The Timeservers

Chapter 25

      Part Two
"There's no escaping fate, it just keeps going. Day and night, the future just keeps coming at you." –Chuck Palahniuk

New York City, New York

The Spire

Floor 92, Spectre Floor

December 17, 227 P.F.E

1200 hours

"Vi! How was the date?" Sophia asks as Viaslumps into her room and collapses on the bed beside her. Sophia set her up with one of the analysts, the latest of a long strand of only dates. Truthfully, Sophia was trying her best to set Via up because of guilt. She was holding him captive and someone else wanted him.
"Sorry, am I interrupting something?"Via wonders as she gestures to Sophia's ever-present screen.
"Not really. I'm just reading through articles about what's going on at the front, and failing miserably at filingTigress' 'paperwork.'" Sophia flips her screen towards Via to show her what could be generously referred to as a sketch. "So far I have translated it to mean that on her observation mission she saw a dog and a three-humped camel during it out on a particularly unstable trampoline amidst a cheering crowd of shapeless blobs. That or I'm reading too much into it and this is a stolen inkblot test that she slipped in to psych me out about how messed up my own head is. Either is possible with her."
"An artist she is not." Via strains as she looks at the picture, squinting and turning her head to try to see it from all angles. "I see a face at the bottom. It's definitely not human though. Any luck with my parents?"
"I've still got nothing. I told you it would be slim to none." Sophia takes back her screen and peers at the drawing once more as she chews on the tail of her braid. "I guess I can see the face. Anyway, I'm going to have to track her down later and get an actual report. In the meantime, I'm basically free. We've got the whole afternoon to talk about your date! How'd it go?"
"He was a perfect gentleman in every way, planned every aspect of the date in textbook romantic detail."
"It doesn't sound like that swept you off your feet." Sophia puts down her screen, giving her full attention to her friend.
"It was like he was completing a formula. X amount of flowers and show will give you the Y of a good date. It would have been cute and all if he hadn't boiled down the romance till it was nothing but hot air. We ate on the dining floor."
"He didn't even treat you to an outside venue? You need to get off the isle sometimes."
"Apparently he didn't get that memo. I wore a dress for nothing." Via tosses the skirt of the offending garment off her lap where it fell when she lay on the bed.
"I'm sorry it struck out. Maybe we need to go the offshore route. You're still not quite done with your training, you'll be here long enough to set up a good relationship with a civilian," Sophiasuggests, reaching for her screen to find potential matches.
Via reaches over and puts a hand on Sophia's wrist, stopping her from picking up the screen. "Don't do that. How would that even work? I don't even have a name, I'm supposed to keep my job secret."
"It's happened before. Back a few decades ago. There was a spectre that fell in love while on a mission. They kept their identity a secret for a year and a half, just keeping their cover from the mission. When they finally revealed who they were the guy just said that they already suspected. The spectre moved out of the Spire and lived in a cute apartment on the mainland, coming in for shorter operations close to home."
"So I have to choose love or an interesting career?" Via summarizes and smiles at Sophia.
"Unfortunately I'm not the best person to ask about this stuff. I might be the only girl you can talk to about this stuff but I'm an analyst. I get to keep my identity."
"Yeah, that's not fair. I wish they'd given us an option."
"It's too hard to take on a new identity each week when you have to hold on to one core identity. Maybe you could date a spectre? My brother's single.
"He won't even look at me. I thought that dating between spectres was discouraged," Via points out, but she perked up for a moment when Sophia mentioned the prospect of her dating one.
"It is, but it's not unheard of. It's mostly just the trainers that are a no-no."
"Well, that's just frustrating. As a candidate, I never met anyone but other candidates who were mostly secretly hoping I'd slip up. Now I can't date because I'm keeping secrets."
"Or because you're hung up on one fish. Leo told me about a story like that once. Moby Dick I think. This sea captain goes crazy when he obsessively hunts a white whale for years. He loses a leg and then dies years later when the whale kills him. Don't be chasing after white whales."
"I'm not obsessed with him. I'm just attracted to him."
"Why?" It's a bit more indignant than Sophia intended it to sound. Via doesn't notice.
"Why not? He's handsome, smart."
"Forbidden in more ways than one," Sophia adds.
Via ducks her head away but nods, blushing a little. "I never thought I'd be the type of girl that's interested in 'forbidden romance' or guys that fall on the wrong side of dark and mysterious. I just met him and he showed me my life could be something so much more than it was. He's the first guy I've ever met that didn't care that I was a candidate. With him being a Historian and all I think we're pretty similar. We're both cut off, just for different reasons."
"Just because he was the first doesn't mean he's going to be the last! Are you even giving any of these guys a chance?"
"No..." Via twists her hands together and rolls off the bed, flopping onto the floor with her arms over her face."Maybe I just need to give up romance."
"Or..."
"Your brother?" Via raises a skeptical eyebrow.
"Yes. You two would be an adorable couple. What's wrong with him?"
"I like him. He's more than a little attractive, funny, he's just... not interested like that."
"So?"
"He's a player. I want to know that when I'm with someone they'll be sticking around for a while. He also won't even look at me anymore."
Sophia looks away and takes a deep breath. All the lies she tells are always scratching at her, crying out to become truths. She's tempted to tell the truth, but it would just destroy everything. Sophia picks at the hem of her gray uniform before facing Via again. "Tell me a lie."
Via sits up and looks at her questioningly."Why do you want me to lie to you?"
"It's important for your training. When you're a spy you have to be able to lie. You have to be able to know when others are lying to you. We aren't ghosts. We're smoke and mirrors. Everything about us is a fabrication. So tell me a lie and I'll tell you if you're a ghost or a trick."
"You just lied. Everything can't be a fabrication because the best lies come from truth. A lesson learned courtesy of the good ladies at the Ivory Tower. We have to be ghosts because there has to be something left over. No one can just become a different person. The 'facts change, maybe an outlook or two, but you can't change everything. Leo lost all his facts. He's still a person, unique. He's just a bit more ghost-like than the rest of us. I don't think you believe that whole smoke and mirrors thing."
"You didn't learn how to lie from the candidates, that's your lie. You believed it though, that's good. You have to believe it for the lie to work. It's almost philosophical. If you truly believe it what's to stop it from being true? You learned from your parents before you were even selected for candidacy. You learned how to lie to yourself.
"Lies are temporary, that's why they're like smoke. Once the smoke clears, and it always does, you have to look at the truth. It can be ugly, twisted, and burnt. Or it can be something refined. Everyone wants to tell the truth. We don't admit it, but we want to. Leo gave me this problem with no answer a while back. It's that my next statement will be the truth. My previous statement was a lie. I think that's the best example of lying and truth-telling ever spoken."
Sophia pats Via on the shoulder,"You'll find someone," before rolling off the bed and leaving Via, alone, in her room.