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‘How long does
is it before the app takes effect?’ asked another man.

‘Up to five
minutes depending on people’s susceptibility.’

‘Okay everybody
you know what we have to do… Mingle, spread out and spread the
word,’ said Alf.

It was a start,
a small start - the first seed had been sewn but this was merely a
drop in the ocean. Finding Gemma Bream was Madeline’s next
move.

‘Does anyone
know County Road in Roseville?’ asked Madeline.

‘I’ll take you
there,’ said Alf.

He had a
minibus parked just around the corner away form the barricade. Alf
seemed a pleasant chap, hard to believe that not so long ago he was
behaving like a thug. All it had taken to alter his frame of mind
was running a simple app on her super duper watch. Madeline
happened to glance at the watch, she stroked the screen to wake it
up, it was on the home screen. That’s strange, she thought, surely
if the app is running it shouldn’t be on the home screen? She had
another glance at her watch – no the app had been turned off.
Anyway, no matter, clearly the app running on Alf’s smart phone was
now blocking the ultrasound noise instead. They chatted, perhaps
flirted, he was a good looking man and she, as we know, was
gorgeous. What harm was there in a little flattery from both sides.
Madeline was intrigued as to why the ultrasound had made him behave
differently from the rest, turning him into a feral lunatic instead
of being depressed and despondent.

‘I take it,
you’ve got issues with your country?’ asked Madeline.

‘Why do you say
that?’ asked Alf.

‘Well, with the
brainwashing, you didn’t become downhearted like the rest, you
became wild and aggressive.

‘Perhaps I have
a stronger disposition - perhaps it was my subconscious’s way of
fighting the brainwashing.’

‘Perhaps so,’
said Madeline doubtfully.

They drove for
about half a mile - that was all.

‘This is the
Roseville district, we’ll walk the rest of the way,’ said Alf.

‘Really, so
soon? That didn’t take long,’ mildly protested Madeline.

She couldn’t
really see why he couldn’t drive right up to the door. Anyway, it
was a nice day - she hadn’t really noticed the weather until now.
It was far better than back in England, it was hot, she could tell
this by what people were wearing. It was sun shining, she could
tell this because the sky was blue and not grey and it certainly
wasn’t raining, she could tell this by the lack of puddles and
brollies.

‘County road is
just up here,’ said Alf.

Madeline’s
relaxed demeanour was suddenly disturbed with the sound of a woman
screaming ahead of her. Her highly sensitive hearing could hear her
being assaulted. She and Alf ran to the source of the distressing
sound, it was coming from a basement room under a boarded up shop.
Madeline rushed in first.

The darkened
room was empty except for a loudspeaker on the floor playing a
recorded sound of a woman in distress. Before Madeline realised
what was happening the door slammed shut. The door happened to be a
reinforced heavy steel door.

‘Alf? What are
you doing?’ shouted Madeline.

‘Complete your
mission now, if you can,’ shouted Alf from the other side of the
heavy door.

She was well
and truly pissed off. It was a trap and she had fallen for it, hook
line and sinker. The barricade, the ransacked shops, burnt out
cars, boarded up houses and the unfortunate hostages, all for
effect. It was all an elaborate convincer and just for her. Alf and
his men had never been under the influence of the ultrasound, they
had all played their parts so well. The app on her super watch, as
she had noticed, was turned off. Only one possible explanation,
they must have been wearing the ear devices supplied by Mark Titoo
presumably. The conclusion to all this was that there was still an
infiltrator working with Nuttall who had leaked the details of
Madeline’s destination and time of her arrival.

The up shot of
all these facts - Alf and his men knew all the time, that she was
an android.

The elaborate
plan had worked, they had trapped a super strong, super cunning
android equipped with a host of lethal weapons and potent
flatulence - and there were no casualties.

To find a
suitable place that was in effect a fortified dungeon must have
been no mean feat. The door was heavy, solid and made of thick
steel. The walls were solid concrete and the ceiling consisted of
steel joists with concrete beams between. To make matters worse,
she was in total darkness and her super £60,000 watch couldn’t get
a signal.

