A Katie Ryan Spin off Adventure: "THE SYCRANOX COMPLEX"

Ok folks, here is part 2:

Part 2: Katie in Danger

Katie and Adam Wooten walked into the Sycronox Foundation building, followed by Sebastian, and up to the reception desk where a young man was sat, smiling rather vacuously.
"Can I help?" he asked Katie and Adam. Katie frowned:
"Yes, I'm Katie Ryan and this is Adam Wooten. We need to sign in and be shown to our room."
The young man looked at a list of names, ticked them off then picked up the phone:
"Er Mrs Helson, we've two new arrivals, Miss Ryan and Mr Wooten". He put down the phone and smiled vacuously:
"The Manager is just coming". Katie shot him an icy stare:
"Look we don't want the Manager just to be shown to our room you idiot."
As she spoke a plump, middle aged woman with glasses came down the central stairs . She smiled:
"Oh hello Miss Ryan and Mr Wooten. Welcome to the Sycronox Foundation. I am the Manager, Olivia Helson. We hope you find enrichment and development here. *Handing out a Form* Here is our evaluation form which I hope you will fill in after your course is complete. Now please surrender your mobile phones as we have a no phone policy here". Katie shot her an angry stare:
"No way. You are not having my phone. Got that?" Mrs Helson looked sternly at her:
"Miss Ryan you will do as I say or I will phone your employers and tell them you are refusing to comply".
Katie and Adam handed over their phones with surly stares at Miss Helson, who handed the phones to the smiling youth at reception.
*Noticing Sebastian* "I'm afraid we don't allow pets in here as it contravenes our equal opportunities policy with regard to allergy sufferers."
Sebastian scowled and proceeded to urinate up Mrs Helson's leg. She jumped away:
"This is irregular".
Sebastian chuckled to himself and Katie frowned:
"Look if you like I'll shove the cat back in the boot of my car so it dies of thirst. Otherwise it stays with us. I want a litter tray in our room and your staff to clean it. I didn't ask to be on this stupid course and neither did Adam. Now give us our room key".
Mrs Helson looked anguished:
"Miss Ryan, please refrain from adopting a passive aggressive tone. It is triggering me. We will allow the cat as long as it stays in your room away from those with anxiety, allergies and Feline Aversion Syndrome. I must tell you that you will not be sharing a room. Here at the Foundation we separate couples and pair them with buddying enrichment partners for the duration of the course."
"With what?" Katie said aghast. Mrs Helson smiled:
"We seek to build bridges and foster understanding. We have a full account of your misdemeanours and seek to correct them via interpersonal enrichment."
Adam interjected:
"But you don't understand. I want to get Katie upstairs and into bed".
Mrs Helson laughed:
"They'll be none of that here. Now come with me."

Mrs Helson showed them into the lounge where a young black guy sat chatting to an Asian girl of about 21.
"Katie, this is Nathan, I've paired you with him. Adam, you will buddy with Asha."
Katie scowled:
"Look Mrs whatever your name is, I'm not here to make new friends, I'm here to attend some boring do-gooder course and mitigate against the awfulness of it by enjoying myself with the gorgeous Adam here. Got it?"
Mrs Helson frowned:
"Miss Ryan I am in charge here not you. Adam and Asha, come with me please. Nathan and Katie, you stay here and talk to each other."
She led Adam and Asha away as Adam shook his head with bewilderment.
Katie sat next to Nathan and there was ten minutes of awkward silence. Sebastian went to sleep on the rug. Eventually Katie spoke:
"So are you part of some East End knife gang or something?" Nathan looked up rather vacantly:
"Er no. I'm an accountant actually. Extremely good at it too or they'd have sacked me instead of sending me on this waste of time course thing." Katie frowned:
"So what did you do?"
"Called the boss a silly cow who couldn't run a corner shop let alone an accountancy firm. Must be why they've stuck me with a woman. I tell you one thing though, there's something weird about this place."
"What do you mean by that?", Katie asked, bemused.
"I've been here three days now. When I arrived there was another black guy here who was not holding back. Gave Helson both barrels about how this was a waste of his time and how she could grass him up to his boss for all he cared. Next time I saw him he was sat in here like a zombie. Virtually comatose. Then he disappeared. Saw it happen to a woman as well."
"You think they're drugging people?"
"Dunno. But there's a funny feel about the place. Too many vacuous smiling staff with ¤¤¤¤ for brains to ring true in a training centre. Rumours of screams heard at night......"

