The Basement

Part 7

Clouds of white vapour swirled around the head in the box, and there was a hint of blue to its skin.

The head was being kept cold Taylor realised right before his clothes fluttered and a portal opened behind him. He staggered away from the window and turned to look at the portal.

The other Taylor from the first portal looked down at the corpse on the floor.

"Is that ODU1783?" he said.

"Yeah, yeah it is."

"Good."

Taylor half turned towards the Professor in the other room.

"There's something strange going on, the box has a..." Taylor regained his focus and turned to face the other him. "Hang on, what do you mean good?"

The other Taylor grinned.

"It's one less thing I have to take care of. Tell me, did she get him?"

Taylor was motionless, his jaw half open.

"She's been hunting him for years," the other Taylor said. "The funny thing is if she'd just been patient like I told her, she could have had him hand delivered like we agreed."

Taylor opened his mouth a little wider. He was about to ask what the fuck was going on, but before he could say anything he heard a key unlock the Professor's door.

He spun around and stared at the Professor, but the Professor seemed unconcerned as he used a screwdriver to adjust the machine.

The door swung open and standing in the doorway, flanked by a single bodyguard, stood the Senator. Her grip on the Smith & Wesson 9mm relaxed a little as she walked into the room. She stopped in front of the sliver case and wrinkled up her nose as she looked at the head inside. She then turned to face Taylor.

"It seems that everything has gone according to plan." Her southern draw; stretched out the last word in the sentence.

Before Taylor could say anything the other Taylor spoke.

"You were right, all I had to do was press down on that feeling of guilt he's carrying around and he was like putty in my hand. It was almost too easy, really."

Taylor stepped back so he could see both the Senator and the other version of himself.

"And it looks like he's still tied up," the Senator said.

"Yeah, it appears our friend in 1783 did a real number on her Taylor before he could hand over the lock-picks." He nodded at the corpse on the floor.

"Good, I guess I won't need this," the Senator said as she placed her gun onto the table next to the case.

Taylor looked from the Senator over to the portal.

"You two are working together?"

The other Taylor had a sardonic grin plastered across his face.

"Sorry bro, no hard feelings though, right?" He waved goodbye as the portal closed in front him.

The Senator stepped up to the window.

"Betrayed again Captain." She shook her head from side to side in mock judgement. "I guess I should feel sorry for you, after all you've been my patsy twice now, but the honest to god's truth of it is that I couldn't have done any of this without you."

Taylor just stared at the Senator whilst he tried to comprehend what was going on. 

"Oh, poor darling," the Senator continued. "You look so confused, let me break it down for y'all. I set you up to fail in China, cause I needed that dam to break. That whole mission you were on was just a decoy anyhow, a means to cover up the real target. You see, whilst you were playing peek-a-boo with those terrorists at the dam I had another team in the valley below. Their mission was to steal a bunch of newly developed crystals from a top secret laboratory the Chinese had running." She fluttered her hand towards the smaller glass chambers with the red crystals inside. "That flood you caused was simply a way of hiding the theft is all."