Elle, her hair pulled back and wearing an airy flowing gown, synthetic silk, carried her hunting falcon on a leather glove on her wrist. The glass dome rose eight stories above the gardens below, and beneath those the lava tunnels snaked into the mine shafts. Elle's gardens produced vegetables and fruits aided by arrays of artificial lighting mounted to the supports of the dome.
She signaled the servants below her.
Down in the foliage, her balding butler released a rabbit from a cage. Elle and her falcon snapped to locate the prey scurrying through the greenery six stories beneath them.
Wafting its wings with power to spare the bird launched.
The white rabbit sprinted around the tall greens.
Elle leaned well over the railing to catch the show from her vantage point.
Her falcon screeched and swooped onto its confused game. With a snatch, it soared again with the bunny in its talons. Flying up to the glass dome, the predator flew victory circles, and then the lifeless rabbit dropped at Elle's feet.
The falcon flapped back to perch on her wrist. She smiled lovingly and caressed the bird's wings. Whipping about, she strolled the falcon back out of the dome and through a security door. Servants dealt with the discarded carcass and mess.
Elle locked a secure metal door. The cell was small, dark and filled with computers. Mack's image appeared instantly on the main screen.
"Are you alone?" he asked.
"Yes. Following the protocols."
"Duncan's coming."
"Here tonight? The Prime Minister?"
"There's more. So much more. I shiver when I think the things I saw, or may have seen this morning."
"That's to be expected. It was a very brutal engagement, Mack. I can only imagine―"
"No. After. A cave."
"A cave?"
"Have you ever heard of the Martian Mystics?"
Elle grined. "The Mystics of Mars? Yeah. The legend."
"Legend, yes. They predate human colonization."
"That is the story."
"And they see the future."
"Mack??? What are you trying to tell me?"
"Elle. I love you."
"Love you too, darling. Now what's this about Mystics? You've seen one?"
"All the big events happen in threes."
"That's deaths, honey, celebrity deaths."
"Yes, threes. I'm coming. Another hour out. I'm with Duncan's caravan. Empty the wine cellars. Best of everything. Have them get on it."
"Yes, sir." She saluted. "...I need to know more the second you arrive. I need to know everything."
"There's really not much to tell, other than Duncan named Mallory as Vice Prime Minister."
She tensed up in the recliner seat. "So what's the line of succession?"
"Well, under the Emergency Powers it falls to Secretary of Defenses, but under normal Consti―"
"Stop! Can't you see?" Elle jolted to attention in the cramped security cell.
"See what?"
"Your big victory, he's going to lift the Emergency Powers and cut you out. So much for risking your neck for him―"
