A Step to Nowhere (29 page)
Samantha waited for the driver to open the door for her and left the car, holding onto his hand. The day was wonderful: no rain, no wind, neither hot nor cold. She could spend her time by the pool, but instead she had to hunt for this scorfah, who had run away again. She didn’t just run away, but she ran away from Dan the Great. Her best guard—her right hand. She doubted now that she had really known the people working for her. Who was her copy from Planet Two? Superwoman?
Samantha smoothed her skinny pants, flipped her hair, and headed toward the building. Her assistant followed her, carrying all her devices and other necessary things like remote, water, tissues, make up.
All morning, Samantha had spent time in the corporation in case her copy turned up there. Everything she needed to get back to her world was there. Only this disgusting little snip didn’t appear and Samantha decided to spend a few hours in her main office, waiting for a call from Jason Stanly. Lead hunter, the best dog. He found this piece of pard the first time; he was going to do it again. How dared she to look like her? Like Samantha Bristow herself? Even though it was a superficial similarity. Only idiots could mistake that imitation for Samantha. Only those who didn’t know her well. Ray saw the difference and told her they were completely different. His wife had class, sophistication, style, intellect and her double from the other dimension didn’t have any of those.
Ray also was looking for her, working with
his
people. He said he had his people. Hmmm. Who were they? Cleaners from the corporation? Sometimes he was so funny.
Samantha walked up the stairs, pressed her thumb to the reader, and entered the lobby. Usually she didn’t pay attention to the guards, ignoring them as species. Her father wanted them, not her. He worked with the best specialist in security systems and he relaxed only after confirmation that even a moth was not going to get inside the building without permission. Old paranoiac. Samantha was tired of him, but his ideas made her life the way it was.
She couldn’t ignore the guards this time. They stared at her with wild eyes. One of them screamed, another one jumped back, pulled his gun out and pointed it at her. Samantha stopped and turned to her assistant, who pressed his case to his chest while studying the guards, who obviously had lost their minds. They had lost their minds; she couldn’t explain their behavior differently.
“Call him!” the guard with the gun yelled.
“They know!” the second one answered.
“He said to call him when she
arrived
!”
Samantha moved farther, but the guard shook his gun.
“Stop there! Don’t move! I’ll fire!”
“Are you zacry?” Samantha asked in a calm voice. She wouldn’t show any emotions to these idiots.
The second guard was talking on the remote but Samantha couldn’t catch his words.
“I’ll fire if you move!” the guard with the gun yelled and turned to his colleague. “Tell him she’s here! What should we do?”
“What is going on?” Samantha took a step forward.
“Don’t move!” the guard bellowed.
“I’m asking you what is going on,” Samantha hissed through her teeth.
“We know who you are!” The second guard finished his conversation and joined the first one, pulling his gun out now. He looked more reserved and confident than his colleague, who looked as though he could shoot if somebody sneezed. It was obvious he hadn’t been in a situation like this and had never pointed his gun at real people, only at targets during his training. What situation was this, by the way? “You won’t take another step from here. We were ordered to stop you. They are sending the whole army to get you!”
“Wait? Who made that order?”
“Samantha Bristow! We know who
you
are and what you want!”
“Are you saying…,” Samantha said quietly, trying not to break into a scream. “Are you saying that a woman who looks like me entered the building already?”
“Samantha Bristow–Bancroft entered this building in the company of her husband,” the second guard said, also calmly. “You are the one impersonating her. You are a spy from Planet Two!”
“What?” Samantha shook her head, took a deep breath. Never in her life had she been shocked like this. Never in her life had she been so scared. “What did you say? She came here with her … husband?”
The guards exchanged glances. The second one even dared to smirk.
“What? Didn’t expect this, huh?” he asked. “You can try to pretend to be her, but you can’t get her man. Bad job.”
“
Ray
was with her?” Samantha asked, still keeping her voice down.
“She forbade talking to her,” the second guard said.
Samantha turned to her assistant, but he seemed to shrink under her gaze as he clenched his case tighter. From a man of some six feet tall, he suddenly compressed to a dwarf. Useless. All of them were useless. How had she approved hiring them? She turned back to security, who held their positions. Now, behind their backs she saw a couple of workers, frozen in indecision.
“You have no idea what you have done,” Samantha hissed. “You let our enemy get into our heart. Anything can happen now.”
“Shut up!” the second guard shouted. The first one also calmed down and now looked, or tried to look, like a superhero.
“All of you are going to onis!” Samantha yelled, and the people behind the guards ran back to the elevators. “You’ll be liquidated! I will personally see to it. How dare you to take … that woman … for me? I’m asking you!”
The guards looked at each other again, now confused.
“Let me in, this instant!”
The guards didn’t move. The gun was shaking in the hand of the first of them. He could shoot her out of fear.
“Idiots! All of you are stupid idiots! Lleh!”
Samantha walked away from the security point and from the stupid guards who couldn’t distinguish her from that scorfah. Did they look the same? No way. Ray …
Samantha clenched her fists and teeth. It was difficult to believe in his betrayal, almost impossible, but probably the scorfah did not lie. Ray … that ungrateful snet. He slept with her and now he was helping her.
