by Steve Simons
"Phew!" Jack breathed a sigh of relief.
"Right drink up, we've got to make a move, those people over there seem somewhat interested in us and the last thing we need is to attract any attention to us." said Sylvie.
They were soon travelling on a Transvec tube to destination unknown. The Transvec was pretty quiet, in terms of passengers. There were only two others and they soon got off. It seemed strange to Jack to be travelling in absolute silence, he was just about to ask a question, when he thought he heard Sylvie say, "don't speak these things are bugged."
The more Jack thought about Sylvie's comment, the more he didn't remember any sound actually coming from her lips, then his curiosity was answered when he heard Sylvie say, "I'm communicating telepathically, by my mind, but I can't do it for long as its too tiring."
For the rest of the journey they travelled in silence, until Sylvie jerked Jacks arm and nodded towards the doors. They got out of the Transvec and walked for a while until they reached a building with several doors. Sylvie waved her arm before one of the doors and it opened inwards. The lighting beyond the doorway was somewhat subdued. As soon as the door closed, the light increased significantly.
Jack could see that it was a tastefully decorated place. He was about to comment on it, when Sylvie said, "Thanks did it myself. Although its not actually my place, just a safe house."
Sylvie showed him to a very comfortable bedroom, it had all the sort of entertainment equipment that Jack could wish for.
"There's no Galcomnet, that's for your protection. The authorities monitor usage very closely.
We've got our own portal." said Sylvie then in response to Jacks thoughts continued, "How did you know about Secrenet? Oh yes your Father was in the service. No I don't know about his whereabouts, but I do know our people are looking for him and are close to finding him. Yes Richard is looking."
It seemed strange conducting a one way conversation. Jack yawned.
"Yes it has been a long journey, I can understand why you're tired. Have a nap before dinner, I've got some stuff to do anyway." said Sylvie and she left Jack in his room. He flopped down on the bed and within minutes was fast asleep.
< Break Music>
Dinner was a fairly simple affair. Sylvie apologised for her lack of catering skills, after all she normally had no time for such niceties, chasing around the universe after people or things.
Jack was just grateful for something to eat, so whilst it wasn't up to the standard of a high class restaurant he was quite delighted with the meal. He issued some praise that made Sylvie feel a bit better about her efforts.
When dinner was over Jack tried to start a conversation about Sylvie's work.
Sylvie replied, "We don't talk about our work, in-case the people we're guarding or working with gain too much information that could be useful to the 'enemy'."
Jack tried to turn the conversation to taste in music, but even that drew a blank with, "Best to avoid that, as I might give away information about places I've visited." said Sylvie.
Jack asked, "If Wesley manages to get free from his captors, how will he find us?"
Sylvie replied, "He won't, our operatives will find him before he even has a chance to take a breath."
Jack couldn't help but think, "Talk about being over confident in your abilities! This is just totally boring."
As if in response to Jack's thoughts, Sylvie said, "Why don't you watch a film or musivid, there's loads to choose from on our entertainment system in your room, even got some of the stuff that's just been released."
"OK" said Jack and he went to his room. He searched through the catalogue and sure enough there were new films and musivids that he hadn't even seen the adverts for yet, but had heard they were in production. He entertained himself for several days with the films, musivids and games. He was getting pretty good at some of the newer games. Even though the place was well equipped and he had plenty of entertainment, the fact that Sylvie was about as friendly as a servebot and he knew he was trapped here, Paul felt like a prisoner, all that was missing were the bars at the windows and doors. Come to that there might as well have been bars at the windows, as Paul was under strict instructions not to open the window covering in-case anyone saw him.
Just when Paul was convinced that he was not going to get any news about his brother or dad, Sylvie took a visicall from an agent who claimed to be calling from Genthaed. Paul saw that the location identity confirmed this. He felt somewhat uncomfortable as if he should not be in the room and that the call was private, but despite her earlier precautions, Sylvie made no indication that he should go, or come to that stay; it was almost as if she had forgotten he was there. The caller claimed that Grandfather was well, he had finished his visit and would be returning that afternoon..." then there were details of a flight and arrivals time. The caller requested that Sylvie be there to collect him, although the caller did not mention Sylvie's name. It was as if the person calling, was a cousin or a distant relation, he had the same detached manner as Sylvie.
When the call had finished and Sylvie made absolutely sure that the connection had been broken, she turned to Paul and said, "I expect you gathered from that conversation that your father has been found and he's safe and well. I've got to collect him from the space port this evening, at the time you heard. We'll have some lunch before I go. There are snacks in the kitchen unit for your evening meal, I'm sure you'll find something suitable. You must not leave this place or attempt to contact anyone you know, as that would put your father and us at risk, that includes your mother, much as it pains me to say that."
