Morpheans tend to take their crime very seriously. For those unlucky enough to end up in the high-security prison block, it is the equivalent of being locked up and the key thrown away, melted down and sold for ornamental buttons. Not, of course, that a key would be required. The doors mould perfectly into place, sealing themselves instantly, and can only be opened from a separate secret location by prior arrangement. No windows break the sheer line of shiny white walls, and the single entrance/exit is continuously manned by three ever vigilant guards. Even the meagre food is delivered to the prisoners automatically. This jail is designed to thwart even the most determined escape artist, and so far, had been so successful that no-one has ever had the will to try. Ceun re-read the small document he’d received with his letter. Looking back towards the entrance, he folded the paper and placed it back in his pocket. He’d been on surveillance for some time and had yet to see a flaw in the security. Only one of the sentries changed at a time, so there was no opportunity to use the old, ‘the other guards know all about it’ routine. These were men who very rarely had anything happen to break the monotony, at moments of even the smallest activity their nerves were so taut they almost hummed.
For what seemed like the hundredth time, Ceun looked at the release paperwork. It looked genuine. Of course, he knew it wasn’t. There was no way that this would be done so unofficially. He felt a long-forgotten thrill of excitement. If this went wrong, it was extremely likely that he would soon become a permanent resident behind those cold walls. But, he reasoned, why would someone go to all this trouble just to set him up? There were easier ways to get revenge. He’d heard enough rumours to corroborate most of the contents of the mysterious message, and the rest he could easily believe. Now he just had to have a little faith and hope for the best.
The guards watched the truck as it slowly approached the gateway. There was always a great deal of preparation to do before they received a new inmate, so this was definitely not a delivery.
‘Not an official truck.’ Guard Two-three-one said.
‘Civilian driver,’ said Guard four-two-three.
‘Cool shades,’ added Guard Eight-one-five. The other two looked at him sharply.
‘What has that got to do with anything?’ asked Guard four-two-three.
Eight-one-five shrugged, ‘It was just an observation.’
‘My observation is that this is trouble,’ said Two-three-one.
Eight-one-five rolled his eyes. ‘When that pigeon landed on the roof and slid off, you thought that was trouble.’
‘It could have been,’ said Two-three-one.
Ceun jumped down from the cab and strolled towards the entrance. ‘That ain't no pigeon,’ said four-two-three.
‘HALT!’ shouted Two-three-one, making Eight-one-five jump. ‘STATE YOUR BUSINESS!’
Ceun took off his sunglasses, reached into his pocket and slowly drew out the release warrant. He waved it at the guards like a white flag.
‘APPROACH!’ screamed Two-three-one.
‘Does he have to shout?’ Eight-one-five asked Four-three-two. His colleague shrugged.
‘I have here a warrant for the release of a prisoner into my custody.’ Ceun called out as he walked towards the three men. By the time he reached them, Two-three-one was smiling unpleasantly.
‘No one is ever released from here,’ he growled, ‘nice try though.’
‘No skin off my nose.’ Ceun said, turning to go, ‘I didn’t want the job anyway. Babysitting some freaky nut job just because the powers that be think she’s the only one who can save us all.’
‘We have received no instructions that a prisoner is to be released regardless of world-saving ability,’ said Four-three-two.
Ceun read through the warrant. ‘I brought her in here and, believe me, the last thing I want to do is take her out again. This warrant says that at three o’clock I am to collect her. It’s five minutes to three, and I’m here. If it isn’t happening, then personally I will be delighted, she was a pain in the arse. Some other idiot can come back and collect her once the committee has sorted out all the red tape.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ asked Four-three-two.
‘There was an emergency meeting,’ Eight-one-five said, ‘perhaps it’s something to do with that?’
‘No one is ever released from here,’ repeated Two-three-one doggedly, sticking with what he knew.
‘That’s what I like to see, unfailing devotion to duty. It matters not that the skies will be crumbling, the seas boiling, and we will all be enslaved for eternity, there is will always be someone is making sure everyone returns their library books.’ Ceun smiled. ‘It’ll probably be safer in there. He nodded towards the prison.
‘We are going to need to check this out,’ Four-three-two said uncertainly. Ceun handed over the warrant and his identity card.
Eight-one-five looked at the image on the card and compared it to the man in front of him, who grinned manically. ‘Ceun Hawke, Sandman, Bounty Hunter…’
‘And an all-round good egg.’ Ceun finished for him.
‘I’ve heard of you,’ Eight-one-five said staring at him. ‘You have brought in all the dangerous criminals single handed!’
‘Hardly,’ Ceun said modestly, ‘although, I have helped to fill up a few rooms in this little hotel of yours…’
‘Ceun Hawke?’ Four-three-two asked, ‘what really? I used to read all the stories about you when I was little. You captured the smoke beast with only a slice of bacon and a balloon!’
‘And the cavity fairy with a bowl of raspberries and a toothpick!’ joined in Eight-one-five. ‘We ate raspberries for months after that!’
‘You shouldn’t believe everything they read, should they Mr Hawke, if that is indeed your real name?’ said the more cynical Two-three-one as he examined the warrant. ‘Just as I don’t believe everything put in front of me. If you will excuse me, I have some calls to make.’
