“What?!” Sister demanded. “Why
would he do that?”
“Oh no, Corsair, you didn't-” Lay
said, aghast.
“Of course I didn't! But he might
have figured it out!” he blurted out, immediately covering his
mouth with his paw.
“Figured what out?” Sister narrowed
her eyes. “Corsair, what did you do?!”
He sighed. “When we were all stumped
about how to find Steven, I thought that the key to finding him might
lie with the Black Ship, so I went looking for it.”
“I knew I was right to worry about
you! Something about the way you were acting that night just didn't
seem right! How could you do something like that and not tell
anyone?”
“For the record, he did tell me”,
Lay said, puffing her cheek.
He tried to change the subject: “In
any case, it didn't work. I never caught the Black Ship, and I
didn't find Steven until I was on my way back looking for you.”
“Wait, why were you looking for me
instead of Steven?” Sister asked, her outrage momentarily
forgotten.
“It doesn't matter now, Pack could be
in trouble. We have to go after him.”
“But how?” Lay asked, “without
Pack's star charts we have no idea where to look!”
“We should split up.” Sister
suggested.
That surprised him. “But I thought
you didn't want to do that?”
“It's okay. This is bigger than me.
It's for Pack.”
“Okay”, Corsair said, putting his
paw on her shoulder, “but it's late, the sun will be up soon. We
should get ready and leave first thing tomorrow evening.”
The three of them left the cabin, and
Corsair spoke to his crew about their new mission. Most of them
seemed eager to begin the search, but he did not share their
enthusiasm. A strange sense of foreboding came over him as he
recalled his conversation with Cross on the night of the party. “I
feel like we're heading towards something very dark”, Cross had
said, and although he had reassured him, even at the time he had felt
it, too. Things were beginning to change all around them.
“This is my fault, isn't it?” he
asked, staring out over the ocean towards the tiny light in the
distance. “What am I supposed to do?”. He felt a soft touch on
his shoulder and realized that he had company.
“Do you think he could really find
her?”, Lay asked, leaning out over the railing beside him. He
turned to face her.
“No one's asked that question yet”,
she continued, “what if this could really work? Maybe finding the
Black Ship really is the way to find what he's looking for. Is it
really our place to stop him?”
Corsair shook his head. “We may not
be able to stop him, but we at least have to go after him. The Black
Ship is very dangerous.”
“It seems like it led you to Sister,
and to Steven.”
“It's possible that it may have,
but...”
She turned to face him and looked
straight into his eyes. Her deep green irises seemed to shimmer
slightly in the early morning light. “What really happened when you
found the Black Ship, anyway?”
“Something horrible. I was almost
lost. I don't even know how I got back.” He paused. “Pack
might not be so lucky.”
She closed her eyes for a second and
turned back to look over the railing. “I respect him, you know. I
can barely remember Lapse at all, but he would still risk everything
for her, all this time later. Their love must have been very
strong.” She paused. “...I wish I could feel that way about
someone.”
“But look at how he feels now.”
Corsair said, shaking his head. “How could anyone envy that?”
“It's true, there are risks, but...”
She trailed off, staring off towards the sun.
“By the way”, he remembered, “the
last time you said you had something to tell me the next time we
met.”
“Tonight's not the night”, she
said, closing her eyes. “But I would like to share this moment
with you. Would you put your arm around me?”
She rested her head on his shoulder as
they quietly watched the sun rise.
---
“Agent Campbell,” a deep, powerful
voice addressed him, “the information I am about to relay to you is
of the utmost secrecy and importance.”
Corsair quickly scanned around the
room, but the speaker was nowhere to be found. There were a handful
of chairs surrounding a large table but no one was sitting in them.
“At precisely 10:42 pm last night, a
team of cyber-terrorists broke into a restricted government mainframe
and stole a set of top secret launch codes. While the codes are
heavily encrypted, our security experts estimate that the codes could
be cracked within 48 hours if they were to fall into the wrong hands,
and the earliest we could possibly have all the codes manually
changed is 5 days. We need you to track down and destroy the codes
before they are used by our enemies.”
