{"id":109,"date":"2008-08-09T22:10:47","date_gmt":"2008-08-09T22:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/?p=109"},"modified":"2008-08-09T22:10:47","modified_gmt":"2008-08-09T22:10:47","slug":"in-the-hands-of-others-10-of-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/?p=109","title":{"rendered":"In the Hands of Others (10 of 20)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mr. Smoke typed the code onto the panel and Mr. Alpha noted it, committing to memory: 23140692. The door slide open with a whoosh<\/em> noise.<\/p>\n

\u2018Does it have to make that noise?\u2019 asked Mr. Alpha.<\/p>\n

Mr. Smoke stepped through into the chamber beyond and replied: \u2018No.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mr. Alpha was surprised to hear Mr. Omega snigger.<\/p>\n

They followed Mr. Smoke into the clients’ room. It was more or less how it looked like on the CCTV video, albeit freezing cold. Row upon row of capsules lay ahead of them, each one a space-age coffin. Blue light bathed the entire chamber. It was noisy; capsules would randomly vent some sort of gas with a hiss.<\/p>\n

None of the coffins had windows so they could peer in at the pretend dead. \u2018Why don\u2019t these capsules have little windows?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Because they\u2019re empty,\u2019 said Mr. Smoke. He added a quiet something that sounded like an insult.<\/p>\n

Mr. Alpha looked up at the lighting. This was different to the two previous blue centres they\u2019d been in; it looked like the set of a science fiction movie.<\/p>\n

As they continued to head towards the back of the chamber, Mr. Alpha asked, \u2018Is this ultra-violet light or something? To eliminate bugs or shit?\u2019<\/p>\n

Mr. Smoke stopped and turned around. \u2018Listen up, you fuckwit, it\u2019s all for show. We lost a lot of business to Karma Cryon<\/em> when they started up three years ago. We were efficient, relatively cheap and didn\u2019t mess around with lots of theatrics. Those Karma fuckers went all Disney on us, with doors like Star Trek airlocks and flashy lighting. They even had big stupid machines with pointless coloured lighting you\u2019d expect to see in a B-movie from the sixties. We had to compete and \u2018modernise\u2019 otherwise this outstation was going to go out of business.<\/p>\n

\u2018So this is the play room. Nothing in here is important. Clients are actually batched in the basement below our feet, in a proper cryogenic facility. No one ever gets to see that any more. Got it?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Yeah, sure,\u2019 Mr. Alpha said. \u2018We got that didn\u2019t we, Mr. Omega? I\u2019m a fuckwit.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mr. Omega laughed. \u2018He got that right, boy. You\u2019re a fuckwit.\u2019<\/p>\n

Fuming, Mr. Smoke marched over to the smaller metal door at the back of the room, the one that Morgana had gone through on the video. Mr. Alpha and Mr. Omega followed. Above the door was a small metal plaque upon which the words \u201cBLUE NINETEEN\u201d inscribed.<\/p>\n

Mr. Smoke tapped in exactly the same code as before into a keypad beside the door. The door clicked and he pulled it open.<\/p>\n

The blue centre was a much smaller room and looked exactly like the previous centres they had been at. Dim fluorescent lighting illuminated seven metal coffins on the floor, strange apparatus covering each like a metal fungus. An umbilical cord of wires and tubing connected each coffin to the ceiling; maintenance looked like a nightmare.<\/p>\n

In the video, Morgana had gone to each coffin, one by one. She had looked into each one for a few minutes, then left the building.<\/p>\n

Mr. Alpha copied her actions; the same order, the same pose. Perhaps she had been fiddling with something she shouldn\u2019t or left a little gift behind. Nothing had turned up in the previous centres but Mr. Alpha still had hope. Morgana wasn\u2019t stupid. She was either doing something or misleading them. Or both.<\/p>\n

Through the window of each coffin, a frozen, deathly face lay. None of the faces were familiar. None of the faces seem to have any common attribute apart from being old men. Four white men, one with a beard; two black men; the last one had some bloke with slitty eyes so god fucking knew where he was from.<\/p>\n

Mr. Alpha reached the last one and he paused for longer, desperate to work out why Morgana would come here. He began rapping his fingers on the coffin, trying to think like she would. See what she |lusting and sexed<\/em>| was seeing.<\/p>\n

\u2018Oi,\u2019 Mr. Smoke shouted. \u2018Be careful with those things, you break that, we lose one body!\u2019<\/p>\n

Mr. Alpha stared at the closed eyes of the Asian man. \u2018Who are these people? Why are you keeping them?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m not permitted to\u2013\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh come on, Mr. Smoke, do tell. That\u2019s the one piece of this bloody puzzle we don\u2019t know. You want us to stop that whore of whores, but you\u2019re not willing to tell us everything.\u2019 Mr. Alpha turned around. \u2018What kind of fucking organisation is this? We want her dead as much as you do. Who are these people?\u2019<\/p>\n

No one had answered the question before, but maybe Mr. Smoke might; he was agitated and off-guard.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m not permitted to reveal that.\u2019 On the other hand, he was still a Clothman with nerves of steel.<\/p>\n

The people in these coffins were important. Who would be important enough for the Cloth to secure in freezers for the future? Who…<\/p>\n

\u2018Fuck it,\u2019 said Mr. Alpha. He\u2019d got it. He had fucking<\/em> got it. \u2018I know who they are and why Morgana comes here. This is a message. She\u2019s fucking around with our minds.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mr. Omega was standing near the entrance biting his nails; he hadn\u2019t bothered to look at anything since they\u2019d entered. \u2018So tell us, Mr. Alpha, what is she doing?\u2019<\/p>\n

Mr. Smoke seemed nervous, like he\u2019d made a mistake but didn\u2019t know exactly what.<\/p>\n

\u2018These are Saints; they\u2019re probably cooped up here waiting for The-God-To-Be to bring them back to life. Morgana is sending a message: she\u2019s looking for the Saints.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018What a load of poppyshit,\u2019 said Mr. Smoke, throwing his arms into the air in despair.<\/p>\n

\u2018Well done,\u2019 said Mr. Omega, clapping. \u2018I did wonder when you\u2019d work it out. Took your merry old time about it, but still it\u2019s a pat-on-the-back and a free burger for you. Third time lucky I guess.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mr. Alpha\u2019s euphoria dissipated. \u2018You knew? You arsehole! You could\u2019ve told me!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh no, I don’t know for sure, but it’s the conclusion I came to at the first break-in. I told you that we don\u2019t get told anything we don\u2019t need to. And sometimes they don\u2019t need to. Cheer up, junior, there\u2019s hope for the two of us yet.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mr. Smoke typed the code onto the panel and Mr. Alpha noted it, committing to memory: 23140692. The door slide open with a whoosh noise. \u2018Does it have to make that noise?\u2019 asked Mr. Alpha. Mr. Smoke stepped through into the chamber beyond and replied: \u2018No.\u2019 Mr. Alpha was surprised to hear Mr. Omega snigger. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}