Chris was slightly surprised when Erzketau walked past Chris's door braking at his own. Unlocking it with a band, he crossed the studio, the bed in which, Chris noted to himself, was much more than the one on which he slept, and lowered Chris onto the black tiles of a huge bathroom that accommodated not just a shower, but also a rather voluminous hot tub already filled with water. Tau nudged Chris towards the tub, holding his elbow, while the latter, without arguing, stepped inside and sank into seething hot bliss. It was not very clear to him why it was so hard to just help him shower but he had no intention of complaining.
"Is everything alright?" Tau inquired. Chris nodded, delighted to feel the lethargy drift out of his body, replaced by pleasant relaxation. "Don't fall asleep, please, while I set the table; it won't hurt us to eat after the...," he shifted his gaze to the far left corner but Chris just nodded at this sliding closer to the control panel intending to try different modes for the sake of being busy and not relaxing until he lost consciousness.
Chris felt much better after soaking a bit, although his body was still aching as if he had run a marathon on a hilly island. Entering the living room, he could not help smiling at the homely picture that opened to his gaze: Tau carefully poured steamy coffee into his glass, completing the serving of the three courses on the menu. A colorful ratatouille opened their meal, which the greenie had been working on just a few hours earlier when the conversation, which marked the beginning of a grand event, took place. A dish with pumpkin baked with cheese and a plain celery salad seasoned only with soy sauce stood in the middle of the table. On the chair closest to him, Chris found folded clothes, which he did not hesitate to put on immediately, and returned to the bathroom to shove the towel inside the dryer.
"What's the occasion?" Chris smirked, sitting down and putting the prepared napkin on his knees.
Tau looked at him trying to assess his health and mood looking for a catch or a reproach in his eyes but Chris looked quite ordinary, just a bit too flushed after taking a hot bath.
"Successful completion of the active stage of the sub-phase." He answered.
Chris nodded; they wished each other bon-appetite and sat down to supper in silence. Each of them had too much to keep quiet about. Chris drank coffee with pleasure. He could not say that he was a passionate coffee lover, but he could appreciate the taste and quality of the drink, and the one zirka offered him was very nice. He dragged with the drink as long as he could, just sitting and looking at the glass in front of him. Tau collected all the dishes, loaded them into the sink and sat down opposite Chris again, on the one hand rejoicing that he could amuse himself with Chris's presence for a few more moments, and not knowing what to think, why the young man was in no hurry to run away to his place. Maybe he forgot that they are not in the common dining room?
"Chris?" Tau decided to find out what worries him. Nevertheless, the time is already quite late and they both could use some rest. The young man raised his eyes – tired and searching; there was a question in them that Tau could not read. "Is something wrong? The red code?"
"I...," Chris finally put the empty glass on the table, lowering his gaze and feeling the blood rushing to his cheeks, "can I stay? I don't want to sleep alone. I don't punch in my sleep, honestly!" He blurted out trying to pass it as a joke.
At that precise moment, Tau was wildly glad that people did not have such a sensitive hearing as Zirkaazte, to hear the thunder-loud thumping of the interlocutor's heart. It is unlikely that Chris wanted to sleep together exactly because he wanted to sleep with Tau. But the mere fact that Tau was considered a suitable "living creature" with whom the young man needed to feel close at that moment, accelerated Tau's internal pump so much that it took him a couple of moments to process this information before answering, "Of course you can."
Chris responded with a relaxed smile and, spending no more time talking or worrying about his thoughts, crawled onto the spacious bed, almost instantly falling asleep.
Tau lay down a few minutes after Chris's movements and breathing had completely calmed down. Turning on his side, he looked at the sleeping man for a long time, while the latter, lying on his stomach, hugged the pillow. Tau had never been as close to him in his entire life as he had been that day. He frowned involuntarily, inwardly afraid that an overdose would happen, and doubting how he would be able to keep his distance when, after the vacation, they had to return to the Biosphere-II. Barely breathing, the zirka reached out with his free hand and touched a lonely wavy strand of hair curled up in a ring on the pillow. The strand was incredibly soft, like a cat's fur. Tau stuffed a chuckle and pulled his hand away as he watched the fluffy eyelashes flinch a bit. What are you dreaming of after such stormy adventures? The youth's hand that gripped the corner of the pillow, jerked sharply, straightening so much that the tips of his fingers brushed Tau's chest. The zirka froze and held his breath, peering and listening to see if Chris would wake up from his movement. Tau glanced at the palm lying next to him, then again at the sleeping face. Then, just like a sneaky picker who longed to have a piece of happiness that lay in someone else's pocket, he slowly and carefully, like a snake sliding along the bed, slid his fingers around Chris's palm, pulled it closer and, pressing to his heart as the most precious thing, pretended to be asleep so diligently that immediately dozed off.
