5 The barrier

The dawn was just coming when Jamal woke up on the bed of Lina. He tried to move out of the bed without disturbing her sleep with very slow moves but in the end, she had woken up too before he left the bed, anyway.

" It's already time for you to go? You're very mean, you know? " she sighed while stretching out, " so you are the kind of guy who, after having sex, sneaks out and leave the woman there alone with only her shame and sorrow as her company? " she was faking like if she was hurt, " so for you, I'm just a toy you can use to play with and throw it away once you get finally bored? "

Jamal rolled his eyes and just ignored her before he headed to the bathroom.

Lina waited a few moments before she followed him. " You're very a boring man you know? " she said a bit disappointed.

" You wanted me to come at you and pretend to seek for forgiveness and promising you to never try leaving you again? " Jamal extended the corner of his lips and asked with a fake bored tone.

" Yeah for example, or at least you could show a little sign of reaction to my jokes," she said when she reached his side, she took a serious low voice " Are you really forced to go there every morning? Could you not skip your duty for today and stay with me ... just for today? " she said when she was hugging him from his back.

This question, Jamal has been asking himself every morning when he prepared for his patrol. Why do I have to go? Why someone else doesn't do it instead of me? But the answer remained always the same " Because you have to do it ". His elder sister never stopped telling him that a real man never complained, he achieved his duty whatever it takes and he never gave up. He always asked her why she told him that as she was not a man and he remembered she always replied with a smile " you're right of course I'm not a man... but you will be, I'm raising you to be one, and that day I hope you will remember my words and achieve your duty in the manliest way possible ".

Sometimes he wondered if she knew from the start what will happen before she disappeared, or if she would do better than him in the protection of the city and its people. She was the person he admired the most and all his actions he has done until then were always inspired by his sister. " I'm seriously far from the man you had seen in me though," he thought.

He turned and faced Lina " it's really what you want from me. To abandon my duty and stay here kissing, cuddling and having sex until the end of the day? "

She revealed a naughty smile as she said, " I'm not especially talking about having sex, you pervert. Just having you by my side... ".

" Even though many people might suffer? " Jamal interrupted her. Her face became gloomy. It was always like that, she could never be happy for a long while with her own boyfriend because his duty of protecting the town's people always passed before her. It was not like she didn't like this aspect of him to devoting himself for people's sake, it was, on the contrary, one of the reasons she loved him so much. However, she was like any woman, looking for some more attention from her man and wanting to spend as much time as possible with him.

" You're right, I'm kinda too selfish. You can go protecting everyone, " she slowly let go of him as she was stepping back, " after all, that is how I lov- " she could not finish her phrase as usual and it was really frustrating her.

It didn't matter how much she tried, it was beyond her forces.

She never could express verbally her love for her man, it resulted that some times she couldn't bear crossing his look. "Why can't I tell him? The one who told me uncountable times how much he loves me, " she kept on repeating to herself, frustrated. " Sorry, I go back to my bed, tell me when you finish, " she turned around and wanted to rush to her bed when Jamal stopped her and grabbed her hand, she turned her to face him, and then he dropped his hands to go squeezing her soft naked ass.

" You don't have to be like that any time you failed to tell me 'I love you', " he paused " since I already know that you do love me, words are not so important when you don't miss to show it to me... moreover with such a big and nice giggling butt I can't not be happy, " as he saw that she was smiling, he gave her an enormous kiss which lasted more than one minute. She felt like she was the luckiest woman having the kindest and the most handsome man as her boyfriend.

•••

" You're late, " Natasha said somehow looking a bit irritated and impatient, " You were the one who pressed me to not come late, and yet you're the first to break your rules, " she smacked her tongue, " I swear you're such a hypocrite of a teacher ". She was waiting there for more than 20 minutes before she saw Jamal ran towards her.

" Sorry it took me more time than usual to get ready, " said Jamal not even breathless from the long race he ran to come there.

" What happened? No, let me guess... " she closed her eyes to give a thought, " Lina pouted again, cried, and tried to convince you that instead of coming you should stay on her bed a little while, right? ".

