Driver

Driver Pt. 09 Lost World

This is a work of fiction. All characters depicted are over the age of 18.

Mack vaguely wondered if Carter ever left that desk. Or whether he was just a hologram, put there to frighten children and aircrew. It was going on for 2 a.m. and here he was, same checked-shirt, same designer Levis, same glowering eyes, same barely contained rage seething like magma just under the surface. "You again..."

"They were just trying to help, Dad." Viviani began and Carter raised a hand.

"Shut up, Viviani. You're only making it worse."

A door opened and Veronica rushed in, looking all hot-and-bothered from the night's activities. Rather than monitor the CCTV as they were meant to, the on-duty detail had been screwing her instead, one in her ass, two in her hands, one in her mouth, a lucky volunteer in her raddled old pussy, everyone enjoying their private perversions safe and sound in VR. "Vivi!" she cried, sweeping the girl off her feet into a full-body hug, while Viviani fought back, struggling to break free like the hapless feline love-interest of a certain amorous cartoon skunk. "We've been worried sick about you."

"Get OFF me!" Viviani snapped while everyone averted their eyes from their heartrending reunion. Pulling away, Viviani saw Veronica's eyes narrow a pinch, and a sly, predatory smile flicker cross her lipstick-smeared face. She just couldn't help herself. Veronica knew Viviani knew, and Viviani knew she knew, had both girls been taken the old witch would still be celebrating.

"This has GOT to stop!" Carter scowled. "You two leading my daughter astray! Hell, I've had assholes thrown out of aircraft for less."

"DAD! NO! I went to THEM."

"I said SHUT UP, Viviani! Someone get her out of here."

"But it's true." Wendy said, "She did."

"That may be so. But you did nothing to return her to safety."

"Mister Carter. She was injured. What was I to do?"

They paused to watch Viviani fighting off Veronica, then Sally, as they took turns trying to coax her back to her room.

"What were you to do? Call Sal... Miss Kershaw goddammit! You do know they're using drones these days? To swoop down and snatch people away? She'd be gone. Just like that." Carter snapped his fingers. "They're almost silent and can loiter for days. I've already lost one daughter."

"Sir..." Mack cut in, "there's a chance... just a chance... we may know where Echo is."

Carter looked like he'd just been slapped. "Know where she is? What do you mean?"

Pushing in between Mack and Wendy, Viviani took a fortifying breath. "I had an out of body experience. Echo reached out and I followed her energy flow."

Carter slumped back, palming his forehead. "Not this goddam bullshhh... garbage again. If I've told you once, I've told you a million times. It doesn't exist. Grow... UP, goddammit! Out Of Body goddam experience! There is no such goddam thing."

"I disagree." Wendy said and Carter shot to his feet.

"HOW FUCKING DARE YOU! NO ONE SAYS 'I DISAGREE' TO HARRISON CARTER!"

"Okay then," Wendy said, unfazed, "let me put it this way. My past experience has led me to a different conclusion."

Mack raised a hand. After countless visits from his dead pal, Lucas, he had reluctantly come to the same realisation. "Me too, Mister Carter."

"SECURITY!"

A dishevelled man in black, still wafting the scent of Veronica's pussy, stuck his head around the door. "Sir?"

"Get these... ASSHOLES... out of my sight. Rustle up two of your lame-ass buddies and take them back to their quarters. When you get there, stay and watch them pack. Then drop their sorry asses in Houston. Any problems, just leave 'em dead in a ditch."

The minder beckoned for backup over his shoulder, then slunk into the room as Viviani shucked up the sleeves of her borrowed pyjamas. "So you're gonna fire them, huh? For being my only true friends? For being my guardians? For nearly killing themselves for Echo and me?" Viviani wagged a finger as tears spilled onto her cheeks. "Well fine. Cos' when they go, I'm going with them. I'm done with this prison."

While Wendy stood thinking, 'No, Vivi no', Mack experienced a wave of relief, at the prospect of early release from this non-stop madhouse.

Carter sat back, looking winded. "What goddam BULLCRAP have they put into your head?"

"They haven't put anything in my head, Dad. They love me. They love us both. It's a feeling I've never had before."

"I've never heard such a pile of barefaced bullshit." Carter fumed, turning away, while the others looked on, intrigued and embarrassed at witnessing the ruthless old billionaire squirm.

"Of course you haven't." Viviani sneered, "Cos' you never bothered to listen."

"I have given you girls the best life money can buy."

Viviani crossed her arms. "Big deal."

