F U T U R E B A R R I E R
( The 2nd Novel )
Secret Technology, Unrequited Love, Absolute Vengeance
© January 2016 Written by David Wicker
Please do not reprint without permission
CHAPTER 63 - "Stefani's Secrets"
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This chapter is Rated: TEEN
A tall vector-shaped chair loomed in the distance facing a single lone computer screen that spanned nearly 20 feet straight up in the air. On it were little rectangles of screens. Stefani blanched when she recognized herself in ALL of - what had to have been over 30 rectangles, carefully detailing out every dirty little secret she had done since she first arrived in Arkos.
She then realized that the Director, Arkos himself must've had recording cameras hidden in every nook, cranny, corner, and edifice of the establishment. Everything was TRULY known to him. There were no secrets she could keep from him.
She was breathing hard now certain that with the evidence presented before her, if it wasn't Tyr's last day here, it might very well be hers ! And a terminal contract at that, which would end in her immediate execution. She knew what she had done was beyond criminal in many cases.
"Sir ..." she said uncertainly approaching the back of the tall chair. Still the Director could not be seen as the screen was anti-glare and anti-reflective so she wasn't even greeted with either his silhouette or reflection for comfort.
"Stefani, my dear." he began, without bothering to face her, and then she realized his voice sounded quite a bit different then on the intercom. It held a harder more guttural edge to it that apparently couldn't be relayed and mimicked digitally over an intercom, as if his own tongue were somehow misshapen.
It frightened her. And she wasn't supposed to be afraid of anything. That was indeed a terrible thing to realize at the moment.
"Stefani," he said again, "I am PLEASED with all you have done. There are no worries. Put your mind at rest. But now you must, no doubt and can surely see, that I am indeed AWARE of everything you have done. All your "neat and tidy" little tricks to get your way on things since you've been here, have all been carefully calculated and tabulated by ME."
There was the bare perceptible sight of a long bony finger, very low to the ground from the chair, pointing to one of the screens. It showed Stefani dumping one her boyfriend's bodies in the sewage treatment plant several levels below where with gravity and the viscosity of the brown ooze, it slurped the victim hungrily into its void and center.
The Director had even recorded showing Stefani humping one part of the vibrating machine in her excitement as the chemical process dissolved the corpse. There was a strange sound that was quiet at first and then got louder, over the rhythmic audio of Stefani's heavy breathing as she jacked off to the atrocious machine of death.
Stefani realized suddenly that it was the Director laughing. And he wasn't laughing about her or with her but AT her, like one might see someone slip on a banana peel and break their pretty neck.
Stefani closed her mouth and bit her lips trying hard to control her breathing as his finger continued to point to her very clear scene of cold-blooded homicide and her recorded video of then destroying the evidence. If this were placed in court she would be up for capital murder at the very least.
"Sir, I - " she began. But then the chair suddenly whirled around before she could continue, so fast there was a gust that played against her short skirt and ruffled the frock of her flowery blouse.
"Yeees ?" he began in a slow and syrupy voice that could freeze magma. Then she saw him and couldn't prevent herself from clapping a hand to her mouth in horror.
The Director was short, probably not even 4-feet tall. He had apparently been in multiple accidents and while his form was withered and old his face shone with a keen intelligence not to be outdone by anyone. His forehead had a large metallic staple to it, as if his own head and skull could not hold its weight and required support.
One of his eyes was clearly false as it reflected eerily back at her. His mouth was stained red, from what, she didn't know, an earlier bloody meal ?
* * *
It got so quiet since the Director had turned off all audio from the video, eventually you could make out the cheerful and quiet and innocent sounds of Tyr playing with the dolls in the playroom. Stefani's left eye twitched uncomfortably at the sudden silence presented before her.
The Director coughed politely to clear the frozen moment. "My dear Stefani. We have all made sacrifices to get to where we are today. Do you not see this ?"
When she didn't answer immediately He suddenly whizzed out from under the seat in apparently a vicious makeshift kind of wheelchair. His own legs disappeared into the mechanism, but she was certain they did not function. All you could see was his bulbous head stacked above a body too small and withered from age and decay with spidery fingers operating a myriad of complicated controls in front of him.
With frightening speed the wheelchair had maneuvered out from the desk and was only a few feet from where she stood. He was close enough for her to touch now.
