"Issac." Zadie caught him just before he fell on his face. "What is wrong with you?"
"Sorry," he said, propping himself up on his slightly weak knees. "I got a little dizzy there."
"Are you resting enough?" She asked, and outstretched in case he fell again. "You fainted only a week ago too."
"I am fine." He said, shaking his head. "I was just a little dizzy as I said."
"I do not believe you but I will pretend I do." She said, going back to the cards tossed everywhere in her rush to him. "Are you ready?"
"One second." He wore the gloves again and pressed one. "Done."
"Seven."
"Three."
"Nine."
Issac stopped before he pressed the last number. "Nine?"
"Nine." She repeated, looking at his expression. "What's wrong now?"
"I know this number," he said, sighing. "It is his scan code. The one that Haiti and her team developed four years after the first wave. To detect those creatures."
"I see," Zadie said, a smile coming on her face. "Well, we took the long way round but we still made it here in the end, so that is fine. Don't you think so?"
"I guess. But if I knew ..." he paused, shaking his head. "Never mind."
He pressed the number nine as the keypad tinged and then turned green while Issac stared at it, annoyed.
The doors opened as Zadie stood up to her feet, cards in her hand.
A big man in a suit walked out of the room with powerful steps. "Please come in, the boss would like to see you."
Zadie looked at Issac who nodded at the man before following him into the room without another thought or a glance at her.
______________
"Welcome! Congratulations!" The man looking at the countless monitors in front of him, turned to them, smiling broadly. "You are the first to be able to meet me."
The room is brightly lit, almost like the room where everyone is interacting in. there is a small table in the middle of the room with all kinds of snacks and teacups prepared.
Behind him is a couple of monitors all lined against the wall of every inch of the walls. There was a man and a woman ten feet from Chester at all times along with some more servers.
The monitors too are divided into groups of three. Spade, Ace and Joker.
"Look. It's Haiti and Orion." Zadie whispered pointing to a monitor with the two talking with a group of people while holding a cup of champagne.
"And Araya and Soren," Issac remarked, looking at his sister laughing with Soren and a couple of other people. "She seems fine."
Zadie looked at him and smiled. "You were worried about her."
"I am more worried about what she would do." He said, looking away.
"Right."
"I must say, I am impressed." The man said standing by the table. His slick back black hair and expensive suit with the logo of the company embroidered on his shirt matched with Issac's memory perfectly.
Grinning up at Issac and Zadie, he pulled out a smoke and placed it in his mouth. "Well, I would not expect anything less from you, Issac."
"So you did know that it was me." He said, pulling up a seat for Zadie and then himself. "Why did you not just call me over?"
"I wanted to see what you would do." Chester mused, pulling up a seat for himself as servers walked to them and began pouring the tea out. "I hope you both do not mind tea. I am not trying to get wasted tonight."
"Busy night?" Issac asked, taking a sip of the tea before putting the entire bowl of sugar into the teacup.
The man looked at Issac, then to Zadie, pointing at the mountain of sugar dissolving in his tea.
"He likes anything sweet," was all she said while giving him a sad attempt at a comforting nod. "Very sweet."
"I-I see." He said, clearing his throat. "And yes, I have an important business transaction to be made tonight. What about you? You are a psychiatrist right?"
"I am." Issac nodded, drinking the tea with a look of satisfaction on his face. "Were you the one I saw at the window?"
"You saw me?" Chester poured some powder into his cup while looking at Issac, surprised. "I thought I ducked before you saw me."
"You ducked below?" Issac tilted his head to the side. "I guess I know how you disappeared so quickly now. I thought I saw a ghost or something."
"If I could disappear I w-" Chester paused when he saw him reached for the syrup coated tart and devoured it like it was nothing. "I. would. Have … done … sooner."
Eyes widening, he looked to Zadie for some explanation but she hardly batted an eye at either man.
"Are you sure your teeth are alright?" Chester asked, genuinely concerned now. "Do you not have any … cavities?"
"My teeth are prosthetic," Issac said with a straight face while chewing another sickly sweet-tart. "I do not have to worry about them rotting."
"Pros-" Chester could not finish his sentence as he stared at Issac, brows furrowing as he turned to Zadie who is still unfazed. "But, prosthetic teeth can still rot, right?"
"I don't know," Issac admitted. "I have never had a problem with them from the moment I got them. So I good … twenty or so years?"
"Wait. Wait. Wait." Chester held his hands up. "You mean to tell me that you got prosthetic teeth when you were about ten years old? What did you do to need prosthetic teeth at that age?"
"Let's just say that my old man is a stickler for … perfection," Issac said, reaching for another syrup covered tart that Chester pulled away from him.
"I think that is enough. It is enough to make you sick."
"But I don't feel-"
"I was talking about me," Chester said, giving a server the tarts to take away. "Ok? I will pack some for you to take with you."
"Ok," Issac said, beaming.
"Good." Chester gave him a wary smile. "This is … strange for me."
"If I may interrupt you two," Zadie said placing her cup down a little too hard. "We were here for a reason?"
"Oh. Right." Chester turned around and waved at the bodyguards with him. The woman walked forward and gave him a folder from under her coat. "I believe this is what you are here for."
Zadie took the folder and opened it to see profiles of different people, from high schoolers to a golden hair child.
"How did you even know where I was?" he asked, turning to Issac. "I did not give much about myself away."
"I know." He said, pointing to his coat. "You were wearing the logo of this place. Though … it was not very clear."
"So it was more of a guess than a clear idea?" The man laughed. "You continue to surprise me everyday, kid."
"You are just six years older than me." Issac crossed his arms over his chest. "I am not a kid."
"You are, when I was six, you were just born." He smirked, pointing to him. "You are a kid even now still."
"Does that make you an old man then?" Issac retorted. "If I am a kid, you are an old man, who is still looking for a wife."
The man gripped at his heart, a pained expression coming on his face, "Why you gotta hurt me like that? Low blow kid."
"I play dirty," Issac said, a small smile on his face. "Besides, you are the one that told me to use that to insult you if you ever go overboard."
"When?"
"When we first met," Issac said, pulling his glove out as he stared at Chester's hand on the table. To the left of his hand is a tray of ... milder, savoury pastries.
"Don't you remember?" He reached for the pastry, making sure to brush his hand in the process.
"Oh yeah. I think I do."
The memory that flashed in his mind is from Chester's perspective, looking at Issac as he pulled him into a building as he tried to outrun a group of Basques.
It was in flashes, like a photograph.
He shouted at Issac, startling the boy and then in the next one, he apologised. That is where he said that he could use his lack of a spouse to insult him if he ever annoyed him.
Putting the pastry to his lips, Issac made a mental note.
*You can choose the memory if you make them explicitly remember it.*
Though he could not be too sure about this theory yet. Because he could not do that with some of his patients that day itself.
Need more testing.
"What do you think?" Zadie asked, passing the folder to Issac and he looked at the profiles, reading them.
"Munich?" he asked, looking up at Chester. "This isn't Munich or anywhere near to Munich."
"What do you think that means then?" Chester asked annoyance in his voice but not at them.
"People from other cities are coming to our city during the wave."