“Your microphone is off,” Lizzy said.

The woman jerked and looked at her screen.

“Oh, my goodness,” they heard her cheery voice. “Is it working now? Can you hear me?”

“Yes, we can,” Lizzy said.

“Good, I’m still getting used to these bells and whistles 27 ,” the lady said smiling. “What happened to the good old face-to-face, right?”

Mark and Lizzy both nodded, agreeing.

“Anyway, Lizzy and Mark how you are kids doing?”

Lizzy and Mark looked at each other. “We’re fine,” Lizzy said.

“Oh, good,” the lady. “My name is Yana and I have a lot to tell you today. So, get comfortable.”

***

Next day, Lizzy woke up early in the morning and was surprised to realize that she actually slept for a few hours. She felt reinvigorated 28 , but there was a feeling that she forgot something important. She looked at Mark who was sleeping peacefully at her side and got up.

She decided to do some yoga, something that she hadn’t done since the day her life dramatically changed a couple months ago. It seemed that the body remembered all the asanas to make the brain and the muscles relax. She was doing the exercises in her underwear and felt the sunbeams on her skin. It felt great. After a quick shower, she was sitting in the kitchen with a cup of coffee reading what Yana had sent after the meeting.

It was a file with the name of the people that were connected to Dolion and who were supposed to be actively involved in the virus distribution. According to Yana, they had the virus, its original variant. Dolion called it Potestas Dei (Power of God). It was very surprising to learn about that because Lizzy and Mark were under the impression that they had destroyed the virus.

“It takes many variants to get the one you really want,” Yana told them during the meeting. “Dolion had the final one and that was the one you destroyed. There are still some people who can create a more powerful version and that is why we need to eliminate any trace of it.”

Lizzy looked at the geography of the locations of the Dolion’s gang – that’s what she named it. No wonder they needed passports. It looked like they would have to do a bit of travelling.

“They have a few centers where they develop their new variants. Fortunately, we have our people infiltrated in all of them. Still, it won’t be easy to do what we want,” despite Yana’s cheerful demeanor, it was obvious what she was talking about took a lot of doing.

Lizzy checked the places they needed to go first. Those were two domestic destinations and did not even require travelling by plane.

“We are working on the way to use the uniqueness of your blood in, say, a less dramatic way. So, we will be meeting at some point soon to do some tests.”

Obviously, the news about how Lizzy got rid of Dolion, and his virus spread to this world as well.

Lizzy went over the highlights of the meeting in her head one more time: the gang was around the world, she will go through some tests, and they will travel. So far, things didn’t sound complicated. The thought was both comforting and disturbing. Today’s list of things was also straightforward 29 : they would go to a specified address, change cars and someone would drive them to a research facility the Committee had. They would take some of her blood and would do a few tests.

Her life changed so much over the short period of time. Those changes were making her a new person. She was not sure whether she liked that person, but she had to accept and embrace 30 the metamorphosis to survive. She felt a pang of nostalgia for the life she had, and a tear spilled down her cheek.

“Should I make us some breakfast?” she heard Mark’s voice.

She wiped the tear, turned to Mark, and smiled. “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

When she said that- just for a split of a second – she saw a man, standing behind Mark. It was the man from her dreams. She suddenly remembered that she had seen him again last night in her dream. She shut her eyes and opened them again. The man was gone.

“Are you ok?” Mark said.

“Yeah, just a …I’m hungry. Let’s eat already!”

They started to make breakfast together and the image of the man started to slowly fade from her memory. She could still remember what he was wearing though – a black kimono.

Super Lizzy

The place they arrived with their new driver, Tom – a young man who picked them up not too far away from the cottage – looked like a regular bakery. There were some patrons 31 inside, enjoying freshly baked pastries and hot beverages. Lizzy tried to remember what day it was and why there were so many people out of office so shamelessly 32 enjoying this nice weather and this cozy place. She couldn’t. It didn’t really matter.