The Secret
PART I:
In a dark street, a swirling whirlpool of lights appeared, a gateway between dimensions. A fierce wind blew some old newspapers lying on the road. Suddenly a loud yell could be heard, and a rather large man landed with a loud thump squarely on his rear. Before he could gather himself, another loud voice came through and a black man fell on the 1st man. They both knew what was coming next and in a surprisingly swift movement, both rolled away in a tangle of limbs to one side. The next arrival was a young woman, who somehow managed to hit the ground and tumble away to the other side without hurting herself and still retained her balance. Barely. Last came a young man, who landed with a smack on the ground, face down. Meanwhile, the men who had appeared first were engaged in a struggle to free themselves. The older man said in an annoyed voice, "I do wish you would go ahead of me once, Mr. Brown. It would be interesting to see your reaction to having someone falling and knocking the breath out of you. I am tired of being your landing cushion!" "Now come on, Professor, I am definitely lighter than you and me falling on you will not result in 'Crying' man squash' so quit complaining all the time. Maybe you should just come last, then no one will be there after you to land on you."
"Hey! No way Remmy! You want the rest of us to get creamed?" said the girl, Wade. She was dusting herself off and couldn't help putting in her two cents worth when she overheard the familiar bickering between the two. She then turned to the dazed young man sitting on the ground rubbing his forehead to help him up. "Maybe it would be a good idea for the Professor to go before me, he might be a good cushion for me," he said with a faint smile. "You OK Q-Ball?" the black man asked in concern, the first one to notice the small cut on his forehead. The young man, Quinn swayed on his feet for a moment when he stood up and rubbed his forehead. "I'm fine. Just a bump." He looked at a device in his hand. "I really hope this is a pleasant place to stay 'cause we have almost two days here. We could use a break." "Well, I sure hope the food is good here, because I'm starving!" They all smiled at Rembrandt's statement.
They moved out of the street and into the main road cautiously. Thankfully no one seemed to have noticed their arrival. They were rejoicing that they had not yet been carted of to prison or arrested or even mistaken for terrorists, as they had been in the last world, when a shrill noise disturbed them. A boy on a bicycle was riding towards them and the way he was ringing the bell on the handle and waving his arms indicated that he wasn't exactly able to control his bicycle on the sloping road. The others moved out of the way in time but Quinn just stood there without realising what was happening, at least till the cyclist ploughed into him and knocked him down. They landed as a heap on the ground. The boy quickly got up and lifted his vehicle off Quinn. He held out his hand which Quinn stared at for a few seconds before comprehending that the boy was trying to help him up. The others clustered around him, their faces creased in worry. "I'm fine guys, no damage done." He said in an attempt at cheer.
A man walking a little behind them had seen the whole thing and came forward to assist. He would have asked if anyone was hurt but his eyes fell on something that had fallen from the young man's coat. He picked it up and stared at it in stunned disbelief. He quickly took out his cell phone and made a call.
Quinn had brushed off the boy's apologies and had waved him off on his bicycle before he noticed something. "The timer, where is it?" he asked in shock. "I think I dropped it!" Then he noticed the man who was examining it. "Hey, that's mine!" The man just looked at him with a peculiar expression on his face. The Professor stepped up and said in his most courteous voice. "I think what my friend here wants to say is that object which you are holding, sir, is his. Kindly excuse him if he has been rude. So if you could give it back …" he reached out to take the timer, but the man swiftly thrust it into his pocket. Remmy burst out, "Man, you'd better hand it over or else…" He never got to finish the sentence. A large car drew up beside them at that instant and a couple of burly men wearing black outfits got out. They looked from the group of sliders to the man facing them. He inclined his head towards them and they immediately walked around the car, each grabbed the arms of two of the sliders and shoved them unceremoniously into the car. One of the hoods got into the back and the other at the wheel. The man who was obviously their boss got into the passenger seat and they took off. The Professor was the first one to recover. But he had only just opened his mouth to speak when the man in the back clamped his hand over the Professor's mouth. He didn't say a word, but his manner and the glare he shot everyone stuffed into the back of the car made sure they got the message.
PART II:
The windows of the car were heavily tinted and there was a partition between the front and the rear of the car. Wade was the one with her nose pressed to the window, not because she wanted it to be but because there was absolutely no place in the car, what with the four sliders as well as one of the fellows in black in the backseat! She was anxious about what was going to happen to them, but had enough sense to try to peer out of the window to see where they were going. Not that she could see much, but anything was better than sitting silently with that guy staring at them. There were not many high rises that she could see. In fact there were mostly sprawling low buildings everywhere. But the streets seemed to be quite normal, with kids playing on lawns and washing hanging out in a few of the houses. Suddenly, the whole surroundings changed. As much as she tried, Wade couldn't make out anything except long stretches of flat land with some building or something at a distance. Then came a high wall which seemed to stretch forever. It had large coils of barbed wire and glass bits on the top as well as sign at intervals which looked like it said "Warning. Electrified Fence." The car stopped all of a sudden and the man in front took out something which a guard, who appeared out of nowhere, took and inserted into a device in his hand. None of them in the back could make out what the 'something' was due to the frosted glass partition. They could see that the men in front were saying something, but it seemed that the glass was sound proof. For some reason, the man in the back with them got out. As soon as he shut the door, the group took a huge collective breath. "I thought my nose was going to become permanently flattened, the way it was pressed against the window!" Wade said with a nervous laugh. "What do these guys want?" The Professor decided their strategy. "We had better go along with whatever they say, at least for now, because we need to find a way to get the timer back. Then we shall see what to do to get out of here; security looks very tight."
The others just nodded their heads.
The car started moving as suddenly and silently as it had stopped, but this time they were left alone in the back. After a few minutes, the car stopped once more and they were escorted out by two other men, who held guns. They were marched into a pristine, white room having a single door and no windows. There were 2 plastic chairs in the room, again in white. Without a word, the two men walked out and closed the door and the unmistakable sound of a lock clicking followed them. Quinn was the first to speak. "I wonder what we are supposed to have done to deserve this kind of treatment. At least we have almost forty-eight hours here to figure out what's going on and to find the timer.
