Meantime We Shall Express Our Darker Purpose

A Story by P-Ranch

Breaking in has never been so much fun?

"That's not what I meant."

Kate stopped concentrating, letting the lock-pick hang out of the door's mechanism precariously. She whirled around, hands on hips.

"I think by definition of you just saying, 'You'll never get a date unless you get out there,' generally means you don't think I'll get a date unless I get out there."

Grace glanced down the long hallway, wiping moist palms on tight black pants. With a tilt of her head and best smile, she patted her sister on the shoulder.

"Could we have this conversation when there's not a possibility of getting our heads removed from our bodies by wandering, and armed, security guards?"

Kate huffed.

"I didn't start the conversation."

Grace slicked her hair back slowly, grinding her teeth.

"And I'm sorry I brought it up. Can we....?" She tapped the locked door to the Chief Exe's with a slim finger. "Before someone comes along and..." Her hand made the shape of a gun and she held it up to her temple, pulling the trigger. "How about that? Is that a plan or what."

Kate narrowed her eyes and in one swift movement pulled the rolled up ski mask back down. She turned away as Grace did the same.

Subtle clicks sounded as Kate pushed her ear against the solid wooden door, gently turning the pick. She'd always found picking a lock to be satisfying: to conquer what most relied on for their security gave her the biggest buzz of all. Her hot breathe stayed in the mask. She just wished it didn't take so damn long sometimes.

The crackle of a radio, heavy footsteps, and the echo of deep male voices made Kate's heart mamba. She squeezed her eyes shut, envisioning the mechanism, her fingers becoming extensions of the wafer thin tool.

A series of loud clicks and Kate shot up, twisted the handle and pushed the door open letting them both in. She closed it silently and they froze as the radio crackled and heavy footsteps walked on by.

Kate sighed deeply, thanking the God of illegal activities for another narrow escape. It was becoming quite the theme.

"So much for guards not doing their rounds until two a.m.," Grace frowned.

"Never rely on guards to do what you think they will," Kate said as she scanned the walls for security devices. "Doesn't this man have any protection?"

Grace powered up a small hand-held device, holding it up as it reflected her face back in the eerie green glow of the display. Two seconds later it beeped five letters back: C-L-E-A-R.

"Nope. Stupid for him, great for us."

###

Bounding across the parking-lot like Hounds of the Baskervilles, Kate ground to a halt, tugging her sister to an abrupt stop, too. Her palms frantically slapped her thighs, working their way up until, for good measure, she even checked the inordinately small top pockets of her black denim jacket.

"Lock picks!"

Grace blinked.

"Ex-squeeze me?"

"Lock picks!"

Grace sighed.

"Please stop using words in the abstract."

"I left my lock picks on his desk."

Fighting the urge to grab her sister and shake until some body part fell off, Grace sucked in the crisp night air. She tapped a finger to her lips thoughtfully.

"Did you leave one of our, 'For all of your corporate espionage needs please call Kate and Grace Lewis. Number overleaf' business cards, too? Because, gee, Katie, that'd be a missed marketing opportunity if you didn't."

Kate growled, throwing the folder of files at her sister's fumbling hands. She walked backwards, fixing Grace to the spot with an intense stare.

"Wait for me. I mean it, if you go off for donuts or iced tea and I'm left walking home then you are D-E-D."

Grace's mouth formed an O and she shivered theatrically.

"'fraidy."

Kate snapped around quickly and jogged towards the building, turning back only once to jab a meaningful finger at her sister.

Grace sighed, jumped into the car, slid down in the seat and waited.

###

Kate paused on the stairwell landing, listening to that now familiar crackle of radios and heavy footsteps.

One of the guards bragged loudly about his date for the weekend and what he was planning to do to her after. Kate scrunched her nose up at the thought.

On the count of ten she slithered out, eyes darting from the slits in her black silk, special forces mask; plain wool made her face itchy. She'd once come out in a rash that lasted for weeks. Never again. Espionage should not damage your beauty.

With a steadying breath she slowly twisted the door handle to the office. She made a mental note to give some of their earnings to the local church. There just had to be a guardian angel somewhere who'd arranged the CCTV refit to cover a whole 24hr period.

Darkness. It was comforting. Delicate. Simply delightful. Seeds germinate in total darkness and in the oceans it is the deepest dankest depths where the secrets were kept. Kate looked around. However, in the dark secrets were also taken.

Back in the Chief Exec’s she crept over to the desk, to a little leather pouch with her initials emblazoned in gold. Her fingers grasped it tightly and she breathed...

"Thank you, God."

A blast of light blinded her for a second. She dropped the pouch and shielded her eyes from that sudden burn. A strange voice spoke.

"Oh, the irony."

The temperature in Kate's body plummeted as a sharp shiver snaked down her spine.

