The Chair (8 page)

“Who are you, are you letting us go?”

I marched the others inside the tank. “All of you come out, I’ve got your replacements right here!”

“Hey you’re alright! Where’s Ara?”

“Believe it or not; she’s
somewhere
on an island in Southeast Asia!”

“Southeast Asia! why? What in the world is she doing there?”

“It’s a long story, believe you me. You have to help me get to her before she finds some kind of trouble. Leave someone here to guard these renegades in the tank and the rest of you follow me down to the conduit quickly.”

We took the elevator back down to the lower cavern level and I stationed two guards at the door and one at the mouth of the cavern.

“Don’t let anyone enter the conduit! Anders and Paxton are supposed to show up tomorrow morning still thinking everything is secure; let’s make them keep thinking that.”

I slipped into the conduit alone and felt under the floor board for the switch to open the hidden room. The door slid open and the two trackers were inside right where we had left them. I walked in sliding the door closed. As soon as I sat down in one of them immediately the room began fading before me and I was off to the island of Borneo following the location of the chair.

CHAPTER

TEN

A
s the scene before me began to materialize, I was overwhelmed by the enormity of it. An immense cave entrance, the likes of which I had never seen or heard of was before me.

The heat and humidity was almost overwhelming as well as the utter stench. Little did I know then that I was at the entrance of the famous Gomantong Caves of Borneo. The tracker had materialized on uneven ground and I toppled over upon first appearing. Picking myself up, I pulled the tracker to more even turf and stood before the entrance to the cavern.

This whole venture was becoming more and more bizarre. I was now standing in front of a giant cave on the third largest island in the world ― Borneo.

I don’t think I could have come up with this in my wildest dreams, but there I was. I had to locate Ara as I knew she must be somewhere close by. At that moment, she was nowhere to be seen, but something told me she was going to be where I certainly did not want to go, in the cavern.

The further I ventured inside the immense cavern the more disturbing it became. At first I thought there were interesting birds flying about but then I realized they were squealing bats winging in and out of the darkness as I descended further in. There was a wooden walkway that followed deeper into the cavern and I was sure this place must have been used for exploration or tourism. That accursed odor began to become more intense and I was beginning to notice little insects scurrying about on the floor of the cave. Taking a closer look, I could see they were
big
insects; giant cockroaches which, as I ventured further, were growing in numbers. Then I heard her frantic yelling. It was Ara, and she was in trouble.

“Help! Someone help me please!”

I shouted back. “Ara, it’s Richard! I’m here where are you? Keep yelling!”

I began running down the rickety wooden walkway with bat droppings smeared on all of the hand railings. As I looked up at the immense ceiling of the cavern it seemed to be undulating in a strange manner and it was then I realized that the ceiling was entirely covered with bats. Now I knew what the stench was; looking down under the walkway, adding insult to injury, were hoards of giant cockroaches toppling over each other and covering the cavern floor. This was indeed the cave from hell and Ara was somewhere close by and in trouble.

“Richard, up here!” Her frantic shouting turned into almost a whimper “I can’t hold on much longer!”

I was beginning to panic and began surveying the many layers of rock, covered with bats. “Ara, I can’t see you! The echoes are too confusing and I can’t tell where―” Then I suddenly spotted her. “Oh my god Ara hold on don’t let go, I’m coming!”

She was barely hanging onto an upper walkway suspended by ropes dangling at least fifty feet directly above me. I could see the chair lying down at an angle which meant when she materialized on that walkway, a leg of the chair somehow fell through, tossing her over the side of the railing. I looked carefully, tracing where one walkway merged into another and then another rising higher in the cavern. There were several, but if I happened to take the wrong one I wouldn’t be able to get to her in time. I started out up one of them which led to a set of stairs connecting to another that seemed to head in her direction. My foot slipped and in reaching out to break my fall, I must have inadvertently grabbed on to the carcass of a dead bat, to which I quickly swiped away. This god forsaken place was truly trying my fortitude, stretching my tolerance to the farthest degree as I was getting closer to her.

