Six Symbols

Chapter 3. Max's

  The afternoon was a torture for Leon, he could understand what William said, if they rejected whatever life changing adventure William was about to propose the next day they will continue their lives as if nothing happened, if they accepted, that was the tricky part, logic dictated that they would ask them to dramatically change their lives, he had been working in the same place since he got his doctorate, back when he was 22, he was used to “Dev-Si”, he had spend a lot of time making it what it was, and yet, he knew that if he left things would continue to work the same.

What was the nature of this proposal? Why did they needed both of them? How did they know that Katherine would be with him?. His thoughts moved to Katherine, he felt protective towards her, overall and even when the age difference wasn't that big, he thought she was just a girl, maybe since he had spent his whole life around people much older than him he had started to think of himself as an older guy, Katherine was a very smart, and self sufficient girl, she did not know it, but she was one of the few persons that had non work related conversations with him, he liked her but wasn't ready to admit it, so he suppressed that thought.

In the way back from work both had taken their own vehicles, as they did not know what would happen during that afternoon, it was close to six when he went into the underground parking, the sun was starting to go down, and everything had a grayed yellow tint, he waited for Katherine in the building's lobby. He sat in the couch facing the entrance, next to a tall plant, the couch was too soft, he felt we was sinking in it, there was a lot of movement around, behind him the elevators came up and down with that annoying electronic bell sound that was contributing to his anxiety, or maybe it was the other way around, the anxiety was making the sound annoying. From his sunken position he saw Kate's motorcycle park in from of the building, she came down and started removing the helmet, which had messed up her hair, the motorcycle somehow seemed too big for the girl.

Leon started to fight his way out of the couch, while Katherine was coming to meet him trying to get her hair to move naturally again, they met half way.

- Sorry for the delay - Kate said - Harris caught me on my way out.

- I saw. Harris must be the angriest guy ever to have Napoleon complex.

- Oh, come on, don´t be mean - she tried to sound as if she really meant that - I have a feeling he will be angrier tomorrow.

- Maybe, I just have no patience for his nonsense. I guess he knows that.

Katherine´s hair was looking much nicer now, and it seemed like that was all she needed to have under control before she decided it was time to go.

- If we want to put our minds at ease once and for all we should get going. - She said.

- I have a lot of questions, but it kind of takes out the fun from trying to discover it myself.

As Leon said that they started walking toward the door, Katherine knew he loved a great puzzle, he was always looking for that brain teaser that he could not solve, and as far as she knew his only failure was on finding it. She herself was keen to puzzles and games, she liked to think of herself as a good strategist, that was the way Leon and her became friends, sharing some puzzles and links about mazes and that sort of stuff, she was better than him at chess, which the played by e-mail, he was better at Go.

When they reach the park they could see nobody there, the place was empty except for some people passing by, they looked around for William, he was nowhere, when they finally decided to head back, as they reached the sidewalk a large gray SUV stopped a little ahead from them, it just seemed to appear out of nowhere, it did not make any sound, and they did not perceive it in their peripheral vision, the back door opened, William came out, he looked a lot different, his hair was still in dreadlocks, but he was wearing a clean white shirt and gray pants and jacket, not quite a suite, but very elegant, as he talked they noticed the Jamaican accent had disappeared, his voice seemed different, a bit deeper