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Chapter or Story
Disclaimer: see part one
~~~~~~~
The Past Always Catches Up Part 7
Inscrutable past and dark future
He woke up feeling disoriented and shattered.
He was lying on a tiny cot in the corner of what looked like a small concrete room.
“Great,” he muttered under his breath and attempted to sit up. He could do so with difficulty but didn’t get far because his right wrist was restrained and the chain was connected to a metal ring that was bolted into the concrete wall.
“Even better,” he growled and yanked half-heartedly at the chain. He knew it wouldn’t give way - the motion came unconsciously.
He looked around to see if there was anything he could use to break free but found nothing.
Scooting over so that his back was pressed to the wall, Jay drew up his feet onto the cot and put his hands on his knees.
It seemed as if he would have to wait and see about getting out of here.
~~~~~~~
It took a while for desperation to set in.
No one came into the cell, something he knew he should be grateful for because every passing minute during which he was alone would be a minute without pain. Something he doubted would last forever.
Yet he got more and more agitated even though he deliberately tried to calm himself down.
He wondered what was different about this situation from the past. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been imprisoned in the Centre in the past. On the contrary, he had spent the first thirteen or fourteen years of his life inside of Donoterase.
Then he realized just how different this was. In the past those in charge didn’t have to doubt his loyalty. He had been a conditioned lab rat that would do as they asked without question.
But those conditions had changed.
He had lived in the outside world for three years now and his loyalties had shifted. He didn’t stand on the Centre’s side any longer.
And that was exactly what had changed. The sides he was on.
The Centre would try everything get back to what they had before Jarod had liberated him. They would try everything and stop at nothing to get him under their control once again.
Jay closed his eyes.
This was not good. He would have to be prepared for what they would throw at him. And that was what scared him.
From long talks with Jarod, where his father had told him some of what had happened to him, Jay knew more or less exactly what he would have to face and the thought made him shudder.
He would have to face the Centre’s wrath and he would have to fight against everything they subjected upon him to keep his life, the life he had built for himself with his parents and brother and the rest of their family in the outside world.
Once he let his grasp on that slip, he knew the Centre would be there to use it - to use him and to turn him into a lab rat again.
He wouldn’t be allowed to keep his memories; they would wipe the memories from his mind as if they had never happened; memories of the outside world, of his experiences and his family; of Major Charles, Ethan, Emily and Andy… and most importantly of his Mom and Dad.
Jarod.
He breathed deeply. He would have to hang on. His father would find a way to get him out of here. He would just have to survive until he could come for him.
Jay clenched his teeth and tried to block out the dark thoughts of what was to come.
Suddenly a wave of anger washed over him. He growled in frustration. The growl soon turned into a scream of rage mingled with fear and he jumped up and started kicking at nothing in particular.
The only result it brought was that his voice and the fear it held was thrown back at him from the walls, multiplying on the way and making the whole situation even more unbearable.
Jay yanked on the restraints on his wrist in rage, rattling the chain against the cot. He was throwing nearly all his weight against the restraints, making them cut into the tender flesh of his wrists, furiously venting on them a surge of raw, unmanageable despair.
He stopped short when the realization of what he was doing hit him.
That wouldn’t do.
If he kept on going that way, he would crack into pieces even before the Centre had started to do anything. He would only play into their hands.
Taking a deliberate and deep breath, he sat back down on the cot and just concentrated on calming down. He would need all the strength he had in him to get out of this situation with his mind intact.
Jay leaned his back against the wall and closed his eyes.
The breath caught in his chest when the electronic lock clicked and the door opened, allowing his captors to enter the room.
~~~~~~~~
Jarod and Parker were brought to the two interrogation rooms, consciously being separated from each other once the group arrived at the FBI headquarters.
“Jack, don’t you think that singling them out is a bit cruel?” Martin asked carefully once the whole group was gathered around the conference table.
“I know they’re distressed but I want some answers and if we don’t get them, I fear the boy won’t have a chance of being safely returned to his family,” Malone replied, turning away from the board with the timeline and focussing his attention on his team. “Ok, from scratch. Viv, Sam, what do you have?”
“Ok, first about the boy,” Vivian Johnson started and the team turned towards her. “He’s sixteen and as I told you before he never drew any attention on him. His grades are good but not extraordinary; they are just a bit above average. There are no records about him with the police or anything like that. He’s a decent young man.”
