36

08:45

It was like the dream that you're having when you can do absolutely everything: you can fly, jump over skyscrapers, move at the pace of a jumbo jet. N. was madness. People walked out of their homes and apartments and were waiting for the end of the world, paying bigger and bigger tribute to little rodents running along the streets. Mice felt that people were afraid of them and started to make use of their superiority, storming flats, clearing dustbins, walking on children's limbs and taking the food from their hands. It was an amazing view to see people, not so long ago clean and attractive, now dealing with homelessness, exhaustion, hunger, and fear.
Jacob's palace was in a state of anarchy. Security guards were desperate. The queen was missing. Jacob was absent. His workers looked hopeless and left the palace with no intention of returning. This temporary paralysis wasn't Melquiades' problem. For him, it was a lucky coincidence. He entered the palace, utterly uninhibited, and logged on the system. He checked the position of Jacob, using passwords given to him by Gemma. He searched through every chamber.

And then he found one little room which was closed. There was no key. There was no one who could help him open the door. And, as Melquiades wasn't the type of a man who could be a secret agent of any organization, carry weapons of mass destruction or invent extraordinary devices, he used a simple solution. We went to the neighboring room. He opened the window. He looked through the window and turned his head right. Luckily, there was another window, leading to the closed room. Melquiades walked out of it and, stepping carefully on protruding brick ornament, he managed to break the glass and get inside. Straight away, he knew that it was Jacob's room. It didn't look like the chambers which he saw not so long ago. It wasn't a luxurious, spacious, light and comfortable place. It was old and cramped. There were old tables, an old bed, a few old books and a few old photographs of him, Jacob and the father.

On the wall there was a map, depicting the area of K. and the area of N. in its full glory. K. was colored in orange, N. was light blue. And on the border of N., on the other side of K., there was one spot marked as Home. The same exact mark was in K., precisely on the spot where Melquiades' house was located.

Melquiades took the map from the wall. He left the palace. He took one of Jacob's cars and left the palace's surroundings. The idea of theft didn't exist in N. as everybody was well-off enough not to envy anyone objects possessed. In each car, flat and shop the doors were left unattended. People didn't consider their neighbors a threat. They only feared creatures from K. Getting a car was as easy as taking candy from a baby.

And while the people of N. were losing more and more control over their mental health, so sure about the system that they had never dreamed of questioning any of its data, Melquiades was set on getting to one place in which he was sure to find Jacob.