Dark Energy: The Mortal Fracture

CHAPTER SIX: SLEEPWALKING

Sade’s Cabin – Midwinter 2010

“Wake up!” Sade screamed again as she struggled against Wasi’s grip.

As suddenly as his attack began, it ended, and Wasi came out of his somnambulism episode. He looked down at Sade’s frightened expression and quickly changed his posture into one that was less threatening.

“What’s going on?” he asked as he retreated away from her.

“Why don’t you tell me,” she responded derisively. Sade sat up in bed rubbing her throat where the knife blade had been pressed only moments earlier. Seeing the confused look on Wasi’s face she took mercy on his ignorance and volunteered an answer, “You were walking in your sleep.”

“I was what?”

“You were walking in your sleep,” she said as she took a sip of water from a glass that was sitting on the corner of her nightstand.

“Has this happened before?” he asked as he sat stunned and trying to make sense of the information being relayed to him.

Sade moved towards the door pulling on a bathrobe, “I think we can both use a drink.”

#

Arctic Research Camp – Late Fall 2006

A cargo plane skidded to a stop just outside of the camp. The base camp team pulled on their winter outerwear and rushed to meet the plane that contained the little luxuries of life that were not easy to come by so far north. In addition to supplies and mail, this particular cargo plane also contained a new member of the team, Marco Wasi. Sade hired him before she moved her research team north to the Arctic Research Center and he was to take on the dual roles of security officer and predator expert. Despite Sade’s reassurance of this man’s qualifications, the others were suspicious of him because they were familiar with her taste in men.

As the cargo doors folded down from the rear of the plane, two men in winter coveralls jumped out and started unloading the payload. Sade watched the plane, waiting for Wasi to exit.

“You sure he was coming out on this plane?” Kim asked as he shivered in the cold.

“Yes. This is the last flight for a month. He has to be on this plane,” she replied.

The final crates were offloaded and Sade approached the pilot, “I was expecting a passenger to be dropped off, a Marco Wasi. Was he on the plane?”

“Yeah, he’s over there,” the pilot said pointing to one of the men offloading the cargo.

“Thanks,” she said confused. Sade and Kim walked over to the man in the coveralls. “Dr. Wasi?” she asked.

The man put down the items he was holding and removed the protective mask that was concealing his face, “Dr. Sade,” he said as he extended his hand towards her. Sade took his hand and shook it as Wasi explained, “I was helping to unload some of my equipment and personal items. I’d like to get settled in as soon as possible, and they were a man short.”

“Oh, okay,” she replied. Then she pointed to Kim and began the introductions, “This is Carl Kim. He is my assistant, if you need anything this is the man to go to.”

“Nice to meet you, Dr. Wasi,” Kim said, shaking his hand.

“You too.”

“Let’s move everything inside and I’ll show you around,” Sade said motioning for her team to bring things inside.

#

Inside the Arctic research camp things were basic, to say the least. The walls were constructed from old military corrugated metal and insulated with spray-on foam. Each building was lit and heated and each served a specific purpose. The front two buildings contained the main research facilities for the team. Building A was designated for biological research and Building B was designated for technical research and development. Building C, which sat just behind the research facilities, contained sleeping quarters and the mess hall. Building D offered private storage and additional private sleeping quarters for the team leaders, including Kim and Sade.

As Sade and Kim entered Building D, a page broadcasted over the intercom system, “Dr. Sade, please come to the cargo docking bay.”

“Shit,” she said as she turned to Dr. Wasi and Kim. “Can you complete the tour and get Dr. Wasi settled into his room?”

“Sure, boss,” Kim responded.

“I’ll meet up with you later to brief you about your assignment,” she said shaking Wasi’s hand and then exiting the building in a short-stepped jog.

“Okay, so this building is where your sleeping quarters will be. Over there is your room,” Kim relayed as he guided Wasi to his room. “It’s not much, but it has what you need, a bed, a light, and heat. We have a communal bathroom at the end of the hall that has a shower, sink, and toilet. Try to keep your showers down to about three minutes because we don’t have a lot of hot water to work with around here.”

“Okay,” Wasi said as he examined his new surroundings.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what are you a doctor of?” Kim asked prodding for information, “Sade didn’t give us very much information about you.”

“Psychology,” he responded as he unpacked some of the books that he had brought with him and placed them on a small shelf above a desk that was set in the corner of his room.

“Psychology? I thought you were a predator expert?” Kim asked, trying to test out the accuracy of his credentials.

Wasi looked slyly over as Wasi, “I am.”

