The Girl Next Door

The Girl Next Door

By J. Robert VanSickle

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2020 J. Robert VanSickle

All Rights Reserved

Prologue

Five years, three months, and eleven days of work reached its end when Nikonas, seated in the pilot seat of the ship he had built, pressed a switch on the control panel before him, noted the indicator light, and made a check on the checklist in front of him. He sighed.

What's wrong? his wife asked. She was sitting next to him, in the co-pilot's seat.

I think we're ready, he said.

Are you sure? she asked.

I've gone over the checklist twice. The only thing left is to see if it works. He felt a bit of trepidation about saying this, because the routine of building the ship in secret had become as hum-drum as anything about life under the Party could be. Although he had looked forward to this moment for even longer than he had been working towards it, the prospect that their escape from life on Daneel might simply be an escape from life altogether was daunting. Walking up to the cliff, and jumping off of the cliff, are decidedly different things.

Do we all have to be on the test flight? she asked.

There will be only one flight, he said. We will be detected as soon as we lift off. If we don't get away on our first try, we never will.

All right. Paradoe got up and went to the back hatch. It's time, she said to the two people who were standing outside.

Timia looked at her as she said this, and then looked to Demas, her own husband, in turn. Let's go, she said. She turned towards the ship and got in.

Demas, still facing away, reached into a pocket in his jacket and pressed a button on a small device in there. Immediately, a warning tone sounded in the cockpit of the craft.

Hold on, Nikonas said.

What's wrong? Paradoe asked.

There's something on the scope. A signal. He turned towards where Demas was. And it's coming from right where your brother is standing. He got up and went to the rear of the craft. Demas, did you just do something?

I don't know, he said. Why?

Whatever it is, it's showing up on the scope.

Oh, it's all right, he said, making a dismissive wave.

No, it isn't, Nikonas said. You'll give us away.

That's the idea. He turned, now holding a stun pistol. Nikonas could hear it charging up. For a moment he gaped at him in shock, but then with growing depression as he realized the full ramifications of this betrayal. Nikonas had been utterly wrong in believing their plans were a secret. The Bureau for Public Loyalty had known for at least as long as Demas had been involved, possibly longer, and had allowed Nikonas to think the secret was safe so that he would keep working.

Demas gestured for everyone to put their hands up. Just keep them up, all of you, until the Bureau gets here.

Why not kill us now? Paradoe asked.

If you can be rehabilitated, you can still be a great asset to the Party. That's why you weren't purged when we rounded up your church.

For a moment, in spite of all the defiant sentiments Nikonas had voiced in the past, the urge to simply give up was real. He could surrender now, and if he cooperated, then surely they would go easy on him. The surrender of his dignity would be galling, but at least he would be alive.

He forced himself away from this. It was a coward's hope. The Party had proven time and again that they could not be trusted. They would dangle the promise of rehabilitation in front of him until he had told them all of the secrets that Demas had not already passed on to them, and then do their best to utterly break him in case he had withheld something from them, and he would be powerless to hold them to their word. The choice before him was not between useless rebellion and a chance at life; it was either to live as a man, perhaps only for a few more moments, or to live as less than a man for somewhat longer. He threw the clipboard at Demas' head, and without waiting to see what effect this had he rushed at him. Demas was caught off-guard by this unexpected defiance and ducked; Nikonas tackled him. For a moment they struggled over the pistol; it went off, and Demas went limp.

Nikonas untangled himself from Demas, and picked up the pistol, and then dropped it in shock. It had been set to kill, and not stun. He looked at Demas, in whom the only trace of motion was the gradual slackening of his facial features.

He turned to Timia. Did you know he was working for the Bureau?

Timia was silent and frozen, staring at the lifeless form of her husband.

They always work in pairs, Paradoe said. That makes you the other partner. Timia did not respond to this. Paradoe walked to where the pistol lay on the ground and picked it up.

Timia, said Nikonas, he was going to betray us.

I swear I didn't know!

He was your husband! How could you not know?

She was on the verge of tears; she either really did not know or was a consummate actress. He never said anything about— she began, and was cut off by a blast from the stun pistol.

Nikionas looked to Paradoe, who lowered the weapon. We can't afford to take any chances, she said.

What if she's telling the truth?

I set it to stun. We can sort her out later.

Nikonas went to the pilot seat and sat down. We'd better get going.

Let's dump him first. She nodded towards Demas' body, which was sprawled on the hatch door (it served as the ramp into the ship when it was open).

This sounded rather callous to Nikonas. He was your brother.