She lowered her hand, blinking at the source of that voice: a blonde sitting behind the desk, dressed in a deftly tailored pinstriped suit quirked an eyebrow.

Kate's eyelashes fluttered as she froze. Her mind went blank.

The crackle of a radio sounded outside and her entire life flashed before her eyes: in the playground at kindergarten with her best friend Dorothy, her first boyfriend, first girlfriend, graduating college�"only just, then joining forces with her sister in their 'Defective Detective Agency’, as Grace called it.

Grace, Kate thought, is so not going to be impressed.

The handle of the door sounded and only one more word went through Kate's head. Incarceration.

The blonde smiled, "We don't want visitors, do we?" and glanced over to the door. She raised both eyebrows. "Well?"

Kate shook her head slowly.

The handle stopped rattling and heavy footsteps got fainter and fainter until the only thing that could be heard was the faster than normal breathing from a now immobile intruder who was trying to think of kittens or brightly coloured balloons and not a concrete cell and having to urinate in a bucket for the next five years.

The blonde motioned with a hand to the chair opposite.

"If I could see your face I'd say you were probably about to pass out. Please, sit."

It wasn't a request. Kate's legs worked on automatic pilot, walking her stiffly over to the chair where she sat down. She gripped her thighs, trying to stop the muscles from shaking.

"I find your mask rather off putting." The blonde leant her elbows on the desk, shifting forwards, taking control of the space between them. "Why don't you let me see who I've caught and I might make with the nice and give you some more time to think up an escape plan."

Kate squeezed her eyes shut and dejectedly rolled the mask up and off, stuffing it into her pocket.

"Happy?"

The blonde's eyes raked over the woman who sat opposite: catlike eyebrows accentuated piercing blue eyes that sat in an evenly tanned face. She watched her guest calmly push a hand through long chestnut hair.

Doesn't scare easily. The perfect thief, the blonde sighed. Always so perfect, and yet….

"Not yet, no, but I'm getting there. What's your name, because Masked Intruder is such a mouthful."

"Sylvia."

"Nice to meet you, Sylvia. Now, what's your name?"

Kate sighed.

"Trudy."

The blonde picked the telephone up, hand held over the buttons.

"Okay, Trudy. I'll ask you one more time before I dial zero for security. What's your name?"

Kate scowled at the obscenely confident looking woman holding the receiver to her ear.

"My name's Kate."

The receiver clicked back down and the blonde tapped the leather lock pick holder with a big initial in gold.

"K for Kate. Suits you."

Determined to try and buy herself some more time, Kate decided to keep the conversation going long enough for her sister to come back in and save her; two against one would give them some hope. She didn't like her chances alone. From the slim athletic build of the woman, she knew it'd be a noisy struggle.

"And you are?" Kate asked.

The woman smiled.

"Like you I have lots of names."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, I'm the one asking the questions, Kate."

Kate ground her teeth at the blonde smiling calmly behind the desk.

"I thought the Exec. was a man." Kate smiled fakely. "Not a question, just a comment."

"And as a comment to your comment�"he is."

Kate slung an arm casually over the back of the chair, lounging as best she could while her heart decided to see how many beats per minute it could reach without exploding.

"You make the tea, take notes and look pretty then?" Kate smirked.

The blonde chuckled.

"Not exactly. But you could say we're in a similar business. You take things away, and I make sure they stay safe."

Kate's question fell out before she had a chance to think.

"So you don’t work here?"

The woman glanced around, snorting out a puff of air.

"Hardly. As if I'd work in a place decorated like this."

Kate sat back, trying to understand what was going on. The woman twisted back and forth slowly, the chair letting out a low creak with each movement. Silence spilled out thickly. After a minute Kate couldn't take it any more.

"What now?"

"Now? We wait."

"What for?"

The woman lifted a finger, "Tick tock, tick tock," wagging it slowly. "Time, Katie, we wait for time to pass."

Kate's fists clenched and she shifted in her seat, fixing the woman with a fierce glare.

"Is this some sick game to make me have an aneurysm?"

The woman put a finger to her lips. Thumping and thudding sounded from the hallway as voices flooded into the room. The noise paused outside of their haven. Kate didn't have to strain to hear what they were saying.

"That was the lower floors and stairwells. You patrol them every ten minutes. These offices�"you don't go in. They have a security system of their own."

Kate blinked, what security system?

She glanced back to a smiling blonde who was holding up a large unlit remote control.

The blonde wiggled her eyebrows, whispering, "Ooops. Switched off."

The voices got fainter as numerous pairs of heavy boots moved away.

Kate's brain processed her options as quickly as possible. She wasn't the thinker, that was her sister. No, Kate's job was more manual; she got them in and out of buildings. How she wished Grace was here to get her out of this one.

"Are you going to make me sit here all night?"

The blonde smiled, putting the remote control down.

