This story is based on prompts: He - Date - Temperate - Prehistoric - Fear
Span 43 O.E.A. (Of Echelon Age) / Year 2118 B.E.C. (By Earth Calculation)
Seditio Headquarters, People’s Republic of Terra
Sharin appeared in a small room lit only by an electric lantern. The room smelled of damp earth and stale air. She looked at herself in a fragment of a mirror on the wall. Although she had been concentrating perfectly, it was a habit to ensure she was intact and that her appearance hadn’t changed.
She tapped three times on the wooden door. She heard the click of the lock and the door opened. Outside stood a tall, muscular woman with a phase pistol strapped to her leg. A man slumped over in a chair snored across the hall.
“Inshad, I need to see Koenig right away.” Sharin balled her hands into fists at her side and then stretched out her fingers wide.
Inshad kicked the boots of the sleeping man. “Jain! I’m taking Harris to see Koenig. Wake up!”
Jain groaned and stood up. “Okay. Okay.”
Inshad waved Sharin forward. “Let’s go.” She turned and started down the passageway.
Inshad’s spiky, blonde hair nearly touched the ceiling of the low tunnel with each long step. Sharin had a long stride herself, but she took double steps to keep up. They entered a cavernous room stacked high with boxes and barrels and other supplies. Several people lounged in a corner chatting and laughing. Sharin recognized a couple and, catching their eyes, lifted a finger in acknowledgment. She realized that she had slowed and rushed to catch up with Inshad.
Inshad followed a set of tall shelves and turned when she came to the end. There was a metal door slightly ajar. Inshad pulled on the edge of the door with some effort and walked into a long narrow room. It was an old intermodal cargo container with maps and charts and timetables lining the walls. A thick, balding man stood at the far end of the room, deep in thought.
Inshad stepped forward. “Koenig, Harris has arrived.”
“Show her in.” Koenig motioned to Inshad but didn’t stop glaring at the map in front of him.
Inshad turned and left the room closing the door behind her.
Sharin moved down the length of the room, glancing at several of the charts she hadn’t seen before. When she was standing a few feet away from Koenig, she cleared her throat.
“Yes, Harris. What is your report?”
Sharin told him of her encounter with Gail and Mark at the cache in Lassen Volcanic National Park in 1989. When she finished, he finally looked up. “So, Gail knew nothing of the possibility of a supercomputer?”
Sharin shook her head.
“Harris, we need to find out more about how the Echelon are tracking us. Get closer to Gail and Mark. See if you can recruit them to join our ranks. Maybe Gail will be able to find out more from Greg…” Koenig trailed off looking at his map again.
Sharin stood there for a moment longer. “Sir? Have you been able to find out any more information about my mother? I still haven’t heard from her and it’s been over a year.”
“No, but we’ll keep searching. That is all, Harris. Thank you.”
***
Sharin appeared in the transport room of the Echelon Headquarters, glancing quickly at the time and date near the ceiling and verifying it with the comm on her wrist. Then she checked over her body. She made her way to Greg’s office and knocked on the door.
“Come.”
Sharin opened the door and took two broad steps across the room. She stood tall and stared Greg in the eyes. “The cache has been replenished. Nothing to report.”
Greg looked away. “Dismissed, Desultor Harris.”
Sharin turned and nearly ran to the transport room. One of these days, he will see right through me.
She closed her eyes and thought of a distinctive cove in southern Spain in Gibraltar. She fixed all the aspects of the place in her mind. The gusting wind. The crashing waves. The smell of saltwater. She thought of the exact location of the stars in the sky 5000 years ago. Then she focused her mind on imagining the space between voice and song. One by one her senses faded. Although she couldn't feel her chest move or the breath entering her lungs, she inhaled deeply. Once. Twice. Three times.
She looked out over the water, her lips trembling.