"Good day, Miss Talissa." the tallest figure brightly said, removing her hood. "I am Keighley Jottane."

Keighley Jottane revealed herself to be a 40-45 year old woman with past shoulder-length black hair, some fake blush on her gaunt cheeks, and vivid red lipstick that accentuated her long pale face. She had prominent violet-ish-brown eyes, and there was something Talissa couldn't quite point out. Something strange about her overall appearance, excluding the formless clothing and her suffocating presence. She was hauntingly beautiful, in her own way. The devil was beautiful, she guessed.

Some murmurs echoed throughout the coffee shop, whispers and soundless questions arising in peoples' eyes. The tension rose.

"Good day," Talissa's voice was as confident as Keighley's, although her face had paled. "I'm sorry, but what do you need from me?" Again whispers. It was as if her every word or action made them talk.

"Oh it's okay, little one," Keighley said, fake-cheerily, which only earned another stare of confusion from Talissa. "Just an inquiry about the launch and the emergency landing."

I think you've got the wrong person," Talissa said. "I don't think I know what you're talking about." She said. Although this could be a huge opportunity to learn something useful, she started to detest this conversation.

Keighley Jottane leaned in, her breath staining her nose.

"Well, your identity card in your left pocket says that you were born on the 21st of May in the year 2518, your parents are Lora and Liam Mercedell. You also have a sister, Clarissa Mercedell, from your mother's side. Thus you are Talissa Mercedell." She whispered, smiling. "I have a copy right here." She withdrew an identity card from her cloak and showed it before putting it back, leaning out. The card brilliantly resembled hers in completion.

It was hard to hide the shock.

"Go with us, you'll know more about it."

"Wha-What about it?" Talissa cautiously asked. She didn't like the woman.

"First of all, if you do not agree to go with us, your parents and other loved ones might get killed." She simply said. "A devastating situation," she expressed fake concern, clapping a hand to her mouth. "So, if you do agree, you will help us to find out who this baddie is, young girl, and we avoid any conflict. Alright?"

"Listen, lady," Talissa leaned in, also whispering, "I've got threatened from both sides and even if I agree, I can't even go. So those threats don't work on me anymore, capisce?"

A dreadful silence elapsed.

"Capisce capisce, oh esta maldita chica," Keighley seemed to swear under her breath. "What if we told you we can get you out of here. Right now. This instant."

This changed everything.

"When?" Talissa asked Keighley, glaring at the pale-faced woman.

"That's a good girl." she smiled. Talissa hated that smile for some reason. "We ask you to come to this place," she passed a business card. "Wednesday 10 o'clock sharp. Got that?"

"Yes."

"And don't forget to bring your friend, Mr. Ignacio, here as well." She winked. "He'll have a lot to tell us too."

"Fine. I'll do that." What the Hell-

"See you on Wednesday!" She smirked.

"Bye," Talissa grunted under her breath when Keighley left the room. Talissa, too, wanted to leave this place. She just wanted to go home and forget everything - the easiest way out. But she couldn't. What a bummer.

Perhaps she wouldn't have to deal with that anymore.

***

"Do you already want her? Your place?" it was asked. It was cold. Dark. Gloomy.  On the evening of the 14th.

"Yes, bastardo, yes, guapo, and you seem jealous."

"I'm not."

"The question is: of her or of me?"

"I hate you."

"I love you too."

"But why?"

"I'm impatient. Change of plans. Now out my hair."

***

"Let's go," Stoll ordered. Skylar looked around. No students, no robots, no scientists; no one was in the room. No one except – Stoll, but wait. Was that-

"Green fire, yes," Stoll said. "We got a sample from the FDA, don't ask me how."

"Indeed?" He breathed, the strange green light reflected in his eyes. When Adams left the hall, a few spontaneous bursts of green had lit up the room. The fire then glowed softly, confined in a transparent glass container.

"Could kill, swallow or shock by a single touch. Russian roulette," Stoll stated. "This was probably what killed Mascar."

"Not the shooting?"

"No, Skylar. Not the shooting."

That evening the whole team was escorted to a never-seen-before metallic-coloured chamber which included an intricate retro façon in its design. It was absolutely circular around the openings, and the hinges were emphasized.

A few MSC staff members and police officers were in the room, each distributed by social status and importance to the meeting. Ender, Avin, and Talissa sat at the very front row, the last straightening up when noticing him.

"Congrats on your recovery! How do you do?" Talissa said first when the spaceman sat next to her at the far right near the entrance. Avin too, looked joyful.

"Hi, thanks, Talissa, I'm fine. It's been hectic especially after the launch. Who knows what this time's gonna be about...?" He looked in front of him.

"Stoll said he found someone. The one who stopped us." She said.

"Quick," He commented, eyes glued to the wall. Although he didn't watch TV at home, the side-effects screens had on him grew stronger with every minute. It could make one sad, worried, frightened, joyful – anything, if only one watched it long enough. Many people had become robots due to artificially-induced numbness. It was taboo to mention that, of course.

