Yesterday (Part Three - Chapters 45 & 46) (Patreon)

CHAPTER 45

…

p.olypvs.server#hpr.net/echo{/*

5-18-1974 = 00:31 OT 0 = O.K.F.

Approved by : Kerr887F

Final analysis: obliteration of GRN481 and YLW482 and further recovery of RED483 and BLUE484 Imperative.

Procedure:

- NB approved for GRN481 and YLW482.

- Coordinate extraction of RED483 and BLUE484 with ESEO.

*/}p.olypvs.server#hpr.net/echooff

…

Spencer Kelt received the confirmation for the operation in writing and after extracting the perforated punch card from the printing machine he examined it carefully. He pushed a button on his console and updated the coordinates marking the position of the two adults.

41.437724, 2.252069

They were together, presumably on some kind of vessel, as the numerical sequence placed them in deep water near Spain. He inserted the punch card into a slot, adjusted the NB parameters to track the subjects' movement, and sent the data to the area agent along with the operation code. He deduced with annoyance as he translated the coordinates that his agent would not make it in time, and the trouble that could eventually cause them. The couple were on the coast near the city of Barcelona, and he guessed that they would try to dock nearby.

After a few minutes, the zone agent responded tersely. In his communiqué he urged him to activate the neural bombs immediately, because although it was likely that this would leave the ship adrift offshore, it would also allow a much more discreet extraction.

He disagreed with the optimism shown by the agent, but questioning him was not part of his job as tactical mission support. Procedure stipulated that it was the responsibility of the local team to make decisions on the ground.

He activated the weapon system and had to wait a few more minutes until he received confirmation from the satellite. Two small red stripes appeared under the two subjects' ID tracks. The stripes had two black cursors located at the 0 value on the left.

It was important to move the two cursors at the same time or one of the two subjects might detect what was happening and react.

He sent a new communication signal to the agent and waited for the confirmation to appear on his terminal.

Moments later a line of green text flashed:

GRN481 & YLW482 OK

He placed a finger on each cursor and slowly moved them to the right.

It was done.

And somewhere and at that very moment, near Barcelona, the neural bombs did their silent work and the two subjects collapsed.

He waited for their radioactive fingerprint information to refresh, he needed to confirm the deletion.

GRN481 & YLW482 C.BLACKOUT

He forwarded the confirmation message to the agent and fixed his attention on the strip of numbers that evolved vertically on his terminal.

He continued to monitor the coordinates closely for a while longer and found that they were moving very slowly, not quite stopping, driven by some kind of inertia as predicted by the zone agent.

He waited a little longer.

There was a variation. Three more lines were written on the list displayed on his screen and he knew that the vessel's course was veering off, tracing a parabola. He assumed that the agent would be aware of this, but still asked for further confirmation.

…

He waited. Re-sent the confirmation command but got no response either.

The coordinates of the drifting ship continued to change, faster and faster. Just then an orange line of text appeared. It was their agent, who was approaching them, but not fast enough.

The coordinates of the subjects stopped dead in their tracks. It would still take several minutes for the team to have visual contact with the other ship. Spencer followed their progress intently as he wondered what was going on.

Fifteen tense minutes passed. The orange coordinate line was slowly advancing and they were now just under two miles from their target. They would shortly be able to spot the vessel.

So he waited.

Kelt was about to type and send the confirmation command again but held back. He was to have no more contact with the zone agents than necessary. Those were the rules, and he was the first to abide by them.

News. A few lines of text appeared on his screen:

FIRE_DRIFT_IMPOSSIBLE_EXTRACTION

EXPOSURE_LAW

CHANGE_SURVEILLANCE_PLAN

Unfortunate.

Spencer Kelt rubbed his chin. The ship must have caught fire when it sank, and apparently the Coast Guard was already responding to the incident. The area agent knew he could risk exposure and decided to proceed with passive surveillance of the area.

Kelt proceeded to write his report.

The positive aspect of the situation was that the obliterated subjects would be useless to local law enforcement, as no one would be able to detect anything unusual about them except an acute loss of memory, the downside was that the Corporation would have to make a great diplomatic effort to recover the infants, given the delicate political situation in Spain.

Kelt finished his report and sent it to Olympos. They were the origin of the incident, the subsequent procedures were beyond his competence. It was now someone else's problem, not his.

He waited for confirmation.

CHAPTER 46

You have left me so lonesome hours don't go by. My legs are heavy, my life is heavy and, although I clench my teeth, there it is, behind my thoughts, the shadow of goodbye, that moment when I will look into the abyss and finally discover if everything was true or just a bad joke.

You have been a coward all your life, and you had that luck that fools have, not having to face lucidly even this once something so crucial for anyone.

"Live in the present, act with no thought for the consequences."

I found it written down on a napkin in your things. How ironic, knowing you, and how intense at the same time.

My consequences have been haunting me for some time now. Without realizing it, I have loved you and I love you more than I imagined, and now I am paying for it, because the emptiness I have in my soul cannot be filled with anything. Not even tears will help, because my memory is so porous, it absorbs them hopelessly.

Today I went outside, after one of those few nights when I could sleep for six hours straight. A new confidence greeted me from the mirror and I decided to give myself a treat.

A little shopping downtown.

Walking down the street I realized again how isolated I was, I began to feel terribly lonely, and the tears made me rush back to the car.

You have me imprisoned in your memory and in my mind, you are finally the bastard that I thought you were.

Eva wrote that letter to Adrian. The psychologist at the clinic advised her to do so, to help her get some closure. She had gone through multiple moods during those days. She had turned hope into fear, and anger into grief. Then she got angry again with the doctors, and ended up taking it out on the psychologist.

Nothing was working. Now she just wanted to escape.

She didn't want to admit it, but Laura's determination to stay locked up in the family home suited her very well, and for the last two days she had been finding any excuse not to show up there.

She was afraid of her blank stare and her silences. She was afraid of what she wrote so persistently on her laptop and she didn't want to know, she was afraid of the moment when she would ask her to listen to it. She felt attacked by her tenacity. She did not want anything, everything bothered her, she wished with all her heart that it would pass and she would go back to her old life, to her plans and her hopes.

And what frightened her most was to imagine that she could never recover from it. That it would be a turning point and that from then on she would have to build it all over again. She refused to be one of those people for whom suffering was just another part of their lives. She would not like herself like that, and she feared that she would become incapable of being liked by anyone else.

That's why the psychologist made her so angry. She didn't want to “live with it”, she told her.

She wasn’t that kind of person.

She began to feel bad about herself, to feel anxious, and without intending to, she began to hate Adrian for doing that to her.

She tried to console herself by repeating that she began to hate him when she received that call from Valencia in which he talked again about leaving everything. She was looking for excuses to justify something she still could not openly acknowledge, and doing so was destroying her temper.

She needed time to reflect, have her space, be alone.

She let go of the steering wheel with a spasm, raised her hands, tensed them and stared at them. She had been sitting in the car for twenty minutes, hiding in the subway parking garage, racking her brains and struggling with whether or not to go upstairs.

It was Friday and the final autopsy results were waiting for her.

Did she want to know more?

“No, not really”, she told herself angrily, although she had to regretfully admit there was no other way out.

She grabbed her purse and got out of the car, icily resigned.

“She would have to live with it”.