Human Sister

Anzen, each moment is haunted by memory.

    Our boat proceeded on course, but Elio and I didn’t speak further, remaining locked like prisoners inside ourselves, holding fast our separate thoughts and secrets, unaware that we were wasting precious last moments. At the two-hour mark, we turned and headed back. Everything was going smoothly and we were nearing the rendezvous coordinates, when we were startled by the ringing of a bell that announced an incoming call to the boat’s phone. One ring, two rings, three—Elio and I stared at each other; then Elio pressed the Accept Audio Only button on the cabin wall.
    “Hello,” Elio said.
    “This is Casey. Remember me?”
    I don’t know whether Elio did, but I remembered that voice. Elio didn’t answer. Perhaps he was too frightened.
    “Listen, you perverse little shit,” Casey said. “You stop that boat right now, or we’ll stop you for good, just like we did your mother, on Mars.”
    Elio looked at me. For an instant, I imagined him lying naked with Michael; then I nodded for him to respond.
    “I’ve got to speak with Sara first,” Elio finally said. “She’s down below. Call me back in ten minutes.”
    “No. Stop the boat right now.”
    “We’re in the middle of the ocean, for Christ’s sake. Where do you think we’re going in ten minutes?”
    There was a pause for about thirty seconds on Casey’s end. “You’ve got five minutes. That’s it.”
    Elio pressed the End button, then nodded toward the cabin door. I followed him out onto the deck. He grabbed hold of the railing and peered out into the cold fog and drizzle, his hair flying in the wind of our motion. I leaned into the lee of his body and hugged him. I didn’t want to lose him, not to Michael, not to my anger or jealousy.
    “I’m worried the cabin might be bugged,” he said. “How much time do we have till we get to the rendezvous?”
    “Six minutes, give or take a few seconds.”
    “What should I say when he calls back?”
    Tell me that it’s not true, I thought, but I said, “Tell him I control the computer that pilots the cruiser and that you need a little more time to convince me to surrender. Tell him I’m frightened of the algetor.”
    “What if he says no?”
    “Try… try anything. Temporize, show progress, give him hope.”
    I glanced out over the fog-shrouded sea. Had they grabbed Grandpa before he was able to kill himself? Had they tortured him? Forced him to talk? Out, up, down, sideways—all I could see was a dense gray-whiteness, and for an instant I had a feeling that I was a tiny bug stuck in the center of a bale of cotton.
    The buzzer of the cruiser’s phone rang again. Elio and I ran back into the cabin. Elio answered. Casey asked why we hadn’t stopped yet. Elio told him that I was frightened of another interrogation on the algetor but that he was certain he could convince me to surrender. He just needed a little more time.
    “No,” Casey said.
    “Just five more minutes. Give me that much. I’ll convince her to stop by then.”
    Without comment, Casey terminated the connection.
    Within seconds I heard a plane approaching. I glanced at the computer: 97 seconds to rendezvous. The plane thundered overhead. A bomb exploded, swelling the sea in front of us. Our boat bucked violently. Elio and I were thrown against the back of the cabin.
    “Bastards!” Elio shouted.
    The cruiser quickly restabilized onto its course.
    “How much time till we get to the rendezvous?” Elio whispered.
    “About a minute,” I answered.
    “I’ll run out and wave a white flag,” Elio said.
    “They can’t see you in the fog.”
    “What else can I do?”
    He took off his jacket and shirt, pulled off his undershirt, and headed for the cabin door. I checked our position on the computer monitor, then looked back. Just before the cabin door closed behind him, I saw him waving his undershirt at the leaden sky. Then I heard the roar of an approaching plane and the rapid, loud popping sounds of fragments of ceiling, window, and furniture exploding all around me. The door flew open, and Elio ran toward me, waving frantically and shouting, “Get down! Get down!”
    I covered my head with my arms and hunkered down against the computer desk. I heard things crack and shatter above me, where I’d stood just a moment before. The roar of the plane passed overhead. I opened my eyes.
    Elio was on his knees about two meters in front of me. His hands cupped his chest. They were red. He