by E G McNally
“What? Steal something so she can sell it for money? What kind of crap is this, maybe she’s gotten into trouble for drinking a couple of times, but she doesn’t steal.” Jake responded defensively, taken aback by the possibility that Taylor might have changed a little, maybe gotten desperate, and resorted to stealing for money. Would she really do that? He wondered.
“Just listen Jacob,” the man on the other side of the couch insisted. He remembered his name was Jim, calming back down, and listened to the rest, desperately trying to figure out the changes, if indeed they had occurred, that had transformed Taylor’s personality so much that she would steal, and not only steal, but steal something so important to these guys that they would go to great lengths to get it back.
“She’s a good kid. Don’t get me wrong, just mixed up with the wrong crowd, understand? Regardless, we need help finding her, and retrieving the stone.” Russet explained, in his deeper toned voice.
“Can’t you just snatch her up, like you did me, and take it back, no harm done?” Jake asked.
“It’s not that simple. She doesn’t know, but the man she’s hiding with is a dangerous renegade. A well known killer, and on the FBI’s most wanted list. He lures younger men and women into doing his biding for him, such as stealing from the government, and then once their task is done, he disposes of them, once and for all, destroying all evidence of their existence or their connection to his crime. If she is as easily coaxed as the others, then she’ll already have been tricked into a false sense of security with the man, and we’ll have a hard time getting her to reveal any useful information, if we are even lucky enough to pry her away from his yet to be found location.” Russet strategically lied to Jake. The goal was to win his confidence so that they could use him to lure Taylor away from Dr. Ambler and into their clutches. Once they have her, then they can take the stone from her, by any means necessary, and rejoin it with the rest of the stone.
“Honestly,” Jim commented, “We’re a little concerned about Taylor’s safety. She’s only useful to the man until he gets what she has, so she must be keeping it safely from him, and we need to find her before he gets it.”
“Kills her, someone is going to kill Taylor?” Jake fumed. “Of course I’ll help you, if it means helping Taylor.” He declared, with all traces of distrust washed away like a sand castle under the ocean’s high tide. The imminent possibility of his best friend and secret crush’s death sent a burning sensation of purpose through his blood boiling body. He was now suddenly ready to die for Taylor, die to save her life, die, if he had too.
“So how will I be able to help?” He asked, curious of what they had in store, completely unaware of the evil trap he’d just become part of.
“If you are willing to help us, then I would prefer you get cleaned up and fed before we continue this conversation. After you eat we’ll take you down to the labs and explain everything along with some of the intricate details we left out and you’ll need to know.” Russet stated, obviously pleased that they’d gained Jake’s allegiance.
All three men nodded to each other in agreement to some unspoken comment, and then Jim and Russet left the room together, leaving the anxious and worried Jake, alone with the overconfident and exceptionally energetic older man, Mike.
“Now, Jake, if you’ll come with me, I can set you up into a comfortable room where you can stay for a while. Russet spoke with your parents, and they have agreed to comply. They are sworn to confidence, and mustn’t speak with you while you’re working for us. It’s imperative that no one know about the work we do here. It’s strictly classified, besides what you’ll find out, and the men you see working with us, and the president, very few have any idea that we even exist, and it must remain that way, understand?” Mike changed the tone of his raspy voice to one of questioning.
“Yes,” Jake hesitated, “Sir,” he said cutting off his comment. Mike’s presence seemed to demand a certain level of respect in addressing him, even though Jake wasn’t used to speaking so formally.
They left the comfortable parlor room, and walked down a wide hallway with the same familiar bachelor atmosphere. Instead of light airy colors and paintings with flowers or landscapes, the top half of the wall was painted in a sodden blue and the bottom half in a rustic red. Halfway down the hall, they stopped at a cream colored door.
“You can stay in this room, shower and dress, and make sure to eat. You have an hour before I come back to get you so make it snappy.” Mike said, turning away from the door and continuing down the hall, until he disappeared.
Jake stepped into the room, quickly pulling off his tacky brown and green long-sleeved shirt and pulling off his pants. He ran the facet in the adjacent bathroom tub, until the water was warm enough to start a shower. After shuffling through some cabinets in the bathroom to find a towel, he jumped into the shower, and soaped up as quickly as possible.
He was glad to know that Taylor wasn’t dead, and didn’t get caught in the house fire. That’s more than he’d ever expected to find out, he wondered how he was supposed to find her. If they didn’t know where she was, than how was he supposed to find her? He finished showering while he was thinking about the possibilities. What would he say to her, after he finds her? How would he warn her about the man she’s been living with? Being as stubborn as she was, would she even listen?
