Part Three - Chapter 10

The reservoir was big. About two times bigger than the lake from my previous mission. It stretched along the city line, its concrete banks occupied by parks and beaches. They were nicely lit, but completely empty at the moment.

There was a small ship waiting for us by the shore. It was most likely Lita’s residence for this assignment. I didn’t consider it to be important enough to ask, my attention was fully concentrated on the second team we were to work with. When we arrived at the spot, they had already been expecting us.

Oscar was a large beast, though no larger than Leo. Me and him were about the same size. His scales were much lighter than mine, in electric light they looked almost yellow, though their true color was probably olive in daylight.

However, his watcher impressed me even more. She was tall for a human and had an amazingly attractive appearance: long legs, thin waist, impressive bust that her blouse showed off nicely. She was so overwhelmingly feminine that in comparison to her Lita looked like a child. I was stunned by the fact her looks mattered to me.

Naturally, I wasn’t going to fall on my knees in front of her, I didn’t even consider having an affair with her possible, she was a creature of another species after all! But the very fact my body wanted her meant a lot. I’d never faced something like this before, not to that extent.

Blocking those thoughts, I was fully in control of the situation again. But judging by Lita’s look, she noticed my momentarily weakness and understood its reason perfectly. And once again I was grateful to nature for my armor that hid my blushing.

We came closer to them, the watchers shook hands. The eyes of both women were cold and absolutely emotionless.

“Rey, this is Yulia and this is Oscar, in case you haven’t understood who’s the beast here,” Lita informed me icily.

Yulia ignored the obvious pun, she smiled at me sweetly; there was something unhealthy about that smile.

“Rey? What a strange name! Why so, Lola? Sounds like something Spanish!”

“I don’t care what is sounds like, I didn’t give him that name. It was his all along. Now let’s get down to business.”

But Yulia just pretended she didn’t hear it. Her smile became even sweeter.

“Did Volodya choose that name? Then I can understand why you didn’t change it. I knew those eyes were familiar to me! So some rumors are true after all.”

I saw Lita clench her fists and I knew it was a low and carefully aimed blow. I just couldn’t figure the essence of that blow. What rumors was she talking about?

“We’ve got work to do, and the sooner we deal with it, the better,” my watcher reminded. I knew she was saying it mostly for me. “We’re going to live on that boat, it was especially designed for such missions. There’s a hatch at its bottom which you can use for getting into water and back any time. Opening the hatch will not sink the boat, it’s engineered for such purposes. The best scenario is for you to find those creatures immediately so we don’t have to stay here at all. But I doubt things will go this way.”

Naturally. It if was that simple, humans would just send some divers, and yet they chose to work with us. It never happens without a very important reason.

“I wouldn’t call it the best scenario,” Yulia purred. “I’d love to spend more time in such an enchanting company! But you’ll have to start now in any case, while the beaches are still empty. Gentlemen, the water’s waiting!”

Oscar walked into the reservoir, I didn’t. There was no need to be a brilliant psychologist to understand that the relations between the watchers were quite tense. And even though I was attracted to Yulia in a way, I was still on Lita’s side. Besides, I wasn’t going to let the size of a female’s cleavage to be a reason enough to boss me around.

“You too, Rey,” my watcher’s smile was barely noticeable, meant only for me. “I don’t think he can handle this alone.”

“Oh really?” Yulia pursed her lips.

I could already sense the fight in the air. Something told me being beside two females who nearly hated each other was far worse than diving into the pound filled with unknown predators. So I chose the second option without any doubt.

The water was rather warm �" unexpectedly warm, I’d say, as if heated artificially, though that would be impossible. I didn’t like the darkness of it, but I could see fairly well, so I didn’t turn the flashlight I was given on. There were no shadows in that darkness.

I’d already lost sight of Oscar, but that didn’t bother me. I wasn’t going to stick by him all the time, not like I was his babysitter! If he was in danger, he’d call me, no words are necessary for this between two beasts. I’ll just sense it if something’s wrong, and the same goes for him.

The water around me was clean and calm, not a sign of the feeling of death which I encountered in the Reserve lake. Most likely it was because no corpses stayed in the reservoir, but even so, I expected to sense certain aggression in this place, which just wasn’t there.

Maybe those creatures left somewhere? I strongly doubted that. Where would they go? No, they were around here somewhere. The problem was the reservoir accepted them as its natural inhabitants.

