The Other Side of Life (Book #1, Cyberpunk Elven Trilogy) (21 page)

Nin gave a nod. He was interested to know
more about this character, that he hardly knew anything about, at
the moment. “His reason, being?”

Anya pictured the scene—Leticia gazing at
Julius’s light gray eyes, and the latter chewing on the slice of
pepperoni pizza. “Something about a lack of evidence. No
remains…”

Anya wouldn’t know where to put her face, if
she later discovered that Julius had nothing to do with Tavia’s
disappearance. All she could prove was that he had noticed an open
document on elves, which she and Leticia had claimed was research
for a project. Anyone could have seen the document, and not given
it a second thought.

“
I hope you don’t mind,”
Anya said. She smiled when Nin gently tilted her chin
up.

“
Mind what?”

“
That I’d been checking up
on…”

“
Ah.”

Anya shuddered for a moment. When Nin said
“ah,” his voice somehow sounded uncannily similar to Julius’s.

“
Some of us make…good
detectives,” he let her know, taking her hand in his.

Anya held his hand—a simple touch could be
more reassuring than a day’s worth of words. She took a good look
at the long, elegant lines of his slender hand.

Leticia was into the art of palm reading,
and had shared some of what she knew with Anya. An hour was the
most Anya had enough patience for, to sit down and figure out the
names of the various sections of the hand, along with the lines and
markings that held different meanings.

“
A lean palm,” she
remembered Leticia saying, “embodies grace and sophistication.”
Nin’s thumb and fingers were thin too, which highlighted refinement
and good taste. Maybe Anya had retained some of the facts related
to ancient palmistry, from the accumulated hours she had put in so
far.

“
Reading me some more?” Nin
joked.

“
Nothing you don’t already
know,” Anya said with a grin.

Nin turned to the side slightly, and was
just about to take a step towards the tree with the door, when Anya
held on to his hand just for a brief moment more.

“
That’s your fate line,”
she said to him. It was a line that cut vertically down the surface
of the palm. She let go of his hand, once she had pointed out the
line to him.

“
Is there anything wrong
with it?”

“
It’s, a little
fragmented.”

Nin took a look, and noticed there was a
complete break.

“
A little…” Nin echoed what
Anya had said.

“
It signals a change.” Anya
thought he had enough to worry about. “Or simply an event that’s
outside your control.”

Nin rubbed his palms together. “Maybe it’s
this moment in my life, right now.” It wasn’t going to deter him
from doing his best to ensure a positive result.

Anya wouldn’t disagree on what he said. At
least he had a strong fate line. Anya’s was very faint, which
apparently denoted an unsettled way of life. She was going to make
her own destiny anyway, regardless of what a line on the palm of
her hand signaled.

Nin led Anya down to The Velvet Underground,
where Dresan was busy switching between different windows on one of
the computer screens. Anya gathered from the visible keywords that
Dresan had been searching online for “Julius,” “Varian Gilbreth,”
and anything associated with The Gilbreth Institute.

“
Julius is associated with
Xenith,” Nin told Dresan. “The heir apparent, in fact.” Dresan took
a look back, and saw Anya, and that she was alone. Anya’s eyes were
a little bit red and puffy. Dresan hesitated, wondering if Anya had
reacted to what he’d confided to Nin, on the rooftop of the
Gilbreth. He didn’t think so—Nin was tactful—but he could always
ask Nin later. Dresan decided to stay focused on his task at the
computer, and typed in the word, “Xenith.”

The corporate website’s banner showed a
smiling medical professional, with a trademark stethoscope around
his neck, tending to a mother and her infant son. A small caption
beneath it read: “A Helping Hand—each day, Xenith donates more than
$1 million worth of medicine to patients in need around the
world.”

“
Xenith serves global
communities,” Nin read the text aloud, under the About Us section,
“by discovering and developing new medicines, and other healthcare
products to help people do more, feel better, and live
longer.”

