Shift. Chapter Two: The Office

Chapter Two

The Office

Ellie opened her eyes, and immediately regretted it. The room she found herself in was brightly lit and the glare cranked the pain in her already pounding head all the way up to eleven. She raised a hand to her head and tried to work out where she was and what had happened.

She remembered climbing the kitchen stairs to the door of her flat to avoid the weirdo in the bowler hat. She'd gone in through her front door and... what? There'd been somebody waiting for her. A faint smell of mothballs and then darkness. Where was she now? How long had she been here? With tentative fingers and keeping her eyes firmly closed against the light she began to probe her surroundings.

She was lying on a narrow bench, maybe a bed, with a thin mattress. Slowly she opened her eyes again, giving them time to adjust to the light. The tiny room was a white and sterile and, save for the bed she was lying on, an empty and utterly featureless cube about six feet by six. There were no windows, and despite the glare, no visible light sources. Instead the walls, floor and ceiling seemed to emit their own flat white light, which meant there were no shadows - something Ellie found extremely disconcerting.

There was also no apparent way of getting in or out. She sat up carefully, and swung her legs off the bed, noting with some relief that she was at least still dressed, and considered her situation. Given that she had, at some point, clearly entered the room there must be some kind of door somewhere. She slid off the bed onto her feet and inspected the walls. They were smooth, slightly cool to the touch and completely featureless. Ellie sat back down on the bed.

"Brilliant," she thought. "Unexplained kidnapping, locked in an unexplainable cell. A lifetime of interest in the paranormal, nearly a decade of putting up with Mike and his mates and here I am, kidnapped by bloody aliens." She shook her head. That would, of course, have been Mike's immediate conclusion - either that or some kind of CIA plot  - but she didn't buy it. Since she'd been a kid she'd read everything she could find about alien encounters, ghosts, bigfoot, nessie and every other aspect of the paranormal. She'd yet to come across anything that didn't have a logical, terrestrial explanation. That was why she'd done her degree in psychology - her dissertation had been a study into the reasons that otherwise rational people will believe irrational things.

She briefly considered banging on the walls and shouting demands to be released, but decided that she'd achieve nothing by that beyond a sore throat and bruised fists, so instead she leaned back against the wall and settled down to wait.

-oOo-

The man in the bowler hat slumped into the driver's seat of the black VW Camper and reached into his waistcoat pocket for the little 'phone sized device and studied the screen again. His frown deepened and he reached for a small grey ball on the dashboard. As he touched it a pale yellow light began to glow from deep within and the orb hovered upwards until it was directly in front of the bowler hatted man's face. He waved his hand in front of it a couple of times and began to speak.

"Bunco? I need a new fix on the girl. They beat me to her."

There was a brief burst of static before a tinny voice replied, apparently from within the globe.

"Bloody hell Tris! What've you been doing? You've been tracking her for days - how could you let them get the jump on you?"

The man in the bowler hat heaved a heavy sigh and deepened his scowl. "Leave it out Bunco, I'm really not in the mood. I had to wait until I was sure she was the target - you know what happened the last time you made a misidentification. Just tell me where she is and I'll go in and grab her."

"Making the calculations now." There was a long pause, and when the voice from the orb spoke again it carried an audible note of fear.

"Tris? We can't get to her now. They've taken her to The Office."

The man in the bowler hat exhaled and for a moment his head drooped. Then his face hardened and he looked up. "Bugger that." He lifted a flap on the dashboard to reveal a selection of chrome knobs and switches. He made a few adjustments and waved the glowing orb away.

"I'm not letting those pin striped bastards have her, she's too important." The van's engine revved hard.

"But she's in The Office! Nobody gets out of there!"

"I did, didn't I? I guess it's time for a crowd pleasing sequel."

The VW camper leapt forwards with a squeal of tyres and cloud of smoke. The orb fell silent.

-oOo-

Ellie had no idea how long she'd been sitting there. It felt like hours, but she hadn't been wearing a watch when she was taken, and there was simply no way of judging time. It had been long enough for the pounding in her head to subside, which was a relief - although the pain in her head was being replaced by a pain in her stomach as serious hunger pangs were starting to kick in. She also really, really needed a wee.

