The Sympathizer

Chapter 23

I wake up with a start, my head throbbing and throat so parched it feels like someone grated it with sandpaper. My fingers immediately go to my neck but my skin doesn't sting like I expected it to. 

I turn to the side, half expecting to see Lazarus sleeping next to me but the other side of my bed is empty. 

Did I imagine last night?

My thoughts flit through the fog of memories. I remember the boy named Ron, who showed me the only room on this planet that is free of surveillance. The throbbing intensifies as I recall bits and pieces, it makes me regret drinking in the first place. 

I remember promising to help Ron which come to think of it, doesn't seem very beneficial for the sake of a human's life long services. And then I remember coming home, my mind and body already intoxicated and giddy, only to be strangled to sleep by an obsessive Lazarus. 

But now I'm awake and there's no trace he was ever here. 

My steps are incoherent as I rush to the bathroom and study myself in the sprawling mirror. Even with the dim lighting it's easy to see my bare neck, smooth and devoid of any strangle marks. If memory serves, a grip like that would have definitely left a mark. 

But why did it feel so real? 

Am I going crazy? I quickly splash water on my face, wash up and get ready for the day. I swallow down some medicine to cure my hangover and tell Commander Axis to meet me at the Sympathizer labs. 

We meet surreptitiously in a sealed off chamber that hasn't been used since it was disinfected weeks ago. I didn't see General Lyra on the way in which is a good thing because I'd prefer some privacy for this meeting. Last I checked she was preparing for the diplomatic visit to Lazarus's lab on Earth. The first group to visit consists of a few members of the war council, General Lyra and General Xia. 

Due to security reasons, the leaders have decided to travel on different dates instead of visiting together. 

I am scheduled to visit with Lazarus in two cycles. Lucian in one. 

It would have been nice to see the place with Lucian by my side, I've always loved gauging his reactions but sadly not this time. 

Commander Axis puts a tiny coin shaped disc into the recess in the wall and activates the screen for the both of us. He lays out all the data before me, scrupulously documenting every flight path and phone call Commander Alya made over the past year. 

She visited Earth twice, her dates coinciding with Lazarus's trips although never together. And then a few other excursions coinciding with my father's squad members. My head ache threatens to resurface and I swear never to drink again. 

There's a growing discomfort swirling in my chest. I trusted this Plutonian. Brought Alya onto my squad when I was seventeen. There has never been a disagreement between us, never any hostility. It stings that she would turn against me but if she was involved with this experiment then the answer is obvious:

Power and money must have been offered to her. I can think of no other reason and knowing Lazarus, he would have promised a lot of it. The thing is, when it comes to power Lazarus only serves himself. 

The phone logs are worse. Axis used our experimental data reviving device to decrypt their coded call logs. Most of them were destroyed once over but we have developed technology that can resurrect parts of deleted conversations. 

There is no denying when I hear Alya telling my father's squad member about my conversations during each intergalactic visit. 

"Don't worry. She doesn't suspect a thing."