Thousands of miles were in her gaze as the full moon waned. The sea was as smooth and reflective as glass except the cigar-boat cutting it. Beneath them some glowing deep sea creatures swarmed in the midnight waters.

Zaynab was being taken to Orchard Six, a manmade island. It was the sixth such island built by AGT in international waters. This one was off the coast of Morocco.

Secretly she wanted to see this island for its beauty and opulence. It was a doomsday sanctuary for the extremely rich. The cost of accommodations started at a quarter of a billion dollars. This was still a third-class sanctuary. Zaynab knew as much, but knew little else about the more important apocalypse-halls of AGT.

Halfdan was standing on the pier waiting for her in-person alone. He smiled, took her hand, kissed the back of it in greeting and said:

"Welcome home."

"I did not think you would recognize me." Zaynab blushed without effort.

"A woman as intelligent and as exotic as you? I'd travel the world again and not find her. My stars bring her back to me." Halfdan said in Arabic, fluently. She believed him, he had only just started to learn her language all those years ago.

"I am flattered." Zaynab told him with sincerity.

He personally showed her to a guest suite on the island, promising to show her all around on the following evening. Two female security guards were there and when he left the mood changed. She was taken into her room where they made her undress and submit to a very thorough search and a scan of her body to be sure that she had nothing inside her. Satisfied that she had nothing of concern they left her to redress in clothes they had provided.

As promised, Halfdan appeared at her door with a gentlemanly knock. She had worn the white dress from her closet which pleased him because it matched his ivory tuxedo.

"I wanted to surprise you with dinner, but I knew you would be one-step ahead of me." Halfdan grinned. Zaynab stood coyly with her hands folded at her waist and her eyes on his corsage. A rare desert flower.

It took every ounce of her acting abilities to pretend she was pleased. She fought down the demon of memory as it handed her this same flower. It was a filthy memory from her adolescence; that was difficult to smile and sparkle her eyes while it forced its way into her mind's eye. If he noticed any revulsion in her expression he did nothing to indicate it.

"Shall we?" Halfdan offered her his elbow in a flawless gesture of chivalry.

The tour was boring as he showed her the pumps and other mechanical workings that made the island unsinkable. Indeed it was anchored and floating, all its towers mirrored below by the underwater levels. The first of these islands was a marvel of engineering and money. Each one had improved vastly on the previous and this was the sixth one he was building for AGT.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Zaynab, I have not stopped recalling your beauty and wishing for your smile." He was talking constantly and her attention was divided as she memorized everything she saw. Whenever he divulged technical details she listened carefully and tried to understand his English, as he often spoke quickly when he was excited. The technical details excited him, but his clumsy flirtations were platitudes by comparison.

"Maybe this is just the beauty of taming nature. But where nature sustains us, I call those gardens Moonfall." Halfdan mentioned poetically.

Eventually she asked: "Will you show me the view from your perspective?"

"Yes. Of course. I am at your mercy." He stumbled on his words to accept her suggestive tone-of-voice. Zaynab had no mercy. She leaned up and kissed his chin and then surrendered in his arms as he awkwardly attempted to kiss her back.

"I always remembered you too." She promised.

And so it was not long before he escorted her to his own room and showed her the view she had asked for. Dawn was speaking poetry on the horizon and the white of a small craft could be seen in its approach to Orchard Six. But it was the island itself that she had no need to hide her amazement.

Why each island was called 'orchard' was not a mystery when the self-sustaining megastructure was viewed from above at dawn's first light. Her eyes watered at the beauty. She felt Halfdan's hand over her own and trembled.

"Jamil." Zaynab sighed.

"Zaynab 'ant alhimtunaa." Halfdan whispered into her ear.

There was an insistent knock on the door and an intercom buzzed. The person outside identified himself as Brick, apparently the head of security. "We have a security breach."

Instantly Halfdan was different. He said: "Oh well, back to business." and his hand shot out like a snake and gripped her left bicep like the bite of such a creature. His corsage fell off all by itself and he absently stepped upon it.

She was led between the two men all the way down to the pier.

Morning light now lit the waters. The small craft that had followed hers here was docked behind a patrol boat. Half a dozen security guards surrounded the man from Interpol as he knelt on the pavement.

"Bring our new guest inside." Halfdan growled. He could see that there was mutual recognition between the prisoner and Zaynab. "Get rid of his boat."

They all went down to the machine room where a black pool of water awaited. It led directly to the deep.

They forced the prisoner to kneel there with his back to the water. One of the security guards had taken the man's fingerprints. This same guard held a tablet and said: "He is Interpol, assigned out of London. The skies are empty."

"You are dismissed." Halfdan stood with his suit jacket removed, rolling up his unbuttoned sleeves. Zaynab noticed the tattoo of the AGT standard on his wrist. Underneath it was a barcode. Some kind of cipher's decoder, she theorized.

Then it was just her and Halfdan and Brick and the man kneeling before them with his wrists zip-tied. Then Halfdan said:

"Who is he?" To her, like a jealous boyfriend.

"I don't know." Zaynab protested without passion.

"Gun." Halfdan reached over his shoulder and was handed Brick's gun. He chambered a round and then took the clip. Zaynab gulped. She hated killing people.

Then the gun was in her hand. He looked up at her and a tear ran down his cheek. She aimed it at his head and took a step forward, then another, still aiming.

The gun was very close to his forhead and she winced as she squeezed. An awful feeling in her stomach foreshadowed her resolve. Then her ears were ringing and his remains fell over into the waters and slowly sank.

As she began to breathe again she felt herself shaking. She turned around and her blood-splattered dress got a reaction out of Brick and Halfdan:

They laughed.