and Emily stood, gaping at each other.
“What’s wrong with my face?” the girl asked, her shaking hands running over her cheeks.
Her skin was as white and smooth as before.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t worry, it was just a warning!” Rosalinda declared joyfully as she dangled her legs. “I forgot to warn you: if someone does me any harm, the system will burn them automatically. Microwave radiation, you know. Just like in a microwave oven! There are sensors and emitters all over this place. But you have nothing to worry about – you are good people, I can see that in your eyes. Well, will you tell me the purpose of your visit now or go back to the elevator?”
Andrew was amazed. The protection system she had used was quite advanced as it could discern people, otherwise Rosalinda herself would have suffered as well. Obviously the emitters were focused. But the biggest wonder was that he had not felt danger before it happened. Why? I’ve always sensed if someone meant me harm before… And then it hit him. It meant that Rosalinda didn’t even give a thought to causing him pain.
She is more dangerous to me than any killer!
Barkov sat down back on his place. “All right. I’ll tell you. Katherine,” he pointed at Emily with his forefinger, “is a representative of the President’s Secret Service. She has a job offer for Mr. Lorenzetti. He is being asked to find vulnerabilities in the President’s private communications system. That is, we need to see if he can obtain secret documents about the building of an asylum for the World Government and give them to me as a proof. The payment will be one hundred and fifty thousand credits in cash.”
That was exactly the sum on Barkov’s bank account – everything he had collected during his years with the police, intended for the purchase of a new house.
“How interesting!” Rosalinda shouted joyfully, clapping her hands. “Katherine, do you have a document proving that you are the representative of the President’s Secret Service?”
“Of course not,” Barkov scoffed. “She fulfills a secret mission and can’t have any documents with her. But I have my police badge.” He showed it.
“I already saw this when you showed it in the elevator. I’d like to receive evidence that Katherine is not a trickster. We can’t risk our reputation!”
“Being a public officer, I can confirm her credentials. I was called in by the President himself to escort her personally on this mission. Do you think I would risk my career without taking precautions?”
After a pause Rosalinda shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. Why do you talk all the time? The only words she’s said were ‘what’s wrong with my face’!”
“She is afraid of eavesdropping. The presidential elections are next year. The opposition might use a recording to link the administration with hackers.” He raised an eyebrow. “Neither you nor the President want that, right?”
“Certainly not!” Rosalinda confirmed with enthusiasm as she rose and went to the bamboo doors. “Neither we nor the President. Please stay here, I’ll talk to Lippo. Maybe he has finished eating. By the way, help yourself if you are hungry, too.”
She directed the remote control at a trolley at an entrance, and it moved to the sofa where Andrew and Emily were sitting.
Chapter 7
Rosalinda left and the trolley stopped right opposite the sofa.
Barkov’s stomach growled at the sight of food. He recalled that all he had this morning was just a cup of coffee and a piece of a sweet roll. There simply had been nothing else in the kitchen. He lived alone in a small one-story house in the north of Miami and often forgot to restock his kitchen.
The fruit and berries lying on the tray looked appetizing, although in some of them there were wormholes. It was a good sign – a proof of the absence of GMO. Worms could live in only natural crops!
Barkov took a large peach and sank his teeth into its fleshy tissue with delight. Chewing, he stood up and went to a window.
As before, the ocean seemed to be calm. The flat surface glittering in the sunlight – and no signs of a tsunami. Perhaps things were not that bad?
Bringing his forehead closer to the window glass, he looked down at the beach. It was about half a kilometer wide. Most of the surface was covered with dark green algae. It meant that water continued receding. Where to? Was there a crack in the earth’s crust? Was water going into it? Hardly. Deep in the planet, there couldn’t be any hollow space. There was high pressure inside. In case of a large fracture, movement would have started in the opposite direction – from within to the surface. That is, it would have burst out as a volcano. Or even a supervolcano such as Yellowstone. In that case, the consequences would be as devastating as a world-wide nuclear war.
Good Lord preserve us!
Terrified by his own thought, Andrew turned to Emily. She was eating grapes, plucking them one by one and looking at the fountain with concentration.
She has pretty fingers, Barkov noted to himself. Finishing the peach, he returned to the trolley, put the kernel on the edge of the tray and nipped off a few grapes.
It dawned on him that he would prefer to live in such a penthouse as opposed to owning the two-storied house he had been dreaming of for a long time. In the morning he would get up from bed and admire the bird’s-eye view of the ocean. The city, people, cars, problems – everything would seem to be small. It would be nice if his beloved one was there, too. Will I meet my other half one day? Or the world will collapse first?
The bamboo doors moved apart, and Rosalinda came out. This time she stopped three steps away from the doors that were left open. The woman’s lips stretched into a wide smile.
“Mr. Lorenzetti decided not to take your job offer,” she proclaimed. “Please walk out of the apartment.”
Barkov choked down grapes. “What? Why?”
“Katherine’s identity is not confirmed. Her real name is Emily Housman. You lied to us. But Lippo will not call the police. He doesn’t want a scandal. Besides that, he won’t charge you for the eaten fruit.”
She raised her hand and pressed a remote control button. The elevator door opened. Andrew thought, She uses buttons on her remote control for security reasons – she doesn’t want the signal to be intercepted by an intruder’s device and duplicated at a distance!
“But… how did you find out her name?” he asked trying to think of how to explain away the deception, but seeing no solid arguments.
“Have you forgotten who he is? Even if you had brought a girl from Mars, he would have uncovered her identity. Farewell!”
Andrew realized that his mission had failed. The best solution in this situation was to go out without making a fuss and to try to obtain the information about the government’s plans another way.
“Have a nice day!” he said trying to keep his composure and giving the sign to Emily to follow him as he walked to the
