by Adam Steel
‘To what, do I owe this pleasure?’ he said, looking straight through her.
Mason Henson fixed him with an ice cold gaze.
‘There’s been an incident. We are calling a meeting. Tonight,’ she stated.
Aarif nodded dismissively, as if it were beneath him.
‘Really? - an incident? How unfortunate,’ he said, pulling back from her gaze.
He went to refill his wine glass from the platter. Mason Henson marched across the room and slapped the wine glass from his outstretched hand. She looked ferocious. The glass exploded against the wall in a million, tiny crystal fragments.
‘You incompetent fool!’ she shouted.
Aarif recoiled in shock. He could not quite grasp what was happening.
Mason Henson glared at him furiously.
‘Your puppet, your future wife, she knows. Do you understand? She knows about the experiment.’
Aarif struggled to compose himself.
Henson’s black eyes burned into him and he began to falter: his strength eroded.
‘That’s…Impossible. I never…she can’t, she’s nothing…’ he stammered, reeling against the freezing burn, of the mason’s eyes.
Her overwhelming force of will, was causing his knees to collapse, as surely as if she had struck him with a baton. Slowly the would-be king shrank in front of her: his confidence melting away like ice before a furnace. She towered over him with a look of utter contempt. She pointed a sharp finger at him and scolded him as if he were a spoilt child.
‘Your idiotic, reckless actions, threaten to expose us and the project. You are not here to sate your carnal desires wretch!’ she threatened.
Aarif cowered and a fine sweat had broken out on his forehead. He was speechless.
Mason Henson withdrew a small computer disk from her suit pocket and threw it at his feet. His sweat trickled and dripped onto it as he regarded the small black slab.
‘Do you know what this is?’ she demanded, pointing at the cassette.
He shook his head from side to side, afraid to say anything that would further enrage the mason.
‘It’s a security camera feed. From this room. Your ‘entertainment’ with the late Ms Cherry Hammond was filmed. Worse. It was smuggled out and into circulation by one of your subordinates. We found that on one of the unfortunates.’
Aarif stared dumbly at the cassette. Betrayed? Impossible. He was too clever for that. He’d have seen it.
Mason Henson ‘growled’ at him. Her normally precise smile was now an ugly, twisted grimace.
‘We are not here to clean up your mistakes. Do not think you are indispensable. We might remove the unfortunates because they do not yet understand the experiment. It is a necessary thing. We do not remove people because you find them irritating!’
Aarif stared at the floor, turning bright red. He was at boiling point. The scolding glare of Mason Henson and the power of her voice controlled him. Inside him, a turbulent, boiling sea-of-fire, raged. He took a deep breath in and spoke very slowly, as though trying to control a stammer.
‘What is the bidding of the Masons?’ he said.
Henson stepped back a little and allowed herself a brief smile. It quickly disappeared as she gave her instructions.
‘Miss Kaleem, your absent future wife, appears to have fallen in with some rogue elements. Your utter lack of control and lack of vigilance has resulted in her becoming aware of us and the experiment. Now she is deemed as an unfortunate.’
Aarif remained silent, while Mason Henson explained. Inside he was seething at the humiliation. The indignity of it made his blood boil.
Mason Henson continued.
‘She is suspected of working alongside an as yet, unidentified, third party. They have stolen information which has resulted in a breach of security of CURE Prison North.’ She paused, and waited, while Aarif digested the information. ‘Not only will this look bad for us should the news of the breach get out, but it stands to reason that, if they have stolen information from one system, then they might have stolen information from other systems. Clearly we cannot allow that to happen.’
Aarif listened.
‘Obviously, we cannot allow the escapees to go free,’ Henson added. ‘They could know things about the process. Security of phase two is paramount. The detainees were never supposed to see the light of day. Potentially, it’s a damaging leak: one that of course, must be closed.’
Aarif considered the news. Compromising CURE Prison’s systems alone would not give his troublesome ‘wife-to-be’ enough information to uncover the nature of the project. He ventured a question.
‘How can we be sure she knows of the experiment?’ he asked.
Mason Henson glared at him impatiently and replied, ‘Earlier today, two men were dispatched to arrest her following a tip-off call. One of them is now dead. We have discovered from the survivor, that she has come into contact with information that could reveal our plans.’
Aarif listened in stunned silence while Henson continued.
‘She must be neutralised. Her and the man she is with.’
Aarif’s back stiffened. His hands clenched into fists, man she is with? Whore.
‘If they have any information, it must be recovered and returned to us, before it spreads,’ Henson finished.
Aarif nodded curtly. Murder was now top of his agenda and he liked it.
‘It will be done,’ he said, with mock humbleness.
Mason Henson stood back from him.
He had begun to shiver with the cold. She looked triumphantly at his abased and quaking form. It eased her temper a little.
‘It had better be. The information must be tightly controlled. Everything depends on it. For twenty years we have kept the project a secret. We cannot allow it to be jeopardised by your incompetence. No more mistakes, Aarif. You have run out of mistakes. If you cannot be trusted, we will find an Aarif that can.’
Aarif swallowed hard.
