Transient - Complete Book One (Episodes 1 - 4) (Transient Serial) Read online

  “Are you going to be there?”

  “You know I can’t.”

  “I know.”She hesitated, then added:“When do I get to meet you?”

  “Later. But no promises.”

  “I feel like I already know you.”

  “Nobody knows anybody.”

  “?”

  “Forget it. I don’t even know myself sometimes,”he texted.

  “Me too. Things are changing so fast. I’m a little nervous about tomorrow.”

  “Don’t be. You’ll do great. Keep your expectations low, but your spirits high.”

  “Sounds like you got that off the internet.”

  “I put it ON the internet.”

  “Wouldn’t surprise me.”

  “You’re not easy to surprise.”

  “You’ll be watching tomorrow though? Coverage?”

  “Of course. And we can text.”

  “Phone call tonight, maybe?”she suggested hopefully.

  “No.”And then:“Too risky.”

  “Got it.”

  “I have things to do.”

  “Okay. Well I’m just bored and waiting for bags.”

  “Text me when you get to the hotel okay? And let me know if you find out anything more about the dude on the plane.”

  “Drew something. Worked for OBK. Graduated from Berkeley. Should be easy enough to trace?”

  “He might just be nobody.”

  “If he went to Berkeley and worked for OBK, he’s not nobody.”

  “I’ll check him out, and let you know what I come up with.”

  “Thanks,”she replied.

  The conversation ended there, but the more Rae thought about it, the more she saw the flaw in her logic.

  If he was a spy for OBK, he wouldn’t have told me he worked for them.

  Apollo had probably realized that before she did, and was just humoring her. Not wanting to embarrass her by pointing out the obvious. Still, it would be good find out more about the guy.

  Just in case.

  Maybe Drew was just what he seemed. A stranger on a plane. Someone to talk to during the flight. Friendly, but unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

  Rae saw her bags finally fall from the chute onto the carousel. When they came around, she grabbed them and set them down on the floor. She checked to see that the bags were secure, the zippers were zipped and the clasps were locked. Then she rolled her bags out of the terminal, feeling a kind of weight pressing at her back.

  The weight of a thousand stares.

  She checked her phone app for the instructions to her hotel. First, she had to get on BART, which was the San Francisco train system. There was a station at the airport and the signs leading to the station were clear. But once she took the escalator up, and studied the posted map, she got confused and had to ask the ticket agent.

  “You want Embarcadero Station,”the man said, and pointed to a platform.“Get your ticket from the machine and wait over there.”

  The wait was only about five minutes. There were a couple of dozen passengers waiting with her. None seemed to pay her much attention. One kid, a boy of maybe ten, skateboarded back and forth along the platform, practicing tricks with his board. He wasn’t very good yet and the board looked brand new, but the boy seemed determined, and eager to practice, and Rae imagined he would be shredding in no time.

  When the train stopped and the doors opened, she let the exiting passengers clear, then wheeled her luggage into the train. She was one of the last ones to board and the seats were mostly full. She wanted to stay with her luggage so she decided it was best to stand, rather than sit. Also, most of the passengers were older than her. Some looked quite elderly. One woman was pregnant.

  I can stand.

  She set her bags up against one wall and grabbed hold of a leather strap that hung from the support bars. The train waited a brief moment, then the doors closed and it started out of the station.

  No one looked at each other, but Rae got the weird sense that they all knew who she was. It felt like they were holding a secret, something about her that they knew and she didn’t. Something was going to happen and they were all part of it, except for Rae, who stood alone in her ignorance, trapped on a train rushing on shaky tracks toward a new city, a city they understood and she did not.

  The only one who stared at her was a blind man who wore dark shades and sat beside a seeing-eye dog. The dog didn’t look at her but the man did.

  Rae thought that would be a great disguise for a spy. Hide behind those dark glasses, staring straight ahead, recording everything.

  Don’t be paranoid, she reminded herself.

  Three stops later, the blind man got off the train, led by the faithful dog. Rae watched them go, then moved in to take over the seats. She put her luggage where the blind man had sat, and sat herself down where the dog had been. There were fewer passengers now, so she didn’t feel guilty for sitting down, and besides her feet were getting tired from walking and standing.

  She could still smell the dog’s fur. It reminded her of when she had her own dog as a kid, a black lab named Chance. This dog didn’t smell like hers, but the animal scent was enough to take her mind back to her carefree youth, running through the dog park, rolling in the grass, Chance licking her face, Rae giggling madly.

  Those carefree days were gone. She had been thrown into adulthood faster than she had anticipated. There was a time before the cryptograph, when she couldn’t wait to grow up, move out, take on the world by herself, or perhaps with a handsome guy at her side, moving in tandem into their shared future, bright and clean and full of possibility.

  Now she wanted nothing more than for time to slow down. There was so little of it left for her, if the cryptograph result was true.

  Ifit’s true, she reminded herself. There was a chance that it was not; that everything they’d been told was a lie. Rae needed to believe in the lie, in the paranoia, in the conspiracy. Without that, she was just another transient, letting the days slip by until the mark on the calendar caught up to her, and she was nothing more than a memory, a collection of social media posts and YouTube clips, fodder for some future documentary on the birth and ascension of OBK.