That was bad. At such rate I wouldn’t be able to sense them from afar, they became part of the surroundings. There was only the traditional way of doing it left: swim in circles and watch.

Brief search around the reservoir didn’t bring any sufficient results. I met Oscar for a couple of times, but his bored look told me he hadn’t found anything interesting either. I decided to submerge to the bottom and see what was there �" that’s where all the junk usually ends up. I had no idea what Oscar occupied himself with, but he stayed away from me.

Lita told me the reservoir was artificial, and I could see it was true �" the banks were cast in concrete. I expected the bottom to be made of concrete too. Maybe it was, but I couldn’t be sure because of all the dirt and sludge. Garbage formed a separate layer of the bottom: cans, bottles, plastic, a car wheel and a bicycle frame… Humans! Was it so hard for them not to dump any single thing at hand into the water?!

And then I saw a skeleton. It was partly hidden in the slime, but I was still able to notice a yellowish thing beneath me. I swam closer slowly, dreading that the predators could be guarding their former victim. But no, they weren’t interested in bare bones.

Those bones were gnawed, I was sure of it. No natural decay process could clean the meat off like that. The pray �" most likely it used to be a dog, though I had my doubts about it since I haven’t seen that many animals in my lifetime, - was eaten. It was done with amazing preciseness, not a single bone was broken. Smooth move! A large and dumb predator wouldn’t be able to leave the skeleton in such a perfect condition. Unfortunately, it didn’t bring any guesses, I had no idea about who could’ve done this.

That skeleton was the most impressive thing I found during my search. I spent another couple of hours swimming, but that was in vain. Deep inside I understood how useless it was. Even Oscar could hide from me in such darkness, not to mention smaller creatures! But I continued just in order to get tired to the point where I’d sleep without any dreams at all.

Climbing back onto the ship, I knew my plan failed. I was tired, exhausted to the point my muscles were aching and my head was spinning. But my mind was alert, and I knew the shadow would return for me once again.

When I was inside, a strange sound attracted my attention almost immediately. Or, to be more particular, sounds. Heavy breathing, loud, a bit hoarse. Moaning, even a short scream if my ears weren’t failing me. I was disturbed by this, I started to move slowly to the source of the sounds. I tried to sense what was going on there, but I just couldn’t �" the hurricane of emotions was too strong for me to comprehend. It gave me a vertigo, so I had to block my senses not to make things worse.

I stopped in a narrow hallway in front of a closed door. The sounds were coming from behind it. I wasn’t sure whether I should come in or not, but my curiosity got the better of me. I opened the door carefully…

It was the first time I saw a Line One beast without armor. He was a bit different from me: his chest was wider with no obvious narrowing in waist, his legs were rather short and his arms were too long in comparison to human proportions, his neck was wide and short and his face was round with low brow and flat nose. His eyes, barely visible under brow ridges, were shut now.

And I’d never seen a human female �" or any human, come to think of it, - fully unclothed. Gentle lines of her body, velvety skin covered with droplets of sweat… such a contrast to the body above her.

My brain gathered all those images in a matter of seconds �" the time I allowed myself to watch them. Then I pulled back, slamming the door behind me, and leaned onto the hallway wall. I could hear her laughing in the room, or was it my imagination?

Now that hurricane of emotions was inside of me. Bewilderment turning into shock. Disgust at the very concept of the thing they were doing, for it was totally against the laws of nature, as I came to believe. Embarrassment of seeing something I had no right to see. Desire, instinctive, animalistic, which was not that easy to suppress this time �" and which shouldn’t have appeared! And the contempt at myself for that desire.

“I wish you could see yourself now,” Lita laughed quietly. I didn’t notice her arrival. “Eyes the size of dinner plates �" now I can see what this phrase refers to! I told you Yulia was a very specific watcher! Now you know why. I bet that knowledge wasn’t easy…”

I nodded sharply. Lita’s presence only made my shame stronger.

“Cold shower.”

“W-what?” I didn’t quite understand what she meant.

“Take a cold shower, it’ll help.”

How was a cold shower going to help me? It had nothing to do with this! I saw no connection, but decided to trust her �" just because I couldn’t fully realize what was happening to me and how I was supposed to react. Is there even a safe reaction to this? 

“The reservoir’s warm,” I noted.

