The Watch – Part 38:

Sebastian just smiled for a third time, taking in my surprised expression with all its glory.

‘I did ask if you were sure,’ he said. ‘Anyway,’ he continued, ‘I’m going to get going, leave you to drink in everything that has happened in the last, goodness,’ he looked at the time on his computer, ‘has it really only been five minutes. It certainly felt more than that, I can tell you. I’ll be seeing you soon, I guess, whether it be here or there. Bye for now,’ and the screen went back to being full of a static hiss, which quickly went away, leaving me standing in complete silence.

In all the worlds in all the Universes, he had to be named the same as me. The odds of that is pretty astonishing. Well, strictly speaking, it isn’t at all surprising to say the least, considering how many Parallel Universes there actually are, which are infinite, so I guess it’s hard to find a bad person who isn’t called Sebastian. Makes me wonder whether he has the same surname as well, although he didn’t mention that. Unless he is saving that bit of information for a later date, ready to hit me when I least expect it to distract me and then go in for the kill. Surely he must know that wouldn’t work twice. He must have figured out such a thing before he even worked out the plan. No, as much as it is likely on a theoretical basis, I don’t reckon he has the same surname as me, which is a bit comforting, even if it is only a minute amount.

I slowly recovered from that shock as time ticked on.

‘I need to figure out where he is housed before he figures out where I am,’ I said. ‘But he most defiantly had a better view of my living room than I had of his headquarters, and so it would be much more difficult.’ I was talking more to myself than I was to anyone else, but B.O.B still continued the conversation on.

‘He added an attachment to the video call,’ he said, ‘would you like me to open it for you.’

‘That depends, does it look rather suspiciously like a virus?’ I asked.

‘My malware scanners indicate that the file is completely clean of all viruses,’ B.O.B said.

‘Yeah, that’s the most suspicious of them all,’ I said matter of fact, ‘but why would he want to infiltrate my house with a virus. He doesn’t know how my powers work. As much as it is likely that I have some kind of tech – which I do, (but it’s always attached to me) – hanging up somewhere, I don’t. He doesn’t know that.’ I was stuck with what to do. If I open the attachment, anything could happen, but I don’t have anything on the system that would help him. If I don’t open the attachment, I could be missing out on some crucial information myself. Why would he do that?

I need a plan. What do I do? I know I can figure this out. The obvious thing to do is not open that attachment. Why would anyone open any attachment on an E-mail they know is just spam?

‘Don’t open that attachment,’ I said with finality. ‘Even though there is a chance that it could be useful, and if it isn’t, he’s not going to find anything because I don’t have anything to give. Everything I do have is right here,’ I pointed to my watch. ‘The chances of it being helpful are minute. So minute in fact, I don’t even know why I’m still discussing it. However, B.O.B, is it possible to send a ping back through the system to try and find his location?’ I asked.

'I can try,' he said honestly. 'Beginning calculations.'

I heard a noise outside that sounded very familiar. It sounded as if one of those robots were outside, either waiting for me to step outside or getting ready to burst through my living room window.

‘B.O.B,’ I whispered, ‘is there a way that you can bring up what’s outside?’ He didn’t say anything. Instead, he completed my task and brought up a high resolution CCTV picture of outside, and there wasn’t a robot. Instead, it was a jet hovering overhead.

‘Why would the army be interested in hovering over here?’ I asked myself.

The noise increased to double its loudness, indicating that a second jet had joined, quickly followed by a third, then a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and a tenth and final jet.

Unless Sebastian has somehow convinced them to think that I have bad intentions. Maybe he is using the army to his advantaged so that he can carry on wiping out his competitors in private, whilst I’m being hunted down.

The jets continued to hover. It was as if they were waiting for any commands.

‘Why am I getting the impression that those jets don’t have anything to do with the army,’ I suggested.

‘You catch on quick,’ Sebastian’s voice came from the TV. I turned around and saw his face on the screen once more.

‘I knew it,’ I said.

‘Of course I knew that you wouldn’t open that attachment. That’s why I set it to self-destruct after ten seconds of opening the E-mail. In doing so, it sent the details of your location to me, which I entered into the jets, which are now at your front door. I was expecting to have this conversation a few hours from now, maybe even tomorrow, I wasn’t expecting my algorithm to work as fast as it did. I surprised myself with that one. But, moving on.

'I have in my hand, a big red button that once pressed will make the jets open fire and tear your house apart. Now, that would be pointless and a waste of resources because you wouldn’t get hurt. I sent these over to make a statement, and that statement is: You are not the only person who has jets outside their front door,’ and he went silent. Was he waiting for me to respond, to ask why he has ordered jets to go to more than just my place? I don’t want to give him the satisfaction, but I might have to if it means what I think it means.

‘You know what I mean, don’t you,’ he said reading my facial expression.

‘What have you done?’ I asked.

TO BE CONTINUED…