Dreams Ltd (21 page)

Whilst Smoking a cigar, Hulk was watching through the glass balcony doors; one of the guards accompanied the girl into the office, pointed to the armchair and disappeared behind the door. From where he sat he could see her standing hesitantly, carefully examining the unfamiliar room and then she walked towards the chair. Dressed in a blue stained T-shirt and stretched on the knees, she looked like a dirty child lost in a crowd. The jeans probably fitted her fine when she entered Tally but it changed over time since this wasn’t the city that nourished its inhabitants well; except those who owned their own businesses or those would could benefit from it.

Like a great congealed predator, Hulk remained invisible, watching every detail of the girl’s outfit and behaviour, trying to mark everything that could help him choose the right tactic. Here she came in and sat on a chair, ran her fingers through her knotted hair but not to improve the hairstyle, but to move the curls falling on her face. Her sight froze somewhere on the far wall but it wasn’t possible to determine what she was thinking about and her face looked a mask.

Was she a thief or not? Was she a criminal or a victim? What brought her in here, to the “Zone 33”, what forced her to cross the hazardous line? Why is that being so young and beautiful she couldn’t stay out of the dangerous circle? Hulk knew that all the answers will be discovered sooner or later, as he knew that beauty never guaranteed the presence of the rational moral principles. Most likely it was the opposite - the more a girl was beautiful, the more she was vile – a frustrating mistake of Mother Nature.

As he finished smoking his cigar and put it in a porcelain ashtray, he stood up and pulled the thin curtains away. The girl raised her head quickly and Hulk met the intense look of her big green eyes.

It was time to begin the conversation. He went to another armchair and sat down.

“Well,. Hello again, Shereen.”

The girl greeted him quietly. Hulk noted that he still couldn’t pinpoint her emotional condition - she looked terrified but resistant at the same time; nervous, but focused as if she was ready to face up to the new problems with her chin up. Fatigue definitely affected her but it didn’t deprive her of the self-esteem which was apparent in her every movement. Why would a criminal have so much dignity in their gestures?

Hulk was really curious, enjoying the game of “determine as much as you can before you talk”.

“Well, let's talk about who you are and the terms you’re here on. First, I hope you realise that after what you’ve done in the club, you would’ve been killed?

After she nodded, Hulk continued:

“I own this house and this ranch and I brought you here not because I like you but because I am in need of some working hands. Hopefully, that’s also clear.”

Hulk was definitely impressed by how well Shereen was controlling her facial expressions, because they weren’t there - not a single one. There was only the same plain mask with a polite and attentive expression on it that didn’t allow him to see through her at all.

“If you do your work well nobody will touch you here. You will be provided with food and water as well as earning half a point a day. If I see that you take your duties seriously, this amount will be increased over time. If you try to escape, I’ll find you and kill you. Is that also clear?”

Hulk saw another nod feeling quite intrigued by her self-control. There was no joy, no anger, no pleas and not even a shade of any other emotions on her face.

“What are you here for?” he suddenly asked something he wasn’t planning to ask.

A mental struggle flashed across her face for the first time.

Didn’t she want to talk about it? Or maybe first she wanted to be sarcastic and say “find out for yourself”, but then changed her mind in order not to annoy the owner of the house? Expecting to hear a long story, Hulk was disappointed because the only word slipped out of her mouth was “Hacking”.

“Hacking?” Hulk was amazed. The last thing he could imagine her doing is sitting in front of a computer for hours, staring at the code lines, breaking and getting into some systems. And if he tried picturing the usual attributes of a common hacker like a mountain of cigarette butts, a grubby and grimy apartment, and a shaggy unfed cat, Shereen didn’t fit into this picture at all. Something in her version of the story didn’t quite match with the person he saw in front of him.

Hulk looked at her hands - she obviously took great care of her nails, at least before Tally; her fingers were thin and feminine more suitable for piano keys than a computer keyboard.

If Hulk had difficulty recognising her emotions earlier, now her face has turned completely impenetrable as if this subject was causing a huge amount of distress for her. Suddenly it dawned on him that the answer Shereen gave him was a lie. But why?

“Why are you lying to me from the very start?”

This time a surprise flashed through her green eyes. She even opened her mouth as though she was going to say something but then got frightened and stopped; and a second later her face restored to its previous straight look again. Hulk involuntarily began to feel a hunter’s excitement. Who is this girl? The words have to be pulled out of her mouth, she is not mumbling, not begging for mercy, not being sarcastic and her lying is fairly restrained.

“So what’s the matter?” He repeated his question, “Why are you lying to me?”

“I’m not lying.” she answered calmly, “the information in my documents coincides with my words.”

After her reply, Hulk was seized by a strange feeling that Shereen was mentally celebrating the fact that she was not letting him learn the truth. Somehow he was certain that her papers will confirm her statement but what about his intuition? He would be a complete fool if he ever neglected the sixth sense and his intuition was telling him - her answer is a lie. Suddenly he got a brilliant idea.

He looked at her with narrowed eyes.

“Shereen, I’m going to give you one in a million chance and your destiny will depend on it.”

