–I can speak using this. And listen to what you have to say. So I don’t need earphones.
He used the same finger to roll up his sleeves and rub his upper arm.
–This is what you use to speak with. You might have a good Interference Rate, but your reception abilities aren’t too developed yet, are they? I imagine that the best you can do is reduce a bit of electronic data into basic audiovisual signals.
The young man grinned, head tilted to one side. Balot nodded.
–In my case, it’s not that I can’t speak, it’s just that I forget to speak. To breathe as well. So whenever I do speak it tires me out. You can’t speak either, right?
Balot started to nod again, then stared at the young man’s mouth.
She sensed his pulse and tried to calculate his breathing patterns based on it.
–This is Paradise.
The young man waved his arm in a broad circle, indicating his surroundings.
–Originally, it was the Facility for Experimental Space Strategy. Now everyone just calls it Paradise. I think I can understand why. It’s a very peaceful place, after all.
Balot’s eyes opened wide. Not at what he said. Rather because he wasn’t breathing at all.
–My name’s Tweedledee, the young man said.
–Welcome to the birthplace of all forbidden technologies—Paradise. Rune-Balot. Looks like we’re brother and sister.
–Can I get you anything? Tweedledee asked. He opened a compartment in the wall, reaching in to pull out a cup.
–How about a coffee? My mouth’s sole purpose in life is now to taste things, you see…
Balot didn’t answer. She wasn’t sure if she could trust this Tweedledee, and she had no idea where she was now—couldn’t make up her mind about the place she was in.
And if she couldn’t make up her mind for herself then she wanted someone she could trust.
–Where’s the Doctor? Balot asked Tweedledee. She wasn’t so much snarcing him by interfering with the currents in the air anymore; it was more like she was thinking the words at him.
–The Doctor? Oh, you mean Dr. Easter? He seems to be busy at the moment.
–Will you let me see him?
She tried to stand, but her whole body was aching. Her muscles cried out in pain. Heat compresses were wrapped around both her wrists, with similar patches all over her body.
With a jerk, Balot thrust both legs out of the bed. There was a pair of slippers to the side of the bed, and she struggled to reach them.
–Bruises all over. But your bones seem fine at least! Something about Balot’s condition seemed to amuse Tweedledee.
–You really would be better off resting, you know. If you don’t like coffee, there are plenty of other drinks on offer—take your pick.
–I want to see the Doctor.
–What do you need him for?
–I want to speak to him. To ask him if I can trust this place—and you.
Tweedledee didn’t quite seem to understand what Balot meant.
–I can try and answer any questions you have in the meantime. But eventually he seemed to get that this wasn’t enough for Balot.
–Dr. Easter is probably working on Oeufcoque’s maintenance at the moment. It’s just that the other doctors might get a bit fussy about having outsiders in the lab.
–You said we were brother and sister?
Tweedledee thought about this for a while. He watched Balot put her slippers on.
–Ah, I get you, he said, smiling sweetly.
They left the room, and Balot’s eyes were assaulted by vivid green. They were on an open terrace.
One side of the corridor wall and ceiling was made out of glass, framed in steel. Beyond the glass was the thick green foliage of closely planted trees, and through the narrow gaps between the trees she could see that the space sloped gently downward.
Inside the thick, reinforced glass it was warm and comfortable. The sunlight beat down on Balot and Tweedledee, casting distinctive shadows.
–I wonder if everyone on the outside is like you?
–What do you mean?
–Hmm, not sure how best to put it, Tweedledee muttered in his mind, seemingly enjoying himself. He even enjoyed the sound of the slippers as they flip-flopped along the corridor.
–Like a know-it-all Eve.
–Eve?
–I wonder if Adam felt the same way when Eve gave him the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. That he just couldn’t refuse her. Regardless of what was right or wrong.
Balot leaned in toward him.
–Who are you, exactly? And what are you doing here?
–I was born severely handicapped. I probably wouldn’t have survived childhood anyway, my parents thought, so they donated my body to research—military experiments. So I ended up in Paradise.
–Your own parents—?
–Yup, never even seen their faces, Tweedledee said, as if he didn’t have a single worry in the world.
–Oh, and by “experiments” I’m talking about experimental procedures to give me back my bodily functions. I was only able to start moving at all because I was brought here. And I’ve lived here ever since. Once every three years I’m allowed outside with the doctors in order to collect data, but it’s far more relaxing inside, to be honest.
Balot nodded. This was indeed a comforting place. There was hardly anyone around, and they were safe and sound inside their airtight glass birdcage. There were automated vacuum cleaners built into the lower parts of all the walls, and the air conditioning kept everything at a constant temperature and humidity. There wasn’t a trace of dust anywhere, and the surfaces were all gleaming.
Even though she wore slippers over her bare feet and only had a robe on, she felt no chill or any sense of discomfort. Just like when she first woke up in the former mortuary, right back at the start of the case.
This was the birthplace of all forbidden technologies—so Tweedledee told her. In other words, this was the laboratory where Oeufcoque and the Doctor were based before they went off to become Trustees in charge of Scramble 09 cases. Balot didn’t even hazard a guess as to why she might now be in such a place, but rather she asked,
–Was it the Doctor who gave you that horn on your head?
She wasn’t really thinking about what she was saying.
Tweedledee’s eyes flickered, and he shook his head.
–No. My thing here just decided to grow of its own accord, something to do with the influence of the technology used to accelerate my sensory perception.
–But the Doctor did use to work here?
–Dr. Easter is the youngest member of the team here. He’s known as the Black Sheep.
–Black Sheep?
