Chapter Four

Bedtimes stories

Two days earlier...

March 13th. Tuesday. 10.30 P.M.

Astana Royal Hotel. Akmola, Kazakhstan.

A warm but very dim light illuminated the living room of the luxurious suite, decorated with a large crystal chandelier in the middle and exquisitely finished art déco furniture and tapestry.

The large windows, also decorated with fine curtains, let in the flickering pale lights of the city's skyscrapers, illuminating the raindrops that dripped down the glass onto the balcony. A holographic fireplace, although just a decoration too, gave it a much warmer atmosphere to the place.

But the couple in the other room, on the bed, were too busy elsewhere to admire the fine quality of the furniture of the place or the details in the suite. They were too occupied by the storm, that like a gale, they were generating.

Their clothes were lying around the bed, and their badges and the two guns sat on the nightstand.

Nothing else mattered at that moment. They had left the cases, the dangers and all the rules waiting on the other side of the door. Just for tonight, for a few hours, they could be together. They could go back to work the next morning.

Face to face, their outlines melted in the semi-darkness in a jumble of arms and caresses. Shin kissed Mai and caressed her cheek. He could see the pearly drops of sweat trickling down her forehead, and he pulled aside one of her tousled locks of hair to look into her eyes.

As she set the pace, sitting on top of him, he kissed her collarbone and with his lips traced a path downward to her breasts, stopping at an almost imperceptible scar in the middle of her chest. He concentrated his lips there for a few seconds as she arched her back and moaned. He pulled her to him again, and they kissed; their tongues, like whips, sought each other out.

Mai hugged Shin's scarred back, and her hands slid down his muscular frame until they stopped on a strange symmetrical mark he had at the level of his lumbar muscles. It almost looked like a black tribal tattoo, but it was etched as if a piece of skin had been ripped off. She caressed the strange mark while Shin concentrated on kiss her neck again.

They continued that way for several minutes, until the rhythmic movements brought them to climax. Mai stifled a moan and hugged her lover's back even tighter as she felt the spasms spread to every part of her body. From her vagina, to her feet and from there to the tips of her ears. Shin huffed a couple of times and put his hands on Mai's hips, trying to contain the fey girl's shuddering and trembling.

"Let's stay together like this all night."

"I wasn't thinking of getting away."

Mai smiled mischievously at him.

The lovers stopped and she let her body rest on him as they both collapsed on the damp sheets. They could feel the wetness and sweat on their stomachs at the same time they could hear their hearts beating wildly. Mai's moans became quieter as Shin plunged his tongue into her mouth again. Mai, in turn, stroked and messed up his hair.

They continued in that position for another few minutes as Shin caressed her back, and she simply rested and breathed heavily.

"Should I move?" she asked.

"You are the one who said we should stay like this until tomorrow."

Mai laughed and rolled to the side trying to catch her breath as she felt Shin's member slip out of her. He turned and wrapped one of his arms around her and kissed her neck. Her ears tingled again.

"I love you," Shin said.

Mai stifled a smile as she turned and stared deep into his eyes.

"I love you too," she said kissing him.

It had been worth it to spend almost two days sorting out diplomatic problems to finally have some free time to be together without having to worry about work issues.

"I wish Liz could have been here too," Mai said, as she caressed Shin's cheek.

"Just one more week, and we'll get together," he said, as he brushed aside one of her silver locks.

"Yeah..." Mai nodded then looked at him with mischievous eyes. "Do you have the book?"

"For what?"

"Take a picture, and send it to her."

"We should be careful with these photos. One of these days, when we get to the island, we're going to find out that Liz or Kotori have made a gallery."

Mai laughed at the comment. Then she changed her expression a little, putting on a melancholy smile. "What are we going to do about Kotori?"

"It's a little early for that."

"I think it's a little late," Mai said and put on a sweet smile.

Shin looked at her, though with a slightly more serious face. "Let's save it for when we can see each other again."

Mai moved closer to him putting on a more teasing smile. "I'm going to bite you if you don't take it seriously." Then, with red cheeks, she reached down and began to kiss the shaft that until a few moments ago had been inside her.

