‘Think nothing of it, Tesla. I’m just being honest! So, what’s brought you here at this hour?’
She hoped he could not detect the cracking notes of desperation in her voice, nor see the hint of panicked fear widening her eyes. She did her best to force an attitude of calm nonchalance, hoping the boy would not see through the charade and have his suspicions raised.
‘Margaret, do you remember you asked if we could take a walk outside and look at the stars tonight?’ he ventured.
‘Oh yeah, I guess I did mention that yesterday huh. I’d kinda forgot, but anyway, what did the General say?’
Tesla flashed a toothy smile at her.
‘He said yes!’
Tesla was obviously very pleased with himself, and Margaret could not contain the surge of joy that tore through her body and mind with the violence of a typhoon. She sprang to her feet and punched a fist in the air, whooping with triumph as she did. Only after she had done this, though, did she realise how strange it must have seemed. Tesla, however, did not appear to think it at all suspicious, and he clapped his hands together and laughed loudly.
‘You are so happy now Margaret! It is good to see you so happy, really, it is very good. I am happy about this too! Very happy! Come, let’s go. I’ve been authorised to take you out until eleven o’clock, so we have almost two hours to walk around.’
Margaret looked out of the window and saw that the moonless night sky was almost white with a vast spread of stars.
‘It’s looking glorious out there!’ she remarked. ‘It’s just perfect.’
She shot an overtly conspiratorial glance into Tesla’s eyes and winked suggestively.
‘Hey, how about before we go we have a few sips of wine?’
Tesla’s eyes shot over to the bottles of wine and an immediate greed, a lust almost, gleamed in them; he had obviously greatly enjoyed his first taste of the substance the night before … just as Margaret had hoped he would.
‘Really? You will give me some? And, er, you won’t say anything, right?’
‘My lips are sealed, Tesla! Zipped, locked up with the key thrown down a well. Go on, you have what’s left in this bottle. I’ll open a fresh bottle and we can drink together.’
She pushed the bottle with the crushed-up Phenergan in it toward Tesla, hoping that he could not pick up on the predatory air in her desperate eyes, nor the barely concealed trembling of her hands.
‘Go on now, have a sip,’ she prompted.
She sat down and slipped her hands under her thighs to hide how much they were shaking. Holding her breath, she stared intently at Tesla as he raised the bottle to his lips and sucked in a mouthful of the sedative-laced wine.
That’s it. Come on boy, drink it, drink it all up. That’s right, swallow it down, swallow every last goddamned drop of it.
She had to force herself to look away temporarily, for she thought that the fierce intensity of her gaze would surely arouse suspicion in the boy. It seemed, however, that he was too absorbed in his drink to notice any irregularities in her behaviour, and he kept on drinking from the bottle until he had drained it dry, after which he let out a sigh of satisfaction.
‘Mm, thank you Margaret!’ he exclaimed. ‘This wine is so nice! It does taste a little different to the bottle we had yesterday—’
‘That’s because every bottle is unique,’ Margaret blurted out, her voice somewhat harsh and abrasive, barbed with the serration of fearful urgency.
‘I see,’ Tesla said, seemingly oblivious to this strangeness of her tone, ‘and that makes it even more fun to drink!’
Margaret stood up with clumsy haste, almost knocking the chair over in the process. She was now starting to feel the effects of the three-quarters of the bottle she had just downed, and she was worried that the inebriation brought on by the alcohol would prevent her from pulling off her plan effectively. Things had to be set in motion immediately; there was no time to waste, none whatsoever.
‘Come on Tesla,’ she said, painfully aware of how her speech was beginning to slur, ‘let’sh go and make the mosht of thish evening. C’mon, hurry!’
He sprang up from his chair, quick with innocent enthusiasm.
‘Yes, yes, let’s go!’
They walked at as brisk a pace as Margaret could manage without incurring the suspicions of the various guards they passed, and she did her best to remain calm and collected under the probing gaze of their cold eyes. Once they were out of the palace and in the General’s exquisite garden, Tesla began seeking out a bench amidst the lush foliage.
‘We can sit in the garden here and talk about the stars,’ he suggested.
This, however, was not part of Margaret’s plan.
‘No, we can’t sit here, sh-, shilly,’ she countered, hoping that he wouldn’t pick up on the trembling nervousness that seemed to be so blatantly evident in her voice, even through her drunken slurring. ‘With all these trees and plantsh around, we can hardly sh, shee anything of the shky. In fact, because there are sh, sho many treesh in this c-, city, we need to get sh-, shomewhere high, above the treesh, to really sh-, shee the fullness of the night sh, shky.’
Tesla looked suddenly worried.
‘But, I, um, I don’t think the General would be happy if we venture too far from the palace grounds,’ he murmured.
Margaret stared at him for a moment or two. The skin of his face was reflecting a purple glow from the gently coloured light of the bioluminescent fungi, but above this she noticed that his pupils were beginning to dilate; the combination of alcohol and antihistamines was starting to kick in. They had to move, and they had to move now.
‘Oh pooh-pooh to that,’ she retorted. ‘The General shaid we could walk around the city. He didn’t sh, shay where in the city
