Chapter Five: Manouvers.

Chapter Five:

Manouvers.

This time Ellie didn't black out, although she definitely wished she had.

One second she'd been trying to look for an opportunity to disarm the pin-striped pistol wielding person standing in the doorway of the camper. The next the world turned purple and started screaming.

It seemed to last for hours - eventually Ellie bowed to the inevitable and joined in.

-oOo-

George Mainwaring was furious. This was not at all unusual - since the Traitor had betrayed The Office, condemning George and his colleagues to a lifetime of Clerk status, George had been a perpetually angry man. But George Mainwaring was also completely lost, and that was unheard of.

He might not have attained the dizzy heights of full Auditor status, but he was still a Clerk. He always knew exactly where he was, and he always knew exactly what he should be doing. That certainty was the very essence of what being a Clerk was all about. The unfamiliar feeling of uncertainty gave rise to another, even less welcome feeling. Fear. Clerks did not normally experience fear. Fear came from not knowing. From uncertainty. Clerks were never uncertain. The fact that they were Clerks meant they always knew.

But George Mainwaring had no idea where he was. He'd pursued the Traitor through the portal outside The Office, but it hadn't taken him where he thought it would. He had no idea how the Traitor had escaped. He'd been aware of the Traitor's ability to use phase displacement to shift between realities without a portal, but he shouldn't have been able to take the girl and that ridiculous van with him. This was technology with which he was entirely unfamiliar, and for a Clerk that was intolerable.

The rotund little man placed the Pince Nez on his aquiline nose. They showed him nothing but the darkness of the forest. The portal, the flourescent green lines that would guide him to any portal were gone. There was darkness, and there were trees. With a heavy sigh George Mainwaring did the only thing he could. Choosing a direction at random he picked up his gladstone bag and trudged off through the endless forest.

-oOo-

Ellie stopped screaming.


She paused for a moment and then slowly she opened her eyes. It didn't seem to make any difference. Everything was purple, everything was silent and everything was dark.


Then, out of the darkness came the laugh. A chuckle at first, building to a rich, deep and uncontrolled guffaw. There was darkness in that laugh, darkness and desperation and worse, an edge of insanity and cruelty. If she was honest, it was a good deal more disturbing than the screams.

-oOo-

The Cadaverous Man stared at the teak veneered console. The multitude of screens embedded there showed nothing but static. His face showed no emotion - it never did after all - but there was a tension in his demeanour that was unmistakable. He had always had great faith in George Mainwaring. Of course, after the incident with the Traitor it had been necessary to punish the rotund little Clerk by halting his advancement, but he was good. Even with the Traitor's black mark on his record he'd certainly make full Auditor status. The man simply did not fail.


And yet that was what he seemed to be doing. The Office had been receiving the live stream from Mainwaring's ocular implant. He'd successfully pursued the Traitor and the girl through the portal - a portal that was uncharted and on the doorstep of The Office, and which didn't seem to fit into the framework if you please - cornered them, and been in a position to execute the Traitor and bring the girl back into custody. For some reason he had hesitated. The Traitor had escaped and the feed had gone dead.


The Cadaverous Man rested his chin on his steepled fingers and gazed thoughtfully at the only readout that remained on the console. Mainwaring's life signs remained strong, but there was no indication of location. The man's telemetry implant should have been transmitting clear latitude, longitude and verisimilitude data. The chip was clearly still operational - were it not, there would be no life-sign info - but somehow the useful data was being blocked along with the visual feed from the ocular implant.


That should have been impossible.


Actually, no. There was no "should" about it. The Cadaverous Man was an Auditor. He was the Auditor. What was and was not possible didn't come into it. Regardless of the actuality, across the whole of the infinite universe, he knew what was possible. He knew because that was his purpose, to know what was possible and to make sure that only the possible took place. He was, in effect,  functionally omniscient, the constant streams of data from the Clerks saw to that.


But now, when it really mattered, there was a hole in his insight. For the first time in his long existence he was not sure. It was an unfamiliar and entirely unwelcome feeling. With a deep scowl darkening his face he turned of his heel and stalked out of the control room.

-oOo-

The laughter subsided. "Oh, I'm sorry..." the voice was breathless and still choked with mirth "I shouldn't laugh, but the look on his face was just too priceless!" It was the voice of the bowler hatted man, Viscount whatever he called himself. Ellie swallowed and forced a calmness which she absolutely did not feel into her tone.

"Why can't I see?"

There was the almost audible sound of a man crippled by hilarity becoming very serious very quickly.

"Damn." All trace of laughter was gone. Ellie felt lightly calloused hands gently gripping her temples andcaught a whiff of what smelled like engine oil on his fingers. Even unsighted, she could sense the intensity of his gaze.

"I wish you'd kept those goggles on." His voice was rueful. "I thought the van's windows might have been enough protection, but apparantly not."

Ellie felt her head being gently tipped back. "Close your eyes as tight as you can," he intoned gently, "then when I say, open them really wide." She felt his left hand move away from her face as he reached for something. She squeezed her eyes firmly shut and waited. "OK, he said, this won't hurt a bit - open your eyes as wide as you can."

Ellie opened her eyes and then yelped as drops of what felt like molton lava splashed into each eye. She screwed both eyes shut and jerked her head away from the Viscount's grip, bringing both hands up to cover her seared eyeballs.

"What the fuck?!" Ellie's voice was shrill. "You said that wouldn't hurt!"

There was a gentle chuckle. "Actually I said it wouldn't hurt a bit. I said nothing about hurting a lot."

Ellie felt something soft and cool being draped across her eyes. The stinging pain began to subside a little.

"I'm just going to bandage your eyes up for a bit." His voice was gentle and business like as he tied the bandage at the back of her head. As he leaned in close she caught another whiff of engine oil. "Your eyes weren't properly protected when we shifted. Sorry, I should have been more careful - if you'd left the goggles on you'd have been fine."

