Frontier

Chapter Two

The sniper is aimed at my head, and it keeps like that for a few moments. Now I can see the face of the woman dressed in a black tank top and a vest of the same color, whose brown hair is tied in a ponytail. The sun above her makes my head ache, and I close my eyes again.

"Maxine Powell?" she asks.

I open my eyes.

"Who are you?"

The woman lowers the gun, passes it to one hand, and then extends the other to me.

"I'm Jane Sagan," she says. "I work for David Saffo. He sent me after you, so I followed you here. You should feel grateful for that."

I ignore her hand and start to stand up on my own.

"What does David want this time? I don't​ owe him anything. "

"He's expanding the exploration project to the Other Side."

"And I have already said that I have no intention of returning to the Other Side. Pathfinders have been disconnected for some time, and I'm grateful for that. By the way, tell David that one time or another the government will find out that he's been doing clandestine explorations to the Other Side and he's gonna be executed ruthlessly. Doesn't he know that continuing to use the portals can bring the machines back here and fuck the rest of the planet? There was a reason for the government to start controlling the portals and prevent our passage to Earth Two. Believe the words of a Pathfinder, girl."

Jane holds the sniper back with both hands. We stood facing each other. A wind arrives in the region and throws dust around us.

"Don't​ you wanna at least hear what I have to say?" she asks.

I begin to walk to the car in which the Hunters have placed the pieces of machines.

"I would listen, but as you can see, I have more important things to do. I need to take these things with me and sell them. I'm gonna have a nice quiet time in a dome with the money I'm gonna earn from this."

Jane laughs.

"Then that's it? You stopped being a Pathfinder to become a junk thief?"

I close the trunk of the car and say to her, "For your information, they stole these things from me first. Okay, maybe not all of that, but you know what they say, anything else is a bonus."

Jane takes a few steps toward me.

"That's a shame. Lt. Reynolds will be disappointed when he finds out that you ignored a message from him to sell junk."

I stop with the car door half open and slowly turn to her with a frown.

"Lt. Reynolds is dead. He died on the Other Side along with ... along with all the rest."

"He's not dead. He found one of the groups sent by David from the Other Side and told them to send a message to you."

"If that's true, why didn't​ you bring him back?"

"He didn't​ want to come. He said he had things to deal with on the Other Side. Something important ... something related to the message he sent you."

"And where's that fucking message?"

Jane takes a small disk out of her pocket and throws it at me. I pick it up in the air and look at its bluish edges.

"You're gonna need a projector and electric power," says Jane.

I put the disc in my pocket, look at the landscape around us and then start to get into the car.

"This better not be a trick."

And Jane says, "David and I will be waiting for you."

So I take the road with the disc in my pocket and with an idea in my mind: "If Lt. Reynolds is really alive on the other side ... does that mean Lisa can be there too?"