Chapter 10 - The Other Side

"Claire, welcome to the other side. My real hideout"

We pass through the door into a room 10 times bigger than the space that should've been there. On this side of the wall everything is as I left it. The latest suit. The latest gadgets. The supercomputer that Razer gifted to me for each of my 27 locations. All the best of the best. At least it was seven years ago.

I walk over to a lever on the wall, with a red flashing light above it, and pull it down. The doorway we just stepped through closes itself with us inside, and we take a moment to finally relax for the first time in 4 days.

"Dad I thought we were going to be quick? What if someone comes to find us?"

"Don't worry, it's fine. No one other than your Mother and 2 close friends knows about this side of the wall."

"What is this place anyway? I mean I know it's your hideout but it's bigger than the entire building we were just in. I didn't see anything from the outside."

"You won't because we technically even in Aincar anymore"

"WHAT!" I look over and see I've really frightened Claire with that one.

"It's nothing major, Razer stumbled upon some pocket dimension a long time ago, and it took him a bit, but he retooled the entry parameters so that we could enter when we scanned our hands in."

"Dad. That doesn't really explain where we are."

"Fine fine. Right now we are completely outside of both time and space. We're essentially in a bubble of space, between space. If that makes sense. When we go back through that door, it'll have been hardly any time at all, no matter how long it feel like we've been in here. It could be days, it could be weeks. Not all of the pockets of space time work like that, but if someone else enters one whilst you're already inside, then that breaks the time dilation, so 1 hour outside would be the same as 1 hour in here."

Claire looks understandably confused.

"Kiddo, it's fine. We're safe. No one and I mean no one can get in here. Take some time to rest, and whilst you do I'll find out which one of these your Mother is in, and then we'll go straight there."

-------------------

"So. Which one of you wants to tell me what happened?" Words that from a normal person would mean nothing, but from this raspy voice, it strikes fear into the strongest of men. And it just so happened that the current strong men that are feeling this fear at the moment, were Roth and Kort.

For a moment, Kort considers speaking up, and looks over to Roth. He is met with a look that radiates fear, and his instinct tells him not to speak. This was the first time Kort had been called into this office for a "talking to" as they liked to call it around the office. But for Roth it was not. Roth had experienced it once before.

Their boss chimes in "No takers?", and those two words send a chill down Kort's back, and he sits back in his chair, ready for the verbal whipping he was about to take.

"I read your reports. All I can say is at least I have honest people working for me. Because both of your reports show just how #!#!#!# incompetent you are!" No one knew why but from this raspy broken voice, every word was intensified and lingered in the air. They stuck around you as if they were a length of barbed wire, ready to hurt you with just a move.

"Roth. Kort. I like you both I really do. But come on. I get not catching Matty, he was hiding. But the girl... the girl was stood in front of you. Speaking of this girl. I find it hard to believe that you didn't know she was suspicious when the tip came from the sole goddamn worker at the hotel!" By this point both Roth and Kort feel like the smallest men on the planet, and their abuser still hasn't turned to face them.

"However. Today could be your lucky day. I'm a reasonable man. I'm willing to let you both off with this shambles of a mission. On one condition." Kort feels a sense of relief rush over him, and he looks over to Roth for support, but there is none. For this was the same deal Roth was offered last time. The ultimatum.

"Kort. Are you not curious as to how you can make it up to me?" the man addressed Kort directly, as if Roth didn't even exist. Kort tries to say something back. Anything. But he can't. All of his confidence is gone. It's as if he's an awkward kid again, trying to play as an adult.

"No? That's a shame. Roth fill the man in on the details. Same deal as last time"

"Kort. We have a choice. Bring in Matthew Walker and his daughter, or lose our abilities. But there are conditions to be met." Kort seems to become more lively in this instant. This is a win-win for them. They just have to do their job. There's no punishment.

"So Kort. What will it be? Will you take the deal?" For this statement, the raspy voice disappeared, and in it's place was that of a kind and soothing voice.

"Of course sir. I see no other course of action." Kort has reverted to his rank and file personality, he knows he is in the presence of someone on a completely different power level to himself, and even his partner.

"Ah good, good. That's the spirit. You have one month. You and Roth get no intelligence from me or the company. The trackers we implanted you with when you started here are now set to release a liquid form of the "Supers" cure into your bloodstream one month from right now." The man presses a button on his desk, which at this point seems to do nothing, however an alert comes up on both Roth and Kort's phones. It's a timer.

"As you can probably tell boys. The game is afoot. Now go. Bring me my man."