He said goodbye with a warm smile, leaving me alone in this strange place. I gathered all the courage I could afford and pressed the bell marked with a stylized number one. After a moment a female voice spoke from the camera next to the door:
“What do you want? I already said I don’t need anything! Just leave me alone!”
“Miss Herefort, my name is Juliette Ankes, I’m here by order of Citizen Hakat,” I said, bringing my face closer to the scanning reader so that it could read the pattern of my retina. “Let me in, please.”
There was a moment’s silence, then a rustle came from behind the door, as if somebody was slipping on the floor with slippers.
“Did Citizen Hakat order you to tell me something?” she posed the question.
“Only that sometimes the planet Venus casts a shadow on Earth.”
T