However, all
this fortification was superfluous. Being unable to access her
weaponry, in particular her explosive motion, a rabbit hutch would
have held her. She thumped the door and the walls until eventually
her finger bones broke through her nanotube technology skin.
Nothing gave way or even buckled, she was well and truly trapped.
She sat down on the floor, next to the wall and held her head in
her grazed hands. Madeline Bull, the best hope the world had been
so easily defeated. She was clearly no match for Titoo, he had eyes
and ears everywhere. He wasn’t a ‘state of the art’ indestructible
machine with an abundance of weaponry but he had beaten her without
really trying. He had done this whilst also finding time to
brainwash the whole of the human race. He was, well and truly a
formidable foe.

‘
Madeline,
don’t take this to heart.
’ Barton’s voice came through here
audio.

‘Good old
Barton, I tend to forget your there. A bit of a joke, aren’t
I?’

‘
Rubbish!
Let me tell you about a young lady I once knew. She was beautiful,
vivacious and had everything she could possibly ever want. Then one
day through no fault of her own everything was taken from her. No
one would have blamed her for an instant if she had conceded there
and then and given up on life… but she didn’t. She was uniquely
special - an amazing person. Her inner strength was unparalleled
and boundless, that’s why we chose her for our remarkable project.
I turns out that it was the best decision I could ever have
made...

Of course
you’re going to have your downs as well as ups, that’s life but you
will get through this because you will always triumph over evil.
You are Madeline Bull, never forget that…’

‘Thanks Barton,
you’re a treasure. So much at stake though, so little time. I feel
so unprofessional. Old Poppy is still there and I can’t shake her
off.’

‘
She is and
will always be your greatest asset, dismiss her and Madeline is
nothing… Now hang tight, may take me a while but I’ll get help. By
the way, your system has rebooted, you should be able to access
your system now.’

‘Okay… thanks,’
said Madeline somberly.

She turned her
explosive motion up to maximum, pondered for a moment and then
turned it back down to normal - level 1. The skin on her hands was
already severely grazed, she certainly didn’t want to make matters
worse and damage her weapons, most of which happened to be in the
ends of her fingers. She decided to journey inwards and watch the
entire box set, series 1 to 8 of
Hustle
– it would pass the
time away.

Fifty hours
later and three quarters of the way through episode three, series
seven, there was a bang on the door.

‘Move away from
the door and protect your ears!’ a muffled shout came from the
other side of the heavy steel door.

Madeline
thought the voice sounded vaguely familiar although through two
inches of steel, it could have been anyone’s. She moved to the far
side of the room, she had no reason to disobey the command. After a
few seconds, she heard the sound of a small two stroke engine fire
up and stall and fire up again and stall and fire up again and
stall. Then she heard a few muffled swear words and finally the
engine fired up and kept running. The next thing she heard was the
sound of grinding against the steel of the door. The grinding
continued for at least ten minutes until finally the door swung
open and light teemed in, momentarily dazzling Madeline’s optics. A
silhouetted figure stood in the doorway. Madeline’s mind played
cruel tricks on her, it looked like the silhouette of the one she
most want to be standing there but that was impossible, he was on
the other side of the earth.

‘Your Knight
has arrived.’

Her ears now
played tricks on her, it even sounded like Adam.

‘Didn’t have
time to put on the shining armour. Designer jeans and a T shirt had
to do.’

‘Adam?’ said
Madeline in disbelief.

‘Come on, just
admit it, you can’t do without me,’ said Adam.

Madeline ran to
him and nearly squeezed the essence out of him.

‘Steady girl,
I’m only human.’

Madeline was
overcome with emotion and wiped a tear from her eye.

‘But how… how
did you get here?’ asked Madeline.

‘Bloody long
way, I can tell you. Flew to Iceland, then to Greenland, then
Winnipeg, then I hired a car and drove over two hundred miles and
then I borrowed a stilh saw.’

‘But, but when
did you leave?’

‘Straight after
you left. Nothing else to do so I thought I’d follow.’

‘Didn’t anyone
stop you at the Canadian border?’

‘Nope, drove
straight through... How did you get here?’

