H2G2 Storytime III: From Prussia with Love. Part LVIII
Created | Updated Jan 27, 2007
Jamilla crouched low behing a crate and covered her head with her hands. Suddenly she felt a hand grasping her collar and dragging her upwards protesting.
"Got you!" cackled the cultist.
Ody shot up - "Let her go!" he started to say but was tackled to the ground by another guard who came charging onto the balcony
Arthur and X were about to get involved when three more guards arrived and pointed a couple of serious looking rifles at them.
"You will come with us. Don't bother resisting," said the one amongst the group, who appeared to be in command.
Arthur, X, Ody and Jamila were led away down the corridors from which they had come, in the hands on the captors; the guards keeping a close watch at their rear.
Arthur and X communicated silently through a series on unseen facial ticks and blinks. Just as they werte coming to a crossroads of intersecting corridors the two spies suddenly halted, elbowed their guards in the ribs and dove down an adjacent corridor and made a run for it. Leaving Ody and Jamila in the clutches of the Cult.
"Get after them!" screamed the head gaoler, and at this order the two winded cultists ran painfully after Arthur and X.
"It seems you friends have abandonned you", the gaoler crooned at Jamila.
"So it seems," she said casting her eyes downward, unable to hide her dissapointment.
Arthur and X ran on,
"What about Ody...and...Jamila?" X huffed.
"We'll do them no good being marched to our deaths. We'll go back for them." Arthur tried to reassure his partner.
Now we need to find a way out of here.
Sreka was not in a good mood. He'd smoked his last cigarette back in Egypt and the addiction was starting to bite.
In this state, people were irritating to him, so he'd come down here into some of the more un-patrolled areas of Alpha Complex: the network of corridors that burrowed through the inner rocky core of Mount Terror.
Despite being born in the stepes of Russia, only a generation or two removed from the Gulags, Sreka felt curiously at home inside a Volcano. The sensation of the ebb but never dwindled potential of destructive violence was familiar to him.
So he wandered the corridors alone, in near darkness save for a small battery of emergency lighting that lind a bulkhead flickering occasionally as the dynamos vascilated; carrying out his orders.
Quite what he was thinking was unclear but whatever reverie it was, was disturbed when he heard a sudden and unexpected tinkling sound from across the corridor. It had come from an empty room that was pitch black. He approached cautiously and reaching inside, clicked the light switch on and off experimentaly but nothing happened.
He was stood starkly sillouhetted in the doorway, his massive arms outstretched and hands either side of the portal. Sreka operated moslty on primal instinct and one such predatory self-awareness was right now telling him that this was a bad move, so he retreated into some shadows and vanished.
From inside the room, Arthur and X let out simultaneous sighs of relief, X uncupped his hands, that his suit jacket was pressed around and the semi-dark revealed several light bulbs.
"Clever thinking." Arthur whispered and then added, "I think I know where we are, we just passed Storage N1."
"Oh right." X nodded.
"Exactly, I think we're one level down from the storage room when Daltmooreby found us. I'd estimate were right underneath the hanger area where we came in. We need to find the stairs or someway of moving up.
"Come on. Let's try and get back to the surface and warn the others." he gave X a friendly tap on the shoulder.
X placed the bulbs on the floor and re-applied his suit.
As the pair exited the room, they wer met by a surprised and shocked Andrei Sreka leant nonchelantly against the opposite wall.
"Oh bugger." Arthur remarked as he and X ran pell mell down the corridor away from the hulking Russian gangster in hot pursuit.
"Left!" screamed X and he yanked Arthur down an adjacent corriodr. At the far end was an elevator.
They ran. X accelerated and slammed into the wall and immediately began peppering the call button with repeated jabs of his index finger.
A few moments later and Arthur had caught up with his partner and pleaded "isn't it here yet?"
"It's...coming" X heaved as several illuminated numbers cycled upwards on a display above their heads.
With a ding the doors opened.
And Arthur and X stepped hurridly inside.
Sreka rounded the corner and charged at them.
"Close it!" Arthur gulped.
"I'm trying," X whimpered, hammering the button.
With, what seemed like agonising slowness, the doors to the elevator began to close as Sreka came within arms reach of Arthur.
They collided with a thud and then Arthur heard the cables dragging them up to the next floor.
Sreka was left standing on the other side of the closed doors, his fingers brushing the burnished metal of the elevator outer doors. He stood for a moment then without bothering to check on whcih floor the elevator had stopped, he abruptly turned and left.
