“You are rather bold for a slave,” the woman responded. “Which only supports my theory that you are not an escaped slave at all, but rather a spy sent to report back on our activities.”
“Report back? Who would I report back to?”
The woman smiled. “That is a good question. In fact, it is the same question I want to know the answer to.”
The woman then walked over to the door and stepped outside. When she returned, she had two men with her and a wheeled cart. “Connect her to the table,” the woman commanded.
The two men entered her cell. Each one grabbed an arm and lifted her, seemingly with ease, from the floor. Roxal did not fight them or struggle as they carried her to the table and slammed her against it. The force of their action briefly knocked the wind out of her lungs. As she lay on her back, struggling to breathe normally, her legs were strapped down. Then her waist was secured. Finally, her upper body was positioned. One of the men grabbed her shoulders and held her down as her left arm was secured at the wrist to the table beside her body. A strap secured her chest to the table, and then her right arm was positioned away from her body in a straight line. It was also secured to a part of the table that expanded out in the same direction.
Once she was immobilized, the men stepped away from her and she heard slow, deliberate steps coming towards her. Roxal shook her head slowly from side to side. This weirdly dressed woman was doing the same thing the Rep had done. When the woman arrived at the table beside Roxal, she turned away from her briefly. When she faced Roxal again, there was a small white object in her hand. She rubbed this along the veins in the bend in Roxal’s arm.
The item was damp and felt ice cold as it rubbed against her skin. The woman turned her back to Roxal again, and this time she was holding an injector in her hands. She injected it into the spot she had just rubbed with the cold damp wipe. Roxal felt a slight prick as whatever was in the injector was introduced into her system. When she finished, the woman turned her back again. This time, her hands were empty when she faced Roxal.
“It will not be long now. As soon as your injection takes effect, we can talk,” the woman said.
“Take effect? What did you just inject into me?” Roxal asked, maintaining eye contact with the woman.
She did not respond to Roxal. Just as she was about to ask again, a wave of nausea and dizziness overtook her. She closed her eyes and clenched her jaws shut as the table she was on now seemed to be moving.
“It looks like we will be able to start soon. I will give you some time for your system to settle down.”
To Roxal, it sounded like the woman was now speaking to her from various places around the room at the same time. The nausea continued to build. However, she did not know what would come of it since she could not remember the last solid food she had eaten. With nothing else that she could do, she focused on her breathing. Slowly, the nauseous feeling began to lessen, and the table steadied.
When Roxal finally opened her eyes, she felt exhausted. Seeing that she was still in the same room and still strapped to the table, she closed her eyes to go to sleep.
“No, no, no,” the woman said as she lightly slapped Roxal’s face. “I need you to remain awake.”
She tried twisting her head to get away from the woman, but no matter how she angled it, the woman continued to hit her.
“Okay. I am awake. What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to tell me who you are and how you found us.” The woman was standing so that when Roxal turned her head to the right, she could clearly see her.
“I am Beta 56-02-05. My self-designation is Roxal.” She was so sleepy that her speech was slightly slurred. But even through her tiredness, she could see the woman typing on a comm pad as she spoke.
“You did not answer how you found us,” the woman repeated.
“I did not find you. You found me. I was resting. Beside a tree. When I was grabbed.” Roxal closed her eyes after she answered and was slapped again, harder this time. Her head was turned to her left by the force and the place where she had been struck stung.
“Do not think word play will save you.” She paused and stared at Roxal as if she were trying to size her up. Roxal did nothing but keep her eyes open to wait for whatever this was to be over.
“In hopes of making this easier on you, I will explain why you will not be able to beat my interrogation methods. You see, you have been injected with a working-memory inhibitor. What that means is as I ask you questions, and you answer them, if you are lying, you will not be able to remember the lie. As a result, time is on my side. All I have to do is ask the same questions over and over again. And any questions you answer differently I will know are lies.”
A wide smile spread across the woman’s face. She seemed happy with her revelation. Roxal, though, did not respond. She only watched the woman and worked to keep her drooping eyelids from closing.
“And since time is on my side, you can help yourself by simply telling me what I want to know. Once you do that, I will stop the questioning and you will be allowed to sleep.”
At the mention of the word sleep, Roxal closed her eyes and whined. Before she could open her eyes again, there was another hard slap across her face. This time it was the left cheek that stung.
She opened her tear-filled eyes. “Tell me what you want to know and I will answer you.” Roxal’s voice cracked as she spoke.
“Excellent,” the woman replied. “How did you find us?”
Roxal sobbed. She did not want to be hit again, but she had no other answer for that question. So she repeated it. “I did not find you. You found me.” She closed her eyes and tucked her head towards her left shoulder, bracing for another strike. When no strike came, she opened her eyes in time to see the woman finishing her entry onto the comm pad.
“Very well. How did you come to be in the forest beside the tree where you were found?”
Roxal hesitated. Her only answer was that the Medic, Quarx, had given her a comm pad that led her to the forest. Was this what the woman wanted to know?
