Just doing my job

I woke feeling like my skull was several sizes too small for my brain, and wondering just what the hell had happened. I kept my eyes closed and breathing shallow while I ran through what I could remember and putting it in some form of order:

Simon Neo giving me a data-chip from Dr. Lang.

Ren telling me to be careful about how and where I watched the message.

Dr. Lang telling me about the conspiracy, and his death.

Arriving in Ottawa to find my apartment a smoking crater.

My run in with, and subsequent abduction by Agents Brown and Smith.

My escape.

Hennery Siva\'s warning.

Meeting up with Charlotte, and her cracking a vile of sedative under my nose.

Someone, somewhere, was doing their best to make my life a living hell. And when I found out whom that was, I was going to make them regret it from what remained of their short, agony filled, lives.

I decided to take an interest in my surroundings: I couldn\'t hear anything other than my own breathing and heartbeat, so where ever I was being held was evidently sound-proof to an extent. Nor could I smell anything, beyond my own sweat and the scent of fresh sheets. Who ever I had to thank for my present accommodation wanted me to feel comfortable, but cut off.

There are some superhumans who have developed other sense: infer-red, ultra- violet, sonar, radar, in some cases even limited precognition. Me, I just had my regular ones heightened beyond human norm. No, if I wanted to see where I was, I would have to open my eyes and look for myself.

The room was small but well furnished. A large window filled one wall with a view of Ottawa in the distance. It looked like a real window, but it could have easily been a hologram projected onto a sheet of glass. I was tired, more tired than I\'d been in a long time. I was defiantly not up to a fight, or even trying to run.

There\'s a loud buzz and one of the two doors into the room opened to admit Charlotte, a smile on her lips.

\"I\'m glad to see you\'re awake.\" She walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, \"The doctors thought it was best to let you sleep until you got everything out of your system.\"

\"How long was I out?\"

\"Two days: what ever it was Ren hit you with was strong.\"

\"What?\"

\"You talk in your sleep, you always have. Anyway, it\'s how we worked out what happened: she dosed you with some kind of psychotropic compound that induced paranoia and hallucinations. Very tailored hallucinations.\"

\"The apartment? The Interpol agents?\"

\"The apartment was a gas-leak: an accident that could have happened to anyone. As for the Interpol agents? I think you\'ve been watching The Matrix one time to many Nathan: Agent Smith indeed.\"

\"It seemed so real.\"

\"It was supposed to. Ren\'s an anarchist remember: she thrives on miss communications and confusion.\"

\"The message from Dr. Lang?\"

\"An invite to a surprise party he\'s been arranging for my birthday next month; he\'s very much alive and well up on Luna. You can even talk to him later if you want.\"

\"No, no, it\'s ok.\"

\"Still a little shaken? The doctors say it\'s to be expected: you may be superhuman, but there are still ways to mess with your system.\"

\"Where are we?\"

\"The Institute\'s medical wing, one of the recovery rooms: they need to be able to monitor you while you still under the influence of the drug.\"

\"And the sedative?\"

\"It exists: Ren must have found out about it and included it in the fantasy she constructed for you. You need to sleep.\"

\"Will you be here when I wake up?\"

\"Always.\"

*********************************************************************

I walked through the Institute\'s gardens the next day, trying to get my head straight: the more I thought about it, the less sense Ren\'s story made. There was no way she\'d ever go to Dr. Lang for help, even if it was something as monumental as she claimed.

And why would Dr. Lang ever trust someone as notorious as Ren? I admit that she wasn\'t well known by the public, but she had gained an almost legendary status among the superhuman community for her tricks and pranks. Until now they had been relatively harmless.

Expensive, disruptive and above all, embarrassing: but harmless.

But there was a nagging voice in the back of my head that refused to be quiet: there was something that just didn\'t fit right, something that felt odd.

\"Hey stranger.\" A soft voice startles be.

