CLOUD NINE

Chapter 44

Alizeh glared at Jurian in disbelief. She hadn't known Jurian would bring a little child into the dangerous game. She lowered her head in shame. What were they doing? Alizeh felt terrible for the child who was innocent to her father's crimes.

She looked up to find Jurian staring at her. His eyes glowed behind those rows of long curly feminine lashes what Alizeh so loved. 'Read me' they seemed to say. Alizeh de-activated her own mental shield very subtly and ventured into his mind.

"It's a three dimensional, moving hologram. We're projecting an image of his daughter from his home into our own base," he said out loud in his mind, "his daughter is not really here. Derek put cameras and stealthily had captured a video which we made into this life-sized version of his daughter."

Alizeh gave a grateful nod, reprimanding herself for ever thinking that Jurian could hurt a little child.

"So, Mister President. Will you help us or will you not?"

"Fine..." the President mewed in defeat.
Jurian set the video recorder on play, "It better look natural."

"Dear citizens of Audra. I'm sorry for the interruptions in the earlier live video but I need to complete my announcements from earlier," he started speaking, "I'm working from an incognito location now, owing to the ..." he faltered for a bit.

"Rebels," Alizeh, who had turned invisible with Jurian, supplied in his ears.

"The rebels yeah, that made an attempt on me and I had to go into hiding so...I hereby announce that I'll grant a portion of the state treasury to build up new cloud and transfer people from Cloud Nine..."

"Tell them why," Jurian growled.

"Ahh...yes, because it has been brought to my notice that the cloud is malfunctioning."

"Good job," Alizeh announced, turning off the recording and transferring it immediately.

Alizeh had a sudden idea. She shuffled through her bag, lying on one corner of the gloomy room "Now, I have a little thing here for you to sign."

The president stared at her in disbelief. No wonder he pondering on how the trashed bill which he had refused to sign came to the stranger standing before him.

"The reservations will be done away with. Sign quickly," Alizeh gave the fakest and the brightest smile to him.

Jurian undid his right hand. His hands shook but Mr Fletcher pulled through a signature and collapsed on the chair. Alizeh could see a muscle twitching on his face. He wasn't used to being ordered around.

"Sent and done, look at the cheer," Cyanide's voice trilled on the other end as an image of people jumping and running on the streets of Cloud Nine came into focus. Alizeh's stomach swelled in pride.

Who had said that writers can only dream? They can make reality out of mere dreams.

"Well then, on to spot two," she turned to Jurian. He nodded in sync. Before the president could utter even a squeak, Jurian had plunged a mild sedative in his system.

Then he undid the cables and together the two jumped into the portal, dragging the president along. He didn't resist much but Alizeh had to use all of her energy to haul the three of them to the new location.

She lay back down flat on the cold cement floor, her entire body getting drenched in sweat. Her breathing came heavy and her chest rose and fell fast as she struggled to get her grip. Once the President was secured, Jurian quickly came to her and dropped to the floor, beside her. Gently picking her up in his strong arms, he hugged her tightly.

"You shouldn't do this anymore. This is drawing the life out of you," he mused softly.

"I know," Alizeh peered at her watch. A sense of dread crept over her, but she quickly hid her hand before Jurian could study her face.

"You brought us to the last location, right? " his eyes scanned their surroundings.

They were in the basement of the building on Cloud one with heavy beams and darkened walls. A window was placed high up and there was a narrow iron door, jabbed into a space at the farthest end of the closed basement.

Alizeh gave a quick glance at the president. He was still knocked out. "Yes, because we can't teleport again, so I wanted it to be in here. We will do our job and escape. Then we'll detonate the whole place."

"This place is a fucking death trap," Jurian muttered, "Let's get this done, quick and then we can escape. What about him?" he added as an afterthought.

Alizeh stayed quiet. Killing people wasn't something she had given a thought to earlier but if the President was alive, he could prevent all that from happening, whatever he had said earlier. Jurian looked into her eyes and it was as if he could see into her soul.

"Well, I'll do it. It's better you have one less death on your conscience. I've killed already. This won't be new," there was so much resentment and anger in his voice, but Alizeh was too tired to protest. Him or her, what would it matter? The guilt will be equal. The benefits may someday overshadow the guilt.

Alizeh whipped out the remote and punched in the password. Then she pressed the button marked '1' in glowing red.

"I detonated our earlier place. Now go and set this shit up," she urged.

Jurian quickly moved to obey, while she sat there for a while, taking in all that was happening. If something went wrong, there was no escape from this place.