A/N: This chapter is very long, perhaps too long, 3500 words, but it starts and ends where I wanted it to. Maybe some parts could do with less detail, but I let you all be they judge of that.
Chapter 3
At Springfield Elementary everything was, mostly, back to normal. No one had seen Bart or Lisa, since the day she was abducted. Despite being almost invisible while she was there, the nature of her disappearance made her the main topic of discussion around the lunch tables.
"Poor Lisa," said Janie "who'd a thought she'd be the one to get arrested"
"Yeah, I always thought it would be her no-good brother." Said another girl
"Well she shouldn't have downloaded that Alaska Nebraska CD." Accused Sherri
"Internet piracy is a crime!" Continued Terri
"That doesn't really make sense," said the other girl "that's what they told us, but I heard the police officers were carrying crossbows."
"Maybe she's a vampire!" gasped Janie
"I heard they had flamethrowers." Said Terri
"No stupid," scolded Sherri "Lisa brought the flamethrower – even ask Francine!"
"I still say she's a vampire," said Janie stubbornly "it explains why she's so smart, she must be like 400 years old or something!"
"Yeah," said the other girl "and she avoids sunlight too – always hiding in the library, that must be it!"
-x-
Lisa awoke once again to the smell of burning fabric and sight of swirling flames, a klaxon was blaring and the freezing white gas was streaming from the roof. Within seconds the fire was out. The sheets on the bed were barely burned at all; obviously they had some kind of fire retardant property. Lisa began to cry. Maybe she belonged here afterall, at least if she was here, she couldn't hurt anyone. Her family wouldn't be safe around her anymore.
She wasn't tired, but she didn't get out of bed, she just lay there and stared at the ceiling. What was the point? She wondered to herself, what was the point of anything anymore? She may as well lie there forever. She was never going to see her family again; the PSA was never going to let her go! She gasped and cried bitterly, curling up into a ball. She just wanted everything to go away! Why were they doing this to her?
-x-
After an hour or so she did get out of bed and, despite the cameras, she took a shower. She didn't care what they saw anymore. When she got out of the shower she felt a little better.
Then there was John. Could he be trusted? She wondered, he seemed nice enough, would he really help her escape? No, she couldn't count on that – but she could trust him, at least not to lie to her.
She went to the dresser and took out some new clothes. She picked out a red t-shirt and a pair of jeans; they fit perfectly.
"Hey you!" she snapped at the camera "don't you feed your prisoners around here? I'm hungry."
"Have you considered our offer?" asked the voice
"Yeah, yeah," said Lisa, smiling ever so slightly "I'll do co-operate, for king and for country right?"
"We don't have a king," said the voice, changing its tone ever so slightly "we have a president."
"Oh right, 'cause a king would be someone who has absolute power of life and death over all his subjects…" said Lisa, sarcastically "oh wait, Patriot Act!"
She realised it was a futile gesture, but the small act of defiance felt good. For its part the voice ignored her.
"As for meals, there's one on its way." Said the voice
"Oh, and I'm a vegetarian" said Lisa
"We know," said the voice "we seized your computer and backtracked your web access – according to the NSA you were already a person of interest, so the records were quite extensive."
"No way!" gasped Lisa "why would the NSA be interested in me?"
"It turns out you have regular web contact with the First Lady of the United States" said the voice "-something about a gardening blog?"
Lisa, thought back FLOTUS1! She had even met her in person once, though surprisingly no one talked about it much.
"That's right!" said Lisa "and when she realises I've stopped posting she's going to know something's wrong! You're going to be in big trouble."
The voice laughed.
"I think you overestimate the transparency of the intelligence agencies," said the voice "the president doesn't even know how many intelligence agencies there are, let alone who's holding who. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for that rescue."
Lisa sighed – it had been worth a shot anyway. She was probably going to be here for a long time. Which made her wonder – what time was it anyway? They seemed to have deliberately not given her a clock…
"What meal is this anyway?" she asked, probing
"Why does it matter?" asked the voice, evenly "you've just woken up, so why don't we call this breakfast?"
Yeah, thanks a lot, she thought glumly.
-x-
Minutes later there was a knock at her door.
"Enter!" called Lisa; she still didn't know why they bothered.
