Chapter 4

Thus, Simeon Waited

Ten minutes later, Sam and Makoto walked through the big automatic door of Calead Central Hospital. Jude stood up and called them over. As they approached him, they could not hide the surprise of meeting with Aleksandra. Especially seeing as they lived in completely different world.

“Aleksandra, this is Makoto and Sam. You can just call them…Makoto and Sam.”

“Hi. Nice to meet you,” she said while giving them a warm smile and a handshake.

“Yeah, me too,” The half-Japanese girl rolled her eyes at Jude awkwardly.

“Oh, we already know each other,” Sam said. “We met at a private party a few months ago.”

“Yeah,” the beautiful girl smirked. “I was surprised to see a someone like you in a party filled with old men.”

“Seriously, what is your deal, man?” Makoto commented.

“Hey, I have connections!” Sam said, slightly offended.

“Quit it, Sam. We are going to visit her little brother,” Jude raised a small cake box and a soccer ball neatly wrapped with a bow tie as red as sunset.

“We are?”

“I’m very thankful to both of you. My father cannot make it today. And Aleksey have been looking forward for this day. And coming alone feels…sad somehow.”

“Don’t you have other friends you can call?” Said Makoto, her tone a bit harsher than it should, ruining the pleasant atmosphere between them. Sam cut in before long. “Well, look at the time. We should visit your brother already. Come on, which room is he in?”

“Wait, you should get scanned first.”

“Scanned?”

“It’s a procedure they have for special patients,” she said.

She then took them to the nurse on duty, who put their names into the register and directed them to a small machine to the side of the standby room. The three of them took turns to hold the back of their right hands above the machine, which scanned their Bio-Chip that contained their the details of their identity. When it came to his turn, Sam took out his ID card and swiped it against the machine, to a strange look from the nurse.

“There you go. Please mind the other patients.”

“Why do you still use that outdated ID card, Sam? It’s inconvenient. We have a surgery that can put in the Bio-Chip inside without a fuss,” Aleksandra offered.

“I just don’t like strange stuff put into my body.”

The four of them were directed to a sterile elevator and got off on the fourth floor; on the way passing by a number of doctors and patients. Jude bumped into a man dressed all in black and said sorry. But the man merely winced his hooked nose and walked away with a grunt of displeasure.

When they arrived at a door of a VVIP room with Aleksey’s name on it, Aleksandra knocked gently. A small voice answered from within.

The door slid open to a medium sized room covered in nothing but sterile white. A small sad flower sat forgotten by a table beside the window. Its petals had wilted, as if mirroring the condition of the little boy sitting on a bed. Whose eyes were ficed onto a small television screen.

That solemn face instantly brightened at the sight of his sister.

“Sasha! Tu es venu!”

“Naturellement. I wouldn’t miss your birthday for the world,” she replied.

Aleksey was a handsome boy with a clear and intelligent gaze. And his hair was the same colour of her sister. His face was weary but he could not hide a smile when Aleksandra moved to embrace him.

“Alyosha. These are my friends from school. Jude, Sam, and Makoto.”

They smiled and shook his hand. It was so thin it felt like holding a twig.

“Alyosha, listen,” his sister took his hand. “Father...cannot make it. He has a pressing business to do.”

“I know. I saw him on TV just now.”

All of a sudden the temperature dropped a few degrees. Deciding that this was a good time to reveal the cake, Jude opened the cake box, revealing a black cake dotted with cherries and chocolate chippings. “Are you fine with black forest, Aleksey?”

“I have a heart disease. Not diabetes,” he said. Everyone burst into laughter. The mood turned cheery from the boy’s unexpected humor.

“The biggest slice for the little warrior!” Sam cheered.

“Pipe down. This is still the hospital,” Makoto scolded him.

Jude cut the cake while Sam plated them, giving the biggest one with a cherry on top to Aleksey. They ate while joking, occasionally laughing at Sam’s antics and Jude’s useless trivia knowledge.

“Is that ball for me?” he asked when he saw the soccer ball.

“Yeah. Sorry. It’s the best we can do on such a short notice,” Makoto said as she handed him the ball.

“That’s okay. I like it,” the frail young boy said while holding the present near his chest.

