Richard Redmond – Revelation Part Seven

Posted by David on October 12, 2009

This time when he woke up in the lab, Richard was prepared for the sense of dislocation. What he wasn’t prepared for was the look in Faloneth’s eyes as she considered him, the d’ha’taan cradled in the palm of her hand. She looked – Richard searched for the right word – hungry.

After a time that seemed like eternity but was surely only a few seconds, she stood up, took the couple of steps that carried her to a counter that ran the length of the wall, turned and leaned against it. She rolled the d’ha’taan in her hand again before she spoke. “Very informative, Richard.”

At his blank stare, she continued. “Oh, not what I learned. Quite the opposite, in fact.” She held up the blue, teardrop-shaped crystal. “Do you know what this is, Richard? How it works?”

“It looks like one of the stones my wife’s masseuse uses. Trying to help me get in touch with my feminine side, are you?” Richard quipped.

Faloneth’s smile did not suggest she appreciated his humor. “We shall see how much longer your impudence persists. The d’ha’taan is an amplifier. Its crystalline structure enhances my ability to walk through your memories; though, as I told you, it has never been necessary to use it on a human before. Do you know what happened when I used it, in its least intrusive configuration, on your mind, Richard?”

“We started singing old campfire songs together?”

“Nothing happened. Less than nothing. It was like gliding over a frozen lake, with all of the things I am looking for hidden in the depths below. Not even the tedious minutiae that most humans are perennially preoccupied with came clear. Why do you suppose that is, Richard?”

Richard looked at the crystal with genuine interest. It really did look like the things that those New Age spas used, claiming to be able to tune clients’ auras and such. He’d always dismissed it all as so much bunk. Perhaps, as the saying went, there was a kernel of truth even in the most outlandish ideas. He looked at Faloneth. “Nadine has accused me of being empty-headed occasionally. Maybe she was right?”

The intensity of the anger that crossed Faloneth’s face bordered on insanity and left no doubt that Richard had struck a chord with his taunting banter. The question was whether or not it would prompt her to do what they wanted. And if it did, would Richard survive?

She looked at the d’ha’taan, which glowed softly for a moment. “It is reconfigured,” she said, looking at Richard again. “In a moment, I will know who created you. I will know how it was done. It is regrettable that you will not survive the process. There are certain things that I would have enjoyed exploring further.” She stepped toward Richard, reached out to place the d’ha’taan on his forehead. In spite of himself, Richard flinched, closing his eyes.

“Look at the damn restraints, Richard!” yelled Alea Chantal. “We’ve got to get the hell out of here.”

Richard opened his eyes, trying to crane his head to look in all directions at the same time. He saw Carlos’ lying on the other side of the room. He was glassy-eyed, obviously dead. The look on his face suggested it hadn’t been a pleasant way to go.

“The restraints, Richard. We don’t have much time.” Alea Chantal was no whispering voice now. She seemed to be right at his ear. He pulled himself together, looked at the clasp over his left wrist, which immediately began to open. As soon as he could get his arm out he focused on the right, then each anklet as Alea Chantal and Sarsoneth worked through him to manipulate a power he still found it hard to believe he possessed.

As soon as his legs were free Richard leapt out of the chair. Faloneth lay to his right, crumpled on the floor but still breathing. The blue crystal, dark now and dead-looking, lay beside her.

“Richard, go out the door in front of you and turn right,” Sarsoneth said. “I was able to extract the layout of this complex from Carlos’ mind before he died. I can guide you to the exit.”

Richard didn’t have to be told twice. He was out the door and running down the corridor in an instant.

“Right again at the next juncture, Richard. You should be prepared for a number of disturbing sights beyond the next door.”

Sarsoneth didn’t elaborate and Richard wondered what a disembodied emotionless voice would consider “disturbing.” He turned right and came to the door; opened it. Definitely a talent for understatement, Richard thought. If he hadn’t been so terrified and desperate to get out of there, he might have taken time to throw up. A row of ten small cells lined each side of the corridor, after which a second door closed off the passageway. There was a human being in each cell. Dead. The same way that Carlos had died if their facial expressions were any indication.

The fact that he had almost certainly been instrumental in their deaths, however, wasn’t what made him feel sick. It was their physical condition. With one or two exceptions, they were horribly deformed. It was as if someone had taken them apart and put them back together again without much consideration of what went where.

“Faloneth’s genetic experiments, Richard. You did them a favour.” Alea Chantal’s voice was gentle in his head.

“What… what was she trying to do? What did she want?” Richard choked out as he covered the distance to the second door, trying not to look at the wrecks in the cells as he passed.

“You.”

Richard opened the second door, stepped through and quickly closed it behind him. “Okay, not going to think about that right now. Where next?”

“Turn left at the end of this corridor, Richard.” Sarsoneth directed. “There will be a set of stairs. Go up two flights. There will be a door with a DNA scanner. It may take a moment, but we will convince it that you are Carlos. It should allow us to exit. I am not certain how much longer Faloneth will remain incapacitated so it would be wise to continue to move quickly.”

Richard was already pounding up the stairs. “I’m not exactly dawdling here, you know. I saw the look in her eyes.” A thought occurred to him. “You didn’t have to take me past that corridor of horrors to convince me.” He skidded to a stop at the second landing.

“That was not my intention, Richard. It was simply the most direct route to this exit. Please look toward the scanner above the door.”

Richard looked up, saw another crystal. It wasn’t shaped anything like the one Faloneth had used on him.

“Different purpose,” Sarsoneth responded to Richard’s unasked question. The crystal glowed more brightly for a moment. “I believe we can leave now. Please try the door, Richard.”

As Richard pushed the door open cautiously, he was amazed to hear familiar sounds. Stepping through, he found himself on the sidewalk of a busy city street. Pedestrians hurried by, dressed in a wide variety of business and casual attire. There was a chill in the air and most people wore light jackets of one kind or another. No one paid any attention to him.

Richard gaped at a building rising a few blocks away. “We’re in London.”