Rand woke up to a fishy smell, one so strong that it seemed to soak into the inside of his skin. He groaned, pushed back the quilt and sat up, but when he woke up, the smell disappeared like a hallucination.
Rand sniffed, and all he could smell was the faint scent of high-grade incense—from the Egyptian cotton sheets and quilt beneath him. The morning sun poured into the room through the window, and the silk curtains gave off a hazy light like pearls. Compared to Rand's apartment near the subway and parking lot, the room was so quiet that one would want to smile on a morning like this. A bird stopped on the balcony, and Rand heard the sound of its wings flapping, but when he came to the balcony, the bird had already flown away, and Rand only picked up a long feather with a blue color. He put his hands on the railing of the balcony and looked out, and on the opposite side of the road he saw a beautiful green space and woods with pleasure. The sky was unbelievably clear and cloudless. The azure blue sky seemed to be a huge blue gem covering Rand's head without any flaws. Under such a sky, it seemed that there was no haze in the world.
Rand was breathing the dry air, and he was starting to like it a little bit.
There was a ringing in the room, and Rand rushed back to the room, and it took him some time to find the phone.
"Hey, Rand, are you satisfied with the apartment I've prepared for you?"
A gentle voice sounded in the microphone.
Almost as soon as he heard the voice, Rand felt himself smiling.
"Oh," he sat casually on the sofa, his body relaxed, "I should have thought it was you, Caroline. Everything is so perfect."
Caroline giggled on the other end of the phone, and Rand seemed to be able to see her happy smile, even through the voice.
Caroline is only a year older than Rand, and if Rand's memory doesn't fade, he will remember how he, Vincent and Caroline went hunting together in the fall years ago. She was a frequent visitor to the Sivers family, a delightful neighbor and Rand's favorite sister.
And now, she is Vincent's private secretary.
Without her, Rand felt that his relationship with Vincent might have been worse than it is now. And what Caroline said next further confirmed his idea.
"… In fact, Vincent was so mad at me that he tried to buy you a luxury villa with three swimming pools and two Lamborghinis, and after I told him you would never like it, he tried to buy it again. The most luxurious hotel in the city center. So I told him, give it up and let me do it. I was in the same apartment you live in when I was in college, and I knew it was great.”
Rand let out a long, grateful sigh. "Yes, that's really great, Caroline...Thank you."
He sincerely thanked her.
Even if Caroline didn't say anything, judging from Rand's experience with Vincent, it was definitely not an easy thing to persuade Vincent.
Caroline burst out laughing again, her laugh as charming as she herself.
"Okay, Rand, I'm really glad you liked that apartment, in fact, I'm trying to make Vincent a little…"
"A little more normal." Rand picked up on her.
Caroline lowered her voice.
"Hey, don't let Vincent hear this... Well, I just called and told you that you can go to the deputy editor's office of "America Express" a little later to be tortured, and Vincent's customized ergonomics for you The office chair is still in the factory in Switzerland—sorry, there's nothing I can do to reject that chair on your behalf."
"I see."
Rand said, feeling a sense of relief.
Only the gods knew how reluctant he was to go to a completely unfamiliar place to be scrutinized, whispered or something.
Then he and Caroline had a pleasant conversation.
When he was about to hang up, Rand hesitated a little. Caroline felt it quickly: "Did something happen?"
After a few seconds of silence, Rand couldn't help but ask, "So... is something wrong with Vincent? No, Caroline, don't tell me he's all right, I know something must be wrong, Otherwise it should be him who called me."
Rand is well aware of Vincent's paranoia, so when he finds out that Caroline is calling, nothing is right.
Caroline's voice dropped.
"Uh... I'm not sure if I should tell you. But... well, I think you already know about the chemical spill over at Blue Moon Bay. In fact, the ship is ours, and the people from the Oceanographic Bureau Desperately trying to trouble us. But don't worry, Rand, you know Vincent's best at solving problems, and I'm sure you'll continue to be mentally harassed by Vincent in a few days."
Rand couldn't help laughing.
There is no doubt that after hearing that Vincent was just busy with the leak of raw materials, Rand was relieved.
In addition, he felt that he could more or less forgive Vincent's nervousness about water pollution.
After hanging up, he went to the kitchen to get himself some food. According to Caroline, everything was ready, including his favorite "Yummy" brand breakfast cereal.
However, after Rand opened the cabinet, he didn't find the box of cereal. He vaguely remembered that he might have taken out a box yesterday, but...
Rand frowned at the jumble of jars and boxes, dried sage, salad dressing, canned tomatoes on the counter.
No cereal.
