Return to Wardate

by Bill Cornwell

  ‘Your Knight has arrived.’

  Her ears now played tricks on her, it even sounded like Adam.

  ‘Didn’t have time to put on the shining armour. Designer jeans and a T shirt had to do.’

  ‘Adam?’ said Madeline in disbelief.

  ‘Come on, just admit it, you can’t do without me,’ said Adam.

  Madeline ran to him and nearly squeezed the essence out of him.

  ‘Steady girl, I’m only human.’

  Madeline was overcome with emotion and wiped a tear from her eye.

  ‘But how… how did you get here?’ asked Madeline.

  ‘Bloody long way, I can tell you. Flew to Iceland, then to Greenland, then Winnipeg, then I hired a car and drove over two hundred miles and then I borrowed a stilh saw.’

  ‘But, but when did you leave?’

  ‘Straight after you left. Nothing else to do so I thought I’d follow.’

  ‘Didn’t anyone stop you at the Canadian border?’

  ‘Nope, drove straight through... How did you get here?’

  ‘For some unknown reason, went the long was round. Seems they were slightly over cautious... and I still ended up in this trap.’

  ‘Good old Barton told me where you were,’ said Adam.

  ‘Good old Barton,’ Madeline said quietly and appreciatively.

  ‘Been in here long?’

  ‘Nah, couple of days at the most, left the DVD on pause,’ said Madeline casually.

  ‘Right, don’t know about you but I’m starving,’ said Adam.

  Unlike England, all the fast food restaurants had remained open and were plentiful even though at least half the staff were off sick with depression. Adam chomped his way through two big Macs, large fries and an apple pie. Madeline finished off watching episode three.

  ‘Everyone looks so depressed… it’s so quiet in here,’ said Adam.

  ‘Soon fix that,’ said Madeline confidently.

  Madeline pressed a few tiny buttons on her super watch - turning on the app.

  After only a few minutes the change was astonishing. The gloom lifted, the chatter returned, people smiled and laughed and then started asking some pertinent questions. It was time for Madeline to step in and say a few words.

  ‘Can I have everyone’s attention? All of you have just come out of a kind of trance. You’ve all been brainwashed. You may or may not realise it but in nine days there will be an invasion force of nine hundred war ships arriving on your east coast.’

  The tension in the restaurant heightened, a few wept, a few panicked but most listened intently to Madeline.

  ‘Everyone with a smart phone must download an app which blocks out the hypnotic effect. The app is effective for about a 30 metre range. When you’ve finished your burgers, please spread the word. Get everyone you see to use the app. A tall order but somehow in nine days your America has to be ready.’

  ‘Who the fuck, are you to order us about,’ said a rather large burger loving slob still finishing off a mouth full something green and slimy – probably a gherkin.

  ‘Bull, Madeline Bull, British agent,’ said Madeline proudly. ‘Got a problem with that?’

  ‘Yea, I answer to no bitch especially a fuckin Brit!’

  ‘Okay, fair enough. Everybody else, make sure you’re battery is kept charged up and that the app doesn’t get turned off,’ said Madeline calmly.

  The slob, still chomping on his burger had now made his way over to Madeline.

  ‘Are you fuckin’ ignoring me? I hate it when people ignore me. I said, I answer to no… fucking… bitch!’ said the slob.

  ‘My advice mate, go and sit down whilst you still can,’ said Adam.

  This was the excuse the slob needed. In an instant, his fist landed in the socket of Adam’s other eye – the one that wasn’t as yet, bruised. Before Adam’s pain receptor had chance to react, Madeline used her much smaller right fist and placed it, at some speed, on the slobs chin. The slob fell backward, breaking a few chairs in the process and shaking the entire building as he landed flat on his back. The clientele cheered and instantly began downloading the app. Madeline examined Adam’s new wounded eye - it was going to be another shiner.

  ‘My poor sweetheart, half an hour with me and you’ve got another injury.’

  ‘I’m getting quite used to it… Ow! Where to now,’ asked Adam eagerly.

  ‘Roseville, perhaps you can do a better job of taking me there.’

