The Light-Field (19 page)

‘I, perhaps, should have said that our professional interests are closely allied.' Taren avoided the query.

Amie nodded, not convinced, but after a moment's consideration, she retrieved the stone from the table and looked back to Taren. ‘Khalid will not discover this stone, or anything about you, from me.' Turning the stone in her hands a few times, she resolved to confess. ‘On the Psychic Monitor Database I was code-named the Impressionist, because I can make people forget, or remember events that never happened.'

This was very interesting to Taren, who could see the future or psychically change the past; Amie could do the same thing on an individual basis, and changing someone's memory of past events was
practically the same as changing the past, but not as drastic to the overall scheme of things. ‘Is that what you came here today to do, make me forget my mistrust of you?'

‘Yes,' said Amie, with a sly grin. ‘And to bug your unit.'

‘Naturally.'

Amie wiped the tears of pain, joy and relief from her cheeks. ‘So where to from here, boss?'

 

Arriving home after dinner in town, Lucian and Swithin were very surprised to hear the laughter of the two women they'd been concerned about all evening, echoing over from Taren's unit veranda.

‘Am I hearing things?' Swithin asked, sure that it was Amie's voice being carried on the wind from next door.

‘Taren was pretty dark on her?' Lucian was baffled.

‘Well, it certainly sounds like they're getting along now.' Swithin bravely ventured onto Lucian's balcony, and Lucian followed.

The two women in question were reclined on seats with their feet up, drinking fruity cocktails as they watched the sunset and chatted — the remains of takeaway strewn over the table.

‘Hey,' Lucian yelled to get their attention. ‘How come Dr Nardone gets invited to dinner? Where is your
all work
ethic now?'

‘That's discrimination!' Swithin backed up his brother's protest.

The two women looked to each other and, conversing in whispers, had a chuckle to themselves.

‘They're drunk,' Swithin said with a smile, inspired by the possibility.

Taren rose from her seat and approached the railing to address Lucian's accusation. She was very steady on her feet and did not appear at all inebriated — more exhilarated. ‘This was a business dinner,' she rebuffed, ‘and it might please you both to know that Amie and I have decided that we'll be able to work in harmony after all.'

With the announcement, Lucian gave an inward sigh of relief. His brother's attraction to their new marine biologist was plain, and they'd both feared there were going to be problems.

‘That
is
good news,' Swithin voiced their unanimous sentiment first.

‘I should really be getting on then.' Amie rose to address Taren. ‘Thanks for hearing me out, and for your vote of confidence — it is not misplaced.'

‘I feel confident that you're right about that.' Taren gave her a hug, and then Amie waved to Swithin and Lucian in leaving. ‘Gentlemen.'

‘I really should be getting some shut eye too.' Swithin made his excuses to leave in time to meet up with Amie out the front of the units.

This left Lucian and Taren alone, facing each other on their separate balconies.

‘Well then.' Taren stared at him a moment in the same alluring way she often did. ‘All's well that ends well.'

‘Why the sudden turnaround?'

‘Just a little miscommunication that we got sorted out.' Taren appeared very satisfied with the outcome. ‘Sorry if I freaked you out earlier, but I am very passionate about keeping our autonomy on this project.'

‘I understand that,' Lucian ventured, ‘what I don't understand, is how you could mistrust someone so much this morning and be best friends with them by evening?'

Taren drew a deep breath and her grin grew — he felt he'd put her on the spot, which was even more curious. ‘As I said, I just needed to establish Amie's true intention, and now we are clear.'

‘But why not do that
before
you accuse her of being a spy?' Lucian folded his arms, fully aware that he was not getting the full story.

‘My bad,' Taren admitted, holding up both hands to accept the fact. ‘I could have handled the situation better and I apologise.'

Clearly, she was now perturbed, which was not Lucian's aim; he was hoping she'd open up a little. ‘I was not trying to reprimand you, I am just trying to understand —'

‘There is nothing
to
understand, beyond that I've had a trying day.' Taren began cleaning away the rubbish on her table.

