Hidden Under Perfection

Chapter 8: Doran

I walk over to the base of the tree, where my backpack lies. The bark is brittle and gray flakes fall to the ground when I brush my hand against it. I lift my back pack onto my shoulder and walk over to Claire. The familiar weight pressing on my back as I walk around the long grass. I remove the bag once Claire comes into view. She reaches over and unzips the first zipper, the noise adds to the sound of wind rustling the tall grass.

Her hands are delecate as she removes the holo-notebook from the backpack. She handles it like she is holding a newborn baby, careful not to break it.

"What are you planning," I ask as she switches positions to get more comfortable.

"I don't know, exactly. But, we need to get back into the city and stop The Clandestine."

"Okay, then let's plan."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Well we are going to need desquises because everyone thinks we are dead."

"yes, and..."

"and thats all I got, what about you?"

"What are some things that we could use to get us into the city?"

"We have the holo-notebook,"

"yes, Let me restate the question. Who can we use to get back into the city?"

"Well your family is still in contact with you, and your friends from school."

"Good, we will start there." Claire stands up and starts walking in the direction of the city. Not knowing what she is planning I follow her wherever she is going.

At the nape of her neck is showing, enticing me to come and kiss it, but now is not the time. I takes all of my will power not to go over and act on my desires. When we finally get to where she wants us to be, I recognize where we stand. We stand in front of the menacing wall closing the city off from us.

"What are we doing here?"

"I am going to get onto the city's network and see if I can talk to my brother."

"Okay."

She walks over to the wall and slides down so that her legs are propped up in front of her. The holo-notebook sits in her lap. Her fingers fly on the glass surface of the device, doing something that I can't comprehend. She is so concentrated and she doesn't realize that she looks perfect. There is a little line between her furrowed brow and her lips are persed and there is a light sheen of persperation on her upper lip, but they accent the beauty that is already present. The soft slope of her nose, the brilliant green in her eyes, the rosey blush on her cheeks, the light pink coloring in her lips, and the pale tones of her skin, she is stunning.

Her cry brings me out of the trance, thinking that something is wrong; and then I see the big smile on her face. She looks up ant me and motions me over, once I sit next her I ask, "What has you so happy?"

"I established a link to the city's mainframe, and then I hacked into my brothers comuter, he had a pretty strong firewall up so it took some time, but I got through. Do you want to meet my brother?"

"Yes, I do. Be sure to encript the connection so that nobody listens in."

"I'm not that niave." She says and then grunts as if to say that I should have known better. Her fingers fly across the keyboard and a window pops up on the screen. The name on the top of the glass reads, John Willis. When her brothers face appears on the screen, I immediatly compare it to Claire's. His brown eyes are nothing like the bright green pools on Claire's face. John's hair is a light brown unlike Claire's dark brown locks. But their noses were the same, and he had the same line in between his eyebrows.