The A.R.EX. Project:Transformation

by Angelo Facchin

  Patrick Sandlak introduced himself and shook Meyers‘ hand. There wasn’t much energy in Meyers as his hand flopped down on his knee, a sign that prison food wasn’t agreeing with him.

  “Hello Mr. Meyers, my name is Patrick Sandlak. I am a researcher at BIOGENCORP, a research company in Albany. We are currently working on an experimental drug that regenerates human tissue and organs. I am fully aware of your situation and hope to be able to help you. I think that you would be the perfect volunteer for testing this drug. My belief is that you’re innocent and if this works, you will show the city of New York how wrong they were. I sincerely hope that we can count on your cooperation. We are prepared to compensate you for your time with us. Miss Takashi here will translate anything you say, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask anything you want.”

  Sandlak finished with that and awaited Meyers’ response. Meyers nodded to Mika and started to sign.

  Mika immediately noticed that Meyers had little time to practice sign language. All he had was a book on the basics of sign on a small desk near his bed. Not only that, but Meyers was hesitant, often unable to make complete sentences and he made several mistakes which Mika had to correct for him. Meyers gave a simple enough statement.

  “I would be glad to cooperate in your experiment, and hope it works as I have trouble communicating with people here. If the compensation you were referring to is monetary, I would like it if the money was given to my son, instead of me. I need to lighten miss Ryder‘s financial load any way I can.”

  The two visitors got inside their vehicle a few minutes later, with a special penitentiary truck holding Meyers inside lagging not too far behind.

  “At first, I was worried I was out of practice,” said Mika, “but apparently there‘s worse. How could someone like Meyers, a complete amateur, be allowed to testify in his own defense? He must’ve been a nightmare to translate six months ago.”

  “He wasn‘t allowed to testify. A signer testified in court that Meyers had confessed to interrogators through sign, but he never took to the stand because he couldn‘t sign. The prosecution made sure of that. His lawyer, miss Ryder, had tried to present his written alibi to court only to have the prosecution file a motion to reject it, claiming they never received such information, and the judge. With his alibi gone and his being unable to speak for himself, his defense crumbled. It‘s sad, really.”

  That couldn’t be right. How could this have happened? Meyers trial should never have ended with his conviction. She had to bring this information to Corey Rodger’s attention as soon as she could.

  * * *

  3:15 PM

  Rome, New York

  Mika got back home soon after and immediately got in contact with Mike, her partner.

  “I need you to have a look at the McEachern case from six months ago. The one who was convicted, his name is Rick Meyers. The case was full of holes, and for some reason, Patrick Sandlak just practically promised him that he would give him his voice back, and pay him handsomely with something. He‘s planning to use some sort of experimental drug on Meyers. I want to know about this lawyer of his, her name is Janiece Ryder. Also, take a look at Patrick Sandlak, I need to know his background. I need to know who they are, because Meyers has just been selected by Sandlak to be his guinea pig, and I don‘t think it‘s because he feels like helping someone get his voice back.”

  Chapter 7

  Monday, October 26th, 1998, 3:23 PM

  Bare Hill Correctional Facility

  “What?!”

  Janiece couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Erickson Meyers was extradite from the facility by some scientist supposedly handing warden Keith a paper signed by her hand. Not only that, but it only happened two hours earlier! She expected Rick to be waiting in his cell for his son to visit him. Instead, he was gone, leaving Janiece to stare at a legal document she’d never seen with what looked very much like her own signature on it. It felt like the paper in her hands had slapped her in the face and then proceeded to give her the finger.

  “I did not authorized this! If I did, wouldn‘t you think that I would be there to view the proceedings myself?!”

  “Miss Ryder we don‘t spend all of our time being so cautious of legal documents signed by attorney and judges,” replied Keith, ”I thought that you couldn‘t make it because of some case you were working on. I‘ve seen your signature often enough to know what it looks like, and it looked perfectly in order to me. I had to let Ricky go with this guy. I‘m sorry. I had no idea it was a fake.”

  “I know it‘s not really your fault, James. Still, I would have preferred a phone call from you in order to confirm something like this. Now, I need to know who this scientist is and what business he had with Rick. I would also like to know who he works for and where his company is. I‘m going there right now.”

  “All I know is that his name is Patrick Sandlak. He works for some genetic engineering firm. He wanted Meyers as a volunteer for testing something, I‘m not sure. I don‘t know where could reach him or where he works.”

  “I need to contact this person right away and tell him bring him back here. Now, you’re telling me that don’t even have a number for his company? How can you expect Rick to be brought back now?”

  “Like I was trying to tell you, he had an extraditions warrant with what looked like your signature on it. What else could I have done? If I didn‘t give him Rick, he probably would have dragged my ass in court, whether the document was legal or not.”

  “If anything bad happens to Rick, I will personally do exactly that. For all I know, this scientist could have a professional kidnapper trying to get ransom money from me. I can think of a million different things that could be happening to him right now. Trust me when I say, you will hear from me again. You better hope for your sake that I‘ll have good news to report.”

