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BOOK: The Novida Code
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I know, Lauren”, he smiled. But he sounded subdued. Whatever might have happened to Marc and Stephane, it hadn't happened with his approval. Amar turned to him and they exchanged a long glance. Oniar was the first to look away and Amar addressed me again: “Of course, Lauren”, he replied. “I have the very course for you.”


And Auxana?”


The course I have in mind is a personal one, Lauren. There will be another course for Auxana when we find the perfect place for her.”


Of course”, I replied, concealing my excitement. I was at last going to find out something about these Asaïs, who were so essential to the Efeghis. “When can I start?”


There are still a few details to sort out”, said Amar, glancing at Oniar, who gazed silently back at him. I had a pretty good idea of the type of details that needed to be sorted out.


Oh! I almost forgot”, I interrupted. “I also wanted to know if we could have lessons in the Efeghi language.”

The silence around the table was deafening. With a look of horror, Auxana hissed at me: “Lauren! You don't know what you're asking!”

“Did I say something wrong?” I asked innocently.

Oniar took my hand: “No, Lauren. But it's a very complicated matter.”

I turned towards Amar, who remained silent as though deep in his own thoughts. Then, he caught my eye and contemplated me at length.


I think that could be arranged”, he said at last.
Olden turned quickly towards him, shocked: “Amar…”


We shall talk about it later”, Amar cut in. “Anything else you'd like to know?” he asked.


No. Thank you”, I beamed.

At the end of the meal, we decided to go for a walk in the wonderful Sères market. Preparations were under way for more parties and I wanted a new outfit. I also wanted to buy a neuro-inductor. You never know when you might get the urge to blow up somebody's brain. These were of course banned, but I imagined they could be found in the hackers' fair at Sères.

We made our purchases and I took advantage of a bathroom stop to hide the neuro-inductor. This was shaped like a two-centimetre translucent rod. I sewed it into the lining of my bra, between two layers of padding. Its remote control looked like a pretty ring, which I decided to wear. It would be perfectly harmless as long as the neuro-inductor wasn't embedded in somebody's neck.

It would take us several months, maybe even years, to carry out the plan that had begun to take shape as I listened to Auxana's message. So in the meantime I'd have to hide all my equipment. But, to be on the safe side, it was best to get hold of everything we needed straight away. Security measures might change, and it could become impossible to obtain the necessary equipment.

After the evening meal, I hurried back to my room to change. I had a date with Oniar in the garden of the town hall – the one where we'd first spoken to each other. For all my efforts, I arrived late.

Oniar was already waiting for me, leaning against the fountain. He looked so at home here. Calm and handsome, his head tilted slightly forward, a smile playing on his lips. The sight of him seemed to bring a great weight bearing down upon me. I was happy. I was tormented. I was ablaze and irresolute, perfectly in keeping with my role, for once. But with Oniar, I wasn't acting. That was the danger.

He caught sight of me and advanced towards me, smiling. I flung myself into his arms.


Lauren…” he murmured into my hair.

I tilted my face towards him and he kissed me. It was a long, slow kiss, which grew deeper. Until I could contain myself no longer, and moved away from him.

“What's the matter?” asked Oniar.


Come on”, I said, taking him by the hand. There was no point in waiting. Nothing was going to prevent me consummating my feelings for Oniar. And I already knew that this was the only way Amar would allow me to be promoted within the collaboration. I steered Oniar to my room.

Inside, I suddenly felt apprehensive. We'd already been here many times before. We'd even spent hours on the bed, clasped in each other's arms. But I had always known we wouldn't go any further. That my innermost being, the most precious thing I could give, remained inviolable. I don't mean my body. Auxana spent her nights with Olden without ever jeopardising anything of herself, without really giving herself. With Oniar, I was likely to offer myself completely. To give it all. And yet, I knew that I was going to betray him. I'd fallen into a trap of my own making, and it would be sprung that evening, in this bedroom.

As always, Oniar sensed my anxiety. He came up behind me and took me tenderly in his arms: “There's no rush, Lauren. I can wait”, he murmured.

How I hated him being so kind, so considerate. It wrenched at my heartstrings and tore me apart. I wanted to cry, to take him in my arms and scream. I turned to face him and gave him a passionate kiss, then stepped away and started to remove my dress. I'd chosen this dress for him, to please him; I had not chosen it for my role. In a way, that dress was my first betrayal, my first real act of collaboration. I pulled it off, and stood before him in my underwear. As he hesitated, I moved toward him and kissed him passionately.

I wanted him to be carried away by passion, to be brutal, to hurt me. So I could hate him as I should. But of course, he did none of this. He gently pushed me back and kissed me softly on my neck, my shoulders, my breasts. He stopped when he reached my bra, took me in his arms and lay me on the bed.

There, he started kissing me again, slowly, as if he had all the time in the world for this one task.

I trembled in his arms, hungering for more but not daring to ask for it. Totally unbidden, my hands moved to his head and grabbed hold of his hair. He looked up at me and smiled. Then he leaned over again and pushed down the neckline of my bra. He placed his lips on my breast and my hands contorted in his hair.

I was probably hurting him but he carried on, raising his head merely to change sides and attack my other breast with his lips. My back arched into the bed and I became oblivious to everything. Everything that wasn't him, us, and that moment. At last he looked up and unfastened my bra before slowly sliding the straps over my shoulders. I helped him remove it, and began to pull off my knickers, but he took hold of my hands.

“We're in no rush, Lauren. I want to spend all night exploring you.”

He lay me down again and continued kissing my breasts, excruciatingly, exquisitely. I moaned louder and louder and tugged at his hair, but he carried on, undaunted, with the task in hand. Presently, he was kissing me softly beneath my breasts and then on my pelvis, descending slowly to the top of my knickers.

