LITMIR.BIZ

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to link the administration with hackers.” He raised an eyebrow. “Neither you nor the President want that, right?”

      “Certainly not!” Rosalinda confirmed with enthusiasm as she rose and went to the bamboo doors. “Neither we nor the President. Please stay here, I’ll talk to Lippo. Maybe he has finished eating. By the way, help yourself if you are hungry, too.”

      She directed the remote control at a trolley at an entrance, and it moved to the sofa where Andrew and Emily were sitting.

      Chapter 7

      Rosalinda left and the trolley stopped right opposite the sofa.

      Barkov’s stomach growled at the sight of food. He recalled that all he had this morning was just a cup of coffee and a piece of a sweet roll. There simply had been nothing else in the kitchen. He lived alone in a small one-story house in the north of Miami and often forgot to restock his kitchen.

      The fruit and berries lying on the tray looked appetizing, although in some of them there were wormholes. It was a good sign – a proof of the absence of GMO. Worms could live in only natural crops!

      Barkov took a large peach and sank his teeth into its fleshy tissue with delight. Chewing, he stood up and went to a window.

      As before, the ocean seemed to be calm. The flat surface glittering in the sunlight – and no signs of a tsunami. Perhaps things were not that bad?

      Bringing his forehead closer to the window glass, he looked down at the beach. It was about half a kilometer wide. Most of the surface was covered with dark green algae. It meant that water continued receding. Where to? Was there a crack in the earth’s crust? Was water going into it? Hardly. Deep in the planet, there couldn’t be any hollow space. There was high pressure inside. In case of a large fracture, movement would have started in the opposite direction – from within to the surface. That is, it would have burst out as a volcano. Or even a supervolcano such as Yellowstone. In that case, the consequences would be as devastating as a world-wide nuclear war.

      Good Lord preserve us!

      Terrified by his own thought, Andrew turned to Emily. She was eating grapes, plucking them one by one and looking at the fountain with concentration.

      She has pretty fingers, Barkov noted to himself. Finishing the peach, he returned to the trolley, put the kernel on the edge of the tray and nipped off a few grapes.

      It dawned on him that he would prefer to live in such a penthouse as opposed to owning the two-storied house he had been dreaming of for a long time. In the morning he would get up from bed and admire the bird’s-eye view of the ocean. The city, people, cars, problems – everything would seem to be small. It would be nice if his beloved one was there, too. Will I meet my other half one day? Or the world will collapse first?

      The bamboo doors moved apart, and Rosalinda came out. This time she stopped three steps away from the doors that were left open. The woman’s lips stretched into a wide smile.

      “Mr. Lorenzetti decided not to take your job offer,” she proclaimed. “Please walk out of the apartment.”

      Barkov choked down grapes. “What? Why?”

      “Katherine’s identity is not confirmed. Her real name is Emily Housman. You lied to us. But Lippo will not call the police. He doesn’t want a scandal. Besides that, he won’t charge you for the eaten fruit.”

      She raised her hand and pressed a remote control button. The elevator door opened. Andrew thought, She uses buttons on her remote control for security reasons – she doesn’t want the signal to be intercepted by an intruder’s device and duplicated at a distance!

      “But… how did you find out her name?” he asked trying to think of how to explain away the deception, but seeing no solid arguments.

      “Have you forgotten who he is? Even if you had brought a girl from Mars, he would have uncovered her identity. Farewell!”

      Andrew realized that his mission had failed. The best solution in this situation was to go out without making a fuss and to try to obtain the information about the government’s plans another way.

      “Have a nice day!” he said trying to keep his composure and giving the sign to Emily to follow him as he walked to the elevator.

      “I won’t go anywhere,” Emily uttered in a quiet, but firm voice.

      Barkov stopped and turned back. The girl was sitting and still eating grapes.

      “Oh, the beauty can speak!” Rosalinda showed a not very sincere surprise.

      “Emily, we’ve agreed that I make the decisions,” Andrew said. “Get up, we are leaving!”

      “No. Your plan has failed, so the agreement is void. Now it’s my turn.”

      It was clear from her tone that she was not going to give in. Should I drag her by force?

      “Dear Katherine… I mean, Emily,” Rosalinda cooed. “If you don’t leave this premise right now, I’ll turn on our cutting-edge microwave system. I wonder how long you will endure. In fifteen seconds, water will start boiling under your skin. In thirty seconds, blisters will appear. In a minute, your skin will be charred. I start countdown. Ten… nine… eight…”

      The girl continued eating grapes as if nothing were wrong.

      Pausing between digits longer and longer, Rosalinda kept counting. “Seven… six… five… four… three… two…”

      This time, unlike the demonstration earlier, a tingling of danger penetrated Andrew’s spine. But he had no visions of the source or the target. No rush of energy to counteract it. He knew he should act yet how?

      “…one… Well, you have only yourself to blame! Zero!” She shouted the next word, “Danger!”

      Barkov felt no burning. Strangely enough, Emily didn’t show any signs of pain either. Moreover, she continued to chew the grapes, taking seeds out of her mouth and putting them on the tray near the peach kernel. Her fingertips, however, were trembling noticeably. That’s a sign of excitement, not pain.

      “Are you not hot?” Rosalinda asked with genuine astonishment.

      The girl shook her head and looked at the elevator. Its doors closed.

      Rosalinda’s eyebrows flung up. She directed the remote control at the elevator and pushed the button several times. The doors jerked, but did not move apart.

      “That’s weird,” she mumbled examining the control from all sides. “It must have broken down.”

      “Bad quality?” Emily guessed as she stopped chewing.

      Rosalinda uttered a short shriek. The remote control slipped from her hands, her eyes widened. Freezing for a couple seconds, she suddenly turned around and rushed to the bamboo doors. The doors drew together in her face. The woman seized the handle with both hands and tried to move a door panel. She was not a successful. Seizing the other handle, she pushed it to the opposite side bracing with her whole body. The door was motionless.

      “Lippo!” she yelled as she clutched her head in hands. “It’s burning! It’s burning me!”

      “That’s strange. You said I would be charred,” Emily observed.

      It came to Andrew what was going on: The girl had “heard” how electronics worked on the premises and intercepted control. It meant her brain was able to emit electromagnetic impulses as strong as the remote control lying on the floor at the moment. He’d sensed danger earlier, yes, but the danger hadn’t been targeted at him. Whether it was from Rosalinda feeling angry at Emily’s response or from Emily’s intention to get rid of the assistant, he didn’t know.

      “Stop it!” he commanded. “You’ll kill her!”

      Emily

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