"Soon you'll be good to go." She ran her hands through hair that shone in the dull light of the desk lamp. "Why don't you tell me about yourself�"Kate."

Kate's eyes narrowed as she deliberately unballed her hands, trying to get the blood to flow back into her cold fingers.

"Why would I want to do that?"

The blonde's face lit up as she smiled widely.

"Because otherwise I will press the button on..." Fingers pattered the remote control. "...this. So, you were about to tell me....I don't know, something interesting, something personal."

"I don't think so."

"Whereas I do think so�"or."

A slim finger waved over the remote.

Kate shot up as the culmination of adrenalin became overwhelming.

"Press the button then!"

"Looks like I've pressed yours." The woman laughed deeply. "Why don't you sit down. Coffee?"

Kate squared her shoulders, flummoxed again by the change in directions.

"I.... Uhm, no."

The woman rose, stretching her arms out with a little groan.

"Do you mind if I do?"

Kate sat back, squeezing the bridge of her nose, hoping it could bring back the flow of some sanity to this situation.

"Knock yourself out. Take that comment literally or figuratively."

"Feisty. Interesting considering the scant options available to you."

Kate watched her move with efficient grace and bare noise of heels on mahogany flooring.

With the addition of milk and sugar, the woman turned, catching Kate staring. Kate stared straight back.

"What's your name?"

"Lucy," the woman said sipping the steaming liquid, swallowing with a frown of distaste.

"Well, Lucy, what are you planning�"to keep me here until morning?"

Lucy glanced out of the window into a solid sheet of blackness.

"As much as I'd love to keep you here for hours, that's not my plan, no."

Kate bristled as she thought about Grace sitting out in a freezing cold car, waiting for her, probably panicking herself into an early grave.

"What is your plan then?"

"Be patient, Katie. Everything comes to she who waits."

"And what's stopping me from walking out that door."

Lucy leant back on the desk, holding the cup up to her nose and inhaling the steam. Coffee was always so richly aromatic. Shame it had to taste so bitter no matter how much sugar she ladled into the cup.

"Oh, nothing."

Kate sprung up again, smoothing her shirt down with her palms.

"That's us concluded then, I guess." She walked to the door, pulling the silk mask out of her pocket quickly. "Enjoy your..."

Kate paused, hand hovering on the handle as she heard a radio crackling outside. She froze; her breathing, blinking, everything went still. She listened to them talking about the latest football scores. Her eyes slid over to Lucy, who had slipped her shoes off and was padding across.

Lucy leant an ear closer to the door, cradling the coffee cup in her hands. With a wiggle of her coiffured eyebrows she padded away again. Kate stared down at her functional, but clumpy, walking boots; she didn't dare move. And so she counted the seconds: eighty, eighty-one, eighty-two, eighty-three... and then finally the voices began to move away. Her head rested against the cool wood as her heart slowly recovered from the shock.

She turned back to Lucy and before she could ask, she got her answer.

"They employed extra guards who started their shift when you left the building. There are two per floor now."

Kate sighed, her head falling back as she cursed whoever wasn't looking out for her now. She held her head in her hands and tried to think a way around this problem.

"This means, Katie, that you have to wait until the shift change in..." Lucy glanced at a horrid plastic clock on the wall. "...ten minutes. Oh, you might want to let your accomplice know before she pees her panties."

Lucy held out a slither of plastic, standing her ground at the fast approaching dark figure. Kate grabbed the high tech phone, staring at it. She placed it on the desk with a little clunk.

"I don't have an accomplice."

Lucy put her coffee down and slid up to sit on the table, her skirt pulling tight around her stockinged thighs. She idly tapped her fingers on a knee.

"Okay, but she's probably cold and cursing you about now." Lucy shrugged. "Still, it's not me who’s going to get a mouthful when I get back." She patted the phone. "It's there if you want it."

Kate did nothing. She might have been stupid enough to get caught but she wasn't going to slip further into retard-ville by dialling her sister.

Lucy smiled. Kate didn't.

"Let's cut to the point of me standing here and you looking really amused, shall we, Lucy? What is it that you want?"

Lucy's smile grew.

"In general? Because, you see, in general I can have whatever it is that I want."

Kate suddenly relaxed because this was making a bit more sense: how this woman could get into the office; how she knew the codes to take the systems down; and how she was sitting there with all the confidence in the world, as if getting caught didn't matter.

"Let me guess. Daddy runs the company, and him getting you a pony at Christmas wasn't as fulfilling as you thought it'd be�"I mean, the horse smells and is scratchy when you want to ride it while wearing hot pants. And then there are the staff you have to employ." Kate blew a breath out. "Well, I declare, it's all just a hassle!"

The blonde laughed quietly, and more to the point, quite genuinely.

