“So she was desirable until she tried to leave?” This was something I needed to find a way to understand. It would help us with curbing the desires of future subjects. “Or was it simply that you wanted to finish what you started?”
“I don’t know, Doc.” He started wringing his hands together. “I was just so revved up, the sex, and her blood. It was all just too much.”
He stopped, and he looked directly at me. I could see what he wanted to do in his eyes, and by the smile that exposed his fangs. Sending him out into the world had been a mistake. For the first time in my career, I was scared to be alone in a room with a subject.
“Then that waitress walked into the alley.” He paused and shook his head. “You know the one that denied me.” He moved his hands up and down his body as if asking how could any woman deny themselves the privilege. “She shoots me with a stunner.” He winced. “The damn thing hurt, Doc, but you know what, I pushed through it. After the second shot hit me, it was no big deal. I was going to bring her back to you.” He shrugged his shoulders. “You know because of the compulsion thing, but then she started fighting.”
“On the video we saw her screaming for a friend, do you know why he didn’t come right away?”
“Oh, you’re going to love this one, Doc. I dropped some kind of mass compulsion around us telling everyone to ignore the alley. I have no idea how I did it. It just kind of happened.”
“How did she break it?”
“What do you mean break it?” He looked worried now.
“Well her friend showed up and shot you. I’m going to assume that didn’t happen because you wanted it to.”
“I’m not sure on that score, Doc. Everyone else stayed away.”
“We really do need to get our hands on this girl, and find out just what it is that makes her so special.”
“I’d be happy to retrieve her for you.”
“I’m sure you would, but we need her in one piece, and at least feeling slightly cooperative.”
“Whatever you say, Doc.”
“I’ll go over the rest of that data later, but it appears you are fully functional.”
“I actually feel great, I can’t wait to get back out there.”
“That won’t be happening anytime soon. At least not until we can find a way to train you to curb those desires. We can’t afford to have another incident.”
“But, Doc. I like being Landon Collins.”
“That was just a cover Subject Twenty-Two. You will have many of them in your lifetime.”
“I don’t want many of them, I want to be Landon.”
He was unstable. I could see that now. It was a pity, I really thought we had finally had a breakthrough. Maybe Subject Twenty-Three would be able to handle the stresses of the outside world a little bit better. I activated his neural chip, making him scream in pain. I kept it activated until his body went limp.
I hit my comm. “Schedule Subject Twenty-Two for immediate decommission.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Oh, and get me, Brad Patterson.”
“Sending him a message now, sir.”
I turned off my comm, and walked out of the room. Maybe I’d be able to solve two problems today. Brad would find me the girl and get her here, and Twenty-Two would be destroyed. For now, I needed to find a drink and a way to explain to our employer what happened. They had been just as excited about the potential of Subject Twenty-Two as I had been. It was going to be devastating for them when they heard of his failure.
Chapter 10
Samantha Ripley
Fuck if being in jail didn’t feel as bad as I always thought it would. Not that the trip over here had been any better. Who knew that when handcuffs didn’t come with fur lining them, they could be so painful? Not only that but being dragged around by your arms left something to be desired as well.
So far all of my attempts to engage any of the officers in conversation had been ignored. I guess being covered in blood and found in an alley with two dead bodies didn’t exactly lead to people wanting to be chatty. You’d think the cops would have figured out by now that while I might have been able to lift blondie over my head and get her in the dumpster, there was no way I could have lifted Lenny’s bulky ass that high.
Damn, it was hard to believe that Lenny was really dead. I had thought that guy was indestructible. He was always there to help out whenever I needed him, and now he was dead. Why couldn’t I have just followed my own advice, and kept walking away from that alley? It’s not as if I owed anything to that blonde bitch. She got herself in that mess all on her own.
I knew why I hadn’t left, it wasn’t who I was as a person. But look where that got me, in jail and with one of my coworkers dead. Not exactly what you would call a win for being a good samaritan. Maybe next time I heard a noise coming from behind a dumpster, I’d be able to turn my back on it.
The only positive about the last few hours was that I got to remove my bloody clothes. That also came with its own set of degrading moments. Besides having to strip down in front of someone, they had to search me. Then they took pictures of me before I was allowed to shower and climb into this ugly ass orange jumper. Hope they enjoyed the show.
I’d been stuck in this damn interview room for a few hours. I guess I should be thankful that it wasn’t a cell. At least not yet. Maybe they were just keeping me trapped in here to see how long it took before my patience evaporated. Seemed like a halfway decent strategy to get your interrogation subject off balance before you even asked a question. Good luck with that. Ask anybody that knew me, I was as stubborn as they come. If they thought I was going to admit to killing my friend, they were dumber than they thought I was.
