The Basement

Part 2

Taylor tried to open his eyes, but his lids felt heavy, lethargic. He tried again and this time he got them half open. Whatever they had injected him with was still affecting his vision, everything seemed dark and out of focus.

He did an internal check of the rest of his body; he was cold but otherwise everything seemed ok. He got himself into a seated position and rubbed his eyes to clear the fogginess.

He stopped mid-rub and patted his chest, they'd removed his tactical vest. His right hand shot down to his left wrist and pulled back his sleeve. His watch was still there, and he blew a relieved breath.

He shook his head to clear the remaining brain fog and looked around to find he was sitting on a concrete floor in a damp basement. An ageing light bulb hung overhead and its pale orange glow provided just enough light for Taylor to check out his new environment.

Behind him a rusty pipe dripped into a fetid pool of water and this intermittent drip was the only sound in an otherwise quiet room. Rising damp crept up the wall behind the puddle and it ate away at the plaster that covered the brickwork. In fact, all the walls bare one, had paint and plaster flaking from them. The exception was the wall to his right which had been freshly painted. Its black surface was unmarked, except for one section where someone had hammered a series of wooden planks in at odd angles. The only other feature worth noting was in front of him at the far end of the room. It was a metal door with no handle and it was the only way in or out.

Taylor pushed himself up onto his knees and heard the sound of metal scrapping along the concrete floor. He looked down and saw that his right ankle had been cuffed to a thick stainless steel chain. The chain ran along the floor to the wall on his right where it was secured by a giant padlock.

As he got to his feet, the rattle of the chain on the concrete floor echoed in the dim space.

"Hello, is someone there?" said a panic filled voice.

Taylor looked around the room again, but he was alone.

The voice came again.

"Sometimes I hear things." The voice came from behind the wall to Taylor's right.

Taylor walked over to the section of the wall that had the wooden planks hammered into it.

"You're not hearing things," he said.

He tapped the wall behind the planks, clink, clink, clink, it was glass. Someone had painted over it with black paint so it blended in with the rest of the wall.

"Oh, thanks goodness," the voice said. "I've been down here so long I find it hard to know what's real sometimes."

Taylor scratched at the glass with his fingernail and a thin strip of paint came off.

"Don't worry Professor Jenkins, I'm here to rescue you."

There was a brief silence before the voice spoke again.

"How do you know my name?"

"I'll explain everything in a moment, but first I need you to answer a few questions for me. Can you tell me your full name?"

"What, why? I don't understand. What's happening here?"

"Professor please, we don't have a lot of time. I need you to tell me your full name."

"Ok, sure... It's Professor Steven Jenkins."

"You got a middle name Professor?"

"Yes, it's Phillip."

Taylor nodded his head.

"Now Professor, I need you to tell me why you're down here."

"Are you serious? I thought you said you were here to rescue me."

"I am, but first I need to make sure I've got the right person."

"The right person? Who else do you think is down here?"

Taylor continued to scratch away at the paint.

"Professor, I promise, I'll explain everything once I confirm you are who you say you are."

"This is ridiculous."

Taylor remained silent as he scratched away more paint. He'd now cleared a small section the size of a coin.

The Professor sighed. "Very well. What am I doing here? Well, a crazy woman locked me in her basement. Is that enough for you?"

Taylor continued to scratch at the glass in silence.

"I guess not," the Professor said. "Let's see... Well, for the past three years I've been developing a machine that will allow me to control the weather. With climate change causing such erratic weather patterns it won't be long before we're unable to feed ourselves. I had hoped to use the machine to control rain fall in agricultural areas around the world, to ensure the correct amount of rain fell at the right time to maximise plant growth.

"But the Senator found out what I was doing. She said my technology needed to be controlled and that our government should decide which nations benefited from it. When I refused to co-operate she kidnapped me and now she's forcing me to finish my machine down here."

He paused for a moment. "But I know what she really wants it for. She's planning on assassinating some high profile individuals and she's going to use my weather machine to create natural disasters to hide their deaths."

Taylor stopped scratching the paint; he'd cleared away a sizeable area now.

"I just need one more thing from you Professor." He tapped the cleared area of glass. "Your wrist please."

"Seriously?" There was a moment of silence, then the Professor placed the inside of his wrist against the glass. Tattooed on it was a crimson shield with the word 'VERITAS', each letter set within the pages of an open book. 

"Are you happy now?"

After inspecting the tattoo Taylor straightened. 

"Thank you Professor."

He reached for his watch and turned the bezel to the left. The words 'Establishing Connection' appeared on the watch-face.

"Now Professor, the next few minutes will be confusing, but please trust me, I have everything under control."

His watch beeped several times, and he looked down and saw the words 'Force Field Sync Complete.'