Episode 1 - Capture
It is a truism that we are a society that is ruled by fear. We have the fear of litigation, so children are banned from playground equipment because it does not meet some European standard regardless of the fact that there have been no accidents. We have Santa Clause banned from being pulled on a trailer because of insurance rules
But most of all we have the fear of the outsider. During the cold war we feared the "reds under the beds". Children fear the monsters in the wardrobe. Parents fear that there is a paedophile behind every lamp post.
The problem is, sometimes, the danger comes not from external threats, but from the threats with in, like complacency, arrogance and over confidence. It is said that in most homicides the perpetrator is well known to the victim.
We had thought that the Mystical Realms were a big threat, but we were to be proved mistaken...
The time was getting late, well half past five, and I only had twenty minutes left on the meter. It was early December and in the street the sound of a well known Christmas carol punctuated the air.
The weather was overcast, but dry as I waited at Newcastle's Monument for the Spirit of Fidelity, Fidelity for short but Faith to everyone else. As I waited I looked around at the usual Christmas Market they held around this time of year
I was waiting for Fidelity finish work at the coffee shop where I had found her a job, since we escaped the World of WarCraft after I had caused it to shut down, trapping forever I hoped, the malicious Spirit of Lust.
I had this feeling I was being watched, but when I turned around, there was no one there. Luckily the only contact from the Mystical Realms I had had, was a box a month previous, with the location devices that the Prince Low Troll had used, last time he had visited our world. I just hoped that they were going to stay in their world, as I had resolved to stay in this one.
"Graeme" yelled a familiar voice, it was Fidelity. Finding her the job in the coffee shop, even though she was halfway between 16 and 17 had been relatively easy as the manageress had owed me a favour. She was also very helpful in getting a friend of hers to issue Fidelity with a national Insurance number, using the procedure for asylum seekers who had been granted refugee status. Well she was a refugee of sorts. Her mother had been murdered by Yagel Pen Swift the elf who supposedly had been sheltering her from the Lord Low Troll, but was a dark elf, a drow in the pay of the Spirit of Lust. If that were not bad enough,, her twin sister taken as a baby to our world, never to be seen again, and she had never known who her father was. With the death of Yagel at the Hand of the Prince Low Troll, after I had rescued her and brought her to our world, she had been kind of like a surrogate daughter.
"Graeme" she repeated, this time next to me, "Sorry I'm late, but we were putting up the decorations for this Christmas festival"
"It will be your Christmas as well now Fidelity" I told her.
She looked down at the ground, "I guess so"
"Come on" I told her, "down Gray Street, I have a surprise"
As we passed some of the stalls of the Christmas Market,
I took her to a newish BMW MINI
"I Got it today, thanks to the insurance company"
Fidelity's eye's lit up, usually we took the bus to her hostel, where she stayed
"Insurance company?" she questioned
"Yes, when you help prevent an expensive medical insurance fraud, they can be quite generous"
Fidelity and I got into the car.
"Seatbelt on Fidelity" I instructed, "Even minor spirits of virtue have to obey our traffic laws I joked"
"Yes Graeme" she said nervously
"Sorry, Fidelity, that was meant as a joke" I apologised. I had forgotten, that Fidelity had revealed that Yagel was never above using his fists, should she infract the tiniest rule. Like most abused children, she had thought it was normal.
I pulled out, and soon we were on the road up to Jesmond where her hostel was. She hated it there, but there was no way I could put her up in my apartment. It was too small for one thing and second, it would have attracted the wrong sort of attention, and third, as a fixer, who knows who might drop by. Even people from this world could be unpleasant, let alone beings from the Mystical Realms.
As we drove along, I got the impression we were being followed by a black Ford car, but then it pulled off before we reached the Jesomond turn off. Maybe I was a tad paranoid.
I dropped her off a the hostel, and as ever felt a right heel.
For some unknown reason, I waited for a while, in case that Ford car showed up, but it never did. Eventually I drove home.
++++
In the days of the cold war, in the Eastern Block countries, there was always the fear of the midnight knock at the door.
Well this was a phone call
At about 4:30 AM
I picked the phone up to hear an Irish voice
"Get out now, they are coming for you. Find the Spirit of Fidelity they are coming for her too" Then it hung up.
Thanks to my career as a fixer, and my involvement with the Mystical Realms, I always had a just-in-case bag, the laptop in its case and I slept fully clothed.
I got up, but had no choice but to answer the call of nature, then I was out in the hall way and out the back door in 10 minutes.
It must be the Orcs, something must be going bad in the Mystical Realms, if they were sending entities to get me, just like seven years ago when I was dragged there by the trolls.
I found my car and threw my just-in-case bag and laptop on the back seat.
I got in the car and started the engine and pulled out the locator of dimension jump orbs that the Prince Low Troll had passed on to me.
It was blank, normally it would glow orange when an entity was coming into our world, but it was blank.
Suddenly I noticed two black vans coming along one of the main roads, they were coming to our apartment block. I switched off the engine and lay across the passenger seat, trying to see what was happening.
It looked like a raid by a unit of Special Branch. What was going on and who was that voice.
I restarted the engine, and started to drive slowly away. A fast get away would attract too much attention. I held my breath as I drove past one of the vans. As soon as I got to the junction and turned, I decided to put some distance between me and the apartment.
I then remembered what the voice on the phone, and headed for the hostel.
How did they know her full identity, only three of us knew. Myself, Fidelity and the coffee shop Manageress, and she only knew about the Mystical Realms because in 2001 she was present when I returned to our world after my deportion from there.
I arrived at the hostel at about 5:15 AM and found the night porter and asked where Faith was, he just mentioned that she had taken the early bus into work as she had an early shift and did not want to bother me.
I drove to the bus stop, which was empty. I got out of the car and read the time table. It had gone ten minutes previously. Then I noticed similar vans head back towards the hostel.
I got back in the car and headed for the city, and her coffee shop, but my way was blocked by a road accident, so had to divert via Spital Tongues.
It was the longest drive of my life
What was happening?
I managed to find my way to the city centre
It was 5:45 AM
I parked and ran to the coffee shop, only to find it open and the manageress sitting dazed.
"What happened?" I demanded to know.
"It was the anti terrorism police" she whimpered "She had just changed into her uniform when they fired a taser at her without warning"
"WHAT?" I shouted in incredulity."
The manageress turned to me, still confused, "They said if they had given any warning then she would have remotely detonated a bomb"
"You know that's a lie, she is a sixteen year old girl, she is not even fully human, let alone an Al Quieda terrorist"
The manageress got up, and headed for the phone "I need to phone Trevor and ask him to cover" she said still in a state of shock.
I headed for the car, looking al the while to see if I was being followed. So far no sign.
I got into the car.
Suddenly I felt the muzzle of a 9mm automatic in the back of my neck
A voice from the back, the same one as the one on the telephone
"Drive" he said
To Be continued