Mason Henson took her leave: her guards closing the doors of Aarif’s suite behind her. Aarif stared at the closed door. His expression was cold, but furious. His outraged tears welled in his eyes. Aarif punched a bottle of wine on a nearby counter sending it crashing to the ground in a flood of red liquid. He opened the door of his suite and looked at the remaining cowering servants.
‘MAGGOTS!’ he raged. ‘USELESS MAGGOTS!’
He glared at his servants: his temper flaring. They looked at the floor: petrified, not daring to meet his furious gaze. One of them had betrayed him. Of course he’d have to silence them all. He could not permit any of them to live after witnessing his utter humiliation before Mason Henson. But that would come later.
‘GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!’ he yelled at them.
They swiftly left: bowing until they were out of view. Ajit did not move. He knew the instructions did not apply to him. Instead he stood in front of the door ready to obey. Aarif signalled Ajit to come in and join him, while he was retrieving a small device from his bedside drawer.
Aarif cursed himself angrily, because he knew that he had made the mistake of leaving the task too late. His over-confidence had made him look foolish and incompetent. He should have had the foolish girl dragged back immediately, he thought. The truth was that he had wanted to leave it a day or two. It would have made it more satisfying for him when he did have Aya dragged back. It had have given her some hope, only to have it dashed. It would prove to her that there was nowhere she could run where he could not find her.
Aarif was regretting his decision to let her get a head start. The time for games was well and truly over.
Ajit glided silently across the room to join his master.
‘Cancel the entertainment for tonight. We have pressing matters to attend to,’ Aarif snarled.
Ajit acknowledged him with a short bow.
Aarif turned the device on. It was a small, thin, metal tablet, with an inbuilt computer screen.
A blank screen flickered to life.
ACQUIRIN
G SIGNAL…… appeared across the screen.
Aarif waited impatiently.
A few seconds passed.
SIGNAL ACQUIRED……reported the strange device.
TARGET LOCKED……came a second or two later.
A computerised street map, with a small, scrolling blue dot appeared on-screen.
It was heading east through Coney City.
Aarif glared angrily at the dot onscreen. His eyes blazed with hatred. He thrust the device into Ajit’s hand.
‘Find her,’ he spat bitterly. ‘Find her and deal with her.’
Ajit nodded and noted the location of the blue dot. It moved steadily east along a road. He pocketed the device and turned to leave the room.
The Vault: Sector Zero: Coney City
Later that night: Tuesday 24th July
The Vault slid into shape when the masons used their keys to unlock the device.
Mason Henson prepared to take the chair of the emergency meeting. She was standing up waiting for the rest of the masons to be comfortably seated. Her screen slid into place in front of her. She was concerned that the meeting was going to be complicated and heated.
Mason Deckler had just returned from completing his inspection of the disaster at CURE Prison North, Vigilance. He looked even grimmer than usual. Henson started by offering him the floor first.
‘Brother, please give us your assessment,’ she said, and sat down, looking decidedly uncomfortable.
Deckler inserted his key into the main-frame computer and waited for the machine to digest the information. Above the Column of the computer core (in the centre of the vault) a blue hologram shimmered into life. It showed the structure of Vigilance, with a gaping hole in one of the walls. He cleared his throat and began his report to the assembled masons.
‘Fellow Masons. At 11.00 hrs, yesterday, security at Vigilance was breached. It seems that some of the rogue cancerous elements that some of you have allowed to fester in Sector Seven have risen against us and attacked one of our installations.’
Mason Henson shifted uncomfortably. She knew who Deckler was hinting at with his accusation. Her.
Over the top of the prison hologram a series of passport images, with Utopian numbers appeared, flicking through one after another, as Deckler continued.
‘These are the prisoners that we have not been able to account for since the breach. There are nine men in total.’
The images of the men paused when they reached a dark-skinned man, with dreadlocks and a dirty grin.
‘This is the man we believe was the target of the breakout. He is Marko Marseilles. A man that I am sure some of you may be familiar with.’
Mason Batide ‘coughed’ in the corner.
‘One of the Marseilles brothers! Why was he arrested in the first place? That was not supposed to happen yet,’ Mason Batide asked.
Deckler fixed Mason Henson with an accusing stare. He signalled her to explain. She rose cautiously from her seat to join him.
‘It was determined that we at CURE could allow the Marseilles brothers to continue their operations in Sector Seven for a while. At least, until the re-formation (which is post phase two anyway). Their criminal activities made a welcome distraction for us and a useful scapegoat. Their trade in the old Apexir formula kept a lot of influential people quiet: which was useful.’
Mason Batide nodded in agreement.
‘Yes. They were useful as a distraction, an effective form of misdirection. If we have the public looking to the people on the side of them, it prevents them from seeing the actions above,’ he commented.
Henson looked sheepish, ‘Unfortunately, one of our CURE Prison station commanders, seems to have taken matters into his own hands and arrested Marko Marseilles without getting authorisation, or realising the implications for us.’
‘Having trouble controlling your assigned system?’ Katcher sneered, from the other side of the circle.
‘Of course not,’ Henson snapped back. ‘We have held the rogue station commander at Arethusa. We are using him to try and draw out an accomplice. After that he will probably be made unfortunate. He has spoiled our distraction and, worse, he has acted independently.’
