[Sticks]

Episode II – Home Truths

Many people have different nightmares, like being trapped in a pit of snakes. For the hero in 1984, his nightmare was rats. These nightmares are fuelled by phobias some irrational like the fear of alien abduction, some by conventional phobias like claustrophobia leading to the nightmare of being buried alive. For the most part these nightmares remain just in the back of the mind and mercifully never come to pass.

For Jenny Green, a manager of a coffee shop in a North Eastern city in England, however, the last twenty four hours has been a living nightmare, a violent sexual assault, an uncaring CID officer, and now a home invasion and captured and trussed up naked and blindfolded, possibly by friends of the person who has assaulted her

“Please, I won’t testify against your friend, honest” Jenny wailed and broke down in tears as she law trussed up on the floor. The cable ties were biting into her wrists and ankles, and she was in incredible pain, as well as being cold.

She had just heard the American express surprise that she was still alive; maybe he had been given the honour of silencing her for good. Maybe if she were lucky they would just ….

Her thoughts were scattered when she heard a switch go on, and what must be several fluorescent tubes come on. She had been left tied up naked in a darkened room, and only because of the painful blindfold she had not been able to tell.

“WHAT THE HECK?” She heard him exclaim, then she heard him turn away from facing her and speaking to someone else. “Do I look like Mr Blue, have you morons learned nothing from last year’s fiasco”

Another voice came over some intercom system, it was a London accent, “Colonel, this is standard operating procedure until we establish if the target is human or an eye dee ee”

So the American was a colonel, Jenny thought, but what in, the army or the marines, her fiancé Darren, killed in a roadside bomb in Afghanistan had taught her a lot about life in the armed forces. Jenny could tell, well it was obvious really that the colonel was angry about, something, was it something she had done wrong?

“Sorry, I’m sorry I did not mean to speak to the police, someone else called them, it wasn’t me” she whimpered.

The American colonel seemed to be ignoring her pleas and was talking back to the intercom voice “Your procedure not mine, what makes you think she is not human”

“Like you said sir, the target survived an attack by an aitch eye dee ee forty seven, no human ever has, so protocol insists the target is treated as an enemy aitch eye dee ee forty seven until they are proved to be human”

Jenny heard the colonel mutter some swear words under his breath, then he harangued the intercom voice again “You do this, and you Brits still can not understand why you are not allowed to run the show at your end”

Silence and then more swearing, then the colonel in a measured tone spoke to the intercom voice again, “Tell me, was she sedated in helo?”

The intercom voice replied “Yes the target was sedated in the Facility’s retrieval helicopter in accordance with official procedures, although the target did start to come round and had to be re-sedated”

“Tell me Mr Carvel, have you ever known an aitch eye dee ee forty seven to not resume it’s natural form while sedated, based on last year’s fiascos”

“Ah – not that I recall”

“So do ya think that you may, may have just picked up a human female?”

“It’s protocol”

“DON’T GIVE ME THAT PROTOCOL CRAP” the American colonel was really getting annoyed.

Jenny had shut up, he was not listening to her anyway, and was more interested in having an argument with the voice on the intercom while she was lying on the floor, shivering and in pain. But why were they doubting she was human, that just did not make sense, of course she was human. Jenny just sobbed quietly and wished they would hurry up and kill her if that was what they were going to do.

“Colonel, we still need to make sure the target is human, and we are still awaiting the test results from tissue samples to come back from the lab”

Jenny heard the colonel swear under his breath and then she could hear him approach her, she tried as best as she could to move away from him, but he was too fast. But instead of the kicking she thought she would get, or even further molestation like the man had briefly done to her in the helicopter, he just pulled off her blindfold, which still hurt because of the bruising around her battered face.

It took a while for her eyes to adjust, until then everything was fuzzy. She was in some kind of well lit interview room with a table and two chairs in it. The figure, presumably the colonel walked back to what seemed like a mirror.

The colonel was pressing some kind of button on what looked like a microphone that was on the metal table.

“Ok you morons, you may get your jollies from looking at naked women trussed up like this, but I don’t and as an interrogator I find it distracting”

“Alleged naked women” corrected the intercom voice, “we are still awaiting the lab results”

“Don’t give me that alleged crap; I want you to get her, it some clothes for a female, including underwear and footwear”

Jenny saw the colonel look at her naked body, “Please, I’m sorry” was all she could say

“It looks like her bra size is a 31 double Dee shoe size ten” The Colonel said into the microphone, then the colonel turned to Jenney and asked, “That’s your right size isn’t it”

“That’s wrong,” Jenny thought she was not big, for a 23 year old woman in fact she was quite small. Jenny was frightened to contradict colonel but if he was ordering clothes for her then at least she would like them to fit “No sir, I’m only a 30 C and shoe size eight” she nervously told the colonel in weak and tearful voice.

