Trapped in virtual reality (EXO-TERRESTRIAL-FORCES 4) E-Book

Jens F. Simon

• Herausgeber: S. Verlag JG
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Sigurd lives in the past of his own world. He does not know that he has become a prisoner of a living program. The digital world presents itself to him as reality. His parents are still alive and he lives in his old family home. In search of a job, he leaves his small village and suddenly finds himself on the edge of the programmed sequence. A black infinity opens in the middle of the street. Only very slowly does he realize that something must be wrong in his life. An old book seems to play a certain role and when the black panther he thinks he knows from another life appears, he is close to losing his mind.

Leseprobe

EXO-TERRESTRIAL-FORCES

Legacy of OUTER-SPACE Nanites

Volume 4

Trapped in virtual reality

© 2024 Jens F. Simon

Illustration: S. Verlag JG

Publisher: S. Verlag JG, 35767 Breitscheid,

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-3-96674-760-8

The work, including its parts, is protected by copyright. Any exploitation without the consent of the publisher and the author is prohibited and will be prosecuted under criminal and civil law. This applies to electronic or other reproduction, translation, distribution and making available to the public.

 Are you sure that you are really alive? Your existence consists of a sequence of perceptions of the senses which make you believe to be alive. What if reality would differ considerably from your subjective experience? If you suddenly notice that contradictions appear in the daily course of your life. Your thoughts begin to doubt the causality of your life. Strange thoughts begin to question in you the plausibility of the reality you experience. How will you act now? Will you give up or will you fight?  

Table of content

The day after

Strange thoughts

Resistance awakens

End of a reality

The independent subconscious

At the end of the truth

The black panther

The program

The awakening

The escape agent

The new world

The experiment

The 2nd Earth

The fate boards

En-Lil's struggle

A new comrade-in-arms

The fortress NINTAC

The fate boards

The thief Nin-an-ak

Escape through the solar system

Moon of dangers

Course of events

Curse of the magicians

The infinity

In nowhere

Cogito ergo sum

The strange body

Déjà-vu

Place of cognition

Multiplicity desirable

The people of illusions

Consolidation

The day after

Once again I woke up with a terrible headache. This time, however, it was my own fault. I had looked too deeply into the glass last night in Delian's pub.

Cautiously I tried to sit up and blinked into the beginning day. The drawn curtains at the window did not completely hide the brightness, so that individual rays found their way between the fabric panels into the darkened room.

Unfortunately, the windows of my parents' house had no blinds or shutters.

I tried not to look straight into the light and hit my head on the bookshelf on the right side of the bed. The pain made me gasp and I saw stars flash before my eyes.

At the same time, I heard Delian's last sentence again, "I think what you really need is a job and a committed relationship. You should work on that!"

Of course, he was right. I was now 32 years old and what had I done with my life so far?

Not much, anyway. From downstairs I heard the clatter of dishes. My mother was setting the breakfast table, as she did every morning.

I absolutely had to change something in my life. This decision would not change now.

I looked thoughtfully at the new bookshelf that stood to the left of the sink, directly in front of the desk.

I had bought it only recently and had set it up. For the time being, I wanted to store all my new acquisitions here that I hadn't read yet. The shelf had four shelves.

On the top shelf were already three unread science fiction novels and the book covers wouldn't let me go. I could start a book before breakfast.

Slowly, I got up from the bed and walked toward the shelf.

"The Lost Civilization" was written on the spine of the thickest book in red letters. I don't know how long I had just looked at the books, anyway, suddenly my whole life seemed so meaningless.

I missed a certain drive, something that gave me a goal to look forward to, to work towards.

I had never had depression in my life before, so I couldn't know what it felt like.

I just stared ahead, forgetting what I was trying to do. There was a yawning emptiness in my head.

"Breakfast is ready," I suddenly heard my mother's voice.

It seemed to come through to me from very far away. I literally dragged myself down the old wooden stairs and dropped onto the kitchen chair.

"What about showers? Did you at least brush your teeth?" I heard my mother's voice, but I didn't care what she said.

