PREY
Little Sacrifices
by Sanguine
His sneakers squeaked as he walked down the long corridor. The floor was a high gloss gray and shimmered softly under the harsh lights. The walls were painted a soft charcoal and all the doors were black.
Ed grinned inanely, he felt like he was in a Hitchcock movie, as if everything was in black and white and the corridor had taken on a surreal elongation. It would be fitting because behind each and every ominous black door a dangerous madman lurked. Except for one, one who wasn't a man, wasn't really human.
He counted the doors and got to thirteen and tried to stifle another nervous grin. Unlucky number selected at random for a prisoner the likes of which even this nightmarish prison had never envisioned.
Ed waited. He glanced up at the camera monitoring him from a long track embedded in the ceiling. He wasn't sure if he should say something.
"Open sesame," he mumbled and the door made a deep heavy thunk sound as it's massive hidden lock disengaged.
He tried to keep his hand steady as he opened the door. It didn't swing back but slid into wall.
The prisoner looked up mildly as if expecting him. The eyes were a brilliant silver-blue like treacherous ice. His hair had been close cropped into a cap of white waves. He wore a black coverall with a number stitched in white over his left breast. His body was trim and fit and managed to give the impression of coiled power.
"Well?" the prisoner asked impatiently. His blue eyes seemed like the only color in the room, and had a penetrating quality that was extremely unnerving.
Ed cleared his throat. "Hello, Lewis," he said. He'd been warned to keep his distance, but stepped forward quickly at the warning beep from the door and was startled as it closed noisily behind him.
"Are you one of the doctors?" Lewis inquired with a sarcastic sneer. He pulled against the restraint that manacled one wrist to a heavy bolt in the wall, the other was attached to the steel table in front of him and his sleeve had been rolled up, revealing an ugly patchwork of red needle marks.
"No," Ed said quickly. "I work with Sloan Parker. I've come to ask you some questions about Tom Daniels."
The brilliant eyes narrowed. He shifted and leaned back against wall and studied Ed with a frank and chilling appraisal. Slowly he grinned. "Why not?" he said with a cavalier shrug.
Never had Ed felt more like a mouse facing a hungry cat. He could feel his pulse racing and knew that the predator manacled so securely in front of him could sense his fear acutely. "Sloan trusts him. I don't," he said plainly.
"You love her," Lewis observed with cool contempt.
Some of his fear was thawed by a flare of anger. "Enough that I don't want to see her hurt, yeah."
"And you want me to give you something you can use against him, something that will allow you to control him. Is that it?" Lewis guessed.
"Essentially," Ed agreed, disconcerted by Lewis' effortless detection, and wondering if he could read his mind.
"Mozart," Lewis snapped.
"That was the trigger that let you take him over?" Ed asked eagerly, "music?"
"No, you insipid moron," Lewis growled. "Have these bastards give me back my music and I'll tell you what you want to know."
Ed shook his head. "I don't have that kind of influence. It was a miracle I got in here to see you at all. I doubt they'll let me come back."
Lewis just stared with cold penetrating silence.
"I'll try. That's all I can do," Ed said.
Lewis shrugged. "Good enough. Besides this is just the kind of gift I owe my protégé," he said with a sardonic little smile. "I do hope you get a chance to deliver it."
Ed felt a miserable traitorous feeling in his gut. He'd promised to share whatever information he got from Lewis with Attwood, and he was pretty certain Attwood would take advantage of it. If he ever did, Sloan would never forgive either of them.
"Captivity," Lewis reported with a meaningful jerk of the restraints. "Tom has only one real fear, one weakness. That is if you don't count his unnatural preoccupation with Ms. Parker," he sneered with contempt. "Tom has a complete and total horror of being confined and abandoned. He's had it as long as he can remember. It was one thing from his childhood no amount of conditioning could erase. Of course it was useful in controlling him."
"The tattoo," Ed muttered. "He's had reoccurring visions of that moment in his childhood. He must have been restrained. His mother was there and just watched."
"How incredibly chatty he's become," Lewis said sarcastically. "How obnoxiously repugnant and human. Pathetic! His mother would not approve. Thankfully, I had Tom kill her before she had a chance to learn what's become of him."
"Wait a second! Tom killed his own mother?" Ed exclaimed.
"Neatly and completely. She was very proud," Lewis related without emotion. The quiet menace in his Arctic gaze was tinged with satisfaction.
"You used his fears against him, to control him?"
Lewis laughed. He flexed the arm bound to the table and the steel groaned. "This place would render the boy catatonic. We never had to do much more than threaten, he was that terrified. His fear annoyed me. I knew it was a weakness and took it upon myself to train him out of it, but eventually I suspected that he just endured my little exercises to try and spare himself more pain. He can endure quite a lot of that, even enjoy it." He licked his lips and smiled.
