At first there was nothing. Then there gradually arose the odd sense that something was very wrong but he could not recall why. Then there was the pain that hung in the back of his mind like a dark cloud. Instinctively he reached his hand towards his head, as if to check it was actually there, but the cuffs about his wrist yanked his arm back down.
Lifting his head caused the world to spin around him and he choked on the sudden bile collecting in his throat. He tried to open his eyes and found that he couldn't. And the tightness around his head suddenly made sense.
Oh god. Oh god. What the hell was going on?
Panic erupted inside him. His heart slammed against his chest and tears welled behind his tightly closed eyes.
It lasted all of a minute. The years of training at last kicked in and he forced his rapid breathing to calm.
Position, he chided himself. First establish your position.
Sitting. He was sitting down. On a chair. He reached down between his legs and stroked his fingers along the seat. Wood. Good. That could be to his advantage. Moving his limbs, he found that his legs were free but a chain tethered his cuffed hands to the floor.
He could stand. His legs were weak at first but adrenaline soon steadied him and he stepped cautiously forward. His boots scuffed against a solid floor and he then knelt down. Reaching tentatively towards his face he felt the tape across his eyes and clenched his teeth as he found a loose corner and pulled.
The skin across his face was suddenly on fire. It hurt to open his eyes but he forced them to regardless, blinking as he tried to gain focus. The room was bright but slowly he was able to take it in. It was large, about 20 by 18. Shuttered windows high up on two of the walls. A single metal door breaking the length of the wall beside him. Unpainted breezeblocks. Plastered ceiling. Concrete floor.
Turning back to the chair, he saw that it was freestanding. Good. A useful weapon. The large metal ring buried into the floor that tethered him centrally in the room was not so good.
Voices. Beyond the door. Nearing. He scrambled back onto the chair and re-covered his eyes. The sound of a metal bolt sliding open rang through the room and he hung his head, a plan already forming.
The door opened. He waited, timing his move to their approximate approach, his mind calm and clear. He needed them close, needed them almost –
"Well?"
They had stopped in the doorway. Their footsteps betrayed their number. Three. It was doable.
"Is he one of them?"
The deep voice was unfamiliar, laced with an accent he knew but could not place.
"Answer me!"
The thud of fist impacting with flesh. A groan of pain and the collision of weakened knees with the floor.
"Yes." Came the cracked, quiet reply.
"What? Speak up!"
"I said yes!" A sudden, defiant shout. "Yes, he is one of them!"
Oh god, he knew that voice. The precisely formed English, the tone, the hatred in that last word. Oh god. He was fucked.
Ten hours earlier.
To an outsider the illusion would be infallible. Her hair was perfectly pulled back into a graceful twist, not a single strand out of place. Her smart suit hugged close to square set shoulders, her chin high and confident and a smile of greeting swept across perfectly painted lips as she ascended the steps towards the house in long, self-assured strides.
"Hey, Pen." Virgil climbed from the pool; the exaggerated rise and fall of his chest the only clue as to just how many laps his lithe body had completed.
Penny flicked him a wave and continued towards the house, Parker close behind her as always. She glided past Gordon sleeping soundly beside the upper pool and stepped into the house.
Kyrano and Onaha received a warm salutation and nodded a reply as they watched her move through the lounge.
"Pen?"
Penny stopped at the base of the stairs that led up towards the office and turned towards him. "John, darling."
"What are you doing here?"
"Well, what sort of a welcome is that?" Penny chuckled softly.
John's concern remained on his face as he neared her. "I thought you were in France."
"I was." Penny nodded, her smile unwavering. "I needed to speak with your father."
John stepped closer, his frown deepening as he searched her face. She could have called. She didn't need to travel all this way for a conversation. She had come a long way off course –
It was subtle. It was only for him. She didn't want the Belegants to notice. She didn't want to concern Virgil who had now headed inside for a drink. She wanted to avoid any potential confusion between her and Scott who was now descending the stairs towards them.
John saw the slight shake of her head and his heart sank. He watched her turn her attention to his approaching brother and her smile had not faltered for a second. It was bad.
"Hi, Pen." Scott greeted merrily, "Dad's in his office."
"Thank you, darling."
"Good to see you. Come and have a drink when you're done. Okay?"
"Absolutely."
