A Song of Spiders

Chapter 13 - The Ark

Charlie was waiting to pick them up at the small jetty near the underground train station. His bird hung beside him like a lantern on the black underground river.

'Howaya lad and ladies, get on in and settle themselves.' said Charlie. 

'To Time Tours if you please Mr. Charon' said Rachel

'Call me Charlie love. I'll think I'm in trouble with the shadows if you call me Mister.' he wheezed out a laugh. His bird lit the way and they started off through the tunnels again. Charlie took up his song:

There were two policemen at her door, weile weile waile.

There were two policemen at her door, down by the river Saile.

They put a rope around her neck, weile weile waile.

They put a rope around her neck, down by the river Saile.

'That's an unusual little friend you have there Charlie, it's a bird isn't it?' said Dex.

'That it is, young fella. It's a wren actually if you want to know.' said Charlie.

'Oh. I've only seen them in movies. It's not real is it?' asked Dex.

'No, the birds are long gone my lad, this one reminds of my youth, when you heard them sing in the spring instead of the chirping bugs now.' The bird landed on his stained old hand and he stroked it gently.

Dex heard a click and turned to see Rachel taking her phone apart.

He moved over beside her to watch and said 'Do you have some amazing super military model of smart mobile of something? It actually led us to you, you know.'

Rachel said 'no, I did know it led you to me though. I thought I was only dreaming it in the be-movie, maybe I was, sort of.' Her voice trailed off.

'I was very detached after being in the movie that long. I didn't know what was real. But Cabot told me he had received a message from me showing my position. I don't know how this little gnome got me out of there.' Rachel replied, putting it back together.

She held up the gnome on her open palm and looked at it. 'It's not like I can ask her and she'll tell me, is it dear?' The little gnome looked back at her with its usual sleepy smile. Jack was hopping and sniffing about the skiff. Tetsu was swooping above them twisting and turning in the air, blowing out small puffs of virtual fire.

Dex sat back with his hands behind his head and said. 'This has been a very mental couple of days'.

He looked out ahead into the dark and said to Rachel. 'I assume you knew Karma was from down here and you've been working with this underground resistance movement for a while. But why didn't you trust me and tell me what was going on?'

Karma and Rachel looked at each other. Karma answered. 'Of course we trust you Dex, but up there, you're not you. They control you. They have had you since birth. I'm immune and Rachel has had training to break her conditioning.'

'They recruited me about a year ago Dex. It was only in the last three months or so I have been fully resistant.' Rachel added.

'How did you get recruited by them, or how did you find them?' said Dex.

'They found me. I had been checking around all the old be-movies, looking at history and documentaries mainly. I began to see Ireland was like lots of countries in the past. It was being controlled and the people were slaves to the church. Then one day I met Cabot on a Titanic tour.'

She smiled. 'I thought it was just a harmless history nut. We talked and he saw I had potential I guess. He was looking for people to join the cause who worked in be-movies. He said it was because we step out of the reality the church has created and see that it is just as unreal as any be-movie.'