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Chapter 8 - Board Room Banter

Unfortunately I have no recollection of how I got to this board room, because before we left my little hostage room Tempest put a blindfold on me. Then he put a bag over my head, spun me around a few times and handcuffed my hands behind my back. But I have a feeling that was just so I didn’t see him stab a needle in my arm. After that, I was in the board room, just like magic. Note the sarcasm.

The room was fairly standard for a big business; it had a large table in the middle of the room surrounded by stylish wooden chairs. The wood the chairs were made of matched the wood surrounding the glass core of the table nicely, a light brown wood which still managed to maintain a rich texture. But without a doubt the main feature of the room was the giant flat screen taking up most of the wall I was currently facing. It gave off that electric hum I hear all the time so it must have been on, but there was no picture being displayed so I just assumed it was on standby.

On the table in front of me were a glass of water and the memory stick I had found. I wondered why it was here, after all I had just found it abandoned and the only reason I use it was for convenience, my other storage devices had all sorts of things on them that I didn’t want to mix with my speedy research. Were they trying to make some point, like how they knew I had been researching them?

Wait, how did they know that? I did my research on a public computer... the only common factor was this memory stick I found, I was using it both times something happened. Wow. That was really obvious, how did I miss that? They were using the memory stick to follow me. Did they plant it on that trail? I guess it’s lucky for them I found it, and even still that I decided to use it. Damn it, I’m such an idiot sometimes.

Then suddenly I heard a shout from behind me, nearer the door, “Hey! Hacker boy, you back to normal yet?”

Startled, I looked up and quickly examined him: Short spiky black hair, lightly tanned white skin, plain white t-shirt, smooth black jeans, athletic build, a strong posture and strangely enough grey eyes. “Are you the Director?” I asked him quizzically.

Chuckling, he replied “No, do I look like a Director? I’m not wearing a suit am I? The name’s Harbinger. Well, not my real name, obviously. I’m just here to make sure you don’t make a bolt for it. So, are you ready to meet the Director?”

“Yes, I suppose” I said, trying to sound confident but I think I failed because to me it just sounded like nervousness.

“Good. Because he’s been here the whole time.” He stated quite plainly.

“What?! Where is he? There’s nobody else in this room other than us.” I started, feeling rather confused for a moment.

“He’s on the screen, obviously. Can’t you hear that it’s on from that hum? We’re not exactly going to leave him with you, especially not since he ordered you were... ahem... kidnapped.” He said quite bluntly, clearly trying to insult my intelligence.

“Now now Harbinger, there’s no need to be so rude to our guest. Or so blunt for that matter. There is such a thing as tact you know?” Announced the deep voice emanating from the TV set, evidently he was the Director. The voice seemed slightly mechanical too as if it were being altered or filtered in some way.

“I take it you are the Director then. Ok, tell me, why am I here and why was it necessary to kidnap me?” I began, trying to just cut to the chase.

“We brought you here because you are already very skilled, yet you have the potential to greatly improve your skills with our technology and resources. We want to help you reach your full potential Mike, because we’d all benefit from it. The reason we brought you here so... suddenly is, well, we can’t really afford to let you get found by some other organisation to be potentially used against us.” He said in a calm voice which was clearly aimed to reassure me, but unfortunately for him it had the opposite effect.

“So I’m just some asset to you? Is that all this is? Some stupid business move?” I said as anger raised the volume of my voice considerably, causing me to wince at my own loudness but it had no effect on Harbinger – he just stood there like a statue.

Calmly, he replied in a soft voice, “Far from it, we want you to be an ally Mike, it’s the others that would treat you like an asset. We want you to help us, so please calm down and stay with us. Think about it, we were trying to get along, we gave your parents a wonderful proposal, you got the PC you wanted. If we were the bad guys, I don’t know, we could have held your parents as hostages or something. Which we aren’t doing, by the way.” That last line was obviously a lame attempt at humour, probably an attempt to lighten the mood.

“Well, that’s the first thing you’ve done right.” I snapped, “What is it you actually do here anyway, because so far all I’ve seen is my room and this one, so unless you’re a hotel or something I’m clueless.”

“Well we specialise in advanced technologies, but I can’t really tell you much until you agree to stay with us, but I will tell you that I reckon you’ll think our computer technologies are... umm, cool, as you’d say. If you say yes I’ll get Harbinger to give you a tour of our facilities to get you acquainted and then everything else will be explained fully.” He announced, quite matter-of-factly.

From behind me I heard, “Ahem... Sir I think he might prefer it if err... Tempest gave him the tour, sir.”

After a little deliberation the director replied with “Actually, yes you might be right on that one. Okay, that will be arranged. So, Mike, what do you say? Will you work with us?”

If I say yes, I will be bound here by their contract, and I really want to find out more about this place and what it is they do here, especially since they don’t seem short on funds, but they still manage to remain separate from any of the various business scandals you hear about constantly. Also if I say no I’ll probably be watched for a while so I couldn’t live as I would normally, not to mention I bet they’d take away that lovely new PC before I got to play with it properly.

Sighing, I thought, who knows what I’m getting into here, but I’m sure I could find a way out if I really have to. “Fine, I suppose I don’t have many other options... So when does the tour start?” I said, trying to hide the fact that I was actually quite interested in the technologies they have.

“As soon as Tempest gets here, which should be right about... now.” Harbinger said after a quick glance out of the doorway.

Right on cue Tempest came through the door announcing to the room, “I’m glad you chose me over... him, Mike. Anyway, where’d you wanna start the tour?” He said the last part with a warm smile brightening up his face.

“Umm... I have no idea, where would you suggest first?” I said, clearly quite puzzled. After all, I knew nothing about this place or what was in it really.

“Okay then, leave it to me.” He said, then he donned a fake tour guide style voice and giggled whilst he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, if you would please form an orderly line at the door the tour will now begin.”

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Sorry this chapter took so loong,   been busy with other things, just got my AS level results, but more importantly I got my digital copies of Chameleon Circuit's albums. Aaaah, they are amazing, if you haven't heard of them or bought the albums, go do it. I think my favourite songs so far are Mr. Pond, The Sound of Drums and The Doctor is Dying.

So, onto story related stuff, I think it would be awesome if any of you had some character ideas for Zerco employees, or names/usernames for existing ones, because to be honest, the names I come up with are unoriginal XD

As always I'd be super happy if you vote, comment or even fan, but just knowing people are reading and enjoying my story makes me glad and gives me some more motivation.

Anyways, see ya next chapter!