The door opening took her by surprise, not least because until it opened it hadn't been there. One second the wall opposite her bed had been a blank and featureless expanse of white, the next second there was an open door with two soberly suited men standing watching her. They stood motionless and unspeaking for what seemed like an age.

Ellie stared back defiantly, the faint smell of mothballs once again tickling her nostrils. Both men were tall and dressed in black suits with a grey pinstripe, dazzlingly white shirts and grey ties. Both men looked old, with gaunt complexions and white hair, although the one closest to her looked particularly cadaverous. Eventually, the cadaverous man spoke. His voice was hash and raspy, like a rake through dead leaves.

"You are Eleanor Sage."

Ellie wasn't sure whether that was a statement or a question, and she didn't really care.

"What I am is a very angry woman who is going to piss all over your floor if you don't show me to a bathroom." Ellie kept her tone level. She was damned if she was going to show these people fear.

The cadaverous man spoke again. "All in good time, Miss Sage. First we must ask you some questions."

Ellie scowled. "You can ask all you like mate - I don't know who you are or where I am, and I'm not saying anything until I do. And I'm not kidding - unless you fancy an unpleasant clean-up job and a hefty laundry bill you'll show me where the loo is." She stood and stepped towards the door. The cadaverous man raised a hand and she found that she couldn't move.

"You will stay where you are," he rasped. His companion leaned forwards and whispered in his ear and the cadaverous man nodded.

"You will wait," he said, "and we will arrange suitable facilities."

Then the door was gone and Ellie was alone once more in her featureless cell.

-oOo-

PC Andrew Brown was having a really shitty day.  His nine year old daughter had "treated" him and his wife by making them dinner for their anniversary the night before and he was feeling more than a little queasy. On top of that he'd had a flat on his way to the station and had arrived at work after his shift had started, which by tradition meant that he had to make tea for everyone all week and get the first round in at the pub next Friday night, in spite of the fact that he never actually went to any of the post work booze ups.

And now this.

He looked at the splintered door and the ransacked flat. Burglary he understood. Kidnapping he understood. This just didn't seem to make sense at all.

"So, Mrs Chatterjee, just so I can get things straight in my head, Miss Sage has a private entrance to her flat, but she came in through your shop?"

Mrs Chatterjee nodded, her jowels wobbling emphatically. "Yes, she came into the takeaway because a man was following her. She wanted to use the kitchen stairs up to her flat."

PC Brown scribbled in his notebook. "These stairs lead to the landing outside her door?"

Mrs Chatterjee nodded. "That is right. Most of upstairs is her flat but we have a store room up there too. Always she is forgetting her keys and comes in this way. But not last night. Last night there was a man following - I saw him."

"And you say he kicked in the door and kidnapped your tenant?"

"I don't think so. She screamed while he was still downstairs."

PC Brown looked thoughtful. "An accomplice?"

Mrs Chatterjee shook her head. "I do not think so. The man seemed shocked when he heard the scream - he broke away from my son and went running after her. I think he might have been trying to help."

PC Brown paused. He'd met Samar Chatterjee when he'd first arrived on scene. He found the idea of anyone breaking free of that behemoth hard to swallow. He gave Mrs Chatterjee a searching look. "And then he ran off?"

Chatterjee shook her head. "I do not know where he went. I heard him kick down the door, my son was only just behind him. He did not come out of the flat. He just disappeared!"

"Disappeared?"

Mrs Chatterjee waved her hands together to imitate a small explosion. "Poof."

PC Brown sighed. It was going to be a long shift.

-oOo-

Ellie was feeling somewhat better. Shortly after the cadaverous men left her alone the door had reappeared and flashing arrows on the floor had led her to a gleaming marble bathroom which was equipped not only with a toilet - an item Ellie had never been so pleased to see in her life - but also a shower, soap and a stack of fluffy white towels.

Not having been born yesterday she did a quick search for hidden cameras and, finding none, experimented with the lock on the bathroom's door. Satisfied that she could indeed lock it from the inside and so be sure of some privacy she made full use of the facilities.

Stepping out of the shower, eyes squeezed shut against the lavender scented soapsuds Ellie reached for a towel and wrapped it around herself, using a corner to dab her stinging eyes free of soapy foam. As she did so she heard a faint whisper of air behind her. The hand was over her mouth before she had any chance to scream.