Scott took a sideways step past her and gave Parker a jovial salute. He then saw the concern on his brother's face and his smile faded. "Step into my office, dude." He mumbled carefully before clearing his throat and then raising his voice for the benefit of everyone else in the vicinity. "Hey, bro', I need to give you back that book I borrowed."
John allowed himself to be led through to the bedrooms at the back of the complex, glancing behind him to check that no one was bothered as he disappeared after his brother.
Scott closed the door to his room and sighed loudly. "Something's seriously wrong, dude."
John nodded in quiet agreement.
"I mean, Dad gets this call from his buddy over in the Pentagon last night and hasn't said anything about it. He was up way early this morning and hasn't emerged from his office. And now Penny …"
John considered his brother's words for a moment. "What did he want you for?"
"Huh?"
"Dad." John prompted, "He called you up there."
"Nothing." Scott shrugged, "It was weird. He just chatted about nothing. That's what I'm saying – he's acting real strange. He called me up from the lab to say nothing. Something's totally up. You think - "
"The lab?" John frowned.
"Yeah. Brains and I were - " Scott gasped suddenly and span round to yank the door open. "Oh shit no!"
John somehow managed to keep up with his brother as he sped down to the lab deep in the complex. He had, unsurprisingly, chosen astrophysics over track and field and it would normally have shown were it not for the adrenaline flooding through him.
"Brains!" Scott shouted frantically. "Brains, don't - " He skidded to a halt beside the work station and his shoulders sank. "Oh no …" He groaned breathlessly.
John joined them at the bench and watched Brains shrug an apology. He looked down at the remains of the supposedly indestructible black box and shook his head in confusion.
"You're d-d-d-father thought it best."
"And the decrypted files?" John urged.
Brains shook his head slowly.
"But we nearly had them!" John exclaimed.
Scott shook his head and frowned angrily. "I don't get it! What's he hiding?" He turned to head back towards the house and felt a hand gently pulling back on his shoulder.
"Please." Brains pleaded softly, "It's for your own protection."
"What?" John asked carefully. "What is?" He searched the man's sad face and found no answers. His gaze then moved to the clutter on the bench and he saw the discs that were scattered beside the ruined box. It was everything. All that they had gathered. Gone.
"You'll understand after it's done." Brains offered quietly.
"What?" Scott and John asked in unison.
Brains shook his head slowly. "It's better that you don't know."
oooo
John was sure that he could hear them shouting, even at this distance. Scott had stubbornly refused to hear reason and had decided upon the direct approach. He would get nothing. Only yelling.
John's plan, on the other hand, had promise.
He watched them descend the steps down through the jungle and towards the runway, both of them in quiet solemnity as they made their way back to the waiting car. His heart was racing as he waited for the right time. Parker was fast. He would have to be faster.
Penny gasped in surprise as suddenly he was there. She touched her hand to her chest and giggled in relief.
"Master Tracy!" Parker exclaimed, his voice wavering with a hint of fright and a little more than a touch of dismay at having been successfully ambushed.
"What were you doing hiding in the bushes?" Penny asked, a frown and a smile somehow both occupying her soft face.
"What is it, Pen?" John demanded coolly. "What was so important that it couldn't be said over the comm.?"
"I – I don't …" Penny sighed and then laughed in amusement. "John, dear. You are being paranoid. I only wanted to see your father. We were in the area
and - "
"Europe is a little further than 'in the area'." John countered calmly. "I can link up to Five from any terminal in the house. And I know how to break into your car."
"Now, wait just a minute!" Parker began angrily.
"I see Brains has made some improvements." John continued, seeing the dismay on Penny's face and the outrage on Parker's and knowing he was winning.
"She needed a tune up." Penny offered evenly.
"Bullshit."
"Now, you are way out of line, young man!" Parker fumed and stepped forward, gasping in shock and pain as something struck him in the thigh.
"What the hell?" Penny cried out in alarm as she watched Parker crumple to the ground. She looked back at John, her horror now showing clearly through her professional mask.
"Only a harmless sedative." John explained quietly, holding up the syringe that he had thus far kept concealed in his palm. "Which is more than I can say for what FAB 1 now has packed under her bonnet."
"John, please." Penny held up her hands in a gesture of calm and there again was that confident smile. "Let me explain."
"Please do." John nodded, a smile crossing his lips for the briefest of moments before then dissolving into sorrow. "Tell me what it is that my father is suddenly prepared to kill for."
tbc ...