Fenryr walked into the office. It was quieter now. Nayib had made his way to the front of the office, where he stood on a slightly elevated platform. Behind him a screen was pulled down. A technician was busy setting up a projector. He was connecting it to a computer. Nayib was pacing up and down, breathing heavily. He kept on wiping his brow with a handkerchief from his pocket. Fenryr saw Smith still in the corner. He seemed to be asleep. But his face was twitching and he kept wiping his face with his hands, as if trying to scrub something off. Amanda was near Nayib, talking to two people. They seemed to be reporters. One of them held a camera at his side. The other had a notepad open and was taking notes. Amanda felt his eyes on her and looked over at him. Her eyes tightened and she quickly looked away. Fenryr shook his head and started walking to the front.

An area of the office had been cleared. Rows of white chairs had been placed, facing the podium. Most of them were already taken. Fenryr sat down in the end chair on one of the middle rows. The chair next to him was vacant. Further down the row he could make out a middle aged man. His hair was thinning. His specs were very close to falling off his nose. He looked at Fenryr and smiled. Fenryr smiled back.

Nayib walked over to the mike. He tapped it once. The screech from the speakers caused everyone in the audience to wince. It woke Smith up. He pulled himself up, tried to tuck his shirt in, patted down his hair and walked over to the chairs. Most of the chairs were occupied now. The screech had made those who were still milling around to sit down. He saw Amanda sitting on the front row. He started walking towards her. She saw him and quickly gestured for a man holding a notepad to sit down next to her. The man smiled once than sat down. She quickly started talking to him. Smith frowned. There was a free chair next to Fenryr. He slouched over and sat down next to him. Fenryr looked at him. A tight smile and a nod of the head. He turned his attention back to the platform where Nayib was busy organizing papers on the lectern.

Nayib looked down at the technician. He was still fiddling with the projector. He looked at the crowd. Felt a thrill when he saw Amanda smiling up at him from the front row flanked by the press. He felt a niggle of irritation as he saw Smith slouched in a chair, shirt rumpled, hair unkempt. Felt a surge of envy as he saw Fenryr sitting next to Smith, arms folded across his chest looking up at him.

“Hello and welcome!” He said. The mike was off. Only the front row heard him. He swore loudly, turned it on and tried again.

“Hello and Welcome!” Applause this time. Nayib waited for it to die out before continuing.

“As most of you know, 6 years of hard work are finally going to bear fruit today! A special welcome to the press, you are in for a treat. Let’s give them a hand!”

A smattering of confused applause started. It died out very quickly. The press people shifted in their chairs. Nayib was playing for time. He couldn’t start the presentation without the projector. He was thinking whether to ask Amanda to sing when the technician gave him a thumbs-up. He turned around and saw the logo of the company put up behind him. A white seashell on a blue background. His design. He turned back to the crowd.

“Ah. Good. We can start. Any questions can be asked after the presentation. The Genesis Project started 6 years ago with a startling discovery. While conducting routine deep sea explorations in the Atlantic Ocean, one of our teams stumbled across this”

He pressed a button on the remote placed on the lectern. A picture of a tablet roughly the size and shape of a notebook appeared on the screen. It seemed very old, and there was some writing on it. The press people started writing. The rest of the crowd had all seen it before.

“This tablet is completely unique. It’s made of a material that we have not been able to identify. All forms of dating have failed, leading us to the conclusion that this tablet may be older than any known civilization”

“Beneath the tablet was this.” Nayib pressed the button again. The picture changed. Now it was a photo taken underwater. Silt obscured the view a bit, but it was clear. Beneath the sand was what seemed to be a painting. Only a small portion was revealed, but the shape of a man was clearly visible.

“Two weeks of careful excavation and this is what we found”

The picture changed again. The entire floor of the photo was covered in a massive fresco. A diver was laying down on it to give it a sense of scope. It was easily twenty meters wide and at least 50 meters long. It must have been even bigger because the edges were broken. The painting continued on past them. The image itself was unclear in the murky light.

The press was sitting bolt straight now. Many were frantically scribbling away. A few of them were on the phone. Flash bulbs were going off. Nayib smiled. This was going very well.