“That’s what his friends and teachers said as well,” Martin spoke up and everyone’s attention turned towards him. “They say he quickly made friends once they came into the city. He’s well accepted and liked by the rest of his class. No one knows anything about enemies or something like that but no one seems to know an awful lot about him at the same time. It seems as if he didn’t talk much about his life before they came to New York. A girl said that he had once told her that he had been travelling a lot, mostly together with his father but that was that.”
“He went out with friends of his yesterday; had some ice cream with them after school around five o’clock at the parlour in their neighbourhood,” Vivian pointed at the timeline.
“Story confirmed by the waitress in the parlour. They go there relatively often,” Danny took over. “Waitress said they stayed for a little more than an hour yesterday. Nothing unusual.”
“His friends said the same thing. He wasn’t behaving any differently from usual. No sudden mood swings or anything,” Martin went on. “They separated around six thirty. Do we have anything else that might indicate he was in trouble? Emails, phone calls, letters,…?”
“The mother didn’t say anything about letters,” Malone said. “We won’t get a warrant for the computer and with the parents, I somehow doubt that they’ll allow us to go through his emails. Not after we dragged them here. What did you find out about the parents, Sam?”
“Now that’s where it all gets more complicated and strange. The records go back to their appearance in the city. They bought a little house and were what one would call ‘decent citizens’. The father, Jarod Stuart, has a job in the medical research industry and the mother, Melina Stuart is working part time with an attorney. So far so good but once I tried to find out where they lived and worked before, I came up with nothing. It’s as if they didn’t exist. They came out of nowhere, just appeared in New York one day. There’s no record from before about either of them. No social number, IDs, driving license, birth document or even documents of marriage,” the blonde agent shook her head in frustration.
“Legal name change?” Danny suggested.
“Checked that… nothing,” Sam shook her head.
The whole team was silent for a few seconds, trying to organise their thoughts.
“They’re afraid of something. We should keep that in mind. Maybe they’re in hiding or in the witness protection program,” Martin cautioned.
There were several more or less convinced nods.
“It’s not possible to just not exist,” Malone spoke up. “There have to be records about them somewhere. We just have to find them. Martin, Sam, you go looking into the witness protection idea. We should also combine that with a picture search. Maybe we’ll come up with something about our mysterious parents that way. Meanwhile I want you to question the woman, Viv. And Danny, you’re with me,” he ordered and everyone nodded and got to work.
To be continued…
So far, so good. You like?
~~~~~~~
Inscrutable past and dark future
He woke up feeling disoriented and shattered.
He was lying on a tiny cot in the corner of what looked like a small concrete room.
“Great,” he muttered under his breath and attempted to sit up. He could do so with difficulty but didn’t get far because his right wrist was restrained and the chain was connected to a metal ring that was bolted into the concrete wall.
“Even better,” he growled and yanked half-heartedly at the chain. He knew it wouldn’t give way - the motion came unconsciously.
He looked around to see if there was anything he could use to break free but found nothing.
Scooting over so that his back was pressed to the wall, Jay drew up his feet onto the cot and put his hands on his knees.
It seemed as if he would have to wait and see about getting out of here.
~~~~~~~
It took a while for desperation to set in.
No one came into the cell, something he knew he should be grateful for because every passing minute during which he was alone would be a minute without pain. Something he doubted would last forever.
Yet he got more and more agitated even though he deliberately tried to calm himself down.
He wondered what was different about this situation from the past. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been imprisoned in the Centre in the past. On the contrary, he had spent the first thirteen or fourteen years of his life inside of Donoterase.
Then he realized just how different this was. In the past those in charge didn’t have to doubt his loyalty. He had been a conditioned lab rat that would do as they asked without question.
But those conditions had changed.
He had lived in the outside world for three years now and his loyalties had shifted. He didn’t stand on the Centre’s side any longer.
And that was exactly what had changed. The sides he was on.
The Centre would try everything get back to what they had before Jarod had liberated him. They would try everything and stop at nothing to get him under their control once again.
Jay closed his eyes.
This was not good. He would have to be prepared for what they would throw at him. And that was what scared him.
From long talks with Jarod, where his father had told him some of what had happened to him, Jay knew more or less exactly what he would have to face and the thought made him shudder.
He would have to face the Centre’s wrath and he would have to fight against everything they subjected upon him to keep his life, the life he had built for himself with his parents and brother and the rest of their family in the outside world.
Once he let his grasp on that slip, he knew the Centre would be there to use it - to use him and to turn him into a lab rat again.
He wouldn’t be allowed to keep his memories; they would wipe the memories from his mind as if they had never happened; memories of the outside world, of his experiences and his family; of Major Charles, Ethan, Emily and Andy… and most importantly of his Mom and Dad.