I just sat there, staring at the full cup of coffee that was in front of me. What was I actually doing here? I had absolutely no hunger. My life suddenly seemed so pointless again.

I stood up, ignoring my father's stares, and shuffled out of the kitchen to the stairs.

My life seemed like an absurd string of unnecessary sequences. I sat down on the bottom step, when suddenly a thought arose in my mind, "It's also absurd to want to flee from the absurd."

The phrase seemed somehow familiar, and as I began to ponder it, images of faces and of situations flashed through my mind in quick succession that seemed unreal and utterly utopian. Just as quickly as they had come, they disappeared again.

Was I slowly going completely crazy? I had to distract myself.

"The Lost Civilization" was the name of the book I had seen first thing this morning after waking up. I hadn't read it yet, and thinking about it, I couldn't even remember when I bought it. Something like interest crept into my consciousness.

Thick, red letters jumped out at me from the spine of the book as I took it off the shelf. It was very thick and bound.

At the same time, it gave the impression of being very old. That was strange, since I usually only bought new paperbacks and I still couldn't remember having purchased the book at all.

It hadn't been a gift either, that much I was sure of anyway.

Curious, I began to read the blurb on the back of the book.

The content was quickly described. The protagonist was taken into a strange world. It was a small universe of its own, embedded in a kind of hyperspace cocoon. A solar system with two almost identical, inhabited planets, which moved on the same orbit around the same sun, but they were located exactly on the opposite side.

The population structure and the culture as well as the scientific, - technical development level on both planets corresponded approximately to ours.

There was however still another peculiarity. A super powerful being worked on one of the worlds in the secret, so that its inhabitants did not really notice anything of it. When a threat came from outside the small universe, a second competitor for power appeared.

The description ended ever.

The whole thing sounded very utopian, but at the same time somehow familiar. I still thought about whether I should really start reading it and turned it around. The image of a black panther jumped out at me from the cover.

I was startled, but I didn't know why. Somehow the panther seemed familiar, but I couldn't place the image in my memories. I thoughtfully began to leaf through the book and spontaneously started to read:

"Siegwart woke up from a deep sleep, which ended in a strange dream, and could not remember anything. That is, he still knew that it must have been a very strange dream, but nothing more.

He yawned profusely and wondered why it was still relatively gloomy. Normally at this time the sun was already shining, and it was at least daylight when he woke up in the morning.

A quick glance at the clock confirmed to him that it was already 08:30. The red glowing digits of the digital display stood out like a beacon from the gray in gray of the surroundings.

"Lights," he called out to the computerized room sensor system, but nothing happened. The familiar dull illumination that usually came on immediately after his verbal request failed to materialize.

Instead, he noticed at the end of the room, where the closet must be, many small green glowing points of light. They buzzed through the air like mosquitoes, only there were an infinite number of them.

Siegwart blinked several times, probably thinking it was his eyes. But the points of light remained.

Curious, he watched as more and more dots appeared. They were now penetrating the closet and it almost looked as if they were coming from outside and entering the room through the solid wall.

The longer he looked at this spot, the more he could see.

The cabinet and the wall behind it had disappeared, simply vanished into thin air. Instead, a gray mass that no longer had any consistency was now wafting there.

Siegwart was startled when this mass now spread exponentially fast and came towards him.

Half the room had dissolved, and the green points of light were already taking possession of his bed. The still existing real reality seemed frayed towards the gray mass.

With a loud scream, Siegwart jumped out of bed and hurriedly looked around the last part of his room that was still there.

He stood very close to the window and knew that the only way out was to jump from the second floor to escape the transformation or whatever else would happen to him. Hastily, he brushed aside the curtains and yanked open both halves of the window.

With a gurgling yelp, Siegwart stared into the green dots and the gray mass that now also poured in from the outside through the open window."

Thick sweat stood on my forehead. I stopped reading and looked around, distraught. That had never happened to me before, that a story swept me away in such a way. I had only just started reading and already had to stop again. My heart raced like mad, and I wiped the sweat from my forehead. Full of excitement, I turned the page and read on.

"The program has been terminated. Sequential access to the data has been reversed. The delinquent is being prepared for mental reanimation."

