The CRES code

Chapter Fifty Six - Pillow Talk

     "Do you have relatives living outside the city?" asked Randall. "In other cities, or some small town somewhere."

     He and Dolly were lying in bed together, their bodies still slick with sweat from their lovemaking. Dolly was lying on her side facing him, studying his face and reaching out to stroke his arm playfully. Randall was lying on his back, though, his head suddenly full of troubling thoughts.

     "Why do you ask that?" asked Dolly, smiling with puzzlement. "Why does your mind wander while I'm lying right here next to you, with all my VIX given charms exposed for you to see? Is the sight of me not enough to seize all of your attention?"

     "You are the most utterly beautiful woman I've ever seen," replied Randall. It was a lie. Some of the woman he'd paid to sleep with back in his old life had looked like goddesses in comparison. Dolly was attractive enough by any normal standards, but she was no supermodel.

     There was something about her, though, that was more important than mere physical beauty. She made him happy. He might be bothered by something, the stupidity of the barons for instance, or the demands of the common folk who seemed to think that he was now a King who could solve their problems simply by uttering a decree, and then Dolly would enter the room and smile at him and suddenly he would feel better. The problems would suddenly seem less important. The room would seem brighter, as if the sun had come out from behind the clouds, and every colour would seem more vivid. The only time he'd felt anything similar had been experimenting with recreational drugs in his teenage years, but there was a depth and a genuineness about what he was feeling now that he'd never had from any drug.

     He couldn't say any of this to Dolly, though. He wouldn't be able to find the right words. The complexities of how he felt about her escaped his ability to describe them. He was afraid that she'd only hear his comparison with the beauty of other women and everything else would be washed away in a tidal wave of outrage, so he just told her she was beautiful. It was far safer, and was probably the only thing woman wanted to hear anyway, he thought.

     She smiled in reply, although there might have been the very faintest trace of a frown on her face as if she could somehow sense the insincerity of his words. It was enough to encourage Randall to repeat the question, though. "So, do you? Have relatives living outside the city?"

     "Well, there's my brother Brandyn and his wife, living in Occlestone. He's a cobbler living with his uncle. Him and his wife took him in when his parents were killed by orcs back in twenty eight and now all six of them, including his two children, live in that house together. Brandyn talks about getting a place of his own, but it's a big house and there's not really any need. I reckon he's going to live there all his life now and inherit the place when Oswald dies."

     "Is it a big house?" asked Randall. "Is there room for another couple of people in it? Would they be willing to take you and Maisey in for a few days if necessary?"

     "Why would that be necessary?" asked Dolly, now frowning in concern. She gathered up the bedclothes and pulled them over her body as if her bare skin had suddenly become chilled.

     Randall had considered for several days what he would say to persuade them to leave the city. Tomorrow, he and a small army of workmen would be going out to Elmhardy Farm to begin the excavation of what was left of the Gorsty Common facility. He had no idea how long that would take, but if things went well he might be able to re-activate the place in just a day or two. Once that's happened, though, things would happen fast. If he was lucky he would be able to take control of all the machines in the solar system in one fell swoop, but he'd made a lifetime's habit of preparing fallback positions in case things didn't go to plan.