LADY Penelope felt irritated as FAB1 headed down the long, dark country road in the direction of South. It had not been a good evening. The charity dinner she'd been attending had ended in chaos when two opposing parties had kicked up a fuss over what charity the funds were going to. Penelope had stepped in and broken up the argument by insisting that the money be exactly split in half between the two charities - something that neither party liked but had been forced to accept. The fallout of it all had left Penelope in a rather sour mood.
"Not h'exactly 'ow this evening was meant to go, was it, m'lady?" asked Parker from the driver's seat in front.
"There's an understatement if ever I heard one, Parker," remarked Penelope. "But you're right. You see now why I hate attending these kinds of events?"
"Beg pardon, m'lady, but I've h'always understood why," said Parker. "I just wish your parents could see that too."
"Don't let my Father hear you say that," Penelope said, although secretly she wished her father would. She let out a yawn. "Oh, goodness. Sorry, Parker."
Parker gave a chuckle. "No need to h'apologise, m'lady," he said. "Why don't you try and get some shut-eye whilst we drive 'ome?"
Normally Penelope found sleeping in moving vehicles difficult, but another yawn convinced her to take up Parker's suggestion. "Oh, dear me. Yes, very well, Parker. Although I do feel it'd be a lot quicker and easier if we just flew back home?"
"Until Mr Brains has figured out the h'issue with FAB1's main turbines, I'd rather not risk trying to use the flight-mode, m'lady," said Parker.
"Oh, yes…of course," said Penelope, remembering. "I'll try and take a nap. Drive carefully, Parker."
"Yus, m'lady."
But they hadn't gone very far before FAB1's engine began making some unsettling noises. It seemed to hiccup, cough and splutter.
"H'Oh, dang and blast you!" cursed Parker.
5!
4!
3!
2!
1!
"THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!"
"MYSTERY BUILDING"
PENELOPE jerked wide awake as she felt FAB1 moving sharply from side to side as Parker battled to keep it under control. "Parker?! What's happening?!"
"'ANG ON, M'LADY!" Parker then noticed an exit off on the right-hand side of the road leading into what looked like a Car Park to an Industrial Estate. He jerked the wheel and the car veered off the main road and into the Car Park. It was completely empty so Parker stopped in the first space he could find. He then turned the engine off and cursed to himself as he stepped out to lift the bonnet up.
It was a cold night and so Penelope stayed inside the car where it was warm. She waited anxiously for Parker to come back in after checking the engine over. "What's the trouble, Parker?"
"Engine 'as overheated h'again, I'm afraid, m'lady," said Parker with a grimace. "That's the third time in the past two weeks."
"Oh, how distressing," sighed Penelope. "Can we carry on if we give it time to cool down?"
"Yus, but I don't know 'ow long we'll be needing to wait h'until it cools down, m'lady," Parker said.
Penelope laid herself against the seat padding. She pulled up the sleeve of her jacket to look at her watch. "2:21am," she said out loud. "No wonder I was tired."
"You sound h'a lot more awake now, if you don't mind me saying so, m'lady?" said Parker.
Penelope did kind of mind, but she was too polite to say so. She quickly forgot about it though for her attention had been grabbed by a long steel and glass two-story building that was just across from where they were parked. It was dark with no lights on. Only the glowing white light of the Moon shone down upon it which made it visible to them. "I wonder what this building is for?" she asked out loud.
Parker looked at the building as well. "Not a clue, m'lady," he answered. "I can't see any signs with a company name written on it."
Penelope was silent for a moment. She tried to think where they were. They were quite a long way from the Creighton-Ward Estate still and they didn't come down this route very often so it wasn't a building she could ever remember seeing before. "Maybe it's brand-new," she said. "It does look very new and modern." She began to reach for the computer built into Parker's seat so she could do some research. "I'll see if I can find out anything about-"
"Psst!"
Penelope stopped and looked up. "Pardon?"
Parker was cautiously indicating towards the building. "Lights, m'lady," he said in a low voice.
Penelope looked over at the building. Sure enough, she could just make out a pair of dim lights coming from inside. One was on the ground floor, the other on the first floor. This in itself was very unusual, but what was more unusual was that the two lights seemed to be moving around as well. "Maybe there is someone inside," said Penelope.
"But who?" asked Parker.
"Probably Security," said Penelope. "A place like this will always have the best security available."
