Return to Wardate

By Bill
Cornwell

Copyright 2014
by Bill Cornwell

Smashwords
edition

Strictly
speaking, you don’t have to read the first instalment
– The
Residents of Wardate
to get through this story but if you do,
it will remove much of the confusion.

Chapter 1:
Miracle worker

What he saw
brutally singed his retinas.

The signals
from his optic nerves stamped his visual cortex with the clout of a
pile driving hammer. Adam would never forget, couldn’t possibly
forget the disturbing sight but he would have to – if he ever
wanted sweet dreams again.

‘Barton, you
have to help her!’ Adam pleaded. ‘You’ve got to!’

To recap, Adam
had hastily removed the lid off the tank – the tank which contained
the withered husk of Poppy Cock’s body. The last screw was a devil
to get out but he wasn’t going to let that minor hindrance get in
the way of his objective. Poppy was inside; that much is true but
her existence was measurably more spiritual than anything physical.
Bathed in the special fluid was not the pretty Poppy as all used to
see her but something that was once a human being. The spirit of
Poppy was still beautiful and always would be but now everything
rested on Barton performing a miracle – as simple as that.

Barton silently
and with stoicism, visually examined the human remains of Poppy in
the tank. The minimum amount of life support Aaron Alexander had
left connected to the tank had completely melted away. Poppy was
isolated, barely surviving on her own God-given live support - this
was not good. With an aggressive but focused action, Barton ripped
the surviving tubes and connections from the new tank intended
firstly for Ronald Poultney and then for Alexander and pushed and
plugged them in the receptors of Poppy’s tank.

‘That
should
keep her alive for now, priority right now is to see
my daughter but I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

Adam knew this
was an area where there could be no argument. His daughter Zoë was
now safe and being looked after in hospital after been chained up
in a cold, damp dark culvert for many weeks. He appreciated what he
had done and remained silent. Barton left with one of the police
officers. Detective Stoddard and Adam remained, standing silently
in the damp, dripping shell of an old cow shed full of charred
technical objects. Several minutes went by before Stoddard asked a
very pertinent question.

‘Okay, what the
hell is going on here?’

‘Exactly - hell
is going on here,’ said Adam quietly.

He didn’t
particularly feel like talking civilly for the moment, especially
to an aloof member of the police force. Stoddard gingerly slithered
his way over to the tank.

‘What – who -
is
that?’

‘
That
is
what’s left of Poppy - Poppy Cock, my fiancée.’

‘
No
… not
the TV correspondent person... but she’s dead?’

‘Well she will
be very shortly if Barton can’t work his miracles on her.’

‘I’m sorry,
excuse me for being a bit slow but what’s Poppy Cock got to do with
all this?’

Adam didn’t
know how to continue. Should he remain secretive? Indeed, should he
have gone as far as he had and told Stoddard that it was Poppy in
the tank? Perhaps Stoddard ought to know - know the whole story
that Madeline Bull was an android. This brought on another crucial
question.

‘Where’s
Madeline?’ Adam asked suddenly.

‘Officer
Stevens took her into the house, apparently she’s fast asleep –
strange girl, doesn’t seem to want to wake up.’

‘Stoddard, I
know you have to take the moral high ground with your profession
but... can you keep a secret and I mean a big secret?’

‘Of course,
provided it’s lawful,’ said Stoddard officiously.

‘The answer’s
no then? This is way off being lawful.’

Withholding
evidence now reverberated within the space between Adams ears. He
wished he’d just invented a few white lies and left it at that.
Now, if he didn’t tell Stoddard the whole incredible truth, there
was a strong possibility that it could be extracted from him in the
most effective and efficient way allowed by modern day police
methods. Telling him would mean there would be one more person in
the world that knew the secret which could, one day jeopardise
Poppy’s and Madeline’s safety. One more person could be accepted if
they were above repute but even police Detectives have been known
to have issues with their principles. Adam had noticed his cavalier
attitude to crises and his apparent lack of intuition despite his
many years of service but this didn’t mean to say he was
untrustworthy or undependable. He had to know and that was
that.

‘Okay... to put
it simply, Madeline is an android.’ said Adam concisely.

‘Madeline...
android? Well that’s certainly different.’ said Stoddard.

‘See all these
wires, this burnt out equipment? Look... Poppy, she’s covered in
little needles with wires attached to them. All this equipment
relays the hundreds of signals from her body to that android,
snoozing in the house. That melted monitor on the wall over there,
used to show Madeline’s eyesight. That box in front of Poppy’s
face... it contains TV screens which relay what Madeline’s eyes
see. Getting it yet?’

‘So you are
saying Miss Bull is just a machine, made of metal and plastic?’

‘Well, perhaps
materials not as mundane as that but yes, she is a machine... so
you believe me?’

‘Oh yes and the
little fairies at the bottom of my garden keep nicking my carrots.’
ridiculed Stoddard.

‘Look, I didn’t
want to tell you but you did ask. Go and take a close look at
Madeline.’ said Adam.

As a reminder,
Poppy was in this life support tank because twelve months ago she
was burnt terribly by the actions of an evil young boy – a resident
of Wardate. This young boy was now dead because an android had
professionally, painfully and revengefully killed him. Now, this
android had a secret which made it behave very human like. The
secret was precisely this: Poppy had been given a second chance to
live by remotely controlling this incredible android, called
Madeline Bull, from within her life support tank. Now though, Poppy
couldn’t control anything, not even her breathing, heartbeat or
respiration. This was because she had been literally poached in her
tank by a fire cruelly started by one of four the scientists –
Aaron Alexander. This scientist had previously helped to give her
this new life but, as it turned out, ironically, he was another of
these evil Wardate residents.

