MIND CONTROL
CHAPTER SEVEN
Starsky had lost complete track of time. A minute seemed like an hour, an hour felt like a day. He was scared and alone, the isolation from any other human contact breaking through his defenses. He pleaded with the nurse to talk to him when she came in to do her routine care. Just one word, anything just so he could hear the sound of her voice. But she remained silent as she changed his IV, emptied the catheter bag, checked his vital signs or put him on the bedpan. If he asked for a drink, she gave him some water. If he requested a blanket because he was cold, she got him one. She just refused to speak to him no matter how much he pleaded. Her continuing silence confused and upset Starsky. Why wouldn't she talk to him. He longed to hear the sound of another person's voice.
His wrists and ankles were still restrained and his muscles felt stiff and cramped from his enforced inactivity. There was a constant ache in his lower back and the itching from his healing scars was driving him crazy. He knew he was being given some kind of drug through his IV line on a regular basis that left him groggy and disoriented. His body, already weakened from his long recovery from the shooting, was getting weaker as the hours slowly passed by. Was this what his captors had in mind? To just keep him here like this until he slowly wasted away?
He glanced towards the doorway when he heard the door open.Expecting to see the redheaded nurse, he was startled to see John Colby walk into the room. Colby smiled coldly as he walked over to the bed and looked down at the restrained brunet.
"You should have listened to my friends and accepted their offer." Colby told him smugly. "Now, we're going to have to do things the hard way."
"What the fuck do you want with me?" Starsky demanded, a hard edge creeping into his voice as he stared into the eyes of his former friend.
"I thought the Major made that perfectly clear. He wants you to help us out on a little mission in Viet Nam."
"You're both fucking crazy if you think I'm going to agree to help you do anything!"
"You're not exactly in any position right now to argue, are you? We can do whatever we want with you and there's nothing you can do to stop us."
"You can't just snatch a cop and expect to get away with it." Starsky reminded him curtly. "Hutch won't stop looking for me until he finds me."
"Unfortunately, everyone back in Bay City thinks you're dead. Including Hutch." Colby told him with a certain morbid pleasure. "An unfortunate accident, I'm afraid."
"You're lying! Hutch won't believe it! Not without a body!"
"But there was a body. Too bad it was burned beyond any recognition and when they compare dental charts, they're going to match perfectly. Same blood type, same height, same weight…everything is going to be a match."
"Not the fingerprints! You can't copy those!"
"No, but prints aren't much use when the fingers are burned so badly there's no way to take any prints."
"Even if you can make Hutch believe it was me, he's still not going to stop until he finds whoever is responsible for killing me!" Starsky said confidently.
"True, but the official report is going to say that it was a suicide. You were so depressed when the review board pensioned you out that you drove your car off the cliff yourself. There won't be anyone for Hutch to hunt down for your murder." Colby said with a thin smile.
"Hutch will never believe that!" Starsky muttered but his voice didn't sound as confident as it had. Someone had gone to great lengths to set up this deception. The brunet suddenly realized that it could take a long time before anyone discovered the truth. With the military behind his abduction, he could very well disappear while everyone back home believed that he was dead. Starsky knew that he was in a lot of trouble and for the first time since he woke up, his hopes for a speedy rescue began to diminish.
He was scared, not only for himself but for Hutch too. He knew how much the big blond would grieve if he thought Starsky was dead. He knew because that was how he would feel. The pain would be unbearable and even friends like the Dobey family and Huggy Bear wouldn't be able to ease his pain. Going on alone without the other one at his side was unimaginable. The only release from his grief would be his own death.
"It doesn't matter if Hutch ever accepts it or not…as long as everyone else does." Colby snapped. "Even if he tries, Hutch will never find you. Right now you're on a secured military base in a restricted area over two hundred miles from Bay City." Colby saw some of the defiance fade from the sapphire eyes staring back at him. He was going to enjoy breaking the brunet's spirit and making him suffer.
"How do you plan on making me agree to do what you want?" Starsky demanded "By keeping me like this?"
"No, this is only the beginning. Surely you must remember how effective the military is at conditioning and brainwashing subjects. Their techniques are even more advanced now then they were a few years ago."
"Isolation, drugs, sleep deprivation, coercion, torture…" Starsky said quietly, naming off the various techniques he knew were most often used.
"You got it." Colby said in a pleased voice. "And that's just the beginning. The more you fight it, the longer it'll take and the harder it will be on you. But I'm sure you know that already." Colby leaned forward and grabbed Starsky's chin in his hand forcing him to look at his nemesis. "I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer. I'm going to break you, David, no matter how long it takes."
Starsky spat in his tormentor's face which only enraged Colby further. Drawing back his hand, he slapped Starsky across the face, snapping his head sharply to one side and splitting open his bottom lip. Starsky almost welcomed the pain. It reinforced his determination not to give up, no matter what they did to him. Starsky felt Colby twisting his fingers in his dark curls, forcing the brunet to look back at him. Colby saw the smoldering rage in the depths of those dark blue eyes and recognized the unspoken challenge clearly. He chuckled softly as he released his grip on Starsky's hair and patted his cheek almost fondly.
"Face it, David. We have you right where we want you and this is one battle you aren't going to win."
"Fuck you, asshole!" Starsky growled as Colby turned to walk away. Although he had heard Starsky's defiant words, Colby ignored them as he stepped out of the room.
The Major was waiting for him in the hallway. He looked at the younger man questioningly and said, "Is he ready for the next step?"
"Oh, yeah…he's ready." Colby said smugly. "And he's gonna fight you every step of the way."
"Let him fight. That just makes things more challenging for us, doesn't it?" The Major smiled coldly. "This is the perfect opportunity for us to try out some of our new techniques we haven't quite perfected yet. I'm sure that Sergeant Starsky will turn out to be an excellent test subject."
"Just don't let your guard down with him. No matter how much you think you have the upper hand, you'll never control him completely."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that. Some of the experimental drugs we have at our disposal are quite effective at destroying a man's will and making him conform to our wishes."
"Just don't say I didn't warn you." Colby said "Remember, I know David Starsky better than you do. There's something deep inside of him, in his very soul, that you will never be able to control completely."
"Then let the games begin. I'm looking forward to it." The Major said as he turned and walked down the hall. Colby hesitated for a moment and then walked in the opposite direction. He honestly didn't care what lay in store for Starsky. When the Major had approached him seeking a good candidate for the mission they had in mind, Colby had suggested Starsky out of spite and a need for revenge. A careful review of Starsky's military record and confidential police files had convinced the Major and his associates that Starsky was indeed the perfect man for what they had planned.
It had taken almost six months to put everything in place. The shooting in the police garage had been an event they had used to their advantage. A lot of time and effort had gone into planning Starsky's abduction. Colby had warned them from the beginning that the brunet would never willing convert to their cause. To the military, Starsky was expendable. He could always be eliminated if he proved to be too difficult to handle. Either way, Colby would be there to extract his pound of flesh and that was all he cared about.