Carter gripped the edge of the desk. "Did you just say, 'big deal?' You live in a goddam PALACE! You have your own island. You fly all over the world in private jets. You dine with kings and presidents, and rock stars and athletes. I bought you a goddam mountain, for god's sake, on the ski slopes in Switzerland. You've got a ship, a submarine, goddam choppers to take you shopping downtown. Where they close the mall, so you can walk around and take what you want. Big deal? What goddam more do you want?"

Chest heaving, Viviani narrowed her eyes. "To hear you say 'I love you'."

Red faced, Carter huffed and puffed, veins popping out on his neck. "Of course I goddam do! Weren't you listening?"

"Then say it."

"Viviani! I will not have you making a scene in front of my employees."

"Say it."

Carter looked Sally up and down. "I thought I told you take her back to her room."

"If she so much as lays a hand on me," Viviani growled, "she'll regret it. Wendy? Do you love me?"

Wendy blinked like a bunny caught in the headlights. While her higher mind yelled, 'DON'T DO IT' she shrugged. "Of course I love you, Vivi. We all do."

Viviani jerked her chin at Mack. "Pool Man?"

Contemplating blissful unemployment while half hoping he might still have a job, Mack struggled at first to form a reply. Wendy gave him a nudge. "Yes." he said, after pondering various ramifications- being thrown from a chopper, left dead in a ditch. "Yes, Vivi. I do love you. Like Wendy said, we-"

"Hear that, Dad? That's how it sounds. 'I love you.' Go on. Say it. Just this once."

"Viviani..."

"Say it!"

"Listen... it's not something you-"

Viviani clenched her teeth as colour rose in her face. "SAY IT!"

"Do NOT shout at-"

"SAY YOU LOVE ME! DO IT!"

"VIVIANI!" Carter bellowed, halfway to his feet, "I WILL NOT HAVE YOU MAKING A SPECTACLE!"

"Hmph..." Viviani sniffed, tears coursing her cheeks and dripping from her chin, "I thought so. You can't do it, can you? Even now, with my twin sister stolen, your very own child. Well, you know what? I hope you do fire Pool Man and Wendy, cos' I can't wait to get the heck out of this place. Even if we wind up living under a bridge it'll still be better than here."

Mack's shoulders slumped. He didn't want to live under a bridge. That was the fate his ex-wife had planned for him.

"You wouldn't last one minute." Carter said, back on an even keel. Thinking consequences, realities, the hard facts of life.

"And what an awesome minute that would be."

Wendy reached out as Viviani walked past and she fended her off. On second thoughts she teetered to a stop. "That's okay, isn't it?" she asked, "If I come with you guys?"

Wendy gave a mournful shake of the head. "Don't be silly, Darling. It won't come to that."

"Hear that, Dad? Everyone? 'Darling.'"

"Pool Man?"

"Vivi. Sweetheart. You're just overwrought. Let's all just calm down for a minute."

"Hmmm..." Viviani mused, face wet, eyes bright, tear snot glazing her lip, "'Darling'? 'Sweetheart'? What are these strange words?"

Security saw her coming and opened the door. As two fell-in beside her the gathering heard her say, "Fuck off!" and the minders fell back, looking nonplussed.

"Well don't just stand there, you morons!" Carter raged. "See her to her room. In case some goddam rat runs out of the skirting board and drags her away." Head in his hands he moaned, "Fer fuck's sake! What did I ever do to deserve this?"

A tense silence settled over the room While Mack and Wendy stood imitating spare organs at a wedding. "I do love them." Carter told himself, almost inaudibly. "Of course I do. But life's tough. So THEY have to be tough. They have to be resilient. Especially them, cos' I won't always be around to... to..." Carter looked up, his face a portrait of raw desolation, a big, powerful man grown suddenly old. "Now what the fuck am I gonna do with you?"

Mack pointed at himself. "Me, Sir?"

Carter opened his mouth to reply and Veronica cut in. "You have to fire them, like you said you would. There's no other way. This pair has been a liability since they first set foot in this place. In fact, I could swear this is the driver who-"

"Shut the fuck up, Veronica," Carter growled, "and get the fuck out of my sight. If I want your opinion I'll give it to you."

"Alright, Mister Carter." Veronica nodded, gleefully imagining what his wife would do when she told her, "If that's what you want."

"Sally?" Carter said, watching Veronica go. "Coffees please."

"A dash of rum?"

"Dash? More like fifty-fifty. Feel free to join us. You two. Sit down."

Alone with Carter, Mack and Wendy took a seat, wondering what was about to enter the circus ring next. "I'm still in two minds whether to fire you both but I don't wanna give Veronica the pleasure. You know, you could save my ass a thousand times over, but I still wouldn't let you take me for a fool."

Mack shrugged. "You might be a lot of things, Sir. But fool ain't one of them."

