Chapter 3

Lunn was sitting behind his desk closely monitoring the curfew cameras. It had been necessary to alter the recording settings of two more cameras before he was able to turn his attention to the lovely Andena. He was impressed by how easy it was to wipe all footage of Andena passing the cameras. For the past few months, security had been tight, and curfews were routinely enforced. Anyone carrying so much equipment would certainly have come under scrutiny from the authorities.

He’d had difficulty keeping his earlier promise when he realised that Andena was wearing the skimpiest possible underwear. He’d realised just why she had been so reluctant to get undressed in front of him. However, this did give her a major advantage in the sense that the carbon suit now fitted her like a second skin, making her look incredibly sexy. He smiled as he remembered the embarrassed look on her face when he zipped the suit closed. He had been incredibly disappointed by the fact that she’d quickly hidden her gorgeous body by immediately putting her clothes back on. Lost in his thoughts, he was, therefore, startled when her voice rung in his ear, “Lunn; I’m about to reach the next curfew camera.”

He was grateful for the fact that he was still able to use the frequency range for the communication devices. The Archon were now monitoring nearly all the ranges except this narrow band. The only problem was that the range was very close to that of the electromagnetic emissions of the fields. The closer you were to the fields the worse the connection became. He pushed the button and responded, “All clear Andena. How is the suit working for you?”

Her voice had a certain melodic tune that he loved, and he was pleased with her answer, “It’s fantastic Lunn! I don’t even feel that I’m wearing it.”

“Good. It fits you like a glove as if it was your own skin.”

Her laugh was short, and she scolded, “Well I hope that you enjoyed the view because next time I’ll be dressing myself.”

He looked at the screen and saw she had made good progress. He reckoned that she needed another five minutes to pass the last curfew camera. The field was an additional ten minutes after that. He chuckled and said, “Too bad Andena. By the way, the ETA is about fifteen minutes.”

A red light flickered on his screen signalling trouble, and he hissed into the microphone, “You’ve got company. There’s an alley just a few yards to your left.”

Andena didn’t answer straight away, but Lunn could hear her breathing which was fluctuating a bit. After a few moments she said, “Just two boys playing, they didn’t see me.”

He checked the time, and he knew there was, at least, a full hour before the twilight, would turn into darkness. Andena commented, “I’ve just passed the last camera.”

“Okay, you should be able to see the field after the next turn.”

Andena felt much safer now that she was wearing the carbon suit. Sharp objects wouldn’t be able to puncture the fabric that easily and she was amazed at how snug the suit fitted her. It was as if Lunn knew her precise measurements and she was very pleased that she was wearing the flimsy underwear. A proper bra would have felt uncomfortable, and she also knew that a snug fitting carbon suit would protect her much better than a loose fitting one. The suit would disperse an attack much better. She gasped when she turned the corner at the last building. The size of the field looked far more impressive than she had imagined. The fact that the road ended right at the massively high fence seemed strange. She said, “I have visual contact with the target.”

She heard Lunn snicker. “Roger that.”

Andena walked a bit slower looking for any signs of unusual growth at the side of the tarmac. The closer she came to the fence the faster her heart beat. She jumped when Lunn suddenly asked, “Do you see anything out of the ordinary?”

The dry land was covered with the usual patches of yellow-brown grass. The grass was a bit greener where it grew underneath the occasional tree. She answered Lunn as placidly as possible, “Nothing looks out of the ordinary.”

He didn’t need to know that she was as nervous as hell. His response became distorted by the electromagnetic field, “Good. Now make sure you’re not too close.”

Andena wouldn’t dream of going any closer than necessary and snorted, “Don’t worry about that.”

She took the measuring device from her belt and walked until she was eighteen feet away from the field. She was pleased that she could finally remove the heavy anchor pins from her belt. Lunn had shown her how to drive them swiftly and without any effort into the soil. They felt sturdy and the specific angle, in which they were placed in the soil, gave them the extra support that they needed. She had double checked the knots of the ropes and the anchor points before she sat down in the middle of the road.