“Richard… I can’t hold on any longer, I’m sorry!”

“Yes you can! You must Ara! I’m almost there, don’t you let go!”

I scrambled further up the walkway and I could now see her dangling from the floorboards. I could see one of her hands let go and disappear from view, so I dove for the other hand and grasped her wrist just as she was loosing grip. I was now literally her only lifeline as she helplessly hung at least fifty feet or so above the undulating masses of cockroaches covering the floor of the cavern below. She grabbed for my wrist with her other hand and I fell to my knees slowly pulling her up on to the walkway. She grabbed onto me and held me tightly sobbing and delirious; her eyes closed tightly. “Oh god Richard!” she moaned as she tucked her head in my side. I looked down over the edge once more and gulped. To think she nearly fell into that horror was enough to take some years away from your life.

“Richard, I can’t believe your timing!” She let out a laugh of relief, hugging me again and we slowly stood by the chair on the swaying walkway; one leg of it had pushed through some rotted boards when she had first arrived and reassembled in the cave.

“Ara, are you alright?”

“Yes, thanks to you I am!” She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me. “What in the hell happened Richard? How did I get here in this nightmare of a place?”

‘I’ll explain it all to you when we get back to the conduit. Right now let’s get you out of this hell hole!”

I carefully sat the chair upright on some solid boards. “You don’t have to leave here if you would rather stay.” I said, trying to add some relief to her close call.

She just stared at me with a sour look “Yeah, right! I don’t know how I ended up here, but we need to get back Richard. I’ll meet you at the conduit.” She reached over and gave me another kiss. “Thanks again, I was almost bug food!”

As I stepped back a bit, she sat down, quickly began fragmenting and was gone in an instant.

Making my way back down the wooden walkway was no bloody picnic, but I managed to get back to the cavern entrance once again.

I paused facing the tracker and looked around one more time at the rugged landscape of Borneo. I didn’t expect I’d have this place on my travel list any time soon. Ara had arrived back at the conduit first and I followed soon after. The security team was still in place and it was getting to be late in the evening so she dismissed them.

I stowed the tracker once again in the hidden room while Ara stationed two guards out at the conduit entrance just in case Anders and Paxton decided to show up early. Our clothing had been stained with quite a smorgasbord of bat guano courtesy of the Borneo caverns; so we decided to take the tram to her fathers flat once again and get a fresh set of garments.

 I explained all that had happened on the way there to which we both thought it best to put it out of our minds and get on with the task at hand, getting her back on track to the London warehouse district.

After cleaning up and a few hours rest we knew we had to return to the conduit soon. Paxton and Anders were sure to return and we all needed to be on our toes in order to stay on top of this rebellion.

 The morning had come all too soon and it was still very early. We checked our weapons to be sure they were at the ready. Everything in the sanctuary seemed to be going on normally as most of the people were probably unaware of the attempted takeover. Ara downed her last sip of coffee. “I need to be on my way to London immediately Richard, please work it out with security to make sure the way is cleared for me till I get back there.”

I drank the last of my tea and confidently answered. “Don’t you worry; nothing will get in your way now if I can help it.”

We stood by the sliding wall and it slowly opened but not to what we had expected. Eric Dorn was standing there with his rifle pointed directly at us.

“Looks like you won’t be able to help it after all Richard.” His rifle barrel swung to the right motioning us to get in the transport; so much for my confident answer to Ara.

She walked by Eric looking confused. “Eric, what’s this all about?”

He grabbed both of our weapons. “It’s about me being tired of playing second fiddle to a stranger. It’s about you thinking you’re so special you can pick or choose who suits you at any particular time, now keep moving.”

Ara’s eyebrows rose looking over at me with that powerless look. It was obvious that this guy was trying to give payback.