Deckler snorted.
‘Distraction? This nest of vipers you have allowed to fester on our doorstep has caused this...’ He cast an arm at the hologram and the gaping hole in the prison wall. ‘Now we have nine new unfortunates on the run. All of which, could have damaging information. They were all supposed to have been processed out of the ghost Beta Wings by now. What if they found out what happened to their predecessors?’
Henson glared at the hologram.
‘We have media control, for now…We will think of something, but you must recover the unfortunates, and quickly.’
Deckler sneered, ‘We are already recovering them. You should have let me dig out the Marseilles brothers a long time ago. Now they are expecting us. With your so-called ‘media control,’ how are you going to explain this?’
He thumbed a button on his control pad and a string of new UTO identities and photographs were displayed: alongside the escaped prisoners. The masons watched the holographic images, which were being displayed, one, after another. They were of prison guards and other CURE Prison staff.
‘These are the staff members killed in the incident. To make matters even worse, the brothers have engineered a surprise for us,’ Deckler continued.
His expression turned to a grimace.
Images of the deceased prison guards, cycled through, until they stopped at a picture of a woman. She was an ugly brute and she glared out at them from the flickering image. Her eyes were cold and pig-like in nature.
‘This is the ex-prison warden. Mary Clarke,’ Deckler stated.
Mason Henson rolled her eyes. Deckler could see she was familiar with the employee.
‘Ten hours ago, Warden Clarke was returned to work by the Marseilles brothers. We have fourteen dead. Torn to shreds would be more accurate. Including, her ex-boss, Governor Taskin. The prison is literally a ghost centre. I have deemed all remaining prisoners and on-site staff at the facility, as unfortunate.’
Mason Batide leaned forward suddenly concerned.
‘All of them? Without consulting us?’ he queried.
Deckler nodded, ‘Yes. You disagree?’
‘Covering this disappearance of so many unfortunates from one location, will not be easy,’ Mason De-Barr piped up in support of Batide. ‘It is bad enough from within ISIAH. Let alone this catastrophe!’
‘Leave it to me,’ Henson stated.
She tried to regain some of her composure, in order to prevent De-Barr and Deckler from locking horns. De-Barr cocked an eye at her.
‘Do not spin your wheel too fast sister, or it might just fall off. Your Slash-Knife serial killer story already has the media and public whipped up into a frenzy.’
‘It has been useful has it not?’ retorted Mason Henson, a hint of barely disguised anger, in her voice.
De-Barr raised his eyebrows in response, ‘All these unfortunates cannot be victims of your imaginary phantom. You will have to come up with something else,’ he argued.
Henson glared at him in response, but he did not flinch from the freezing look.
‘May I continue?’ Deckler said, becoming impatient.
The others fell silent waiting.
‘We do have a certain amount of control over the situation. Most of the witnesses are dead. We have already reassigned all the prison staff that were off duty at the time and I have transferred what was left of the warden over to our esteemed colleagues for research purposes.’
Deckler gestured towards the two identical figures in the circle (who up until now) had not moved, or spoken.
‘She is interesting,’ The Coney Twins said in unison.
‘I have full confidence that our sister will be able to smooth this whole unpleasant event over for us...’ Deckler continued.
He nodded at Mason Henson, who returned it in kind.
/> ‘However…This Jailbreak is not the key issue, merely a symptom of it. The breakout was timed to coincide with a transfer of unfortunates from the Alpha Block to Beta. As you know, it was part of phase two, as outlined in our instructions to all of the CURE prisons. Clearly the jailbreak was planned using knowledge from the CURE prison systems. That information could only have been retrieved by one of our workers. The Marseilles brothers have a certain amount of cheap animal intelligence, crude but effective. But we doubt they could behind this leak of information.’
‘Do you believe that the Marseilles brothers know of the experiment?’ Batide asked quietly.
Deckler shook his head, ‘We have no data either way to suggest that. It is our belief they were aided. It seems the breakout was purely to get their man out. However they could not have done this alone. We have traced the data theft back to the CURE, prison station in Sector Two, and have determined it was this individual...’
Deckler thumbed another switch, causing the prison hologram to fade. In its place, an image of a young women (alongside a Utopian number) appeared on-screen.
Aya’s expressionless face ‘glitched’ in the pale, blue, light.
Katcher glared at the image. Secretly he was fuming.
‘This is Aya Kaleem. Some of you may recognise her. She is our first diplomat’s future wife. Aarif Pashazade’s future wife,’ Deckler finished.
Katcher cringed awkwardly and glared sullenly at Deckler. Deckler grinned victoriously back at him.
‘How much does she know?’ Royale cut in, but before Deckler could begin to attack Katcher over Aarif.
‘That depends on who she has seen and what they have said, but it is surely some clandestine operator. We dispatched two operatives this afternoon to bring her in. One of them is now dead. The other confirms that she had information on the experiment. This information was destroyed, but she is now at large. We identified this man with her from an eye reading which we secured from the Info-Com at the hotel they were hiding in,’ Deckler explained.