The autonomous city computer let an eternity of a second pass, then continued.

"An error in the program matrix has corrupted the matrix. It was not possible to reboot the program unobtrusively."

The two planetary allocators looked at each other in dismay.

"Cancel reanimation. Delinquent remains dormant for now. Initiate matrix check!"

The command went out almost timelessly directly over the neural link. The autonomous city computer, however, seemed to disagree with the two upper leaders. It acknowledged the command but did not execute it directly, instead modifying the parameters.

The delinquent with the proper name Siegwart was given an interactive dispensation, which meant that he was sent back to the program matrix again for a short time.

The dispensation was linked to a time countdown and would automatically initiate mental reanimation after the defined period expired. Siegwart was facing the gray mass one moment and the next he was back in bed. Bright sunshine flooded the room, and when he looked up, the room had almost doubled in size."

Slowly, slowly. What was going on now? I no longer understood the connections. I started to read the new page again from the beginning and this time a little slower.

This Siegwart, a strange name, was apparently not in the real world, but in a virtual, programmed world. All right, that much I now understood.

Besides, he didn't seem to know where he was. So far, so good.

"Soft breathing noises made Siegwart look to the side in amazement. Next to him, still in a deep sleep, lay a black-haired woman. "Now, slow down. There's a logical explanation for all this. I was dreaming and now I've woken up."

His thoughts started doing somersaults.

"But who is the woman in my bed?" He reached out to her, and when he touched her bare shoulder, he felt a counter-pressure. But then something very strange happened. The woman's body was enveloped by a brief flicker. It looked like a holographic projection whose light frequency differed. "Logical consequence, I am still in a dream!" Siegwart stared for a while longer at the woman's body, which was now clearly visible again.

"If this was really a dream, how did it continue now?"

When nothing more happened, he again tapped her shoulder very gently with his right hand. He felt the slight counterpressure of the skin's surface and was still startled, even though he had expected her to be physically present.

The strange woman in his bed began to loll, stretched her body, and opened her eyes. A smile appeared on her face when she caught sight of him.

"Good morning, my hero. Did you sleep that well, too?"

Siegwart did not know how to act at first. He spontaneously decided to just play along with the game. But he didn't take it so seriously anymore, after all, he had to assume that he was in a dream.

"Good morning, what was that name again?"

"Hello, I'm Anisia, your wife, remember?"

With a jerk, she sat up straight and glowered at him wickedly.

Her shoulder-length, frizzy hair fell in her face and she brushed it aside with an imperious wave of her hand. Siegwarts stared in amazement at the white V-neck pajama top she wore.

At the right hem he saw a dandelion print in a light gray. The contrast with her long, black hair couldn't have been starker.

"She's damn pretty!" The thought had already faded as he replied, "Um, yes or no!"

"Fool, don't be so silly!" Anisia leaned over to him and kissed him long and persistently.

Suddenly, in my mind's eye, I saw the dark, blue-rimmed eyes of a woman bending very close to me. She also wore black, shoulder-length hair and she gave off a whiff of peach scent.

Completely amazed, I looked up. I really hadn't read a book that intensely before. A cotton wool-like feeling made itself felt in my head. My ears began to buzz. What was wrong with me?

I closed the book, put it aside and tried to remember the face that belonged to the dark eyes. Again and again, the memory slipped away from me at the last moment.

I knew that I had a personal relationship with this woman, but at the same time my reason told me that it couldn't be at all.

I had not been in a closer relationship with any woman for years, as my feelings had just wanted to tell me. A chaos of feelings began to expand more and more in my mind, washing rational thought aside.

I suddenly felt unloved and at the same time, however, extremely happy. I forgot about the book and its story, lay back on my bed, and stared up at the ceiling with no drive.

Very slowly, the chaos in my head began to clear and a kind of vacuum was created. I had read in a scientific article that man could not simply stop thinking. But that's exactly what was happening to me at that moment. My mental activity seemed to reduce to zero all at once.

I felt and thought nothing more, just floating along in a great nothingness. 

Strange thoughts

Although my parents didn't like it, I went to the village tavern "Zum Habicht" again that evening. I had spent the whole day just dozing off.

