Dr. Abrahams left the banquet hall long before the dessert course. He left his plate of food barely touched and, although Sabrina tried several times to engage him in the conversation, he eluded each of her attempts. The entire room was buzzing with conversation about Paradisium; the volume in the banquet hall had grown steadily until it became a dull roar as the main course dishes at the buffet were cleared away. Dr. Abrahams didn’t linger as the dishes were replaced with sweet desserts and fruit; he made a quiet excuse with no explanation and left without a look back.
“Do you feel like he’s acting strangely?” Rory asked, although all of Dr. Abraham’s behavior since they had met had felt strange.
Over her dessert, Sabrina raised one perfectly arched eyebrow in response. She lifted a berry to her mouth and chewed thoughtfully, waiting for him to go on. Her silence made him nervous; Rory felt his heart rate pick up. He cleared his throat and tried to organize his thoughts. He needed to choose his next words carefully; Sabrina had been working for Dr. Abraham’s much longer than Rory had. He was the newcomer, and it wouldn’t make a great impression to insult their boss behind his back at the first opportunity.
“Dr. Abrahams hasn’t seemed very pleased since we got here,” Rory said. “I don’t think I saw him smile at all until the Paradisium reveal. Is that normal for him or do you think he’s having a terrible time?”
To his relief, Sabrina laughed. “Oh, Rory,” she said. “No, that’s just Dr. Abrahams. He’s a serious guy, but can you blame him? He’s got a lot on his plate. Beyond being CEO and representing Cardinal Enterprises the first time a private company’s ever been invited to this conference–” she lowered her voice– “I think you’ll be surprised at how much time he spends personally on our Task Force.”
Rory’s eyebrows shot up. “We’ll be working together?”
Sabrina nodded, taking another bite of her dessert.
Rory sighed and turned his attention back to his plate. “I suppose Dr. Abrahams and everything will just take some getting used to,” he admitted. “Thing were much more laid back when I was working for the city. Even when I was working on the Garden, with you, do you remember? I think one team per week had a deadline pushed back.”
Sabrina laughed. “Except ours,” she reminded him. “We had the hydroponics system online long before anything was set up structurally.”
Rory grinned. “That’s right.”
“I’m excited you’ve joined the Task Force,” Sabrina said, lowering her voice again. “I think you’ll enjoy being on the cutting edge with us.”
The three rose early the next morning as instructed by Dr. Abrahams in the itinerary and met in the lobby before walking to the convention center next door. An early night had done nothing to improve Dr. Abrahams mood but he at least greeted them and politely engaged with Sabrina’s small talk about the hotel rooms as they walked. Although they entered the convention center just as the first rosy rays of sunlight filtered through the dome overhead, the center was already buzzing with excitement; the Cardinal Enterprises group was far from the first to arrive. Bold signs directed them through a sparsely secured lobby and into the main room. As Rory held the door for Sabrina and Dr. Abrahams, the buzz grew ever louder. Around the edges of the impossibly large room, a dozen tables were staffed by different delegations. Each table held a different display or exhibit, a selection of the best from the best minds on Mars. A staffer wearing a bright yellow vest approached the trio as they entered and stopped them with a smile.
“Welcome!” he said. “What city do you represent?”
Dr. Abrahams stepped forward and regarded the pleasant man coolly. “We represent Cardinal Enterprises, from Haven.”
“Your names?”
“Dr. Jason Abrahams, Dr. Rory Lawrence, and Dr. Sabrina Harper.”
The man made a few notes on his tablet. It whirred and began printing from the bottom. “Your table is number 5,” he said brightly, handing them three slips of paper. “You’re the last to arrive. Please go ahead and get your exhibit set up before browsing the other exhibits. One member of your party must remain with the exhibit at all times. Lectures will begin after noon.”
“Check your notes again,” Abrahams said sharply. “We haven’t brought an exhibit; the City of Haven will be presenting their latest hydroponics system automation.”
