Triptych

Middle - Part XI

They return to their house at sunset, weary and weak. Kalp falls into his unconscious phase on the sofa while watching the chickens, and wakes in the dark to the sound of a chirruping ear piece. Basil answers and turns even whiter as he listens. Kalp can hear every word from the other end, and this time he does not bother to be polite and tune it out: "Lalonde tried to push Pias out of the way and...the bullet went straight through. We lost both of them. I'm sorry, Doctor Grey, I know you and Lalonde were close."

"I haven't worked with her in years," Basil says softly. "Not since we finished the Array." But there are already tears dotting his eyelashes. He scrubs at his eyes and pulls his fingers away wet, staring at the moisture as if startled to learn that he still has any tears left to cry. Humans are sometimes bizarrely unaware of their own bodily functions.

"We need you to come in, Doctor."

"I can't. Gwen will need — "

"This is not a request, Doctor Grey," the voice says sternly. "We found another one of the...devices. We think it was the shooter's. We're still not sure what it does and...well, you need to come in."

Basil sighs, every bone weary, his posture drooped and his forehead pressed against the wall. He scrubs his face with his hands.

"Fine," he says. "Yes. I'll leave in an hour."

"Now, Doctor."

Basil screws up his mouth, frowns and says, "Yes, yes. Now." He clicks off.

Kalp is sitting up on the sofa, and Basil turns to look right at him. Like he knew the whole time that Kalp was awake. And is not sorry Kalp listened in on a clearly top secret conversation. But Basil does not tell Kalp that Pias is dead, either.

Kalp did not know Pias, but he feels that he deserves the right to be told all the same.

"When Gwen gets back from the chippy, tell her I'm sorry, I got called in."

"Yes," Kalp says. Does Basil know that Kalp heard everything, and that's why he's not bothering to relay anything about Lalonde and Pias? Or is he flatly not allowed? Is this Basil's way of getting around the rules?

Maybe.

Kalp's still not sure whether he should be hurt by this, or not. "Tell Gwen I..." he trails off and stares at his hands. "I'll be back when I'm back."

"Yes," Kalp says softly. He lies back down and pretends to go back into unconsciousness while Basil gathers up his briefcase and BlackBerry, and walks out the front door.

Kalp desperately hopes that Basil will walk back in it.

The package.

It is only now, brought on by the thin-strung silence that permeates the dark, strained atmosphere of the house, that Kalp remembers that someone sent him a package. He feels immediately guilty. What if it had been a warning about Pias?

He goes upstairs and retrieves it from the back of the top of his chest of drawers. It has almost fallen down the crack in the back, covered in the very beginnings of a thin layer of dust and several magazines which Kalp has read from cover to cover to alleviate boredom during his confinement.

He sits in his nest, noting that the sheets smell stale and need to be washed — maybe he will do it tomorrow — and tears the paper wrapping open carefully with his nails.

There is a single sheet of paper inside the box, folded many times over to fit inside and inscribed in even, machine-generated hand to disguise its origin. It is indeed addressed to him. It reads:

Dearest Kalp;

You do not yet know me, but you are known to me.

You must listen very seriously to what I say. Your future depends on it. You will be next to be killed otherwise.