Kitobni o'qish: «The Perfect Match»

Prologue

He was sitting on the stone floor in the Hall of Prayer with his mind focused on the future and the worlds that he was going to create. He was about thirty-five, his head was shaved, and he was wearing a black kimono beneath black robes held shut in the front with a sash¹. It was quite chilly for August, but his body did not feel the cool wind that was coming through the open windows of the ancient² pagoda nor the coldness of the old stones he was sitting on. He could feel that soon he would be able to project his power to the real world around him. The monks in the temple knew better than³ to disturb him during his meditations. For the past five years, his power had been constantly enhancing⁴, and the monks could feel that too.

There were three steps in his process of achieving Control, where the power of his thought could make things move and bend⁵ other people’s ability to think and overpower⁶ their emotions. Before getting to Control, however, there were Calmness and Detachment⁷. He was in the process of getting calm when a bright lightning of a sharp emotion pierced⁸ through his mind. He saw the image of his father. He frowned⁹ at this unexpected occurrence¹⁰ and opened his eyes.

“He’s dead,” he whispered.

He sat in silence for another minute. His face relaxed and a smile appeared.

“At last.”

Chapter 1

Back to Business

“Look at the moon,” Lizzy said, pointing to the bright big blueish¹¹ circle in the sky.

“It looks lonely,” Marco said.

They were sitting outside a country cottage that used to belong to Lizzy’s late mother. There was no way for her to go back to the apartment she had shared with her dead boyfriend. The police were still looking for her in connection with the dead body that her neighbors started to smell and called the authorities to investigate. Her cousin Anastasia, her closest friend and next of kin¹², put away some of her stuff in storage after the police had cleared the crime scene. When Lizzy reached out to Anastasia, it took a lot of effort to convince her cousin that she was fine and not brainwashed by some cult. She explained to her that there was a reason she could not contact the police just yet. Lizzy also could not reveal¹³ why she was absent for more than two months and tried not to see any other friends to avoid interrogation¹⁴. Everything had to be done discreetly¹⁵. The less people knew she was back the better. Anastasia arranged for them to move into the cottage only after the police searched the place.

“It’s not lonely, it has the Earth,” she said and put her head on Marco’s shoulder. “Tonight, it’s called a blue moon.”

It was a bit cold outside, and they were wrapped in a quilt¹⁶ that Lizzy’s mother had bought in some mountain village in Thailand where she went with her father, Peter, before they got married.

“Is it always blue here?” he asked.

“It’s not blue at all. It’s just a name for the second full moon in a month, I think.”

“How many full moons do you usually get?”

“I think there are twelve, but occasionally you get a thirteenth. That’s a blue moon.”

“I don’t think our moons get to be called anything. They’re just moons. Boring. I like your blue moon, even though it still looks lonely to me.”

“Tell me more about your world,” she said, getting cozier by his side.

“I need to learn more about yours to know the differences better, don’t I?”

“True.”

“Will we have time to do that?”

“I hope we will.”

She kissed him on the lips and stood up.

“We have a long day tomorrow,” she said, offering him her hand and pulling him to his feet.

***

The next day they were supposed to meet with their contact person – Peter’s acquaintance¹⁷ – who had promised to introduce them to a group called the Committee. The group was secretly working on eliminating the threat that was coming from the late Dolion’s supporters. There were three ladies – the group’s leaders – who held high positions in the medical research industry in three different countries, the US, Russia, and China. They knew about Lizzy’s role in eradicating¹⁸ Dolion and about the unique qualities of her blood. They were eager¹⁹ to meet her. The man – whom they were meeting – had called the cottage landline two days ago and introduced himself as Aaron. Marco was the one who talked to him and agreed on the details for the meeting.

Lizzy woke up early and watched Marco sleeping for a few minutes before jumping in the shower and starting breakfast. He walked in the kitchen, still slumberous²⁰, while she was making eggs, and hugged her from behind.

“Good morning,” he said and kissed her on the neck.

“Hi, sleepyhead²¹.”

“How’d you sleep?”

She had not been sleeping well ever since she was violently introduced to the other world. She did not want to bother Marco with her insomnia²² and never woke him up. She could fall asleep for a brief time, but that didn’t bring much relaxation. She would wake up and silently lie in bed, trying not to think about the dead people she knew or was about to get to know – Mark, Peter, and Beth. Despite the horrendous images of what she had witnessed or what her imagination had created in those nightmares, there was one more thing that bothered her. After they came back, among the flashbacks of the past two months, she started to see a person who stood at a distance looking at her. He was present in almost all her dreams. The image was not clear, just a male silhouette wearing a long coat.