Even the charm of my books no longer reached me. I felt more and more powerless and what was even worse, useless.

"Give me a glass of sherry, please!"

I sat at the small counter and watched Delian draw beer. The pub was already busy that evening and he had his work cut out for him. Suddenly, a thought came to me.

"What about Anisha, anyway?"

Delian looked at me across the tap, puzzled.

"Where did you come up with that? We haven't been together for over two years, you know that. I have no idea what she's doing now."

Now it was my turn to look astonished. In my memories, Delian and Anisha were a couple and she helped him run the pub.

He must have noticed my puzzled look, because now, as he put the glass of sherry on the counter for me, he asked, "Didn't you have your eye on her then, too? Man Sigurd, what's up with you lately anyway? You really do talk in riddles sometimes."

Before I could answer him, he had already put the tapped beer glasses on a tray and walked around the counter into the taproom to the tables of the guests.

I picked up the glass of sherry and gazed at the golden-brown liquid. Did I have any answers to his questions at all? Of course I didn't.

"The main characteristic of all sherries is that they are first made from a dry white wine. This wine, after fermentation is complete, is blended with brandy, raising it from its original 11 to 12 percent alcohol to 15 to 19.5 percent. It is then aged in unsealed 600-liter barrels in the air."

How did I even know that?

I had never drunk sherry in my life. I took a quick deep breath and drained the small glass in one go when Delian returned.

"Pour me another glass, please, or better yet just put the whole bottle on the counter and I'll serve myself!"

The warm feeling of the alcohol in my stomach began to slowly work its way up my esophagus, causing a comforting sensation.

Only the somewhat bitter aroma, reminiscent of almonds and hazelnuts at the same time, took some getting used to.

Delian looked at me piercingly but complied with my request and placed the bottle next to my glass.

So I sat for quite a while, staring ahead, drinking glass after glass, watching Delian do his thing. Oddly enough, I did not feel the alcohol in any way.

My thoughts flowed doggedly, and I didn't know how much time had passed, the bottle of sherry was in any case two-thirds empty, when Delian addressed me: "Tell me, does your father actually still own the old Golf I used to see him with quite often?"

I looked up questioningly.

"That was a Golf five, wasn't it, or was it a Golf four?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Gee Sigurd, just tell me if the car is still in your garage and ready to go!"

I didn't really understand what he wanted from me.

"Yes, the car has been in the garage for quite some time. If you ask me so, my father has probably not driven it for half a year. But it should still have an MOT. Why do you want to know that anyway?"

"I have an idea. We could go for a drive in the city. You have the license and I'll pay for the gas. What do you say we go visit Anisha? She has a small apartment in town. I don't know exactly where, but we can figure it out!"

I had agreed to Delian. The prerequisite, of course, was that my father's old Golf was still drivable at all.

We had arranged to meet on Saturday morning. Delian wouldn't open his pub until evening anyway, so we had plenty of time to spare.

I unlocked the garage door and pulled it up. A terribly loud squeak and creak was followed by a thunderous clang as the completely rusted door slid backwards in the guide rails on the ceiling and then clicked into place.

Rust chips trickled down on me while my gaze was fixed on the dark green Golf.

I couldn't remember the last time the car had been moved.

A thick layer of dust covered the paint, and it was no longer possible to see through the windows. In fact, if I was honest, I couldn't remember the last time my father had driven the car.

In fact, I didn't even know when I had driven. It had to be at least five or six years ago now.

The driver's door squeaked miserably when I opened it, but the engine started without a murmur. I quickly cleaned the dust off the exterior mirrors and slowly backed out of the garage.

The fan belt loudly announced its agony, and I considered driving to a workshop first.   

"Oh man, I remember the Golf quite differently!" Delian was suddenly standing next to the car, glaring at me through the rolled-downside window.

"My dad says he just got it through the MOT!"

Delian looked skeptical and wiped the layer of dust off the license plate with the palm of his hand.

"Yeah, that was two years ago. It has exactly seven weeks of MOT left!"

I looked at the now visible MOT sticker. "That's enough!"

