Chapter 2

Looking straight into the oval she recognized the hall with the four doors and she wondered why the portal was here in her flat.

She was in two minds: she was thrilled to go again but feared being overwhelmed, risking losing herself completely.

She was really hungry but the portal was blocking the way to her fridge which actually forced her to make a snap decision.

She shook her head, amused how cunningly smart those Enzuins were to create the portal in front of her fridge. Remembering the amazing garden full of enticing looking fruits she resolutely stepped through the portal.

She chuckled as she recalled how she practically launched herself into it. She inspected the floor, which was immaculate, not a trace of blood to be seen! Pleased that everything looked fine she walked towards the pastel red door hoping she could have something to eat.

The door opened silently and Natalia was relieved to see the beautiful garden again. She had seen some interesting fruit when she was following the man and decided to have a try to eat one of those.

The fruit looked like an apple but it was just a little larger and the light green skin was decorated with bright red swirls. As she reached out to pluck one a female voice said, “You might not like those.”

As if stung by a bee Natalia spun around to see who had addressed her.

A beautiful tall woman dressed in a simple but slim-fitting ruby red long dress walked towards her. Her gentle smile reached her eyes as she said, “The more beautiful the fruit the more disappointing the flavor.”

Natalia laughed. “I knew it. If it looks too good to be true, it is too good to be true.”

“Very wise words, Natalia,” quipped the woman.

“Thank you,” Natalia replied, “May I know your name?”

“My name is Jeanette 10.24 but Jeanette will do,” replied the woman without batting an eye.

Natalia couldn’t believe her ears and stared at the woman not knowing what to say. The number 10.24 had an ominous ring to it.

Jeanette touched Natalia’s arm as she said, “I’m one of the AI’s helping out Greg.”

Natalia was amazed that Jeanette’s hand was comfortably warm and asked with awe, “You’re actually a robot?”

Jeanette’s laugh sounded sophisticated like a Geisha and with a stunning smile Jeanette replied, “My body is a class R android, which is as close to a human body as an android can be.”

Before Natalia could ask anything else her stomach was expressing its discontent quite loudly.

Jeanette giggled and said, “Come, I’ll show you the most nutrient and tasty fruit you can eat.”

“I’m glad I’ve met you. I’m literally starving.”

“I bet you are,” said Jeanette, “It’s quite apparent considering you’re dealing with so many nanites in your body.”

“Oh?” asked Natalia shocked, “do I need to feed them?”

“Considering what they have done, I think you should treat them with a nice full tummy.”

Natalia understood instantly what Jeanette was talking about and said a little subdued, “Of course. It totally makes sense. How stupid of me.”

Jeanette handed Natalia a dark brown egg-shaped fruit as she said, “It doesn’t look appetizing but I promise, you won’t be disappointed.”

Natalia examined the fruit and couldn’t prevent herself to think that she was about to eat a turd. Closing her eyes she hesitantly took a bite and she was almost overwhelmed by the exotic taste which exploded in her mouth.

The texture of the fruit was soft yet firm enough to have the feeling it would fill your stomach.

“Oh my, this is delicious!” exclaimed Natalia.

“Good,” said Jeanette as she was trying to hide her relief, “Please remember that one of those is more than enough. Eating more of them might have an adverse effect.”

Natalia looked with disbelief at the last bit of the fruit she hadn’t devoured yet. It actually was consistent with what she had discovered so far and she decided the last bit of fruit had to last the rest of the evening.

“Thanks for the advice,” Natalia said with a friendly tone.

“You’re welcome. It’s one of my objectives. To serve and protect you from any harm.”

Her stomach had already calmed down which brought her into a much more comfortable state of mind. She studied Jeanette trying to determine whether she could detect any hint she wasn’t made of flesh and blood.

“I must admit,” Natalia said, “I can’t distinguish you from a human.”

“You can’t,” Jeanette replied calmly, “unless you check my DNA. Only then you might discover I’m a cleverly constructed android.”

Natalia knew that the Enzuins were incredible but still it all felt off. For instance she wanted to know why she was here again.

“Jeanette,” Natalia asked hesitantly, “Do you know why the portal was active in my house?”

“No not really,” she answered, “Greg will know but because you took your time he had to go somewhere else and so he asked me to be your host for the time being.”

Natalia decided to ignore the fact that they have been waiting for her. However the name ‘Greg’, Jeanette had mentioned, was far more interesting.

Trying not to sound too keen she asked, “Greg?”

Jeanette smiled wistfully. “His name is Gregory but for some unclear reason I like to call him Greg.”

It was strange for Natalia to finally know the name of the man. She liked him, although she felt he was hiding something and was a little disappointed by the fact he kept her at arm’s length.

Maybe he was an android like Jeanette which would explain his behavior although it would make him a liar.

She had to know the answer and asked quite bluntly, “Is he an android as well?”

Jeanette sighed and with a melancholic edge to her voice she said, “No, he is just like you: a human.”

Natalia was relieved hearing the answer but was surprised how sad Jeanette looked. It suddenly dawned on her that the woman was an AI encased in a super sophisticated female body and it definitely looked like that Jeanette just had expressed some feelings!

That was unheard of! At least on Earth mankind never managed to create an AI which could do that, not even using the most powerful computer.

Looking at the woman Natalia could hardly fathom Jeanette was actually an artificial intelligence program running on a supercomputer, which was cleverly hidden in her android body.

She tried to ignore that train of thought, Jeanette was a sophisticated computer, and decide to treat her as a normal person. Clearly Jeanette was more human than android and she asked, “What’s wrong, Jeanette? Did I upset you somehow?”

“No,” responded Jeanette silently, “I’m not upset with you. I feel sad for Greg. I’m afraid that is something for him to share with you. It would be wrong if I tell it to you.”