Meanwhile Adam and Asha were shown into a seminar room with a whiteboard and some coloured pens. Mrs Helson smiled:
"Now I want you two to pool ideas and write ten different ideas for how people can communicate with each other peacefully on the board. I need to attend to another matter."
She left the room and Asha sighed:
"This is just pathetic. A boring lecture would be better than just leaving us here to come up with rubbish ideas". As she spoke, an anguished young man burst into the room:
"You've got to help me. They're trying to kill me, kill us all. Turn us into machines..."
As he spoke, two male staff members in white overalls came in and grabbed the man. They smiled vacantly:
"We apologise for the disturbance. Paul here has mental health problems. Don't worry we will take him to our learning support wing". Paul started shouting:
"They're lying..."
He was dragged outside and Adam and Asha heard what sounded like punches and kicks....

.... to be continued.

Part 4 : Waves of Deception

Katie glared angrily at the elderly German in the white coat:

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing to those people?" she demanded. The man grinned:
"Do not be so strident my dear. Ve are not harming these patients. They are in therapy for personality disorders. Zis area is out of bounds and you should not be here."
"Oh come of it Fritz, they look like they're being brainwashed. What the hell are you doing to them and who are you?", Katie retorted. The man frowned:
"My name is not Fritz young lady, it is Dr Wolfgang Starr and zis is my therapy floor. You are trespassing and you vill both be removed. *to his assistants* Take them to zie conflict resolution room and if zey resist give zem zie Neukoln kiss."
Katie and Nathan were frogmarched back into the lift. Inside two of them punched and kicked Nathan:
"Hey what you doing?" he shouted. The men laughed:
"You were resisting", one of them replied and they all laughed. Downstairs they were marched into a room with padded walls and no furniture, where they saw Adam, Asha and Paul sitting on the floor. The door was slammed shut. The room was completely white except for a large LED TV screen built into one of the walls and a narrow window which was situated at the top of a wall and open.
"There's no way any of us could squeeze out of that window", Adam said with a sigh.
"What the hell is going on here? Adam?" Katie asked. Adam shrugged:
"We were thrown in here for asking for out phones back. We stopped this guy from being beaten up by the staff."
Katie frowned:
"And we have just discovered a top floor laboratory where some old German bloke has people wired up to machines".
"The grey angel....." Paul muttered.
Katie knelt down to him and shouted:
"What the hell does that mean? Come on tell us all you know now!"
Paul turned to the wall and started to weep:
"They're trying to steal our minds.. steal our will and implant their own. Two of my friends from the office were sent here and they came back as different people. They look the same but they were different people. So I got myself sent here to find out the truth. The grey angel is the real head of this place. They tried to destroy my mind with that machine but they could not break my will."
Asha put her hand on his shoulder:
"Where did you work? I mean what office?"
"For the Bank of England in London", Paul replied.

They sat in silence for some time but eventually Katie jumped to her feet:
"Look I'm not just sitting here waiting for these bastards to decide when to let us out", she shouted.
"I agree", Nathan stated, jumping to his feet and punching and kicking the door:
"Let us out **** faces. You hear me motherfuckers?"
Adam sighed:
"I'd save your breath and your energy If I were you", he stated languidly. Katie frowned:
"Stop being negative Adam."
"I'm simply a realist", he replied with a resigned grin. As he spoke a shape appeared in the window, squeezed through and jumped down. It was Sebastian who dropped a metallic object out of his mouth.
"Hey its a cat and its dropped a key or something," Nathan shouted. Katie grinned:
"This Nathan is Sebastian and he is no ordinary cat. He's ten times more annoying but can be very useful." Sebastian growled. Asha picked up the key:
"Surely this can't be the key to this door... could it... how could a cat know...."
Katie flicked back her golden hair:
"Don't ask just enjoy the moment". Katie snatched the key from Asha and unlocked the door.

