QUALIFY: The Atlantis Grail (Book One)

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE (draft)

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

The guard’s previously sympathetic expression closes up and he looks at me as though now I’ve become an annoyance.

“Okay, what?” he says.

“I must see Command Pilot Aeson Kass!” I repeat. “The one they call Phoebos!”

The guard looks at me for several long seconds. “You do know what you’re asking?” he says coldly. “That’s a very busy man, very high ranking in the Atlantean Fleet. He isn’t going to have time to talk to you, especially not now—”

“Look, he knows me, okay! Command Pilot Kass knows me, and he will talk to me!”

How do I know this, I have no idea. But I persist, with the full confidence fueled by insanity that comes from desperation. Will Aeson agree to see me? It occurs to me, I don’t really know. I might be overreaching. But at the same time, there’s a strange feeling in my gut that no, I am an asset, my Logos voice and I. . . . And Aeson Kass will give me the time of day.

As the guard continues to stare at me with a growing frown, I hurry to add: “Look, just tell him my name, please! He will agree to see me, you’ll see! Just call him now! Please!”

The guard shakes his head, and lets out his breath in frustration. He then presses one hand to the smart-set in his ear and punches something on the console. After a few seconds, he turns to me and says, “Okay . . . Command Pilot Kass is currently unavailable. Sorry, Candidate.”

“What do you mean, unavailable?” My mouth falls open. I suppose I expected to get some kind of instant response, at least an answer of one kind or another, but—nothing?

“I mean, he is unavailable.”

“But how? Maybe you can ask again? Where is he? I will go to his office right now—”

The guard shakes his head at me. “He is unavailable because he is not here—not in this compound, not on Earth.” And he points with a finger up.

The meaning finally dawns on me. “Oh . . .” I say in despair.

“He’s gone up to the Atlantis mothership.”

The despair deepens. I freeze for a few seconds in silence, my mind spinning, while Laronda and Mia and Dawn stand watching me with grim sympathetic eyes.

“When—when is he coming back?” I try again.

“That information is unavailable.”

“Can you please check?”

“His personal schedule is outside my clearance level.” The guard looks at me hard.

“Okay . . .” Desperation makes me relentless. “But—”

“Candidate—Gwen, is it? Candidate, you need to leave now. There is nothing more I can tell you. I am very sorry.”

“I—I don’t accept that,” I repeat again like a stubborn idiot. And then more wild ideas pop in my head.

“What—what is his office? Where is it? Is it here in this building?” I say. “It is general knowledge, isn’t it?”

The guard bites his lip. “Yes, it is. Office #7, CA-2, first floor. You can get to it if you go outside and then use the next walkway entrance for the general offices. But again, he is not here—”

“But he will be, tomorrow morning! Right? Right? He’ll be there eventually?” I interrupt in a high breathy voice that is again about to crack with tears.