Parker looked around the site. From what he could see illuminated in the low beams of FAB1 and the light of the Moon, there didn't appear to be much else apart from the building or the Car Park. There were no tall lamps lighting up the rest of the Car Park. In fact, he couldn't see any other buildings, although he reckoned they were concealed in the darkness. "This seems very h'open and exposed, m'lady," he remarked.
"The Security Office could well be out of our field of view, Parker," Penelope pointed out. "Perhaps we shouldn't really be here. What's the-"
But she was cut off when Parker let out a small gasp of surprise. "M'lady, look!" he said pointing.
Penelope leaned forwards to look in the direction he was pointing at. Her eyes widened a little when she saw that the double automatic doors on the front of the building had suddenly opened like someone was about to come outside. They waited. But nobody came out of the building, and then the doors closed again. "Well, that was odd," Penelope remarked. "Although perhaps the security team inside-"
She was cut off again, this time by a wailing sound coming from the building. She didn't need to ask what it was, and nor did Parker. It was the unmistakable sound of a security alarm going off. They then noticed the lights inside moving quicker than before, both heading in the direction of the doors. As Penelope and Parker continued to watch in silence, they saw the shadowy figure of a man with short hair come running out of the doors which opened again moments before. The figure then ran off to its right, heading along the front of the building, lighting the way with a torch as it went. Then a second figure came running out, also with a torch. Again it was in complete shadow so they couldn't see any face or even what the figure was wearing, but this one appeared to be slightly taller and have long hair. It stopped for a second, looking to its right after the first one and then scurried off round to its left, along the side of the building and then disappeared from sight around the back.
"They didn't look like security to me, m'lady," Parker said, breaking the awkward silence.
"No, they didn't, Parker," agreed Penelope. "But equally, I didn't think those looked like criminals either. From the way they were running, it looked like they were pursuing rather than fleeing."
"But pursuing who?" asked Parker. "I never saw h'anyone come out before they did."
Before Penelope could reply, she noticed the torch light coming round from behind the building. "Look, they're coming back," she said quietly.
Both the figures were returning from the directions they'd run in, only this time they were walking at a much slower but uncomfortable-looking pace. They then stopped close to each other in front of the entrance and began to start having a conversation it seemed. They were still all in shadow and couldn't be identified at all, but it was definite that the taller, long-haired figure was not male. Neither Penelope nor Parker said a word. They just continued to watch with a mixture of apprehension and intrigue at the same time. And that's when things suddenly took an unexpected turn.
The male figure appeared to kick something on the ground. A pebble perhaps. Whatever it was, it skipped along the ground and then bounced upwards upon contact with a piece of concrete at the very edge of the Car Park. Then the two figures became very still. Then they turned to look in their direction.
Parker tensed up. "I think we've been spotted, m'lady!"
Then to their alarm, the two figures began to sprint towards them, and not in a friendly way either.
"They're coming right h'at us!"
"FULL-BEAMS, PARKER! BLIND THEM!"
Parker flicked a switch causing FAB1's dim headlamps to go full beam, completely turning everything in front into a blinding bright white light. They momentarily saw the two charging figures throw up their hands and they thought they heard cries before everything went silent.
Penelope opened a concealed compartment at the bottom of Parker's seat and pulled out a stun-pistol. "Get ready to turn the beams off, Parker," she instructed. "Then help me restrain these intruders."
"Standing-by, m'lady."
Penelope cautiously opened the side door of FAB1 and stepped out. She aimed her weapon into the glow of the headlamps. "Don't move!" she called out. "We have you covered. Now, Parker."
Parker switched off the headlamps and stepped out having pulled out his own stun-weapon from the glove compartment. But as he went to raise the weapon at the figures, he stopped dead and blinked in disbelief. There was nobody there. The two figures had completely vanished. "What the perishing…?"
Penelope had lowered her weapon, also in surprise. "Good heavens!" she exclaimed. "Where have they gone?!"
There was no trace of the two figures. Absolutely nothing at all. They both looked around them, taking out torches of their own and shining them around to see if they could catch a sight of anything. But there wasn't anything to see. They then looked back at the building. The doors were closed and the alarm was no longer sounding.
"That was most peculiar, Parker," said Penelope at last.
"I concur, m'lady," agreed Parker. "Should we call the Coppers and report this?"