I always knew he'd go wrong.

He got up, and with Paradoe's help dragged Demas' body out onto the ground, and then they buckled Timia's unconscious form into the co-pilot's seat.

I'll keep her covered from back here, Paradoe said. She took a position at the back of the craft, holding onto a conduit to steady herself.

Nikonas went to the pilot seat and sat down again, buckled himself in, and activated the launch sequence. The hatch closed. He felt and heard the thrusters fire, and felt the shifting of the craft as it lifted off of the ground. Taking control of the helm, he nudged the ship forward, and it flew forward out of the cave in which they had worked for so long. He glanced up through the windshield and saw a dozen armed figures on the unpaved road approaching the cave. The truck that must have brought them there was a bit further up the road.

There's the Bureau, coming to get us, he said. He activated a few more controls, causing the ship to ascend through the atmosphere, and soon they were through the clouds and into the sky above, a deep blue that deepened further as the air got thinner.

How much longer? Paradoe asked.

Just another couple minutes, he replied. He began entering the flight path into the flight controller.

Where are you taking us? she asked.

Cannigaid, he said, which was the name of the larger of the two gas giants in the Daneelian system. He entered the range and heading, and waited for the navigator to lock onto the destination. He watched the exterior pressure gauge until it registered that they were in the hard vacuum of space. Now they would finally learn whether the years of work was successful. He activated the slip drive.

Immediately the view through the windshield was replaced with purest unbroken blackness. This lasted only for a few seconds, after which the view was replaced with a spread of stars that no Daneelian eye had ever seen. Nikonas leaned forward, and after stretching against the lap belt he could see about one-third of Cannigaid's disc. And there it is. He settled himself back in the seat, with a sense of relief and accomplishment that few have ever known. We did it. One light-hour in five seconds travel time.

Congratulations, she said.

Congratulate her, he said, nodding towards Timia. I just build stuff. She did the math. Couldn't have done it without her.

We'll need her, then, Paradoe said.

Nikonas shrugged.

Now take us back.

What?

I said, take us back. He heard the stun pistol begin its charge cycle. He turned in his seat and saw that she had it pointed at him. She waved it a bit. Turn us around. I've got a promotion waiting.

He turned back to the console and activated a few controls.

And no funny stuff, she said. "You're not that valuable."

This, he decided, was a bluff; if he really were superfluous, she could have stunned him earlier, perhaps even before take-off, and the ship would be theirs. It was also certain that Timia had no loyalty to the Party, because if that were the case she could have offered her discoveries openly, and obviated all of the secrecy of the past five years. He decided to play along; if Paradoe had not expected him to see through her bluff, he had an advantage that he was not going to throw away. Setting the course back to Daneel was simple enough, and a few seconds after activating the slip drive they were back at Daneel again.

The Lessok Plains Airfield will do fine, she said. They're expecting us.

Nikonas steered the ship in that direction. Let me guess, he said. He wasn't really your brother.

She gave a wordless grunt, but said nothing. He remembered that it was she who had introduced Demas as her brother, which meant that they had been Bureau agents all along, and this confirmed that the ship had never really been a secret.

He cut in the thrusters to keep their velocity down, but in spite of his best efforts there was substantial turbulence as he brought them into Daneel's atmosphere. He turned back to see what Paradoe was doing. Face forward, she ordered, but in the brief glimpse before he turned back to the console he could tell that she was having a hard time keeping herself from falling over.

He put the ship into the steepest possible climb, and was rewarded with a gasp, a thump, and a grunt as Paradoe hit the back hatch. He looked back, and saw her sprawled against the hatch door. He turned back to the hatch release, and then hesitated. He could not bring himself to doing what had to be done. Paradoe's expressions of love for him may have been Bureau-mandated humbuggery, but he had really loved her. He looked back again and saw the hatch begin to open. He turned and his eyes met Timia's; she was awake and had activated the hatch release. She gave him a hard look and then turned her attention to Paradoe.

Paradoe's pleading voice could only barely be heard above the wind from the opening hatch. Vainly she tried to hold onto something, but when the hatch was about half open she lost her grip and with a scream that could only briefly be heard she vanished out of sight.

Nikonas turned back to the console, leveled the ship's flight, and hit the hatch closure. As the sound from the outside faded, he re-pressurized the cabin, and they spent another minute gasping to regain their breath, which ended with Timia sobbing.

It was lie! she cried. It was all a lie!

Nikonas nodded sadly; disillusioned by events, he felt a sickening sense of shame at what must have been going through Paradoe's mind during all of their moments of passion, passion