A Butterscotch Sky Ch. 05

I was sitting on the balcony drinking a beer while watching airplanes taking off and landing a kilometer away. Aly had been drawn to the particular condominium because of its view. Something about aviation simply simmered in her spirit, and the eastern view overlooking Presidential Airport was, indeed, somewhat habit-forming for me, too. I was glad the glass windows and doors separating the interior from the balcony was efficient at attenuating the din.

My comm bleeped a tone signaling a visitor at the door. I looked at the display to see who it was.

"What in the actual fuck ?" I said to myself as I stood to go inside.

"What in the hell do you want?" I shouted through the door.

"Open the door, Sean," said the voice in a whisper through the comm. "Please. Don't make me stand here looking like a fool."

"Tell me why I should. Give me a reason."

"What the heck, Sean? Come on. Why are you playing around? You know this is the first time in more than a year I've been allowed to see you, or I would have come during your recovery at the hospital. I need to see you. Face to face. Please let me in."

I sighed in resignation and opened the door.

"What do you want?"

"You," Dione Wilcox answered.

If I'd have anticipated it, I would have tried to prevent it, but she leapt through the door and embraced me around my neck. She jumped up a few inches and wrapped her legs around my hips. Despite my struggle, she managed to cling, and she kissed me.

"God," she whispered, "You look fantastic , Sean!"

"Damn it, woman!" I yelled. "Get off of me! What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

Hearing my words, she climbed off of me and took two steps back. The expression on her face as she smoothed her mussed clothing was difficult to decode. It appeared to me as a blend of embarrassment, bewilderment, and yeah, maybe a little lust.

"I thought you'd be happy to see me. Please tell me you're not pissed off again," she whispered, linking her thumbs together and bracing her hands at her chest.

My own confusion mounted. Her posture seemed so tense. She appeared guarded and uncertain. Everything she was displaying was a far cry from her confident, gregarious self, two of the traits I was first attracted to, and two I found endearing. The woman standing there, an apparent bundle of nerves, was a shadow of the woman I'd once known and the one that had stepped through the door mere moments before.

"Pissed off again ? What else have you done that I should be pissed about? Jeez, Dione. You're probably wondering how I could hold a grudge for two years, aren't you. But remember. In my own mind, only a month passed between the time I discovered your little hobby and when you showed up at the hospital to rub it all in my face. I've barely been awake for nine of the last twenty-four months, remember?

"Yeah, Dione, next week will be the second anniversary of when Simi noticed your little accidental slip in your video message. One little forgotten box of condoms on the night table."

"You're confusing me, Sean! I already explained that! I explained it to you a long time ago! It was meant to entice you! I wanted you to know I was anticipating your return! Nothing ever happened with your alternate or anyone else!" she cried, blinking tears off her eyelashes.

The skin at the nape of my neck went cold, and I subconsciously rubbed it with my hand. Nothing was making any sense.

"There's only a handful of people who know where I'm living now. I've only been here for two weeks. My name isn't even on the building's directory yet! And, for that matter, how the hell did you get past the receptionists' desk?"

Her eyes widened as she studied me in silence for several seconds.

"Sean?" she whimpered. "Did you have another medical incident during Orion's return?"

"Whoa , woman, you'd better⁠—Damn it , Dione! How the hell do you know the name of the mission? That was like beyond classified!"

"My God," she gasped, "something did happen to you! You're scaring me!"

"What are you talking about? Are you trying to gaslight me? There's not a damned thing wrong with me. Yeah, I'm not yet as physically fit as I was two years ago, but my faculties are just fine, thank you!"

"You've lost something , Sean. We messaged each other, and you're acting like you don't remember any of it."

I'm certain bewilderment and shock painted my face while hers held a look of fear and grief.

"You're the one who's lost your mind, Dione. The last message I ever received from you was your admission that you were sleeping around on me during Pleiades."

"I never sent a message saying anything like that."

I scoffed loudly. "Dione! The last time you and I ever spoke was when you slapped me and suggested I go screw myself. Do you not remember that ?!"