“Helping her with what?” Samantha muttered. “What does she want? Why did they come here? Why not the corporation?”
Samantha became dizzy and went back to the exit, sat down in the chair near the door.
“Don’t move!” the guards shouted to her back. “The police are going to be here any second!”
Samantha didn’t listen to them. They were going to pay for everything. They would pay for their stupidity, for not being able to see the difference between real and fake.
If Ray wanted to help her, Samantha thought, he would try to send her back to her dimension. Try to get her inside the corporation. What were they doing here? Dad was right. This man wasn’t worthy of her.
“How could I not see it? I don’t understand!” Samantha yelled. She was near tears. She had never been in a situation like this and didn’t know what to do. People had never set her up. “Dad.”
The assistant stood close-by and Samantha reached her hand in his direction.
“Phone.” The guy didn’t answer and Samantha turned to him. He looked shocked and confused. “Give me my phone!”
He shuddered, looked at her for a few seconds without motion, and only after she snapped her fingers, he gave her what she’d demanded. She pressed the button, said “Father” into the speaker and put the phone to her ear. She didn’t want to talk on a speaker.
“Sammy, I’m doing everything I can. The soldiers are on their way. I’m going there, too.”
“Dad, what are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about help, of course!”
“Did
she
call you?”
“Who are you talking about?” Her father’s voice became cold.
“My double from Planet Two! She broke into the building! They are at the top, in my office! These stupid guards that
you
hired won’t let me in!” Samantha bit her lip to stop herself from crying.
“How did you get my daughter’s personal number?” her father roared.
“What do you mean?”
“Scorfah! You’ll pay for this!”
“What? Scorfah? You think that I am
her
? You don’t recognize me? Are you zacry?” Samantha’s lips barely moved from the shock.
“Where’s your husband?”
“He’s with her! He betrayed me! Everyone betrayed me!”
The phone went dead. Samantha looked at it for a few seconds without moving then she looked at the guards. They put the guns down, but kept their eyes on her and talked with each other. Now there was a group of five people standing before the entrance to the security area, attempting to leave the building. On all of the faces: confusion, uncertainty, and fear. Samantha looked at her assistant, who was biting the nails on his right hand, clenching the phone and case to his chest, and watching the growing crowd. Samantha’s throat began to tickle, her eyes began to squeeze tightly, but she didn’t understand for a few seconds in that she was crying. That hadn’t happened for about twenty-five years. She had gotten everything she desired during her life. She was not accustomed to being yelled at or treated as some kind of peasant. She had gotten used to everyone following her orders, big or small, not to being pushed from her primary position or being betrayed. Now she cried like a little girl from the insult. With her fists to her eyes, with unfamiliar sounds coming from her throat, she was sure that everyone could hear her and it was humiliating.
She twitched when somebody touched her shoulders, but it was her assistant, giving her a tissue.
“How could he do this to me?” Samantha said, wiping her tears and not looking at the man, who wouldn’t understand anything anyway, and who didn’t care. “How could he do this to
me
? How could they all do this to me? And my dad! He didn’t recognize me! My own dad mistook her for me. It just can’t be. Can’t be.”
And Samantha cried even harder. Because she couldn’t believe it had really happened.
I pressed my back to the window, afraid to take a step forward. If behind the window I didn’t have fear of height; here, with the cold wind blowing at me from all directions, when I saw the abyss ahead, everything was different. It seemed that if I took one step I would fall into the open jaws of an invisible monster, even before I could reach the edge. Yesterday I was on the top of a building, a few of them even, running from one to another, but it wasn’t that high and clouds didn’t touch my head. They didn’t touch my head now, but it sure seemed like it. It was about ten feet to the edge here and a metal fence surrounded the whole perimeter. It looked safe to my eyes, but not to my mind. I felt like everything I had been through during these days had collected in a small ball of fear inside my mind telling me that it was the last step. Now everything was going to be over. For better or worse, but most likely for worse.
“I can’t,” I said to Ray. My hands and legs were shaking; I couldn’t move.
“It’s about five meters,” he said, like I had known or cared what he meant. “We need to get to the landing.”
About ten feet to the edge, safe, I understood that, but my back stuck to the cold glass.
“Sam.” Ray stretched out his hand to me. “You’re not going to fall. I promise.”
“I know!” I barked as I looked at the roofs of the surrounding buildings. They seemed like dwarfs compared to this one.
“Give me your hand.”
“Another minute. I’m almost ready.”
“Don’t be scared. It’s safe.”
“I’m not scared,” I yelled, and grabbed Ray’s hand with a deadly grip, plunging my nails into his skin. He didn’t blink.
“Let’s go now.”
Step by step we walked around the corner, leaving the wind behind. I wasn’t scared any more. The area in front of us was big enough for any helicopter to land safely. On each side of the glass door stood two palm trees in pots. A little left of the door there was a table and four chairs under a canopy. I sat down and looked at the sun, which was peeping through the light, tan colored canopy. Here, hundreds of feet away from the ground, everything seemed peaceful. I didn’t want to think that we were in a deadly serious situation. I wanted to lean against the back of the chair and close my eyes, enjoying the sun and fresh air.
