Lifelight: Calypso Returns

21.

"She was not to be harmed."

"We had no time for precautions. The guard was already there, it took hours to lose them."

The voices came to her like echoes. The room where they held her was much bigger than the hole she had been in. Harsh morning light filtered in from a large window. The bed was soft and comfortable, there was a desk and a little bookshelf. Hera got up and was relieved to feel only a twinge from her shoulder. Her arm was in a tight sling and her jaw had lost nearly all its stiffness.

Next to the desk was an opening where a door had been but was removed,hinges and all. It opened into a bathroom. There was a camera at a corner of the room above the bed. It was all much more elaborate than what her former kidnappers had. They intended for her to be there awhile.

Her room was part of a big house. The closest house she could see was more than a hundred meters away. Her captor was rich.

She refused food here too. It was a way to take back control. She imagined that she was forcing their hand.

"It is a horrible way to die, starvation. And for you, the life light will keep you much longer that a normal human. The acid will tear your stomach to pieces. If you are lucky, your lungs will go first.But I think not, I think it will be your kidneys, and then your liver..."

A short fat man had come into her room after two Saires with guns failed to make her eat. On earth he would have been a lawyer. He was so oily Hera wanted to take a shower just hearing him talk.

"Who are you?" Hera said.

"I am Mukhargaa, your holiness." He said.

"Who do you work for?"

"I cannot say."

"What do you want?"

"I want you to eat."

"No, I mean in the grand scheme of things. Looking at the bigger picture."Hera said.

"I think you know." He said.

"But I want you to say it."

"We want the life light."

"There it is. One more thing..."

"Yes your holiness."

"What day is it?"

"Ashuhu, your holiness."

The solstice was three days away. She had to get out or get a message to the guard before then. Calypso was still gone. Hera had the strange feeling that she was hiding.

Hera woke up determined to do something on the morning two days before the solstice. Her resolve was shaken by a dizzy spell. She drank water but the hunger strike was getting to her. And if she wanted to run,she would need the energy.

Instead of breakfast, her guard brought an order for her to follow him. She did not argue as a plan was starting to form. They wound through corridors as another flimsy dress swished around her. Hera really wished that denim could cross the planes.

Her guard knocked on double doors and left her standing in front of them.An elderly woman who had brought her food opened it from the inside and left as well, leaving it open. The doors opened into a suite-like bedroom. Behind the desk, by a large shelf of books, was Ardan.

"I should have known." Hera said.

"You're being foolish. Eat." He said and pointed at a tray full of baked goods.

"You coward."

"How's your shoulder?"

"It feels like I crashed onto hard wood floors."