Ed never normally asked so many questions, normally he went straight up to his apartment with as minimal contact as possible but something didn’t feel right. He took his right foot off the step and turned his body towards the doorman. “Oh right. What do they call you then?”

  The man replied, “Tom.” Ed eyed him up and down suspiciously. He wasn’t sure if he was being inherently racist by not believing that his name was “Tom.” The strong accent suggested otherwise. Ed was not about to cause himself more bad publicity by questioning him over it. He imagined the headlines, as he always did when about to make a bad judgement, ‘Your name’s too English, Ed Dayton in racist remark’ and ‘Ed Dayton in racist slur’. He considered it was not worth the hassle. He hesitated not sure what to say. Eventually, he simply turned around and walked up the stairs. As Ed was walking up the spiral staircase, something made Ed look down. He could see the doorman. He was staring at the entrance like they usually did. Ed thought it would put him at ease. It didn’t.

  Ed tried to push the unsettling feeling he had to the back of his mind and carried on walking up the stairs. As he approached his apartment, he walked in and saw Lanette on the sofa watching TV. Ed saw she was watching some type of serial drama, which he didn’t have the time to watch. As Lanette heard the door slam shut, she turned to face him. “Hey Eddy!”

  Ed took his jacket off and put it on the hooks behind the door. “Hey Lanny. Have you eaten?”

  She replied, “not yet. Do you want me to cook?” Ed was conflicted. On the one hand, he couldn’t be bothered to cook, but on the other, he knew as soon as he sat down he would fall asleep after yet another frantic day of seemingly endless meetings. He decided it would be best to do it himself, it would at least keep him awake. “I fancy doing it today, I’ll do a stir fry.”

  Lanny smiled and walked over to him. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him gently. She looked up at him after she released her lips from his. “Eddy the chef. That would be lovely.” She sat back down on the sofa and Ed made his way to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and got out the chicken, peppers and onions. He took out a sharp, long knife from the knife stand and started to chop some peppers and onions. As he was chopping, he felt his body relax. As if the sensation of the knife cutting through the peppers was in some way satisfying. Ed watched the way it carved through the peppers so easily.

  He continued to chop the onions and could see Lanette making her way over to him. She was wearing tight black jeans and a loose-fitting red top, her long blonde hair cascaded down her arms, swaying as she walked. She walked behind him and rubbed his shoulders as he chopped. “How was your day? You were late again.”

  Ed sighed. “Tough day but not a bad one. Made some progress.”

  Lanette manoeuvred her head around him so she could see his face. He could see her long blonde locks draping past his elbow, tickling his arm. “With the space side of things?”

  “Yeah. I think we might get another flight going again soon but this time with a bigger profile.”

  Lanette looked at him and smiled. “That’s great. How have you managed that? You always manage to pull it out the bag! Is everything alright with Tim now?”

  Ed ignored the first part of the question, he wasn't about to tell Lanette everything, who knows who she gossiped with when he wasn’t in. “For now.” Ed didn’t want to talk about work, he wanted to come home and relax, he wondered why that seemed too much to ask. He hoped that was the matter done with. It appeared not as Lanette shook him gently but so much so that Ed almost chopping off the tip of his middle finger.

  “Tell me Ed. I’m interested.”

  As Lanette gently shook him, the knife cut off the tip of his fingernail, it was so close to chopping off the tip of his finger, that Ed could almost feel the pain. He yelled out in shock. He turned around. “Watch what your doing will you! You almost had my finger off” As Ed looked at Lanette, he could see her eyes were wide with shock. Ed was puzzled. Then he followed Lanette’s gaze and saw the knife he was holding was pointing at her stomach. It looked almost like it had pierced her skin but all it had done was make a small incision in her red top. He quickly withdrew the knife and spun back around back to return to chopping. Ed chopped in silence, the only noise between them was the hard metal sound of the knife hitting the worktop with each chop. The noise almost sounded threatening after what had just occurred. The sound of the knife hitting the worktop, saying this could have been your stomach, look how easily I cut through.

