20
The Rescue
As Keith knew which building I was in, but didn’t know I was in the basement I thought it a good idea to give him a clue as to where I was. I leant the back of my phone up against the ventilation system and dialled 0569, which was the flamethrower option. I was somewhat betting that he wouldn’t miss my small flame up against the huge tower, and that he would work out that I had used it as a sign for him that I was in the basement. The next thing I heard was some machinery up above. It sounded like someone was trying to get the cover off the entrance to the ventilation shaft. After about ten minutes, the cover suddenly broke away and there in front of the hole was a JCB digger driven by Keith. Keith was a man of about five foot tall, he had thinning brown hair but he had a heart of gold. I was surprised to see him so quickly after I had shot the flame up and out of the vent. It wasn’t long before Keith’s clammy hands quickly scooped me up and I was put on the back of the JCB. Keith then drove the JCB to what I knew as the Fisherman’s Museum but Keith and his team had changed it into their own lab.
“As you can see Chris we’ve made a few minor adjustments and I’d like you to meet some of our team. This is Jonathan he is in charge of testing gismos like your mobile telephone. Here’s the recruitment agent Phil and I’m sure you’ll meet all of the others later. Jonathon was about the same height as Keith, but he had longer hair and he seemed to be more up to date with everything that was going on, also he seemed very creative. Here’s our mono rail!” Keith explained.
I was surprised I hadn’t spotted this place before.
“What is it that you actually do here?” I asked.
“We’re like MI5. If and when they need any back up we’re called upon. Now, about that sun cream you managed to get hold of. Jonathon is going to do some tests on it”
“So what will you do about Harry Howler and co?” I asked.
“We’d have to find out more about the sun lotion first. Where it is made and if we do find that out, we can put a stop to the distribution of the product getting to more countries.”
“I’d like to help.” I said.
“I’m sorry you’re too young but I’ll tell you what you could do. We’ve just created a combat simulator so if you like you can have a go on it and see how hard it is to become an agent.”
Keith gave me a virtual helmet, a chest pad and some sort of virtual gun, then he lead me to a boat which was on the wall. He then typed some sort of password into a keypad then the boat hull split in half to reveal what appeared to be a normal office, then Keith gestured for me to go in alone. I pushed my chair into the office. I noticed the floor was rubber rather than concrete. I heard one explosion then another one getting nearer and nearer each time. Two scary men with divers’ masks on suddenly appeared. They grabbed me up to standing and then one of them dragged me across the floor into a plain white room, which had a glass table in with two up right steel chairs. For one thing I wasn’t expecting to be hurled into a chair and I didn’t know that these computer animated beings were so dense, strong and lifelike, which made me unsure of a lot of people, whether they are real or not.
There was a Japanese canvas on the far wall. I thought they were being quite kind to me seeing as though they were meant to kill me! Then some more men burst through the doors at the other end of the room, one holding a gun the other holding two knives looking like he was in a circus act. The first one to act was the man carrying the gun. I crawled through a garage sized room trying not to make any noise. I hunted for some sort of tool or weapon that I could use to escape these people. I searched high and low, finally I found a thin crow bar on the floor, which I thought would come in handy. I saw some shadows made by the light coming under the door. I didn’t think I would be able to bring myself to open the door; I was too frightened of what I might find. I opened the door with shaking hands, then one of the artificial intelligence guys made eye contact with me, I quickly got out the crowbar taking it in one hand with one fell sliding swoop I knocked one of the animated people over. The other one had got me in a headlock. I looked around for something to hit him over the head with, I picked up a fire extinguisher with my free left arm and without a thought I hit the computer animated guy in the chest area, or whatever I hit I got him down.
Keith came in through one of the other doors and surprisingly said –
“Well done, let me buy you a drink or something.”
“What for?” I asked completely stunned.
“That was incredible!”
“What!” I said. I still didn’t have a clue what Keith was going on about, I just nodded. We went to the Aqua Bar in Brighton Marina. He pushed me in my chair over to a table and then he sat down himself, he congratulated me once more –
“What would you like Chris?”
“A lemon drink please.”
“Yes of course, now Chris you do know why I had to run all those tests on you?
I wanted to see how you reacted to different situations and I’ve got to say you did remarkably well!”
“So what am I going to do now?”
“You could either go back to school, or you could join us, but that would mean you would have to make a few sacrifices.”
“Like what?”
“Well for instance you wouldn’t get to see your friends as much as you do now.”
“What type of things would I do if I chose to accept your proposition?”
“Anything from spying on the enemy to plain administration, so it’s your choice.”
I didn’t really know what to say.
“Let me sleep on it I’ll tell you in the morning” I finally said to give me a chance to digest what Keith had said.
The room I was shown to was a simple room with two bunk beds; the walls were a damp brown colour and there was a thin white quilt on the bed and a pillow. I couldn’t sleep; I played Snow Jam on my flip phone for ten minutes as I was trying to get the battery as low as possible, before charging it up again. Finally I managed to get to sleep.