"Of course I remember!" Her cries amplified. "And I told you why in the video message I sent the day you were arrested for an alleged murder."

I was stunned to silence. Not because of what she'd said, but because I found myself beginning to believe her.

"I couldn't have received any messages that day, Dione. CM security confiscated my comm's chip. The replacements they gave us during the training and mission were all tightly controlled."

"I wasn't aware of that, but it somehow makes sense," Dione said. She took two more steps back and sat clumsily on an ottoman. Her eyes were searching the room, the floor, anything. I could tell she was struggling to think.

"I swear to God I sent it, Sean," she whispered, "and you responded. You responded via text and said you were relieved to hear it."

"I most certainly did not respond to something I never received."

Her eyes focused, and they rose to meet mine.

"The box. You know, the box of condoms? I told you I put the box there because I wanted you to notice and think about how we were going⁠—I was seriously trying to get you worked up a little. You said the drugs they made you take messed it up⁠—that they made it impossible for you to get aroused over anything. And you apologized for your accusation."

I walked to the door and opened it. I pointed through it, gesturing for her to depart.

"Listen to me, Sean. Please!" she said, ignoring my unspoken demand. "I think someone at the agency might have been sending both of us messages. Since your comm was controlled, it's very possible."

"What?! What agency?"

"Central Intelligence, Sean!"

"What are you talking about, Dione?!"

"I work for the CIA!" she whispered. "Please , Sean! Close the door! This could land us both in a world of hurt if anyone overhears!"

I did.

"You'd better start from the beginning, Dione, and I mean the very beginning."

Her explanation bordered on the preposterous.

"So let me see if I am hearing you correctly," I interrupted after she'd spoken continuously for almost ten minutes.

"Okay," she said cautiously.

"You work for the CIA. You've worked there for ten years, but policy prohibits people in your position from disclosing that to anyone, even a spouse, unless said spouse signs a non-disclosure agreement with federally binding authority," I began with the indisputably true fact. She'd shown me her identification badge.

"Yes. It's why I had to tell you I was working as a liaison at Partner Nations and kept every description of my job to a minimum. And I swear to God, Sean, if anyone finds out what I've told you, I could go to federal prison for two years and certainly will never be able to find employment with something like that on my record, so, if you're going to exact revenge on me, please don't do it that way."

"I'll keep it in mind. The last truthful message you sent me was the one with the box."

"No. Every message I sent you was truthful. I was the one who wrote the messages you received during Orion which you said were unsigned. They were certainly signed when I transmitted them, but whoever was interfering must have deleted some of the metadata, or even blocked or crafted other messages entirely. I sent you at least a dozen. From what you've said, it sounds like you only received three or four of them. I swear, Sean, I wasn't trying to hide. I thought you understood what was going on because of your replies."

"I replied to none during Orion, and only those last few that sol near the end of Pleiades."

"And I received none of the ones you said you wrote, only others which you said weren't from you," she calmly stated. "It appears we've both been played by the proverbial man in the middle."

"Exactly when did you learn what was going on in North Korea?"

"I didn't learn about it until late March, but even then, only a little about it. I'm not sure when the agency discovered it, but I was read in and briefed because I happened to be involved with you. I thought I was helping !"

"Go on. Tell me more."

"The almost back-to-back launches from Korea back in early February two years ago were all observed by the ballistic missile early warning systems, but, because they didn't have ballistic trajectories, alarms weren't sounded to the military. Within days, North Korea was publicly claiming they were either lunar or Venusian probes or satellites being launched for scientific research.

"That was the first lie they were caught in. The fact that Central Mission had placed instrumentation on both the moon and Venus confirmed it wasn't true. The seismic monitors saw no indication of any craft landing or crashing on either. We knew they had to be heading to nowhere but Mars."

I knew the date the Koreans had landed, and Dione's depiction of their launch date meant we passed each other nearly one third of our way back to Earth. Three rockets with two souls aboard each headed inward toward Earth while four carrying twelve headed toward Mars.

"Who was responsible for creating the narrative of our deaths or my supposed imprisonment for murdering my colleague?"

