In the middle of the night there was a knock at the door of my hut. I was awake, but I wasn’t expecting guests.

“Vik!” Irene rushed to me from the doorway. “He’s back!”

“Who’s back?” I got a shiver down my spine. “Randy? Is he back for you?”

“No, the Chinese guy,” she groaned. “Chen.”

“Who is Chen?” I didn’t get it. “Stop crying!”

“The scientist,” Irene sniffed her nose. “I told you about him, remember?”

“Oh, the one you... um... helped to become Einstein,” I realized. “Did he miss the virtual caresses or did he want the real thing?”

She wiped away her tears and gave me a sharp look that said: “Don’t be sarcastic, I’m tired of this.”

“Okay,” I sat down on the bed and patted the spot next to me. “Tell me what happened.”

“Nothing,” she sat up and sobbed again. “I told you, he’s back on the Island.”

“So what?” I stared at her. “You came to tell me that? Well, congratulations. I hope you efforts have been worthwhile and your genius has made an important discovery after all.”

“He’s not mine!” Irene snapped at me. “The point is, he didn’t make a discovery. He’s here to work in the Dark lab again. What a bastard!”

“Wow! You used to think he was talented and just needed a little help to save him from the bad guys, didn’t you?”

“I’m such a fool, Vik!” She was in tears again. “I thought he really wanted to do science, not pump life out of people. I mean, he assured me so much! He said his energy storage technology would change the world, and he didn’t want the Dark Ones to get all the profits.”

I couldn’t bear her tears, so my heart softened. I stroked her hand and held out a handkerchief:

“That’s enough, calm down. Did he say why he changed his mind?”

“I’ll be right back.” Irene slipped into the bathroom and came back calmer.

“It was the money,” she said. “Kuhn promised to triple his salary.”

“I see. And he’s decided it’s better to be an errand boy? Does he realize he’s finished as a scientist?”

“Yeah, as well as the fact that he will be paid handsomely for it.”

“What about his professional pride?” I insisted. “If he had succeeded in the Big World, he could win a Nobel Prize, immortalize his name – isn’t that important to him?”

“I guess it’s important,” she shrugged. “But all this is still up in the air, nobody knows when it will happen, and here a gold mine is guaranteed for him. If he doesn’t agree, others will take his place.”

“I don’t think so,” I hesitated. “Not everyone is as brilliant as him.”

“If ‘they’ wanted to, ‘they’ would find a replacement for him, although it wouldn’t be easy. That’s why his income is as good as the biggest scientific prize. Who would say no to that?”

“What about you? Would you refuse?”

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“Me?” she looked at me astonished.

“Yes, you. Could you leave the Island and go nowhere?”

“Start a new life?” she smiled weakly. “You know that’s impossible for us.”

“I’m not asking if it’s possible or not, I’m asking if you could?”

Irene was silent. Meanwhile, the first birds in the jungle had awakened, and dawn was approaching. I yawned involuntarily. Like through cotton wool I could hear Irene saying that she was confused, that she had nothing and no one but the Island for a long time, and that sometimes it seems to her that the Dark Ones were after her instead of her fiance from the beginning. Although, “they” probably needed both: him there, her here. And now she’d have to deal with the scientist-werewolf. He would probably reveal to Kuhn who had helped him escape as a sign of loyalty, and then she would owe “them” again, or be turned into Shadow if she didn’t pay “them” off.

“Listen,” I interrupted her. “What does it matter now? I have the Golden Ticket. Let’s go away together, forever. If you agree, I’ll be waiting for you at the pier tomorrow at six in the morning.”

“What?” She flinched. “The Golden ticket? How did you get it?”

“It doesn’t matter. Are you coming tomorrow, Irene?”

“Do we have to leave here?” she asked timidly.

“Irene, if ‘they’ kick me out of the club, I won’t even be able to rent a room.”

“You could move in with me…”

“Are you serious?” The remnants of sleep left me. “Do you really think I could do that?”

“Why not? I have money.”

“I know,” I snapped. “I even know where it comes from. You expect me to wait for you at home while you move your ass in front of the daddies?”

“But it’s all for us,” she lowered her eyes. “I could take their power and give it to you.”

“Great! Just great!” I was furious. “So you think I’m a weakling who needs to be spoon-fed, huh?”

“That’s not what I meant!” She rushed to make up for her mistake. “You’re strong. I just really want to help you, but I don’t know how.”

“You mean I need to be saved? I can’t help myself, can I?”

“Maybe we should find another job?” she suggested cautiously. “Come on, Vik, don’t be angry. I’ll straighten things out with ‘them’ and we can open a coffee shop on the beach.”

“A coffee shop?”

“Yeah. Coffee is also an energy drink. Kuhn will take the ‘cream’ and we’ll take the money.”

“I understand,” I stopped her, “but I’m sorry, no. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life behind a cash register, much less continue to parasitize on other people’s weaknesses. And I wouldn’t advise you to do that either.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“We have to get out of here, Irene!” I grabbed her arm. “We won’t get another chance.”

“Vik, I don’t know.”

“Is something bothering you?”

“No, I’m just scared.”

“Of what exactly?”

“Change,” she reluctantly admitted.

“As for me, I’m afraid of the lack of change for the next thousand years. Make up your mind, Irene! Are you with me? Tomorrow at six, on the ferry. Yes or no?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t know, Vik. And I’m afraid I never will. I’m sorry.”

She ran her hand through my hair, kissed me on the forehead, and slipped out of the house.

What did I expect from her? But I was a little hurt, she could have said yes.

To be continued