“Where...?” Corsair asked, still
unable to determine where the voice was coming from.
“Unfortunately, the hackers routed
their attack through several foreign proxies, making it impossible
for us to discern their true location, and we believe that they will
likely attempt to sell the codes to the highest bidder. We have an
informant specializing in black market weapons trading who may be
able to provide you with some information regarding the sale of the
codes. You will be flown out to meet with her immediately.
“All right”, Corsair replied, still
unsure of what was being asked of him “I'll see what I can do.”
“One more thing”, the voice
continued, “We are aware that computer hacking is not your forte,
so we are providing you with a partner for this mission. Mr. Bronson
is the security expert who detected and shut down the invasion. His
skills may prove useful to you.”
A short man with a flat face and thick
spectacles walked in. He bowed slightly to Corsair.
Corsair shook his head. “It could be
dangerous to bring a civilian along. If I get any information I can
send it back to you.”
“Normally that would be the case, but
time is of the essence and a clear communication channel may not be
available”, the mysterious voice instantly responded to him.
“I'm fully aware of the risks, Mr.
Campbell”, the short man said, bowing again.
“The plane is leaving shortly”, the
voice told him. “Good luck Agent Campbell”. Corsair sighed and
left the room with the shorter man following close behind.
The plane was quite comfortable, with
large, cushioned seats and a lot of leg room. The two of them were
the only ones in the seating area.
“I'd just like to say it's an honour
to be working with you, Mr. Campbell” the stranger said, shaking
his hand.
“You sure seem eager to go on this
mission.”
“I know it's dangerous, but I've
always wanted to go on an adventure like this – tracking down
criminals, sneaking into guarded compounds, meeting beautiful and
dangerous women... what does regular life have on that?!”
“Well, that sort of thing is normal
enough for me. What does your regular life entail?”
“Oh, computer stuff, mostly. Coding,
monitoring, troubleshooting, nothing exciting. Not until now,
anyway. I really envy you, your life seems so amazing.”
“It's really not”, Corsair said,
“It might seem like I have a lot of freedom, but I really don't.
They just tell me what to do, but never why. I wish I could see the
big picture behind everything.”
The stranger laughed. “Well, you're
welcome to trade places with me any time you want.”
“Could we really?” Corsair said,
excited. “I'd love to see what your life is like.”
Suddenly, the plane wobbled and the
lights flickered on and off.
“Now I know you're pulling my leg”,
the stranger said, “But all joking aside, we should focus on how
we're going to find those codes.”
Corsair's mood dropped. “Oh, yes, of
course.” The plane stabilized. “We should be meeting with the
informant shortly.”
Corsair opened the door to the large
penthouse. It was a small room, lit only by a single lamp in the
corner, with plush furniture and a large, flat seat in the middle of
the room. They were greeted by a woman in a shiny red dress whose
long light blonde hair covered one of her green eyes. “To what do
I owe the pleasure?” she asked, tilting her head to the side and
resting it on one of her hands.
“We've come for some information.”
“Of course”, she said, turning away
from them. The back of her dress was open, showing the skin on her
back all the way down to her waist. “But surely you'll have a
drink first?”
“Just one, we're still on duty.”
She walked over to a liquor cabinet, swaying her hips as she went.
She poured three glasses, Corsair accepted his and took a seat, but
the stranger seemed to be in a kind of a trance and needed to be
prodded with the glass before he came back to his senses.
“What we're looking for is
information about the sale of some highly classified government
information that was stolen by terrorists last night.”
She took a swig of her drink. “Ah,
you mean those launch codes. The underworld's in a complete uproar
over those, I can tell you.”
“Do you know where we can find the
people who stole them?”
“No, but I do know who bought them.
The sale has already gone through, and they were sold to the West
Liberation Army. They have a compound in an old factory building on
the west end of the city. I can give you a passcode to get in, but
from there you're on your own.”
She gave them the code. “Did you get
that?” Corsair asked the stranger.
“What? Oh... yeah, I've got it.”
He shook his head, but he couldn't peel his eyes off the woman.
