Flight of Fancy
Chapter 23

Jane Kemp rushed into the military base prison cell building, only to replace it deserted, David somehow vanished into thin air. There was a glitch in the system once before in the night and when she went to check David’s cell, he was sleeping calmly on the bed. The camera system restarted afterwards and she thought it was only a minor malfunction. About an hour later, the system went off-line yet again. She waited for a while, trying to see if it was something to do with the computer or if the system would restart on its own, like the first time. A few minutes went by and a strong alarm started flashing in her head, prompting her to investigate. Again, David was asleep in his bed and the system restarted. When it happened the third time, she was cursing the stupid technology, even though alarm bells were ringing in her head. She waited, but her instincts told her to investigate yet again.

So here she was, looking at an empty jail cell. They had lost their only hope of replaceing the answer they had come to replace in this place. She imagined Dawson would be displeased, but she didn’t care about that any more. She only cared about the blemish on her otherwise mostly perfect career. Dawson was the least of her problems.

It only took a minute for her to figure out her thoughts and get a plan of action ready. She needed to wake Dawson and the whole base had to be put on alert, with search teams sent out to replace David. Her instincts were telling her it was too late for that, but instincts were unreliable, only facts and science could bring the results.

She went to wake Dawson and face the consequences.

Dawson was dreaming of Jacobs’ personal assistant, Joan Lewis. She was wearing nothing but red negligee and even that would soon be a thing of the past if Dawson had his way with her. She was standing in front of him, just waiting for him to take her, to claim her. And he would do just that once he returned home as a hero, a proper agent. He could feel his manhood growing with every sight of her. He wanted to devour her, lick that soft skin from head to toe and fill her with his desire. She was more than willing to take it and was actually teasing him. He couldn’t take it any longer. It was driving him mad. His groin was pulsating with the idea of entering this magnificent creature, her skimpy outfit inviting him to have a taste. As he was about to get up and taste her delights, his penis exploded with joy and the dream vision of Joan Lewis changed. She had a knowing grin on her face, as if she’d had a hunch it would end like this. There was a knock on the hotel room door and Dawson wandered who could be disturbing their fun. There was a voice he faintly recognised, but didn’t know what it was saying. His mind was starting to become partly awake and he could make out the voice: “Sir, are you awake?”

It was Jane Kemp’s voice.

Did she want a piece of the action? The more the merrier!

Then his mind realised that reality was seeping into the dream and he came to rather quickly. He was still groggy, but knew he was awake.

There was another knock on the door.

“Sir, are you awake?” asked Jane.

He rubbed his eyes and barked: “What?”

There was a moment’s silence before she answered: “It’s the prisoner, sir.” She paused again, as if not knowing how to break the news. “He’s not in his cell, sir. I think he might have escaped.”

All of a sudden Dawson was wide awake, jumping out of bed instantly. His mind was flashing with different courses of action, but mostly he was panicking and couldn’t replace a coherent plan. In the midst of it, he also realised his mid-section was completely soaked from the dream he had just had. He had just been planning to open the door, but now thanked his lucky stars he didn’t.

“I’ll be out in a minute,” he said as calmly as he could. “Get the rest of the guys up and into the briefing room.”

“Okay, sir,” replied Jane and seemed to walk off.

Dawson went to get a clean pair of shorts and some clothes. There was no time for a shower. It would have to wait till later. The situation needed his immediate attention.

Fuck!

This was something he hadn’t expected. His life was finally going to plan and everything was coming up roses.

Now this shit!

He got dressed and went to have a consultation with the rest of his team. He didn’t feel like a leader at this point. Not at all!

Ana managed to fall into a troubled sleep that night. She dreamt of David’s face floating in front of her. How she missed those eyes! He was smiling at her, as if telling her that everything is okay. Then, all of a sudden, his face began moving away from her. She tried to grab him, but was rooted in place and couldn’t move. His face was now completely out of reach, vanishing in the distant haze. She woke up in a sweat, remembering the sweet and bitter details of the dream, wondering if it signified anything and of David was perhaps lost to her.

Don’t think like that!

It had only been a day. There were still plenty of options and she still hadn’t given up hope on the American embassy. She needed to phone on the morning to see if the embassy managed to get any information.

She checked her mobile phone for the time. It was 4:50AM.

Still too early.

She decided to lie in bed a bit longer, hoping that the tiredness would take her away into another spell of sleep. Eventually, she managed to doze off for a few minutes, but the thought of David never escaped her and the night didn’t afford her much rest to her ailing heart.