Ellie was trying hard to keep the fear out of her voice, but she was struggling. "Look. I've been kidnapped. Locked up. Mugged in the shower. Fed full of tea and bullshit in the middle of a forest and now I'm blind." She gripped the edge of the seat. "I'm not the hysterical type, Mr Viscount whoever the fuck you are, but I am very, very close to losing my shit. I'm going to sit very still, and very quiet, and you are going to tell me exactly what is happening - or, blind or not - I am going to do you some serious harm."

There was a long pause.

"Absolutely." Blind as she was, she could hear the infuriating grin on her companion's face. "Basically you're blind because when we shifted between realities your eyes weren't adequately protected. Human eyes - any kind of eyes in fact - simply aren't designed to see that. The gaps we travelled through are the ultimate in sensory depravation and without protection they just shut down. The damage can be permanent, but in your case you were inside the van so with those drops you'll be fine in a few hours."


Ellie nodded thoughtfully to herself. She still wasn't sure she really believed any of this stuff about shifting between realities, but she couldn't deny that she seemed to have moved inexplicably between locations. If she could accept teleportation, why not parallel realities? But still...


"Hang on." Her voice was thoughtful, but also laced with a tautness that betrayed the stress and irritation that she was trying so hard to control. "You said that travelling through these gaps of yours was like sensory depravation, and that makes the senses shut down."


"Precisely so."


"But my hearing is fine. In fact when we were travelling I could hear screams. All my other senses are fine. You're talking rubbish and I'm getting sick of it."


There was another long pause.

"Sorry. I'm trying to explain things in simple terms, and there really aren't any. The screams are, well, they're something I really can't explain to you now. In fact, you're right. I'm explaining this really badly."

There was a long pause.

"Look. You're important." His voice was now earnest and determined. "I can't properly explain it to you, but you're in great danger and you need my help." There was an edge of steel in his voice now.

"I'm going to take you to my HQ. There are people there who can explain all this better than I can. For now just remember - I never kidnapped you. I got you away from the people who did. When you've had all this explained, if you want me to, I'll take you home. You have my word. But for right now, you really do just need to shut up and trust me."

Ellie didn't reply. She leaned back in her seat and heard her companion move into the cab of the van. There was no engine noise and no sense of movement, but after a second, even through her blindfold, she could sense the purple, and she could certainly hear the screams.

-oOo-

In the middle of a forest in an uncharted actuality George Mainwaring paused. He'd been trudging through the anonymous trees looking for any kind of reference point for what felt like days. Hunger and thirst were gnawing at his guts and he he had begun to dispair of ever finding a way back to The Office, let alone get back on the trail of his quarry. Given his previous disgrace after the defection of The Traitor he simply could not bear the thought of returning to The Office without the girl and The Traitor's head.

Now here was something he could sense. He didn't know how he knew, but he could feel that The Traitor and his ridiculous Camper Van were on the move. His pince nez had not shown him anything since The Traitor's escape, and he knew that trying them again was irrational. Even so, he placed the little lenses back on his nose.

It was faint, but he could see a dim line of neon green. He smiled. "Got you, you worthless cad."

Taking the pistol from his gladstone bag George Mainwaring set out to find the portal that would lead him to his prey.

-oOo-

In the operations room of The Office a descreet red light flashed on the teak veneered console. Most of the screens still displayed static, but the screen nest to Clerk Mainwaring's lifesign display blinkedback to life, showing a complcated graphic detailing his latitude, longitude and verisimilitude data. The Clerk on duty wasted no time in hitting the intercom.

"My Lord?"

"What is it?" The rasping voice was drenched with irritation.

The Clerk on duty gulped. "We have re-established the location of Clerk Mainwairing. He is in uncharted territory, but the fix is firm. trackers are locked on."

There was a long pause, then the raspy voice of the Cadaverous Man filled the operations room.

"Excellent. Send instructions to the intervention teams. I want them on standby."

The Clerk on duty confirmed his master's orders and conveyed them to the appropriate people. He smiled to himself as he worked. George Mainwaring was a legend amongst the Junior Clerks. His betrayal at the hands of The Traitor was now taught as a cautionary tale at the Academy. To the juniors Mainwaring was a hero. The Clerk on duty smiled to himself. If he could assist Cerk Mainwaring in the aprehension of The Traitor, he could scarcely imagine the glory, the potential for advancement.

With a few deft twists of knobs and pulls of levers the Clerk on duty began to send Clerk Mainwaring's location to those who needed to know.

-oOo-

In his sparsely furnished quarters Duke Regimen Asquith of the Singularity, otherwise known as the Cadaverous Man, straightened his tie. The loss of the girl was a painful defeat - especially because The Traitor had been able to penetrate The Office and get her out. He was disturbed by the fact that this had happened, and by the fact that communication with Clerk Mainwaring had been lost. But things were back on track now.

He tapped a complicated glyph onto the mirror that hung above his desk. The feed from Clerk Mainwaring's occular implant flickered into view. The Duke smiled. He'd thought they'd lost everything, but now, well, now they were back on the trail of The Traitor, and he was pretty certain that The Traitor didn't know. 

The victory of The Auditors could well be at hand.

Duke Regimen Asquith of the Singularity paused, brushed a fleck of lint from the shoulder of his immaculate pin stripe suit and strode out of his quarters.

A smile creased his grey cadaverous face. As the lead Auditor he always knew what would transpire and now he knew, beyond doubt that the Black Guard rebellion and the battle against The Traitor were nearly over.

"You thought to challenge us, Viscount" he muttered to himself, "now you will reap the price of your presumption."

The Duke stepped out of his quarters, the darkness following behind him.