“Ah! My mistake, I--”
“Clearly,” Abrahams interrupted. He folded his name tag neatly and tucked it into his pocket. With a flare of his nostrils, he sidestepped the staffer and passed into the convention, leaving Rory and Sabrina behind.
“Sorry about him,” Rory sighed, taking his name tag and affixing it to the front of his suit.
The staffer gave a half smile and left Sabrina and Rory to strategize.
“Clearly, the exhibit to see is the Paradisium. That must be the exhibit over there.”
Rory looked towards the corner of the room she pointed towards. The booth was obscured by the throng of people concentrated around it. A handful of people circulated the room from booth to booth, each staffed by one person a piece, but the rest of the convention had concentrated densely in the back left corner of the room.
“I suppose Dr. Abrahams can be mostly written off, but I’d like to stick together if you don’t mind,” she suggested, glancing nervously around at the crowd.
Rory didn’t mind at all. He nodded happily. In fact, the suggestion was almost enough for him to push away the nagging uneasy feeling that had begun growing as soon as he lost sight of Dr. Abrahams. He scanned the room for the man, but he must have disappeared into the mob surrounding the Paradisium booth. That did nothing to ease Rory’s gut feeling.
“Where should we start?” Sabrina asked, either oblivious or unconcerned to Rory’s misgivings.
“Er,” Rory stalled. “Let’s check out a few of the smaller exhibits and circle back to the main event when things have died down. That’s my preference, unless you want to try to fight that crowd?”
Sabrina quickly agreed, and they began circulating from booth to booth. Each one was manned with only one person–often craning their necks as well and trying to see what was happening in the back left corner until a colleague came to relieve them–as the throng continued to be concentrated around the Paradisium. On day two, the convention would be open for attendance to the general public, but today, it was only for invited guests. Rory shuddered involuntarily, thinking of the crowds they would face tomorrow and what it would be like to be fighting their way through even larger crowds. The Minister had been wise to unveil the mineral the night before over dinner and staggering the opening of the conference.
He and Sabrina took their time meandering from booth to booth, absorbing the underappreciated exhibits indiscriminately. Rory’s favorite was from the city of Valhalla, which had produced a tiny winged drone, reminiscent of the bees that had once lived alongside them on Earth. It was intended as an aid for the agriculture sector, which drew Rory’s interest at once since that was a significant area of interest for Haven. The drone was lightweight and flew silently, while sensors in the wings scanned each plant for illness or evaluated the quality and ripeness of the crop. The representative let Rory hold it gently in his hand, while he imagined a swarm of them flitting around the Garden, tending to the flowers and trees.
Sabrina was bored with the drones rather quickly, and the exhibit from Utopia caught her eye. It was a highly concentrated laser, more powerful than any available in Haven. Utopia had fashioned them, not into weapons, but into apparati for their mining equipment. In the onset, when Mars had been settled originally, Haven had spent time trying to make use of the now nonfunctional mines that they had painstakingly dug beneath the city. These days, in recent years after they had been half explored looking for the elusive hideaway of the Hive, the mines were condemned and had been blocked off from access by the public. Utopia, on the other hand, was the leading provider across the planet for precious metals and building materials such as aluminum and titanium both. Rory knew that Sabrina’s interest could not be related to a potential mining objective and, hesitantly, he reminded her that the lasers far exceeded the limits for weaponry set out in the Mars Treaty. She frowned and reluctantly moved along.
Eventually, after several hours and multiple laps around the convention center, the crowd around the main attraction began to thin. They jumped on the opportunity. Rory’s heart quickened as they approached the Paradisium booth, and the closer they came, the more his skin prickled electric, and the hair on the back of his neck rose. Sabrina led the way through the comparatively light crowd, her hair falling victim to the static that surrounded the booth. She patted her hair down unsuccessfully and quickly gave up.
“Come on up!” the man staffing the table said, rising from his seat as they approached the table. “Where are you two from?”
“Cardinal Enterprises, Haven,” Rory answered.