As she was connecting the ropes to her belt an extremely loud hissing noise behind the gorse made her jump. Andena shrieked and grabbed the emergency cord that would release the hooks of her belt in an instant. Fortunately, the hissing died down quickly and it sounded like something in the field had released a built-up pressure.

Lunn asked, “Are you okay Andena?”

She slowly exhaled before replying in a trembling voice, “Yes, I guess so. What was that sound?”

“I don’t know, but we need to press on. It will get dark soon.”

She knew that she couldn’t dither any longer and took the telescope rod from her belt. Within a minute, the rod was fully extended, and she carefully mounted the razor sharp knife at the end of it. She got up and made sure that the emergency cord was hanging free. Moving the rod, as a fisherman would, she inched it towards the gorse, before saying in a strained voice, “I’m about to cut a hole in the gorse.”

Lunn asked, “Did you prepare the camera? I don’t see any video feed.”

She was just a few inches away from the gorse, and she exclaimed, “Shit!”

“What?”

“I forgot the camera!”

Lunn shouted in disbelief, “What? You left the camera here?”

She carefully placed the rod on the road and said calmly, “No silly, I just didn’t prepare the camera rod.”

He growled, “There’s only one silly person, and that is the one who forgot to extend the camera rod.”

Andena knew that Lunn was as nervous as she was and couldn’t help giggling when she pushed the button at the base of the camera rod. She was pleased she had tried the equipment before and directed the camera just before the gorse. The camera rod had a self-extending mechanism which became fully operational within a matter of seconds. She activated the camera and heard Lunn grunt approvingly. “Camera feed looks good. Now remember Andena, try to keep the hole you cut as small as possible.”

With sweaty palms, she picked up the rod with the knife again and moved a step closer to the gorse. She knew that making a cut which she had no way of controlling was the hardest part of her mission. She pushed the knife slowly into the fabric and was reassured by the lack of resistance. She slowly moved the knife down until there was an opening of three inches before quickly retracting the knife and pushing the camera through the cut. She could feel herself becoming increasingly tense as Lunn gasped. “Do you have a clear picture?” she asked.

His voice sounded tortured, “Crystal clear, can you turn the camera clockwise?”

She obeyed his request by slowly turning the rod until she heard him exclaim, “Oh my God! Andena, get the fuck out of there!”

Just at that moment, she felt that the camera being pulled from her hands almost causing her to lose her balance. Before she realised what was happening, two tentacles had shot through the hole. Luckily she had the sense to reach for her machete the moment she lost the camera because she was pulled down by the sheer force of the two, thick tentacles which snaked around her legs, pulling them together and preventing her from getting up. She felt the sharp thorns trying to push into her legs, but the fine carbon mesh was strong enough to withhold the pressure.

The fact that the tentacles were trying to penetrate her skin was her saviour and with a guttural grunt, using the machete, she managed to slice through both of the vines at one attempt. It was with an enormous sense of relief that she was able to free her legs. She watched as the damaged tentacles slowly began to retreat and knew that it was time to run away as fast as possible because something else was attempting to squirm through the small hole. She pulled at the emergency cord, but to her dismay, nothing happened!

She tried once more, but the belt was still locked! She knew she didn’t have time to fiddle with the belt, and she started to run away hoping that the anchors would pop out if they were pulled out the right way.

With all her strength she began running from the tentacles and at the moment, the ropes were pulling at the anchors she heard a loud popping sound. Andena cheered when both anchors shot out of their holes, but forced herself to keep on running. She winced as one of the anchors banged against her back, but in fact, it wasn’t too painful. She saw the humour in the situation when she heard the metal anchors, bouncing with loud clanging sounds against the tarmac as she raced to safety. She would have preferred a silent retreat, but she would be happy so long as she was safe. She only stopped running when she turned into the road away from the field, and it was only at that point, that she heard Lunn frantically calling her name. Breathing heavily, she managed to whisper, “Lunn ... I’m ... Fine.”

She thought she heard him whimpering as he breathed, “Thank God! I was afraid I had lost you too, on that bloody field! Just take it easy now and come to my office at your leisure.”

She was still resting her hands on her thighs waiting to get her breath back to normal. Sighing with relief, she said, “Okay, I’ll see you later.”