For a brief moment fear shot in the girl's eyes. Hulk went to his desk and turned on the computer. While the operating system was loading, Shereen’s face reflected dozens if not hundreds of emotions and they all looked like panic.

“Sit on this chair.” he said, once his computer finished booting up.

“No.” that was barely audible whisper.

“This is not a request.” she seemed frozen to the chair, so he repeated coolly, “sit on this chair, I said.”

When Shereen approached the table on stiff legs and sat down in front of the monitor, Hulk opened some program. At first a wide window with multiple text lines appeared on the screen, then on top of the first one, another small window with a single field and a flashing cursor popped up.

“This program is encrypted. Crack the password and I'll pay you fifty points right here, right now.”

Shereen eyes rounded and filled up with fear, in their depth there was an incomprehensible expression of a rabbit caught in the headlights.

“No. I won’t be doing that.” Her voice was breaking up and her hair swayed in protest.

“Am I not offering enough? Seventy-five then.”

“No, please...”

“What’s the matter? You are a hacker! One hundred points then.”

“I won’t do this! It's a crime!” Shereen tried to get out of it; red spots appeared on her pale cheeks.

“One hundred and fifty and it's not a crime but a favour which I’m going to pay for.”

“No...”

“Two hundred...” Hulk knew the game he was playing at was far too dangerous but something was pushing him to continue. This girl was lying and his intuition had never let him down in the past. If she is a good actress and just trying to increase her pay-out, well, he’ll pay for her talent.”

“It is illegal...” Shereen was still trying to evade.

“Oh, illegal?” He almost laughed out loud at her ridiculous excuses, “I give you my word that no one will ever know about this. You will receive two hundred points and leave this room, as if nothing had ever happened. So what do you say?”

“No.” Her lower lip trembled.

“OK, let’s play on, three hundred!”

“You don’t understand...”

“Four hundred!”

“I can’t do it.”

Shereen’s cheeks weren’t just pink, they were blazing red, and despair was screaming in her eyes but Hulk wanted to carry on with this game to the end, despite the cost, and once and for all discover what the truth is and what the lie is. He was desperate to pull the confession out of her mouth at any price.

“Five hundred points, Shereen.”

“I don’t know how!”

“One thousand fucking points!”

As soon as he said that she opened her mouth flabbergasted by what she’d just heard. For a short moment there Hulk thought he’d made a mistake and that her face will light up with joy, she will turn to the monitor, break the password in a few seconds and will smile at him happily, expecting to get the promised prize. If this happens, he will have lost this game quickly, foolishly and recklessly.

But instead she suddenly covered her face with her hands ... and burst into tears.

She began crying, instead of laughing at the idea of how easily she’d managed to get a thousand points for one hacked password and happily leave Tally after that.

Cringing in a chair, she was silently shivering and sobbing through her fingers.

For a while it was quiet in the room. Hulk turned to the window, took another cigar and lit it right there in the office.

“Shereen ...” he called softly, “look at me.”

She was struggling to pull herself together. Eventually she managed, wiped off her tears and looked at him with her bright green teary eyes.

“You lied to me.”

Shereen startled weakly from words but continued to stare at him.

“You are not a hacker and you came here because of something else.”

Now she nodded and that was a good sign.

“Okay. We'll move on from this for now.” Hulk decided not to rush things; there will be more time for everything as there were more important questions to discuss now.

“You’ll be living in the same room when you spent your last night. You’ll have some dinner later on tonight and tomorrow you’ll be shown the dining area and meal schedule. Nobody will make you starve here.”

He paused, feeling she had some questions.

“What?”

“Can I move around the territory?”

“Only up to the border of the nearest field. If you don’t make any attempts to escape or show any other inappropriate behaviour you’ll be allowed to walk further. Is there anything else?”

Shereen hesitated before asking the next question, it was clearly uncomfortable for her.

“I’m listening.”

“Please, don’t lock my room for the night. I don’t have access to the toilet otherwise.”

“Anything else?”

“No. That’s it.”

“Okay. I’ll instruct the guards not to lock your door. But any attempt to flee will change your position radically. Do you get my drift?”

She looked at him and nodded.

Yes, she understood, he knew it - whether she was a hacker or not, she comprehended her situation clearly.

My legs were completely stiff as I walked down the corridor trying to find my room and the only words I could repeat were “Oh my God, oh my God...” So much has happened in one day!

“Oh my God, oh my God...”

I recognised the familiar wing of the house, automatically turned into the dark corridor and almost tumbled into the room. I slammed the door, climbed onto the bed, leaned against the wall and closed my eyes. After a short while I buried my face into a thin pillow, showering myself with buckets of questions and curses. All that happened in Hulk’s office seemed unthinkable! Totally surreal! I could have earned a thousand points today, TODAY! A whole bloody thousand! Why aren’t I a hacker – I didn’t know anything about the profession The Corporation mentioned in my documents? Why haven’t I studied computer science? Who could’ve known that one day it would help me to dodge many years of imprisonment? What was it that Hulk said - he’ll pay half a point a day? It’s only three and half points a week. It didn’t take me long to calculate that at this rate I’ll have to spend five or six years in Tally. Six years of my precious life will have to be spent being slave. A deep anguish crushed down on me after such a thought and I began punching my skinny pillow.