Flight of Fancy

Dawson was getting impatient. Nothing was moving. There was nothing worse than stagnation and boredom. The feed of the camera revealed nothing important. Even the translations of their conversations proved utterly pointless, as they spoke mostly of trivial things. As far as they could see, there was nothing out of the ordinary happening and the family seemed oblivious about David’s whereabouts. Naturally, they couldn’t see all the dialogues because it was impossible to watch everything 100 percent of the time, but if there was something significant going in, they would have noticed it.

Unless there’s a conspiracy.

One reason why Dawson was so good at his job was because he saw conspiracies everywhere and he knew how to report them to his boss. It was the same when it came to him. When he’d see his co-workers speaking in subdued voices, he always assumed the worst and believed they were saying something against him or even plotting God knew what. His paranoid brain made him a perfect crime watcher, but it was often unrealistic and bordering on mental illness. There was no proof that his agents were plotting against him and hiding things from him on purpose.

Except Kemp.

He couldn’t trust Kemp with anything. She had proven herself to be more than merely an obedient drone, but dared to think for herself and offer her own ideas and insights. That made her a threat and Dawson hoped that they wouldn’t cross swords. He could take her on mentally, however physically it was a different matter. Kemp was a physical specimen, trained in most martial arts techniques, including the deadly Krav Maga. Eventually, she would hopefully disappear from his life or he would have to somehow deal with her in a subversive way. In any case, she wouldn’t stand in his way.

Dawson’s thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone.

It’s them.

“Yes?” he answered.

“Mr. Dawson, you’re getting new orders,” said the familiar voice on the other line. “You have instructions to apprehend David’s wife and parents. Take them into custody and have them watched by at least four guards at all times, along with the usual camera surveillance. If there’s even a hint of any foul play, dispose of them immediately.”

“You mean…” Dawson’s voice was shaky.

“Yes,” replied the voice. “Dawson, this is a matter of the utmost state importance. If we don’t act decisively, we could be facing a disaster the scale of which we’ve never seen.”

With that said, Dawson came to his senses and realised there were more important matters at stake than a couple of unimportant lives.

“I understand,” replied Dawson. “When do you want us to go in?”

“Tonight at midnight,” was the decisive reply. “That way there will be less chance of any interference from neighbours or any media showing up. Do it quickly and efficiently.”

“Understood,” said Dawson. “You can rely on me.”

“I know we can,” said the smug voice. “Report back once it’s done.”

Before Dawson could answer, his contact had hung up. Dawson put the phone on the night stand next to his bed and sat down.

The time has finally come!

David spent the next few hours just walking around the ship in a nervous daze. There was no chance of calming down or relaxing. It would be a very important moment.

Then, hopefully peace at last.

It was a long time coming. They deserved a bit of happiness and respite from the crazy upside down world. He just needed to get through these times. It was always like this. He would always get into a state of nervous confusion, but somehow his brain and body managed to lead him through the stressful moments. He had learned to rely on it. Somehow, his autopilot had gotten him through many hard times. It was the story of ‘just make it through the next few hours’ or ‘just make it through the next few days’. Sometimes it would even take months, but the philosophy always worked. He remembered the time he worked in a secure unit of a mental ward because he needed a job. The work was extremely dangerous, but every day he told himself the mantra and days went by, slowly at first and a bit faster later on. He had quit the job in the end, but couldn’t believe how long he lasted there, considering the kind of shit that was going on in there. It was almost funny in a tragic way now, but it had certainly not been funny back then.

This one should be a lot easier. The stakes were a bit higher, true, but in a few hours it should be all over and they would be a happy family once more.

A little while ago, he wanted to watch the space outside the ship and ask the ship to do so, but after a while it just seemed too agoraphobic, way too big for just one person to deal with. Now, all he could do was pace around. He stopped outside the gardens and decided to go in. Perhaps the sight of this vat hall would somehow inspire him. Just thinking what he and Ana could plant in there might take his mind off the situation. He was just about to go in when he was interrupted by that old familiar voice of Wolf’s: “Hello David. I’m sorry I left you for a while. But I had to make sure.”

“Sure of what?” asked David.

“I had to see that it was indeed time,” replied Wolf.

David waited patiently for Wolf to continue, but when he didn’t, David asked: “So is it time?”

“Yes,” said Wolf. “It’s probably best you make your way to the shuttle. Just follow the line son the floor.”

David almost jumped from excitement and practically ran in the direction of the arrows pointing him towards the shuttle bay. The journey seemed to take forever, but it was bound to because the ship was huge. A few minutes later, the arrows led him to a door and David assumed that was the door to the shuttle bay. He hesitated for a while, then approached the door, which opened instantly. At first, he couldn’t make out anything in the big hall. It seemed like yet another empty space. Then, all of a sudden, a shape started coming into focus. It seemed almost liquid in structure.