‘Why do I feel like I had something to do with that?' Lucian wondered; he suspected he understood why she insisted on being so distant.

‘Last night has nothing to do with it, really,' she assured him. ‘I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight, Lucian.'

As he watched her turn and head inside, he was so tempted to call her back and have the conversation he'd been wanting to have with her all day, but he bit his tongue. Part of him wanted to trust her completely and yet she was keeping secrets. Every instinct he had told Lucian she was hiding something and until he knew what that something was he could not help her, trust her, and he would be a complete fool to love her — still he feared it was already too late to avoid the latter.

 

That night Lucian's erotic dreams about Taren took a strange twist and he saw himself enraptured with Amie instead. They were lovers, project partners, and then the beautiful erotic tone of the dream ended with Amie aiming a weapon at him, and accusing him of being an unfaithful husband. Lucian turned to view the woman beside him, whom he'd betrayed Amie with, and found Taren Lennox.

Lucian woke with a start, covered in sweat and panting in shock. It took a moment to take in his surroundings and realise his reality at this time. He was so relieved to discover he was not on AMIE — construction on the Astro-Marine Institute had not even commenced. He was not married to Amie, and he'd not betrayed her by having an affair with Taren.

‘Thank goodness for that.' He sat up and gave a huge sigh of relief. Still, the dream had been so real, as all his dreams about Dr Lennox were.

This night's dream did stir the memory of another he'd had the morning after he'd met Taren. In the vision he and Taren were naked in an underwater bedroom and he'd said to her:
‘I don't want to go back
to being strangers. I don't want to go back to being ignorant and used.
' To which Taren had replied:
‘Stop worrying about your marriage. I'll destroy it, I swear to you!'

The memory sent shivers down his spine, as clearly his dreams were sending him mixed messages. Or maybe there was no message, just his imagination playing tricks on him? As a scientist, Lucian believed that dreams were just a mishmash of information the brain took in throughout the day; but if that were true, he had feelings for Amie that he was completely unaware of consciously!

Even considering the erotic dreams he'd just had about her, Lucian was very sure he had no interest in marrying Amie — if he did, he knew the nightmare he'd just had could easily become reality. If he had to wait a decade for Taren to let him in, he'd rather do that than get involved with anybody else. Not to mention what Swithin would do to him, if he knew Lucian was having dirty dreams about his would-be girlfriend.

‘Augh!' The professor released his angst as he stood. ‘I am so very confused about this woman.' How could he get her to open up and trust him?

Lucian looked to the clock to discover it was about an hour before dawn and, feeling he had no chance of getting back to sleep, he decided to make the most of the extra hours and get on with his day.

 

Taren's first priority this morning was to get rid of the sea creature in her bathroom, hence she found herself knee-deep in the ocean.

The crystal-clear aqua water was lovely and calm today, and Taren was rather glad of the excuse to be paddling in the early dawn sun. ‘I should do this every morning,' she decided, unscrewing the lid of the tank and tossing it back onto the sand where she would retrieve and bin it later.

‘Well, Spectrum,' — the name she'd given the creature — ‘have a great life!' She lowered the tank to the water and made ready to tip the sea dragon in, when something large suddenly broke the surface
before her and startled her to refrain. Her shock quickly melted into pure lust, as Lucian rose out of the water and removed the scuba gear from his face to smile at her.

‘Good morning,' he said, oblivious to the fact that Taren was inwardly hyperventilating.

Lucian was much fitter now than he'd been after five years in space, and with the suntan, that dark hair and those intense dark eyes, there was no denying that he was absolutely gorgeous! She found her voice. ‘Hi.'

‘Um.' Lucian frowned pointing to the tank in her hands. ‘May I ask?'

‘Oh,' Taren had totally forgotten about the sea dragon. ‘It was a gift, but I don't like keeping innocent things in cages, so I am going to set it free.'

‘Well, I wouldn't do it here,' Lucian advised. ‘If the birds don't get him before he finds shelter, bigger sea predators will.'

