Journey of Rick Heiden Ch. 37-38

"We should discuss this in person," he said.

I paused a moment and asked myself if I should trust him. "Okay, where?"

"You can meet me at 69.8 East Dahlia Lane at sunset. When you get there, go inside. They won't let you in unless you adhere to the strict dress code. Tonight, the theme is Sheer Madness. You must wear shoes and a sheer pair of shorts, but also remember to wear something that glows in the dark."

"Okay, I'll see you there."

I knew I had just gotten an invitation to a bloody blackout beddo party as if I had needed that just then. It hadn't sounded like an appropriate venue to have a conversation, but seeing as I had never gone to one, I couldn't know that. Until then, I hadn't known what to do with myself.

Had Amaré disappeared? It worried me something had happened to him. Perhaps, he hadn't wished to speak to anyone. I wanted to let my friends know of the development. I took off and landed at the penthouse. After the conversation with Gabe, and the curious circumstance with Amaré, I felt uneasy, but it gave me something else to focus on.

I had completed my assistance with the Trust before noon at 13:47, according to the clock on the ship. Aiden had left with Maggie to give her a tour of the city and wasn't home when I arrived. I hadn't felt hungry, but I ate something anyway.

After Mason discussed it with him, Baden jumped at the chance to finish off another floor of the building. I thought he might complain that turning the first floor into a gymnasium wouldn't fit into the traditional theme, but he didn't see a problem with it as we lived in a modern world, and if I wanted to incorporate it, he felt confident he could make it work. Mason also informed me Venn had already begun to load the equipment from warehouse 872 into a lorry. It held everything from a failed gymnasium east of Central. He would deliver it all to our building as soon as possible, and he sent appreciation for having relieved him of it. He said it took up considerable warehouse space.

I found Pearce on the ladder browsing our library on the 4th floor.

"You're stressed," he said, climbing down with an open book in his hand. "I can hear it in your voice, and I know why because Magnar told me. You need to let off some steam and tire yourself out, use that pent-up energy on something productive. You may as well begin a new routine. The bots will finish the gym in a few days. So, in the meantime, your doctor has some orders." He snapped the book shut, and with insistence, pushed me up the stairs with one hand, holding his book with the other. "Get your gym clothes on and go workout at the local gym for a few hours. I don't want you to come home until you're dragging your ass from the lift in utter exhaustion and starvation is setting in. At that point, we'll feed you and put you to bed. Am I clear?"

"Yes, doctor." I couldn't deny I had stress; my jaw clenched.

At 17:30, Venn and I turned the corner of our block on the way home from the gym to find bots had removed a first-floor side window. They were handing through the opening all manner of equipment from an open-bed lorry. I had achieved exhaustion from hours of weightlifting and hadn't had the energy to show any curiosity, but Venn assured me it would all fit.

My arms and legs felt like dead weight, and I had difficulty getting to the lift. The tiredness worked. My mental state had improved. I felt calmer inside, and I couldn't even think about Cadmar or David. I thought of nothing but food and sleeping for a few hours before I would meet Gabe. I said nothing to anyone about my meeting, as I figured someone might try to stop me.

That I had done as he asked, pleased Pearce. I crawled up the staircase backward, moving from one step to the next, and it took all my energy to get to the top. Once I had, I laid back on the floor with the rest of me still on the staircase. I couldn't lift my arms to my face to eat without shaking. Pearce fed me quite a lot of protein-rich foods. He and Mason put me to sleep in my bed for a change. Before Mason left, I asked him to wake me up at 22:00, and if he could find me some accessories to wear that glowed in the dark and a pair of white shorts like the black ones I owned, that I would appreciate it.

Mason exceeded my expectations. He woke me at 22:00, and with Venn's assistance, Mason found a hair of stretchy trunk-like black shorts that looked relatively sheer and armbands that one wears above the biceps that had glowed blue quite brilliantly even indoors with the lights on. They looked like one inch wide, silicone dog collars, buckles and all. He told me of a store that made specialty items for beddo parties of various themes. Mason handed me something that Venn asked him to give me. I had needed one for a while, but for some reason, I had yet to acquire it: a watch. It looked like a black-faced analog watch with a titanium casing and band. It measured the full day of 29 hours, 32 minutes, and 16 seconds before it started over again. I thanked Venn for thinking of it.

I felt much better, not back to normal, but I could function again. After having rested, I felt steadier on my feet and could move my arms. It amazed me how easily the nanos repaired muscle tissue if we fed them the protein they needed. I showered and trimmed my beard before preparing to leave. I wore regular clothing, so I wouldn't attract attention and put what I intended to wear that evening, along with my wrist-lamp and pistols, into a canvas bag.

"If you're going out, you should eat first," I heard Pearce's voice say. I thought he was talking to me as I left the bedroom.

"Aiden and I are going to a restaurant we saw in the Parisian district earlier today," said Maggie, dressed in an adorable, flouncy little, low-cut, black number.

