This scene was mainly inspired by two things: the
hilarious 'Monkey Island' PC game and a splendid scene from the book
'Interesting Times' by Terry Pratchett...
Voices
by Miss Bit
Broots walked slowly down one of the long corridors at the Centre, balancing a
stack of papers in the one hand and his lunch in the other. His mind was still
busy with the last conversation he'd had with Sydney, so that it took him a
while to notice where he was.
He held his steps, watching his surroundings with some surprise. No one else was
around, and somehow this hallway seemed deserted to him. There was dust on the
floor, indicating that there hadn't been anyone around in quite some time.
Broots swallowed hard, trying to recall any of the blueprints of the Centre
buildings. Where the hell was he?
With a sigh he turned. It would probably be the best thing to walk back,
following his own footprints in the dust. Suddenly he heard something and froze
in his movements.
Footsteps. Someone else had to be here. Relieved, Broots called out.
"H-Hello?"
His voice sounded shaky and a little bit too loud in his ears.
"Is anybody here?"
There was no answer. He shrugged his shoulders, remembering only an instant too
late the papers in his hand.
"Oh no...", he groaned as he watched the whole pile falling down on
the floor. "Dammit!"
Broots bent down to collect the files. A few seconds later his head snapped up.
The sound of footsteps again, accompanied by muffled voices. It almost sounded
like the noises came from behind one of the walls... But that was impossible. He
shook his head, concentrating on the files in front of him. A nervous smile
tugged at the corners of his mouth. Maybe he needed a vacation.
The voices got louder. Broots was now able to discern two different voices, one
male, the other female. His smile grew a little wider. Ha, the female voice
almost sounded like that of... Within a heartbeat his smile vanished and he
shook his head again, stronger this time. 'She' would never do something like
this, especially not accompanied by a man whose voice sounded like...
Broots' curiosity got the better of him. He sneaked over to the wall, pressing
one of his ears against the cool stone. Silence was all he heard, but right at
the moment he decided to leave he suddenly heard one of the voices. For the
first time he could understand some words.
"... can't believe I'm doing this! I must have gone out of my mind",
said the woman who definitely wasn't Miss Parker.
"You mean more than usual?" replied a darker voice quite cheerfully.
Broots frowned. The man almost sounded like Jarod, but that was impossible, of
course. Not only would he never return to the Centre, but he definitely wouldn't
do that together with... No, he reminded himself, this woman can't be 'her'.
"Are you sure that there is no other way?" the woman asked, slight
anger evident in her voice.
"Well, that depends", the man responded, a trifle less cheerful.
"If you want us to get caught we can always..."
"Alright, alright, I get it", the female voice muttered. "Now
let's get it over with."
Broots pressed his ear closer to the wall, trying to understand more of what was
going on on the other side. It sounded like the steps were getting away from
him. Hastily he grabbed the papers off the floor and hurried to follow the
strange noises, forgetting his lunch in the empty hallway.
After a while, Broots heard a loud bump from the other side of the wall.
"Oh, ouch", the male voice said. "Why did you stop?"
"Show me what you got there", the other voice demanded adamantly.
"No! Why should I do that? It's none of your business. Go on."
Broots thought that the man sounded slightly embarrassed and was trying to
divert the woman's attention from whatever he didn't want her to see.
"It's slowing us down", the female voice insisted. "I won't go on
before I've seen what it is. Knowing you it's something of no value for our
mission at all."
"Oh, yeah? In fact it might be very important for the success of our
so-called mission", the man replied, sounding like a defiant six-year-old.
"Then show it to me."
"No."
Broots could hear the woman's exasperated sigh even through the wall.
"Fine. Keep your little... gadget, but let's go on now, okay?"
"Okay."
The man seemed to be relieved, easily accepting the offer. But only seconds
later Broots could hear his relief change into something closely resembling a
feeling of sheer panic. Another bump could be heard, a little louder than
before.
"What...? Hey, ouch! Leave me... No! Give that back to me!"
Indignation colored the man's voice. Broots' eyes grew wider.
"Ha, got it!" the woman called out triumphantly. "Now let's see
what it..." She fell silent for a long while, leaving Broots waiting
impatiently in the hallway.
"You brought a doll with you?" she finally asked, disbelief evident in
her voice. There was another pause. "And how, if I may ask, can this... toy
be of help for our task?"
The man mumbled something that Broots couldn't understand.
"What did you say?" the female voice demanded. Obviously she hadn't
got his answer either.
"I said it's not a toy", the male voice repeated, more confident this
time. "It's a very powerful weapon."
Another long pause.
"It's a doll", the woman repeated, obviously not ready to believe what
she saw. "This is so... Hey, wait a minute - it reminds me of someone. Let
me just check... Oh my god, it's got only nine fingers! You brought a doll with
you that looks exactly like Lyle! Have you lost your mind?"
Broots didn't dare breathe. He didn't want to miss one word of this.
"It's a voodoo doll", the man explained, though he sounded somewhat
reluctant.
"Oh, come on. Don't tell me you believe in this crap."
"It's not crap", the man replied, a sharp edge to his voice.
"No, of course not." The woman sighed again, and Broots pressed his
ear even closer to the wall.
"Listen, just give it back to me and we can go on, okay?"
"I simply can't believe it", the female voice muttered. Obviously she
hadn't listened to her companion. "What were you planning to do with it
anyway?"
"Uhm... I don't think I should tell you", was the hesitant answer to
her question.
"I think you should! A voodoo doll, my god. Knowing you this can only be
some weird kind of experiment! Everyone knows that it doesn't even work! Here,
I'll show you."
There was silence for a short instance, then a very soft thud and finally the
sound of a foot stamping on the ground. Broots could hear a sharp intake of
breath on the other side of the wall.
