by J. M. Preiss
"State your name."
"Jacob Brown."
"What does Cago want with Hedington?"
"I don't know," Jacob said.
"Make this easy on yourself," said the voice. "Cooperate and we will refrain from hurting your friends. We will even give medical attention to the injured one."
So they realized that Mason had broken ribs, Jacob thought.
"I can't answer your question," Jacob stated.
"You won't answer our question, you mean," the voice said coolly.
"No, I meant what I said. I can't answer it. I don't know the answer to your question." Jacob shook his head.
"You are a Cagan. Are you trying to say that you have no idea why you were sent to Hedington? Is it a scouting mission? Were you sent to find our weaknesses and cause civil disturbances?" the voice pressed.
Jacob lifted up his finger. "First point. I am not a Cagan. I am from far away." Jacob lifted a second finger. "Second point. We were simply traveling through and looking for a warm place. We did not start the altercation at that public establishment. We were assaulted first."
"You are lying," said the voice.
"I have no reason to lie. Lying does not gain me anything, and as you said, it will only bring grief to my companions," Jacob said.
The voice was quiet several moments. "We know that you originally visited Repose of the Forest Tribe. The one named Hector told us this. The Forest Tribe is an enemy of Marland. You have colluded with the enemy after coming from Cago. What is your plan?" the voice asked in a more strained tone.
"Did he also tell you that we were forced to flee Repose, that we were assailed in the forest by their guards?"
"It was all a clever ruse to engender this Hector to your cause. He told us that you visited with the Elders for quite some time. Obviously, you were planning how to infiltrate Marland. When is the attack set to launch?"
Jacob lowered his head and shook it. "Look, I'm being completely honest with you. If you don't believe me, give me a polygraph. I have nothing to gain from lying to you. We are not from Cago. We are from far away. Hector saved our lives twice. The first time was from a grelock, and the second was from execution in Repose."
"What is this polygraph that you speak of? Is it some kind of Cagan secret weapon?" the voice asked in a confused tone.
Jacob sighed. "It is a device that will tell you whether or not I am telling the truth."
"We have never heard of such a device. Cagan trickery," the voice proclaimed. "Stop playing games. You will tell us the plans of Cago and the Elders of Repose!" the voice shouted.
"I've already told you that I know nothing regarding those plans. I was unaware that relations between the Forest Tribe and Marland were even hostile before we stopped at an estate on the way here. I didn't know where Hedington even was before the man that owned the estate told us how to get here." Jacob rolled his eyes. "If you don't believe me, go find the man yourself. He lived in an estate west of here. Great big place with columns, a deck, and a balcony. There was also what I assume to be an implements storage structure of some sort not too far away from the house."
"Very well," said the voice with a sigh. "We will go find this man that you speak of. He is a well known member of the community of Marland if I am thinking of who you are talking of."
The room was plunged into darkness, and Jacob let out another sigh.
Chapter XXIII
It seemed like an eternity had passed by the time the lights came back on. He knew that it had only been a matter of hours, how many he was unable to discern. He closed his eyes and raised his hand to shield his eyes.
"The man did say that you stopped by his estate," the feminine voice said. "But that doesn't corroborate your story completely."
Jacob sighed.
"Why do you have advanced technology? You were carrying multiple power cells, two laser rifles, and a slew of devices."
"I told you earlier," Jacob said to the mirrored window. "We are from far away."
"So you are from Cago," the voice mused.
"That's not what I said," Jacob said with a sigh. "I'm sure that Cago seems like far away to you, but trust me; I'm from much further away than that."
"Then where are you from?" the voice asked tiredly.
Jacob shook his head. "Alright. I guess it won't hurt anything. We are from a place called London."
"I have never heard of that place," the voice said.
"Of course you haven't. It's very far away," Jacob said.
Well, at least it's far away temporally. No telling if it's far away physically, Jacob thought.
"It's still ruled like Cago though. It has ties with Elders of tribes. How else would you get your technology?"
"How did you get yours?" Jacob shot back.
She grumbled in frustration. "We were once ruled by the Elders as you surely know. We stole the technology from them when we overthrew their tyranny."
Jacob nodded. "Ok, that sounds reasonable, and I would assume that all of your technology functions properly," he stated.
The voice was silent.
"Look," Jacob started as he leaned forward. "Check our equipment, there is a device that doesn't function. It is broken for some reason. Would Cago and the Elders send out someone with broken equipment?"
The voice was silent, and the room was plunged into darkness again.
Jacob leaned back and shook his head in the darkness.
Chapter XXIV
Another eternity passed, but this time the door opened to fill the room with a beam of light.
"Come out," said the feminine voice. "Slowly."
Jacob stood, stretched, and walked over to the door. He was greeted by two armed militia members and a woman that was shorter than he was.
She had blonde hair that was tightly wound into a bun at the back of her head. She was wearing the same fatigues as everyone else, so her figure was mostly hidden. She motioned for him to walk with her.
