Storms in Utopia

Casper

As the next few days passed, not a lot happened. Amy and I focused on tracking down anyone and everyone who could possibly be more likely than the average person to join the Dreamers. No one asked for another meeting. Sonja worked intensively on her speech for candidates’ day, as it was apparently named around here. Jake spent long hours over in the hospital either treating patients or, in his spare time, experimenting and doing all kinds of stuff on the computer. I had no idea what Arjan and Simeon were up to.

Four days after the meeting, Amy, Simeon, Jake and I were gathered in the computer room. Initially, Amy and I had arrived to do some more research, and found the other two already in there.

A moment later, Sonja marched in purposefully, Arjan following her. I already knew we were as good as trapped.

‘I was hoping to find you all in here,’ she proclaimed, slamming her hand down on the table we all stood around so that the others fell silent and all eyes rested on her stern face.

‘Sobeslav Kovar,’ she said like an announcement.

I glanced round, glad to see that I wasn’t the only one not to understand her outburst of God-knew-what other language.

‘What’s that?’ I asked, secretly a little annoyed. I had always been good at languages. I could speak English, some German and a considerable amount of Norwegian. Why did she get to be better than me? ‘Is that Lithuanian or what?’

‘No, it’s a name, you imbecile!’ she snapped, unnecessarily fierce. I would have shied away, but I wasn’t that sort of person.

‘Alright,’ I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

‘Anyway,’ Sonja continued, deciding to act as though I didn’t exist. She seemed to do that a lot actually. ‘Kovar. Anyone else heard of him?’

As she lifted her hand from the table, I noticed that slamming it down hadn’t been completely unnecessary. When she did it, she had actually put down a slightly blurry, passport sized photo.

‘Well, I didn’t expect as much,’ she huffed, which made me disgustingly proud. ‘He’s more of a continental European Dreamers’ thing.’

‘Is that him?’ Arjan asked, gesturing at the photo.

‘Yeah,’ she replied shortly. Funny, if I’d asked, I’d have received a reply more along the lines of ‘well who else is it gonna be?’ Still, I didn’t need Sonja’s acceptance. I could manage without her, thank you very much.

‘I’ve heard the name ‘Kovar,’’ Arjan mused. ‘I think one of the Soulless in Berlin said it to me.’

‘Yeah, probably,’ Sonja said. ‘Anyway, does anyone else know of him?’ She looked around expectantly. Pleasingly for me, no one gave her anything.

‘Fine then,’ she said with an irritable huff. I laughed, but thankfully she didn’t catch it. Amy did though, and she returned the smirk. ‘He’s the leader of all the Soulless in Europe. I met him a couple of times, but that was when he was still just an ordinary worker. In the last few years, though, his power’s gone sky-high. He’s now in charge of all the Soulless in Europe, and word has it that he’s building this great big base in the Czech Republic and he’s doing all kinds of frightening stuff there.’

I had to admit; her words wiped the smirks off of mine and Amy’s faces.

‘Frightening stuff,’ Amy repeated ominously.

‘Yep.’

‘Like what?’

‘I have no idea,’ Sonja said darkly. ‘But I want to know. Sim, I put you in charge of the Soulless, and I want you to find out everything you can about Kovar and what he might be doing.’

‘I’m on it,’ said Simeon. He perched on the seat in front of the nearest computer, looking eager to get going.

Sonja’s eyes rested on me, and then flickered to Amy.

‘How’s recruitment and propaganda going?’ The way she’d spoken, she’d almost sounded half civil. But that was probably only because she was also addressing Amy.

‘Not bad,’ I said.

‘We’ve got over a hundred names now,’ Amy continued, ‘and we’ve started drafting the messages we can send to them, and the ones we can give out in public.’

‘Sounds alright,’ she said briskly. It was the nearest thing to a compliment I’d ever heard being uttered from between her lips.

Arjan

It had been five days since I’d properly seen Hurricane—even the word ‘workaholic’ didn’t cover her—and, as much as I hated it, it was beginning to eat at me. I wanted to see her. She had been so busy with speeches and propaganda and research and recruitment, and her theory about Kovar attempting ‘frightening things’ was always a lingering fear in the back of her mind. I could see it was slowly driving her mad and, even though Carl and I had made sure, like some kind of parent, that she was getting enough sleep and food, she was becoming increasingly irritable.

