Chapter 26

We had finished searching the stables and found the Machine that this Vlad (or Perette) used. Now we had to find out if there were more of them. The stables held only one machine but maybe there were some in the main building as well. We had to check it out just to be sure. The door was locked, but after looking carefully at the lock, I saw that it was very crude and wouldn't be any match for my lock picking skills. Soon, I had the door unlocked and we slunk inside and carefully closed and relocked the door behind us. After a short conference we decided to split up. Charlotte, Nina and I would search downstairs, and I would look in the cellar as well since that had become one of my favorite spots to search. We split up, and I saw Fritz and Sabine's flashlights and stun-guns disappear up the stairs as the rest of us started to search the ground floor.

We started with the library and went through it thoroughly but found nothing. We even searched the kitchen without finding any Machine, so we turned towards the cellar. This time we had better luck. In a small, almost cupboard sized room, there was yet another one-way Machine. This was the third we had found so far. We left it and went up the stairs to wait for Fritz and Sabine.

Once we had reassembled, we decided to return home and make some plans, we could go no further down this road. The time had come to approach the problem more directly.

After a long discussion we agreed that the only thing we could do now was to try the one-way Machines and see where they led to. With three Machines we would need six persons; that meant that we had to involve yet another person in this possibly risky operation. We went through the whole group, one by one. I wanted Helga to stay home and take charge of things since I had great confidence in her ability to stay calm if a situation should rise. Irene and Tommy were ruled out of the discussions soon thereafter; Irene being pregnant and Tommy, the male that was in charge of security, could not leave. The other, most obvious, choice was Chris. She was young and not easily frightened, so it was decided that Chris should join us and pair up with Fritz, while Nina and Sabine should make a second team, with me and Charlotte as the third.

We told the group of our decision and asked Chris whether she was willing to join in on the adventure, and she gladly accepted. Now we had to find a way to coordinate our 'attack'. We decided that the simplest way was to get three watches, calibrate them, deliver them at the various locations and go back in the invisible state.

Charlotte and I stood beside the Machine we had found at the monastery and waited for the right time to enter the Machine. When it finally arrived we stepped into it and soon found ourselves standing in a room illuminated by a dimmed lamp that hung down from a white ceiling in an otherwise empty room. There was only one door and nothing else that we could see, so we walked over to it. I pushed Charlotte behind me and, with the stun gun ready to use, carefully opened the door.

Just as the door started to open I heard a sound behind us and spun around, ready to leap on anyone who came by the Machine. I heaved a sigh of relief when I saw two stun guns floating freely in the air. I realized that it was a couple from our group, and soon it was revealed that it was Nina and Sabine. As soon as they too stood by the door, I continued to open it. It led out into a dining room. I stepped through the door and took a step aside, letting the other three follow me. We stood there and looked around. It was a rather large room, and in the middle there was a large mahogany table with six matching chairs around it. Paintings covered the walls, and on one of the walls, there were two windows with deep windowsills. I saw that a member of our group was approaching the window.

"That's funny," I heard Sabine say from the window. "I sort of recognize this street. I'll go outside and check to be sure, but I'm certain that I know where we are."

I saw her move across the room, open a door and disappear. We all followed her, since there wasn't anything more to see in the dining room. There was one door just opposite the one we came through, one that lead outside, and a smaller one on the same side as the door dining-room. As we stood there the front door opened, there was a clicking sound as Sabine snapped the deadbolt lock open and then the door closed softly behind her.

The rest of us went across the hall and opened the door opposite. This led into a combined library and office. There was a computer on a small desk beside another big mahogany desk on which a couple of stacks of paper lay neatly on one side, along with a telephone. One of the women went over and started to leaf through the papers while I checked the bookcases without finding anything special. When I heard Charlotte call for me, I went over to see what she had found, a safe. I noted it, but there was nothing I could do at the time; we did not have time enough to go through all the papers in the desk to find the combination, if it were even there. We had to find all the Machines that were here. Just then we heard the front door open and close.

"Just as I thought," Sabine announced when she stood in the doorway. "We are not far away from where we lived for the first couple of years, just after Fritz had met us... Well, I don't think that he had met May at the time and maybe not Katja either..."

"Yes, yes," I hurried her.

"Oh, sorry. Well, if I remember correctly there should be a garage in the back of the house..."

"Let's check it out," I interrupted her and hurried out leaving the door open for the women to follow me.

I waited for Sabine to take the lead and take us to the garage. Sure enough it was there, adjacent to the main building. There was one drawback though, the door was locked, and adding to that, there was a heavy padlock as well. Obviously, I wouldn't be able to pick that one. There was only one thing to do. We had to find the keys. As we made our way out to the sidewalk again, a man and a woman just walked by. These were the first people we had seen since we arrived, but thanks to the deep shadow we were in, they didn't see us, or rather our stun guns. So we followed them after a short while, and soon we were back in the relative safety of the house again. I told Nina to go and check the Machine since there still wasn't any sign of Fritz and Chris, and I had started to get a little worried. She was to stand guard and have her stun gun ready if our 'host' should unexpectedly come home. Meanwhile, we should search the whole house for the keys. They had to be there; I knew I would never risk taking such important items with me.

While I searched the rooms upstairs, Charlotte sorted through the papers on the desk and the drawers. Sabine was in charge of searching the ground floor. About ten minutes later I heard two voices calling for me and, since I was finished with the top floor, I hastened down to see what it all was about. I stuck my head into the room where the Machine was located and saw that Fritz and Chris had finally arrived.