"Oh my god! You... you pierced it with your heel, right through its
stomach! Urgh, I think I'm going to be sick..."
"Oh, come on! The doll's perfectly alright, and so is Lyle. See, it only
lost some of its stuffing."
"How could you do this? What do you mean, just some of the stuffing? Oh
yuck, this is so disgusting!"
Broots bit his lower lip as he continued listening, trying to picture the
situation.
"You're so childish. Listen, nothing is going to happen just because I'm
playing with this doll."
"Playing?" The man's voice was full of disbelief. "I would call
that torture!"
"Hm, I wonder if you can..." Her voice trailed off, then suddenly she
shouted in triumph. "Just look, you can twist its arms all the way on its
little back! You know, this is more fun than I imagined. I'd love to think that
Lyle is going through this right now."
"Would you please give it back to me now? As much as I appreciate the
thought of Lyle going through immense pain - this is no fun at all! You don't
know what you're doing there! Besides, we came here for a reason,
remember?"
There was brief pause before the woman's voice could be heard again.
"What did you say? Oh, right. Let's go on. But... I'll keep this, if you
don't mind."
"I do mind!"
"I'll keep it anyway."
"Now that's a surprise, isn't it?" the man muttered. "Okay, fine,
keep it. But promise me not to do anything to it."
"Mhm", the woman murmured.
Broots thought that she didn't sound very convincing and wondered if there was
more to come. He decided to follow the voices, at least for a little longer.
Walking as closely to the wall as possible he went after the sound of the
footsteps. For about a minute no one said a word, but then the woman broke the
silence.
"Oh, oops."
"Oops? What do you mean by that? What happened?" Anxiety colored the
man's voice.
"Nothing, really. Nothing to worry about. Just go on." Her tone of
voice was easy, and she sounded rather amused than alarmed.
"Yeah, right. I know that you've done something. Why not tell me right now
and get it over with?" the male voice uttered gloomily.
"Here, have a look. I don't think this is supposed to happen, is it?"
There still was a trace of amusement in her voice, but Broots thought that she
also sounded a bit sheepish.
A long pause followed her words, causing Broots to get even closer to the wall,
shifting his weight from one leg to the other. What the hell was going on here?
And why had these people come here in the first place? Certainly not to quarrel
about a doll...
"No", the man finally answered rather slowly, his tone low and
somewhat weary, "this is not supposed to happen. You ripped its little arm
of, for heaven's sake! It's only doll! Even if it does resemble Lyle, you really
should treat it a little more carefully."
"This really upsets you", the female voice stated after a few seconds,
sounding surprised. "Look, I'm sorry, okay?"
The man grumbled something that Broots couldn't understand.
"It's okay with me", he then said. "But I doubt that Lyle would
agree on that."
"Here, take it back", the woman replied more softly than Broots had
expected. For the first time since he was listening to these two people she
sounded friendly. Why, even if it was impossible, right now she reminded him
more of Miss Parker than ever before.
"Maybe you were right and I shouldn't have brought it", the male voice
answered, only the slightest hint of surprise about her sudden change of mood
evident in his voice. "Once we get out of here I'll get rid of it."
"Okay, deal. Now let's finally do what we came for."
Broots listened as the sound of steps moved away from him. If he was not
mistaken, only one of the two people was moving, which left the other...
"Oh my, she really ripped its arm off", the male voice murmured
incredulously, then suddenly, Broots could hear another sharp intake of breath.
"Hey, wait! You... you twisted its neck. The head is facing the wrong way!
How on earth..."
"I told you I'm sorry", the woman answered from a distance, and some
of the anger had crept back into her voice. "It... happened, and I won't go
on apologizing for it! Can we go now?"
The man sighed deeply.
"Yes, we can."
He began to move away from Broots. The technician followed him, this time
listening carefully to the man's muffled voice instead of the sound of his
footsteps.
"This doll is a mess. I'll bet any sum that Lyle poses no threat to us on
this mission."
"Stop grumbling, will you?" the female voice interrupted. "We're
here to get those files from Raines' office, and we have to get there before he
returns from his little excursion to the new tech lab."
"Right."
Broots heard a rustling sound, as if someone were unfolding a map or maybe a
blueprint.
"We're almost there!" the woman said.
"Yes", the man agreed. "We can leave the duct now. The security
cameras in this corridor are off-line."
The full meaning of his words dawned on Broots. As much as he wanted to know who
those people were, he had to hide or he would get in trouble. He hurried away
until he reached a corner. Just in time he left the corridor, once again
listening to the strange sounds the two phantoms produced.
Broots debated with himself, his curiosity finally winning out. Very carefully
he peered around the corner, but there was no one in the hallway. Only an open
duct conjunction was proof that he hadn't just experienced a hallucination. The
technician walked over to the grid, looking around undecidedly. Something caught
his eye. He went to a dustbin that stood nearby and looked down on its contents.
His hand reached out to the object that lay on top. Broots looked at the
wretched thing in his hand, shook his head and then got back on his way to the
tech room.
Deep in thought he reached the main entrance hall of the Centre, almost running
into a crowd of sweepers. Someone reached out and grabbed his arm. Broots looked
up and saw Sydney who returned his gaze with a strange expression on his face.
"Sydney, you won't believe what just happened..."
"No, you won't believe what just happened here", the older man
interrupted. "I've never seen anything like this before! I wonder how long
it will take for Mr. Lyle to recover."
Broots swallowed hard.
"Tell me what happened", he asked his colleague, both frightened and
intrigued to hear Sydney's account of the events. Sydney didn't seem to notice
his hesitant reaction.
"It was the most spectacular sight", Sydney assured him.
...
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© 2001 by Miss Bit