Jamal didn't know whether to be astonished or embarrassed, he stayed there and for a moment he couldn't reply. " How do you even know that I was with her? "

Natasha rolled her eyes, crossed her arms below her chest, and gazed at him for a few seconds before she made a sign to show something on his neck. She checked on her bag, took out a little mirror, and handed him when he took it and looked at his neck through it he found on the side of his neck a little hickey. He tried to hide his embarrassment as he was trying to erase it. " I can't believe she did something like this ".

" I can believe it though, " Natasha sighed while looking away and faking like she was interested in something in that direction " and I'm pretty sure she did it on purpose, " Natasha said in a almost inaudible tone of voice " she wanted to tease me ".

She sighed " I think it's time to go, isn't it? How shall we proceed? ". Jamal looked at his watch and frowned, " As you said before, you can defend yourself alone, so I will ask you to go watch one half of the barrier and I will take the other half, got it? ".

Natasha looked surprised, she didn't expect him to let her go alone, she thought they would go inspect the whole barrier together and then he would tell her to go alone looking for some fugitives in a part of the city. " Are you sure? I mean it's okay for me to go on my side? ".

" Of course, though it's not the very dangerous part of the patrol, you must be okay alone " he shrugged, " moreover, I already showed you how managing to find signs of intrusion, how to fix the barrier in case of intrusion, and even how to reactivate the security system in order to prevent any kind of escape from the criminals during the day ".

Indeed, during the fighting training, Jamal used to teach them, especially Natasha, the different steps of the patrol, started by the inspection of the barrier to the patrol in the city. One of these steps was the reactivation of the security system.

Even though Lina ensured him that the criminals would never dare to try to cross the barrier during the night, the rest of the population wanted a real certitude, so Jamal and some engineers managed to add a security system on the barrier which would alarm the whole city if someone crossed it. However they couldn't manage to make it work 24h/24, instead, Jamal had to reactivate it every morning during his daily round.

All these stuff Natasha knew them on the top of fingers, that was not that the problem. What was bothering her was that Jamal was giving her all trust to achieve the mission.

" What is it? " She asked suddenly.

" What is it what? " Jamal replied a bit confused.

" Previously you were totally opposed to letting me join you on your patrol and now you're telling me to go on my side " She paused " Why this sudden change of behavior? "

" I figured it out " he sighed while putting his hands on his hips, " this morning when Lina told me to stay with her, I have been forced to recognize that I would never be able to do this only by myself anymore... I didn't want to acknowledge it before, but I can't run away from the reality of things and the reality is that I need help ". Before Natasha could say anything, he added " So I will go on my side and you will go on yours and at the end of the morning, and only then, you will give me your response whether you want to continue on this path with me or not ".

Natasha wasn't back yet from her astonishment however, she has been attentive to what he said and thus she managed to articulate a reply, " Why not now? Why couldn't I respond to you right now? I want to tell you now that of course, I will walk with you on this road of yours ".

Jamal, without reply to anything, headed toward the direction of the barrier, and Natasha didn't insist but just followed him, doing her best to hide her irritation of being ignored that way.

They walked for about 10 minutes overpassing house after house, building after building before they arrived just in front of an abandoned building and behind it we could see the long barrier in a desert area, running the length of the city, it was a structure composed of thick metal grids and metal spars of about 3 meters of height. Each spar was distanced from another by 20 meters of grids and on the top of each spar was laying surveillance cameras which, with other movement detector devices, composed the kit of the security system and all these devices were linked to the control post which was located in a locked room in the abandoned building which only Jamal had the keys.

" We will separate from here, I will take the right part of the barrier and you the left, okay? " Jamal ordered while pointing the two sides with the hand. Natasha nodded completely knowledgable of what she had to do.

In brief in this part of the patrol, she had to walk along the barrier verifying whether there were signs of someone who crossed or not. When it was found that there were, it meant that whether the barrier or the materials of security were messed or just destroyed. In that case, she should take note of the places where the criminals crossed into and then reported it to the post of control in order for it to be fixed. It was quite simple and easy though.

