EIGHTY-THREE: Chinese Water Treatment

             Jason made sense.  Jason would follow her. They all knew Jason was obsessed with her mother.

            She re-suited and re-shimmered as Hopeful and walked out the door. She didn’t dare port again. Not with Miasmen so close. Not if one of those Miasmen was Simon. She walked back into the lounge and was careful to wake the stool.

            “Excuse me, that run-in with the clothes replicator must’ve fried my brain. What area is Jason Simmons in, I’m drawing a blank?”

            “I’m surprised Hopeful, he’s your favorite client. He’s on the purple hall in room A4. It’s a single room.”

            “That would explain the purple pajamas.”

            “Pajamas?” the stool asked puzzled. “You seem frazzled would you like me to have a Chinese Water Treatment scheduled for you.”

            “No, that won’t be necessary.”

            “Very well,” said the stool almost sounding disappointed.

            “Can you remind me, again, what day was I scheduled to return from my long break, if I hadn’t been called in?”

            “11 days, 9 hours and 15 minutes.”

            “Schedule at CWT for me in 11 days, 15 hours and 45 minutes.”

            “That would be about your lunch break.”

            “All the better.”

            Arous smiled to herself and walked down the hall. As she did she turned to wink at the Spartan Guard that she had winked at before but his face was frozen with a mix of fear in his eyes. She thought it was odd but didn’t let it ruffle her. She turned the corner and as she was just out of ear shot she tipped the water bottle in her jacket porting herself to the purple wing through another leaky sink.  The door on the room she faced was Jason Simmons. The hall was empty and she could just hear heavy breathing inside the door. She pushed it open and walked in.

            She got him up and awake without screaming. He was a little slow on the uptake but evidently Hopeful had a rapport with Jason.

            “Lady Grey wants to see you, yes, but you have to be quiet, just let me put this jacket on you.”

            “No!”

            “Shhh. It’s the only way. I can’t have you walking around un-restrained. Look I won’t tighten it.”

            “What if something happens,” asked Jason as he looked at her with his dilated pupils.

            “If something happens, I’ll leave it loose enough for you to get out,” said Arous.  “We’ve got to hurry. She wants to speak to you before . . . before it’s too late.”

            “Oh, okay.”

            “You know where she is, right? You’ve been found sleeping outside her room before, right?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Why don’t I let you lead the way?”

            “Okay.”

            He took her a winding way through the maze of tunnels from purple to pink to turquoise to grey. From around the corner she could see where the Spartan Guard stood. She pulled him back around the corner.

            “Jason.”

            “Yeah.”

            “I need you to do something first.”

            “I thought you said she wanted to see me.”

            “She does. But you see those two guards outside the door?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Well, if we’re going to get into her room we need to get them out from in front of her door. So, I need you to be a distraction. What you have to do is run down the hall and scream your fool head off.  And just as they take off after you I want you to run back this way. Understand?”

            “What happens if . . . ?”

            “If ‘if’ happens then just take off that jacket and start throwing punches, understand?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Ready?”

            “Yeah,” said Jason with excited eyes.

            “Go.”

            Jason started running down the hall screaming. Just as Arous thought, they left their post and started chasing him. They’d seen him before, they knew his game but they wouldn’t expect that his jacket would come off. Arous ported just to in front of her door and walked in.

            “Who are you?”

            Captain of the Spartan Guard, Captain Simon Hodges-Baire was there. Even though she knew it was possible it still threw her and for a split second she was offend by his tone as he questioned her.

            “Novice Hopeful, you have no business in here. This is off-limits to you.”

            She regained her footing enough to notice shimmering grey shapes in the room in front of what looked like a cage of fog. The shimmering shapes were cocooned Miasmen, she had seen right through them and once her brain identified them she could see their shapes though they remained faceless.

            “Resident Hopeful!”

            “I’m sorry, I must have walked into the wrong room.”

            Past the fog she could see nothing, no figure hovering inside. She only had a few seconds.  Arous felt her shimmer begin to break down.

            Simon’s voice was a thin rasp of vibrating words.  “Where are the guards?”

            Simon pushed past her and into the hall. As he opened the door a flash of red light invaded the room.  For a split second the light fully outlined the shapes of the Miasmen and showed their faces. One looked familiar but she was more as the red light permeated the cage and illumined a frail silver figure hunched in the cage.

            “Mom?”