Part One - Chapter 4

End of Part One, Part Two coming up

I slept through most of my day off. That happened to me before whenever my energy was drained... or when Anton went a bit too far in his “work” with me.

I don’t remember what I saw in my dreams that day, but I do remember waking up a couple of times and looking around in horror, as if something was about to attack me. I saw Dr. Strelov in my dream too, that’s for sure. I didn’t want to think about it �" as well as about the fact that I’d never run into  him again. The only person I could trust was dead.

I wonder if all animals see dreams when they’re asleep…

I was ready for any trial when Lita came for me. I sensed her presence immediately, but recognizing the sound of her footsteps wasn’t easy: no high heels clicking this time. When I emerged, I saw the reason for it. Instead of the business suit I got used to, she was wearing jeans and a black top, not as dirty as the ones Leo’s watcher wore; not dirty at all actually, but it was still weird to see her like this. Strangely enough, I liked seeing her like that.

“How was your day off?” she asked, pulling her black hair into a ponytail. I’d just noticed how long it was.

“It was fine,” I was studying her, but tried not to look like I was staring. Even if she noticed it, she preferred not to react.

“Then we need to go. Today’s test is truly the most important one. And it’s the last one during your adaptation week.”

I was sincerely unimpressed.

“So?”

“So nothing,” she shrugged. “I just want you to be aware of this information.”

Our route was unfamiliar this time and involved walking through many hallways. We’ve never went this way before! Lita was nervous. Her emotions were so strong that even her perfect self-control failed to hide them. I guess she wasn’t kidding when she said how important this thing was to her. I wish she could tell me why! Did she really care about her career that much?

We eventually reached a large hall that was filled with beasts and their watchers. I’ve met some of them before, but others were completely new to me. All the watchers were wearing average clothes, no business suits this time. What is this, a party?!

Soon after we arrived, the lights in the hall became dimmer. As the lights faded away a large screen on the wall came into view. At first it was blank, but then the picture changed for a layout of pipes that looked surprisingly like a sewer system. I could hear the same voice that stopped my fight with Leo speaking.

“To prove your qualifications you must pass the labyrinth and return to the surface. Try to remember the layout you see before you. The labyrinth is filled with water, and the watchers will receive special equipment for breathing. You must keep in mind that the equipment is available only during this training. There won’t be any of it on your assignments. The life of the watcher will fully depend on the beast. So your main task is to try and make this trip as short as possible. You may begin. Subject 1-32 and his watcher will go first, please move to the entrance.”

A beast and human team left the crowd and went to the door at the other side of the hall.

To be honest, I was confused by all of this, so I addressed Lita for some sort of explanation.

“It’s a reliability trial,” she said quietly. “In other words, this test provides a chance to know the level of trust between a watcher and his beast. That can be crucial in teamwork. A beast must guide its human through the labyrinth of water. In real life, that could mean salvation. Not everyone manages to do it. Naturally, some watchers refuse to take this test, and they have the official right to do so.”

“But you didn’t?”

“No. I asked for a permission to pass it. I… I need it.”

Okay, so now I was beyond being confused �" I was embarrassed. It was easy to think of her as some emotionless robot. Accepting her as a human who trusts me was much harder. Only once before did I become friends with a human, and what did that bring me? No, it's better to keep my distance in this situation!

I didn’t like her thoughtful silence though, so I decided to check just how far she was ready to go with that “trusting me” thing.

“So I’ll have to take you and the breathing equipment through those pipes?”

“Relax, it won’t be even that hard. I’m planning to refuse using the equipment.”

“What?!” the shock from that statement was so great that I was afraid my tail would fall off! I just couldn’t believe my ears! “Have you seen that layout?! It’s a bloody big labyrinth!”

“I trust you,” she said simply. I wasn’t flattered.

“Don’t trust me that much! At some point even I stop trusting myself!”

“Rey, just listen, okay? I guess you don’t know what kind of assignments lay ahead. And I know that. I also know that our cooperation cannot be built on only threats. On many occasions I’ll need to trust you completely �" not in order to accomplish something, but in order to survive. I must be sure I can rely on you, so I’m testing that now.”

I didn’t like her idea, and yet I could tell she would never back away from it. I needed to adapt to the situation, so I started mulling over a plan of action. I could tell my preparation time was limited.

“How long can you hold your breath under water?” I asked her.

“Around a minute and half. It’s enough to pass such distance.”

“Yeah, but only if we go straight from one end to the other, without taking any wrong turns!”

“That’s why you should watch the layout now and memorize it, instead of wasting your energy on talking.”

She decided to make things even more complicated than originally designed, and I was the one who had to find the way out! Great.