“
Waxing lyrical with their
corporate philosophy,” Dresan muttered sarcastically.

Nin tilted his chin up slightly. “Admirable
statements.”

“
All empires are evil,”
Dresan replied with a frown. “History repeats itself. It’s been
this way since the dawn of time.”

“
Every empire, Elven or
human.”

“
Or draconian—it’s the
whole power trip. Greed. The seven deadly sins.”

“
Some things never change…”
Nin said. “Shall we continue with philosophy, or move
along?”

Dresan nodded. “Move along.” He continued to
read aloud a few more details under the company’s profile page,
picking out the important, relevant bits. “Mission is to improve
the quality of human life…headquartered in Zouk City, Xenith is one
of the industry leaders…estimated ten per cent of the world’s
pharmaceutical market. Being a leader brings responsibility…we care
about the impact we have on the people and places…a track record of
turning research into powerful, marketable drugs…”

There was a list of the products marketed by
Xenith:

Xenith’s products are among the market
leaders:

•
over-the-counter (OTC)
medicines including
Ally
and
Percocel

•
dental products such
as
Mintcase
and
Smile!

•
smoking control
products
Nicolette/Niquiteen

•
nutritional healthcare
drinks such as
Liquizoid, Squish
and
DrinkUp

•
skincare products
marketed by
Klum Laboratories

“
Those are items you could
find at any drug store,” said Anya. Xenith had taken over the
world, in that sense. It was hard to stop a company or institution,
when their products were so much a part of people’s daily
lives.

Nin read certain phrases from the last
passage on the page. “A portion of Xenith’s profits…go toward
community programs that focus on health…humans services, science
education, and literacy.”

“
Nothing on Julius,” Anya
remarked. “I didn’t know all that about Xenith, too.” From what she
had heard and read in the media, it was quite a different story.
But then again, it was
their
corporate website, so of course the company would
want to appeal to public sentiment.

“
Sounds…generous.” Dresan
folded his arms, as he leaned back against the chair.

Nin mulled on it for a couple of moments.
“Too generous…” Nin commented, with a keen perceptiveness, leaving
Anya and Dresan to decipher his meaning.

“
That’s Samuel,” Anya
pointed out, when Dresan continued clicking through the other pages
of the website. “Julius’s father. The guy in the photo in the
vault,” she said to Nin.

There was a photo of Samuel Lycata, standing
with various Xenith employees, at a range of locations around the
world. The first had him standing in front of the Xenith
headquarters, a building that seemed to be made entirely out of
squares. The building was of that shape, and so were the windows on
each level. Even Xenith’s corporate logo had overlapping squares
incorporated into the design.

Anya’s cell phone had a message. It was from
Leticia:

I’m on my way to Julius’ house @ 89 Hilton
Lane.

Tavia is there. K / R.

Anya immediately handed her cell over to
Nin, whose face lit up once he had read the message. “Where’s
Leticia now?” he asked, already passing Dresan the address to look
up.

Anya tried calling Leticia, but could only
hear Leticia’s voice message. “She’s shut her phone off. I can’t
get through.”

Maybe it’s more than
Leticia’s able to handle,
Nin
thought.

“
What’s K slash R?” he
asked, as he returned the phone to Anya.

“
Key under rug. Leticia
stole the house key and made an extra copy.”

“
Nearest landing spot for
the train,” Dresan circled an area on the screen to Nin. “Near the
sewer.” Anya looked at the map system—they’d still have to cover
some distance, to get to Julius’s place, tucked away in a private,
affluent district of Zouk City.

“
Isn’t that where we
hijacked the bikes?” Nin said with a reminiscent grin, as he folded
his arms across his chest.

“
I believe you’re right,”
Dresan replied, in a well-articulated British accent. He enjoyed
doing that—he’d always loved the city of London.

Anya remembered the story, when Nin and
Dresan raced each other on two bikes, across a glistening road one
night. She wondered if anyone had seen them.

“
Is that how you learned to
ride?” Anya looked at Nin, a little quizzically, then at Dresan.
“On stolen bikes?”

