Legacy: chapter 2
"Wow, talk about icy." Keith Sheppard stood in an observation room looking into the small questioning room where Mary Crawford sat, motionless, staring back at the one way mirror.
"Good luck. She never talks to anyone." An officer said as he unlocked the door to let Keith in.
"Oh, I have my methods." Keith grinned innocently.
The guard shrugged, repeated: "good luck."
Stepping into the room, Keith immediately felt a chill in the air, part of him wanted to think that it was coming from Mary but he knew better than that. There was still something strange about this woman though.
"You're probably wondering why I'm here." He said as he took a seat in the chair across from Mary.
"No, not really." she smirked; Mary knew how this worked. These 'games' were a major event for her, a chance to use her vast knowledge and analytical mind to confuse the hell out of these… people. They all thought they were so smart, like they had her all figured out. They knew shit about her and what she had seen. If any one of them was to catch a glimpse of it, she knew they would be paralyzed by the same fear that gripped her.
"Let's get to the point then." Keith said, reached in his portfolio case and pulled out a manila folder, started reading silently.
After several minutes passed, he laid the folder down on the table, started reading it to Mary: "name: Mary Crawford. Father: Eric Crawford, deceased in an… unfortunate friendly fire incident. Very sad." He looked up to gage her reaction. Mary anticipated this move and hardened her expression so as not to show any sign of emotion.
"Hmm," Keith continued, "five years into a twenty-five year prison term for murder-" he glanced up with a mischievous smile on his face, "-you've been a bad girl now haven't you?"
Mary glared at him, she knew very well why she was in this place, and she would do anything to take it back. For a chance to not pull that trigger, or even turn the gun on herself, she knew she disserved it for all she had done.
"Ooh, what's this here?" Keith asked.
Ooh! Why don't you tell me? Moron. Mary thought.
"It says here that you were part of a special investigative unit in the FBI; Alien abductions, UFO investigations… spooky stuff." Keith relaxed a little, it should be easy to get her to talk now. He watched her face as she obviously struggled to find the right way to ask: 'just how the hell did you find that out'.
"What do you want?" Mary said, agitated. Keith took the opportunity to add some more suspense, he slowly closed the folder and tenderly slid it back into his case, taking care not to bend the corners even slightly.
He looked back up at her, "How did he find that out?" he said mockingly. "I have my sources, Miss Crawford. I know plenty about you… and your family."
"You think you know me?"
"Yes, yes I do."
"Then who are these sources?"
"No, no, no." he chided, "then I wouldn't have my secrets would I?"
"So… why should I care at all?" Mary snapped, clearly angered and at a loss for a way to handle this conversation. Keith could tell that Mary like to control things and this was driving her crazy, he knew something that she didn't. The urge to get up and say: 'I know something you don't know! Nah nah!' crept up but he subdued it, remaining professional.
"What do you want?!" Mary repeated her earlier demand angrily.
Instead of saying a word, Keith reached down to his case and pulled out a second folder, slid it across the table. Mary slammed her hand down on it, keeping it from hitting the floor on her side.
"Take a look." Keith said, leaned back in his chair, elbows on the armrests and hands clasped in front of his mouth to cover a smile that was forming.
Inside the folder there was nothing but three surveillance photos and a short report. Mary took one of the pictures and studied it for a moment, then looked up at Keith: "is this supposed to mean something to me?"
Keith stifled a laugh, said: "look closer."
The picture was just a normal teenage girl, fourteen or fifteen with long blond hair, slender face, blue eyes and about five-foot-two. It wasn't ringing any bells, just an average girl. But Mary's eyes fell on a word on the page below, a name: 'Allie Keys'.
A startled gasp escaped her; she shot her eyes up to Keith, who was obviously enjoying himself very much, then back to the picture. It was her, the little girl she had tried so hard to get a hold of, and, had succeeded in doing so on several occasions. Her mind was now filled with thousands of questions, but which one first?
"How… when was this picture taken?"
"About ten hours ago."
