Return to Wardate by Bill Cornwell

no effect. All I’m asking is that you both sit
quietly for five minutes and then lock me up, if you still want
to.’
    ‘Lock you up!
I’ll have you dismantled for this!’ steamed Nuttall.
    ‘Think back to
the last time when you shot me. Can you remember why you did it?’
asked Madeline.
    ‘What’s that
got to do with anything!’ yelled Nuttall.
    ‘Think!’ said
Madeline sternly, waving her laser finger at him menacingly.
    ‘We were all
brainwashed to hate you,’ said Nuttall irritably.
    ‘Precisely!
Everyone is now been brainwashed to hate the Americans,’ said
Madeline.
    ‘Utter bloody
clap trap!’ said Adam aggressively. ‘The Americans are all putrid
scum. We don’t need to be brainwashed to know that.’
    It was
pointless for Madeline to say much more so she didn’t. Nuttall and
Adam continued to scream, threaten, spit and swear at her. She
ignored them. Five minutes passed – she didn’t have to argue
anymore.
    ‘What… the hell
are we doing?’ asked Nuttall.
    The effects had
worn off.
    ‘Oh my God –
we’re waging war on the American’s,’ said Adam.
    ‘Finally, took
you long enough,’ said Madeline calmly as she finished off a beef
and potato dinner through her mouth tube.
    ‘It’s that Mark
Titoo, whoever he is. He’s turned the world against the US with his
ultrasound. Every one has to be told,’ said Nuttall in a state of
panic. ‘I have to warn everybody.’
    ‘You can’t do
anything. You can’t leave this room or you’ll revert back to hating
the Americans again,’ said Madeline.
    ‘So what do we
do?’ whimpered Nuttall.
    ‘We need those
ear devices, Coley was wearing,’ said Madeline.
    ‘Good thinking
– I’ll be immune from the conditioning – I’ll inform the Prime
Minister,’ said Nuttall mildly hysterical.
    ‘No, not for
you, for Adam, we have things to do. You’ll have to stay down here
until we get another set of ear devices. Isn’t there anyway of
communicating with the outside world from down here?’ asked
Madeline.
    ‘I thought
you’d never ask.’
    Nuttall reached
into his pocket, took out a small remote fob and pressed one of the
buttons on it. Immediately the whole of the back wall began to
move. The wall parted in the middle and moved outwards revealing an
entire wall equipped with the most elaborate communications set up
ever seen.
    ‘Impressive eh?
I can communicate with the whole world from here - control
satellites, even communicate with all Vanguard and Astute class
submarines.’
    ‘Not much point
though, no one’s going to listen to you,’ said Adam holding his
head. Apart from slight brain ache and a nasty taste in his mouth,
the fart gas effects had all but passed.
    ‘With us now
are you pet?’ said Madeline affectionately.
    ‘You bloody
farted on me!’
    ‘What else
could I do?’
    ‘I’ll get back
to looking into this Mark Titoo chap,’ said Nuttall doing his best
to restore his credibility.
    ‘Coley’s ear
devices, where are they?’ Madeline reminded him.
    ‘They’re in the
lab. I’ll send someone down with them.’
    ‘No, I’ll get
them! Don’t be tempted to leave the ‘V’ room either of you!’ said
Madeline as firmly as she could.
    ‘Try not to
kill anyone,’ said Nuttall and Adam together in retaliation of her
bossiness.
     
    As Madeline
ascended in the lift, she wearily listened for the ultrasound but
there was only silence. Clearly the noise cancelling bandpass
filter was working effectively. Madeline was fully aware that
everyone she encountered would be behaving irrationally with
unjustifiable hatred towards the USA. It was a very strange world
indeed. Any one with even the slightest American accent had already
been beaten up, had their head shaved and now wore a placard around
their neck saying: I hate the USA. It really was becoming a
frightening world but everyone apart from Madeline, Adam, Nuttall
and Barton seemed to be happily unaware of it.
    Nuttall had
given her directions but lacking a