"If you say so. But the car should still see some water!"

Delian was right, of course. The thick layer of dust had to come off. But that wasn't a problem; the garden hose was just a few feet from the garage door.

"What about that Alethea girl? Have you been dreaming about her again?"

Irritated, I looked at Delian.

"Who is Alethea? I don't understand what you mean!"

"Don't freak me out. When you showed up at my house last week after a long time, you kept talking about an Alethea, and now you don't know anything about it?"

We were on our way to town. Fueled up and with two quarts of oil topped off, the engine purred again. I was mulling over Delian's last comment.

The name Alethea didn't mean anything to me at first. Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced briefly at Delian, who was sitting quite relaxed in the passenger seat. Why did he claim something that had not happened? It didn't suit him, and I really knew him very well.

The logical conclusion that followed from this did not sit well with me at all. Because I had to assume that I had talked to him about this Alethea but didn't remember it.

"Just forget about it. I'm getting in my own way sometimes lately. I think it was really a good idea of yours for us to go on this joyride now. I'm sure the change of pace will do me good."

"Told you. Besides, you should take my advice and read less of those utopian books and fantasy stories. You've been doing that for years. If you're not careful, you'll get completely lost in them, and eventually you'll believe for yourself that what you're reading actually exists."

Delian had spoken loudly and with a serious expression on his face. He really meant what he said.

Could science fiction and fantasy books be addictive? Could you lose your mind in them, so that you yourself began to have delusions or tried to suppress reality in favor of fiction?

Suddenly there was a thud, and the steering wheel was knocked out of my hand rather forcefully.

I immediately grabbed it again, tried to stay in the lane, and climbed hard into the Bremen. We were both pressed hard into the seatbelts until the car came to a stop.

"Damn, that sounded like the left front tire blew out!"

Without paying attention to Delian, I undid my seat belt and jumped out of the car.

I was indeed correct in my guess.

The left front tire was just hanging on the rim as a shredded something. That could have gone tremendously wrong.

I was about to bend down to take a closer look at the damage when the head of a black panther stretched towards me past the radiator grille.

I looked directly into the yellow slit pupils of the animal and could not move for the first moment.

As if frozen, I still heard the low growl from the slightly open mouth, then movement came again into my frozen body.

With a suppressed scream I jumped back, pulled the car door open with a jerk, rushed in, and slammed it shut again immediately.

Thick drops of sweat had formed on my forehead, and I was literally gasping for air.

Delian looked at me, aghast. "What's wrong? You look like you've met the Incarnate!"

I took another deep breath. "That's about the way to put it!"

"What do you mean? It can't be that bad!"

Delian was about to open the passenger door when I managed to hold him back by the arm just in time.

"Just keep the door closed. There's a black panther prowling around out there. Who knows what zoo he escaped from."

Now he looked at me more than aghast. "What is it? Are you sure about that?"

I nodded my head several times. "You bet I'm sure. I've stood eye to eye with him, after all."

Delian stretched and tried to make out something first through the windshield and then through the side window.

"An animal like that is huge, isn't it? Why can't I see it? Did you hit it?"

"No, I don't think so. Besides, the left tire blew out. I didn't see anything of the animal before either."

I scowled at Delian. We remained in the car for quite a while, silent. Then, when Delian ripped open the door and jumped out of the car, I couldn't stop him.

I watched him through the windshield as he slowly walked around the hood and stopped at the left fender.

I still noticed his stare and wondered why the panther had apparently disappeared without us noticing.

"You can leave the car without danger, scaredy-cat!"

I nodded to Delian, opened the driver's door, and got out. As I stood next to him, Delian pointed to the front left wheel with an outstretched index finger.

"You seem to be dreaming again. I'm really starting to worry about you, Sigurd!"

I didn't understand what he meant at first. Then my eyes fell on the wheel. It was perfectly fine. I felt dizzy for a moment, then I literally rushed towards the tire, crouched down and hit it with my fist. Nothing was left of the shredded rubber.

"I don't believe it. Right here I was standing and right in front of me the Panther's head came around the bumper towards me. You must believe me, really!"