The man’s nose wrinkled a bit, as if he smelled something sour and was pretending politely that he hadn’t. Surely Dr. Abrahams’ foul mood had made a poor impression. Or perhaps word of their arrival with Hal had spread. He was enough to make a truly lasting bad impression, Rory mused. Either way, it was clear that, despite the invitation that Cardinal Enterprises had received, they were far from welcome at this otherwise generous gathering of the greatest minds. Rory was keenly aware that each delegation was eagerly sharing their most cutting edge and recent research, whereas the the CEO of Cardinal Enterprises was currently roaming the room with a sour expression and nothing to contribute. Rory tried not to let the uneasy feeling in his gut overpower him. He could make a positive impression of his own, perhaps enough to rival the poor taste Dr. Abrahams clearly left. He smiled at the man behind the table. It wasn’t enough.
“Ah,” the man said after a moment. “Welcome. This is the first time a private corporation has been invited to the convention. You two must be excited.” His voice betrayed his own lack of excitement at the prospect.
“Very,” Sabrina agreed, smiling broadly and ignoring the flat tone of the man, which made Rory feel as small as one of the bee drones. “Drs. Harper and Lawrence. Please, tell us more about the Paradisium! We’ve been dying to hear more about it.”
The table between them displayed a few raw crystals, nearly vibrating within the glass cylinders that held them. Rory had a hard time pulling his gaze away from them.
“Would you prefer the lecture or the demonstration?”
“Demonstration!” Rory said, just as Sabrina requested the opposite.
The Paradise man laughed, breaking the strange tension between them. “Tell you what: let’s start with the demo. It’s much more exciting. We’ll be giving a formal lecture fairly shortly in lecture room #3, just down the hall from the restrooms. Join us there and stay for questions and answers afterwards. Now, stand back for the demonstration.”
Carefully, the man--Alex, according to his name tag--lifted one of the cylinders and twisted the top. It opened with a sharp popping noise. He tilted it, allowing the pink crystal to tumble onto the table.
“Feel my arm,” Sabrina whispered to him, her soft voice sending the butterflies in his stomach into overdrive.
“What?” he asked, after staring into her eyes for a moment too long.
“I have goosebumps,” she explained with a laugh.
“Totally normal,” Alex assured her. “I guarantee you’ve never been this close to this much raw power. Watch this.”
From beneath the table, Alex produced a simple machine with a fan affixed to the top. Two short power cables snaked from the back of it. Alex pulled something small from his pocket.
“A simple battery,” he said, showing it to them. “Watch.”
He touched one wire to each end of the battery, and the fan slowly whirred into action, rotating slowly.
“Now, let’s try with the Paradisium.” Alex was grinning as he disconnected the battery and touched the wires instead to the top and bottom of the crystal, wedging the wires into the crevasses between faces.
Immediately, the small fan began humming, the blades spinning faster and faster until they blurred into a solid disk.
“Wow,” Rory breathed. The lump of crystal was no larger than the battery, but the power must be at least three times higher by his conservative estimate.
“Just wait.”
Surely enough, after another heartbeat or so, the small machine was pulled off the table, levitating for a moment and then continuing to rise. It climbed into the air steadily, whirring loudly and attracting a few more curious glances. Eventually, it rose high enough to tear the wires from the facets of the crystal. As the connection broke, the small machine crashed to back down to the table.
“Wow!” Sabrina agreed, her eyes wide.
“The vein of Paradisium was found and mined from about a mile below the surface, just within Paradise boundaries,” Alex told them. “It’s a wonder that we hadn’t discovered it until now, but our focus had never been mining. Since it’s such a recent discovery, we’re still learning more about its properties every day.”
“How long could it power a simple machine?” Sabrina asked.
Alex gestured to a large digital clock hanging on the far wall across the convention center. Below the displayed time, another counter was steadily ticking upwards. 4 weeks, 3 days, 7 hours, and 29 minutes, it read.