‘Be my guest. I quite agree, and you two are making me feel quite old.’ The bounty hunter leaned back against the cool wall.
‘But you look younger than us?’ said Four-three-two.
‘The luck of Sandman genetics, but don’t be fooled. I have been around a very long time. Perhaps that’s why someone has sent me on this wild goose chase, some bureaucrat’s idea of a joke?’
‘Your paperwork seems to be in order Mr Hawke,’ said the returning Two-three-one. It was clear that he took that very personally. ‘I haven’t been able to verify your particular authority in this matter, one way or the other. Everyone seems to think your name credential enough.’ ‘However,’ he brightened a little, ‘Unless the remote locks are activated, which even you couldn’t achieve with all your considerable talents,’ He used finger quotation marks around the word talents, ‘your paperwork and credentials are… worthless.’
As the distant chimes marking the third hour faded, there was a faint whirring followed by a pronounced click. The main door slid silently back into the wall.’ Three guards and one bounty hunter peered into the hallway beyond. ‘I think we may have had a revaluation,’ said Ceun.
If you bathed a man-eating tiger, tied a bell to its tail, bound all four of its feet tightly together, and sat just out of reach making ner ner ne ner ner noises, it would be a pussy cat compared to the venomous polymorph that was currently being expelled from the prison.
‘What the hell?’ Ceun exclaimed in surprise.
‘It’s my Janice,’ said Four-three-two. ‘My wife!’ Two-three-one gasped. ‘His wife.’ Eight-one-five agreed.
‘What I meant.’ Ceun continued patiently, ‘Is what is she…in?’
‘Oh that. Prisoners are kept in a kind of shrink wrap; it keeps them compliant.’ Four-three-two supplied, still staring in horror at the apparition.
‘And fresh, I would have thought.’ Ceun added.
‘You’ll need more than smart quips if you’re taking this one away,’ said Two-three-one. ‘It’s the solitude. If they weren’t mad before they arrived, then it isn’t long before they are completely homicidally insane. If you want my advice, under no circumstances remove the outer casing, this one is dangerous.’
The morph glowered with hatred as soon as she set eyes on the bounty hunter.
‘She’s pleased to see you then?’ Four-three-two said nervously. The truck was soon loaded, and Ceun was driving away. He made sure there were many miles between him and the prison before he even considered stopping. A secluded copse seemed the perfect hiding place. He pulled a few branches over the front of the cab before moving along to the rear doors.
‘Rise and shine!’ he shouted, banging on the side of the truck. Unbolting the back doors, Ceun was knocked backwards two black figures in cowls exploding out of the back of the truck. He lay on his back cursing. Quickly scrambling back to his feet, the departing figures were followed by a charging polymorph who leapt from the vehicle and pushed him back into the earth. She shook her matted head and screamed into his face.
‘Hello Anaya,’ he said.
‘Hello Ceun,’ she hissed. ‘Did you miss me? I’ve thought about you… a lot.’
~~
Ceun hadn’t become the supreme bounty hunter on Morpheus without learning a thing or two about the element of surprise. Despite her initial advantage, they were a short and violent wrestle away from the polymorph being once more secured.
Dusting himself off, Ceun watched as Anaya, the rogue polymorph, struggled against the bonds now securing her to the back of the truck. ‘Bloody monks.’ He complained to himself as he rolled his shoulder.
‘Let me go!’ Anaya screamed, ineffectually trying to kick in his direction.
‘So that you can try to claw my eyes out again? Hmmm, let me think…No.’
‘I won’t,’ she said, trying to regain control of herself. ‘Just untie me.’
‘Biting, scratching, kicking, ripping out my entrails and strangling me with them. All not an option, you can stay there until you calm down.’ He said, waving a hand at her in dismissal. The other nursed his ribs which had connected with the morph’s foot.
#
Anaya began kicking and screaming again. Ceun squatted just out of reach as the polymorph vented her frustration. ‘It may have escaped your notice,’ he said as she paused for a moment’s breath, ‘but I have just broken you out of a maximum-security prison.’
‘I was released!’
‘No. You are currently free, there is a difference, and it is not going to be long before someone is wondering why you are sitting here instead of tucked up in your shrink wrap coffin so maybe pipe down before they come looking, on and while you’re at it, perhaps a little gratitude should be in order?’
‘Gratitude!’ She spat. ‘You were the reason that I was locked up in that plastic hell in the first place!’
‘Now that is not exactly true, is it?’
‘Don’t you patronise me!’
‘No, no, you’re quite right. Of course, none of that was your fault.’ Ceun stood up. ‘I was the one who made you get attached to that human. What was his name?’
Anaya took a deep breath and struggled to regain her composure. She closed her eyes. As if of its own accord, her hair began to unravel and soon lay neatly to her shoulders. ‘Robert,’ she said quietly as if her tamed look was directly related to her temper.
‘Ah, yes, Robert. I was the one who made you stalk his dreams night after night. I still don’t know what you were hoping to achieve?’
‘You wouldn’t understand,’ she said, staring at her knees. ‘You have no feelings.’
