Chapter 19: Gordon
Gordon groaned and rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand.
Or he tried, at least. It took a second to realize that his arm had just sort of flopped weakly and not actually moved. Another few seconds brought the realization that he was bouncing up and down.
It was maybe a full half a minute before he realized the reason everything was so dark was that his eyes were closed. Cautiously he began to open them before realizing that opening one’s eyes usually wasn’t something that needed to be undertaken cautiously.
He was being carried on the back of a large imposing figure in a cloak. Next to him an apparently identical figure was carrying Kushal, who appeared to still be unconscious. Gordon twisted his head more and found that they were both bound with black ropes.
It was about this time that feeling began to return to his arms and legs, pins and needles sweeping up and down. Gordon let air hiss between his teeth. A moment later, he felt his captor speed up. Kushal’s carrier fell a bit behind, but Gordon still couldn’t see its face.
Then they crossed into shadow and Gordon twisted his head, surprised. They were in some kind of cave, and he could see a circle of light receding dimly behind them. The ropes that bound them, though, prevented him from seeing ahead. Much like C-3PO on Cloud City.
And then suddenly there was light again, fluorescent light that reminded Gordon of no competition he had ever been to. He shivered.
Their captors suddenly stopped and stood in front of the light, then, as if coming to a decision, dumped the two of them on the ground. Gordon blinked and winced. “Wait,” he tried to say, the words sticking in his dry throat. “What…who…”
Not the most coherent thing he had ever said.
The two figures, their faces obscured by their hoods, stared impassively down at the two speakers. At the corner of Gordon’s eye Kushal twitched.
With a whoosh, a metal door slid shut. An elevator, Gordon thought, and then they were accelerating upwards. With a bit of difficulty he struggled to a sitting position and looked up. The elevator had no ceiling and the whooshing noise of the air was horrendous.
And without warning, the floor stopped and Gordon and Kushal were catapulted upwards. “Whoooaa!” shouted Gordon.
“Wha…what’s going on?” Kushal pushed out, sounding terrified.
They shot into a much more open room just as they reached the apex of their parabola. Gordon risked a glance downward, expecting to see the horrifying drop down the elevator shaft. Instead, a cushioned plate sprung into place over the hole they had just emerged from.
“Well,” Gordon commented as they landed gently on the cushions. “That was the most extravagant way to deliver—”
“Prisoners,” Kushal interrupted. How he had managed to recover lucidity that fast Gordon couldn’t figure out. Maybe it was the incredibly terrifying effect of a reverse fall after being….
And it all came back. The fears that had so beset him, leaving him unable to speak or defend himself. Kushal’s valiant but failed LD effort against that monster. And Richard, there one second…and gone the next.
They were indeed in a cell of sorts, with bottled water, some stale bread, a puddle in the corner that Gordon really didn’t want to investigate more closely, and of course, the cushions. Paisley cushions.
“OK,” Kushal began ticking things off on his fingers. “We’ve got little food, little water, we’re who-knows-how-far away from everyone else, we don’t know where Andrew is, and we’re gonna miss the tournament. What now?”
“Well, you could untie me,” Gordon said indignantly as he realized Kushal couldn’t possibly have been ticking things off with his fingers if he had been tied. “Why did I get tied up and not you?”
Which wasn’t quite accurate; Kushal did have rope binding his hands together and his feet together. But nothing like the petrificus totalus of rope wrapped around Gordon. “How should I know? They’re bad guys!”
“Maybe it’s because they knew you’d sleep deeper than a drunken donkey,” Gordon said sarcastically.
“Hey, do you want these ropes off or not?” Kushal paused with one finger in the middle of a knot. Gordon gritted his teeth. “Well?”
“Ow! Sorry, OK?” Kushal undid the knot and Gordon sat up straight, rubbing his chafed wrists.
It was only after Gordon had undone Kushal’s bindings and they had tried to stand up that they could make two observations. First, the cage/cell was only about five feet tall. And second, there was a single guard outside, apparently wearing full speech regalia.
“Is he dead?” Gordon whispered, then jumped as the guard yawned.
Kushal stared at Gordon, a bit exasperated. “What are we supposed to do now?”
Gordon moved over the edge of the cage. “Hey!” he called. The guard looked up. “What’s the story here?”
The guard looked confused. He scratched his chin. “Don’t you guys know?”
“Know what?” Gordon asked back. A glimmer of an idea started to come to him.
“How should I know?” the guard responded, and the idea bloomed full force.
But he had to make sure. “What did they tell you?”
The guard shrugged. “As far as I know, we’re waiting for the judge.”
“From the Hahr Kerr, right?”
“Yeah, I’m from Harker.” The guard, who seemed only a year or two older than Gordon and Kushal, idly scratched his head. “Not sure about the judge.”
“Don’t you remember what they told you?” Gordon asked, as if reminding the guard of something important.
“What?” He sounded a little worried.
“You’re supposed to take us upstairs and let us see the other prisoners.” Gordon nodded as if it was perfectly obvious. Kushal looked at him like he was crazy.
The guard merely cocked his head. “And let you guys out? That doesn’t sound right…”
“Of course it is.” Gordon shook his head. “This is the part where you gain our trust so that we give you our secrets. Then, once we’re all together, you’ll have control over all of us. It’s just like in that movie…The Shoemaker, about the guy who gets captured because he made shoes for those army guys.”
“I think I saw that…must’ve been a long time ago.” The guard shrugged. “All right.”
Kushal got up, amazed, and banged his head on the ceiling again as the guard passed a card over a scanner in the wall. The bars at one end of the cell retracted into the ground.
“Sweet,” said Gordon, trying not to lose control now. “That’s an awesome keycard. Kushal, come take a look at this.” He put his hand out and the guard, grinning slightly, held up the card for them to look at.
With one quick motion Gordon swiped the card from him and pushed him towards the cell. The bars untracted again, trapping the man inside. “What—”
“Oh yeah,” Gordon said, “Can’t have it look like you’re on our side, right?”
“Oh, right,” the guard responded. “Just like in the movie.”
Gordon smiled. “Right. C’mon, Kushal.” With an amazed glance at the cell they had just vacated, Kushal followed Gordon out of the room.
“OK,” he said, as they emerged into a hallway. “What just happened?”
Gordon sighed and grinned. “Truth is…I’ve got a talent.” He waved aside Kushal’s amazed glance. “I can make people remember something that didn’t actually happen. It works best with books and movies.” Truth to tell, he was enjoying the shocked look Kushal now wore. “In a few minutes that guy’s going to forget all about The Shoemaker.”
“I think I’ve seen that…” Kushal said, almost wonderingly.
Gordon laughed. “Awesome, so it works on you too. Even when I wasn’t targeting you. I didn’t tell you guys because I didn’t think it would work after I did, but it looks like that’s not going to be a problem.” He smirked.
Kushal thought for a minute, then whacked Gordon upside the head. “OUCH!” Gordon cried. “What was that for?”
Kushal smirked back as Gordon rubbed his head. “Come on, we better get going. This whole thing is getting too weird…let’s find Andrew and get back to the city.”
“Couldn’t agree with you more…” Gordon said, and set off after Kushal.