“That’s something we’re still testing,” Alex said. “It’s been powering the convention center for just over four weeks now, with no signs of stopping.”
“How large is the sample powering the center? Powering the entire convention center, you mean?”
“About four ounces,” Alex said. “Yes, everything from the air purification system to the climate control to the lights!”
“And when will this resource be made available to your sister cities?” Dr. Abrahams had crept up behind them. Rory jumped at the gravely sound of his voice. The older man had Alex trapped in a stern gaze.
“I couldn’t say for certain at this time,” Alex said, his voice neutral. “Once we’ve uncovered all her properties, we’ll be excited to share this, of course. In the meantime, we still have much to learn. I’m sure you understand why we’re being so cautious, with something this powerful.”
“Right,” Abrahams said with cold politeness. “I’m glad you say so, or I might assume Paradise wants to keep all this to herself.”
“Dr. Abrahams!” Sabrina hissed reproachfully, her cheeks flushing a bit.
Alex wasn’t phased by Abrahams’ insult. He scooped the sample back into its glass home and screwed the cap on tightly. “I assure you, that is not the case. If you’re interested in learning more, I highly recommend the lecture I mentioned. I’m sure you’ll find it very informative. However, I have nothing left to share with you here. Please enjoy the rest of the convention.”
Dr. Abrahams, an angry vein in his forehead pulsing much like the Paradisium, turned and Rory breathed a quiet sigh of relief as Dr. Abrahams followed himself and Sabrina away from the table.
“Dr. Abrahams, are you alright?” Sabrina asked kindly once they were out of Alex’s earshot.
“Fine,” he said cooly.
A pleasant female voice came over the intercom, interrupting the skeptical furrow of Sabrina’s eyebrows. “The Paradisium lecture will begin in five minutes, in lecture room #3.”
“Let’s hurry,” Sabrina suggested. “I prefer to sit in the front.”
Dr. Abrahams agreed, although his scowl did not soften, and he fell into step beside them, never coming close enough to join their conversation. The lecture room was packed tightly, and it was clear that they were far too late for any chance at front row seats. Sabrina tried and failed to keep the disappointed look from her face. At the front of the room, a stage was sparsely populated with a podium and, beside that, a long table cluttered with a few more simple machines: another fan, a lamp, a music box of some type. The only seats available were in the back of the room, nearest the door. Dr. Abrahams insisted that Rory and Sabrina take the seats and frowned when they took him up on the offer. He stood behind their seats, arms crossed, looming like a storm on the horizon. Rory shivered and stole a glance at Sabrina, who appeared entirely unaffected by his angry presence. He turned his eyes back to the stage ahead of them, ignoring the hot breath of Dr. Abrahams on the back of his head.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
A thin mousy man took the stage and set his briefcase down beside the podium. He tapped the microphone twice, wincing at its squeal of disapproval, and gestured to his assistant just off stage, nearly his twin in demeanor and stature. The other man scurried up the stage, clutching his own duffle bag tightly. He took his place behind the long table and set the bag down gingerly. The room held its breath.
“Good afternoon, fellow scholars! Welcome to our lecture: An Introduction to Paradisium. I am Charles Matthews, and here to help me today: my brother, Louis Matthews. We have been privileged enough to be a part of the original team that discovered the miracle crystal you’re all here to see and so we’re excited to be the ones to introduce you to it.”
As his brother spoke, Louis began unloading the duffle bag and arranging a few sizable chunks of Paradisium on the table. Rory felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up again. The air was singing with power. One of the chunks was easily the size of Rory’s head, and he could not help but nudge Sabrina with his elbow and point it out. She grinned in response, an easy grin that he found himself seeking out whenever possible. Dr. Abrahams shuffled his feet behind them and snorted, although Rory didn’t buy his act. It would be impossible for a man of science not to be blown away by the matter at hand.