Nin shrugged, feigning innocence. “For the
greater good.” In emergency cases such as this, the elves had no
qualms “borrowing” whatever they needed.

Nin, Anya, and Dresan took the train
carriage to the landing spot. Anya grinned when she saw where they
were. The neon signboard of a nightclub opposite the road spelled
out: The Velvet Underground. For a fleeting moment, Anya wondered
how the club—and the elves’ underground network—got the name.

It didn’t take Nin and Dresan a long time to
locate two expensively-dressed but unkempt young men passed out on
the roadside. A blonde and redhead were half-sitting,
half-stretched out beside the men—the guys’ girlfriends or dates,
presumably—smoking and talking to themselves in a semi-intoxicated
state. Two sport bikes were parked a few steps away from the group
of four.

“
Just what we need.” Nin
blithely stepped over one of the men, and picked up the a set of
keys from his and the other man’s jeans pocket.

“
Hey…” the redhead drawled,
swiping a hand at Nin. Neither Anya, Nin, nor Dresan could tell if
the redhead was trying to swat Nin’s hand away, or if she wanted
something else.

“
Where’re you goin’?” One’s
of the blonde’s hands was grasping an empty beer bottle, and she
swung that hand high up into the air. “Those bikes are
ours!
”

“
We’re off to save the
world.” Nin thought it was funny how easily he could get away with
the truth, sometimes.

“
Drink responsibly!” Dresan
gave his two cents, as the redhead blew him a kiss.

Dresan hopped onto the orange bike. Nin went
over to the red one, and tossed one set of keys to Dresan. Anya
stood around, trying to make sense of what the blonde was
muttering, as the woman raved about Nin being “her superman,”
before Anya saw Nin bob his head at the passenger’s seat behind
him.

“
Hold on tight,” Nin said
to Anya, once she had settled on the seat behind him. Anya much
preferred being the rider, but this time she didn’t
complain.

The bikes tore down the empty streets of
three-thirty a.m. Anya held onto Nin’s waist, enjoying his body’s
warmth and security. She was afraid he’d turned against her, hated
her even, when he shot her a look that said not to touch him, when
he shot her that look that said not to touch him, after they had
left the Gilbreth without finding Tavia. She took it as a good sign
that the elves were still on talking terms with her.

In turn, Nin sought comfort in her soothing
touch. He had spent some time thinking about what Dresan had
mentioned on the rooftop. He thought Dresan might be right about
Julius. The girls didn’t seem to be malicious. Nin didn’t want to
be proven wrong about his sixth sense.

Nin’s mind was a cacophonic swirl. He hoped
Tavia was still alive, hoped Leticia was telling the truth, and
hoped they weren’t all riding straight into a death trap.

Chapter 15:

The first house on the street was like the
gateway to the “rich” area homes—a sleek single family home which
featured clean lines and a U-shaped design, built right into the
side of a naturally sloping hillside. All the abodes were luxurious
dream homes which blended into the environment, literally and
beautifully.

Julius’s house was more like a mansion,
hidden away on a long, winding street that seemed hidden away from
the rest of the outside world. Nin, Anya, and Dresan got off the
bikes and made their stealthy approach to 89 Hilton Lane, a
meticulously maintained, black and chrome three-storey home at the
end of the street. It was a waterfront house, with a bold and
attractive structural appeal, and a private jetty and boat parking
quarter. Anya lifted a corner of the rug and found the key Leticia
had left to the main door.

Nin and Dresan stepped in without a sound,
drawing their laser guns. Their senses were on full alert—there had
to be greater security to such a rich home.

Anya had to refrain from
giving a low whistle—Julius’s home was filled with beautiful pieces
of artwork, which included abstract items like whale bone
sculptures.
Perhaps he shares the same
hobby as Gilbreth,
Anya thought to herself.
For all she knew, they could be standing above a hexagonal (or
square) vault right now, without even knowing it.