The colonel dropped his voice, “Yes of course you are” then he turned back to the microphone, “Correction, make that bra size a 30C and shoe size eight for this confirmed human female”

“Confirmed human?” quizzed the intercom voice, “We still have”

The colonel interrupted, “Confirmed because you morons, an aitch eye dee ee forty seven is a shape shifter who can make it’s body fit what ever clothing it is given, except it does not wear clothing it mimics it. This woman contradicted me when I deliberately overstated her bra and shoe size, that is proof positive to me she is human, now get you butts out of that booth there and get me those clothes and get me a Doctor Alison ASAP”

Jenny was confused, this American colonel, sent to interrogate her seemed to be sticking up for her. Suddenly as her eyes re adjusted to the light, she saw him more clearly, he was wearing a light military jacket, had silver hair and looked like he was in his early fifties, and suddenly he was coming across to her with a knife.

“Please no, I won’t testify against you friend” she pleaded, sobbing her eyes out in terror.

Jenny tried again to move, but it made the cable ties bite even more, she let out a scream of “Please no, I’m sorry”, as the colonel squatted over her and with the knife

But instead of stabbing her or slicing her open, he cut her hands free from the cable tie around her wrists and then as she lay stunned and shocked and sobbing, he cut her feet free from the cable tie holding them as well.

Jenny slowly sat up, as she did so the colonel spoke to her in a softer manner than he had been speaking to the voice on the intercom, “Don’t try to stand just yet, otherwise you may suffer a grey out” then he removed his jacket and held it for her to put on, first her left arm and then her right arm. She tried to button it up but her fingers were exploding with the sensation of pins and needles and her hands were shaking for some reason, so the colonel gently took over, the jacket was warm and a blessed relief, it even covered to half way down her thighs. It was now that Jenny realised she was shivering violently due to being cold and shock

“Flex your calf muscles” the colonel instructed her, “it will help your circulation.”

Jenny did not feel in a position to argue and meekly complied. The colonel looked at her lower legs as she flexed and whispered, “That’s a good girl”

“I’m sorry, I did not mean to talk to the police”, Jenny repeated, “I did not mean to get your friend into trouble”
“Believe me” the colonel started, “Jenny, can I call you Jenny?”
Jenny nodded and put her face in her hands, as she was now sobbing uncontrollably
“Jenny, what ever attacked you in the street was certainly no friend of ours”

”Whatever” Did he not mean “Whoever” Jenny thought, but he definitely said “whatever”

Then Jenny remembered the man in the helicopter who had touched her then bare breast, that had been just as bad a violation as the initial attack, but with everything being so confusing she could not help but raise it with this American who was finally showing her some humanity “What about the man, the man in the helicopter the man who touched me” asked through her tears, “he groped me here” she added pointing to where the man had indecently touched her.

The colonel seemed shocked, “I sorry Jenny, I did not know about that, we will have to get to the bottom of that one too. I promise you, that man will be removed from duty here if I have anything to do with it.”

Jenny just nodded and sobbed a thank you

After about three or four long minutes, a lady entered the room, also in similar combat fatigues, with a medical case and she and the colonel gently helped Jenny to her feet, and helped her to a chair. The lady medic shone a small penlight in Jenny’s eyes and Jenny winced at the light.

“Doctor Alison, I do not believe she is in a fit state to be interrogated right now, thanks to the so called retrieval team”
“Yes sir, Colonel Peters I concur”, the female medic replied, she was American too. “I need to get her to the infirmary.
At this Jenny tried to stand, but found she felt dizzy and was just too weak and collapsed on the chair, still crying, she was hungry now and did not know how long it was since she had last eaten. She had not been allowed to eat at the hospital before she had been cleared to by the doctor, and by that time the early lunch time was over.

Jenny tried again, but things were catching up and she started apologising

She went to try and get up again, but the colonel held her down, “Don’t worry Jenny” the colonel told her, “I will help you get there with Doctor Alison”

Together the two Americans helped Jenny to her feet and helped carry her out of the room into a long corridor. Then they went to the end where there was a lift. Once in the lift the colonel took out a key and the lift started to descend several levels. Jenny lost count, as now she was slipping in and out of consciousness. She could just make out that the female doctor was saying something into a walkie-talkie, but she could not make out what

The lift doors opened and Jenny was vaguely aware of being sat in a wheel chair, and a blanket being placed on her lap and being wheeled down another corridor and into some kind of medical room. Then she was helped some other medical persons, she could not make out who, onto a hospital style bed. A female nurse pulled a screen around the bed and started presented Jenny with a standard issue hospital gown.
“You need to be changed out of that jacket into this” the nurse told her, “I can help you if wish”
Jenny did not think there was any point in protesting, she was out numbered and so she tried to undo the buttons, but for some reason they seemed more difficult than usual, and the nurse had to assist. The nurse also had to hold Jenny’s arm up while the nurse slipped off the jacket.

The nurse helped Jenny put her arms through the sleeves of the hospital gown, and then the nurse tied her up at the back. She helped Jenny lift and swing her feet onto the bed and Jenny lay there while they tucked the blankets in around her. All the time tears were streaming from Jenny’s eyes as she kept repeating, “What did I do wrong?”

