I willed happiness into my thoughts and, pushing everything else away, reached out for her mind again, smiling. The frown passed and she smiled back but I saw the lingering question in her eyes.
“Not now,” I thought. “We can’t talk about it now and I am too happy at our news to spoil it with bad thoughts now. We can deal with them later. OK?”
Her mind seemed to have cooled and the thought threads came distinctly.
“Yes all right. We have to get out of here. This place is unbearable.”
“Yes, I agree,” I thought. “I have a plan. We can wake up naturally in a minute. Don’t talk about the baby. Let’s keep that news to ourselves. Let’s get cleaned up, eat and chat normally, and then later this morning, we’ll go for a swim.”
She blinked and her hand fell from my cheek to my chest. Stroking the hair there she opened the outer top I was still wearing and with her hand sliding down inside opened it fully. I reached out and pulled her tight to me in a hug, her long black hair tickling my stomach. Her belly against mine. Our child in her belly, against mine. I stared at the ceiling, stroking her head, her breath warm upon my neck.
I waited until she dropped off to sleep again and then slipped out of the sleeper. Crossing the room, I went out to the deck. The sea breeze felt good against my skin. The white sand in front of me appeared dark gray in the dark before dawn, the sea black, white waves curling, flashing briefly and disappearing. I’m not going to tell her about killing Wigley. Not while the baby is growing in her. Maybe after. And then maybe not. And Gabriel was right. I can live with it. I don’t like it, but I can live with it. I let my thoughts drift aimlessly on the breeze.
The sun rose, a blood red orange revealed by the revolution of the land I was standing on. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning. I thought back over the last couple of months. It was only the 5th of December when I had met Gabriel. It seemed like another life. It was another life. Life before Gabriel. Life before Mariko. Life before my baby.
I sensed her behind me and turned. She was trying to quietly open the sliding doors. I grinned and she smiled shyly back, caught. I looked at her through the Clearfilm. No one was ever going to take her away from me again. The door slid open with a loud squeak. She walked out to where I was standing at the railing and looked out to sea. Her hair wafted up on the breeze.
“You ready for a swim?” she said, and turned to me. I smiled.
“Race you there.”
Later that evening we ate at Abdul’s restaurant. He had been a bit cold with me since Gabriel’s letter had been broadcast, but he thawed out as the evening wore on. We had a few beers and ate a lot of seafood cooked on a small fire on the beach. Abdul shrugged off our offer of help to clean up.
Grinning, he said, “How could I charge you for the meal if you clean up. Go, go.”
We walked back along the beach, the breeze absent now, just the lap-slosh sound of the sea keeping us company as we headed for home. I stiffened. Sir Thomas and Charles were on the deck looking in our direction. We changed angle away from the edge of the surf and walked towards them across the white sand.
I could hear the sound of the sand shifting beneath our feet as we approached.
“Splendid place you have here, Jonah,” Sir Thomas called out standing against the railing, spreading his arms wide to take in the beach. Charles was behind him near the sliding doors. I walked up the steps from the beach, looking up at him. I held the look until I was on the deck and looking down at him. I didn’t say anything. Mariko was behind me. I turned and smiled at her.
“Could you get my uncle and me a beer?”
“Sure, Jonah.”
Sir Thomas, with his hands clasped behind his back, said, “Terrible thing that Gabriel kidnapping you, my girl, Terrible. Just glad that we were able to get you out of there safe and sound. Eh. And how are you holding up, my dear?”
Mariko smiled at Sir Thomas and didn’t say anything. She walked past Charles who stepped back to let her pass into the house. I’d put the gun in the cool box before we had left for Abdul’s. I had told her in the cave that Gabriel had given it to me for protection and that we’d put it in the cool box — where we kept the beers.
I watched her disappear down the stairs, and listened carefully, feeling uneasy at her being out of sight. Then I turned to Sir Thomas, leaned my forearms on the railing of the deck and looked sideways at him. He smiled.
“Don’t ever lay a finger on her again. She’s mine. All right?”
The smile disappeared off Sir Thomas’s face and I heard Charles shift his stance.
“Now there’s no need to get upset, Jonah. It was a simple precautionary measure. I know how much you feel for the girl and I just wanted to make sure you wouldn’t talk about our, um, arrangement before it was consummated.”
“I’m not upset, Sir Thomas. I fully understood your intentions. Now you understand mine. Are we clear?” I saw Mariko’s head moving up the stairs. “Well?”
Sir Thomas looked at me and smiled. That horrible little upwards twist of the corners of his wet lips. He brought a fist out from behind his back and softly banged it on the railing. He nodded his head.
“Oh, and one other thing?”
His eyes went wide, the smile disappearing again.
“What?” Sir Thomas’s eyes flicked to Mariko who was shifting the beers to one hand so that she could open the sliding doors. Charles didn’t move. I saw out of the corner of my eye that his gaze was fixed firmly upon me. Sir Thomas’s eyes flicked back to me. Mariko got the door open.
“What?” he said in a low urgent hiss. Charles’s hand crept into his jacket.
“You owe me eleven hundred cred from the golf.”
Sir Thomas blinked, his mouth opened, I thought he was going to say something. His mouth opened wider. And then his loud barked laugh ripped through the quiet of the night. Mariko handed a beer to me and offered one to Sir Thomas.
“No, thank you my dear. I must be going. I just wanted to personally drop off this invitation.” Sir Thomas reached inside his jacket. I stiffened, but his hand came out holding a small piece of white card. He passed it to me and said smiling, “Don’t leave this laying about will you, and do bring Mariko? And now I must be off.”
Sir Thomas walked down the steps onto the beach followed by Charles. They disappeared out of sight around the edge of the house. I listened and Mariko went back inside the house to the windows opposite the deck. She came back out.
“They’ve gone,” she said, and came to stand beside me. I held up the card in the light from the house.
I read, ‘Sir Thomas Bartholomew Oliver requests the pleasure of your company at A Cull Party, Marq V, Penthouse, New Singapore, at 10:30pm, 28 February 2110’.
In the bottom corner it said, Dress Code: Formal. There was no RSVP.
Chapter 36
The Marq V, Penthouse Env, Sir Thomas’s New Singapore Residence
Friday 28 February 2110, 11:01pm +8 UTC
“This is a very cool party, no?”
The play on words came from the tanned young man with a French accent and smug grin, standing in our little group of six. I smiled and glanced at Mariko who also smiled politely. The man to my left laughed out loud and said too loudly, “A cool party. Oh very good, excellent.” His wife patted him on the arm and, glancing at the alky in his hand, quickly looked over her shoulder to see if any of the other guests had noticed.
There were perhaps fifty or so people gathered in Sir Thomas’s large living room, broken up into small groups, standing and sitting around. I saw Cochran with her partner Sunita Shido, who I recognized from the newsfeeds. So she’s a Hawk too, I realized, and quickly shielded my thought as Cochran looked in my direction. I turned to Mariko.