The Foundling Saga: Revelation (12 page)

"Sit up, whilst I check you over,”the doctor said
.

The doctor had a small bag with him. He took two instruments out of the bag. “I just want to examine your ears, nose and throat,” he said and placed one hand on the left side of Keller’s head whilst he peered into his right ear. “Settle down and don’t move - I’m trying to examine your ears.”

Keller frowned as he hadn't even moved. All the doctors he had met seemed terse, he thought.

The doctor turned his attention to Keller’s left ear. “All good,” he said. Keller suddenly heard a rush of sound and would have jumped except the doctor had kept a firm grip on his shoulder. He suddenly heard a voice in his ear “Keller, don’t speak. Keep still and keep looking at the doctor. Keep calm. My name is Ash and I am going to help you. I am talking to you from outside the prison. You are the only one who can hear this voice. Be careful as you are being monitored remotely and someone is likely to be watching you. The doctor is also a friend. He has placed a small device in your ear - he is working with us to help release you.” The voice paused. “Listen carefully, look at the doctor and tell him that your stomach has been painful since you arrived. He will then ask you some questions. We will provide some answers. We are going to create a situation where you need to be moved to the medical wing of this prison.”

Keller look intently at the doctor who was now using a hand held monitor but continued to maintain eye contact with him.

“My stomach has been very painful since I arrived,” he said.

The voice called Ash spoke in his ear, "Good, now wait before you say anything else.”

The doctor nodded, keeping careful eye contact with Keller. "What sort of pain -where is it?" he asked.

Ash spoke again, "Tell him it’s around your belly button and it’s a sharp pain.”

Keller did as requested. The doctor put on a look of mild concern. "Have you had any trouble eating?"

Keller was fed a response and repeated this "I have been feeling particularly hungry yesterday and today. I find the pain sharp at times particularly when I cough.”

The doctor pondered this and then asked Keller to lift his shirt. "As soon as he touches your stomach you need to show him you have a sharp pain.”

The doctor prodded Keller gently around the stomach and Keller yelped in pain.

"Ok, sometimes, after a long period of hibernation there can be issues with the appendix. This should normally have been picked up soon after awakening. Lie down for now. I will be back shortly.” He then left the room.

The voice in his ear came on again. "Lay down and, I know it’s tempting, but do not respond to me. We need you to play along.”

He then gave Keller some coaching to create the illusion that he needed medical help. "They will be monitoring you. The doctor will report on your condition and should then return.”

Keller didn’t know if he was under observation. He decided to lie down on the bed. He started groaning. He lay like this for a few minutes, continuing to hold his stomach and groan. He stood up, doubled over and went to the basin beside the toilet and made retching noises.

After a minute or two, he returned to the bed and continued the charade. He then sat bent over groaning and rocking backwards and forwards.

He walked over and tried the door again. The viewer appeared and the same gruff voice asked him what he was doing. “I’d like a drink. I’d also like to see the doctor again. I have pains in my stomach.”

“Lay down on the bed, for now. Just wait.” The man said and the viewer faded. Keller went and lay on the bed and continued groaning.

The old man came in with water. He placed it on the table then left without a word.

A little while passed and then the door slid open again. The same doctor appeared with an attendant. The doctor approached Keller frowning, and then checked the toilet and shower, returning to Keller. “You can go - he hasn’t been sick anywhere except in the toilet,” he said to the attendant.

“Okay, I think you may well have a problem with your appendix, as I suspected. We will have to get you moved to the medical rooms and take a closer look. Just lie down for now,” the doctor said.

The doctor went over to the wall and waved a hand. The gruff voiced man appeared.

“Mr Klose, I think this young man is in the early stages of appendicitis. We will need to move him to the medical wing. This isn’t something that can wait.”

“Do you have what you need in the med room?” the gruff voice asked.

“Yes. If you need to get authorisation, can I ask that you hurry. I understand this patient is a VIP.”

“I know. Just wait and I’ll check.” Mr Klose faded. After a minute, he returned on the wall viewer. “We have a trolley on the way. This guest will need to be escorted, as will you. I have two men on the way.”

The voice in his ear spoke “Keller, this is good. They will not want any harm to come to you. Your mother will no doubt insist on seeing you well. Once we have you at the med room we can help. Don’t over-act now - just make it clear you are in pain.”

The door slid open. A man with a grey uniform entered, followed by a trolley which was being pushed by a second man in a similar uniform. The trolley had a thin mattress, a pillow and a sheet. They paused just inside the door as there wasn’t enough room to get the trolley around the table. "Come here, Keller, we need you to lie down on this, so let’s get going."

The first uniformed man then spoke "Sit on the edge, here. Bring your legs over and lie down.” He waited patiently whilst the doctor helped the young man who clearly appeared to be in pain.

“What’s going to happen to me?” Keller asked, as they adjusted his pillow and then moved the trolley towards the door.

“That’s up to the doctor,” said the second uniformed man.

“We need to do some tests, Keller. We may have to act quickly depending on the results. We need a deeper scan, don’t worry.”

They all moved down the narrow well-lit corridor and Keller tried to take in his surroundings. It was a grim place and he could see other rooms like his down the corridor. He caught glimpses of the courtyard through gaps in the wall along part of the corridor. He could see another group of men, heads shaven, crossing the courtyard with a man in a grey uniform following.

Eventually, they came to some double doors and the two men held the doors open allowing the doctor to move the trolley through the doors. The corridor was now wider and there were several nurses present. One of them came over. "Hello doctor, we have opened unit three for you.” The two men then pushed the trolley towards a door marked ‘Unit 3’.

The doctor stopped at the doors. “I will take over from here.”