  But she had to believe in another future. A future with hope. Without that, she couldn’t face herself. She was a little like the blind man, looking forward but only imagining what was out there, and hoping that the dog knew where she was headed, and would bring her there safely.

  The train stopped at Embarcadero station. Rae almost missed her stop, but when the doors opened, she checked the signs on the station platform, saw this one was hers, and scrambled out of her seat as quickly as she could. The doors started to close, but when she stuck a hand though the gap, they slid aside, and she stepped onto the station.

  Passing through the turnstile, she followed the signs to the street.

  Outside, the air was cool and crisp, and full of smells of the city. She smelled pizza and car exhaust. She heard car horns and footsteps and birds and bicycles. Several conversations were mixing all around her, from the people waiting at the traffic lights, or passing by on the sidewalk. Some of it was English and some in languages she didn’t recognize. San Francisco was an international city, like Los Angeles, and people flocked here from all around the world. But here the buildings were taller, the air was cooler, there were taxis everyone, and people crowding the streets.

  People actually walk in San Francisco.

  She put the hotel address into her cell phone, letting the computer voice tell her which streets to take, and walked. It felt good to walk. Her legs needed the stretch, and the pumping of her heart seemed to ease her fears. She had felt paranoid in the airport and on the train, but out here in the open streets surrounded by strangers, she felt calmer, safer.

  This place was nothing like home, and yet, oddly, it felt more like home than the familiar town

  she’d lived all her life.

  I could live here, she decided, with no more evidence tha
n the first assault of her senses.

  OBK headquarters was in the Financial District, not far from the Embarcadero.

  The tower was large and imposing, more impressive even than the TransAmerica building not far away. It was nearly twice the size and could be seen from as far away as San Quentin, on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge.

  The building was designed in the shape of a giant O for Oberkamp. The structural engineering itself was impressive, but it had also become a symbol of the cryptograph, the new way of life, the new society.

  Her hotel wasn’t far, but it was early yet. Rae still had a couple of hours before check-in time. She thought about going to the hotel and stowing her luggage, but the big bag was on wheels, and she wanted a chance to explore the city before she tackled the real business of her trip.

  She spent the early afternoon strolling along the Embarcadero, observing the architecture, studying the people going about their busy lives. The sense of paranoia had passed. Here she could smell the salt air, feel the breeze, the birds and the children. The people all seemed friendly. Mostly tourists she guessed, but she was a tourist herself, so it was easy to blend in. She sat for a while at a cafe near the Bay Bridge, just enjoying the moment and the sites and the people and the dogs.

  It had been forever since she’d been able to truly relax. Since getting her cryptograph results, she’d been on edge. Even in her sleep, the tension remained. She’d started grinding her teeth while she slept, and waking with a sore jaw. Every day had seemed more stressful than the last. The crush of her impending demise weighed heavier and heavier.

  But here in San Francisco, everything was new and different. Even the quality of the light seemed different. Her hometown had an urban-desert quality in the air, thick with dust and pollen and heat. She smelled none of that here. It wasn’t that the air was clearer, for there was a slight fog over the water, but the coolness of it soothed her.

  I needed a change.

  Sitting on the embarcadero, she felt comfortably anonymous. No one seemed to recognize her here. Away from the video screens and the Internet sites, she looked like a normal teenage girl dragging her luggage around the city, looking for her hotel, grabbing coffee, smiling at children and petting the occasional dog.

  When she’d finished her coffee, she wandered a little more along the water. At around four she turned back and made the short walk up to her hotel. The man at reservations was Asian, with short graying hair. He looked to be in his fifties. The tag on his shirt gave his name as Fred. She’d never met an Asian man named Fred before, but this city was full of surprises.

  “Rae Lennox?”Fred asked.

  “That’s me.”

  “I have you in a King Suite.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “I assure you, it is.”

  She took her own luggage up to the fifth floor.

  The room was neat and clean, with two king beds and a large television and a huge window that looked out over the water and the Bay Street Bridge. There was a package waiting for her in the room, presumably the supplies that Apollo had mentioned, but she didn’t want to deal with that just yet. She didn’t want to deal with anything. The rest of the Tetrad would be checking in tonight, and they might want to meet up, but Rae was tired from walking, and a little hungry.

  I need to chill.

  She ordered a room service dinner of artichoke pizza and soda, and spent an hour staring out the window, just marveling at how different her life had become.

  Scenes from her childhood played like reflections in the window, cast against the cityscape below, the contrast of past and future. She remembered playing in the sandbox at her preschool, a fight between two grade school boys who argued over who got to sit with Rae at lunch. Her first glimpse of Logan in his football uniform, sharing pizza with him in that place he had taken her to, kissing him on the dunes…

  The hotel phone rang at 8:30pm.

  She answered.

  “Hey, it’s Benny.”

  “Hey.”

  “I called a couple of hours ago but you hadn’t checked in.”

  “I was out walking. This city is amazing.”

  Benny laughed.“It’s almost my home away from home. If we had more time, I’d tour you around.”