‘You’re right. I don’t understand. You’re a polymorph, Ana. It wasn’t even you he saw.’ He paced the track.
‘Don’t you think I know that?’
‘If you knew that why did you keep going back? Every time a different face, a change in voice, for what? So that he could indulge whatever fantasy happened to be top of his list that night? That is why you let others take over. You move on. You don’t become obsessed, and you don’t threaten them when they don’t return your attentions!’
‘I’ve heard all the lectures, Hawke. I was there at the hearing, remember?’ She turned her face away.
‘Yes, and so you will also recall me standing up and speaking for you? You promised me that you would leave Robert alone if I helped you. You begged me.’
‘I did leave him alone,’ she said petulantly.
Ceun slapped the side of the truck, making her jump. ‘Do you take me for a fool?’ he growled. ‘You left him alone all right, oh yes. You left him right alone. You excelled yourself there. His poor wife, however, I bet you can’t remember her name?’
Anaya shook her head.
‘Sarah, that was her name. You hurt her; you tortured her Anaya. You couldn’t get your own way so, like a spoilt little child, you attacked and bullied someone innocent, someone, who could not defend themselves.’
‘I… I didn’t mean…’ she said.
‘You didn’t mean what? You didn’t mean to drive her to the point you did? You didn’t know that she was depressed already? You didn’t intend for things to end up as they did?’ She shook her head again, looking up into Ceun’s face, the tears just starting in her eyes.
‘Don’t even try it,’ he said, disgusted. ‘You didn’t care. All you could see is something you wanted, and when he didn’t want you, then you wanted your revenge. You’re a brat, a spoiled, pampered creature who lashed out when she didn’t get her way. You fooled me once, but there is no way you are going to do it again!’ Ceun was breathing heavily. He leaned on the truck and fought back the anger inside.
‘If I’m such a terrible person, beyond all redemption, why did you go to all this effort to rescue me then?’ Anaya said eventually.
Ceun sighed. ‘Don’t do that.’
‘What?’
‘Play the martyr card if you like but, it doesn’t suit you and certainly won’t make any difference to me.’
‘So why am I here? Oh, and by the way, please let me know the very moment I manage to do or say something that reaches you on your moral high ground?’ the morph said sarcastically.
Ceun ignored the comment. ‘You’re here because Morpheus is in trouble. Someone has broken through from Realitas, and they have discovered a way into lucid dreaming. It is already starting to cause chaos, and my information tells me that this is just the beginning.’
‘What has this got to do with me?’ She asked, arching an eyebrow.
‘This is nothing to do with the police or the committee or anything official. This is a private commission.’
‘Private? Oooh, so you’re going a little rogue yourself these days?’ She said, with glee.
Ceun glared at her, ‘I am trying to do the right thing. My source tells me that the committee wants the inventor of this technology to disappear, quite literally. But my client doesn’t believe that this is the answer. The man probably doesn’t know what he’s doing, or the damage he is causing. Even if he was removed, there will be others. We have to try and stop him before the committee does it more… permanently.’
‘And who is this benefactor who cares so deeply for humans?’
Ceun said nothing.
‘You don’t know, do you?’ she gasped, ‘you’re taking all of this on trust. Do I think you are a fool? Err… yes? How do you know it isn’t just some giant set up?’
‘Because, whoever it is, they arranged for you to be released. They organised the locks and the paperwork. They are not someone without influence.’
Anaya shifted her position, ‘I was wondering about that. Lovely as this outing is, I ask again, what has all this got to do with me?’
‘I need to get to this human, make him understand that what he is doing has greater implications. I need to tap into his dreams and have someone he trusts convince him to do the right thing. In short, I need you.’
‘I see,’ she said calmly. ‘I thought I wasn’t trustworthy. I’m a bad person? Use a working morph.’
‘My client seemed to think that you would be willing to help.’
‘That should have been your first clue that they are mentally impaired.’ She snorted.
‘They suggested they could help you regain your freedom.’ Ceun threw the letter onto the ground so that the polymorph could see for herself. He paced as she read through the contents. Anaya thought for a moment. ‘If this mystery person believes in me, it seems I don’t have a great deal to lose, then, does it? But they must be crazy putting us together. Why would they think you would ever trust me?’
Ceun began to untie the ropes. ‘That’s easy. I don’t, and I won’t.’
Anaya rubbed her wrists. She glanced at the bounty hunter from the corner of her eye. ‘I wouldn’t even think about it if I were you,’ he said simply without looking.
She smiled without humour. ‘Can’t blame a girl for murderous optimism… So, what’s the plan? We walk up to this bloke and tell him to stop doing whatever, job done?’
‘Not exactly. We have to tap into something that has already been placed in his subconscious; that way, it won’t be affected by the thrall this machine throws over everyone.’
‘When you say it… I am assuming you mean me?’ Anaya said.
‘Your morphy mojo actually, and when you have his attention, you have to use this.’ He held up a small device a similar size and shape of a credit card. ‘But,’ he said, holding the object as if it was an unexploded bomb. ‘And the instructions were very clear on this. It’s experimental, and we only get one shot.’
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