I’d just gone back to beating myself up for getting one of my friends killed when a beep sounded at the door. Two stocky men walked into the room. They had business shirts with ties on but they had removed their jackets. Both of them had guns holstered under their shoulders. Neither of them looked too happy to see me.
I wasn’t really surprised, especially if they still thought I did it. I mean who would want to sit down and talk to someone that just ripped a person’s throat out with their teeth? I knew that I wouldn’t want to be trapped in a room with a person like that.
The two square-jawed flunkies sat down and just stared at me. If they thought that would work, they hadn’t been to my flight school yet. Every guy there seemed to think they could intimidate me into leaving. All of those fuckers had learned the hard way that I didn’t get intimidated easily. The ones that couldn’t get it through their heads learned when I beat them in every simulation that we ran. Those guys weren’t going to push me around, and neither were these two cops.
All I wanted now was to get my stuff back, go home, and scrub the smell of police off my skin. Once that was done, I’d crawl into bed for a week. All of that sounded nice, but life wasn’t going to hit pause while I got my shit together. I’d be back in class by tomorrow, by this afternoon if I could swing it.
I’d like to think that I could pretend all of this hadn’t happened, but that just wasn’t going to work. It would have been nice, but the blank stare down I was getting from the men in front of me told me that it was just a fantasy. My brain was running through scenarios of what I could do next to get out of here and put this behind me. None of the options looked good if they continued to think I did it. I needed to form a plan B, and if I was smart, I’d also start putting together a plan C, D, and E.
I waited for them to break the silence. I’d be damned if I did it first. They were keeping me here when I hadn’t done anything wrong, so screw them. The two meaty cops just sat across from me keeping their stony blank stares focused on me. One of them pulled out a file folder and set it on the table. Wasn’t that quaint? Who actually printed stuff on paper anymore? Where was their datapad? Jesus, it was like we just took a step back into the dark ages.
The cop flipped open the file, and it had a few documents clipped to the left-hand side, but what
really caught my eye was the picture on the right. It was the blonde woman from the diner. She was lying on a morgue table naked, and you could see all the damage that she had suffered. The cop continued to flip through the pictures detailing her wounds. When he got to the first picture of Lenny I turned away.
“Not a big fan of seeing the aftermath of your handy work?” the cop without the folder smirked.
“I’m not a big fan of being reminded one of my best friends is dead.” I turned to look him in the eye. “Asshole.”
“That’s real cute, considering you’re the one that offed him.”
“If you had half a brain you would already know that wasn’t true.” What was this, the dumb and dumber version of cops? Hadn’t they been able to piece it together yet? There was no way I could have done this by myself. Was that their angle now, to try and get me to admit to having a partner in crime?
The first cop kept Lenny’s picture on top of the file and moved it to the side of the desk. I couldn’t stop myself from taking one quick look at it. I knew that’s what they wanted me to do, and that when I looked away again, they would still think I was guilty. What did they want from me? I didn’t do this.
“Is that why your clothes were covered in both victims’ blood?”
The blonde’s yes, but Lenny’s? I doubted it. They had to be fishing. “Listen guys. I didn’t do this. Every minute you waste harassing me, someone out there is getting away with murder.”
The cop on my left slammed his fist down on the table making me jump. “Then tell us just how it happened.”
“You took the wrong approach with me. I would have been happy to explain myself to you if you had just asked me to confirm what happened, but instead, you decided to come in here and accuse me of killing my friend.” I looked between both of them. Neither of them had softened an inch. “Since you don’t seem interested in the truth. I’m going to wait to speak with an attorney first.”
“Yeah, cuz innocent people always need lawyers.” The cop stood up, flipped his chair over, and stormed out of the room.
Innocent people did need lawyers especially when the police wanted to railroad them for something they didn’t do. I didn’t hurt anyone, I sure as shit didn’t kill anyone, and now I was stuck here. Screw this. I needed to get out of here. I couldn’t miss school, missing today was already going to put me behind the eight ball. This little bit of crazy was starting to affect my life’s master plan, and that wouldn’t do.
Cop number two stood up slowly looking more in control. He closed the folder on Lenny’s picture, but not without letting me get another glance at it. He picked up the file and turned towards the door. He opened it and then turned to face me.
His voice almost sounded sad. “You know if it were one of my friends, it wouldn’t matter to me how I was being treated. All I’d want is for the police to get the right guy.” He turned and walked out of the room.
Oh, I wanted the police to get the right guy. I just wasn’t willing to throw myself on a sacrificial altar for them to find him. No one was going to believe my story about what had happened. The evidence had to show that a fourth person was in that alley. He had bled all over the place. The fact that they hadn’t even bothered to ask me about the presence of anyone else had me worried. I didn’t have any contacts or the money to get a good lawyer. What was I going to do?