  “Maybe after tomorrow.”

  “Have you heard from the others?”

  “Not yet,”she said.“Let me text them and call you back.”

  “Sounds good.”

  She texted Danielle and Halldor and within minutes, both replied. They had each arrived in the afternoon, and checked in hours ago. Apparently they had all been waiting on Rae to organize the meet-and-greet. She needed time to freshen up, but didn’t want to keep the others waiting.

  “I know what you all look like,”she told Benny when she called him back.“That will make it easier.”

  “Is Apollo joining us?”

  “No, he wants to stay in the shadows, as he says.”

  “That’s what he told me, too. But I keep hoping he’ll surprise us.”

  “Oh, we don’t need him. We’ve got this.”

  “We’ve got this,”Benny agreed.

  They all arranged to meet in the lounge in an hour. Rae took a quick shower and put on some nicer clothes, a print dress that flattered her figure, and sandals that wouldn’t do for walking around the city but were perfect for the hotel lounge. It was cool, so she brought a sweater, put her card key into her purse, and stepped out into the hall, ready to meet her fellow transients.

  Chapter 19

  The hotel lounge had the ambience of a high-class cafe. Rae scoped it out and selected a relatively secluded area in the back corner of the lounge, where two large sofas formed an L around a coffee table. It was less formal than the dining tables and they would be able to talk more freely, and at some distance from the other guests.

  She sat down, texted the others her location, and waited.

  Benny arrived first. He was taller than she had imagined, just over six feet. Though she had read his passport when he first joined the forum, the information about his height was little more than markings on a page. Her eyes must have glanced over that line about his height, for she hadn’t formed a mental image of a tall Asian.

  Most of the Asians she’d met were much shorter. Even most of the boys in her high school were shorter than her. But Benny was tall and thin and extremely handsome. He didn’t smile much, but turned heads in the room as soon as he entered. He was dressed in dark slacks and a long grey shirt with a thin blue tie. His black wingtip shoes were neatly polished.

  “Rae,”he greeted. Over one forearm swung a black dinner jacket. He switched the jacket from his right arm to his left and extended his hand to shake hers.

  She stood quickly from the sofa, took his hand, and pulled him to her for a hug.“Hi!”She felt like she already knew him, like he was an older brother, a long-lost friend, and a handshake would just be awkward.

  He seemed surprised by the warmth of her greeting but after a moment, he wrapped his arms around her and returned the affection. Like her, he seemed to need a hug though he probably didn’t realize it until he was in her arms.

  They sat down next to each other on the sofa, and a cocktail waitress came by.

  “Would you two like anything to drink?”

  “Water,”Rae replied.

  “Coffee, please,”said Benny.

  The waitress nodded and left.

  “They’re quick with the service here,”he observed.

  “I think she just wanted to pounce on you,”Rae joked.

  “Me? No. I think she liked you.”

  “Did you see the way she smiled at you?”

  “Yeah, like she wanted a big tip.”He laughed.

  “How was your flight?”

  “First class.”

  “Wow, and have you seen the hotel room? I think Apollo must have some money.”

  “I bet he’s some sort of rich kid.”

  “No, I think he’s just smart enough to ha
ck into as much money as he needs, whenever he needs it. My guess is, he didn’t even pay for the flights, or the hotel, but just hacked the reservation systems.”

  “Sounds like Apollo.”Benny said.“Is he going to be here?”

  “No. He wants to stay in the shadows.”

  “Don’t we all?”

  Two young people came out of the hotel elevator and wandered together through the lobby.

  Rae recognized them immediately.“Danielle and Halldor.”She waved for them to join her at the sofa.

  Danielle was short and thin, with tight black hair pulled back severely. She had a nervous smile and the high cheekbones of a future supermodel - if she had a future, which of course she didn’t. Wrapped tight around her body and hugging her waist and underdeveloped chest was a beige dress of the latest fashion. Her black heels clacked along the marble flooring, demanding that everyone within eyesight lend her an eye. And they did. Or at least, the men did.

  But the women in the room would not give her more than a glance, for walking beside her was Halldor, tall in baggy jeans, a maroon crew-cut T-shirt, and sneakers that squeaked with every step on the hard, polished floor of the hotel.

  He wasn’t much for modern fashion, nor did he need it. As a throw-back to the previous century, or a nod to his Nordic heritage, or simply as a personal statement, he wore a large silver watch on his left wrist, with its face turned inwards, and the band shining like a chain mail bracelet. His hair was stark blond, trimmed short. His jaw was statuesque, and neatly chiselled and his eyes scanned the room like a hunter searching for prey. He walked with a kind of strut that demanded respect, his arms swinging loosely at his side and his gaze, mouth and lips were serious.

  The two new kids reached the back area where the sofas were, and the four exchanged greetings and hugs. Rae introduced Benny, though everyone already knew him by reputation and of course online. Still they all agreed it was great to finally meet in person, make eye contact for the first time, and there was lots of shaking hands and hugging.

  After a brief discussion of their flights and the hotel accommodations, and the lengths Apollo must have gone to in getting them all to San Francisco, Halldor said,“So what’s the plan for tomorrow?”