Under the Biodome

The tumblers on the lock turned over creakily but still working. Kevin was pleasantly surprised and decided he would send the caretakers he hired a bonus check. It had been nearly 5 years of assuming an undercover identity since he last returned home. Although in reality it hasn’t felt like a home for 143 years.

Kevin thought to himself before opening the door, “Has it really been that long? The trouble with immortality is that it’s so easy to lose track of time. What year is it again?”

Kevin felt a burst of cold wind and ice from the Canadian winter behind him. He shivered. Kevin opened the door and stepped into his personal time-capsule dedicated to his long dead husband. He didn’t want to look at it quite yet, so he stayed inside the entrance hall. Looking at the floor. He used muscle memory to switch on the main lights.

Kevin pulled at the strap on his belt and removed his Universal Comms Device (UCD). To most other people it would look like a piece of centuries old technology. There was no touch-screen, holographic interface, or any other innovations. It had three buttons, a small LCD screen, data port, a built-in microphone, and a speaker. The average person of the 22nd century would laugh at it. That was the point.

Kevin depressed the first of the three buttons and spoke, “Date and time please. Central standard time.”

The LCD screen lit up and displayed: February 20, 2193 21:45:36. Kevin cleared the screen with the third button and looked up for the first time since he entered his house.

The first sight almost made him give up and go back outside. His wedding photo with Trevor’s smiling face looked back at him, obscured by a light layer of dust. Kevin wished he could see that face without remembering the last time he saw it. With a pool of blood and a warning message written in blood.“Stay away from our business K,” the words said. Then below was the symbol that haunted his dreams. Nearly 150 years later and he still couldn’t find any solid leads on whatever they were. It was time to give up and just accept he would never find them.

Kevin was just about to turn around and leave. He couldn’t do this. Uncorking the grief he had buried in work and searching for clues for so long would lead to nothing good. He stepped back toward the door. Already thinking of some other line of work he could bury himself in. Since he left a note on his boss’s desk saying “I’m out. No, I don’t need a reference,” he couldn’t just return to the agency he formerly worked for.

Kevin thought, “I’ve never been a general contractor before. That might be distracting enough.”

But then Kevin stopped and mentally punched himself in the face. Distracting himself hasn’t worked in the past and won’t work now. Putting the cork back in the well of his emotions was just kicking his problems down the line. Kevin even has a, severely out-of-date, degree in psychology that tells him that.

Kevin turned back around and looked at his wedding photo again. This time when the image of Trevor’s body flashed in his mind, he accepted it and the anger that came with it. His hands trembled as he pulled the photo off the wall and shakily walked under the doorway to the left of the photo, the living room.

Not ready to deal with any of the other photo’s or objects in the room. Kevin kept his eyes on the photo he carried and sat down automatically on the chair he used to sit in, all those years ago.

Now that he started feeling the mixture of rage and sadness sprang forth. He clenched his hand not holding the frame and nearly ripped the upholstery on the chair free. He fought the urge to throw a lamp on a nearby table onto the floor. He made himself stay seated on the chair. The initial rage began to fade.

Kevin whispered harshly to the photo, “I failed you my love. I failed you then. I’m failing you now. I can’t find what group did that to you. No matter how much I want to cut them to shreds and burn them to ashes. All I can find is that they exist. No leads on exactly who or what they are.”

Kevin can almost hear Trevor’s softly spoken voice, “I don’t need to be avenged. You knew that you would have to let me go when we married. I’m not immortal like you.”

“I promised you that my work would never touch you, but it did. I don’t even know how but I made someone mad enough that they chose to hurt you. Maybe you don’t need vengeance but I did. I couldn’t even do that right. Now I don’t know what I want.”

Kevin felt his emotions fade again. In the back of his mind he realized he had been awake for nearly 24 hours straight. Dealing with reliving his past was draining the last of his reserves.Just before his eyes closed Kevin thought he felt a light breeze touch his forehead and the whispered words, “Sleep on it. I hope you do the right thing.”

*******************************************

Kevin groaned as the morning sunlight reached his eyes. He jolted awake as he forgot where he was. After a few minutes he looked around, blinking against the sunlight. He noticed the wedding photo was gone and there were noises from the Kitchen. Also he was covered in a blanket and the windows were now uncovered. Showing the snow covered coniferous forest surrounding the back of the house.

Kevin called out as he stood up, his back cracking once from sleeping in an awkward position. “Hello? Who’s there?”

A young female voice called out from the kitchen, “My grandfather said it was my turn to clean this place today. We didn’t realize you had returned, I recognized you from a description.”

Kevin tried to remember the names of the people in the local family he hired to maintain the place. However his brain wasn’t fully awake yet, “Catherine, was it?”

“Close, that’s the oldest sister. I’m the youngest, Amber. You are a lot younger looking than I expected.”