Another slap to her right cheek interrupted her train of thought.
“Thinking of a lie is futile. I have told you this. Now answer me. How did you come to be in the forest?”
“I was escaping the compound to save my life.” Roxal answered with little hesitation this time. “Quarx, a Medic, gave me a comm pad that led me outside. I ran into the forest to escape the Security Force.”
Her answer was entered onto the comm pad. “And what did this Quarx person tell you to do with the comm pad?”
“I was told to give it to the Resistors because it has information on it that they need. Are you with the Resistors?”
The response was recorded. The woman did not answer her question. “Did you get anything else from this Quarx person?”
“Yes. Other than the comm pad, I got a surgical tool and an injector I used to treat an injury I sustained fighting him so I could escape.”
“What about verbal information? Did he tell you anything that would help you recognize members of the Resistors?” The woman’s speech was now hurried and anxious. Roxal was not sure if the woman’s demeanor had really changed or if the drugs in her system were wearing off and allowing her to better observe the woman.
“He said there were authentication codes I should learn, but he did not have time to teach me. The only thing he had a chance to tell me was the name of his contact within the Resistor chain of command. The person’s name is Rodan. He said his contact’s name was Rodan.”
Roxal’s head was beginning to clear. As she waited for the next question, the woman turned away from her like before. And also like before, when she faced Roxal again, the injector was in her hand. Roxal turned her head away as she was injected again. She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, giving the dizziness and the nausea time to pass.
When Roxal was finally able to open her eyes again without feeling sick, the questioning restarted. She had to give her d
esignation. She had to tell why she was in the forest. She had to admit that the comm pad that led her out of the compound had come from Quarx. Finally, she had to tell that Quarx’s contact’s name within the Resistor’s chain of command was someone named Rodan.
No matter how she answered, the woman seemed to not be happy with her responses. Roxal did not know how long it had been that the woman had been interrogating her, but her throat was sore and her face throbbed with pain on both cheeks. Keeping her eyes open felt impossible. And when the woman placed the injector to her arm, it was sore.
As the drugs flooded her system, Roxal closed her eyes and began to surrender to the darkness. She heard a voice yelling at her, but it was too far away for Roxal to understand. In addition to the yelling voice, she could also hear the sound of something being hit. But this too was too far away for Roxal to know or care about what it was. Just as the stillness of the darkness was settling over her, Roxal felt a surge of happiness. The voice of death was calling to her, and she knew that now she would be allowed to rest.
CHAPTER 26
Lauren didn’t want to believe Estella would be able to shoot her. She was a therapist after all. She was trained to help people. But standing there, with a gun in her hand, Estella looked like someone who was dangerous. And who had apparently manipulated her to be right where Estella wanted her.
“Lauren, we have to go. If you want to stay here and wait for Lucas, or some of his friends, to arrive, you can. But it would be better for you if you came with us.”
Lauren didn’t reply. Instead, she stalked towards the Suburban with the woman following behind her. The man who had gotten out of the Suburban had returned to the driver’s seat. When she arrived at the front passenger door, Lauren reached to open it.
“No, you sit on the middle row,” Estella said.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you call shotgun,” Lauren replied.
She moved to the back passenger door, snatched it open, and climbed into the vehicle. Seated, she looked towards the driver and noticed the Plexiglas divider that separated her from him just as the back passenger door slammed shut. Startled, she looked at the door. Through the tinted window she saw Estella staring at her with that detached therapist’s expression on her face.
Lauren tried to open the door with the handle and nothing happened. She hadn’t thought to check as she got into the Suburban, but more than likely, the child safety lock feature had been activated. She would not be able to get out until they let her out.
She looked out of her window again, and Estella was no longer there. She was walking around the front of the SUV. When she reached the lowered driver’s window, Estella addressed her. “I’m going to follow in my truck. Again, we didn’t want to have to do things like this, but we didn’t have much choice.”
Lauren remained silent. Hot, angry tears rolled down her face as she searched her seating section for a weapon or something that could maybe even the playing field. As she searched, she heard Estella and the driver whispering to one another. When they were finished talking, he spoke to her. “Fasten your seatbelt.” Then he put the SUV into gear and began driving without waiting.
Lauren reached back for her seatbelt and noticed there was also Plexiglas separating her row of seats from the third row and the rear storage compartment. She slowly drew the seatbelt across her body, fastened it into place, and admitted to herself that for now she had little choice but to do as she was told.
“Lauren,” the man called to her. “There is a set of headphones on the seat beside you and a blindfold. You need to tie the blindfold around your eyes and then put on the headphones.”
She looked to her left and saw the big headphones and cloth they were sitting on, but did not move to put them on.
The man stopped the SUV on the side of a seemingly deserted road and put it into park. He turned to face her, and stared into her eyes as he spoke. “Either you put them on and put them on tight, or I come back there and put them on you. And if I have to come back there, you will also have your hands bound.”