Ed's stomach turned over. He wanted out of the cell suddenly in the worst way. And tried hard to control a rising sense of panic.
"I'm not really surprised at the effect Sloan's had. Tom was always such a sensual creature. Of course, like his other fear, he tried to hide that too. I was so very annoyed with him for leaving us. I was tempted to punish him in some more corporal fashion, but I knew I could save that for later, after I'd destroyed his little fantasy world. After I had him kill his human companions, including this... love interest," he said as if pronouncing something foul. "I knew he'd be mine then. Mine completely in every way. Just as he used to be."
"Good God!" Ed exclaimed in disgust. "No wonder he can turn against the rest of you so easily!"
The door vibrated and the lock slipped back. Ed resisted the impulse to race from the room.
"Chain him down," Lewis advised calmly. "Do things to him," he added with extra emphasis. "He'll tell you anything you want to know. He'll do anything you ask, no matter how degrading."
The door slid back and Ed stepped back into the safety of the monochrome hallway. Just as the door was sliding shut he saw Lewis smile. The handsome face lit up with amused pleasure. He called out softly, "And be sure and tell him, Lewis sent you."
Never had Ed felt more that he'd been in the presence of pure evil. Undiluted menace dripped from the handsome predator. His eyes were so cold... As Ed rushed back down the hallway to the warmth and safety of the outside world, he couldn't help but feel sorry for Tom. The idea of being raised by Lewis made his gorge rise. His imagination played havoc with his mind at the things Lewis had insinuated. He alluded to a sexual relationship, if you could call it a relationship or sex... more like torture. It was in Lewis' suggestive smile and the gas-light blue flame in his eyes, not to mention the tension of his expressive body.
He wondered what had been done to Tom when Lewis had him back. It was plain what Lewis intended to do once Tom had completed his deadly mission. There were scenes in Ed's mind so vivid that he suspected Lewis had somehow planted them.
Outside of the security area, beyond the locks and gates and guards. Attwood was waiting for his report.
"Ed, you look like you've seen a ghost!" he remarked in a hushed voice.
"Or a monster anyway," Ed agreed shakily.
Attwood led the way out of the building. "What did he tell you?"
"Basically, that we don't hold the paten on sadism," Ed quipped. "Remember when you gave Tom that drug and he related the vision of when he was tattooed?"
"Yes," Attwood said with keen interest.
Ed hurried for their car anxious to be as far from the secret facility as possible. "Well, it apparently affected Tom deeply. It wasn't just the pain. It was being abandoned by the mother he thought would protect him, and he has a profound fear of being restrained."
"His mother knew that and used it against him," Attwood guessed. "In the basement of that house where Sloan found him. It wasn't the beating that affected him, it was the restraints. When we restrained him after Lewis triggered his conditioning, we must have inadvertently caused enough emotional distress to help break through."
"That was Sloan," Ed reminded.
Attwood shook his head and walked to the driver's side of their rented car. "Not entirely. Of course we could test it."
Ed looked with disbelief. "You're joking. I hope you're joking. Sloan would kill us first."
"Not if Tom volunteered," Attwood said carefully. He opened the door and triggered the locks and Ed slid into the passenger seat next to him.
"Why in the world would he do that?"
The ignition started smoothly and Attwood put the car in reverse. He shrugged. "To regain our trust. He did try to kill us. He was triggered by a deep form of brainwashing and I'm sure he'd like to discover how to keep that from happening again."
[][][][]
Tom looked at Attwood and back to Ed. His blue eyes were calm, speculative and unreadable. He looked at the table where they proposed to tie him down and back to the two scientists.
"Alright," he said quietly. "On one condition. I want Sloan here."
"Oh, I don't think that's a good idea," Ed protested. He watched Tom raise his eyebrows and give him a questioning glare.
"Ed's right," Attwood chimed in. "It would only upset her."
But Tom's inscrutable gaze burned with steady obstinacy.
"Look," Ed persuaded, dropping his tone to a confidential level. "Do you really want Sloan to see this? You might say things... things that Lewis did to you during your conditioning that you may not want her to hear.
The cool gaze flickered uncertainly. Tom's brow furrowed. "I don't trust you," he admitted. "I trust her. She wouldn't want me to keep secrets."
"Alright, then," Ed relented. "If you insist. We just wanted to protect her. You know I care about Sloan. And truthfully, I thought you may not want her to be around."
Tom stared at him for a disconcerting moment, then he sighed. "Alright. Do it."
Attwood made him take off his shirt so they could attach the monitors. Tom complied, allowing them to stick on the patches and attach the wires.
In the reflection of his monitor, Ed caught Tom looking at the heavy restraints attached to the table. He had a moment of doubt. He never really trusted Tom. He was one of the new species, an admitted killer, but he was still a person and they'd manipulated him into something that maybe he didn't deserve.