From there, each of them headed to the direction indicated. It took more than one hour for Natasha to finish inspecting the barrier. She noticed two traces of infraction in two different and in the two cases only the barrier itself was messed, so after she noted the locations she headed back to the control post to register them.

Arriving at the building she surprisingly found that Jamal was not at the entrance, she inferred that whether maybe he hadn't finished yet his part of the patrol or he wasn't even waiting for her arrival. As he previously explained to her where was the control post's room, she decided to enter in to complete her part of the job. The door was not locked so it was without any surprises that she found Jamal there, sitting on one of three chairs in the room, his attention caught by the screens on the wall in front of him.

" How much did you note? " He said without turning his head or even taking a glance at her.

" Only two actually and none materials were messed only the barrier, " She said while she was reaching the desk next to him. She used another computer to register the location of the infractions. She finished and turned towards him. " And you? How much you found? ".

He turned his chair, faced her and said " only one and none broken materials registered that too, I also identified who are the trouble makers today, " he paused, looked at the screens, and continued " Ed from the books store on my side and Paul and Edna on your side. Ed and Paul are surely after some little girls to rape and Edna is here to try to kill Nadine whom her husband used to cheat on her with ".

Natasha checked at the surveillance video and suddenly, she opened wide her eyes said with a point of anxiety " it's been only 20 minutes since they came on this side of the city. We have to hurry. It seems like only Edna has a weapon but anyway we have to still be careful ".

She made a move to stand up but with his right hand, Jamal stopped her, his voice was relaxed when he told her, " calm down we can't just run outside along the streets and looking for them blindly. The residence of each person in this town is quite well equipped to resist any kind of intrusion attempt. So we will wait here for alerts and the calls of help in order to identify who is attacked and where. All people were warned to lock their doors very carefully, so it will resist until we get there ".

While they were waiting, Natasha started asked some questions, " Why the surveillance cameras are working 24h/24 but not the rest of the devices? "

" I don't know, the technicians are still working on it " Jamal responded his eyes still focused on the screens. Natasha thought for a little while and said " You'll not ask me what I obtained from Matteo ".

Jamal rotated his chair to face her, his eyes as sharp as ever, " It was a private conversation between you and him, I cannot come and order you to tell all you know, it's up to you to reveal them to me if you don't mind ".

Natasha rolled her eyes with the corner of her lips extended on a slight smile " You're acting quite innocently even though it was you the one who told me to interrogate him ".

" Yeah but only in purpose to help, people feel better when they entrust their fears to a trustworthy person, doesn't it? ".

After he said that Natasha blushed a little bit, she cleared her throat, quickly gathered her thoughts, and told him " anyway, listen, Matteo told me that he was special too, I think he has like some powers just like me... not exactly like me because his powers are different from mine. It is just like you said there are other people like me and Matteo ".

Jamal was not looking as astonished as Natasha expected, instead, it seemed like he was wondering about something. He gazed deeply at her when he asked her, " did he say something about his powers? Do you actually have a clue of what he can do? ". As she didn't have any clue, Natasha shook her head " He just told me he was kinda like me and went to bed, why ? What are you thinking about? "

" Do you recall how he was when he told me to bring you with me? I had the feeling that he was right and it was crucial for you to come with me, even if I still don't know why " Jamal said or rather he wondered out loud. At the moment Natasha wanted to add something a slight red light started to flash letting them know that there were some people calling for help. Jamal hurriedly checked at the screen " they came from two different places, one from Nadine's house and the other from a new citizen's house. I'm heading to rescue the new citizen and you will head to Nadine's place, there are some motorbikes at the garage of the building, no time to discuss, let's go ".

In the garage when Natasha was on her bike Jamal stopped her and handed her a knife just like his usual one.

" What should I do with this? " She asked when she took the knife.

" We will see if Matteo was wrong or right, I told you before that you will have to make a choice ". He got on his bike without responding to her question or giving some more explanations " Here we go ".