The tall boss in black took large steps towards Neder, Eisley and Zarah. In the middle of his blazing headway, he ripped the hood away from his head and panted: "It can't be YOU! It can't be! My poor li'l thing?"
She got her eyes wide and she gasped for breath of what she saw. The man approached her in a second, gripped her from shoulders and nearly fell her to the floor. She was very quickly put to sit on the knees of the boss, bent almost horizontally and took into his powerful arms.
"Warp---mhhpfff...! Mfff!" was all she had the time to produce out of her mouth before he pressed his lips very hard on hers.
The uncanny leader was Warp Darkmatter. He had shocked awake to hear a too familiar voice behind him, after all this time, that voice... He could not believe his ears. It could not be real. But there she had been, flesh and blood in front of him, looking as scared as he had for the first time seen her. The poor little thing so afraid, again! He could do nothing but ensure that she was real, close her into his arms and...
She was not a hallucination, not a fake image of Warp's tired mind. The more he made this fact sure for himself, the more fierily he caressed the girl in his enfold. He kissed her hard and greedily, even pressed her head more towards him. The black wide sleeves of his cloak kept the view hidden as she lied there in his huge arms. She had gone feeble on the first moment he had ardently taken her into his embrace and squeezed her against him so that it was difficult to breath for her. He in turn kissed her lips, cheeks and neck. She shivered as she had had an ague; it was not far that she would have passed out. But Warp was only provoked by this, he held her chin with his fingers and kept her mouth open for to kiss her even more fundamentally.
Five minutes the guards had been standing in a shock and watched the whole show. Neder leered at his company, his mouth distorted and eyes round like two full moons. Warp had totally forgotten their existence, now he only saw Zarah. He even seemed to have forgotten his cough. At first, the other guard hacked a bit, for to try awaken their boss under the spell. Warp did wince a little, but did not turn his eyes from the girl, only smiled at her heartily and fondled the corner of her mouth with his thumb.
"Zarah..." he whispered hardly audible to the flaccid and quivering maiden. He was ready to kiss her again as he heard another cough beside him. Some kind of sense of reality streamed into him. He quickly raised his regard and encountered the aghast expressions of the guards.
In a bolt he stood up, lifting Zarah on her feet. "Um... eh..." he stammered in his confusion and leered around as there was a hundred eyes watching him. He let her go to stand on the floor, but her legs did not support her and she fell back into his arms. Warp grimaced and attempted to get her stay in balance.
"Now look what you did, she's so scared of you that she won't even stay on her feet!" Warp scolded angrily the thunderstruck guards. "How did ya dare to treat the poor thing like that? Now, it's fine, Choi, just try to not to be a boiled macaroni..." he hushed the girl. He gave a look at Neder and Eisley who still stood there rigid eyes wide open. "Now, you go and don't mess up any more!"
"Ermh... what about... the spy?" Eisley stuttered.
"She's not a spy... she's... an old friend." Warp blurted back. The guards looked at each other suspiciously.
"Now, don't you just stand there... ehm, wait, I got a function for ya... you take her with you and make her a nice bath ready, then a room with all possible comforts ya guys can invent. Ask the chef to make a proper meal and this time not to burn it and find her nice clothes... look, now, did ya mess her suit like this?" he wiped some dust from her shoulders left from the sand storm.
Next, Zarah tottered forwards along a corridor supported by Eisley. She was still so listless after Warp's 'attack' that she did not comprehend where she actually was and with whom.
"So... you know our boss, ma-am?" Neder uneasily asked.
She cleared her dry throat. "W-Warp...? Was that he... wasn't it...We're... old... friends."
Again, the guards leered at each other quite sceptically.
"Em... we're sorry we handled you a bit crudely, but we didn't know that you and the boss..."
The men leaded her to a bathroom door. "Here ya can take a bath... and there's even a warm sauna, so just relax and be... eh... Mr. Darkmatter's guest."
As the door closed after her insecure steps, Neder and Eisley changed an expression that maybe would have made Warp give them a payoff.
"And old FRIEND...?" they interjected in unison.
"I never knew boss had a crush!"
"Ya said it... ya won't treat... emh... 'an old friend' like that..."
"And it certainly was not our fault that that missy could not stand on her feet. She walked very well when we brought her in!"
The men shook their heads and left the bathroom door.
Warp was prepared to achieve Zarah. He had done everything possible to look handsome and attractive. Primarily the black cloak had been thrown to the refuse chute. He was now dressed to black trousers with a silver-shiny belt, in his feet he had heavy black leather boots that were polished. A tight, matt-black T-shirt let his huge upper body muscles be dimly visible through the canvas. In front of the mirror, he spread hair gel into his coiffure and even polished his big teeth. "Now, big boy, ya look cool! Time to impress her...!" Lastly he grazed his goatee to ensure that no beard hair was jutting out to wrong direction. No one could say had he ever been cockier, but now he trimmed every last detail of his outfit. At least the egoistic features of his character were now quite much in action.
