While observing the moon, Alondra noticed Mirlo's gaze fixed on his face and turned around, sinking his eyes into Mirlo's moonlit ones. Mirlo seemed to be in ecstasy and Alondra felt a bittersweet strangeness. But a sudden fear took over their bodies, approaching in an ellipse at high speed. A few meters away, a small object descended until it was placed right on top of the poor little boat. The object spoke in a male voice.
– Are you ok?
– Yes, very good, thank you very much – Alondra responded.
– We will escort you to your destination. Could you give us your names please?
– Sure, no problem. We are Aramo and Xurde Fôret.
– You are not registered in the city. Where do you come from?
– From France. We recently arrived, and we must meet with Xurde's mother.
– But how did you get here?
– It's a long story, but it was on foot and for a greater reason.
– What reason?
– The truth is that I couldn't tell you, since it is a very private matter... Let's say that...Xurde's mother has good reasons for not being happy with me.
– Ah Ha Ha Ha! We understand, we understand... And your daughter, doesn't she speak?
– She is a little autistic.
– Oh, yeah. Well, young girls her age, the less they talk, the better.
– That's what I think too.
Alondra didn't have the slightest idea how he had managed to stay calm and get into character at this moment. What he knew she had learned from her conversations with Jorge Delgado and from when she heard her grandmother talk to the government’s people. She knew that they had very hypocritical ways and that, if he wanted to silence their mouths by forming a tacit agreement, it was enough to speak badly about women. Now the problem was that he was implicating Carimea. Clearly, they could not return to the house, otherwise they would be discovered.
The small object flew past them. Alondra tried to think briskly, hoping that Liuben would gauge his mental activity, realize his plans, and warn Carimea before they reached Bambú. But immediately after he realized that even if Liuben understood the plan, there was no way it could give advance warning. If they sent any signal within the core network, it would be intercepted, and government agents would become suspicious. There was no choice but to risk reaching Bambú and pray that Carimea would receive them and that she would understand everything. It wasn't a figure of speech. Actually, Alondra began to pray. He didn't really know who or what he was praying to. Alondra was not aware of practicing any cult, but she recognized the power of the heavens and the earth, as well as that of technology. From her childhood, she felt the existence of the divine in the continuum between the phenomena of nature, which had until now consisted of the power of the scorching sun and the unfathomable presence of the night. But also in the existence of electromagnetic and radio waves, in the multiplication of substances and their transformative power, and in the stable fantasy of virtual reality. The natural thing for Alondra, therefore, was everything sensitive. The divine was to linger thinking in the existence of the natural. Perhaps Alondra shared the idea that all things must have some common origin, and that the mystery of that origin could be considered "the divine." But the truth is that her life had been surrounded by inventions, so, although she had not created the electromagnetic waves or the composition of the substances that she transformed, creating something from nothing did not seem impossible to her at all. The mystery of creation, for Alondra, was not related to the miracle of its possibility, but rather the uncertainty about its direction. Why and for what purpose is all this? "Why all of this shit?" It was one of her favorite mantras. But aside from all her metaphysical pretensions, Alondra sometimes prayed. She prayed for a better future. She prayed for the memory of her grandmother. She prayed for the success of her plans. And now he found himself praying for Alberta, for Mirlo, for Carimea and for his own life. He remembered the rainbow over the great tower and told himself that only with patience and stealth would they be able to undertake this mission. The truth is that the moon had betrayed them. This showed that the heavens and the divine were neither on his side nor dependent on his desire. It was a bath of humility, but this, instead of creating even more fear, sharpened his strategic spirit.
