Alex woke the next morning looking at his wife as she slept. His heart swelled as he enjoyed the gentle moment. All the worries in him were a distant thought as he simply drank in the love he felt for her and their life here. Her eyes softly opened, and she smiled at him.
“Good morning, sweetheart.” He whispered.
“What time is it?”
“Seven. Bout time to go check on the baby.”
She shuffled her way out of bed, but he grabbed her arm. “Hey, why don’t you start breakfast? I’ll change and feed her.”
“Sounds like a wonderful plan. Pancakes?”
“With blueberries.”
She laughed, “Of course. She let go of his hand and left him.”
Alex got around, dressed, and took care of the baby. He carried her into the kitchen, enjoying the smell of warm pancakes and bacon wafting throughout the cottage. It was like a dream come true, the house he always wanted, the wife he loved dearly, and a baby that filled him with so much meaning.
“How are you feeling?” She asked.
He answered, “Better. Dr. Henderson is puzzled about my illness, but says I’m fine. I meant to pick you up some tulips for mother’s day...” he paused when he saw a vase of tulips on the counter, certain they weren’t there before. “Hey, did you conjure those?”
She poured glasses of orange juice while saying, “You gave them to me, remember?”
“No. I don’t remember.” He touched them to be sure they were real. “My head has been... strange recently. I must have hit it harder than I thought.”
“Something else bothering you?”
He nodded. “Yes, but I can’t really say. I mean, I don’t know what it is, just a funny feeling. It’s like something is missing, a lot of something. And, maybe, something is here that shouldn’t be. I just can’t put my finger on it.”
“You just need some time off. Get some food in you.”
“Sounds like a perfect plan. I’m so hungry all the time.” He dug into the pancakes while playing with his little girl, who made a perfect mess of a pancake as she mashed it through her fingers, and got almost a third of it in her mouth.
His BADGE comm unit beeped, and he picked it up. “Alex here.”
Justin said, “How are you feeling?”
“Fine. Just hungry.”
“Good to hear. I know you want to get some rest today, but if you find time to have a look around for Nova, we could really use more eyes out there. So few BADGE operatives are on the field right now and...”
“Don’t beg. I’ll have a look around and report back.”
“Take it easy and do it at your own pace. Any further investigation would be helpful.”
Alex picked up a bit of pancake tossed on the floor by the baby as he said, “No problem. Alex out.”
Krystal asked, “Where are you going to look?”
“I thought about going down to the ruins of the Ren Tech facility and see if I can find clues there?”
“Why there? BADGE has inspected that place thoroughly for three years.”
Alex said, “They were looking for information about the criminal activity of Ren Tech, not for Nova. It will probably be a dead end, like everything else. But, at least I can clear it one last time. Besides, Seattle is nice this time of year.”
Krystal said, “Have a good time and take it easy.”
“Why not come with me? Make it a family outing. Do some investigating, get some coffee, see a show...”
“No, I enjoy spending time here with the baby. I’ll make a nice steak dinner for when you get home.”
“Oh, sounds wonderful.” He wiped his face, bid the wife and baby goodbye with a kiss each and zapped himself up a portal.
He appeared in the downtown of Seattle, Washington. The streets were pristine; the people smiling and happy, even the trendy crowd look as chipper as school kids on a field trip.
“Morn’n!” a woman greeted him as she walked by.
He has been around Seattle many times and never found the people here as welcoming as they could be. Their simple pleasure at seeing him created an awkward moment. But it was better than the alternative.
Passing a park, he caught sight of dozens of people standing around a stage. Couples held up cameras, or their cell phones, and recorded an elementary school graduation ceremony.
“Ah, for the days when Krystal and I will get to watch our little girl walk across that stage.” He mused.
Then he heard the teacher announce, “This year, we would like to make a special award for little Timothy Zan, who won the national spelling bee.”
This caught his attention because the boy they were talking about looked like he was in kindergarten. “Must have been the youngest division.” He muttered.
The boy nodded and leaned forward to speak into the mic she held out for him. “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, p.n.e.u.m.o.n.o.u.l.t.r.a.m.i.c.r.o.s.c. o.p.i.c.s.i.l.i.c.o.v.o.l.c.a.n.o.c.o.n.i.o.s.i.s, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.”
The audience applauded while Alex stood in utter astonishment. He didn’t know what that word meant, or that it even existed.
Leaving this scene, bewildered, Alex walked on toward the site of the once magnificent Renn Tech building. As he passed benches and a park, people were laying out sleeping. Some in suits or dresses, a few police officers, a firefighter and more. There wasn’t a bench that went unused, and some simply lay out in the grass.
The Renn Tech building had BADGE security robots around it, keeping people away. He flashed his comm unit, and the robots permitted him entrance. The building was in ruins, with most of the structure broken and burnt after the destruction.
He climbed over debris, his feet crunching on old broken glass. So many employees died here, executed by their CEO’s ultimate act of defiance. The hallways were a course of shattered walls and fallen ceiling. The robots had cleared a path years ago. He stopped and looked at the formerly ornate park that rested in the middle of the complex. At the heart of this park were the blasted ruins of the office of the CEO.
“Why... why can’t I remember details?” He asked himself as he looked at the destruction.
BADGE’s official documentation said that Dr. Chorad died in this destruction, along with his employees. But that made little sense. Why commit suicide? Was that the truth?
“Alex to Justin.” He spoke into his comm unit.
“Agent Justin here.”
Alex asked, “Do we have confirmed remains of Dr. Chorad on record? Was his body ever recovered?”
“The official data reports his remains were almost completely destroyed, but there was enough DNA evidence to prove he died in the blast. Why?”
“Something in me says that isn’t true.”
“What do you mean?”
Alex shook his head. “I’m not sure. Logic, really. He was on the cusp of victory, at least if I remember things correctly. And yet he destroyed himself and his company... why?”
“Lunatics aren’t quantifiable. He acted in contradictory ways.” Justin answered.
Alex walked through the complex, looking into rooms. “What about the spheres? What were they? Did we investigate them? I can’t seem to remember.”
Justin spent a moment talking to robots around him and then said, “Data shows the spheres were just power sources for some plan that never came together. Gamer G. helped us deactivate and destroy them. Is any of this helping you find clues about Nova?”
“No. Just thinking, I...” he stopped at the sight of an old Ren Tech sphere, laying on the ground, split in half. The tech inside spilling out like guts from a butchered animal. “I... I can’t...”
Justin asked, “Alex, what is happening?”
Alex felt his face. “I’m crying. But, I don’t know why. There are tears in my eyes. I can’t stop them. What’s wrong with me?”
A beeping in his comm unit screamed and Dr. Henderson came through, “Alex, your vitals are going crazy. What’s wrong?”
His breath came and went quickly and the tears flooded down his face. “I don’t know. I can hear someone screaming. I know the voice, I know it. It’s...It’s...my voice.” The world went black.
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