“Come,” Karla ordered, “lay down on the table, and we can begin.”
“Hold on here,” I said as I raised my hands. “Is this some sort of weird kink thing? Like, are you gonna tie me up on the table and then do all sorts of weird, BDSM stuff to me?”
“You wish,” the brunette woman scoffed. “No… In this case, this room is just what it looks like. There is one more step in the preparation process before we can send you off on your first mission.”
“I dunno… ” I hesitated. “How bad is this gonna hurt?”
“Not at all,” she promised, “I’m a trained professional.”
“Yeah, no,” I sighed. “Sorry, but I’m—”
“Don’t you want to get paid?” she scoffed. “Isn’t that all you care about anyways?”
“You’ve never been poor, have you?” I growled as I stared into her green eyes. “Must be fucking nice.”
Karla opened her mouth to respond, closed it, and then let out a long sigh. Then she shook her head and let out another long breath.
“Okay, sorry. That was rude of me.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Sorry I’m not really feeling you and your dad’s LARP thingy anymore, so I’m going to—”
“What?” she asked.
“Live action role playing,” I clarified. “I was fine because you were talking about the money, and I figured rich people were weird as fuck, but I’m not getting in that chair.”
“You need to,” she sighed. “I won’t hurt you, I promise.”
“Then you can pay me first.” I shrugged.
The beautiful woman huffed in annoyance, and then she pulled out her phone and began to dance her fingers across the screen. “What’s your account number and routing number? I’ll have to route the money transfer through several offshore accounts to avoid detection.”
“Uhh, crap. I don’t know,” I laughed as I pulled out my own phone. “I still think you are just fucking with me. Let me check.”
I logged into my mobile bank app and then read the numbers off to her. She repeated each number before she typed it in, and then she gave me a smirk and put her phone back into her pocket.
“Check your account,” she stated.
I hit refresh on my app, but nothing happened. I almost told her to fuck off, but then I hit refresh one more time.
And suddenly my checking account had $125,345.89 in it.
“Holy shit,” I gasped. It was the most money I’d ever seen, and even though it was digital numbers in an account, I could almost smell the cash in my hands.
“I just put in half,” Karla said. “You’ll get the rest when you finish your mission. Now, sit down.”
“Uhhh, okay.” I walked over to the table, placed my back against the cold metal, and then stood still as Karla tightened the straps on my wrists and ankles.
“Uhhhhh, wait. Why am I being strapped in like Frankenstein’s monster?” I questioned as she leaned the table back, and I was blinded by the large fluorescent lights above.
“You worry too much,” Karla chuckled. “This is a simple, non-invasive procedure that will be completely painless and quick. Provided you don’t start to panic and flail around like a dying fish. That’s why the straps are there. I’m going to be putting a transmitter in your head, and if you make one wrong move… Well, I’ll just leave it at ‘stay as completely still as you possibly can.’”
A procedure? I definitely didn’t sign up for this.
Suddenly, I heard the whirring of a drill, and my whole body tensed up.
“What is that?” I demanded. “You never said anything about a drill!”
“It’s non-invasive and painless,” she reminded me. “Just hold still, and it will all be over in a few seconds.”
As the sound of the drill grew closer and closer, I could feel the cold sweat begin to pour down my face. I wanted to scream. I wanted to rip off these restraints and run for the hills.
But I didn’t dare move an inch. I didn’t want to find out what happened to people who messed up this procedure.
There was a brief shot of pain in my left temple, and then the sound of the drill stopped.
“Is—Is it over?” I sighed.
“See?” Karla chuckled. “That wasn’t so bad. Actually, I’m pretty impressed. There were so many things that could have gone wrong, especially since you’re my first human subject.”
“Wait, what?” I gasped.
“Well, yeah,” the brunette admitted as she untied my straps, “you’re the only Wayfarer of this world, remember? There really wasn’t anyone else I could practice on… ”
“I thought you said—”
“I’m fucking with you,” she snickered, “all is well. In fact, I’d say it’s better than well. Check this out.”
Karla plucked a small, walkie talkie shaped object from the cart, held it up to her mouth, and pressed the button.
“We really need to talk about boundaries,” I started. “Like, seriously, you can’t—”
Before I could finish, a sound appeared in my head.
“Testing, one-two,” Karla’s soft voice announced. “Testing, one-two. Hunter, can you hear me?”
“Of course I can hear you,” I chuckled, “you’re standing right there.”
“Watch this,” she said with a smile before she dashed out of the room.
How about now? Still coming in loud and clear?
Holy crap… Even though Karla wasn’t anywhere close, I could still hear her voice as if she were standing right next to me.
The brunette popped her head back into the room, and a coy smile rose at the corners of her pretty mouth.
“How are you doing that?” I demanded.
“It’s a microchip implant,” she explained, “my father’s design, of course. Basically, it will allow you and I to communicate back and forth, any time, any place, and most importantly, any dimension.”
“So, you guys can help me along on this mission?” I questioned.
“It’ll be like I’m standing right next to you.” Karla nodded. “The chip is also essential in allowing you to dimension hop without having the IFDR present. It’s programming is linked to my father’s A.I., which will allow you to always find your way back to Dimension One. Think of it as a cybernetic lighthouse that will help you see through the interdimensional fog.”
“Then why do we need the Roosevelt at all?” I pondered aloud. “If the chip lets me travel—”
“The chip isn’t what makes you travel. Think of it this way… ” Karla tried again. “Have you ever forgotten where you parked your vehicle in a giant parking lot and then walked around beeping your fob until you heard it chirp?”
“Uh-huh… ”
“Well, this implant is the fob in this situation,” she noted. “Without it, you’d be lost to space and time unless you by chance stumbled across another ‘car’ with the same frequency. And the chances of just coming across another dimension’s IFDR is nearly five-billion to one, so I wouldn’t count on it.”
The beautiful brunette walked over to the cart, picked up a small gauze bandage, and then placed it up against the microscopic wound on my head.
“Is that really necessary?” I chuckled. “I feel fine.”
“Trust me,” Karla warned, “in the minute chance I fucked up the operation, that bandage is the only thing standing between you and your brains leaking out onto the floor like a strawberry ice cream machine.”
“Noted.” I shuddered. “So, if my brains do decide to stay in my head for the time being, how does this thing work?”
Karla looked me dead in the eyes and became extremely straight-faced.