I slid back, exhausted, into the comfortable front seat of the SUV. The woman whom I had heard called Dr. Everton had just recently finished what she referred to as a 'questions and answers' session.
Whatever that meant.
I had kneeled alongside my so-called compadre Seven for a good hour, whilst she asked any question she could think of regarding ourselves or the nature of our job. When she had asked Seven a specific question about who I guess I should now refer to as our ex-Father, he had attempted to answer, but halfway through the first word stuttered and keeled over in pain, grasping for his neck.
The realisation that The Father had made us unable to speak about him had greatly upset Dr Everton, and she had removed herself to whisper something unintelligible to one of her suited bodyguards before returning to us, steering the questions in a different light.
Between us, I and Seven had probably crumpled over in pain roughly 5 times each before she had given up trying to ask various, roundabout questions in a way that would have us speak about The Father. At first I had thought her seeking to renege on their deal, or to use us to find out any weak points The Father may have so that she could exploit him, but the way her eyes lit up as we answered her questions pertaining to ourselves had proven otherwise.
Other than her first few questions, the answers to which I understood would allow her to use I and Seven to her greatest benefit, the following questions were purely for the sake of her unbridled curiosity, as far as I could tell at least.
Although due to the limitations placed on us, she had only received a barebones description of our jobs, she had lit up when we had both discussed our roles in clandestine assassination and international subterfuge.
She had asked Seven if we worked best in a pair, or if it was acceptable to split us up, to which he had answered, and quite rightly, "I have received training in both individual combat and reconnoissance, as well as the group variants for said skills. As for Thirteen, you would have to ask him yourself, as I have never seen nor spoken to him before today." After which he had turned to look at me, still with the deadpan expression, which I mirrored in earnest. The answer had apparently greatly appeased Dr Everton, and I could tell she was torn between hating The Father, and praising him for his foresight.
I wasn't naïve enough not to understand that our situation was the perfect outcome for our would-be buyer, what with owning two equally skilled assassins, each perfectly capable of working in tandem with the another, yet neither had so much as seen the other before.
I assumed that Seven had went through the same group training as I had, in which you were assigned a specific role, and the rotating roster had assured that each session would be taken with completely different team members, meaning that even if you had managed to form somewhat of a personal connection with your team members, you would never see them again after the training had concluded. It was an inhuman disregard for a human's rights, but I begrudgingly admitted that it was a perfect way to allow solitary assassins to learn group work.
From the look of it Seven was at least a few years older than me, so we would have entered training at different times, it truly was the first time I have seen him.
She knew we could work together if necessary, but also knew that we each cared naught for the other, a card which she was more than happy to play. After all, assassins who held loyalty to anyone but their master were as good as broken.
She had placed me in the front most SUV out of the three that made up her envoy, and Seven had taken the back, leaving her to the privacy of the middle car. No doubt she would keep us separated until it was necessary.
I hadn't failed to notice the chagrin of her bodyguard, when she had told him to let me sit in the front passenger seat, causing him to have to take up an awkward position in the back.
What a fool. Too hung up on appearances to notice that she was doing it for his own good. She quite rightfully didn't trust us yet, and allowing a dangerous variable to take the back seat was a recipe for disaster. I had mentally sighed when she gave the order. If I needed to take drastic measures, it was always better to be behind your obstacles.
Snapping out of my daydream, I had barely registered what was happening before I lunged for the steering wheel, yanking it out of the driver's grasp, I spun it as hard as I could towards me, which earned a pained grunt from the driver. The man's hands fumbled, and he managed to honk the cars horn for a brief second as he tried to regain control of the wheel.
The large SUV spun harshly to the left, rearing up on two wheels before the driver stepped down on the car's brakes, slamming the car down and spinning us once again in the other direction before we came to a jarring stop.
The driver looked at me with confusion, which was gradually being replaced with rage. He went to say something but the airbag beat him to it, smashing the centre console of the steering wheel into his cheek and punting his face into the headrest. His unconscious head limply fell forward, resting on the airbag.
The bodyguard in the back seat seemed even more confused than the driver, and just now started to reach into his jacket for his gun. I reached back and grabbed the short end of his tie, yanking it towards me, strangling the grunt out of him. His hand flew out of his jacket, gun in tow, as I pulled the lever on the side of the chair. The bullet grazed my head, deflecting to somewhere unknown as it bounced against the bullet proof glass of the windshield. I brought down my full weight onto the back of the chair, which flew back onto the top of his knee, shattering it instantly. His choked scream was cut short as I pulled with both hands on his tie, his nose smashing against the shoulder of the seat, knocking him unconscious, a small splattering of his blood finding its way to my face.
I exited the car and made my way around the back of it, keeping visual contact with what had caused the commotion in the first place. I used the boot of the car as cover as I levelled the pistol I had taken towards the unknown man's centre mass.
A man stood on the middle of the dimly lit road, eyes staring ahead. A couple of inches in front of his spotless clogs were black skid marks, which twisted and turned, leading all the way back to my car. The other two cars behind me had stopped about 10 meters out, and the back car with Seven in had swung around to block off Dr Evertons car from the disturbance.
The man in the road stood as straight as an arrow, his posture and clothing identical to a victorian era British butler. His arms folded neatly in front of him, even his heels were held together, feet pointing slightly out. He had receded white hair, which left the top of his heald bald, and along with his monocle, his face which was set in an emotion of bored pomp made him look as if he really had stepped out of an 1860 manor.
"It's you..."