I rose slowly, trying to get my thoughts in order.

"Is there such a thing as daydreaming? It all seemed so damn real."

I looked at Delian for help. He scratched his head and shrugged.

"You can't ask me that. Maybe you should seek medical help."

He meant it. I began to worry about my condition myself.

The ride was otherwise uneventful.

Delian had a very good memory for places compared to me and guided me to Auenstraße without any problems, because that was where Anisha lived.

On the way to the second floor of the three-family house, memories of her began to awaken.

They were memories from her early childhood.

She lived with her parents not only in the same village as me, but on the same street. Although she was two years younger, we played together, went to the same elementary school. I was pulled out of my thoughts when we were already standing in front of her apartment door, and it was just opened.

"Hi Anisha!" Delian's face really started to glow. Astonished, I looked from him to her.

Black eyes with dark blue song shadow looked curiously at me. Anisha wore shoulder-length black hair, a white T-shirt, and blue jeans.

I had not seen her for more than two years, but still it seemed to me as if I knew her forever. Especially the dark blue framed eyes with the long, black eyelashes created a feeling in me that I could not describe at first.

"Hello Sigurd, good to see you." Anisha seemed to hesitate for a moment, then hugged me.

"That was a good idea of yours, Delian, both of you coming to see me." She unceremoniously gave him a kiss on the cheek and stepped aside.

"Come on in, make yourselves comfortable."

Anisha occupied a two-room apartment. In the living room there was still a small cooking, -and dining alcove with a fully equipped kitchen.

"What do you want to drink?"

"I'll have an Altbier, if you have it. You remember?"

Anisha had stopped short when Delian made his request. She looked at him, somewhat sheepishly it seemed.

"Yes of course I have altbier too!"

With a flutter of her eyelashes coupled with a smile, she looked in my direction.

"And you Sigurd. What can I get you?"

It seemed to me that her voice had become a shade softer as she spoke to me.

"A coke. I still must drive!"

Anisha, after bringing the drinks, sat down across from me with a glass of fizz in her hand.

"It's been ages since we've seen each other. You're looking good, Sigurd. What are you doing now, anyway?"

"Two years and three months," it came over Delian's lips in bursts.

Anisha glanced briefly from me to him but ignored his words and immediately turned back to me. I just barely managed a hesitant smile as I replied, "I'm still living with my parents, reading fell and doing little else."

"You seem to be doing quite well. How's the love?"

Delian's question was a bit too personal for me, and at first I couldn't understand why he was getting so direct now. The ironic undertone was hard to miss. It seemed to me as if he was still mourning the old times.

"Don't worry about it, everything's in the bag!" Anisha's reply was appropriately meaningless.

"Aren't you thinking of getting a steady job at all?"

Anisha hadn't quite finished speaking before Delian burst in, "Not Sigurd after all. He hangs around lazily all day and burrows into his books. He'll lose touch with reality one of these days!"

I glared at him angrily. "What's the point of that now?"

"You can argue in your little village, too. You don't have to come to me for that!" Anisha's ironic undertone could not be ignored.

"Delian, you must be drinking another beer!"

While she got up to get what she wanted, Delian said loudly, "It's true! Who saw a black panther, you or me?"

"Why are you starting to bicker now? Is it because of Anisha?"

I had lowered my voice a bit myself, so Anisha couldn't hear my words.

"What do you mean now?"

However, I didn't want to elaborate. May he be jealous or whatever, but I wasn't going to put up with this teasing.

"You know it," I hissed at him, then Anisha was already standing in front of him and handed him the second bottle of Alt.

Before he could say anything rash now, I stood up.

"Could I use your restroom?"

Anisha showed me the way.

While I was leaving the room, I heard another buzz of voices at my back. Apparently, they had both started arguing. If I had known that Delian still had feelings for Anisha, I certainly wouldn't have gone with him to her place.

Now he was starting to get jealous of me too. What a degraded world.

At the end of the small hallway, just to the right of the apartment door, was the bathroom and toilet. Still lost in thought, I opened the door and froze.

