CULT OF THE CYBER MESSIAH

Chapter Eight

For the next hour, the Metro Cops questioned the Doctor and his family about the disappearance of Awinita and searched the area for any sign of her. Edison was thankful that he had the presence of mind to tell Bryce to give them ident numbers since that was the first thing they checked for and once they had them, they treated them well since they were under the impression they were well off and not troublemaking blanks. Edison hoped that meant they would be sympathetic to his friends and help them find Awinita. After an hour, there was still no sign of her and no eyewitnesses to the abduction since the restroom was up near the door and far away from the tables. He could see how distraught his friends were but he finally gently urged them to come back to his penthouse and they reluctantly agreed.

"I'll come with you, Edison," Theora whispered while they walked out of the restaurant. "I have a feeling it's gonna be a long night for everyone."

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"Is she here?"

"Yes, Lord, the woman has been brought here. She was with Carter. She was taken from a restaurant when she separated from the others to go to the restroom."

"Excellent. Perhaps Edison will learn not to interfere in my business when he finds this child out in the open with her mind wiped clean. Is she still sedated?"

"Yes, Lord."

"Show her to me."

"This way, Lord."

The man led him down a hallway, opened a door and ushered the Cyber Messiah into a room. The Cyber Messiah was wearing a long white, heavy robe with a cowl over his face. Sewn into the cowl was a black mesh cloth that was tied to the top of the robe under his chin. It completely obscured his face but allowed him to see his captive. Around his waist was a leather belt with a large pouch at his side. He stared down at Awinita. She was lying on the bed under the covers, wearing a white gown. An IV drip in her arm kept her in a temporary medically induced coma. The Cyber Messiah neared closer to her and then suddenly stopped. His disciple frowned.

"Lord, what is it?" he said.

"This child was with Carter?" he said, looking at him.

"Yes, Lord. Why?"

"She is special."

"Special, my Lord? How?"

"She has energy radiating around her. An energy that is only found in one place in the universe. Bring me the trolley with the medical equipment on it."

"Yes, my Lord," the disciple said.

He hurried away while the Cyber Messiah raised a white gloved hand and stroked Awinita's hair.

"So, Ka Faraq Gatri has come searching for the lost one, has he? Well, if this child is one of his allies, she can be used to ensure his surrender and then I shall have him for my own."

The disciple hurried back in with a metal trolley heaped with medical instruments.

"Excellent, my disciple. Now, I need you to do something for me. Go to my personal chambers. There is a control panel there, activate the black button on the lower right hand side for me."

"Yes, my Lord."

"He hurried away while the Cyber Messiah picked up a stethoscope. He untied the cloth and reached up under it while he put the ear buds in his ears. He uncovered Awinita exposing her chest and listened to her heartbeat. His eyes widened in surprise when he heard the steady double beat of her hearts.

"Well, you are far more than just an ordinary human, aren't you, my lovely?" he said, stroking her hair. "You are like him. Interesting. A Time Lady survived the Time War. This is more than I could ever hope for. I'm glad I thought to activate the damper then. I don't want Ka Faraq Gatri finding you too quickly."

He put the stethoscope down and tied the cloth back.

"Perhaps I need to do a mind probe on you, my child, to find out what you have seen in your travels with him."

He looked over when he saw his disciple entering the room.

"I have done as you asked, Lord," the disciple said.

"Excellent and now I have a question for you, my devoted servant."

"Yes, my Lord?"

"How many were with Carter in the restaurant?"

"Um…besides Carter, there were four men and seven women, my Lord."

"Four men, eh?"

He reached into his pouch and brought out a folded piece of yellowed paper.

"This was a sketch that came into my possession several years ago. It is the face of Ka Faraq Gatri," he said, unfolding the paper. "Look at it and tell me if this man was among those four."

The disciple took the paper from him.

"Yes, Lord, there were two that looked like this."

The Cyber Messiah frowned.

"Two?"

"Yes, Lord, two men, twins."

"Twins? The Destroyer has a twin brother? I have never heard that mentioned in the legends before," he muttered. "Are you sure they looked like this man?"

"Yes, my Lord."

The Cyber Messiah took the paper from him, folded it and put it back in his pouch.

"This is getting more and more interesting. The legends spoke of him being the last of the Time Lords but it appears he is not. There are two more males and a female from his home world."

