Fools of us All - Chapter 9

I sat on the cold examining table, wishing that I had my clothes back. The tests that they had been running on me were extensive and invasive. The past three days had been very painful.

Unable to sit still any longer I rose to my feet. After circling the room a half dozen times I decided to sit down again. Everything here was vaguely unsettling. The table was stainless steel and there wasn't any other furniture in the room. It was a big empty cube with walls and floor and ceiling made of the same stark metal. A single light was inset into the ceiling, casting a harsh pallor across the room.

With a sigh I laid on the table, arching my back slightly at the feel of the cool metal. I closed my eyes, only to snap them open again when the images assaulted my vision once again. Absentmindedly I rubbed my arm where the healing patch was firmly in place. It was quite likely that I was going to have a small scar because the burn was pretty bad, but I would live. Unlike the others.

With a shiver I sat up again, hugging my knees to my chest. I had never felt so alone in my life. It was amazing how much could change in three short days. I had walked into Dun's office ready to accept my bizarre fate. I wasn't sure how I felt about the thought of being flung back in time in order to save all of humanity, or at least some of humanity, but I did know that I wanted to help out any way that I could.

Dun had sat me down and told me that I was going to be sent to an extremely secret base at the docks. There was a research and development facility there that had been working on an extremely important project. A few years back some scientists in Japan had figured out a way to send things back in time. Everyone was excited about the process and then someone had stepped in and killed the entire team that had developed it. Everyone except for one researcher who hadn't come in to work that day. He had managed to avoid death and had ended up with the Organisation, rebuilding his project for us. It was still far from perfect, but it had been developed enough that it was fairly safe to send people back in time. That is what I was going to be doing - heading back to a time over a hundred years into the past. Whether I was to find someone and bring that person back here, or if the problem could be solved in the past was something that Dun didn't know yet, but he assured me that it would all be explained to me at the facility.

I nodded like I had any idea what he was talking about, but I was completely lost. Everything he had said sounded too fantastic to be true. We lapsed into a silence as I tried to come to grips with what he had told me.

"Don't worry Caz," said Dun. "Everything is going to be all right."

I felt a little weirded out when he said that. Did he not believe it either? Before I could press the matter Dun's intercom squawked to life. "Dun, the pick up team is here."

Noticeably paling the large man rose to his feet and headed out to where the computer terminals were set up. I moved to follow him, but was held up by a young man in a scraggly coat. "Got an urgent package for mister Dun," he said, smiling nervously. Shoving the package into my hands he ran back down the hall, quickly disappearing out of sight.

Something didn't feel quite right about this. Very few packages were sent to our office, and they usually went through much more official channels. I started out to the computer lab, but paused. As much to ward off the paranoia that was building in my chest as anything I turned and slid the package across the office where it stopped under his desk. With the door safely behind me I headed to where Dun and Dar were having an intense discussion in hushed tones, a sure-fire bad sign.

Seeing my approach, Dun waved me closer. "Dar is telling me that the transport crew is here, but that makes them four hours early. Plus their security codes are old. I don't like this." A slight sheen of sweat seemed to add gravitas to his words. His eyes flickered towards the entrance and then back to me. Why?

"Speaking of weird," I said, my words coming slowly, "some new kid just handed me a package for you. Any idea what that might be?"

Dar looked up sharply at this. "We've had no packages come in the official channels or any of the unofficial channels in the past forty-eight hours." His fingers flying swiftly across the interface he called up the security protocols. "Something's going on, Dun. We need to shut this down, now." His finger hovered over the command to secure the facility.

Dun shook his head. "No, we can't afford that. We have to get Caz out of here. This is our only opportunity. We just don't have the time."

I was watching the feed from outside the door where three men had been leaning casually, waiting patiently for the door to be opened. They chose this moment to stand up straight and doff their tattered garments, revealing the uniforms of a M.E.R.C. squad. Before I had a chance to call out a warning Dun's office erupted into flame. We were all flung to the floor, the heat washing over us in waves. Emergency klaxons cut in accompanied by red emergency lights. Two more explosions happened in short order, one from the outside as the M.E.R.C. soldiers blasted their way inside and one from further inside the base, cutting all power to the building, instantly plunging the room into utter darkness. A moment later the emergency lights came back on, providing flashing illumination to the room.

I dove behind a desk and watched in horror as Dun rose to his feet, only to be cut down by the troops, a surprised look on his face. Dar pulled out a knife and threw it, catching one of the soldiers in the neck. He went down in a heap, the floor becoming slick with his blood. The other two fired back at Dar, missing with their initial volley. The computer tech dove behind a table. I could see him with his back against his cover, and he noticed me. He smiled a cocky smile and motioned for me to leave. A second later a flash of light dazzled my eyes and when I could see again Dar was sitting in the same position, but his face was burned beyond all recognition. He screamed in pain, a sound that I could still hear three days later while sitting on the examination table.

Somehow I managed to let ignore the shock of what was happening and concentrate on my own survival. One of the M.E.R.C.s looked down at a display of some sort. Given what I had learned in the past day I figured that they were looking for me and that somehow that little gizmo they were holding would lead them straight to me. Thinking quickly I spied a computer monitor sitting on the floor beside me. I grabbed it and waited.

The two guys started moving slowly towards me, their guns drawn. I listened to their footsteps coming closer, waiting for the right moment. Just before they were on top of my I popped up and threw the monitor right in the face of the nearest soldier, immediately following my throw with a dive towards the other man, I drew my knife from my wrist holster and drove it up under his ribs. He died with a shocked look on his face. As he fell to the ground I grabbed his gun and whirled around, firing until the gun was empty. All of the soldiers were on the ground, dead, but so was everyone else.

Or so I thought. A sound drew my attention. Somehow Dar was still alive, and he was weakly pointing at me. I went closer, kneeling in front of him. His face looked even worse close up, and the smell of burnt flesh turned my stomach. "Take this key." His voice was nearly inaudible. A small key was in his hand and he pressed it into mine with a surprising strength. "It opens a locker at the docks. Take the globe inside, it will help you." The strength left his hand and it dropped heavily to the floor. "There will be back up," he wheezed. "Go now!" Hearing his last breath was quite possibly the worst sound I have ever heard.

The rattle of the door opening drew me back to the present. A doctor walked inside carrying a bundle of clothing and closed the door. "Good news," she said cheerfully. "You are fit and able to go. Here are your clothes, I will be waiting outside." With that she exited the room.

As I dressed a shiver ran up my spine. Dar's death hadn't even been the worst part of the whole matter. The package hadn't seemed to concern Dun at all. He shouldn't have ignored it, yet he did. And despite my best efforts, I couldn't shake the thought that he had flinched a second before the bomb exploded. If that were true, it meant that I could no longer trust anyone. I was truly alone in the world. And possibly alone in time as well.