by A. R. Licht
“So, you’ve had plenty of time to think things through then.”
Kate nodded, “Too much time, frankly.”
Vance sat across from her, placing the file on the table between them.
“How deep does this go?” Kate asked.
“Deep.”
“Presidential deep?”
“Further.”
“And it is solely to train people and monitor their reactions?” Kate said.
“No one gets hurt.”
“You aren’t answering my question, Vance.”
“There are different levels of knowledge required, and I’m afraid that you aren’t privileged enough to know more than what I’ve already given you.”
“Will that status ever change?”
Vance shrugged, “Maybe.”
“Are you the one in charge of all of this?”
“I am your boss, the coordinator. That is all you need to know.”
“I’ll be able to be with Phil.”
“Yes, if that is what you both want,” Vance said.
“Will I ever have time off or downtimes?”
“This isn’t a tyranny here, Kate. Of course there will. But you’ll have to put in the time, just like a normal job, to get the better perks.”
“If I’m dead, will I have to assume a new identity?”
Vance opened the file, flipped through a few papers, pulled out three sheets. “This is your new name. Your birth certificate, your marriage license if Phil agrees, and this is a photocopy of your new social security card and drivers license. I assure you, Kate, you will want for nothing. You will really like your new job.”
“Why? Will I be a reporter again?”
Vance frowned, “No, Kate. You won’t be able to be in the public eye like that again.”
Kate fell silent.
“You still need time to think this through, don’t you?” Vance said, closing the file.
“Do you understand that you are essentially telling me that you own me now? That I don’t get to choose my own life, or get to enjoy the same freedoms? This is illegal.”
“Oh, you definitely need more time to think.”
This time she learned to count the days by the meal times. One in the morning, one at night. Always soup in the morning. Dinner varied. Sometimes it was a breaded meat mixture with veggies on the side, sometimes it was pasta with tomato paste and cardboard bread. But at least she could look forward to a little variety.
She tried to use the toilet when her neighbor, Dave, was asleep, timing her sink baths to his snores.
The time came when she was summoned and Vance was waiting for her.
“Sorry that took so long, I had another Mass Casualty event to attend to. But, look who I brought with me.”
Sienna entered the room, hesitant. She smiled at first, but the smile faded quickly when Kate glared at her.
“I started the anchor job,” Sienna said.
“You betrayed me,” Kate said.
“Hey, I tried to protect you.”
“How’s that?”
“I tried to get you to stop. I made them give me more time with you because I thought I could convince you,” Sienna said, hands in the air as though in surrender.
Kate could give her that, she had tried. Had even bribed her with a job she coveted.
“I was your friend,” Sienna said, “That was never a lie.”
“So, what do you think I should do?” Kate said.
Sienna glanced at Vance, said, “Take the contract. It is the best offer you are going to get.”
“She’s right-“ Vance started.
“Shut up, Vance,” Kate said. “So, you think I should take the offer and live my life out as an employee of Victim’s, Inc. even though that would make me incredibly unhappy?”
Sienna stepped closer, put her hand on Kate’s shoulder, “Simply put, yes.”
“And I should trust you.”
“I like you, Kate. Like I said, our friendship was never a lie.”
"How did you end up with this job?"
Sienna crossed her arms, "I went to work for the government and they placed me here."
"So, your reporting days are fake?"
"No. I went to school, worked my way up the ranks to get to where I am now. All legit."
“Alright. That’s all I needed to hear. Good luck on your job.”
Sienna looked to Vance who nodded. She moved to the door, paused, then went through it.
“I’ll sign the contract, but I have demands.”
“You don’t have any leverage here, Kate, to be making demands.”
“But I do. You see, I still have evidence floating around out there.”
Vance paled, “But your cell phone and laptop were destroyed in the truck when it went into the river.”
“I have more.”
“Where?”
“I’ll tell you, if you meet my demands.”
“What do you want?”
Kate adjusted herself on the uncomfortable chair, tired of never being able to stop the ache in her leg, or to sit in a good position. “Do you have pen and paper?”
Vance motioned and someone brought a pad of paper and a pencil in. He slid it to her.
She wrote as she spoke. “I want Phil to be the only survivor of our accident. He goes home to his job and his old life.”
“Can’t do that.”
“Can’t, or won’t? There’s a big difference.”
“Can’t, he knows too much.”
“Fine. Then he needs to be able to do what he loves. Leave the job to me, but he doesn’t have to do it.”
“I’m listening,” Vance said.
“I want access to the internet. Freely. I want to be able to keep an eye on my family.”
“Okay, but you understand we will be monitoring it.”
“I understand.”
“What else?”
“I want to live in a different country.”
“Hmmm. We’ll have to talk more about that, but I don’t see that as a straight-out no.”
Kate nodded, placed a star next to it.
“I want money. Enough so that we will live comfortably.”
“Your needs will be cared for.”