“Eric don’t do this, this isn’t you! Not with Paxton and Anders. You know they’re up to no good.”

An angry look began flooding his face. “And why not? They’ve promised me more than you’ve ever promised. All this time I’ve taken extra care of you trying to protect you from people like this guy and you’ve ignored me. Well now it’s my turn to ignore you!”

The transport began its journey back to the conduit while we just sat there wondering what we would find once we got there.

We arrived at the conduit and when the sliding wall opened, there was Paxton and Anders waiting for us, along with their fanatics, again seemingly in control.

 We walked in as Anders held his weapon on us “I understand you’re looking for your father as we once were. Now it’s clear that no one knows where he went, but that is of little consequence to us now because we have the chair.

Paxton quickly interjected brazenly. “You’re going to have a long wait now. Whether he is doing well or in deep trouble, you will never know.

 London is such a far off place from this island but only a quick trip using this chair. It’s a shame
you
won’t be able to use it now! Heh, heh, maybe you can blow him a kiss from here.”

Paxton and Anders looked at each other and began laughing. Then the look on Paxton’s face quickly turned to a sneer “Take ‘em back to the tank till it’s time to get rid of ‘em.

I couldn’t help myself but strike out at least verbally. “You’ll never get any money for those stolen jewels; they’ll be looking for them!”

Anders smiled answering calmly. “Richard, don’t worry about little details like that. I happen to have a buyer I’m on my way to see right now in Germany. He’s someone who is eager to help his war torn and debt ridden country out and happens to be collecting rare art and historical artifacts such as these.

The man is young and full of ambition much like me wanting to change his country, mold it into a powerful nation. I may use him soon as a personal consultant when I gain power.”

CHAPTER

ELEVEN

A
nders walked over to the central command desk pushing the control lever to the right. The target recticle shifted to the east and then south till it relocated over Germany and finally came to rest over Munich and I almost caught a glimpse of the exact location when the barrel of the gun pushed at my back. Dorn certainly didn’t have a light touch and I got the message.

 He motioned with his weapon. “Get moving both of you; I’m sure you know where the tank is.”

Paxton stood up waiving her weapon. It was obvious she had been drinking and becoming boisterous. “Take them out on the beach somewhere out of sight and get rid of them both; they’re of no use to us now”

Dorn looked up at her in surprise. “You mean you want me to kill them now?”

“And why not? Is it that you still have something going for her?”

I have to say, this wasn’t the most pleasant moment of my stay here. He was going to kill us both and that was it? No, there had to be a way out of this, but what was it?

Anders had picked up the canvass bag with the crown jewels preparing to make his trip to Germany as we were marched out of the conduit.

Paxton came up to Dorn discretely as we walked  out. “Grab a shovel on your way out and bury them when it’s done. I don’t want to see their faces again.”

We walked down the dark passageway toward the mouth of the cavern and I could see the ocean, a turquoise color of clear ocean water glistening in the sun. My thoughts were racing trying to think of a way to get us out of this but nothing came to mind short of us being shot. As he lead us out onto the beach our steps now became labored as we made our way through the sand toward what looked like a small out of the way cove. That was the place I thought; there is where we make our last stand.

“Ok, stop right here. Both of you get down on your knees.” He pointed his weapon at us.

We both looked back at him and Ara pleaded. “Don’t do this Eric! This isn’t you!”

“Shut up! Don’t tell me who I am!”

He was grimacing and I could hear it in his voice that he was struggling with this.

“What did we do that was so terrible to deserve being shot?” she continued.

“You don’t want to go down this road Eric, for god’s sake!” I said, reaffirming her plea.

“I said shut up!” Then, lowering his weapon he began muttering. “I can’t do this, I can’t”

I turned around and slowly reached out gently taking the weapon from his hand. “That’s alright Dorn you’re doing the right thing.” Then I pointed the weapon straight up and fired two shots. “That’s just in case she’s listening to see if you’ve done your job.”