Busted!

Sometime later, she had put her clothes back on and stood in front of her whiteboard, trying to explain something. "Okay, let us for the moment assume that you are neither lying nor crazy." She began, with an undertone in her voice that told John she was not sure of either of those conditions. "In theory" Rose emphasized, "There could be a parallel universe to this one with one, or even a couple of minor or major details changed."

John nodded, so far so good. "Even more hypothetically, if he somehow had access to this universe and could somehow construct a gateway of sorts between them it might be possible to transfer objects, or even people from one to the other. BUT" she began as Tanya was about to speak up ".. not only are the equations I formulated for all of this very much theoretical work, the sheer amount of energy to even open this portal for, let's say a second would require the energy of several nuclear bombs, it could never work for real!"

From somewhere behind them, John could hear a slow clapping sound. He had no idea why, but it made him chill to the bones. A silky, and yet still somehow cold voice cut through the sudden silence "Good, Rose. Very good. You have always been a clever one, that is why I hired you." All three of them turned their heads. "Oh no..." Tanya mumbled "Fucking shit...." Rose said. John did not have a good feeling about this.

He was looking at a woman dressed in clothes as whiter as her hair, except for some very few purple details on her dress. Her eyes and nails were purple as well. Her age was hard to guess. Her hair being so white, she looked old, but on the other hand, she had very few wrinkles. She could be anything between 30 and 60. She sat in a chair in the corner of the room and shot a cold smile at them.

"Have either one of you two actually been so naive as to think I would not realize that you are hiding this man in MY laboratories?" She shot at the two women. Her silent calm voice cut the room much more than an angry scream ever could have. Tanya was the first to speak after this "President Brown, I am terribly sorry, you see I just could not pass on the opportunity to do a closer examination with an actual living specimen in my lab and..."

But President Brown sharply cut her off "Tanya, please do not insult my intelligence. I JUST told you that I see everything going on in my labs, did I not? And I have seen that the one thing you did not do with that man is an examination." Tanya seemed **** now "But.. But I just..."

The shocking thing however was Roses voice as she said "Don't bother Tanya. It's too late." There was something so utterly resigned in that voice, something deeply disappointed, thoroughly defeated. "She will not let us go again" President Brown gave a short high pitched laugh "Well, as I said, you have always been clever, I will give you that. Of course, I will not. You know too much. I mean, you don't know half of it, but still... too much."

John, who had watched silently up until this point, stood up and spread out his arms in a calming gesture "Maybe... maybe we should all take a deep breath and... I mean this is all really insane, isn't it?" President Brown looked up at him with an acid smile "No worries, YOU will be fine. We cannot afford to lose you after all."

Why did this not make him feel any better? "Hey, lady, Brown or what was it? I will not pretend like I understand what is going on here, but I will not let you just take these two away and kill them or let them rot in a cell or something." Tanya and Rose both gasped in pure shock. Not, as John first thought a happy surprised sound that he tried to protect them. No, pure unfiltered horror.

President Brown just laughed that annoying laugh again "Oh relax, will you? Of course, I will do neither of these things." In a somewhat softer voice she turned to the two scientists "Girls please. Really I will not. You see, he comes from a place where physical ****, even killing is not a thing of the ancient past, like it is in our world."

Her next sentence sounded much more businesslike again "I will simply wipe their memories of the last day. Or maybe two, just to be safe." John gulped "That is... well it IS better I guess, but still WHY?" Neither Tanya nor Rose looked exactly eager to have their memories taken from them.

"Why? Come on do I really have to tell you that information like this, incomplete as it may be, can lead to nationwide unrest? Where are the men coming from, President Brown? Why can't you get us more of them, President Brown? You know I cannot let this get out."