\"Ren!\" I span round, and it took a moment to recognise her: a dark green baseball cap contained her normally shoulder-length red hair. A pair of glasses broke up the outline of her face, and the rather unflattering gardener\'s overalls hid her well-toned body.

\"You where expecting maybe Santa Claus?\" She grabbed me and pulled me into a utility shed hidden behind a low fence, \"What happened to you?\"

\"What the hell happened to me?\" I pushed her away, \"Someone dosed me with enough psychotropic crap to send me wacko!\"

\"You can\'t possible think I\'d do something like that to you.\"

\"Can\'t I? You don\'t have an exactly spotless record when it comes to playing it straight Ren!\"

\"I have never lied to you Nathan.\" She stepped forward, trying to put her arm around me, \"I care for you.\"

\"You\'re a psycho!\" I pushed her back again, \"You\'ve been after me since Monty Carlo, despite the fact that I\'m happily married. I can\'t help but wonder if this isn\'t all some sick game of yours!\"

I deserved the slap: even I have to admit that Ren was never anything but 100% honest with me. She may have been a notorious anarchist, but she\'d never claimed to be anything else.

\"You can be a real bastard when you want!\" Ren glared at me, \"Yes, I have feelings for you: I freely admit that. But to think that I\'d try and trick you.\"

\"I\'m sorry, ok? I\'ve had a lot of people telling me conflicting stories, and none of them are making any sense right now.\" I tentatively rested my hands on her shoulders, \"What is it that you found? What did you take to Dr. Lang?\"

\"I was looking into the missing superhumans: one of them was an old friend of mine. I started digging, and came across reports of old experiments conducted back in the 1970\'s, when people first started to display post- human abilities. It was still the Cold War back then, and both sides thought that we could be used as weapons. They started experimenting, trying to develop artificial superhumans, trying to generate specific powers. But no one was ever able to replicate what ever it is that affects us naturally in the lab.\"

\"I remember reading about it in school: a lot of volunteers died when the doctors tried to surgically remove their abilities.\"

\"They weren\'t always volunteers: both sides used political prisoners. But when the Cold War ended, and it became apparent that it was easier and cheaper to simply employ superhumans as soldiers, the programs where dispended.\"

\"Why do I feel that there is a \'but\' coming?\"

\"Someone\'s re-started the programs. The U.N. keeps a record of every known superhuman on the planet, but when they apply for a visa for Luna.\"

\"They stop being the U.N.\'s concern: no one keeps tabs on them.\"

\"They are then grabbed, and, well, I don\'t have a clue what happens after that.\"

\"What has this got to do with Charlotte?\"

\"That we could never work out.\"

\"Let me explain it for you!\" One wall seemed to explode outwards, revealing a rather angry looking Charlotte who smiled at me in a rather disturbing way, \"Why thank you Nathan: it would have been hard to find someone as slippery as Ren without your help.\"

\"What the hell.\" My question was cut short by a blast of energy that sent me crashing into the other wall, landing my in the middle of a pile of gardening tools.

Ren reacted instantly: she kicked out at Charlotte with enough force to take a normal humans head right off. My wife, however, simply grabbed her in mid air and tossed her round so she landed with a thump right next to me. Ren smiled, and grabbing me, pressing down on something she held in her other hand.

There was a flash of light, and I found myself standing on top of a building in downtown Ottawa.

\"What the hell just happened?\" I asked, blinking repeatable.

\"Site-to-site teleporter, one use only.\" Ren smiled, showing me the controller in her hand, \"Something Dr. Lang had been working on. It\'s linked to the GPS system: you set the destination you want to go to, and just hit the little red button. We could use it again, but we\'d risk detection.\"

\"Thanks for the science lesson, but I was more interested in why my wife attacked me?\"

\"I don\'t suppose you\'d take simple jealousy for an answer?\"

\"No.\"

\"I thought not.\" Ren sighed, \"She\'s involved in the Conspiracy: to what level, and indeed, how much she even knows, I can\'t say.\" The turned to look at me, \"I\'m sorry Nathan.\"

To Be Continued…