The night manager gave them with a friendly nod, as Jason and Neri went through the lobby in their bathrobes. Jason approached his desk.
"Good evening, Sir and Madam," the night manager greeted them. "How can I help?"
"Good evening, … Rupert," Jason replied, quickly reading the night manager's sign, "I know it's late but we were hoping we could take a swim in the pool?"
"Of course." Rupert bowed his head in direction of the big glass front. "The door is open. The personnel were implicitly instructed to grant the guests this week unrestricted access to all sanitary installations, the pool included."
"Oh, thank you. We didn't know that." Jason felt a little silly. Neri had taken a lot of time in the shower. Instead, they could have had swims every night.
"Do you wish for some towels?" Rupert asked.
"Ah…" Jason exchanged a quick look with Neri who laughed. They had indeed forgotten to bring some. "Yes, that would be great."
"I bring them to you right away."
"Thank you, Rupert."
The night manager turned to a door and Neri took his hand. "He is very nice," she said as they went outside.
They refrained from jumping in the water to avoid waking anyone sleeping with an open balcony door. Instead, they moved smoothly through the water, taking a few rounds back and forth.
"Why do people of Earth build pools?" Neri asked him quietly when they stopped to sit on the entrance stairs. "This water … it is toxic. Dead. No life."
"I don't know," Jason admitted. "I never thought about it." He caught some water in his hands and let it trickle through his fingers. "Maybe, that's the point. Any open sea can be very frightening. A lot is still unknown. In here, it's controlled. Safe and clean."
"Humans try to control the oceans. All nature."
Jason nodded. "True. And if you're thinking about the Pyramid … I don't know either if it's such a good idea to assemble a whole team of human scientists to study it. Froggy is … Froggy. He might be a genius but he cannot do it alone. What I said back then still holds true: humans are really good in transforming any kind of technology into a weapon."
She took his hand. "In wrong hands, everything is a weapon. But I trust Froggy. I trust our friends. And I belief in the people, yours and mine. … Our people. I have to. Otherwise, why fight at all?"
Jason smiled but it was a grim smile. "There it is: the responsibility to save the world on our shoulders. Didn't we want to come here to distract us from that?"
Neri panted a smile, then leaned forward to kiss him. Now, that was an easy distraction. He couldn't tell if she was using her healing powers on him or if he was just caught in the moment but the heavy weight dissolved into a relaxing bliss. One moment later he realized, that he wasn't afraid anymore of how much he wanted her. Gently, he broke the kiss.
"Let's take this to our room," he murmured. Her eyes were dark, mirroring his intentions as they stood up to fetch their bathrobes.
"Didn't Rupert want to bring us some towels?" Jason wondered and tried to dry himself the best he could. He wouldn't want to ruin the lobby's carpet.
"Jason!" The sudden tight grip on his arm and the distress in Neri's voice made him jump. She pointed through the windows. As the lights inside were dimmed at night and the pool lights were reflected on the glass from the outside, Jason could only see something white on the floor but Neri's reaction was unsettling enough for him to be alerted. She also had better eyesight, especially in the dark. His uneasy feeling intensified when they stepped through the door. The upper lights had not just been dimmed but switched off, and the desk light had been tossed over. The pieces of the shattered lightbulb spread over the desk glittered in the dark.
"Do you see the switch for the upper lights?" He tried to keep his voice calm and steady, despite the growing feeling that something was terribly wrong.
"Yes," Neri replied and hurried to the further side of the front desk. Jason quickly passed the towels and rounded the desk from the other side. A figure lay on the floor and Jason kneeled down, where he assumed his head, as Neri approached from the other side. Before he could feel Rupert's pulse, Neri slipped and fell with a wet floor noise.
"Neri? Are you alright?" Jason asked in direction of her figure in the dark. He saw her moving but her horrified gasp gave him the answer. Her breathing was uneven and fast, her voice shaking when she quietly said his name. Dread came over him when he saw her slowly lifting her arm up to the light switch, her hand shining wet. He wanted to stop her. He didn't want to see it and he closed his eyes. Through the eyelids, he noticed the change from total blackness to a lighter shade. He forced himself to open is eyes and the sight in front of him was just as horrific as he presumed.
Rupert lay in a puddle of blood, and Neri was kneeling in the middle of it. Terrified, she stared at the shimmering red on her hands, shaking uncontrollably and tears streaming down her face. He forced himself to look away from her and down to Rupert. Carefully, he took him by the shoulder and leaned over him, wishing he hadn't in the next second. Petrified, he stared into the hole that had been Rupert's throat. Blood was still flowing from it, soaking the red jacket and white collar of Rupert's uniform. Jason closed his eyes again, his ears filled with the noise of his own blood and the fast throbbing of his heart. The only thing louder than that was the sound of Neri's shocked breathing.
One.
Jason took a deep breath.
Two.
He took another.
Three.
He had intended to count until ten but was ready at the count of "four". With another deep breath, he stood up, fetched the towels and rounded the desk to get to Neri.
"Neri? Sweety?" he murmured as he approached her from behind. He heard Dave's voice in his head, reminding him that it could be dangerous to touch someone in deep shock without warning. He put the towels on the desk. "I'm gonna help you up now, alright?"
Carefully, he took her under the arms and pulled her up. Relieved, he felt her working with him. She turned around to face him, her eyes wide and red from crying. Jason took one of the towels and cleaned her hands. "Don't look at him, look at me," he instructed her as she had turned her head again to the shape on the floor. "Look at me. Breathe."
She slouched and the shaking died down. He gave her the remaining clean towel to make a call with his watch but before he could dial, the worried face of his mother appeared.
"Jason? What is going on? Mera and Shalamorn almost broke my door on the way in."
"Alert everyone. We have a security problem," Jason explained as short as possible. "We found the night manager dead."
Diane's eyes grew wider with every word. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, Mum. But there is no time to lose."
"Of course." Diane turned away from the screen and Jason heard her explaining and giving instructions. She was a worried mother but she was also the commander of a big research station. She knew how to set priorities. Whatever their issues, Jason felt a little proud of her and relieved that she was back in the team. They needed her.
Neri had stepped out of the puddle of blood and tried cleaning her feet. She still looked shaken but stopped crying. Her eyes looked clearer, even though still afraid and sad. Jason gently wiped the tears from her face.
"I know this is horrible," he said softly, "but we have to pull ourselves together. This is not over."
Neri nodded and tried a smile, failing miserably. Jason pulled her into his arms and hugged her firmly.