Return to Wardate (11 page)

‘Think back to
the last time when you shot me. Can you remember why you did it?’
asked Madeline.

‘What’s that
got to do with anything!’ yelled Nuttall.

‘Think!’ said
Madeline sternly, waving her laser finger at him menacingly.

‘We were all
brainwashed to hate you,’ said Nuttall irritably.

‘Precisely!
Everyone is now been brainwashed to hate the Americans,’ said
Madeline.

‘Utter bloody
clap trap!’ said Adam aggressively. ‘The Americans are all putrid
scum. We don’t need to be brainwashed to know that.’

It was
pointless for Madeline to say much more so she didn’t. Nuttall and
Adam continued to scream, threaten, spit and swear at her. She
ignored them. Five minutes passed – she didn’t have to argue
anymore.

‘What… the hell
are we doing?’ asked Nuttall.

The effects had
worn off.

‘Oh my God –
we’re waging war on the American’s,’ said Adam.

‘Finally, took
you long enough,’ said Madeline calmly as she finished off a beef
and potato dinner through her mouth tube.

‘It’s that Mark
Titoo, whoever he is. He’s turned the world against the US with his
ultrasound. Every one has to be told,’ said Nuttall in a state of
panic. ‘I have to warn everybody.’

‘You can’t do
anything. You can’t leave this room or you’ll revert back to hating
the Americans again,’ said Madeline.

‘So what do we
do?’ whimpered Nuttall.

‘We need those
ear devices, Coley was wearing,’ said Madeline.

‘Good thinking
– I’ll be immune from the conditioning – I’ll inform the Prime
Minister,’ said Nuttall mildly hysterical.

‘No, not for
you, for Adam, we have things to do. You’ll have to stay down here
until we get another set of ear devices. Isn’t there anyway of
communicating with the outside world from down here?’ asked
Madeline.

‘I thought
you’d never ask.’

Nuttall reached
into his pocket, took out a small remote fob and pressed one of the
buttons on it. Immediately the whole of the back wall began to
move. The wall parted in the middle and moved outwards revealing an
entire wall equipped with the most elaborate communications set up
ever seen.

‘Impressive eh?
I can communicate with the whole world from here - control
satellites, even communicate with all Vanguard and Astute class
submarines.’

‘Not much point
though, no one’s going to listen to you,’ said Adam holding his
head. Apart from slight brain ache and a nasty taste in his mouth,
the fart gas effects had all but passed.

‘With us now
are you pet?’ said Madeline affectionately.

‘You bloody
farted on me!’

‘What else
could I do?’

‘I’ll get back
to looking into this Mark Titoo chap,’ said Nuttall doing his best
to restore his credibility.

‘Coley’s ear
devices, where are they?’ Madeline reminded him.

‘They’re in the
lab. I’ll send someone down with them.’

‘No, I’ll get
them! Don’t be tempted to leave the ‘V’ room either of you!’ said
Madeline as firmly as she could.

‘Try not to
kill anyone,’ said Nuttall and Adam together in retaliation of her
bossiness.

As Madeline
ascended in the lift, she wearily listened for the ultrasound but
there was only silence. Clearly the noise cancelling bandpass
filter was working effectively. Madeline was fully aware that
everyone she encountered would be behaving irrationally with
unjustifiable hatred towards the USA. It was a very strange world
indeed. Any one with even the slightest American accent had already
been beaten up, had their head shaved and now wore a placard around
their neck saying: I hate the USA. It really was becoming a
frightening world but everyone apart from Madeline, Adam, Nuttall
and Barton seemed to be happily unaware of it.

Nuttall had
given her directions but lacking a security pass, she would surely
be stopped and questioned. The lab was situated on the second floor
which was exactly where the lift stopped. Fortunately she only
encountered male staff as she moved along the corridors. She winked
at most of them with one of her perfectly designed eyes. Her
breasts were enlarged, almost bursting out of her tight top and her
already short skirt was hiked up as far as she dared. Predictably
they were all far too distracted to notice that she didn’t possess
a pass. Finally she reached the lab – it was empty. The two ear
devices were abandoned on a desk along with Coley’s other effects
including a small family photo of his wife and two young daughters.
The return journey was going fine until she came across a rather
officious middle aged female who clearly hated beautiful, sexy
women.