Attwood was deep into his research mode and treated Tom little better than he would one of the monkeys. Paying little or no heed to the fact that this was something Tom was afraid of.
Maybe Lewis was just messing with his head, Ed thought, because Tom didn't look afraid. He stood quietly while they finished their preparations and the tests of the leads. He didn't ask any questions or attempt to delay the inevitable.
"Lie down," Attwood directed. He stopped Tom before he could lie back. "On your stomach please."
Tom froze, his eyes had a look Ed had never seen. It was so much like Lewis' malevolent stare that it shocked him. The look faded and instead he glanced at the table. He looked at the instruments and equipment near the table.
Attwood noted the direction of his subject's attention and said. "In case you crash like you did when we gave you the drug before."
Tom turned his face from the instruments and stared at Attwood. He had one of the restraints in his hand and wordlessly dropped it into Attwood's grasp with a strange censuring expression. With unusual grace he got on the table and turned over obediently, managing not to tangle the wire leads.
As his wrists and ankles were strapped down, Ed noted a spike on the heart monitor. He didn't say anything, and it settled back down.
Attwood made to fasten the padded neck restraint and Tom finally protested.
"No," a simple clear demand.
Attwood sighed and patted Tom's naked shoulder. "Sorry my friend. It's for your own good." He gently secured the strap and ran the chain down through a hole in the table.
The monitor began to register frantic activity, but they'd cut all the alarm sounds leaving only the visual.
"I'm going to give you the injection now. Not nearly as much as before, alright? We'll only increase the dose if we sure it's safe," Attwood assured. He swabbed Tom's forearm and deftly slid home the shot.
Tom tried to raise his head but the padded collar held him down. He gritted his teeth as the shot's initial effect began to take over.
"Tom, can you hear me?" Attwood asked quietly.
Ed could see Tom's face resting peacefully against the smooth metal. His eyes were closed and he seemed relaxed.
"Yes," he replied calmly. "I hear you."
"Do you know where you are?"
"Yes" Tom answered. "I'm in the lab."
"It doesn't bother you to be tied down like this?" Attwood inquired.
Ed could see Tom frown and his shoulders tensed. "It's necessary," he replied finally and relaxed a little.
"Necessary?" Attwood repeated curious.
Almost conversationally Tom replied. "So I won't hurt you if you trigger my conditioning the way that Lewis did. So that you'll trust me."
"And that's important to you? That we trust you?"
The captive sighed. "It's important to Sloan." Suddenly he shifted uncomfortably. "I think its important to me too. I... don't know why."
Attwood glanced at Ed who shrugged and tried not to feel guilty. "Tom, I want you to go back. Back to when you were in Sloan's apartment and Lewis called."
"We shall reign in the kingdom of man," Tom quoted, his face expressionless.
"Was that the triggering phrase?" Attwood said excitedly.
"Yes," Tom said slowly. Suddenly, he jerked against the restraints. "Lewis."
"What about him? What about Lewis?" Attwood pried.
Tom groaned and tried to lever himself up. "I have to go to him."
"No you don't. Listen to me, Tom. You don't have to do anything for Lewis. You don't have to follow the conditioning program. You're free of all that." He tried to hold Tom down and keep him from straining.
At his touch all the fight went out of Tom like a light being extinguished. "Let me go," he demanded in a flat tone.
For an instant they thought the drug had worn off and he'd returned to himself.
"No," Attwood said cautiously.
Tom gave a deep shudder and then went slack. "I'll do what you want," he said with total lack of intonation.
"Where are you, Tom?" Attwood asked softly.
"With Lewis," Tom replied with a resigned sigh.
"And he's tied you down? Why?" Attwood asked softly.
"He likes me like this," Tom replied.
"Helpless?" Attwood guessed.
"Afraid," Tom answered.
Attwood gazed down at the captive body. "Are you? Are you afraid, Tom?"
Tom's eyes snapped open and he stared at the restraints on his wrists trying to lift his head. He jerked first one arm then the other and tried to pull his wrists free. His face looked panicked. He groaned with frustration, closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the table and went still as if trying to gain control. Suddenly he heaved up with all his strength, with a deep angry cry. He writhed in the restraints pulling with everything he had. He was like a wild animal.
Ed jumped up with alarm. "He's going to break something. He's going to kill himself!"
"Don't touch me!" Tom screamed. He kept struggling. The strange tattoo stood out like a blue black brand on his flushed skin. The chains and the table groaned as if seriously threatened by their captive.
Frantic, Ed went to the table. "Listen to me Tom. Sloan wants you to lie still. Lie still."
"Sloan?" Tom called out plaintively. He stilled immediately, panting slightly from his exertions and panic.
"She's worried about you," Ed said experimentally.