“I can move faster if both of my hands are free,” I informed her. “Do I have to hold you? It’ll be better if you hold onto me yourself.”

“I wouldn’t mind that if it weren’t for your armor. It’s impossible to hold onto it.”

She was right about that, no doubt. My armor was too smooth, there’s no way she’d be able to hold on when I’m moving! But… there was a possibility, the very thought of which made my blood go cold in fear; and I’m generally not a cowardly creature. Especially after everything that had already happened. And this…

No. Never. To hell with her trust! I didn’t ask her for it!

I thought we would wait forever for our chance. Time went painfully slow here. Finally the voice from the speakers called for us:

“Subject 2-2 and his watcher.”

While walking to the starting point, I tried to suppress the fear that was burning inside of me. I wasn't afraid of the trial itself or of Lita’s irresponsible decision, but by the thing I needed to do.

She doesn’t deserve it. I know that. But I need to do it anyway.

There was nothing behind the door we passed, only water. It was dark, but no paint this time, the darkness was caused only by the absence of light inside the pipes. I turned to Lita. Jumping into that water was nothing for me, it was my natural element, I felt better there than in the open air. But she… she’d fully depend on me. On a creature whose life was in her hands at all times! The one who might want vengeance on her whole species. Nice, huh?

A man in a dark uniform held a mask and an oxygen cylinder to Lita.

“I don’t need this,” she shook her head. “We’ll cope on our own.”

The man gave her a doubtful look:

“Are you sure?”

No!

“Absolutely,” her voice was as firm as ever.

He didn’t insist.

We entered the room, and now only one step was left between us and the water.

“That’s it, the countdown starts the moment we enter the labyrinth,” she smiled nervously. She never smiled this way before. “Good luck to us, huh?”

I sighed heavily and made my decision. The scales on my chest and neck retreated into my skin. Lita noticed that immediately.

“What are you doing?” she frowned.

I’m being a naïve idiot, to be fair. That’s what I’m doing. But to her, I put it differently:

“Now you can hold onto me. I’ll need my hands, there are many narrow turns down there, and we need to make it as quick as we can.»

“Are you sure about this?”

“Nope.»

“Me neither,» she finally confessed. “But I need it, Rey. I need to know I can trust you.»

I don’t want her to trust me, d****t! Though now was a bad time to tell her that…

She came very close to me, and I forced myself to stand still, though my original reaction was to take a step back and return my armor.

The problem was that no human even touched my skin. Well, at least when I was awake! I generally don’t like direct contact, and being without my main protection made things worse. I’ve never thought I’d allow anyone to do this! But the current situation left both of us with no other choice. I depended on her as much as she depended on me.

Trust for trust. I just hoped she’d appreciate it.

The feeling was strange and foreign to me. Not painful, but not too pleasant either. At first Lita carefully put her hands on my shoulders. When she was sure I wasn’t hurt by this, she leaned into me. She was holding onto me quite strongly for such a fragile creature! That would even put Leo’s grip to shame. I was glad, because I wouldn’t have to worry about her falling off somewhere along the way.

“Ready?” I asked. I was in charge now, and Lita seemed to accept this.

She nodded, and I could feel her inhale deeply. No use in waiting any longer!

I jumped into the dark water. My movements weren’t as graceful as usual, and I still had to adapt to the additional weight on me. She wasn’t heavy, but her presence made swimming uncomfortable… or rather, awkward. At least the pipes were wider than I thought! That lessened my chances of bumping her head during another change of course.

I tried to reach my maximum speed, but all the twists and turns slowed me down considerably. Lita froze on my chest, and looked very small, like a child in comparison to me!

Only darkness was in front of us, and I had to count turns to stick to the route I had in my mind. Remembering the damn layout and swimming at the same time wasn’t easy. If my calculations were correct, we were almost there. And about time: I could feel my watcher shaking, she was running out of air.

On the final turn I made a mistake. Instead of the ladder I was facing a dead end! I understood my mistake immediately and I knew how to correct it, but time was running out too fast for me to do anything! Why did she have to make it so hard?! If she had the oxygen mask, I wouldn’t have to worry about such minor errors! And now I was afraid for both her and myself. If my watcher died like this, my fate would be sealed, much to Anton’s joy. Besides, of all the watchers I saw here, she was the least deserving to die!

Suddenly I got an idea. I had no time to think it through, but it's not like I had many options! I gathered the oxygen out of water with my gills, but instead of fully inhaling it I sent it to my mouth. Now was the hardest part: I had to perform it in such a way that she wouldn’t drown out of shock. I had to act fast and careful.