Through his sleep, Tau felt the persistent vibration of the bracelet and while he was trying to remember why he was disturbed by the alarm when he deliberately turned it off last night, he realized that this, in fact, was not an alarm clock, but a call – someone was trying to break through with a desire to talk. Opening his eyes, he recalled the events of the past day and, turning his head to the right, was glad to see Chris still fast asleep rolled on his side with his back to Tau. He raised his hand to see who was calling and was very upset to see that it was the head of the security service Kizre since in this case, he would have to leave the bed and answer the caller. Rising as carefully and silently as possible, he picked up an earbud from the table and quietly grunted a greeting.
"Kri...," the zirka started speaking but fell silent, confused, "were you sleeping?"
"Report, you, piece of shit, it's you who's calling," half whispered half growled Tau, already strolling down the corridor, making as much distance between himself and the room, afraid to wake up Chris.
"Your word is my command," Kizre snorted and proceeded to present the information that they managed to collect. "We tried to trace the entire package from the distribution point to Byron's Bay but it never showed up. We checked all the deliveries that day and they all went to their addressees – not Chris's. That is, the flash drive was thrown directly into his box."
"What do you mean? Are you trying to tell me that this skunk came to MY island, entered MY center, sneaked into MY apartment complex, had the audacity to stand outside M-m ... ahem Newman's door, then hacked his personal key, and left their shit there!!? And you can't find and bring them to me?!" Tau's anger bellow resonated through the entire recreational area, into which he fled.
"I'm afraid that, yes, that's how it is," confessed Kizre.
"How?! Tell me how did they do it? And why didn't our cameras spot that? Did they hack them too?"
"As for the cams, yes, we found a looping code on each of those located on the fifth floor of the student building and up; the trespasser forgot to remove it after the incident. Or they just didn't bother. With the box though they used something slightly different. They've built an app that would read any key as appropriate. But this time they cleaned up after but not thoroughly enough and my guys figured out that there was a flaw in the code. It became clear only when we got to directly analyze the endpoint; no traces of intervention were found at the upper levels."
To keep himself from yelling at the subordinate and former combat partner again, Tau fiercely bit his clenched fist. Inside, he was seething with hatred for the intruder, the security system, himself, and was terrified to realize that some trash, full of ill intentions, had gotten so close to Chris.
"Go on," he managed forcefully, "what else have you found? What are your guys doing now?"
"Everything you told them to do," breathed the security guard. "They check everyone who is on the island, in particular in the RC, and one young genius is digging up into all the hyperexit check-ins; he's at seventy-one percent now and tells that it'll take another three days to complete and give some initial result." He paused for a bit. "And your list is ready."
"Yah?" Tau perked up slightly. "A lot?"
"Five."
"Is that all?"
"Well, you have set enough filters to narrow the circle: an intelligent species capable of one hundred percent mimicry of one or both races inhabiting the Earth, who would cope with the phonetic task of imposting, and did not give themselves away, please note that I quote here 'neither with their stench nor stupidity'," Kizre chuckled again, "aren't you a racist, general?"
"Anyone would've become racist, knowing everything that I happened to see there." He finally relaxed enough to sit on the edge of the sofa and stroked his left thigh absentmindedly; the leg had long since stopped whining about the past. "Okay, should I be worried?"
"I wouldn't say so, there are no particularly predatory ones," drawled Kizre, "shall I read it?"
"Mail it to me. It's time to go feed and pack. Tell that genius that he has one day. Tomorrow I'll come either for the result or for his head." He cut the call decisively without waiting for an answer.
"Are we leaving?" Tau froze hearing this coming from behind, petrified with horror and trying to figure out for how long Chris had been there and what he had heard. Then he turned around, putting on the calmest expression on his face.
"Yes, we need to check the equipment one last time, save and upload, and then get ready to depart," confirmed Tau.
"Who was that just now?" Chris asked, tilting his head to the side and squinting slightly, which pretty much answered Tau's question and he sighed inwardly. Coming up with a "safe for humans truth" has never been his favorite thing to do.
"Security," he said simply, heading to the kitchen. Chris joined in, adjusting to the zirka's wide stride.
"What did they say?"
"That no one else tried to interact with your mailbox, as well as establish any other contact. All residents and employees of the research center remained on the island while we were away, and no signals towards Australia, apart from those we know of, were intercepted.
