HAWK

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: NEST (1/7)

She was underground, she knew that much.

The Silo headgear that had been closed around her head had shut her off from the outside world and rendered her deaf and blind. All she'd had to go on for the last fifteen minutes was the muted clomping of the ground under her feet, though that wasn't very often - much of the journey seemed to have been spent standing still. She wouldn't have known she was moving at all, if not for the occasional swaying sensation that suggested she was travelling in some kind of shuttle. Her hands were cuffed behind her back, though fortunately she was being accompanied by a guide who escorted her by her arm.

What a gentleman...

She eventually came to a standstill and was pleased to feel her handcuffs being removed. The Silo headgear then split open from the back before being pulled away entirely.

She blinked her eyes open but still couldn't see - where-ever she was being held, the place was awash in white light that flooded her sensitive eyes and pinched them closed again. She heard a door open and close and figured she was finally alone. Gradually, she teased her eyes open and looked around.

She was in a bare-wall bunker. The source of the harsh light was a single square-foot lambentile panel set into the opposite wall. The surrounding walls were covered with similar panels, though only the one in front of her was illuminated. The room's only prop was a single plastic chair with a thin grey cushion positioned loosely on its seat. It didn't look very comfortable. Kas saw it had been perma-moulded to the floor which only added to her concern. Rooms with chairs moulded into them usually weren't the good kind.

She was startled when a man's voice she didn't recognise spoke to her from all directions.

'Please remove your outer clothes and put on the ones provided.'

'What clothes?' Kas asked, but the voice didn't answer. She looked around for the supposed clothing, seeing nothing but the chair... and then realised that the thin grey cushion was actually folded material. She picked it up and shook it loose and the grey fabric tumbled downwards into a jumpsuit. The material felt cheap between her fingers.

No artifibre for me then...

She kicked off her carbachrome boots and shed her workout clothes before quickly stepping into the jumpsuit. She was wondering what she was supposed to wear on her feet when she spotted the flattened grey pumps sitting on the chair where the jumpsuit had been. She peeled them off and separated them. Using a hand on the back of the chair to steady her, she slipped them onto her feet, stretching the cheap elastic material over her toes.

She'd barely finished dressing when the door opened behind her and a lone man entered. He wasn't much taller than her but he was significantly older. He was dressed in head-to-toe camo-gear and carrying a simple lightweight plastic chair. He put it down directly in front of her own and sat.

'Please sit down,' he said.