Ephram

“Bloody Christ!”

He’d been shocked awake by another splash of ice-cold water. Ephram swore again, sputtered, stared around himself. He was still securely bound to the chair, the room was cold, dank this time – so now he was soaked and shivering. The room stayed stubbornly out of focus for a few moments as he worked on blinking the water out of his eyes. The array of CRT screens glowed before him as before, although most seemed darker than he remembered. He would have wiped his eyes, but his wrists were still strapped firmly to the armrests of the chair he was in.

Goddamn it. He had had just about enough of this. He tested the bonds and they were every bit as tight as before. He let out a long breath

“Here, let me get that for you,” a woman said, wiping the water from his eyes, his face.

“Was that necessary?” Ephram complained. “You could have just rang an alarm or played some Death Metal.”

“You’d dozed off,” the woman noted blandly. “It seemed you’d want to be awake for this, quite awake. I would have thought by now you’d accepted this is not a gentle procedure your undergoing even as it is necessary.”

He couldn’t make out her features very well in the dim lighting, even as he tried to crane his neck to look at her. Her voice was mature, but it could have been the voice of any woman between thirty and fifty. He then felt her cold hands on the side of his head, guiding it to look ahead at the screens, at what was going on in them. There were four central ones that had activity on them now. The others in the array were dark or showing monochrome bars. Each of the active screens showed a view of a what a person would see if they were moving through a forest at night. Almost in fact, if they were looking through someone’s eyes. Brightness turned up though. Just so he could comprehend their situation.

More impossible surveillance then, that was clear. This was a genuine source, but like any other, its utility left much to be desired. He shivered again, and locked his teeth to keep them from chattering and concentrated on the screens. Sending an investigation team after this was done might be a good idea, but Ephram had an idea what was going on and knew he needed to pay attention.

It looked as though Nora, Benny and Frank were together on a dark forest path, glancing towards each other with consternation and concern, flashlights in hand, as if they were trying to decide what to do, where to proceed. The other, was someone crashing their way through the trees as best as he could, no light, not path, headlong.

If this was a proper representation, that had to be Gary.

This was not good. The change in strategy hadn’t produced different results. And his people had agreed with him in that.

“You were supposed to keep an eye on him,” Frank was accusing Nora. “Just go and get the damn beer.”

“What was I going to do with a guy that’s almost twice my size?” Nora shot back. “The lights weren’t supposed to rise yet, according to your calculations.”

“Doctor Lemsky’s calculations,” Frank shot back. “I’m just the messenger.”

“Well, he can’t get far,” Benny offered as the voice of reason, he flashed a beam of light into the forest. “It’s not like he’s on a path.”

“That depends on your definition of far,” Frank countered. “The last time he was up here he managed to get all the way here from another world.”