Dawson marched into the briefing room perhaps 5 minutes after Jane had woken him up. His entire team was already there, looking as fresh as ever and ready to take his orders. They were just waiting there, looking at him.

I have nothing!

His brain was going into overdrive and he couldn’t make it slow down. This was not the right time and something had to be done. A good leader always relied on his team as well, so this would be the right time to take suggestions. That would most likely be the best course of action because his brain was so jumbled up that he might actually do something silly. He remained standing as the rest were sitting and started talking.

“Right, I assume you all know the situation?”

They all nodded, still not saying anything, just waiting for him to give the orders.

“Any suggestions about our course of action?” he managed to utter.

The agents looked at each other. He was still convinced none of them would speak, happy to see him squirm.

At last, Jane put him out of his misery: “First, I think we should put out an APB for David and send out the military to search the local area. We should also inform the local police departments to help us locate the suspect.”

Dawson was impressed and also threatened. Jane appeared to be sharper than ever, basking in the fact that he was stumbling. He noticed he was nodding at her suggestions, but didn’t say anything.

Jane continued: “Then, I think we should talk to our superiors to see what they believe would be a proper course of action in case we don’t replace him. They will then do what they think is best, which is usually put out statements to the media.”

Jane obviously knew what she was doing. Dawson was both pleased and extremely jealous. It would still make him look good, but he would know that it wasn’t his doing.

The credit goes to the main man. The team is only as good as the main man and that was him.

The report wouldn’t state who came up with the idea and he would be writing the report.

Still on top.

“Right,” he said. “That seems like a sound plan. You guys start preparing everything and I will make the phone call to the bosses and inform them of our situation.”

The team remained seated, awaiting more detailed instructions as he was already planning his telephone conversation with his superiors.

“First, wake up the officers and tell them to send out search teams.” He sighed. “Then call the local police or replace someone who speak the local language and tell them to inform the local police.”

The team would work out between themselves who would do what. They were now a formidable force and Dawson knew things would start happening quickly. The telephone conversation he had to do would be awkward and tricky, but it had to be him. If he was to take the blame for David’s escape, he would also take the credit for the plan and David’s eventual capture.

As soon as the first rays of the weak morning sunlight came through the blinds in the bedroom, Ana was up. It was difficult to say that she was awake because the night didn’t grant her much luck in that department. Still, there was no point lying in bed the whole morning. Her back was already aching and she needed to stretch. She didn’t exactly feel like exercising this morning, but it had to be done, otherwise the pain would get so bad that she’d have a hard time lying down at all and it would only get worse each night.

Before the morning exercise routine, she wanted to make some tea. Breakfast would wait for later, as it never turned out well to stretch on a full stomach. She had tried it a few times and didn’t care for it.

She turned on her computer and put on some relaxing meditative music. She didn’t feel very relaxed, but at least it would calm her to a certain degree and keep her nerves at a bearable level.

It was still early in the morning and way too soon to call the embassy. It was better to do her morning routine before anyway. Without it, she wouldn’t feel like herself. Even with it, the deprivation of sleep would make sure she wasn’t functioning at her peak level, however every effort had to be made to stay sharp and try to get as much information as possible.

She sipped her tea and checked her emails and social networks.

Nothing new.

Her head was still very foggy and she wandered if the fog would clear at all.

Maybe once David comes back.

Usually, she would replace some story on Facebook that would make her happy, some good news by friends or something, but today everything seemed doom and gloom and she stopped browsing. She sipped her tea just staring into empty space, her mind a maze of thoughts with no clarity or solution anywhere on the horizon.

After finishing her tea, she went to the bathroom to wash her face and put some oil on it. It was always nice to massage her face in the mornings as it woke her up and improved the blood circulation. In any case, she always functioned better after it. Today was no different. There was only the slightest improvement in her cognitive capabilities, but even so, she would take every victory she could.

After the bathroom, she put out her yoga mat and started the morning stretches, which sometimes led to yoga. Today, she doubted she would have the energy for additional yoga, but was more than happy to go with the flow. The stretching went on for a good fifteen minutes when she decided that she’d had enough. Yoga was out of the question.

I’m not feeling it.

A quick check of the time revealed that it was almost time to call the embassy. She was glad for it because there was no use delaying the inevitable. She wanted to know any news.

She waited a few more minutes then called.

“Hello?” said the same arrogant voice from the previous day.

“Hello,” replied Ana. “I called yesterday, inquiring about my husband David. I…”

“Oh yes, I remember you,” the man on the other line cut her off. “We made inquiries yesterday and we’re just checking our email and telephone messages. I will call you back in about half an hour when I see if we have some news for you.”