“Ok, let’s eat and be on our way²³. What time are we meeting the man?” Lizzy asked.

“Ten a.m. sharp, so we still have some time.”

She placed the pan with the eggs on a wooden cutting board that was already on the kitchen table, next to a watermelon they had bought at the farmer’s market the day before.

“Could you get the forks, please?” she asked Marco. “I’ll cut Mr. Watermelon here.”

“No plates?”

“Let’s just eat from the pan. It’s faster that way and no need to wash dishes.”

“Practical.”

She sliced the fruit in half, took one half and sliced it again into two equal parts. Then she took one of the quarters and cut it quickly into five triangles. After that she put each of the triangles on its side and cut the red flesh out, tossing the green rinds in the waste basket. The pulp triangles were also cut into cubes. She used her knife to scoop up the cubes and throw them into a large blue china bowl. She did the same with the other quarter, the entire process took two minutes.

“Where did you learn how to do that?” Marco asked, watching her cutting method in fascination²⁴.

Lizzy smiled. “My mother learned that somewhere in Asia and always cut fruit that way. I guess I picked it up from her.”

“It’s fast,” Marco said and sat down at the table ready to eat.

***

Aaron – a short, bolding overweight man in his 50’s–was standing on the side of the road next to the gas station two miles away from the cottage. They’d walked to the meeting spot through the forest that Lizzy knew very well. She used to walk here with her mother when she was a little girl. It was a good day for a walk–sunny and warm. They saw him before he spotted them.

“Is that him?” Lizzy asked.

“I think so,” Marco said and looked at his diver’s watch. “Fits the description and he’s on time.”

“Is there a code word we’re supposed to use to make sure he is our guy?”

“He told me that he’d recognize us.”

“Not much of a spy, is he?”

“Let’s do it then,” he said and took a step out of the thicket²⁵.

As soon as they were in the clear, Aaron acknowledged them with a nod and started to walk to a grey minivan that was parked near the gas station minimart’s entrance. He opened the driver’s door and slid the passenger door open. Then he got in the driver’s seat, closed the door, but left the passenger door open.

“I guess that’s our cue²⁶,” Marco said.

They walked to the van and climbed into the back.

“You’re to follow the instructions,” Aaron said as soon as they closed the door and gave them a large manila envelope. “There are two passports, the car key, and some money.”

“We have a car,” Lizzy said.

“Not anymore,” Aaron said. “Our people are taking it from your cottage as we speak.”

“Why?” Marco asked.

“It’s not safe to use the same car.”

“Where’s our new ride then?”

“You are sitting in it,” Aaron said and opened his door.

“Wait,” Lizzy said. “Are you leaving?”

“You’re to follow the instructions,” Aaron said and left the car.

They watched him walking quickly across the gas station pavement and getting in a black pick-up truck parked on the other side – which took off the second he had climbed in.

“That was some spy work right there,” Lizzy smiled.

Marco looked inside the envelope.

“Well, it’s all in there: the money, the passports, and the key.”

“Where are the instructions?”

Marco took out a white sheet of paper and looked at it. “I guess this is it.”

***

When they drove back to the cottage in their new car, their old car was gone. They entered the cottage and found a new laptop on the kitchen table and a brand-new iPhone with a charger.

“It says here that we need to turn on the computer. There will be a link to a Zoom meeting on the desktop,” Marco said as he looked at the piece of paper.

“All right,” Lizzy said, opening the device. “We could’ve done it on the phone, though.”

The computer screen lit up and they saw an empty desktop with only one folder named The Link.

“That’s foolproof²⁷,” Lizzy said with a smile.

She clicked on the folder, saw the link, and double-clicked. A Zoom meeting began. The host had already started the meeting, but both his or her camera and microphone were deactivated.

Marco and Lizzy were looking at the screen, waiting for something to happen.

“Are we supposed to do something now?” Lizzy asked, frowning.

Marco looked in the sheet again. “It just says open your computer and use the link.”

“Hello,” she said to the screen. “Anyone there?”

The host’s window showed that the image had started to upload. Someone was joining the meeting. Finally, they saw a pixelated image of an old Black woman in a room with white empty walls. She was saying something, but there was no sound. Marco pointed to the screen, to microphone symbol that was crossed by a red line.

