The Hunt for Pierre Jnr Read Free Page A

mirrors that stood  en garde  around the walls.
     
    He tipped his head towards the balding tailor at his feet, who looked up at him with the stiffness of awe and fear, mesmerised by the monstrous head and the tatty hair that was unable to cover the lively streaks around Pierre’s skull.  Am I such a fearsome sight?
     
    Pierre put a soft hand on the man’s pate and placatingly stroked the surviving white hair. ‘You may start.’ He smiled.
     
    ~ * ~
     
     
     
     
    Many believe he
    does not exist
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    ~ * ~
     
     
     
     
    Pete awoke under a mask. He knew what it was, though he’d never been under one before. Masks were used to keep prisoners and patients unconscious and obedient. He blinked under the opaque face-plate as it depressurised from his face with a stiff sigh.
     
    One by one his senses slowly returned to him. His ears told him he was in a large open space. They also told him it sounded dark, but he put this down to a minor synaesthesia caused by the fading intoxications.
     
    Sight was the last sense to return to him. Blinking to clear his eyes, Pete saw an old man in uniform snoring softly in a leather armchair across from him. An enormous moustache of white and ginger rose and fell with the dry snores, matched in magnificence only by an equally daring pair of eyebrows.
     
    Attempting to move, Pete found himself bound to his chair, which was secured to the floor. Around him a line of servitors lit up at his struggle, tracking his every move with ominously steady weapons. He was square in the middle of an empty pre-slab hangar, the floor and walls composed entirely of reconstituted stone hexagons that tiled out forty paces in each direction. The space echoed with the tracking adjustments of the robot  gendarmes  that lined each wall. He wondered if they had built this prison just for him.
     
    Oh, well, it was to be expected.  Pete forced himself to relax. He was, after all, a wanted fugitive, a dreaded psi; he could hardly blame them for their precautions.
     
    He coughed politely and the snores ceased. Silently the origami of the Serviceman’s eyelids folded in and watery eyes peered through the eyebrow canopy.
     
    ‘Yes?’ the old man said.
     
    ‘Where am I?’ Pete asked, finding himself too drowsy to tap into the man’s thoughts.
     
    ‘I could ask you the same thing,’ the old man objected, straightening in his seat and looking around him. Slowly he nodded and stroked his facial hair as if it was a pet that required comforting. ‘Ah, yes, I remember now. We’re in isolation.’
     
    ‘I can see that. Who are you?’
     
    ‘No point getting tetchy with me, boy.’
     
    Pete was at last confused. Nobody had called him ‘boy’ for thirty years. This wasn’t exactly how he thought Services would react to his submission.
     
    ‘I am Colonel Abercrombie Pinter, and the Will has assigned me as your intermediary. Aren’t you meant to be a mind-reader?’
     
    ‘I’m still a little drugged,’ Pete defended himself. Now he understood. They were putting a retired inconsequential in charge of him, so as not to risk the mind of anyone important. Damn it. It would have been better to have had a remote as his case-worker. ‘What do they intend to do with me?’
     
    ‘I am quite sure you would know more than I do. The request only came through last night, and most of that time I’ve spent asleep. I haven’t even had any breakfast yet. Are you hungry?’
     
    ‘Yes,’ Pete responded, his stomach momentarily taking over his priorities. ‘Thank you.’
     
    The Colonel stood and walked to the farthest wall, where a servitor stepped forward with two trays. It was curious that they had chosen this method.  Why an old man? And why is he only half-wired? Is he too old, or is it another precaution?
     
    ~ * ~
     
    They ate a typical Serviceman breakfast: rashers of bacon, an orange mash of some sort and an eggy goo spiced with extra