“Paradisium, as you’ll soon see, is quite the miracle element. So far as we can tell, it generates clean energy. A lot of clean energy,” he emphasized. “We’re still learning about its properties and possible applications, before we’re able to release it for planet-wide use. And of course, we don’t know anything of it’s possible downsides or limitations. We’re excited to share this bounty with our sister cities, eventually. We hope it will be in the near future.”
Another snort from Dr. Abrahams, loud enough that Charles looked up and scanned the crowd. Rory shrank down in his seat, although that only brought him down to the median height of the room. The sound of a door swinging shut and closing loudly jolted him out of his embarrassment, and the gloomy presence behind him was gone.
“I guess we lost one,” Charles said with an awkward chuckle. “We’ll go on without him. As I was saying, we’re still learning more and more every day about the element we call Paradisium. Right now, we expect its main use will be to power the infrastructure of our beautiful cities. This may shock you, but as we speak, the entire convention center--lights, air purification, heating and cooling--is being powered by a sample about this size.”
Louis helpfully hoisted the largest piece of glowing pink crystal into the air.
“Let’s get right to the point, Louis.”
Rory glanced back towards the door, but there was no sign of Dr. Abrahams’ reappearing. Louis was slowly working his way down the table, touching the cables connected to each machine to the Paradisium. As the cable connected, each machine sprang into action: the light burning so brightly that the bulb burst, the fan lifting off the table as it had in the earlier demonstration, the music box squawking out a tune loudly. The largest hurdle of utilizing Paradisium, it seemed, was harnessing its overwhelming output of energy. Unbridled, it could destroy its host.
“Dr. Abrahams is going to miss everything,” he hissed to Sabrina.
“His loss!” she answered, hurriedly tapping notes into her tablet, only paying half attention to Rory.
On stage, Louis and Charles Matthews called for the lights in the hall to be dimmed, and quickly set up a screen on stage. They launched into a surprisingly dry presentation about the mining expedition that had led to this discovery and compared the element to other forms of energy: coal, electric, nuclear. Even old fashioned energy like steam. Unfortunately for Rory’s presence of mind, the lack of Dr. Abrahams’ stormy presence was more unsettling than the foul moods had been.
The entire experience rubbed Rory the wrong way. All else aside, Jason Abrahams was a man of science, widely renowned across the planet for his mind, his innovations, and his pursuit of knowledge, even if many criticized his profit driven enterprise. Was simple jealousy enough to drive him away from the biggest scientific breakthrough since humanity had been driven to this planet? No, there had to be a better reason for a man like Jason Abrahams, leader of the Task for and Cardinal Enterprises, to be missing this lecture.
Rory was on his feet before he realized what was happening. Sabrina shot him a questioning look, which he disregarded. He dodged her attempt to grab his elbow and guide him back to his seat and exited the hall in pursuit of Dr. Abrahams. There was no sign of him in the hallway. Rory followed it back to the main floor of the convention, to the ring of exhibits which looked bare and lonely now. Despite the staff’s insistence on each booth being manned at all times, the convention center was a ghost town now that the lecture was ongoing. Most everybody was crammed in the lecture hall. A lone janitor in the entryway was sweeping up the debris of dozens of impatient scholars, and an unarmed officer was leaning against the wall beneath the large clock, halfheartedly scanning the empty convention center now and then.
Rory hesitated at the corner and scanned the convention center himself. He felt immediate relief as he realized it was empty. Dr. Abrahams must have gone to the restroom. His stomach dropped as he saw movement in the left corner of the room. Someone had been ducked behind the table of the Paradisium exhibit, and he brushed off his clothes as he stood. There was something in his hand; Rory knew immediately, not only what it was, but who it was. The pink crystal disappeared into Dr. Abrahams pocket as he glanced furtively around, his eyes gliding past the shadow Rory was tucked into without recognizing him. The look on his face was a mirror of what it had been at the welcome banquet: hunger now satisfied. Before the security guard in the corner–Rory mentally cried out for him to look up but didn’t dare make a sound–could see, Dr. Abrahams was gone again, hurrying past the place Rory was hidden without a thought.
