Madness!

"Having a portal with us is actually and interesting idea. I never believe that Mistress of Judgement uses a mouse trap as a headquarters. Not her style. There must be another way in and last time THEY used Dark Matter portals. I think that we should get one as well to ourselves. I see couple of ways of getting one. I am not going to take one of ours along, because we have a limited supply and wasteland is full of abandoned, but still functional equipment. Or we could visit my old friend Tommasino and use his help to get a portal for our needs, because creating another bloodshed over getting equipment, is not exactly my style." 



Volodja looked deeply into her beautiful blue eyes and continued: "No way we are going to enter that bunker without a chance to get the hell out of there when situation turns to be too hot for us to handle. I love you Sandy. Don't want to lose you, don't want to use you as I used to say. And if I could, I would make you to stay here in relative safety of our fortress instead of dragging you into my affairs. But at least we are together and maybe we can break the bad luck. You and I. Are you ready, my love, my life?"

Dr. Orion said, "Hmmmmm."

"What's the matter Doctor?" Asked Belle Starr, concern obviously in her voice as the anxiety again built up threatening to overwhelm her.

"My monitors show that Vo's EGO is struggling with keeping Vo's condition from deteriorating," Reported Dr. Orion. "I'm doing everything I can to keep him stable on my end, but I'm not really able to help his EGO anymore than I can."

"I can help with that!" Belle exclaimed, then spoke to Alfred, her EGO psyche, through the telepathic link they shared, "Alfred, send Shirra all the energy she needs and help her in any way you can to save Vo."

"Are you sure you wish to do that, my dear?" Alfred balked at the idea, "Any energy I use in that way will be taking away from that used to keep your panic attacks at bay! If you are worried about companionship, I can tell Volodja still cares about you with just a cursory glimpse at his vitals when he looks at you, and he is much better suited for you! Highly educated and cultured, much more your match that this Irathiant mechanic. I think - "

"SHUT YOUR PIE HOLE AND DO YOUR JOB!" Belle yelled mentally at her EGO. "VO IS MY TRUE LOVE, AND THAT IS THAT! GET USED TO IT YOU YAHOOT! NOW I'M COMMANDING YOU TO SAVE VO IN ANY WAY POSSIBLE, EVEN IF Y'ALL HAVE TO DRAIN MY VERY LIFE FORCE! GOT IT BUCKO!"

"Clear as a bell," Answered Alfred, mentally sighing and virtually rolling his eyes, "Energy sent, and your life force remains intact, unlike your virginity. Your Genie has done as you demanded, as always!"

"Yeah, right!" Thought Belle to herself, feeling the anxiety building in herself.

Dr. Orion noticed the sweat building on Belle's pale forehead and that she appeared to be gasping for breath, although she was gritting her teeth trying not show the growing panic attack. Dr. Orion was not an expert in human psychology by any means, but he did know human physiology, and felt her problem was mental not physical, so he hailed Wolfram Von Eschlen on the sly, saying to Wolfram, "Wolfram, unless you are busy, would you please come to Atticus' bunker immediately. I believe Director Starr could use your help, and I have to concentrate on Mr. Kshaa. You still have entrance privileges, don't you? Otherwise be sure and get them from Commander Batman."

"All right. I will be on my way," replied Wolfram laconically. " After closing his hailer hi just stared it for a second. He just put his arsch down after the trip and there is already an emergency to handle. And I won't send Volodja there. Nein! No chance. No way. No, no! He gets more hurt and that's it and I am not the one who points him the door of the slaughterhouse."

And Wolfram rushed to the rescue. His tall figure achieved remarkable speed when he moved along the crowd, yelling: "We got an emergency here so let me THROUGH, you dummkopfs!" Finally he reached the door, gasped some air and with slightly trembling hand entered the access code, given him after the hailer call to the owner of the cage. Call was sort of short and sweet and readers digest version sounded like this: "Give me the verfluchte access code or I will blow up the door! Nobody stops me from helping my patients!" Guess that his direct approach helped, because code was given and he could enter.

Before doing anything else, he made a another quick call. This time it was to Volodja and they had a quick consultation session about panic attacks, because after Dr. Orion described the symptoms - shortness of breath, shaking and sweating and so on - he was sure that Belle suffered from them.

