Beginnings

by Sandra R Neeley

  “Let’s try for twenty. I’m headed that way now. We’re going back to the facility in Michigan,” Lethal advised.

  “You got it. I’ll take care of it and meet you at the helicopter,” Smitty answered before ending the call.

  Lethal shoved the cell phone in the back pocket of his BDUs as he strode through the living room. “Get your shit together, people. We’re going to pay Hal Jessupson a visit. Smitty’s filing the flight plan, we’ll meet him at the chopper in twenty.”

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

  It was 3:00 A.M. and Hal Jessupson was sitting alone on his couch with a beer in his hand as he stared blindly at the T.V. that droned on relentlessly in the background. He’d found it hard to live with himself these last few months, and even harder since the facility had packed up and moved away. He’d been unable to do very much to help the people held captive there, but at least he could make sure they ate, check on them each day and know they still breathed.

  Hal took a swig of his beer, his gaze never moving from the T.V. that he didn’t even notice was on as his mind replayed the times he attempted to get assistance for the people inside. He was usually ignored, sometimes right out laughed at, and even actually blocked from sending emails and phone calls to some of the government agencies he tried to reach out to. They all thought he was a lunatic and brushed him off. And now, the facility had been broken down overnight, he and most of his coworkers — at least the local ones — given huge severance payouts, and the doctor and the people he kept locked up, gone as though they didn’t exist. There was no possible way he could help them now. He didn’t even have the facility with people in it to back up his claims.

  A strong knock on his front door broke through his wandering thoughts, causing him to gaze toward the door. He didn’t really give a damn who it was. They could keep knocking.

  Another knock sounded, harder this time.

  “Go away!” Hal yelled out.

  “Open the door. Now,” a strong snarling voice ordered.

  Hal’s gaze sharpened, his head tilted slightly. ‘Couldn’t be,’ he thought. He reached out and placed his beer on his coffee table before rising and moving toward the front door of his apartment. Hal looked out of the peephole and then smiled. He unlocked the door and swung it wide. “Thank fuck!” he exclaimed, smiling widely at the team of males standing at his door.

  Lethal’s eyebrows rose in surprise at Hal’s exclamation when he saw them standing at his door. He expected fear, lots of begging, but not thankfulness that they’d tracked him down. Lethal shoved Hal back and forced his way into Hal’s apartment. The rest of his team entered behind him, closing and securing the door once they’d all entered.

  “What took you guys so long?” Hal asked.

  “What?” Lethal answered with a question.

  “I’ve been trying to contact anybody I could. For months!” Hal explained. “Nobody would pay me any attention. They thought I was out of my mind. A mad doctor experimenting on people… Some of them even blocked my emails and my phone calls. I just been sitting here waiting for somebody to find me. Somebody to take a look at any of the reports I filed and come here to interview me. And now you have. You have to find where they took those poor people. You have to free them.”

  “You expect me to believe that bullshit? You were a guard. You kept us under lock and key,” Lethal snarled.

  Hal’s smile fell. “You’re not the authorities,” he said.

  “No asshole,” Lethal said, reaching up and snatching off his helmet. “I’m one of the captives, come to make sure you pay for your role in our suffering.”

  “And give us information on the rest,” Scorn said as he and the rest of the team took their helmets off, too, allowing Hal to get a good look at each of them.

  Slowly Hal’s smile crept back onto his face. “This is even better. This is so much better. They won’t go to jail. You’ll kill them, won’t you?” he said as his eyes fell on each of the males facing him. He paused as he looked at Feral. “You’re not part of this team, though. You’re new. To them anyway. Hey! Does that mean that more than your squad is free?”

  “Where is Nina?” Lethal growled, ignoring Hal’s questions.

  “Who?” he asked, Hal’s face becoming confused.

  “Nina! My female. Where is she? Where are the rest of the males and the females? Where is the doctor, the rest of the guards?” Lethal shouted.