“Not good enough. I want to be a millionaire.”
“You want a piece of the donation pie?” Vance said, smirking.
“I guess so.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Anything else?”
“Just one.”
“Name it.”
“I want you to let Dave go.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“He knows too much.”
"I talked to him, he knows nothing. He was messing around with his drone and accidentally noticed your screw up."
"But he has been locked up here, we can't ignore that."
“So, drug him. Give him a new memory and set him loose. No one will listen to him. You guys do those kinds of things, don’t you?” Kate said.
“Brutal,” Vince said.
“He’s young, he needs his life back. He will never leave those cells and I can’t bear to go on with my life knowing he’s still down there.”
Vance took a deep breath, “If I can find a reasonable way to do so, I will.”
“Not good enough.”
“Your leverage isn’t good enough.”
“Sure it is. If it gets into the wrong hands, everything comes undone.”
“Fine. I’ll see what I can do.”
“No. I want it in the contract. You release him or no deal.”
Vance licked his lips, “Alright. You have a deal.”
She wrote down the email addresses and passwords to all of the iCloud accounts she had painstakingly set up. Then she wrote down the name of her bank and the number of the safety-deposit box the hard drive rests in.
“That’s everything?” Vance asked.
“Everything I have.”
“I won’t be looking for any other leaked files from you in
the future?”
“You have my word.”
“It looks like we have reached a compromise. Go ahead and read through the updated contract and sign it. We’ll get you set up with your new identity.”
“What about Phil?”
“What about him?” Vance said.
“Can I see him?”
“Well, we’ll just have to wait and see if he signs,” Vance said, putting a pen in her hand.
“I’m not signing unless he does.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter does it?” Vance said, “You already played all of your cards.”
But, she hadn’t. She still had the hard drive in the manila envelope under Abby’s bathroom sink.
Vance relented before she gave it away, “Alright. I’ll let you see him. Then you sign.”
“Deal,” Kate said, relieved.
Phil looked like normal, walking in on his own. She ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck. He grunted in surprise, and then she remembered his arm which had been put into a cast.
“Are you okay? They wouldn’t let me see you,” Kate said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I had some swelling on my brain, but I’m doing better now. Broke my arm,” Phil said, touching her face.
He leaned in and kissed her, then pulled away, self conscious.
“Are you okay?” Phil asked.
“I’m fine. I was worried about you.”
“Did you sign the contract?”
She shook her head, “Not until I talked to you.”
They talked for a few minutes about the pro’s and con’s. She shared her demands with him and he added on one more but Vance said he’d already met his quota.
“You can’t send my mom my watch?”
“No.”
Phil let it go. A second contract was brought in.
“Wait,” Phil said. “We’ll be married after this, right?”
“Yes,” Vance said.
“Well, I still haven’t properly proposed.”
Kate grinned as he got down on one knee.
“I don’t have a ring to give you just yet, but I’ll find you something amazing. Kate Miller, I love you. It was love at first sight, and I can’t imagine my life without you. Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” Kate said, leaning down to kiss him.
“How touching,” Vance mumbled.
Epilogue
The house is quaint in a little suburb in Canada. It is the first that they have been assigned to and
Crystal Rierden thinks it is lovely.
There is a sunroom off the back porch where she likes to garden with potted plants, and recently she has taken up painting. It has been therapeutic for the residual pain she suffers from a leg injury not so long ago.
She is multi-tasking this morning, adding the final touches to a painting of a woman and baby. On the desk to her right is a laptop, the screen opened to a Facebook profile of Abby Caste. The profile picture is almost an exact replica of the painting she is working on.
Justin Rierden tiptoes in behind her, pages of printed words in his hands, many lines of red ink and handwritten notes lining the margins. He grins, watching his wife work, then when she is dipping the paintbrush into a cup of turpentine, he clears his throat.
“Phil! You scared me!” she said.
“I must have, because my name is Justin, darling.”
“Did I say Phil? I need to work on that.”
“It looks very nice, I think she’ll love it,” Justin said, indicating the oil painting.
“I hope so. I wish she knew it was from me though.”
“I know,” Justin said, “It will get easier with time.”
"Did you know she named her Kate?"
"That's a beautiful name," Justin said.
He set the pages in her lap, rubbed her shoulders. She moaned, enjoying the massage, letting her neck relax under the pressure of his warm hands.
“So, Mrs. Rierden- you know, I still have a hard time pronouncing our last name,” Justin said,
laughing, “Anyway, I finished editing your chapters, boss.”
“What did you think?”
“I think it will make a wonderful fictional novel, people will be on the edge of their seats.”
Crystal stood, putting the pages on the desk next to the laptop. “How about the title?”
“'Victim’s, Inc.'? It’s catchy.”
Crystal smiled, putting her arms around his neck, “Kiss me.”
“Only if you promise there will be a second book, you can’t just end the story there.”