© 2023 Richard Taylor
"Let's try again!" she muttered to herself as she left the apartment and, this time, made it into the corridor and headed for the steps. She wore a mild scowl, the only remains of her frustration at knowing she'd almost certainly forgotten something, but not being able to fathom what.
Stepping out towards the cool new day, she paused momentarily on the threshold.
"I've forgotten something."
She looked into the slim black handbag, searching for something that might, by its absence, reveal itself to her. Nothing. All the usual items were there: hairbrush, perfume, file, linki, handkerchief. Nothing was missing.
Turning around she looked back into the apartment at the dining table. At its centre was a large round vase of rather aged York roses that she'd bought herself the previous week. On each side was a full place setting, of the best antique silver that lux could buy. The rest of the table was empty, just bare polished black granite.
With a small sigh of resignation and puzzlement she took out her linki and squeezed it gently. The face lit up slowly like a waking child. A variety of small icons appeared and some of them animated away to themselves to prove that they were doing something useful. It was immediately obvious that there were no messages and no reminders.
Elspeth was now going to be late for the tram if she didn't hurry. She dropped the linki carefully into her bag and set off, walking as quickly as she could without running. Behind her the door closed itself gracefully and waited, locked, for her to return.
Once out of her building the tram station was only a few minutes away but the street was crowded, with people walking mostly in the opposite direction. Elspeth growled quietly to herself each time someone failed to make way.
"Don't worry, no hurry, just going to be late that's all."
When she did finally arrive, slightly out of breath and a little warm in the face, she was late, technically. By all rights she should have been at the station waiting well before the tram arrived. So declared several large signs, in large dark letters, for all fair and civilised people to see.
"Please be on the platform in good time. No Running!"
Elspeth had read the signs countless times and they annoyed her. Maybe because she was one of the few people who ever arrived here late, but mostly because it seemed so pointless.
"What does it matter? What is the problem?"
Today, as she strode purposefully up to the back of her usual door line, a man in the queue to her left turned his head very briefly towards her.
"He's scowling at me again." she thought.
"The man in the black coat. One of the men in black coats..."
With little more than a low hum the tram arrived and stopped. The doors on the far side opened and a few people started to get off. Then the doors on Elspeth's side slid open and all the lines simultaneously began to shuffle forward. Elspeth's wasn't the longest queue but it was the slowest and she was the last to board. She deliberately picked a seat with her back to Mr Scowl, which happened to be the seat she always sat in, and her thoughts turned to her day.
"What today? The report for TRD or the search for OSP?"
"Both... probably."
"I'll have to keep an eye on the calendar too. I'm sure Jasper is deliberately planting meetings that he knows are awkward for me..."
Elspeth's mind drifted. There was something about Jasper that bothered her, something that she couldn't pin down, something that she couldn't explain.
There was no evidence, no clue; she just didn't like him. As she gazed out of the window she spotted the familiar features of Branston. The unmistakable glow of Lincoln's financial district: welcoming all those who would strive so hard to keep its poor heart beating.
"We are now approaching..." started the recording.
Elspeth wasn't listening, she was standing up and making for the door. Almost everyone else remained seated. The instant the door opened she was out like the cork from a Champagne bottle. Elspeth ran and everyone else walked.
It was a short stroll from Branston South to Branston North. The trams on the Green Line left Branston North every few minutes, plenty of time, no rush. That was the system, a tram every few minutes, it worked, everyone knew that.
But. If you could get to Branston North very quickly, then you could just catch the inward-bound tram on the South-East Line; and that connected nicely with the anti-clockwise Yellow Line running straight from Newfields to Everly. This would have seemed like a lot of trouble for nothing to most people. But it mattered to Elspeth.
Firstly, and least important, it was quicker. The real reason though was that it was a challenge. The system obviously wasn't set up for this route to work. It was a loophole that she'd discovered. She enjoyed it, once in every day, getting one over on the system. The Authorities. The people who generally made her life so much harder than she felt it ought to be...
Today was an easy one. As Elspeth descended the steps towards the platform at Branston North she could see that the tram doors hadn't even opened yet. She stopped running and coasted casually into the midst of the expectant crowd.
At the other end of the platform a man in a mid-length black coat noticed her arrive. He stared at her intently for a few seconds, moving forward automatically with the crowd but looking towards Elspeth. As he stepped onto the tram he held her image in his mind for a few more seconds, for as long as he could, and then turned back to his book.
Elspeth sat in her usual seat, facing forwards, as close to the front of the tram as she could get.
