I reincarnated in game

31 Put to Rights

Without a second of hesitation, Judi motioned for Kenneth to come down the flight of steps. “Watch my back!” she said as she took out her knife and pushed it into the lock of the door.  With a little force, the lock popped open. 

Judi looked beyond the open door; she saw several empty, man sized cages on either side of the room but otherwise, the room was empty.  The voices seemed to be coming from the end of the room, where a set of descending stairs could be seen.  Judi looked at Kenneth and put a finger to her lips to show that they needed to be quiet.  She closed the door behind them without making a sound.  She then gestured to Kenneth that they should set down their bags behind one of the cells.  They could not leave their bags behind when they had started out to search for Hugh; but now, they didn’t want to be unnecessarily encumbered just in case they had to make a quick exit.  Kenneth and Judi walked forward.  Kenneth could now confirm what Judi had suspected; one of the voices they could hear was indeed Hugh’s. 

They crept along until they came to the top of the stairs.  The voices were louder now.  From what she could determine, the voices were coming from the room immediately at the bottom of the stairs.  As they were listening, they heard Hugh’s voice again, emphatically denying that he was someone named ‘Father John’ … he was trying to get across to whoever was there with him that he was traveling with two friends who were probably already looking for him …

Judi grasped the situation immediately.  Whoever the interrogators were, they thought that Hugh was somebody by the name of Father John; it was obviously a case of mistaken identity.  She needed to move in quickly to clear up their misunderstanding. 

She drew in a deep breath; descended the stairs and found herself in a room with several men dressed in black with white stripes.  Behind them, she saw Hugh, bound to a chair.  Kenneth had followed her and now stood behind her.  “Hold on … You have got the wrong guy!” she said with conviction.

The men in the room were obviously surprised and turned in unison to confront the newcomers.  As they did so, Hugh saw Judi and Kenneth and said vehemently, “You see!  These are the friends I came on board with!” 

The men in the room moved quickly to surround Judi and Kenneth, drawing their swords.

Looking around at the men with their weapons, she held up her hands. “No.  Stop.  This is not necessary.  That man speaks the truth.  He has been traveling with me and the dwarf for the last few months.  I don’t know who you think he is but he definitely is not a priest and his name is not John … it is Hugh Bean.  My name is Judi Smith and this is Kenneth Grant,” Judi continued. 

The lead man said, “How can you prove who you are?  This guy didn’t have any ID on him … show me yours!”

“Well, that is little bit of a problem,” Judi began.  “We actually had to … ahem … borrow some ID in order to buy our tickets … his and mine.  Kenneth, here, has his own ID which is legitimate.  If you give me a chance, I can show you the papers we came on board with … they are in a bag at the top of these stairs,” she said motioning behind her.

“Stay right where you are!” commanded the leader.  He then nodded to one of his cohorts nearest the stairs to go up and see if there was a bag there.  When the man returned with the traveling bags the trio had carried on board, Judi pointed to the one which held the forged papers.  The leader opened it and pulled out the two duster cloaks that she and Hugh had used for their disguise.  Below the robes, he saw two pieces of ID …

“Those are the borrowed ID’s … they belonged to two ladies who just came to the fourth level on this ship.  We put on their cloaks and used the fake documents to buy our tickets; we bought Kenneth’s using his ID, and we all boarded together.  You could check the ship’s log to verify that three tickets were purchased together; two using those ID’s,” Judi explained.

“Fine!  You two can join your friend here as our guest until we can corroborate your story.  We will see if you are telling the truth; if not, you will hang alongside of him!” the man in charge stated forcefully.

The man who had retrieved the bag went over to Kenneth.  “Give me your ID.  We need to check out your story.”  Kenneth did as requested and the man left with all three documents. 

Judi and Kenneth were herded to the centre of the room next to the chair where Hugh was tied.  They looked him over to see if he had been beaten, but physically, he looked fine. “Are you OK?” Judi asked. 

“Yes I am,” Hugh replied.  “I don’t know how come they feel that I am this priest who has committed all these crimes.  Hopefully, this will all be resolved as soon as they verify the ships boarding log.”

Kenneth had been looking at the men standing around them.  He leaned over and spoke to his two friends, “Should I try to freeze them?”

Hugh and Judi’s whispered reply was immediate, “No!”  They smiled at Kenneth, hoping to assure him that the situation was in hand.

Time seemed to move slowly as they waited but, in reality, it was only about ten minutes before the man returned.  He went over to the leader on the other side of the room and, speaking in low tones, gave his report.  Hugh had been watching the two; the leader seemed to doubt what he was being told and looked like as if he asked the man if he was sure.  It was only after the man nodded his head vigorously that the leader came over to speak to the hostages.    

“My man tells me that your story checks out so I guess we will have to let you go.  The thing is, if you are not Father John, you sure as hell look like him!” said the leader as he instructed his men to untie Hugh. 

Hugh stood and stretched his cramped muscles.  Looking at the man in charge, he said, “I kept trying to tell you that I wasn’t the guy you were looking for … I’m so glad that you aren’t going to charge us for having those false papers ... there is a good reason why we had to do it but it is a long story.”

“No.  We aren’t going to pursue that issue … we are enforcers for much greater crimes,” came the reply.

As Hugh moved out from under the bright light, the man’s epithet was easily readable … it said, “Soldier, Level 35, Full Health”.  The other men in the room all appeared to be soldiers of various levels.  Hugh wondered what type of soldiers they were; they certainly didn’t look like a regular army.       

Hugh ventured to ask, “What kind of enforcers are you?  You don’t look like regular soldiers and you aren’t concerned with minor breaches of the law …”

“We are not concerned with the mundane … our organization answers to a higher power,” the man replied.  “You and your friends can go now.  We need to go back to see if we can pick up where we lost track of Father John.  Time is of the essence!”

“What organization are you a part of?” Hugh asked.

“I am not at liberty to say.  I am only a soldier.  Unless clearance is given to me by my superiors, I cannot divulge any details of our outfit,” he responded.  He was about to go back to where his men were waiting but he stopped and turned back to where Hugh stood.  “You know, I am sorry that we put you through the interrogation that we did.  It may be a small consolation, but I think it would be best if I walk you back to the passenger deck to ensure that you don’t get ambushed again.”

“Ambushed again?” Hugh interjected.

“Well, we have allocated a lot of men and resources to capture Father John.  This ship has a number of our agents, disguised as regular passengers, who are on the lookout for this culprit.  I wouldn’t want any of them to jump you thinking that you had escaped somehow.  I will let them know you are not our man,” he said.  “By the way, my name is James.”  Hugh noted that his epithet updated to show the man’s name.    

When they had reached the passenger deck, James preceded them into the seating area.  He cleared his throat and in an authoritative voice, stated, “Stand down men.  This is not our guy.  They are to be given safe passage to Third Level.” 

Hugh noted that almost everyone on the passenger deck nodded their understanding.  It was at that point that he realized what James had said was true … the entire ship had obviously been hired for their mission.  They obviously were dedicated to their cause.  It would have been a perfect trap for Father John had he boarded the ship instead of Hugh.

At that moment, a plan started to form in his head.  He had a decision to make ... “Should I … or shouldn’t I …” he mused to himself.