Perfect Opposite (24 page)

“I'm sorry, sweetheart.” he sighed, “but however this may sound to you, I found my vocation and I’m good at what I do. If I had the chance to go back, I’d make the same choices over again.

As he finished the sentence, the sun must have disappeared behind a passing cloud, because the street looked a lot darker, and I felt sure the temper
ature dropped by a few degrees.

Goosebumps appeared on my arms, but however much I’d been hoping for a different answer, it seemed like somewhere inside I’d already known the truth.

Chapter 1
1 - Till Death Do Us Part

One month later

During the month we were stuck together, we spent most of the time in Alex’s apartment. Just as I was starting to think we’d watched all the movies we had on DVD or the computer, Alex produced a cardboard box with a PlayStation and a bunch of games inside, so we passed the hours down on the rug, blasting the enemies on the screen. Sometimes, I caught him acting like a kid, usually when I started winning at one of the more macho titles.

We quarreled several times a day, of course. The rate at which he issued sarcastic jibes and cutting remarks hadn’t abated, one result being a current shortage of unbroken plates and cups in his kitchen. It was probably for the best that I couldn’t aim well, because he still knew how to push my buttons like no one else.

Alex was still the same sullen mule, but I enjoyed being so close to him, and I started dreading the moment when we’d have to rejoin the human race. However, even though we were essentially trapped in the apartment for that period, the ‘complication’, as he called it, never happened again.

I was staring at a puffed up bag of frozen vegetables squeezed tightly between my fingers, studying it closely from all angles in the hope of deciphering some formula for turning it into real food.

After just a month in my
exclusive company, Alex had evidently given up on life and opted for suicide by chef, since he’d decided against ordering lunch that day and instead that I should prepare food. All attempts to explain that my culinary skills were limited to plain scrambled eggs had fallen on deaf ears, so there I was in the kitchen, his few final words of encouragement ringing in my mind: “I’m sure you’ll manage…”

Carefully, I took a sharp pair of scissors and cut the corner
of the bag along the dotted line, then went ahead and poured its contents into a large, shiny pan. Having emptied it completely, I was left to examine the food of the future before me. Not being any kind of gourmet, I’d never paid much attention to what was on my plate, and couldn’t imagine what these tiny, frosted jewels might have been in past life. Especially disturbing were the tiny, ruffled green balls, like cabbages from a land full of little people. Maybe that’s what they were, since they had to be around a hundred times smaller than ours here on Earth.

“This won’t end well
.” I sighed as I got down to work.

After filling the pan with water, I started to add the other items I’d found while exploring the
fridge. Some white carrots – they looked pretty weird – a dollop of mustard, some oil, some sun dried tomatoes, and after some consideration, two fat, pink sausages. In my mind it seemed like I might be on the right track to turning those original frozen gems into a hearty meal. Watching the whole thing simmer away as steam rose to the mist up the kitchen windows, I decided it was time to leave the fate of lunch in the hands of the gods, and sat down at the table to leaf through a magazine from the top of the pile.

I didn’t even notice when Alex walked in some time later, absorbed as I was in solving the crossword, so I almost fell off my chair when his low growl brought me back to reality.

“What sort of strange experiment is this?” he was standing next to the stove, pointing an accusatory finger at my simmering creation.

“Lunch
.” I tossed back flatly.

“I was afraid you’d say that.”
his eyebrows creased severely in the middle , “I mean, I know you hate my guts, but this... And what the fuck are those nasty looking brownish things? You sure you didn’t chop off a finger or two while you were preparing this?”

“Those are sausages.”

“Sausages?” he shrieked, horror showing on his face, “ You boiled sausages? Holy Mother of God!”

“Well I tried to tell you that I can’t cook, but you didn’t seem to be lis
tening,” I shrugged.

“But I counted on you knowing the basics, at least. I didn’t expect you to be totally incapable. How’s that even possible, anyway? You’re a girl, for
cryin’ out loud!”

“
Don’t act like such a drama queen. It’s not my fault you got the wrong end of the stick. Besides, how bad it could be?”

Unfortunately, the term ‘bad’ took on a whole new dimension a little later when I found myself sitting at the kitchen table, examining the food in my bowl. The withered, lifeless ghosts of vegetables floated up to the surface, then disappeared again into the depths of the steaming red gloop, which gave off an odor something like grampa’s old socks. Not to mention the huge, shriveled pink beast that lurked somewhere deep beneath the surface.

I stole a glance at Alex, who was holding his spoon in front of his face, a look of disbelief in his eyes as he stared down at the burnt offering before him. Finally, he spooned up some of the liquid and looked both disgusted and determined as he thrust it into his mouth.

”And?” I asked.

“
Mmmm... delicious. I’ve never tasted anything more unusual. You have to try it.”

Arching my eyebrows in surprise, I followed his example, dipped my spoon into the bowl and brought it up to my lips. The taste was something like the bottom of a hen coop.

“ Eww! ” I cried and almost puked right there, on the table.

“
What's wrong with it?” he feigned innocence but started to chuckle in spite of himself.

I grabbed a cloth from the table and took aim it at his h
ead letting it fly only to watch him dodge it deftly, so that it landed with a squelch in the sink. It seemed I’d only succeeded in amusing him even more as he doubled over in laughter. The sight of Alex in fits of giggles wasn’t anything I was used to and watching him, I found that I wasn’t so upset about my kitchen fiasco after all.

