The Virgin Vagabond

Chapter 12

Kesia woke up to the same noise she had fallen asleep to. Her eyes would not open so she just laid there and listened for a while. The silence of home felt so far away. She sighed and looked to her side. Luke wasn’t there. 

”Luke?”

No answer. Kesia got out of bed and went into the bathroom. Luke had probably just gone out to get some breakfast or whatever, she wasn’t awake enough to care. Her thoughts was still stuck in the homesickness. The voice of her mom was still echoing in her head. She looked in the mirror and saw a face that was still tired and swollen from the crying. With a sigh, she left the bathroom and went back to bed. As she pulled the duvet over her head, she heard the door open and close.

”Luke?”

”Yes, I’m back” he said and came into the bedroom. ”Did you sleep ok?” he asked as he crawled down next to her. 

”No, not really” she answered honestly. ”I had a hard time falling asleep”.

”Poor girl. Let me take care of you then” he said and turned her over on her back. Before Kesia could say anything about it, he was on top of her, kissing her neck, her breasts and her belly. He kept moving further down and Kesia gasped for air. Just like that, the homesickness and her moms voice was forgotten and replaced with warmth and pleasure.

The never-ending crowds and stream of cars wasn’t exactly growing on Kesia. She couldn’t wait until they figured this one out so that they could get out of India. As they walked down the street, holding each others hand just to not loose one another in the crowd, she realized that the crowd did have one perk - it made it easy to hide. Even though their skin were fairer than most in this part of the world, they were hard to spot in a crowd like this. 

”Where are we even going, Luke?” 

”To a meeting” he answered, without actually answering at all. Kesia sighed. 

After a few more minutes in the crowd Luke turned right, into an alley. It led them between two buildings and down another road. There weren’t nearly as much people there and Kesia could breathe properly again. Luke suddenly stopped. 

”Let’s just wait here” he said and looked around. 

”What are we waiting for?”

”A person” answered Luke, again without actually giving her any information. 

Kesia rolled her eyes, crossed her arms across her chest and casually leaned against the building next to them. Cars were driving by them, people looking at them as if they had escaped the zoo or something. A few young schoolgirls passed and waved at Kesia. She waved back and they screamed of excitement. Kesia smiled and forgot for a few seconds how miserable she was. She looked at Luke and suddenly, there was another man, standing right next to them. Kesia grabbed Lukes arm as a reflex. The strange man didn’t say anything, he just gave Luke something and then he was gone again. Kesia looked at Luke, waiting for an explanation. 

”What did he give you?” she asked.

”A lighter” answered Luke and grabbed Kesias hand. ”Let’s get back to the hotel”.

Kesia was annoyed. The fact that Luke didn’t seem to notice made her even more annoyed, almost angry. She gave him the silent treatment but it didn’t have any effect whatsoever. Luke sat on the couch and looked at the lighter.

”What do you think it means?” he asked himself as much as Kesia. 

Kesia said nothing. 

”A little help here?” he said and looked at her. 

”Can you explain what just happened? Who was that man?”

Luke smiled a little and leaned back in the couch. 

”Come sit and I will tell you everything” he said and slightly patted the couch where he thought Kesia should sit, right next to him. She obliged him. 

”That man” Luke started, ”works for the commission. The spot where we waited for him is one of the hotspots. Sometimes you have to use them.”

”What is a hotspot?”

”It’s a place where someone always waits nearby. If we need additional help we go there and get it” explained Luke. Kesia nodded. 

”So, the lighter is help?”

”Yes. We have to figure out how.”

Kesia thought about the quote and the book it came from. 

”What if it is a reference to the title of the book?”

”How?”

”Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper catches fire. So if we put the paper close to the flame something might happen?”

”Are we going to set the paper on fire?”

”Don’t be stupid, just give it to me!” said Kesia and grabbed the lighter and the piece of paper with the quote on it. She let the flame slightly grace the paper without setting it on fire and suddenly something happened. She held it up to show Luke. The text had changed and little circles now highlighted some of the letters. 

”I, L, E, R, B, N?” Luke read. 

”Berlin” said Kesia. ”That’s our next destination. When can we leave? Now?”