There comes a time in every man's life when he finds himself doing something stupid to meet a woman. "Who said that?" wondered William as he stood outside his office waiting for the woman across the street to leave hers. Barnes Mayfield maybe? It was dark, and getting cold. At least it wasn't raining, yet.
A tram hummed by, half full. It was, after all, only late afternoon and most people didn't finish work until early evening.
A group of smartly dressed people were by the door, turning left. William tried to check that she wasn't one of them; without looking like he was. Panic suddenly gripped him. What if she slipped out in a big group, or even on her own as another tram passed.
He crossed the road. The office in question was tall and narrow and grey. Or was that silver? No, grey. It had large glass doors which revealed only a large featureless lobby, housing a solitary security representative at a small stone desk. There were several doors a few metres behind the desk, each with a small brass plaque at eye level. As William looked in, the SR looked out; right at him.
On making eye contact, William's natural reaction was to look away quickly. But he didn't. He controlled himself, as he'd practised many times, and continued to stare slightly over the SR's shoulder. It was a vital skill for an inveterate people-watcher.
Ms Hair was the code name he had for her, the woman he was waiting for. It was pathetic, on the one hand. But on the other, it didn't really matter and was better at least than Helen or Marge... which may turn out to be close to correct. William was a sponge for details. If he thought of her as Helen then she would always be a bit of a Helen, whatever her name really was. It would never be forgotten completely... and it may confuse him when other Helens were present.
Still there was no sign of her. On an impulse, bored of waiting and hoping that doing something might stimulate some response, William opened one of the glass doors and addressed the SR.
"Excuse me Miss" he began, "is this the office of Sharpe and Solsten?"
"Yes." replied the woman, assuming it to be an opener, but William said nothing else.
The woman shrugged and found something more interesting on her desk to look at. Obviously the man couldn't read and had no manners so best to leave him alone and hope he went away. Just in case he didn't, she gently placed her right index finger above the big red alarm button...
William was wondering how to prolong his stay on the threshold, or retreat gracefully, when a familiar face swept out of an unmarked door to the side of the security desk and through the partner of the door he was obstructing.
"Oh!" he said, half out loud, cursing himself now for crossing over the road and launching himself unprepared into the mire. He'd had a plan but impatience had nearly scuppered it. "Damn. Take a breath." his inner voice suggested.
Elspeth turned her head towards William but, not recognising him and not hearing anything else, she carried on. It had been an odd sort of day and she was happy it was drawing to an end. She planned to go home, eat and then lounge in the tub listening to music until bed-time. Bliss.
The journey home was uneventful. Her door opened to her touch and she found all the food she'd ordered, prepared as per the recipe, in the kitchen. Louise had left a message on the fridge to say that the extra courgettes would only last a day or so, as she couldn't find any fresher.
Elspeth carried the food from the vacuum oven to the table and sat down. As she gestured to the hi-fi to play, there was instead a synthetic tapping noise - the door.
"Who could that be?" she muttered.
Planning to remain not at home to guests she couldn't help but snap "door-cam" out of curiosity. A picture on the wall she was facing faded and was replaced by the face of a man fidgeting on her steps.
He looked a few years older than her. Not too old though, and a nice build. He had a pleasant, though currently troubled, face and was fairly smartly dressed in a navy suit. No collar or overcoat. Over all he was quite cute and remotely familiar. Elspeth watched for a few more seconds wondering if he would leave. The smell of her courgette frittata teasing her nose.
"Hello?" she said at last.
"Ah. Can I talk to you?"
It wasn't the slickest proposal she'd had this year, but there was an innocence in his manner that intrigued her just enough to not cut him off... yet.
"What about? Who are you?"
"My name is William. I think you can help me."
He really wasn't selling this well, was he! But there was something slightly intriguing about him. If nothing else she was used to a more silvery tongue, and this was a refreshing change.
Elspeth sat for a moment, looked at her food and then said "Wait a moment".
As the door opened William wondered how he should start. It wasn't the time to regret not preparing something, but he did anyway. The woman smiled warmly, which was reassuring.
"Hola. I'm William." he said, holding out his hand, which she shook gently.
So far, so good.
"Elspeth." she replied simply. Not giving away too much and certainly indicating that he had a lot more to do to be invited inside.
"You work in the building opposite me..."
Whilst making a connection, this also implied that he had just followed her home, which of course he had. So there wasn't much point in trying to hide it.
"I've seen you a few times and never managed to bump into you so I... sort of..."
"Followed me home." finished Elspeth quietly.
William couldn't quite tell if this was a disapproving tone or not. But he quickly decided that she would just shut the door on him if she wanted so he might as well carry on.
