Tethered Twins

Chapter Four

Tobias Zen

The red haired woman held Tobias tightly to the floor.

He couldn’t understand it. He had a heavier build than she did and yet every time he struggled she was able to turn his body weight against him. He reached his right arm out to grab her and she jabbed it with her elbow. He tried to kick her and she kneed him in the crotch.  

She was far fitter than him too. Years of dedicating himself to his research and using his mind as his greatest weapon had kept him lean and a lack of physical fitness had let his once strong muscles weaken.

By contrast, the red haired woman had the body of a gymnast and the power to match. She could move with sheer grace and knew exactly the right way to position her body weight to have the advantage. He was outmatched in every way.

After much struggling he resisted and allowed his body to rest flat on the floor. “OK you win,” he said.

The doors to the studio opened and a team of men and women dressed in grey and green patterned army gear appeared, each of them with a playing card held around their neck. Tobias couldn’t make the cards out from this distance but it was clear they weren’t all the same. “Very effective use of branding,” he mocked. “We could use someone like you on the product design team.”

Tobias estimated around twenty men and women with playing cards now stood in the studio, alongside the crowd who remained motionless. They all seemed very young, like toddlers compared to Tobias. None of them look over thirty, he thought to himself the youth of today, always causing trouble.

Despite being outnumbered Tobias was pleased that his backup plan could easily take on twenty people. A hundred would be a far more interesting test but this would have to do.

The red haired women motioned to two guards who walked over and grabbed Tobias allowing her to walk away and answer a phone call.

Tobias could not hear what she said but something had clearly upset her. She answered the phone with perfect posture and yet throughout the conversation she threw a hand to her mouth as if in shock and motioned her arms wildly into the air as if to issue specific instructions.

Whilst she spoke on the phone Tobias thought about how clever his captor’s plan had been; overloading the Tethers of everyone in the room by dazzling them with an intense light. They’d caused everyone to experience a Tether event and stay stuck in place.

“You’re all so clever aren’t you?” teased Tobias.

 She hung up the call and Tobias could see she looked flustered and distressed.

“How strange to see someone so confident in such a state of discomfort,” he told her.

She ignored him and whispered something to one of the army men. Moments later she was gone.

“Aww,”Tobias wanted more participants for his experiment but this would have to do.  He looked at the clock and smiled knowing it wouldn’t be long now.

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Grace Wilkerson

The red haired woman continued her walk from the building. Grace Wilkerson hated leaving mid-mission, especially when the target was as high profile as Tobias Zen but she trusted her team mates and this was a matter of life and death.

She had handed Tobias over to two of her team. One of the men; Gabe, was the most muscular of the group, especially in his arms which filled the sleeves of his army uniform pulling it tight. Something which she had always liked and she could confidently confirm that those muscles continued down to the six-pack on his stomach.