Alondra noticed that the drone made almost no noise, so it must have a very advanced engine. It could be solar or self-propelled by magnetic energy. He also thought that no matter how powerful the central network was, it could not be way more powerful than the peripheral one, otherwise the government would have no interest in it. Therefore, the people speaking through the drone couldn't be very far away. What's more, they had to be following them. Everyone knew that in the past it was possible to communicate with the other side of the world simultaneously, using the speed of light. The past itself had become a divine time, where the impossible was real. But that was not possible now. Despite its sophisticated appearance, this drone couldn't have any more range than one of those arcane 20th century walkie-talkies that Liuben sometimes joked about. He also wondered who those government agents were. He called them that because that was a generic name that was used to talk about them, but were they from the army? A new police force created from the censors? Would they be people like Jorge Delgado? They were surely simple men who were receiving favors. Simple favors like those they had offered to Alondra: repairs and improvements to their buildings, unlimited access to food, future promises of participation in the government... Future promises to create a society in which they would be given control over the family sphere. Poor men had an easier time falling into the trap, because they were offered a mythical position of lost power. In exchange, they only had to become submissive to other men. They would not obtain riches, but they would obtain the fantasy of short-range power. As short as that of the drone that was chasing them. The fantasy of being delegates of a legitimate central power: "dirty and low delegates." This submission produced deep contempt in Alondra. Making a brief stop along the way, he instinctively took Mirlo's hand lovingly and firmly. Under the gaze of the drone, Mirlo looked at Alondra with filial love.
A couple of hours later and without exchanging a word, they arrived near the crack in the wall that marked the limits of Bambú. Bambú was an old train station. The great mass of rails between the wall and the entrance was flooded and the rails showed just above the water level, forming a sinuous geometric pattern of undulating parallel lines that, when crossed and separated, reflected the moonlight.
– Let her know that we are here – Alondra said to Liuben. Liuben had no choice but to also play along, since this communication would be heard by the people controlling the drone. So Liuben logged into Bambú's local network and said:
– My little fairy, we care and we are here. I want to give you everything you want, and even something more. That is why we have returned despite everything. Please come out to meet us. We almost died on the way, but fortunately some very kind gentlemen accompanied us.
Bambú received the message and at first they didn't know how to interpret it. Those who were connected at that time understood that it was someone who needed help, but they did not know who it could be. They quickly asked everyone if they had any ideas. Carimea was repairing some motherboards at that time and someone approached her to ask.
– Can you think of who could call any of us “little fairy”? – Carimea thought about it for a moment.
– Why, what happened?
– Someone has arrived at the entrance to Bambú, with an escort. It’s more than one person. And they just want “little fairy” to come out. They say, “I want to give you everything you want, and even something more”.
Carimea considered the situation for a second and opened her eyes as she uttered all kinds of swear words.
– Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Shit!! What an asshole!!
Carimea ran out of the building, rinsed her face profusely in the bathroom to remove the paint she usually put on, covered herself with a discreet coat and tried to calm down. The last thing she wanted was to see Alondra, much less have to play a role that she had to discover while she played it. She did not consider herself very skilled in the art of lying. She thought that people like Xianyá or Terese would have done much better. But she knew perfectly well that Alondra left no loose ends. If she wanted her to be the one to come out to meet her, there had to be a reason.
Under the moon and over the intricate luminescent metallic pattern of the rails and the water, Carimea's straw-colored hair and her slowly approaching dark clothes seemed to be officiating some kind of ceremony. Alondra and Mirlo waited standing in the crevice, which formed a mirror with the crevice that surrounded the moon in the sky. The drone remained stationary, rotating on its axis above their head. Apparently the clouds had stopped, or else they circulated mysteriously around the shape of a long eye or lip, of which the moon was an inquisitive pupil or a swollen pearl.
Carimea stopped about ten meters away from the strange couple. They were under the drone in the shadow of the crack itself, and their shapes were silhouetted against the exit of the tunnel like two dark blue ghosts. Their features could barely be differentiated. A man and a teenage girl? It was a trap? If it was a trap, it was too late to flee. She continued to approach even more slowly.
– Dear! Honey… I'm sorry. Very sorry. I promise you that I will change. Everything will be as before.
– As before, when?
– Like before Xurde was born. Like before the war!
– Don't you think you're going to fool me so easily!
– Of course not, darling. I know. But please let us in and let's talk. Xurde is dying to hug you.
Alondra squeezed Mirlo’s hand. Mirlo ran towards Carimea and hugged her as if she were her mother.
– Mom, mom! – She said.
Carimea looked into Mirlo's eyes. Mirlo trembled with longing complicity, with prayer. Carimea understood that, whoever they were, they were really in danger.
– My daughter!! My dear daughter!! I've missed you so much! Tell your idiot father that I will never forgive him! And now, come in.