“Jenny” the American doctor told her, although by now it seemed as she was hearing her as if she was at the bottom of a well, “we are going to have to put you on an intravenous glucose and saline drip in your left hand”

Jenny felt the sting of the needle go into her left hand, but now she was feeling too weak to do anything, all she wanted to do was sleep, praying she would wake up from this nightmare, but she did not dare, in case that got her into more trouble. In the distance she could hear the Colonel asking the doctor to keep her in overnight and let him know when she was ready and that he would be having words with the retrieval team. Then she heard him leave

“Please, what did I do wrong” Jenny asked, then for good measure “What ever it is I’m sorry”

The female doctor came over and pulled up a chair by her bed and sat down, “You don’t need to upset yourself, I don’t think you have done any thing wrong, now get some rest and don’t worry, no one will touch you”

“But I need to call work, let them know where I am, I don’t want to loose my job” Jenny protested, forgetting for the moment that her employer had granted her sick leave.

The doctor could see that Jenny was still in a distressed state, and so through the drip, she administered a sedative so Jenny could get some much needed sleep.

+ + + +

Jenny slowly woke up, she noticed a few extra blankets had been placed on her bed, and the drip had been removed from her left hand. Jenny started to sit up.

“You awake Miss Green?” came an unfamiliar female voice.

Jenny looked around, it was a nurse, and she looked like she was of Afro Caribbean origin and in her late forties, “Yes mam” Jenny replied

“And how are we feeling this morning Miss Green” asked the nurse

“Not as weak as I was” Jenny replied, as she felt some of her strength had returned to her compared with when she was first released from the cable ties

“That would have been the Glucose IV Miss Green, you were severely suffering hypoglycaemia and you were dehydrated”

Jenny had only heard as far as the word hypoglycaemia, “But I’m not diabetic” Jenny queried
“You had not eaten or drunk anything for over a day and those stupid men did not give you a blanket until halfway during the helicopter flight here Miss Green, no wonder you were collapsing. The colonel went on the war path, especially after the way they left you trussed up in the interview room the way they did”
“Oh” was all that Jenny could say, then suddenly she realised she needed to answer the call of nature, “Where’s the bathroom?”

The nurse pointed to a door, “It is through there Miss Green, along with the shower, now you get washed and I will leave the clothes they sent over on the bed for you”

With the nurse’s help, Jenny slowly got off of the bed and went into the bathroom. After using the toilet, Jenny took of the hospital gown and stepped into the shower. The water was cold at first and Jenny jumped out instinctively, then it heated up and Jenny got back into the shower. The water still stung where it hit the cut above her eye that had been stitched at the hospital. She found the soap bar, it look like the kind you used to get on railway trains. She was more used to shower gel but this would have to do. There was a small sachet of shampoo which she used as well. Slowly she showered, slowly, because she was still in pain from the injuries caused by the man who had initially attacked her. She could see all the bruising now coming up and it looked awful. There was also bruising around her wrists and ankles from the cable ties she had been bound in. Jenny just wanted to cry, and kept wondering what she had done to deserve all this pain and hurt.

Eventually Jenny finished in the shower and grabbed a towel and started drying herself. It was not big enough to wrap around her, so she hung it back up after she had done her best to dry herself, and put the hospital gown back on, with out tying it at the back and left the bathroom. At the bed she had slept in, a pile of clothes had been left for her to change into.

The first item she put on was the panties, they were a perfect fit and that felt good . Next she removed the hospital gown and tried to put on the bra, it was a perfect fit, but when she tried to do it up, the pain in her arms was unbearable, and she yelped in pain. This drew the attention of the nurse, who came to investigate. Jenny started to remove it thinking she would just have to do without, but the nurse would not hear of it and helped Jenny by doing it up for her. That felt good as well . The nurse left her to continue dressing and so next was a grey sweatshirt and it felt really warm against her skin. There was a pair of trousers, of the same material, which Jenny put on. Jenny would have preferred a skirt, but she remembered the old adage, “beggars can’t be choosers”, but they felt good as well

Being dressed like this really made Jenny feel slightly better in herself, as she had not considered herself dressed properly since before she was attacked two nights previously. The last item to put on, was not so pleasant, not because of the material, but because of the colour and all that it signified, it was an orange jump suit, similar to the ones she had seen prisoners wear on television. It had been provided, so meekly Jenny put it on, and as she did the buttons up, she started to quietly sob. She looked for shoes and socks, but there were none.

“Are you decent love” the nurse asked.
“Yes Mam” Jenny replied, “but I can not find any shoes or socks”
“Sorry love, that is all they left”

The nurse then pulled back the screen revealing a small table and chair, with a bowel of something on the table with a carafe of water and an empty glass and a spoon. Jenny went across to it and slowly sat down and looked at it. It was porridge.

“I had it cooked this morning special for you love, and I added a big spoon of honey as well” the nurse told her.