"A lot of things? Like what?"

"Our boss, for starters."

Sitting back, Carter laced his fingers over his gut. "You're not afraid of me, are you?" he asked. Mack and Wendy traded a glance, wondering how to break the news.

"Afraid of you?" Wendy asked.

"Afraid of me." Carter nodded. "You, Miss Stamp. I have never been spoken to the way you speak to me. At least not since I became..."

"Obscenely rich?" Wendy offered brightly.

"See. There you go again."

"Sir," Mack said wearily, "she's Aussie. She can't help it."

"And you, Travis. When I was chewing your ass just then I could almost hear you thinking... 'whatever'."

"Well, Sir... you hose down a ridge-line or ten... turn scores of humans into red rag and mist..." or, for that matter, put a bullet through your best friend's head, "...you kinda recalibrate."

Carter looked at them under his brows. "You know what I was saying? About throwing men out of airplanes? That was the truth you know."

Mack shrugged. "Did they deserve it?"

"Of course they goddam deserved it!" Carter bridled. "It's not just some sort of hobby."

"Well there you go."

Sally returned with the on-call maid tagging along, carrying a silver tray loaded with coffees and biscuits, Mack's second instalment for the night. Under the scrutiny of the no-bullshit Australian, Carter gave a nod. "Thank you, Ailyn."

The maid withdrew, stunned, thinking, wait till she told the others. Their draconian boss actually knew her name. And, god be praised, he'd even said, 'thank you.'

"So," Carter began. "What happened with my daughter tonight?"

Wendy looked to Mack for a tiny nod of encouragement. "I believe she may have been somnambulating."

"Is there an English word for that?" Carter scowled.

"Sleepwalking." Wendy said then took a sip of her coffee. She swallowed, wincing, then wiped her mouth. "When I came-to she was standing over the bed. Pretty much out of it. Covered in lacerations the poor little thing."

"From the roses, Mister Carter." Sally offered. "We found where she came down."

"Who was watching the CCTV? They would have seen her, surely."

Sally sipped her own drink, buying time. She could sink that bitch, Veronica, right here, right now, only to invite retribution at the hands of Carter's vile wife. "They must have been taking a potty-break or something."

"Two at a time? Are we using women or something?"

Sally shrugged, unperturbed by the veiled insult. "I'll look into it."

"Miss Stamp? Then what?"

Busy reminiscing about Viviani's naked body, inches from her face, with its honest-to-god, three finger thigh-gap. And that plump, hairless mound with its enticing pink slit, smelling like something out of a candy store, Wendy missed the question.

"Miss Stamp?"

Wendy shook her head, breaking the thrall. "Sorry, what?"

"You said Vivi turned up. Son.. son.. sonbulating..."

"Somnambulating. As in 'ambulate'. Walk."

"Write it down for me." Carter said, tossing Wendy a pad of yellow post-it notes. "So. Vivi turned up. What did you do?"

"Me?" Wendy asked, carefully writing the word then sliding the pad across the desk. "I woke up."

"Both of you?" Carter asked, studying the script. Neat handwriting, precise and patently feminine.

"Both of us?"

"Travis? You were there too?"

Mack raised his hands. "Oh no no no. I was at home, in bed, fast asleep."

"Viviani asked for him." Wendy explained.

"What for?" Carter snarled. "Apart from the obvious?"

They both raised their hands. "No, no, no," Wendy shook her head, "I can assure you. It was nothing like that."

"Then what was it like?"

"Well, Sir," Mack spoke up, while Wendy took her head off the block and he took her place, "Vivi... Viviani... well... she..."

"For pity's sake!" Sally sighed, "Travis. Spit it out."

"She described an encounter she had with some ruins."

"In a jungle." Wendy added. "She said she found Echo. Underground."

"What jungle? Where?"

"She didn't know for sure, but she knew Echo was there."

Carter scorched them with a glare. "And you believe this... this..."

"Rendition?" Wendy asked.

"We're not in a position to believe or disbelieve." Mack shrugged. "Her sister's missing. They're twins. Everyone knows, twins have some sort of weird energy between them."

"Don't tell me what everyone goddam knows." Carter groused. "Everyone DOESN'T know. They were always pulling these pranks. Swapping identities, pretending to be each other for days at a time. Sometimes weeks. Just to fu... mess with us. Or their sitters would show one a drawing, like a letter or a number, or a shape or an animal, and the other, sitting in another room, would have to guess what it was."

"Did they ever get it right?" Wendy asked.

"Right or wrong, that's not the point."

"But did they?"