"I should never have left her," Tom said miserably. "I deserve this. I deserve to be punished. Lewis..." He relaxed and his hands opened. His head turned and he rested his cheek against the table.
"Is that why you were vulnerable to Lewis' triggering? You're not set up to be independent but to obey someone, to serve someone. Since you left Lewis, you've transferred this dependence to Sloan." Ed was thinking furiously making a hypothesis as he went. "You felt guilt. In your mind, you'd abandoned your leader. You failed and when you fail what happens?"
Tom moaned. "Punishment."
"Sloan wouldn't punish you, but Lewis would. Subconsciously, you were waiting for that. Waiting for Lewis to call you in."
"Yes!" Tom cried out in an anguished voice. "I didn't fight him. I knew I deserved it. After the pain, everything would be alright. Penance and absolution. But there was more this time. This time Lewis had drugs... a white room. Real and unreal, Sloan, Ed... mother is real. She'll hurt me too," he said with confused distress. Then he seemed to gain control, and explained tonelessly, "It's best to just comply, go quiet, go still, don't make it worse. Stay far, far away where the pain can't go. Don't let him know what I feel. Don't feel anything at all. Then he'll stop. He'll leave me alone. I'll do whatever he wants." He relaxed, complacent and still.
Ed turned to Attwood. "The bastard set the whole thing up just for this. Lewis had to have known Tom would react this way if he could put him off balance and stress him enough. Once he had Tom under his control and in a vulnerable state, Lewis reinforced his programming with some sort of powerful drug. Then he sat outside the building and waited for Tom to kill us all, not just for the new species agenda but for his own perverted personal vendetta. Lewis must have counted on the moment he'd bring Tom to his senses and let him realize what he'd done. Then he could take his time tormenting Tom, making him pay for leaving in the first place. Sadistic bastard!"
Attwood grimaced. "Is that it, Tom?" he asked firmly.
"Lewis wanted me back. I was his," Tom said plainly. "He'd never let me go."
"What do you mean his?" Attwood asked.
Ed stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Don't go there, Attwood," he insisted with a dark and hardened expression. He saw the older man's eyes widen with surprise and revulsion.
Attwood leaned down close to Tom. "I want you listen to me, Tom. Listen closely and understand that what I'm saying is the truth. Lewis doesn't have any power over you. You are never to return to him or any of his kind. They don't have the right to hurt you. You don't owe them any allegiance. The phrase, we will reign in the kingdom of man, means nothing to you now."
Tom moaned and gritted his teeth. "It's a lie," he cried out softly. "The only way to be free of Lewis is to kill him, and I can't. I want to. I need to. It's the only way to protect Sloan from him, from me, from the things he can make me do!"
"No!" Attwood insisted. "Lewis can't make you do anything you don't want to do. Lewis has no more control. Do you hear me? His words mean nothing. You're never to allow him to hurt you again."
"They mean nothing," Tom repeated dutifully. "Never hurt me again. Sloan told me," Tom said dreamily. "Sloan, won't hurt me. She's the only one." He passed out.
They undid his restraints, turned him over and refastened them, taking advantage of his condition to run a few harmless tests.
He woke up with a start. Panicked for only a moment and then settled back down. "I'd like to get up now," he said with strained equanimity. "Please."
Ed and Attwood began removing the restraints. Ed informed him with as much dispassionate inflection as he could muster what they'd learned. That without the complicated mechanization designed to throw him mentally and emotionally off balance, Lewis' trigger would never have worked, but once he had him in a weakened state, Lewis was able use powerful drugs and well established techniques to control his will. But they knew the trigger and had erased its hold on his mind.
Tom's hands shook as he gathered up his shirt and put it on. Livid bruises ringed his wrists and neck, but he didn't complain. He listened intently to what they said.
"Did you get what you wanted?" he asked quietly.
They both froze. Somehow his words made Ed feel terribly guilty and unclean. There could be no doubt that he'd allowed them to do this as a kind of offering, but would brook no suggestion that it was for his benefit.
"Yes," Attwood answered. Facing the calm accusing stare. "We're satisfied."
Tom nodded acknowledgment. "Good," he said simply. He walked out of the lab. Smiled to see the anxious greeting on Sloan's face as she rushed to meet him. Her observant eyes rested on his bruised neck. She touched it lightly.
"What happened?" she inquired.
He buttoned his shirt all the way up to the top, and shrugged. "It doesn't matter. It doesn't hurt anymore."
Sloan glanced down the hall to where Ed was standing in the door of the lab. "I'm surprised you went to Ed. You know he still doesn't really trust you."
"You're the only one who does," he said without rancor. "That means a lot to me, Sloan," he admitted. "I want to be worthy."
"You are!" she insisted. "You've proven that."
He sighed and followed her eyes to turn and look at Ed. "I hope so," he said heavily.
