Chapter Nine

Shapes.

Four blurry shapes, vaguely human in appearence were the first things Bjorn saw when he opened his eyes. As his senses cleared, the first thing he became aware of - apart from the throbbing pain in his shoulder - was that they were whispering, talking about him. He strained to catch every word, instinct telling him that, however unpleasent it was, he had to hear what was being said.

"Is he awake yet?"

" . . . think so - his eyes seem to be following . . ."

"You want us to question him?"

"Go ahead - he might know where the girl is."

-------------------------------

One of the men - who wore glasses and had a balding head - leaned closer to Bjorn, the smell of tobacco on his breath decidedly foul to the hybrid boy's sensitive nose. A heightened sense of smell was another legacy of Bjorn and Ursula's Ursaring DNA - and one of the most troublesome. Bjorn's earliest memory concerned the overwhelming odour of new plastic given off by a pedal car in the Nursery Annexe at Greenview.

He was used to it by now, but the stentch of tobacco was so overpowering that he began to cough and tried to jerk himself away. It was only then that he realised he was in something similar to a dentist's chair, his wrists and ankles restrained by leather straps.

"Hello, Bjorn," the tobacco-breath man said in a voice completely devoid of emotion.

"H - hello," Bjorn stammered back, knowing that whatever they were planning to do to him was bound to be unpleasent. He kept his eyes focussed firmly on the bare light bulb on the ceiling as the tobacco-breath man introduced himself as calmly and casually as if he was a businessman speaking to a potential client.

"My name's Kenneth Steed - I'm a Senior Agent of the OCIB," the man explained, ignoring the horrified look on Bjorn's face as he revealed his organisation's name. "And we have a few questions we'd like to ask you. First, where is your sister?"

Desperately, Bjorn told himself that, even if he knew Ursula's current whereabouts, he would not betray her. He would not condemn his own sister to the fate these agents surely had lined up for him once they had learned all they needed to know. And what would they do to Gregg or Natasha for trying to hide the Chimera Children? The thought was too terrible to contemplate and it took all Bjorn's courage for him to mumble a shaky:

"I - I don't know."

Next moment, he recoiled as Steed struck him a vicious blow round the face. "Liar!" Steed raged, towering over the captive Chimera and smug in the knowledge that, while he was restrained, Bjorn couldn't fight back with any Ursaring Attacks. Steed had three children, including a son around Bjorn's age, at home, but to his eyes there was a big difference between his fully human son and the - there was no other word for it - abomination he was interogating.

"Agent Forbes and Agent Johnson, turn him over," Steed ordered, removing a length of flexible wire from the loop on his belt. "Agent Hope, get the chair as horizontal as you can - I'm going to beat a confession out of this brat!"

--------------------------------

As she and Natasha fled for their lives through the woods bordering Pasque Village, Ursula stumbled over a trailing root. It was the last straw - weary from running non-stop for however long it had been and still reeling from the loss of her brother, she gave way to despair.

"It's no good," she sighed as Natasha hurried to help her up. "Leave me - the OCIB can do what they like with me . . ."

"Ursula, this isn't like you," Natasha protested as she tried to pull Ursula up by the arm. "You've always been so . . ."

But Ursula pulled herself away and sat silently on the ground for a few moments. When she next spoke, her normally cheerful voice sound tired and defeated, serving as clear evidence of the emotional impact the day's events had had on her.

"You're an only child, so I doubt you'd understand how strong the brother/sister bond can be," she told Natasha in a voice barely louder than a whisper. "Bjorn was . . . my whole family. We - we were rarely apart at Greenview and then, when all this happened, we came to depend on each other more and more. I - I can't go on now he's . . . he's . . ."

She broke off, unable to admit out loud what they both feared - that Bjorn was already dead or, if he was still alive, about to be killed at any moment. It was as if mentioning the possibility out loud would cause it to become an unpleasent reality.

Natasha shook her head, unable to believe that Ursula, who always seemed ready to face any challenge fate threw at her, would just give up and allow the OCIB to capture them. "Look," Natasha said at length in as firm a voice as she could muster under the circumstances, "Bjorn sacrificed himself so we could escape - d'you think he want to see you moping?"

"I - I guess not," Ursula murmured as she thought of what Bjorn might have if he had been there. He had always been a natural organiser, never happier than when there were plans to be made and instructions to give out, and would probably have . . .

No! Ursula shook her head firmly as if to banish Bjorn from her conscious thoughts - if she started dewlling on what he probably would have done, she would be doing eaxactly what Natasha had told her not to do, moping, pining for her lost brother.

-----------------------------

Noticing that the daylight was was fading fast, Ursula decided to use this as an excuse to change the subject. "I vote we set up camp for the night and decide what to do in the morning," she said. "Oh, and we'd better leave one of the Pokemon on guard - I think Phanpy would be best . . ."