”Not liking New Delhi?”

”Not at all, as you are well aware.”

Luke laughed a little at her and kissed her on the cheek. He took out the device and wrote ”Berlin” on the display. 

”I am actually planning to take you to this restaurant that I’ve heard so much about. It’s pretty close to here, we can walk.”

The device made a sound and an adress appeared along with a four digit code and a number. 

”And it just so happens it is also close to the place where we are apparently leaving the footprint.”

”Right, the footprint. I forgot about that little detail” said Kesia and rubbed her forehead. 

”If we leave in ten minutes we will have time to leave the footprint and still be in time for dinner.” 

”Ok, ten minutes is just enough to get ready” said Kesia and got up to go into the bedroom and change. 

”Wear a skirt” said Luke. ”I like you in skirts.”

Kesia smiled. 

”Ok, then a skirt it is.”

The amount of people on the street were reduced when they came out from the hotel. Kesia had her small handbag with her, containing the footprint and her phone. More or less consciously she looked for the schoolgirls again, they had made her feel like a celebrity before.

”Take the footprint out, it’s right up here” said Luke and Kesia took it out of the bag. As she was about to give it to Luke, someone flew past them on a kick bike and knocked the footprint out of her hand. They both watched it fly through the air and land in the middle of the street. Before any of them could go get it, a car drove right over it. Kesia thought to herself that it should be ok, it is solid wood, it would probably survive the car. Then she started thinking about what kind of wood it was. Fir wood could survive it, maybe birch too. Pine would probably be a little damaged by a car. When the car had passed, Luke hurried out in the street to get it. As he bent down buy the little thing, he froze and looked at Kesia. She could see something in his eyes but then a car honked its horn at him and he quickly picked up what was left of the little cube and hurried back to the sidewalk where Kesia was waiting. Without saying anything, he gave the thing to her.

”What is it?” asked Kesia and looked at the wounded cube in her palm. As she looked closer, she saw that it was not a solid wooden cube as they had thought, it was a box. Iside it, there was a tiny little package, made from some kind of fabric. Kesia took it out and looked at Luke. She opened it and peeked inside. Luke stopped her as she was about to pour something out into her palm.

”Not here” he said and took her by the hand. They skipped the drop and went straight to the restaurant. Luke hade booked them a table, again in a secluded area. The cube was back in Kesias purse but she couldn’t wait to get it out and see what was inside of it. As they sat down, she took it out and put it on the table. 

”Not on the table!” said Luke and took the footprint and put it on the chair between them. He then carefully unwrapped the little package of fabric.

”Remember to keep your pokerface” he said and looked at Kesia, ”whatever is in there, just play it cool, ok?” 

”Ok, yeah, no problem.”

He unfolded the last piece of cloth and a little pile of sones became visible. Kesia leaned in a bit to see what it was and found herself marveling at a bunch of unpolished diamonds.

”Oh. My. God” she whispered and looked at Luke. ”Is that really what I think it is?”

Luke nodded and quickly wrapped up the diamonds and gave them back to Kesia. She took them and put them back in her purse. 

”Do you realize what this means?” she asked him, still whispering.

”It means we need to have a long conversation about our plans for the imminent future” said Luke and took a sip of water. ”When we get back to the hotel” he then added.

Kesia took the hint and she understood Lukes cautiousness, although she found a bit exaggerated. Somehow they ordered everything and got their food, even though Kesia couldn’t think of anything else than the diamonds in her purse. She came back to reality when her stomach reminded her that she was in fact starving. The food on her plate looked delicious and as a reflex her left hand reached for the fork. There was none. 

”Did you get any cutlery?”

Luke smiled.

”No, they don’t do that here.”

”What do you mean ’they don’t do it’? How am I supposed to get the food into my body then?”

”With your fingers, my dear” he said and demonstrated.

Kesia decided to embrace the culture she was in and grabbed a piece of bread to scoop up the food in. It went surprisingly well and the food was absolutely delicious. She even stopped thinking about the diamonds for a while.

Kesia was about to burst when they got back to the hotel and as soon as Luke closed the door behind them she exploded.