Jenny could not remember when she last ate, and even though she did not normally eat porridge, she tucked in. It was just good to eat something, and Jenny found herself crying as she ate. When she finished, the nurse clear the bowel away and called someone on the intercom to collect her.

After five minutes, a man in his mid thirties, in a grey suit arrived with what looked like two MPs or military policeman; he was carrying a set of manacles, which composed of handcuffs linked by a long chain to leg irons.
“I am required to put these on you before escorting you to interrogation” the man said. Jenny recognised it as Mr Carvel the voice on the intercom the previous day

Jenny looked at the manacles in horror, but said nothing and just let herself be shackled, while tears continued to roll down her face, and she could not understand what law she had broken or why she was being treated as a criminal. Then to add to the humiliation, Mr Carvel placed an eye shield on her, similar to the ones given on long haul airlines as a blind fold

As she shuffled along, to the lift the leg irons chaffed on her ankles and hurt her. The handcuffs whilst better than the cable-ties still hurt her wrists. The MP’s on either side of her held her upper arms tightly, hurting them as they were still bruised from the initial attack. Jenny just hung her head down at the floor and wept. She could hear that Mr Carvel was in front.

“What ever I did I’m sorry” was all that Jenny could say,

“The prisoner will be quiet or they will be gagged” Mr Carvel replied, so Jenny shut up

They got into the lift and Mr Carvel put in a key and the lift started ascending, but being blindfolded Jenny could not tell how far.

The lift door opened, and Jenny felt her self shoved by the two MP’s to get her shuffling along some corridor. It was tiled and her bare feet were cold, as there was some kind of draft.

Suddenly the two MP’s pulled her backwards to stop her walking. Their iron grips cause her to yelp in pain.

“In here” She heard Mr Carvel say, and then the MP’s pushed her sideways through a door, then they manhandled her to what seemed like the centre of the room and forced her to sit down on a hard chair. Then she felt them force her arms onto the table and the chain between handcuffs was locked to the table
“Do we remove the blindfold” Jenny heard one of the MP’s ask
“No” Carvel replied, “That will be up to Colonel Peters, some believe it makes them more compliant to answer questions”

The Jenny heard them head back to the doorway, she was petrified, were they going to hit her around the head if they did not like her answers?
“Ah Colonel” Came Mr Carvel’s voice, “the prisoner is prepped and ready for your interrogation”
“Prisoner?” Jenny heard the colonel ask Mr Carvel
“Yes, the woman the retrieval unit collected yesterday” Carvel replied
“So your lab results finally came back” The colonel asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice
“Yes sir, first thing this morning”
“And”
“They confirmed your assessment colonel”
“I told you she was” the colonel started, then suddenly stopped. Jenny heard someone being slapped
“GET THOSE DAMN THINGS OFF OF HER NOW” shouted the colonel
“Sorry sir, I do not have a key, it’s the security protocol”
“THEN GET IT NOW”
“But?”
“THAT WAS NOT A SUGGESTION”

Jenny heard the door close and some one walk up to her, suddenly the blindfold was removed. It was the colonel; he threw the blindfold into a waste bin in disgust and sat down on a chair on the opposite side of the table. Behind him was what appeared to be a large mirror.

“Jenny, first of all, my name is Colonel Samuel Peters on loan from the US Marines Special operations unit” the colonel opened with
Jenny flinched away from the colonel as much as she could, in the restraints she was in, “I’ll tell you what I know, please don’t hit me”
“I don’t use those techniques, I am not going to assault you or hit you” replied the colonel, “That was under the old management” he added.
“Sir” Jenny then asked, still quite tearful, “What am I being charged with?”
The colonel sighed and looked at the manacles on Jenny’s wrists.
“Sir” Jenny begged, “Do I need a lawyer?”
“Why do you think you need a lawyer?” The colonel asked, leaning forward at the table
“I just thought all those who were arrested got a lawyer” Jenny explained.
“Jenny, you were not arrested, you were retrieved” For some reason the colonel was emphasising the word retrieved
“I don’t understand sir, if I am not under arrest, why did that man say I was a prisoner and why am I in these” Jenny held her hands as far above the table as she could, which was three inches”
“Jenny, officially you are in protective custody in case your attacker decides to finish the job” The colonel replied, “unofficially you are being held on grounds of national security”
“But sir, I don’t know anyone who’s a terrorist, I am just a manager of a coffee shop, I’m not a threat to anyone, I would not hurt a ” then Jenny choked to a stop How could this be happening to her
“We know”
“But what have I done Sir, I don’t understand, what ever it was I’m sorry I did not mean to do it”

The colonel just stared at Jenny, as she racked her brain to try and work out how she could possibly fallen foul of some unknown patriot act, she even thought she might be shipped to Camp X-Ray in Guantánamo Bay.

“Sir, if it is about Darren Wright, I loved him, I would never have done anything to have harmed him. I did not even know where in Afghanistan he was when he was killed” Jenny whined, thinking it had to be something to do with her dead fiancé.

