Sergey Redkin
The Perfect Match

Prologue

He was sitting on the stone floor in the Hall of Prayer with his mind creating the worlds that he was the master of. He was about thirty-five, his head was shaved, and he was wearing a black kimono beneath black robes held shut in the front with a sash¹. It was quite chilly for August, but his body did not feel the chilly wind that was getting through the open windows of the ancient² pagoda nor the coldness of the old stones he was sitting on. He could feel that soon he would be able to project his power to the real world around him. The monks in the temple he was in knew better than³ to disturb him during his meditations. For the past five years, his power had been constantly enhancing⁴, and the monks could feel that too.

There were three steps in his process of achieving Control, where he could feel that the power of his thought could make things move and bend⁵ other people’s ability to think and overpower⁶ their emotions. Before getting to Control, however, there were Calmness and Detachment⁷. He was in the process of getting calm when a bright lightning of a sharp emotion pierced⁸ through his mind. He saw the image of his father. He frowned⁹ at this unexpected occurrence¹⁰ and opened his eyes.

“He’s dead,” he whispered.

He sat in silence for another minute. His face relaxed and a smile appeared.

“At last.”

Chapter 1

Back to Business

“Look at the Moon,” Lizzy said, pointing to the bright big blueish¹¹ circle in the sky.

“It looks lonely,” Mark said.

They were sitting outside a country cottage that used to belong to Lizzy’s late mother. There was no way for her to go back to the apartment she had shared with her dead boyfriend. The police were still looking for her in connection with the dead body that her neighbors started to smell and called the authorities to investigate. Her cousin Anastasia, being her closest friend and next of kin¹², put away some of her stuff in storage after the police had cleared the crime scene. When Lizzy reached out to Anastasia, it took a lot of effort to convince her cousin that she was fine and not brainwashed by some cult. There was a reason she could not contact the police just yet. Lizzy could not reveal¹³ why she was absent for more than two months either and tried not to see any other friends to avoid interrogation¹⁴. Everything had to be done discreetly¹⁵. The less people knew she was back the better. Anastasia arranged for them to move into the cottage only after the police searched the place.

“It’s not lonely, it has the Earth,” she said and put her head on Mark’s shoulder. “Tonight, it’s called Blue Moon.”

It was a bit cold outside, and they were wrapped in a quilt¹⁶ that Lizzy’s mother had bought in some mountain village in Thailand where she went with her father, Peter, before they got married.

“Is it always blue here?” he asked.

“It’s not blue at all. It’s just a name for the second full moon in a month, I think.”

“How many full moons do you usually get?”

“I think there are twelve, but occasionally you get the 13^th. That’s Blue Moon.”

“I don’t think our moons get to be called anything. They’re just moons. Boring. I like your Blue Moon, even though it still looks lonely to me.”

“Tell me more about your world,” she asked, getting cozier by his side.

“I need to learn more about yours to know the differences better, don’t I.”

“True.”

“Will we have time to do that?”

“I hope we will.”

She kissed him on the lips and stood up.

“We have a long day tomorrow,” she said, gave him her hand and pulled him up.

***

The next day they were supposed to meet with their contact person – Peter’s acquaintance¹⁷ – who had promised to introduce them to a group called The Committee. The group that was secretly working on eliminating the threat that was coming from the late Dolion’s supporters. There were three ladies – the group’s leaders – who held high positions in the medical research industry in three different countries. They knew about Lizzy’s role in eradicating¹⁸ Dolion and – most of all – about the unique qualities of her blood. They were eager¹⁹ to meet her. The man – whom they were meeting – had called the cottage landline two days ago. Mark was the one who talked to him and agreed on the details for the meeting.

Lizzy woke up early and watched Mark sleeping for a few minutes before jumping in the shower and starting breakfast. He walked in the kitchen – still slumberous²⁰– while she was making eggs and hugged her from behind.

“Good morning,” he said and kissed her on the neck.

“Hi, sleepyhead²¹.”

“How’d you sleep?”