Mary felt a wave of excitement pass over her, she had felt so bad that night when Allie had gone, even worse then shooting Chet. Those poor people lost their daughter almost solely due to her actions. Now she had come back to them. Mary could finally cross that whole ugly episode off her ever-growing list of things she wished she'd never done.
"Why are you showing me this?"
"An excellent question!" Keith reached into his case and pulled out a third folder, "would you like to see what's behind door number three?" he grinned.
Mary stared at him blankly. "I think you do…" Keith said, opened the folder and took out two sheets of paper, handed one to her.
After glancing at the heading, Mary knew what it was: a copy of her criminal record.
"Kind of nasty looking, huh?" Keith grinned, "try this one on for size." He handed her the one he held.
Mary looked at it briefly, noticing one glaring difference. It was completely clean! Not even one traffic ticket. She looked back up at him confused.
"Which one looks better?" Keith paused, then laughed at himself. "Stupid question… which one would you rather have on file?… I guess that's a stupid question too."
"What's your point?"
"My point? Its quite simple really, I want you to work with me."
"Doing what?"
"You are just full of questions aren't you?" Keith said, "the real point is: I need you to help me, I have been assigned head of a new division at the… well that's not important yet… but what is important is that if you work for me, I can make all the nastiness in your past disappear."
Mary leaned back and considered what he had told her. "What will this new division do, exactly?"
"Well, first we need to catch that girl." he pointed to the picture of Allie lying in front of Mary.
No way! Mary did not want to be involved in that again. That family had been through enough hell by her hand. Answers were no concern of her or any other government agency, everyone will know what the aliens know soon enough, giving humanity that type of knowledge at this point would be catastrophic.
"And what if I don't want too?" Mary asked.
Keith sat up, the playful expression fading from his face. "Then I guess I wasted my time." He said as he gathered his folders and began to leave.
This man can play the game, Mary thought. She had seconds to make her decision before he was out the door.
If I help him, there's no telling what might happen to that poor kid…but, if I make him think I'm helping him, I could warn Allie and her family.
"Wait!" Mary called after him, Keith stopped at the door and turned. "I'll do it," she said decisively.
Keith smiled, "I knew you would." He walked back to her, extending his hand, "Agent Keith Sheppard, N.S.A."
Half an hour later Mary was almost a free woman, all that was left was to pick up her clothes and a few other things. Keith watched from his seat down the hall while she stood at the claims counter waiting on the impossibly slow inventory clerk. Something about her made Keith continue staring. Mary hadn't looked too terribly attractive in the dim lighting of the interrogation room but the bright hallway lighting emphasized certain parts of her figure. She didn't look all that bad to him now, Keith knew he could definitely get better, and had, but this Mary was well worth a shot.
The sharp electronic ringing of his cell phone startled him, quickly breaking off the erotic thoughts brewing in his head. He lifted the phone from his coats inner pocket, turned it on
"Shep-pard," he coughed to clear his throat, "Sheppard here."
"Did you secure the asset?" said a rough, older male voice over the static of the phones bad reception, Keith got up and walked to the nearest window.
"Yes, she bought the cover story." Keith answered the query, his voice loosing all traces of playfulness and taking on a manner of cold efficiency.
"Good," the voice rasped, then hesitated, "you are not on your way to the airport yet?"
Keith cast a casual glance down at his watch, "no, I'm almost done here."
More hesitation from the other end of the call, then: "the timing is very critical."
Keith rolled his eyes back; the old man was trying to tell him how to run things again. "I designed the plan, Mister Richards, there are time buffers for this."
"Your plan has yet to commence, the buffers are…"
"I don't like your tone, Richards. Are you forgetting who's in charge?"
"No-no sir, I just."
"Do you remember what happened to Matthews? He forgot the chain of command."
"Yes… it was, ah, an unfortunate accident." The old mans voice wavered, terrified by now, Keith decided to play a bit.
"You have beautiful grandchildren, Mister Richards, it would be a shame if anything should happen to them."
"I…"
"So many – things -- can happen to children. Don't you agree?"
"Yes sir, many things…" Richards said, his voice now a model of resigned obedience.