"And tell them what exactly?" asked Penelope. "That we've just caused two people who came running of a building to vanish by shining our high-beams at them?"
Parker couldn't help but agree that statement sounded ludicrous. He got back inside and checked the temperature of the engine. "She's cooled down a little, m'lady," he said. "Should we get going?"
But Penelope was no longer tired. Nor was she prepared to leave without trying to make sense of what they'd just witnessed. "Not yet, Parker," she said. "I want to have a closer look at this building." And with that, she began to make her way towards the building.
Parker wasn't comfortable about staying. He wanted to leave. But once Penelope had made up her mind about something, he knew there wasn't much he could do to make her change it. So he reluctantly followed her, locking down FAB1 as he went.
Penelope reached the building and began shining her torch light across its structure. She was definitely convinced about it being a new building. It was very clean. No marks on the metal construction or any of the many glass windows that it had. Yet she still couldn't see anything that said what company owned the building. It was just blank. Parker joined her as she approached the double-doors at the entrance. With a dull hiss they opened up as she reached them. They stood still and looked inside, shining their torches into the lobby. Penelope then cautiously walked inside with a somewhat uneasy Parker a few steps behind. They were now inside the building and the doors closed behind them. Looking around the lobby they noticed a flight of stairs directly in front of them that led up to the first floor. Off directly to the left was a pair of double-doors and between the two was a reception desk. Penelope walked over to the desk and shone her torch onto it, hoping a clue to whoever owned the building might be there. But once again, there was nothing. In fact, there was nothing on the desk. No computers, no files, absolutely nothing at all. It was bare.
"Maybe this building h'isn't occupied yet?" suggested Parker in a low voice.
"I'm starting to think that, too, Parker," agreed Penelope. "But whoever the owners are, they're security system is clearly not working properly. Those automatic doors shouldn't be opening at this time of night. There's going to be some serious consequences for someone I reckon." She paused whilst she made a decision of what to do next. "You check down there," she said, pointing towards the double-doors. "I'll take a look upstairs."
"Right you h'are…m'lady," said Parker reluctantly. He watched as Penelope started to head up the stairs before making his way through the doors. What he found was something unexpected. Inside the area on the other side of the doors was…nothing. The whole ground floor area was completely empty. He shone his torch around, trying to find anything. But there wasn't anything to be found. "H'I am not liking this," he told himself. "This is getting too creepy for my liking."
Although she probably wouldn't admit it, Penelope also felt the same as Parker. The silence of the building was putting her on edge. At the top of the stairs she'd found another pair of doors which she had gone through. She found a little more than what Parker had found, but it still wasn't anything significant. It was a large office area with panels set up to have every person's desk separated from one another. But a look on the desks told Penelope that these were exactly like the one at the reception desk…blank with nothing on any of them. Penelope shifted uncomfortably. The light of her torch shone along the wall on the opposite side whilst the Moonlight shone through the windows illuminating several of the empty desks. "This is too weird," Penelope told herself after lowering her torch and stun-gun. "There has to be a logical explanation to what Parker and I saw."
Suddenly both the floors were lit up by bright red flashing lights as the alarm began sounding again. Both Penelope and Parker almost jumped out of their skins. Then as Penelope turned to face the doors that she'd come through, she thought she saw a shadowy shape disappear from behind one of the windows in the right-side door. She ran forwards, torch and stun-gun at the ready and burst through the doors, aiming them down the stairs. Again she was sure she saw a shadow disappear round to the left outside the entrance doors which were open once again. She ran down the stairs, almost losing her footing but managed to stay upright and then rushed outside. She glanced to her right and saw Parker was outside as well, running along the front of the building but in the opposite direction to where she'd seen the shadow go. Knowing there was no time to lose, she set off in pursuit, hurrying around the left-side of the building and around to the back. Perhaps Parker had seen another shadowy figure and was going off after them, she thought. She soon came around to the back of the building and then skidded to a stop when she saw what was in front of her. It was a refuse area with six large red industrial waste bins lined-up in front of a very high concrete wall. Penelope shone her torch around the bins and up the wall. It was higher than even she had the ability to scale even with her skills. "No way am I attempting that," she told herself. "But then…whoever or whatever I was chasing can't have gotten up there either…could they?"
Having become convinced nobody was there, Penelope made her way back round to the front of the building where she found an equally irritated-looking Parker coming back as well. He was running his left fingers through his hair and was clearly frustrated.