Not long after, the nurse came and told them that it was time for his medicine.

“Will you come again?” he asked before they left.

“Sure. If your sister doesn’t mind.”

Aleksey looked at her sister who nodded with a smile.

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“See you, little man!”

“Get well soon!” Makoto added.

The nurse nodded arrogantly as they passed her, her eyes swiveled with no regard to them. Jude caught a whiff of a stench that made his head spin. Like a very strong alcohol.

“What’s eating up that nurse?” Makoto complained.

When they were outside the hospital, the clock showed three past four.

“It’s nearly time,” Makoto said. “We better get going if we want to make the first song.”

“So, we’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Yeah...” Aleksandra twiddled her fingers and her eyes switched between Jude and the empty space fifteen centimeters and forty degrees from his face.

“Is there…something else?”

“I…I just want to say…thanks again. It’s the first time I’ve ever taken other people with me to see my brother. It’s been a long time since he laughed like that.”

Sam, noticing her apprehension, smiled inwardly while slipping a ticket into Jude’s hand and pushed him forward.

“I – I have an extra ticket for DSD concert. You want to come with?” Jude said, showing the ticket.

“DSD?”

“Yeah. It’s my favorite indie band. They play Symphonic Death Metal.”

Aleksandra showed a look of surprise, not understanding how someone as plain as Jude would like that type of music. “I’m…not really into that kind of music.”

“Have you ever heard them?”

“No, actually. My father forbid me to hear that kind of music. He said it’s dirty.”

“Hey, don’t knock it till you try it,” Jude said with a small laugh. “I used to not like that type of music too, but then I heard Shakti’s vocals and I’m an instant fan. Or, do you have anything else to do?”

“Well, no. I’m free all day,” Aleksandra reached out to take the piece of paper, still a bit unsure. It felt smooth between her fingers. She fondled it thoughtfully.

“I guess. Thanks.”

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In another part of the city, right in the middle of Calead to be exact, a luxurious black car slowed smoothly to a stop in front of the tallest building in Calead. This seventy-stories tall tower of glass and concrete was called Aquila’s Tower.

An elderly gentleman’s gentleman walked purposefully and gracefully to the car and opened the door. From whence a man in grey business suit stepped out.

He was of indeterminable age, with sharp jaws and sloping eyebrows which gave him a menacing look. Creases of experience gave him a wizened expression that complemented a mustache that draped over his lips. His poise was that of unshakeable belief that everyone existed to serve him.

“You are early, Sir.”

“Jenkins,” he acknowledged his loyal servant curtly.

As the conqueror walked in, all his subjects turned and bowed. He did not look at them, treating them as mere decorations. As they should, for one word of his could mean life or death to these white collars.

Jenkins called a private lift which only the CEO and his may use. It connected to the living area where Abramovich and his family lives. Right at the top of the building.

“Has everything been taken care of?” he asked, while the elevator zoomed through office floors.

The butler named Jenkins replied primly. “Yes sir. All personnel are in place. Professor Vorsheim is currently in the process of finalizing the calibration of the Apple of Eden. And Mr. Oda is…” the butler paused, unsure of how to proceed. “…he asked when you will fulfill your end of the bargain.”

“He will have his when this is all over.”

“Understood. Then all that is left to do is for you to give the word. Also, an agent of the Church just came this morning and demanded to see you. I have disposed of them as usual.”

“Those poor pious fools. And what about my children?”

“Young Master Aleksey has been brought here by your secretary, Miss Nadia,” the man have a small pause before continuing his report. “I have failed to contact the Young Mistress, however. I have tried a few times with no results.”

“I see.”

“I will send a few men to look for her promptly.”

“No need. She has no role in this. Something with no role is of no importance to me. Do you understand, Jenkins?”

“As you say, sir.”

When the luminescent numbering on top of the lift turned to “Alpha”, they got off. Simeon went into his study as Jenkins prepared his afternoon tea. A unique blend of Earl Grey from his personal tea plantation. A favorite of Simeon’s.

Simeon’s office was decorated with a many esoteric items. Artifacts of mysterious and unspeakable origins. A Roman Legionnaire helmet that was said to belong to a soldier of the Legio IX Hispana; a small statue of Chronos, dug from a newly found ruin near Delos; and many smaller, rare items. Most of them were of Roman or Greek origin.