She was surprised, though truth be told slightly relieved, that the person carrying her breakfast was in fact John. She liked him, she decided – he had an honest face, and let's face it she had a lot more in common with the scientist than the ever-present but faceless guards, who had accompanied him.
"John!" she exclaimed, smiling, "what'd you do to get busted down to kitchen duty?"
John returned the smile, setting down the tray on her desk.
"Well, it's good to see you're feeling better, and no," he chuckled "I'm not in trouble – I have to take you out for you're tests after this, so I figured I may as well bring you lunch."
"Lunch huh?" she inquired
John looked puzzled for a second before
"Ah," he said, "they're trying to keep you disoriented. It's quite a common interrogation technique actually. You have to stay strong for me though ok?"
"Um, ok." said Lisa
She found his behaviour quite odd, but then again he was a bit of an odd person wasn't he? And he was being nice to her at least. That was something. She finished her meal, and John picked up the tray.
"Right," he said "time to get going, follow me, and whatever you do, don't wander off – I don't want to see you getting yourself shot."
Geeze, that's a comforting thought, thought Lisa. Scared as she was to discover what these 'tests' entailed, she felt an inexplicable sense of excitement to finally get to leave the room. She followed John closely, into the airlock. The guards followed them and closed the door to her room. Lisa felt anxious with the four of them inside the small metal room together, and worried about what she would find behind the outer door. John inserted his keycard into the reader and the LED above it flashed green. John saw her worried look, and took pity on her.
"I can hold your hand," he said, "if you like."
Lisa hesitated for a second, before taking his hand. It felt strange to hold the hand of an adult who wasn't her parent, but at the same time it was somehow comforting. She nodded, and he opened the door.
They exited into a long corridor. The most striking feature was that the walls were not flat, in fact the walls and ceiling formed a continuous circle, broken only by the flat floor. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all made of concrete, and every 5 metres there was a steel re-enforcing beam encircling the corridor. At the end of the corridor was a bulkhead with "28 G" written on it.
"Oh my god," said Lisa "we're in Cheyenne Mountain!"
"How did you know that? Asked John, bemused
"Oh come on, we've all seen Stargate" she jibed
They kept walking along the corridor when Lisa spotted something. A door marked "Star Gate Command".
"No. Way!" exclaimed Lisa
John smiled knowingly, and walked over to the door. He opened it, revealing… a broom closet.
"And who says the Air Force doesn't have a sense of humour?" chuckled John
They continued down the hall until they reached another door – this one was covered in warning signs. 'NO METAL OBJECTS', 'NO CELL PHONES', 'MAY WIPE MAGNETIC STORAGE MEDIA', 'LIQUID HELIUM COOLING IN USE', 'DANGER 2.5 TESLA MAGNETIC FIELD'.
The guards followed them in but had to surrender their weapons at the door.
"This is an MRI," explained John "which stands for-"
"Yeah, I know" Lisa cut in "Magnetic Resonance Imaging"
"Alright then," chuckled John "anyway, we're going to scan your head, you don't have to worry – it's perfectly safe."
"I know, my dad's had like 50 of them" said Lisa, reminiscing
Lisa's face suddenly fell, for a few seconds there she had almost forgotten that she was a captive, but the thought of her father was enough to bring it all tumbling down.
She lay down on the MRI table. She knew it was coming it was standard procedure, but she was still a little shocked when John locked the cage into place over her head to keep it still during the procedure. The table began to move, pulling her into the maw of the machine. Alright she thought, everything's fine. A magnetic field 80,000 times stronger than Earth's own was about to be passed through her head – but that was ok wasn't it? At least theoretically it shouldn't have any effect… Just centimetres from her face the liquid helium would be circulating, cooling the superconducting magnet – cold enough to flash freeze her skin to her skull – but that wouldn't happen would it? The shielding was more than adequate…
There was a loud 'Thunk' as the machine started up, causing her to jump slightly.
"Hold still please" said a voice over an intercom
Ok, thought Lisa, that's just the magnet activating. Calm down
The scan lasted nearly 40 minutes, by which time Lisa was about ready to jump out of her skin – she had an itch on her face, which she had been trying to ignore for the last 10 minutes, with little success. Trying not to think about it had only made it worse. As soon as the cage came off her hand shot up to her face and tore at the itch. Ahhh, she thought to herself, that's better.