However, the whole show flattened when Zarah was brought in. The guards had not found her quite appropriate clothes. She had oversized jeans on, and a men's shirt, whose large sleeves were wrapped up many times.
Warp covered his eyes and exhaled indignant: "Didn't I order you NOT to mess up any more? WHERE have you guys dug up those clothes? From the dirty laundry?"
"Sorry, boss... but this was the only suit we could find. They're from your wardrobe! They're the best, at least! We know your clothes are the best, aren't they...?" Eisley whined.
Warp ground his teeth so that they creaked. He took the girl under his arm and pointed the door to the others. "Now go and get her the food. And I'm not taking any responsibility of the consequences, if the steak and stuff is burnt to freakish clods again! Besides, why didn't you go to visit Miss S'Ŏr Uné? Just a short flight across the cave and she'll get you clothes from her stock. EU-size 36. And NO pink, thank you!"
As the door banged, Warp put her sit on a chair opposite to him at the table. She was still quite dizzy, but attempted to begin a conversation.
"Uh... where am I?"
"This place, the community of Xatagah is..." he began eyeing the girl with a tender expression "...how I would say it... the paradise of reformed criminals. Well, all the folks that live here are foxes hunted by someone and need a hole to hide. That's maybe how I could put it into words."
Zarah's mind opened to remember the legends she had just reminisced for a few hours ago. So, there were cities under the ground and she was now in one of them. "So, the saga is true, then...?"
"Yeah... I'm glad that this place exists. Otherwise I would have been worm food for ages" Warp sighed.
"How did you get here? I mean, I know nothing about you, what happened then..." she prevented tears coming into her eyes as she recalled the farewells. "...then six months ago? How did you survive?"
He fingered his chin and looked at the ceiling. "I... lived in Trade World for a few weeks. I was in the middle of abjection; behind ev'ry corner was a spy of that notorious Purple Purport... one day I just happened to hear an intriguing conversation of corner table bums in some underground bar. Of course, I had heard fairy tales of this planet, but in their speech, it sounded so real. So... I joined the guys, knowing that it was a huge risk to do that, but what other change could I had had? They were waiting for some kind of approval of higher quarters to get here. Well..." he stopped for a while.
"You mean you got here with them?" she asked.
"Yea. Yet, it was difficult as to try to put a football through a needle eye... the transport was at first this kind of hood-over-your-head, mean completely blindfolded... then I was kept here in jail for a while when the folks found out who I was. The security is pretty tough here. Then they somehow managed to get proves to my story. I told them just what I had done to you... and how I had betrayed Zurg. One word from a reliable source was needed that The Izzard was after me... and I was immediately accepted here among the other crooks. Yeah, those fellas that dragged you in, are two guys from the group with which I came. They're not very full-witted, but quite efficient in their tasks. Former pickpockets."
Zarah stared at him eyes round. "What a story...! I'm very glad you have found a good place to stay! So... do you guys do something here for living, too? This property is not stolen, is it?"
Warp's expression turned more severe. "No. If someone here turns again to dim thingies, he's a goner. This community works for its moola and well-being."
"But... you gotta have then some kind of organisation you work for?"
"That's right. A big amount of us work for a science company that has its home in the solar system of Na-Sula. I dunno if you have heard about this, it's a place beyond the regions of the Galactic Alliance. Well... it gathers workers from here and there; actually one of the descendants of the ancient culture that once lived here keeps the company rolling. Guess you've heard the common bedtime story about how the folks here used to live before this became a crook asylum. Well, all the natives did not get mowed by the disease, but moved away. They have a colony in Kar-Sina, it's the main planet of Na-Sula System. But they can never return here, they have their own reasons..."
Zarah looked at him her head atilt. "You seem to have some kind of higher position here, do ya? I mean, ev'ry one calls you boss and so."
Warp's conceit got again more energy and his expression turned very smug. "That's right. Once some profits for serving Zurg. Ya know, I was a technology spy. That gathers a lot of knowledge. I'm helping a couple of goggled geeks to test security problems of different kinds of communication devices. And I lead here the sector that manufactures some goofy widgets for the same enterprise."
Warp was about to start to question Zarah, now, but Neder and Eisley peeped in through the door.
"Ohoy, boss... we got the dinner..."
Warp had certain expectations, but this time he was positively surprised at least concerning the food. Similar portions were made to him and Zarah. The delicious scent of roasted steaks and náurises (a vegetable that resembled turnips) along with all kinds of fruits made Warp smile. But when he was shown the dresses that were picked up for Zarah, he again sighed in frustration. "Can't you see this colour doesn't pass her at all! Do you really think that someone with flaming red hair and snow-white skin could wear a yellow dress with red spots? Are you insane? And what is the size again; I said 36, not 63!"
