F U T U R E B A R R I E R
( The 3rd Novel )
Secret Technology, Unrequited Love, Absolute Vengeance
© September 2017 Written by David Wicker
Please do not reprint without permission
CHAPTER 25 - "The Phobic Probe"
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* * *
This chapter is Rated: TEEN
Arkos tapped his chin thoughtfully as I slept on.
"No." he said carefully. "I want to know who it was that fused him with the plugin. And to do that I'll have to get past his subconscious reserves."
So saying he trailed a bony finger across my exposed scalp. I tremored slightly at the cold touch but slept on.
"Hm !" he said wheeling back suddenly in his motorized wheelchair and tapped a code into his own wrist bracelet.
"Stefani." Arkos spoke into the bracelet.
"What, yes ?" Stefani's voice was heard over his speakers, and it was clear she was already beyond irritated at the circumstances.
Arkos craned his head and coughed to clear his voice, "Perhaps I've been too hard on you midear. The device is - unattainable as it is fused inside him. I need you to probe his mind and find how it became - part of him."
Stefani could barely contain her excitement, "So I can have him back then ?"
Arkos wasn't going to let her moment of victory linger, "Yes, for now. I want you to find out who did this. But I want a name before the day is done !"
"I'll need the nightmare machine." Stefani said, clearly her voice was triumphant.
Arkos sighed, "You mean the Phobic Probe, don't you ?"
"Whatever you call it." she agreed.
"Fine." Arkos said. "You find out what I need to know, and you can have your plaything back. I won't need - what's left."
Stefani bit her lip and was angry. Clearly I was more than a plaything to her but to Arkos ? She wasn't going to sour the deal just yet by letting her emotions take hold.
"Sure." she said trying hard not to scowl. "When can I expect you ?" she asked.
"I'll send two of my sentries down there with the boy and the interrogation device you need. Be ready." Arkos said.
"I'll need to scan the girl too." Stefani said interjecting in the conversation. Really she didn't need to but she had long since wanted to use it on her, especially because of it's lethal nature.
"Whatever." Arkos said losing his patience. "Do what you must, but get me that information ! That is your top priority !" and he clicked off his intercom.
Stefani hummed pleasantly and called up Umeka, her best friend with the news.
"And you want me to administer another morphine enema to your cute little boyfriend ?" Umeko asked cheerfully on her intercom.
Stefani smirked. Stefani was certainly skewed in her own thinking but at least she didn't have as weird a hangup as Umeka did.
"No," she said wryly, "I want you to help me with a nightmare session between both him, Dev and his girlfriend, Tyr. We'll be using the nightmare machine."
Umeko's voice changed pitch to surprise, "You have them both for us to work with ?"
Even Stefani allowed herself a moment of pride, "Yes, but Arkos needs me to probe Dev to find - something - to do with a metamorphasis. Something alien."
Stefani shook her head confused, "I have no idea what that gray turnip wants, but I'll find out soon enough, AND we'll find out what both of their deepest fears are. It'll be fun ! Come see me in an hour, Umeko." and then she clicked off her intercom.
She had scarcely retrieved Tyr from her downstairs playroom and hooked her to a separate gurney when her door chimed for attention.
She approached the entry, a beautiful and acrylic frosted door and she answered it to see two security guards wheel me in on the gurney, still manacled both hand and foot.
Stefani couldn't help but roll a sensual finger along the steel frame of the manacle to my left wrist while touching my hand playfully like it was hot.
The other sentry wheeled in a strange device that had several wide wires like from cables of a computer hanging in a disarray from a cylindrical structure raised by a single pole in the center and a heavy steel computer fused to the other side of the rolling bench.
The thing nightmares were made of. "Thing," being quite appropriate. The Phobic Probe.
"Wonderful." she whispered breathlessly.
* * *
"Your instructions." one of the sentries spoke and handed her a hard-card page with print on it as both headed out.
She read it carefully, "Stefani, Dev has the plugin I need but it is fused as part of him. I need you to probe his mind and find out WHO did this. I need a name, and the boy must not be harmed. Do as you like with the girl. Do this and once I retrieve what I need, what's left will be given to you in return. Arkos"
"Nice." Stefani said seeing things were going her way again. Just then her door chimed again.
