They had spent twelve years hurting Jack. He was going to forget the life he had before no matter what. They knew there were other ways to do it, they could have tried brainwashing him, or causing enough head trauma that he would lose his memory but that wasn't the job they had been hired to do. Torture him hurt him if he asked about his family hurt him more, if he talked about an old friend hurt him again, make it as painful as possible. After years of being tortured if he mentioned anything about his life, he was to be punished. They kept him in a small dark room a little bit of light came under the door and if he was cooperating they would let him have a small candle. They told him over and over his wife was dead, that there was nothing waiting for him so it was better to forget, that if he forgot they wouldn't have to hurt him. He had fought them for so long he would try to escape he had even broken Hans' nose not once but twice. Jack had been a proud man, he had been a dangerous man that shouldn't be crossed. Once so skilled so lethal but not now, he'd stopped fighting he didn't question them about anything or talk about a time when he wasn't Jack. Jack was a shell of a man, they had beaten the fight out of him. They knew he was still in good shape but they weren't worried he had been their prisoner for so long he had to do something to pass the time. They saw his work out routine was a way of him passing time, not as a threat to them, he'd stopped fighting back years ago.

"We were told to keep him here for ten years or until he no longer knew who he was. I think we've broken him, boss."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, he answers to Jack and there is none of that threat or hatred in his eyes anymore. Now he's just a quiet simpleton that wouldn't hurt a fly."

"What does he remember from before?"

"If he remembers anything he hasn't mentioned it up in over a year now."

The older of the two men sat thinking, Hans was right they hadn't agreed to keep him here forever they have been paid handsomely for the work they had done. The man they called Jack had been tortured for over a decade. He was now just this meek quite man that neither of them like hurting anymore. The instructions they had been given were that if they ever got him to this point they gave him a pocket full of money and let him go in some small community. From what they knew about him there were a few places he couldn't be connected to so they had picked Hungary as the place to send him they were far enough away he wouldn't accidentally find them and it would be easy to get him there unnoticed. So after sedating him and under the cover of darkness they took Jack out to a waiting van, they loaded him into the back then he was driven off into the night.

...

When Jack woke up he blinked at the brightness, he wasn't accustom to light any longer, he had lived in the dark for so long. His existence had been a small dark room that two men would come to once in a while. They had been hurting him less and less for some time now, could he actually be free of them. He got up and looked around, he was in another small room but at least this one had a window. There was a bag on the chair in the room so he went and looked through it. There seemed to be some clothes and there was a wallet full of money. He looked at himself in the mirror, he had a full beard that seemed like it could use a trim, his hair was shoulder length and there was a fair amount of gray in it. As he looked in the mirror he thought to himself, I don't know who you are, but I know your name isn't Jack. He took another look around the room and decided to try the door if he had money and clothes could he have some freedom as well? To his surprise the door opened, he had already put the wallet in his pocket so he stepped out into the hall. As he walked down the hallway he got the feeling he was in some kind of boarding house, when he got downstairs he realized he'd been right. He talked to the man working there, after a conversation in the man's broken English he found out his room was his for a week after then if he wanted to stay he would have to pay. He also found out he was in Monor Hungary, he didn't think he'd ever heard of the place and he was sure that it didn't mean anything to him. There was so much he didn't know.

Once he was sure he was allowed to leave, he walked out into the bright morning. The first thing he would have to do was pick up so sunglasses, the bright sun was almost unbearable. He found a little store not far from the boarding house and when he walked out he had sunglasses a cup of coffee and a danish. As he walked he felt like he was vibrating, it had been a long time since he'd had sugar or caffeine. He spent the next few days just wondering around Monor. There was nothing there that meant anything to him, nothing that made him think of some of the things he knew he couldn't remember.

By the sixth day he had a little routine, he'd go for a walk then stop in at a little cafe for a coffee and something to eat, he'd look at the paper then go explore another part of Monor. That morning as he flipped through the paper there was a picture that caught his eye. He had picked this cafe because there was a server that spoke English very well, after staring at the picture for some time he got up to talk to her. He wanted to know what the article was about. She read it then explained the woman in the picture was Dr. Alaxander Merrick, a neurologist that work in Budapest. In the interview she was talking about the hospital she was now running. Jack took the paper back to his table, he sat and continued to stare at the picture of the woman. He talked to the waitress once more before he left about how to get to Budapest, there was nothing here he felt connected to but there was a woman there that for some reason he knew he had a connection to. He went back to the boarding house and got his thinks, then got on a train to Budapest, this doctor might have some information about who he really was.