Scary… But cute. Shin thought, although that didn't stop him from getting a new erection as he felt Mai's lips and then her tongue. After a few moments she finally stopped, collapsing beside him again. She was incredibly flushed.

"I won't complain if you keep going."

"What happened to the picture?" Mai asked trying to sound, calm but she was nervous.

"You don't need to do that, if you don't like it."

Shin sat up and looked around, searching through the jumble of clothes, on the floor, for his book. He rolled onto his side of the bed and there on the floor he found the thick book. He picked it up and passed it to Mai and.

"I wanted to do it. Liz can do it better. It's funny... sometimes," she said sulkily. "... your mini-you big, that's all."

As he hugged her again, she pointed the covers towards them. The cover of that book had a camera, with one of the controls on the book spine Mai took a high definition photograph. The image had no special content beyond showing them in an intimate moment, it was simply a hobby of Lizbeth's to collect them, since she used the photos sometimes for inspiration for her paintings.

After a few seconds, Mai opened the book at a random page and searched through the nodes for the picture and then sent the image with movement from her own Neurowire.

It wasn't more than ten seconds until a shared chat window with a heart appeared in the book and on Mai's Neurowire.

"That was fast!" she said, surprised.

An image appeared in the chat window, showing a fey girl with lemon-colored eyes and long blonde hair tied in a ponytail. She was wearing a black suit, with a slightly loose tie and a badge on her coat lapel. She looked at them smiling but, at the same time, shook her head. The strange part of the photo was that some people were lying on the floor, surrounded by broken furniture, as if they had lost a fight.

[That's so unfair. Hello?! I'm working here guys… Don't forget to hydrate, btw.] The message was followed by several water and milk bottle emoticons.

"The truth is I'm thirsty," he said, smiling.

"Did she kick all those behind her?"

"Probably," Shin nodded.

He left the bed naked and walked to the minibar on the other side of the room.

Mai put the book on the nightstand and looked at herself naked. I have to clean up a bit, we've made a mess, she thought blushing. She had sweated a lot and could still feel her privates warm and wet. She felt they had gotten a little out of control but she couldn't say anything. She was the one who had wanted them to spend the night together.

"Service... Clean bed, please," she said in a low voice.

[Understood. The nano-cleaning system will begin in fifteen seconds.] The voice of the AI-assisted service had burst from the head of the bed.

Mai got up and covered herself with a fine silk robe she had left on one of the armchairs before moving towards the bathroom.

"Do you want anything?" Shin asked.

"Anything, but alcohol," she said, from the bathroom.

Shin pulled two cans of hot chai tea from the minibar machine for Mai and took a large can of Russian beer for himself. Without even bothering with his clothes, he walked to the window and admired the night cityscape, while drinking. The annoying drizzle continued to lash the city.

The gigantic buildings with their lights, the sound of the city, and the hundreds of cars that populated the streets and the air, brought him back to reality.

Shin sighed as he took a swig of beer, and reaching into his pants, lying on the ground, he pulled out a pack of Black Ocean cigarettes. He lit one and continued admired the scene from the windows as wisps of smoke filled the room.

The last time he had been in Kazakhstan, he had hardly had time for anything. The year had been 1985 of the Ancient Era, and the situation had been vastly different. The world was now in a relative but tense calm. That hadn't changed. Whether for one reason or another, the tensions were always there. Even if they were none of his business, somehow or other, trouble always seemed to catch up with him. He was deep in thought when he felt hands clasping his abdomen. Shin turned his head and there he saw the smiling face of his lover again, as beautiful as ever. Mai had gone to clean herself up a bit, but her face was still flushed and her hair still had a few damp strands of sweat in it. As she ran her hand over his abdomen, she noticed the sweat was still not drying on Shin.

"You already lit up one of those bug killers. Don't even think of kissing my breasts."

"I haven't smoked all day. Don't worry, I've had enough to drink." he told her, smiling.

She pulled away and grabbed one of the tea cans from the table before sitting on the bed once more as she looked at Shin's body. "I find it funny that the only time you sweat is when we have sex."

