Balance (66 page)

“I guess I’m
just
going to have
to distract you some other way.  K
inda though
t
this had
a little
too much something…”
Rena comments, a half smile on her face,
as
she
slowly
slips the straps
over her shoulder
s.  L
etting
the lingerie
fall to the ground,
she
stand
s before
him
in all of her naked splendor.
The c
andle light flicker
s
,
accentuating her
perfect
female
curves.  S
lowly
, she
turns and walks seductively
in
to her bedroom
.  H
er
voice
,
little
more tha
n a breeze, floats back to him,
“Don’t forget the peace offering.”

“Michael
,
am I being unfair to you?
T
he whole sex thing?”
  Rena asks, entwined in his arms, her fingers tracing the ridges of his stomach.

“Rena, as I told you before, I do understand.  This is no place to deal with the potential ramifications.”

“Then
I’m going to have to figure a way
to get us
out of here, because I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up.”

“So
,
you’re saying
…
the prospect of sex is
motivating you to stage an es
cape attempt?
”  He
laughs
.

“
I
f an opportunity arose, would you take it?”

“As long
,
as
you’
re
by my side
?
…
Of course!
”

“If I didn’t tell you of a plan, would you trust me?”

“With my life … always
.”
Michael respond
s
without hesitation
.

“Why?”

“Why what?”
He asks
,
surprised by the question
.

“Why would you trust me?”  Rena
slides her body on top of
him
, her eyes
fixed on
his
.

“Well …
for
starters,
I know you probably wouldn’
t
likely tell me of a plan anyway …
to protect me.  Secondly,
you
’
r
e
smoking hot and you want to escape
,
motiv
at
ed by sex. 
What man
wouldn’t follow you
into
hell under those circumstances?
”
He answers,
grinning
, Cheshire cat-like.

“Oh
, you think so
,
do you?
Y
ou might want to sto
ck up on some cold showers
.
”
She
bites
his
shoulder
in retaliation
.

“I’m guessing you do want a truthful answer.”

“Please.”

Michael thinks how best to put it … “Because…you’re you … and I’m me
…
and we’ve always been
this way
.  Does that make sense
?
 
I
t sounded a lot better in my head with all the adjoining
subtext.
”

“Oddly enough, it did.
Thank
you.
” She
kisses him
lightly,
grateful
for his faith
.
 

They both fall asleep shortly after.

E
ngineers
and technicians chase down leads, access street-
based
surveillance cameras and run images
through facial recognition
program
s
.
All in the t
ech room
working
to find anything that might give them an idea where
Leonidas
Drakos could be
hiding
.

Rena, Mr
.
Black and
Ms. Smith
,
stationed
in
the
connecting
Ready Room
,
brainstorm strategies
with several technicians.
They’ve been at it for days, trying to uncover anything that might
bear fruit
.

“So
,
who would Drakos want to give this information to?” Rena asks
above the din of the room
.

“What do you mean?”
Ms. Smith
replies
,
puzzled by the question, but
happy to have her brightest as
set back in the thick of things
.

“Well, what if we stop trying to find Drakos and look for
the
people
he would target with important information.  The populac
e cross section would be larger
and less likely trained in
concealment
.”

“
Great
idea
, dear
.  The only problem,
we don’t know the context of the
address
.  The audience could vary
depending on the message.
”

“Okay, let
’
s step back a little.  W
e know what this guy did, right?
  If his message
is
so important, he must be credible.  So
…
if we us
e
his
history, we can create a frame
work of viable topic
areas
he’
d be considered
an authority
.  Then we create target audience profiles for each potential topic area.  We’ll overlap the audience profiles and see which
traits
cover the greatest number of topic areas.”

Everyone in the room
watches
, visibly stunned,
as
Rena sketch
es
her idea on
a digitizing board
. 
She
turns
to address the audience.
S
eeing their
faces
,
Rena
develops an
uncomfortable
feeling
,
akin to
standing naked in front of
an auditorium
.
N
o one s
aying a word, she stops writing.
“I’m sorry, stupid idea.”  She starts erasing her scribbling
.

“Stop
!
”
s
houts
erupting
at the same time
from both Mr. Black and
Ms. Smith
.

“That
my dear, is brilliant.
”
C
omments
Takada
walking into the room
.

Rena regards him with the chilly stare that has become their modus operandi of late, having not forgiven him for Meg
, Michael
or his insensitive comment during her meltdown.

Takada
,
notic
ing
the temperature in the room dr
op on his
arrival
, turns to the d
oor.  He finds his exit blocked
by the arrival of Michael, coming to check on Rena.
 
All in the room
welcome
hi
s
opportune
entrance with relief
, including Takada. 
“Michael, your timing is impeccable.  Rena has just come up with a brilliant
strate
gy for ferreting out Mr. Drakos
.
”
Takada
proclaims
.

F
eeling like a ‘monkey grinding an organ’
, Michael
responds
,
sensing
he walked in on the punch line, without hearing the joke, “Ah, okay … great … I’m going to leave now, sorry for interrupting.”
Pointing to the doorway and turning quickly to leave.

“Michael, might
I have a word?”  Takada calls
after
him
, stepping toward the door
,
thankful for a convenient
excuse to exit the room as well
.

Rena
turn
s
to
Ms. Smith
,
a look
of dread on her face.  Takada has not spoken to Michael since her meltdown. 

Waiting
until Takada and Michael are out of sight,
Ms. Smith
order
s
everyone to leave the room and close
s
the door. 
Alone,
she
quickly walks to Rena’s side, putting her arms around
the girl’s
shaking body
and helps
her to a chair. 
Turning to the counter,
Ms. Smith
pours
a cup of wa
ter and offers it to
Rena
,
who gladly takes it in
her trembling hands.
 
“Rena
, dear
, it’s okay.
Michael will be
fine
.
” Ms. Smith offers,
“Please trust me on this one.
”
H
op
ing
she’s getting through, but she also realizes Rena trus
ts only one person in the world
and he just left with the person she trusts the least.
 
“
P
lease listen to me, I shouldn’t be telling you this
,
but you need to know.”

Turning
to regard
Ms. Smith
,
Rena
’s
look shifts
from bad to worse.

“
I’m sorry,
that didn’t come out right
.”
Ms. Smith
apologizes
,
  
“Listen
,
Takada doesn’t confide in many people, but when it comes to you, especially lately
,
he’s been talking to me.  I think, for some reason he wanted me to tell you some of what he’s told me.  He knows you and I talk.  Anyway, he told me about the incident in your room.
”

Rena turns to her mentor,
expecting
words of
reproach.

“It’s okay
.
He
understands, and he’s sorry
. 
W
e underestimated your feeling
s
for Meg
.
H
e’s
also
sorry for reacting
the way he did
with Michael. 
You have to understand,
Takada is
attracted to you, but not in a
physical
way, seeing
you as an intellectual equal
.  He’s
envious of the time and rapport Michael shares with you.
  He wants that kind of
honesty with you.
”  Ms. Smith studies the young woman sitting in front of her, “
Does any of this help?”

“Not really, but thanks anyway” Rena
replies, steeling herself, slowly
regain
ing
her composure.

Takada
and Michael
walk for
several minutes, sharing cordial banter
before arriving at Michael’s dojo.  They step inside, closing the door.  Michael feels
in this room
,
under these circumstance
s,
if
a
confrontation
arose
,
th
ey
face each other as
equals.  He thinks that’
s why Takada directed him here.