  Ed could not stand it, for some reason, the silence was deafening, hanging like an accusation in the air. Ed felt like he would never forget that look of fear in Lanette’s eyes. He wondered if they would ever be able to move on from that moment. He tried to break the silence, restoring some normality. “There’s a new doorman downstairs, did you see him?” Lanette did not reply. Ed said again, more insistently. “The doorman Lanette. Did you notice he was different?” He put the knife down and turned around and put his hands on her shoulders, she seemed to shudder at his touch. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that, you know that right? I was just chopping you see and you spooked me. I’d never hurt you, you know that.”

  Lanette looked into his eyes for a while and Ed could feel her searching for some kind of truth in them. She finally replied, “I know Ed. Things haven’t been great for a while. You’ve not been yourself.”

  Ed sighed “I know but once this initial space flight is over and the programme is up and running, it will run itself. I’ll retire then and it can just be me and you. We can go for walks and look up at the stars or just stay in and watch TV. Whatever you want.”

  Lanette slightly smiled, although Ed could see it was false. She was trying too hard, it was almost a grimace. “Sure, that sounds great.” She walked back over to the TV and sat down. Ed could tell that to Lanette, it didn’t sound great right now. Ed thought probably the last thing she wanted to do at the moment was spend more time with him.

  The rest of the night past of little note and conversation. For the first time in a long time, Ed couldn’t wait to get into the office. Not because he was excited about the programme progressing so quickly, but because he figured that he would rather be at work shouting at people than sat in the awkward silence in his large apartment with accusations hanging in the air.

  2.

  The next day Ed awoke earlier than normal and got himself dressed and ready for his day ahead. He decided to dress more casual today as he did not feel he needed to win the board over, after all, his meeting was going to be giving them some good news. He decided to go for blue trousers teamed with a white shirt and no tie. He purposefully woke up early and was as quiet as he could be to get himself ready to get out of the house as quietly as possible so he didn’t have to wake Lanette. Ed even avoided his usual smoothie to not wake her. He grabbed a glass of fruit juice instead and had some porridge with fresh strawberries and left. If Lanette did hear him, she never made an appearance.

  As he walked out of the building, he noticed that ‘Tom’ was still manning the door. Ed nodded to him as he left the building, avoiding another awkward encounter. Tom said, “Your car is at the front, sir.”

  Ed still could not place the accent. He felt he could not leave without asking him again and cursed himself for his own curiosity. “Thanks. Any news on the other guy?”

  Tom shook his head. “It is not looking good I have heard. You may not see him for a while.”

  “That’s a shame, nice guy. Send him my best.”

  Tom smiled and nodded. “Very good Sir,” Ed noted the smile almost seemed sinister. Ed wondered if it was the sunglasses that gave that effect. The thought suddenly occurred to him, wondering why he was wearing sunglasses at all.

  Ed walked out to his car which was waiting for him, feeling more unnerved than he did last night. There was nothing unusual about Eastern Europeans in London. The capital was a diverse place and all the better for it. The Russians particularly, put lots of money into the city. Ed wasn’t sure how much of that money was strictly legitimate but as long as it kept the city running no-one seemed to notice or care much. However, his own run-ins with the Russians lately made him sceptical. There was also something almost threatening in the way he said he would not be seeing his old doorman for a while. Ed reflected that you never truly appreciate something until it's gone. He liked his old doorman, who knew his boundaries and seemed a gentle sort of fellow. Ed thought this guy would break your neck given the chance. He could see he was of a stocky build even under the expensive suit, with his square shoulders.

  Ed got into the backseat of the car and his driver took him to his office. He tried to shake the thoughts out of his mind, he had bigger challenges ahead. When he got to Dayton Tower, he noted there were no press waiting for him today, it made a nice change. He was able to get out of his car and walk through the main entrance, it made a nice change. Not having to go through the back like a tradesman. He got out and walked to his office and up to the boardroom.