Jacob fell into step beside her, and the two militia men walked behind them at a short distance just out of Jacob's reach.
"We confirmed your claim that one of your devices wasn't working," the woman said. "Do not think that this means that we trust you. Your story has a lot of holes in it."
"I am telling you the truth," Jacob said.
"That may be so, but my gut tells me that you are not telling the whole truth." She sighed. "Nevertheless, command has decided that you will no longer be interrogated but rather kept in a barracks for the duration of your stay here."
"Duration of our stay? And just how long are we staying here?" Jacob asked.
"Indefinitely," she replied.
"That could be a bit of a problem," Jacob stated.
"Not a concern of mine," the woman said.
Jacob screwed up his mouth. Time to give a little to get a little, he thought.
"Ok, so you think that I am not telling the whole truth," he started. "What if I said that were the case?"
"I would be required to discern what the complete truth is," she said.
"Do you have a computer with access to a databank?" Jacob probed.
The woman narrowed her eyes. "Yes," she said slowly.
"Give me access to the databank, and I will be forthcoming with you." Jacob held up a hand. "After I search the databank."
"We will never agree to that. How do I not know that this is your mission?"
"You don't," Jacob stated simply. "As assurance, we will agree to stay your guests," he emphasized guests, "at this facility until you deem safe to let us leave."
The woman openly mulled it over in here mind. "Very well," she finally said.
Jacob nodded. "Good. I specifically need any historical information that you have on file. I do not need anything more than that." He thought for a moment. "For now, anyways," he added.
"That can be arranged," the woman said.
They came to stop at the end of a corridor that they had taken a circuitous path to get to. There was a simple metal do
or with a reinforced window looking into a room of some sort. A militiaman squeezed past Jacob and opened the door.
On the other side was the barracks that the woman must have been speaking of. There were multiple bunks lining both walls and a large open space in the middle between the two rows. Off at the end there were doorways leading to rooms that could not be seen. Mason and Hector were sitting on a bunk at the far end, lost in conversation.
"You will be allowed to stay in this barracks. There are wash facilities in the back part past those doors." She pointed to the back of the room. "Food will be brought when you request it. You are not allowed to leave this room. Any attempt to do so will resort in lethal force being used to disable you. Is that clear?"
"As crystal," Jacob said.
Jacob walked into the room, and the door was shut behind him. He walked across the room and sat next to Hector.
"Charming people," Jacob said.
Hector blinked a few times. "They really don't like the Elders," he said.
"What all did they ask you, Hector?" Jacob asked.
Mason was the one that spoke up first. "They asked him about Repose and the Elders. They wanted to know about his mission here and when the Elders were going to attack."
Hector looked at Mason.
"Hey, quicker for me to explain the short of it than have you go through it all again," Mason said. "Anyways, they asked similar things of me, but they kept asking why I was sent by Cago."
"Yeah," Jacob nodded. "Same here."
Mason gingerly stretched. "Well, you said something right. They brought us here not too long before you arrived." Mason leaned forward. "What did you say?"
Jacob smiled. "Nothing, actually. I just promised to tell them the truth."
Mason guffawed. "Are you sure that is a good idea?"
"Truth? What truth?" Hector asked.
"Explain later," Jacob said. He turned back to Mason. "It is going to get us the information that we need, so how can it be a bad idea?"
"Well, I guess," Mason conceded. "You are the one that they chose to lead this thing after all. Remind me why I'm here again."
"Publicity," Jacob said with a smile.
Mason chuckled and grimaced. "I hate you," he said.
"Feeling's mutual, buddy."
"So what are we getting in return for the truth?" Mason asked.
"They're bringing me a computer," Jacob said as he lay back on the bed.
"Now why would you need a com-," Mason trailed off as realization dawned on him. "Historical database."
"Bingo," Jacob said. "There has to be some mention of how things got the way they did. Maybe we can even find out what happened after we left."
Hector cocked his head to one side. "Left where?"
"We're going to have to tell him eventually," said Mason.
"After the computer," Jacob replied.
There was a knock on the door, and Jacob went to answer it.
"Here's your computer," the woman said. She handed him a disk. "And here is the historical data. You have one hour to get the information you need, and then you will give me the information I need," she said with a cold tone.
Jacob took the computer and disk, nodded absent mindedly, and went back to Mason and Hector.
The woman growled and shut the door.
Powering on the computer as he sat down, Jacob studied the design.
"It's not all that different from the handhelds that we have," he mused.
Mason looked at it. "Nope."
"What's that do?" Hector asked with a puzzled tone.
"Care to explain, Mason? I'm going to study this data," Jacob said.
"Sure, why not. I'll play teacher," he growled. "Again."
As Mason started to explain the computer to Hector, Jacob tuned them out. He inserted the disk into the computer and started pulling up information. The database was huge.
This was going to take some time, Jacob thought to himself. Accessing the most recent information, he started perusing the headlines.
