Bound – Chapter 3

“I’ll stand,” Kersten said without hesitation, annoyance lacing her voice. Her gaze hesitantly left Leander to fall on E.L.O.S. whom she gave a distrusting glare, “And why do I have a feeling you are behind this?” she hissed at the holographic representation of the computer. E.L.O.S. simply smiled knowingly, his image flickering and wavering transparent against the chair it “sat” in.

“This is the one I was telling you about, Leander. I think she’ll be exactly what you’re looking for,” E.L.O.S. conversed, ignoring her for a moment. He turned his entire form toward her then, only to look past her to the door, watching it expectantly.

“I hope you’re right, E.L.O.S,” the man said in doubt, stretching a screen out across the table like he was unfolding a map, “But I suppose we lack options, given the current situation,” Leander sighed, rubbing his left hand over his forehead.

It was like she wasn’t even in the room, and she gave them both a look of disbelief as she motioned to the door, silently asking if they’d like to be alone before responding, “First off, E.L.O.S., you ‘think’ nothing. Stop showing off for this guy. Who are you, again, exactly? And um, news flash, something is wrong. We need to get in contact with someone. I just got chased down the hall by some deranged psychopath” she stepped toward them, jabbing a finger into the man’s shoulder. He was a bit more solid than she looked, and she tried not to wince when she bent her finger against the resistance of muscle.

He simply looked up at her with a patient look, then down at the finger poking into his shoulder a little roughly before busying himself with the screen spread out across the table, showing what looked like a topology map of some desert planet.

“I already told you, Miss Powell. My name is Leander. Perhaps I should have started with something easier to say. Like L. Or simply grunted. Is she always so angry and aggressive?” he sighed, dragging his thumb and forefinger over the screen in a way that raised the image from a flat surface to more of a 3D replica.

The image expanding with a gesture of his hand, a landmass made up of hills and valleys, along with a series of numbers she didn’t recognize displayed across the entire table. It distracted her enough to not respond to the man’s obvious insult, and she refused to give him the satisfaction as she studied the image, too curious for her own good.

“Is that Earth?” she asked quizzically, judging by the position of the moon and sun. There were other planet systems of similar make up of Earth and galaxy, but some of the labeled points sounded familiar to her. She forgot about her worries and frustrations for a moment as she adjusted her eyepiece and scanned what Leander was looking at, confirming what she thought, though it came up with another possibility, “Revva?”

“Earth’s sister planet. In Planet System Quarn a few million light years away. A near replica to her, though it’s surrounding planets differ, and the sun is larger, but further away,” Leander answered, “But no, you were correct the first time,” he said as he drew a pathway across a couple of the hills, cutting the 3D representation in half so a view inside the earth showed.

“Are those tunnels?” Kersten asked, leaning in close to scan what she saw, documenting everything for later. She knew there was a complex transportation system above Earth’s ground, but it was rare to see it buried under the earth, unless it was some sort of subway system. This looked like a hive structure. Just below the surface was a wide foundation that appeared to stretch a quarter of a mile, but below there was a labyrinth of shafts and levels, rooms and wide open spaces. It looked like an entire city build packed inside of the earth.

“Those are none of your business. Do you enjoy being nosey and asking a lot of questions?” Leander said, folding the screen closed with a flick of his hand, “E.L.O.S., please make sure all those coordinates are saved. Otherwise we’ll be wandering like lost fools for hours. If you’re sure she’s the best you can get me, then it’ll do. If you want this done, we have a small window before we have to release the others,” he said with a tired voice, finally giving Kersten the decency to look at her directly, “Now what were you going on again about, Powell?”

“None of my business?” she quickly added, though it was ignored. At least she had saved some of what she saw, “And going on about?!” she raised her voice, starting to lose her patience all over again, now that the object of her curiosity had disappeared, “I’ll tell you exactly what I …-” she stopped suddenly, when E.L.O.S. spoke over her.

“And here we are!” the computer chirped as the door behind Kersten clicked, and then depressured as it slid open.

“Wait!” she screamed, turning around and taking a step back when Lieutenant Simmons and two of his merry men stood in the doorway, arms crossed, grinning like banshees. “Close it, E.L.O.S.! Seriously!” she rushed the door, aiming to smash the button to manually close it, but Simmons caught her arm and held it above her head till she was up on her tip toes, trying to keep her balance.

