Free The Chair by Michael Ziegler Page A

walkway; one leg of it had pushed through some rotted boards when she had first arrived and reassembled in the cave.
    “Ara, are you alright?”
    “Yes, thanks to you I am!” She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me. “What in the hell happened Richard? How did I get here in this nightmare of a place?”
    ‘I’ll explain it all to you when we get back to the conduit. Right now let’s get you out of this hell hole!”
    I carefully sat the chair upright on some solid boards. “You don’t have to leave here if you would rather stay.” I said, trying to add some relief to her close call.
    She just stared at me with a sour look “Yeah, right! I don’t know how I ended up here, but we need to get back Richard. I’ll meet you at the conduit.” She reached over and gave me another kiss. “Thanks again, I was almost bug food!”
    As I stepped back a bit, she sat down, quickly began fragmenting and was gone in an instant.
    Making my way back down the wooden walkway was no bloody picnic, but I managed to get back to the cavern entrance once again.
    I paused facing the tracker and looked around one more time at the rugged landscape of Borneo. I didn’t expect I’d have this place on my travel list any time soon. Ara had arrived back at the conduit first and I followed soon after. The security team was still in place and it was getting to be late in the evening so she dismissed them.
    I stowed the tracker once again in the hidden room while Ara stationed two guards out at the conduit entrance just in case Anders and Paxton decided to show up early. Our clothing had been stained with quite a smorgasbord of bat guano courtesy of the Borneo caverns; so we decided to take the tram to her fathers flat once again and get a fresh set of garments.
     I explained all that had happened on the way there to which we both thought it best to put it out of our minds and get on with the task at hand, getting her back on track to the London warehouse district.
    After cleaning up and a few hours rest we knew we had to return to the conduit soon. Paxton and Anders were sure to return and we all needed to be on our toes in order to stay on top of this rebellion.
     The morning had come all too soon and it was still very early. We checked our weapons to be sure they were at the ready. Everything in the sanctuary seemed to be going on normally as most of the people were probably unaware of the attempted takeover. Ara downed her last sip of coffee. “I need to be on my way to London immediately Richard, please work it out with security to make sure the way is cleared for me till I get back there.”
    I drank the last of my tea and confidently answered. “Don’t you worry; nothing will get in your way now if I can help it.”
    We stood by the sliding wall and it slowly opened but not to what we had expected. Eric Dorn was standing there with his rifle pointed directly at us.
    “Looks like you won’t be able to help it after all Richard.” His rifle barrel swung to the right motioning us to get in the transport; so much for my confident answer to Ara.
    She walked by Eric looking confused. “Eric, what’s this all about?”
    He grabbed both of our weapons. “It’s about me being tired of playing second fiddle to a stranger. It’s about you thinking you’re so special you can pick or choose who suits you at any particular time, now keep moving.”
    Ara’s eyebrows rose looking over at me with that powerless look. It was obvious that this guy was trying to give payback.
    “Eric don’t do this, this isn’t you! Not with Paxton and Anders. You know they’re up to no good.”
    An angry look began flooding his face. “And why not? They’ve promised me more than you’ve ever promised. All this time I’ve taken extra care of you trying to protect you from people like this guy and you’ve ignored me. Well now it’s my turn to ignore you!”
    The transport began its journey back to the conduit while we just sat there wondering