"You did great" said John, helping her down from the table "we're going to try an EEG next, do you know what that stands for?"
"Something hard to pronounce, I can remember that much" replied Lisa "I had one once, when I was much younger –"
"We know," said John "they seized your medical records, you had an EEG when you were 5, they suspected you might have epilepsy, but the test cleared you."
"Er, right," said Lisa, hesitantly "thanks."
They walked to another room, the guards followed, once again armed. In the room was a reclining chair, behind which was a stand similar to an IV trolley holding dozens of multi-coloured wires tipped with tiny copper disks. The wires lead to a bank of computers, which was manned by a technician. There was a diagram on one of the monitors detailing the positions at which the electrodes were to be attached, in the diagram the model had no hair.
"You're not going to have to shave my head are you?" asked Lisa worriedly running her hand through her spikey hair
"No, we can attach the electrodes through your hair," answered John, looking at her hair spikes "although you are going to have to wash out that hair gel, it interferes with the conductive paste."
"Oh," said Lisa "there's no gel, it just does that on its own."
"Really?" asked John, he reached out and touched her hair, noting that it was soft and springy, despite its spikey appearance "no kidding, huh."
Lisa sat in the chair and the technician began to apply the electrodes. The conductive paste felt slightly gritty and icy cold on her scalp, despite the fact that it was room temperature. It took nearly 30 minutes to get all the electrodes hooked up.
"What did you say EEG stood for?" asked Lisa
"I didn't," replied John "it stands for Electroencephalogram, we're just going to get a baseline today, so you don't have to do anything in particular."
True to his word, she didn't really have to do anything other than sit there for another 30 minutes; she had John explain the basic physical principles behind the machine, and she looked around the room noting the two small air vents and the smoothness of the concrete floor, walls and ceiling turning to look all around the room until the technician told her to sit still – for fear she would dislodge the electrodes.
Removing the electrodes proved far less difficult than attaching them. The technician, simply grabbed the bundle of wires and pulled, slipping them off her head.
"Just another couple tests and we're done for today," said John
They walked to another room, once again flanked by the guards. This room appeared to be the base infirmary, there was a row of hospital beds with an array of medical equipment surrounding them. At the moment the beds were empty.
"We're going to take some blood," said John, comfortingly "I know you might not like needles, but I promise it wont hurt a bit."
"Only babies and ex-junkies are afraid of needles," said Lisa, remembering her last inoculations "stick me."
Despite her show of bravado she couldn't bare to watch as the needle was inserted into her arm. She felt a sharp pinch as it punctured her skin, bringing a tear to her eye. Once it was in, the trouble wasn't so much that it hurt as much as it was the idea of having a piece of metal sliding around beneath her skin. She dared to have a look over and she could see the ampule filling with her blood – it made her vaguely nauseous. She looked away again, hurriedly.
"Ok we're done," said John, finally "just one more test to run, we need to take a spinal tap."
"err what's that?" asked Lisa, it certainly didn't sound nice
"We're going to take a sample of your cerebrospinal fluid, by inserting a needle into your spinal cavity." Explained John, pulling out the needle, which was about 10 centimetres (3") long and strangely a bit flexible.
"No!" yelled Lisa "Get that thing away from me!"
"I'm sorry," said John "but we don't really have a choice, half the scientists here are just dying to get a brain biopsy from you – you know, where they drill into your skull and take a sample of the brain? Well this will keep them satisfied, at least for a while. I could sedate you for the procedure, if you would prefer…"
Lisa was frightened of the spinal tap, but she wasn't about to be drugged again if she could help it.
"Fine," she said, dejectedly "just do it."
She lay down on her side, as he instructed and lifted the back of her shirt to reveal her lower back.
"Ok, I'm going to inject some local anaesthetic," said John, calmly "you're going to feel a slight prick."
"Ow" she exclaimed, She could already feel the area starting to go numb.
After about 30 seconds the main needle was inserted. It was strange, she couldn't feel any pain, but she felt a tearing sensation as the needle penetrated into her spinal cavity.
