“Did you ever find out who took your father?” Mat’s voice coming suddenly out from the darkness brought Helen back.

She got up from the floor and stood up to hold the iron bars with both hands. “Oh, you were listening. And I thought you passed out. I bet I even heard you snoring.”

“You may be right. I think I did. Have no idea how long you’ve been talking.”

“Not that long actually.”

Mat rubbed his burned abdominal wound. It was sore as hell, but the bleeding seemed to have stopped. It had to or he would have probably already been dead. His right shoulder did not feel much better, and just lifting his hand up made him mutter with pain.

And suddenly he was feeling very cold with the fire almost all gone. As he slowly started to get up, he bend down, touching his knees, feeling dizzy and not so sure he could stand up on his two feet. The stabbing pain was not there anymore, but the room started to spin around, so he lowered himself down again, breathing heavily. “You did not answer me,” he finally said. “So, did you ever find who took your father?”

“Yes, I actually did. It took me five years, but I did it.”

“And?”

“And nothing. I found the assholes. Now I work for them. My second job, to tell you the truth.”

“Oh, really. Not going so well, is it?”

“Yeah, the first one was a breeze. So I thought why not do another one.”

“What was the first job?”

“I went to this… place… It was… almost like my own planet must have been like fifty years ago.”

“Your own planet???” Mat asked all surprised, things not adding up in the fogginess of his mind.

“Yes. Except they were not yet hit with the effects of climate change yet. They sent me to observe the society and report to them what I found interesting.”

“Pia, am I halucinating? How is my health, infection?”

Health is 20 percent but stable.

Infection is being contained.

No physical activity is recommended otherwise I would not be able to heal you.

Mat sighed and then again, tried by rubbing his face with his hands to get some clarity in his head. When that was not happening, he turned to stare back at Helen and asked, “You were saying something about finding something interesting on some planet. So, what did you find interesting?”

“Are you going to let me out now? I told you who I am, told you my story. How about it, chief?”

“I was not called 'chief' in the longest of time,” Mat said and touched again his wounded abdominal. “Tell me, what did you find interesting?”

“They were unable to help themselves even though they had every chance to do so. Moving too slow to change their bad ways, only started to harness wind and sun to start to produce the energy in a manner so as not to kill their planet off.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Their transportation all ran on carbon dioxide producing fuel, polluting the world, killing people and the environment.”

“Interesting.”

“I told you. It was almost all shit, except this thing they called gelato de pistacho, not that you could ever comprehend what that is?”

“Wait, are you talking about… Italy… about Earth?”

“Yeah. Wait a second… How can you know about Earth, you ignorant fool?”

“How do I know about mother Earth?!? You are the ignorant one! I was born and bred there, Colorado, US of A, Wild-West all the way, baby.”

“You’re a fucken’ cowboy?!?”

Mat stretched his head “Wait a second, so that means… are you working for the Core too?”

Helen stood frozen for a second and then nodded her head and said, “Yes. You too, huh?”

Mat nodded his head as well.

“It's a small Universe, huh?”

“You know it, sister.”

“So then you must know about me. I was sent here two years ago.”

“Crap. So, you were part of the second crew?”

“Well, I was alone, just the Observer. If there were other people, I was not made aware of them.”

“Wait a second. Pia, you could have identified Helen as a Core agent, right?”

Mat waited for a moment, but when a familiar voice did not respond, he rubbed his forehead and asked another question. “Why are you not answering me? Why are you staying silent?”

You know perfectly well I could identify her. Why ask the question?

“So, we are doing this again… Misleading me, attacking me, hiding information from me?”

“What are you doing?" Helen asked, shaking her head. "You are not talking to me, are you?"

“No. Unless you changed your name to Pia and had found the way to move into my head.”

“What?”

“I’m talking to my personal intelligence assistant.”

“Oh, I see. I heard that was possible. So, you’re a high-up.”

“Yeah, Social Class Ten. What class are you?”

When she did not answer, Mat added, “I mean, I can scan you-”

“No, I have no problem of you knowing, but I was just wondering," she said and then waved her hand next to her face as if that will chase her fleeting thought away. "Sure you can know my social standing, It is Class Three.”

“That’s not that bad. Nothing to be ashamed off. Actually rather impressive. It took me ten years to get up from one.”

“Yeah, I never paid that much attention to the rankings to tell you the truth," she said and then suddenly focused her eyes on him. "So, you talk to your Pia all the time?”

“Sometimes. It helps.”

“I guess Class 3 only gets a limited model. It only gives me some useless stats as if I need to know when I’m tired and when I need to rest.”

“I know. Mine is… supposed to be more helpful. You will earn classes as you progress up the ladder. But now that she has been hiding information from me, I wonder what gives.”

“Yeah, but it sucks, even more, to be locked inside here. So, now that we are friends and know we work for the same people, how about getting me out?” Helen said and even threw in a wide, ear-to-ear smile.

Mat was starting to get shakes. The cold made his muscles twitch. He slowly got up again, folding at his waist so not to stretch his body and leaning on his sword as if he was an old woman. He made a few small steps, feeling the pain return and watched desperately the heap of dried logs that were just too damn far away.