  “The little oriental girl, right?” Hal said. “They didn’t give me much information, but, I’m pretty sure the doctor sent her to Geneva with another team. The guy that bought them came to the facility to observe the team and took a special liking to her. I tried to help her. The doctor told me to get her all cleaned up because the man wanted to see her alone before he agreed to buy the team. I broke the main water supply to the building so we couldn’t bathe her. I hoped that if she was dirty and unwashed, he wouldn’t want her. Didn’t matter though. He ended up spending an hour with her, then bought her and the squad she was assigned to.”

  “You lie!” Lethal growled, at the same time he wrapped his hand around Hal’s throat and drove him backward until Hal’s back hit the wall. “Where the fuck is my female? Where are the rest?” he demanded while snarling so close to Hal’s face that their noses almost touched.

  Hal tried to pry Lethal’s hand away from his throat, but it was no use. “I’m not,” he rasped out. “I had no idea what was going on until I’d been working there for a few weeks and they moved me inside.”

  “Don’t kill him yet, Lethal. Let him talk,” Scorn said, encouraging Lethal to allow the man to tell them all he knew.

  “I swear! I didn’t know what was going on. I just applied for a security guard position. I worked the front gate. They told me it was an institution for people who had mental illness, and I had to secure the perimeter for their safety and the public’s. No one got in and no one got out without an appointment or permission from Dr. Waller and his associates. After a while I got moved inside. I couldn’t believe what I saw. It ate me up from the inside out. The only reason I stayed was to try to do what little I could to help whoever I could without being too obvious.”

  “Why?” Lethal asked.

  “Because if they let me go, then those girls had nobody. Those men had nobody. As long as I was there at least I could make sure they got fed, even if the doctor ordered they didn’t get dinner that night. I’d sneak something to them. If the other guards tried to…” he stopped, not even able to voice the things he’d seen. “If they grabbed one of the girls for themselves, I’d interrupt them so they’d have to stop and take the girl back to her cell while they went off to check the fences, or the males that I thought I heard fighting, or whatever lie I came up with. It didn’t always work, but sometimes it would, and at least for that minute I was able to help a little.”

  “Why would you try to help any of us?” Valor asked.

  “Because you’re all human beings. And what they were doing was bullshit!” Hal answered, his eyes glistening with unshed moisture as he spoke to the males that filled his small apartment.

  “Well, you’re partially right,” Feral answered. “It was bullshit.”

  “Where are they,” Lethal demanded.

  “I don’t know. They laid all us local workers off, paid us huge severance checks. I tore mine up and threw it in the air outside the place the day they locked us out of the building.”

  “That’s why we found a piece of it,” Valor said.

  Hal looked into Lethal’s eyes, which wasn’t an easy thing to do because of how intimidating and dangerous Lethal was. “I remember your Nina. She was quiet and kind. I tried to give her extra food when I could. I give you my word, when they took her and the squad she was with, I heard them talking about Geneva. Now, I didn’t hear them say, ‘She’s going to Geneva’, but I’m pretty sure that’s where the guy that bought them was from.”

  “Where’s Waller and the rest of the facility? Where’d they move to?” Lethal asked.


  “I don’t know. But I do know that no matter who I contacted, nobody paid any attention to me. I’ve been drinking myself into a stupor for the last month — waiting.”

  “For what?” Steel asked.

  “For anything. For someone to finally read one of my emails. For someone to call me back. For Dr. Waller to send someone after me for trying to get help for those people. For ya’ll. For anyone to fucking pay attention!” Hal yelled.

  “You’re coming with us,” Lethal said, yanking Hal away from the wall and shoving him toward Valor. “Make sure he brings everything electronic so we can check his story.”

  “Got it,” Valor said, grabbing Hal’s shirt and leading him toward the small desk set up in the corner of the tiny living room. “Show me the emails.”

  “Alright. I got them right there in my laptop,” Hal said, eagerly moving with Valor toward his desk.