“I know, that’s why I said ‘shower’. Come with me.”

Lita took me to her room, which had its own shower. It was a bit too narrow for me, but I was ready to accept this inconvenience in the current situation.

She turned the water on and left me alone. I knew I wouldn’t feel the cold in such condition, I had to take my armor off, to remove it under my skin. I didn’t want to do it, not now, but I forced myself to. Streams of icy water fell on my skin, which was a bit more sensitive than a human’s due to the constant protection of scales. The feeling of cold was a nasty shock, but Lita was right, it helped!

When I turned the water off, I heard her voice from behind the closed door:

“Don’t get dressed and don’t let your scales out. And if they’re out, remove them.”

“Why?” I instantly felt wary.

“Oh relax and stop acting like sixteen-year-old virgin, not like I’m going to rape you!” she wasn’t openly laughing, yet there was laughter in her voice. “I just got an idea of how to save you from those nightmares! You can cover yourself with a towel if you want to and get out of there!”

The towel was big enough for her to wrap herself in it completely, but not for me. So I just tied it around my hips and left the shower room. I wasn’t thrilled about any idea that left me unprotected, but I was so tired of nightmares I was ready to accept anything.

She was sitting on a chair beside a small round window. When I got out, her eyes stopped on me. It was a strange look, not typical for her: a bit tender and very sad. She’d never looked at me like this before, and even now I wasn’t sure it was me she was thinking about at the moment.

Lita pointed at the bed; I sat on it, coiling my tail around my legs.

“Stop fidgeting,” she frowned. “I told you I don’t do things Yulia does! It’s her problem, not mine! It’s not normal for humans, it’s just wrong.”

My point exactly!

“I know. I just have to get used to this.”

“You need to accept it as a thing that happens sometimes, not get used to it. Let’s hope you won’t be seeing this too often! When they finish this, I’ll talk to her. That pervert should at least learn to lock the door! Though it’s partly my fault, I should’ve warned you. Well, what’s done is done, now we have to deal with the consequence. But it’s not urgent, we must take care of your sleeping problems first. Here, drink this.”

She gave me a cup filled with steaming liquid. It smelled of herbs.

“What it that?”

“Tea. It helps people to unwind.”

I was quite suspicious of any mixture that resulted in me becoming less alert. Especially in such circumstances!

“I don’t want it!”

“Don’t be so stubborn!” Lita insisted. “You’re not getting enough sleep, I can see that. But those nightmares appear when you’re sleeping in water. What if you stay on the surface? There’s a chance things will be different.”

I didn’t remind her it was hard for me to breathe on the surface, she knew that. The air in this room was rather moist, so I could stay here from five to seven hours easily. Her plan wasn’t perfect, but I agreed. I knew that if I didn’t do something, the nightmares would continue to drain my strength.

I didn’t like the tea, the taste was disgusting, but it brought pleasant warmth to my body. Following my watcher’s instructions, I got into bed, covered myself with a blanket and only then did I take the towel off. There was still a point that unnerved me:

“Why do I have to sleep without scales? That doesn’t make me any lighter, you know!”

“It’s not about your weight in this case. When humans get nightmares, they often move uncontrollably, and have to be calmed down. If you start doing that with your armor out, you can kill me and ruin everything around you in the process. Plus, I bet you’ve never slept in a real bed before! Try it �" I think you’ll like it.”

She was right about that, it was my first time in bed. The feeling was unfamiliar, yet not uncomfortable. A couple of months ago, lying on the dirty floor of my cell, I couldn’t even imagine I’d end up sleeping in a human bed! Not the worst thing to happen to me, fairly speaking, it’s worth giving a try.

I had to take care of one last thing:

“I can be killed easily without my armor,” I said barely above whisper.

Lita just smiled and moved her chair closer to the bed.

“That’s why I’m going to stay here. I’ll wake you up if something happens. I promise.”

I had no energy to argue with her or doubt her words, although I didn’t like the position I was in. Hanging my tail off the bed, I turned to the wall and closed my eyes.

***

Never before had humans irritated me as much as today. The fact I searched the lake once again in the light of the day and still hadn’t found anything was bad enough. But having to swim close to the beach to protect humans was even worse!