"I have no idea, Sean. But remember. They made me a part of that mess, too."

"When you came to the hospital and⁠—"

"If you'd had your bandages off your eyes, you'd have been able to tell I was in tears when I did what I was told to do," she said. She reached apologetically toward me, caught herself, and stopped her motion.

"I couldn't see, Dione, but I felt them on my cheek," I confessed.

"Yeah. Sean, I went home from there and bawled my brains out for three days straight. I swear on my father's grave I did," she said. "Not just because I was ordered to strike you, but because it all worked."

I suddenly felt convicted. I knew Dione. Hell, we'd been a couple for more than six years. Her father passed away unexpectedly while I was manning Pleiades Three. It devastated her. I knew there was no way she'd blithely invoke his memory in a false oath.

"Who was with you?"

"Who was who?"

"There was a man with you. When you stormed out of my hospital room, I heard him say 'nice job' or something like that. I assumed he was your latest conquest."

"No, Sean! It was Acting Deputy Direc⁠—no, Sean. It wasn't a conquest. I can't name names, but he is the man my supervisor reports to."

"The man crafting the plan?"

"Like I said before, I don't know. But he was definitely involved in that little part of it. It's why I told you later it was an order. I risked going to prison for revealing that because the program hasn't been declassified yet. But … I couldn't live with myself. I had to tell you."

"Was he the one modifying the communications?"

"I don't know that, either, but he could have, or been ordering it. Anyone else higher up wouldn't have given a crap about such minutiae, and no one at Central knew anything else, at least as far as I was ever told. As far as I know, the only reason I'm not behind bars already is because whoever was doing that doesn't want it public yet, and a trial would air the dirty laundry. So, yeah. I get to live with that possibility hanging over my head."

"So you did what you were ordered to do which implies you agreed with the reasoning, yes? Why was it so important that we be separated?"

"It was so you wouldn't be distracted worrying about me here at home, and to somehow, well, to furth⁠—"

"⁠—er the narrative," I simultaneously said along with her.

I actually chuckled, then sat silently for another few moments, considering my next question. I was hesitant to bring up the subject, but knew it was ultimately an inevitable facet of the new circumstances.

"One of my crew, Alyonka Sabratova, mentioned how you and she had an argument when you crossed paths at the hospital before I was awakened. She said she sensed a touch of jealousy from you."

"Well, yeah. I admit I felt a little jealous that some other woman was hovering near you. But she explained she was concerned for your well-being and was only trying to ensure you were being properly cared for."

"That's all she said?" I asked.

"Pretty much. Yeah."

Bam. She'd sunk the nail flush to the board. I totally and completely believed everything she'd told me. It was preposterous. Too preposterous to have been false. Its Brobdingnagian proportions fit right into the rest of the tumultuous reality of the prior two years. Despite her intentions, she couldn't have known she'd driven a heavy maul into my soul. To say I was conflicted would be the understatement of the century.

"You never spoke to her afterward?"

"No. Why would I?"

As I observed Dione's expression, a face I'd found revolting for the prior two years morphed back to the one I'd fallen in love with during our postdocs. She daubed her eyes with a tissue.

"Sean, did you receive the message I sent the day before Orion launched from Mars?" she asked tentatively.

I knew exactly which message she was referring to, and I remember it ending with the words, 'I love you.'

"Sean?" she whispered after the pregnant pause came to term.

"Yeah, sweetie. I did."

The affectionate appellation slipped in habit, from long ingrained and very comfortable habit … and I realized I didn't regret I'd said it because her lips twitched into an infinitesimal but noticeable smile, the sort I'd noticed every single time we were together when we were a couple.

"Do you believe what I've said?" she timidly asked.

I resignedly sighed because I knew I was about to crush her.

"Yes, Dione, I do," I admitted, "but there's something you need to know."

"Anything. Tell me."

"Dione …"

"What is it, Sean?" she encouraged, a thin but detectable veil of worry reappearing.

I had to force myself to continue.

"Alyonka Sabratova and I are engaged. We're getting married next weekend."