“Okay,” said Ana and the other line went dead.

Ana didn’t know what to do, however she knew she wouldn’t wait for that little man to call her back. If there was no call in exactly thirty minutes, she would call again herself.

She sat on the couch and started reading a book. It was hard to concentrate, especially due to lack of sleep and David’s disappearance, but she had to keep herself distracted.

In about twenty minutes her phone rang and she ran to pick it up: “Hello!”

“Hello, it’s the American embassy here. We have managed to get some information from our government regarding your husband.”

“Yes,” was Ana’s eager reply.

“It seems they took your husband to a military base near the Slovenian coast.”

He’s still in the country!

“Oh good,” cried Ana. “When can I see him?”

“I don’t know about that. I need to make a few more calls to get to the right people and then hopefully I will tell you more. I’m going to call now and give you a call back as soon as I have some information.”

“Thank you,” said Ana and the man hung up.

Ana was surprised they were helping her so much, but she was grateful for any help she could get. They deserved a bit of luck.

She sat back on the couch and attempted to read again. As soon as she read a sentence or paragraph, she forgot what she’d read. Sometimes she would have to reread an entire page because she’d forgotten she’d already read it or what she’d read.

In about fifteen minutes the phone rang. She recognised the number and answered: “Have you found David? When can I see him?”

“Hello,” was the serious reply from the other line. “I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

Ana’s stomach clenched and she felt a bout of dizziness coming on, but she composed herself and let the man speak.

“I’m afraid David’s escaped from the military base and now we don’t know where he is. I’m sorry. I wish I had some better news.”

“Thank you,” was all that Ana could manage and they both hung up.

Her head and body felt like they were floating and she needed to sit down at once, otherwise she would faint.

Where are you, David?

Dawson saw the military personnel go out less than fifteen minutes after his briefing with the agents. They would no doubt scour the vicinity for David and there was little doubt of his capture.

The phone call with his superiors was unremarkable and far easier than expected. They merely said “fine” and ended the conversation. Whether there was any significance behind the lack of conversation from their part was up for debate, but this was no time to worry about things you couldn’t control. Once David was retrieved, all would be well and his superiors would most likely forget anything went wrong. He had told them that the cameras went dead again and there was a strange silence from their end after that.

It doesn’t matter.

It wasn’t his fault that they provided malfunctioning equipment. It was very peculiar, though, that it always seemed to malfunction when something crucial happened.

Coincidence?

There were rarely any coincidences in the world. If he was a superstitious man, he would think there was something paranormal happening.

Probably just two very unlucky coincidences one after another.

He wondered what his superiors would think up regarding a story for David in case the search parties didn’t retrieve him. It was bound to be something good. Their solutions seemed to be very practical and quite simple, like the one with the cannabis plant. It was actually so silly that it was almost infantile. Yet it worked like a charm. They had been playing the game for many years, maybe even hundreds of years and knew exactly how to take control of any situation.

Nothing to do but wait for now.

He had told his team to just be on their toes and be ready for action. However, for the time being, their hands were tied and all they could do was wait for news from the military.

It took Ana a long time before she could gather her strength and go tell David’s parents what had happened. She was lying on the couch for a good half hour before she felt ready to get up. Her feet still felt unsteady, but she had to go downstairs and face the music. David’s father would probably be in a panic and would just increase the anxiety of everyone and the whole dreadful situation.

She put on her slippers and went downstairs. David’s parents were in the dining room, drinking their morning tea and chewing buttered bread. They didn’t seem to be enjoying the meal, but mostly going through the motions. She knew how they felt.

His father looked up at her eagerly: “Any news?”

Ana tried to give him a faint smile, but couldn’t force herself to do it. She barely had enough strength to steady her voice: “I did manage to speak to the embassy this morning.”

They both looked at her, waiting for her to go on.

“They told me he was at the American military base on the coast,” she said.

“So they found him?” asked David’s mother. Their faces were full of anticipation and twisted in a painful grin. It was hard to tell whether they were happy or sad expression and again Ana could relate fairly well.

That’s probably how my face looked when they told me where David was.

“Yes and no,” replied Ana. Their faces seemed to sink because they didn’t know what she meant. She continued: “They had him in their prison over there, but he escaped tonight and now they don’t know where he is. I think they’re looking for him.”

There was a moment’s silence and then David’s father lost the plot: “Oh my God. What did we do to deserve this? What if they replace him and he runs away. They could shoot him. They could kill my boy.”