“This is nothing to do with the death of Lance Corporal Wright, Jenny. It is to do with how come you survived an attack by a dangerous entity, when all previous attacks were fatal”
“What?”

The colonel stared at her and then looked at his watch, then fished out a small radio and spoke into it, “Where are those damn keys?” Then he opened a folder he had on the table and pulled out a photograph, and showed it to Jenny. “Have you seen a creature like this one” then he added, it was taken of a captured one last year”

Jenny looked at the image of a tall and skinny grey skinned creature in some prison cell

[img=100x250]http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG67b.jpg[/img]

Jenny recognised the form, it looked exactly like the creature the man who assaulted her seemed to have turned into when she was lying on the ground. But she thought she had been hallucinating at the time.

The colonel saw that Jenny had recognised the creature “So you did see it”
“But I thought I was hallucinating sir” Jenny replied
“You weren’t, it is what we call an aitch eye dee ee forty seven, they are shape shifters, and in some circles they are called doppelgangers”
“What?, are you saying I was attacked by ET” Jenny asked, still confused at everything that was going on
“Not an ET, it is what we call an inter dimensional entity, an entity from a specific parallel universe, and in the case of these types we sub classify them as Hostile Inter Dimensional Entities. As this is the forty seventh one catalogued it is called an aitch eye dee ee forty seven”

Jenny shook her head in denial; shape shifting inter dimensional beings, parallel universes? This had to be a sick joke right? But still she could remember, her attacker had briefly changed into that grey figure in the photograph

Jenny’s tears were in full flow, “I did not mean to do anything wrong, I was just locking up and the thing attacked me” then she laid he head on the table and sobbed Why was she being punished for being attacked by a man that was really some creature they were now saying was not even from this universe

Then Jenny felt colonel Peters gently take hold of her left hand, “Jenny I don’t think you have done anything wrong, we are just curious as to why you survived when the all the previous attacks by these creatures has been fatal”
Jenny lifted her head slowly “Someone saved me. Someone came and beat him off with a curtain rail”
“Jenny, that creature could have ripped your head off in seconds and dealt with your rescuer in one go. I saw the CCTV in the street, what your rescuer did was nothing to what we know those creatures can withstand”
“Is that why he was so strong”
“Uh huh, but it was pulling it’s punches and we don’t know why”
“I don’t know sir that is what I told the police, I just don’t know why I was attacked, I just thought he wanted to rape me” Jenny sobbed.

KNOCK KNOCK

Colonel Peters got up and opened the door, there was another man, Jenny had not seen him before he had black hair and was dressed in casual clothes with a similar military style jacket, but unlike the colonel this was not done up. This new man was holding a bunch of keys, “Hey Sam” the man said, he was another American, Who was in charge, the British or the Americans , “Look what that grumpy Mr Carvel sent over”
“Mark, Go over and release our guest here, then find out why she has not got any the footwear I ordered” Colonel Peters told the man, then he turned to Jenny, “This is commander Mark Johnston, my right hand man, we served together in Iraq”

Commander Mark walked over to the table and unlocked the lock holding the handcuffs to the table, and then he released Jenny from the handcuffs as she just held them out submissively.
“I’m truly sorry they did this to you Miss Green” Mark told her as he released her feet from the shackles, and then took them away.

“Thank you” Jenny replied

Then Mark continued, “I just thought you would like to know that the man who indecently touched you in the helicopter has been returned to his parent branch of the armed services, SBS I believe, although if the colonel and I had our way he would have been court marshalled”

Jenny just sat there, too upset to speak, it seemed that all that happened was that the man who had violated her in the helicopter had just got a slap on the wrist.

Colonel Peters explained “I found out who it was from the flight surgeon on the helicopter. The pilot and co-pilot did not see anything. The man who at least put a blanket over you after it happened confirmed with the guy who touched you, they all for some reason had been told you might be an aitch eye dee ee forty seven, which is why we could not take any further action against him.”

“Sam, what about the team leader, any sign of him” asked Mark
Colonel Peters shook his head, “no one seems to have heard from him since they went off duty once they delivered Jenny. I can not see how dragging him back here will achieve anything, since we have got rid of the idiot who molested Jenny”

“First name terms now Sam” Queried Commander Mark
“Are you still here, I asked for footwear for this lady and they did not deliver. I want what I asked for”
“On it now Sam” replied Commander Mark, and left the interview room.

Jenny was now alone again with Colonel Peters and she was still crying, she was scared, but at least she was out of the shackles..
“Orange really does not suit you Jenny” The colonel re-opened with,
“Sorry sir” Jenny replied and assuming this was some kind of order, to Colonel Peters surprise, she stood up and in some pain, took off the jump suit, dropped it on the floor and sat down again “Sorry sir” Jenny repeated, I thought I was supposed to wear it as it was provided but it made me feel I was being charged with something because this is what criminals wear in” again Jenny could not finish her sentence as she broke down.