Now she opened her mouth to say her opinion: "Warp, I really don't need anything, I can get my own overalls and..."
But he stepped to her and bowed down to whisper right at her ear so that the bystanders would not hear: "Please, stay here, at least a little time. That's why I ordered them to put you a ready room. That's why I asked them to bring you something nice to wear. Just a little time...?"
She got her mouth dry as in a flash her mind was filled with the image of how he had kissed her two hours ago. "Warp... if..." she gulped "if you want, I'll stay. I'm actually on holiday, but came here to..."
"Hush." was his interrupting answer before he gave more orders to his men.
During the meal, Zarah told about her commissions and what she had been doing during the last six months. With wrinkled forehead, Warp listened to her telling about her depression and gazed at her very pitifully. She still did not mention what was the whole sorrow about; she was a bit too shy to confess what she had felt towards him during all this time.
When the dinner was finally finished, Warp suggested that they would go to visit the clothes stock. Zarah felt quite much confusion in the middle of all this. "Um, how large is this community actually? I mean that wasn't you talking about something flying across a cave to your assistants?"
"Oh, yeah, well, we're not flying, but taking a tunnel march. And I think I'll leave the presentation of the city for tomorrow. I promise it'll be quite exciting!" he winked to her.
"Would ya just tell me how many of you folks are here? I guess ya ain't gonna spam me with pretty cities if there's only a couple of mud huts squatting at the bottom of your cave?" she gave a merry laugh.
"No, Za. I'd say we're... half a million. Even more. Alone in this city. There are ten more, deep under the forbidding surface." Warp grinned.
Her jaw dropped to the floor and he chuckled to her amazement.
It took half an hour to cruise zig-zag in the endless tunnels and stairs. Of course, there were lifts and assembly line-like vehicles with chairs that went along the long corridors. Most of the time Warp and Zarah sat in one of those and just discussed. Zarah's heart was completely molten as she observed her companion while it was his turn to speak. According to her, he was more handsome than ever and again, his gentleness towards her started to overwhelm her like there in the woods. But what was the most intoxicating, it was that after all this time she could stay with him, at least for a while. And in her mind she wondered that there seemed not to be another woman anywhere. Zarah knew that with an appearance like the one he had it would be a piece of meteoroid to steal the hearts of a dozen belles. Nevertheless, there was no one.
Warp's mind was one big merry-go-round, too. Zarah... his beautiful, tiny Zarah was suddenly with him. How was it even possible that she had popped out of somewhere like that, ended up in his arms on his most bad day in weeks? He had missed her so sorely, as well as she had, although she was too coy to confess that. He could not turn his vision from her at all, no; with his dark eyes, he kept ogling her all the way to the stocks. He had remembered her being somewhat taller, but now again the hearty smile lifted the corners of her mouth up as he keenly watched her outer appearance. Quasars, that size of those hands! Like a child's! That daintiness! How could she be so small and cute? She had only grown more fine-featured during her absence, he thought. Her hair was cut a bit, it was not that long as he remembered then how he had braided it... but that did not matter. The fabulous copper shine was there, contrasting with her deep-green eyes and skin white as milk. His Zarah...
Miss Uné was a small, orange-haired, rough-looking woman who kept the clothes stock, sew and designed models too. She was a former smuggler, but had lost her interest to criminality as the mafia had killed her parents and brother. She was happy to receive Zarah and search for proper clothes to her. There were not very many female residents around, usually only men sough their way to this sanctuary.
"Now, look at you, where have you got that kind of rags!" she complained Choi's outfit. Warp muttered something behind her. The women left him sit in the delivery room and took steps down to the stock premises.
"You should be wearing this!" S'Ŏr hiked up a black satin dress from a hanger.
But Zarah's expression went uneasy. "Oh, no, I'd be rather wearing something less... em... let's just say that I don't like open collars at all... uh... and the hems...", she hackled.
"I see", the dresser smiled. "Modesty is a good virtue. I guess you prefer these." She leaded her to another shelf. Zarah pulled out a pair of shine-dark-denim loose-hemmed jeans decorated with orange seams and extra pockets, then a couple of polo-necked tight, dark shirts. She found also a heavy steel belt to her jeans and a long, dark-grey leather jacket that reached almost her ankles.
Of course, Warp had expected to see her in some kind of dazzy evening dress, but did not complain about these selections. The most important was that she was not wandering about in his jeans. But now the night indicated to be quite late, so Zarah would have to head to bed. Eisley came to show her her room; it was arranged in the same wing as Warp's chambers. She indeed felt herself very fatigued when she put the warm felt cloth around her and placed her head to rest on the sinking pillow. Here, tens of metres under the ground, it was not warm, like there on the surface. But the night fell calmly and thanks to a thermal heater beside her bead, she did not freeze.
-------To be continued-------------