“Is that it?” asked David, supposing Wolf knew what he meant.

“Yes,” answered Wolf. “Once you get closer, you will see the floor of the shuttle and you can step in. You can leave the walls translucent on the inside or you can make them solid.”

“Leave it as it is,” said David. “That is, assuming people from the outside can’t see into the shuttle.”

“No, they can’t,” laughed Wolf. “Now, come on, we really don’t have much time to lose.”

David stepped into the shuttle, but wondered why Wolf waited until this moment to collect the family if time was obviously running out.

Why not earlier?

David supposed it didn’t matter in the long run, but had a feeling that Wolf was playing some kind of game. Perhaps it was his idea of a joke. To David, however, it wasn’t funny and he wished he was in on the joke or whatever Wolf’s plan was.

Why leave it so late?

David sat down on one of the chairs in the shuttle. There was no visible seat belt, so he didn’t even bother asking Wolf about it. There seemed to be a slight sensation, but David thought he had probably imagined it. He was wondering when they would get going.

“We’re on our way now,” said Wolf, reading his thoughts again.

“How?” came David’s shocked response. “I hardly felt anything.”

That is the point,” was Wolf’s sarcastic reply.

As David finally realised that the walls were still translucent, he saw that the ship was indeed moving. Not only that, it was speeding down towards what appeared to be a blue sphere, which David guessed was Earth.

Here I come Ana!

Ana was counting down the minutes until David’s arrival, even though she didn’t know exactly when he’d be showing up. All that mattered was that he would come and take her away. Wherever they went, it didn’t matter, as long as they were together.

In a way, she was tired of always living like a gypsy, moving from place to place, following jobs and homes all around ex Yugoslavia.

And now, who knows where we’re going!

Still, in another way she felt that she hadn’t found her home yet, a place where she belonged. Somehow, her intuition told her that wherever she and David went this time, it would become home – perhaps not right away but in time.

There was really not much to prepare. She had only one bag, where she put one of everything – one pair of underwear, one T-shirt and trousers. She decided she would wear a coat and that would be it. She wouldn’t even pack a toothbrush.

That will have to wait.

The only thing she couldn’t forget was their cat. The cat was like a part of the family and Ana couldn’t imagine waking up in the morning without Liza staring down at her from one of their wardrobes.

Ana looked out of the window longingly, thinking how nice it would be to escape to some other place and not have to run all the time, either because of jobs, love or corruption.

I know there’s peace out there somewhere.

She thought she saw a shooting star or a fast moving object out of the window, but when she looked again, the object had disappeared.

It was probably my imagination.

When you were watching shooting stars, your eyes sometimes played tricks on you, making you think you saw something when in fact there was nothing there. It had probably been an incident like that. There was no meteor shower scheduled or anything like that. They had both kept track of things like that and occasionally went outside to see if they could catch a glimpse of a celestial phenomenon. They had seen some strange things in the sky, things that were hard to explain with science, but they had both come to the conclusion that there were alien forces out there, either watching over us or doing something more sinister. If it was sinister, it really didn’t matter because various governments were doing a good enough job.

Ana put on her coat and went downstairs. David’s parents weren’t in their apartment, but she already knew that. She had heard their voices outside. She went outside and found them sitting on a bench on the terrace.

“Hey,” she said. “It’s a bit cold to sit outside, don’t you think?”

“Ah,” replied her mother-in-law. “It’s not that bad. It’s a nice clear night as well.”

“Yes,” agreed Ana’s father-in-law. “I even thought I saw a shooting star.”

“Oh, give it a rest,” said David’s mother. “It was just a trick of the eyes. There’s no meteor showers scheduled at this time.”

There was a pleasant silence between them, a sort of warmth that develops through time and mutual fondness. It went beyond words, it was all about feelings and love. Ana felt a wave of sadness wash over her, just thinking that these two people would no longer be a part of her life in just a little while.

“Yes, it’s a nice night,” agreed Ana. “So clear and cold. When we go back in, I just want to go snuggle up on the couch and drink a warm cup of cocoa.”

“Mmm,” agreed her mother-in-law. “That sounds nice.”

“But I have a feeling I won’t be able to do that tonight,” said Ana. “I feel that I’ll have to leave this beautiful home soon.”

There was another long silence. Ana could tell that David’s parents were thinking of what to say, but she knew there wasn’t an appropriate response to that. It would be a sentimental farewell, especially if David showed up. Looking at them here on their terrace, she couldn’t imagine them ever parting with their lovely home.