The drone commented in a low voice:
– Bingo! Take care, gentleman. And take care of your family.
– Of course. Thank you very much for your help – Alondra responded with gravity and solicitousness.
The drone sucked itself away into the sky, and in a few seconds it disappeared. Alondra walked timidly towards Carimea, who stopped him by placing the palm of her hand in front of his face.
– I don't know how you did it, but I don't care. You're putting us in danger – she told him as she turned around, taking Mirlo by the shoulders, who was still in full shock.
– Sorry, this was the only thing I could figure out.
– And who in the world is this, if I may know?
– She is… her name is Mirlo.
– I always thought you had a double life, but this certainly exceeds my expectations again – she continued lecturing him in an accusatory tone as they entered the area of the Bambú buildings –. As you already know, you can't enter like this.
– I know.
– What do I do with you?
– I'll stay out. We will leave at dawn. Let's not lose our itinerary.
– Our itinerary? Do you think they're not going to keep an eye on us? Now we have to play a little more. You stay out tonight. Mirlo is coming with me. What about… the obvious?
– It will change in a few hours.
– Good. Then tomorrow you will enter too. We will have to change our plans a little. Come. Here, in this arcade, you can rest. When you are normal, enter. Obviously they are not going to want you to stay, but they are not going to prohibit you from entering either. After all, you are Alondra. But they can't know this, am I wrong? Something “which, as we know, is impossible in reality”? You really don't leave a stitch without a thread. I have no idea what you're up to.
– Hide, just that.
– Were you also hiding in the forest the other day? – Carimea snapped. Alondra opened his mouth to answer but regretted it before doing so and lowered his head.
– I'm sorry.
– I'm even more sorry than you are. I told you I didn't want to see you again and here we are. Oh well. It is what it is. What happens to me with you is not anyone else's fault.
Alondra sat on the concrete bench in the porch. At some point in the past, it had been part of the large station complex. Mirlo turned around wanting to stay with Alondra, but Carimea held her shoulders tightly so that she could enter the large hangar with her. Suddenly Alondra realized something.
–Carimea!
– What?
– It's better if Mirlo stays with me too.
Carimea wasn't sure if she was jealous or just angry. But she understood what Alondra meant, which was even more disconcerting. Carimea, like Alondra, had always lived in war. She had learned that life never ceases to surprise you, and that almost everything that seems impossible is, in fact, quite common. She almost had a harder time imagining Alondra with a boy than the fact that she had invented a drug to transform the body.
– Then in the morning he will be the one who cannot enter.
– He will be able to.
– Ok, Alondra. You do your magic. The rest of us follow you. But this is not a game.
– I know it very well. I do not want to cause you problems. Please. I want to be able to move forward with everything. Sorry. I’m sorry. I'm sorry for what happened in the forest. If everything goes well, there will soon be no more secrets.
– I pray for it.
Carimea released Mirlo and disappeared into the dark hallway on the way to the hangar.
Nuevo Norte was the name of the old train station that had once been one of the epicenters of the city. At the time when air transport fell into disuse due to the energy transition, the train station had become the nerve center of the city's international transport. Intercontinental trains left from there, so it was a place where a lot of people passed through, and a lot of rich people. The original 20th century station had become a gigantic shopping center, with several areas designated for different percentiles of society. Next to it were the hangars in which the trains were stored, repaired and dismantled. The waiting area of the station imitated the style of the first train stations of the 19th century, with a large central nave with a metal roof. But this roof, in reality, had been built at the end of the 21st century, just before the periods of war began. It was a sumptuous place. The entrance of what today was «Bambú”, on the other hand, was a broken wall on the side of the old large station complex, which opened onto a small work area for railway controllers and station clerks. It had simple vaulted arcades, supported by semicircular arches, some concrete benches for sitting or smoking, and upon entering through the different doors, several narrow corridors opened in different directions. At the back there was a complex of storage hangars and the offices of the station companies, which was where the people now lived. The complexity of this entrance gave privacy to the community that little by little had been forming in Bambú, and to which Carimea belonged.