He smiled and sat down next to her. "It's because I'm relaxed. Most of the time my whole body is kind of on stand-by waiting for the moment I have to wear the armor." Shin slid her silk robe and began kissing her shoulder.

"Does it hurt?" she asked.

"Nah, it doesn't hurt." Shin said and flicked the cigarette butt into the empty can. "I don't even know if it ever hurt."

They were both silent for a few moments. Only the gentle sound of rain on the glass window filled the room. Mai looked down at her lover’s crotch and fondled his leg smiling. Then she slid her index finger down the length of Shin's penis and looked at him mischievously.

"You should go get cleaned up," she said.

"Seriously? Don't you want to do it again?" he asked, as he caressed her back.

"I have an early meeting tomorrow, sorry. I wouldn't be able to get up early if we do it again." she said with a half smile, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't have your resistance."

"Well, at least we can have a night in peace."

Shin finally sat up, kissed her shoulder again, then made his way to the bathroom, leaving Mai staring at the city outside.

She was almost finished drinking her second can of hot tea when light knocks came from the living room door. Shin came out of the bathroom, drying his hands with a towel as he looked at Mai.

"Room service?" he asked.

"I didn't order anything," she said, as she covered her bare shoulders again.

Mai sat up and reached for the nightstand, tossing the gun to Shin. He was already heading for the living room when she snapped at him.

"Your underwear."

"Oh… yeah, right," he said, reaching for his underwear lying on the floor. He put them on and walked back to the living room.

"Seriously?" Mai bit her lower lip and walked quickly to the bathroom, coming out a few seconds later with a bath robe in her hands. "You're going to open the door like that?"

Shin looked at the picture on the intercom. It was a slightly older man almost as tall as he was, dressed in a black-tie suit with cummerbund.

"Yes? What can I do for you?" he asked as he received the robe that Mai extended to him.

Over the intercom the man's face grew larger that Shin swore he could see the pores of his nose.

"My name is Amir Zejho. I am a colonel in the army. You can check my ID in the public military database and in the Ministry of Defense data too."

Shin pursed his lips downward and shrugged, looking at Mai. She delayed for a few seconds as she checked the information with her Neurowire then nodded.

"Okay. How can we help you?"

"I have some information that may be of use to you, guys."

Mai pondered a moment and nodded again."Let him in."

Shin opened the door, quickly finding that the picture on the intercom was quite deceiving. The man in the doorframe was the Col. Amir Zejho, but he looked like he had gained a few pounds in weight from the picture. The cummerbund was obviously squeezing him a bit.

Amir Zejho looked a little nervously at the weapons they both carried.

"May I come in?"

"Please," Mai invited. She felt a little nervous about the visit that had interrupted them in a moment alone. Trying to appear calm, she ran a hand through her hair, trying to get some of the sweat-damp strands to intermingle with the rest of her messy hair. She was hoping that thanks to the ventilation systems, there would not be any strange odors. Fortunately they had unleashed their instincts in the bedroom only, so there was no clutter in the other rooms of the suite.

Shin closed the door behind the colonel and Mai invited him into the living room.

"Let me tell you what an honor it is to meet you in person," the Colonel said, addressing Mai. "I know you are traveling under a cover identity, but I hope you won't mind the indiscretion."

Mai bowed her head, accepting the compliment, but she wondered worriedly how the man knew her name. Amir Zejho approached Shin, offering his hand.

"And I know who you are too."

"Everyone seems to know except me. But it's a pleasure," Shin said, accepting the greeting.

"Please have a seat. How can we help you?" Mai offered, pointing to the living room.

The three of them sat on the couches around the tea table, and the lights in the room automatically adjusted with more illumination.

"I'll try to be brief. I only have an hour until the alarms go off that I turn off my Neurowire. The only reason I can be here is that I knew you two would be at this hotel, and I convinced my family to come to the opera across the street, so I could contact you without arousing suspicion."

"We appreciate the honesty, but how can we help you?" Mai asked.

"The reason I'm here is because I have some information that I think will be of more use to you.... And because I consulted with General Sedenov." The Colonel peered at Mai.