As soon as Ray sat down in the chair next to mine, his phone rang.
“Hi … Yes, it’s good … Yes … Great … Nothing, just wait. We have a chance to get away. I’ll need you in the corporation then … Yes, and be careful.” Ray pressed the button and put the phone back in his pocket. I looked at him, waiting for him to talk. “It was Ronald. He has gathered some people and is ready to attack, but I hope we can avoid it. I don’t want any casualties. The guys are waiting for my signal, but now we have proof of Bristow’s actions and there’s a chance that everything will go smoothly. Unless he decides to start a war against the government. That’s a different story. He has his command of the army, the President granted him permission, but he doesn’t have the last word.”
“I hope we won’t need their help. If your wife gets here before we leave…”
“It doesn’t matter. We’re going to be in the corporation in less than an hour and you can go home. It’s good that everything turned out like this. We don’t have to go through the security area there. We’ll land on the roof. The hallway of transportation is located on the top floor. Everything will be faster than we had thought.”
“That would be good. What if …?”
I didn’t finish the question. The approaching roar cut the air. I turned toward the sound and saw the yellow helicopter coming closer.
“What if he doesn’t believe that I’m his daughter? Do you have a plan B?”
Ray looked at me.
“You are pale. Get a grip on yourself, Sam. His daughter could probably look nervous, too. I don’t know how she would act in this situation to be honest. She’s never been in a mess like this. She’s a timid, hothouse flower and has never faced problems bigger then a broken nail.”
I nodded. The helicopter was getting closer. My heart merged in rhythm with the moving fans. Ray stood up, touched the pocket where, I knew, he had put the gun. I also rose to my feet. The canopy was messed up by the wind, as was my hair. I grabbed it with my hand to keep it away from my eyes. It felt as if my dress was about to be pulled from my body and I could hardly keep my skirt down. My eyes started tearing, but I didn’t want to close them. A few more seconds and the helicopter landed gracefully on the roof, blades slowed down. I saw a young man, the pilot, behind the glass and an older man near him. The older man had gray hair, was slightly overweight, but still good looking. I could see my features in his face. I had seen my father only in photos and that was how he’d look now. If he was alive, but I didn’t know about that.
The door opened. The pilot jumped out first, followed by the man in black uniform, like one of those who hunted me. Ray rushed to the helicopter and helped Father to get out. My copy’s father.
No one would understand unless they went through it, how difficult it could be to look at a familiar person and tell yourself that you didn’t know him and he didn’t know you. It was just a genetic copy. I had always wanted to see my father and ask him why he had never been interested in knowing how I was doing. Wasn’t he interested? Didn’t he miss me? Only it wasn’t my father, but his double in front of me.
He looked worried as he walked toward me. Caring. Her father cared about her – mine didn’t even send a card for my birthday. Why did I have to think about that now? Why did I have to feel pity for myself? I felt hurt; I felt jealous. Her father was a dictator who had killed hundreds of people, but he loved her. Did I want a father like this?
“Dad!” I stepped to him. “She’s downstairs. I didn’t …”
The man stopped abruptly and raised his arm, interrupting me with his gesture.
I noticed Ray plunging his hand into his pocket. He was standing just behind Bristow and the man couldn’t see his movements.
The man frowned, his face became stern.
“Daddy, what happened?” I saw Samantha before my eyes. Her mannerisms, her facial expressions. I tried to be her, but … She wouldn’t fool my mom, I was sure of it. Could I convince her father? She wanted to become me, but our roles had changed. Was I good at mine?
“You!” His index finger pointed in my direction. “You are not my daughter!”
What happened next I understood only after getting into the helicopter, as I replayed the scene in my head. Everything happened too fast.
The man in black snatched out a weapon, but fell on the ground before he could fire. He pressed his hand to his chest, spilling blood. One more shot and the pilot collapsed followed by Bristow. Time stopped and I didn’t understand that somebody was pulling me away from my place, helping me up into the helicopter, and shutting the door behind me. Ray dropped onto the seat beside me and the blades over my head started to spin. I saw the pilot flat on the ground and blood, spreading around him. I saw the hunter, folded up. I saw the eyes of the man with gray hair.
The helicopter rose off the ground and up into the air.
“I just killed Bristow,” Ray said, his voice dry and quiet.
I looked at him, replaying the event in my head, and started to shake.
“We are going to the corporation,” Ray said.
“You know how to work a helicopter,” I said as I clenched my fist, trying to control the shaking. You’re also a good shooter.”
“Let’s hope there will be no need for more.”
“You’ve gotten used to killing. People are killed in bunches in your corporation.”
Ray pressed his lips, his jaw moved.
“I need to save you,” he said. “I didn’t have many options to choose from. Bristow … You know.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” I said. “It was not the first murder I’d witnessed.”
“Don’t think about it.”
“You killed Bristow. Is everything over?”
“No.”
I turned away from Ray and looked out the window. The city, covered in smog, swam under us. It was my first time in a helicopter, but I wasn’t excited by this adventure.