Through Your Eyes Page 15

  We got closer and closer, but he wasn't looking at us, he was now looking straight ahead at someone else. He was looking at the work one of the minions was doing at a computer panel on the side of the giant dome.

  We got twenty metres beyond him and breathed a collective sigh of relief. We only had a little further to go and we would be out of his sight. We walked quicker towards the exit, only about fifty metres to go.

  But this relief was short lived.

  A voice screamed at us across the vast expanse.

  A familiar staccato delivery.

  Menace and evil.

  My bowels were once again shifting. What was it about this guy that scared me so much?

  "Hello, Berners, welcome, to, my, world. I've, been, waiting, for, you, for, a, very, long, time," he said.

  He had turned and was smiling at us. He had already taken three or four giant strides towards our position.

  He lashed out at me with his massive fist before I could react, and it knocked me eight feet back. I felt hands on my back; it was the Professor. He pulled me up and we started running as fast as we could. I was badly winded by the blow, and this time required all the running ability of the Professor to help me get away.

  Solomon was tough, but a lumbering old dog. He would never out run us. We knocked some of the drones over, but they didn't even notice us. When we reached the end of the chamber we found the service tunnel we were looking for.

  The Professor turned to me with a terrified look.

  "W-w-where is she?" he screamed.

  I looked around, panicking. We weren't being chased by Solomon Grundy, but more importantly, Abby was gone.

  Or taken.

  "I don't know, she was right behind me," I said, fearfully.

  "We've got to go back for her!" he shouted.

  I was trying to hold him back, as he desperately tried to run back into the main dome chamber.

  "You told us we had to complete the mission no matter what, perhaps she’s hiding now and gone to find Stowe. I'll catch up with her," I said.

  The Professor was not so convinced.

  I looked at him and said, "Professor, you know me as well as you know yourself. Believe me when I say, I will find her and bring her back. You're the only person who can shut down the dampening field and shut down the power core. You're the one and only qualified person. You do your job, and I'll do mine."

  He said, "You must!"

  And then he broke down, grabbing the lapels on my jacket. There were tears in his eyes.

  "You must get her back, promise me, Sam!" he pleaded.

  I didn't give him a choice to get more melodramatic and pushed him into the service tunnel. The red lighters would notice us soon and then we would all be done for.

  I turned around and re-entered the chamber.

  With some bizarre relief, I could see the big man in the distance, so I knew I could follow him to Stowe.

  And that relief turned to terror when I realised he was carrying Abby over his shoulder.

  She looked me in the eye and shook her head mouthing, 'No!' to me.

  But I had made a promise to get her back.

  To myself.

  25.

  And before she knew what was happening, he had lunged at her and grabbed her arm. His vice like grip was squeezing the life out of her limb, and the more she tried to wriggle, the harder he held her. She could feel her hand going cold from the lack of blood circulation, and her arm was going limp.

  She saw both of the guys running towards the power core entrance, but they hadn't noticed her obvious absence. Were they really that stupid that they hadn't realised she wasn't with them, talk about looking out for yourself? But then she realised in all the panic and confusion that it was understandable; the mission had to be completed. It didn't matter what happened to her. The giant man stopped and looked at them running away.

  He stared at Abby with an enormous smile on his face.

  She shivered with disgust at this horrible version of Frankenstein's monster.

  "See, how, they, run, and, leave, you, my pretty!" he snarled.

  "You haven't changed one bit have you, Smithwick, still the disgusting, dirty animal you always were!" she said.

  He grabbed her bodily and started dragging her.

  "Time, to, see, the, boss, my, pretty!"

  Her resistance to being pushed and pulled was greeted by the goon flipping her bodily over his shoulder, and carrying her off to the end of the dome. After a while she stopped wriggling and he put her down.

  "What is his plan? What is Stowe trying to do here?" she asked.

  She might as well have been talking to herself, as the lumbering oaf carried on walking, completely oblivious to her and her questions and protestations.

  Presently, they arrived at a lift and she was manhandled into it. Within thirty seconds she arrived at the huge headquarters of New Novertium, and looked at the massive palace around her in awe.

  A familiar man stood at the very top of a long marble staircase. He was wearing a long red robe and the only thing missing was a crown.

  He looked different from the last time she had set eyes on him, less hair and more weight, but it was definitely him. The same lizard like eyes and sweaty pallor were still there to behold in all their glory.

  And there was acne, lots of acne, even from where she was standing.

  ***

  I followed in through the atrium. The people with their red lights seemed to have increased in number, but this time something was different, and I had a very bad feeling about it. The whole atmosphere had changed. It wasn't as if they were talking to each other, but more that their mannerisms were different.

  They were aware of my presence now!

  There was a collective realisation of a foreign body attacking their home, and they were the antibodies ready and willing to attack me. Had they been alerted somehow by Smithwick? Some of them started to drive their shoulders into me, deliberately. They still kept the same glazed expressions on their faces, but there was a menace in them now. Soon, the shouldering changed to pushing, then kicking and eventually punching. Even children were joining in, but I couldn't retaliate as they were all innocents, pawns of Stowe's giant workforce and army.

