The Decoder - Chapter 7

We landed in a small room with bare walls and notably no windows.  There was a sturdy door in one corner.

“Why do I always end up getting captured?” I groaned.

“Look at it this way—at least you never have to pay board,” said Lucy, always the optimist.  Amy paced around the room.  I was grateful for the bare bulb hanging from the ceiling.  It gave off a depressing, yellow glow, but at least I could see.

“Are we actually back home?  Or is this some other world you were thinking of?” Wayne asked.

“This has to be home.  It’s never taken me from one world to another, so I think our real bodies have been moved,” I said.

 “What are we going to do?” Lucy said.  “We have brought a white angel into England!  This is disastrous!”

“We could send her back,” Wayne suggested.  Amy and Lucy turned on him.

“No!”

“Wait!” I said.  “Where is she?”

Nathalie was gone.

“What the hell is going on here?” Amy asked.

The door swung open and three figures strode in.  I recognized them at once.  At least—I recognized the first one, even if she wasn’t wearing oriental robes this time.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,” she drawled, with a marked French accent.  “I cannot tell you how long I have been awaiting this meeting.”  Two large men in smart navy uniforms filled the doorway behind her.

“Lucy—grab Wayne, Amy—take my hand—” I started, twisting the decoder.

“Not so fast, my friend,” the woman interrupted.  “I do not think that the decoder will take you anywhere.  It needs a recharge.  It is tired after its journey.”

I tried.  She was right.  The small block refused to open.

“Why?” I asked.  “Who are you?  Where are we?  I want to know what is going on right now.”

“Ah, so many questions,” the woman smiled.  “All will be answered, but first—give it to me.”

I glanced around the room, searching for inspiration, but knew there was no choice.  My footsteps echoed on the fresh cement.  I dropped the decoder into her hand reluctantly, looking her straight in the eyes. 

“Thank you,” she said with a polite smile, but I saw the glint of greed flash through her eyes.  Even though her facial features were delicate, she was prepared to kill.

“Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Madame Régine Bouvier and according to my sources, you are Lucy Collins, Wayne Grenville, Amy Lucas and Esme Lebovitz.  Now, we shall have a little story.  Please do not interrupt me.  I do not enjoy interruptions.

“I am part of a unusual group of people.  For the time being, we shall call them seekers of potential.  We search for people who seem to possess special skills and keep an eye on them.  If they are successful, we take advantage of them.  Not very long ago, we discovered an opportunity.  Hubert Verne—a French physicist—and very good one, but everybody thought that he was mad.  He was a quantum theorist and devised numerous ingenious theories on matter.  Nobody paid any attention to his brilliant hypotheses.  We watched him for quite some time and were rewarded.  When he reached his early fifties, he claimed to have been able to harness the intelligent power of particles.  He said that he had installed and programmed special particles in a small, white cube.  Are you aware of the property of particles to be able to exist in many places at once?"

I exchanged puzzled glances with my friends.

"It seems not.  Very well then.  This calls for a little demonstration.  Fernand—” 

One of the large men stepped forward and handed the woman a crystal cube and a laser pointer.  She must have had this little talk planned all along.  She balanced the cube on her palm and beamed the light through it.  Numerous red dots appeared on the walls.

“As you can see, one beam enters the cube, but many identical beams leave it.  These particles of light are existing in many places at once.  The decoder works on a similar principle.  You are the laser, the decoder is the cube.  Think of it as a mirror that replicates objects and sends them to different locations.  These locations are extracted from the human mind.  The original mind enters a passive state until the bodies merge again, but here many complications arise.”  The woman glanced at me curiously.  “I could not help but notice that you were wounded in your last expedition.”

My hand flew to the back of my head.  The bloody crust was still there, tangible under my fingers and aching.  The woman nodded.

“This means that any effects felt by the active body are felt by the other.  We are not sure if this acts in reverse.  Not yet.  This is where you are going to help us.”  The woman’s expression grew dangerous.  “You are… expendable, you see.  Four healthy, active young people at my command for research.  In return for allowing you to live, you provide me with information.  The decoder is, as I have said before,  an exceptionally complex quantum computing machine.  There is much that is still to be discovered about it and you are going to help us.”

“But you cannot keep us forever,” Wayne growled.  “People will wonder about us.  Where are we, anyway?  And why us?”

“You are wrong.  People can easily be taken care of and as for our location – I think that that little detail should remain mine to know and yours to guess.”  She paused.  “Isn’t anybody going to say ‘you’ll never get away with this’?  Because we will, if you were wondering.”

Madame Régine Bouvier promptly turned on her heel and strode out.  The door clanged.  Amy cursed.