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Febuwhump day 17: Hostage Situation
It's not the 17th, but there are extenuating circumstances, namely that I'm stuck in a time loop the time loops won't leave me alone, and I hunted high and low through the Febuwhump prompts to find a prompt I could use for it.
This is YET ANOTHER different time loop, inspired by this:
If Algy was stuck in this time loop he would've gone looking for Erich on the first loop as a reasonable precaution and had the whole thing unravelled in a week.
(This is not actually that time loop, it's a different one that's Algy's problem this time. His problem-solving skill set is approximately the same, though.)
Day 17: Hostage Situation
Algy & EvS, 850 wds
Erich was eating a no-frills breakfast (cold beans straight from the tin) and flipping through the packet he'd retrieved from the drop point to make sure it contained the desired papers, when the door of his windowless basement room was kicked in.
This was followed immediately by Algy Lacey with a gun.
Erich did not jump up, although he did inwardly berate himself for having let his guard down to this extent when he should have known something like this was all too likely. He carefully set down his can of beans and slid two fingers under the edge of the file folder.
"Don't try anything, I know you've got a gun around here somewhere, I just want to talk." Lacey said all of this in a rush, then kicked the door shut behind him, in what Erich would have assumed was Bigglesworth's face. Except it appeared Lacey was alone.
"Where's Bigglesworth?" Erich asked cautiously. He didn't think Lacey would have decided to act as an assassin, it didn't fit at all with his mental model of the man, but he swiftly catalogued every potential weapon in the room (eight if you counted the light fixture and the bedframe) just in case.
"He's not here," Lacey said shortly. "You'll have to settle for me. What did you do?"
"You will have to be more specific," Erich said, his fingertips inches from the gun beneath the paperwork.
"You! You did something. What is it, some kind of device? Where is it?"
Lacey was looking around wildly, his gaze skating swiftly across the room's bare contents. There was nowhere to hide anything; it was a windowless, dank bolt hole with stained old brick walls and a bare floor. The only furnishings were a narrow cot, a single chair, and the metal table with its attendant lamp where Erich was working. Previously, Erich had thought that for all its lack of creature comforts, the one thing the room did have as an asset was that it was hidden and unknown to the SAP. Unfortunately it seemed at least one of these suppositions had been wrong.
He wondered if Lacey was unwell. Perhaps drugged? He seemed terribly upset. There was one obvious cause that Erich could think of, and it unsettled him.
"Did something happen to Bigglesworth?"
"What? No. Why is that the first place your mind goes?" Lacey went down to one knee to look under the cot, giving Erich a chance to get two more fingers on the gun. "Don't! Okay, move away from the table, sit there on the edge of the bed."
Erich stayed where he was. He gradually had begun to develop a little more confidence that he wasn't going to be shot outright. He was a good judge of men, and Lacey might be a hot-blooded killer, but he wasn't a cold-blooded one. However, just in case, Erich pulled his hands back from the files and displayed them. Strangely, Lacey had shown no interest in the files so far, which meant that wasn't what he was here about.
"Why don't you tell me what I'm supposed to have done?"
"As if you don't know," Lacey scoffed. He slouched against the wall, the gun still held loosely on Erich, but with a bit less urgency now that both Erich's hands were in plain sight. "It's repeating, this whole entire day, twice so far. I knew immediately you had something to do with it, that much is obvious. It just took longer than I hoped to find you."
"But not nearly as long as I'd hoped," Erich said. Another four hours would have seen him to the docks and catching his ride .... oh well. He frowned. "Repeating?"
"Yes! Repeating! The same day. It's been Tuesday for three days now." Lacey looked around the room, slightly less wild-eyed and more thoughtful. "Are you actually living here?"
"Temporarily," Erich said pointedly. "I was having breakfast when you interrupted."
This brought Lacey's scathing attention to the bean tin and the metal fork sticking out of it. "That's your breakfast?"
"Bigglesworth is rubbing off on you."
"That wasn't concern, it was annoyance that your poor life choices are forcing me to have this conversation in a cellar that looks like it floods whenever the river rises." Lacey jerked the gun at him. "I saw a café on the way down here, and I was too busy looking for you to eat anything this morning. So I'm going to do you the incredible favor, that you don't deserve, of buying you breakfast in the hopes that you'll hold still long enough for me to find out exactly what you did."
"And if I refuse?"
"If I were you, I wouldn't argue with the man who's holding a gun on you."
"You're taking me to breakfast at gunpoint," Erich said, amused in spite of himself. He had already thought of a dozen ways to overwhelm Lacey easily. On the other hand, there was always a distinct chance of being shot in spite of his best efforts, a fate he didn't care to tempt. Even a fool could get off a lucky shot, and Lacey was far from that.
"I haven't got much to lose, if you get away this day is just going to happen again, probably, and I'll get another chance at it. Go, go."
This is YET ANOTHER different time loop, inspired by this:
If Algy was stuck in this time loop he would've gone looking for Erich on the first loop as a reasonable precaution and had the whole thing unravelled in a week.
(This is not actually that time loop, it's a different one that's Algy's problem this time. His problem-solving skill set is approximately the same, though.)