“Your microphone is off,” Lizzy said to the lady.

The woman jerked²⁸ and looked at her screen.

“Oh, my goodness,” they heard her cheery voice. “Is it working now? Can you hear me?”

“Yes, we can,” Lizzy said.

“Good, I’m still getting used to these bells and whistles²⁹,” the lady said, smiling. “What happened to the good old face-to-face, right?”

Marco and Lizzy both nodded, agreeing.

“Anyway, Lizzy and Marco, how are you kids doing?”

Lizzy and Marco looked at each other. “We’re fine,” Lizzy said.

“Oh, good,” the lady said. “My name is Yana. I represent the Committee and I have a lot to tell you today. So, get comfortable.”

***

The next day, Lizzy woke up early in the morning, surprised that she actually slept for a few hours. She felt reinvigorated³⁰, but there was a feeling that she had forgotten something important. She looked at Marco who was sleeping peacefully at her side, and then got up.

She decided to do some yoga, something that she had not done since the day her life dramatically changed a couple of months ago. It seemed that the body remembered all the asanas to relax the brain and the muscles. She was doing the exercises in her underwear and felt the sunbeams on her skin. It was the first time she felt any sense of normalcy in the past two months.

She was still getting used to the idea of being with Marco, which was extremely hard since he looked so much like Mark. It was still confusing, but for some reason she could not explain even to herself it felt right to be with the copy of her ex-boyfriend. It did not feel like she was somehow desecrating Mark’s memory. On the contrary, it felt like she was given another chance to build her life with the same man who happened to have a back-up copy in the parallel world. But… it still confused the hell out of her. She would definitely spend some serious time with a therapist discussing this conundrum if she could.

After a quick shower, she sat down in the kitchen with a cup of coffee to read what Yana, the first leader of the Committee they had met so far, had sent after the meeting. It was a file with the names of people that were connected to Dolion and who were supposed to be actively involved in virus distribution. According to Yana, they had the original variant of the virus. Dolion called it Potestas Dei (Power of God). It was very surprising to learn about that because Lizzy and Marco were under the impression that they had destroyed the virus.

“It takes many variants to get the one you really want,” Yana had told them during the meeting. “Dolion had the final one and you destroyed it. There are still some people who can create a more powerful version and that is why we need to eliminate any trace of it.”

Lizzy looked at the geography of the locations of the Dolion’s Gang–that was what she named it–which was in the file. No wonder they needed passports. It looked like they would have to do a bit of travelling.

“They have a few centers where they develop their new variants. Fortunately, we infiltrated³¹ our people in all of them. Still, it will not be easy to do what we want.” Despite Yana’s cheerful demeanor³², it was obvious that what she was talking about took a lot of doing.

Lizzy checked the places they needed to go first. Those were two destinations in the US and did not even require travelling by plane.

“We are working on the way to use the uniqueness of your blood in, say, a less dramatic way. So, we will be meeting at some point soon to do some tests.”

Without getting into too many details, Yana had explained Lizzy and Marco that the Committee had been in touch with Peter’s team and monitored their activities in the parallel world, so they knew how Lizzy got rid of Dolion and his virus.

Lizzy went over the highlights³³ of the meeting in her head one more time: the gang was around the world, she will go through some tests, and they will travel. So far, things did not sound complicated. The thought was both comforting and disturbing. Today’s list of things was also straightforward³⁴: they would go to the specified address, change cars, and someone would drive them to a research facility the Committee had. They would take some of her blood and would do a few tests.

Her life had changed so much over the fleeting period of time. Those changes were making her a tougher person. She was not sure whether she liked that person, but she had to embrace³⁵ the metamorphosis³⁶ to survive. She felt a pang of nostalgia for the life she had, and a tear spilled down her cheek.

“Should I make us some breakfast?” she heard Marco’s voice.

She wiped the tear, turned to Marco, and smiled. “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

When she said that–just for a split of a second–she saw a man standing behind Marco. It was the man from her dreams. She suddenly remembered that she had seen him again last night in her dream. She shut her eyes and opened them again. The man was gone.

“Are you ok?” Marco said.

“Yeah, just a … I’m hungry. Let’s eat already!”

They started to make breakfast together and the image of the man slowly faded from her memory. She could still remember what he’d been wearing though–a black kimono.