They didn’t enjoy their rest in silence, no! It was probably beyond their capabilities. They just had to scream, whine, slap on the water and try to drown each other. That filled the water with a head-splitting echo, which would surely result in a horrible headache for me closer to the evening. How those predators survived here �" now that’s something I couldn’t understand. Their attacks didn’t surprise me at all: I was one step from attacking those screaming morons myself!

The good part was that I got sufficient rest during the night that kept me going now. Lita’s plan, which looked completely meaningless at the beginning, actually worked. I was sure I saw something in my dream, but it wasn’t the nightmare. Lita woke me up in the morning, telling me my skin was getting dry, so I had to return into the water.

Much to my shame, I found no words to express my gratitude.

I’d been here ever since. Oscar was sent to another beach, and I was glad about it. The memories of yesterday still made me feel awkward, I was not ready to face him or his watcher yet.

I just wanted to finish this mission and return to the Headquarters, as far from these two as possible! But the predators stayed away, as if they had sensed us. Or maybe they actually did and preferred to hide, that would make things even more complicated. I couldn’t figure a way to lure them out.

I was bored. To distract myself, I started going through yesterday’s events again, carefully avoiding the nasty scene. I spend a whole night as a human! And I liked it. Who would’ve thought I could like their life in a way…

Among the many memories of that day there was one that alerted me, but I was too weak and embarrassed to pay proper attention to it at the time being. And now, in the light of new day, I understood I missed something very important.

It returned to me now all of a sudden, that memory. The moment I pulled my scales into my skin, the discovery… I pressed my hand to my chest involuntary. I couldn’t feel anything through the armor, but I knew I needed to check my guess.

Not here though. I would never take my protection off in a place like that, even if there was no obvious danger at sight. My only option was to return into Lita’s room and make sure she didn’t notice me. And if she did, I’d just tell her I was having a break �" I’ve been in the water for six hours straight, I had the right to relax.

I made my decision. I looked at humans one last time just to make sure they were alright and swam to the boat.

I sat on the edge of the hatch and concentrated on my senses. I tried to understand who was on board at the moment and what they were doing. I caught the watchers’ voices at once, they were sitting in the room above me.

Together? Now that was surprising! And they were talking calmly too. Last time I checked, they were screaming at each other so loud the whole city must’ve heard them. It was Lita’s way of explaining her colleague that I didn’t have to see all the details of her private life.

That sudden peace amazed me. I know eavesdropping is bad, but I couldn’t resist it now. I sat on the ladder leading upstairs and froze on the spot.

“…About a year ago, when I already had sufficient experience of working with Oscar,” Yulia was continuing the speech she started earlier. “He suspected I was cheating on him, so he filed for divorce. If he saw who I was cheating with, he’d kill himself!”

“It’s still disgusting,” Lita replied with a chuckle. “I can totally understand your ex!”

Yulia wasn’t embarrassed in the slightest:

“Oh come on, goodie good girl! Don’t tell me you’ve never thought about it!”

“Never. Yulya, they’re animals! It would be the same if I started throwing lusty looks on a monkey, they remind humans too!”

“That’s your attitude to the Line One beasts. I won’t try to prove anything to you here, you’ve always thought of them this way. Plus, you were already in love back in those days, you didn’t care even about human men, apart from the object of your affection. But things are different with Rey, I’ve noticed the way you’re looking at him.”

I expected to hear a hasty denial, and a assertive one, but heard only silence instead. I almost fell off the ladder in surprise.

Really?!

“Not the way you’re looking at Oscar,” Lita finally announced. As if she’d been choosing something she could say confidently!

“No, not that way. In a more serious way, honey. And I know why.”

This time Lita was fast in snapping back:

“Don’t flatter yourself, you know nothing!”

“It’s too easy, you’re plain obvious. Rey is not like the Line One beasts, he’s much more human. And I mean a very particular human! I can see it even through his armor. For instance, look at his nose. Have you seen the beasts’ noses? Flat and barely there! And your boy basically has a Roman profile! Is that from a fish? Hell no! I’m not even mentioning his eyes. When I look into those brown eyes, I have a feeling I’m talking to you-know-who again! That resemblance is striking, don’t you think? I can see you know the reason. Is that why you volunteered to become his watcher? Why you didn’t allow them to kill him?”

I tried not to breath in order not to miss a single word. I never expected things to get so important, I was just checking what brought them together! But now it was about something I could never even think of: my resemblance to someone.