For a brief
moment, just before Adam removed the lid from the tank, seconds
passed as hours and hours passed as joy. In this serendipitous
moment, everything: Madeline Bull, Wardate and the assassinations -
all had been a dream and many parallels had been forged. For
example, Wardate related to Ward 8 where she spent her time in
hospital. For this brief joyous moment she was well again – her
burns had mended and she was back with her Adam.

Chapter
2
: An arrest is made

Madeline Bull
laid there, beautiful, oozing sex albeit peacefully asleep on the
lounge sofa. Her long thick blonde hair draped neatly around a
small cushion which Stevens had thoughtfully placed under her head.
She looked convincingly human – perfectly human, more human than
many humans. Stoddard was going to take a lot of convincing.

‘Miss Bull! ...
Madeline, Madeline, wake up!’ said Stoddard firmly.

‘Forget it, she
can’t wake up. This is how she – the machine responds when the
connection fails.’

‘Rubbish,
sometime I have the same problem with my wife, a devil to wake up
after a few gin and tonics.’

Adam was going
to have to prove Madeline was a machine somehow but it wasn’t going
to be easy especially as she was designed to emulate a human female
in every possibly way. Even her skin was just like… skin. Now that
the Americans had re-skinned her, she even had a scattering of
freckles, moles and wrinkles to add to the realism. There was no
hatch to lift up or panel to unclip. No mechanical noises either
now that the diesel engine had been replaced with a state of the
art miniature fuel cell. He could cut into her skin to show
titanium bones but he knew Madeline would kill him for this wilful
defacement - if she eventually woke up. Stoddard had an
overwhelming urge to handle her, purely in an effort make her more
comfortable. For no justifiable reason Stoddard removed her black
leather high heeled boots although this did make her fit more
easily on the sofa. He dribbled slightly as even more of her
perfect legs were revealed. Her silky skin was smooth and tanned
just the right amount all the way up to her underwear she now had
to wear. Somehow her skirt had ruffled up indiscreetly but no one
had thought it their responsibility to pull it down. Unfortunately
though there was imperfection, one foot had half a big toe missing,
wholly due to Adam’s carelessness with a hand gun. He squirmed with
the memory but immediately realised that this was the proof he was
after.

‘There, have a
close look at her toe.’

Adam didn’t
have to ask twice. Stoddard’s dribbling intensified as he lifted up
her foot and gazed into the wound. Disappearing into the remainder
of her toe were several wires which used to be connected to a USB
socket. The protruding bone was clearly not made of calcium as it
should have been but a greyish metal.

‘USB... there
used to be a USB connection there to link her up to a PC but I shot
it off... don’t ask!’ said Adam, red faced.

‘But she’s...
she’s perfect!’

‘I know – in
every way you could possibly imagine,’ boasted Adam.

Stoddard had to
sit down. He reached into his pocket for a tissue; his dribble had
turned into a torrent of slobber. He was, afterall, a professional
who had been trained to stay indifferent and focused when faced
with extreme distractions such as this - nevertheless he wouldn’t
be able to stand up for several minutes.

‘Well... give
me a stiff one, barkeep!’ said Stoddard still pretending to be a
cowboy.

Madeline Bull
was purposely designed to have this effect on men; this was classed
as part of her weaponry. Her beauty was intoxicating, having the
Aphrodite ratio – one step up from the Golden ratio. This meant she
was beyond beautiful – her looks instantly entranced the opposite
sex. Her figure naturally matched her face, unrealistic and
unattainable, having proportions that nudged well into the erotic
zone even when fully clothed.

‘I see… so
that’s what all this is about, Barton’s daughter, Mr Poultney, that
woman in the culvert...’ said Stoddard smugly.

‘Angela.’
interrupted Adam. ‘Poultney wanted to hijack the whole system for
himself on behalf of the Americans but Alexander had his own
designs on it - he wanted it as a gift for Wardate.

‘Wardate?’
asked Stoddard.

‘From what I
can gather, a society for really evil people.’

Stoddard had a
question that had never been asked before.

‘So, who’s now
in charge of all this technology?

‘Poppy Cock,
and that’s who it should be.’ said Adam with commitment.

This was
certainly the correct answer. It used to be Paul Brownsword
formerly known as Turner but he had been murdered.

‘You know,
documenting this case is going to be hell of a challenge.’ said
Stoddard.

‘Listen… there
is no case! Poppy’s whereabouts have to remain totally secret. No
one must know of her location. Madeline’s biggest weakness is the
vulnerability of Poppy. Without Poppy, there is no Madeline. With
Poppy safe and secure, Madeline can get on with being invincible
and fighting evil.’

Stoddard
pondered for a while, strolled over to the window, watched a motor
cyclist drive off, had another good long look at Madeline graced on
the sofa and then got on his police radio.

‘Charlie -
Echo, apprehend a motor cyclist heading north on Leys lane;
registration J14 RTW.’

And then he
summarised the
case
. ‘Aaron Alexander is clearly a deranged,
psychopathic killer. I think we’ll leave it at that.’

Alexander, the
scientist who was at the root of all the evilness, the one who had
set fire to the barn which contained Poppy’s tank, had concealed
himself away somewhere in the grounds of the farm house. He was
waiting for the right moment to slide away, unnoticed.
Unfortunately, as it happened, he had chosen the wrong moment and
was seen by Stoddard through the lounge window. Two miles down the
lane, he was pulled over and arrested for several murders,
attempted murder, child abduction, attempted theft of government
property and arson.