Stomach flipping angrily, Rory waited and then followed as quietly as he could back to the lecture hall, ignoring the annoyed look of the lecturers as he sank back into his seat beside Sabrina. Dr. Abrahams wasn’t there; Rory wondered if he’d gone back to the hotel to drop off his stolen prize or if he’d absconded from the city although. The thought made him sweat and he pushed it aside. Charles and Louis continued on obliviously; judging by the slide on the screen, they were discussing early failed experiments that had been done on the crystal.
“Where were you?” Sabrina whispered.
“Bathroom. But I need to talk to you,” he stammered. “Soon.”
“What is it?”
“Is there a problem in the back row?” Charles Matthews asked pointedly, fixing Rory with a disapproving scowl.
“No, sir,” he answered quickly. Under his breath, he hissed back to Sabrina. “Later.”
The lecture ended without the reappearance of Dr. Abrahams, and he was nowhere to be seen as the crowd streamed back onto the main floor of the convention center. Rory scanned the room, again and again, until Sabrina was exasperated with him.
“What is going on with you?” she demanded.
Rory begrudgingly gave up his surveillance, unwilling to explain around so many ears and worried Sabrina would get the truth out of him if he didn’t get his act together. Looking for Dr. Abrahams was pointless anyways; he had probably left for the hotel, or even back to Haven, with his stolen artifact. Would he leave them alone to take the fall once his theft was discovered? Was that the purpose of Rory’s and Sabrina’s places on this delegation? Surely, Dr. Abrahams’ crime would be discovered soon.
“I can’t say here,” he said, realizing suddenly that she was waiting for an answer.
“Why can’t you say?” Sabrina abandoned her browsing of the convention center and turned her attention fully on Rory. Crossing her arms tightly in front of her, she glared up at him, making no effort to hide her annoyance at his cageyness.
Rory hesitated. There were too many listening ears around. What Dr. Abrahams had done was wrong; he knew that without a doubt. To accuse him publicly was another matter altogether and not something Rory was willing to take on. They were one team, representing Cardinal Enterprises, and to implicate Dr. Abrahams would implicate them all. This theft would be seen as a violation of the Treaty, and something like that could trigger the kind of conflict that sent what was left of humanity to Mars in the first place.
“Come outside with me,” he said, trying to sound brighter than he felt. “Let’s check out the plaza and get something to eat. I’m just hungry.”
“Just hungry? Dr. Lawrence, if you don’t tell me what’s the matter with you right now--”
“Sabrina,” he said softly. “Please.”
She blinked at him, surprised by his seriousness, and slowly nodded once. She followed him out of the convention center and into the plaza, which was just as bright and beautiful as it had been when they arrived. The central fountain was gurgling happily, spraying water into a fine mist that filled the air. There were a few benches placed at strategic intervals around the plaza: one facing the fountain just beyond the spray of the water, one stationed between two dessert shops, and two on each side of the entrance to the plaza. Sabrina immediately headed for the bench between the dessert shops, her eyes fixed on Marcia’s Candy Shoppe, but Rory caught her arm and nodded towards the bench nearest the fountain.
The gurgling of the fountain would not be enough to completely drown out their conversation, but Rory hoped that it would be enough to provide some privacy. The plaza had a few wanderers in and out of shops, but none seemed to pay attention to the two scientists. Despite the privacy, Rory found that, now that he had Sabrina’s undivided attention, he was crumbling before it.
“Well?” Sabrina asked, after they had sat in uneasy silence for a moment.
“I saw something,” Rory blurted.
“Okay,” Sabrina rolled her eyes. “Will you just tell me what is was already?”
“It’s about Dr. Abrahams.”
“I’m going back inside.”
“Wait!” he cried. He took a deep breath. “You have to admit he’s been acting strangely since we arrived. The angry looks, leaving without saying anything, his sour mood. He got up and left right in the middle of the lecture! I just thought it was strange. So, I followed Dr. Abrahams when he left the lecture. He went back out to the convention floor, and he went to the Paradisium booth, and…” Rory hesitated. “He took some.”
