Stockmayer's Theorem: If it looks easy, it's tough. If it looks tough, it's damn near impossible.
Riley paced around her space, rage coursing through her and refusing her rest. Mr. Lyle was gone. He had left. He had gone without saying goodbye- like Sarah. He was dead, killed, and he wasn't coming back. And Riley was mad at him; furious, blinded by a sorrow that would only allow itself to culminate in anger. It was Jarod's fault. Jarod killed him. Jarod stole him away. But it was Riley's fault too. It was Riley's fault that it mattered to her. After Sarah had left she had promised herself that she wouldn't care about anything anymore. Caring was weakness. Caring got you hurt. And yet, Riley had been unable to repress a her desire for a companion. So she had cared.
I didn't get Jarod captured in time... It's my fault... It's all my fault.
She slipped down the back wall of her room, running hands through her hair in frustration at the situation. She had been trained to do so many things, but during the one time where it really mattered she had not the first clue what to do. The thing that quite possibly frustrated Riley the most however, wasn't Mr. Lyle's death. Ever since she had begun working with Mr. Raines on a full time basis Riley had been filled with rage, a fury that didn't have an origin she could identify and pinpoint. It was completely out of her control and despite how hard she tried she couldn't seem to force her mask of neutrality into place. She had lost it somewhere, and it wasn't returning anytime soon. She didn't want to show this much emotion to the world. She didn't like feeling this transparent, didn't like showing her pain. But she knew the pain that she couldn't stop was evident on her face; the pain of being betrayed.
Rileyfidgeted slightly as she was given instructions on how to perform a simulation; her first simulation. She looked nervously up at the man kneeling in front of her.
"Mr. Lyle I don't wanna do it." She said in a quiet, uncertain voice. She didn't want Mr. Lyle to get mad at her, he was nice, but he could be scary when he was mad at her. "I want you to stay."
"Stay?But I'm not going anywhere--What don't you want to do Riley?" he asked her with a small, confused, but indulgent smile on his face.
"I don't want to do the simulation." Riley mumbled to the floor, unwilling to meet his gaze, she could feel that he was disappointed and she felt her stomach fill with lead as guilt overcame her. She didn't want to disappoint him.
"Riley, you have to. We've talked about this, why don't you want to SIM?"
"B-Because I might mess it up, and I don't want you to leave!" The little girl said, distress making itself known in her voice.
"Riley, you aren't going to make a mistake and- wait a minute, why would I leave?" Lyle asked, a puzzled expression coming over his handsome features.
"Sarah left." Riley muttered towards the floor. "And it's my fault, I wasn't good enough."
"Weren't good enough?" Mr. Lyle looked, if possible, even more confused.
"Why else would she leave? She found something better than me! So she left! And I don't wanna make a mistake 'cause then you'll leave too!"
He knelt down in front of her, pulling the little girl forward, resting his hands on her shoulders. He looked her straight in the eye, "Riley, I'll never leave."
"P-promise?" The little girl asked quietly. Finally raising her head to meet his gaze with hopeful eyes.
"I promise. You're my ticket to the top after all -- I definitely don't want to give up on that."
Riley got up to pace some more, stopping by her bed to pick up her knife. She comfortably slipped it from hand to hand, allowing the feeling of safety it created in her to bring her peace.
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In another part of the building Mr. Raines and the Triumvirate representative from his earlier meeting watched the girl on a monitor.
"Mr. Raines I'm afraid that I fail to see how your pretender having a mental breakdown is going to cause Jarod to be brought in faster." The woman said crossly, "This is a waste of time."
"A mental breakdown is the only thing that will have Jarod returned sooner." Raines countered. "I've given the subject a reason to hate Jarod... she will want to cause as much pain for him as he has caused for her... She will be compelled to work at a much faster pace to bring him in."
"I see." A small grin broke out on the woman's handsome face. "And how are you causing this breakdown, Raines?"
"I've placed the girl into a situation that has caused massive amounts of emotion... She, however, has never been taught how to deal with emotions... she's never been allowed to express them, and so she will not have the capacity to cope with them. The subject's feelings will manifest in the only emotion she has ever been shown: anger. It can be a powerful motivator, and it will work in our favor."
The grin became wider. "The Triumvirate will be pleased by your progress, especially when it has occurred so quickly. I look forward to any more updates on your project Doctor." The woman hesitated as she turned to leave, abruptly stopping her route to the door and speaking again. "I must say I'm very curious about this new project- you always did present us with the best experiments."
"I'm certain that you will be satisfied... with a regular state of progress." Raines said, glancing down at the monitor in front of him.
"I don't suppose there is any way that I could speak with the project, without causing any damage to this experiment Dr. Raines?" She asked delicately.
Raines was privately surprised by the woman's request; while it wasn't unreasonable it was certainly unexpected. The Triumvirate typically saw the Centre as merely one of many outlets for making money. Its interest in the buildings simply financial- he himself actually doubted if the Triumvirate knew all of the secrets of the Centre, especially when Raines planned on taking many of them with him to his grave. If she were given access to Riley could she damage the project? Doubtful... in fact... perhaps he could use this woman's interest to his advantage...