Entering the kitchen, Tau moved to the refrigerator, and, realizing his intention to prepare breakfast, Chris calmly sat down at the table so as not to let the greenie out of sight.
"And what do they say about the package? Did they find the sender?"
"Main post office, sender unknown," Tau said, turning on the microwave.
"And how are we going to catch them?"
Tau turned around so abruptly that he hit his glass, already filled with drink, causing it to fall onto the table, splashing the contents onto the surface, and would have crashed on the floor if had not been picked up a second before the impact. A flexible long tail, the tip of which was wrapped around the very same glass, slowly rose from behind the zirka, swam in the direction of Chris, and lowered the glass onto the table with a loud thud.
"We?!" It came out sharper than Tau had intended. "We, that is, the security service, have a definite plan of how to deal with, or catch, and how to generally act in such situations. And you, Newman-kri, will not catch anyone or expose yourself to danger in any way possible while we are trying to ensure that safety for you. Is that clear?"
All his insides turned upside down, he could guess too well what other alterations this young man could get himself into in pursuit of an impostor. He has to study that damned list of five as quickly as possible; the fact that there are no dangerous species in it does not mean that someone peaceful did not come up with some ridiculous idea to mess with the Zirkaazte.
Chris saw that there was some kind of struggle going on inside the transplantologist; the zirka didn't say everything, and Chris had a suspicion that he partially knew what was bothering him. All in all, he never forgot that conversation with Leone, after the latter examined the flash drive. However, this did not mean that he could just be removed and left to watch everything on the sidelines.
"You know, I'm no longer a child, and certainly not an idiot. Everyone tells me 'don't do stupid things,' as if I've been doing this all my life. It is their right to think so. Thus, they a priori do not plan to expect deliberate actions from me, which I have always used and will continue to use. So why shouldn't you, you and the security service, accept such an asset into your arsenal?" said Chris with icy calmness, without the slightest tremor, standing his ground under a black squint, which did not promise anything good. "I do not exclude that my greatest desire is to make sure that the attack was not directed specifically at me but simply at a randomly selected person working in the center. Though, if we consider, no matter how unlikely the seeming option that my mailbox was not chosen by accident, then it makes sense to develop some general plan of action. Suppose I will be contacted by those who wanted to sow the seed of doubt they think they've planted in me, and begin to test the waters further. What should I answer? Just ignore them? Seriously now? Scare them away so that they go and reshape their script, and choose other, more suitable target? Or would it be wiser to give them some food for ambition, so that, thinking that the bait has been swallowed, they launch their tentacles deeper, bringing their plan closer to implementation, while we narrow the circle of suspects?"
Tau exhaled noisily through his nose, pursing his lips as he wiped away the spilled coffee.
Chris, seeing his hesitance, continued, "You yourself assert that there is no danger. And I agree; I do not understand what is there to fear," Chris chuckled, leaning back in his chair relaxingly, "that's probably just the dying handful of those religious nutters who went digging under the friendly race of the Earth all over again, right?"
Listening to what was said, Tau held on with all his might not to flinch in his face. Thank all the gods that the boy has no idea how much deeper this problem is, and that the probability of the involvement of humans, in this case, is moving closer to zero with the speed of a bullet every second.
"Most likely," Tau managed to squeeze out, turning away from Chris.
"Here you go. You can trust me, you know," he held back a grin, which struggled its way to his face, along with the words 'after everything that happened between us' burning on his tongue. "To act together, in this case, is the only right thing, I am sure of that."
After breakfast, the two scientists briskly managed the last work on the reef, collected instruments, data, and packed their things. At two o'clock in the afternoon, the good-natured former colleague of Tau Barry sailed them back, and in the evening, the travelers safely loaded into the shuttle that carried them home. When onboard, both engaged themselves in data gathered on the reef; since they had to wrap quickly, they did not have time to structure the information. In addition, they did discuss several approximate algorithms for action in case an uninvited guest wants to get in touch with Chris. Truth to be told, they did not realize that while the intruder or intruders decided to do so, everyone would almost forget about the incident with the flash drive.
The most important thing upon arrival at the research center was to behave naturally. And, as it should be in such cases, this task has been fucked up profoundly.
While Chris was in close proximity to Tau, cut off from the world on the island, their sort of obligatory sex did not take up so much space in his thoughts. Everything happened too unexpectedly while Chris was in a partially clouded state of mind. In addition, afterward, both were busy with other important things. However, after the arrival to the Biosphere, and his apartment, left alone with himself and having an unlimited amount of time to think about what had happened, Chris realized how much more confusing things had become.
