*Author's note: This part only is the weirdest one I wrote to the story. This
IS scifi. If you don't get a part, email me, I'll try to explain.
This
part is not the final version of it. I can't find that file at this present
time. No major changes will occur, though. I will continually edit these and all
stories I write; I'm compulsive that way. :) Sorry FOX and TnT...
Chapter 5 Alcatraz
The cell he was brought to was cold
and dark. He was chained to the bed and "punished" nonstop. The sweepers seemed
to enjoy beating him whenever he was not drugged or delirious from lack of food
and the torture.
"Jarod, you should have never left," Lyle told
him.
"I only wish I had sooner," Jarod spat back hoarsely.
Lyle
grabbed Jarod's neck with his black leather gloves, "You will tell us where the
DSA's are."
"I will never help you even if my life depended on it. And
I'm too important to the Centre for you to kill me."
"That option has
not been considered yet, but the longer you fight us, the less likely you will
stay alive."
"The triumvirate would never…"
"The triumvirate
does not even know you are here yet. The longer they don't, the more likely it
is that you won't die."
Jarod continued sarcastically, "The longer I'm
in debt to your 'kindness'."
The sweepers came back after Lyle
left. They punched him, kicked him, and mutilated him with their knives.
Whenever he passed out, they used a stimulant, making sure he did not miss
anything. He would lie there for as long as they stayed, submissive, knowing
that if he fought, they would make it even worse. Instead, he receded to his
subconscious, not letting the pain get to him. He tried to focus on something
else, he thought about the girl, Parker, Sydney; he tried to focus on anything
that could come to mind. The technique was hard to maintain, even for a
pretender. He lost track of time. He imagined he was in Miss Parker's arms. He
could almost smell her sweet perfume, feel her soft brown hair. He missed being
with her, the innocence of their youth was long gone and all he had left was
memories and the broken shell of his friend. Why did this have to happen to him?
Leigh was left alone for the time being. She spent that time
going over her room, searching for an escape route. There were no windows,
vents, or anything except the door and she had no way of opening it. She had
tried using the toothpick they gave her with each meal, but it was not strong
enough. Eventually, they stopped giving her one anyway.
The small room
only contained a chair, bed, and a sink with a large counter-top. The
counter-top was crowded with bottles and syringes. There were at least thirty
different medications and chemicals, most of the names she did not recognize.
Those that she did were either antidepressants or sleep drugs. She also noticed
that most of them were almost empty. Several empty bottles had been tossed
carelessly into the sink. They were all labeled monohetris. Lyle must have been
using them on her. What was monohetris? As a sickening feeling crept into her
stomach, she wished she had not been so curious.
* * *
Jarod
crouched in the corner of his room, huddled in a ball. He desperately tried to
ignore all of their games; stay strong against his foe. His will was failing,
along with his sanity. His mind could scarcely deal with what was happening. He
had lost his freedom, and was losing all that he had learnt in the world:
individuality, right and wrong, and caring… He was almost tempted to just give
in, and help the monsters of his childhood. The door opened, sliding him back to
the present.
Three sweepers entered his room. In contrast to their dirty
job, each sweeper always wore a suit. They were professional motivators,
hunters, and, if need be, hitman. They had hunted him these past years.
"Hey, Jarod," said the sweeper Sam.
"Leave me alone," he
growled.
"Not this time, Jarod, not until you help us. Then all I will
be is the past."
Sam enjoyed the torture that he inflicted on Jarod. He
had the body of a professional football player, muscular and broad-shouldered.
Before Jarod escaped he never was hard to motivate; one look at the powerful man
would scare him. Now that fear changed, Sam was no longer a child's monster in
the closet. Sam was real; the pain was real; his fear was for the anticipation
of that pain and the thought that he could not stop it. But now Jarod was
stronger, smarter, and more defiant. He would have his revenge.
He stood
up and faced Sam, staring him right in the eye. Sam stared back with a cool
demeanor. Jarod could do nothing to him and they both know it. All he could do
was struggle and it seemed like he was not in the mood for that today.
"Alright Jarod, we'll play it your way."
