The Taylor that appeared on the other side sported a thick beard and an expensive suit. He scanned the basement around Taylor and as he did so he saw the chain around Taylor's foot.
"Why are you still chained up?"
Taylor pointed at the corpse at the base of the portal.
The other Taylor bought his hand to his mouth and swallowed several times.
"Is that ODU1783?" The blood had drained from his face, clearly he'd never seen a dead body before.
"Yep." Taylor nodded several times. "You don't happen to have some lock picks lying around do you?"
The other Taylor refocused his attention away from the corpse.
"No, I just have what was agreed upon." He lifted a two-foot by two-foot silver travel case from the table next to him and moved it into the portal.
Taylor stepped forward and wrapped his arms around the box. It was heavier than he expected.
"Careful," the other Taylor said when he felt the box lurch away from him.
"I've got it," Taylor said. He placed it on the floor next to the broken window, then straightened and looked back at the portal. "Why's it so heavy?"
"I don't know, I'm just the middleman, remember." The other Taylor looked at his watch and puffed air into his cheeks whilst he avoided eye contact.
"So..."
Taylor looked at his own watch, twenty-seconds remained.
"Just fuck off would you." He bent down and picked the case up from the floor.
The Professor reappeared from behind the machine as the portal closed. He looked at the box and stroked his chin.
"That it?"
Taylor rested the silver case on the window frame.
"Yep."
The Professor nodded slowly and came closer. He placed one hand on the top of the case and tapped his finger.
Taylor got the sense that there was a hint of restrained eagerness to his action.
"Are you going to do this?" He waited to see if the Professor would take the case. When he didn't he said, "I'd do it myself but..." He jangled the chain around his foot.
The Professor looked Taylor in the eye, there was the hint of a smile in the corner of his mouth. He grabbed the handle on the top of the case, hefted it onto his chest and carried it over to the work bench in front of the machine.
Taylor looked on from his side of the window.
"When you open it, you should see a green cable," he said. "You just need to connect it to the port on the targeting module."
The Professor unclipped the two latches on the top and opened the case.
Taylor froze.
Inside the case was a head, the Professor's head.
YOU ARE READING
The Basement
Kısa HikayeA disgraced soldier is given an opportunity to redeem himself when he's sent to stop a rogue scientist from developing a weapon that has the power to destroy life as we know it.