#

That night Wasi was reading at his desk when he was interrupted by a knock at his door. He answered the door to find Sade in full winter gear standing there.

“I thought you might like to see what you’ll be working with before your official start tomorrow. I promise I’ll make it worth your while,” she said enticingly.

“Where are we going?” he asked a bit suspicious of her offer.

“You’ll see, but you’ll need more clothes on than that,” she said jokingly as she looked down at his long thermal underwear. “I’ll meet you at the cargo bay in about 15 minutes. Dress warm.”

#

Fifteen minutes later Sade and Wasi were racing away from the base camp on snowmobiles with Sade in the lead. The night was clear and uncharacteristically calm. Overhead the Aurora Borealis cast an eerie dance of red, yellow, and green light. The two covered about five miles and then came to a stop at the top of a mound of hardened snow and buckled sea ice. Sade turned off her snowmobile and wandered over to the crest of the hill. Wasi followed her lead and waited for an explanation of their outing.

“Here,” Sade said as she handed him a night vision headset. “Our gadget guy, Datz, came up with this for our low-light studies.”

Wasi examined the headset, weighing it in his hand. “It’s light,” he said as he slipped it onto his head.

Sade helped him to adjust it to fit snuggly against his forehead and then flipped it on. The whirl and squeal of the electronics broke through the quiet of the night and suddenly lit up the field in front of him. “Hello,” he said surprised at the clarity of his field of view. “This is amazing.”

“I know,” Sade replied proudly. She directed Wasi to look to the north, “Look over there.”

“What am I looking for?” he asked.

“It should be about two miles out, next to the ice flow’s edge.”

“Okay, I see something. A polar bear?” he asked.

“Watch.”

Wasi watched intently as the polar bear circled the edge of the ice flow. The chunks of ice creaked and moaned loudly as they pressed and rubbed against one another seductively.

Sade took Wasi’s gloved hand and placed it on the ice. “Feel that?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said as he felt the ice vibrate. “What is it?”

“It’s a whale. From the rhythm of the vibrations, I would say a beluga. Now watch what happens,” she said as she turned her attention to the bear on the ice in front of them.

The vibrations in the ice intensified causing the polar bear to stop and crouch down with its nose level with the water. Then a spray of salt, water, and ice shot out from the opening and the polar bear grabbed the ghost-white creature by the throat with its powerful, clawed paws and plucked it out of the abyss with ease.

“The bear uses the momentum from the whale and the buoyancy of the water to make extracting its prey easier to do. It’s quite ingenious really,” Sade reported.

The beluga floundered on the surface of the ice, but quickly tired from the cold and the weight of the atmosphere above the waterline. Wasi and Sade watched as the bear methodically disemboweled the whale on the ice.

“Now, watch what it eats first,” Sade instructed.

“The liver,” Wasi said as if this behavior confirmed suspicions that had long been held in his mind.

This revelation seemed to catch the polar bear’s attention, and it raised its head up from its kill and looked around. Sade pulled Wasi down to the ground and motioned for him to be quiet. Wasi wondered why it was important to be quiet because the bear was more than two miles away. They waited quietly for the bear to go back to its feed.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Sade whispered to Wasi, “Polar bears have a real taste for human blood. They are one of the few predators that will put in the effort to hunt us down.”

“We’re a part of the food chain, it is not hard to believe,” Wasi responded.

“It is hard to believe, actually. Human flesh is loaded with toxins. That’s why we’re only hunted in desperation…”

“…or for fun,” Wasi completed.

A wicked smile pulled at the corners of Sade’s mouth as she realized that Wasi was going to be a lot more fun to play with than she first thought. For a moment she let down her guard and allowed herself to drink in Wasi’s appearance. He was a handsome man, in a dark and disturbing way, and he appeared to be someone that she could really grow to like.

A sharp slap delivered by the wind removed her from her daydream and refocused her attention on the reality of the situation. She motioned to Wasi that it was time to return. “We should get back,” she said as she moved away from him.

As they got back on their snowmobiles Wasi could hear a strange sound that emanated from the sky.

“What’s that sound?” he asked.

“The sound of the dead,” she replied as she started up her snowmobile and sped away.

#

3:00 a.m. That Night

The entire camp was quiet and dark. Wasi’s footsteps padded softly through the dark, empty halls as he progressed from his room through the corridor. Sade was fast asleep in her room when the lock on her door clicked to the unlocked position. This sound woke her and she flipped on the light and frantically dialed Kim’s room.

