Connected Infection

34. Gobi - Chapter 20.3

Simon stuck his hands in the air.

'You've already caught me,' he said.

The woman hesitated, frowning.

'You've already got me,' he repeated. 'With this fly thing.'

'What fly thing?' she said, her accent eastern European.

As she spoke, the fly shot past Simon, buzzing furiously, straight towards her. The woman flinched, waving her hand at it, but it evaded her easily.

'Don't hit it!' Simon said. 'It explodes!'

The woman froze, her gaze locked on the fly hovering before her. 'Really? That's interesting.'

'Not the choice of words I would use,' Simon told her. 'So I'm guessing you don't have one of the phone creatures in your head either?'

She turned to him. 'No. I don't. And do you really expect me to believe that you aren't one of them?'

Simon shrugged. 'That's why the fly is guarding me. The only reason it didn't blow my head off is because I didn't have a weapon and I, uh, begged for my life.'

The woman set down the metal bar and narrowed her eyes as she withdrew her hand. The fly backed off towards Simon, then flew at her again, causing her to flinch, and then back again, zooming back and forth as if it were on a piece of elastic. 'Well,' she said. 'I guess your friend the fly is guarding us both now. I expect it won't be long before someone comes to infect us too. Should I thank you for giving me away to the enemy?'

'Hey, I didn't know you were in here. I was just trying to get out of the sun,' Simon protested.

'No. You're here for another reason,' she said. 'But what? Maybe you're supposed to bring more infected employees. So I can set a trap for them, maybe?' She reached for the metal bar again, but the fly buzzed angrily toward her until she took her hand back. 'Or maybe not,' she said. 'Hmm. Why exploding flies?'

Simon took a step forward to see what she was making.

'What's your name?' she asked him suddenly.

'Simon,' he said, unable to identify the object, and realising that in a place like this he wouldn't know most of the equipment anyway.

'I'm Anna. Now, why would I bring you here, Simon? Are you with the army? Are you here to rescue me? I'm not ready to be rescued yet.'

'Uh, not exactly,' Simon said, growing increasingly confused by her questions and commentary. 'I was brought here by UNAXI.'

'UNAXI? The UN?'

'Yeah. Some highly improbable department set up for the eventuality of alien invasion or other high-tech scenarios. Or so I gather. I was the one who discovered the phone creatures. We're calling them Mophospalifos.'

'Sounds Norwegian. You should name it something Latin. Anyway, I discovered the one in my phone myself.' She frowned at the fly for a moment. 'Things are changing,' she said, glancing down at the object she was making on the desk. 'I'm sure there aren't supposed to be exploding flies. Unless they're here to capture you, to bring you here, so we can, you know,' she giggled, 'before I finish all this.'

'What are you talking about?' Simon asked her.

Anna rounded the desk and walked towards him, looking him up and down. 'Hmm,' she said. 'You're a bit thin, but not bad looking.'

'What?'

'Are you going to kiss me?'

'What?'