  “And phone calls,” Scorn added.

  Hal turned around and looked at Scorn. “My phone’s right there,” he said, pointing to the couch he’d been sitting on. “The security is off, just go to previous call activity, you can see it all right there.”

  Scorn walked over and grabbed the phone before issuing a sharp whistle. Valor looked over at him and he tossed the phone to Valor, who caught it and went back to watching Hal as he scrolled through emails.

  “What do you think?” Scorn said, walking over to Lethal who stood where he’d been when he held Hal against the wall and threatened him.

  “I think he’s telling the truth. I think he may have more information available, too, and just not realize it. We’ll take him back to Alliance and hand him over to Roscoe and General Ferriday, then we’re going to Geneva.”

  “Geneva’s a big place,” Steel said. “It could take a while to find her.”

  Lethal glanced over at Steel, his expression deadly. “Then don’t come. Stay at Alliance,” Lethal snapped before turning his attention to Valor. “How much longer is this going to take?”

  Valor had been scanning a few of the emails and the address they’d been sent to. He looked over toward Lethal. “He’s not lying. At least not by the looks of these emails. He’s been trying to get anybody’s attention for a long time.”

  “You’re coming with us,” Lethal said as he strode over to the front door.

  “I’m fine with that,” Hal answered. “I’ll help any way I can.”

  Less than ten minutes later, Hal, his computer and his cell phone, Valor, Steel, Scorn, and Feral exited Hal’s apartment and headed toward the waiting helicopter that was sitting in a field a mile away.

  Lethal sat in the helicopter with Two and Smitty on a phone call with Roscoe. As he saw the rest of his team approaching, he started to wind down the conversation. “Here they come. I gave my word we’d work with you. So, we’re bringing him in. But as soon as we get him there, I need you to set aside time to sit with Valor. I need to search for any possibilities to check out in Geneva. That’s where he said he thinks they sent my female.”

  “I will. As soon as you get back here, I’ll devote as many hours as necessary. I’ve got a new assistant that’s starting today. I don’t want to leave her alone, but I can get the General to stay in the office while I come over to your place. Just don’t go to Geneva until we give you a direction to go in. You’ll be wandering around on a wild goose chase unless we can get some Intel to guide you.”

  “As long as you’re true to your word, I’ll wait for a day or two for confirmation, but if you give me the fucking run around, I’m going without you,” Lethal said irritatedly as he glanced toward Smitty who muttered, ‘Damn right!’.

  “Alright. Just get back here with him, and don’t beat him on the way. It sounds like he’s really been trying to call attention to the situation. And if he has, his record of those who ignored him will help us determine who in the upper levels of the government may be involved,” Roscoe said.

  “Be there shortly,” Lethal answered before ending the call.

  Lethal watched as his males and Hal jogged toward the helicopter, with Valor carrying Hal’s laptop. Feral reached the chopper first and pulled the door open allowing the others to jump in first.

  “Man, is this a Black Hawk or what?” Hal asked.

  “It’s a helicopter,” Scorn said sarcastically.

  “Yeah, I know. But it’s an impressive helicopter!” Hal said, taking a seat between Feral and Valor. “What’s The Alliance?” he asked, having read the name on the side of the helicopter as they ran toward it.

  “You ask a lot of questions for a man that may not be alive much longer. We still aren’t sure whether or not to trust your ass!” Scorn announced.

  Hal quieted down while the helicopter lifted off the ground and whisked them away toward wherever they were taking him. Eventually his gaze met Scorn’s. “I told you the truth. One hundred percent. You’ll see. Don’t you think a normal person would be terrified of you guys barging into their home? And what did I do? I was glad to see you. Doesn’t that tell you something?” Hal asked.

  Nobody answered him, and Two finally took pity on him. “I believe ya,” he said.

  Hal offered the biggest male on the team a smile, before focusing his gaze on the pilot and settling in for the ride.

