Puppets

Mrs. Foreman left the room knowing she would return to office finding graffiti on the walls and death threats covering her desk. She could deal with it, the worker's Red Faction would come and protest, no harm done. Any employees that step out of line can be taken care of and their bodies dumped in the sea. She yawned as she reached for the door-handle, her feeble human mind still trying to gain control but always failed.

David Tunsengun ran over to her, "You've got a few voice e-mails and a file transfer from the CIA waiting for you, Mrs. F!"

Mrs. Foreman smiled to her secretary, "Fine, David please get me a coffee" and she strode in to her office.

Meanwhile at the residential end of the base Tristan sat with his friends eating. He wasn't surprised to see Nicole looking through the window and waved her in. She was nervous; he could tell by the way she glanced from side to side. When she taken a seat, Tristan offered her "So what do you want for diner?" Her face turned to shock and her mouth seemed to drop to the floor. Tristan turned to a waitress and whispered something in her ear, then turned to Nicole, "Here are all the guys I work with!" and smiled, to make sure she still understood, when he got a weak smile in return he pointed to a huge, burley man sitting opposite and said, "This is Hanyou" in reply to Nicole's curious look Hanyou said, "Hey, my girlfriend made it up!" and shrugged his shoulders. Tristan next pointed to the right to a tanned woman in a lab coat adorned heavily with small badges, "This is Dr. Stone, we all call her Ruth and she's the number one expert on Africa."

Ruth blushed at that comment, "I'm not that good!" she said modestly. Next Tristan pointed to the left of Ruth to a guy who had definitely used too much hair gel, "This is Richard or 'Slick R' as we call him, he does maths and," Tristan leaned closer and whispered, "he uses too much gel, but don't tell him that"

Richard gave that 'I'm not laughing look' at Tristan, who turn gave a 'Tony Blair' smile.

Then conversation began between them about how everyone was going to sabotage Zimos. The ideas were very good as if these people had planned it. The waitress came over with a huge cappuccino sundae that seemed the size of a skyscraper to Nicole. The waitress gave Nicole a massive tablespoon that looked as if it could hold an ocean. But Nicole was hungry and began to tuck in while the others talked and Ruth was stirring her coffee and she looked at the cream disbelievingly. She stood up and knocked Nicole's cappuccino sundae off the table. Tristan was surprised, "What the hell?"

"There's poison in that stuff"

"But…"

"I know!" Ruth turned to Nicole, "How much did you eat?" she said fiercely, "Tell us before you go!"

Nicole concentrated, "Two spoonfuls"

"Are you sure?"

"Yesss"

"How do you feel?"

"Tired, floaty hmmmm"

"She going delirious, does it taste like dark chocolate?"

"What else?" and Nicole slumped into delirium completely.

Tristan was thinking hard, "It'll take too long to bring her to room 2901 'cause all the staff here are puppets dancing on the same string, with the puppeteer overhead"

Hanyou looked seriously at Tristan, "You could…?"

"No it's never been done before"

"Stop lying"

"Alright see you in a mo" and Tristan bent over Nicole, "This might sting!" and he disappeared.

Ruth looked at the only two colleagues who were still faithful to human life, "Lets go, Tristan will catch up"

Hanyou and Richard looked at each other and nodded, "We're ready!"

Ruth smiled, "It begins!"

They ran down the corridor and at a cross junction laser beams surrounded them.

"What is going on?" Ruth demanded

A woman's voice from the shadows answered, "Tristan was right when he talking about puppets dancing on the same string, as you all soon will be!"

End of Chapter 10