”Do you realize what this means? We have been smuggling diamonds all over the world, Luke! We are officially smuggelers, do you understand? We can’t even call the police because we are the criminals here! I mean, what is our next step? Is there even anything we can do? Do you have any smart ideas?”

Luke was completely quiet. He slowly walked over to the couch and sat down.  

”Luke! Freak out with me!” said Kesia who was full on panicking. 

”That’s not how I function and you know it” answered Luke. ”You are the crazy one and I’m the sane one, that’s why we make such a good team.”

Kesia stared at him first, then she started laughing.

”My god, you are the only person I know who can actually make me laugh when I’m this upset.”

”I know. My point is that it doesn’t help to panic. We have to think this through really carefully.”

Kesia sat down next to him.

”I know you’re right but I had to get that out of my system.”

”Yeah, I know. You made one really good point, though. We can’t call the police.”

”Can we call Cornelia?”

”I thought about that and I don’t think that is a good move. We don’t know what she knows. She might be in on it.”

”Keren? John?”

”No, we can’t tell anyone.”

”Then what?”

”I don’t know. I guess we can sleep on it.”

”We still have to make the drop.”

”Yes, we do, but it’s too late to do it tonight. We will do it first thing in tomorrow morning.” 

Kesia leaned back in the couch and wondered how the hell she was going to get any sleep knowing that she was carrying around a small fortune in her purse. 

”We could just disappear” she said, surprising herself.

”What do you mean?”

”I mean we could take the diamonds and go some place where they will never find us.”

Luke snorted.

”I think you’re forgetting who ’they’ are. There is no way they would let that happen. Considering the fortune they have trusted us to carry around, they probably have us under extremely close surveillance. All the time. Besides, we would be on the run, always looking over our shoulders. Is that the life you want?”

Kesia shook her head. 

”Of course not” she said. ”Hey, do you think they already know that we figured it out?”

”I don’t know, they might. But I think they would have done something already. We just have to keep playing the game like nothing has happened until we figure out what to do. Ok?”

Kesia shrugged. 

”I guess. So, we keep our pokerfaces no matter what?”

”Exactly.” 

”But we don’t have enough footprints to finish the game. Does that mean we can’t win anymore?”

”Maybe. When we have checked in at the airport, the commission will share the scores with us. Then, we will really know what we have to play with and how many points we can use for our benefit.”

”What do you mean?” 

”If we have enough points we can use them to buy privileges. But when we use the points, we loose them. If we have a lot more points than number two, we can take that risk since it will at the same time increase our chances of winning.”

”Ok. Let’s hope that’s the case then. It won’t change the fact that we have no footprint to deliver at our last destination.”

”Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Early the next day they went to drop off the footprint. As soon as they had, they received information about when their flight was. Kesia felt relieved that they were getting out of New Delhi but over the last 24 hours she had also developed a fascination for the culture. Even though she preferred to eat her food with a knife and fork, trying another method had made her one experience richer. And all the colors and different kinds of clothing just simply made her happy. She had bought a significant amount of fabric as a souvenir from India and as they packed all their stuff to go to the airport she realized that she would have to buy another suitcase in order to have room for it all. 

”I can’t let you go outside alone” said Luke when she told him she had to get a new bag. 

”Why?”

”Because this is India. We should go together.”

”Ok. Let’s go” said Kesia and grabbed her purse. The flight was in just four hours so they were in a bit of a hurry. Luckily, there was a*****e full of bags, handbags, purses and suitcases in the same street as the hotel so that’s where they headed as they left the hotel.

”Excuse me?” 

Luke turned around at the voice. Partly because the voice was speaking in perfect English but mostly as a reflex. Kesia did the same. 

”Thank you!” said their female seeker and snapped a picture of them before they had a chance to react. She was gone again as quickly as she had appeared.

”Crap!” Luke exclaimed and made an unhappy sound. 

”Where is Keren and John anyway?” 

”They had trouble getting here, I texted with John yesterday” said Luke. ”This sucks!”

”Indeed. But we can still win, right?”

”We’ll know soon enough. Come on!”

They continued down the road to the store to get the suitcase.