Chrono Voyage

Chapter 5: The Cult

     “So… not over,” said Benjamin.                                                                                 

     “Excuse me, sir,” Elizabeth ran up to a strange man that was just bypassing and minding his own business. “Could you give me some information about this?” she showed him the poster she took from the lamp-post as the man just looked at her and sped up, she was thinking of chasing after him but bloody lunatics. “Excuse me, sir,” she ran toward another guy who mid-way he saw the poster and started walking the other way away from Elizabeth. “What the bloody hell is going on?” she was mad.                                                                                                                        

     “Come on,” Benjamin comforted. “Let`s go and eat.”

     Benjamin was really excited to try this new and futuristic food, who knows what recipes people have come up with? He hyped himself up only to be disappointed by the realization that he didn`t bring any money, well he did but that 19th-century money isn`t worth anything in this century.                                                                                                                          

     “Rule number one, research before you travel,” Elizabeth pulled a credit card out of her pocket. “It`s my treat come on,” leaving Benjamin embarrassed. A woman buying you lunch? That is totally unheard of, but his stomach was saying otherwise and didn`t really have much of a choice. They sat down at the Chez Edgar and ordered hamburgers both of them. Benjamin enjoyed it so much even as went as far as saying that his expectations were met, for Elizabeth it wasn`t the first time, but she played along.                                                                                                                  

     “This explains it then,” she said.                                                                                  

     “What?” asked Benjamin with a full mouth.                                                                  

     “Do you know how I didn`t have the foggiest when you told me about time travel?” she asked.                                                                                                             

     “Yeah, so?” Benjamin took another big bite.                                                           

     “And then you took me time travel, so I am thinking… I`ve never tried a hamburger before, but however once I did it all came back to me, the taste I mean,” she looked at Benjamin who was devouring on it. “Once I had a taste of time travel it all came back to me,” she came to the conclusion.                                                                                                                      

     “Nice,” said Benjamin shortly as he turned his head toward the sea.                  

     “That would be all, no?” asked the waiter as he stood near their table.                   

     “Yes, thank you,” replied Elizabeth seeing as Benjamin kept starring at the sea and couldn`t be bothered with anything else, just enjoying his food.                                                                                                                                  

     “You are asking for a lot of trouble with that,” the waiter pointed at the poster that Elizabeth left on the table.                                                                                        

     “Why is that?” she looked at him. “Can you tell me anything?”                           

     “That there is a long lost and forgotten way of belief, but we`ve evolved since then, The Prophet hasn`t shown up as much as they say he did in the past so people simply forgot about him.”                                                                                  

     “Him?” Elizabeth was surprised.                                                                               

     “Yes, but however there`s a cult that still worships him, doing the things they did in the past… sacrificing people in his name,” the waiter remained frozen starring at the poster.                                                                                                       

     “Yes,” Elizabeth stood up and looked at the waiter that still stared at the poster. “Can you tell me anything about them?” she asked him.                                              

     “It`s said they gather at the casino, lurking around, looking for recruits,” said the waiter. “You are not one of them are you?” he snapped and turned his gaze at Elizabeth.                                                                                                                           

     “No, don`t worry, we are actually looking to get rid of them.”                            

     “That`s good, it`s about time somebody did something about them,” the waiter changed his expression.                                                                                                     

     “Right, we will be paying and be leaving then,” Elizabeth gave him the credit card and packed up her stuff. “Hear that Benjamin?” she called out to him as he still was zoning out looking at the sea.                                                                         

     “Hmm… what?” he turned at her.                                                                                    

     “We are leaving,” she looked at him.

     Benjamin bought a futuristic black suit and a brown bow-tie with a blue shirt underneath, quite simple really as Elizabeth she got a white dress and a white long jacket to match the dress and black heels to match her hair. Night fell and Monte Carlo was lit in all its aristocrat glory the distant buildings lighting up the hills and the streetlights lighting up the Boulevard Albert and the lights of the harbor reflecting off of the sea. Benjamin and Elizabeth left the Hotel Hermitage and made their way down ‘Avenue de Monte-Carlo’ as they found themselves on the drive bay of Casino de Monte-Carlo the most famous one there was.

     They entered inside and were completely blown away at the interior at least Benjamin was. The golden carvings on the ceiling and the exotic chandeliers hanging from it, combined with the red rugs with flowers and different shapes in yellow and inside a restaurant a bar anything you want and need.                                                                                                              

     “Do you think they serve hamburgers here?” asked Benjamin.                                    