Keith glanced back down the hall, saw Mary walking toward him in a nice business suite. "I'm glad we understand each other, I have to go." He turned off the phone and slipped it back in his pocket.
"All ready?" He said in the most cheerful way he could force out after that conversation.
"Yeah, I guess." Mary hesitated, the mistrust very clear in her voice. Keith knew he would have to clue her in on part of the real plan to ease her suspicions, but how much, and when? Were the questions. For now, he just had to get her to Seattle. If the rest of the plan fell apart he could still use her.
"My truck's just out front." He motioned to the door with his right hand, leading Mary around with his left.
"I always thought the NSA was just a bunch of egg headed, mathematician code-breakers."
Keith had to laugh at her obvious attempt to insult him, "yes, that is what we officially do." He smiled knowingly at Mary, "but you should know how easy it is to hide things from a congressional budget committee."
Mary grinned, "like five-hundred dollar bolts and thousand dollar hammers?"
"Yeah… try ten-thousand dollar base-ball caps, that's more like it."
Mary chuckled and shook her head, "I'd like one of those!"
"Ah, the joys of misappropriations, but what we really should talk about is just how much you know about this girl."
"Do I know anything more then you?" Mary asked, evading the subject.
"You've been close to her, seen her abilities… just what kind of threat does she pose?"
"I don't know that she poses a threat." Mary said, looked away from Keith. She was uncomfortable with this line of questioning but it was to be expected. What use was she to this man other than the information and the first hand experience she carried?
They both stepped off into the parking lot; Keith was leading her toward a shiny black suburban, the only civilian looking vehicle around so she guessed that this was his 'truck'.
"I read the reports, her powers, she must be dangerous." Keith continued.
"Dangerous? Allie? She's just a kid…" Mary paused, "well, there was that gas station."
"Yeah, that truck was completely burned out." Keith said as if he had been at the scene, Mary knew he wasn't. "Oh well, we have plenty of time to talk along the way." Keith opened the door for Mary when they reached the truck, she climbed in while he rounded the front and jumped in the driver side.
Several minutes later they were waiting behind a laundry truck at the exit as guards searched through all the bags as a precaution. It made sense to Mary, she had seen the same movies millions of others have seen, she just wasn't stupid enough to try to escape in a laundry bag. Besides, where could she have gone, she had no family left to speak of and the only two men who had ever cared for her were both dead by her own hand. The irony was not lost on her; she ended up destroying everything she cared about. Now she cared about helping Allie. Would she end up destroying her too?
Mary studied Keith's face; so cold, hardened, but his personality was the complete opposite. This was part of a plan, there was no other explanation. Mary just wondered what part she was playing.
"Where are we going?" She finally broke the silence.
"To the airport," Keith glanced over, "you didn't think we were going to drive to Seattle did you?"
Mary returned to silence, settled her gaze on the guards outside, finishing up their search of the laundry truck. When the big panel van finally pulled away Keith wasted no time. The suburban lurched forward, tires squealed slightly as it came to a stop again by the guard shack. In one smooth motion, Keith pulled his NSA identification from his coat, flashed it to the guard. Without a second look the guard opened the draw bar and waved them through.
Impressive, Mary thought. The temptation started growing within her to stay on with this guy, hand Allie over to him on a silver platter for what ever they had planned. But, she couldn't ignore the images that kept flashing in her head of that night in Texas, how heart breaking it had been to watch. No, Mary was determined to make things right. And what better way then from the inside?
"How did you get those pictures?" Mary asked, glancing down at the folder carelessly propped in-between the seats.
"We had a surveillance team watching the parents from the time the project was handed to us." Keith told her, "we anticipated this event."
"How many others are on this project?"
"Just me, my field team and you." Keith said, "we are prepared to call in a airforce Special Forces unit if the threat is to great and we have to, uh, get the girl in other ways." He glanced over at her questioningly, "why do you ask?"
"Just need to know what we have at our disposal." Mary lied, she need to know how many people would be in the way of her of doing what she had decided must be done.