Sam drew back his fist
and punched Jarod in the stomach. Jarod winced, but kept staring at Sam. Sam
drew his hand back again and again, but Jarod did not blink. Sam threw him
against the wall. Jarod crumpled to the floor.
"Another round of stims,"
Sam ordered the other sweeper.
Leigh sat and waited. She had
nothing to do. Lyle left her alone during the day to deal with Jarod. She had
studied the bottles of monohetris in vain, searching for a clue as to what it
was. There was two full bottles of it left on the sink. She could have just
broken them, but Lyle would have come back with more. The unnerving thing about
them was that every time she awoke in the morning there was less in them than
the night before. Lyle must make his house calls while she slept.
"Sydney," she said, "Sydney, are you still listening?"
What's
the use? she thought, he still isn't there.
"Sydney, if you're there,
please answer me!" she shouted.
After a moments pause, she heard a voice
over the intercom.
"I am here, Leigh."
"What is Lyle doing to
me? What is monohetris? What is he doing to Jarod?"
"Leigh, calm down. I
do not know what monohetris is, but I will discuss it with my colleagues."
"What did she say, Syd?" asked Miss Parker.
"She wants
to know about Jarod, and what Lyle is doing to her."
"She doesn't know
where Jarod is then?"
"I doubt it."
"Why was Lyle keeping me
from him?" Miss Parker wondered. "I spent four years searching for him, why the
hell won't he let me see him?"
"Miss Parker, Lyle will let you see him."
* * *
Someone was in her room. That someone was Lyle. Ice blue
eyes burned through her soul. Lyle injected a syringe full of a clear liquid
into her neck. She closed her eyes.
* * *
When the sweepers left
his room, Jarod uncovered the paper clip he had stole from them. He carefully
undid the handcuffs and crouched down in front of the locked door handle.
What was that drug? Leigh wondered. She had found one of the
last two bottles empty. Lyle must have given her the rest of it last night. She
worried about Sydney. He seemed like he was thinking about something else.
She heard a knock on her door, which surprise her. Lyle never knocks,
she thought, could it be Sydney? She heard a rustle in the lock, a click, and
then Jarod walked cautiously into her room.
"How?" she started.
"Shhh…" he whispered, and walked over to the sink. He searched around,
smiled slyly, then pulled a small camera out of the wall.
"You okay?" he
asked, concerned.
"Yes, I'm fine," she noticed the bruises across his
face. "What did they do to you?"
He looked down solemnly, "They want to
know where the DSA's I had were," he said sadly.
"I am sorry they did
this to you."
"It's okay, it's not your fault."
"But I told Lyle
where you were."
"It's okay, Leigh. I know what he did to you. But we
can get out of here. I have escaped before."
She stared off into space
for a moment; she started to say something, but stopped. Jarod looked at her,
worried.
"Are you going to be all right?"
She glanced at him.
What was it? She felt…
"Lyle."
"What about him?"
"I, I'm
not…" she paused again, "I think…"
"It's okay, you can tell me."
"I can feel him, he's" she brushed her hair back in frustration, then
stopped in realization, "Lyle's back!"
The door banged open. Lyle
appeared and he glowered at Jarod, "Jarod, what the hell are you doing here?"
Jarod looked from Lyle to Leigh in shock. How had she known Lyle was
coming?
Lyle tackled Jarod onto the bed, shoving Leigh to the floor.
Jarod twisted around, but Lyle punched him in the face and sweepers who had been
standing in the doorway dove into the fray. They punched him until he stopped
struggling. They lifted him off the bed, forcing him to stand. When he collapsed
in their arms, one of the sweepers lashed out at him with a sharp knee to his
stomach. Jarod doubled over in pain two sweepers held his arms to keep him from
falling. He allowed himself to be dragged out of the room without any more
trouble. Lyle and a sweeper dragged Leigh out, too, and brought her to another
room with extremely dim lighting. The sweeper held her down on the floor and
Lyle left the room. A while later, they dragged Jarod in. They had taken off his
shirt and had attached electrodes to his chest and forehead.
