Chapter 5

I never intended to live my life as a workaholic, but the financial rewards were so fantastic I sort of slid into it. My time became filled, even my weekends, working for both New York and Santiago, with occasional chats with Carlotta on the phone in the evenings. Managing large amounts of money is a huge amount of work. And if you try to push too much money through a model, the market will turn back on you with an alligator bite. I was working in my hotel room, hunched over my laptop at 3 AM on a Saturday morning on the sixth of September, staring at over $200M of fund investments. I was just thinking about how to tell New York to freeze new investments for a while, when I heard a voice call out behind me, "Hi Gary!"

I jumped! I turned around and tried to smile. "Oh, Hi! I didn't hear you jump in!"

A'moth giggled. "How have you been?"

"Super busy. It's nice to see you. How about you?"

"Busy too..." She looked at me thoughtfully.

"I'm surprised you didn't come sooner."

A'moth nodded. "I tried a few times, in the evenings. You were always on the phone. And then I saw you with Carlotta and Isabelle. I didn't want to interfere..."

"Oh..." I blushed after a moment. "It's a confusing situation, isn't it?"

"Yeah, just a bit..." A'moth walked over to a couch by my desk, sitting down and watching me.

She was simply dressed, a plain jacket and jeans, her hair was in nice braids, her fingernails and lips a natural human color. My empathy was picking up great calm, with just a hint of sadness. She smiled at me. "How have you been Gary, really?"

I came and sat down on the small couch beside her. There was just enough room for us not to press into each other. "I've been okay. More than okay really. Work is fabulous." I sighed. "A black hole for time too. Remember me telling you about the hedge fund I'm managing?"

"Sure."

"Well, it made 17% this quarter. After taxes, New York deposited my fee today. I've been staring at it all evening, getting goose bumps. I still can't get over it." I turned my laptop on the desk for A'moth to see and popped up a window. It showed a deposit of $838,440.06, bringing my balance up within a thousand dollars of $1.2M.

"A chunk of change, Gary," said A'moth smiling in approval. "And what are you going to do with all that money?"

"Oh, buy a house, and a car I guess... A nice house, a nice car... The Santiago branch is footing my hotel and car rentals bills for six months, as part of my relocation package. But I really should be thinking of moving out of here..."

A'moth nodded at me. I leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. She gave me a small smile back and lightly ran her hand through my hair. It looked as if she were about to say something, but then changed her mind. I had never seen her this quiet.

"A'moth?"

"Uh huh..."

"Are you upset with me, about Carlotta?"

A'moth reached back and stroked my head for a while, the strokes slowly turning into caresses on my cheek. She finally shrugged. "I have no right to be. In five thousand years, I've never taken a lover. I don't know what I was expecting. Gary, we won't age together. In seventy years, you'll be very old or dead, and I'll still be just like this. Think about it."

I gulped and nodded. "I have thought about it. How old will you live?"

"From what my mom told me, it's really open ended. The Chungierans have been modifying their own genes for millions of years. They eliminated the aging process. That's what makes the interstellar flights possible. I could still get killed of course."

I shook my head in bewilderment. "There's still so much I don't understand. Could you tell me more about the prison ships?"

"Sure. Uh, want to go somewhere for a bite to eat first?"

"Uh, you mean my bed?"

"Huh?!" A'moth burst into laughter, a sweet melodious sound. "No! I'm so sorry! I didn't realize how I must sound! I meant food we both could eat, a snack."

"Oh. Okay, sure. The hotel has an all-night snack-bar downstairs."

"Oh, I was thinking of something a little more interesting than that. Do you speak French?"

"No."

"Then let me do the ordering. I know a fantastic spot in Paris that serves breakfast crepes. It's 7 AM there. Hug me?"

I nodded nervously and we stood up and held each other tightly. As I looked around at my hotel room, there was a quick flash, and then another. We were standing inside a closet. The door was ajar, showing what looked like the basement of an old, dimly lit industrial building. The place looked deserted.

"Where the hell are we?" I whispered.

"Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island," whispered A'moth. "We're one jump away from Paris. My planned jump point has a human nearby. I'm retargeting..."

I nodded. "How far are we?"

"From Paris? If you measure on the surface, 4,773 kilometers. The critical distance is 4,642 kilometers, the straight jump-line through the planet..."

"Wow! You have all these distances memorized?"

"Gary, I've been mapping this planet for five-thousand years."

"Oh... right... Uh, A'moth?"

"Yeah?"

"Our first jump, before here, where did we go?"

A'moth sighed, giving up for a moment trying to scan Paris. "We took a jump-line of 6,137 kilometers Santiago, Chile to Acapulco, Mexico, then another jump-line of 4,602 kilometers to get here."

"Oh. Well, I always wanted to go to Acapulco. How long was I there?"

"About seven hundred milliseconds."

"Ah... Perhaps someday we can stay longer."

"Fine. On the way back, we'll stay a full second!" A'moth leaned over and gave me a playful kiss. "Now shut up and let me concentrate!" She resumed her scanning. "Have something... There should be a window in a few seconds... Hold tight..." There was another flash, and we were in an alley.

"Come on!" said A'moth smiling, as we came out onto the sidewalk. "We're about two blocks away."

I followed in silence, stunned to find myself walking in the morning sunlight of late summer. The Eiffel Tower was clearly visible a few kilometers away. After a short walk we sat down at a charming café and A'moth ordered for both of us.

"How are we going to pay for this?" I asked.

"Uh, euros I guess."

"Oh... Sorry..." I felt like an idiot. "You know what your destination is like, before you jump?"

"Sure. How else could I avoid jumping into someone's body or chair or whatever?"

"Oh... Yeah, good point."

"It's like being there with my mind's eye," whispered A'moth. "I use my visual image to create a path for my mind, and then decide whether to have my body follow."

"Wow... It seems so incredible..."

"After five thousand years, it's as natural as walking to me."

I nodded. We chatted pleasantly for a while. She was right, the crepes were fabulous. I was somewhat surprised to see A'moth eating normal food, but I kept quiet. After breakfast, A'moth picked up the tab and we walked around Paris for almost an hour until A'moth noticed how sleepy I was. We found a deserted spot and were back in my hotel room seconds later. A'moth insisted the Mexican layover was a full second. It seemed faster to me.