A Time to Mourn A Time to Dance - A SciFi Paranormal Romantic Suspense Novella

Chapter Two

True to his word, Jason emerged a mere ten minutes later, looking fresh, clean, and far more handsome than his photos had ever shown. He was a newspaper reporter, so I'd only found a scattering of videos of him. None had even came close to showing what he was truly like in person.

He was carrying his glass, now empty, and I took up the bottle to bring it over to one of the teak tables. He refilled his glass and we sat, side by side, on the couch.

It could have been Remulon Six. It could have been that time we'd met – virtually, of course - after infiltrating the defense minister's private network and digging out those details about the secret prison system in Kikwit. He'd ended up winning a Pulitzer for that series. We'd gone online, found a cantina down an alley, and a private corner booth ...

His smile flashed warm. "So, how do you like it here in Manila?"

"I haven't been off-ship," I told him. "We primarily chose Manila because it's easier to throw watchers off the trail here than, say, Paris or Rome. You know how the Philippines are. So many islands. Countless people coming and going. If any of you were followed, we'd be able to figure that out and lose the tail. Once everyone's on board, of course, the sub itself will be nearly impossible to find."

"So how many of us are there?"

"Twelve. You'll be meeting them soon enough. Everyone's scheduled to come in tonight, and so far there haven't been any issues reported."

"Oh? Who's on the attendee list?"

I smiled. "Like I said, you'll be meeting them soon enough. No need for me to ruin the surprise."

He chuckled. "And I suppose the topic of our meeting is best held a surprise, too? Until we're all here?"

I touched my glass to his. "You know it is. If we'd have wanted to give that away, we'd have told you already."

"We? How many on board?"

"Well, you're here, of course. Then there's the captain and the cook. So three, all together, in addition to me."

His eyes did flash surprise at that, although he quickly reined it in. "That's a small crew for a ship this size."

I gave a mild shrug. "The ship has the latest technology, as you saw. The captain is reasonably good with mechanical things. Also, the issues we'll be discussing are fairly sensitive. At least for now, the fewer people involved, the better it is for everyone. If we have to bring in more people later on, we can discuss that as a group."

"Later on. You mean after this first week passes."

I nodded. "We have seven days. Seven days to evaluate the situation and to confer about what we'll do. By the end of the seven days some might choose to leave us. Others will decide to stay. It'll be after that splitting point that the core group will make their plans to move forward."

"Move forward with ...?"

I chuckled and took another drink of my Champagne. "Move forward with the issues we discuss over these seven days."

He nodded at me. "So you write books about meditation?"

My cheeks tinted as the focus twisted from the project to me. "Meditation, consciousness, and philosophy. They're all fairly intertwined. You saw The Matrix? It regurgitated the philosophies of Rene Descartes. It provided the masses with an easier-to-understand version of those complex concepts."

His gaze twinkled. "Cogito ergo sum."

"Yes, I think, therefore I am. The one truth we can be fairly sure of is that our own brain thinks. But anything from our senses? Those signals could be manipulated. Faulty. Think of all those people with color-blindness who think the world they see is the way everyone else sees it. Or those with hearing issues."