Chapter 4: A Sparrow Falls
"It's rather unprecedented, ma'am. The subject has shown little or no sign of resistance since the second day of reprogramming." The psychologist frowned over his glasses at Renfro, who looked through the window at the X5 tied to the chair. She smiled, one of pure pleasure rather than jape. "Ma'am? I suspect she may have completely resisted all attempts at indoctrination. Every other X5 we've attempted to reprogram has fought tooth and nail, and this one isn't even trying."
She folded her arms and bit her lip as she concentrated. "I'm willing to take that risk. I want you to send Deck in. See if you can get a rise out of her that way. If she kills him…well, he's expendable."
The psychologist gulped, fully aware of the implications of that statement. "Yes, ma'am. At once."
***
Jondy watched avidly as the 'reprogramming' video played through. She'd been there a week. A whole week, with no sign of Zack. He must really be angry with her. And the things they were trying to make her believe…it was getting harder to fight, and she knew it.
A voice flashed from her memory. No-one can resist torture indefinitely. Not even you. She guessed that this was its own type of torture – trying to eliminate her as a person.
She'd pretended to give up at the end of the second day, and they now trusted her enough to indoctrinate her without bindings. Every morning, a pair of guards would come for her, cuff her and lead her to this blindingly white and bare room, where she would sit and watch. Traitor. Rat. Enemy. Only some of the words interspersed with pictures of her siblings, both pre-escape and recent. Mission. Duty. Objective. Discipline. Pictures of them all, and pictures of their barcodes and designations. X5-599. X5-656. X5-493. X5-734. X5-798 (Traitor.) X5-711. X5-701. X5-205. X5-452. X5-210. Then a picture of her as a child, all buzz-cut and fatigues. X5-210. A picture of her they'd taken in here. X5-210. You are X5-210.
No I'm not. I'm Jondy.
You are X5-210.
I'm not. I'm Jondy.
No-one can resist indefinitely. I can try.
You are X5-210.
I'm not.
You are X5-210.
Not even you…
I…I'm sorry, Zack. I give in. And with hot tears pouring down her cheeks, she forgot.
A/N: 'Tis short, I know. The next chapter will make up for it. And if you want to make me type faster…you could always use the little button in the bottom left hand corner and implore me to do so.