"Lord, who is he?"

"He is the scourge of the universe. A powerful force that many fear and tremble at but for me, he is a tool. A means to an end. When the lost one came into my possession, I hoped that perhaps he would discover him and come to his aid and it appears my hopes were not in vain. Not only has The Destroyer come but he has brought others like him. More tools that can be used by me. It is because of the lost one that we have the means to hide this one from his time ship's scanners and now with further probing, we can learn more about Time Lord technology and after I learn their secrets, I will become unstoppable!"

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Theora sighed sadly. After they walked back to Edison's apartment, she had tried to fix them and their new friends some tea to comfort them a little but the Doctor and the others were consumed with grief and worry for Awinita. They sipped the tea but for the most part they were holding one another and trying to keep each other's hopes up that way. The Doctor had mentioned to her that they all communicated telepathically and she figured they were doing that now since she kept seeing them glance at each other and nod from time to time. Looking at that, she felt envious that they could do that since she was curious to know what they were saying.

The silence dragged on. Edison joined her in his kitchen and they talked to one another while they tried to come up with strategies of their own. Occasionally, they both looked into the other room to check if they were still awake since there was a profound silence. At length, Theora decided she had to bring up the unpleasant topic of body banks to them. She explained what she was going to do to Edison who decided to go out and get some Chinese takeout in order to have something to do. He grabbed his keys from the counter and after telling everyone what he was going to do, hurried out the door. Once he was gone, Theora came in with her cup of tea and sat in a chair beside them while they all sat together on the floor looking dejected. She cleared her throat and they looked up at her. Her heart went out to them when she saw the anguish on their faces and she dreaded what she was about to tell them since she knew it was upset them more but it had to be done, if only to rule out the possibility.

"I…I want to tell you this because I want to check something but only because I want to rule it out at the moment. After Edison hit the barrier arm and was abducted, I had no idea where he went. I tried everything I could think of, the Metro Cops, the hospital and…the body bank. Do you know what the body bank is?"

They all shook their heads.

"The body bank is a place where people can either take corpses and body parts to sell for quick credits or buy corpses and body parts. Now it's supposed to be a legitimate way to buy and sell corpses and body parts but of course, there are those who kill people and dump them in there to get rid of them."

She could tell from the looks on her friend's faces that they already guessed what she was getting at. But she forced herself to go on.

"When Edison was abducted and they created Max, they tried to get rid of him afterwards so they took him to the body bank when he was still in a coma and passed him off as a corpse and sold him. Edison woke up…just when one of the workers was about to cut him apart so they could sell him piece by piece."

She held up her hand when she heard all of them gasp.

"I'm not saying that was done to Awinita, alright? But I wanna check. They check them in either by ident number or they just register them as blank does, but if she is a blank doe they'll have her photo on file. I'm not trying to cause you any more anguish. I'm just warning you that if I do find her at the body bank, chances are she might not be as lucky as Edison was."

Her heart ached when she watched all of them hugging and kissing each other. She took the opportunity to go over to Edison's computer that was near his couch.

"Theora?"

Theora turned to Rain who was sitting by the Doctor while he rubbed her back.

"If…"

She swallowed hard while the Doctor kissed her cheek.

"If…she is in this body bank, will they let us have her back?" she managed to get out.

"Yes, they will. For a price, but I'll handle that, don't worry. If, God forbid, she is in there, I'm not about to let her be taken apart and sold."

"Thank you," Rain said.

They watched while Theora sat down in front of the computer and accessed the vid phone. She hit the operator option and a young and very bored looking woman appeared on her screen.

"Number or name?" she said.

"Yes, I need Nightingale's Body Bank," Theora said.

"Connecting you now, wait a moment," she said, pushing a button off screen.

The screen went blank and Theora flinched when the same old woman she had talked to when Edison had gone missing appeared.

"Nightingale's Body Bank, may I help you?" she said, staring at her.

"Yes, I'm inquiring if a body has arrived in the past few hours. A female named Awinita…"

She glanced at the Doctor.

"Harris," the Doctor said.

"Harris," Theora said to the lady, "Awinita Harris."

"No, we've had no one come in by that name."

"Okay, how about a female…"

She looked at the Doctor.

"Forgive me for asking, is Awinita Hispanic?"

"No, Native American," the Doctor said.

She nodded.