She had not been sleeping well ever since she was violently introduced to the other world. She did not want to bother Mark with her insomnia²² and never woke him up. She could fall asleep for a brief time, but that didn’t bring much relaxation. She would wake up and silently lie in bed, trying to get rid of²³ the images of the dead people she knew or did not know well but witnessed ²⁴their deaths. Despite the horror of those nightmares, there was one more thing that bothered her. After they came back, among the flashbacks of the past two months, she started to see a person who stood at a distance looking at her. He was present in almost all her dreams. The image was not clear, just a male silhouette in, what seemed like, a long coat.

“Ok, let’s eat and be on our way²⁵. What time are we meeting the man?” Lizzy asked.

“10 AM sharp, so we still have some time.”

She placed the pan with the eggs on a wooden cutting board that was already on the kitchen table, next to a watermelon they had bought at the farmer’s market the day before.

“Could you get the forks, please?” she asked Mark. “I’ll cut Mr. Watermelon here.”

“No plates?”

“Let’s just eat from the pan. It’s faster that way and no need to wash dishes.”

“Practical.”

She sliced the fruit in half. Took one half and sliced it again in two equally big parts. Then she took one of the quarters and cut it quickly into five triangles. After that she put each of the triangles on its side and cut the red flesh out, tossing the green rinds in the waste basket. The pulp triangles were also cut into cubes. She used her knife to scoop up the cubes and throw them into a large blue china bowl. She did the same with the other quarter and the entire process took two minutes.

“Where did you learn how to do that?” Mark asked, watching the full process in fascination²⁶.

Lizzy smiled. “My mother learned that somewhere in Asia and always cut fruit that way. I guess I picked it up from her.”

“It’s fast,” Mark said and sat down at the table ready to eat.

***

The contact – a short bolding overweight man in his 50s – was waiting for them on the side of the road next to the gas station two kilometers away from the cottage. They walked to the meeting through the forest that Lizzy knew very well. She used to walk here with her mother when she was a little girl. It was a good day for a walk – sunny and warm. They saw him before he spotted them.

“Is that him?” Lizzy asked.

“I think so,” Mark said and looked at his diver’s watch. “Fits the description and he’s on time.”

“Is there a code word we’re supposed to use to make sure he is our guy?”

“He told me that he’d recognize us.”

“Not much of a spy, is he?”

“Let’s do it then,” he said and took a step out of the forest thicket²⁷.

As soon as they were in the clear, the man acknowledged them with a nod and started to walk to a grey minivan that was parked near the gas station minimart’s entrance. He opened the driver’s door and slid the passenger door open. Then he got in the driver’s seat, closed the door but left the passenger door open.

“I guess that’s our cue²⁸,” Mark said.

They walked to the van and climbed into the back.

“You’re to follow the instructions,” the man said as soon as they closed the door and gave them a large manila envelope. “There are two passports, the car key, and some money.”

“We have a car,” Lizzy said.

“Not anymore,” the man said. “Our people are taking it from your cottage as we speak.”

“Why?” Mark asked.

“It’s not safe to use the same car.”

“Where’s our new ride then?”

“You are sitting in it,” the man said and opened his door.

“Wait,” Lizzy said. “Are you leaving? What’s your name?”

“You’re to follow the instructions,” the man said and left the car.

They watched him walking fast across the gas station and getting in a black pick-up truck – parked on the other side – which took off the second the man was in.

“That was some spy work right there,” Lizzy smiled.

Mark looked inside the envelope.

“Well, it’s all in there: the money, the passports, and the key.”

“Where are the instructions?”

Mark took out a white sheet of paper and looked at it. “I guess this is it.”

***

When they drove back to the cottage in their new car, their old car was gone. They entered the cottage and found a new laptop on the kitchen table and a brand-new iPhone with a charger.

“It says here that we need to turn on the computer. There will be a link to a Zoom meeting on the desktop,” Mark was reading from the piece of paper.

“Alright,” Lizzy said, opening the device. “We could’ve done it on the phone though.”

The computer screen lit up and they saw an empty desktop with only one folder named The Link.

“That’s foolproof²⁹,” Lizzy said with a smile.

She clicked on the folder and saw the link. She called it up on the screen. The software began to upload the Zoom meeting. The host had already started the meeting, but both his or her camera and microphone were deactivated.