"Sorry we are late," Fritz said. "We had to wait for a long time before they all drove off in the carriage. From what I could understand they were still rather upset about Charlotte's disappearance and had men out searching for her. They had heard some news about her being seen about a hundred kilometers to the east, close to the coast, and they guessed that she was trying to get out of the country. They left with a map and ten men. I don't think they'll be back for quite some time, but just to be safe I'll stay here and keep watch with Nina."

When Chris came over to me, I could see the telltales that they hadn't been too bored while they waited. I chuckled quietly when I saw this.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Chris hissed as we made our way to the library where Charlotte had been calling for me. Sabine was there too when we entered.

"Tell you what?" I asked innocently.

"That it was this... bad to travel in the invisible state?"

"Bad?"

"You know very well what I mean; you mean man! It makes you so horny that you can't stand it! You just have to..." her voice trailed off when we entered the library.

"I've found the combination to the safe! It was under the candleholder in the lampette over there," Sabine told us as soon as we entered, pointing with her stun gun to a triple-candle sconce mounted on the far wall.

A piece of paper floated over to me. I took it eagerly and read the combination out aloud.

"OK, let see if it is the right one," I said as I went over to the large safe, knelt in front of it and started to turn the lock. I was rewarded a few seconds later by a loud "click" and when I pushed the handle it swung easily open. Inside there was a lot of money in several different currencies and from a wide variety of times. I left them where they were; what I was looking for was keys. I had to move a stack of papers aside before I found four keys, one looked as if it could be a padlock-key, another was a usual ignition-key to a car and the third key was a key that would fit in a safety lock. I took them all, stuck my head in to Fritz and Nina and told them where we would be.

The key fit smoothly into the padlock and I soon had it opened. I swung the door open, and we entered the garage. To the left there was a light switch and I flipped it on. We all stood there just gaping in surprise. What we found in front of us looked as if it were Fritz old van!

"Oh my God!" Sabine exclaimed. "It is our old Machine?"

"Yes, it certainly looks so."

"What is it doing here? Why hasn't he destroyed it?"

"Who knows? Maybe his weren't as good as yours and he wanted to go over it and adjust his, who knows? I hope we won't be in the position to ask him. Well, if we were in a safe position... I wonder where that door leads?"

There was a door on the far wall that I just now saw. Maybe all four keys lead to something in this garage. I unhooked the car key and handed it to Sabine.

"See if this fits the van," I told her and went over to the door, the key went into the lock and turned. Slowly I opened the door and peeked inside. There was nothing to see but a staircase leading, rather steeply, down about five meters.

"Chris, stay by the garage door and stand guard, Charlie and I are going down." Just as I said this, the van's engine started and was turned off immediately. "Sabine," I called when I saw that the van rocked a little as she climbed out. "Come over here."

We went down the stairs, me first, then Sabine and last Charlotte. When we stood on the small space at the bottom of the stairs, we saw another door to the left. It was as if it led down under the main building. This door wasn't locked, and it swung silently open as I pushed it. I found the light switch and turned it. There were two more doors on the left side of the small corridor. I stepped over to them and saw that there were no locks on them either, but there was a heavy wooden beam locking the second one. I opened the first door and looked inside the room. It looked to be a warehouse, shelves after shelves full with various items and tools. It would be worth looking at later. Stepping to the second door, I lifted the beam off its holders and looked inside. This room was dimly lit and what I saw made me gasp in horror.

"What? What is it?" I heard Sabine ask. I felt both she and Charlotte peek over my shoulder. What we saw was a cage formed like a bird cage, only with thicker bars, and someone was lying on the bottom of it in a cramped position. It was a young boy from what I could see. He was dirty and no wonder, he lay in his own excrement and urine. I looked intently and could see that he was alive because once in a while his ribcage expanded and sank. Charlotte suddenly gave a cry in despair.

"Oh dear God! It's Robert! It's Robert! What have they done to him? Oh my God! What have they done?!" She cried and hurried over to the young boy sitting in the cage, which was hanging down to within about a meter of the floor, and reached her hand inside, laying it on the bent leg. "He's warm. He's alive! Hurry!" She rushed over to the wall where the chain that held the cage suspended was secured. "Hurry! Help me! Please!"

I could hear the chain rattle as she heaved and yanked at it, and slowly I realized what she had said. I hurried over to her, and with a great effort, I managed to get the chain unhooked. I tried to lower it as carefully as possible but, despite my best efforts, it fell the last decimeter or two and hit the floor with a loud thump. The boy inside didn't stir as the cage hit the floor. I saw the bars rattle as Charlotte tried to get inside.

"Wait, wait," I heard Sabine say. The rattling stopped, and the only sound in the room was the soft sobs from Charlotte. "Now Robert, raise the cage. Pull, damn it!" She growled when I didn't do as she told me fast enough.

I pulled the chain, and the cage lifted a bit, without the bottom. Although it was only the bars, no bottom and no body to raise, it was still hard work but finally I got the cage high enough up in the air for Sabine and Charlotte to lean in and half lift, half drag the boy out and lay him flat on the floor. He was naked, covered in his own dried excrement. I looked around the room to find some water and a rag or something so we could wash most of the dirt off him, but I couldn't see anything. I remembered that I had seen a hose in the other room and gone to it. There was a hose, and beside it there was a bucket. I could find no cloth, however. I filled the bucket with water, and when I was on my way into the other room, I called for Chris. When I heard her voice from the top of the stairs, I told her to get inside the house and fetch some cloths of some kind. She didn't ask questions but did as I had told her at once, and I carried the bucket to the women.