-x-
Back in her room Lisa lay on her bed with the laptop. All that seemed to be on it was a diary program and bunch of games that seemed like, and almost certainly were, psychological tests. Stupid, she thought to herself. She knocked the computer away, only meaning to bump it, but instead knocking it off the edge and onto the floor.
She snatched up the computer. It looked fine, but the screen was now black. She pressed the power button, and to her surprise was met with a different screen it read 'DRIVE CORRUPTED, RE-FORMAT FROM NETWORK GHOST IMAGE Y/N?'
Interesting, she thought to herself. She hit 'Y' and the hard drive spun up to speed, a progress bar inched across the screen. When the bar filled another message appeared. 'RE-FORMAT SUCCESSFUL, PRESS ANY KEY TO REBOOT'. She hit 'ENTER' and sure enough the computer booted into the desktop, however there were now more icons on the desktop, including one that read 'SURVIELANCE'. She double clicked on it and a program opened up, displaying security camera feeds from throughout the base, including 8 angles within her room. Time to see what they were hiding, she grinned.
Lisa paged through screen after screen of identical hallways and sparsely furnished rooms from the codes at the corner of the screen she could ascertain that they were all on the same level. She spotted John, walking down one of the hallways and decided to follow him. She clicked a button, which read 'track'. A circle appeared around John's head and then some dots on his face, before the computer identified him and tagged his name above his head. As he turned a corner the computer automatically switched to a better angle and pivoted to follow him.
Eventually John stopped at a door and inserted his card. The door buzzed open and the camera switched to a view from inside the room. In the room Lisa could see director Allen. John walked in at threw a piece of paper onto the director's desk. If only she could hear what they were saying… As if sensing her intent another button appeared at the bottom of the screen, which read 'audio on'. With a second's hesitation she clicked it.
"…can't do this anymore," said Tolman, hurriedly "I have a daughter around her age – it's not right, what we're doing. Obviously I can't do anything to stop you, but I want no further part of it, at the very least I've lost my objectivity. So that's my resignation."
John looked rather flustered, as one might expect from someone who was quitting his job. For his part the director looked as impassive as ever, his hands folded neatly on the desk in front of him.
"No" replied the director, after a dramatic pause "I won't accept your resignation."
"W-what?" asked John "Why?"
"You're the foremost expert in parapsychology and paraphysiology, you're invaluable here, do you really want to go back into the outside world?" asked the Director "mocked by your colleges for your studies into telekinesis, living off the pittance you can make being interviewed by Paranormal Weekly?"
"You don't understand" John shot back "I quit. What are you going to do? Force me to work at gunpoint?"
"I don't think it'll come to that," said the director "it can be so dangerous, working for the government, not just for the agent, but for his family as well. You never know when a group of 'terrorists' might target them for leverage…"
"Are you threatening my family?" asked John, stunned
"Of course not…" said the director, smiling wolfishly " but they're so fragile… perhaps they should be moved to a more 'secure' location."
"You bastard!" yelled John, before sighing "look, I'll do what you want, just leave my family out of this."
"So we have an understanding then," stated the director "you will continue your research."
"Yes sir" said John
Suddenly the screen blacked out and the words 'UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED' were emblazoned across it. Oh well, though Lisa, she hadn't expected her access to go undetected for long – in fact she was surprised it had lasted so long – maybe they weren't watching her as carefully as she thought…
-x-
"Annnd Cut" said Director Allen "very convincing if I do say so myself"
"I try my best sir." Said John, smirking
"But is all this whole 'good cop, bad cop' routine really necessary?" asked the Director "I mean, she's eight, couldn't we just put a gun to her head?"
"If we don't have the subject's free co-operation we may as well just do an autopsy" replied John "we're talking psychology here, if the subject is resisting us, even subconsciously, it wont work. The subject has to trust me completely."
"So you're against performing an autopsy?" asked the director
"For now," said Tolman "there's more to be learned by keeping the subject alive, but suffer no illusions, the subject will have to be terminated eventually. The subject's aberration seems to be centred around the pituitary gland, a gland which is largely inactive in a child her age – right now the subject can melt steel, imagine how the power will grow as the subject enters puberty and the gland goes into overdrive, almost doubling in size, increasing it's output ten-fold. The subject could quite conceivably melt down this entire mountain granite and all. We will have to terminate the subject before then, if only for reasons of containment."