Not many people lived outside the old residential buildings. No one remembered very well the history of the settlement's origins, and no home computers were originally there, but it was assumed that the first settlers had been women who had fled their homes during the war. Some because they had been left alone in their buildings and had no way to support themselves, since they could not find the resources to maintain plantations and did not want or could not pay the army with their own flesh, mainly because they were too old. Others had fled from the police, who were pursuing them for infanticide. And some had simply lost their minds because of the war, and were looking for a place where they wouldn't be judged for it. No one knew why or when exactly the rule had been established that men could not enter Bambú. Not that, in general, they were highly regarded among ordinary people, but prohibiting them from entering certain spaces was considered excessive.
Although war was not just a thing for men, in the early years the army had been made up mainly of men, as had traditionally happened in human history. Although women, of course, were also part of the war, working for the industries and doing paperwork. But later, when the second phase of the war, the white-collar war, was entered, women participated as combatants in large numbers, since in fact this allowed them to continue simultaneously taking care of domestic tasks, including taking care of the children and elderly people, for whom they were still considered primarily responsible. But by then there were many more women than men, and a phenomenon of selective abortion on male fetuses began to occur. Since there were fewer men and they had gifts for their participation in the early years of the war, they circulated among the women and rarely stayed in a home for long. Single women didn't understand that it made sense to bring more men into the world. It had come to be believed that they were essentially more violent and more prone to obedience to the State. The State had also opted for a propaganda strategy that consisted of spreading the belief that women should contribute preferentially to the State, constituting the pillar of society. But most of the positions of power, with notable exceptions, were once again occupied by men, as until the 19th century. This strategy, unlike in the 20th century, produced an adverse effect that the State did not calculate. Although the women continued working on distant murder, they preferred to blame the men than assume collective responsibility or shelter themselves in a supposed territorial pride. The war was too long and the territory had long been nothing more than a group of provinces with practically homogeneous customs. The propaganda strategy had been designed with a conflict lasting a few years in mind, and a pattern of violence that could be forgotten and reinvented over and over again. But home computers and women did not forget. The mentality was established that war had its origin in a wasteful nature of men. At the end of the day, it used to be said, they alone had to take care of the creatures and the State. Having men, too, was just another burden. Although many still liked them, in the middle of the war that did not seem like a sufficient reason to feed them. For this reason, Alondra felt strange not only because of everything that was happening with Mirlo, but also a little traitor towards those who until now had been her fundamental values.
But now Blackbird seemed absolutely stunning to him, to such an extent that he didn't even dare look at her. Under the effects of the drug, the reservations that he might have caused her in the past, because of his sex, or because Alondra considered him a little animal of the forest, or because she saw him as a child, completely disappeared. And this made him feel tremendously vulnerable. Furthermore, under the effects of the drug, it seemed that Mirlo not only lost the relative fear that he still had of Alondra under her original appearance, but also behaved as if his energy was totally irresistible. Although Alondra was used to feeling the desire of people within the game, feeling that same desire from the body that he incarnated now was, for some reason, much more attractive and gratifying. Maybe it's the novelty, he thought.
They sat on the concrete bench and gazed at the moon. It was cool. Alondra felt very tired, but Mirlo was vibrating. They put down the backpacks and put away the great wheel. Alondra pulled out one of the blankets and gave Mirlo another pipette of water.
– Plus d'eau?
– Oui
– You too?
– No, I do not.
A slight expression of disappointment was read on Mirlo's face. She did not seem
caring too much about having to take more of that strange substance, or its effects. Apparently it did not cause her any conflict, or at least she did not make it visible. But Alondra could tell that he wanted him to continue taking it, too. And the truth is that Alondra, in the pit of his stomach, felt the same desire. But it was necessary to enter Bamboo and keep his disguise hidden, so he didn't. He felt an urgency to continue feeling Mirlo’s desire, before it vanished with the effects of the Water. Alondra placed one of the blankets on the concrete bench, and arranged the other to cover them both.
–Come.