They crept quietly down the corridor, searching for a way back to the reception area. As they explored they saw a door with 'Manager' on it.
"Hey, this is Olivia Helson's office. Lets go in and explore", Adam suggested.
They quietly opened the door and went inside. Helson wasn't there and they saw a large desk and shelves full of files. There were several filing cabinets and another door."
"She could be in there", Nathan whispered, but Katie strode towards in and pulled the door open forcefully, looking inside.
"No its just her personal bog. Lucky bitch, I never had one at Operation Delta."
"You know you've made it when you have your own personal shithouse", Nathan said laughing.
"I'm feeling anxious. Can we get out of here", Paul asked, physically shaking. Katie glared at him:
"Oh pull yourself together you great big wuss. Come on lets search around the paperwork.
They fished around the papers on Helson's desk while Asha examined her laptop. Nathan forced open one of the locked metal filing cabinets. He pulled out some of the files.
"There's lots of correspondence here from some organisation called S.M.A.G", Nathan stated, flicking through the papers. Asha had found the laptop was unlocked and was going through Helson's documents:
"Hey these are files on all the clients. Personal stuff about their families, backgrounds, jobs... hey there's one for you Katie".
Katie reacted with fury, striding over to the desk but as she did so the door flew open and in walked Helson with two armed assistants.
"I see you have made yourselves at home in here, invading my personal space."
"What the hell is going on here Helson, what is S.M.A.G, who's that creepy German and why are you keeping files on us", Katie demanded. Helson frowned:
"You ask too many questions. It is time you underwent corrective therapy Miss Ryan", she calmly stated.

.........to be continued.

Ok folks, here is part 6 of this Katie Ryan adventure:

Part 6: Escape Into Mystery

As Dr Wolfgang Starr flicked the master switch, Sebastian ran into the room and leapt onto a desk and then onto Starr's face, clawing and biting. As Starr yelled out in pain, Nathan tore himself free of the straps holding him down, ripping them out of the side of the chair, which could not hold such a muscular young man. He flicked the switch off, punched Klaus hard on the nose and then quickly freed the others while Helson ran out of the room. The two armed guards had left earlier when the group had been strapped into their seats.
"Hey she'll have gone to fetch help from those two security goons, we'd better get out of here fast", Adam exclaimed. Katie straightened her hair:
"That headset has messed with my hair. That crosses a ****ing line, it really does. *Picking up the bottle of cognac* I'm not letting this go to waste. Adam, bring Sebastian. All of you follow me!"
Katie strode angrily out of the room, a look of icy determination on her face. They ran down the corridor towards the lift.
"Hey if we go in the lift they may like know where we're going", Asha exclaimed.
"Good thinking, it may be monitored. To the stairs now", Katie shouted.
They ran down what seemed like endless flights of stairs until they came to the ground floor and saw more stairs and a sign: "Staff only Beyond This Point".
"I guess we're about to become staff", Nathan said with a grin and they all ran down the further flight of stairs, finding a locked door at the bottom. Nathan kicked it open and they found themselves in a large, damp smelling room full of boxes, crates and bits of machinery which they could hardly make out in the dim light until Asha found the light switch. Dim, long office lights flickered on and Katie looked around:
"Looks like some kind of basement store room. Nathan and Adam, shift some of those crates and use them to block the door. *Looking at the bottle of cognac* I could damn well do with a drink now but I refuse to drink fine cognac straight from the bottle like some slattern off an estate".
Asha grinned and lifted a glass out of her jacket pocket:
"Crisis over, I like pinched Starr's glass as we were escaping".
Katie grinned and they shared a large glass of cognac while Adam and Nathan blocked the door.

