Chapter 13: The Woman with the Elephant Skin

∞

“And how are we going to proceed,” Jim asked, but that’s where the conversation seemed to develop a hiccup. Before it seemed, at least to Jim, as if the three of them (why John was so much a part of this conversation was beyond him) were going to come up with some kind of game plan. As soon as that question, “and how are we going to proceed,” came out of his mouth his two associates clammed up. His boss, director Margraves, even got up from his leaning position, took a few steps away from him, and began scratching the top of his head. Meanwhile John started to fiddle with his watch and refused to make eye contact.

“You two know way more than what you are telling me, don’t you?” Jim asked neither in particular and both at the same time. “And right now you’re trying to figure out whether or not you should let me in on it. What? Is it a need to know thing? Well, I think I need to know.”

“It’s not a need to know thing, Jim. It’s a ‘how you will handle it’, thing.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? I think I handle things just fine.”

Margraves turned back toward the two, his attention focused on John, who simply shrugged his shoulders. “It’s your call. Frankly I’d like to know what he thinks of her and her stories.”

“Who and who’s stories?” Jim asked sternly. Then it hit him.

“Wait? They’re not the first, are they?”

The two other men both looked at each other and Jim knew he just struck gold.

“I want to meet her,” he blurted. “Whoever it is and whatever her stories are I want to meet her.”

“Screw it. John has a point and you’re in luck because she’s here. Hell, she demanded to be here from the beginning. She predicted years ago the twins would be in Missouri.”

The director was talking in circles and Jim thought about asking him to explain just what he was talking about, but the director was already on the move. He went for the door, moving through it without saying another word, and Jim and John followed.

“We have to hurry, because if our other two guests are waking up we don’t have a lot of time. Although I have no idea how they could possibly wake up. They’re on Phenobarbital which should keep them knocked out.”

“She said...” John began.

“I know what she said,” Richard snapped. “She says a lot of things that don’t make any sense.”

The director walked quickly down the corridor without slowing down. He made a series of lefts and rights and seemed to lose himself in whatever he was thinking, because he made the rest of the trip without speaking. He continued down the hallway, stopping at several doors long enough to scan his retina in order to gain access through the doors, waiting for each of his agents to pass through before he allowing them to close behind him, and Jim knew scanning his retina would not gain him access through those doors.

It took them almost five full minutes to make it to where they were going. His boss finally stopped at a heavy door with one single window in it. He turned toward Jim with a serious look on his face. “I’d warn you to keep an open mind about what you are about to see, but no matter what I say, still won’t prepare you for it, so I’m not going to bother. I will remind you, however, that you are not about to see what you are about to see. This never happened. Got it?”

Jim nodded his head yes but he thought his boss was being a little overly dramatic. It sounded like something you’d see in a movie.

He thought that until he walked through the door. Then he did get it.

∞

The room they walked into wasn’t the room with the elephant skinned woman. It was the room next to it, but the wall separating the two rooms was made of smoky glass. There was no doubt in Jim’s mind that it was a one way mirror and even though they could see into the room, the occupants of the room couldn’t see them.

The other room seemed to be an exercise room. There were weights, a chin up bar, medicine ball, and an array of professional machinery for everything from ab crunches, to butterflies, to presses.

There were only two people in the other room. The first was a plain, thin woman, about 5’10’’, who wore her long black hair in a bun, and a white lab coat. The other occupant was down on the floor doing pushups.

The woman stood as soon as Jim walked through the door. She stood almost seven feet tall, but that wasn’t the most remarkable thing about her. Her skin was grey, almost like an elephant’s skin, but a lot lighter, smooth as silk, and had an almost shiny quality about it. Jim couldn’t decide for sure whether it looked more like the skin of an elephant, or the skin of a dolphin. They had her dressed in a hospital gown, but it looked small on her. Her legs and arms were sleek, but they looked strong and agile.

In addition, her eyes were silver.

Until they weren’t. One second they were silver, just as silver as the Leighton girl’s were at certain times. However, just as the Leighton girl could change her eye color, so could this woman and her eyes went from silver to the same color as the other woman’s.

“She is here,” the woman said immediately. She approached the glass and stood directly in front of the place where the director was standing. “Now you will start to believe me! Now you will take action!”

“How’d she know we came in?” Jim asked. “Isn’t the glass mirrored on the other side?”

John nodded. “She can sense us. I have to admit she’s remarkable. She works out in that gym for at least half of every day. She’s relentless in her efforts to keep herself in shape. Says we should too if we want to live through the coming war.”

Margraves reached up and pushed a green button stationed on the wall next to where the glass ended. The button had only one word on it, ‘talk’. “Hold on now, Jo-Karna. Hold on. Nobody said anyone was here,” Margraves said.

“HA! You cannot lie to me about this. I know she is here. I can sense the Baran-Dak-Toi’s shadow from a mile away! She is alive and you have brought her here! I want to see her! Who else is with you? I hope that it is not another one of your stupid head doctors. I have been telling you the truth all these years. It is time for you to stop being stupid and start getting ready for what is coming. We are almost out of time!”

“Relax. Relax!” Margraves said. “He’s not a head doctor.”

“Good,” the grey-skinned woman commented. “I get tired of playing their stupid games. The humans on this side of the veils say and do some stupid things. Take me to her. Take me to Jo-Laina. She will be glad to see me again.”