  However, if I didn't act quickly, I was going to get lynched by one of these armies, ready and waiting in clear sight, activated at the switch of a button. This really was the perfect way to take over all and everything around you. Mr Scaramanga could have taken lessons from Stowe and his insidious method of taking over the world.

  No time to joke, I started running away from them as fast as I could, but they were faster. I pushed my finger into the device.

  Nothing.

  I ran harder; I was cut and bleeding now from the blows that were raining down on my body. One person smashed his boot on the top of my knee and I felt it give way. I fell and immediately got up, biting my tongue through the intense pain. I was badly limping, trying to get to the other end of the chamber, but the savage strikes continued to tear down like hailstones in a storm. There was an exit coming up in front of me that I had seen the goon take Abby through.

  It felt like one of the millions of zombie movies I had seen. These people with their minds controlled like puppets, feeling, groping and grabbing me. If I had stopped running, I was sure they would take my intestines.

  All I could think about was the memory of the movie 'Shaun of the Dead,' despite the grave situation I was in.

  For the first time in my life, I started to pray, as I continued my run from the mindless mob. I was praying that the pain and the blows would stop. Praying that these people would see sense and realise what they were doing to me.

  I prayed that the Professor had found the dampener and also cut Stowe's power, so that this nightmare would end once and for all.

  ***

  "Ah Abby, my beautiful Abby, and how are you enjoying my city. My planet. Do you like my world, it's so much better than the last time we met?" said Stowe.
>
  He was now sitting at a large table at the top of the stairs, and was eating a large piece of meat. It looked like a large bird of some kind. In fact, closer inspection revealed he was consuming a swan.

  "Love what you've done with the place. It's absolutely charming, you worthless bag of shit," she said defiantly.

  Smithwick was standing next to her and instinctively grabbed her by the hair, pushing her to the ground.

  "Now, now, Smithwick, I've told you before, be nice," said Stowe.

  He got up from his table and came down the stairs, walking over to them. He pushed Smithwick away and helped Abby up.

  He kissed her on the hand, mockingly. She snatched her hand back and shivered with disgust at the leech.

  "And did you really think I didn't know what you three would be up to? What, have you come to kill me? Steal my technology? Maybe take over my world? No, no, no. I am going to take everything from you that should have been rightly mine all those years ago."

  He looked up to the top of the marble staircase and walked up there to a drawer in his vast desk. He then started searching for something within it.

  Something for her.

  A gift.

  ***

  Here I was, a Professor of Physics, trying to shimmy down a long cylindrical tube of three feet in diameter. I must have been squeezing myself down for ages, but it was probably only half an hour. It was getting harder and harder to move, and I feared I was starting to hyperventilate in the enclosed space.

  I was getting very tired.

  And it was getting hotter.

  Like I was reaching the core. It all fitted with the plans I had painstakingly put together over the years, but the reality of actually being here was somewhat different to what I was expecting. Maybe I just wasn't as fit as I used to be, or maybe this was a relapse of those days when I convinced myself I was scared of everything. Perhaps there was an element of self-doubt that still remained deep inside me like a latent virus, waiting to pounce when my defences were down.

  But this core had to be here soon!

  Abby was in danger, and I couldn't even think about giving up. On I went, twisting and turning through corner after corner. I was now one of those human contortionists!

  And then I smelt it before I saw it. It was a burning aroma. The smell that was similar to the core in the older version of Novertium; my design, my construction. I carried on for another five minutes and the smell got stronger.

  Abruptly, the tube turned vertically, and I dropped through the air maybe ten feet. I rolled over to break my fall, but not very well, as I twisted my ankle. It was going to be ok, as I gingerly stretched it out to check it out. As I stood up carefully, I looked around at the familiar sight before me, even though the pain in my ankle was excruciating.

  But I didn't care because I saw it.

  Mr Stowe's central power source.

  The processor.

  This was his Achilles' heel.

  I moved forward and looked at the apparatus. It was a fairly simple design, no bigger than a large wardrobe. The front had a glass panel with four large metallic tubes entering it, but I wasn't interested in those, I was looking for the output circuit. Stowe wasn't as clever as he thought he was, as it appeared he had copied my designs for the power core at the original Novertium.

  Not a particularly bright megalomaniac this guy, I thought to myself.

  I looked down below me and noticed the floor had a slight imperfection, an edge that seemed to be loose. I used my laser torch to cut a hole in the side of it, and then using a torn piece of my jacket, pulled it up.

  And then I saw it.

  The crystal within the main power core.

  It was the size of a grenade so I simply had to reach in and grab it. It was about twelve inches down inside the compartment, and I instantly moved my hand towards it. Simultaneously, a sharp laser seared the side of my thumb; I withdrew immediately. The only problem I hadn't banked on were the four red lights that had just come on, sitting above the core crystal, shining brightly at each other, protecting the core with intense cutting lasers, silent and deadly, waiting for an opportunity to be activated.

  And I could see no way round them as I sucked my painful, throbbing thumb and thought about this conundrum; it was most definitely a three-pipe problem.