  As he got out of the lift and made his way across the hallway, Sarah jumped out to see him, her green flowing dress swaying as she did so. Ed rolled his eyes, resenting the fact that he couldn’t even make it to a meeting room without being bombarded. “Ed you’ve had a call from an Andrea, that’s all she said. She said to tell you that ‘everyone will know come 12pm’. She said you’d know what she meant.”

  Ed avoided eye contact. “Thanks. Did you manage to get everyone together for this morning?”

  Sarah nodded. “Yes but some can only stay for the start.”

  “Great.” He started to walk towards the meeting room, hoping it would give Sarah a subtle hint that he wanted to be left alone. She stayed unmoved. He ended up right in front of her, a place he did not want to be. He tried to brush past her, pretending that she wasn’t there.

  “Ed?” Ed rolled his eyes and then turned around.

  Sarah was standing with her hands in front of her, rotating them awkwardly and staring at the floor. “Yes, Sarah?”

  Sarah stared at her green stilettos heels. “About the other day…”

  Ed waved his hand as if to dismiss the idea. He didn’t have time for the melodramas. “Don’t worry about it.”

  Ed turned and started to walk away, he had other things on his mind today. “No Ed, I’m sorry I overstepped the mark.”

  “Forget about it.” Ed carried on walking, without turning around and walked into the boardroom.

  Ed looked around the room and for the first time in a long time, he was not secretly dreading the meeting. In fact, he was looking forward to it. No intense grilling, no difficult questions, no questionable lies to conjure up, just telling them how matters were progressing. Ed was especially looking forward to rubbing in the fact that so far, his plan was working against all the opposition of the doubters. Ed had time to check his emails, out of the hundreds of unanswered messages, one caught his attention, an email from Ruth.

  From: Ruth Merryweather

  To: Ed Dayton

  Subject: FYI

  “Ed,

  You may find the below interesting:

  www.thewordpaper.co.uk/russian/launch/ready”

  Ed clicked on the link which took him to an article from The Word, Ed’s most hated publication.

  “Russians ready to launch new crewed test flight

  One inside source (who wishes to remain anonymous) has revealed that the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos are ready to launch a test flight in preparation for a commercial flight later this year. The test flight will go ahead later today at 3pm (12pm GMT) with a dummy in the capsule. The dummy named “счастливая кукла” or “lucky doll” will be aboard the mission.

  The mission will aim to get into outer space and return back to earth safely.

  Should the mission be successful, a human test flight may only be a matter of weeks away. The big question being asked is if the Russians can do it, why has Ed Dayton and Dayton Space made such a mess over it?

  Our sources confirm that a project is lined up to get Dayton Space moving again but surely Ed Dayton is about to lose his space race with the Russians?

  We will be providing a live feed from Russia, so stay tuned!”

  Ed stared at the screen motionless, the urge to throw his phone out of the window rising, as if throwing away the phone would throw away his problems. Ed knew this moment was coming but he hadn’t expected it just yet. His own sources had indicated that they were close but they had managed to keep their test flight launch completely secret. Ed knew that even when they did get the televised programme up and running, they would still be weeks away from an actual launch. The realisation dawned on Ed. The Russians were going to win. Ed felt like it was all for nothing. He wondered what the point was in a programme called “The First Civilian” if it wouldn’t, in fact, be that. Ed realised his meeting had just got a whole lot harder. Ed wondered why nothing was ever straight forward, why he couldn't have this one moment of glory. He began researching everything he could find about the test flight until the board started to filter in for the 10am meeting. Ed put a smile on his face trying to recreate the good feeling he had earlier and begun the meeting, pretending that he was unaware of what he had just read.

  3.