I was getting up to see if there was anything in the cupboards we might actually eat, when Alex’s phone rang noisily on the table, its vibration causing it to move around like some kind of creature provoked. As Alex reached for it and brought it closer to his face, he regained his composure almost immediately and moved out onto the balcony without a word, pulling its heavy glass doors closed behind him.

At first his voice was too quiet for me to make out what he was saying, but after a while the serious expression on his face gave way to one of anger and he spoke louder, so that some fragments of the conversation could be heard inside the room.

“...that wasn’t the deal…”

“...I don’t know for how long. I need more time...”

“...ten goddamn days? After all I did?”

”...What? That’s bullshit and you know it...”

He was silent for a moment
and then raised his eyes, shocked disbelief registering across his features, his eyes finding mine in an instant. Looking away almost immediately, he started to pace up and down the length of the balcony, his free hand rubbing the side of his head nervously.

“...Aw, shit...”

“...I get it!”

Clearly irate, he hung up, walked back into the kitchen and stared at me pointedly for a few
seconds before finally opening his mouth.

“Get dressed. We’re going out for a few hours.”

“What's going on?”

“Be ready in ten minutes. I just need to make some calls and then we’re on the move.”

With these words left hanging in the air, he moved back onto the balcony and again slid the door closed with a dull thud. I stood where I was for a couple of seconds before moving quickly to the bedroom to get dressed. Hurriedly, I pulled on the soft, pink sweats, all the while trying to imagine where we might be going and what might be so important as to risk sending me out in the open where I might be recognized.

When I left the room urgently, Alex was already waiting in the hall with a set of keys in his hand,
methodically tapping the edge of one against the dresser table. As soon as he saw me, he reached to take my hand in his own and all but swept me out of the apartment.

“Do you plan on telling me what's going on?” I asked when we got into the elevator, but he ignored me completely.

From the apartment door to the underground garage, he stayed silent, and when we finally approached the black Jeep, he only opened the passenger door and motioned for me to get in. I snorted, but did as he wanted, and sat heavily in the deep seat. Alex went around and got in behind the wheel, reaching in front of my face to do up my seatbelt for me. Annoyed, I snatched it from him and did it myself.

I’d had it up to here with
his erratic behavior and went on staring quietly out through the windshield, side streets flying in and out of view.

After around twenty minutes had passed, according to the clock on the dashboard – my internal chronometer had registered at least an hour – Alex turned sharply into a side street somewhere near the heart of downtown and pulled over abruptly, turning his head to look at me as I kept on staring blankly out in front.

“Sasha. Don’t fool around.”

“What?
You’ve remembered I exist, is that right?”

“I had to think carefully about a few things and… the consequences before I said anything to you.”

“Well gosh. I hope you didn’t wear out any gears up there with all that thinking.”

“You act like a kid sometimes.”

“Screw you!”

“Don’t talk to me like that!”

“Why not? You think it’s OK for you to drag me along behind you and ignore me when I ask what’s going on?”

Shaking his head, Alex took a deep breath and grabbed his pack of cigarettes from the dashboard.

“This is a bad idea.” he muttered, lighting a cigarette, “A fucking bad idea.”

“Are you finally going tell me what the hell we’re doing here
? “

“If you stopped hissing and let me get a word in, maybe I’d manage to tell you…” he looked me full in the face, “...that we have a serious problem.”

“Tell me something I don’t know. If this whole situation isn’t totally fucked up, then I don’t know what it is…”

Alex turned his head and gazed out through the windshield, and though he didn’t look majorly perturbed, my stomach flipped just a little.

“It looks like our friend Khalil got impatient. He put a bounty on your head.”

There was a pregnant pause, during which I stared at him vaguely, trying to process this new information and wh
at it might mean in real terms.

“I don’t understand. His people are already looking for me. What’s the difference?”

“Well, yeah, but we now have an army of underworld roughnecks on our back too, and believe me when I tell you these aren’t the kind of people you ever want to meet.”

“So... what’re we
gonna do? Get out of town, or what?” I asked when I found my own voice again.

“We're safe in my apartment for now, but we have to be ready. As soon as the call comes, we have to get out of the country.”

“But... my passport, papers... I left everything at home.”

“No, you didn’t
.” he flicked the end of his cigarette through a crack in the window and leaned over me to open the glove box.

“Everything’s here, but they’re no good to us yet. The minute you show those documents at check in or anywhere else, Khalil will know where you are and where you’re heading. After that, it’s
a matter of hours before someone finds us.”

“Can’t we get fakes
or something like that? If anyone knows people who can forge papers, that’s you. Right?”

“Right, but the problem is we need time for a workable forgery. Two weeks minimum. And you need
them right away.”

“Just me?”

“I always have a few in reserve.” he said in a quiet voice, as if he was stating the obvious.

“Of course... Why’d I even ask?”

“So we’re left with one option, to get you a passport that’s not fake, but shows a different name.”

“
Well, Sasha’s not such a rare name. I could go to the town hall and fill out some forms to change my surname. I’ve done it before. It’s not such a normal thing to do, but it’s possible.”

“Yeah, but that would all be on record.
Khalil would be expecting it and someone’s for sure hacked into the system watching for it.”

“So, what then?”

“There’s another way to change your surname. That change would show up on another system, one Khalil won’t be monitoring, I’m sure of it.”