  Mr Stowe was perhaps anticipating me getting here and had therefore put in place this insurance policy. I had certainly under estimated him in the past, and was clearly doing the same thing again. He was far cleverer than I had given him credit for.

  I checked my portable monitor to see if I could locate Abby. She was in the main atrium with Stowe, so at least she was alive, but what were his plans for her? I didn't know how much longer I had to save her. Where was young Sam, and had he managed to get to Abby to save her from Stowe and that gangster Smithwick?

  I checked all-round the core for another way in and started panicking. There were no other power relays anywhere, and I didn't have time to search for an alternate solution.

  There was nothing I could do to get in.

  Time was working against me and I had to make a very fast decision.

  Unless, it was time for a sacrifice.

  The needs of the one, outweighed by the needs of the many, or some such quote I used to babble as a young man.

  And it was at that point, I realised what I was going to have to do.

  26.

  Stowe stood at the top of the stairs and looked at Abby; he was dangling his device at her, proudly. The light attachment, though not activated, still glinted in the light from the glass on the ceiling of the atrium.

  He said, "Now I know you have missed out on the last twelve years, so it's time you and I caught up. Maybe reminisce about old times? Good times weren't they? You do know what this is don't you?"

  She stared up at him and said nothing, as she definitely knew what it was. His plan was, and always had been, about control. To control everyone and everything around him, and for them to function solely to satisfy his own needs and ends. This obsession was presumably so that he could make up for his obvious character flaws, like being deeply unpopular, creepy and having had a charisma bypass at a very early age.

  Nevertheless, despite all the negatives, he had essentially enslaved the human race almost single-handedly.

  She wasn't afraid of the toad, however, and she wasn't going to beg him for her life. Besides, she was sure that either of the two Sams were about to bring his whole world crashing down on his ridiculous head.

  Abby said, "You're a pathetic creature, Stowe. What was it that we did to you that made you turn out this way? What is it you want? You could have had everything if you hadn’t turned out to be a treacherous little back stabber!"

  "What do I want? What did you do to me? What do I want?"

  He was now screaming at the very top of his little whining and reedy voice.

  He walked down the staircase as quickly as his chubby legs would take him, nearly falling at the penultimate step. He came down right next to her and stared into her eyes with fury.

  He started to scream, "Abby, all I ever wanted was you and you barely even looked at me! You didn't even give me a chance! I was the brains, but you looked at him instead. I can never forgive you for that. And you shut me out of virtually everything in our work. It was supposed to be the four of us!"

  His breath stank of gum disease and envy.

  "So, you're just a jealous little schoolboy are you? And remember, you couldn't be trusted with anything. If we had told you everything, the press would have had a field day, and we would have been shut down by every ethical committee in the land! You were like a child and we had to treat you as such, and by the look of things, nothing has changed," she replied, eyes blazing back at him.

  Stowe said, "Maybe I am a little green with envy, but I'm now going to show you what that kind of jealousy can lead to. You should have confided in me, as there would have been no need for this."

  He pushed open the head
gear device and as Smithwick held her down, tried to place the apparatus over her head. She started to struggle with both of them...

  ***

  I carried on towards the exit and reached there just in time before they really got hold of me, but was limping badly, and bleeding heavily from my wounds. I managed to get to some stairs and started to crawl up step by step. From the Professor's notes, I knew Stowe would be holding Abby in his headquarters, and I knew where they were, but had what seemed a mountain to climb. Going up the lift would be too risky, but after I had gone up one flight of stairs, I knew I didn't have the energy to take many more. I could hear the noises of the red light mob somewhere behind me, and they would get hold of me sooner or later unless I changed my plans.

  So I crawled into the lift and had to take the risk. Remarkably, it worked for me without the need for any access codes, or more likely, it was a trap, with Stowe and his pet dinosaur waiting for me at the other end. I pressed the button at the very top for no other reason than Stowe's ego would want to be there. He would not have put his offices on some lowly floor; he was bound to have some kind of penthouse up there. After about twenty seconds, the door opened at the top, and I entered a small corridor with several locked doors on the sides, but with an open one right at the end.

  I continued on until I could hear voices in front of me; the voice of Abby giving as good as she got! The mob was still following me, but I got the impression they were going up the stairs. I continued forwards, limping from my wounds and was almost grateful to enter the palatial surroundings before me, as I really didn't fancy having any more punch-ups for now.

  As I looked around the vast room, I could see Stowe with Smithwick chuckling away to himself. Smithwick was wearing the same weapon I had seen before at Siris' shop, but I realised in a split second they had been watching my every move and had been expecting me.

  Suddenly, red beams of light hit the concrete pillar behind me, and large pieces of rubble flew everywhere, some of it flying into my eyes. I couldn't see properly, but enough to see Stowe with Abby and the giant figure of Smithwick, firing his weapon at me. Stowe was trying to fit some sort of headgear device on to Abby's head, and she was furiously struggling with him. It looked very similar to the thousands we had already seen attached to all of Stowe’s workers. What the heck was he playing at, trying to convert her into one of his compliant donkeys? Was this his solution to finally getting the girl of his dreams?