Yesterday (Part Three - Chapters 51 & 52) (Patreon)

CHAPTER 51

—Did they get there in time? —a coldly voice queried on the other end of the receiver.

—We think so, they had just met.

—Perfect. Proceed to conditioning. You know what you have to do next.

—Yes, sir —the hooded man replied obediently. Over and out.

—Roger.

The communicator emitted an electronic buzz and the hooded man advanced as best he could towards the back of the van, where his companion was finishing adjusting a helmet surrounded by a complex network of cables to Laura’s head.

—Will we be able to see anything? —he asked with curiosity.

—I don’t think so, this goes directly to command, it’s none of our business.

—OK. Have you hooked her up to the IV yet?

—Yes, see that she gets all the prep in while I finish this up.

* * *

Meanwhile, Laura dreamed of her mother.

She knew she was dreaming, and that the ethereal figure in front of her was her mother, but it was hard for her to concretize anything else. It felt strange to her to feel so conscious, but at the same time not having control of almost anything.

She could control her gaze, and wander around her surroundings, but everything had an undefined, blood-colored, almost maroon color. The edges of objects glowed, and all matter seemed translucent, even her mother, whose lines appeared before her like thin beams of white light, cristal clear but unreal.

She was reclining on a shelf, writing hurriedly on a piece of paper, and from time to time looking away to her left.

Laura went over to see what she was guarding so zealously.

It was two babies.

They were sleeping.

She tried to figure out what she was writing.

Instructions… A formula? More sentences she couldn’t quite read.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t make out anything she had written and turned her attention as best she could so she could look at her face to face.

She marveled at how beautiful she was up close, and felt a deep and tender love for her. She reached out to touch her, but as she did so, the part of her mother she brushed against melted away like smoke, only to reassemble itself moments later.

She looked worried, struggling to finish the writing as quickly as possible.

Moments later, she stopped and carefully reviewed the two sheets of paper she had written.

She wrote some more, signed it, and put the sheets in an envelope which she placed at the foot of one of the baskets where the babies were. Then she went over to them and gave them each a long, heartfelt kiss on the forehead.

She stood up and put her hand on the envelope and said something, but Laura could not hear it. At that moment she realized that she could hardly hear anything.

Her mother turned to leave and, after staggering from side to side in that narrow room, she climbed up a flight of stairs. Laura followed her, and as she emerged she discovered, fascinated, an immense and raging sea opening up before them. She felt the coldness of the white foam that crowned the enormous waves and felt vertigo as she looked down, for what she saw was a turbulence that seemed to have no end.

Focusing again on his mother, she watched as she groped her way toward her father, who was standing upright and trying with all his might to master the helm, facing the small boat into the eye of the storm.

The narrow yacht went up and down, and on one of the switchbacks she caught sight of a line of tiny, flickering lights in the distance. It was the shore.

Her mother stood behind her father and clung to his arm, kissing his neck gently while her other hand helped him control the tiller.

Both were staring ahead and talking, searching hopefully with their eyes for the coastline while the wind shook in their faces and furious drops of salt water soaked their clothes.

An eternal moment elapsed and Laura began to hear a thin whistling sound that gradually rose to become a low, resonant wave. The sound grew louder and she realized that at the same time she herself took on a certain corporeality in her vision, like an aura of light floating above the nothingness.

Her parents fell senselessly to the floor of the boat as it was brutally hit by a huge wave.

The rudder, spinning out of control from the jolt, mercilessly struck her father's head, while her mother’s helpless body bounced wildly off the boom and fell face first to the ground in a weird position.

Laura stood there, in the middle of the two, unable to do anything but watch in terror.

The storm mysteriously calmed down and the ship began to stand still.

She looked down and again discovered the abyss around her. Water flowed in violent currents beneath her. A swift river of foam and water broke through the ground and rushed past. Then another, and another.

The current seems to have life, she thought.

Tiny specks of light were streaking across it, swept along by the chaotic, hypnotic flow of the storm.

She couldn't look away, and she found herself drawn irrevocably into the vortex that crossed her field of vision faster and faster, from left to right.