  ‘No problem!’

  Adam looked in the A to Z of Minneapolis. Roseville was on the other side of the city.

  As they climbed into Adam’s hire car, Alf’s minibus sped past, he was driving and it was full of his traitorous squad.

  ‘Change of plan, forget Roseville, follow that minibus,’ shouted Madeline.

  ‘Something I should know?’ asked Adam.

  ‘It’s Alf, the man who tricked me and incarcerated me… and his bunch of apes.’

  ‘Incarcerated eh, swallowed a dictionary?’

  ‘I can be quite articulate if I want to be, you know… I was a foreign News correspondent!’

  ‘Oh yes, of course you were… I remember you saying,’ said Adam genuinely.

  If Madeline had dwelt on Adam’s reply she could have become deeply concerned but she had other issues to think about for the moment. She thought about Alf - she couldn’t deny that she had fancied him – but only a little. He had trapped her cunningly in the nicest possible way with little or no violence. For a while she had thought he was a perfect gentleman but not now - she wanted a rematch.

  ‘We haven’t got a lot of time, see if you can edge in front of them.’

  ‘Have they got guns?’ asked Adam. It was a perfectly reasonable question.

  Adam skilfully overtook the minibus and swerved in front of it.

  ‘Best you stay in the car,’ said Madeline.

  She gave him a quick kiss, rubbed her thumb and forefinger together and got out.

  Alf and his men were waiting for her.

  ‘Well done, so you got out’ said Alf cheerfully.

  ‘Takes more than a fortified dungeon to hold me,’ said Madeline confidently.

  ‘So what do we do know?’ Alf asked, as charming as ever.

  ‘Well, you try and capture me again and I defend myself,’ said Madeline.

  ‘Fair enough… Okay boys, open fire.’

  True, a few bullets did get through but her laser had stunned all of them before any real harm was done. Adam had wisely hunched down behind the dashboard.

  ‘Adam, quick!’ shouted Madeline.

  Adam gingerly climbed out of the car and warily strode over to the pile of unconscious men.

  ‘Help me, I’ll get their ear devices out, you get their guns and mobile phones.’

  Very soon they had nineteen pairs of ear devices the same number of hand guns and mobile phones. They sat in the car and waited.

  ‘Don’t tell me, we’re waiting for them to come around,’ speculated Adam.

  ‘Only gave them minimum stun, they’ll be waking in a minute or two.

  ‘There’s a word for this.’

  ‘What… gloat?’

  ‘No, risky,’ said Adam.

  Two minutes later they had all roused but now they were under the influence of the ultrasound. All nineteen of them stumbled around in a despondent daze. Madeline got out of the hire car and walked over to them.

  ‘Don’t you just hate yourself for what you’ve done?’ said Madeline.

  ‘I can’t bear the thought of it,’ said a humbled, despondent Alf.

  ‘Who put you up to this?’

  ‘You will find out shortly… Please, let me have a gun so I can kill my self.’

  ‘Where is Mark Titoo?’ demanded Madeline.

  ‘You will find out shortly… Please, I have nothing to live for, use your laser on me.’

  Obviously that was that then, she was going to find out shortly. Her questions were more or less answered.

  ‘For goodness sake, go
and lie down, you don’t look well… none of you,’ said Madeline slightly irritated but never-the-less sympathetic.

  ‘I think we will, thanks,’ said Alf humbly.

  Chapter 25: A splendid back garden

  ‘22, County road, Roseville. There you are madam. That’ll be five pounds, twenty five pee please,’ said Adam

  ‘Keep the engine running cab - bee, I’ll be out in… in… Actually I could be a while.’

  ‘I’ll come with you then.’

  It took a while for Gemma Bream to answer the door. Madeline already had her app running on her super watch. The door violently swung open.

  ‘Yes, what do you want?’ said Gemma Bream abruptly.

  ‘I need you’re help,’ said Madeline.

  ‘Who are you?’ said Gemma curtly.

  ‘Madeline Bull MI 7 and this is Adam.’