"I'm afraid so. I really wanted to meet you. Maybe I should have sent flowers first?"
Elspeth laughed, "Definitely not."
"Oh good." replied William, trying not to show his puzzlement at her answer. "Well, I'd like to talk to you about something. Can I call you, maybe. After all, you don't know me from Adam so I don't expect you to invite me in or anything."
"Oh." Elspeth was a bit disappointed by William's last sentence. It was just the sort of thing sleazos said to get invited in. Making you feel like they were fine about not coming in. She decided to test him some more. "I'll call you. What's your sign?"
"Er. OK. Alfa Foxtrot Bravo India 322 498"
"Thanks then."
The door shut. William waited a second, turned, took a few steps, looked back briefly and then slowly walked away. That was probably that. He really ought to have thought about what to say. Would he respond to someone appearing out of the blue and saying they'd followed him home? She wouldn't call and he couldn't really approach her again, now.
Maybe he could engineer an accidental meeting, but he doubted it. "Shit." he said out loud.
Several minutes later he was sitting in a nearby bar wondering how to proceed when he felt a buzzing in his inside jacket pocket. He took out his linki. It stopped vibrating at his touch and the display simply read "Elspeth calling". Quickly he tapped the name with his thumb and held the device to his ear.
"Hello?"
"Where are you?"
"In a bar... er, J. Jack James"
"I'll be there in a few minutes."
"What are you drinking?" asked Elspeth, sitting down.
William snapped in the direction of her voice, recognising it but still surprised by it. He'd been staring at a pretty blonde who was getting a lot of attention from a group of five or six boys and felt scolded.
"I..." he began, but stalled on taking in her appearance. She had changed her clothes. Quite noticeably. Before she was wearing something dark and now graced a red dress. Knee length and not risqué in any way. But blatantly different. Elspeth noticed him noticing and smiled. William couldn't deny that he found her attractive. But that wasn't why he chose her. Was it? He had to be careful. Anyway, it couldn't hurt to be sociable... for a change.
"It's a Soplica" he said raising his glass.
"Isn't that red-rated" she replied with a sly smile.
"Oh, maybe"
Actually he was fairly sure it was only an orange but what the hell.
Elspeth touched her linki momentarily on the pay-pad and then tapped the <> item twice with her finger. When she tapped the OK box the table menu faded back to black. Moments later a waiter appeared with a clean glass and a flask. He placed the glass in front of Elspeth and filled it, to the brim.
"Madame." he declared in a fake French accent.
William pushed his half-full glass forward and the waiter filled that to the brim too.
"Sir." he confirmed, and left.
"Salud" proposed Elspeth.
"Salud" repeated William and they both took a sip.
He thought he detected a slight flinch in his new companion.
"Like it?"
"Not really..." she laughed "but it might grow on me."
Clearly she could have been referring equally to him or the drink but he wasn't going to say that. In fact he didn't know what to say: he wanted to get down to business but that seemed inappropriate - there was plenty of time - he mustn't scare her away. There was a moment's silence. Clearly it was down to him to speak. He took another sip of his drink.
"Do people often follow you home?"
"Oh, all the time, you know."
"It's my first time." lied William, feigning shyness.
"I'll be gentle." joked Elspeth.
What next? They could skate around all night. Maybe become friends or make love. Should he wait for another day? What if she was the kind who only went with a companion once and then wouldn't talk to them again. He knew where she lived now but he didn't have her sign.
Was it better to tell her now why he'd followed her or later? She had come here for pleasure rather than business. But she had come, so she must have liked something about him. And she'd made an effort to dress for him. Without keeping him waiting. On balance then William considered that turning round and saying "Anyway, to business" would be quite insensitive.
"So... nice dress!"
Elspeth burst out laughing. William's face was a picture. She couldn't really torture him any more, it was cruel. After a minute or so, with William now looking quite hurt, she said:
"William, you are sweet, but I can tell you didn't follow me home to ask me on a date. Why don't you tell me what you need to tell me, it's OK."
For William this was simultaneously a tremendous relief and a humiliation. But he decided to do as she said and forget his injured feelings for a moment.
"Yes, you are right, of course." his voice was lower now, and more businesslike. He took a deep breath.
"I think you know there is something wrong with this city. As I do."
He paused before continuing "Someone needs to organise our resistance. We have to change things. It can't go on like this. Everyone knows it. They just need a push in the right direction."
Elspeth considered this for a moment.
"So, William, you followed me home to ask me to join your resistance?"
"Oh, no" said William matter-of-factly "I want you to lead it!"