Chapter 54 Yoga classes come from the heart

It was a good time, a lot of fun, but it ended far too quickly. From one day to the next, Sarge was gone and Babsi was there in his place. She said he had been seconded. 

The lessons with her weren't boring, but not like with Sarge. Liz wasn't there either, she was also on assignment. 

Luke realized that his grandmother had zero talent, so it didn't help that she brought along some experts. Biology and physics professors who rambled on. 

Sport dragged them to Bettina, who taught them the world of yoga with heart and enthusiasm. 

When Luke told her this during training, Tes just laughed and added yoga lessons.

Lunch also changed, he wanted something different, so he sped off on his scooter in the direction of the fast food restaurant, an old van pulled up next to him at the traffic lights.

Luke thought nothing of it until he was grabbed and thrown into it, his scooter landing half beside him and half on top of him, knocking him out. 

He woke up on an old couch, blinking, smelling of spices and old dust. He winced when he saw an old, wrinkled face in front of him, he had to think, it looked familiar. Then he remembered Fatima. His mother had said that the families married into each other.

 Fatima stared at him. She opened her mouth and a stream of Arabic came out.

لقد" شاهدك أعمامك وأنت تذهب إلى المتجر الرخيص عند الزاوية، ولا تحصل على طعام سيء إلا هناك لوك " ( Your uncles have seen you in the cheap store on the corner, you only get bad food there Luke ).

Luke needed to stimulate his brain, why did he have to be bombarded with so much language as a young boy?

"Mom always forgets to shop and I.... "

She raised her index finger, opened her mouth. Yussuf came in, he looked like Ahmed, only younger, with a neatly coiffed beard and haircut.

"Come to the store for lunch, Luke," he said. Fatima scowled at him.

" Mom, you're always complaining that he sounds macho when you force him to speak Arabic. "

She smiled.

Luke sighed, his stomach growling.

"Is there a reason why?" 

Yussuf grinned. 

"Sure. Your mom says she's afraid you're eating poorly."

" She eats the same as me because I always end up buying and what I get from my grandpa. "

Fatima rolled her eyes.

" الرجل إنه يأكل بشكل غير صحي أكثر من أي شخص آخر، بحجة أنه مضطر للطبخ لزوجاته! " (The man eats unhealthier than anyone else, under the pretext of having to cook for his wives! )

" But they also eat en masse! " 

Fatima got up and left the room. Yussuf sat down with a sigh.

"Is there a reason why she only speaks Arabic?"

"She annoys her grandson with it, that's the only reason. As soon as she stands at the counter or the checkout, she talks at people normally."

Ahmed came in with a plate of food, grinning ear to ear. He put it down in front of Luke.

" You always come here for lunch now, Luke. "

" But..." 

" No buts, you're family."

Luke capitulated. At least it tasted good when he tuned out all the chatter and gossip and Tahara cuddled him, chattered in Turkish and played the same record as Fatima. 

Luke came back to class on time and sat down. Leo sniffed him, looked at him.

"Yeah? "

" You weren't at Burger World ... " 

" What at the family's for lunch" 

" Was it good?" 

Luke nodded.

It was starting to become routine, they were bored and had to watch an old movie Luke thought it was a documentary about political elections in the old world. 

The picture flickered and Bill's father was visible.

"I'll get back Vienna has fallen, there have been several outbreaks of infection. We only have one picture of refugees who made it out. "

"What the..." was all that came out of Luke.

The image changed, showing only the closing hatch of an underground entrance and the back of a soldier firing forward.

"All testimonies confirm that the fugitives were brought into the escape tunnels by a soldier from the northern block who was on site and then sealed the entrance. The security forces were assisted by soldiers who were on the scene. "

The image switched back to Bill's father.

"It has been confirmed that the city's security system is active and the protective dome over the city is active and the city is locked down." 

Babsi stared at the TV in disbelief.

"Vienna was the largest security zone for unvaccinated 5 million people. " 

"Wasn't that the Sarge's helmet?"

Luke turned to Eddi.

"The picture was too short to see it better."

"I found it on the Internet!" came from Lina. Luke went over to her like the others to look at it. 

 "Holy shit, that's really Sarge, it looks just like the one on the shooting range."

Luke looked at Babsi, who was checking the messages on her cell phone.

" Grandma?" 

He walked up to her, and only when he was standing by her did she look at him.

"What, the sergeant?"

" Sarge is the soldier in the photo."

" Nonsense, he was checking the security..." She turned pale. 

" Kids go home, I need to make some calls. Okay?"

They did as they were told, it was frighteningly empty on the premises, he dropped Leonore off and drove home. He went straight to his grandfather's house. 