THE END
11
Little Sacrifices
by Sanguine
His sneakers squeaked as he walked down the long corridor. The floor was a high gloss gray and shimmered softly under the harsh lights. The walls were painted a soft charcoal and all the doors were black.
Ed grinned inanely, he felt like he was in a Hitchcock movie, as if everything was in black and white and the corridor had taken on a surreal elongation. It would be fitting because behind each and every ominous black door a dangerous madman lurked. Except for one, one who wasn't a man, wasn't really human.
He counted the doors and got to thirteen and tried to stifle another nervous grin. Unlucky number selected at random for a prisoner the likes of which even this nightmarish prison had never envisioned.
Ed waited. He glanced up at the camera monitoring him from a long track embedded in the ceiling. He wasn't sure if he should say something.
"Open sesame," he mumbled and the door made a deep heavy thunk sound as it's massive hidden lock disengaged.
He tried to keep his hand steady as he opened the door. It didn't swing back but slid into wall.
The prisoner looked up mildly as if expecting him. The eyes were a brilliant silver-blue like treacherous ice. His hair had been close cropped into a cap of white waves. He wore a black coverall with a number stitched in white over his left breast. His body was trim and fit and managed to give the impression of coiled power.
"Well?" the prisoner asked impatiently. His blue eyes seemed like the only color in the room, and had a penetrating quality that was extremely unnerving.
Ed cleared his throat. "Hello, Lewis," he said. He'd been warned to keep his distance, but stepped forward quickly at the warning beep from the door and was startled as it closed noisily behind him.
"Are you one of the doctors?" Lewis inquired with a sarcastic sneer. He pulled against the restraint that manacled one wrist to a heavy bolt in the wall, the other was attached to the steel table in front of him and his sleeve had been rolled up, revealing an ugly patchwork of red needle marks.
"No," Ed said quickly. "I work with Sloan Parker. I've come to ask you some questions about Tom Daniels."
The brilliant eyes narrowed. He shifted and leaned back against wall and studied Ed with a frank and chilling appraisal. Slowly he grinned. "Why not?" he said with a cavalier shrug.
Never had Ed felt more like a mouse facing a hungry cat. He could feel his pulse racing and knew that the predator manacled so securely in front of him could sense his fear acutely. "Sloan trusts him. I don't," he said plainly.
"You love her," Lewis observed with cool contempt.
Some of his fear was thawed by a flare of anger. "Enough that I don't want to see her hurt, yeah."
"And you want me to give you something you can use against him, something that will allow you to control him. Is that it?" Lewis guessed.
"Essentially," Ed agreed, disconcerted by Lewis' effortless detection, and wondering if he could read his mind.
"Mozart," Lewis snapped.
"That was the trigger that let you take him over?" Ed asked eagerly, "music?"
"No, you insipid moron," Lewis growled. "Have these bastards give me back my music and I'll tell you what you want to know."
Ed shook his head. "I don't have that kind of influence. It was a miracle I got in here to see you at all. I doubt they'll let me come back."
Lewis just stared with cold penetrating silence.
"I'll try. That's all I can do," Ed said.
Lewis shrugged. "Good enough. Besides this is just the kind of gift I owe my protégé," he said with a sardonic little smile. "I do hope you get a chance to deliver it."
Ed felt a miserable traitorous feeling in his gut. He'd promised to share whatever information he got from Lewis with Attwood, and he was pretty certain Attwood would take advantage of it. If he ever did, Sloan would never forgive either of them.
"Captivity," Lewis reported with a meaningful jerk of the restraints. "Tom has only one real fear, one weakness. That is if you don't count his unnatural preoccupation with Ms. Parker," he sneered with contempt. "Tom has a complete and total horror of being confined and abandoned. He's had it as long as he can remember. It was one thing from his childhood no amount of conditioning could erase. Of course it was useful in controlling him."
"The tattoo," Ed muttered. "He's had reoccurring visions of that moment in his childhood. He must have been restrained. His mother was there and just watched."
"How incredibly chatty he's become," Lewis said sarcastically. "How obnoxiously repugnant and human. Pathetic! His mother would not approve. Thankfully, I had Tom kill her before she had a chance to learn what's become of him."
"Wait a second! Tom killed his own mother?" Ed exclaimed.
"Neatly and completely. She was very proud," Lewis related without emotion. The quiet menace in his Arctic gaze was tinged with satisfaction.
"You used his fears against him, to control him?"
Lewis laughed. He flexed the arm bound to the table and the steel groaned. "This place would render the boy catatonic. We never had to do much more than threaten, he was that terrified. His fear annoyed me. I knew it was a weakness and took it upon myself to train him out of it, but eventually I suspected that he just endured my little exercises to try and spare himself more pain. He can endure quite a lot of that, even enjoy it." He licked his lips and smiled.
