Elvis and The Assassin ran along the gantry from which Donnie had fallen some hours earlier. A size eight ladies shoe lay there, a stain of blood on it.
The skylights exploded with flashes of light and glass showered the two men and the surrounding area.
Dozens of white and black-clad people rappelled down like a French trapeze act. The white were rabid members of The Sisterhood; the black, BSD thugs.
‘Got any bullets? Mine’re gone.’ said Elvis as he ran beside The Assassin.
He caught the box of shells that The Assassin tossed him, and reloaded as he ran.
The Assassin fired two shots at the door at the end of the gantry and they pushed through into another section.
They turned and rushed down some metal stairs and once at the bottom they stood a moment, to allow the new arrivals to depart. As ordered, the white and black members of the opposing groups had other fish to fry.
* * *
‘This says that the path to enlightenment is to see the world through the eyes of a child.’ said Daisy-Donnie paraphrasing the book.
‘Yes,’ replied Madame Pink, her attention on the screens. She glanced down and pressed a red button on the console before her.
* * *
All around alarms screeched. An automated voice spoke over the PA.
‘This is an evacuation notice. Leave the facility by the nearest exit. This is not a drill.’
This suited Elvis down to the ground; it meant they could get in and out without too much unpleasantness.
They turned a corner and came to a screeching halt.
‘There you are.’ said Colonel Panix, standing at the end.
‘You should give yourself up,’ said Miss Rook. ‘This is no-longer your fight.’
‘Now what the hell do we do?’ Elvis hissed, directing the question at his compadre.
The Assassin stood calmly and didn’t respond.
Panix licked his lips and declared with a patronising grin. ‘Your time is past. The Church of Elvis is dead.’
Elvis took a deep breath, readying himself to throttle Panix once-and-for-all.
‘Colonel Panix,’ said The Assassin. ‘And Miss Rook. You are delaying us on a mission of great importance.’
‘And what would that be?’ asked Panix.
‘There is a central control-room for the weapons you have been advised of. We have approximately five minutes before they are detonated.’
Panix and Miss Rook stared.
‘You have heard the evacuation notice,’ he added. ‘Time is not on our side.’
He paused for effect before continuing.
‘Unless we stop the count-down,’ continued The Assassin. ‘This will become ground-zero of a thermonuclear explosion that will be remembered for as long as humans walk the Earth.’
* * *
Daisy-Donnie turned on the swivel chair, glanced over their shoulder and surreptitiously pocketed The Book of Cubes.
Madame Pink and Monsieur Bleu remained focussed on the screens.
Daisy-Donnie stood and wandered over to peer at the screens. Several showed what looked like a black and white movie, people running around wearing matching clothing. Others showed empty corridors.
‘Oh. There’s Elvis,’ said Daisy-Donnie.
Elvis was indeed on the monitor, running along a corridor with three other people.
On one monitor he ran towards the camera. On a monitor beside it, the reverse angle, he and the others ran away.
Madame Pink and Monsieur Bleu looked up at the screen, then turned to face each other.
‘Perfect,’ they said as one and stood.
Monsieur Bleu slid open a drawer and produced a taser. He aimed it at Daisy-Donnie.
‘Now wait just a minute,’ said Daisy-Donnie. ‘Aren’t we past all this nastiness?’
Kzarrrrpp!
Daisy-Donnie collapsed to the ground, the twin barbs catching them in their ample chest.
Madame Pink knelt and sliced Daisy-Donnie’s left wrist with a silver dagger. Blood trickled from the new wound, and pooled beneath the limp wrist.
They lifted Daisy-Donnie’s ankles and dragged the body unceremoniously out of the room.
* * *
I’m gonna give up exercise, thought Elvis as he ran down the corridor. I’ve fulfilled my quota for this lifetime.
Behind him were Colonel Panix and Miss Rook; the former on the brink of a coronary, wheezing heavily; the latter irritated with the situation at large, but amused her opposite number might not make it.
* * *
Daisy-Donnie awoke in familiar surroundings.
‘Haven’t we done this before?’ they asked. ‘I thought we were all friends now?’
Daisy-Donnie was once again strapped to the table, the laser was activated and cutting slowly towards their nether regions.
‘Look, what is all this?’ asked Daisy-Donnie. ‘I don’t get it? First you turn the laser on me and let me go, now you’re doing it again? I don’t understand!’
They yanked unsuccessfully at the bonds.
‘You are going to die,’ said Madame Pink.
‘Is this the point where you tell me your nefarious plans?’ asked Daisy-Donnie.
‘Certainly, if you desire it.’
‘We created the BSD and The Sisterhood,’ said Madame Pink, circling the table.
‘We created the factions and they created us,’ continued Monsieur Bleu, following on the opposite side.
‘How’s that then?’ asked Daisy-Donnie, disbelieving. ‘One has to come first.’
The smell of white-hot metal assaulted their nostrils; they glanced down at the slowly approaching laser with real fear on their face. Their heart-rate began to increase.
‘After some false-starts, we reasoned that in order to achieve our goals we had to nurture two distinct groups,’ she said with a creepy smile.
‘False starts?’
‘We dabbled with the music industry, experimented with the concepts of popular music in an attempt to determine intelligence and longevity.’
‘Universal Promotions,’ Daisy-Donnie gasped.
Madame Pink nodded, smiling acknowledgement. ‘The experiments were a failure, but they revealed we had to be more directed; male and female minds work at right-angles to one-another.’
‘So we separated them,’ continued Monsieur Bleu. ‘We guided and helped them to see the state of the world for what it is.’
‘And what’s that?’ asked Daisy-Donnie, looking down at the laser once more. It had moved a couple of inches. ‘We couldn’t possibly turn this off and have a chat in the nearest coffee shop could we?’