“Digital reconstruction of the image took a while, but this is what we came up with.”

Nayib pressed the button before stepping back. He took out a chocolate bar and started eating it. Any form of excitement always made him hungry.

Many of the people in the audience sat up straighter. Very few had seen the restored image. It was strictly ‘need to know’ because of its content. Smith had seen it, but he hadn’t expected Nayib to reveal it now. He had thought it would be the regular ‘Welcome, we’ll talk more after the test’. Instead he was laying everything in the open. He looked to his side. Fenryr was still impassive, arms crossed in front of his chest. His wrists were moving slightly. Smith wondered what he was doing. He turned back to the picture.

The image seemed to be a historical record. It started abruptly at the top left edge. Half of the first image was lost, but the next one was clear. A man who looked like the chief was standing on an elevated platform. He wore what looked like a feathered headdress. He held the tablet in his hands and it was raised above his head. At his feet were what looked like men in loincloths bowing.

The next image showed a line connecting the man’s head to the tablet. The man’s eyes were wide open. The bowing men had their hands placed over the heads as if waiting for something to fall into them.

In the next image the tablet was shining. Lines were drawn extending from it in all directions. It looked like the sun. The man holding it had bowed his head low.

The final image of the first line was half lost. In what could be seen, one of the men bowing down had what seemed to be fruit in his hands. A line linked the fruit to something just out of the picture. It was clear though that it was the tablet.

The next line of images was larger than the first and took up the rest of the image. There were two panels that seemed to be intact for the most part. The first showed what seemed to be the same headdress man holding the tablet above his head. He was standing on what seemed to a tower set on a wall. There were what seemed to be soldiers holding spears outside the wall. A line linked the tablet to the headdress. Another set of lines extended out from the tablet to the soldiers.

The last panel was disturbing. The left side was almost identical to the first. A man in the headdress holding the tablet over his head, standing in the tower. The army on the right side had been decapitated. Soldiers stood, holding spears but their heads were shown at their feet. Looks of horrific pain were etched into their faces. The face of the man in the headdress was left blank.

Nayib stuffed the empty wrapper in his pocket and held up his hand. The chatter died down. The reporters had stopped writing. They were staring at the image awe-struck.

“As you can see, this is probably the most important archaeological discovery of the century. You may wonder why we didn’t make this public. We wanted to try and find the headdress that seems to be so important before we did. Unfortunately we were unable to locate it.”

A series of groans went up from the audience. Smith leaned to the side a bit. He saw Amanda sitting forward in her chair, hanging on Nayib’s every word. He was surprised she hadn’t been told. For some reason it made him feel better. He sat back in his chair. Fenryr was still impassive. He had been one of the first to see the restored image. His Superiors had been very interested with the second set of panels, but news of the missing headdress had meant a loss of interest. They had asked him to stay on just in case.

Nayib was getting into his stride now. He loved being the center of attention of a crowd. Almost as much as he loved eating.

“I wanted to save this for after the test, but I thought it might make a better impression now. What we did next was try to figure out what the headdress did. From the images it seemed to control the tablet. Though it wasn’t clear what the tablet itself was doing. Careful analysis of the tablet revealed something very interesting though. What that was I will share after the test” He grinned. The faces of some of the reporters fell. They seemed irritated. Like the commercial break just before the climax of a good movie.

“Don’t worry. All shall be revealed!” Nayib imitated the voice of a famous TV magician. A small number of people laughed. Neither Fenryr nor Smith were among them.

“So I’m going to have to request the press and non-essential staff to remain here while I and the core group head down to run the test.” Nayib turned the projector off and stepped away from the lectern. All the reporters started talking at once. They were standing up. Flash bulbs were going off again. Nayib pointed to the one next to Amanda. The others quieted down.

“What test? What are you testing?” He held a pen. His notepad was ready.

Nayib face twisted into a grin. It stretched his double chin out further. Smith was disgusted by it.

“That is a surprise. Wait. Be patient.” Nayib held up his hand to silence the reporters who had started shouting again. The one who had asked the question had settled back in his seat frustrated.

“I can understand how curious you all are. But just wait. If the test goes off well, trust me, you will have the news item of the century. Maybe of all time.” He winked.

