A/N Pay attention it gets a bit sneaky.
It was about half an hour after 5 o'clock when I walked into the Starbucks in Queenstown. There before me was the yellow bio-suited figure of the general waiting. He had bought a drink even though clearly couldn't drink it. An important figure from Homeland defence made everybody look but no one was stupid enough to stare forever. Like most of the rest of America, this place was quiet. The drive from Washington two Queenstown had been uneventful.
I went in and ordered a cappuccino. The barista stood behind the espresso machine making noises with his mouth while making instant coffee. So this was quite an upper-class coffee joint then. Taking the coffee I went and sat before the general.
The general moved when I arrived. He clearly didn't have I huge amounts of visibility in his suit. Beneath the clear plastic hood, there was a bio contamination breathing mask with a dark lens over it. I could hear him breathe Vader like.
"I thought you weren't going to turn up," said the general. He spoke through a microphone in his mask which then came out at his chest in a small speaker.
"wWell I said "the traffic was worse than I thought. I got lost on the way here. Then I had to check that you were here on your own."
"I take it you're satisfied?"
"You do you know I'm sitting in front of you?" I said , "I thought that would make it fairly, you know, obvious."
I knew the plan but I was still nervous as a Turkey being told it was twenty days to go to Thanks giving.
I looked at the general, he could have been Alexander's size. It was hard to tell. The more I thought about it be more likely it was that Alexander was the general. He could be in there looking at me I really couldn't tell.
"I also had to take the time to hide the cure in a good place," I said while putting my handbag on my knee.
"So what do you want?" said the general the metallic tinge on his voice from the electrics electronics Took away any sense of reasonableness.
"I thought my price was pretty clear," I said "I want my mother, father and sister back and intact. In return, you get the test tube with cure and my assurance that we are all as a family out the picture."
The general laughed "you know full well that I can't do this. However, if you hand yourself in with the test-tube I'm willing to make sure you're all kept in prison together"
"until you decide to drill holes and make sure we can never think for ourselves again,mr" I said.
"if you hand yourself in quietly I will make sure that doesn't happen. You'll be in prison but together."
"What about Alexander?" I asked.
There was a long pause "what Abou MR strong?"
"What if I want him free? He never worked for the labyrinth" I said. I wasn't sure about this. I really wanted to know if Alexander was working for them and if Alexander was in fact the general.
"Perhaps we can do a deal. Thanks to your expedition to London we or our British colleagues, seem to have picked up many of the major people in the possessed terrorist organisation. In exchange for you doing some work from me digging up some of the other cells I could be willing to let Alexander go" said the general.
Carried on negotiating for some time. Then the general changed the topic of conversation suddenly.
"for one so young you seem very confident that I'm not going to arrest you" he said
I looked him in the eye "well I should warn you I am carrying a sharp scalpel. If you try and grab me I can be sure to make a whole big enough for the virus to get into you."
The whole of the yellow by a suit nodded.
"You are a smart girl," the general said "but how do you know I haven't got the place surrounded?"
I rocked my head slightly. "well, I was smart enough to arrive an hour early. Then I hid and waited for your people to arrive. I knew if you brought anyone with you, they would turn up before you did. That didn't happen. So yeah I think your a man your word. Assuming you are a man and underneath all that."
Generally leaned back in his chair. I think I heard laughter from within the suit.
"You are a smart cookie. I'll give you that. " The general said. "Maybe you can come and work for me. You see I sent my men along two hours early so we had plenty of time to high before you turned up."
Just then both front and back doors opened and homeland defence troops walked into the room pointing guns at me. Capain Ness was there pointing his hand gun at me.
"Dam," I said softly like someone losing chess game. "this is more embarrassing than the size of Joseph Gannascoli's underwear."
The general looked at me "Okay let's take her to Overworld. "
******
I was handcuffed and dragged outside into an armoured van. The general got in the passenger seat up the front and six armed homeland defence people sat in the back with me guns pointed.
"Well you'll never get the cure from me," I said to the general.
"Which reminds me" set the generals electric voice "give me her handbag." One of the security people was carrying my bag and handed it over. The general looked inside then pulled out the test-tube carrying the golden yellow liquid.