  Chapter 31

  General Ferriday walked into Nina’s office with a no nonsense expression on his face. “Good morning,” he said, offering Nina and Roscoe a strained smile.

  “Morning,” Nina returned, not paying too much attention to the man. He was military after all. They were supposed to be serious all the time weren’t they?

  “General,” Roscoe answered.

  “Just spoke to Brutal. He advised me that Lethal is on the way in with his team and a man they believe may have information,” General Ferriday said.

  “That’s right. I spoke to Lethal about 4:00 A.M. That’s why I left a message asking you to come into the office for a few hours so I could go sit with Valor and see if we can get some information on the location of the female he’s searching for.”

  “Does he have any clues?” General Ferriday asked.

  “Only a very few, but it’s possible the man he located may have additional information he’s not even aware may be of value to us. Apparently he’s been trying for some time to reach out to the authorities to try to get them to intercede and free the people he was hired to guard,” Roscoe said.

  Nina had been typing, adding information on each person who’d been freed and brought to Alliance Ranch. Their vital statistics, the name they’d had when they’d arrived, the name they’d chosen if they’d chosen one — or remembered one, where they’d been found and freed from and what job they’d applied for or been assigned if they’d wanted to work and contribute. There was even a note section that she’d thought to add that contained notes about that individual. The notes were things like, volatile, angry, good natured, etc., and in the case of the females the notes were things like extremely traumatized, withdrawn, appears upbeat. In both instances there were only a few that stated they showed an interest in leaving the ranch.

  When Nina heard that the male one of the teams was bringing in had been a guard, she faltered and her typing stopped. She glanced up at General Ferriday and Roscoe, listening to their conversation since it took place directly around her desk. When they finished speaking, Roscoe realized she’d turned white as a sheet.

  “Nina? Are you okay?” Roscoe asked.

  Nina swallowed. “Some of the guards were more brutal than the males we were given to,” she whispered.

  “Fuck,” Roscoe said, scrubbing his hand down his face.

  “They weren’t drugged like the males were. They hurt us, raped us, simply because they could,” Nina explained. “Most did anyway.”

  “If he gets here, and it turns out that he was one who did, he’ll pay for it, Nina. I promise. He won’t be set free and he’ll pay for it,” Roscoe said.

  “They abused the males, too. Taunting them and beating them. Using stun g
uns on them for no reason. All you’d have to do is give him to some of the males,” Nina suggested.

  Roscoe smiled slyly at Nina. “If it turns out he’s one of the guards you’re referring to, we just might,” Roscoe answered.

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

  Smitty watched through the windshield as several people waited at the helipad for them to land. “They waiting on us, boys,” he said.

  Lethal glanced over Smitty’s shoulder to see what looked like Roscoe and several others standing back out of the way near the first helipad. “Good. I can hand him off and get back to the house to research Geneva,” he said.

  As soon as they were firmly on the ground, the rotors winding down, that’s exactly what Lethal did. He marched Hal over to Roscoe and handed him over. “Here, he’s yours now. I’m going back to our place to research Geneva.”

  Roscoe looked the man over critically. “You were a guard?” Roscoe asked, apparently already having decided that the man was a piece of shit.

  “I was. But I wasn't like the others. I tried to help when I could. I tried to get them help,” Hal said defensively.

  Roscoe just stared at the man.

  “Here,” Valor said, handing a laptop to Roscoe, before digging in the pocket of his BDUs and handing over a cell phone as well.

  “What’s this?” Roscoe answered.

  “His computer, and his cell phone. Should have proof that he attempted to get help. Also should give you a list of those who ignored him. Some probably thought he was crazy, but some might have known and ignored him intentionally.”

  “I believe him,” Two announced as he followed Lethal away from the helipad and the small group of men gathered to meet them when they arrived.

  “Why?” Roscoe asked.

  “Remember him. Never saw him hurt anybody. Just brought food and guarded,” Two answered.

  “Anybody else remember him?” Roscoe asked.