Bring to mind the sensations you perceive in the hands, eyes, and ears when the rind of a ripe watermelon yields to a sharp, slender knife and the blade plunges into the meat within. That is what I felt as I watched Dione's face transition again, but from relieved to stunned. I was disgusted with myself because it felt like I'd stabbed her in the gut.

"Oh," she said, quickly hiding her shock.

She stepped to me, placed a hand on my upper arm with a gentle, platonic caress, and offered me a nervous, polite smile. I could see right through it.

"Congratulations, Sean."

Though her well-wishes didn't seem insincere, the catch in her voice betrayed her feigned happiness. She leaned forward on her tiptoes, placed her lips on mine for a couple of tender seconds. Her kiss was remarkably soft. I didn't reject or back away from it. I willingly accepted it. The scent and flavor of the kiss was immediately familiar.

"I'm sorry, Sean," she whispered, turning toward the door. "I should have never come here. It's probably best if you forget everything that's happened since I arrived."

I heard her breath catch with a sniffle before she stepped quickly through my door and closed it. I collapsed into one of the new chairs that'd never been sat in, staring at my floor.

I must have sat there in a fog for a while because, when my conscious mind returned, it was dark outside.

"All lights on! Locate my comm!" I shouted to the ever-attentive home automation system. The space immediately illuminated.

"Your communication device appears to be on your person," was the calm reply.

I rose to my feet and looked around me, only to discover I'd been sitting on it. I tapped furiously on its display then held it to my ear.

"Hell, Sean, do you know what time it is here?" groaned the voice that answered, inducing in me an intense measure of déjà vu.

"I don't know. I'm assuming you're in Sweden, so what, two o'clock or something?"

"Close enough. Why are you calling me at this time of night?"

"Because Dione Wilcox just came by my new place."

"What?" he gasped. "No, wait. Give me a minute. I need a piss."

"What did she want?" he asked when he returned to the call.

I caught myself before I began to relate the entire conversation. I swear, the last thing I would want to see was my girlf⁠—my ex -girlfriend being incarcerated for telling me nothing but the truth.

"I can't go into a lot of detail, Simi, but she convinced⁠—shit. Give me a second to figure out what I can tell you and what I can't."

"What are you talking about?"

"All I can say is … with everything I've been told, including what you yourself told me about what Dione was doing, going all the way back to the video I showed you the month before we left Mars for the Pleiades Six return transit was an absolute lie."

"Whoa! Slow down, my friend. How do you know?"

"Simi, she convinced me that her apparent infidelity was engineered as much as the entire mission, in fact, it was a necessary part of it. She wasn't cheating on me," I said. "And … come to think of it, who told you she was ?"

"It came in a message," he answered.

"From whom?"

"I don't know. It was unsigned, but it was particularly specific and detailed."

"Unsigned, huh? A common motif."

"Wait! You are not about to tell me that you two are getting⁠—"

"I'm screwed, Simi! I think I'm still in love with her!"

Two tones sounded in my ear. Simi was requesting a switch to video. I accepted.

"Sean, look at me, my brother. I need to see your eyes."

"Weird, but okay," I replied, swiping the connection from my personal comm to the integrated infotainment system, moving it to a large display on the wall. I stood in front of it.

"You look like shit," he said. "Tell me everything Dione told you."

"I can't. Her employer has her under a very strict confidentiality agreement."

"Yet she decided to violate it and told you certain things?"

"Yeah."

"It was enough to convince you she's not lying to you?"

"Yes."

"Then what are you going to do? You and Alyonka are having your ceremony next weekend."

"I know! I don't know what I should do!"

I heard and saw him sigh deeply.

"What was the last thing Dione said to you?"

"When I realized what was happening, I told her about Aly and me. Obviously, it came as a surprise to her. Given how our lives were being manipulated, somehow, she wasn't aware. She kissed me, Simi, and then basically said to forget everything she said. Then she left."

"I would think she suddenly realized she has put you in one hell of a tough situation."

"I doubt she was doing it intentionally. She simply didn't know, and I'm pretty damned sure it wasn't the ending she was expecting."