Ed's stomach turned over. He wanted out of the cell suddenly in the worst way. And tried hard to control a rising sense of panic.
"I'm not really surprised at the effect Sloan's had. Tom was always such a sensual creature. Of course, like his other fear, he tried to hide that too. I was so very annoyed with him for leaving us. I was tempted to punish him in some more corporal fashion, but I knew I could save that for later, after I'd destroyed his little fantasy world. After I had him kill his human companions, including this... love interest," he said as if pronouncing something foul. "I knew he'd be mine then. Mine completely in every way. Just as he used to be."
"Good God!" Ed exclaimed in disgust. "No wonder he can turn against the rest of you so easily!"
The door vibrated and the lock slipped back. Ed resisted the impulse to race from the room.
"Chain him down," Lewis advised calmly. "Do things to him," he added with extra emphasis. "He'll tell you anything you want to know. He'll do anything you ask, no matter how degrading."
The door slid back and Ed stepped back into the safety of the monochrome hallway. Just as the door was sliding shut he saw Lewis smile. The handsome face lit up with amused pleasure. He called out softly, "And be sure and tell him, Lewis sent you."
Never had Ed felt more that he'd been in the presence of pure evil. Undiluted menace dripped from the handsome predator. His eyes were so cold... As Ed rushed back down the hallway to the warmth and safety of the outside world, he couldn't help but feel sorry for Tom. The idea of being raised by Lewis made his gorge rise. His imagination played havoc with his mind at the things Lewis had insinuated. He alluded to a sexual relationship, if you could call it a relationship or sex... more like torture. It was in Lewis' suggestive smile and the gas-light blue flame in his eyes, not to mention the tension of his expressive body.
He wondered what had been done to Tom when Lewis had him back. It was plain what Lewis intended to do once Tom had completed his deadly mission. There were scenes in Ed's mind so vivid that he suspected Lewis had somehow planted them.
Outside of the security area, beyond the locks and gates and guards. Attwood was waiting for his report.
"Ed, you look like you've seen a ghost!" he remarked in a hushed voice.
"Or a monster anyway," Ed agreed shakily.
Attwood led the way out of the building. "What did he tell you?"
"Basically, that we don't hold the paten on sadism," Ed quipped. "Remember when you gave Tom that drug and he related the vision of when he was tattooed?"
"Yes," Attwood said with keen interest.
Ed hurried for their car anxious to be as far from the secret facility as possible. "Well, it apparently affected Tom deeply. It wasn't just the pain. It was being abandoned by the mother he thought would protect him, and he has a profound fear of being restrained."
"His mother knew that and used it against him," Attwood guessed. "In the basement of that house where Sloan found him. It wasn't the beating that affected him, it was the restraints. When we restrained him after Lewis triggered his conditioning, we must have inadvertently caused enough emotional distress to help break through."
"That was Sloan," Ed reminded.
Attwood shook his head and walked to the driver's side of their rented car. "Not entirely. Of course we could test it."
Ed looked with disbelief. "You're joking. I hope you're joking. Sloan would kill us first."
"Not if Tom volunteered," Attwood said carefully. He opened the door and triggered the locks and Ed slid into the passenger seat next to him.
"Why in the world would he do that?"
The ignition started smoothly and Attwood put the car in reverse. He shrugged. "To regain our trust. He did try to kill us. He was triggered by a deep form of brainwashing and I'm sure he'd like to discover how to keep that from happening again."
[][][][]
Tom looked at Attwood and back to Ed. His blue eyes were calm, speculative and unreadable. He looked at the table where they proposed to tie him down and back to the two scientists.
"Alright," he said quietly. "On one condition. I want Sloan here."
"Oh, I don't think that's a good idea," Ed protested. He watched Tom raise his eyebrows and give him a questioning glare.
"Ed's right," Attwood chimed in. "It would only upset her."
But Tom's inscrutable gaze burned with steady obstinacy.
"Look," Ed persuaded, dropping his tone to a confidential level. "Do you really want Sloan to see this? You might say things... things that Lewis did to you during your conditioning that you may not want her to hear.
The cool gaze flickered uncertainly. Tom's brow furrowed. "I don't trust you," he admitted. "I trust her. She wouldn't want me to keep secrets."
"Alright, then," Ed relented. "If you insist. We just wanted to protect her. You know I care about Sloan. And truthfully, I thought you may not want her to be around."
Tom stared at him for a disconcerting moment, then he sighed. "Alright. Do it."
Attwood made him take off his shirt so they could attach the monitors. Tom complied, allowing them to stick on the patches and attach the wires.
In the reflection of his monitor, Ed caught Tom looking at the heavy restraints attached to the table. He had a moment of doubt. He never really trusted Tom. He was one of the new species, an admitted killer, but he was still a person and they'd manipulated him into something that maybe he didn't deserve.
