The Sons Of Cleito (The Abductions of Langley Garret Book 1) (5 page)

The stairs ended at another corridor, rounded though, more like a tunnel, as I followed Leda obediently. She looked over her shoulder and offered me a reassuring smile as if to say I would be fine. I was still working hard on wondering who she was and why I was here when we stopped at the end of the tunnel cum corridor. She opened the door and smiled, as my face must have had the look of someone who had been awestruck. In front of me was a relatively large dome shaped room, mostly walled in glass or some kind of transparent material, allowing a view of the ocean depths we were in. I walked in ahead of her and gazed up and into the water above and around me. I felt, more than saw Leda standing beside me as I looked out into the darkened depths. I stood in silence as fish passed in front of my eyes and she remained quietly beside me. I glanced at her, she smiled kindly, and I returned to my view of the ocean depths. More fish passed across the panes around and above me, and it reminded me of my visit to the Sydney Aquarium. I looked at Leda.

'Keep looking,' she said, almost in a whisper.

I took from her tone that I was waiting for something. Within a minute I saw what she was waiting for me to witness. My jaw must have dropped when it happened. There in front of me, surrounded by fish darting back and forth was not only a human, but a face I recognised in an instant. The young woman, who had greeted me on my rock beside the runway and had led me to my room, was swimming in front of my eyes. Naked, beautiful and clearly at home in the dark waters, as she swam with the fish and moved from pane to pane of the cavern I was in. She waved at me and then I looked at Leda. She smiled.

'I don't understand.'

'I'm sure you don't Lang. Her name is Chara.'

'Greek for happiness.'

'You are very well educated.'

'I did do a little more study at uni, and after the last couple of days of nameless people it is a welcome change to be introduced.'

'Sorry about that but it was important to make sure you arrived here safely and secretly.'

'And now I'm here?'

'Keep looking Lang.'

'At Chara?'

'There could be worse things to have to look at I'm sure. She's quite beautiful, isn't she?'

'How deep are we here?'

'Around two hundred metres.'

'So this is really not possible, is it?'

'It depends on what you classify as possible or impossible Lang.'

'Leda?' I asked, as I turned to her.

'Yes.'

'Can you do this too? Like Chara?'

'Yes. We all can.'

'I hope you don't mind me saying so but I'm totally lost. This is all totally impossible.' I said, and noticed a tone of uncertainty in my voice. I took a deep breath as my stomach started to turn and sent me urgent signals of worry bordering on fear as words from my mother's letter returned with clarity to my mind. 'You are special my son, and one day you will learn what it means to be from the Sons of Cleito, and how you will use your god given gifts to protect us from those who do not believe.'

'It's ok Lang, you won't be sent out with Chara. Well, not just yet anyway.'

The confusion written all over my face must have been clear to Leda as she placed one hand on my shoulder and said, 'I know it's all new and sudden for you, but you are one of us Lang. That's why you're here. We knew your mother as Melinoë. She was visited by Zeus disguised as her husband Pluto, but when Pluto became angry upon learning of the pregnancy, he rent her flesh.'

'Rent? You mean torn apart?'

'In a metaphorical sense.'

'What? I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't get it,' I said, lying a little as my dead mother's words started to take on a very sudden sense of reality. 'I was lured by lust and then from my island, and will pay for this error with my life. You my son, will atone for my mistake and one day return to live with the gods.'

'Those five lines on either side of your neck are what make us who we are. You're one of us,' Leda said, and I could only look at her in astonishment and disbelief. 'I think you've seen all you need to see here. Would you like to join me in my office for a coffee? And a little more history?'

'I don't have much choice, do I?'

'Come on,' she said, and led me back into the tunnel and then up the stairs. My silence as I followed her dotted with questions in my head that had no logical answer, while my guts performed very ugly and painful gymnastics. I wondered if I was dreaming or having a nightmare. Either way, none of what I had witnessed was possible, so I must be dreaming. I suddenly wished I was back in my apartment and welcoming Helen home for an argument, and that I had never read my mother's letter.

Back in Leda's office, she made coffee and we sat opposite each other again at the dark wooden table.

'You know a little, don't you Lang?'

I hesitated before answering as I slowly sipped my coffee. 'You mean about my mother?'

'Yes,' she said and waited for me to reply.

'It was just a childhood fantasy and it's all in the past. My mother left me something so I could dream about her, that's all.'

'And did you dream about her?'

'As a child, yes. But what she left me was a fairy tale. I grew out of it as any child would do when they grow up.'

'You don't have children.'

'No. You mean to pass the fairy tales on to.'

'Perhaps. But why don't you have children?'

'Some medical problem. Helen and I came to grips with it a long time ago.'

'Were you diagnosed as being infertile, or her?'

'That's a bit blunt.'

'Well, are you fertile?'

'That's a strange question.'

'So?'

'It was her. But this is crazy.'

'A lot of things are going to seem crazy to you from now on I'm afraid. But let's start with something that you'll understand. Where is your wife Lang?'

'What do you mean by that?'

'You don't get on all that well now, do you?'

'That's none of your business.'

'Maybe, maybe not. But do you know where she is right now?

'The US I think, or maybe Italy or back home. I don't know.'

'Who is she travelling with?'

'How the hell would I know?'

'You tell me,' she said, as she passed me something that looked like a tablet computer, but much thinner. It was flexible and only as thick as a few pieces of paper, but I understood immediately it was a video screen. 'Watch it,' she said, and I looked down at it in my hands as a video started playing. My mouth fell as my intestines tightened into a painful knot when Helen appeared on the screen, naked and in bed with a man. They were propped up on pillows, with her bare breasts clearly visible, and she was smoking. Helen never smoked. Then I heard them talking.

