Chapter 9
Cerebrum made his way quickly across the lawn of the governor’s estate and hid himself in the hedges at the base of the estate. He crawled on his belly to a small window that was ground level. Pulling a small tool from his suit, he was able to have the window open within seconds. It was barely big enough for him to squeeze through. He pulled through the window and fell to the floor landing quietly on his feet. Cerebrum moved with the agility of a jungle feline. He was in some kind of storeroom obviously in the underground of the governor’s estate. He pulled a small device from his suit and did a quick thermal scan of the room and it’s exterior. Nothing showed up on the device screen. It was extremely dark in the storeroom so he would need to use his night vision to see where he was going without running into anything. He found the door and slowly opened it without a sound. The corridor was nearly as dark as the storeroom. At the far end of the hall he sensed someone coming. Through his night vision he could tell it was a guard and a security hound. Cerebrum closed his eyes and began to probe at the guards mind. Suddenly the guard felt dizzy. He had to prop himself up against the wall to steady his balance. Cerebrum then began to probe the mind of the security hound. He gave the hound the feeling of starvation. The security hound’s first instinct made him run in a few circles. Then he took off back the way they had come. The sudden jerk coupled with the guard’s dizziness sent him falling to the floor. Cerebrum broke the hold he had on the guard’s brain. The guard shook his head then began chasing after the security hound all the time screaming and cursing the hound. Cerebrum carefully moved down the hallway. As he neared the end, he let his senses reach out to determine if anyone were standing around the corner out of sight. He felt nothing and so he continued on. At the end of the short hall were a set of stairs. Cerebrum carefully climbed to the top of the stairs. He paused at the top and let his powers probe the other side of the door. He felt one guard standing outside the door. This obstacle would be easy enough to get around. Cerebrum would simply cause the guard to feel so tired that his body would shut down and he would go into a deep sleep. The same trick he used on the two guards Carden had brought to the abandoned tavern in the old outpost section of Tyroth. He probed the guards mind, then shortly heard the limp body fall to the floor. Cerebrum stepped through the door. To his right lay the body of the unconscious guard. To his left was a couple of security monitors. The cameras that went along with the monitors were watching the front gate, and the back entrance to the estate. This has to be a secondary security. post, Cerebrum thought to himself. He carefully made his way across the room, making sure he stayed in the shadows. From the doorway he could see the main stairs leading to the next floor. Cerebrum made two movements and he was half way up the staircase. Once at the top he probed the area with his mind to get a fix on the surroundings. There weren’t many people on this floor, and nearly all of them were already asleep. He moved down the hall, probing the mind of the individual in each room he passed.
Finally at the end of the hall, Cerebrum came to Lowell Handoff’s room. All day and all night, members of Jade Eye had been catering to young Lowell. He was supposed to be taking the place of the recently deceased Governor Dwan. The Dark Heart Agency, as well as Jade Eye, needed Lowell Handoff to fall right in step with how the former governor was operating. And Cerebrum was here to make sure that happened.
He slipped into Handoff’s room undetected. As Cerebrum crept toward the bed he noticed the empty bottles of expensive intoxicating refreshment. Lowell had obviously passed out. He was draped across the bed without a stitch of clothing. A very attractive female lay beside Lowell on the bed. Her long blonde hair was tussled over her face, hiding it. Her figure was very slim with average curves. She was laying face down on the bed. She was completely naked as well. Cerebrum wondered if she were a legitimate government employee, or if she were just a hired escort. Cerebrum stepped to the far end of the room and blended into the shadows. He then probed the young girl’s brain. First he hit her with a feeling of shock. She awoke with a startled look on her face and immediately jumped out of bed. She looked at Lowell lying there naked, and then looked down at her own naked body. As she stared around the room, she had a confused look on her face. It was almost as if she didn’t remember anything. She looked like she was confused about her present situation. Before she could begin snooping around the room, Cerebrum hit her with a fierce feeling of worry. She quickly grabbed her clothes and put on as little as possible to cover herself up. She carried her shoes in her hand, so not to make any noise as she slipped out of the room.
Cerebrum held the feeling of worry in the young woman’s brain as long as he could. He then walked over to the bed where Lowell lay unconscious. Lowell was really out of it. He never so much as twitched when the young woman jumped out of bed. Cerebrum probed Lowell’s brain and hit it with a very powerful feeling of surprise. As soon as Lowell jumped up, Cerebrum broke the hold. Lowell sat there frantically looking around the room . Cerebrum had stepped into the shadows. Lowell grabbed a robe hanging from the bedpost and quickly slipped it on. From the shadows, Cerebrum probed the young man’s mind again. This time Cerebrum sent an intense pain shooting down Lowell’s back. Instinctively Lowell grabbed his back and fell onto the bed. He was just about to cry out in pain when the feeling went away.
The young man rolled off the other side of the bed onto the floor. He was too scared to stand up. Suddenly he felt the coldest he ever had. He pulled the robe tighter against his body, and crouched up into a ball sitting on the floor. Then, as quickly as his body got cold, it was suddenly very hot. So hot that he untied the robe and pulled the front of it away from his body. Lowell was beginning to think he was going crazy. He thought maybe he had caught a disease or sickness. But then suddenly the hot feeling went away. He cautiously stood up and looked around the room. It was too dark for him to see anything. The room was so dark, Lowell thought he might be blind. He took one Step forward and knew he wasn’t blind. Because suddenly the entire room seemed to be spinning. He felt dizzier than he could ever remember, and fell face first onto the bed. Closing his eyes only made the feeling worse. As he lay on the bed feeling extremely dizzy, all the other feeling began coming back. His head began throbbing with pain as his body jumped back and forth from extremely hot to extremely cold. He began to scream, but the noise was muffled from his face being buried in the bed. He started pounding his fists into the bed. Then everything stopped. He lifted his head off the bed and saw a figure standing in front of him at the foot of the bed. He crawled towards the headboard until his back was against it. He sat there, frozen with fear, staring at the figure. The man pulled a disc from his pocket and threw it onto the bed beside Lowell. The young man picked up the disc and recognized it as a holo-message disc.