‘For some
unknown reason, went the long was round. Seems they were slightly
over cautious... and I still ended up in this trap.’

‘Good old
Barton told me where you were,’ said Adam.

‘Good old
Barton,’ Madeline said quietly and appreciatively.

‘Been in here
long?’

‘Nah, couple of
days at the most, left the DVD on pause,’ said Madeline
casually.

‘Right, don’t
know about you but I’m starving,’ said Adam.

Unlike England,
all the fast food restaurants had remained open and were plentiful
even though at least half the staff were off sick with depression.
Adam chomped his way through two big Macs, large fries and an apple
pie. Madeline finished off watching episode three.

‘Everyone looks
so depressed… it’s so quiet in here,’ said Adam.

‘Soon fix
that,’ said Madeline confidently.

Madeline
pressed a few tiny buttons on her super watch - turning on the
app.

After only a
few minutes the change was astonishing. The gloom lifted, the
chatter returned, people smiled and laughed and then started asking
some pertinent questions. It was time for Madeline to step in and
say a few words.

‘Can I have
everyone’s attention? All of you have just come out of a kind of
trance. You’ve all been brainwashed. You may or may not realise it
but in nine days there will be an invasion force of nine hundred
war ships arriving on your east coast.’

The tension in
the restaurant heightened, a few wept, a few panicked but most
listened intently to Madeline.

‘Everyone with
a smart phone must download an app which blocks out the hypnotic
effect. The app is effective for about a 30 metre range. When
you’ve finished your burgers, please spread the word. Get everyone
you see to use the app. A tall order but somehow in nine days your
America has to be ready.’

‘Who the fuck,
are you to order us about,’ said a rather large burger loving slob
still finishing off a mouth full something green and slimy –
probably a gherkin.

‘Bull, Madeline
Bull, British agent,’ said Madeline proudly. ‘Got a problem with
that?’

‘Yea, I answer
to no bitch especially a fuckin Brit!’

‘Okay, fair
enough. Everybody else, make sure you’re battery is kept charged up
and that the app doesn’t get turned off,’ said Madeline calmly.

The slob, still
chomping on his burger had now made his way over to Madeline.

‘Are you
fuckin’ ignoring me? I hate it when people ignore me. I said, I
answer to no… fucking… bitch!’ said the slob.

‘My advice
mate, go and sit down whilst you still can,’ said Adam.

This was the
excuse the slob needed. In an instant, his fist landed in the
socket of Adam’s other eye – the one that wasn’t as yet, bruised.
Before Adam’s pain receptor had chance to react, Madeline used her
much smaller right fist and placed it, at some speed, on the slobs
chin. The slob fell backward, breaking a few chairs in the process
and shaking the entire building as he landed flat on his back. The
clientele cheered and instantly began downloading the app. Madeline
examined Adam’s new wounded eye - it was going to be another
shiner.

‘My poor
sweetheart, half an hour with me and you’ve got another
injury.’

‘I’m getting
quite used to it… Ow! Where to now,’ asked Adam eagerly.

‘Roseville,
perhaps you can do a better job of taking me there.’

‘No
problem!’

Adam looked in
the A to Z of Minneapolis. Roseville was on the other side of the
city.

As they climbed
into Adam’s hire car, Alf’s minibus sped past, he was driving and
it was full of his traitorous squad.

‘Change of
plan, forget Roseville, follow that minibus,’ shouted Madeline.

‘Something I
should know?’ asked Adam.

‘It’s Alf, the
man who tricked me and incarcerated me… and his bunch of apes.’

‘Incarcerated
eh, swallowed a dictionary?’

‘I can be quite
articulate if I want to be, you know… I
was
a foreign News
correspondent!’

‘Oh yes, of
course you were… I remember you saying,’ said Adam genuinely.

If Madeline had
dwelt on Adam’s reply she could have become deeply concerned but
she had other issues to think about for the moment. She thought
about Alf - she couldn’t deny that she had fancied him – but only a
little. He had trapped her cunningly in the nicest possible way
with little or no violence. For a while she had thought he was a
perfect gentleman but not now - she wanted a rematch.