'So you don't think he knows at all?' the man asked Helen.

'No, nothing at all. He's lost in living his boring life and is completely unaware of what's happening,' Helen replied as the man fondled her breast. I nearly vomited.

'Hopefully you're right. It's only a few months from now.'

'I'd know if he had any idea about it. He's hardly mentioned a single word even remotely close. I really think he forgot about his fucking mother a long time ago.'

'Are you sure?'

'He hasn't mentioned much at all about his mother since we've been married, so yes, I'm sure he hasn't got a clue about it at all.'

'It's been a long mission for you. You'll be glad when it's over.'

'A damn seventeen year babysitting assignment. Not what I envisaged when I was called up,' Helen said, as she stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray on her lap. I looked up at Leda for a moment. Her eyes were impassive. My stomach wasn't, as I fought back a wave of nausea.

'It'll be over soon, then we can be back together again.'

'Not soon enough,' Helen said, as threw back the sheet and rolled on top of the man. The camera angle from above the foot of the bed gave me a clear view of his erection entering her, and I instantly dropped the screen from my hands and swallowed hard as my digestive system felt like it was about to erupt.

'I'm very sorry Lang.'

I couldn't answer, as surges of nausea threatened to manifest themselves all over Leda's table. I swallowed hard, again and again.

'The bathroom's through there Lang,' she said, and pointed to a door near her desk. I bolted from my chair and burst though the door, relieved to find the toilet door and the welcoming sight of the white ceramic toilet bowl. My internal organs heaved volcanically as they painfully emptied themselves of every morsel. When they had accomplished that, they weren't satisfied, and continued erupting nothing but dry retching pain, which had my eyes tearing in agony. I tried breathing but it didn't work – as bile, coughing and spluttering blocked my airways. I gagged, choked again, and finally managed to gasp a lung full of air. Another bout of coughing, and then at last I grabbed two or three gasps of air into my lungs. Finally, my volcanic internal organs finished telling me that this was a very, very bad day indeed.

My hands were still trembling as I washed my face and hands and I tried to calm myself. Breathing deeply and splashing more cold water on my face helped. But the reality of what I had just seen didn't, as I wondered who the hell my wife was. I made my way back to Leda with my mind racing – in confused circles.

'Are you ok?' she asked as I sat back down.

'Yes, fine thanks,' I lied, but clearly she didn't believe me as she stood up and went to get me a glass of water. She returned and handed it to me. 'Thanks.'

'I'm very sorry I had to show you that, but it was the quickest way to make you understand.'

'That my wife has been cheating on me?'

'No. That you have been worth a seventeen year undercover agent to make sure you stayed oblivious.'

'To what they were talking about? This
it
that will happen in a few months?'

'Yes.'

'So? What is this thing that will happen in a few months?'

'I think you'll need to understand a lot more before I can start explaining that to you Lang. This is why we needed you here, so you can learn to understand who you are and what you need to do. It won't be easy for you because your disconnection from us has been so long. But it is important for you to know who your friends and enemies really are. Your wife is not on your side Lang, and if we hadn't brought you to the safety of our island, you would be dead by now.'

'What?'

'Your wife knew of the plan Lang.'

'To kill me?'

'Yes.'

'Shit. I really don't understand anything. This is way to far-fetched.'

'We'll meet again tomorrow, but in the meantime you'll have a lot of reading to do.'

'So I'll get something to read in my room at last,' I said, with a half smile and an attempt at pathetic humour as I tried to hide my fear and anxiety, which all fell flat on Leda.

'We'll talk tomorrow. Can you find your own way back to your room?'

'I think so. Does this mean I'm not under arrest anymore?'

'Just don't wander too far Lang.'

'And if I do, my ankle bracelet will get annoyed?'

'Off you go and get some rest.'

I stood up and smiled for a split second. So did Leda as she stood and shook my hand. Clearly though, neither of us had much to smile about as I was still recovering from the shock of what she had told and shown me, and she had fresh worry lines etched into her face.

Yen

Curiosity didn't get the better of me at all as I found my way back directly to my room, content to lie down and start digesting my time with Leda. It would have been bad enough finding out that Helen had been cheating on me, without being told I was going to have been killed on top of that for good measure. Helen had said in the video that I was her assignment, so who was she working for and why had she married me? And what was it that was going to happen in a few months? Lastly though, was why in hell was I so important that I warranted a seventeen year live-in minder, and now, so valuable that I needed abducting and being imprisoned on a secret island to save me from being murdered? Then there was the question of who was on whose side? It was too much to take in, but it was obvious that it all had something to do with my mother and her stupid letter, and her dreams and fantasies that she wanted me to fulfil for her. I could only assume that for some reason, my mother had left or deserted her island as she always referred to it in her letter, and that she had wanted me to atone for her mistake. I doubted that Melinoë was my mother's real name, but for the first time in my life it was at least a name instead of simply mother.

I let my head enjoy the softness of the pillow and tried to breathe calmly, and wait patiently for my intestines to unknot themselves. My watch told me it could be about lunchtime. My stomach however, told me to give it a miss.

I must have dozed off, as a knock on my door startled me. I tried to clear my head as I stumbled to the door. I glanced at my watch and realised I had been napping for over an hour. I opened the door to find Chara smiling at me. Minus her uniform, dressed casually in jeans, sneakers and a yellow t-shirt.