“Can you come down here…and bring the gun,” she said calmly without removing her focus from the door.

The knob slowly turned, freeing the door from its jam. It swung open silently. Framed in the doorway was Wasi, standing with a knife dangling at his side. His back was hunched over slightly at the shoulders, his eyes were dilated, and his breathing was short and intense. This posture mirrored that of the polar bear that they witnessed earlier in the field, and Sade knew Wasi was not himself.

“Is there something wrong?” she asked trying to test out his psychological condition.

“It’s the only way,” he growled in a trance-like tone as he slowly approached her bedside.

“Kim?” she yelled down the hall, “How are you coming with that gun?” There was no response. “Oh, shit,” she said as Wasi lunged for her.

Wasi pounced on her, pinning her to the bed like a lion pinning its prey to the savannah grassland. His knife was held to her throat like a fang poised to make a lethal bite. Wasi shook as he fought his subconscious urge to kill her. Sade pressed all her weight against his arm pushing him towards a more amicable ending to this night terror.

“I have to, it’s the only way,” he kept repeating apologetically.

Kim sprung around the corner and darted Wasi with a tranquilizer gun. Wasi was shocked by this turn of events and he withdrew from the room stunned and disoriented.

“Are you okay?” Kim asked as he examined Sade’s physical condition.

She pushed away his concerned exploration with the command, “Follow him.” Slipping into her winter boots and grabbing her coat she rushed after Wasi.

Kim followed behind them reloading the tranquilizer gun as he moved. The pair tracked Wasi past the cargo docking bay and outside onto the snow and ice. He was walking slowly and steadily inland, without concern for the cold that was biting at his bare feet and exposed flesh.

“We need to get him back inside before he gets frostbite,” Sade commented.

“How do we do that, he’s still armed?” Kim asked.

“Dart him,” she ordered coldly and without hesitation.

“He should have already fallen from the first dart. I don’t know if he will survive a second.”

“It’s the only way. Dart him,” Sade ordered more forcefully.

#

Sade’s Cabin in Anchorage – 2010

“Why haven’t you done anything about it?” Wasi asked shocked by the revelation of his nocturnal behavior.

“What could I do? You were walking in your sleep, besides it only happened a couple of times before tonight,” Sade said justifying her passive approach to the situation. “So, do you have any idea why you walk in your sleep?” Sade asked as she poured Wasi a glass of wine.

“Stress, I guess,” he supposed.

“Stress? From what Martin has told me about your past work history, working with me should be a walk in the park.”

“What exactly has he told you about me and my past?” Wasi asked, concerned that his past had been revealed to her.

“You know Martin. He doesn’t explain. He just assigns.” Sade sat down on the couch and wrapped up in a crocheted blanket. “But he did say you were good at what you do and that you had a lot of experience doing it.”

“And that was enough for you to hire me?” Wasi questioned as he mined for how much knowledge Sade actually had about him and his mission.

“I really didn’t have a choice. Martin can be a real pain in the ass, especially when he is being protective,” Sade said as she took another drink.

“Well that is understandable, considering your history. I mean, it is obvious he is still interested in you.”

Sade let escape a chuckle, “Interested in me? I think that may be the understatement of the year.” She studied the psychological discomfort Wasi was hiding behind his eyes and smiled as she took another drink. Swallowing a sip of wine teased her curiosity and allowed her to summon up enough courage to ask him the one question that had been weighing on her mind for the last four years. Downing the last of the alcohol in her glass she shifted her weight forward and set the glass on the coffee table. Taking in a short breath and releasing it along with her anxiety she asked her question, “So, do you think you’ll be able to do it?”

“Do what?” Wasi said as his heart rate jumped in response to the challenge.

“What Martin sent you here to do?” Sade’s eyes snapped up from the table to meet Wasi’s gaze.

Wasi sat back on the couch allowing his form to be protected by the folds of fabric and fluff that padded the upholstery. He took in a breath and released it, shifting personas in one sharp instant, “Like you said, I’m good at what I do.”

“But do you enjoy it?” Sade asked shifting the mood in the room.

Wasi couldn’t help but ponder this question. The reality is he didn’t feel anything about what he did. He simply did it, like breathing or blinking. It was unconscious, natural, responsive. As he examined Sade’s interest in him, he wondered what it would mean if he did enjoy what he did, or worse yet, what it would mean if he didn’t enjoy it. Right now, he thought, it really didn’t make much of a difference so he simply responded, “Does it matter?”

“I guess not,” she said concluding the conversation.

#

To be continued...