"I knew you wouldn't leave it somewhere," said the general. "maybe you're not as smart as I thought you were."
I've pulled a face and said nothing.
Marta and I had driven past the Pentagon on the way to the general;s house. The Pentagon had painted it in camouflage colors. On the outside were large notices with the words 'the former site of US Pentagon and nothing at all to do with Overworld. The original building had been surrounded by large lawns. These had now been fenced in and temporary buildings constructed. I saw Tower holding a large water supply. As we arrived at the gate it was clear that nobody trusted the guards. The General wound his window down.
"Are you coming in or going out?" Asked the guard.
"Coming in obviously," said the general.
"then you have to you type in the pin code," said the guard.
The general typed on a presented keypad. We went through too more gates. And then inside the general got more chatty.
*****
"What do you do with all the smart people that come here?" I said. Looking out at the people in prison uniforms. They didn't look happy.
"Welcome to the world of the best and the brightest.They, like everybody else is given a choice. We can make sure you're never possessed again. It's a simple painless operation but then you can rejoin the rest of society." He said. "dumber than a bag of hammers or as I like to say now, 'normal'."
"What's the other choice?" I asked.
"as I've said already you can work for us."
"There cannot be that many possessed to hunt down," I said.
"Know the president has a whole bunch of projects for smart people to do. He said and I think this is a quote why should the white middle-class intellectual elite get to decide what gets thought about ? It's about time these people did some useful things for the rest of society." said the general. He began pointing
"Down there they developing the car will run on water," he said proudly.
"How's that going?"
The General paused "It's never going to work so progress has been steady."
"Over here perpetual motion machine. Over there people turning lead into gold. That large building is a research project building a faster than light space ship."
"and how is that been going?"
The general shrugged "progress has been steady. That's the medical division they're developing a pill that will cure everything. From broken legs to cancer"
"Why are they all doing such dumb things?" I said loudly over the noise of the engine." I mean, they can be working for  cure to the virus for everybody else"
"that's not part of the president's official research target," said the general.
The truck finally stopped. And we approached a prison within the prison. Again the general opened the Gates with another pin code. I got out of the truck surrounded by homeland Security guards and we walked into the prison sector.
******
The General took one last look at me.
"Well this is where we must depart." said the general.
"I've got something very important to tell you," I said.
The general laughed again. "What could you tell me that I don't already know?" He said.
"How about I'm not your prisoner, your mine?" I said confidence returning to my voice.
"Really?" Challenge the general.
"Really," I said.
At this point the whole room changed. The guards who had been pointing their guns at me turned to and pointed at the General. The general was now at the centre of many arcs of fire. Two of the flanking guards pointed their rifles at the prison door guard. Would say this was a classic example of the table is being turned except I didn't have any tables.
"What's going on?" Demanded the general.
"I'm starting a revolution," I told him. "you see I guess you would sending your troops to hide before I arrived. We realised it will be a long wait. It was cold and your troops would get cold and bored. They were So my friend Marta"
"Hello" set Marta taking her helmet off.
"Went round with coffee from our mobile coffee bar. Our specialty is coffee laced with my mother's antidote. The reason I kept you so long was that the antidote was having its effect and Marta could explain what was really happening to your soldiers."
"but your soldiers, you have to follow my orders" sent the general to the captain Ness.
A soldier lifted the stock of his rifle to his shoulder.
"I swore an oath to protect this country and its people, from enemies foreign and domestic. I think that's just what I'm doing" Captain Ness said.
"isn't it just terrible when people can think for themselves? "said Marta.
"We can discuss the ins and outs of this later. For the moment it's Operation Rescue. So I'm going to ask you to get undressed" I said.
"I'll become infected," said the General.
"We both know it's a pose," I said."your more possessed as I am."
The general looking at the barrels of the guns pointing out started to unzip his yellow bio contamination suit. He stepped out and then pulled his gas mask off.
"oh my god its you!" I said.
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A/N Who is the General really? Will K and M escape?  Find out next week. Anyone got a good name for a robot butler?  Working on plot for next book and we need suggestions.