Colonel Peters waited for Jenny to recover, and then told her “It’s these Brits, they screwed up big time last year and we have been trying to get them back on an even keel. You should not have been chained up, you should not have been blind folded, in fact we should have been doing this interview in your native city up north. It looks like the Brits still seem to be working to an out of date manual”

“May I go home please” Jenny pleaded

“All in good time, I still need some answers from you”
“But I do not know why he – it attacked me, I don’t know why I am still alive, I don’t know anything sir”

Colonel Peters sighed and scratched the back of his head, “Ok Jenny, lets back up, did you ever hear the term Mystical Realms mentioned”

Jenny stared at the table then remembered she had heard the term, “Yes sir, once”
“Where?”
“It was some months ago, in the coffee shop where I work, before my former boss, Angela left”
“That would be Angela Andrews?” Asked the colonel
Jenny was surprised that he knew her name and a bit freaked out, “You know her too”
“We have a file on her, now about this mention of Mystical Realms”
“Are you going to pick her up as well”
“We have no plans to at this time, now where did you hear about the Mystical Realms”
“Oh sorry sir, it was Sarah who mentioned it, the poor child who’s father was murdered in New Zealand and the only relative she had was my former boss’s husband. She mentioned it one rainy afternoon in the coffee shop when she was drawing with er Mr Andrews, she said she had been there. He seemed to change the subject very quickly and asked her about her favourite zoo animal”
“That it?”
“Yes sir, I just assumed it was some fantasy land that children make up. Did you know that child was desperate for Angela and Mr Andrews to be her parents, she told me so when Angela and Mr Andrews got married, she kept going on about the law not allowing her to call them mummy and daddy, she…”
“Jenny” Colonel Peters cut in, “The Mystical Realms is not some child’s fantasy land. Remember that parallel alternate dimension I mentioned?”
“Yes sir”
“It is the dimension that the aitch eye dee ee forty seven, comes from. That is what the inhabitants of that place call it”
“What?”
“Jenny, it is where Graeme has been more than once and it was where Graeme and Angela found Sarah”
“I thought Sarah was a normal human girl” Jenny queried
“She is human, a rouge Eye Dee EE gated from that universe onto the plane she was on, slaughtered the other passengers and crew, including her farther, who was her last surviving parent and dragged her back to his world”
“They never told me this, and I thought I was Angela’s closest friend” Jenny replied, feeling slightly betrayed that she had been lied to about Sarah’s true origin.
“Jenny, and if she had told you would you have believed her? If the roles had been reversed, would you have not kept quiet about it and gone with the cover story you had been given”
“I guess you are right sir”
“Don’t be too hard on them Jenny, they thought they were doing the right thing and, indirectly they have been very helpful to us” Then the colonel turned to look at the mirror, “Oh and by the way just to let you jokers back there know, Shamus was very well aware of your scheme to manipulate him in getting the Andrews to move to the O’Docherty farm, in fact he showed me the file he has on your surveillance team. He only went along with it because he knew the O’Docherty’s would be able to help the Andrews through the process to adopt Sarah, and he knew that they would love it down there. It is stupid games like that, and the way you treated Miss Green here, that keep you from running the UK end on your own”

The Colonel turned back to face Jenny. Jenny was astonished at the kind of games these people were playing with people’s lives.
“You mean Graeme, Angela and Sarah fled to Ireland because they were manipulated to go there”
“Yes and no, but I don’t think I heard of them complaining about living there, According to Shamus McTuckle they actually love it down there and have no regrets about moving”
“Shamus, he’s the dwarf guy I met when I went to see the finalisation of Sarah’s adoption”
“Leprechaun actually, he is what we call a Friendly Inter Dimensional entity, he works for the Irish Special diplomatic service”
“You have got to be kidding”
“Nope, Shamus informed us how leprechauns working for G2, the Irish Military intelligence service, were keeping tabs on the Brits and would not allow the Brits to harm them in any way, which was why all the British listening devices never worked. They never informed the Andrews or the O’Dochertys because they had the matter under control”
“But my cousin told me he could have arranged for them to adopt Sarah here in the UK, although I did think when I visited that it was a nicer place for Sarah to grow up in”
“Exactly Jenny, which brings me back to your attack”
“But I don’t understand, what has that to do with the Andrews family” Jenny was now concerned.
“It is possible, that you were not the intended target, that they may have thought you were Angela” explained Colonel Peters
“What? But Angela has been gone for months, she is not even working now, in her last letter she told me she is enjoying the life of a stay at home mother looking after Sarah and Paul her baby son”
“Jenny, it is believed by some here that the creature or who ever hired it was working to out of date intel”
“Hired it?” Jenny was getting even more confused
“Jenny, these creatures are normally mercenaries, assassins working for the highest bidder. They don’t normally engage in actions on their own initiative”
“Why would some one want to hire one to attack me or Angela” Then it hit Jenny what all this could mean and she started to panic, “You’ve got to warn them, Angela and the Children”
“The G2 are aware of the situation and are keeping tabs on them just in case, but if we warn them, they may go on the run and we won’t be able to protect them” Colonel Peters explained then continued, “but getting back to your question, why would some one want to hire one to attack you or Angela, revenge possibly, someone trying to get at Graeme through attacking Angela. Do you recall any suspicious characters hanging around your coffee shop, anyone asking about Angela, Graeme or Sarah?”