Sometime in the evening, two days before she was due to give her leadership speech, I decided I could bear it no longer, and went to see how she was coping. Unusually, she was not in one of the many computer rooms, but rather in her bedroom, and even before I reached the door I could hear heavy, pounding music coming from inside.

I knocked, and the music went silent.

‘Come in.’

Tentatively, as though I was about to walk into some kind of warzone, I pushed the door open and stepped inside. I had no idea where I stood with Hurricane anymore—I didn’t know if we were meant to be friends, lovers, haters, or just completely indifferent to each other.

She was sitting on the bed, running a hand through her hair, her eyes unreadable when they looked up at me.

‘Hey,’ I said softly, shutting the door behind me. ‘How are you?’

‘Tired,’ she grumbled. ‘But I think...I think my speech is okay now. I think it’s almost finished.’

I sighed, shaking my head as I went and bravely perched myself on the edge of the bed beside her. It was like a great distance had existed between us this past week, but now I was crossing it for the first time.

‘Please, Hurricane,’ I said, ‘you’re working yourself to death. You’ve got to calm down and relax.’

‘How can I relax?’ she asked, but her words lacked the passionate aggression they so often possessed. Instead it was a question asked in despondence. ‘I’ve spent so much time on this speech, and I’ve got to try and work out everything I can about our rebellion, and then I’ve been side-tracked by Kovar—I so desperately want to know what he’s up to—‘

‘Then at least ask for some help,’ I told her, gentle yet firm. ‘Simeon can look into Kovar—‘

‘I never intended for Simeon’s job to be sitting behind a computer,’ Hurricane said. ‘He’s not that kind of person. When I said I wanted him in charge of the Soulless, I meant I wanted him helping me plan strategies and fighting. And besides, finding out any useful information will require some serious internet hacking, and he’s not going to have that kind of experience. But I do—you don’t stay friends with Carl for three and a half years without picking up a few useful tips.’

‘Well then ask him to do something else,’ I suggested. ‘Or ask me. I know I can’t hack computers, but I can sure do something a lot more useful than what I’m doing at the moment.’ I only noticed then how my voice was rising. I didn’t like to feel like a waste of space, but that was how I had felt every moment I’d been in the base.

‘Arjan, it’s your first week as a Dreamer,’ Hurricane said in protest. ‘I want you to enjoy it. Read a novel, watch a movie, listen to some music, find some new clothes.’

I glared at her. She knew she wasn’t convincing me.

‘I’d rather be doing something useful,’ I said. ‘You know I would. Sure, reading a book or whatever is nice, but it’s not going to help us achieve freedom, is it?’

She didn’t want to admit I was right, and yet she didn’t want to deny the truth either. So she didn’t say anything.

‘Come on,’ I insisted gently, ‘just let me help.’

‘I don’t need any help,’ she said adamantly. ‘I’ve just about finished planning my speech now.’

‘Well,’ I decided, ‘Kovar can wait. Candidates’ day is the day after tomorrow; just spend a bit of time relaxing tomorrow. I’ll be around...if you want to talk. And if not, that’s fine.’

Hurricane smirked humourlessly. ‘You’re too nice, Arjan. That’s your problem.’

‘Problem?’ I failed to see how that was a problem.

‘Yeah, it is a problem,’ she said. ‘When you’re nice, people expect too much of you. Being evil’s much more fun.’ She pulled a sly face, and we both laughed a little, so I knew she was feeling a bit better. Sometimes Hurricane was beyond my help, but I would do what I could.

When I said nothing more, she spoke again.

‘Really, Arjan, I’m fine.’ Now she was back to her normal tone; curt, abrupt, often witty, but not exactly unfriendly.

‘If you’re sure,’ I said. ‘But please, think about having a day off tomorrow.’ As I spoke, I delicately ran my fingers along her hand, which was placed on her lap. As our skin touched, I felt her whole body tense up just a little. It was unnoticeable to almost anyone else, but I saw it. A little guilty, I lifted my hand a moment later, worried I had crossed some unspeakable boundary. We had touched before, but never unless it was necessary.

Well, the kiss wasn’t necessary.

‘I’ll see you around then,’ I said, standing up a little too quickly. The kiss was back on my mind again.

‘Yeah,’ she replied, watching me leave. ‘I’ll see you around.’