“You bastard!” she screamed at him, trying to jerk her arm away with one motion, and send a fist toward his throat with the other.

“Oh ho ho, not this time, little one,” he growled, catching both of her wrists and yanking them above her head till he had her nearly suspended from the ground, “Leander, really?” he chuckled, giving Kersten a good shake.

“Calm down, Miss Powell. I already told you, he’s harmless,” Leander said calmly, rubbing at the bridge of his nose, “Most of the time. Simmons, please put her down. You gathered the rest, I’m assuming?”

“Yes sir. Transporting them back to Brigton now with the others,” Simmons answered with a snicker, grinning down to where Kersten hung, in front of him. She had gone quite still, calculating on his body where to take him down at. He must have read her intentions in her face, because he narrowed his eyes and motioned for one of the other men to come take her from behind and shove her into the chair occupied by E.L.O.S. moments ago. Leave it to that bastard to disappear in a situation like that.

“You son of a… I will kill you! How dare you touch me!” she spat, trying to get out of her seat before the other soldier came around and pinned her back into it, “E.L.O.S. contact the head of the militia unit! We have a rogue in the building. He killed those people,” she growled, trying to keep her eye movements subtle as she brought up a screen on her lens, starting to tap into the main communication of TechnoRuins before she was blocked with a big X across her screen, and a message that simply read, “Permission denied.”

“Somebody please gag her,” Simmons motioned to one of his men, who looked around the room for something to obey orders with.

“Leave her alone, Collins,” Leander laughed softly, giving a shake of his head as he walked around the table to kneel in front of Kersten, “Miss Powell, give me a moment to explain, and then I promise, you can take out any anger problems on anyone in this room of your choosing, deal?” he smiled up to her, that little dimple showing in his left cheek again.

Her entire body trembled in anger as she glared down at Leander, making even her left eye twitch slightly as she fought to control herself from headbutting that annoyingly cocky expression off of his face. “Because you are giving me such a choice? What the hell is going on here,” she said through gritted teeth.

“See gentlemen? You have to know how to talk to a woman,” Leander chided, waving off the two lackies so she didn’t feel like a complete prisoner, “Firstly, it’s not what it looks like, really.” he said with faux sincerity.

“How cliche of you, Curly Q,” Kersten snorted, narrowing her dark gaze at the others, “Please, continue.” she mirrored his tone, leaning back in the seat and crossing her thigh over her knee. Two could play at this game.

Simply smiling, Leander started to pace the room, looking at wall coverings, posted mission reports that scrolled across the information board, dragging out the silence until Kersten started to lose her patience enough that she started to stand out of her seat.

“You’re book smart, Agent R438KQ. You know the history of TechnoRuins, you understand the basic operations, and I am sure you can recite back to me every code and order, every rule of engagement, and every manifesto ever written about what we do or have done, am I right?” he turned toward her, but continued before she could answer, “Of course you can. I read your file. E.L.O.S. has more faith in your ability than me, but I trust his reasonings,” he chuckled, stepping closer to her, studying her face and the way her fists clenched and unclenched in her lap.

“What would you say if I said all of that was meaningless?” he asked softly.

“I’d say you’re an idiot, probably,” she answered back instantly, stirring a few barely contained snorts of amusement from the militia men.

“Naive child,” he smiled down at her patiently, a raven curl falling over his forehead as he leaned his head toward her, “You’ll learn, You’ll have to if you want to survive,” he said a little icely.

“Excuse me?” she whispered, trying again to bypass E.L.O.S. block on her system, swallowing back the mix of emotion threatening to suffocate her in that moment.

“We’re not the bad guys, here.” he held up his hand to stop her when she started to respond, “I know, actions speak louder than words. Let me properly introduce myself. I am Leander Draven, head of the Silent Division. Think of us as an elite arm of TechnoRuins. One that sits at the top of the food chain, but remains invisible for the most part. Over the past year, we have taken notice of some suspicious activity happening inside of the organization. Activity that has been in the works for more years than we took notice, and is far deeper rooted than we can measure,” he sighed, moving back to sit beside the table.