  As the board sat down, Ed looked around at the faces that sat watching him. He could read the emotions on the faces of the people around him. He knew that some people knew about the Russians and some didn’t as there was a mixture of emotions on their faces: excitement, anticipation and defeat.

  Ed began. “It is good to see you all again and I am delighted you could all make it on such short notice. We have made some great strides in our mission to become the first UK based commercial flight into space. Most of you will be unaware that we held an assessment day yesterday to select ten candidates that will feature on the televised programme “The First Civilian”. I am delighted to say that this was a big success and we have ten candidates who are being informed as we speak that they were successful. Preparation has begun into preparing the programme with initial filming starting next week. This will mainly be based at Dayton Warwickshire Hotel for now until it gets moved for filming to a remote location nearby.

  In terms of progressing the shuttle; our scientists have worked tirelessly to prepare the shuttle ready and it should be ready to launch in four weeks which should tie in nicely. We will, of course, be doing a test flight in the next couple of weeks to be sure. I called you all here to update you and to ease your concerns and I hope that I have done just that. I will now open the floor to any questions.”

  Khalid was the first to comment. “I think we should change the name of the programme. We’ve called it “The First Civilian” but we might not be. Have you heard the news on the Russians?”

  Ed replied and could not hide the disappointment in his face. “Yes. They may well beat us to be the first commercial space flight of the new age. I hope they don’t. If the test flight doesn’t go to plan, then we can still beat them. The main thing is, they don’t know about our idea yet. We will be the first televised programme to recruit a space cadet and for all we know, the Russians could be just launching with astronauts first. We might still be the first to launch with a true civilian. For that reason, of course, I wish to keep this competition out of the headlines for as long as possible. So please do not share any of this information to anyone outside of this room.”

  Jim sighed and ran his hand through his thinning hair. “Ed, I have raised this concern before and I will raise it again. You are so fixated with this programme and all the fame it will bring you, that you are failing to see the reason why we went into this venture is slipping away. We wanted to be the first affordable commercial flight into space in modern times and we might fail. I feel I am the only one on this table that gives a damn that we’re losing £10m a month on this venture. Ed, television programme or no programme, if the Russians do manage to be the first to transport a paying passenger in direct competition with us, then you have to see that we have failed.”

  The board stared at him, almost hoping he could say an answer that would magically make it all better. They wondered why he lied and hid truths, it was because the look of expectation made him do it. Ed could have predicted how this meeting would go. He thought he may as well have skipped the meeting and had pre-programmed robots of every board member, as he knew exactly what they would say and their response. However, the only surprise came as Ed was just about to reply. It was from that sweet voice he liked to hear. “I understand that Jim, but what can we do now? We can’t just say we might not win and call it quits. We will lose more than we gain. This televised competition gives us the opportunity to recoup some losses and increase our profile. It would be worse to drop out now and have the public think we failed again.”

  Ed watched as Jim and Ruth looked at each other. “I agree Ruth. I’m not saying to pack it in, I’m just saying we will be perceived to have failed. Ed should accept that if the Russians get there first, he will have failed.”

  Ed hated that word, failed. He had not failed. He felt his anger rising. “That is true, but who in the public eye will care if they can watch their friends or family go into space? I’m pretty certain that the Russians will have someone of their own standing up there first, someone who can afford to pay. Look with all this deliberating, all we can do is watch the test flight later and see how it goes. I’ll set up a large screen in our conference room for you all to watch it. In the meantime, I suggest that we meet again in one week for a progress update unless something comes up.” He was fed up now, his good mood evaporated. He wanted everyone out. “Are we done?”

  Ed heard a voice that he had not heard in a while, a voice that rarely brought good news. “Ed, I’m not sure about the reliability of what you have just said. I checked with Hans and they are still working on increasing the reliability of the new shuttle. Can you guarantee it will be ready for a test flight in a couple of weeks?” Tracy looked at Ed and the board went silent. They all stared at him awaiting his reply. Waiting for him to fall on his sword.

 

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