Directly in front of the toilet he stood, the black panther. Glowing gray-yellow eye slits flashed at me. I reacted spontaneously and pulled the door shut again.

Irritated, I looked back down the hall into the living room, where Anisha had just gotten up from her chair and disappeared from my field of vision. I could only see Delian reaching for the bottle of beer.

Was I starting to go completely crazy now? Was I having a daydream?

Anger rose in me. It was completely out of the question that there was a wild animal in Anisha's apartment.

With a jerk, I pulled the toilet door open again. The room behind it was empty.

When I returned to the living room, there was an icy silence. Anisha smiled at me while Delian looked at the floor.

Now, I didn't really know how I should behave. I also couldn't get the black panther out of my head.

First the thing earlier at the car and now in the bath.

"Sometimes I long for the time of our youth, when we were still carefree!"

I looked at Anisha in a bit of amazement as I sat back down.

"Don't get melancholy, that's all that was missing!" Delian raised his head and made a downright contrite expression.

I had to stifle a laugh when I saw him like that. He seemed like a wretch to me now.

"All three of us were almost inseparable back then, don't you remember?"

Anisha didn't let up. I really couldn't make sense of why she was now poking around in the deepest past.

"Yeah, we were just kids back then and everything still seemed so simple and clear!"

I noticed Delian somewhat tentatively reach out his right hand toward Anisha's left thigh.

Before he could reach her leg, however, she hissed at him, "Leave it alone. Don't touch me!"

Startled, he hastily withdrew his hand.

"I work for a large, international corporation. I could make an appearance in the personnel department and ask what jobs are open. Maybe there's something for you. What do you think, Sigurd?"

I was amazed at how quickly Anisha could change the subject. Delian had gotten up and was just disappearing to the bathroom. Shouldn't I warn him about the panther? I immediately dismissed the thought.

"No, thank you. I think I need some more time. There's bound to be an opportunity at some point!"

"Whatever you say!"

She put on a friendly smile, putting a hand on my knee quite unceremoniously, but quickly pulled it away when Delian returned.

"It's about time, Sigurd. I must open my pub on time, after all I depend on my regular customers. We should be going now."

He ostentatiously stopped and looked at me promptly while trying to studiously ignore Anisha.

"Actually, it's too bad you guys have to leave already. There's still so much to tell you!"

Anisha looked at me pleadingly. Now I was getting pressure from both sides again.

That's exactly why I liked it best when I could curl up in my books and escape all the social pressures in the process.

"Delian's right. It is quite a way back after all."

I stood up now, too, and nodded at him. "If you say so!" Anisha walked us to the door, whispering in my ear as she did so, "Maybe I'll see you again soon!" 

Resistance awakens

Anisha had contacted me by phone. I didn't know how to react at first when my mother brought the phone to my bed.

I was of course, as so often, still, or already again in broad daylight in my bed and read.

"That's not normal, the way you're acting," was her only comment. She pressed the phone into my hand and immediately left the room again.

The book I had just been reading slipped off the bedspread and fell to the floor with a thud as I sat up.

"Hello Anisha," was all I could manage now.

"Hello Sigurd, nice to hear you. I wanted to check in with you again. It had really been a good idea of Delian and you to visit me last weekend. I remembered our youth together again, you must know."

She paused and I tried to understand what she had said. After all, we hadn't had that much in common at all. At least, I didn't remember it clearly.

"That time with you back then kind of hangs over me. I think I'd turn it back in a heartbeat if I could."

Now I swallowed hard. What on earth did she mean?

"Sigurd, say, can we maybe meet again? There's a little Italian restaurant here on my street. It's very cozy."  

Suddenly, I felt anxious. Was she about to ask me out on a date?

Something inside me seemed to be resisting, but I really didn't know why.

I must have been silent too long, because I suddenly heard her ask, "Sigurd, are you still there?"

Somewhat embarrassed, I replied, "Yes, of course. I'm sorry, but I was in thought for a moment. Why not! I'll be glad to get out of this village for a while. When would be convenient for you?"

It was late in the afternoon. Sigurd hadn't been sure of finding Anisha's apartment again. The old Golf had no navigation system, of course, and he had only been there once. But he had once again thought too much. Exactly at the appointed time, he was standing in front of her apartment door.

