The globe

Kyle had just entered the lab and switched on the first couple of computers and machines, when he noticed a flash outside. He stepped to the window and saw the trees outside swinging in gushes of wind. Looking down to the courtyard in front of the building, a piercing blue light in the bushes a few meters away from the building fell into his eyes. It was blinking in short bursts. "What is it," he wondered, when he noticed Zack's trademark red jacket moving towards the light source. What is he up to?

After hasting down the twelve flights of stairs to the ground floor, Kyle exited the building breathing heavily and started towards where Zack was kneeling now. Zack was looking down at something, but Kyle couldn't see exactly what it was while he was jogging towards the undergrowth which obscured his view. Stepping over a final hedge, Kyle could finally make out that Zack had put his right hand on a globe the size of a bowling ball. It was dark blue and nowhere near as bright as when Kyle first noticed it from the lab. Maybe whatever it had emanated then had now subsided.

Zack picked up the globe and held it closer to his face. It didn't seem heavy. "Hey, what is that?", Kyle asked, but at first got no reaction from Zack, whose eyes were fixed on the globe.

"Did you see how bright that was before?"

"It wasn't bright, it was active. It isn't now," Zack replied.

"So you know what that is?"

"What we've been looking for," Zack said, smiling and finally turning his face towards Kyle who was standing above him with his hands to his hips. But even though Zack was looking straight into Kyle's eyes, his face seemed distracted, as if the globe didn't allow his attention to be divided. His smile was weak and quivering slightly.

I remember his face clearly. For this look of distractedness and distance, as if something was pulling at him and sucking him out, didn't leave him, until the very end.

I just wish we didn't--neither looked for it, nor found it. I'm pretty sure Kyle agrees, and Zack too, even though Zack is far past agreeing to anything now.