I raised her chin with my hand, making her face me, and pressed my lips to hers, trying to pass her the air. It actually went better than I expected! Lita didn’t panic, she didn’t try to scream �" which would have immediately filled her lungs with water. She took the air more or less calmly. She was watching me wide-eyed after this, but I guess it was the aftermath of her surprise.

I found the right way easily, we’d already passed the trickiest areas. I pushed Lita to the surface first and then I got out myself, returning my armor beforehand. We were now in a large, brightly lit room where some humans were waiting for us. Most of them were gathered around Lita who was desperately trying to catch her breath.

“I’m fine,” she managed to say before she started coughing again.

I sat beside the water, keeping my tail in it. No-body looked at me at the moment, and that suited me just fine.

Lita recovered fast and went off somewhere with the humans who had met us. She gestured me to stay where I was and I was more than happy to comply; I had enough exciting events for one day.

That trial didn’t really tire me at all. I was ready to repeat it. It was nothing in comparison to the previous training sessions! Although… I touched the part of my chest where my skin felt like it was burning under my armor after her touch. It’d be better if I never repeated anything like that. Because after a second time it’d be much harder to make myself believe I didn’t like that warm touch.

One of the remaining humans went to me. He didn’t dare to come too close, he stopped a couple of feet away.

“Mo-ve a-way”, he told me with demonstrative slowness, as if addressing a very small child. “You must wait. She-will-re-turn!”

“I-un-der-stand,” I replied in the same manner. “You-are-ac-ting-like-a-mo-ron.”

He blinked in surprise. I just smirked and moved further from the water. Another team had probably entered the labyrinth by now and I shouldn’t have been standing between them and the long-awaited gulp of fresh air.

I sat by the wall, facing a large clock. That provided me with a possibility to tell that Lita returned in exactly forty-seven minutes.

She was wearing a business suit again, her hair in a complicated braid. I caught myself thinking again that I liked her previous look much more. Though it didn’t matter. A human is a human, nothing more!

“Come with me,” my watcher said.

I not only followed her, I did this with my head bowed. I liked watching other humans’ reaction to this, because they were secretly afraid of me. Now they were afraid of her too. I thought it was hilarious.

“Our test showed magnificent results, if you care about this,” she said when we were finally in an empty hallway. “You broke Cerberus’s record completely! It took him six minutes to go through the labyrinth. We made it in two minutes and seventeen seconds.”

“I don’t care.”

I wasn’t lying. I actually didn’t give a damn about Cerberus and his records.

“Is that so?” Lita smiled. “And do you care to know that you’ve passed the first stage of the trial period brilliantly? You managed to prove that you’re trustworthy, strong, that you have an amazing memory, stamina, that you know how to find your way. You have analytical skills equal to that of a human! You’re quite careful, and that kiss of life of yours was an example of purely human thinking too!”

“My what?”

I was puzzled by this. If I remembered correctly, a kiss was a form of physical love act between humans. I wasn’t sure about the process and the essence of it, but I was positive there were no acts of love between us!

“I was talking about how you passed the air to me,» she laughed briefly and then gave me a suspicious look: “Wait, do you know what a kiss is?”

“Not really. And I don’t want to.»

“Hm… Looks like I overestimated your erudition.”

Sad but true. My erudition was based on a dozen books cast in plastic. Well, at least I knew what the hell erudition was!

The elevator brought us to the floor where I’ve never been before. I checked my surroundings immediately and discovered that there was a large number of beasts under us. That meant I was being brought to the watchers’ level.

A day of surprises, no less…

“Why are we here?”

“I want to show you something,” Lita replied.

Just as I suspected, her office was straight above my room. Most of the space here was taken by bookshelves and I felt like I was in a library or something. A small screen was hiding a bed in the corner, which meant she spent a few nights here as well. Her desk was placed directly opposite of the door, making it the first thing her visitors noticed. Or rather, giving her a chance to immediately see any visitor who entered her office.

She walked to her desk and motioned at the chair beside it. It was a wooden one, so I had to sit on it carefully. That woman’s estimate of my weight must have been very optimistic!

It was unusual to think of her as a woman, not just some female human. I guess the change of terms in my head meant more respect… or even trust. I wasn’t ready to face it, so I decided not to think about it yet.

Lita turned her computer monitor around so I could see it and started to open some folders. I waited patiently, because I didn’t even know what to ask.

I was sure she wouldn’t be able to actually attract my interest, but she succeeded at that. When the first pictures appeared on the screen in front of me, I jumped on my chair, which somehow survived the sharp movement, though it creaked miserably.

“I knew you’d like it,” she smiled. “You recognized your father…”

“He wasn’t my father,” I immediately objected.

“Yes, but you call him your maker sometimes!”

“Not in the sense you give to the word.”