"I've known Sedenov for decades. He's a good man, but he's a bit lousy at making jokes at the wrong time. I guess he was the one who told him who I was."

"Yes. The army keeps an eye whenever we have important guests," Amir Zejho sighed and leaned forward. "Have you heard anything about the natural park that exists to the south of here?"

"Which one?"

"The Kolsay Reserve."

"The Kolsay Reserve? Yes, that's the one with the submerged forest, isn't it?"

"No, the name doesn't come from that lake, which is the Kaindy lake. I'm talking about the others."

"The three Kolsay lakes?" Shin asked.

"There are two now, the middle lake, and the one below joined years ago due to seismic activity."

"You weren't around when that happened. It was a hundred years ago or so if I'm not mistaken," Mai added, while looking at Shin.

Zejho nodded. "A hundred and ten years to be exact. Anyway, this thing I'm about to tell you doesn't have to leave here. I'm not sure what I'm doing here is going to get me into trouble. There are quite a few people who have apparently been trying to keep this matter out of prying eyes for quite some time."

Amir Zejho cleared his throat and began to explain. "The great Kolsay Lake was permanently populated until almost 80 years ago. After that, most started moving to the cities and, as you know, since the development of Another Earth, almost 100 years ago, all physical tourist sites in the world have suffered a drop of up to eighty percent of visitors. The Kolsay is only twenty five percent scanned. The rest of the information is like that of other places, satellite projection images, public domain photos, archival information and artificial intelligence's are in charge of covering the remaining seventy five percent and filling in the blanks. The truth is, on one hand it is good for nature because it has allowed the conservation of many, many places."

"Only twenty-five percent?" Shin asked.

Mai turned to look at him and explained.

"Twenty-five percent in natural places is a lot. In other places, like Yosemite, they only needed like a ten percent pre-scan. You don't need a lot of information to simulate a wilderness reality, because a lot of times it's just based on repeating patterns in the terrain. The only thing that takes a bit of time is the terrain scanning, the rest is easy, it doesn't even require human intervention since almost everything is done by drones."

"But isn't it updated?"

"In your time this didn't exist. Nowadays, things like this are updated in seconds. Many of these artificial intelligence's use the same system that we use. They simply collect data through open sources from the Neurowire, like social networks, government services, satellites, drones. And they use that information to update themselves when they need to. The only exception is places that have indefinite quarantine, which is where the maps are modified to prevent people from carelessly entering or criminal organizations from using the mapping to enter and conduct illicit activities."

Shin nodded. "Yeah, you explained that to me the other time. It's just that sometimes I have a hard time understanding it."

"Anyway, the point is that the arrival of AnotherEarth played in favor many times of governments, to keep areas closed to the public."

"Is Kolsay Park forbidden to enter?" Shin asked, turning to Zejho.

"Not exactly. It is possible to enter in several places, including the big lake, but only to a certain extent. Surveillance drone teams are used to maintain custody nowadays. Or at least they used to be, the last drone equipment has been rendered useless weeks ago. And to enter, beyond the lake, many times a special permit is required, because it has been declared a preservation area, but with zoonotic outbreaks dangerous to health. Which is not all a lie, but they are not dangerous, or at least they were not. Permits are almost always granted to scientific academics."

"… And us," Mai interrupted.

"Exactly. Nevermore has access to the area because of the World Jurisdiction Act, but it's never been used there."

"Well, we've never had any reports of serious anomalous activity in the area. World jurisdiction is not an ace up our sleeve, it's something used in extreme cases of a Dark Events showing up, and the area needs to be cordoned off to investigate or quarantined." Mai's gaze wandered for a few seconds, then she waved a hand through the air. "Please continue, I'm just checking."

"The thing is… thanks to the massive depopulation that occurred, and the lack of people going to visit, it was possible to hide something that happened later. To this day, 60 years have passed since an incident that there is no record of in digital media."

"What kind of incident?" Shin asked.

