would die first? M-m-m? — He threw the key under Aleph's feet — Open, if you want to see what's there. Do it.

El'Athar reached for his gun, but Aleph stopped him.

— No, — the blonde said softly and opened the door.

The room was almost empty. Only the wires on the floor and a chair in the corner, more like an electric chair, that was once used for executions in America. Useless invention — they shot people in the colonies, because it was cheaper and less pompous.

— Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think I do not know who killed my parents? You cannot do anything without me. And I will not help you. You, blond creature, do you think you can change the world? I should have been the key to the Correction, not you. All my life I was preparing to be the next Mr Daath, and you spoiled everything!

The door closed.

Aleph and El'Athar were left in an empty cold room. It was very dark and very quiet.