“Who knows what’s waiting for us,” said David’s mother. “We can just live our lives the best we can and be the best people possible.”

At first, Ana though it had no bearing on their current predicament, but then understood the sentiment. Still, she didn’t quite agree with it. Being best, good and kind got you nowhere in this world. People merely took advantage of you and would even conspire to make you look like a criminal, as was the case with David.

The night was very calm, but all of a sudden there was a gust of wind, which picked up the leaves on the ground.

“Ooh,” said David’s mother. “It’s getting a bit chilly and windy. We should probably go back in.”

As she said this, there was another gust of strong wind. Ana looked just next to the terrace, to a small clearing where they sometimes parked their cars. The wind seemed to be stronger there, picking up leaves and pebbles. It somehow didn’t look right or natural. It was almost as if there was a ghost who had just appeared.

The entire family seemed transfixed by the phenomenon, staring at the play of wind and soil. All of a sudden, there was a sound and Ana thought she could see a light shimmering in the air, where they were all watching. She thought it was another trick of the eyes. Then the shimmering reappeared and became clearer. Her in-laws looked at her and she knew they could see it as well. The shimmering continued increasing in frequency, until it completely disappeared and a figure came into view. At first, Ana wasn’t quite sure who it was because of the glow around the figure, but soon she realised that she was looking at the love of her life.

“David,” she whispered. Still, the moment of complete realisation was elusive. She couldn’t quite grasp the situation.

“David!” yelled her father-in-law, interrupting her paralysis. “It’s David!” Her father-in-law seemed beside himself with joy, but Ana still couldn’t do anything sensible.

“Come!” cried the figure that Ana recognised as David. “Come on board!”

That seemed to wake Ana and she finally came to, looking at her in-laws.

“Are you coming?” she asked, beckoning to David. “It’s now or never.”

They looked at each other and their looks seemed to say ‘why not’. They jumped towards where David was and joined him. Ana was almost up to him as she remembered: “Liza! I need to get the cat!”

“Go!” said David. “Quickly!”

Ana ran into the house and found Liza hiding under their coffee table, obviously afraid of the goings-on outside.

“Come on Liza,” she beckoned, but the cat was having none of it. Ana decided this was no time for pussyfooting. She grabbed Liza from under the table and picked her up, running downstairs with her, not caring about all the scratches she would endure on the way.

I’ll deal with them later.

She brought Liza to the terrace and was approaching David, when she heard a voice behind her...

The team assembled in Dawson’s room several minutes before the arranged time. You could tell everyone was a excited to finally get some action. Even Kemp seemed to be a bit more animated than she usually was. Dawson couldn’t see any hitches happening. Regardless of what he thought of Kemp and her ambitions, she was still a professional and would fulfill her duties to the fullest. Another look at the team was enough to assure him that all would be fine.

“Are we ready?” he asked, the team merely nodding their approval, as was standard practice. “Everyone know what they have to do?”

Again, nods all over. It was pretty self-explanatory – arrive, knock arrest. If there was any resistance, use force. Later on, they would have to use some more unsavoury techniques to extract information, but for now it was fairly simple.

They all hastened down the stairs of the hotel and took their usual seats in the car and off they went to perhaps the most important moment in Dawson’s life.

The drive to the farm seemed to take forever, even though Dawson was sure Laura was being her usual efficient self. The entire drive down there, Dawson was watching the camera feed on his laptop. The family had gathered outside, which could make their job a bit harder because it meant they had more escape routes. Still, Dawson didn’t foresee too many difficulties. The family didn’t seem like the running type. They seemed to be having a warm family moment and Dawson hated those, mostly because they were sorely lacking in his life, even though he would never admit that. They all sat around in comfortable human warmth. Dawson thought he could see a slight shimmer on the screen, just to the right of the family, where there was a clearing.

Probably just a trick of the eyes.

The family was focusing on some leaves picked up by the wind. They were completely engrossed in it.

People get excited by the strangest things.

Dawson looked in the direction of the leaves himself, thinking at first that there was nothing peculiar about it. Then, he thought he could see another shimmer just above the leaves. It reminded him of the moment when he was watching David on their camera feed, when David was in the family forest, apparently staring into empty space.

A panic arose in Dawson and all of a sudden he was sure that something was happening. Every fibre of his body was telling him that this was important.

“Laura, step on it!” he yelled out and Laura obeyed without questioning. They sped through the curves of the sleek tarmacked road, which was in really good shape for a backward country. Laura cut corners and accelerated into every straight, all the while without putting them in danger. Luckily, there wasn’t much traffic on the road and she only had to overtake a few vehicles, which had moved to the side anyway because of the blue flashing lights and siren emanating from the car.