Lowell walked over to the desk in front of the bay window. On the desk was a large screen connected to a hollow-message player. He placed the disc into the player and began the message.
A man’s face appeared on the screen. Lowell didn’t recognize the older man on the screen. Lowell first noticed how the man’s appearance looked older than his actual age probably was. The white hair and lines on his face were more from a hard lived life than from years of age, Lowell guessed. The man’s brown eyes seemed to be open rather wide.
“Governor Lowell Handoff, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Carden, and I am the chief of security for the Dark Heart Agency.” Carden paused a moment as if he knew Lowell would look directly at Cerebrum. He spoke again and Lowell focused his attention back to the screen in front of him. “By now you have met one of my best assassins. His name is Cerebrum.” Lowell remained Staring at the screen. Fear kept him from looking at the assassin beside him. “I’m also sure that, by now, you have also felt a demo of his power. Cerebrum has a unique ability to manipulate a person’s feelings and sensations using their brain against themselves.” Carden continued, “I apologize if he frightened you very much, but you see, we needed to make sure you knew just how serious we are.” Carden let his stare turn cold and harsh to match the tone in his voice. He didn’t speak for quite a while. He only stared at Lowell. Lowell glanced back and forth from Carden to Cerebrum.
Carden started speaking again. “I’m sure you were treated very well by your guests earlier tonight. You see, there can be many perks to the job as long as you always cooperate. You may consider yourself the newest employee of two very powerful organizations, if it makes you feel better about all this. You can benefit from all this information,” there was a long pause till his next statement, “or you can suffer from knowing too much of it. The choice is up to you. The money, the power, and everything that goes with it can be yours, simply by following Jade Eye and the Dark Heart Agency’s lead.” Carden paused again to let this information sink in. Lowell sat there absorbing everything Carden had just said. He knew that he really had no choice. If he did not comply with Carden’s request, Cerebrum would kill him. Lowell began to realize the information Jezzaro had been talking about. He now knew that the late governor Dwan had been a member of these two underground criminal organizations. To refuse Carden’s offer would mean certain death, because now Lowell would be considered a loose end.
Lowell Handoff leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. He felt a chill run down his back and immediately looked at Cerebrum. He pulled his robe tighter to his body, and continued staring at the frozen picture of Carden on the screen in front of him. Lowell began looking around the room. For the first time since being awaken he wondered about the beautiful young woman he had went to bed with. He sat there staring at the bed almost in a complete daze. He finally looked over at Cerebrum and nodded his head. “OK, tell your boss he’s got a deal. I’ll run things however the Jade Eye or Dark Heart Agency wants me to.” Lowell hung his head a little bit. He didn’t enter politics to turn out crooked before his first official day in office was over.
“I’m glad you made the right choice.” Carden’s voice startled Lowell. It wasn’t coming from the screen. Cerebrum was playing an audio file from a device he held in his hand. The device had the word LIVE written in big letters across the top. Cerebrum opened his other hand and held a similar looking device. The only difference was, on this one, written in big letters, was the word DIE. “I’m sure you realize there wasn’t a choice to begin with. If you had foolishly told Cerebrum, no, he would have killed you, and we would have found someone to take your place who would have been more sensible.” Lowell gave a long look into the assassin’s empty eyes.
“You may now reap all the benefits that come with your new position.” Cerebrum handed Lowell an envelope as Carden continued to speak. “For now, simply relax and enjoy. A female by the name Treshah will be contacting you. She is the governor of Klypto, neighboring planet to the galaxy’s capitol planet, Caloris. Do not be fooled by her good looks, she is very cunning. When your services are required, myself or one of my associates will contact you.” The voice ended rather abruptly as the audio message came to an end. As Cerebrum put away the audio messages, Lowell picked up the envelope and opened it. He poured the contents onto the desk. There were several rare jewels along with three large stacks of cash. He looked over at Cerebrum and nodded. The assassin only stood there motionless. Lowell wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do at this point. He wanted very badly to put some clothes on, but he was still to scared to turn his back on the assassin. He gathered the money and jewels back into the envelope. He opened a drawer on the desk and placed the items inside. He locked the drawer, looked at Cerebrum, and then stood from the desk. As he began walking toward the bed, he heard a faint noise. When he looked back toward the desk, the assassin was gone. Lowell felt completely drained of all energy from all the events that had just happened. Lying there on his bed, his mind raced back through everything. Engulfed in deep thought, he drifted back off to sleep.
Cerebrum had slipped out the bay window, and climbed down the side of the estate. He moved through the shadows until he reached the same line of hedges he used to enter the estate. Once he reached the city, he made his way to the secret landing bay the Dark Heart Agency always used when they had business on this planet. He lifted off and was quickly putting this planet behind him. Once he was safely far enough away, he set his coordinates and made his jump to hyperspace. He was headed back to Tyroth. He would have to report to Carden and get new orders.
Barrett's Blogg 