'All the goddam time' Carter thought angrily. "They must have been using some sort of code or something. Then Janpah came along-"

"Grandpa?" Mack frowned.

"JAN-pah," Carter said crossly, "Janpajamgon, a Tibetan monk who lived here a couple of years. They called him Big Brother. He taught the girls transcendental meditation. Filled their heads with all sorts of jackass ideas. Remote viewing, astral projection. I thought they'd left all that garbage behind."

"You don't suppose..." Sally put in a bid.

"Suppose what?"

"There might be an element of... I don't know... truth to it?"

"No I do NOT!" Carter snapped. "There's a prize, you know, for anyone who can prove even the simplest supernatural phenomenon. Never been won. Never will be."

"Go spend a year on the cancer ward." Wendy challenged. "You'll soon change your tune."

Carter rolled his eyes. "YOU again?"

"Just saying. The greater part of our being is non-physical."

"Till it comes to making money."

"With all due respect, Mister Carter-"

"For god's sake, Miss Stamp! When will you learn?"

"-as I said, with all due respect. You made all your money with your mind."

"NO, goddammit! I made it with my hands. Through hard goddam work. Unrelenting, back-breaking toil." Carter jabbed his temple. "And my ideas."

"Those stem from your mind, you know. One's will, the other's imagination."

"Damn you woman!"

"Sir," Mack said before their chat devolved into fisticuffs, "I don't know what's behind it, really I don't. But if there's even the whiff of a lead."

"Then what?"

"We should follow it up."

"Ruins in the jungle. Is that the best she can do?"

"And a name." Wendy said coolly, not in the least intimidated.

"What name?" Carter blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Viviani heard a name." Mack replied.

"Whose name? What?"

"We don't know."

"Well... out with it."

"She-baba." Mack said.

"Balba." Wendy corrected. "She Balba."

Carter sat back frowning. "She Balba? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"We don't know." Wendy shrugged. "Not right now. But surely to god it's worth looking into."

"Sound like the middle east." Mack said, watching Sally, thumbs a blur, dive into a search. "It might be that sheikh."

"She Balba," Sally muttered, scanning the output, "She balba."

They sat with bated breath watching her brown eyes scan reams of text. When she looked up they were brimming with tears. "They're a band. As in a music group."

"She's been taken by a band?" Carter demanded aghast.

Sally raised a hand. "Hang on, there's also record store. In Mexico."

"Mexico?" Carter grimaced.

Sally turned her phone around so Carter could see.

"Hold on," he said, raising a hand, "hold on. This is exactly what I mean. She Balba? What a load of horseshit! People? Don't you see? This is exactly why I've never encouraged this sort of thing. These... these flights of fancy. Viviani is under incredible stress. We all are, but Viviani most of all. She's lost her twin. Why wouldn't she be? I've got an army of investigators working on the case, as well as the lion's share of the company AI. We are gonna get to the bottom of this and someone will pay. But the psychotic ramblings of a distraught young girl? I'm just not gonna have it."

***********************************************************************************

Sally sat toying with the froth on her coffee, at the sidewalk café in downtown Houston where they'd first convened. Against all odds still in a job, Wendy and Mack sat across from her, both looking guilty as sin. "So, guys," Sally said brightly, "what sort of shit are you dragging me into today? Deep shit? Weird shit? I-should-have-known-better shit, only I'll probably get sucked into it anyway, cos' somehow mental illness is catching".

"We think we've found the place." Wendy said and Mack's eyebrows flickered. She'd found it. He was just along for the ride. "A place, anyway."

"You know what I love most about you Aussies? Most of you live a long way away."

Wendy stuck her bottom lip out. "Naww... I thought we were mates."

"That's the problem.

While Wendy sat, brows knitted, pondering the conundrum, her partner took the reins. "Ski... Wendy's been doing some digging."

"So is that your side hustle these days? Earthworks?"

"Funny you should ask." Wendy replied. "It does sort of involve earthworks. Of an ancient nature."

Sally heaved a sigh then sucked the milk-froth from her spoon. "I know I'm gonna regret this, but, go on."

"She Balba." Wendy said. "I don't know why but it just rang a bell. Then I remembered. I had a mate once, a surgeon, who was a borderline genius. Mad as a cut snake. He'd, like, run twenty kilometers at four o'clock in the morning after a thirty-hour stint in the OR, then rock up to theatre at seven, fresh as a daisy. Anyway, while he was up to the wrists in the belly of a woman one day... not in the nice way, it was a colostomy reversal... he told us all about this book. That guy would read a book a day, he must have read thousands, but he still remembered all of them. And he was laughing, because in this book he was telling us about, there were these lords of the underworld. And they had names, like One Death and Seven Death-"