A male nurse helped push the trolley towards a bed. “Just sit up for the moment,” he said. Keller thought he recognised the voice and looked up at the nurse frowning, then with a look of recognition on his face as he realised it was Ash. “Yes, Keller it’s me, this is Doctor Clark,” he said as he introduced the doctor who had just brought him from his room.

Ash held Keller’s head still and the doctor quickly extracted the small device from his ear that had so nearly made him jump earlier. Ash explained that they had no control over the ‘cells’, as he called the room Keller had been held in. However in here they were able to talk more freely, but he warned Keller to continue to act as though he had a stomach pain in front of anybody but himself and Doctor Clark.

The doctor then moved some equipment on trolleys towards Keller and Ash. The equipment had screens with similar graphs to those he saw back on Earth during his preparation for the trip. This was part of the charade they were playing. Keller was grateful that he was getting help in this strange world but he had no idea who these men were. However, they soon explained the situation.

It seemed that Ash was the senior person out of the pair. As the doctor monitored the door Ash explained: “We’ve got a few minutes and we are going to try to move you out of this prison complex as it isn’t safe. We just have to wait here with you under the pretext of an urgent medical examination. Help should be here soon.”

“Who are these people, this Kurk person?” asked Keller.

“The Governor, your mother, has been aware that we had some renegades operating out of Macau B with some support in other areas. Kurk seems to have influence in this area but we aren’t sure if he is the ultimate power behind this. It wasn’t until recently that we realised how serious the situation was. These men are likely to cause chaos if they aren’t stopped and that will cost lives. We knew something was underway, some sort of operation, but not exactly what it was. We, amongst others, have been awaiting a move to be made and monitoring the whereabouts of suspected renegades to try and build a picture of how serious this was”.

Ash seemed to study his reaction, then continued.

“We were more than stunned at your arrival. It wasn’t picked up until we established that we had an unknown passenger on the transfer flight – we then got access to your records. On routinely verifying some details, your DNA was checked purely to ascertain your health after you landed and we then checked this against other samples. We have been extremely busy trying to establish who got you here. Until two days ago we hadn’t realised that our perma-link had been infiltrated by a renegade engineer. It seems he has been working with Kurk and his colleagues.”

“We have a pilot coming here in a prisoner transfer heli. This is going to be our route out. Governor Whelehan is aware you are here and that we are attempting a rescue. En route to Plymouth Rock we can contact your mother. Once we are out, the green guards will be on their way here to take back control. These are the civilian reserve police.”

Ash suddenly stood still. He seemed to be listening. “Is that them?” Doctor Clark asked. Keller realised that Ash must also have a speaker in his ear.

Ash nodded. “Lie down on the trolley,” he gestured to Keller. “As soon as they approach for landing we are going to move out through these doors down the corridor and through a set of doors to the courtyard. Then we will take you towards the heli. By the time we are in the courtyard, it will be too late for the alarm. At the same time, we have arranged a diversion at the front gates.”

They waited a few minutes. Then all hell let loose. Firstly there was a boom. “The diversion, Keller, don’t worry,” said Ash as Keller sat up. “Lie down. Doctor, let’s go,” he continued.

They moved calmly but swiftly through several sets of double doors. There was clearly some urgency in the air as other staff seemed to be moving back towards the cell area where he had come from, presumably towards the diversion.

They wheeled Keller down through a wider corridor and out through a final pair of doors into the courtyard. A heli was landing about thirty yards away. The sight of the machine landing still left Keller in awe. He was ushered towards the heli with Ash and the doctor on either side of him, both of whom were looking very tense, but determined.

The courtyard was a large area surrounded by grey walls. Keller guessed it was about an acre in size. Three of the walls had buildings alongside and some of those had direct access to the courtyard. The medical facility was one of these. The wall opposite the facility had a view of the mountains in the distance over which lay the Plymouth Rock settlement.

The door of the heli was open and its three wheels were off the ground, it was more or less floating steadily. The blades were still spinning at half speed. This was a larger heli than the ones he had seen earlier. It looked like it could hold more than half a dozen people including a central raised storage area that also held a stretcher. There was only one person in the front. Keller was suddenly ushered forward with some urgency towards the heli. He could hear shouting and saw smoke coming over the buildings on the side that he presumed the entrance was situated.

Ash urged Keller to climb into the heli. There was a woman in a nurse’s attire in the back - possibly part of the charade he thought. She helped Keller into a seat immediately and pulled a strap over him. Keller was about to thank her when he turned to hear more shouting and saw that three men in grey uniforms were running towards them. There was a bang and he saw the doctor fall back onto the floor awkwardly. “Lift! Lift!” shouted Ash, who simultaneously leapt in beside the pilot. The craft leant to the side slightly and then rose quickly, the doors sliding shut at the same time.

“The doctor, you’ve just left him,” shouted Keller who was in a state of fright. The heli was already 100 metres up and the speed of movement had shocked his stomach.

The heli buzzed away more quietly after the initial lift. Ash turned to Keller, “Calm down, Keller. The doctor has been stunned. He will be incapacitated for several hours now, judging by the charge used. We will return for him one way or another - but not now. There was no way we could stop to lift him in.”

Ash turned to the front as the viewer in front of him came on showing the mountains ahead. He waved his hand across part of the screen and the scene changed. Keller watched as a face came into view. “Hello, Governor Whelehan. We have your son, he is unharmed. Doctor Clark was incapacitated on exit. They are aware we have left with Keller. There is no pursuit as yet.”

This was a moment that Keller had thought about a lot since he was picked up in England. He had assumed that, when he met his birth mother, they would be in the same vicinity. He also assumed they would be able to sit together and talk and he was sure they would both have questions. He had pictured in his mind that it would be similar to meeting a long lost older sister, as he still found it hard to imagine a second mother.