Day 17: Hostage Situation
Algy & EvS, 850 wds
Erich was eating a no-frills breakfast (cold beans straight from the tin) and flipping through the packet he'd retrieved from the drop point to make sure it contained the desired papers, when the door of his windowless basement room was kicked in.
This was followed immediately by Algy Lacey with a gun.
Erich did not jump up, although he did inwardly berate himself for having let his guard down to this extent when he should have known something like this was all too likely. He carefully set down his can of beans and slid two fingers under the edge of the file folder.
"Don't try anything, I know you've got a gun around here somewhere, I just want to talk." Lacey said all of this in a rush, then kicked the door shut behind him, in what Erich would have assumed was Bigglesworth's face. Except it appeared Lacey was alone.
"Where's Bigglesworth?" Erich asked cautiously. He didn't think Lacey would have decided to act as an assassin, it didn't fit at all with his mental model of the man, but he swiftly catalogued every potential weapon in the room (eight if you counted the light fixture and the bedframe) just in case.
"He's not here," Lacey said shortly. "You'll have to settle for me. What did you do?"
"You will have to be more specific," Erich said, his fingertips inches from the gun beneath the paperwork.
"You! You did something. What is it, some kind of device? Where is it?"
Lacey was looking around wildly, his gaze skating swiftly across the room's bare contents. There was nowhere to hide anything; it was a windowless, dank bolt hole with stained old brick walls and a bare floor. The only furnishings were a narrow cot, a single chair, and the metal table with its attendant lamp where Erich was working. Previously, Erich had thought that for all its lack of creature comforts, the one thing the room did have as an asset was that it was hidden and unknown to the SAP. Unfortunately it seemed at least one of these suppositions had been wrong.
He wondered if Lacey was unwell. Perhaps drugged? He seemed terribly upset. There was one obvious cause that Erich could think of, and it unsettled him.
"Did something happen to Bigglesworth?"
"What? No. Why is that the first place your mind goes?" Lacey went down to one knee to look under the cot, giving Erich a chance to get two more fingers on the gun. "Don't! Okay, move away from the table, sit there on the edge of the bed."
Erich stayed where he was. He gradually had begun to develop a little more confidence that he wasn't going to be shot outright. He was a good judge of men, and Lacey might be a hot-blooded killer, but he wasn't a cold-blooded one. However, just in case, Erich pulled his hands back from the files and displayed them. Strangely, Lacey had shown no interest in the files so far, which meant that wasn't what he was here about.
"Why don't you tell me what I'm supposed to have done?"
"As if you don't know," Lacey scoffed. He slouched against the wall, the gun still held loosely on Erich, but with a bit less urgency now that both Erich's hands were in plain sight. "It's repeating, this whole entire day, twice so far. I knew immediately you had something to do with it, that much is obvious. It just took longer than I hoped to find you."
"But not nearly as long as I'd hoped," Erich said. Another four hours would have seen him to the docks and catching his ride .... oh well. He frowned. "Repeating?"
"Yes! Repeating! The same day. It's been Tuesday for three days now." Lacey looked around the room, slightly less wild-eyed and more thoughtful. "Are you actually living here?"
"Temporarily," Erich said pointedly. "I was having breakfast when you interrupted."
This brought Lacey's scathing attention to the bean tin and the metal fork sticking out of it. "That's your breakfast?"
"Bigglesworth is rubbing off on you."
"That wasn't concern, it was annoyance that your poor life choices are forcing me to have this conversation in a cellar that looks like it floods whenever the river rises." Lacey jerked the gun at him. "I saw a café on the way down here, and I was too busy looking for you to eat anything this morning. So I'm going to do you the incredible favor, that you don't deserve, of buying you breakfast in the hopes that you'll hold still long enough for me to find out exactly what you did."
"And if I refuse?"
"If I were you, I wouldn't argue with the man who's holding a gun on you."
"You're taking me to breakfast at gunpoint," Erich said, amused in spite of himself. He had already thought of a dozen ways to overwhelm Lacey easily. On the other hand, there was always a distinct chance of being shot in spite of his best efforts, a fate he didn't care to tempt. Even a fool could get off a lucky shot, and Lacey was far from that.
"I haven't got much to lose, if you get away this day is just going to happen again, probably, and I'll get another chance at it. Go, go."
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"What? No. Why is that the first place your mind goes?"
Aw.
I love how resigned Algy sounds to the prospect of taking Erich to breakfast the next cycle through if he has to.
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Thank you! He may have just trapped himself in several loops of suffering the mortifying ordeal of getting to know his worst enemy through multiple successive breakfasts.
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I look forward to the point where he just sits down and forgets not to order for both of them, including of course things Erich cannot ever remember telling Algy he likes.
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Loved it
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Algy: it's true that I would sell you for one corn chip
also Algy: ... but there are limits, get up and I'm going to go feed you something hot and nutritious UNDER DURESS
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Also love that Algy jumps to the conclusion that EvS is responsible for this, because OF COURSE. Who else could it be!
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YESSSSS this concept is amazing and I may be forced to write it if no one else does. ♥