“Not because of this,” Lita whispered. “When I volunteered, I had no idea what he looked like. But when I saw him, it just became harder.”

“Then why are you torturing yourself? With his predecessor, sad as it may sound, you didn’t have a single chance. He loved his wife and just didn’t look at you that way. And this boy is yours completely. He may be smarter than the Line One beasts, but when it comes to this, he’s as inexperienced as a child. You know what to do! Guide him, show him, and he’ll be all yours! Isn’t he a worthy replacement? Don’t you want it?”

“I do,” my watcher’s voice sounded unnaturally dry. “But not always, no, just sometimes. When I remember him and then look at Rey… and that similarity… Still, it’s not enough. I’ll never do this. It won’t be fair. And he’s still not human!”

“You’re nuts, kid,” Yulia concluded. “You’re hurting yourself and depriving him of such experience! But I doubt it’ll last long. You’ll continue working together and at some point you just won’t handle this.”

“It’s possible, but I doubt it. More likely the feeling I have will die completely. Enough, I’m tired of this. Do you know how Zhenya and Lino’s last mission go?”

I couldn’t care less for Zhenya and Lino’s last mission, so I stopped listening. I spent a couple of minutes without movement, trying to fully grasp the things I had just heard. In the end, only one question mattered: who was the “you-know-who” they were referring to?

I couldn’t ask Lita directly. She wasn’t mad at me for listening to her talk to Limenko , but that was a different story. She wouldn’t forgive me this time. There was only one way to find out: talk to Yulia. I wasn’t excited by such prospect, so I decided to do it later. First I had to take care of the thing that brought me here.

Quietly, trying not to disturb the watchers, I went into Lita’s room and locked myself inside the shower. Standing in front on the mirror, I removed the scales from my chest.

There was no mistake: right above the solar plexus, in-between my ribs, there was a thin scar, almost gone but still visible. I have never had any wounds there, Anton broke my bones, but he couldn’t get through the scales. That left only one thing that could cause such a scar.

I should’ve guessed that they’d put the bombs by the vital organs. That way, the explosion would finish me off for sure. I touched the scar and felt a little bump by the bone. There it is!

I knew I had to act now �" and act fast. If I start thinking about it, analyzing the situation, I’d never dare to actually do this, my instinct of self-preservation would stop me. I had to get rid of this thing immediately!

Quick study of the lockers in the shower supplied me with bandages, including the ones meant especially for beasts on dangerous missions. There was nothing else I needed.

I pressed both my hands to the walls to avoid instinctive movements and cut the skin on my chest along the scar line using the spike on my tail. My initial movement was fast and confident, and then there was no going back. Strangely enough, the pain was barely noticeable. I can’t tell I felt nothing, but I expected such wound to hurt more. The blood was flowing along my chest in rivulets, disappearing down the drain in the floor but the feeling was the same all the time: dull and rather weak, weaker than many things I felt back in the cell.

There was a powerful flash of pain when I brought my claws under the skin, when I felt that bomb and pulled it out. But it wasn’t paralyzing or anything, I could handle it. I guess I had to thank Anton for teaching me how to tolerate things like that.

With a shaking hand I put the device by the sink. Funny… This tiny piece of plastic and metal was able to rip my chest apart! But not anymore.

The wound was still bleeding when I got under icy water. Just as I expected, the cold stopped the main flow of blood, and the rest would end soon. I covered the wound with a bandage; a crimson spot appeared in the middle of it in a couple of seconds. I didn’t pay it any attention since I felt nothing, the pain was gone.

I washed the remains of blood out of the shower and dragged myself to bed. I didn’t want to sleep, but I felt nauseous. I needed some rest.

I got under the blanket at the right time �" I could hear familiar footsteps in the hallway. To avoid any explanations, I pretended to be asleep.

Lita entered the room and paused by the door, clearly surprised by my presence here. But she believed I was asleep, because she tried to be as quiet as possible. Soon she bent over me, I could smell her perfume.

I tried to sense her emotions, but they were confused and alien to me.

When her lips gently touched mine, I almost gave myself away. I have no idea how I managed to go on pretending. The tips of her fingers tenderly brushed my forehead, temple and cheek, then she whispered:

“You have no idea how much I miss you…”

Then she left, and I stayed there, staring at the ceiling with my eyes wide open.