Arthur and X only had a few moments respite before the lift arrived. The doors drifted apart and they were back in the hanger area where they ahd arrived on horseback from out of the blizzard that could still be heard buffeting the outside of Alpha Base. The Hanger was dingy and seemingly deserted, the great press of cultists presumably off on their own secret projects concerning The Shuttle. Lights were off and tarpualins fluttered on top of boxes of artic stores and pallets according to unseen breezes and draughts.
"Come on let's see if we can open the door and get outside, so long as we can warn HQ of what's going on here," Arthru said.
Despite all appearances, however, the pair were not alone. High above them, from the gantry platform on the far side of the hanger, and in the gloom of the night, two figures were stood silently, wreathed in shadow. Mary and Daltmooreby watched Arthur and X's progress intently.
"You were right Sean." Mary whispered encouragingly.
"This is the only way in and out they know of - they had to come back this way," Daltmooreby said proudly.
A third figure emerged from the blackness and joined the group at Mary's right hand side.
"Andrei," she said turning. "They didn't give you too much trouble?"
"Niet. It was difficult to been seen and let them escape - it goes against my usual habits.
A solid sounding clunk from beneath them confired to Mary that the two agents wwere nearly done opening the door to the outside.
"Get your coats you two. Circle around and meet them coming in the other direction."
"What will you do?" Daltmooreby asked.
"I'll heard them towards you. Go."
"Robinson's mine." Daltmooreby hissed as he left.
"I won't forget." Mary said chambering a pistol and checking the sight.
With the door wedged open, Arthur and X broke cover and ran out into the driving wind. Arthur was nearly blown backwards by the strength of it but X grabbed his arm and pulled him along.
"We've not got long. Find some shelter!" Arthur shouted to make himself heard.
"Right. How about behind those crates?" X said pointing to some abandoned boxes that had been stacked and smashed against the cliff-face by the storm.
Arthur collasped behind them and depressing the speak button tapped in The Agency call code and spoke: "Wimbledon! Strawberries and Cream calling Wimbledon. Call back. Over."
There was an agonising pause, during which the wind appeared to creep up a few extra knotts.
Suddenly a cheerful voice perked up on the other end "Service on Centre court!"
"Strawberries and Cream!" hissed Arthur.
"We've been expecting you two to get in touch. Transferring..."
There was a hiss of static - the storm was interrupting the signal. Arthur shook the handset in frusration, his hands already vibrating from the cold.
Suddenly a familiar voice eeked it's way through the static.
"Strawberries and cream, Strawberries and cream are you receiving? Over."
There was a loud noise followed by some more static. X reappeared at Arthur's side. "Is it working?"
"Yes. Go check from Sreka - see if he is still following us!"
X obeyed and was quickly hidden from sight by the blizzard.
"STRAW BERRIES AND CREAM ARE YOU - " the satelite receiver buzzed loudly.
"We're....here..Guy." Arthur said, struggling to catch his breath as the wind tore it away from him. He was feeling his age for certain, running away from Sreka had taken it's toll.
The wind picked up one of the tarpaulins and it flapped about madly - the crates underneath it shifted and several crashed onto the ice with a splintering thud.
"Is it safe?" Guy's voice asked.
"Not for long."
"Fine get yourselves out of there and we'll re-establish communications in 48 hours."
"I think we are being tracked so that might be a little tricky but we'll see what we can do."
"Did you find it?" Guy asked. "The Turqoise Moon?"
"Oh we found something all right. A whole lot of something!"
A way from Arthur, X scanned the open hanger door. Suddenly, Mary, dressed in thick protective clothing, emerged from the open door holding a pistol and scanning the white-out for them. She saw the barest trace of footprints and began to head in X's direction.
X turned and shouted to Arthur as loud as he could "They're coming!"
Arthur heard his partner's desperate cry against the wind, He started to shout into the handset "They've got a rocket! They've got a Shuttle!" but he was seized from behind by Andrei Sreka, who gripped him by his already sore throat, choking his words.
Sreka yanked him backwards and and pulling him in close whispered menacingly, "Got you." Sreka did not see it, but the handset fell useless onto the floor and was quickly covered by a drift of snow.
Sreka hauled Arthur upright and spun him around. Arthur started disbelievingly and saw that there was a second door into the complex open behind him, light pouring out and someone was stood in the doorway.
The brightness made Arthri blink which allowed snow that was collecting on his brow to flutter down and cake into his eyes, Arthur struggled to wipe it away, squinting furiously.
Daltmooreby, folded his arms and watched his nemesis's distress from the doorway with great satisfaction and smiled.
Mary appeared alongside Sreka holding X at gun point. "I've had enough of running around in the snow. Let's get them inside!"
Mary looked down at Arthur who had been forced to his knees by Sreka; and addressing him with a callous concern said, "You should have stayed on the train."