The door to the room opened and a man wearing a suit worth more than everything I owned walked into the room. His grey hair was styled in the most current fashion, and he had recently seen some sun. His suit did a lot to hide the waistline that had slipped a little as he aged, but overall he still had a commanding presence. He sat down at the table across from me, placed his briefcase on the table, and waited. When the door didn’t close behind him, he cast a withering gaze over his shoulder fixing it on the guard posted there. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t have to. The guard scuttled out of the room closing the door behind him. Now it was my turn to receive a look from those piercing gray eyes, but to my surprise, they were soft with something that almost looked like sympathy.
“Miss Ripley, my name is Brad Patterson. I’ve been asked to come and represent you.”
Something about that just didn’t feel quite right. I had asked for a call to talk with a lawyer, but I hadn’t made that call, and I doubted by the cut of this man’s suit he was a public defender. So what in the hell was going on? So I asked the one question that mattered. “By who?”
He smiled. “For now that will have to remain anonymous. Rest assured that my employer would like to see you released from jail as soon as possible.”
“Why would your employer want that, and what is it going to cost me?”
“My employer is covering my fee directly, but they would like the opportunity to speak with you once you are released.”
That didn’t sound sketchy at all. Not. No one sent a lawyer that could pull those kind of strings unless they wanted something more than to talk. Now I had to try and figure out just what it was that they really wanted. “What’s the catch?”
Patterson held his hands out in front of him and then moved them down as he started to speak. “No catch, Miss Ripley. I want to be completely upfront with you about what I am offering you right now. If you agree to meet with my employer, I will have you out of here within the hour. My continued representation of you in this matter depends on how things go at that meeting. If you refuse my employer’s offer, you will need to find new representation for any criminal charges filed.”
So I could get out of here now, get back to my life and worry about this mess later, but only if I met with this man’s mysterious employer? I had to wonder if he had been sent by the man that had killed my friends. He said that he would be seeing me again. Jesus, all I had to do was just walk home. Instead, I tried to help someone, and it screwed me. What did I have to lose by jumping a little further into the rabbit hole? The chances of the police arresting me for something I hadn’t done were small. Right?
“I’ll take the deal.”
This time his smile widened past the small uptick he had shown me earlier. Patterson stood and started heading for the door as he was speaking. “Fantastic. Just sit tight, and I will have you out of here quickly. There will be a car waiting for you outside.”
“I’d really like the chance to go home first and take a shower and change into some real clothes.”
He turned before knocking on the door. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible. This matter is of the utmost importance to my client. I will send someone to purchase you some new clothing, and you can shower and dress on site.”
“I’m not exactly comfortable with that.”
His smile quickly turned into a frown. “It’s up to you, Miss Ripley. I can’t force you to do anything, but before I leave this room, I need a yes or no answer on whether I should proceed.”
Well, that didn’t leave much room for negotiation. What was one afternoon of my time as long as I got out of this place now? I needed to get my life back on schedule. There was a little wiggle room in my plans for getting off of this planet, but not enough for a huge deviation like being arrested for double homicide. Not to mention that I probably wouldn’t be allowed to resume going to flight school if I was convicted. Nothing scared potential employers away like a double murder conviction. The option laid out in front of me wasn’t my favorite, but it was all I had right now.
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, I’ll meet your employer on his terms.”
“Fantastic,” he said turning away.
Patterson knocked on the door with three quick taps of his knuckles. The door opened almost right away. He moved out into the hallway, and I heard him say, “No one talks to my client,” before the door closed, cutting off all sounds from the world beyond this room. There wasn’t much for me to do now but sit and wait. I felt better knowing that I would be out of this police station soon and away from the people that wanted me to confess to murder.
Chapter 11
Samantha Ripley
Getting processed out of jail took longer than I would have ever expected. I couldn’t quite tell if it was the mounds of bureaucracy and paperwork that made it take so long, or if the investigators were initially making the process slower in the hopes that they would find some evidence to keep me there despite whatever my lawyer had done. In the end, it didn’t matter. The situation played out just like Mr. Patterson said it would. I walked out of the door in my scrub like clothes, and there was a black sedan waiting for me.
The driver opened the door for me. When I hesitated before getting into the back, he tilted his cap and offered me a warm smile. It felt good to have someone sharing such a simple act of kindness with me again. Most of the police in the station gave me disgusted looks, a few even looked afraid to be next to me. So just being treated like a person again felt pretty darn good.
“Is there anything I can do to make your ride more comfortable?”
The choice was simple, get in the car and go along with what I agreed to or just walk away. It felt as if I was rooted in place, indecision reared its ugly head, which didn’t happen often for me. I’d attacked my future with a single-minded focus and now that it was in my grasp all of it was slipping away. If there was any chance for me to keep my future by not getting into the car, I would have taken it. But I just couldn’t see it.
Forced Compliance (The Galactic Outlaws Book 1) Page 8