Free The Secret Bunker Trilogy: Part One: Darkness Falls by Paul Teague

feelings and actions so seamlessly with those devised by her
invisible puppeteer, that no observer would have been able to tell
what part came from her real self and which part was artificially
created.
    ‘Come with me,’ she demanded of the figure in the car, holding out her
hand in a manner that showed that this was not up for discussion. It didn’t matter what this person was doing in her car, why they had
her laptop open and how they even got in there in the first place. She knew with all the certainty that she’d ever had in her life that
taking shelter in the bunker was the best - the only - thing to do.
    Crazy how the device was able to suppress and hide her most
powerful maternal emotions, yet seemed to miss the thing that landed
them in so much jeopardy.

‘Dan’s phone!’ she exclaimed, halfway across the car park.
    Ridiculous that she would risk losing time to retrieve a mobile phone.
Like the animal owner who leaps into the river to save their dog, only
to perish while the dog swims happily to the river bank.
Crazy actions at crazy times. If it wasn’t for the seconds that she’d lost retrieving Dan’s phone,
they’d have made it to the blast doors. If it wasn’t for those lost, precious moments she might have had time
to glance to her right where a distinctive, black car was parked. Unusually, it had no number plate.

Chapter Eight
Uncertainty
    I can’t say that I really understand the meaning of the word ‘Protocols’
but I certainly got the sense of Kate’s last sentence.

‘You mean I can’t see them at all?’ I queried.
Kate’s eyes narrowed.

‘The viper?’ I wondered.
‘Dan, I’m sorry, but until we receive a full mission definition, we have
to observe the protocols.’

That word again.
And she’s using my name again. That’s wearing a bit thin now.
I can hear the words coming out of your mouth, I can hear you trying
to get some rapport going here, but what you’re telling me is not
making me happy.
    ‘What’s mission definition?’ I think to myself.
I’m learning a lot today. I didn’t hear the words ‘mission definition’ very often when Dad and I
were laughing at YouTube videos of cats as part of my home
education. In fact, there wasn’t much ‘mission definition’ in my life at all until I
started talking to Kate. I decided to focus on what’s important.

‘So, where does that leave me?’ I asked.

‘You have the freedom of the bunker, and you may access all Green
Zone areas,’ she replied, ‘But Red Zone areas are out of bounds to you.’
    Funny how I can find myself in the most hi-tech place you’ve ever
been, yet you can’t beat the colours red and green to tell you what you
can - and can’t - do.
    ‘I also need to give you a tour of the bunker, I’m guessing it looks
pretty different since you last saw it?’

A bit of an understatement that Kate. She’s got me at it now, I’m using her name in my sentences.
It helps to build rapport you know.

‘What about Mum?’ I ask again. I’m not sure what I mean about Mum, I just want some sort of action
plan. Some ‘mission definition’.

‘As part of standard, start-up schemata, we sweep the perimeters to
check for life forms outside the bunker gates,’ Kate answered.
‘That process will be underway as I speak to you now, it’s a basic
security measure, but in this case we’ll be looking for your mum.’
‘Schemata’.

Another new word to add to my vocabulary.

‘If I hear anything, I’ll let you know straight away.’
Quiet
    Had he recognised that face on the screen, he might have moved with
more urgency. He certainly would have been very surprised to see that particular person on the screen in front of him. They were connected.
It was some years ago and at the time it was very significant to both of
them.
    For the person who’d engineered this reunion, it couldn’t have had
any more significance. Like a puppeteer working through the script