Iqi: Arrival

Chapter Ten

 I regretted my recent life decisions. I never really had to make any before and now I was spying for my mother's home planet on members of said planet. As Katherine walked out of the stunning white mansion towards us on the beach I couldn't imagine her to be capable of all that President Tapiwa. She was dressed casually. She wore a pink tee-shirt with some Earth writing, baby blue jeans and white sneakers. The only thing that reminded me she was a scientist was her white lab coat that blew in the wind with her hair.

"Iqi! I'm so glad you came!" she beamed.

I couldn't help but smile back... or notice Hermione's scowl.

"Yes, thank you for inviting us Ms. Ahuja," Hermione smiled politely.

"Of course," Katherine smiled back, she turned to me. "Ler and Kym are so excited to meet you. The others too."

"The other scientists?" I asked.

"No, the other Selkie," she smiled.

"Our reports say that you only have two Selkie in possession," one of my security stepped forward.

"Do they?" Katherine mused. "You must have been misinformed. Also the Selkie are not my property they are my guests. Come. Let's go inside."

We followed her up towards mansion where her own security stood on guard. The doors opened on their own as we stepped into the pristine and white... home? The mansion looked nothing like a lab or research facility on the inside. It looked like a family home with furniture and pictures on the walls. We followed Katherine into the living room confused as two of her security guards trailed us.

"Here we are," Katherine said cheerfully. "Now I apologize for the breach of privacy but I will have to have you all searched before we enter the facility. Jeremy," she said gesturing to one of the security guards.

They began to pat us down carefully being gentle but thorough. Hermione wasn't having it.

"Is this all necessary?" she complained. "Why invite us if you're going to treat us like criminals?"

Katherine laughed. "Oh trust me this is a lot kinder than the security protocol they had when I first joined. I was blind, deaf and handcuffed for most of my journey to SOUS."

A few of the security chuckled along with her.

"Well, now that that's out of the way let's head downstairs," Katherine touched her hand to the wall and a panel lit up scanning her hand print. Suddenly it seemed as if the wall split in two and opened to a sleek white elevator. She gestured for us to enter.

"Now do you guys want the short or long tour of the facilities?" She asked as the doors closed behind us.

"The long tour," I said quickly remembering that President Tapiwa wanted me to get a good idea of the facilities capabilities.

"Long tour it is then," she smiled as the doors opened again.

"Katherine! Did you know that there's a Sword Art Online movie!" I heard a male voice call as we stepped out of the elevator.

"Noam," Katherine replied as we exited the elevator. "You remember Iqi right? From the banquet."

The young man I had seen with Katherine that night was sitting on a couch with his laptop on his lap. He grinned as we entered.

"Iqi! My man! What's good?" he addressed me familiarly.

"I'm well, thank you," I said not knowing how else to respond.

He stood up and walked towards us. I noticed with a bit of curiosity he had green eyes. I didn't think any humans did, perhaps he was wearing contacts to change his eye color. Humans are weird like that.