"Venn said that people had parties planned all over the city." Aiden looked smart in his new coal color suit and tie, an appropriate mode of dress for dining in a Parisian restaurant.

"What will you do tonight, Rick?" asked Maggie. "You should get out. People are celebrating because of you."

"I am going to a party myself," I said.

Pearce leaned over to me and whispered. "As long as it's not with you know who, I see no reason not to." Pearce noticed my watch. "Who invited you to a party?"

"Gabe did, of all people," I said.

"Gabe," said Pearce in dismay. "Gabe doesn't do parties."

"Well, he does now," I said, "because he invited me to one."

"Ugh, such a drag," said Pearce. "I would say, 'have fun,' but there's no chance of that. I'll see you at home in an hour at most."

"Thanks," I said.

"So, where did that come from?" he asked, referring to my watch.

"Venn made it, and if I know him, it's not just a watch. Everything he makes has at least two uses, no telling what else it does." I held up my arm for Pearce and Aiden to see it.

"Nice!" said Aiden. "Why do you get the first crack at all of Venn's new toys?"

"Don't make it sound like such a privilege," I said. "I'm just Venn's guinea pig, and I know it."

Pearce gave Aiden a wide-eyed glance. "That puts things in perspective."

Maggie just shook her head and laughed.

I grabbed a quick bite to eat and left it in the ship. I landed down the street from the house at 69.8 East Dahlia Lane just as the sun sank beyond the horizon to the west. I changed my clothes inside the ship, and with no way to hide them, I left my pistols in the passenger seat. The shorts that Mason found for me fit like a second skin and left little to the imagination. The ship attracted unwanted attention, but I couldn't do much about it.

The temperature and humidity outside felt comfortable. And despite the lower light level, several people recognized me that I didn't know. They wore nothing but glowing objects, shoes, and semi-transparent shorts, about to enter the enormous mansion used for beddo parties.

At the mammoth neoclassical three-story made of white stone, I expected to hear loud music and see the house draped in decoration. Oddly, it looked as unfestive as any of the others on the block. Venn kept arriving with more people for a party that, from the outside, seemed as tranquil as the Primorium.

A few people milled about under the portico, near white columns so rotund their circumferences reminded me of redwood trees. A small cluster of people waited at the door to enter the building. Someone worked the door checking to ensure everyone followed that night's dress code. When my turn came, the man on the stool took a curious look at me. I could tell he was smiling with his eyes, but his mouth didn't express it.

"Good evening, Mr. Heiden. My name is Jasper." He reached out to shake my hand. He looked young, like most everyone on Jiyū. He had long black hair in a mass of curls, and he had an elongated nose. I would remember him even without my memory enhancement. "I never expected to see you here," he said.

A wall of muscle, shirtless, and wearing black shorts came to Jasper from inside the building. The man had short, straight, black hair, and his skin color told me he was an avid patron of the beach. He looked at me with his synthetic eyes, and I saw he wore a Trust ring when he rested his meaty hand on Jasper's shoulder. He leaned over and whispered to him.

"I see," said Jasper. "My apologies, Mr. Heiden, they await you on the third floor." He spoke as if he couldn't believe it. A few people behind me overheard, and I noted several gasps. When I turned to see the people behind me, I didn't recognize any of them, but their expressions told me everything I needed to know. Only guests went to the third floor, and the rarity of such occasions told me One City's grapevine would hear all about my invitation by morning.

"I'm Fennec," said the muscular man of few words with a smooth basso voice. "Follow me."

Apart from Amaré, I had never encountered anyone as massive as Fennec. "You must be the bouncer," I said to him in jest.

He looked at me in curiosity. "I'm security."

No other apparent means of reaching the third floor existed except the lift. They had used an old-fashioned open-cage lift with intricate bronze metalwork, polished to a mirror-like finish. I could see all its bronze mechanical workings, which they kept in immaculate condition inside their glass container. The foyer had tile in black and tan marble, so the lift, as they lit it, contrasted the rest of its surroundings. The marble staircase wrapped around the cage to the second floor, at which point the lift vanished into the square hole cut into the ceiling that people considered a location of mystery and much speculation by regular beddo partygoers.

Fennec and I stood waiting for the lift.

"What's this?" he asked.

He turned me to face him. He placed one dinner plate-sized hand on my head, and with his other arm, weighted by muscles the size of hams, he snatched something above my head. I didn't know what was happening. When he lifted his hand from my head, I looked him in the eye, and I noticed his eyes had red irises. He sneered a deep frown as he brought his fist before my eyes. He squeezed it, and I heard a faint crunch. He opened his hand, and in his palm, lay the remnants of a tiny machine.

"No Attendants," he said, his contorted mouth expressing more unhappiness with me than before.

I looked him in the eye. "I suppose it would do no good to tell you I didn't know about that."

Fennec gave me a contemptuous glance and shoved me into the lift the instant he drew back the bronze accordion door.

"I should have worn my pistols," I said to myself.

Slamming the door between us, he pushed the button, and the lift ascended to the third floor.