Later the group sat round in the dim light and after several glasses each of cognac began to loosen up and socialise. Katie was chatting to Nathan:
"So do you think you'll go back to that accountancy firm when we get out of all this? There's no way I'm just going back to Operation Delta without a big fat apology from Corinne 'sour tits' Shaw, the so called Equality and Diversity officer. They'll be useless without me."
Nathan grinned:
"Yeah I'll probably go back for a bit until I find another job. I'm not staying there though working for a dumb boss who couldn't make the right decisions if her life lay on it. I shouldn't have called her a silly cow but it sure felt good. You never told me what you did to get sent here."
Katie sipped the cognac and flicked back her golden hair:
"Nothing much. I was accused of racism just because I used the word beginning with 'w' in a case meeting about an unreliable witness who was clearly off his face on weed or crack. He was a druggie and making the whole thing up about seeing UFOs. Operation Delta is a government funded agency which investigates unexplained phenomena."
Nathan stared at her:
"Er right. So you're here telling a black guy that using that word is nothing much? Seriously?"
Katie frowned:
"Don't tell me you're one of those with a chip on your shoulder".
"No, I'm one of those who thinks we need to stand up and challenge being treated as second class. You realise that as a black man I'm 40 times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police than a white guy? Just because of racial profiling."
Katie tutted:
"Well look, it must be because you lot commit more crimes than us. Why else would the police stop you?"
Nathan gasped:
"Are you serious? I've never committed a crime in my life, knowingly. Yet you assume that I have a greater capacity to do so. That is racial profiling. Do you accept that you've just leapt to a wrong assumption?"
Katie went quiet for several minutes.
"Look you seem a regular guy. I don't want to annoy you. I'm sorry."
Nathan sighed:
"Doesn't help the situation with the police though does it."
Katie flicked her hair to the side:
"Well its all that rap music you listen to then. Creates the wrong impression with all that stuff about smackin' your bitch up and so on."
Nathan rolled his eyes:
"What the hell are you on about woman. I don't even like rap music. I listen to mainly classical. Even if I did you can't dismiss a whole genre of music based on one phrase. Would be like me dismissing the whole genre of folk music as old, beardy guys with a finger in their ear singing 'Fol der ol day". Rap artists have lots to say about social issues."
Katie scowled:
"Oh God, not social issues. And folk music is mainly old beardy men singing protest songs and other nonsense. Who wants to listen to social issues? I'd rather stab my eyes out with a needle."
"So what's your favourite song then? Come on." Nathan asked.
"Material Girl" by Madonna, Katie said proudly.
"What and you don't think that has anything to say socially? Does it not reflect a certain view of life?"
Katie frowned:
"You are just being argumentative".

Meanwhile Asha was sat in a corner finishing off the bottle and chatting to Adam:
"Well I don't mind swigging from the bottle even if your friend doesn't. Are you two like together? Don't take offence but she seems like a bit of a stuck up cow."
Adam grinned:
"She's a very sexy stuck up cow. So yes we are together. But I don't mind the occasional side order if you catch my drift *staring into Asha's eyes*.
Asha glared at him:
"And does Katie know about you're 'side orders'? You sound like a bit of a creep and frankly you're not my type either."
Adam looked hurt:
"Well most babes seem to think I'm their type; tall, dark, handsome and cool."
Asha stared at the bottle of cognac:
"Sorry but I'd add vain and dim to that list and they are like complete turn offs as far as this 'babe' is concerned."
They sat in silence for some time before Adam looked up:
"Hey look, I think we've got off on the wrong foot here. Let's try again. What were you sent to this place for?"
Asha finished the last of the cognac:
"I slapped my boss and called him a useless waste of space with no balls and no guts who lets his monster of a wife walk all over him."
Adam laughed:
"Crikey, and you weren't sacked for that?" Asha frowned:
"Well he's not just my boss, he's also my dad. He owns a small chain of clothes shops and its probably like going to go to the wall because of that bitch of a second wife of his bleeding him dry. She keeps making him fork out for all of her daughters from her first marriage to have posh hindu weddings; no expense spared while I like get nothing. The business is collapsing and I do all the ordering of stock and finances. My brother doesn't care as he's a dope head living in London somewhere."
Adam stared at her:
"So why don't you leave. Get yourself a proper job?
Asha glared at him:
"Because that business should be mine eventually , I do all the work and I'm not like giving up because of that bitch having my dad wrapped around her ****ing finger".
"Ok calm down. Jeez, I'd hate to see you when you really are angry."

As the group chatted and bonded, Sebastian clawed at one of the boxes, sniffing and letting out the occasional meow. Eventually he clawed the top flap open on one and began pulling out strange, metallic objects with his mouth. Katie noticed this and stood up:
"Look, enough of the naval gazing. Let's see what is in these boxes."
She walked over to the box Sebastian had opened and examined the objects.
"Hey these objects I've just found. I recognise them."
Sebastian lifted a paw and pointed to himself angrily. Realising he wasn't about to receive any credit from Katie, he pushed his body against the box so that it toppled off the table it had been on and onto Katie's foot, who gave out a yell. Sebastian chuckled.
The others stood up and examined the objects which had spilled out onto the floor.
"Hey I've never seen metal like this before", Nathan stated.
Katie frowned:
"That's because this is not from earth. I've seen this stuff before. Its part of an alien craft found in the Yorkshire Dales in 1972. It should be in the Operation Delta archive. So why is it here? Why has Helson got her hands on our archive?"

................to be continued.