“Do you remember Zeus, Jenkins?” he said, as he took a seat behind his desk.

“Yes, Sir. You used to play with him everyday in your youth,” the butler placed the prepared tray of tea onto the table, serving it with all due diligence.

“He was a beautiful dog. So powerful and so loyal,” the man reminisced as he took the tea and watched his reflection in the clear, deep red liquid. “A hunting dog to the core. I still remember his proud gait, his loud bark every time he noticed a rabbit in our garden.”

He took small sip of the tea. “But then one day, he was run over by a car. He managed to live through the accident, losing only one of his front legs.”

“In my youthful ignorance, I believed that like his namesake, he should be strong enough to heal from that wound and rise. But he did not. He wasted away, sad and defeated.”

“No matter how strong; no matter how beautiful something is, everything comes to an end,” Simeon rubbed his lips with a finger, pondering his own words. “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women are merely…players. As such, it is only right that an actor should leave the stage when the final curtain is dropped. Because only then can a new story begin.”

Simeon took another sip of his tea and put it down with a decisive clink. A frown upon his face.

I can no longer even enjoy the fragrant aroma of Bergamot from my tea.

“That will be all, Jenkins. I have no need for you any longer. Go and be with your family.”

“I will join them as soon as I finished with my work.”

“And lock the door on your way out.”

Jenkins’s elegant steps echoed in the office. His back spoke of a certain resoluteness. For what purpose, only he would know. Jenkins was a man who kept his own counsel.

Before he went out, the old gentleman bowed for a final time. “I believe in the world you envisioned, Master. May your journey be fruitful.”

A touch of melancholy visited the man’s face. It was something so unexpected that Simeon could not help but chuckle at himself. “Goodbye, old friend.”

After hearing the reassuring silence of solitude, the man who stood as the ruler of Calead, began to ponder the life he had lead. And the role that he would play in what was to come.

For he was a man who believed only in one thing.

Roles.

Everyone in this world had a role. From the poor to the rich. From the depraved to the saints. Many people failed to realize this, distracted by all the meaningless things in life. Like affection and sentimentality. However, the man named Simeon Abramovich knew his role the very moment he was born into the world.

To fulfill this role of his, everyone else were nothing more than pawns to be used as he deemed fit. Anything that threatened to disturb this world that he envisioned was wrong and must be stopped.

And now, at the final step of realizing of his life’s purpose, Simeon Abramovich felt an odd sense of expectation. Like Cristopher Columbus upon his first step on the boat to find the new world.

Simeon pushed against the armchair and was about to stand up from his chair. Suddenly, he lost strength in his arms and fell onto the floor. His right hand trembled and froze, unable to move an inch. His other hand shot to the lower desk where he produced an auto-injector which he shot into his veins. A familiar pain, one he had grown too accustomed to. A reminder of his mortality. But soon that will change, Everything will change.

Simeon clenched and opened his fist a few times, feeling control of his hand returning. He forced himself onto the chair and tapped the tablet on his side. An image of Professor Vorsheim’s expectant face, standing in front of the Apple of Eden’s towering mainframe came into view.

“Are we ready, Professor?”

“Ah, Mr. Abramovich. Yes, yes. Just another hour making sure that we have the backup and Disaster Recovery system working and we are good to go.”

“Quite a breathtaking spectacle, isn’t it? And today all the truth of the universe shall be revealed! It’s really amazing what have achieved,” the balding man slowly stopped speaking when he realized that something was wrong. “Is something the matter, sir? Your face looks unhealthy.”

“You need only worry about your job, Professor. I expect nothing less than perfection.”

The Professor was about to say something, but Simeon had already cut him off.

He pressed another button on the tablet and the wall behind his desk opened to reveal a seamless glass window overlooking Calead. A majestic view belonging to a man of the highest position in the city. The ruler. The king. At that same moment, all the high-end audio speakers on the walls of his room began the intro of one of Bach’s masterpieces. Ode to Joy.

Simeon crossed his legs and leaned back. His chin lazily rested on his right hand while the other one played with a small cross. It looked faded and rusted.

Thus, Simeon waited.