"A massacre…"

Mai's face darkened. "… "

"Thirty people died in the near area of what was once the second lake. Officially, the incident was reported as bear attacks. The corpses of these people were found as if they were deflated balloons of meat with crushed bones. The ones that were complete, that is, because most of them were found in pieces. And when I say thirty, is because it is only the ones that are known."

"Do you know the identities of the deceased?" Mai asked with a serious look, crossing her arms.

"I have the identities of some. Of at least those who are from this country and Kyrgyzstan."

"What do you mean?"

"Only seven were from here, the other five were people from Kyrgyzstan. I don't know the identities of the rest because they were not from around. They were all of other nationalities."

"I found it," Mai said. "There are reports, but effectively only 12 people are reported dead due to an animal attack, presumably a bear."

"Presumably a bear," Zejho echoed.

"What happened to the bodies of the other victims?" she asked.

"They were claimed and put in a convoy two days later to an unknown destination. Someone wanted to keep the case off the record at that time. Our country was going into political transition to implement the artificial intelligence government and there were good diplomatic relations, that's why everything was kept under silence.

"What I'm getting at is... wasn't the only one. I've been trying to dig into this case a little bit for years. It turns out that, prior to that, there were other deaths, few, but they still happened. Sometimes it was animal attack, sometimes it was simply death by exposure or falling off some of the slopes and drowning."

"Do you think they are somehow connected?" Shin asked.

"I don't think so, I know they are connected, although I'm not quite sure about the why."

"Have you shared this information with anyone else?" Mai asked.

"Sedenov, and he was the one who told me I should find a way to talk to you."

"Did you try to dig a little deeper about the foreign victims?" Shin asked.

"My mother used to say don't look for what I haven't missed, and it's one of the best pieces of advice I've ever received. With this kind of thing associated with Dark Events, you never know how far it can go." Zejho cleared his throat again and continued his story. "After the death of these 30 people there were others over the years. Few, not even a dozen, but there have been. It wouldn't be unusual if they were natural causes. Which apparently, they are. You see, all the deaths have this in common."

Amir Zejho pulled an envelope out of his suit and extracted from it a few images and a small blue rectangle. He reviewed the images, then placed one of them on the table, along with the small blue rectangle, which flashed on its sides projecting a hologram with the text [POLICE PROPERTY-EVIDENCE-A-34F3-FTSB2-343.] Seconds later, a menu was displayed, and Amir Zejho touched the hologram, choosing one of the options. The menu faded out, then projected into the air something that Shin at first thought was some sort of strange high-resolution figure.

It was an elongated figure, roughly carved out of wood. It had a pointed head crowned with what looked like two horns and at the level of the jaw, if it could be called that, two more horns seemed to protrude. A series of four pairs of arms had been engraved in bas-relief, and they faded towards the lower part, which had a thinner shape. At the end it widened again forming an ovoid shaped ball.

Shin examined it as the image rotated. The shape of the arms reminded him of something from a few months ago and gave him a bad feeling. Mai, in turn, took the photograph which was in an evidence bag and was already showing some signs of age. She looked at the hologram figure, then at the photo on the table.

"Aren't they the same?"

"No," Amir Zejho replied with a smile. "The one you're holding disappeared ten years ago."

"What are they?"

"I have no idea. Some kind of idol or an ornament, I don't know. But look."

One by one he laid the remaining photos on the table. It was a set of seven moving photographs. Almost all of them showed the same figure but with subtle differences in material. The remaining two images showed a group of soldiers working and carrying what looked like long black bags, and the other showed the bloody remains of what must have been human beings scattered on the ground.

"At the bottom," Amir Zejho said, pointing to the picture of the soldiers.

And indeed, at the bottom, scattered next to what looked like hunting weapons and a dead stag carcass, could be seen a series of strange small black figures that bore an uncanny resemblance to the one rotating in the hologram.

"This is the part I want you to hear. You see, twenty-five years ago I went to the Military Academy and met someone there. This guy was a little strange, but he was a good friend, probably the best I had at the time." Amir took a short sigh, looking down, as he seemed to be remembering. "He became entangled in an affair with his geology professor and, for a while, everything was fine between the two of them. Until one day she started to change. She was obsessed with something, although she never said what it was. And if she told my friend, at least he didn't tell me. In the end, she could barely keep her job. Everything was going down to hell. Then out of nowhere for a few months, everything seemed to return to normal."