  Janiece’s mind was racing. What about Jason? How was he going to react to this news? He was probably going to feel even worse now that his father was nowhere to be found. What was she going to say to him?

  * * *

  Jason was waiting for Janiece as she made her way slowly back to parking lot. She always asked him to wait inside her car for her to return to let him out. She saw him looking up from the passenger window of her car, looking hopeful at the prospect of being able to come out and greet his father like they usually do, but this time was going to be different. He looked at her as he seemed to notice that something was different with Janiece as she came back with a handful of papers in her arms. She got inside the car, put the papers in the backseat, stuffed the key in the ignition… and stopped. She sighed, put her head on the wheel, and made sure not to look at Jason.

  “Are you okay?”

  She looked up and shook her head, and Jason could see that she was crying. Something was wrong.

  “I‘m sorry, sweetie. I’m afraid we’re going to have to take a rain check. Your father is missing. I just don‘t know where he is any more.”

  “He‘s not in there?”

  “Somebody took him for some sort of science experiment, or worse. I don‘t who or why, but they just took him and I don‘t know what‘s going to happen to him.”

  Jason seemed devastated by that news, and Janiece couldn’t stop crying. She was ashamed of herself. She was supposed to protect Jason and his father, and now Rick was missing and his son couldn’t see him anymore. How could she be a responsible mother to Jason? How could Jason trust her now, when she couldn‘t keep her promises to him?

  Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about this situation. The person who took Rick obviously knew what he was doing, and had the resources to pull off this subterfuge. She had to figure out what to do next. The only person who could help her now, was Joseph Henry.

  Chapter 8

  Tuesday, October 27th, 1998, 6:23 PM

  BIOGENCORP Laboratories

  Daisy Carter found herself enjoying working as a medical researcher. BIOGENCORP felt like a tightly-knit commun
ity. She felt like she was back in college. It wasn’t just work, it was something more. She felt like she was making something out of her life. Everything felt right with the world..

  Like in a college dormitory, there were things left to freshmen. It was a bit of a tradition at BIOGENCORP to have the new employee stay overtime and run a defragmentation program on all the computers. It was as a way to get familiar with the computers, but it was also a way to put the new guy/girl through their paces…and in their place. Daisy didn’t mind, tough, because the lab’s computers ran with the most advanced software she had ever seen. They weren’t running on Windows or Macintosh, but an independent software called NETREK. The software was designed by one BIOGENCORP‘s subsidiaries, after which the software was named. The speed with which the computers ran blew her mind away.

  Daisy had to make rounds throughout the building after everyone else had left, checking every computer to make sure the hard drives was never interested in tedious work, but she was curious when one of her colleagues told that the defrag wouldn’t last longer than two hours and a half. Never in her mind did she imagine that that would be possible. Still, she was glad that she had a book to read with her whenever she was sitting still.

  The defrag was going so well, it almost didn‘t need Daisy’s attention. She would look over her book every once in a while and check the percentage of completion on each of the monitors to make sure they were synchronized, and they always were. If they weren’t, then the defrag process would slow down to a crawl, and she would have to intervene.

  She was caught off guard when she heard an alarm coming from one the monitors. It wasn’t something she was warned about, so she figured the other employees wanted to make sure she knew was she was doing.

  Peeking at the screen, she saw that there was a message on the screen telling her that a file needed her permission in order to be deleted. The file’s status read as CORRUPTED, which seemed odd, seeing as it was still there. Not only that, but usually, a defragmentation wasn’t supposed to involve the deletion of files in their entirety. She was, of course, given an administrator’s password, but she never expected to have to use it.

  The file’s name sounded familiar to Daisy. That name was often being mentioned in the staff lounge by her colleagues. It was supposed to be this huge project that certain, more experienced scientists were working on. She had always wanted to know what the project was all about, because it sounded like it was something really important.

  She just couldn’t help herself. She had to know what this was all about. She took one of her blank CDs and quickly made a copy of the file. Little did she realize what she had done could change the future of mankind.

  Chapter 9

  Wednesday, October 28th, 1998, 9:56 AM

  Henry’s Law Firm

  Kirk Hall wasn’t just another employee at Joe Henry’s office. Not to him, anyway. He had slightly more experienced than most lawyers there, and therefore he got the most high-profile cases. Unfortunately, he always seem to win because of some technicality or another. It often got him into verbal altercations because he had a nasty habit of showing off.

  “I don‘t want to hear excuses from you, Ryder.”

  “Stop calling me that. You know I hate it. And I won‘t let this go, either. Because you made that motion, Rick Meyers went to jail. Now, for some reason, somebody got a hold my signature and used it to have him extradited. Jason had already lost his father because of you, now nobody knows where he is. I could just tell this is killing him.”

  “It‘s not my fault you can‘t keep tabs on your clients. Anyway, who‘s to say that you didn‘t sign that paper yourself?”

  “Because I would‘ve been there to sign for it on the very day he was released!”

  Sandlak had actually gotten in contact with Hall about getting Janiece’s signature. Hall had taken a paper that she had signed the previous week and proceeded to forge her signature. He never expected her to react this way. What could she possibly be complaining about?