  ‘MI 7? No such thing, sorry, you’ll have to go. I’ve got a head ache.’

  ‘You are Gemma Bream, MI 6? Nuttall says you’re one of his best agents.’

  ‘Does he? Well not any more. Good for nothing… now… what… what’s going on?’

  Gemma was coming out of the spell considerably quicker than usual.

  ‘Don’t worry, you’ve been under the influence of an ultrasound transmission, it’s been brainwashing you. This watch is neutralising the signal.’

  ‘Of course, yes, my God, we’re being invaded by the whole of Europe!’

  ‘Actually it’s all the rest of the world,’ said Madeline.

  ‘I didn’t care, I wanted the invasion to happen. I was so despondent.’

  ‘Everyone in the USA is under this spell. I’m here to try and break you all out of it and we only have nine days before the ships reach your shore.’

  ‘Tall order then,’ said Gemma.

  ‘That’s what everybody keeps saying,’ said Madeline.

  ‘What can I do?’

  ‘We need to get to the top and work downwards. We’ve… commandeered these ear devices, they filter out the ultrasound.’

  Adam showed her a small bag full of ear devices.

  ‘They want cleaning…’ said Adam.

  ‘They aren’t going to go very far,’ said Gemma.

  ‘There’s an app you can download on your smart phone – does the same thing with a range of about thirty metres.

  ‘We need to get to the president,’ said Gemma positively.

  It was at this point that Madeline realised that Minneapolis wasn’t the most ideal place to be. It was well over a thousand miles away from the east where the important and influential people were usually to be found. Washington was where they needed to go.

  ‘We need a Learjet,’ suggested Gemma.

  They hadn’t a lot of time but Gemma invited them inside. She needed to get ready. She hadn’t been an active agent for over eight years but she kept herself prepared just in case there would be a time such as this when her dormant skills would be called upon. Despite being in her late thirties or late forties, you couldn’t tell, she was still slim, visibly fit and very attractive. Madeline was aware of the possible rivalry that may ensue but she was perfectly okay with it, on balance she did have a substantial edge on most humans.

  Adam cleaned up the ear devices as best he could whilst he was waiting. They really wanted jet washing and bleaching but there was no time for that.

  She emerged in secret agent mode, dressed smartly in black, hair tied up, gadgets galore in all her pockets and very bold makeup, enough to intimidate most Avon representatives.

  ‘First stop - Zol Pidem, a good friend of mine. A multi millionaire - has his own Learjet and pilots it himself,’ said Gemma.

  Gemma pushed the ear devices deep into her ears and they set off in Adam’s hire car.

  Pidem lived on his own in a huge perfect replica of a seventeenth century baroque style French chateaux with more wings than a KFC bargain bucket. So long was his grand gravel drive that the entrance gates and the elegant carved walnut double entrance doors were almost in different time zones. The resident butler answered the door – clearly the effects of the ultrasound had weighed heavily on his already depressed manner. He didn’t speak, too deep within his sombre thoughts to even look at them. He grabbed hold of two Dobermans who dearly wanted to eat the visitors and then slightly raised his head. Madeline’s app was running on her super watch but even after several minutes, the butler’s facial expression hadn’t changed one jot - obviously his normal disposition was grumpy.

  ‘Is Zol in? Will you tell him it’s Gemma, Gemma Bream.’

  The butler disappeared, leaving them all standing at the entrance. They had no idea what he had done with the Dobermans so Madeline kept her laser finger ready on standby. She did her best to hide her damaged hands and the hinged down section of her laser finger. No doubt eventually Gemma would find out that Madeline was a highly sophisticated android brimming with weapons, cunning and sex appeal. For now though, Madeline was comfortable in taking a back step and letting Gemma do all the work.

  Eventually Zol came to the door - a tall, grey haired man in his Fifties.

  ‘Oh, hi Gemma, I’m having a bad day, call me in a week or two,’ he said quietly.