Rand shrugged his shoulders and quickly put the matter aside. The celibacy of the past ten years has made him as sloppy and rough as all straight single men, he just has a very vague doubt, and this doubt also quickly after he found some medium roasted Colombian coffee beans. forgotten.
Rand got himself coffee and turned to look at another creature in the room.
The fish's wound was completely covered by albuginea, and it looked in good spirits, and the water splashed while spinning around wet the table.
Maybe an illusion? Rand thought it seemed a little bigger than it had seen yesterday.
"Hey, you seem to be recovering well."
He took a sip of coffee and tapped playfully on the edge of the salad bowl, then remembered that he hadn't fed the fish since he caught it.
Rand wasn't quite sure what the fish was supposed to eat—he tried putting some sugar-free cereal on the water (he hated it), but the fish didn't respond at all. So Rand divided some fried chicken breasts from his breakfast.
The moment he was about to put the white shredded meat into the salad bowl, the fish suddenly bounced up, grinning and biting the chicken breast viciously.
"Ow—"
Rand suddenly withdrew his hand, and he was startled.
If he hadn't stopped fast enough, the fish would have bitten his fingers.
After swallowing the shredded meat, the fish returned to calm, and it continued to slowly circle in the salad bowl, but the two circles on its body seemed to have become more vivid. Through the refraction of the water surface, Mr. Rand It was something like that fish was watching him with its strange eyeballs under the water.
Heck, he actually got back a carnivorous fish.
Just when Rand thought so, he saw the fish float up and swallow the cereal he had put in the water one by one.
Rand swore he had never known a fish like this one, eating meat and cereal.
Rand tried to get some more chicken breasts, only this time he didn't dare to hold the shredded meat in his hands, he used a fork.
Just like before, the fish popped out of the water with unimaginable ferocity and bit the flesh. From this Rand knew that the fish must have hard teeth in its mouth (although it was completely different from what he had observed before), and he heard that crisp, hard bone as it collided with stainless steel. However, he did not notice a clear cut mark on the fork he retracted.
Forgive his carelessness, because while he was eagerly studying the odd fish, his doorbell rang with an unpleasant frequency.
"Ding-dong-ding-dong-ding-dong-"
The person ringing the doorbell must have been impatient. He pressed the doorbell button before the previous tone had worn off, and Rand heard only a series of harsh sounds.
He opened the door and saw the annoying guy.
A tall man with strawberry hair.
Rand was stunned for a while, unable to get his tongue back.
He stared at each other dumbfounded.
That's right, the strawberry-colored head... That kind of extremely bright red, like a fresh strawberry, is unusually punching.
Rand couldn't believe that someone in this world would actually dye their hair this color.
"Strawberry-colored hair" doesn't seem to care about Rand's dazedness at all, maybe it's because of habit? He winked at Rand, then smiled and handed Rand the plate in his hand.
"I noticed someone moved in yesterday, it's great, I finally have neighbors, here are the cookies I baked, many flavors, chocolate, vanilla, and a great strawberry flavor, hope you'll like it , oh by the way, did I forget to introduce myself, I am Rogers who lives across from you."
He said quickly, and after reading his name, he stuck out his tongue and licked his lips. Rand had to see the pink lipstick on his lips again. Oh yes, he also painted his eyebrows and lashes, and some silver glitter shone under the man's eye sockets.
Rogers' skin is wheat-colored, an unusually tight cherry pink short-sleeved T-shirt draped over him with difficulty, and when he handed Rand the plate full of bunny-shaped cookies, the muscles in his arms were smeared. Glitter in the sun with oil.
He gave Rand an urge to step back, a creature that Rand had completely touched before.
Rand wasn't quite sure how he should approach Rogers, but he reflexively took the cookie and gave him an embarrassed smile.
"Ah, that... I'm Rand, Rand Sivers, thank you, the color is lovely... I mean the cookies are lovely."
Rogers covered his mouth and laughed like a girl.
"Oh, Sivers? I like that name."
He showed Rand his left hand covering his mouth, and it wasn't until this time that Rand realized that something was wrong with his left hand. It was a prosthetic limb, covered with artificial skin made of silicone, and then Rand saw a double-headed mermaid logo on the elbow of that hand, with the words DW underneath.
This is a product of Deep White Biotechnology.
Rand's eyes widened, and Rogers had spoken before he had organized the language: "That's a great thing, isn't it? It's not on the market yet, but I figured out a way to volunteer. With it, weightlifting becomes Beautiful. Vincent Sivers, I praise him."
He habitually gave Rand a bunny-girl wink when he mentioned Vincent, so much so that Rand closed his mouth.
Perhaps it would be better not to tell Rogers that Vincent was his brother, Rand instinctively thought—but even that didn't prevent Rand from classifying Rogers as a "good guy," even if the latter had It's unbearable in every sense.