Amir Zejho paused, as if it was something he had trouble remembering, or perhaps as if his memories were too painful. Then he continued with his story."It was in March… She invited my friend to go on a trip with her; and me and a couple of other students from another major went too. We were all acquaintances, and we knew the history he was having with his professor. She invited us to spend a few days at Kolsay Lake. We got to the place. That part has abandoned cabins so we weren't going camping or anything like that, and since we were at the university, we didn't have any problems with permits to get through. Technically we were going to collect samples and since we were going with a professor no one said anything at the park entrance.

"On the second night I woke up in the middle of the night. And that's when I saw it. I was on my way back to bed, when through the windows came a light that I have never seen again in my life. It was something between red and pink. It was located to the south, in the direction of the big reservoir of what was the second lake. It would pulse, disappear, and reappear for a few seconds and then vanish once again. I went outside and the temperature was barely bearable, but there was something that made me not want to take my eyes off that light. I didn't even wake up my friends so they could see it too.

"Then everything went silent. I don't remember how I got back to bed, I just remember waking up the next day to the screams of my friends and the worst headache I'd ever had in my life.

"The professor's name was Rayana Ivraeva… She disappeared that day, or rather during the night. And her body never found."

"…" Mai listened attentively while analyzing Amir Zejho's expressions. Shin, on the other hand, remained silent.

Amir Zejho sighed, as if he had taken a load off his mind by telling the story and continued. "We were interrogated for days and weeks. I came to believe that we were going to be blamed for murder or something like that. It wasn't until three months later that a will with a neural signature was discovered where she stated she was going to commit suicide on that night."

Mai looked once more at the photograph in her hand.

"That's the thing she left with her will." Zejho said.

"Did they look for the body?" Mai asked.

"Yes, she was searched high and low for weeks. She was from a good family and well known. Her family is now part of one of the asteroid mining conglomerates. The whole family moved to Selene a few years ago. She was searched for all over the lake, with divers and even drones combing the area. But nothing was ever discovered. She was searched for believing at first that she might be back in her apartment but she wasn't there either."

"I don't understand, what about her neural signal?"

Amir Zejho's face became more somber, and he explained. "Her Neurowire had been deactivated months before, and we never knew about it. It's not like humans today could live without one unless you are a COW. But whatever she did to live so many months without one is still unexplained. She kept chatting like we do over the Neurowire, but apparently she was using an external device so as not to draw attention to herself."

"What happened to your friend?" Shin asked.

"My friend… that's what bothered me for a long time. I imagined he was going to be devastated but he wasn't. He was depressed for a long time, truth, but I always wondered if he really was or if he was just faking it.

"There is something that has always terrified me… What would have happened if that night, instead of going out to see that light, I had gone to wake up my friends? I wonder if I had gone into the professor and my friend's room, would I have found them there? I don't know why but I've always had a feeling that both of them that night were in the place where that glow was generated.

"Anyway, what happened next was that my friend continued his studies. He decided to study geology, just as Professor Ivraeva had done. Once we left the Academy, I continued my military career, and he went into more academics studies. We kept in touch often, but life issues kept us apart for some time. We still saw each other for a few chats and I can say without a doubt that he was always a man I could trust wherever I needed him. Regardless of my fears and doubts… "

"My friend's name is Sergey Komarov. He disappeared last Thursday, and I am very much afraid that he is the latest victim of Lake Kolsay."

Amir Zejho leaned over the rectangle and his fingers drummed on the menu once more. But instead of the crudely carved figure, it now showed the bust of a middle-aged man with sunken eyes and slightly messy hair.

Mai and Shin moved closer to better study the face and Amir in a heavy voice added. "Before his neural signal disappeared, he sent me this…"

The message was choppy and sounded more like the prayer of a man who had had enough of the world. But that was more than enough to pique Mai's curiosity.

Shin glanced sideways at Mai and saw how her eyes were fixed on the hologram. Here we go again, he thought.