  For the moment he was not particularly thrilled to see Gemma. He wouldn’t have been thrilled to see Elvis Presley or even his long lost daughter – if he had one… But the gloom and depression would pass any second – Madeline’s watch app was running. He was about to slam the door in their faces when a wave of joy engulfed him. He slowly turned around.

  ‘Gemma… what a lovely surprise, come in, come in! Come and have high tea with me, bring your friends,’ said Zol.

  ‘No time, the USA is about to be invaded. Don’t suppose you could give us a lift to Washington?’ asked Gemma.

  ‘My God, I’ve just realised, the invasion. Why wasn’t I bothered?’

  ‘Because of an ultrasound signal you’ve been subliminally hearing, it’s been brainwashing you. This watch is neutralising the signal,’ interrupted Madeline.

  ‘She’s right, I was in the same state. This is Madeline Bull MI 7, British agent and…’ said Gemma.

  Gemma wasn’t exactly sure how to introduce Adam so she didn’t.

  ‘MI 7? No such thing… Lift to Washington? Yea, sure! The Learjet is around the back,’ said Zol.

  Chapter 26: …And a splendid front lawn

  Madeline and Adam thought they had lost something in translation from English English to American English but they hadn’t. They walked into the grand hall with an irrationally wide marble staircase before them.

  ‘This way, this way, hurry!’ shouted Zol Pidem.

  They entered another huge room exorbitantly garnished with a forest’s worth of gold leaf. In the centre there was a moving walkway - they all got on board. Zol got out his mobile phone, pressed it a few times and the walkway sped up to a dangerous velocity.

  ‘Hang on!’ Zol shouted.’ Be there in a minute.’

  The walkway sped them through five other splendorous rooms until finally emerging at the rear of the building. Madeline and Adam gasped - back garden was not an apt description for what they saw. Amid the beautifully laid out gardens were two of the largest water fountains they had ever seen cascading coloured water into the matching lakes beneath. Between the two lakes and perfectly manicured lawns was a runway with a Learjet casually parked up - all polished and glistening in the sunshine. Zol used his mobile phone again.

  ‘Grayling, co pilot duties please.’

  Within seconds Grayling appeared suitably dressed as a co-pilot should be. His depression and gloom had finally lifted, the app had, at last, taken effect - either that or it was because he preferred co-pilot duties to polishing the silver.

  ‘Where to, today sir?’ he said cheerfully.

  ‘Washington,’ said Zol.

  ‘Very good Sir.’

  It was a thousand mile trip which equated to a little over a couple of hours in the Learjet. Once in the air Grayling took the controls and
Zol reacquainted himself with Gemma. Madeline and Adam gave them space – clearly there was an old flame still flickering. They gazed into each others eyes and eventually held each others hands. Madeline and Adam decided to do the same, everyone felt sorry for Grayling.

  ‘Oh by the way, brought something I thought you might need – left it in my car,’ said Adam, fully aware that Madeline had designs on it.

  He reached in his pocket and took out a small zip up bag. It was her repair kit.

  ‘Thank goodness, you’re a saint.’

  Madeline opened up the bag and took out a small pot of flesh toned special silicone based cement composite and an applicator. Out of sight of Zol and Gemma she spent the next half hour repairing her damaged hands.

  ‘There, how’s that?’

  ‘Perfect!’ said Adam

  Madeline now turned her attention to more pertinent matters, she was on a mission – she had responsibilities. One of the phone numbers in the log of Alf’s mobile phone had to be the number of the MI7 traitor. How else would he and his men know when Madeline was to arrive and where? She contacted Nuttall.

  ‘Nuttall… are you there?’ said Madeline talking into her super watch.

  ‘Hello Madeline, got any good news to tell me?’

  ‘No, bad! Are we safe to talk?’

  ‘Hang on… okay, go ahead.’

  ‘Had a party waiting for me. They knew where I was supposed to land and when.’

  ‘Right… okay… understand.’

  ‘Sending you a list of phone numbers taken from their leader’s mobile phone.’

  ‘Okay, thanks. This is getting a bit tiresome. All my staff were supposed to have been fully verified and investigated.’

  ‘Leave it with you. Have to go, we have an important date.’