Now that Kevin was waking up he immediately did a quick calculation in his head. He came up with an excuse for his lack of aging. “You were probably expecting my Father. He was the one who hired your family. You are looking at Kevin Grainger the Fourth not the Third. You can just call me Kevin.”

She rounded the archway leading from the kitchen into the living room. Kevin had to look up in order to read her pale gray eyes.

“Weird. You might as well be a clone of him if the same description worked so well. I swear all of you Grainger’s are the same. All brown haired, brown eyed, and short. Same beard, same hairstyle. Plus the photos around here are mighty similar as well. My Grandma, God rest her soul, used to say it was just the same man and you were a vampire.”

Kevin couldn’t help but draw physically away from her at that last statement. He had been called that before when he spent too long in one place. For most of his, admittedly long life, it resulted in being “hunted” by a superstitious person. He usually left not long after that.

Amber’s eyes softened a bit and she said, “Don’t worry about it. You pay us way too well for us to care. Even Grandma said so. Your family can keep its secrets. Including why this run-down place filled with mementos about some ‘dead guy’ is so important.”

Kevin felt a slight surge of anger at hearing his husband being referred to so callously, but managed to keep it hidden from Amber. Kevin managed to say, “Thank you and your family for your hard work. Both me and my father appreciate it.”

Amber waved her hand dismissively and then headed back into the kitchen. Kevin followed her in. She started packing a duffel bag with a random assortment of cleaning supplies. “I’ve got to go. The place is dusted, but don’t bother using any of the appliances beyond light fixtures. We updated those but nothing else. I don’t know what kind of electricity they used in the 20th century or whenever. But it ain’t working now.”

Kevin rolled his eyes mentally but outwardly waved as she left the room. He was more aware then she was that power grids slowly transitioned to direct current over the last century. After all, he witnessed it happening.

Now that he was alone again it left Kevin to stew in his own emotions once again. The one good thing about Amber’s “interruption” was that looking at Trevor’s stuff scattered around the rooms didn’t immediately cause blind rage like it risked doing last night.

Kevin simply sat down in the living room once again and soaked up the good memories this time. The desire to distract himself with work was gone. He found that he couldn’t quite let go of the desire for revenge.

It was on that last dark thought that Kevin felt his UCD begin to vibrate silently. He thoughtlessly hit the middle button using the muscle memory from centuries of working for the same agency.

The deep and very pissed voice of Kevin’s former handler filled the room. “What the fuck, Kevin! You can’t just up and leave! We have important government clients who depend on “agent K” to fulfill their contracts.”

“Yeah well, I just did. I’ve been doing this for 25 years, Ross. Before you even started working in intelligence. I want to retire.”

“That may be true, but you’ve left me in a lurch. All the previous ‘K’s’ found their own replacement before retiring. It’s almost a brand name in intelligence circles and has been forever. Having ‘K’ work for this agency brings the money in and we pay you likewise. Are you really retiring or has someone just bought out your contract? You owe me at least that much.”

Kevin had to fight the temptation to just blurt out that they were all just him, just to see what would happen. “No. I’m really retiring. I’m in a cabin in the Canadian wilderness as we speak. Look, it’s been fun but bye.”

Kevin was just about to hit the middle button on the UCD and end the encrypted satellite call. When Ross quickly said, “I have a case that mentions the acronym VQAV.”

Kevin stopped just as he rested his finger on the button. His heart stuttered. That series of letters was an important part of the symbol that was left near Trevor’s body. This was the most solid lead he’s had in decades. But then he realized that he never shared that information with Ross. Kevin’s suspicion grew.

Ross continued after a few seconds of silence, “Since you didn’t hang up I’m guessing I hit the mark. It’s been an unspoken truth for years that all ‘K’s’ had an obsession with those letters. My predecessor thought that was how the previous ‘K’ chose you. I don’t really care, but the case is yours. You would just need to find your replacement before you left afterwards. That’s all I ask.”

“Fuck you Ross. I shouldn’t take this deal.”

Ross laughed and then said, “I definitely hit the mark. I may just keep my bonus for being your handler yet!”

“Send the details to my comms device, then I’ll decide.”

“No, I think not. You’ll just run off and leave me in a lurch.”

Kevin’s temper finally snapped, “Send me the goddamn details, Ross!”

Ross chuckled again and Kevin continued to stew. Ross said smugly, “You come to the office and sign a legally binding contract containing our deal. Then I will personally go over the case details with you.”

“You better not be exaggerating, asshole, or I will personally stab you in the gut for teasing me. No matter how bad the prison time is.”

“I’m being serious, this thing is big. Antarctica sized, one might say.”

Kevin snarled, “I’ll come in tomorrow.”

He ended the call and fumed about being dragged back in again.

(AN: I wanted to just post this for fun. I will add more in time. Don't wait up)