Dr Everton had stepped around the barricade her guard set up, and walked to the front of the commotion, much to the dismay of her guards. Seven kept a constant distance of just slightly out of arms reach, following closely behind her, not displaying even a hint of shock at what had happened.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Since I had first seen him, the butlers gaze never wavered, and I had just understood that, somehow, he was constantly following Dr Everton. Even when his line of sight was blocked by my car.
Unfurling himself into a deep bow the butler broke eye contact for the first time, renewing it when he has raised himself back up.
"Dr Everton. The time has come. Are you prepared?"
His words knocking her into action, she fumbled around in her bag and produced four metal coins. She passed two bronze coloured slips to the two bodyguards closest to her, whom I'm sure had just happened to be the meanest, most grisly looking guards in her retinue.
She passed Seven a copper looking coin, and, after looking around for me, tossed me an identical one, which I caught quickly, slipping it into my pocket as I kept the gun trained on the butler.
"You plus four. Two bronze and two copper, not including your silver of course. Impressive. Follow me."
I wanted to do something, but the entire situation was going way over my head. I joined formation with Dr Everton. She had ordered me and Seven so that we were walking ahead of her, following the butler as he walked into the forest to the side of the road.
Her suited bodyguards guarded her from behind. It was a standard box formation.
"Uh... Doctor?"
One of the normal bodyguards who had recovered first from the confusion had voiced his concerns towards the retreating form of Dr Everton.
The butler simply snapped his fingers, after which I heard the sound of multiple bodies hitting the floor. Seven didn't even flinch so I decided not to look back either.
We walked a few hundred meters into the under brush until we came to a clearing, just past it, a sizeable school gym sat on its lonesome in the middle of the forest.
As we approached the doors of the aged structure, the butler stopped and brayed his knuckles in a strange rhythm upon the double doors, which in turn were opened from the inside, behind each door a maid.
Giving us a ceremonious bow, the maids welcomed us into the gym.
The gym itself seemed to be completely normal, other than the fact it was smack bang in the middle of an unpopulated forest.
The majority of the gym was an open space, likely for basketball or other open field sports. The far end of the gym had a number of metal foldable chairs laid out.
There was already a number of people parsed about, sitting on the chairs, and most of them swung around to stare us down once we entered. It seemed like, similar to us, there was a number of groups, each avoiding the other groups, taking up a number of closely seated chairs so that they stayed together. The groups ranged from two people, all the way to a group who were seated at the very front, who numbered eight.
I gave the scene a once over and other than the group of eight it seemed our group of 5 was the second largest currently here.
The two maids walked us over to those currently seated, and gestured silently for us to take a seat at the back left.
Seven and I chose two seats in front of where Dr Everton had chosen, cordoning her off from the other groups. Her bodyguards sat directly to the left and right of her.
"It seems, unfortunately, that not all of you could make it. But alas, those of you present here, I'm sure, are more than enough to represent your home well."
The butler had stood upon the stage, and spoke, facing us all.
"Without doubt, you are all extremely curious with the specifics today, so without further ado."
The butler bowed gently and backed up until he was off to the side of the stage. With a click of his fingers the curtains behind him parted, revealing what looked to be a large movie screen. The type you could find in any cinema. The maids from before took their time rolling in an extremely aged projector, and with a small start up sound, our attention was drawn to the screen where a clock ticked down from 5, the same way you'd see in old black and white movies.
"Ladies! And! Gentlemen! Welcome to the paradise of tomorrow! My name is Charles C. Austridge and I will be your guide into the wonderful world of the Morrow."
As the count down ended, we were greeted by an extremely strange sight. The movie itself reminded me of what people from the 60's thought the future would look like. The entire thing was animated and looked like an off brand episode of the Jeffersons.
"In an age long ago, there lived a powerful wizard!"
The cartoon showed a comically drawn wizard, complete with crooked witch hat and all, shooting cartoon lightning out of his wooden staff.
"This almighty one, by the name of Janson, had reached a level where the very laws of our universe bent to accomodate his will. Janson watched over our universe, and what he saw upset him greatly. There were so many civilisations, and yet petty constants like the speed of light made sure that the paltry distance between these species, would forever remain untravelled."
The cartoon zoomed out from the wizard Janson, his face contorted into a cartoon frown, as a single tear escaped his eye. We left his house, his planet, and zoomed all the way out until we saw the galaxies themselves.
"Imagine that... Worlds of people, forever believing they were alone in the universe! A travesty if I've ever heard one."
"But..."
"Fear not!"
"For Janson, in his great wisdom, he spent a millenia constructing the world of the Morrow. He toiled and sweated, and finally, on the 1000th year, he opened the gates of the Morrow. The perfect paradise for all!"
The cartoon showed Janson ditching his wizard robes for construction gear, and after laying a brick on some mortar he had spread, thumbed up the camera, a sparkle gleaming from his smile.
"He invited swaths of people from every civilisation, and welcomed them into the gates of the Morrow. A veritable cornucopia of species! A utopia where our cosmic neighbours become our greatest friends!"
A twenty-armed bipedal octopus extended a tentacle and shook hands with a large bodied Cyclops, both of them gleaming amicably.
"And now, for you lucky few, we extend you an invite for the Morrow! Come and join us, hand in hand, and join the fun!"
The last part was sung in a song and dance, where a number of species came on screen and performed a choreographed dance.
"Welcome! To! the world! Of! The Morrow!"
The projector spluttered to a stop, the black screen and utter silence from everyone in the room punctuated my already overloaded brain.