Nayib knew how to keep a crowd in suspense. Smith had to give him that. Nayib turned to walk off the podium. He looked over at Smith. Irritation in his eyes as he waved him over to join him.

Smith got up. Fenryr stood up as well. Both of them walked over to Nayib. A few others joined them. They formed a rough circle with Nayib at the centre. Smith didn’t recognize any of them. None of them acknowledged him. There were a few handshakes exchanged amongst them though. Fenryr stood slightly apart from them. His wrists had stopped moving. Nayib looked over the group once and nodded his head as if satisfied. He said,

“So you are the guys I need. The machine is ready in the basement. We’ve cleared it with the electricity board, and with Smith having finally calculated the Spread function, we should be ready to test.” The stress on finally had made it very clear who Nayib held responsible for not being able to test earlier. A few of the group looked over at Smith.

“I should tell you that I’ve only verified the simulations. Without practical tests, I can’t be sure that my calculations are perfect.” Smith felt the eyes of the whole group on him. A few of them were shaking their heads. Nayib’s face was turning red.

“Do the simulations work?”

“Yes but-“

Nayib cut him off. He turned to the rest of the group and said,

“The simulations work. That’s good enough for me. Let’s make history! Oh, and should anything go wrong, you know who to blame.” A slight smattering of laughter, as if the group was not sure whether he had been serious or joking.

The eyes turned back to Smith. He just shrugged. From behind Nayib he saw Amanda drifting over to join them. She laid her hand on Nayib’s back. He turned around. Smith looked away. The rest of the group started talking among them. Fenryr’s wrists started twitching again. The reporters looked disgruntled in their chairs. The ‘non-essential’ staff looked angry. A few of them were having heated discussions. They kept throwing dirty looks at Nayib. They saw Smith looking at them and frowned at him. He smiled back.

“Please, you have to let me come” Amanda was pleading to Nayib.

“I can’t. Why would the head of PR need to be at the first test? If I let you, I would have to let everyone come.” He shook his head. The fat on his face wobbled. His beady eyes were looking well below Amanda’s neck.

“I’ll do anything. I want to be there!” Amanda laid her hand on Nayib’s arm. It was soft and fleshy. She had gotten very far with that simple gesture. It seemed to ignite the wildest fantasies in a man’s mind.

Nayib looked down at her hand. It was tanned. Red nail polish matched her lipstick. He looked at her face. Her eyes were pleading. Mouth pursed.

“No. I can’t. I’m sorry” He looked down. Her feet were in High heels. He could see sheer stockings disappearing under her skirt.

Amanda slid her hand further up Nayib’s arm. It was at his elbow now.

“Are you sure?” A small smile was forming on her face.

Nayib started sweating. His last chocolate bar was in his left pocket. But to get to it he would have to move the arm Amanda’s hand was on, and it felt horrible to even think of that. Sweat was forming on his brow. He looked into her eyes.

He made a big show of wrestling with the decision. Truth was he had made up his mind as soon as she had asked the first time.

“Fine. You win. You can come.” He smiled.

Amanda faked a squeal of excitement. She planted a ‘spontaneous’ kiss on Nayib’s cheek. Nayib took the very real spasm of disgust that passed over her face as one of excitement. He blushed, and took out the chocolate bar from his pocket. Tore the cover off.

Amanda looked over at Smith. He was trying to look aloof but she could see the tightness around his eyes. She had been desperate to find a way to get into the test, going as far as trying to seduce Smith. She shuddered. His gaff earlier had made things very easy. Fenryr on the other hand was a different case all together. She would start working on him next. The image of him from the gym made her heart beat faster.

The group started moving from the room. A few of those left behind applauded. A few booed. The reporters were busy writing their articles. Smith looked longingly at the bar. It was open. The bartender was pouring someone a drink. Amanda walked next to Nayib, whispering in his ear. Nayib’s grin was getting wider and wider. Fenryr walked behind them all. The eighth form was running in his head. But he couldn’t concentrate. He winced as an opponent’s blade ripped his side open. He shook his head to clear away all thoughts of the forms. A voice echoed in the silence of his mind.

“My dear Fenryr. We are going to have lots of fun together. You and me.”