Chapter 22


Barbara had sat through plenty of training in the past. Of course, that was back when the Rangers actually had real instructors. She remembered one particular medical seminar that talked about the stages of death. It was not of the biological sort, of course, it was about what a persons mind goes through when the end is looking near. Considering that the blade was only swinging inches over her waste, at the moment, Barbara was pretty sure her own end was a certainty. She was now also sure she had been going through all of those phases as well.

On the surface, Barbara was still gritting her teeth, snorting, and calling the instrument of her demise a few choice words. She began wondering why, even with death only a few chops away, that she was bothering to lie to herself anymore? They were lies too. Barbara had told herself, for years, that it was not the case. She even knew, deep down, that had been a lie as well. Why pretend now?

With all of her strength she tried pulling against all four clamps. As they had before, they stayed right where they were and, by extension, so did Barbara. She lifted her neck and took a good look at the blade as it passed right over her. She flinched when she saw the distance or, really, the lack thereof. When Barbara dropped her head she felt a tear roll out of her eye. Her voice crackled in emotional pain when she sobbed out, “I’m so sorry Shannon. I’m so sorry baby.”

She closed her eyes and even that did not help. She could hear it swinging and feel the rush of air as it passed her again. Then she heard a voice that sounded a bit annoyed and very familiar, “you know that ruined a perfectly good jacket, ass hole!”

The voice that responded was definitely that of Roger, “I’m so sorry Jake. I’ll have to do better next time.”

Barbara’s eyes popped wide open and her head snapped up. She saw Jake walking out of one of the side tunnels. He was pulling off what was left a windbreaker and tossing it to the floor. Barbara yelled in panic, “BARTON!” Then she realized how that must have sounded. She tempered herself and told him, “um, I’m having a little problem here.”

“Yeah Barbara,” Jake told her as he took a step, “I can see that.”

Roger, who’s voice seemingly came from every where, and nowhere, replied, “not so fast Jake.”

Jake’s first foot step in the direction of the platform almost made him fall. That was because the floor beneath his feet began to rapidly recede into the wall. Jake backed up to the tunnel and watched as the pit in front of him grew into a ring around the platform. It was pretty deep and, if Jake didn’t know any better, the bottom was lined with spikes.

Still annoyed, Jake told the air, “oh Christ, did Roger have to see every movie that guy made?”

The voice replied, “I have a very extensive library.”

Now that Roger was talking, Barbara tried to reason with him, “you don’t have to do this Roger. I’m sure we can work this out.” The blade swung down once again and Barbara gulped at the slit that it left in her shirt. She gave up on reasoning and went right to the begging phase, “please! Roger! There’s nobody to take care of Shannon! Oh god! No matter how mad you are at me you always loved her!”

“Give it up Barbara,” Jake told her from across the room. When she looked to the sound of his voice, he looked like a kid trying to climb on play ground bars, only, without the bars. Jake was scaling the wall and trying to climb up the tower shaft. The only thing beneath him was that pit.

The blade swung in her line of vision and Barbara could see her own face reflecting in it’s polished surface. She looked back down and saw that her shirt was ripped even wider this time. Barbara began huffing and repeating, “oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.” She took in a deep breath when it swept back down from the opposite direction. She watched it as it almost slid right over her skin.

All the while, Jake was grunting as he climbed. He also managed to tell her, “that’s not Roger. Arguing with it isn’t going to do you any good.”

“Oh don’t listen to him,” the computer replied. “You know who I am Barbara.” Then it changed tone and said, “Jake, whatever do you think you’re doing?”

Suddenly Barbara wondered that herself. At first she had just figured that Jake Barton was being Jake Barton. He did a lot of stupid things. She certainly had not really thought of him as a rescue when she first saw him. Her estimations of his abilities were just not that high. Besides, Barbara had finally figured out how Pendleton had trapped her here. There was a padlock, and a pretty thick one at that , down on the bar that held her feet. The bars, that held her arms in place, seemed be interlocked under the platform, so, unless Jake had the key, she wasn’t going anywhere.

Unfortunately, the pendulum blade was going somewhere and that was right at Barbara. It looked pretty big and heavy and there was no way Jake was going to stop that thing without killing himself in the process. All of this was assuming, of course, that Jake could even reach her. Since the floor slid back that was impossible. Special Forces guy or not, nobody could jump that distance.

Barbara started to cry and now, she really did not care who saw her. She decided to put her last moments to the best use that she could, “Jake! Please tell Shannon I love her. Please!” Barbara felt a stinging sensation and her body tensed up. She screamed in fear and then looked in utter shock at the little cut on her belly. She then looked up to where the blade was reaching the high point of it’s arc. She heard the gears grind and could even see the pendulum’s arm grow longer as neared the wall.

The voice of Roger gleefully called out in joy, “I think this is it Barbara.”

Barbara yelled, “oh my god! You are not! NO! NO! NO!”