The first thing she noticed was the pain, and then there was the dampness, the stickiness of the blood. Shaking, she pressed a hand to her side. In the dark she couldn’t see the blood on her fingers, and she was glad for that. There had been a muted, insignificant, almost comical sound and then the pain. Her legs gave out. It seemed a gradual thing, but of course she plummeted to the floor like a stack of stones. She could hear breathing, other than her own. Calm, cool, unconcerned. It was so dark, she couldn’t see their face. The only source of light was a small digital clock. The numbers read 23:39. The pain was getting worse, and she couldn’t think anymore. Then there came the light.
At six o’clock that evening, Eunomia and Child had dinner. Stern hadn’t turned up yet, so Eunomia and Child ate alone on a table together. Eunomia didn’t appear to think much of food. It seemed her taste buds had not formed correctly, and only the strongest of flavours made any impression. She therefore liked spicy food. Unfortunately the cook in the canteen was not particularly adventurous, and meals were often rather monotonous clumps of potato and meat. Few people used the canteen, except for lunchtimes, and Eunomia was able to see why. Her discovery that she liked spicy foods had come when Bailer had allowed her a few mouthfuls of an Indian takeaway. The professors did not want her growing up addicted to junk food, and so, unable to cook her own curries, Eunomia was limited to the canteen, except for special occasions. She ate as little as she could get away with, before putting her fork down.
Child, who had a better appetite and a better tolerance to the shortcomings of canteen food, carried on eating.
At seven they were back in the office. Eunomia was reading in the corner. She had moved on to stories other than fairy tales by now. She had been introduced to H.P. Lovecraft, and was loving it. Unspeakable horrors now occupied her imagination and her castle had been added to. There was now a crypt in the garden; portal to a realm of ancient evil. A tower had also been added, the door to which was locked and the key lost. Eunomia had yet to decide what was to go in this place, but she knew it was horrible.
At about half seven Stern stumbled into the office. He looked flustered and rather tense. Child asked him if anything was wrong. Stern shook his head gravely.
“Nothing that I shall not soon shake off.” He replied, lacking the cheer to make the sentiment trustworthy. Child rose from her desk. “I’ll be off then.” She said, offering a quick goodbye to Eunomia. The girl was far too engrossed in her book to notice. Child smiled. She turned to Stern.
“Make sure she doesn’t stay up too late. She needs her sleep right now.” She reminded gently. Stern nodded swiftly in a manner that suggested he hadn’t really heard.
Child barely saw anyone on her way out of the building. She signed out at the reception desk, noticing that Evans the receptionist was nowhere to be seen. This in itself was not unusual, since Evans was seldom anywhere he needed to be. Child thought nothing more of it.
Eunomia shut her book; a large black hardback tome which Bailer had bought for her, and got to her feet. It was coming up to eight o’clock and she was beginning to feel tired.
“I am going to bed now.” She said to Stern. The professor had his head down on the desk, but he didn’t seem to be working on anything. Eunomia didn’t want to repeat herself, so she just left the room. Her bedroom, or what passed for it, was just down the hallway from the office. It was small and sparse, but she needed no more. There was a rather obnoxious looking, oversized panda toy sitting by the bed, which had been a gift from the admin staff, but besides this Eunomia’s room was simply a place to sleep. She brushed her teeth and climbed into bed. Her favourite book; still the fairy tales, was close at hand.
Stern looked at the clock. All was ready. The facility was mostly empty, apart from the handful of night staff. Looking at the security cameras he could see most of them gathered in a little room that served as a break room. He tried to relax, and noticed his hand was shaking. He knew what would happen if his visitor was spotted, but they had refused to meet anywhere other than his place of work. They had never fully explained the reasons, but Stern had gotten the feeling it was non-negotiable. He looked around the room, noticing that Eunomia was gone. A quick check showed him she was in her room, seemingly asleep. There was a light knock on the door. Stern went rigid, and then promptly relaxed. His palm felt sweaty on the door handle.
He’d expected someone in sunglasses, white-haired or black-haired, with harsh lines etched into their face. Instead he got a youngish, plump-cheeked man who looked a little bit like a politician and a little bit a doorstep seller.
“Professor Stern? One of my colleagues spoke to you earlier on the phone I believe?” He asked, smiling pleasantly as if he were introducing himself as a new neighbour or a friend of a friend.
Stern simply nodded, trying to dispel the dryness in his mouth. The man walked past him into the office, scrutinising it. He peered at the piles of clutter distastefully, before turning back to Stern.
“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Elias Sheckle. That is, of course, an alias but it shall do for the duration of our communications together. My colleagues, who shall remain nameless, thought it best we speak face to face before we go any further.” He paced about the office, examining objects. He did not seem at all like a scientist, though he appeared to understand the things he saw.
“You were originally contracted by an old acquaintance in the defence department to look over some blueprints for several weapons. What have you found so far?”
“I’ve made a few minor improvements.” Stern answered, still uneasy. “I am still not entirely sure what I have done to warrant your attention.”
“Those blueprints were not supposed to be released. I’m sure you were aware of that.” Elias’s voice turned cold as he spoke these words. Cold may not have been exactly right, for he still wore the same pleasant expression he had shown before. There was something clinical, almost surgical, about the way he spoke now. Stern swallowed, feeling the saliva getting stuck in the back of his throat.
“I am a trustworthy man Mr Sheckle. I have worked with highly confidential projects before, and I have never breached security. I understood, when I undertook this request, that it had been authorised.” Stern replied, struggling to keep his voice even and calm.
“It was, but unwisely so. Well, let us see these improvements.”
Stern removed the edited blueprints from their place in his desk drawer, he pointed out and explained some of the changes he had made. Elias Sheckle smiled and nodded, before gradually growing more and more engrossed in Stern’s descriptions.
“When implemented this will all greatly improve the efficiency of the weapon, I think you’ll agree.” Stern said.
Elias Sheckle seemed pleased. “Well, I shan’t lie to you Professor, but when I came here I largely expected to have to kill you, but you may prove useful. I shan’t procrastinate any longer, I have a proposition for you. A job offer.”
It was eleven o’clock.
Eunomia couldn’t sleep. She could have sworn she could hear muffled voices coming from the office. At first she thought Stern was watching something, or perhaps he had the radio on as he sometimes did. Eunomia sat up and switched the light on. She could not sleep with the steady hum of mumbling voices, so she decided to read instead. As she tried to concentrate on the words on the page, the ones reaching her ear caught her attention steadily more. She recognised Stern’s voice. In that case, he could not possibly be listening to the radio. He was talking to someone. But the other voice was not one Eunomia recognised. They did not get strangers in the office, especially not at this time of night. Eunomia closed the book and pushed back the covers. She swung her legs out of bed and rested them on the cold floor.
Continued in Part 8 ---->
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Moth's Tales
Since I tend to turn my avatars into characters, I thought I might expand on the whole idea a bit. Comments and feedback are greatly appreciated.
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