“Why are you not letting me out?” Helen asked him. “You’re not looking too good, chief. Why don’t you want to help me out?”

Mat raised his wobbling head and try to steady his eyes on her. Why indeed? Why not go there and help her out?

“I do not know. Something does not ring right. And, a lot of things are ringing inside my head. So, I probably need to warm myself up first. You’re safe where you are. And if those monsters come, you know those you warned me about, you, you could… just hide in the darkness of your cell. They would not even know you were there.”

Another few steps, the pain actually slowly going away. Except for the shit storm inside his head. That seemed to know no end. So he did the best he could. Leaned on his broken sword and stumbled forward. Very small steps, hardly moving the feet of the floor. Not because he did not have the strength. He feared the spinning, and if he lifted his leg up, he was not so sure he would know where to put it down.

“I can help you with that. Why don’t you trust me?”

“You could say I have too much Indian blood in me. Navajo to be exact. Learned not to trust white folks, if you know what I mean. Just let me quiet this pounding in my head, and I’ll help you. I promise.”

He carried a few logs in his left hand and then just dropped them on the dying embers, hoping they would light up.

“You don’t look too good, chief.”

“Yeah, you already told me that.”

"You can drop down and never wake up. And I'll be dead then. So, come on, don't make me beg."

"Look, you can beg all you want. And cry too. It won't help. Because I know I'm not a knight in silver armor and you are definitely not a princess waiting to be rescued."

"How can you be so heartless?"

"Why don't you for a start tell me what matters? So, instead of going over your early adulthood stories, why-"

"I told you that because you said you wanted to get to know me, know who I was"

"Nice, but still missing to answer my question. Maybe my brain is working only at two percent right now, but even that two percent is telling me that I still don't know why you found yourself locked up inside the cell. Why did a person I was searching to make a contact with and were going to help me out, why did he have you locked you up?"

Helen was going to scream something at him, but then she evened her frowning face and weighed her words carefully before she spoke. "I think they made a mistake. Really. They had me mixed up with somebody else. They did not know what to do with me, so they just locked me up. It happens to us observers, you know. We are not supposed to participate in any fights or quarrels. Just surrender. And that's what I did. Besides, not that they considered me any threat to them. if they did, they would have killed me. You know that."

"Still-" the dizziness returned and Mat had to hold himself up with his back against the fallen slab of stone so as not to go down face first.

“Check your stats, man, don't you see your health is failing? Why don’t you use nano-h-cells boosters?”

“I don’t have any spare. And my nano-h-cells level is like below 20 percent now.”

“Shit,” Helen cursed shook her head as she took something out of her pocket. “This is my last one. You better make it count. If I give it to you, would you set me free?”

“I’m not so sure,” Mat said suddenly less sure of what to do more than ever before.

Helen snorted and shook her head again. “Well, you might as well have it. It won’t keep me alive if I have to starve to death here. Haven’t eaten anything in days. Take it. At least you won’t die on me. Because if you do, I’m dead as well,” she said and placed a little glass ampoule on the floor then rolled it over the stones toward his feet.

“Is it really nano-h-cells booster?” Mat asked as he looked at it.

“Sure it is. Your Pia would warn you if it isn’t, wouldn’t she?”

“Well, maybe she would. Although sometimes, she does make me wonder.”

“Damn, you are special. From all the agents, and I have to run into you.”

That had actually made Mat giggle. “All right, I guess you won me over,” Mat said and lifted his sword up, ready to throw it over the floor to Helen. Sure as hell he doubted he had enough strength to walk over there and set her free.

She knows what to do with the sword. Even the observers had to be trained in the Art of the Blade. Probably it would not take her more than a minute to break the lock or widen the bars out. Heck, my blade could probably slice that rusted iron bars right off if she has enough power in her swing, So-

Wait! Pia’s voice suddenly pounded inside his head. Wait a second!

The reason I decided not to inform you of her status is because… I did not know what to do with the information I have.

“And that information is?”

Her agency status has been revoked, and she is deemed defective.

“You don’t say.”

She may actually be the reason why the planet went dark.

“You don’t say? That little girl? She’s not even twenty years old?”

“I’m twenty-four, okay?" Helen said offensively. "And how old are you?" she asked when Mat suddenly got very quiet. "Hard to say from here, except that you look like... shit, that's for sure."

"Well, thanks for your kind words. I will take them into consideration when I contemplate if I should free you or not."

"I was just kidding. And, besides, what do you want? To tell you how hot you look? Oh, mister, you look like a bomb. I'm so-"

"That's enough. You're worse than Pia."

Mat fell silent again, thinking, so, Helen asked him again. "No, really, how old are you?"

"My body is that of a person in mid-thirties, but I'm way older than that."

"You could fool me. Now throw me that sword. Don’t be an ass.”

Mat shook his head, trying to add things up. But they just would not. In the end, all he did is say, “Twenty-four... Pia, you see? She is Class 3. No way for her to be an evil mastermind…”

That is not the information I have. I will give it to you, and then you see fit.

“Well, give it to me, but first, let me see if I can stop this pounding in my head,” Mat said and reached out to his boot and picked up Helen’s ampoule, then tilted his head back and poured the transparent liquid down his throat and then just let his body lower itself down as everything around started to spin faster and faster.