9

Several pages of the notebook have been filled with crude scenery sketches and random assortments of numbers, before the writing resumes.

Got a pounding headache and a week missing from my memory. Feels like college again.

Will be at Celine’s house in a few minutes. Not sure what to expect. Want to know why he requested me for the interview, but Pham probably wants me to focus on where he’s been since his disappearance.

At the house now. Has it really only been a week since I last came here? Place looks like a dump. Most of the windows are broken. Graffiti’s been drawn on the wall. Looks like the same style as what I saw at Yamka’s apartment.

The creation of the fifth day, the animal world, rules over the celestial spheres. Witness the Ziz, which can darken the sun with its pinions.

No idea what that means.

Celine met me at the door. We’re in the living room now, him sitting across from me waiting patiently as I write down my thoughts. Every light inside has been turned off. Have to sit by a window to see my notebook. No sign of Mrs. Celine or any of the staff I spoke with the last time I came here; apart from me and Raymond, the whole house seems empty.

Celine looks how I imagined. Wealthy businessman with graying hair. Maybe throw in a line about piercing eyes or something for the readers.

“I’d  like to thank you for speaking with me. There’s a lot of speculation surrounding your brief disappearance, and our readers will appreciate you putting a rest to all these wild rumors.”

“You’re welcome, Riyad. I must say, I never expected a little flight delay would cause so much trouble.” He laughs at his own joke.

“Well, if I may get straight to the point, what happened to you during the time you were missing?”

“I was taken by the storm.”

Asked him to repeat that, he gave the same answer. Go back to this question later, see if he’ll actually talk sense. Refer back to interview with Yamka.

“Onto a different subject, I’ve heard some concern regarding the future of Mimlos Inc. Are there any comments you’d like to say to those who have expressed doubts towards its recent actions?”

His good mood never seems to falter. “Of course there will always be people who lack faith. But I can confidently say that I believe in my company’s new policies. In the end, I’m sure that everyone will see that what we are doing is for the best.”

“Are your new policies what you’re planning to discuss at the upcoming conference?”

“Amongst other topics.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, any chance we could give us a little sneak peak at the other topics?” Probably too boring for the story, but might as well check.

“Just the thoughts of an old man looking back at his time in this career. When you look at the course of history, the oil industry was the next logical step for humanity. We have always powered our civilization through burning things. First we burned trees. Then coal. Now the remains of dinosaurs. Grave robbing on a global scale, so we can cremate all of it in the graveyards of our cars and machines.”

“That sounds more like something an environmentalist would say than the leader of a major oil company.”

“Environmentalist?” He laughs. “That’s a word for someone who wants to get a pat on the back for saving the world without having to actually inconvenience themselves. Just go outside and ask any of the protestors gathering in the city. How many of them drove here? How many flew? They all have electric lighting. They all have climate control in their homes. They all eat foods which were processed through machinery and driven to a store. Each one of them spends every day burning the fuels they protest against. It is impossible to live in modern society without taking part in the process. They may talk about saving the world. They might even think they’re doing something helpful. Like their fascination with electric cars.” He laughs again, even louder. “Electric cars. Humans act as if electricity is magic that comes out of a box. Energy has to come from somewhere. Fuel still need to be burned. When they use an electric car, all they do is push that burning out of their sight, so they can claim they aren’t responsible. But it always comes back to burning. Burning for power, burning for land, burning because they can, ever since the first human saw lightning hit a tree and sought to conquer it. Tell me, have you spent most of your life in the city?”

“Well, yes.”

“Then the sunsets here seem normal to you. But a natural sunset isn’t as red as what you see in these urban areas. That color comes from the smog and pollution filling the air. Almost as if every night, humans light the sky itself on fire.”

He’s paused to let me catch up on writing. Already did, now I’m stalling. He’s really into this burning stuff, but I need him to get back to talking about his disappearance. Maybe try bluntness again? He doesn’t seem to mind me asking him anything.

“Going back to your disappearance, can you tell me about this ‘storm’ that took you?”

“It’s exactly as it sounds. A storm built up around the plane. And from within the storm, I saw the Ziz.”

“The Ziz?”

“Yes. The great ruler of the skies. You saw it yourself. When Yamka and her dancers called upon the storm.”

“I