Ana thought he would never stop, but tears got the better of him and he broke down, crying into his hands.

“Why did he do a stupid thing like that?” asked David’s mother. “Why did he have to run?”

Ana was wondering the same thing and it didn’t really sound like David.

Not at all.

Steven Keffler was not a very happy man. The last few weeks had seen him curse his fortune many times. But was it really fortune? It seems there was someone pushing their way into their game. Some alien player had decided to play their game and break every rule in the book, with alien being the operative word.

It will never wash with the big boys.

It was funny. His bosses were so elusive that he actually didn’t know who or what they were. They weren’t government, they weren’t agents and they weren’t mafia. They were somehow above all of them and nobody knew who they were. It was only a short time before his meeting with them, or more precisely their emissaries.

They’d never dirty their hands and come themselves.

It was too trivial for them. They had bigger fish to fry, more important matters to attend to. He still had to replace a way to explain the situation to them. The whole alien angle wouldn’t really work on them. He could sell anything to any of his subordinates, but these guys scared him and they wouldn’t take any nonsense.

One of the few times that his explanation would actually be legit and they wouldn’t believe him. It was like the boy who cried wolf.

The latest cock-up was that every single prisoner they had appeared to have vanished from their high-security facilities with camera surveillance. Every camera stopped working at exactly the wrong time and even the guards were miraculously asleep when the escape happened.

Coincidence? I don’t think so.

There was some hidden force playing tricks on them and he didn’t like it one bit. Usually, he was the cat doing the chasing, but now all of them were left chasing their own tails, unable to stop and see who’s making them do it.

He could rationalise it all he could, but deep down he knew what was behind it. There was no other explanation. Still, there was no way he would sell that story to his bosses.

God help me!

Ana’s day was a blur of trying to do various activities to keep herself occupied, from exercising to reading and browsing the Internet. The only thing that brought her some comfort was going for a walk to their little forest, where she actually saw a deer and felt a glimmer of hope.

She called the American embassy several times, but unfortunately there was no news regarding David. He was still a wanted fugitive.

What happened?

Sure, Slovenia had vast forests where a person might get lost or disappear, but David wasn’t the type of person to just run somewhere. He would rather spend a bit of time in prison than be separated from his family. There was something weird going on.

It was already evening and the embassy was now already shut. She had called one last time five minutes before they finished work and they couldn’t give her any new information.

Her stomach was in knots and she was becoming a nervous wreck. It would be better if David got caught, shot or whatever. As long as she knew what was happening and she’d be able to deal with it. The not knowing was the hardest part.

She was lying on her couch when David’s father stormed into the apartment: “David’s on the news, come downstairs.”

He stood there waiting for her and it took her a few moments to register what he was saying because her brain was so slow. She put her slippers on and went downstairs to see what was happening.

David’s parents had the TV blaring loudly and she could see that David was one of the top stories in the evening news. After watching impatiently a few other segments, David’s story finally came on:

“SLOVENIAN DRUG RING:

A Young man from Slovenia, shown on the photograph, just escaped from a high-security prison at the American military base. It appears he had accomplices, some of whom have been identified as terrorists. The Slovenian man, David S, was growing a dangerous breed of cannabis on his land, which was then being distributed to markets all over the world, including most of Europe, USA and Japan. The CIA took charge of his case as the man is considered highly dangerous and could possibly lead the authorities to a greater ring of drug distributers. These drug traffickers are potentially linked to the terrorist organisation ISIS and could be providing funds for them by distributing drugs to smaller dealers. The authorities are looking for any leads which would lead to the capture of this man. He is considered armed and highly dangerous. If you have any information, call 113.”

The news segment ended and Ana could hardly believe her ears. She no longer felt dazed and like a zombie. Instead, fury replaced those feelings and she wasn’t sure how to control it.

“Fucking pigs,” she shouted and David’s parents jumped from their chairs. “How dare they put such a story out? This is really pissing me off. No wonder David ran if they were trying to turn him into a terrorist. They would have given him life in prison.”

David’s parents didn’t know what to say. Usually, they believed what the news told them, but Ana could tell that they felt bewildered by the story.

“Why would they do this?” said David’s mother. “Why would they lie like this?”

“That’s what they do,” shouted Ana. “The media tells lies that the government and corporations tell them to say. They’re paid prostitutes.”

“I never believed it,” replied David’s mother. “But now I see what you mean. This is a disgrace.”

“My boy!” cried David’s father. “How could anyone think he is a terrorist?”

Then a profound silence lay on the family, but Ana’s rage was still shining through and wouldn’t be extinguished for a long time.