‘Humanity is stagnating,’ said Madame Pink, ignoring Daisy-Donnie’s coffee-shop crack; she’d tasted airport coffee and wanted no part of it. ‘In certain cases it is devolving.’
‘We save the weak,’ explained Monsieur Bleu. ‘We nurture the poor. We permit sub-standard genetic material to circulate.’
‘Oh my…’ breathed Daisy-Donnie.
‘Those that cannot reproduce through normal means are helped,’ said Madame Pink. ‘Desires are put before the good of the species.’
‘We decided to put humanity first.’ said Monsieur Bleu.
‘Survival of the whole is more important than any one of its individuals.’
* * *
The Assassin stood beside the door, back the the wall. He turned the doorknob and kicked the door with a heel.
Elvis took a quick peek around the corner.
‘Empty,’ he said. Then glanced in once more. A small child stared up at him.
They entered the room, observing the wall of screens before them. There was activity on most of them. Superimposed over all of the screens were numbers which were slowly descending.
10
The Assassin scanned the console and found the button. Beside it was a button marked ‘Abort’.
09
‘Better late than never,’ said Elvis.
08
The Assassin turned to face The King.
07
‘Now,’ said Elvis. ‘Now would be a good time. Oh goddamn it.’
06
He stepped forward and reached out for the button.
05
The Assassin grabbed his arm.
04
‘We don’t have time-’
03
The Assassin reached down with his free hand and flicked another switch.
02
‘Booby trap,’ he said, releasing The King.
01
Elvis stabbed the Abort button.
The numbers flashed on and off, holding at 01.
‘Shit that was close,’ he breathed.
Over on the other side of the room, Miss Rook stood watching the screens. Her people had been successful. The nukes were being wheeled out.
‘They’ve secured the nukes,’ she announced.
‘Remember our deal,’ said Panix in a sotto voice, stepping behind her.
She glanced in his direction. ‘Would you let me forget?’
The Assassin scanned the screens but none revealed what he was looking for. He stepped back and slipped slightly.
He crouched down and touched the floor and lifted his fingers to his eyes.
They were wet with blood. He stood and glanced downwards, following the drips to a door at the back of the room.
‘Come on,’ he said urgently.
The Assassin and Elvis ran the door.
Alone in the silence of the surveillance room, Colonel Panix and Miss Rook watched the last of the nukes removed from their storage room.
‘It’s done.’
‘Not quite,’ said Panix.
Miss Rook glanced up, an eyebrow raised.
‘I have some unfinished business,’ he said, turned and spoke into a radio. ‘Team Amber; Meet at this location…’
Rook lifted her radio from her belt. ‘Evacuate, now.’
* * *
Shit, thought Daisy-Donnie. Next it’ll be blonde hair and jack-boots.
‘The Tinwhistle equations were only the beginning,’ said Monsieur Bleu. ‘We examined them at length, but they were only circular arguments, everything pointed to itself. Something was missing, some link.’
‘Tinwhistle,’ asked Donnie.
‘And we found it: That link was you,’ said Madame Pink. ‘You could jump from reality to reality, you are the next level of human evolution.’
‘Once we found that out, we were determined to see it happen,’ Monsieur Bleu continued. ‘When The BSD and The Sisterhood had achieved with science what pure breeding could not, we allowed them to modify our DNA.’
Oh, god, thought Daisy-Donnie, shocked. That’s repulsive.
‘We will be the parents of future generations,’ they said as one, glancing upwards, ecstatic looks on their faces.
* * *
Miss Rook and Colonel Panix turned at the sound of a small child.
‘He’s a boy,’ said Panix, staring at the child.
‘Yes,’ said Miss Rook.
They stared at one-another.
‘If you take him, you’ll turn him into a mindless idiot,’ said Miss Rook.
‘And if you do, he’ll become a donor,’ said Colonel Panix.
The child giggled and pushed himself to his feet. He closed his eyes and disappeared.
* * *
‘You’re mad,’ said Daisy-Donnie, feeling an idiot for stating the bleedingly-obvious.
‘They gave us incredible intelligence and perception,’ said Madame Pink.
‘And now we have you, we can make the final connections,’ said Monsieur Bleu. ‘We can speak with the universe.’
‘And you will help us,’ said Madame Pink, a triumphant smile on her face.
‘How can I give it to you if I’m dissected?!’ pleaded Daisy-Donnie. These were by far and away the craziest people they’d ever met in their lives. No-one came close; not Panix’s psychosis, nor Rook’s obsessive intensity.
Madame Pink and Monsieur Bleu smiled knowingly and withdrew into the shadows.
‘I’m not on speaking terms with the bloody universe!’ yelled Daisy-Donnie, struggling with the bonds. They were well secured this time. ‘It doesn’t like me! It’s been trying to kill me my whole life!’
‘Are you there?’
Silence.
‘Hello?’
* * *
The Assassin kicked the door open and burst into the room.
In the middle was a metal table, above which a laser cut slowly from one end to the other.
On the table was Daisy-Donnie.
‘There!’ yelled the Assassin. He ran forward to the table, then jerked to a stop, as if he’d run into a wall.
He screamed in agony.
A sphere of arcing blue electricity surrounded him and lifted him into the air, rotating on one axis and tilting on another. Soon he was perpendicular once more. The Assassin was frozen, yet aware, screaming with pain.
Elvis stood transfixed.
‘Would you mind helping please?’ called Daisy-Donnie, watching the laser cut the final centimeters toward their groin.
* * *
Madame Pink and Monsieur Bleu stepped calmly from the shadows to admire their handiwork.
‘At last,’ said Madame Pink
‘The Prophet,’ said Monsieur Bleu.
They looked upwards at The Assassin.
Click to see the next installment: Pornography (part 4)
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