"Yeah. Actually, I've been meaning to ask you - haven't you heard of the rumours? That the same green flames were seen in a house in Italy?" Talissa said.

"Really? What happened?"

"Death. The death of a lady, who is, unfortunately, my distant relative, Kelly Rider," Talissa replied. "She was found unconscious on the floor and was rushed to the hospital, but no trace of poisoning or harm was found. She wasn't sick with psychologically or artificially-induced diseases either."

"I'm sorry, did you know her well?" Skylar said. Judging by the expression on her face, she wasn't too worried about Kelly Rider.

"Well, not really, to be honest," she said, "I'm just interested in one of the two coincidences leading up to the death, or maybe, murder."

"A coincidence? You don't mean the green flames part, do you?"

"No, not that, although that's confusing too," Talissa said. "I mean that some violet fabric was found in her hands. Like at the spaceship when you took some. It was a pretty big deal."

Did he ever hold some violet fabric?

"I don't think that's a coincidence. They're trying to weaken us." Ender suddenly intervened. The other two astronauts had been long ago listening intently on the conversation."

"Well, we can't be sure of that," Talissa said, almost glaring at him. "For all we know it may be nothing but an accident."

"Accompanied by green fire within a ten-mile radius in both cases," Ender said. "Right."

She didn't have time to respond to his remark. The screen suddenly went black. A white title "Meeting of the Mendson Organization(MO) 14.05.2541" marked the start of the meeting. Stoll confidently strode into the room, an unreadable expression on his thin face.

"Then we may begin the meeting. Mr. Bierman, dare bring us up to date?"

"Yes, I may. Thank you, Mr. Stoll." Bierman got up and walked over to the man. "But I need to use the projector. Do you mind?"

"No, not at all." Stoll passed the projector controller. However, suddenly, Bierman's expression drastically changed. Fear on his sunken features, the old man shrunk to the height of a five-year-old boy. "Don't mess up, or there'll be consequences. This meeting is very important for us." Stoll whispered before he went, so quietly that only Skylar could hear. "N-no, I won't, of course, I won't-" The man stuttered, but Stoll cut him off, "Of course you won't. Go." Looking back every now and then, Henry Bierman stumbled to his place at the front of the wall. The room resembled an auditorium with dim lights, plenty of people, and the freezing cold.

"Now, firstly, I would like to s-say," an image of a ship out in space appeared on the wall. "I would like to s-say, that the suddenly landed spacecraft – no-no, the landed suddenly spacecraft, - no, that's not it." He cursed under his breath. Hushed whispers started filling the room. "Now, I would like to start with the necessary apologies to the astronauts for the launch. We do not know why it was stopped, but we have some information that would help to understand this particular case." He cleared his throat. "Let's start with the facts. At nine hours nine minutes thirty-seven seconds on the twelfth of April in two thousand five hundred and forty-one, the spacecraft "Big Hope" unexpectedly landed on the ground after a flight duration of 24 seconds. It barely escaped the furthest layer from Earth – the exosphere. One of the scientists and astrophysicists who supervised this spaceflight – Mrs. Violet – reported seeing an unknown individual doing something with the controls of the spacecraft emergency section within the duration of the spaceflight and a few seconds before. The one who controlled the emergency section – Chris Norwell – is now placed under arrest until court investigation. Mrs. Violet didn't have time to warn anybody until the spacecraft landed. After checking the video cameras built in the emergency section, Deputy Inspector Loughty of the Mendson Police Station, who is in this meeting right now, confirmed the information. The suspect is now placed under arrest and is now at the Mendson Science Centre in the corridor to our left. He does not reveal his name, status, and anything else. He refuses to speak unless the – quote - "all of them and the astronauts" come." The screen switched to a question-scheme, consisting of a big question box, two options in white ones below. "Now, the question is: what to do? First, Mr. Stoll can interrogate the suspect, who is next door with tightened security, and the second is that we wait."

Not a single word or whisper disrupted the long silence that followed. Sometimes people glanced at each other as if trying to decipher what's on their minds.

"Who stands by the first option – raise your hand." Silently, three-quarters of the people shot their hands up in the air, including Bierman himself and the other astronauts. Skylar hesitantly followed suit, still considering the second option. But what could come of a mere conversation?

"Who stands by the second option – you know what to do." The rest raised their hands, and, after half a minute, the voting ended. "Now, as I see that most of the people present have voted for the first option, we can proceed to interrogate the suspect."

One by one, everyone stood up and entered the corridor. Skylar had a million thoughts buzzing in his mind, but he decided to leave them for later. He was about to find out the reason behind the sudden landing.

"And the suspect is... here," Stoll said, leading the astronauts to a rectangular table and a single lantern above them.