“Took some?”
“Took some,” he confirmed.
“‘Took some’ as in…?”
“Took a pretty hefty chunk of Paradisium,” Rory whispered.
“And you saw this.”
“I did. He stole it, Sabrina. What do we do?”
She was silent, staring into the fountain with her brows creased seriously. Rory waited patiently for her to speak, hoping somehow that she would know what to do, what to say. Eden would know. His fingers itched with the urge to pull his phone out and call her, to explain everything, but he couldn’t. She couldn’t be involved in this. Something whispered to Rory that he was standing on a very dangerous precipice.
“What do you think?” he asked finally.
“It’s a really serious accusation to make, Rory.”
He blinked, surprised. “But I saw him.”
“Do you have any proof?”
“What do you mean, proof? I saw him take it! A piece is missing from the booth, and Dr. Abrahams has it.”
She shook her head stubbornly. “If he had stolen a crystal, the whole place would be on lockdown now. There’s no way they wouldn’t have noticed by now. He must have left something of his at the booth and you saw him retrieve it. Rory, it really worries me that your first thought is to accuse him of something this huge.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“I believe that you think you saw it,” she said. She spared him a sympathetic glance but didn’t truly meet his eyes. “I’m sorry, Rory. I just got this promotion too; I know it can be overwhelming. I never thought I’d be at the Paradise Convention, either, much less when something this groundbreaking was happening. I never thought I’d work beside people like Dr. Whitmore or Dr. Abrahams, as difficult as he might be. I really think you misunderstood what you saw. I’m sorry.”
She left him to his stunned silence on the bench, doubt over what he had seen swirling in his mind. He’d been so sure, but he had been at a distance, viewing Dr. Abrahams from an angle. As Sabrina disappeared back into the convention, he replayed the afternoon’s events in his mind again and again. He was sure of what he’d seen. Wasn’t he?
Rory stayed on the bench watching the fountain until the shadows grew long and the streets became quiet. His body was stiff by the time, stomach growling, he left the fountain to wander back to the hotel. His room was quiet and dark; he kept the lights off and tumbled into bed, kicking his shoes off wherever they may fall. There was no way he could sleep, not with the thoughts chasing each other around his head. Whether or not he’d seen what he was so sure he’d seen, Rory had a bad feeling about the Task Force in general.
The softness of the bed was a welcome embrace, and without meaning to, Rory felt sleep coming for him, although he’d been sure he wouldn’t sleep. He was almost there, stuck in that restless plane between wakefulness and dreaming, when a staccato knock at the door broke the spell.
“Open up, Dr. Lawrence! It’s urgent.” It was the unmistakable growl of Dr. Abrahams.
“Rory, are you sleeping?” Sabrina was with him, and the concern in her voice betrayed no trace of their earlier confrontation.
Rory stumbled, bleary eyed, to the door and opened it to find his two companions fully dressed with their bags at their feet. “What time is it?” he asked, rubbing his eyes. “What’s going on?”
“We’re leaving,” Dr. Abrahams said. “Answer your phone next time. You can thank Dr. Harper for not being left behind. If you intend to come with us, pack your bag quickly and follow us.”
“We’re leaving? Now?” Rory felt as stupid as he sounded.
Abrahams glowered at him.
“Why?” Rory asked, even more stupidly. “There’s another day of the convention, still.”
“Let’s go, Dr. Harper. It’s clear that Dr. Lawrence would rather ask stupid questions than return home with us. We’ll miss the train if we continue to humor him.”
“No, I’m coming,” he said. He scrambled for his bag, which he mercifully had never fully unpacked. He swore out loud. He hadn’t had a chance to get a souvenir for Eden.
“Let’s be off.”