Rogers leaves ten minutes later, and by the time he leaves, Rand already knows everything around him: where there are good restaurants, the coffee shop on the corner with shitty coffee but great milkshakes, the shared washing machine in the apartment Best not to use it because someone peed in it...
In any case, he is indeed a warm-hearted person. Also, his cookies are really delicious.
Rand went back to the kitchen and finished the plate of cookies with coffee.
On the other hand, when Rogers returned to the room, he received a call.
"You shouldn't have told Rand that."
Caroline said reproachfully.
Unlike the cheerful and cheerful woman in Rand's impression, she was stern and cold in front of Rogers.
"I have my measure." Rogers was in the kitchen, his head tilted under his phone, his hands constantly kneading the dough. The dough smelled of butter, granulated sugar and vanilla, and molds of fawns and stars were piled haphazardly on one side of the chopping board. In the oven behind Rogers, strawberry soufflés are puffing up under the heat.
"Let him see the dark white markings to make him less vigilant... Trust me, I know better than you how to approach a person." Rogers rolled out the dough, rolled it out and started picking out molds. He gave up the stars and The little deer finally picked up a Q version of the skull mold.
"I warn you, you must never let him find out..."
"Hey, calm down baby, it's definitely not me who should really worry about exposure, I have experience."
"Your previous experience was to kill rather than protect someone..."
"My previous experience allowed me to break through many protections, get close to the gang leader who had never had contact with outsiders for 30 years and gained his trust and finally killed him, by the way, I finally got all his property, until now 'Viper' The gang of people here are still waiting for me to go back and take over the position of leader," Rogers placed a cookie shell in the shape of a skull on a baking sheet lined with greased paper. During this process, he also took the time to go to the mirror and touch up his makeup a little. "Caroline, I will help you watch your little ones, don't worry."
…
After a moment, Caroline put down the phone in silence.
She looked at the notebook at hand and organized and tabulated the information Rogers had given her: Rand's actions in the room, Rand's sleep, Rand's wake... Of course, they weren't in Rand There are monitors in his room, which Vinson had assured Rand. But Vincent still thought of other ways. He let another person, the world's top killer "Spider", live next door to Rand. And "spider" can provide information to Vincent by observing Rand (sounds in the room, ordinary contact), and he is very good at this.
Rogers is a pseudonym provided by "Spider". Vincent and Caroline both know this, "Spider" just finished a big case recently, as he said, killing "Viper", the leader of a criminal gang that almost dominated the entire North American drug market. . He wants to take a vacation to earn a little "pocket money"
"Spider" is a dangerous person from any point of view, but Caroline has no other choice. After all, this is a special period.
Thinking of this, she sighed helplessly.
When she opened the powder powder, she saw two thin wrinkles on the corner of her mouth - these were all grown in the past two days.
Caroline's mood became worse, she stood up, picked up the memo, walked into Vincent's office, and put the things in front of Vincent.
"Everything is normal, Vincent."
she says.
"You don't look happy." Vincent's chair turned from behind the huge steel desk, his blood-red eyes looked at Caroline, pale like a living zombie crawling out of a coffin.
Caroline held out her hand at him.
"Honestly I think I'm in a mixed mood right now," she sat in front of Vincent. "At least you've figured out a way to adjust your own control over Rand. No monitors? God, it's a terrible improvement, I can hardly believe you can actually do this."
Vincent twitched the corners of his mouth. He opened the memo, looking eagerly at Rand's every move recorded above.
Caroline rubbed her eyebrows and continued talking wearily.
"But, 'Spider'?"
"I swear to Rand, there are no monitors, no tracking... I can only send someone by my side to watch him from a distance and protect him. And 'Spider' is the best candidate."
Vinson said.
"But he's a killer, a wanton killer!"
Caroline involuntarily increased her voice.
"He has a miniature bomb installed in his prosthesis." Vincent raised his eyes to look at Caroline, "I can kill him anytime I want, and he will learn to be obedient."
Caroline sat back in the chair as if all her strength had been drained, and she felt that her face had become more wrinkled than before.
"I really think it's impossible to get you back on track. When will you become more normal?" Caroline's heart was full of frustration.
It is not the first time she has been exposed to the dark side of Vincent, and even many times, she herself is an accomplice. Still, she inevitably wanted to get Vincent back to normal—she still remembered what a pleasant person Vincent was when Rand wasn't missing.
And now, everything is a mess.
At the very least, Rand should be kept away from these damn things...
The thought flashed through Caroline's mind, and it gradually began to sprout like a seed, taking root and becoming firm.