There was no time for long continuous therapy as Wolfram was used with and that meant only one thing - he must consult the experienced field counsellor Volodja Uljanov, owner of broken heart and encyclopaedic memory. Even if Wolfram could not send Volodja into the lion cage, he can ask for advice. No names were mentioned, of course. After few minutes he was confident and what's most important - got his breathing rhythm back after that run. 

"Hello, Liebchen," said Wolfram. "I already see what is going on here and first we will handle your breathing. I want you to put one hand on your upper chest, and the other over your diaphragm. The place where your rib cage meets your stomach. You are not any help here if you are in panic so FOLLOW my suggestions!

Take in a slow, deep breath through your nose while counting to five, Liebchen. The hand on the chest should stay still, while the one over your diaphragm should raise with your breath. This is how you know the breath is deep enough. Just keep your hands limp. No tension in them whatsoever. 

When you reach the count of five, let the breath out slowly through your nose at the same rate. Concentrating on your hands and the counting will help focus you and calm you down, Fräulein Belle. Clear your mind of anything else than breathing. Continue these breaths until you feel relaxed. We are progressing. Great!" Belle's breathing became slower and deeper, so Wolfram decided that now they can begin with a second phase.

"Relax your muscles now. Close your eyes. Gut!: Now you have to begin to focus solely on your toes. Curl them under tightly for a count of five, squeezing the muscles together as hard as you can, then relax. One, two, three, four, five. Keep counting and curling. Next, concentrate on your feet. Contract all of their muscles tightly for a count of five, then relax. Continue up your body, isolating each muscle group all the way up to your face. By the time you relax your face muscles, you should feel much more calm. It's purposeful action after all and simple thing are always the best. No other thoughts than your muscles.

And now one more tip, because we can't arrange a group therapy here or do some yoga. It's time to put your peripheral vision into the good use.  Let your field of vision broaden until you can see from the outside corners of your eyes. Breathe deeply and let your jaw muscles relax. This exercise activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms your body. At moment it's all I can help you with. We will have to deal with that issue later in more advanced way, but if you feel anxiety again then start with the complex of exercises again. And now, if you don't ind I will try to regain my breathing as well and figure out how to pay to my consultant."

"Let me see if I got this right", said Lu with a grim look on her face, staring at Ada with her unblinking cyan eyes, "You have an almost working terraspire in the Ark at Edmonton. You have a bunch of kidnapped Indogenes which were recently transported there. And finally, there's a drug somewhere which turns any Indogene into a submissive slave. What a nice combination, don't you think? Then, why the jek the Inner Circle does absolutely nothing about it? Where's the quarantine? Where's an army of Monoliths attacking the Ark? Where are searching squads seeking for the drug suppliers? Where's the S.O.S sent to the Empire, damn it?!"



"Well, I understand your frustration, but there's one problem with the Inner Circle", Ada answered calmly, but drumming her fingers on the table was giving away her nervousness. "Its members were elected the most trusted and experienced people of our kind, it's not surprising that most of them are rather old. And that means… All of them had experienced the effect of this drug. All of them, except me. Once they knew it still exists and it's possible to produce or get it by other means, don't expect any logical decisions from them. They will do anything to get their dose first and make its flow constant after. They just don't care about anything else anymore. They will use any means to fulfill their new old desire. If that means enslaving all the people who trust them, they will go for it without any second thought. Waiting for them to do anything against it is absolutely futile. That's why I'm here, desperately asking for help."

"Jekking perfect. Absolutely perfect I must say. Esthete, do you have a plan on the situation if the members of the Inner Circle become influenced by the enemy or the criminal group madness or illness or something like that?"

"Yes I have one", Esthete replied, "But I don't have enough evidence they are under influence. I need an order to analyze their actions."

"You have the order, Esthete", Ada said. "As a member of Inner Circle I order to start investigation on all members of Inner Circle on suspicion of being drug addicts and being under influence of drug dealers."

"Thank you Ada", Esthete said impassively. "Processing personal files and correspondence. The analysis indicates five of six members of Inner Circle have a drug addiction and are unable to make decisions being under influence of hypothesized drug dealers. All further orders from the said members are considered null and void. You Ada are the only exclusion from the list, although your extended time spent with Lax Huch, the Empire Ambassador, needs further investigation. Given that more than a half of Inner Circle members are oust from power, I'm switching to the autonomous mode. I have to warn you about something though. Regardless of who gives the orders to me, I can't attack the Ark at Edmonton and its inhabitants or alter its functioning in any way. It's a leftover of my old programming when I was controlling the Ark, and this directive was left as a safeguard since this settlement was meant to provide support to the research group at the Ark."

