Something Caged

  “We should probably be off to bed,” said Dev.

            They were in the library again where they had attempted to discern who exactly they were working for, unfortunately to no avail. There was a grandfather clock next to the door which read quarter to twelve.

  “Yeah, shouldn’t break any rules on our first night,” said Ian leading the way.

            Their rooms where the first three doors on the second floor’s eastern wing. They wished each other a good night and resigned to their captivity. Ian looked around his room. It was bare; only a double bed and a drawer filled it. He looked along the roof mouldings and spotted four cameras, each with a view of at least two of the others.

  “So much for no surveillance,” said Ian to himself.

            It was a good setup but it had its flaws, and Ian was going to expose it. He grabbed his laptop from his bag, climbed into bed and started typing away, entering command after command until he connected to the local network with two separate accounts, his own and a hidden account. With his account he searched a few random things on Google to throw them off his actual intent, and with the hidden account he started hacking the secure network of the mansion.

            It was more difficult than he had first anticipated since their whole network was abstracted into so many different layers that you almost needed a password for everything you wanted to access. Ian was impressed, not even his own network at home was this secure, though he would remedy that when he got back.

            At three in the morning he finally managed to gain access to some of the video surveillance for the mansion, mostly the rooms they were sleeping in, the hallway outside, the kitchen and the library. He double checked that they would not be able to see what he was actually up to from the videos before checking on Ed and Dev, who were both asleep. Ian decided he wouldn’t get any further that night so he switched the laptop off and tried to sleep.

            They were woken by an alarm at seven and after getting dressed, Ian made his way downstairs where he found Elizabeth and her bodyguard in the kitchen eating breakfast.

  “Morning,” she greeted.

  “Morning,” Ian replied more out of courtesy than anything.

  “Sleep well?”

  “Well enough,” said Ian, but then you knew that already, he thought as he made his way to the table and started filling a plate.

  “Morning,” said Devon as he entered, more to Ian than the other two but they greeted him all the same.

            Ed was the last to arrive, half an hour later by which time Elizabeth and her guard had already left. They ate in silence and afterwards Dev and Ed headed to the library while Ian went off ‘exploring’ as he called it. They only started worrying by midday.

  “Where the hell is Ian?” asked Ed throwing a book clear across the table in frustration.

  “It’s probably best that we don’t know where he is, it means they haven’t found him either,”

            As Devon said this, the door on the other end of the library opened and Ian was shoved inside by a mean looking mercenary with a scar on his cheek.

  “Thank you, I wouldn’t have found it without your help,” said Ian sarcastically and the man left, closing the door behind him. “Free reign my ass, this is a gilded cage, nothing more,”

  “You didn’t really think they’d live up to their end of the bargain, did you?” asked Ed.

  “I’ve been living in South Africa all my life, and just like anywhere else on this planet, people are as likely to fuck you than to kill you, and a lot less likely to help you. No I knew we were prisoners, just needed to find the bars,”

  “And what did you find?” asked Dev.

  “Nothing much, first floor is mainly the kitchen, a mess hall, dining room, living room, home theatre, this library and half a dozen studies. Second floor is mostly bedrooms and bathrooms, at least on the east wing, the west wing however.

  “Found the first checkpoint there, they wouldn’t let me pass, so I found another way around them. Only, I think their security cams saw me or something, ‘coz before I knew it, the guy with the scar was shoving me through that door,”

  “You have an amazing way with your captives,” said Ed.

  “It’s a gift,” Ian said with a smile.

  “So nothing of value?” asked Dev.

  “Nothing,” Ian said and nodded twice, the others took his meaning instantly.

  “WHAT is with this weather of late? It IS neither here nor THERE,” said Ed as Ian took a seat at the head of the table. In truth the weather had been consistent with the usual autumn weather they could expect in South Africa, but Ed was speaking in code, stressing only the words he actually wanted to use. He did it so casually that only the other two really could catch his meaning.

  “Winter is coming,” said Ian, “THEY will have us locked up here long after we ARE done. Lord knows what we will be DOING for them, hopefully no more TESTS. Dev, switch that light ON, I won’t have SOMEONE sneak up on us from the shadows,”

  “WHAT, are you afraid of the dark now? Besides, there are only two KINDS of people that can sneak up on you, blondes and the dead. What was the name OF that blonde, the one that helped you with the bio TESTS?” said Dev.

  “Alicia SOMETIHNG. She was a HORRIBLE cook, but I think you guys must have HEARD her when she spent the night, always SCREAMING during sex,”

  “Yes, that is SO. But WHAT I never knew is how you managed to bag a girl like that? Sure, you’ve got money NOW but back then you were a student,” said Ed.

  “WE had chemistry, what can I say. And I could ACT the part of a wealthy student well enough. It was acting NORMAL that became an issue. DO you recall WHAT I did after WE broke up? The holes ARE still in that wall, I’m TOLD,” said Ian.

  “Yeah, they are,” said Devon.

  “You going to ask Danny to come over?” asked Ed, reverting back to normal conversation.

  “No, it’s best if she stays out of this,” said Ian. “And Melisa as well,” he added, looking over at Dev.

            The rest of the day passed slowly. They went out back to the outdoor gym where they trained for an hour or so, afterwards they had lunch and went back to the study to sift fruitlessly through books and papers.

            After dinner they headed to the home theatre to watch a movie and at half past eleven, they went to their separate rooms. Ian again took up his hacking, this time trying to get into the camera feeds for the west section of the mansion.

            Hour after hour passed and he slowly managed to gain access to cameras all over the mansion but not to the west side. He gained access to the garage’s cameras where he could see a large number of SUVs and panel vans, he gained access to the mess hall and the gym where a few mercs were busy, and he even gained access to Elizabeth’s room, not that she was in it.

            At four in the morning, Ian was ready to give up, but then he saw it. On one of the garage cameras he saw two mercs load a mangled body into the back of a panel van and drive off. He rewound the feed and zoomed in, he couldn’t make out the face but he could see it was a woman in her late thirties.

            He switched off the laptop after clearing his tracks, placed it back in the bag and looked up at the ceiling as he tried to feign an attempt at sleep.

  What the hell are they doing here, and what are they going to ask of us, he though before resting his eyes. At six, the alarm sounded and he got ready for their first official day on standby.