Alienus

Chapter Five

I adjusted Jasmine on my hip again and followed Rafe. I tried to look to see what was in front of me, but Rafe's large shoulders blocked the whole world from me. He stopped without warning and I almost ran into him. I immediately took a step back and waited to see what he was doing.

He had placed his hand on a camouflaged data pad that pushed out from the wall of the building and tilted up. Rafe pressed his hand on it and the door appeared and opened for us to enter.

Rafe tilted his head at me and I entered and heard him follow.

"Ms. Hills?" He called as I continued to walk.

I stilled and turned around, my brows furrowed, surprised he'd called me so formally when not a few minutes ago he'd called me Amour.

I walked towards him and he directed me to a data pad that was on the inside of the building exactly in the same location of the data pad that was on the outside.

"Place your hand." He directed.

I stepped forward and regarded the data pad that was the colour of the building.

I looked at Rafe, his amber and black eyes that had been fixed on the data pad lifted off it and met mine.

"Did you press a button?" I asked.

When Rafe raised a dark eyebrow in question and looked pointedly at the data pad, I lifted my hand and hovered it over the data pad.

"How is the data pad appearing without any prompting?" I asked, my hand still hovering.

A few minutes of silence prevailed as Rafe met my eyes with narrowed ones of his own. He realised I wasn't going to put my hand on that data pad unless he answered.

"Motion sensors." Rafe said, indicating the floor and wall.

Was that so hard? I thought.

I placed my hand on the data pad and I heard a very minute sound emanate from the data pad as the screen of the data pad turned black shifting from its original pearl colour. I tilted my head a little as a digital green line formed around my hand on the pad.

When a female voice spoke from the data pad in a language I couldn't understand, my eyes flicked up to Rafe. His eyes were also on my hand and he offered no further instructions, so I stayed still.

Then the data pad went back to its original pearl colour and I took my hand off as the data pad lifted and went back into the wall. This time I noticed the lever attached to the back of the data pad that connected it to the wall so it wasn't moving and tilting on its own.

"Your print is now registered in our databases," he told me, "Your print will be imbedded in a chip that you will wear as a bracelet. You chip is your entry card to any place, without which you will not be allowed to go anywhere. Carry it with you at all times."

He started to walk again and I asked, "What about Jasmine?"

He continued walking away as he spoke, "She is too young and will be part of the Nursery. She will not need a print chip yet."

I followed him then and looked around. It was a normal large corridor that led to...an elevator of sorts. It was a cylindrical container whose transparent door slid open in a circle into the structure.

I stepped into the structure and Rafe followed me. He pointed to the screen near the door on the inside.

He told me that the largest button would take us to the Common Cabin that separated the women and the men's rooms. The women's rooms were lower and the male's, higher, above the Common Cabin.