She looked away from him. From what she could see, he appeared to be a large, solid guy. His dark brown hair was cut short, making her think of a military buzz cut. Actually, even on this almost dark road, she could see that he carried himself with the rigidness of a soldier. Still, if he did come back to her seat, he would have to open the door. If she were ready, maybe she could surprise him and jump out.
“Damn it,” she heard him say. Then, unexpectedly, the seatbelt tightened on her body. She pressed the release button repeatedly, but it did nothing. The driver didn’t rush. He took his time, opened the rear driver-side door, and climbed into the cab. Once inside, he slid over to her.
“I didn’t want to do this. If you fight me, this gets worse. Please don’t make me make this worse for you.”
Lauren looked away from the man and stopped struggling with her seatbelt. Fresh tears were falling as he grabbed her hands and restrained them in a set of plastic zip-tie handcuffs. The handcuffs were then connected to a hook on a bar on the door she had entered. She could move her hands away from her body and close to her body, but she couldn’t raise her hands to her head or fully lower them to her lap.
Once her hands were restrained, the man tied the blindfold over her eyes. She could see shadows moving in front of her eyes as he apparently tested to make sure it was secure. Then the headphones were placed over her ears, and a chinstrap of some sort was used to secure them in place. There was a soundtrack playing over the headphones. It was one of those beach-themed white noise soundtracks.
With her hands restrained, eyes blindfolded, and hearing being flooded with the sounds of waves and seagulls, Lauren sat back, waiting for the opportunity to use the anger that was building in her to fight back and escape.
CHAPTER 27
The SUV finally stopped moving, and Lauren was more than ready to get out. Her anger had been inflamed by her frustration. She felt the vehicle shake twice and assumed one was for when the driver exited the driver’s seat and the other for the rear driver’s door being opened and closed.
The thought that he might be beside her in the truck while she was confined, blindfolded, and deaf made her tense. She felt a hand touch under her chin and she jumped, surprised by the contact. The chinstrap was loosened and the headphones were removed. Finally, she could hear what was going on around her. All she heard was silence.
“I’m going to remove your blindfold now. Then I’ll remove your hand restraints. But your seatbelt will not be released until I am out of the vehicle. If you attack once your hands are free, I will fight you. However, if you allow me to get out of the vehicle, you will be released without incident. Do you understand me?”
The man spoke to her like she was a child with whom he was bargaining. Lauren nodded her still-blindfolded head to acknowledge her agreement. She sat, waiting for the blindfold to be removed, but the man didn’t appear to move towards her.
“I said I understand! I won’t do anything,” Lauren barked, thinking maybe he wanted to hear her state her consent as opposed to just nodding.
The man reached behind her head and unfastened the blindfold. She blinked her eyes as they adjusted to the light of her surroundings. When she could finally stand to keep them open, she saw him sitting beside her in the back seat, holding a pocketknife.
Lauren jumped back away from him, though there was nowhere to go trapped in the seat as she was. He slowly moved the blade towards her hands, and she realized he was using it to free them. Once he cut through the plastic zip-tie handcuffs, she opened and closed her hands, flexing them. She also rubbed around each wrist where the handcuffs had been. Though she could feel the indentations in her skin from where they had cut into her flesh, it did not appear that her skin had been broken.
The man folded the pocketknife and then scooted towards the door through which he had entered. He knocked on the window, and it was opened from the outside. That’s when Lauren noticed for the first time that they
were not alone. Outside the rear driver’s side door was a soldier of some sort, dressed in dark green clothing. She looked around and saw that beyond the door, not far from the SUV, were several other similarly dressed soldiers who encircled the vehicle. Everyone who she could see either had a handgun or an automatic weapon of some sort strapped to their body.
This can’t be because of me, Lauren thought. I’m not nearly dangerous enough to warrant this amount of force.
Once out of the back seat, the man entered the front driver’s side door again and activated something, because Lauren felt the seatbelt loosen. She reached over and pressed the release button, and it released without any problem.
Speaking to her from the front seat, the man said, “Someone is going to open your door to let you out of the vehicle. Just stay calm, and this’ll be over soon.”
He then exited the SUV and closed the door without waiting for her to respond. The door beside her opened. “Step out please, ma’am,” a soldier stated, holding the door for her.
Lauren got out of the SUV and took in more of her surroundings. Beyond the soldiers, she could see that she was in an empty parking garage of some sort. Even though the mesh coverings over the open space did not allow her to see out and tell where she was, it did allow her to see that there was light of some sort beyond the mesh, so she was above ground.
While she was looking around, Lauren heard the sound of the soldiers moving to her right. She looked in that direction and saw the men stepping back and another group of people walking towards her. The group consisted of four more armed soldiers and a man in a dark suit walking in the middle of them.
As she watched them walk closer to her, Lauren’s mouth dropped open as she recognized the man in the suit as Graham McKenzie. Graham McKenzie, the spokesperson for anti-tech group ENL. Seeing him made her think of Kyle again. It had only been a few days since they had seen Graham on TV and Lauren had told Kyle how crazy the guy was. Him being here definitely did not help anything that was happening make sense.
The Heaviness of Knowing Page 18