"Hello Sigurd, glad you came. Wait, I'll just get my jacket."

The restaurant was only a stone's throw from Anisha's apartment, so they left the car and walked.

"Why did you and Delian break up again, anyway?"

Sigurd's question made Anisha stop short. It came too unexpectedly for her to have an immediate answer. At first she wondered why he wanted to know anything at all about her relationship with Delian.

It had been over two years now. Unfortunately, Sigurd had no intuition in that regard either, or he wouldn't have asked her about an old, long-outdated relationship.

"I didn't want to rot away in our village forever, and Delian didn't want to give up his pub. It's as simple as that!"

Wisely, he was silent now, giving Anisha, in turn, the opportunity to ask him a personal question.

"Why didn't you actually start a new relationship again?"

Now it was up to Sigurd to swallow a little hard. What was wrong with his love life anyway? He couldn't remember ever being in a committed relationship, not even being with Anisha. What was he supposed to answer to the question?

"It just didn't work out," he squeezed out with difficulty.

It sounded downright banal and meaningless. A pitying smile appeared on her face. Before there could be any more awkward question and answer games, they reached the Italian restaurant.

It was a cozy, small pizzeria. After they were seated and ordered, the conversation only hesitantly began to pick up.

Of course, Anisha knew from their first meeting that he was unemployed. She offered him again to ask her employer for a job. For Sigurd, this was not really an option, since he could not imagine breaking out of his contemplative life and, what is more, leaving the village and his parents.

However, he nodded to her gratefully. Then his eyes fell on a magazine lying on the side table.

"Bodyguard wanted for special use," was written in large letters on the last page of the magazine, which he took from the table after hesitating for a moment. He read on, "We will train you in our company. Send us your meaningful application today."

This was followed by a few basic details and, lastly, the comment that a high salary in line with the requirements was a matter of course. Of course, it did not say a specific amount.

"What are you doing?"

Sigurd carefully tore the last page out of the notebook, after looking around inconspicuously on all sides, and pocketed it.

"That was a job ad that might interest me!"

Somehow he sensed that there was more behind the text of the ad. Moreover, a strange tremor suddenly ran through his fingers, and he quickly put the magazine back on the table.

"You're going to get the job and have a great adventure!"

The thought disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, but it left a strange echo in his mind. Sigurd imagined himself as a bodyguard experiencing exciting and dangerous adventures. Just like the hero of countless stories he had read.

"Sigurd, hello, are you dreaming?" Anisha's bright voice snapped him back to reality.

He was in Leuven, Belgium. The application he had sent had been answered positively within a week. The date of the recruitment test had been set for Monday of the following week on very short notice.

"Alea iacta est, the die was cast," it went through his mind.

Sigurd stood with light luggage in front of the old university building. The two halves of the gate in his field of vision were made of solid wood and the door handle of cast iron. When opened, the hinges creaked and the loud echoed through the huge entrance hall.

About twenty meters further, in the middle of the hall, a marble staircase led to the second floor. Sigurd estimated the room height at over five meters. Behind a counter made of solid wood, an older woman looked out at him. She wore her dark hair braided into a bun, emphasizing the already masculine impression of her appearance.

She looked toward Sigurd with a blank, rigid expression. Slightly to the side behind the counter, he saw two men dressed entirely in black walking up the marble stairs; otherwise, the entrance hall was completely deserted.

"Here is my invitation," Sigurd held out the company's cover letter to the lady.

She didn't make a face as she replied, "I know." She wordlessly handed him a name tag, brochure-like documents, and a cell phone.

"Please keep the cell phone on your person at all times. It is secured with a thumbprint scanner. Only you personally can activate it. Please proceed to the upper floor. There is a recreation room there. You will be taken care of there."

She didn't make a face and pretended to go back to whatever papers were in front of her. Sigurd was somewhat flabbergasted.

He had not expected such a reception. How did they get his fingerprints? Confused, he looked at the cell phone in his hand, then he remembered his application letter. They had indeed taken his fingerprint from the letter.