‘Where’s your
security pass?’ she boomed.

‘Haven’t I got
it on? Now where could that have gone?’

Immediately the
dragon got on her radio.

‘We have an
intruder, possibly American, require backup.’

Within seconds
half the staff of Capesdown Hall had ascended on the attractive
intruder.

‘It’s Madeline
Bull the android!’ shouted someone.

‘Was she built
in America?’ shouted another someone.

‘Upgraded over
there I believe,’ shouted another someone.

‘Destroy her
then!’ shouted another someone.

Moments later
at least twenty hand guns were poised ready to fire but Madeline
already had set her laser finger on stun setting. One or two
bullets got through but the sweeping motions of the laser finger
quickly handled the threat.

She did her
best not to hurt anyone as she climbed over the heap of bodies with
her stilettos but a few bruising prods were unavoidable. She
removed a security pass from one of the stunned bodies.

‘Lively out
there,’ said Madeline as she returned to the ‘V’ room.

‘Go on then,
how many have you zapped?’ asked Adam.

‘No more than
twenty, what do you take me for… they’ll be alright,’ she said
dismissively.

Madeline
quickly wiped the ear devices with a tissue and handed them to
Adam.

‘Put these in
and keep them in,’ said Madeline.

He pulled his
face at the traces of someone else’s ear wax and reluctantly pushed
them in his ears.

‘Are they on?
Can’t hear anything,’ said Adam loudly.

‘You’re
shouting!’ said Madeline. ‘…That’s the whole point, you shouldn’t
hear anything.’

‘I assume you
have a plan? I hope it’s a good one?’ said Nuttall.

‘I have a
hunch, not a plan yet... Put this on.’

She gave Adam
the pass she had borrowed from one of the stunned and prodded
bodies.

‘What are you
going to do?’ she asked Nuttall.

‘All I can do
is get my best men down here away from the ultrasound and go from
there,’ said Nuttall.

‘Don’t suppose
I can borrow your car?’

Nuttall
reluctantly dipped his hand in his trouser pocket and threw
Madeline the keys.

‘Gold Aston -
don’t scratch it… and don’t floor it!’

A few stunned
bodies still remained scattered about the corridors, the rest had
obviously recovered and were now vengefully looking for the android
intruder.

The only
possible way to stay alive and get out of the building was for Adam
to carry an inactive Madeline on his shoulder. He had done this
before – not something he ever wanted to do again. Madeline was far
heavier than she looked.

‘You got her? –
Excellent. Where are you taking her?’ asked one of the staff.

‘The
incinerator - melt her before she reactivates!’ said a quick
thinking Adam.

‘Good idea,
here, let me help.’

Adam wasn’t
going to argue.

‘Bloody hell,
she’s heavy!’

‘Tell me about
it,’ said Adam.

This was a good
arrangement, an inactive android and two people with passes didn’t
seem to cause any suspicion. Conveniently, the member of staff took
over as spokesman.

‘You got her
then,’ said another member of staff.

‘Yea, we’re
taking her to the incinerator.’

‘Good idea,
best place for her.’

And it
continued like this along several corridors, passing several people
until they finally reached Nuttall’s beautiful car. It happened to
be not far from the incinerator.

‘Thanks… you
can put me down now,’ said Madeline.

‘The member of
staff carrying the heavy android tried to get his gun but she got
in the way. She slid off his shoulder and fired her laser stun
finger – as usual, it was completely effective… and humane.

‘I’ll drive!
You’ll be too gentle with it,’ said Madeline possessively.

Madeline’s
theory was that if she went fast enough, the man on the gate
wouldn’t have time to look at the occupants properly and therefore
not stop them. Madeline completely disobeyed Nuttall’s request and
thrashed it from the onset, spinning the wheels and throwing gravel
in all directions. Inevitably she control around the first bend but
skilfully recovered. In seconds the car was hurtling towards the
gateman at an insane speed. Adam had his eyes shut – perhaps for
the best.

The quiet
Cheshire roads were ideal to try out this wonderful car.

‘Punch in
Strangeways prison, darling.’