“Oh okay,” Natalia murmured softly.

Natalia hated to be kept in the dark but there were many unanswered questions she wanted to have answered.

“Gregory indirectly told me there have been, or perhaps still are, other people?”

The woman smiled and said with a slight slyness in her voice, “There have been others, yes.”

Natalia didn’t like the evasive answer but kept her smile plastered on her face as she asked, “All, female?”

Jeanette shook her head as she responded dreamily, “No, there were males once in a while.”

That snippet of information helped to ease her mind a little bit. She had worried about all kinds of horror scenarios which were minimized in her mind now; but still she was totally in the dark about what the Enzuins had planned for her.

She was intrigued by how this amazingly beautiful woman fit into this strange scheme but her ultra-short answers were tiring.

It felt like she had to pull every answer out of the woman but she kept her calm and asked with a friendly voice, “And all of them desperately needed help?”

“Yes,” answered Jeanette without blinking an eye, “You see, the Enzuins have one basic rule: only if both parties are in alignment it will happen.”

“Both parties?” asked Natalia confused.

“You and Greg,” explained Jeanette, “For example: he wanted you to be here and you are in alignment otherwise you would have stayed at your place.”

It all started to make sense for Natalia: it was obvious now why Gregory was so tensed trying to keep her in consensus all the time. But it still didn’t give her a satisfactory answer to the question of why she was selected in the first place.

“Tell me Jeanette,” started Natalia with a sweet voice, “Do you know why the Enzuins have chosen me?”

“Well,” she answered slowly, “Not exactly, but looking back at the others who have been here before I can tell you that most of them were headstrong and extremely resourceful.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I have trained them all.”

Natalia looked the woman up and down with an appraising eye and could not see anything out of the ordinary which could lead to any convincing conclusion.

Jeanette smiled warmly as she noticed Natalia studying her physique and said, “I would like to help you master various fighting techniques.”

Natalia gasped as she heard the bold statement. She liked her sports like badminton and swimming but she never had an affinity towards those kind of activities.

She looked at Jeanette incredulously as she quipped, “Well, I hope you will have enough patience with me because I do really suck at martial arts.”

“One once said, humble students are the best,” Jeanette responded with a laugh, “You’ll be fine. The way you’ve handled those men was absolutely brilliant.”

“What do you mean?” Natalia asked bewildered, “I just ran away from them and I stupidly chose the wrong alleyway. If it wasn’t for Gregory’s intervention I would have been raped by those men.”

“You’re forgetting a few pivotal moments. First of all you stayed calm while you kept up your appearances. Secondly, the way you stepped out of your heels was amazing; all those men were totally captivated by your little act. Thirdly, throwing the shoes in a perfect lob accompanied by your playful command to catch them was utterly brilliant.”

Natalia had to giggle as she remembered all those men tried to catch those shoes.

Jeanette gently placed her hand on Natalia’s arm as she said, “Actually it was a little sad to see you couldn’t believe that you could have such a profound effect on people.”

Natalia sighed deeply and looked a little forlorn as she softly said, “I think the alcohol was the double edged sword there. It made me a lot more daring but it also numbed me much more than I thought.”

“Still,” reacted Jeanette passionately, “it’s the out of the box idea what counts. Granted, your execution needed some fine-tuning but without that initial spark other things would have happened and you’d have been suffering the consequences.”

Dumbfounded Natalia looked at the woman whose hand was still resting on her arm.

“Are you telling me that my little show and ditching my shoes saved me from being raped?”

Jeanette nodded as she confirmed softly, “As Greg had said to you; you did rescue yourself.”

Natalia still couldn’t fathom what the android had said to her. As she tried to recall what she was thinking at the moment those men had cornered her, she vaguely had the idea to distract them so she could run away. But those memories were all a bit blurry because she had been heavily affected by the alcohol in her system.

Jeanette squeezed her arm softly as she said with an upbeat tone, “Let me show you around. By the time you have seen the most important venues Greg will be back with us.”

Natalia’s head was still reeling with what she had seen; Enzuinia was enormous! The lovely sandy beach and the Olympic sized swimming pool were amazing but the dojo and the tennis/badminton hall were wonderful as well. She knew she could spend many hours here without getting bored.

The only thing she found disturbing was the fact that there was nobody else. It felt like a ghost town.

“So, Natalia,” said Jeanette, “What do you think of the facilities you have seen so far?”

“Amazing,” Natalia said hesitantly, “but it is very quiet. I mean I haven’t seen any other persons.”

“They are there,” answered Jeanette resolutely, “Don’t worry you’ll meet them when it’s time.”

Natalia couldn’t prevent a roll of her eyes which made Jeanette laugh. “Patience, Natalia. Trust me you’re lucky to have all this to yourself for the moment.”

“Why is that, Jeanette?” Natalia instantly asked as she turned to face her, “and why aren’t you telling me why I’m here?”

“She is definitely headstrong,” Jeanette murmured while shaking her head.

Natalia sighed as she clearly heard Jeanette’s remark and conceded, “There’s one thing I can’t stand: when I’m kept in the dark.”

“Maybe,” a male voice said behind Natalia, “it’s time to explain a few additional things.”

Natalia recognized the voice and as she turned around to face him she exclaimed happily, “Gregory!”

Somehow it felt as if she had missed him but then she figured it was her hunger to know the truth that needed satisfaction. The man leaned against the post of a door opening and as soon as she saw a distressed look appear on his face she knew she had responded a tad bit too enthusiastically. It pained her remembering he had kept her at arm’s length.

Trying to minimize the damage she turned her happy expression into a stern look as she said, “You took your time.”

Gregory stared at her for a long time before he cleared his throat and briefly looked at Jeanette before he said dryly, “I see that Jeanette has shared some information with you.”