"This man knows the horrifying extent of torture." Dr Carr informs Max with a sigh as he hands her a file with all the medical data he has put together about the badly injured man.
He was on duty at the hospital when he got a call from Terminal City.
Max says nothing as she opens the file and just quickly flips through it. She didn't need a medical expert to tell her that, she could tell that by just one glance.
"He has been tortured over a long extended period of time. Months. He was severely injured with strategic wounds that caused the most intense pain but were not fatal. It would seem that his wounds was left unattended until they became serious and then he was given medical attention, nursed back to health and then they just did it all over again." The doctor takes a deep breath. He has been in a lot of medical situations but this is the first time that he has personally attended to someone who has gone through something of this extent.
"His hand…" Dr Carr brings the attention to Lydecker's left hand.
Max noticed the metal contraption that was attached to his hand but she didn't really stop to investigate as to what it was.
"They broke every bone in his hand and the metal brace is holding all of the bones intact until it heals. From what I can tell from the lines in the bones on the x-rays, it looks like this is like the 6th time it has been done. The foundation brace that holds it all together is attached to his wrist. That part is grown into the bone. That's how long it's been there." The doctor takes a breath as he explains while he is putting his things away in a medical bag.
"He has a raptured eardrum, multiple infected wounds, some of his teeth has been pulled, kidney has been cut out… the list goes on. And not to mention the toll that this would have taken on his mental state." Dr Carr pauses, who would do this to another human being? He thinks to himself.
No one has bothered to tell him who exactly this man is. That is why everyone else is sort of calm about the situation and not very worried at all.
"If I had to guess, I would say that the last, session of torture, was about a week ago." The doctor's tone takes a dip. Torture is something that he has a major problem with, especially if medical procedures that is meant to help people are being used to hurt a person.
He then continues. "His system was flooded with a medical compound that kept him from passing out and losing consciousness. They wanted to make sure that he felt every single moment of pain." With that he pulls his black leather jacket on. He has to return to the hospital.
"It is all documented, you can read it for yourself." Dr Carr motions to the file in Max's hand.
"Thanks." Max quietly speaks as she processes what he has just said. She is actually feeling slightly sick.
"I've got him hooked up to a lot of vitamins and pain killers. He will be out for a while." The doctor then turns and starts walking away as he mutters something under his breath to himself. "This is the first time in a long time he has not felt any pain."
Closing the file, Max drops her hand holding it and just lets her hands hang by her sides as she watches the door behind which Lydecker is. To be honest, she is not sure what she should be thinking or feeling. She's not even sure what her game plan is with the man. Because ultimately, what is she going to do with him? She can't keep him here forever, the other transgenics will not tolerate that. At some point they are going to start questioning his presence here and if she doesn't give them a good enough answer, the questions will then start focusing on 'why' she saved his sorry ass that everybody hates, in the first place.
Carefully closing the door behind her, Max watches an unconscious Lydecker lying on the bed. He is hooked up to multiple drips. There are no monitors or any beeping sounds signaling a heartbeat.
They put him up in an empty apartment, not a hospital or medical facility. The apartment block is right next to Terminal City.
With funding from Logan, they were able to buy Terminal City and make it the official 'city' of transgenics. They then later on bought out a shopping mall and turned it into a mall where goods are sold that has been made and crafted by the transgenics staying in Terminal City.
They then bought the apartment block right next to it. And that's where they put Lydecker for the time being.
Max comes to stand at the foot of the bed, looking the man over that has caused her and her siblings so much pain in their lives.
She looks at the metal brace on Lydecker's hand, she looks at the wounds, old and new on his face. There's marks and a scar around his neck. His wrist's has angry marks of deep gashes with multiple scars circling them also. His finger nails are all missing and some has started to faintly grow back. He is covered in bruises of all colors. To sum it all up, he looks bad, really bad.
The strong, stern, feared and highly dreaded Director of Manticore…not so strong now.
As she watches Lydecker, memories of Manticore flashes in her mind. Memories of Lydecker. Memories of what was done to them as kids. Memories of the doctors. She remembers the harsh training that pushed some of them to the edge near death and for others it resulted in death. She remembers the medical experiments that was performed on them.
She remembers when Jack was dragged away by the doctors after he collapsed because of a seizure, when she sneaked out that night to find out what happened to him. She found him surrounded by doctors cutting away at him with Lydecker in the room peacefully sipping away at his coffee.
This man has done some horrible and unforgivable things but Max cannot think to wish something like this upon anyone, not even Lydecker. Even if she has to admit that the thought has crossed her mind…now he knows how we felt…. Now he knows how it feels like to be at the mercy of someone else who has no good intention towards you. To be touched in ways you do not want to be touched, to be poked, prodded, beaten, cut, hurt and tortured... Now he knows what it feels like to have your freedom taken away from you and be caged like an animal, while your life is in the hands of another person who is busy pursuing their own twisted ambitions.
But still, she can't think to herself that she would actually wished it upon this man that caused them all that pain.
Why? Maybe because she isn't like them. She isn't like him... She is not so cold and twisted to inflict such things on another human being.
She knows that this is just fine with Mole and Alec and the others, the only thing that is short, is death.
But that's not how she feels. Maybe it is because she has some sort of twisted connection with him. The whole 'inspired by' his wife story maybe. It kinda makes her family. What a cliché… But it was even before that, before that night in the SUV with Lydecker that she felt some connection to him. Like that day at the genetics conference, he was about to take a bullet to the head and if she did nothing, he would be dead and she could've struck him off her list of problems. But she just couldn't walk away, she just couldn't let him die.
She had no idea why back then and she still doesn't know why now.
That night at that shoddy motel then pops into her head. He was drunk and he was talking and he was feeling sentimental. Yeah some people should avoid trying to do those three at the same time. Apparently Lydecker has that problem...
He recalled to her mind that night when she was in the infirmary when she was a kid...
"You remember that night I sat with you in the infirmary? I shouldn't have been there, I shouldn't have shown favoritism..."
She had actually completely forgotten about that. But the moment Lydecker mentioned it, she remembered it clear as day like it happened yesterday. She even clearly recalled the strange feeling of comfort that accompanied that gesture.
Could this thing that she has for Lydecker possibly be something like Stockholm syndrome?
Max feels slightly disgusted with that...never mind.
To think that all this time while they thought he was dead, he was actually in the hands of White and the Conclave crazies. And there are two reasons that she can think of why they would do this to Lydecker and not just kill him.
One, for his betrayal to Manticore. And two, the information that he had.
Lydecker is the one who made the DNA lab mission a success. He is the one who knew exactly where to hit. He had all the info. He even killed some of their own agents. He did also take their 'property' that night when he took her.
And Lydecker is sharp, surely he had made the connection between Logan and Eyes Only. Maybe that is how White knew about Logan. Maybe his name slipped somewhere during one of the sessions.
Torture.
Her mind drifts off to the memories of when the former director of Manticore himself was instructing them about the gruesome practice…
"Nobody can resist torture indefinitely. Not even you. You will reveal what you know…."
How ironic. Max thinks to herself.
Her mind again then wanders back to that night before they blew up the DNA lab. When they were sitting outside of the strip joint waiting for the person whose eye Lydecker took out. He told her about the whole 'keeping a part of his wife alive in her'. She remembers how he then turned towards her and had a smile on his face, a warm smile, and said, "You have her eyes." The way he said it sounded like he was happy to let her know that.
Pulling herself unto the small table off to the side, Max is still watching Lydecker as she notes to herself…
...and here she is, sitting next to him…
TBC...
Thanks for reading:)
Reviews are welcome, I'd love to know your thoughts.