Natasha agreed that this seemed a sensible idea. For such a small Pokemon, Phanpy was very strong and he should be able to see off intruders with his Rollout and Take Down Attacks. She just hoped that would be enough to keep the OCIB at bay while she and Ursula slept - neither girl wanted to face what had happened to Bjorn and nor did they want to think too much about what that might be. In any case, a new thought had suddenly struck Ursula.

"Natasha?" she ventured.

"Hmm?" Natasha replied without looking up.

"What's gonna happen about Goldenrod Gym? You haven't been back for a while."

"Good question," Natasha replied. "Actually, I'd been starting to realise there was no way I could protect you and Bjorn and continue as Gym Leader - so, a couple of nights ago, I emailed the Johto League to tender my resig . . ."

She broke off as a horrifying new thought occured to her. "Ursula!" she gasped. "What if the OCIB somehow intercepted that email? What if they traced it back to Uncle Richard's place? I didn't mention you and Bjorn by name - I just hinted at . . . Why didn't I THINK before sending it?" she cursed. "I should've known the OCIB might have set up a phone tap or something . . ."

Seeing the stricken look on Natasha's face at the thought that she might have inadvertently betrayed them, Ursula knew things were getting serious. If the OCIB were desperate enough to tap into people's phonelines and/or intercept emails that did not directly concern them, it could only mean they had resolved not to rest until they had both Chimera Children "safely" in their clutches . . .

------------------------------------

Close to collapse, Bjorn was frogmarched down a dimly lit corridor leading into the heart of the OCIB's Headquarters. Steed had spent the greater part of an hour trying to force the boy to reveal Ursula's whereabouts, but Bjorn had steadfastly refused to say anything in spite of the savage beating Steed had administered in the hope that the pain might eventually force him to talk. Right now, the lacerations on his back were starting to throb, adding to the pain from the bullet wound he had received earlier and providing Bjorn with a harsh reminder of what he was up against. Clearly, if the beating was just a prelude to what the OCIB had in store . . .

His thoughts were distracted when the guards escorting hi stopped outside a rather nondescript brown door, the entrance - Bjorn soon learned - to the windowless Holding Cell. One of th guards kept a tight hold on Bjorn to make sure he couldn't use any of his Ursaring abilities to break loose, while the other (it was Agent Hope) fumbled with a large ring of keys, trying to find the one which would unlock the room where they would hold the captive Chimera until they decided what to do with him. And, when the door finally sprang open to reveal a bare room lit by a single electric light, it was Agent Hope who seized Bjorn by the back of his shirt and hurled him forcefully into the small room.

"Get in there, hybrid!" he spat. With that, he slammed the door shut and locked it.

------------------------------------

Bjorn staggered for a few moments - the pain from his injuries made it difficult for him to walk straight - before collapsing onto a narrow metal bed. All he wanted right then was to go to sleep and remain that way forever so that the OCIB could never hurt him again - and they wouldn't be able to hurt Ursula either because there was no way Bjorn would betray her. She was his sister, the only person like him in the world, and like any brother he would sooner die himself than allow anything to happen to Ursula.

In his dazed state, Bjorn had not noticed that he had a cellmate. Richard Gregg had been sitting on a wooden chair, the only item of furniture in the room besides the bed, when Bjorn was thrust inside. Seeing the boy lying collapsed, he instinctively went over to examine him and find out the extent of his injuries.

"Bjorn!" he called, shaking him gently. "Bjorn, can you here me? It's Richard!"

Bjorn mumbled a replied, too exhausted physically and mentally to speak coherently. But it was enough for Gregg, who began his examination by asking Bjorn to take his shirt off. As Bjorn struggled with the garment, wincing in pain as he did so, Gregg immediately suspected why - and the sight of the young Chimera's back confirmed it. Welts covered his young body from the waist to the shoulders, angry red lines disfiguring the previously flawless skin and serving as a harsh reminder of what the OCIB were capable of.

"Did the OCIB do that to you?" Gregg asked, horrified at the evident brutality of the beating Bjorn had received.

Bjorn nodded, still not trusting himself to speak. He knew that he would almost certainly face further interogation, followed by death; the life of a Chimera was worthless here and the OCIB would make sure his last days were as unpleasent as possible, a testament to the contempt with which they regarded beings like him.

Sensing Bjorn's reluctance to speak of his ordeal, Gregg decided it would be best to change the subject. "What - what happened to Ursula?" he asked dreading the answer but needing to know why she hadn't been captured along with her brother.

"She escaped," Bjorn replied after gathering up the will to speak. "Natasha did too . . ." Then a thought occured to him. "That door doesn't look very strong," he observed, nodding towards the nondescript door. "And I should be able to use the Strength Attack . . ."

But Gregg shook his head solemnly. "For one thing, you're injured," he added. "And, for another . . ."

He nodded towards the security camera set high in the ceiling and recording the every move of those in the Holding Cell.