“Good.” Corsair said, standing up.
“Then we'll be on our way.”
“But it's so late, won't you stay
here until morning?” She put her empty glass down and walked over
to Corsair.
“Sorry, but duty always comes first.”
“That's why dutiful men are such
terrible lovers.” She stroked his face with her hand as she turned
to the stranger. “And what about you?” she said, putting her
arms around him and leaning forward, causing his head to droop, “I
can tell from your eyes that you have your priorities in order. You
want to come with me, right?”
She leaned in to kiss him, but Corsair
pulled him away. “Thanks for the information, but we have to go.”
He began walking towards the door before she could get them into any
more trouble.
“Wait!”, the stranger said,
desperately, “I think she's still hiding something. She knew too
much about the sale of those codes, we should stay here and uh...
investigate her a little more.”
“Time is of the essence”, Corsair
reminded him. “Those codes are being broken as we speak.”
“I'm sure it'll take them a little
while longer to break the codes” he said, frantically tugging at
Corsair. “More importantly, there's a gorgeous woman over there
inviting us to keep her company tonight! Maybe chances like this
come along every day for you, but I've never even seen a girl who
looks like that before!”
Corsair glanced back for a moment, and
he saw the three of them in the middle of the room together, the
woman kneeling between them. She leaned forward towards Corsair and
the stranger eagerly put his hands on her back...
“We've got what we came for”,
Corsair said, turning away, and they were at the door again. He used
all his strength to yank the stranger through the door and out of the
building.
“I'm sorry, I don't know what came
over me.” the stranger apologized profusely.
“Neither do I”, Corsair thought to
himself. “I'm not sure I want to know”.
“I promise I'll focus on our mission
from now on, please, give me another chance.”
“Shh!” A man with a flashlight was
patrolling the perimeter of a large building. Corsair ducked around
a corner and the stranger followed.
“This must be the side door she was
talking about”, the stranger said, approaching a door with a little
box beside it. He tapped it a few times and a little light went off,
then he gingerly opened the door. “After you”, he said, and
Corsair drew his gun and ducked inside.
They found themselves in a small room
with a lot of machines inside, but no other people. “This must be
the security room”, the stranger said, “I'll see if I can get
onto one of their computers and find out anything about the stolen
codes.” Corsair kept watch as he pushed various buttons on one of
the machines.
“It's no good”, he said after a
short while, “it's surprisingly well-protected. These guys know
their-”
“Good evening, gentlemen, so good of
you to join us”, a stern, bearded face suddenly appeared across all
of the machines. The stranger jumped right out of his chair. “We've
been expecting you. An old friend of yours told us you'd be here.”
Corsair immediately turned to the door,
but it was too late, they were already surrounded by armed men.
“Bring them to me. Shoot the tall
one if you have to, but keep the short one safe.”
Corsair had no choice but to drop his
gun as they were taken into another room and tied up together. The
men filed out of the room.
“I can't believe her, setting us up
like this” Corsair said, irritably, “And to think I actually
trusted her.”
“There must be some mistake!” the
stranger said to him, panicked. “There's no way she could have
done this! She was so pretty, and nice! A girl like that couldn't
be evil!”
“I thought we understood each other,
but obviously that was a mistake” Corsair grumbled as they tied him
to a chair.
Just then a man walked in the room, the
same man with the beard whose face had appeared earlier.
“Welcome, my friends. I suppose you
are wondering to whom you owe this pleasure?”
“I think we already know.” Corsair
said, angrily.
“Somehow, I doubt you do. You never
thought it could be an inside job, did you?”
“You!” Corsair snarled. It was the
same ambient voice from earlier.
“You did a good job of bringing the
security expert to us, Agent Campbell. As always, we appreciate your
devoted service. Now, Mr. Bronson, you will tell my associate how to
remove the encryption from the launch codes.”
“...Okay.” he said, subserviently.
“Just let me access the computer and-”
“I don't think so, you will dictate
the instructions aloud, and you will not try to deceive us.” The
bearded man pointed a gun at them.