"Actually, some help with the next stage in this program, if you would be amenable... would be advantageous." He wheezed, rolling nearer to her."I need to put the girl in a situation that will push her anger over the edge... once I have her past this stage... she'll do anything for us."
"Excellent. You can expect my help in this latest... enterprise. The plane for transport to Africa should be ready by within five hours. I shall see you then. Please know, the Triumvirate appreciates how you understand the situation with Jarod as we do, unlike some, you have always managed to see with us eye to eye. I'd like you to know, where I come from, good deeds always come with rewards."
"Anything... for the Triumvirate."
"Of course."
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-
Riley sighed, pulling her knife out of the wall and stepping back a few paces before throwing it again. She couldn't help but imagine the wall to be Jarod's head as she concentrated her aim. The knife shot out of her hands and the tip buried shallowly in a large crack running the length of her wall, a fissure in the soft mortar between cinderblocks. She was amazed it stuck at all, but figured the building was so ancient, and that the subterrenean levels were so ill-kept, that the deterioration was explainable. When the blade struck the wall, small chips of mortar and cement chattered as they fell down the wall, spilling a small stain of white powder onto her bed blanket. Riley started from her thoughts as her door opened and Mr. Raines walked in, his gaze landing on the quivering blade.
"Something... on your mind, Riley?"
"N-No Sir." She said timidly, eyes to the ground, the tops of her ears turning red at the falacy. She wasn't supposed to lie to anyone from the Centre, especially not Mr. Raines, but she didn't want to land herself in trouble either.
"Don't lie to me Riley." Mr. Raines rasped, stepping closer, but he didn't move to strike her, for which she was both thankful and confused.The tips of her ears flared, if possible, even hotter and she mumbled a small apology at the admonishment.
"Tell me the truth." Mr. Raines intoned.
"I'mjustangrysir." This sentence was mumbled even more quietly as Riley admitted that she couldn't control her emotions- something that had been taboo for longer than she could remember. Despite her fear, she knew she could not lie to him-- he saw through her. He always saw through her; lying would only land her in worse trouble.
"At Jarod?" Raines prompted.
A small nod met the question. She swallowed thickly past the fear clogging her throat and refused to bring her gaze up from the floor, where it rested on his well-polished shoes.
In a wholly unsettling move Mr. Raines moved forward and dropped a hand onto her shoulder. She tried not to jump away, feeling as though small insects were crawling along under her skin the longer he had contact with her. With Mr. Lyle, Riley knew, had known, that sometimes this gesture was meant to be reassuring, but she could not garner any comfort from Mr. Raines' feeble parody. He never tried to comfort her. He pulled her a step closer to himself and then the hand moved under her chin, lifting her gaze to his face, he leaned forward. "That's good Riley... Remember... this is Jarod's fault."
"Y-Yes sir."
Mr. Raines released her, thankfully, and walked over to pluck the knife out of the wall "Your aim is improving," he commented before handing it to Riley, "Let me see you throw it."
Riley took a deep breath to rid herself from the lingering feeling of sickness that she felt with his presence, and fingered the knife contemplatively before letting it fly at the wall opposite.
Mr. Raines again plucked the blade from its purchase there. "Keep both eyes open... steady your arm while aiming." He handed her the knife once more, "Try again."
Riley nodded, aiming the weapon at the same place as she had every other time; she closed one eye out of habit before hastily opening it again. She envisioned Jarod's face and threw the knife. It thunked as it found the crack she had been aiming it at and caught purchase, quivering lightly so that Riley thought it might fall.
Raines looked at the blade, which was buried about a quarter of an inch into the grey cement wall, and Mr. Raines folded his arms in front of himself. A far less antagonistic gesture than anything else he might have done-- this meant he wasn't about to take a swing at her anytime soon-- and Riley took heart in what seemed to be his satisfaction.
"Excellent Riley, you're learning. But next time we'll have to find you a more suitable target than your bedroom walls..." He said, eyeing her sternly.
"S-Sorry sir. I just- I like the knife; it..." She tried to explain, for the first time that night thinking that he might decide to take it away, now that he saw how she was using it. She hoped he wouldn't-- she liked it so much-- and he had said that she was ready for it, hadn't he? "It makes me feel safe."
Raines hit her across the face, leaving a stinging red mark on her cheek. "It always will... It's good that you like it Riley... it used to belong to Mr. Lyle... I gave it to him... when he was only a bit older than you are now." Raines stopped speaking as he thought back to the time when he had given Lyle this knife; it was about a week before he had decapitated his best friend.
"This belonged to Mr. Lyle?" Riley asked, trying to keep the excitement from her voice at the discovery. That must explain her attachment to it-- she had always been inexplicably attracted to belongings of his-- and she liked knowing she had something tangible to remember him by. Another pendant from another dead mentor... the thought rankled and she pushed her sudden depression to the back of her mind. She wouldn't think of it that way. Whe wanted to like it.
Raines nodded slowly "Someday you may have the opportunity... to use it as well as he did."
She nodded solemnly, wondering what he had used it for, but knowing that it must have been good. "I-I hope so sir."