Lita decided not to argue this time:

“Maybe, it doesn’t really matter. That’s Dr. Strelov … actually, he made people call him that, though in reality he was a professor, an honorable member of many world academies. But he didn’t like to make a fuss about it, he was very modest.”

She was talking softly, the subject of our conversation was clearly important to her. I couldn’t help noticing it, though my main attention was directed at other things now.

“And who’s that?” I pointed at another man on the picture. The look in his eyes was sharp, almost predator-like, and I didn’t like it one bit. On the photo, he was shaking my friend’s hand, and both of them were smiling. But you could tell the smiles weren’t sincere.

“That’s Sergey Semenov. He’s a General now, and I’m not sure what his rank was back then. He’s the head of the whole project at the moment. In the past, he was the only one who agreed to help Strelov. Five years ago Dr. Strelov came to him and offered to create human-like amphibians who were more intelligent than any other animals on the planet, except for humans naturally.”

Well, I wouldn’t be that optimistic on the issue!

I started to understand what the talk was about. Lita was allowing me to learn things that I theoretically wasn’t supposed to know.

Trust for trust. She understood everything in that labyrinth.

“Strelov had ideas, but not the money, so he addressed various organizations on the matter of financing his project,” she continued. “His project seemed too crazy to invest into it, most businessmen simply denied him. His reputation as a brilliant scientist didn’t help either, they believed he had lost his mind. In the end, he started working for the Ministry of Defense. The conditions suited both sides perfectly: Strelov got all the support he needed, and in return he provided Semenov with trained animals who could work with humans. They were the Fund �" that’s where the phrase 'accepted into the Fund' came from.”

“Where did he get them… us?” I asked.

“Nobody knew that, he insisted on keeping this information secret. I’m not sure that even his friends and assistants knew the whole truth. Stealing his secrets was an impossibility, only rumors surfaced. Some said he was catching the beasts in distant waters, others said he was making them out of dolphins. And despite what you might think, these theories are the most scientific ones in comparison with the others! There were people who actually assumed he was using black magic �" welcome to the Dark Ages! But then you appeared. Your existence broke those theories, however. You were similar to the Line One beasts, and yet you were different. Strelov refused to give you to them, claiming that you were unfit for work. I doubt he actually believed that, most likely he just wanted to protect you. You were too precious to him. He was given permission to keep you, since he kept providing Line One beasts reliably.”

She meant everything she said. It made something hurt inside my chest… and it wasn’t a physical pain. It was much, much worse.

“How did he die?” I forced myself to ask this.

I didn’t want to hear it or think about it. But I had to know. He didn’t betray me, and I won’t betray even the memory of him.

“He… he was murdered,” Lita averted her eyes. “I don’t know who did this, they still haven’t found the killer. Dr. Strelov was shot by the door of his very own house, after he let his security guards go. Don’t look at me like that, it’s not the people from the project here who did this!”

I was angry and I wasn’t going to hide it. He talked to me that day, he was planning to return… but he wasn’t given a chance to! And I wasn’t there to help him!

“But humans did it in any case!”

“Of course, humans!” Lita snapped back at me. “Because Strelov, in case you haven’t noticed, was a human! This world belongs to humans! But not all of us are the same. Rey, I’m tired of your scorn at humans. You live among us, deal with it!”

It was a dangerous subject, so I preferred not to develop it. To overcome the tense moment, I tried to shift the subject to a different topic.

“Didn’t he leave any records?”

In her eyes I could see that she understood my peace offering correctly and took it. Her voice was calm once again.

“Even if he did, he hid them well.”

“From who?”

“From the world. He didn’t really trust anyone… just like you.”

I didn’t suspect her of lying. Lita wasn’t obliged to tell me anything, but I was grateful that she did. However, I wasn’t going to show her that gratitude. We weren’t that close after all!

“We’re starting to work together soon,” Lita turned the monitor back to normal. “Usually every team gets about a year of training together before going on assignments. That's what's needed for the human and the beast to get used to each other and learn to cooperate. We don’t have that year. You’ve only got a month of the trial period left.”

“And then what?”

“It depends on your results, but… fine, if I’ve started to give you restricted information I’ll tell you this, too. Shortly before I volunteered to become your watcher the decision was made about what to do with you. To kill you.”

“I know,” I clenched my fists, remembering Anton’s happy grin. “They wanted to perform a vivisection on me.”

“I should’ve guessed one of the jailers would tell you this…” she shook her head in remorse. “The decision wasn’t canceled completely, Rey. It was just postponed to check whether you’re capable of anything valuable to the project. Many people still don’t trust you, and these people are powerful. Nothing would make them happier than seeing you dead. In that month we have to prove that you're more valuable alive than dead!”