‘Oh?' Taren hadn't considered that.

‘And as most creatures prefer a mate in life,' Lucian added, ‘he'll be hard-pressed to find one around here.'

‘I see.' Taren felt the professor was having a dig at her refusal to date. ‘Well, where will my friend here find the great love of his life?'

Lucian attempted to repress his amusement, unsuccessfully. ‘I could take you there?'

Taren took her time responding; her defences were weakening and any outing alone together was bound to bring them too close for comfort. She retreated from the water to get the lid of the tank.

Lucian noted her hesitation and so clarified his offer. ‘There are some dilapidated wharfs a few harbours away where sea dragons thrive, but the spot is hard to reach by land these days, as access has been blocked off to the public. Coincidently, we've just taken possession of our new hover-boats. I can get you there and back before work, if you like? I was going to give our latest acquisitions a test run today anyway.'

To refuse Lucian now would be blatant evasion. ‘Sounds like too much fun,' Taren accepted with a grin. ‘We're in.' She included her
pet in the equation, as she finished placing the lid on the tank and held him up.

‘Great.' Lucian seemed rather surprised, although pleased, to have gotten his way. He removed the rest of his gear to carry in his hand. ‘Let's go.'

Taren accompanied him down the beach to their project headquarters.

 

Never more pleased to have accepted an invitation, Taren sat alongside Lucian in the project hovercraft. Although it moved about several feet above the water's surface, it was still a bumpy ride as it bounced about on air pockets. Even the surf beaches here on the main island of Kotan Bathaar never had more than lapping waves, and so hovercraft were great for skirting around the coastal waters.

Evidence of Frujia's vast array of marine life was everywhere. Brightly coloured schools of fish darted out of the path of their vessel, and large flying fish jumped clean out of the water in their bid to flee. Flocks of sea birds dived from the cliffs all around the coast, and other larger species were hunting further out to sea, where schools of smaller fish were being driven to the surface by larger sea predators.

‘You can see why the sea dragons like to live beneath jetties and wharfs,' Lucian commented to Taren.

‘Smart lifestyle choice,' she concurred, holding on to her hat in one hand and gripping her seat with the other. Spectrum was still in his tank, which had been secured in a small holding bay on board.

When their hovercraft pulled up to the old wharves and settled on top of the waves, Taren was rather disappointed that the ride had ended so soon. Lucian dropped anchor as she retrieved Spectrum's tank from the holding bay.

Through the crystal clear waters it was easy to see many sea dragons of various sizes swimming about beneath the crumbling wharves, so Lucian had not steered her wrong. ‘Right then.' Taren
removed the tank lid and made ready to pour Spectrum in. ‘I hope you find a mate and have —'

‘Whoa.' Lucian came up behind her and, placing his hands over hers, he prevented her from proceeding.

‘Now what's the matter?' Taren protested, elated to be wrapped up in his arms.

‘You have to acclimatise the little fellow … if you don't want him to die of shock as soon as he hits the water.' Lucian guided her to lower the tank slowly and let only a small amount of seawater spill in at a time.

Although she was painfully aware that the person she had made herself out to be would have escaped this uncomfortable intimate moment by now, it was pure heaven and she just couldn't bring herself to end it.

The tank slowly filled with water and neither Lucian nor Taren flinched from their entwined position, nor indicated any awkwardness. But at last they had to concede the tank was full, and Lucian gave Taren the all clear to tip the container and let the creature swim out. As she did this, she felt the warmth of his body leave her back, and immediately regretted not ending the moment herself. Afraid to look at him and catch his reaction, Taren watched Spectrum glide out of his tiny tank and back into the vast unknown, feeling rather gratified by their efforts to get him back home. Taren finally got up the courage to turn to Lucian, wanting to thank him for his help, to discover that he had quietly slipped into the water.

Camera in hand, Lucian was swimming around near her sea dragon as it descended into the safety of the shadows of the old pier. Taren was truly touched as she watched him, thinking his sentiment was lovely — and so thankful he'd allowed her to escape the uncomfortable situation.