"You're sparky. God, I missed this. But no, I'm not mad because Daddy got me�"or didn't get me�"a pony. I'm self made." Lucy tilted her head as she watched the woman in front of her, trying for any glimmer of recognition. "I got where I am today because I'll do whatever I need to, to get whatever I want. And that brings us nicely to our point. Because I want you back."

Kate frowned.

"Excuse me?"

"No, I won't."

"I don't understand what you're going on about."

Lucy smiled gently.

"You never do. We've been in this situation hundreds, if not thousands, of times. The places, times, settings change but we don't.

"The first time you wore kohl and beautifully spun cotton. And the sun blazed a trail that turned deserts to gold.

"The second time you were a slave girl, covered in welts and bruises. But you still looked me in the eye�"which is, I assume, why you were covered in welts and bruises.

"Then there were other times. They blend, meld, fade from one story to another, with no beginning or end. Time is so…it's not meant to mean anything when you have an unquenchable amount. But it does when moments stick, when everything is a series of failures at recovering that which is lost.

Lucy turned to look at the brunette.

"And that's what these times do for me, Elle�"or in the formal…" Lucy smiled softly. "…Elohim. That which comes from the sky. That's your real name, not these silly charms you take on to hide from the job you have to do."

Kate didn't move.

"You're mad."

"No, you are. At the way everything went so wrong. I don't blame you. I would be, too. You give them everything and they take your gift and weave it into chaos, into a plague that infects all around them." Lucy got up and walked over, kneeling, laying warm hands on Kate's knees. "But you have to come home now. You have to make things right. It's time to clean up the mess, Elle. It's time to take back what you once had.

"Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. And I don't, because being Lucifer isn't the same without you."

Kate pushed the chair back, breaking contact with shaking hands. Memories. Pyramids. Shacks. Buildings as small as boxes and as big as mountains. Rivers of rippling aqua. Rafts, wooden ketches, metal barges and ships, and steam liners and then power boats. Villages in the warm, in the light; cities in the cold and the dark. People in clothes that faded through the eras. Wood, peat, coal, gas, electricity, nuclear. Skirmishes with cannons. Battles with rifles. Wars with missiles….

Kate stood up.

"You've given me something. What was it, a hallucinogenic?"

Lucy got to her feet.

"You've asked me that so many times."

Kate turned.

"I'm going."

"Wait until the guard…"

Kate turned the handle and looked back one final time.

"I'd rather take my chances with them than you."

Lucy's voice faded away as she headed towards the stairwell.

"I stopped taking that personally a hundred years ago."

###

The fire escape at the bottom of the stairwell was the last obstacle�"and one she had disarmed on the way in. Kate pushed the metal bar down and welcomed the cold air�"at the same time sirens screamed at a level designed to make your ears peal.

Kate could see the car in the distance. And she ran. She ran as fast as she could, boots hitting the ground and pushing her towards safety.

She ran through the smoke of fires, the smell of death and the sight of life. She ran through the bright brilliant haze of a million neurons firing a million scenes in just as many places. Like a flicker book she ran through names, faces, days and weeks and months and years. But one thing she didn't figure was the security guard who'd shouted for her to stop twice, whose voice had been carried away by a sudden wind.

Lucy looked on from the window. They were stuck in a loop. No matter what she did the end was essentially the same. Perhaps Elle slipped and struck her head. Maybe she missed a step and tumbled down the stairs. Once it was a mugger. Once it was a crowd cheering as she was hung. Three times Elle drowned. Once she was burned as a witch. Shot numerous times, run over even more. Plane, train, automobile crashes. Heart attacks, strokes. Lucy's favourites were the recessive genetic diseases that Elle couldn't possibly have gotten from anyone, but still died due to.

And that was when she realised that this loop was Elle's doing. That deep down, some part of God must know what was going on. And must still be running.

And Lucy watched as the shank of metal from the guard's gun tore through the fragile body Elle had decided upon again and again and again. The fluid movement of her gait interrupted, twisted, and then momentum shifted and Elle went from running to falling.

Bodies, such a breakable choice for such an unbreakable force.

Lucy walked down the grey stairwell. Down the concrete stairs. Through the hollow sound of her heels. She pushed the door open and walked to her fallen comrade.

"You'd think this would get easier, Elle, but it never does."

She walked through the guard as he radioed for assistance. The only sign she was here to him was a shiver, a drop in temperature, a darkening of the sky and clouds. So many clouds as he looked up at the storm above. And then it began. It rained and rained and rained, as it had done the time before and the time before that, and as it would do the time after this and again and again, until Elle stopped the tears.

Lucy took Elle's hand.

"You've forsaken us all." She kissed her knuckles. "But I forgive you."

Elle smiled back.

"And you'll find me again."

Lucy smiled down at her God.

"I always do and I always will. Because one day you'll come back."

--fin--