The tension in her body started to lessen as what he was saying processed in her mind. It sounded sacrilege to speak that way about an organization she had idolized since she was old enough to read about it. She still didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him, but she heard him out as he explained.

“About a month ago, we uncovered that a plan had been set in motion to infiltrate TechnoRuins. We are a powerful organization with a lot of friends, enemies, and resources. It’s no wonder that it hadn’t happened before. There is little in way of competition among the systems to do what we do. Surely you can agree with that?” Leander asked with a perked eyebrow.

Kersten pursued her mouth in disbelief, hesitating as she glanced at the others around the room before she nodded in agreement.

“Well, we knew that there was a plan, but not what the plan was, or where. Hardly even when. Last week, we knew it would have something to do with the launch of new initiate missions. E.L.O.S. picked you out of the newer recruits as the one to keep behind.” he shook his head, still unsure with that choose.

“Why? Why not somebody who has more experience, who has been out in the field more, knows all about secret societies and has higher clearance. Why not just tell me a week ago? And what happened to those people?” Kersten said, finally finding her voice. Turning in her seat to face Leander, she smacked her fist against the table, tension and confusion snaking it’s way back into her body.

Leander frowned, his gaze hooded with a moment of stress as he glanced up at Simmons and the other two, “Lieutenant, take the men for transportation. Before leaving, make sure to shut off all communication links. No one is getting in or out of this place without E.L.O.S. knowing,” he commanded calmly.

Lieutenant Simmons nodded, barking off orders to his men before he turned to Kersten, leaving her with a mocking bow, “Princess. I’d hate to pick the remains of your body from my boot. Do stay alive,” he grinned, before backing out of the room, leaving her and Leander alone.

“I hate that guy,” she growled under her breath, staring at the door he just disappeared from.

“How many times do I have to tell you? He’s harmless,” Leander chuckled, laying a smaller screen on the table, bringing up a miniature model of Earth.

“You’re insane,” she said in response, her gaze following the image of the planet floating and spinning just above the laid out screen.

“Genius does that to you, I hear,” he answered, “And their not dead. The bodies you saw. They are in a comatose. Their vitals are strong, but there’s no cognitive activity. They might as well be made of stone. This entire building was found like that. Whether it was something released in the air, put into the water, that we’re not sure of. There were only three other people off base found in the same state. That was reported, at least. E.L.O.S. is being monitored, so I had to upload him on a private server. Unfortunately, he loses some of TechnoRuin security data in that state. Which is one reason we need you. He tells me you hack into mainframe all the time, is this true?” Leander questioned, leaning back in his seat with a lazy grin.

“Comatose?” Kersten blinked, frowning as she remembered how the bodies had looked. They hadn’t looked alive, that was for sure, and she was still hesitant to believe anything he was saying, “What?” she blinked at the accusation. Part of her wanted to stick her chest out proudly, and claim credit for just that, the other part of her resistant, instead faking outrage, “I follow every protocol of TechnoRuins! You insult me with your accusation!”

“Yes, of course. Where are my manners to accuse you of anything like that?” he waved his hand, dismissing her false offense, “Either way, you were chosen because you have more of a brain than your entire newly initiated division combined, you kept to yourself predominantly, and we believed you were far too new to have been coerced into the web of deception currently happening among this organization. Mmhhmm, this and that. Are you ready to go?”

She wasn’t sure whether to be actually offended or not that time, but instead she said, “Go where? Aren’t we going to help those people?”
“Earth. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Now, let me see your eyepiece. I need to upload the safe version of the mainframe computer on to it. Plus, I think it would look better on me,” he laughed when he saw her expression, “We’re going to Earth, Miss Powell.”

“Earth?” she said in confusion, “But Earth has been uninhabitable for over fifty years. Since Earth Wipe 7, and its defensive atmosphere wipes out most anything electrical. Why would we go there?”

“Miss Powell, if we’re going to be partners, then there is one lesson you need to learn early,” he smiled.

“And, what’s that?” she asked, raising her brow questioningly.

“Do not believe everything you read over the intergalactic information stream,” he grinned,” It’s full of trolls.”

 

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