He wasn't home, the only person he saw was Liz sitting in front of the TV, she was crouched down, clutching her legs and had her head down. He went to her and took her in his arms.

" I'm not having any luck with these guys..Luke..I finally find someone and then I see his back sealed up in some infested town..."

" Can't you just lower the shield or open the airlock?"

"The shield stays online for up to 2 months and the airlock can only be opened after 2 months," she said emotionlessly, staring at the still image.

"What was he thinking... He should have gone in..." 

She stepped closer to the TV and scrutinized it.

"He couldn't go in... "She pointed to shadows in the picture. 

"Freshly infected, they're pure furies..." 

" And he has my knife too... "

Luke looked at her uncomprehendingly.

" Your knife?"

" I had a forearm-length knife, he wanted it sharpened. "

She put her head between her arms and knees and didn't move. Luke felt a hand on his shoulder. Gitte was standing next to him.

"I'm taking Luke with me now, go home quietly. "

The last thing he saw as he left was Gitte pulling Liz towards him. He went home, but he couldn't switch off. He sat down at his tablet and started drawing, when that didn't help, he went to train. 

The next few days didn't get any better, Liz was away, Babsi said Liz would clear her head on assignments. His friends talked about Vienna. 

He himself was absorbed in drawing and training. As he was driving home, he was stopped, a man came running towards him in a hurry. He recognized him, it really was Bill's father in Live. As many times as he had seen him recently, there was no mistaking him.

"Young man, can you help me. I can't find anyone to show me the way, they're all in trouble."

"Of course, where are they going, Mr. Tennington?"

He blinked. 

"You recognized me without makeup?"

Luke smiled wryly.

"I'm afraid I have to admit. I'm the one who punched your son in the face, well, and pulled a gun on him."

He looked at Luke. 

"So it was you. The principal played it up like a state drama and so did Bill, but the officer on the scene told me otherwise."

"Well, to be honest, I just wanted to get away at the time and my mom told me where to go, the army supply tunnel. " 

" Oh Bill deserved a thrashing too and I threw a complaint at the principal. "

"So, Mr. Tennington, where are you going? "

" To a bigwig, I have footage I need to show him. " 

" I can take you to one, but you'll have to sit on the back of the scooter, I don't have a license yet."

Respecting that he sat on the back, Luke thought about it and drove past the controls where he was waved towards the radio center. 

A soldier stopped him.

"Yo Luke, where to?"

" Jannet there?"

" She's gone, but your grandfather is here." 

" Good, I need to see him. Can you tell him I'm coming with a visitor?"

The soldier looked at Tennington.

"Sure. Are you making a new drawing?"

He nodded. 

"I'll call it the Griffin of Vienna. " He showed a screenshot on his cell phone where he always worked.

" Nice to meet you. Come on in."

Luke rumbled into the underground parking garage and parked the scooter next to the door.

"How do you know them all?"

"A lot of my family work in the military," he parked the machine. 

" Come on."

He went through the door, there was more hustle and bustle here, Luke made his way through the corridors and came to the main room, which was full of monitors, holoprojectors. Countless soldiers were operating the equipment. 

He saw Alex standing in front of a projector, John next to him. Alex turned as Luke walked in.

"He wanted to see a bigwig, well, you are," he grinned. 

John rubbed his nose. 

" That logic . "

Mr. Tennington looked around intimidated, he probably wasn't used to having something like this around.

"Mr. Tennington, what gives me the honor?" asked Alex.

Tennington quickly composed himself. 

"I know that you are the great emperor."

"But only when the boss has to make a speech," came from a soldier. 

Alex grinned and took a drag on his fag. 

"But that's between us."

Tennington came closer and reached into his jacket, the guards pulled out their weapons.

"One of my guys, a suburban reporter who was supposed to do a story, found this."

He pulled out a disk with a crystal inside.

"Cool, a crystal disk," Luke said, he used disks like this to archive his magazines. 

"What's on it?" asked John.

Tennington became nervous. 

"It's from Vienna, but it's password protected and has the North Block crest on it..." 

John took the disk and handed it to a technician who inserted it into a drive.

The main monitor changed and the Nordblock crest appeared, then an input field appeared. A question appeared above it. 

"What is shy as a cat, hungry as a lion, graceful as a bear?" read John. "What is that?"

" It's a security measure so that no strangers can look. " came from Alex.

Luke looked at the sentence. 

" Um ..." 

Alex looked at him. 

" Do you have any ideas?"

" Well..." he scratched his nose nervously. 

" Since it's probably Sarge ... The answer is Liz."

He looked at his grandfather. 

"Let's give it a try. "

A technician typed it in. And the image disappeared.