Mark and Lizzy were looking at the screen, waiting for something to happen.

“Are we supposed to do it now?” Lizzy asked, frowning.

Mark looked in the sheet again. “It just says open your computer and use the link.”

“Hello,” she said to the screen. “Anyone there?”

The host’s window showed that the image had started to upload. Someone was joining the meeting. Finally, they saw a pixelated image of an old Black woman in a room with white empty walls. She was saying something, but there was no sound. Mark pointed to the screen, to microphone symbol that was crossed by a red line.

“Your microphone is off,” Lizzy said to the lady.

The woman jerked³⁰ and looked at her screen.

“Oh, my goodness,” they heard her cheery voice. “Is it working now? Can you hear me?”

“Yes, we can,” Lizzy said.

“Good, I’m still getting used to these bells and whistles³¹,” the lady said smiling. “What happened to the good old face-to-face, right?”

Mark and Lizzy both nodded, agreeing.

“Anyway, Lizzy and Mark how are you kids doing?”

Lizzy and Mark looked at each other. “We’re fine,” Lizzy said.

“Oh, good,” the lady said. “My name is Yana and I have a lot to tell you today. So, get comfortable.”

***

Next day, Lizzy woke up early in the morning and was surprised that she actually slept for a few hours. She felt reinvigorated³², but there was a feeling that she had forgotten something important. She looked at Mark who was sleeping peacefully at her side and got up.

She decided to do some yoga, something that she had not done since the day her life dramatically changed a couple of months ago. It seemed that the body remembered all the asanas to relax the brain and the muscles. She was doing the exercises in her underwear and felt the sunbeams on her skin. It was amazing. After a quick shower, she was sitting in the kitchen with a cup of coffee reading what Yana had sent after the meeting.

It was a file with the names of people that were connected to Dolion and who were supposed to be actively involved in virus distribution. According to Yana, they had the original variant of the virus. Dolion called it Potestas Dei (Power of God). It was very surprising to learn about that because Lizzy and Mark were under the impression that they had destroyed the virus.

“It takes many variants to get the one you really want,” Yana told them during the meeting. “Dolion had the final one and you destroyed it. There are still some people who can create a more powerful version and that is why we need to eliminate any trace of it.”

Lizzy looked at the geography of the locations of the Dolion’s gang – that is what she named it. No wonder they needed passports. It looked like they would have to do a bit of travelling.

“They have a few centers where they develop their new variants. Fortunately, we infiltrated³³ our people in all of them. Still, it will not be easy to do what we want,” despite Yana’s cheerful demeanor³⁴, it was obvious what she was talking about took a lot of doing.

Lizzy checked the places they needed to go first. Those were two domestic destinations and did not even require travelling by plane.

“We are working on the way to use the uniqueness of your blood in, say, a less dramatic way. So, we will be meeting at some point soon to do some tests.”

Obviously³⁵, the news about how Lizzy got rid of Dolion, and his virus spread to this world as well.

Lizzy went over the highlights³⁶ of the meeting in her head one more time: the gang was around the world, she will go through some tests, and they will travel. So far, things did not sound complicated. The thought was both comforting and disturbing. Today’s list of things was also straightforward³⁷: they would go to the specified address, change cars and someone would drive them to a research facility the Committee had. They would take some of her blood and would do a few tests.

Her life changed so much over the fleeting period of time. Those changes were making her a new person. She was not sure whether she liked that person, but she had to embrace³⁸ the metamorphosis³⁹ to survive. She felt a pang of nostalgia for the life she had, and a tear spilled down her cheek.

“Should I make us some breakfast?” she heard Mark’s voice.

She wiped the tear, turned to Mark, and smiled. “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

When she said that- just for a split of a second – she saw a man, standing behind Mark. It was the man from her dreams. She suddenly remembered that she had seen him again last night in her dream. She shut her eyes and opened them again. The man was gone.

“Are you ok?” Mark said.

“Yeah, just a …I’m hungry. Let’s eat already!”

They started to make breakfast together and the image of the man started to slowly fade from her memory. She could still remember what he was wearing though – a black kimono.