Attwood was deep into his research mode and treated Tom little better than he would one of the monkeys. Paying little or no heed to the fact that this was something Tom was afraid of.
Maybe Lewis was just messing with his head, Ed thought, because Tom didn't look afraid. He stood quietly while they finished their preparations and the tests of the leads. He didn't ask any questions or attempt to delay the inevitable.
"Lie down," Attwood directed. He stopped Tom before he could lie back. "On your stomach please."
Tom froze, his eyes had a look Ed had never seen. It was so much like Lewis' malevolent stare that it shocked him. The look faded and instead he glanced at the table. He looked at the instruments and equipment near the table.
Attwood noted the direction of his subject's attention and said. "In case you crash like you did when we gave you the drug before."
Tom turned his face from the instruments and stared at Attwood. He had one of the restraints in his hand and wordlessly dropped it into Attwood's grasp with a strange censuring expression. With unusual grace he got on the table and turned over obediently, managing not to tangle the wire leads.
As his wrists and ankles were strapped down, Ed noted a spike on the heart monitor. He didn't say anything, and it settled back down.
Attwood made to fasten the padded neck restraint and Tom finally protested.
"No," a simple clear demand.
Attwood sighed and patted Tom's naked shoulder. "Sorry my friend. It's for your own good." He gently secured the strap and ran the chain down through a hole in the table.
The monitor began to register frantic activity, but they'd cut all the alarm sounds leaving only the visual.
"I'm going to give you the injection now. Not nearly as much as before, alright? We'll only increase the dose if we sure it's safe," Attwood assured. He swabbed Tom's forearm and deftly slid home the shot.
Tom tried to raise his head but the padded collar held him down. He gritted his teeth as the shot's initial effect began to take over.
"Tom, can you hear me?" Attwood asked quietly.
Ed could see Tom's face resting peacefully against the smooth metal. His eyes were closed and he seemed relaxed.
"Yes," he replied calmly. "I hear you."
"Do you know where you are?"
"Yes" Tom answered. "I'm in the lab."
"It doesn't bother you to be tied down like this?" Attwood inquired.
Ed could see Tom frown and his shoulders tensed. "It's necessary," he replied finally and relaxed a little.
"Necessary?" Attwood repeated curious.
Almost conversationally Tom replied. "So I won't hurt you if you trigger my conditioning the way that Lewis did. So that you'll trust me."
"And that's important to you? That we trust you?"
The captive sighed. "It's important to Sloan." Suddenly he shifted uncomfortably. "I think its important to me too. I... don't know why."
Attwood glanced at Ed who shrugged and tried not to feel guilty. "Tom, I want you to go back. Back to when you were in Sloan's apartment and Lewis called."
"We shall reign in the kingdom of man," Tom quoted, his face expressionless.
"Was that the triggering phrase?" Attwood said excitedly.
"Yes," Tom said slowly. Suddenly, he jerked against the restraints. "Lewis."
"What about him? What about Lewis?" Attwood pried.
Tom groaned and tried to lever himself up. "I have to go to him."
"No you don't. Listen to me, Tom. You don't have to do anything for Lewis. You don't have to follow the conditioning program. You're free of all that." He tried to hold Tom down and keep him from straining.
At his touch all the fight went out of Tom like a light being extinguished. "Let me go," he demanded in a flat tone.
For an instant they thought the drug had worn off and he'd returned to himself.
"No," Attwood said cautiously.
Tom gave a deep shudder and then went slack. "I'll do what you want," he said with total lack of intonation.
"Where are you, Tom?" Attwood asked softly.
"With Lewis," Tom replied with a resigned sigh.
"And he's tied you down? Why?" Attwood asked softly.
"He likes me like this," Tom replied.
"Helpless?" Attwood guessed.
"Afraid," Tom answered.
Attwood gazed down at the captive body. "Are you? Are you afraid, Tom?"
Tom's eyes snapped open and he stared at the restraints on his wrists trying to lift his head. He jerked first one arm then the other and tried to pull his wrists free. His face looked panicked. He groaned with frustration, closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the table and went still as if trying to gain control. Suddenly he heaved up with all his strength, with a deep angry cry. He writhed in the restraints pulling with everything he had. He was like a wild animal.
Ed jumped up with alarm. "He's going to break something. He's going to kill himself!"
"Don't touch me!" Tom screamed. He kept struggling. The strange tattoo stood out like a blue black brand on his flushed skin. The chains and the table groaned as if seriously threatened by their captive.
Frantic, Ed went to the table. "Listen to me Tom. Sloan wants you to lie still. Lie still."
"Sloan?" Tom called out plaintively. He stilled immediately, panting slightly from his exertions and panic.
"She's worried about you," Ed said experimentally.