"Did you see something as well, Parker?" Penelope asked.
"I was certain that h'I 'ad, m'lady," Parker answered. "I was sure I saw the blighter go h'off thataway."
"And I thought I saw someone go round to the left," added Penelope. "I headed round the back but there's only rubbish bins around there. I'm guessing you found nothing either?"
"No, m'lady, nothing," grunted Parker. "That ground floor was completely bare h'as well. Not even a flippin' chair was in there."
"There were desks upstairs but nothing else," said Penelope. "This whole situation is really getting on my nerves, I don't mind telling you that, Parker."
"You're not the h'only one, m'lady," agreed Parker. "I am h'as well." He then kicked a pebble across the ground in frustration before looking away in the direction of the trees silhouetted in the light of the Moon.
"Parker…?"
"Yus, m'...lady?" Parker had cut off mid-sentence as he'd turned his head back around. He was taken aback by the somewhat alarmed look on Penelope's face.
"Did…Did you just kick that pebble?" Penelope asked.
"I did. Why do you h'ask, m-" Now it was Parker who had his sentence cut off as something had caught his eye.
Penelope looked at him in concern as his eyes widened and his mouth fell open in horror. He'd seen something and whatever it was had spooked him. Trying to hide her own fear as best she could, Penelope turned to see what it was. Then she froze in alarm. It was FAB1 they were now looking at. There was a faint glow of light coming from inside that was normally created by the control gauges. It partially illuminated the inside of the glass dome roof of the car. But it wasn't that that was alarming to them. They could now see the two shadowy figures again…and they were INSIDE!
Panic gripping the pair of them, they both instinctively began to run back towards FAB1. They feared that whoever these figures were, they were about to steal the car from them and leave them stranded. They got to within around ten metres when suddenly everything lit up in a massive flash of bright blinding white light. "GAAAAARGH!" they both cried, throwing their hands over their faces and letting go of both their weapons and the torches which went flying away from them. They both then fell onto the hard tarmac and groaned in pain.
Everything was blurry and distorted and Penelope felt like she was spiralling down a never-ending shaft where the light continued to get further away no matter how much she continued to fall. And then she heard a voice…a voice that chilled her to the bones.
"Don't move! We have you covered. Now, Parker."
Penelope wanted to cry out. She knew that voice. It was hers!
Then the light faded away and Penelope slowly began to feel herself slowing down from falling. Eventually she was able to recover and open her eyes which took several amounts of squinting in order for her to be able to see properly again. Parker was still lying on the ground a few metres away from where she lay. She then looked around at FAB1. The car was still there, but the lights were now off. As she scrambled uneasily to her feet, she froze at the sight of the side door being open. She then looked inside the car. It was empty. The shadowy figures had once again disappeared.
Parker groaned and Penelope hurried over to help him sit upright. "Easy, Parker…I've got you," she said.
"M…lady?" Parker said groggily. "Would you please h'excuse me for what I'm about to say."
"You're excused, Parker," said Penelope.
"WHAT THE FLIPPING 'ELL IS GOING H'ON?!"
Normally Penelope would scold Parker for using bad language - especially something as strong as what he'd just used. But on this occasion, she did not. Instead, she had been wondering the exact same thing. "I don't know, Parker. But I do know one thing."
"What's that, m'lady?"
"I want to go home."
Parker wobbled as he tried to stand up. "Me too," he said. But he quickly became dizzy and almost fell down again. Penelope managed to catch him in time.
"Steady, Parker," she said. "You're in no state to drive. I'll set the auto-driver to take us home."
After helping Parker into the back seats, Penelope powered up the engine and set FAB1's automatic controls to take them back to Creighton Manor. She then sat in the driver's seat just to be safe as the car began to drive off out of the car park to resume its journey along the road. As they headed off. Penelope looked in the rear view mirror in the direction of the mysterious building which had now disappeared from view. All she was able to do now was get lost in her thoughts, trying to figure out how exactly it was she and Parker had been able to see themselves before they'd even done anything, and then again how they were able to see themselves sitting in FAB1 when they'd been in the other position. She tried so hard to come up with an answer that she ended up giving herself a headache.
In the end she gave up trying to make sense of what had happened. Maybe it would be best for her and Parker that they didn't know what happened. There were some mysteries that could never be answered…and this was definitely one of them.
THE END