‘Darling? You
never call me darling.’

‘In a car like
this I couldn’t possibly call you anything else… darling.’

‘So why are we
going to Strangeways… darling?’

‘Think… who’s
in there that we know all too well?’

‘Alexander, I
thought you’d never want to see him again.’

‘I’m going to
try and not kill him but probably will… and then, if my hunch is
right, remove a couple of things from him.’

‘I’ll stay in
the car then darling.’

‘Wouldn’t let
you do anything else, darling.’

Chapter 19: A
visit to Strangeways

It happened to
be visiting time which was convenient for Madeline at least. The
visiting room was busy with visitors and prisoners all sitting
either side empty melamine topped tables. Security was high and the
guards were armed as most inmates were lifers. Madeline was already
sitting – Alexander entered the room with prison guards either side
of him.

‘Hello Aaron,’
said Madeline calmly.

‘Madeline, what
a nice surprise.’ said Alexander nervously as he sat down.

‘Grown your
hair? …Suits you.’

‘Thank
you.’

‘Still a
resident of Wardate?’

‘Wardate?
…Never heard of them.’

‘Really...
something I’ve pondered with for a while - residents of Wardate,
the gathering of the most evil people in the world? One piece of
excrement is bad enough but a festering pile of excrement implies
something beyond bad… What have you actually gathered for?’
Madeline clearly hated him and she made it obvious.

‘Wouldn’t you
like to know,’ smirked Alexander.

‘So you have
gathered for a reason? … Have you joined in on this hatred towards
the USA? Sorry stupid question, you don’t really need subliminal
messages – you’ve already got the tee shirt.

‘Don’t know
what you’re talking about,’ said Alexander.

‘Yes you do.
Let me postulate, something I often like to do, Mark Titoo, he’s
not on the Wardate list, how strange?’

‘Never heard of
him.’

‘Yes you have.
Thing is, turning the world’s population in on it self - making the
rest of the world hate the USA - the millions upon millions of
people who will be killed in the conflict, surely that’s the most
evil thing anyone could do. Even worse than what you and Tara Gogli
did. So why isn’t the person who’s apparently behind all this –
Mark Titoo on the list? Only one possible explanation, he must be
the founder of Wardate, the one who gathered you all. He wants all
of you for something ordinary decent people are incapable of doing.
You see, a club, gathering, what ever you like to call it, usually
implies people sticking together, being mates, helping one another
out, being nice to each other. You can see the problem can’t you?
You’re all evil, you don’t know how to be nice. You’re all back
stabbing, selfish, treacherous pieces of sputum. How can you
possibly help each other out?

‘I really
haven’t a clue what your babbling on about,’ said Alexander as
sincerely as any evil person can be.

Madeline
returned to the subject of his hair.

‘Grown your
hair for any particular reason? Anyway, moving on, I think you know
I have a score to settle. I’ll get to the point, you tried to kill
me. Did you know being burnt alive was my nightmare phobia? I used
to respect you, think you were a nice person. I even trusted you
with my life. What happened?’

Madeline
reached for his hand across the table and held it firmly.

‘There’s still
time to redeem yourself you know - make peace with your soul, it’s
not too late.’

Alexander
briefly considered what Madeline had just said.

‘I do have
regrets in my life. The biggest one is that I didn’t finish you off
properly when I had the chance.’

‘Exactly what I
wanted to hear,’ said Madeline concisely.

Madeline
released his hand - the small hypodermic needle was still
protruding from her finger. Alexander glanced at the needle – his
smugness instantly turned into terror.

‘What, the hell
have you done!?’

‘For
Brownsword, Angela, Sid, Zoë and all the others who’ve suffered at
your hands, I’ve just given you a lethal dose of cyanide. Talking
about hell, you’ll be there in about five seconds,’ said Madeline
coldly.

Alexander said
nothing, he didn’t really have time to think of anything pertinent
to say. In exactly five seconds he slumped forward, Madeline caught
his head with both hands before it hit the table. She moved the
hair covering his ears with her thumbs and prised out two little
ear devices. They were exactly the same as the ones Coley had in
his ears. She restored her hypodermic finger and inflated her
breasts.