The next day Erzketau realized that the young man was unquestionably restless because of what happened between them in Australia. Chris hid his eyes almost every time Tau's gaze lingered on him during qualifying briefings or in the staff room between surgeries, despite the fact that the young man had never done this before, meeting any gaze openly, sometimes even embarrassing the gazer by staring back at them. He tensed as their hands touched over the operating table. Tau noticed him less and less at dinners in the common dining room and, which did not fit into the framework of everyday communication, Chris stopped going to the gym.
At first, Tau tried not to pay attention to all these little things. Perhaps he imagined it, or he was so afraid that this would happen that now he began to notice things that were not really there. A senior assistant could have a million reasons to skip a couple of weeks of workouts. However, he couldn't help but become more annoyed, noticing to himself all these minor signs that Chris was avoiding him.
And now, sitting almost in the farthest corner of the audience and taking notes, it seemed that Chris paid more attention to his neighbor on the left, who, by a "happy" coincidence, turned out to be Chris's ex-boyfriend, never mind married. The latter was actively whispering something to Chris's ear and Tau angrily turned to the board, switching the slide, and when he turned back to the audience, he caught Chris's confused look on him, which the young man immediately hid behind his long bangs.
Dang it! Seething with indignation, the zirka continued his instructions, deliberately not looking into that very corner and making a fat nick in his memory to come up with a way to fix the situation as soon as possible. After everything that happened on the remote island, he finally made an informed decision to try to reduce the working distance between them; hoped that, on the contrary, a joint departure would contribute to this. He cannot allow everything to fall apart the moment he dared to hope for something!
"You're a lucky bastard," Sandro whispered to Chris out of the blue in the middle of the lecture.
"What are you talking about?" Chris asked, not taking his eyes off the tablet in front of him.
"To love and be loved – there is nothing better in this world! I was really worried that you would die without knowing the real feeling."
"What?" Chris tried to follow the information provided by the zirka and at the same time delve into the nonsense uttered by his neighbor to the left but he spoke with riddles as if on purpose and Chris had to break away from the schemes and turn his attention to the restless young daddy. Why is he even here if he has already decided to give up biology?
"What do you mean 'what'? Can't you see – he's crazy about you, look how he glares at us. I bet he's ready to tear me into molecules!" he scoffed, full of joy that Chris still couldn't grasp. "Are you together yet?"
"Wha..." Chris, still not getting a thing, looked where Sandro was nodding, caught Erzketau's sizzling glance, immediately turned away, and stared at the blondie with disbelief. Something whizzed and clicked in his head, he closed his eyes with force, calling his gears to order. "Have you… how long ago did you notice?"
"Pfft…," Sandro rolled his eyes and opened the reader on his tablet, where completely different diagrams, which had nothing to do with the specialization of the zirka standing behind the pulpit, were shown. "A hundred years ago, probably."
"I'm serious," Chris perked up. Thoughts that had fallen asleep in the morning were again alarmed, sensing a grain of clue that was peeking outside.
"Well, seriously, about five years already," uttered his ex, thoughtfully winding a golden curl on his finger. "What about you?"
"Huh?" said Chris, feeling everything inside him go numb.
"Well, you are not indifferent to him, either, are you?"
Is he indifferent or not?
How exactly does Chris feel about Tau indeed?
How does Tau feel about him?
Questions swarmed in his head like a flock of belligerent wasps, they surrounded him and started stinging painfully, then paralyzing. A short conversation with Sandro only added oil to the seething stream of memories and reflections of the young man. Walking around the room, he looked into them all separately, carefully studying, as if for the first time.
Were all the looks that the zirka gave him were full of contempt for the human race? When did the black gaze directed at him begin to show hints and glimpses of what was not visible on the surface? At what point did Chris first think that Erzketau made him stand out from all the other students? Did he deserve this with his scientific achievements, or could there be other reasons?
The zirka, who relaxed so much without prying eyes on the island, working and communicating only with Chris, enjoying his vacation, let Chris into that part of his life that he had never revealed to anyone else. What for? Just for the sake of removing the target from the research center? Help the investigation? But couldn't he have been sent to any other place? What difference did it make where and with whom Chris would've been relocated? Did it really matter who watches him while on a trip?
Shit.
He cupped his head in his hands, stopping. The freshest and most dazzling memories flooded his consciousness in a blistering stream.
… How the zirka carefully avoided him when Chris started ovulating…
… How Tau got angry and resisted the invitation to sex…
… Did he really succumb to persuasion "in the name of science and experiment"?
… That pain reflected in the eyes, which devoured Chris while he was drowning in pleasure and tenderness that Tau's fingers, hugs, and lips gave him…
Shit! The Actual Fucking SHIT!
What have I done!?