It was Vulay and Morgan’s last morning in Adoy. They were to be transferred to the rehabilitation facility in the Cellrebrum Region. It was eighteen hours of travel by train. Vulay and Denise were sitting next to each other on a mattress, facing Orcille, who was lying on his back.
‘This is it, guys. They’ll be taking me away soon,’ said Vulay.
Denise rested her head on Vulay’s shoulder. ‘I’m really going to miss you,’ said Denise to Vulay.
‘I’ll be back before you know it,’ replied Vulay as she pressed her cheek on the top of Denise’s head.
‘Yeah, you better be,’ replied Denise with a giggle.
‘Anyway, you have Orcille to keep you company,’ said Vulay.
‘How will I tolerate him when you are gone?’ asked Denise.
‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,’ exclaimed Vulay.
‘Hey Denise, you should forget Darius. Vulay is your perfect soulmate,’ called out Orcille.
‘I think I’m going to be more focused on surviving than thinking about soulmates,’ replied Denise.
‘You will come out of this stronger than ever,’ said Vulay. ‘Besides, if things go well with your rehabilitation, you might be able to appeal for early release. Not everyone here’s bad.’
Arville approached the cell. ‘Well, they can’t be worse than this fucker,’ said Denise.
‘You’ll be surprised,’ replied Orcille.
Arville opened the cell, pretending not to hear Denise’s comment. ‘Your transport has arrived,’ Arville said with a smile as he handcuffed Vulay and escorted her down the corridor. ‘You’re going somewhere really nice,’ said Arville with a smile on his face.
‘Anywhere you’re not has to be an improvement,’ replied Vulay.
‘I find that deeply offensive. I have so much love and respect for you,’ said Arville in a sarcastic tone.
They exited the Enforcer Headquarters. They got in a vehicle. Arville drove Vulay to the train station. He then escorted her to a carriage at the back of the train.
‘This is your ride,’ he said as he opened the door. He looked inside with astonishment. ‘This is actually quite nice.’ He gave Vulay a hard shove into the carriage and then closed the door behind her.
Morgan was already in the carriage. He was helping himself to a stack of pancakes with tropical fruit and ice cream. ‘We get to eat breakfast as we travel,’ said Morgan with his mouth half full.
‘Looks like you might clean up before we even start,’ said Vulay in a cheeky tone.
She had a look at the selection of food. She put a few pastries on her plate. She joined Morgan at the table. An announcement that the train was departing was made over the train’s public address system.
‘Did you share a cell with Denise?’ asked Morgan.
‘Yeah, I did,’ replied Vulay.
‘How is she doing?’ asked Morgan.
‘She’s doing fine. She’s a lot tougher than she looks,’ replied Vulay.
‘I screwed up big time,’ said Morgan.
‘Let me guess, Arville told you that if you took the blame for everything, they would let Denise go,’ said Vulay.
‘Something like that,’ replied Morgan sheepishly.
‘Looks like none of you were involved,’ said Vulay thoughtfully. ‘Orcille lied, but he won’t say why. There is something strange about the kidnapped girls.’
‘When I was waiting in the interrogation room, I heard Orcille confront the girls’ parents,’ said Morgan. ‘He claimed they were imposters. How could their parents not recognise their own children?’
‘Maybe the parents and the girls are imposters,’ replied Vulay.
‘That would mean the girls are still missing, and now the parents as well,’ stated Morgan.
‘I know it sounds unlikely, but I can’t think of a better explanation at this point,’ said Vulay.
After eating the pastries, Vulay looked around the carriage. It was nicely decorated. Besides the dining area, it had its own lounge with two large sofas and a coffee table. It had two large beds. It had its own bathroom and changing area. It even had a large hot tub. It had two small wardrobes with clothes that appeared to be selected for Vulay and Morgan.
‘Why would they put us in this luxury carriage?’ asked Vulay as she continued to look around.
The door to the connecting carriage was unlocked. A train attendant and an enforcer came in. ‘I hope you enjoyed the food,’ said the attendant.
‘It was great,’ responded Morgan.
‘Lunch will be served at 1 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m.,’ said the attendant. ‘Is there anything I can do for you?’
‘Yeah, you could get this hot tub bubbling. I could do with some relaxation. I’ve had an uncomfortable week,’ said Morgan jokingly.
‘Not a problem, sir,’ replied the train attendant. The enforcer frowned but did not say anything. Vulay thought the request was amusing.
Morgan and Vulay had changed into the bathing suits they were provided and were sipping mango juice in the hot tub together.
‘I could get used to this,’ said Morgan.
‘It’s not going to last. We will be getting off in fourteen hours,’ responded Vulay. ‘I doubt our new accommodation will be this good.’
‘This is all probably just some form of mind game,’ said Morgan.
‘They might have booked the wrong carriage and didn’t have time to change it,’ said Vulay.
The two chatted away in the hot tub until lunch. The enforcer came in and told them to get out of the hot tub. He then handcuffed both Morgan and Vulay as the attendants removed the leftovers from breakfast and replaced them with lunch. Once they had laid out the lunch, the attendants left. The enforcer uncuffed them and left as well.
Morgan and Vulay dried themselves off. They went over to the table to select what they wanted for lunch. They spent the afternoon in the lounge discussing their theories about the girls, Orcille, and what they thought was going to happen next. Dinner arrived at 7 p.m., as advertised. They sat down together to enjoy another delicious meal. After dinner, they went to bed to get some sleep, as they knew the next day would start early.
At 3 a.m., the train stopped at the Cellrebrum Region station. The train door opened. Four enforcers entered. They rushed Morgan and Vulay off the train. They ushered them into the back of an enforcer vehicle.
A few minutes later, they arrived at the rehabilitation centre. The enforcers took them to a large holding cell. This holding cell was more comfortable than the one in Adoy. It had two small beds. It had two toilets, one at each end, and they both had privacy screens.
‘You two will wait here until the rehabilitation officers arrive,’ said an enforcer before he locked the door behind him.
‘I’m going back to sleep,’ said Morgan as he got into one of the beds.
Vulay sat at the end of the other bed. She did not feel like sleeping. She felt very confused. Nothing was happening as she had expected or as she had been trained for in her many years as an enforcer.