Jenny wracked her memory; it had been nine to ten months since Angela had left. “Sir there were the odd regulars who asked after Angela after she left, but when they were told she had resigned they made no further comment, just like when any member of staff leaves, it did not seem out of the ordinary”
“Do you have their names?”
“Only first names sir, but I swear it was just the usual question that is asked when any member of the crew leaves”
“What makes you so sure?”
“I know them sir; they are regulars and they said no more about it and forgot about her”
“Now I won’t ask if anyone asked you if you knew where they had moved to, because the attack would have taken place in Ireland”
Then Jenny had an idea “Sir, could I just have been attacked for the same reason a man would attack, pure sexual gratification” Jenny asked As appalling this idea was it would at least make some kind of sense rather than some strained conspiracy theory the colonel was exploring

“Sorry Jenny, that is not how aitch eye dee ee forty sevens work, they are not sexually stimulated by humans or any other creatures. In terms of reproduction they only mate with their own kind and then split up, leaving one of the pair to bring the child up alone”
“Sounds like some toe rags I know of” Jenny replied, “I recall one guy who claimed to have fathered five children by five different women and that they would keep their mouths shut to the CSA if they knew what was good for them”
“Except with the aitch eye dee ee forty seven, gender is ambiguous as they tend to be hermaphrodites” Colonel Peters explained
“Oh, sorry sir”
“Jenny?”
“Yes sir?”
“You don’t need to keep calling me sir, Samuel or Sam will do. You make me feel old”
“Sorry ss err Samuel”
“Ok Jenny, since Angela left any suspicious characters full stop”
“No Samuel” Then Jenny started wracking her memory again, “Wait there was this one guy”
“Go on”
“He was some fat guy that started coming in, but this was well after Angela had left and he never mentioned her. He once asked me out, but I noticed he had a wedding ring on his finger and I did not want to do that to another woman so I pointed it out and he told me that she was in some nursing home and would not notice. I showed him the engagement ring Darren had given me, and he just said he would not tell if I did not, then dropped the matter. I really felt awkward around him as he gave me the creeps so I always made sure someone else served him”
“You could have banned him from the shop if he intimidated you” Colonel Peters suggested
“He had not technically done anything other than chat me up and creep me out, and as I had found a way to try and avoid him I didn’t think I could justify it. But he was a normal guy, I swear – er Samuel” Jenny found it really strange not calling the colonel sir, as this went against what she was brought up to do and the way she was taught to speak to customers
“Fat guy huh?” Colonel Peters commented, then the colonel looked through the folder on the table, he fished out another photo and handed it to Jenny.

To her shock and horror it was a CCTV image of her, just after the attack. There she was, lying on the ground outside the shop with her clothes ripped off, her rescuer taking off his jacket, there was the old woman coming up to stop him covering her with his jacket, and there was the fat man who had the mobile.

Suddenly Jenny suffered flashbacks to the attack, it was like she was back there, she found she had trouble breathing, she felt sick, she felt faint, she felt dizzy, her heart was racing, she wanted to scream. Jenny was having a full blown panic attack, she dropped the photograph and started gasping for breath as she began to hyperventilate.

Colonel Peters quickly retrieved the photograph then rushed around to Jenny’s chair and gently put his hands on Jenny’s upper arms and whispered into her ear, “Jenny you’re safe now, now take deep slow breaths, cup your hands and breath into them”
Jenny did her best to comply with what she had been asked to do, and yet again she found herself sobbing and shaking.
“Breathe slowly Jenny” repeated Colonel Peters, Jenny continued to try and comply against the urge to breath rapidly.
The intercom came on “Do you need the doctor, colonel” Another British voice
“No, she is just having a panic attack, I’m handling it” Colonel Peters replied

Jenny at last started to recover, “I sorry sir” Jenny wept, “I felt I was back there, when that man or thing attacked me”
“I’m sorry Jenny; I should not have shown you the full image” Colonel Peters apologised, “at least your reaction proves you were telling the truth”
“You mean you thought I was making this all up” Jenny asked with incredulity
“Well I never doubted you because these sons of bitches are devious and we don’t know why it didn’t kill you” Colonel Peters reassured her, “Now I need to show you a close up of one of the figures in the image, can you handle that”
Jenny nodded and wiped her eyes with a tissue Colonel Peters handed to her, they were still painful from the beating she had suffered.

Without leaving Jenny’s side, Colonel Peters reached for the folder and pulled out another photo and handed it to Jenny. It was a grey and fuzzy picture of the man who had leant out his mobile phone to call the police. As Jenny looked at it, it seemed very familiar. “That’s him” Jenny sobbed, “That’s the guy who tried to chat me up”

Colonel Peters took the photograph away and collected the others and placed them back in the folder, for the moment there was nothing further he could get from Jenny, she clearly did not know anything and was just as confused as they were at the Facility. Nothing was adding up here

KNOCK KNOCK

“WHAT?” Colonel Peters shouted

The door opened and it was the commander with a large carrier bag, Colonel Peters waved for him to come in.

