Dreams Ltd (12 page)

Where did Laroche cook his meals if there wasn’t a fridge or a kitchen? Did he always eat out? His appearance and the shithole he lived in didn’t make me think that Christopher was a rich man.

Laroche hastily grabbed a pile of clothes from the chair, threw it on the floor and then sat down opposite me. His eyes were sparkling with excitement.

“So, where is it? Shereen, don’t torment me, I’ve been waiting for this for so long...”

“Before I give it to you, I’d like to know that you’ll answer some of my questions.”

Christopher tensed up and went quiet. Then he replied:

“Alright, I will answer your questions if I know the answers.”

I put the parcel on the sofa and rubbed my temples. So here is the end of my mission, in a minute Laroche will get his precious parcel and I will be free to leave Tally. I just need to find out how.

“This package was given to me by Dreams Ltd Corporation.”

“Yes, I know.”

He rubbed his palms impatiently.

They said I must deliver it to you and then I’m free to leave this place. My mission now is accomplished and I’d like to get back home as soon as possible, so could you please give me the number I can call to ask them to pick me up?”

Laroche was silent. Now his face looked like a mask and I decided to clarify what I meant:

“I’ve done what I’ve been asked to do and now I have to tell them that I am finished with the task. That’s why I’m asking for their telepho...”

His words that followed next stuck in my memory forever.

“It’s not possible to contact Dreams Ltd from here.”

I swallowed the lump that immediately came up in my throat and shook my head.

“Please, you have to understand, I haven’t committed any crime nor I am guilty of anything. They forged the documents so I could enter the territory, I had to get the parcel to you and I did. Now they have to take me back.”

Christopher's eyes were staring at my face.

“Did they say anything about bringing you back?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did the Corporation promise they’d help you to get out of here after your mission is accomplished?”

“No.”

“Then forget it.”

“What are you talking about?! This can’t be true! I just signed an agreement which confirmed that I was going to deliver you the parcel and that was it! I didn’t commit any crime!”

Christopher was listening to my shouting in silence and waiting for me to sit back on the sofa.

“Shereen, have you ever discussed with them anything about your return?”

“No.” I felt close to hysterics now. What is he talking about? Why wouldn’t they care about my return? Why? “They didn’t even tell me where I was going. They just told me the name of the city and that I must have certain documents to enter the area.”

Laroche sighed heavily.

“It’s all a fix.”

“No...” His words were bouncing off the protecting shield my mind had created. Subconsciously I didn’t want to let words penetrate through my mind; I didn’t want to accept them. “No, no, this cannot be true!”

“Shereen, did you ask the Corporation to do something for you - maybe for some money of something?”

“Yes.” I replied quietly.” I asked for money.”

“How much money? Not that it matters now, but just out of curiosity...”

“I asked for four hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

Christopher gave me a sad smile.

“That’s why they’ve sent you here claiming it was a way of “repaying the debt”. But you have to understand if they didn’t mention that they would help with your return – it was never part of their plan.”

“No!” I repeated again feeling my eyes welling up. “I’ll get in touch with them and...”

“But you can’t!” Laroche was starting to lose his temper. “Do you think I haven’t been trying? You can call no one outside of Tally. Don’t you get it? NO ONE”

“But there must be a way!” I shouted, feeling angry at myself for acting hysterically. “There must be a way, because you managed to contact them!”

Christopher crossed his arms on his chest and leaned backwards.

“I didn’t contact them myself. I asked another person who’d got out of Tally to do that for me.”

“But you contacted the person on the outside. How did you do that?”

“I got friendly with a girl who was getting out of here and asked her to do it.”

I was silent for a few moments searching Christopher’s face but my sixth sense was telling me he was not lying. And if this was not a lie – did this mean I’ll be stuck in Tally forever?

At this moment my nerves gave up and the tears came flooding. These were not just the tears pouring down my cheeks it was unrestrained sobbing. I couldn’t see or hear anything around me I was just crying and repeating “I’m not guilty, I’m not guilty...I just want to get out of here, I’m not guilty...”

The realisation that Laroche could be right was like a poisonous cloud, slowly but surely seeping through into my mind. Nobody promised me anything, everything happened so fast without much of an explanation. Mr Brahms didn’t come into the office that morning, not willing to answer any of my discomforting questions. They secured themselves well by not giving out too much information about Tally, even though they knew everything. I could bet my arm that they knew...

Sobbing, I took my hand away from my red, tear-stained face because someone was gently shaking my shoulder.

“Please drink this.” Laroche handed me a glass of water. “God knows, I didn’t want that to happen. I’m sorry.”

I swallowed the cold water with big greedy gulps almost choking on it. It helped me to calm down a bit and start thinking again. Even though the tears were still running down my face I pulled myself together.

The Corporation might still get in touch with me later... Laroche is certain there is no way to contact them but maybe there is? Stop crying and think!

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and stared at Christopher who stood next to me.