"She's a young Native American female, about 5 foot 7 inches, light brown skin, brown eyes, long black hair."

"No ma'am, we've had no one fitting that description come in tonight."

The Doctor and his family breathed a sigh of relief.

"And no body parts fitting her skin color?"

"No ma'am. Is there anything else you need?"

"No, that'll be all, thanks. Goodnight."

"Thank God," Rose murmured when Theora cut off transmission.

Theora placed another call while they listened.

"New York County General," a man said.

"Yes, I have a friend who's missing and I'm checking to see if she might have been brought into hospital earlier tonight?"

"Name?" the man said.

"Awinita Harris."

"Ident number?"

Theora frowned. The Doctor got up and pulled the piece of paper out of his pocket that Bryce had run off for them. He handed it to her and she glanced at the ident code under Awinita's name.

"Her ident code is 16984-BZ-5429HH" she read to him.

She smiled and handed the paper back to the Doctor while the man checked the records.

"No ma'am, we've had no one checked in under that ident code," the man said.

"Have you admitted any female blank does tonight?"

"No ma'am."

They all breathed another sigh of relief.

"Thank you, goodnight," Theora said.

She cut off transmission.

"Well," she said to them, "for the moment, we can rule out the hospital and the body bank. Although, I suppose I better check the morgue as well."

She reached information and requested the number for the morgue. The Doctor watched while a stern looking receptionist answered when the woman operator connected her. She had a pinched face and her white hair was tied back in a bun.

"New York County Morgue, may I help you?"

"Yes, I'm trying to find out if a woman's body was brought in earlier tonight? Native American female, name of Awinita Harris, ident number 16984-BZ-5429HH, she could also have come in as a blank doe."

"No ma'am, no Native American females were brought in tonight. Can I help you with anything else?"

"No, thanks, goodnight."

She cut off transmission while the Doctor sat back down and gave relieved hugs to the women.

I doubt if they'll kill her yet, the Doctor thought to them. If they took her, they want her alive for something. I just hope wherever she is, she's unharmed.

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The Cyber Messiah sat in his chair and thought. He had left the Time Lady alone for the moment, letting her rest and recover from the blow to her head. He smiled to himself. He had kidnapped the female with the intention of silencing Carter and getting him off his back but instead he had found an even greater treasure and not only that, but Ka Faraq Gatri himself was here along with a possible twin brother. He had never considered the possibility that The Destroyer had a twin. He knew Time Lords were loomed one at a time but in a way it made sense to him. Ka Faraq Gatri was like no other Time Lord that had ever lived so it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for him to have something no other Time Lord ever had. Perhaps the twin was a sign of his greatness. His power was so formidable that one body could not contain it. He smirked. It didn't matter though. Both would be his eventually along with the rest of them.

"But what of the rest?" he murmured. "Are they with Ka Faraq Gatri or Carter? I must know for sure how many allies The Destroyer has and if any of them are Time Lords and Ladies."

He summoned his disciple via an intercom system. A few minutes later, he appeared and knelt before the screen he sat behind.

"Yes, my Lord?"

The Cyber Messiah tied the cloth down and stepped out from behind the screen.

"I wish to send more spies to observe Carter and these newcomers. I want to know who are with Carter and who are with The Destroyer."

"And I'm to go and spy on them, my Lord?"

"No, you have already done it tonight. I can't risk you going back in case they saw your face at the restaurant. No, I will send another to do that. I want you to tend to the child. I'm going to ease up on the medication although I still want her partially drugged so she'll be too weak to fight back. I want to find out what she knows about Ka Faraq Gatri and why he has come here."

"Yes, my Lord."

"I want you to keep close watch on her and make sure she doesn't escape. See to her needs but be wary. Ka Faraq Gatri trains his companions well and I'm sure she'll be no different. Plus, she is a Time Lady which means she possesses intelligence far beyond a normal human's mind. The drugs I will give her will keep her confined to her bed but she will still be awake and capable of talking to us. But you will have to take her to the restroom and feed her, is that understood?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"Good, go and take out the IV and let the child rest for awhile."

"Yes, my Lord."

He watched while his disciple went away to do his bidding. Once he was gone, he walked back behind the screen to his chair. He settled down in it and smiled when he reached over to the table beside him, grabbed the tiny silver fob watch and chuckled while he ran his fingers over it.

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