She
squinted against the dark and caught sight of a strange chair across from her.
Several people were standing around it. The sweepers lifted Jarod into it and
strapped him to it. His head fell forward so they wrapped a band under his chin
to hold it up. Lyle pulled Leigh towards him. It was rigged like an electric
chair.
"No," she gasped. She had to help him. But how?
Lyle
spoke to her, "Leigh, Jarod needs to be taught a little lesson in Centre
protocol."
A man spoke up behind him.
"Mr. Lyle," he murmured
respectfully, "Please don't hurt him…"
"Broots," Lyle snapped.
"Jarod," Lyle said.
Jarod moaned, his head moved weakly. He
closed his eyes.
Leigh closed her eyes. She had to help him. But how? Of
course, the only way she knew. Her mind dove into his. It was happening too
fast, she thought, panicking.
Jarod opened his eyes. She saw Broots and
Lyle standing nearby. Lyle was holding on to
Shit, she thought, it was
herself.
She had never tried to see herself through other's eyes. She
looked like hell.
Leigh could barely feel Jarod's mind. As powerful as
it had proved to be, he was quiet, now, and did not resist to her controlling
him. She knew she had better do something. It occurred to her that if his mind
was completely shut off, he would not feel the pain of the electrocution. Maybe
Lyle would not try to kill him, but just try to hurt him, instead. If so, she
could put him in a coma or something, so he could be protected from Lyle's evil
plans. She imagined it as if she was chopping wood; she raised the imaginary ax
and brought it down, severing consciousness. She did so, just as Lyle had turned
on the machine. This shot her painfully back to her own body. Unused to such a
forceful end to a Reading, she fainted from the shock.
Jarod's body
moved in spasms, but he did not awaken. Broots leapt over to the machine and
turned it off. He stared in horror at the scene. Jarod was strapped to the
electric chair, unmoving and unconscious; Leigh lay sprawled out on the floor at
Lyle's feet. He moved to Jarod and took his pulse.
"He's bbarely alive,
Mr. Lyle. You have to get him to tthe inffirmary," he stammered.
Lyle
nodded and told the sweepers to bring him there. He bent over and turned Leigh
onto her back. He shook her.
"Leigh? You awake?"
When she did
not respond, he picked her up gently and carried her down the hall to her room.
Broots followed and asked, "What happened to her?"
"The monohetris
worked."
"What is that stuff?"
Lyle put her on her bed. They
walked out of her room and Lyle locked the door. "It stimulates the part of her
brain used to Read people."
"Why?" Broots asked, "Why would you do that
to her?"
"So we can test her limits. She does not know what she is
capable of doing. With pressure, she may exceed where others would fail. You do
remember that when Jarod was tested, he could only Read thoughts, but Leigh can
Read images. She could steal patent ideas, trade secrets, anything we want her
to. She put Jarod into a coma. Can you imagine what someone like her could do if
she could get into people's minds? World leaders, presidents, anyone!"
"But you're using her to do this against her will, she will catch onto
what you are doing."
"Who cares if she does?"
"Sydney," Broots
reminded him.
* * *
There were five new bottles sitting on the
counter staring at her. She stared back. She knew what they were, but what they
did was still a mystery to her. Did it have something to do with Jarod's return?
Her cooperation in that? Damn the questions, she needed answers, but her source
had gone away again. Why wouldn't he respond? What had happened to Sydney? The
answers were locked in Lyle's mind, she had the key, but was she willing to use
it? No, she could not. She was terrified of him, and what his thoughts would
reveal.
Maybe someone else knew. Not Jarod, for he had seen the bottles,
but hadn't said anything about them. Sydney? Had he found out what it was?
"Sydney?" she begged, "Answer me!"
"Sorry, he can't come to the
intercom right now," Leigh gasped as she recognized the voice over the speaker,
"can I take a message?"
"Lyle," she said sarcastically, "So you found
the source. Took ya long enough."
He tore the speaker system out
of the wall at Sydney's desk. She had that way of getting to him… He swept his
arm across the desk, scattering papers and disks. Oh, was she gonna get it.
TO BE CONTINUED