Dr. Abrahams turned on his heel and led the way down the hall out onto the street, saying nothing to the clerk who bid him a good night. He was struggling to maintain a swift pace with his bag and trying desperately to hide it, but Rory noticed the bead of sweat that had appeared on the older man’s face. Had he been struggling when they arrived? Rory tried desperately to remember. Was his bag heavier?
“Can I help you with your bag, Dr. Abrahams?” he asked when they were halfway to the rail station, reaching for it with his free hand.
Dr. Abrahams slapped his hand away and snapped, “Don’t touch it.”
Sabrina, though her face was hidden in the shadow of the streetlamps, raised her eyebrows at this but said nothing. They descended the steps into the rail station wordlessly. The train was there waiting for them, as if it had never left them behind. They boarded, with Sabrina and Rory taking two seats facing each other, but Dr. Abrahams declined to join them. Instead, he took a seat by himself near the back, his bag settled protectively between his feet. The seams were near bursting and the zipper had fallen so slightly. Something within was glowing.
It was near midnight when they arrived in Haven. When the doors opened to let them out on the platform, Hal was there to meet them, an extra laser rifle strapped across his back. Rory was too tired and too distracted to mind. Hal led them back to Cardinal Enterprises’ gleaming campus, shining in the dual moonlight, with his hand on his pistol, and his head swiveling back and forth as he scanned the dark street.
The campus was sleeping when they arrived, with only the night janitors bustling back and forth, preparing the campus for another long day of work. They were silent as they reached the elevator; Hal peeled off and bid the trio a good night. Dr. Abrahams nodded once.
They ascended to the third floor, where each of their offices and dorms were waiting. Rory was fighting waves of exhaustion as the door opened with a quiet beep and they spilled out into the lobby.
“Welcome home!” Dr. Whitmore was waiting for them. “You’re back early.”
“What are you doing here, Dr. Whitmore?” Dr. Abrahams held his bag closer to his body, almost protectively.
“I heard you would be returning tonight, and thought someone should be awake to greet you all.” Dr. Whitmore’s smile was easy.
“No need.”
Dr. Abrahams left them without another word, hurrying with his bag down the hall towards his office.
“Thank you, Dr. Whitmore, but I’m quite exhausted as well. Please excuse me,” Sabrina said, heading down the opposite hallway towards her own room.
“And what about you, my friend?”
“I need to speak to you, Dr. Whitmore. Privately.”
“What’s this about?” Dr. Whitmore asked once they were safely ensconced in Rory’s office.
Rory hesitated. He dropped into his office chair, and Whitmore took the seat opposite him. His eyes were kind, with a sheen of worry and the cloudiness that came with old age.
“What troubles you?” Whitmore asked again.
Rory lowered his voice. “This must stay between you and I, Dr. Whitmore.”
Whitmore leaned forward and matched Rory’s volume. “Of course.”
“Dr. Abrahams did something at the convention. Something that I worry will cause trouble for all of us. I don’t want to be disloyal, but I think I have a duty to tell…. Someone.”
“You can tell me, Rory.”
Rory looked down at his hands, feeling the secondhand shame of his association with Abrahams. He quickly explained to Dr. Whitmore about the Paradisium, giving the older scientist a moment to marvel at the discovery.
“So I followed Dr. Abrahams out of the lecture and I saw him pocket a piece of it. I know I saw this. He stole it. I’m sure Paradise will realize soon; that must be why we left in such a hurry.”
Dr. Whitmore nodded seriously. “That’s a serious accusation, Dr. Lawrence. Are you sure of what you saw?”
“I am,” Rory insisted.
Dr. Whitmore sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Thank you for telling me, Dr. Lawrence. It’s very brave of you.”
“So what do we do?”
Whitmore shrugged and looked at Rory with a humorless expression. “Let’s keep this between us for now. We all have our own assignments on this Task Force, and we don’t always know what each other has been assigned. I’ve found it’s best to keep your nose in your own business.”
“So we do nothing?”
“For now, Rory. For now, we wait and see.”