She began to hear something. The current became a regular rattling.

She tried to get out of that dream, to wake up.

The noise became more present and deafening. Her vision cleared and what she saw puzzled her.

A wall was rushing past her. Meters and meters of dark and slippery concrete were left behind with each passing second, at the same time she began to hear the murmur of many people around her.

She made a new effort to focus on that reality and blinked several times.

Her senses of smell and touch returned to her. She felt that she had been clutching her clothes tightly as she noticed the sweat on her hands.

She was on a train.

The subway?

CHAPTER 52

Oscar checked his watch impatiently. It had been hours since he had heard from Laura and the conversation with Aminarti had stalled shortly after she left. He had decided to leave the priest alone in the meeting room a while ago, excusing himself for work-related matters, but it was time to go back and make some progress.

—Well Father, Laura is taking too long, what do we do?

Aminarti shrugged his shoulders.

—Let’s give them some time alone, after so many years, it is only fair that they need it, don’t you think so?

—I see you are very at ease with all this.

—Don’t get me wrong —said Aminarti, pulling his chair closer to the table. —I think you have misunderstood my reservations. I am not at all amused that they met unsupervised, but neither you nor your daughter gave me any other choice.

A tense silence fell between the two of them, and Oscar felt his pulse racing again.

—If he had done anything to my daughter... —threatened Oscar, clenching his jaw.

—She is also his sister —said Aminarti, —Remember that.

Oscar got up from his chair.

--You know? —he said, raising his voice, —I am very surprised by your attitude. Just sitting there, downplaying everything, as if it didn’t concern you.

—You see, Oscar...

—Oh, don’t! —Oscar scolded him, putting his hands on the table angrily —None of this would have happened in the first place if your damned Congregation hadn’t interfered. I’ve had enough of your secrets, your conspiracies and your delusions of grandeur, for God’s sake! Don’t you realize how grossly immoral your behavior has been from the beginning?

Aminarti rose from his seat.

—How dare you lecture me on morality? —he demanded, offended.

—Can't you see that? Really?

—Listen, Oscar, I think I’d better leave and come back when you’ve calmed down. I see that all this is beyond you, and if you’re going to continue losing your temper…

—Splendid! —Oscar applauded cynically —just what I was missing.

Aminarti did not answer him, straightened his cassock and went to the door with his head held high. He opened it and hesitated for a moment.

—I’m going to come after you —Oscar threatened him with one finger, —if you walk out that door, the next thing I’ll do will be remove heaven and earth until I make you pay for all of this.

—Have at it —Aminarti challenged him with a final harsh look.

And he left the room.

Oscar could not believe what he had just witnessed. That man never ceased to amaze him.

Offended by his impudence, he snorted and took his cell phone out of his pocket. He needed to make some calls. Find out anything else that would help him to get out of that quagmire and unmask those people. It was time for them to return a few favors.

Anger turned to gloom when he discovered several missed calls from Eva on the screen.

“Later” he said to himself.

He mentally reviewed some names that might be useful to him and looked them up in his notebook. He had them there. He left his cell phone on the table, trying to calm down and come up with a plan as he looked at it.

He couldn’t think of anything and went blank, anxiety made it impossible to reason clearly. So he decided to call Eva.

—Dad? —Eva gasped, —Where have you been?

—What’s wrong, Eva? —Oscar answered worriedly.

—It’s Laura —Eva stopped and took a breath, leaning against the lattice on her right, —they’ve kidnapped Laura.

—What? —asked Oscar in bewilderment.

—I spoke to a man a few minutes ago, he says he’s waiting for us at the door of the cypress park, the one next to the house. He told me to call you but you didn’t answer so I left the house. I’ll be right there.

—Eva, please stop! —exclaimed Oscar.

—Sorry Dad but I’m already on my way —she replied, upset. —Dad, the man he told me his name was Jonah, do you know him?

Oscar shuddered and it took him a few seconds to react

—Eva, don’t go —implored her father —I’m begging you please, wait for me, give me five minutes.

—Fine, I’ll see you there.

—Eva!

But Eva hung up, she was already entering the gazebo that led to the entrance of the park.