She answered the sliding acrylic door again and this time it was her friend, Umeko. She was carrying her little medical bag, just in case, Stefani changed her mind about giving me a morphine enema again.
"We won't need that." Stefani said not really sure why Umeka was so hooked on her profession the way she was.
"You never know !" Umeko said tapping her medical bag playfully but set it aside to examine the Phobic Probe.
"Have you ever used one of these ?" she asked Stefani.
Stefani nodded, "Yes. Several years ago. And it works, effectively, let me tell you. I don't know if you know how it works, but it probes the mind and finds what the person is most afraid of, and it can make it 'real' for them as well. Though that often results in metabolic destabilization and eventual death."
Stefani continued, "Using this safely, however, you can break down mental barriers and retrieve secrets from them verbally or visually."
Umeko nodded but stood by to watch.
"First we'll do Tyr." Stefani said and wheeled the Phobic Probe up to her gurney and reached up to take a half-sphere and cup it around her head while attaching cables to it.
"Well now wait just a minute !" Umeko said, "Didn't Arkos say he wanted you to probe the boy first ?"
"It doesn't matter ! THIS - " and she pointed to Tyr like she was an offensive or repulsive reptile, "is his girlfriend. And I want to see her BROKEN before the day is done !"
Even Umeko was beside herself with shock, "Well I suppose." she said carefully.
"Hm !" Stefani grunted, not at all happy with her friend's lack of murderous instinct and switched on the device. Both her and Umeko peered at the screen which showed billowing rainbow clouds as an image was formed.
Stefani twiddled with the knobs and typed in a few codes to the keyboard. The screen sharpened and both her and Umeko saw little Tyr being dressed in a lovely pixie-fairy wing outfit and then arrive at a park.
The scene was too cheerful for Stefani so she smirked and turned a knob to jump forward in time in the scene. Then it showed Tyr being retrieved from the port-a-potty many years ago when she fell in.
It was then that Stefani learned Tyr's greatest fear was of being ABANDONED. Of being left alone, and what worse place to be left alone then in the bottom of a nasty port-a-potty.
She then brought up a menu and several numbers appeared. She selected the one with the highest number and then saw Tyr's worst nightmare, her being older and trapped in the bottom of one as everyone did their business on top of her and she wept, coughed, drowned, and died in her nightmare.
"I belong in here." Tyr said flatly with no emotion, the machine retrieving both visual and audio thoughts from here.
Stefani's face grew wide with shock and delight. It was almost as if watching Tyr's darkest nightmare had set off a switch inside her, a sinister one. A murderous one.
But the moment passed quickly when suddenly Stefani started screeching in laughter. Umeko had to admit it looked pretty funny seeing someone flounder in a public toilet literally full of crap so she started to howl in amusement too.
It was funny to Umeko because she knew it was just a bad dream for Tyr and she watched it like it was on a comedy show.
Then Stefani caught herself and faced the screen to look at Tyr's own face with the device hooked up to her. Tears were easily streaming down her face and she was softly crying mouthing quiet words.
Stefani leaned down to listen to them, "Mommy. Please don't leave me in here. Mommy ... ?"
"We're going to make a little change for the worse now." Stefani suddenly said in a sinister tone going back to the controls.
Then Stefani brought up a panel display and unchecked all the safety marks. A bright red line spanned the top of the screen showing the Phobic Probe was operating in a rare and dangerous manual mode.
Then she went down and changed one number which had a low reading of 17 to 9999, as high as the machine would go. Suddenly the nightmare Tyr had went from 'imagined' to 'real' and having removed all the safety guards to prevent this, Tyr was placed directly in the volatile situation !
At the same time, Tyr's own heart meter and pulse rate shot straight up the chart on the computer display. Tyr started coughing uncontrollably, literally believing she was drowning in crap. It was no longer a nightmare but completely REAL to her ! And her body was dying from it !
Stefani was beside herself with pleasure. Yes ! This is what she wanted to do to her. "Suffer, dear. Despair and suffer !" she mouthed wordlessly.
END OF CHAPTER 25
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