Dawson continued looking at the screen. Thus far, the shimmering remained there, the vibrations growing more frequent. He didn’t think anything would become of the phenomenon, but they had to get there and see it for themselves. The shimmering continued and then revealed a figure. It took Dawson a few moments to put two and two together and recognise the figure. HE wasn’t sure at first, but zooming in convinced him.

“David!” he cried. “David is there!”

The whole team looked at him and although it seemed impossible, Laura sped up even more, making the car almost fly across the road. They were coming towards the turning for the country road. Laura turned the car around the corner, narrowly missing a car coming from the back road onto the main road, the driver apparently livid, but calmed down once he saw the flashing light. Laura then took them up the road and they were finally at the turn toward the farm. They couldn’t park the car right by the house because there was farm equipment outside the barn and they couldn’t drive on that particular dirt road. Laura stopped the car and they dashed out toward the house and David.

Even though Dawson was nowhere nearly as fit as the rest of them, he kept up with the pace of the run. He wanted to be there in the front lines, to see everything first and react the way a leader should.

As they approached David, who seemed to be standing with his parents in the middle of the shivering phenomenon, Dawson could see David’s wife running towards the family, holding something in her hands.

A cat?! A fucking cat!

Although Dawson wasn’t quite sure what was happening, he was sure it wasn’t anything good. It looked like the family would be getting away without any repercussions. He and his team were rooted to their places, apparently absorbed by what was happening. It was there and then that Dawson decided upon an action that would determine his career. He took his gun out of its holster and pointed it at Ana. Somehow that seemed sweeter than firing at David and would probably hurt David more. He was just about to pull the trigger as he felt a pain in his neck and then everything went dark and he was out like a light.

As Ana was approaching David, ready to fall into his embrace with their cat in between, she had to turn around because of the noise behind her. She could see the four American agents approaching them. Although her legs felt heavy like lead, she managed to walk toward David and stepped next to him. She turned around to face the agents, then she heard a click and saw the leading agent pointing the gun directly into her face. She closed her eyes and hoped for a miracle.

Not now that we found each other again!

There seemed to be no sound. When she opened her eyes again, there was a translucent wall in front of her face. She could still make out the lead agent. He was now lying on the ground, with one of the female agents standing behind him. Then, everything turned into a blur as they lifted up and went into the sky, leaving the Earth behind...

Jane Kemp simply knew that there was something wrong with Dawson. There was no way to prove it, though. She knew female intuition couldn’t be relied upon, in fact she had had that drilled into her brain by all her professors. Still, lately, or ever since Jose’s death her female intuition started tingling and she was having a hard time ignoring it. Dawson felt a similar type of ‘wrong’ as Keffler. There was just something off about both of them.

She had made up her mind to leave official law enforcement when they returned back to the States, but she would still have to make it through this ordeal. She would need to follow all the ridiculous orders Dawson gave. He had probably received them from someone else, which made it even worse. It meant the whole law enforcement system was corrupt, starting at the top.

At least it’ll be over soon.

They would be going in this evening, arresting David’s family and taking them to a secure location for questioning. If they would have to handle the questioning themselves, that would mean more time to spend with that psycho Dawson. In that case, she would hand in her resignation by telephone, effective immediately. She didn’t care about references anymore. It was just becoming too much. All her illusion about right and wrong were slipping away. It was all becoming one big blur and she wasn’t sure who the good guys were any more, if there were even any left.

She got herself ready and went to Dawson’s room. Glenn and Laura were on their way as well and they made their way to Dawson’s room together. They agreed on the course of action then made their way to the family farm, to destroy that poor family’s life.

Somewhere on the drive there, Dawson discovered that David had somehow made an appearance at the farm. He was getting very excited and Jane was afraid he might do something stupid.

When they arrived at the farm, the quickly ran to the house and saw David’s wife approaching David.

They’re probably going to kiss.

It made her remember Jose and the way he knew how to be tender and knew how to make her tender as well.

The whole team was watching the scene unfolding. Jane was standing next to Dawson. Dawson reached for the gun and Jane could tell he was about to do something stupid. She didn’t care about the consequences. Just as Dawson was preparing to pull the trigger, she grabbed his neck and pressed on his carotid artery, restricting the blood flow to his head. Within seconds, Dawson fell to the floor. Jane could see a shimmering wall appear and Ana was gone. Shortly after, the shimmering disappeared as well and the wind stopped blowing. The atmosphere was deathly still.

As she expected, Glenn and Laura appeared behind her.

“Don’t struggle,” said Glenn. “You’ll only make matters worse.”

Jane wasn’t planning to struggle. She had done the deed and she would face the consequences. She put her hands behind her, ready for them to put handcuffs on her, which they did effectively.

It is over!