Wow the first time a bit of emotion crept into her voice. Paul was quite taken aback. He quickly restrained himself in-case Sylvie picked up on his reaction, but he could tell from her face that she'd already picked up the thought.
Over lunch, Paul remarked that it seemed strange that the call had not come from his uncle Richard. Sylvie didn't appear disturbed at all by the remark, instead she said that Richard and Edward may already be on the flight.
When Sylvie left, Paul re-assured her that he wouldn't contact anyone and would stay put, unless his life was in danger.
A second show of emotion swept over Sylvie when she said to Paul, "If that happens, get yourself to a place where you'll feel safe and that your Uncle is most likely to think of. We will find you, not the other way, OK?"
Paul detected the serious concern in her voice and nodded. Sylvie left without any further delay, she actually smiled briefly at him as she left.
After Sylvie had been gone for a while, Paul decided he'd use Secrenet to check the departure time for the flight, as he still had serious doubts about the call and whether it was indeed genuine. Whilst he readily wanted to believe that Richard had kept his promise and his father was safe, something inside him doubted that Richard would leave such an important communication to another agent. Call it something in his genes, being the son of a secret agent or that he was just downright mistrusting. His thoughts and feelings seemed to be further confirmed when the flight schedules showed that there wasn't a flight due in at the time that the so called agent had given Sylvie. However, there was nothing he could do about the situation, but wait to see if Sylvie returned safely.
Paul decided to go back to his room and play a little more on one of the games that he'd become quite a sub-zero gamer at. The time slipped by quite quickly, he was getting snackish, so he decided to go out to the kitchen to find something "suitable" as Sylvie put it.
As he slipped through the door he was suddenly conscious of an arm coming into view on his right side, it was only a brief awareness as the arm and hand were covered in black material, all except a small cloth in the palm of the hand, which was quickly placed over his mouth. Paul caught a brief glance at his attacker or at least the masked face and dark brown eyes, as he slumped to the ground.
Chapter 9 - Games Without Fun
When Paul woke up, he suddenly remembered wha
t he'd seen; an arm coming into view on his right side, the arm and hand were covered in black material, all except a small white cloth in the palm of the hand, which was quickly placed over his mouth. Paul caught a brief glance at his attacker or at least the masked face and dark brown eyes, as he'd slumped to the ground.
His next thought was where was he, was he OK, had anything happened to him? There was a large screen on the perfectly white ceiling, when he turned his head to one side then the other, he noticed that the walls were also perfectly smooth and white. He tried to lift himself up and that was when he became aware of the restraints on his arms and legs. No matter how he struggled he could not loosen himself from them. He could not actually feel them pressing against his skin, but they prevented movement. When he looked at them they appeared as a fuzzy outline, obviously some form of force field rather than made of any form of material. "That's a pain" thought Paul, "You can't wear out or stress a force field. Whoever has captured me knows what they're doing and has money behind them."
Paul looked again at the walls, trying to see if he could detect any form of entrance, but was unable to find any. Paul was getting quite desperate and feeling totally trapped, then it suddenly occurred to him that there was a fresh air feed gently blowing against his face, yet there were no grills or holes in the walls or ceiling, they were just too perfect! Yet where was the air coming from? Then it came to him, the room may be a total illusion generated by projectors, especially as it appeared so perfect. This made him relax and feel less trapped. For all he knew, his brother Ed may be merely a few feet away from him. That thought made him feel much more at ease.
Suddenly the screen showed swirling coloured patterns and Paul could just make out a faint voice saying "welcome, you are quite safe, we want to help you, so relax." The message repeated over and over, getting a bit louder each time, there was a break of 20 or so seconds between each burst.
Rather than make Paul relax it had the opposite effect and made him more restless. Whoever was controlling it, had obviously noticed his reaction as the message stopped halfway through one of its loops, although the coloured swirls continued, they were ever changing and quite attractive. Paul resisted the temptation to stare at them. Instead he turned his attention to one of the restraints and tried to move an arm, whilst the effort was futile, it gave him something to concentrate on. Just laying there watching the screen was boring. He continued like this on and off for what seemed like hours.
Suddenly a voice could be heard and an obviously computer generated face appeared on the screen. The face seemed friendly enough, but that was half the trick. Whoever was behind all this wanted to build up trust between Paul and the image.
The voice said, "Hello Jack, or is it Paul, which do you like to be called these days?"
Paul made absolutely no response.
"No matter," responded the voice, "I have your attention and that will be OK with me."
There was a pause, then the voice continued, "We can help each other out you know. I know that you have lost two things quite dear to you and I need some information. We could do quite a nice trade, two for one I think the supermarkets call it.
Paul didn't respond, but was thinking, "More like BOG OFF!" It was a phrase he'd heard his dad use. The supermarkets meant Buy One Get One Free, but Paul had another meaning of "Get lost."