"I should never have left her," Tom said miserably. "I deserve this. I deserve to be punished. Lewis..." He relaxed and his hands opened. His head turned and he rested his cheek against the table.
"Is that why you were vulnerable to Lewis' triggering? You're not set up to be independent but to obey someone, to serve someone. Since you left Lewis, you've transferred this dependence to Sloan." Ed was thinking furiously making a hypothesis as he went. "You felt guilt. In your mind, you'd abandoned your leader. You failed and when you fail what happens?"
Tom moaned. "Punishment."
"Sloan wouldn't punish you, but Lewis would. Subconsciously, you were waiting for that. Waiting for Lewis to call you in."
"Yes!" Tom cried out in an anguished voice. "I didn't fight him. I knew I deserved it. After the pain, everything would be alright. Penance and absolution. But there was more this time. This time Lewis had drugs... a white room. Real and unreal, Sloan, Ed... mother is real. She'll hurt me too," he said with confused distress. Then he seemed to gain control, and explained tonelessly, "It's best to just comply, go quiet, go still, don't make it worse. Stay far, far away where the pain can't go. Don't let him know what I feel. Don't feel anything at all. Then he'll stop. He'll leave me alone. I'll do whatever he wants." He relaxed, complacent and still.
Ed turned to Attwood. "The bastard set the whole thing up just for this. Lewis had to have known Tom would react this way if he could put him off balance and stress him enough. Once he had Tom under his control and in a vulnerable state, Lewis reinforced his programming with some sort of powerful drug. Then he sat outside the building and waited for Tom to kill us all, not just for the new species agenda but for his own perverted personal vendetta. Lewis must have counted on the moment he'd bring Tom to his senses and let him realize what he'd done. Then he could take his time tormenting Tom, making him pay for leaving in the first place. Sadistic bastard!"
Attwood grimaced. "Is that it, Tom?" he asked firmly.
"Lewis wanted me back. I was his," Tom said plainly. "He'd never let me go."
"What do you mean his?" Attwood asked.
Ed stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Don't go there, Attwood," he insisted with a dark and hardened expression. He saw the older man's eyes widen with surprise and revulsion.
Attwood leaned down close to Tom. "I want you listen to me, Tom. Listen closely and understand that what I'm saying is the truth. Lewis doesn't have any power over you. You are never to return to him or any of his kind. They don't have the right to hurt you. You don't owe them any allegiance. The phrase, we will reign in the kingdom of man, means nothing to you now."
Tom moaned and gritted his teeth. "It's a lie," he cried out softly. "The only way to be free of Lewis is to kill him, and I can't. I want to. I need to. It's the only way to protect Sloan from him, from me, from the things he can make me do!"
"No!" Attwood insisted. "Lewis can't make you do anything you don't want to do. Lewis has no more control. Do you hear me? His words mean nothing. You're never to allow him to hurt you again."
"They mean nothing," Tom repeated dutifully. "Never hurt me again. Sloan told me," Tom said dreamily. "Sloan, won't hurt me. She's the only one." He passed out.
They undid his restraints, turned him over and refastened them, taking advantage of his condition to run a few harmless tests.
He woke up with a start. Panicked for only a moment and then settled back down. "I'd like to get up now," he said with strained equanimity. "Please."
Ed and Attwood began removing the restraints. Ed informed him with as much dispassionate inflection as he could muster what they'd learned. That without the complicated mechanization designed to throw him mentally and emotionally off balance, Lewis' trigger would never have worked, but once he had him in a weakened state, Lewis was able use powerful drugs and well established techniques to control his will. But they knew the trigger and had erased its hold on his mind.
Tom's hands shook as he gathered up his shirt and put it on. Livid bruises ringed his wrists and neck, but he didn't complain. He listened intently to what they said.
"Did you get what you wanted?" he asked quietly.
They both froze. Somehow his words made Ed feel terribly guilty and unclean. There could be no doubt that he'd allowed them to do this as a kind of offering, but would brook no suggestion that it was for his benefit.
"Yes," Attwood answered. Facing the calm accusing stare. "We're satisfied."
Tom nodded acknowledgment. "Good," he said simply. He walked out of the lab. Smiled to see the anxious greeting on Sloan's face as she rushed to meet him. Her observant eyes rested on his bruised neck. She touched it lightly.
"What happened?" she inquired.
He buttoned his shirt all the way up to the top, and shrugged. "It doesn't matter. It doesn't hurt anymore."
Sloan glanced down the hall to where Ed was standing in the door of the lab. "I'm surprised you went to Ed. You know he still doesn't really trust you."
"You're the only one who does," he said without rancor. "That means a lot to me, Sloan," he admitted. "I want to be worthy."
"You are!" she insisted. "You've proven that."
He sighed and followed her eyes to turn and look at Ed. "I hope so," he said heavily.
THE END
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