"Here he is, but do not come any further," Bierman warned when they came into a little prison-like room, backing down so everybody could see it. "Mr. Stoll is going to come and converse with the suspect." He politely said.

"We brought the astronauts, just as you wanted." Stoll emerged from the crowd and took a step towards the suspect.

The first thing Skylar noticed about this "suspect" was the look in his eyes: the look of forlornness and sorrow. It was quite off-putting; a passing glance at this man was enough to feel hopeless and despairful. Fear, of course, was evident in his eyes, but it took up only a tenth of his eyes. The rest was nothing but sadness. The spaceman averted his gaze from the suspect; dressed in tattered grey clothing, this dystrophic young man seemed to look everyone in the eyes. His hands were firmly tied up behind his back, super intensity white laser beams surrounding him. The suspect, probably, didn't know about the beams, since he didn't see them by default. If the distance between them and the person was less than one meter, the person couldn't see them.

In response to Stoll, the man didn't say anything. Anger sparkled in his eyes. Stoll sighed.

"Are you going to reply, or not?" He stepped even closer, hands joined behind his back. The man still didn't talk. Stoll was getting angrier by the minute.

"I brought you the people you wished to see, why are you silent?" No reply. Stoll stepped even closer as far as the laser beams could allow, and Skylar could see his hands curl into fists.

"WHY are you silent?! Do you know what you're going into now? You know what possible consequences you will face if you don't talk." Stoll spat out the last two words. However, even Stoll's intimidation didn't work on the man until half a minute passed.

"I don't care what you're going to do." He coughed out. His voice was unusually raspy and sounded as if he had strep throat. "And I am not going to tell you anything."

"Well, let me make it clear," Stoll leaned in that the beams almost reached him and whispered something incomprehensible. After that, the suspect seemed to come back to his senses; he immediately straightened up, but he didn't lose all of his hauteur.

"Fine. You won me over. But I won't tell all of it, only a part-"

"SPEAK."

"Very well." the man sarcastically said. "The space launch was cancelled, because," he prolonged this word like a child wanting to build up the tension. "I did so."

Stoll only raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"For your information, I am a victim of the people who wanted to kill the astronauts. And if I didn't mess up the control panel, then the astronauts who participated in the mission two days ago would be safely buried in the entities of space!" The man shouted at the investigator. The rasped breathing of the man was the only noise in the room, but soon, the shouting and whispering started.

Questions, like "what did he actually do?" "what do you think about this matter?", "is it really possible that the man had messed up the controls?" and "what really happened?" were all mixed in with some uncertain answers, like "maybe it's because he wants to be set free.", "I don't think he's lying; what's the purpose of lying, if they will all find out soon," and "I don't know why he's saying this, but I'm sure it's the truth; look at his expression, even Stoll didn't scare him off."

"Who were these people?" Stoll said, wanting to instigate the man.

"Why should I tell you their names? You will know it later, and I don't care. But I can't tell you who these people are, no. They hurt me in and out when they set off for the white void, and now I should tell you who they are? No, better not."

"The white void? Is it important?" Stoll said.

"The white void?! Yes, it is important! The white void is important, because our "Mastermind", said that they would need to get the minerals faster than everyone else, and they will go to the white void to seek help so that they could... they could... rule the world..."

"And why did you stop the launch, exactly? You said that you were in their group."

"No, no, I can't tell you, it's too dangerous, but okay, then, I'll tell you." He sighed in defeat. "But...Only if the astronauts come forward. I can only tell them." He said. His tone was different now; it seemed very honest and genuine. After a long staring contest with Mr. Stoll, he added: "Skylar Gregory and Talissa Mercedell must come."

Stoll looked surprised. "Gregory, and Mercedell? Are you sure?" He asked in disbelief.

"Yes, they must come. You know I'll faint soon, so better do as I say." The suspect said stoically. His tone didn't waver. But Skylar felt completely the opposite.

"Mr. Gregory and Miss Mercedell, please come," Stoll said after a few seconds of consideration.

The astronauts slowly took a few steps towards the suspect. Stone silence ensued throughout the room

"Listen, please," The suspect said in an undertone, beads of sweat forming on his unshaven beard and forehead. Everyone except Skylar and Talissa couldn't hear him speak. "The things I just said - all the things I have said - are total crap. I have been working for an organization - I-I c-can’t remember what it was - but they have brainwashed me. I cannot hold on for long. But one thing I do, remember,” the man croaked out, “is that they want you two. I don’t know why. But you have to be careful. Trust nobody. They’re planning something, and they won’t stop at the first space launch. Beware.”

"Finally, the suspect has told us everything needed," Stoll said with an air of nonchalance. "The audio-sensor recordings including the suspect's physiognomic analysis will be available in the B-section of your Mindphones. Confidential information. Astronauts Ender Ignacio, Skylar Gregory, Avin Hanlon, and Talissa Mercedell, come to my office. You are needed to discuss the matters concerning the launch. I and someone else have much to say."