"Let me be a bit more specific", the voice continued, "Recently you lost your brother, tut! tut! and on a strange planet, light years from home, wonder what Mum will think? Especially as you ran away from him as fast as you could. Yet look, we have still found you and want to re-unit you with your brother Wesley, oh sorry I meant Ed."
There was a pause, then the voice continued, "Then before that your father wandered off into space, getting himself lost. Luckily we were on hand to find him too...." The voice carried on in the same vein, but Paul had lost interest by this point and his technical curiosity crept in regards the face and the way it kept in perfect timing with the voice. He wondered if it was a live response system or was it a recording. Then he analysed what it had been saying to-date, there had been no real opportunity for it to respond to change as Paul had not said anything. Paul decided to have a bit of fun and test the system out. So he said, "Have you ever played the game, 'VP Cybernautics' ?"
There was another pause, as if the person behind the voice were thinking or asking others what Paul was talking about. Then the voice resumed with, "We are not here to play games, this is reality."
Paul responded, "No chance to test out theories and stretch your brain capacity then, shame, you must live a pretty boring existence then."
This time there was a fairly quick response, "We don't need to test out theories, just deal in what you know and in exchange we will give you what you have lost".
Paul ignored the comment and went on, "Strange things those e-rooms, pretty dangerous for someone who's never encountered one before. Get too carried away, step into your room before construction is finished and you'll end up as part of the fixtures or furniture. Just think, unless there's someone to clean up your room, they might only find you when the hotel is demolished, upgraded or there's a change of management."
"What on the moons of Jedhaed is he waffling on about?" The voice responded and was obviously not aware that the microphone was still on. "He is OK isn't he, didn't suffer any sort of damage on the way here?"
Paul could just about make out another voice in the background denying any "rough stuff". Then the voices ceased as someone must have realised that the microphone was still on.
Paul smiled to himself, and mentally scored One to Paul, Nil to his captors.
~~~~ Later ~~~~
The voice tried several times to re-establish control of the conversation, but every time Paul threw random, and totally unrelated comments into the conversation. As time went on the voice tried threats, saying that his father and brother would suffer if he didn't co-operate. Paul simply carried on ignoring the thread of conversation and either threw in the random comments or said nothing.
The voice broke off for a while. Paul thought to himself, "Ah peace at last."
Then the voice came back, this time sounded even more menacing, "OK if you want to play games, I've got a good one for you, it's called, 'co-operation' if you don't co-operate with us, we will make things painful for you!"
Paul thought to himself, "Ah that's interesting, this guy is not in charge and can't make many decisions on his own as he said 'we'."
The voice continued, "Right why did you follow your father out to the Galtoid sector?"
Paul thought, "Right they don't know anything for sure that we made the discovery." Then he calmly said, "There was a good comedy on the other night, boy did I laugh and laugh, hadn't seen anything so funny in ages, shame I can't remember the title now."
Suddenly Paul felt real pain up and down his back. It only lasted a few seconds but it might as well been minutes. It took him a while to get his breath back again and get his breathing under control.
The voice then said, "OK maybe you'll be more co-operative now, where were we? Ah yes, why did you follow your father to the Galtoid Sector and why come to Jedhaed, when you knew he went to Genthaed."
"Perhaps I missed him, fancied a trip abroad, had the wrong planet or couldn't afford the full fair to wherever he actually went... where did you say he was?" said Paul as confidently as ever.
The same pain suddenly shot through him.
The voice asked, "You still like this game? I didn't explain the rules of co-operation, the less you do it the more we do it, if you get my meaning."
Another shot went through him, these two were, for a shorter period, but none-the-less still jarred Paul up considerably.
~~~~ Later ~~~~
Suddenly the lights and screen went out. Although Paul could not see well in the dark, he did get the sense that his hunch had been right and the room was faked up by projectors and force fields. Then it dawned on him,
that if the projectors and force fields had died he could break free. He got himself off the bed and although he was a bit shaky, he managed to get onto his legs. He took a good look around and saw a distant emergency exit sign, he decided to get to that as soon as possible. He decided not to look for Ed as he had no guarantees that he was even in the same district let alone building. The place seemed to be a large building with smaller ones within it. He quickly headed towards the exit.
A voice was heard from across the other side of the building, "Better take a torch with you and check if they are still secure, we don't know how long the power will be off for. We also don't know if the restraints will have failed and be careful these two are slippery characters."
Suddenly as he rounded one of the internal buildings, he saw a figure in front of him, although the lighting was poor he managed to recognise the clothes as those Ed was wearing when he was captured. He cautiously, yet quickly moved up to the figure, getting ready to attack it in-case it wasn't Ed. The figure suddenly turned and instantly Paul recognised Ed's face. He pointed in the direction of the exit. Ed nodded, he indicated that he was going to go round the right corner of the next building, whilst Paul would take the left.