From there, his lips carried on their downward journey, kissing me through the thin cotton, and I let out a whimper. He looked up sharply but realised instantly that I did not want him to stop. Ever. He carried on kissing me right there as my back arched and my whimpers grew louder. I scarcely noticed my knickers slipping down over my legs.

I simply cried out once more with surprise and pleasure when Oniar began kissing me again, this time on my bare skin. I was now holding nothing back, calling his name, gasping and twisting on the bed until my body exploded and convulsed in his arms.

I slowly floated back down to earth. He had kept his arms around me until my storm had abated. I looked at him with fresh eyes. I could see why Amar had insisted on waiting for me to become his mistress before conferring his trust in me. At that moment, I would have done anything for Oniar, absolutely anything. Except betray Auxana. And betraying the Earth amounted to betraying Auxana.

I clung on to this thought, the only obstacle remaining to me, as he climbed back on top of me and began fondling me again.

He was naked but I couldn't even remember at what point he'd undressed. I was aware of his desire against my stomach but felt no fear, or distaste. Far from it; I would have liked to explore his body with my lips, as he had done for me. He murmured, his lips pressed against mine: “Are you ready, my love?”


Oh yes, Oniar!” I gasped. “Now.” I could wait no longer and clasped him tightly, trying to squeeze his body to mine as hard as I could.

I felt him gently seeking the way in and then pressing against it. Gently, slowly, he came inside me. Each time I grimaced, he would stop and begin gently moving backwards and forwards along the path he had already opened up, arousing my desire until I clutched him once again, begging him to continue.

He took it very slowly, never taking his eyes off me, and I was melting beneath his gaze. When he reached the end, he withdrew and came back a little faster, again and again, until I was swept up once again in a new cascade of sensations.

I was panting once more, moaning ever more vociferously. Then, all of a sudden, the earth exploded yet again and I shouted his name at the top of my voice. He shouted out in unison, and twisted in my arms before falling on top of me. He remained there and I heard him repeating something very softly. It took me a while to realise it was my name: Lauren, over and over again. I kept my arms around him and murmured into his ear: “I love you, Oniar.”

And it was true. I did.

18
          
Auxana
 

The next morning, I woke up with Olden in my bed. It had been quite a while since he'd spent the whole night with me. He'd seemed shaken the day before, and it wasn't hard to see why. Amar had decided to break the taboo forbidding Efeghis to teach their language to foreigners, whereas Olden himself had suffered for it all his life.

He'd come to seek comfort in my arms and I had obliged him with all the warmth I didn't feel for him.

The truth was, I despised him. I probably would have despised him even if he hadn't cheated on me and offered me to his boss. But his quiet contempt towards me, a reflection of the contempt he himself had received, had simply made my task easier.

Of his own accord, he had become the Efeghis' lackey, lapping up the crumbs of friendship and recognition that Amar accorded him, as though these could atone for a whole life of contempt and ill treatment.

But I wasn't complaining. This made it easier for me. It was Lauren I was feeling sorry for. You couldn't hate Oniar. But I knew she wouldn't neglect her duty and now it was time for me to do mine. Olden had been awake for a while but without saying anything. I ran my hand softly over his back.
“Sweetheart, is anything the matter?” I murmured.


Everything's fine” he replied, a little sharply.

I leaned over and kissed his shoulder. “Are you sure, darling? Is it Commandant Eraes that's worrying you?”
 

He turned to me with a look of surprise: “Irane? She doesn't bother me. She's an idiot and Amar will make mincemeat of her.”

“If she's that stupid, why has the Emperor asked her to come and keep an eye on what Amar is doing?”


Her family is very influential, almost as much as Amar's. And the Emperor likes to set the great families against each other, to make it easier for him to maintain control. Irane knows that if Amar bungles his command over the Earth, she'll be the one to replace him.”


Could that happen?” I asked fearfully.

Olden smiled: “No way. Amar controls everything that happens on Earth. He's given the Emperor no cause for criticism.”

“And this Irane, what's she like?”

It took Olden a while to reply, and I was afraid I'd been showing too much interest. But he didn't respect me enough to consider me a danger, and eventually replied: “Let's just say that it's very lucky for Earth that Amar was the one who was chosen.”

“Why?”


There is nothing subtle about Irane and brute force is all that makes her tick. Whoever opposes her gets destroyed. Whoever threatens her will be annihilated. She would never practise Amar's policy of tolerance.”


You mean she'd try to stop the terrorists?”


I mean she would crush the terrorists, and anybody who got in her way.”

After Olden left, I filled out a crystal with this fresh information and passed it to Lauren at the earliest opportunity. She wanted to destroy Amar, but I was no longer sure that this was the answer. I didn't want to see what this Irane was capable of achieving on Earth.

After taking my message on board, Lauren suggested we should go for an afternoon stroll in a nearby park. The great thing about this park was that it was next to a very noisy building site. We'd already used it to talk to each other in private. I realised that we'd need to revise our plan.

I kept an eye on Lauren as we strolled to the noisiest part of the park. She seemed different. I knew Oniar had spent the night with her and I was concerned about the shadows I detected in her eyes. Lauren was having a tough time and I could guess why. But I didn't want to humiliate her by showing it, so I kept quiet.

At the park, Lauren led me to a particularly noisy spot and then turned to me: “We must get rid of Amar,” she said.


What? Didn't you understand anything of what I told you? This Irane is dangerous. If she takes over the running of the invasion, she'll start a massacre.”

BOOK: The Novida Code
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