The agent did his best to comfort the young man he was guiding through the small maze of twists and turns that led to the Committee´s meeting chambers. The coloured walls of the corridor seemed to keep changing with every turn they took and the agent´s struggles to find the way seemed even more pronounced than usual, as he was still concerned for the damaged young man that was blinking confusedly in front of him.
"Where are we going?" asked Walfrid. "Why are we going to see the Committee? I thought it would be the other way around? I need answers to my questions."
The agent was doing his best to reassure the young man, although he liked seeing him disorientated like this. It reminded him of his own times as an interrogator, when he tried to keep his victim confused and in the dark. It was always harder to break someone then if they were intelligent and strong willed.
"I´m sure you have many questions, I mean, we took you from your hotel without telling you anything
He stopped at the end of a short corridor and indicated with his arm that Walfrid should follow him.
"And you walked and talked with me for the last 4 hours without telling me anything…" Walfrid explained, unsure where they were headed. "Honestly, I´m not sure how I ended up in this place. But it sure looks very nice. Thank you for showing me around."
The agent nodded and, clearing his throat, continued his explanation:
"I´ll tell you after the meeting so you can question them openly. Then you can ask them any additional questions you may have. We´ll see if you get an answer."
Walfrid´s eyes were as frantic as they had been during the interrogations he had been through when he had been suspected to have committed a crime. Perhaps it was the situation that was making him feel so anxious, but it was obviously the same shock and terror he had felt before. His paranoia got the better of him as he envisioned the worst possible reasons for their presence in this place. He tried to swallow the lump in his throat, and tried to control his breathing. It was obvious that the agent did not know anything about the reasons why they were here. Or maybe he did know and knew what to expect. Joachim did not for a moment entertain the idea of beng there voluntarily.
"Why here? What´s going on? Please drive me to a police station, now!"
None of the agents looked up from the floor. They all acted as if the young man had been invisible. But they were all listening.
"We´ll arrive at your destination in a few minutes," replied the agent in front of him. "In the meantime, please take in your surroundings. We haven´t visited this place for a long time. They asked us to come. We´re not sure why."
The colours were fading with every step they took, and the fog was getting thicker. The air seemed to get colder. Walfrid had trouble breathing, let alone seeing anything. There was something in the air that made them all very heavy. The agent in front of him seemed to be having a hard time breathing as well.
"What´s wrong with you?" asked Walfrid. "You seem… troubled."
"I´m just allergic to smoke," said the agent. The air was getting colder. Walfrid´s thoughts were becoming fuzzy. Marte would have to be his strength, if he was ever to return to the real world again.
"Smoke!" cried Walfrid. "Are we close to a fire?"
A few minutes later they were standing by the side of a large table that was glowing yellow, but the air was still very heavy. The agent and the others didn´t seem bothered by the smoke at all. Walfrid felt light headed. Everything was happening too quickly for him to process. He was still alive after all, at least, he thought that he was. He couldn´t be completely certain though, because he couldn´t inhale and couldn´t feel his lungs.
"What´s in there?" asked Walfrid. The agent shook his head in disbelief and without warning walked around the table in front of them.
"Go and sit down now," said the agent to Walfrid. "It´s easy."
"Easy?" repeated a dazed Walfrid. "You mean it´s not hard?"
"We need to do this fast," said the agent. "The Committee will arrive shortly. We´ll tell them that you´re very tired and are going to rest now."
"Feeling better?" asked the agent once they had returned to the main part of the room. Through the yellow haze Walfrid saw the agents around him, all of them still wearing suits but placing their hands on their end of the table.
"Where´s Joachim? What are you…?" Walfrid tried to ask, but he was cut off by a sharp ringing sound that filled the entire room.
The agents looked around each other. All of them were holding hands, murmuring in unison:
"We bequeath the greatest of all powers, and the most sacred part of their souls, to the Committee. As a reward, we ask they bring us together, and make us whole with the next Committee. Those who bequeath shall become the new ones, and the old faces will return."
The ringing was getting louder, and the smoke was getting thicker, while the air had gotten colder. The agents seemed startled at first but then began to smile from ear to ear
"They´ve arrived," said the agent in front of him. "Now it´s time to sit down. You´re safe here."
The agent sat down on the floor, closing his eyes. His breathing was getting heavier, and he was sweating. Walfrid watched him for a moment, but couldn´t sit down he was so scared. He had to face his fears and pray that they were coming. He took a deep breath, some of the smoke hurt his eyes. Turning to the side, they could see all the agents with their hands on their own tables, lowering them. Walfrid nodded, now that he didn´t seem to be in any immediate danger, and sat down next to the agent.
"Sit down before the smoke gets too thick," urged the agent.
Walfrid did, and closed his eyes as well. He held his hand over his mouth, his eyes watering. He was breathless, and he tried to calm down as much as he could. It was then that he heard it.
The closest object to him began to vibrate ever so slightly, as if it were breathing. The vibrations grew stronger and stronger, until Walfrid could feel the table moving. Then there was silence, literally. The floor was shaking underneath his feet. His skin vibrated and he could feel waves of heat being produced all around him. He became wrapped up in that heat, and then the air was blowing right at him, as if it were raining. The agents all around him looked terrified as smoke filled the room.
It was then that Walfrid realised that the agent with him was still holding his hand. The smoke was getting thicker and the floor was still shaking. They were sitting still and not moving at all, feeling the air rise and fall with the vibrations. The noise of the ringing had stopped. Then the agent pulled away from the table, as one of the walls fell, free from the rest of the wall.
A giant hand reached out of the missing wall and pulled them out of the room. It was then that Walfrid saw. His eyes were wide, and he was genuinely scared. He was finally in the nervous. He was seeing the Committee in person. He was going to be meeting God, and he had only been thinking about Marte for the past few minutes. He wanted her to be with him. He truly did. But now faced with the realisation of his fate, he could all of a sudden see every single face that he had ever known. He saw his parents´ faces, and the faces of all the people he had ever met. Each one of them looked different, but it was them. He tried to stop himself from screaming. He didn´t want to wake Marte up. He didn´t want to know her fate. But he lost control of his vocal cords and he couldn´t take his eyes off them.committee´s faces. He saw their expressions. They were sad ones, all of them. The face on the left was smiling now, but it didn´t belong to him anymore, it belonged to the Committee. Walfrid had realised who they were after the epic journey he had taken. He had to ask them. But now that he saw them he could not. He couldn´t speak. He stared at them, and he started to cry, but the Committee said nothing. They were too busy looking at him, as if he were the only one there. Their faces grew more and more sad, and then they were smiling again. It was then that they turned to the agent and the others sitting on the floor and began to speak.
Walfrid was speechless. He could not believe what he was seeing. His trembling hand raised towards that Committee, more nervous than he had ever been in his life. They smiled at him kindly, and his hand reached out to them. The vibration got louder, and the floor started to shake violently. All of the other walls fell apart.
[pic](https://www.thestatesman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/isi.jpg)
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