“I want to know everything you know about them. Everything! How you got here, what for and what you’ve learnt about this place as well. I also want to know how exactly you contacted the Corporation”.

I was ready for him to refuse to answer my questions but to my surprise he didn’t. Laroche just nodded softly and put my empty glass on the table.

“I’ll tell you if you think that might be helpful for you. And believe me, Shereen, I’m really sorry.”

I nodded, shaking from nerves.

Christopher sat back on his chair and looked at me. His face looked tired and there was a shade of sadness in his bright blue eyes, however there still was hope as well.

“I was a private detective in South Drinville. For almost fifteen years of my life I’ve worked as a detective and everything was fine until I got involved in one investigation. A man asked me to follow his wife who he thought was cheating on him. I received an advance on the job and got on with it. Not long after that I discovered that his wife wasn’t actually cheating on her husband but she was running off to avoid him beating her up. At first I was imbued with sympathy for this woman and learned as much as I could about her lifestyle and habits. She appeared to be very decent, warm-hearted.... and very beautiful.

At this point Laroche stumbled and looked at me sheepishly.

“Please don’t think it is normal for me to get personally involved with my clients. This is not one of my habits. At least it wasn’t then…” He added and went silent for a second. Then he continued.

“As opposed to this lady her husband appeared to be a real bastard. And so it happened that I got the information that I wasn’t supposed to get: the documents about some illegal sales of banned chemicals at the factory where he worked. Subsequently, these chemicals were used to manufacture a strong drug - neospopheromen. The drug dealers were then spreading it across the cities... But, it’s not what I was going to say. In order to remove his wife from the suspects list I met her in person. A few times we went to a cafe where we chatted. During our last meeting I told her what I’d found out about her husband. She was terrified. That evening she went home and had an explosive row with him. Her husband got furious, he jumped to the conclusion that she was cheating on him with me as well as many other men and on top of this she now knew his secrets.”

Christopher rubbed his hands, perplexed and took a sip of water.

“All this time I was hiding behind their apartment door ‘cos I had a feeling that the situation might turn nasty. When I heard the shouting from the stairwell I broke the door down; I just wanted to protect his wife and take him to the police but when he lashed out at me…I killed him. Not intentionally. He was trying to strangle me and all I could find in the vicinity was an iron fireplace rake.”

Laroche stopped talking, looking depressed. I wasn’t saying anything either because I didn’t want to interrupt him. He looked at me with his blue eyes and shrugged.

“God knows I did not intend to kill him but that means that I am in Tally for a reason. I would have got fifteen years in a prison but I chose Tally instead. I didn’t know much about this city then.”

I felt pity for Christopher looking at his sad face and trembling lips. I believed every word he said - things like this happen. I cleared my throat and asked:

“Did you ever see this woman - his wife - after that?”

“Yes, briefly. Despite the humiliation, rude words and batteries she loved him. Love is a strange thing, you know. She didn’t want to see me after that and she cried constantly.”

He sighed.

“The Commission’s representatives could have regarded my actions as self-defence if the incident hadn’t taken place at his apartment. I shouldn’t have broken the door and interfered. The law was on his side.”

“How long have you been here, in Tally?”

“Almost four years now. Shereen, I’ve tried to work hard but a murderer cannot expect to find a decent job after what he’s done.”

“What do you mean?”

“This system is well developed - the more serious the crime the harder it is to collect points. Not everybody has equal rights. Some people are just hooligans, some are robbers, some are drug dealers, and some are rapists or murderers. The local authorities take that into a consideration and somehow register this info on the bracelets. If your offense is very serious then you can only work as a loader, street sweeper or sewerage cleaner and as you understand, you’ll never earn enough points. You’ll always work just for food. The initial housing also depends on the severity of your crime - the area where I live is one of the worst in the city.”

“But you’ve got a phone in your apartment whereas I can’t brag about such a luxury.”

Laroche just waved his hand.

“It belonged to the person who lived here before me, so it’s not down to me.”

“I see.”

I rocked from side to side to stretch my numb body as my hand felt the parcel. I took it out of the plastic bag and put the box wrapped in some paper on the table.

“So, what’s in there? What did you ask for the Corporation?”

“I’ll show you.” Replied Laroche shortly.

He got up, went to the nightstand and took a small knife out of the top drawer. He then returned to the table and began methodically cutting the wrapping. When the last piece of paper fell on the floor he opened the box and I saw a small black familiar device.

“The static counter!” I gasped in shock. “This is the static counter!”

When Christopher turned the screen to show me I stopped breathing. The counter had one thousand points on it. The digits - one and three zeros were shining brightly in the dark room. I eagerly absorbed this magnificent sight not daring to believe that I had a counter with one thousand points on it all this time! An instant access to freedom!!! Why did I have to be so bloody honest and decent and didn’t attempt to open someone else’s package? My values really let me down this time! I could have been gone yesterday!