“Sir!” Someone shouted from the
room they had been inside earlier. “The codes! They're gone!”
“WHAT?!” The bearded man turned to
look towards him, but as he did so, Corsair leap up and struck him in
the back of the neck, having already undone the ropes while they had
been talking. The bearded man fell forward. “It's time to go!”
he yelled to the stranger.
“Stop them!” the ambient voice
cried, but it was too late, Corsair relieved the bearded man of his
gun and shot the man at the computer, and they were long gone before
more help could arrive.
“What an adventure!” the stranger
exclaimed as they made their escape. “I can't believe everything
went so well. The commander's been caught, the stolen codes have
been erased, and we escaped unscathed. I could get used to this.”
“Speaking of which, how did you
manage to get rid of the codes? I thought you couldn't get anywhere
with that machine?”
“I couldn't”, the stranger smiled,
a proud look in his green eyes, “they did it for me. You should
always check your computer to make sure no one has connected any
suspicious devices before you use it. That's computer security 101.”
“I have no idea what any of that
means.” Corsair said, putting his hand on the door.
“Of course you don't, but that's why
we make such a great team.”
Corsair turned back to the stranger,
but he had gone. The world was already melting back into darkness
around him. He shrugged his shoulders and looked about for his ship.
“Not yet...” the stranger's voice
echoed, even though he didn't seem to be around anymore. “Isn't
there time for us to go back and see the woman again?”
Instantly, Corsair found himself back
in the penthouse from earlier. The lights were all out, only the
faint glow of the stars lit the room now, but that was plenty for him
to drink in the sight that lay before him.
She was lying there, clad only in her
peach-coloured skin from head to foot, her clothes discarded
throughout the room. Corsair found his gaze subconsciously drawn to
the parts of her body that now lay bare as he approached the the big
soft cushion in the middle of the room. When he drew close, she rose
to embrace him, pressing her skin against his. He found he was no
longer wearing his clothes, either, and his body reacted to her touch
in a way that he was new to him. Involuntarily, he put his hand on
her side and gave her a squeeze.
“I didn't think you'd come back,”
she said, softly. “I didn't think you wanted me.”
“I had to have you. You're the most
beautiful woman I've ever met”. The words just slipped out of his
mouth, he didn't even feel as though he was saying them.
“I'm yours”, she said, kissing him.
He returned her kiss with a hunger that was not his own, and he
could feel her hands all over his body. She lay down on the soft
surface behind her and beckoned to him.
“What are you doing?” Corsair asked
her, confused. His vision was getting a bit blurry, and he felt
disoriented. He leaned over her to get his bearings, and found he
was staring right into her lidded green eyes.
She took his hand and pulled him down
on top of her. “Putting the past behind us”, she told him, in a
deep voice barely above a whisper. “Let's find what we've been
seeking, together.” She squeezed him and brought their bodies
together. He felt his body starting to move on its own as she cooed
softly and batted her eyes at him, but he just felt confused and
disoriented. They should have been home by now. No part of this
made any sense...
Just then he heard the stranger's voice
again, echoing through his mind: “Oh my god, how could that man
ever have wanted to trade this life for mine? This is the best night
I've ever had, please don't let it end now!”
“The stranger's doing this”,
Corsair realized. Somehow, the stranger was holding them there,
preventing them from going home. “Lay, I'm sorry, it's not me”,
he tried to say, but he couldn't control his body at all anymore, and
his consciousness was starting to slip away. He felt something
powerful coming towards him, but he didn't have time to find out what
it was, already the world was starting to disappear around him, in
another few moments they'd be gone along with it.
“He wanted to trade places with me”,
he thought to himself. “Somehow, he changed this world to make it
come true. But what about his original body?”. He forced his eyes
shut and then open again, and he found himself in a different place.
It was pitch black, and the building seemed to be dissolving around
him, but he heard Lay cry out, and he charged towards her voice and
broke right through the wall.
“I won't lose you out here!” he
resolved to himself, and he grabbed her body from the vanishing room
and dove through the open window to the ocean below.
No comments:
Post a Comment