Day 218 - Repeat Offenders - Chapter 7.4 - (1048 words)

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REPEAT OFFENDERS

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 7.4

 “To avoid too much confusion we'll call you Harold Prime.” Brian had tapped the out of time and place Bank Manager on the shoulder as he spoke, trying to drum into him the lesson that he had repeated several times already.


“Yes, I heard you the first twenty times.” Harold was bemused by the scientists approach to the problem. He didn't really believe it was going to happen, but he also thought he was ready for it regardless.


“It's more shocking than you think.” Brian leaned in closed before finishing with “The first time it happened to me, it had...a deep effect on me.” He stressed the last word and repeated it, but it was almost to himself. “Deep.”


He had tried to not be overheard by the other two men, who were taking up their positions in the bank, one near each guard just in case. However Ivan's hearing was attuned and listening for every scrap of pertinent information he could get about the machine or the process. He heard him refer to meeting himself in the past or the future, however it had happened. Michael and he had not been around for that, he wondered how that was resolved. Was there another Brains around somewhere? Where was he when they reset? They had not seen hide nor hair of the other Brian, was he the Prime or was this guy? Where was he now, and how could he be around when they never set him to the same time as they were set to?


Was he dead? Did Brains kill someone? Did he kill himself already and was that why he was so anti-violence and so anti-killing versions of people? Did he have it in him? Ivan knew that he would have to tell Michael, this little tit-bit was a very interesting aspect to the Brian/Brains dynamic and warranted further examination. Once they were past this little hiccup.


Michael went and stood at a counter near the rear wall of the bank, fiddling with some papers and taking up the pen on a chain and testing it's strength. His role was to watch the other guard, the younger and keener one and invalidate any potential threat if things got out of hand. This time they were pretty sure that it would do, they ha d a point to make. At the same time he also saw an opportunity to grab the jewels again, this time they had two access points for the vault. There was the possibility that they could convince Harold to join them, it would be a better proposition to get in on the deal than to lose his life entirely and get nothing for it. Brian was not keen on killing, but with two Harold White's running about, what did he think was going to happen to Harold Prime, or Harold number two for that matter?


When he pulled on the chain a couple of times, making it taut and at full extension, he had the undivided attention of the guard. He held the pen at length, not releasing any tension in the line and keeping a steely eyed gaze on the guard. Normally he would not draw this much attention to himself when on a job, being remembered was a bad thing. Of course in this scenario there was no chance of him being recalled once the device was activated and they were away again. The guard and he locked eyes and got into a macho staring contest, so intense that he did not see the Bank Manager he knew to be in his office walk right behind him with a wild eyed and nervous looking Brian.


“In there?” Harold asked his guide, even though he knew his way around and this was his workplace, he had no intention of trying to lead the action in his bizarre little play acting itself out for him. He would go along with it and make the best of whatever he found down the rabbit hole.


Down the rabbit hole. That was a thought, had he eaten or drunk anything that was laced with some hallucinogens? Maybe this was a delusion, not one of his own lack of mental faculty but based on the imposed madness of some agent or compound slipped to him surreptitiously. That was a sensible explanation, and that was a much more palatable reason for the way things were going and what he was experiencing than either the collapse of the laws of time and space or the collapse of his teetering sanity.


“Can I help you?” Harold Two stood up as Brian and Harold Prime walked into the room. At first he didn't register who the man with Brian was, Brian was leading and obviously the one to talk to, and it was not like he could instantly recognise himself when faced with a doppelgänger like this. Harold Prime on the other hand was expecting to see himself and made the connection instantly. It was better and worse than looking into a mirror. The sound of his own voice grated on his nerves and the next thought he had was that he could do to lose some weight. Then as he was staring at himself Harold Two realised he was the focus of the attention for some unknown reason and it made him uncomfortable. He looked across the desk at himself and wondered briefly who the very familiar person in his office was, thoughts of Brian as the main visitor now supplanted by a desire to recall this person he knew. From somewhere?


“Do I know you from somewhere?” He asked Harold Prime.


Brian locked the door behind them and indicated that the two men should sit down, and then from his pocket before either men could react he pulled a gun from his pocket and made a motion again that all three of them should sit down.


“What is this?” Harold Two asked and he turned red, fear and surprise over taking him.



“Shut up, Harold.” Said Harold Prime harshly, judging his own reaction and feeling embarrassed because it was the same way that he would have reacted in the same situation, which of course he both was and was not.