The Shock of the New

Chapter 43: The Priest Child Account

Although most of Europe had joined either the W.E.R. or the P.R.E. in the aftermath of the Giga Wars, Switzerland was the main exception. Just like in pre Giga Wars times, the country had remained completely neutral and had preserved it's large banking economy in the process.

Of course citizens from both the W.E.R. and the P.R.E. couldn't just visit it whenever they pleased. The last thing either state wanted was it's citizens defecting and so both of them set up special agreements with the Swiss government to allow their citizens to make the ocassional jaunt over there.

As soon as he'd woken up, Ian had travelled to St Pancras international to catch the first train to Paris. As it pulled into the station, he took a deep breath. He now had to go to the travel office and get a temporary visa for Swiss territory which was much harder then it sounded. Stepping out of the train, he walked down the platform keeping an eye out for anybody who might have been following him and followed the signs to the ticket office.

The queue for the international tickets was surprisingly long for a trip that was highly restricted and carried stiff penalties for people who didn't follow the rules down to the letter. Ian made his way over to the back of the queue and waited. Glancing behind him, Ian briefly saw what he thought was a man watching him, although the guy scurried away before Ian could get a closer look. Ian shook his head

"Never mind" he thought "Probably just some hapless tourist..."

A couple of minutes later, Ian made it to the front of the line and walked over to the booth. The man on the other side of the glass looked extremely bored as though he'd rather be anywhere else but here and the tone of his voice when he spoke confirmed this

"What is it?"

"One 24 ticket to Switzerland please" Ian took out his wallet and passport, and passed them under the glass. Without saying a word, the ticket seller checked them over before handing back Ian's passport

"40 Dollars" he replied (The old currencies of the pre Giga Wars world had long been abolished with the single W.E.R. dollar becoming the single currency for the entire state).

Ian nodded "Yeah that's fine"
The seller proceeded to remove Ian's card from his wallet, scanned it and handed it back to him. A few seconds later, the machine printed a plastic bracelet which Ian attached to his left wrist. The moment he did a timer on the bracelet began counting down from 23:59:59. This timer signified how long Ian could spend in Switzerland until he was forced to return to the W.E.R. He was expected to return to the W.E.R. before the timer ran out, carrying the ticket with him and any extra time spent would be noticed and could lead to heavy punishment. The ticket also had a tracker built into it which would activate the moment the timer ran out, preventing the owner from escaping. They couldn't just remove it either as the bracelet would lock the moment it was attached and could only be detached by specially trained staff.

Ian soon found his train, took a seat and waited for it to leave. As he did so, Ian wondered what the Priest Child account contained. Maybe the whole thing was nothing more than a huge practical joke. Something at the back of Ian's mind however doubted it. The whole thing seemed too elaborate to just be a prank. But as soon as Ian had all the answers, he'd return home and go back to his ordinary life.

Eventually the train departed and began thundering across the landscape of France towards Switzerland. Ian watched the scenery go by. He'd rarely left the UK aside from a couple of trips to the East Coast Megapolis in the US. Ian wondered briefly what the rest of the world was like.

"Maybe when this is all over, I'll take a trip somewhere" Ian thought "Maybe I'll even convince Grace to come along"

Before Ian could continue mulling this over, a hand tapped his shoulder. Ian looked up to see a man in a blue buttoned up shirt standing over him