"Don't you find me attractive ?" he asked her menacingly and held out a grotesque hand to her, expecting her to take it in a friendly embrace.
"Sir, I - " Stefani began but couldn't continue any further, for he wasn't in the least bit attractive. Anyone could see that.
She couldn't take this grotesqueness any more. She whirled and looked around the room hard now, determined there had to be someone else in this room, watching but remaining silent. Someone she could turn to for comfort, but with a sinking feeling that made her feel faint-headed, she realized they were completely alone in the massive room.
And before her was this twisted form who for lack of denying evidence had to be classified as human only by definition on biologist's papers. Arkos. The Director. The founder of the Arkos Institute.
"No." The Director answered her, retracting his hand in cold rebuff. "I am not attractive."
And then he looked up directly at her eyes. "But I do not care. I do not need to be." and as she peered down at him, he greeted her with a most frightening smile.
"For my very works outshine what God Himself denied me." He paused in thought for a moment and tapped his chin thoughtfully.
"You may think I was involved in a horrible accident to have gotten this way, don't you ?" and he whirled his fingers before her face. The picture was clear to see. And it wasn't a pretty one.
Stefani nodded her head ever so imperceptibly. He slammed his tiny misshapen fist on the long table with a satisfying thump.
"No my dear ! I was BORN this way. And I was abandoned by my parents, left LITERALLY in the gutter to find my own way, my own life, such as it is and such as it was."
He then steepled his fingers together. Stefani noticed they looked impossibly old. "And I did, as you can see. I have crafted and created all that you see around you."
He held out his hand to Stefani who found herself slightly backing away from this evil dwarfed figure.
"We are much alike, you and I Stefani." he said magnanimously.
"We both do terrible things to get the job done. But WE are the only ones who can where no-one else will ! WE are the superior people here, not them !" Stefani paused in her thoughts. And she thought SHE was the crazy one in this world.
Arkos persisted, "Do not deny what you are, sweet girl ! Embrace it !" and held his thin wrinkled hand to her again. Stefani realized at this moment that if she refused this simple act of holding his hand, that things could go very bad for her.
Gritting her teeth which she falsely tried to present as a cheery smile, she reached out and held his hand, which, as she expected was shockingly cold to the touch, like death.
"Yes." he said with relish enjoying the warmth of Stefani's own hand cradling his. "We will conquer this world and everyone in it."
"Do not ever think that I am angry with you for what you have done. The only time I am cross with others is when they hide things from me. But I have seen to that."
And then he raised his hand behind him to show the monitor which suddenly flashed to show Stefani's full face 20-feet tall, right where she stood, a camera directly on her, even in Arkos' personal room.
And then he did his odd laugh again, "So now I really have nothing to be angry about with you since your entire life is before me and I know your every little dirty secret."
He then pointed with his free hand a finger accusingly to Stefani. "However, sometimes I think you go too far with your discipline towards our gifted children."
He let this sink in a moment, but then waved his hand in dismissal as if it was unimportant, "But you DO get the job done, and that is what you are paid for, that is why you are ALIVE today. You are very much like me, and that is why you will always be my favorite from the thousands employed here at Arkos, my institution, dear Stefani."
Stefani knew when to take advantage of a conversation. "Thank you, sir." she said graciously, and was pleased her voice sounded genuinely sincere at the moment.
And then he slowly and with great deliberation looked to his left, to where Tyr was in the playroom still exploring the expensive Polly Rocket toys.
The director lowered his voice to a whisper, "But first, we must break the secrets of the incredible. The mysteries of the unfathomable. Starting with this young girl's telekinetic ability. We will reap and rape it from her and learn what we can and use it to our advantage here."
He let go of Stefani's hand and in the back of her mind, she was glad to have met someone almost level with her degree of malevolence and disregard for others. If only he were a bit more handsome, she told herself, then she could have control of this company.
But there was no way in hell she could possibly seduce such a wretched fiend. She had her limits, and that was the furthest thing from her mind at the moment though this was the usual hand she played with anyone to get her way on things.
No. She would have to go along with him until she saw a different kind of opening that didn't entail being a consort to this grotesque and vulpine degenerate.
The Director Arkos lowered his head and folded his hands in front of his control console. He then slowly raised his eyes evilly to Stefani, giving them a demonic look in the stark green lights that shined from his wheelchair console.
"Bring the girl here." he said finally.
END OF CHAPTER 63
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