The Silk Road Saga: Part I - Silkworm

Epilogue

Sometimes it was the small mercies that made life bearable. For instance, currently he was the only person on the subway station platform with enough space around himself to move comfortably. Despite it being rush hour his fellow commuters gave him a wide birth. His field of vision was filled with damp patches on the backs of crisp white shirts. He still hadn't got used to seeing the world at chest height. When the train arrived a kind-looking older lady asked if he needed help getting on board. He could tell instantly that she was one of those good Samaritans that wouldn't take no for an answer, so he politely accepted her offer, knowing that it would give her a special glow inside all day.

When the doors opened the woman made a point of wheeling him onto the carriage first. Unfortunately, she then decided to strike up conversation. He still hadn't got used to the sense of entitlement that charitable citizens carried with them.

"What stop are you getting off at?" asked the woman.

"I'm going to the airport" he replied.

"A holiday?" asked the woman.

"Business" he replied.

"Oh" there was a pause "what do you do?" asked the woman.

"I'm a scientist or to be more precise a theoretical physicist. I study the movement of space and time" he replied.

"Like Stephen Hawkins" said the woman, clapping her hands together excitedly.

"Hopefully I'm better looking" he replied.

This elicited a nervous laugh and succeeded in killing the conversation. Now that the he could relax, the professor took out his iPad and started to review the files that the Ministry had pulled together on the girl. He still had access to their secure network through a backdoor and even better, now that they thought he was dead he could undertake his work undetected. Her picture flashed up, the one that had been taken upon arrival. She looked bewildered and scared. As would I, mused the professor, if I had been transported eight hundred years into the future and delivered into the hands of the Ministry of State Security. They were holding her in a secure facility deep in the Gobi Desert, somewhere far from prying eyes and curious ears. But they weren't staying still, they were on the move, using a mobile facility nicknamed the Caravan to rove across the lifeless desert. It was following her, the Silkworm, opening portals nearby with increasing frequency. It wanted something from her, but no one in the Ministry could figure out what it was. Of course they couldn't, thought the professor, because they were all hyper-intelligent individuals devoid of the slightest smidgen of imagination. His plan was clear. He would have to rescue her and figure out what was going on himself.

End of Part I, to be continued....