     “Not now!” warned Elizabeth. “We`ve got work to do, do you know how to play anything?”                                                                                                                               

     “A little, yes.”                                                                                                                    

     “It`ll do, we need to blend in, come on,” she called him up on a table that had two seats. Elizabeth at the corner noticed some shady-looking characters as she reached inside her purse and threw the armband on the ground making it look like an accident to get their attention. They sat down on the back-jack table and played a couple of rounds as the shady characters made their move on Elizabeth as they got close to her.                                                                               

     “Ma`am could you come with us please?” said one of them.                                      

     “Do I get to see The Prophet?” she asked.                                                                 

     “Please ma`am,” he tried to be polite as Elizabeth stood up and Benjamin after her.                                                                                                                                           

     “Not you sir.”                                                                                                                    

     “Oh really?” Benjamin looked at him as he put on his coat and as he was putting the right arm into the sleeve he punched the cultist in the face, pushed the other one on the table, and grabbed Elizabeth`s arm as they ran out of the casino.                                                                                                                             

     “After them!” ordered the cultist. Elizabeth managed to picklock a car that was parked near the casino, you`d think these futuristic cars would have some security but you`d be wrong.                                                                                                

     “Do you even know how to control this contraption?” asked Benjamin.            

     “Of course I do,” scoffed Elizabeth as she started the car and onto the Boulevard Albert 1er a real spy movie scene it was they were caught in a high-speed chase with the cultists. Elizabeth swerved left and right past the cars that were minding their business with the cultists still behind them.                                                                                                                                  

     “They are gaining on us!” warned Benjamin as he looked in the mirror. “Ahh… Elizabeth they pulled a gun!” Elizabeth looked in the mirror and saw not a gun but something more dangerous.                                                                                       

      “Get down!!!” she warned as one of the cultists took the shot and destroyed the roof of the car making it a convertible.                                                                  

      “What the bloody hell is that!?” Benjamin looked at the cultist who was charging the weapon for another shot.                                                                                   

      “It`s an anti-matter gun!” answered Elizabeth.                                                          

      “Well what does it do?” asked Benjamin.                                                                             

      “I don`t know Benjamin, what do you think it does?” she was livid. The cultist charged the weapon and shot again instantly vaporizing the back of the car.                                                                                                                            

      “Oh we`re f****d,” Benjamin saw as the tires in the back were completely exposed.                                                                                                                                 

      “No, we`re not,” Elizabeth served hard left down the road making the cultist miss his shot-creating a hole in the asphalt. “We`re nearly there!” she said as she made a hard right turn from the road to the woods with the cultists still following.

     “Spread out and find them, they are close!” ordered their leader. And they weren`t, they were not close in fact they were in another year by now using the time machine that they hid in the very same forest. But they were back, just before they entered the casino, and this time they weren`t going to repeat the same mistakes. They went into a library, sat on a computer, and researched all there is to be researched about the cult, their behavior, gathering places and as the waiter said since the Prophet been gone for a long while the followers just faded away, and what used to be a global thing now it`s just a small cult. Before they entered the casino Elizabeth planted a device on the same car the cultist used to chase them. They entered the casino and they didn`t carry the poster with them this time so they won`t have to attract attention. Benjamin pointed at one of the cultist members who were making their movement toward the exit. Both of them followed them as he entered the car and drove off, but Elizabeth and Benjamin weren`t behind, Elizabeth pick locked the same car it was even easier this time since she knew where it was located and she knew what she was doing. They followed the car in front of them as it drove down the dark road, Elizabeth waited until they made their way out of the city and where nobody could see them, she handed the controller to Benjamin and told him to press it when she gives the signal.

     “What`s this?” he asked. “It`s not a bomb is it?”

     “Why do you care? Why do you care if these people live or not?” Elizabeth looked at him with a hint of annoyance in her eyes. “They tried to kill us if you don`t remember. They were gonna kill us just to keep their psychopathic cult thing afloat,” she looked at him again. “They don`t deserve to live. And no it`s not a bomb, it`s gonna knock them out temporarily.”

     “That`s all I wanted to hear, there was no need for a moral lesson,” Elizabeth was so annoyed right now, but she didn`t even bother to talk back, she just sighed angrily and focused on the driving. The car upfront took a turn right on a stone path in the woods, there is no following them now since they would get suspicious, Elizabeth kept driving forward and looked left and right making sure there wasn`t anyone at the highway at that time.

     “Press it! Press it now!” Benjamin did not wait and second and pressed the red small button on the joystick. The small electrical device that Elizabeth planted on their car let out an electrical surge all around the car and messed up the system making it inoperable.

     “What is happening?” asked a man who was sitting in the back.

     “I don`t know it stopped,” said the driver as he tried to start it again, but as soon as the car started a burst of electricity filled the air inside the car and knocked out everybody, a pretty handy device.

     “Was that really necessary?” asked Benjamin as they were approaching the car.

     “No there was no need for that,” she looked at him over the roof of the car. “But it would have been a lot harder getting those,” she leaned inside the car through the driver`s window and pointed at the red masks that stood on top of the glove compartment. The cult was famous for their red masks they wore them because of course to protect their identity and the masks always consisted of the faces of great figures in history. “f**k yeah,” Elizabeth grabbed the mask of Nikola Tesla.

     “Is that the guy that always gets into squable with Edison?” asked Benjamin.

     “Not quite, Tesla is an awesome guy, you should meet him sometime,” Elizabeth looked in the distance as she put on the mask.

     “Why not?” he smiled as he put on a mask of Aristotle. Both of them looked down the dark road of the forest until they saw a bright light ahead at the end of the road.

     “You ready?” asked Elizabeth as Benjamin looked at her and nodded.