Commander Mark walked up to the table and put some black ladies shoes on the table along side a pair of white socks.
“Sam, it seems that the Brits procedures were that prisoners are not allowed shoes so they can not kick and cause injuries to guards”
“So I am a prisoner” Jenny said weakly
“No you are not” Colonel Peters replied impatiently, “These stupid British rules and protocols again”
Commander Mark continued “And they even gave Jenny clothes they normally give to women serving jail sentences”
“What?” Jenny was starting to panic again, “What did I do?”
“Jenny” Colonel Peters told her, “You have done nothing wrong, those assholes have” he added pointing to the mirror”
Commander Mark pulled from the carrier what appeared to be a dark blue double breasted suit jacket in Jenny’s size and laid it on the table, and then he pulled a matching skirt and a white blouse. “Sam, I took the liberty of getting McCaskey to get Jenny here something more appropriate”
Jenny looked at the clothes, what she was wearing was comfortable, but that was tainted by the knowledge that they were prison issue, and the new clothes looked so good.
Commander Mark picked up the suit jacket, and speaking to his friend Colonel Peters he went on, “I remember I once had a girlfriend who wore one of these to a function with nothing on underneath. For a joke some of the lads got the doorman to demand she check the jacket in, and because it was an important function for me she did”
“That must have been embarrassing Mark” Colonel Peters remarked as he took his eyes off of Jenny for once and looked at the suit jacket.
“Well when she had removed it, she went in to the main reception topless, folding her arms to cover herself, and after ten minutes one of the lads produced a black golfing shirt for her to put on. I thought she looked good in it, but for some reason she split up with me after that”
“I wonder why” laughed Colonel Peters

This trip down memory lane was interrupted as they heard Jenny yelp in pain. Jenny had obviously misheard what the commander had said in his recollection, and in her over compliant state which she was in, had quietly removed the grey sweatshirt and in great pain, had just unsnapped the bra fastening at the back and was just in the process of pulling it off to what she thought the commander was telling her to wear. Her head was hanging forward in abject submission
“Whoa there Jenny” The Colonel interjected “he did not mean you to do that”
Jenny Froze, frightened and confused.
The commander also realised what had happened and that Jenny was still quite fragile what with the way the British members of the Facility had treated her, so he dropped the jacket . “Sorry Jenny” He apologised, “let me do that back up for you” and gently he pulled the bra straps back into place and refastened it
“Sorry sirs” Jenny whispered meekly

“You have nothing to apologise for Jenny” Commander Mark whispered into her ear
The commander picked up the blouse and got Jenny to put it on, this time Jenny was able to button it up. For some reason, because it was not prison issue it started to make her feel better in herself again. In her circle of friends the Americans were always billed as the bad guys, mainly due to the war in Iraq, but these were two who seemed like really nice people, even the interrogator.

“Once you change into that suit Jenny you will look absolutely a stunner” Mark told her
“Except for this sir” Jenny replied pointing to her facial injuries left by the creature.

“Mark, I think we should leave so Jenny can get changed” Colonel Peters told the commander, and then he went to the mirror and made a pointing gesture to the side. It must be one of those one way glasses Jenny thought and the Colonel was ordering the observers the to vacate the booth
“Ok Sam, anyway I wanted to let you know about the other matter McCaskey was handling” Commander Mark replied.

The two men left, leaving Jenny alone in the room. She changed into the skirt out of the trousers. She preferred skirts as they were more feminine, unlike her former boss Angela who in her earlier days was a bit of a Tom boy. Jenny reflected that motherhood, first with Sarah the daughter they adopted and then the baby had really suited Angela, and she had taken to being a stay at home mother quite readily. Who would have thought it.

Jenny put on the socks and then the shoes; they were quite comfortable compared to the ones she had lost when she was attacked. The Jacket was the last thing she put on, and she did it up and looked at herself in the mirror.

Commander Mark was right, she looked stunningly pretty and professional, well she would if it were not for the large black eyes, the gash over her eye, the fat lip and the other bruising.

Suddenly, there was some kind of rushing wind from the door. She felt some kind of air pressure pushing her away from it towards the wall at the other side of the room. Lightning sparks arced from the centre of the doorway to the ceiling and the ground, then there was a blue dot forming out of nowhere, which started to increase in side and then take on the appearance of a tunnel



As she felt herself pressed against the wall, Jenny watched in horror as a large humanoid creature, in armour approached through this magical tunnel that had opened up. Suddenly there was a sucking sound as the blue tunnel collapsed, leaving this large creature, about seven feet tall and almost as wide.



It looked mean
It looked scary
It was looking straight at Jenny. Jenny screamed in terror and sank to the floor. What the colonel had said about an alternate universe was true, and one of their creatures had just arrived to finish her off…

To be continued