  “Your client‘s out of jail. You were the one who kept pestering me about his so-called innocence, so what more do you want?”

  “How about the knowledge that he‘s alright? Now, I‘m going to find out where he is, and when I do, I‘m going to know who tried to use both me and my client like this. I‘m going to go after him, and then, I‘m going to teach you a little lesson in being a lawyer.”

  “Miss Ryder!”

  Joe Henry appeared from the doorway of his office. His stern face made the bickerers stop dead.

  “I would like to see you in my office, please.”

  * * *

  Janiece’s world was crumbling down around her. She was certain to be losing her job. She had already lost her client. She really didn’t want to find herself in her boss’s office again, especially not having to be there twice for the same reason.

  “I know that you‘re feeling lost right now, but it‘s never a good idea to pick a fight with an empty suit. If you do, it will fill up with hot air enough to burn you. Let’s just focus on what’s really important, like finding Jason’s father and figuring out what happened there in the first place. Incidentally, I understand how the little one might be feeling right now.”

  Henry smiled and Janiece knew he was talking about his own son, who disappeared about three years ago. Thankfully, Henry’s son was eventually found, but Henry had gone through a six-week hellish roller-coaster of emotions, wondering what had happened to him.

  “Jason is really trying to make me feel better instead of telling me whether or not he feels hurt. For some reason, he can‘t really see that he‘s the one who’s missing his father, and that he should be devastated right now. I really want to find out what happened. I’m sorry, I guess I lashed out at Kirk for nothing. Lots of good that did.”

  “Forget about him. Kirk does his job with no emotion in mind. He searches for the win ruthlessly, which makes him a very good lawyer, but a lousy person to talk to or even be around. I‘ve told him that, and I‘m going to let you off with a little advice: You need to find evidence before you can accuse someone of foul play, and give your emotions the right kind of control.”

  * * *

  Kirk Hall, meanwhile, was completing his paperwork, confident that he had just managed to put Janiece Ryder in the proverbial doghouse with the boss. Now, it was time for him to get back home, relax, and then go to his favorite restaurant, the Royal Pallet. The phone in Ryder’s office started ringing. He would usually just leave it be, but he figured he’d play nice for as long as he was there, and answered.

  “Henry‘s law firm, Janiece Ryder‘s office.”

  “Hello? I’m sorry. Are you Janiece‘s secretary?”

  Her SECRETARY? Hall was never more insulted in his life. He had half a mind to tell this woman off and slam the receiver on her, but he refused to give Janiece Ryder an excuse to have him reprimanded, or even fired.

  “No ma‘am, I‘m one of her colleagues. Miss Ryder is speaking with her boss at the moment. May I help you?”

  “Yes, please. I‘m going to fax something to her right now. Can you please tell her it‘s very important and give it to her right away?”

  “Of course.”

  He hung up, then started waiting for the fax to arrive. Her secretary, she called him. So much for playing nice. Who did Ryder think she was, anyway? She should be HIS secretary for all she was worth as a lawyer.

  The fax took a good deal of time to print out, which meant that there were a lot of pages to go through. When it finally showed up, it gave Hall a shock. It was a twenty page monstrosity, and the name on the file was A.R.EX.. He realized there would be trouble for some of his clients. He had to act fast if he was going to warn them. He quickly photocopied the fax, then put the original on Janiece’s desk with a note telling her about it. She could pick it up herself later on herself. He left an hour later, and contacted his clients about the new problem that arose.

  Chapter 10

  Wednesday, October
28th, 1998, 4:12 PM

  BIOGENCORP Laboratories

  Rick Meyers was feeling a little uncomfortable about the situation he found himself in. His gut told him something was wrong, or about to go wrong. Why weren’t Janiece and Jason there to see him off when he left prison? Why weren’t they there to greet him when he arrived there? Did they even really know where he was? How could they not know? Janiece had to have been informed of his extradition. He just wasn’t sure what he was doing there.

  They had walked a long corridor on the third floor, leading to a huge chamber. Patrick Sandlak made conversation by commenting on how proud he was of the building, and the company. He explain that the company was going through a rebuild when he first arrived. He then described how long it took to build the two-story chamber, which was off-limits to anyone but staff members who belonged to a certain group. While building the chamber, they had gutted out a huge section of the third floor ceiling, but left a wide fenced ledge and door through which people could walk around, but otherwise left both floors in the chamber independent an inaccessible to each other.

  Rick felt like the vast explanation was meant for someone other than him. He just wasn’t sure if he really needed to take in all of that unnecessary information. What was the point of knowing all of this if he was only going to stay there for a short amount of time? Why didn’t Sandlak tell him exactly what it was he was supposed to do? All he knew about his current situation, was that he needed to go through a check-up, just to make sure he was medically fit.

  Sandlak was busy describing his life’s work, and he didn’t seem to notice that he was barely being listened to. He had so much lip momentum, Rick thought it was a miracle that his whole mouth wasn’t running away, leaving his body behind. He was hoping the he could also be talking like that one day.