"You need an "A" added at the beginning of your acronym name since you got autonomous, Esthete", Lu said to the drone. Ada smiled at the joke for a second but got serious again as Lu started to enumerate things she needed for her next venture.

"Full tank of petrohol, two inflatable motorized boats, Vysudium charges, C-4 charges, two high-capacity shields, three more rebreather units and the little order I placed earlier. I'm going to meet my team mate, who's arriving to the airfield, and then we're going to Edmonton. You Ada are going to take your rebreather from the storage as I guess with what had been done there's no point for conspiration anymore. Then you take cover at Esthete's residence. Last time I've been there I saw several sections which looked like they were airtight. It has a back door to the underground; you can use it to escape. If you have time, call Fiel, I think he still lives there. He's a little paranoid but in our circumstances I think it's a rather good thing. Once you get yourself into safety, try to convince your new Bioman friend to help. And you Esthete try to convince your father-programmer to write off that directive that prevents you from dealing with that Ark. That would help us a lot if he manages to do that."

"Your little order will be here right… now", Esthete said as the hovering drone brought in the package. Lu unwrapped it immediately and they saw it was a modified magazine section for her rocket launcher.

"Six rockets are better than four", she explained, setting up the mod. "Now I'm going to the storage to get everything else and you better have it ready by the time I get there as my friend is arriving and he's not in the mood of waiting for too long. Good luck to us all, we'll need it."

With that said she exited the team's spaceship and started her Hellblazer, first to visit the storage and then to race to the airfield to meet Chase.

She found him sitting on the bench and she greeted him with a simple wave of her hand.

As she came up to him, she said, "Hi Chase. I've heard what happened to your girlfriend so I apologize for making you wait for too long because I understand that in your case any period time is too long. Had to get some supplies. I'll compensate it by flooring the pedal all the way until we get to our destination, so get in, I'll brief you with the details on our way."

As the truck raced to the north, Lu showed the map of underground channels projected on the windshield.



"We go here by wheels", she pointed at what remained of North Saskatchewan River. "Then we go underground and this river takes us straight to the Ark at Edmonton. Actually, we could get there all the way underground by taking different creek and rivers, but it will be faster this way. We still can use the underground path later for retreat if we need. That's why I took the second boat. Then we get in, find your girl and sabotage whatever they are forcing them to do. I can bet they are working on the terraspire. I have rebreathers for us all and a shield for your girl. I also have one rebreather and a shield in case we could manage to rescue someone else. If we got lucky, we'll free all Indogenes from there at once. If not, then we get your girl out to safety, then regroup and plan our next move based on what he would see there. Any suggestions? I'm not a commander here, so suggest anything you think will help us."

Chase looked at the map, as Lu explained her plan.

"Good plan. But I want to know everything," Chase told her. "I want to know what other exits and entrances there are, other than the front door. I want to know how many Inquisitors have been reported as being inside, what firepower they have, everything. If there's going to be others than you and I, I want to know who else will be there, how many of them have EGO units, and other than my cache, what else we're packing."

Chase retrieved his Thunder removing the nuke rounds and replacing it with syphon rounds.

"And more importantly, I need to know if you're capable of making hard decisions," Chase concluded. "I want to know that if one of these bastards takes one of the Indogenes as a hostage, you'll have the jondura to shoot that hostage."

He looked at her, confusion and the look that Chase had gone insane in her eyes.

"I didn't say 'kill the hostage', I said 'shoot the hostage'," Chase reiterated what he said. "If you can't remove the hostage from the situation, then you're no used to me. I need someone who won't back down. And I'm trusting you, not just with my life but with the life of the woman I love. Take as much time as you need to process that. But I between now and our location, I'm going to need everything."

Chase preceded to check every weapon the bag, making sure that they were all good for a fight. He was expecting a whole lot opposition, just as much as he was expecting a whole lot of dead bodies when he was through. The silence that filled the cab for a few minutes was thick enough to slice.

How about some music, Chase?

If you say so, was the only reply he gave back.

The music filled his head as he continued to check his weapons, waiting for whenever Lu to finally fill him in on everything he needed to know.

Hang in there, Iri, Chase thought to himself.  I'm coming for you.