A Janitor's Adventure: 5.2

“Euch, you can see right up there,” Janny muttered.

Lestili’s head snapped around and she glared at him. “You stay quiet.”

Janny shuddered as she turned back to look at the screen. As she started to talk to the Scentian it occurred to him he should have asked what she’d do if he didn’t shut up. Bit he was sure whatever it was would only get worse if he now interrupted her.

“So, opening figure?” the Scentian asked, leaning back luxuriously against his headrest.

Lestili named a number that was at least twice Janny’s yearly salary. The Scentian doubled that again.

“Wait…” Lestili said, looking round at Janny. Janny shrugged, keeping quiet. He was just glad the Scentian was speaking Endoleon rather than Scentian. Lestili turned back to the screen. “You want to pay me more?”

The Scentian jerked forward. “Pay you? I was told you had approached for hostage negotiations.”

Lestili’s frown deepened so far her nose almost detached. “Yes… Don’t you want this Scentian back?”

The Scentian’s dark brown eyes flickered over to Janny. “What? No. That’s a Fladian. What are you playing at?” The Scentian reached his arm to the left and dragged into view a being who was one of the pinker Daerians Janny had ever seen. The Scentian pointed a thick, muscular index finger at the being, who was skinny, shaking and wide-eyed. “This is also a Fladian. I am here to trade him to you in return for a chunk of TIPO’s funds.”

Lestili’s jaw dropped slowly, as if it itself was too stunned to move.

“SRA abduction activity is beginning to become a more documented phenomenon,” Janny said quietly, in the hope that Lestili might not explode. But a moment later something clicked and he exclaimed much louder, “Oh Gods! Is that - are you Horlen Doal? From the news?”

Through gritted teeth, the Scentian said, “Yes. He is. Do you want to trade for him or not?”

Lestili shook herself all over and grabbed the steering wheel. She looked up. “That is a no. Goodbye!”

They jerked backwards as the screen clicked back to the map. The little red dot representing them moved horrendously slowly as they rumbled through the boundary of the grey square. But finally they tilted one way, then the other, then righted, then were off.

“I thought you said TIPO crafts were built for stealth not chases!” Janny exclaimed as the momentum pressed him into the back of his chair.

“You are not wrong,” Lestili said, suddenly bringing them to a stop. Several bright yellow lights blinked on the screen, but never quite reached their red dot. The yellow dots darted about all over the place, bit it was like they were surrounded by a glass bubble.

“Stealth, you say. Are we… are we invisible?” Janny whispered.

“Yup,” Lestili said, at normal volume. “And if the bots are stupid enough to let a mixup like that happen, let’s hope they’re stupid enough to give up on finding us.”

They were stupid enough, as it turned out, but they were also stupid enough to keep poking about for at least half an hour before they finally gave in. Lestili had to shift around a little when a yellow dot got particularly close, but for the most part Janny’s pulse stayed calm. When the bots were gone, Lestili turned to him.

“So let me get this straight. You are a Fladian. You were abducted by two random SRA hijackers who took you to where you’d be going anyway, just a few days early, then left you to your own devices at a Flexie disco?” She raised an eyebrow at him, which almost popped off just as her nose had almost done a moment ago. Janny wondered just how much control Endoleons had to put into keeping their forms whole over the course of the average day.

“They didn’t so much abduct me as forget to put me back before they ran away from you,” Janny said. “And it wasn’t exactly them leaving me. They were going to wipe my mind so I ran away in that reception area thing.”

Lestili finally smiled at him. “I thought you said you’d never taken matters into your own hands. I’ll make a TIPO operative of you in no time!”

Janny shook his head and looked at the floor between his feet. “Please just take me home.”

The sound of air being sucked in made Janny look up. Lestili’s lips were pursed and she was staring at him with her head tilted to the side. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. We have TIPO stationed on the TS Daer-Ta, no doubt my group are looking for me at the Hub. I’m in quite a lot of trouble. Come on, I’ll take you somewhere while I figure out what to do with you.”

“No! Please! If I don’t get back soon they’ll replace me!” Janny groaned.

“What? It’s not your fault some Scentian morons came along and ruined everything.” Lestili was already starting to drive the craft away.

“That’s not the point! They’re going to need someone to keep everything running smoothly. And if I’m not there they’ll choose someone else - don’t you think they’ll find someone at the Hub?” Janny could hear the panic in his voice, in his ragged breathing. “I bet there’s loads of heads of maintenance at the Hub. And they’ll be there so soon! Come on, just take me back.”

“Sorry, mate, got bigger problems. Can’t be getting in trouble if I’m going to win this fight against the SRA. Come on. I have an idea,” Lesitili said, shifting forward in her chair and focusing her eyes on the big screen above. “Navigation: Hide Hole Five.”

A slightly less tinny robotic voice replied. “Location set. Follow red line.”

Janny watched in despair as their red dot on screen began to follow a thin red line off towards the top edge of the screen, off to wherever he was being taken next.