Jarod.
He breathed deeply. He would have to hang on. His father would find a way to get him out of here. He would just have to survive until he could come for him.
Jay clenched his teeth and tried to block out the dark thoughts of what was to come.
Suddenly a wave of anger washed over him. He growled in frustration. The growl soon turned into a scream of rage mingled with fear and he jumped up and started kicking at nothing in particular.
The only result it brought was that his voice and the fear it held was thrown back at him from the walls, multiplying on the way and making the whole situation even more unbearable.
Jay yanked on the restraints on his wrist in rage, rattling the chain against the cot. He was throwing nearly all his weight against the restraints, making them cut into the tender flesh of his wrists, furiously venting on them a surge of raw, unmanageable despair.
He stopped short when the realization of what he was doing hit him.
That wouldn’t do.
If he kept on going that way, he would crack into pieces even before the Centre had started to do anything. He would only play into their hands.
Taking a deliberate and deep breath, he sat back down on the cot and just concentrated on calming down. He would need all the strength he had in him to get out of this situation with his mind intact.
Jay leaned his back against the wall and closed his eyes.
The breath caught in his chest when the electronic lock clicked and the door opened, allowing his captors to enter the room.
~~~~~~~~
Jarod and Parker were brought to the two interrogation rooms, consciously being separated from each other once the group arrived at the FBI headquarters.
“Jack, don’t you think that singling them out is a bit cruel?” Martin asked carefully once the whole group was gathered around the conference table.
“I know they’re distressed but I want some answers and if we don’t get them, I fear the boy won’t have a chance of being safely returned to his family,” Malone replied, turning away from the board with the timeline and focussing his attention on his team. “Ok, from scratch. Viv, Sam, what do you have?”
“Ok, first about the boy,” Vivian Johnson started and the team turned towards her. “He’s sixteen and as I told you before he never drew any attention on him. His grades are good but not extraordinary; they are just a bit above average. There are no records about him with the police or anything like that. He’s a decent young man.”
“That’s what his friends and teachers said as well,” Martin spoke up and everyone’s attention turned towards him. “They say he quickly made friends once they came into the city. He’s well accepted and liked by the rest of his class. No one knows anything about enemies or something like that but no one seems to know an awful lot about him at the same time. It seems as if he didn’t talk much about his life before they came to New York. A girl said that he had once told her that he had been travelling a lot, mostly together with his father but that was that.”
“He went out with friends of his yesterday; had some ice cream with them after school around five o’clock at the parlour in their neighbourhood,” Vivian pointed at the timeline.
“Story confirmed by the waitress in the parlour. They go there relatively often,” Danny took over. “Waitress said they stayed for a little more than an hour yesterday. Nothing unusual.”
“His friends said the same thing. He wasn’t behaving any differently from usual. No sudden mood swings or anything,” Martin went on. “They separated around six thirty. Do we have anything else that might indicate he was in trouble? Emails, phone calls, letters,…?”
“The mother didn’t say anything about letters,” Malone said. “We won’t get a warrant for the computer and with the parents, I somehow doubt that they’ll allow us to go through his emails. Not after we dragged them here. What did you find out about the parents, Sam?”
“Now that’s where it all gets more complicated and strange. The records go back to their appearance in the city. They bought a little house and were what one would call ‘decent citizens’. The father, Jarod Stuart, has a job in the medical research industry and the mother, Melina Stuart is working part time with an attorney. So far so good but once I tried to find out where they lived and worked before, I came up with nothing. It’s as if they didn’t exist. They came out of nowhere, just appeared in New York one day. There’s no record from before about either of them. No social number, IDs, driving license, birth document or even documents of marriage,” the blonde agent shook her head in frustration.
“Legal name change?” Danny suggested.
“Checked that… nothing,” Sam shook her head.
The whole team was silent for a few seconds, trying to organise their thoughts.
“They’re afraid of something. We should keep that in mind. Maybe they’re in hiding or in the witness protection program,” Martin cautioned.
There were several more or less convinced nods.
“It’s not possible to just not exist,” Malone spoke up. “There have to be records about them somewhere. We just have to find them. Martin, Sam, you go looking into the witness protection idea. We should also combine that with a picture search. Maybe we’ll come up with something about our mysterious parents that way. Meanwhile I want you to question the woman, Viv. And Danny, you’re with me,” he ordered and everyone nodded and got to work.
To be continued…
So far, so good. You like?