The bench was wide enough to accommodate both of them on their sides. Mirlo sat on the edge of the bench and rested her hands on either side of her body. Alondra lay at her side and felt a strong desire to take Mirlo’s hand and place it on his chest. He saw her elongated fingers and felt the subtle tremor with which, with little strength and weight, her palm was held at a right angle to the edge of the bench. He could see the folds of skin on her wrist, the pisiform bone jutting out at the end of the inlet that formed the dip of her little finger and the edge of her palm. At the same time, he felt a spiral growing in his intestines, like an inverted drain gushing instead of draining. Alondra knew how to design the incoming sensations of perception, and her mastery in it was recognized throughout the city. Alondra had learned a great deal about anatomy in order to design in virtual reality, but in none of the lessons had she ever found anything about how the body could suddenly take on the shape of the world, or about the clusters of internal sensations that could experienced apart from those derived from the senses, beyond pain. In the network it was not necessary to design them, since they happened to bodies subjectively. All this had been lucky because, as she was learning in the last days, Alondra would not have been able to reproduce them, since she had never felt them. If these sensations also had to be designed, it is possible that her work would never have achieved the fame and credit it did.
The little fingertip of Mirlo’s left hand landed on the blanket, and her wrist turned a few degrees to the left. The anticipation of a movement in which his left hand firmly grasped that wrist and brought it to his chest appeared clearly in Alondra's mind. The movement was repeated in overlap, and at the end of it the eddy in his intestines rose a few inches and added to it a growing, warm glow under his breastbone, just below where Mirlo’s hand would be. Mirlo's body covered her fingers and wrist. She leaned beside Alondra giving him her back. Even though there was no contact, Alondra could feel crystal clear that Mirlo’s entire spine was on fire, and from the nape of her neck and the tips of her straight hair, a tingle of static electricity reached Alondra's throat and chest. Mirlo gave off a lot of heat but Alondra felt that her feet and hands were icy. Mirlo was having trouble breathing normally. A puddle of air seemed to remain at the bottom of her lungs without being able to get out. She began to breathe through her mouth, thinking that perhaps this could get the air out of him, but instead it became impossible for her to breathe without being aware of it, so she felt more and more anxious. Alondra sighed. He remembered that he had just left his home forever. He remembered that, when she was little, she had slept in her grandmother's arms in this very position. He remembered that last night she had slept in this same way with Mirlo. He remembered how they had kissed in the game, and he was aware that Mirlo possibly believed that it had been a dream. Then he, with great determination, wrapped his right arm around her waist and pressed her spine against his chest, burying his nose between the locks of brown hair. Mirlo emitted a constant buzz. The static electricity from her spine, the eddying in Alondra's stomach, and the storm building in his chest formed an open circuit that spread to Alondra's spine and Mirlo’s chest as well. Mirlo grabbed Alondra's hand and placed it on her chest under her own. She thought that, except for last night, when everything had happened in a somewhat rash and unconscious way, it was actually the first time she had hugged a human being like that. She remembered his dream, in which he had anticipated how Alondra would now look, and where, with all determination, he had kissed him on the mouth without any shame. Mirlo wasn't really very aware of the feeling of shame, since he hadn't spent enough time with humans to understand it in all its complexity. However, having Alondra like this, feeling all his heat on her back, and the coolness getting through the cracks in the blanket and the front part of her body, she recognized that sensation that consisted of a blush on her face, the closedness of the glottis and a sensation of salivation at the bottom of your tongue. That sensation that made the body very cold and very hot at the same time in different areas. With bristling nerves in the skin of the head and the feeling that the joints were held in the air by a slight tension. Without being able to relax the deepest and most subtle muscles. But she also felt all this in a body that felt completely foreign and, although all this sensation was strange in general, what surprised her most of all was to notice that there was a lot of water between her legs. Regarding this, something very different happened to Alondra. Alondra had imagined the sensation of having a phallus many times, so many times that what truly astonished him was the naturalness with which he inhabited this body. He felt as if it had always been there. In any case, the last thing he wanted was to do whatever would remind Mirlo of the fateful situation that had occurred as soon as they met. So he tried to keep his lower body far enough away so as not to create more embarrassment. Liuben, who was present at all times on Alondra's chest, registering all these physiological changes, thought that if there was something he missed about not being a human being, it was being able to feel these body flutters. They inactivated, but they kept alert for dangers lurking. Alondra and Mirlo tried not to let each other notice all these disturbances.
– Tomorrow is another day – Alondra said as a good night phrase.
– Bonne nuit – Mirlo replied with the sweetest voice Alondra had ever heard.