It was a collection of newspaper articles mostly. There were some actual articles and papers by what were surely historians or somebody filling in that role, but there weren't that many. The articles for the past fifty years were dull. Stories about how Marland was rebuilding and expanding after the tyranny of the Elders. Interesting stuff, no doubt, but it was not pertinent to Jacob at the moment. He skipped back another fifty years.
The information prior to the rebellion and the founding of Marland was sparse. Simple reports that the Elders wrote concerning the trade affairs between Cago and themselves. In fact, it looked like the reports were almost industrial in nature. Therefore, the Elders were an extension of Cago itself.
Jacob checked a few of the reports. They were full of agricultural information. So they can't make their own food in Cago anymore, Jacob mused. He scratched his chin and went back another fifty years. More of the same. In fact, the same style of entries existed for almost two hundred years as best Jacob could tell. Hitting a few buttons, he left the archives he was in and searched for something even further back. Nothing existed.
"That's strange," Jacob said.
Mason stopped talking with Hector. "What's that?" he asked.
"Records only go back two hundred years or so. Nothing exists before that."
"Why is that so strange?" asked Hector.
Jacob screwed up his mouth. "You'd expect there to be more history. A lot more history."
"Why?" Hector cocked his head to one side.
Mason sighed. "Because the great castles as you call them are much older than you think. Much older."
"These records have to be incomplete. Something is being hidden," said Jacob. "Only problem is that we have no idea of know exactly what that something is."
"Or their file is just incomplete," Mason offered. "It could simply be that the data got corrupted during the rebellion."
"That's a possibility," Jacob said.
The door to the barracks opened up, and the blonde woman that had questioned Jacob entered.
"Your time is up," she said. "Now, if you will, come with me."
Jacob powered off the computer and stood up. "Explain it all to Hector, Mason. That's what I'm going to do to these guys. Maybe we'll finally get some answers by being open."
Mason rolled his eyes and nodded. "As if that will happen."
"Explain what?" Hector asked quizzically.
Mason put his arm around Hector's shoulders as he moved next to him. "Everything," he said simply.
Jacob stopped listening as he walked over to the woman. "Here you go," he said as he handed her the computer and disk. "There was a lot of stuff missing though."
"There is nothing missing," she said heatedly. "This is everything that we have."
"I see," Jacob said slowly. "Anyways, you held up your end of the bargain. I'll hold up mine."
The woman put the computer under her arm and slid the disk into a pocket. Without any words, she turned on her heel and started walking down the corridor. Jacob had to jog a big to catch up. Two militia members followed behind them as always.
"So where are we going this time?" Jacob asked, trying to make conversation.
"Briefing room," she stated.
"A briefing room. Ok. Who am I briefing?"
"Everyone important," she said with the same flat tone.
Jacob nodded. "That makes sense. Alright then, let's get this over with."
They followed another circuitous path through the underground complex before they met an elevator. They got on the elevator and rode it to what Jacob figured was the top floor of the building they were beneath. The doors opened up to an opulent hallway with hardwood paneling and plush carpet floors.
"The opulence of the Elders," the woman said without prompting.
Jacob simply nodded and followed her out of the elevator. They walked down the hallway and turned right. They went through a set of heavy wood doors.
The interior of the room on the other si
de was even more opulent. How that was possible, Jacob didn't know, but it was before him. The paneling was made of some kind of dark hardwood that had a very tight grain. The carpet was thick and velvety. In the center of the room as a heavy table made from what looked to be the same wood as the paneling. The table had an onyx inlay running around the border with a design carved into it. There were big, heavy wooden chairs with intricate scrollwork around the table, high-grade leather covering the cushions. In each of the chairs sat what appeared to be a high-ranking official. There were men with close-cropped hair and fatigues similar to that of the woman and the other militiamen, but they were blue instead. There were also men in business suits, their hair neatly kept and any facial hair precisely trimmed. The businessmen all looked ready for an important business deal while the militia members had grim looks on their faces, as if they were about to do battle with a most hated enemy.
The woman guided Jacob to one of the heads of the table and sat him down. At the other end opposite him sat an older man, probably in his mid-sixties. He looked important.
"So you say you are from a place called - oh what was it - London?" the man asked.
"That is correct," Jacob replied.
The man harrumphed. "I have never heard of that place. No matter though. I am sure that there are plenty of places that I have not heard of out there. What a lot of my colleagues seem to forget is that we are simply a small land. Marland seems big to us, but in the scheme of things, it is a speck." The man looked back and forth at the people seated around the table.
"Anyways," he said conversationally, "my name is Victor. Victor Wainright. And you are Jacob, correct?"
"That's correct," Jacob replied.
The other men around the table looked annoyed that Victor was being so cordial with Jacob.
Victor nodded to himself. "Good. Now that that is out of the way, let's get to the juicy stuff."
Jacob leaned forward. "Can I ask a question first?"
"Why, uh, sure," Victor responded.
"Thank you," Jacob said graciously. "I was looking at your historical data. It only goes back so far, and then it stops. Is it incomplete, or do records not exist from before that time?"