Finishing his shower, and draping the towel around his waist, he rubbed off his hair, staring into a mirror above the sink, watching as his golden brown hairs, tightly spun back into small curls clinging closely to his head. Would Taylor even care about him anymore? Or had she changed so much, that it wouldn’t matter if he tried to talk to her? He wondered, wiping away some steam built up on the mirror, and glanced into the warm green and brown eyes of his reflection. She’d been caught up with such a bad crowd that she didn’t even seem like the same person anymore, from what he could understand, anyway.
He walked over to the dresser, pulling open a drawer to see if there might be anything he can wear. The top drawer was full of socks. The second one surprised him, full of neatly folded jeans on one side, and simple single colored polo shirts on the other, and they were all just his size. He pulled out a green polo and pair of jeans from the second drawer, and paired them with some white socks from the first. After quickly dressing, he caught a glimpse of the clock, and sat down on the bed, pulling an old pair of sneakers on, until Mike had returned.
“You ready in there kid?” He asked outside the door.
“Yeah, hold on a sec,” he shouted out, tying the remaining shoe.
Jake leapt off of the bed and swung open the door, finding himself, nose to knuckles, just as Mike was about to knock on the door again.
“A little impatient are we?” Jake exclaimed.
“No, just in a hurry, the longer we wait the more people are put in danger.” Mike harshly corrected.
“Oh, sorry,” Jake finished.
“Did you eat something,” Mike looked at Jake, watching for a response. Jake shook his head no, wondering when on earth Mike thought he might have had time to eat.
“Didn’t think so, I picked up some food on my way back here, you can eat it in the car ride to the labs.” Mike said, and then silently escorted Jake out of the estate. As they left the oddly comfortable bachelor pad, they were joined by two other men; one was easily recognizable as Russet, but the other wasn’t familiar at all.
They left the estate together, and the nameless man opened the rear passenger door to another large black sedan, motioning Jake to take a seat. He climbed inside, sitting silently, while everyone else finished slamming the doors closed, and then the driver quickly pulled a couple of miles down a road along the estate.
“Jake, you need to understand a few things before we go into the lab, okay?” Mike interrupted.
“Sure. I’m committed until Taylor is safe, so you don’t have to worry about me backing out.” Jake exclaimed, browsing out the window at the approaching white cement building. It reminded
him of a prison, only there was a large patch of transformers in one corner of the building outside and ‘dangerous high voltage’ signs on the fencing. Everything was covered in snow, not like in Port Angeles, were everything was wet and overcast, but here, the sky was clear and the sun shone, but there was a chill outside and the ground was blanketed with layers of snow.
“First, I’d like to remind you that everything you see in the labs is top secret and that you must take a confidentiality oath before entering. Nothing you see here exists, okay?” Mike said, smirking, which made Jake feel a little excited.
“In the labs you will see, umm, what should I call it, genetic engineering at its best? The government came across a specimen some sixty years ago, a stone specimen, similar to a large diamond, but with extraordinary genetic manipulation abilities. We’ve been enhancing human aspects to make us perfect. With the use of the stone, we have been able to restore broken bones, regenerate lost limbs, and cure fatal diseases, even cancers in all of our patients. I’ll let you see for yourself but the medicinal uses from this stone are endless.” Mike thickly disguised his well laid out lie with hopeful hints of a bright new future for humans, one without sickness and disease, and Jake readily ate it up, like a mouse eating rat poison.
“That sounds amazing, so why is it dangerous then?” Jake asked, as the sedan was pulling up alongside the facility. He noticed a large wooden sign that was pounded into the ground a few feet from the front of the vehicle with large engraved letters stating ‘Welcome to the Hughes Cyndac Oil Refinery, Refining some of the purest oil in the country.’ He thought it was quite clever that the labs were disguised as an oil refinery.
“Don’t be alarmed by the – side effects – we’ll say, most are reversible with a special treatment,” he continued his clever and complicated, completely made up lie. “And as you will be able to see for yourself, there are potentially very dangerous side effects. You will understand more when you see them, trust me.”
“Okay . . .” Jake hesitated, somewhat confused by the mixed messages he was picking up. “How will I be able to help, I mean suppose we can’t even find Taylor, then what?”
“I don’t think that will be a problem, the stone that she has is like a honing beacon, and with the piece that we have, we can use it to target her position more specifically.”
“So why haven’t you done that already than?” Jake asked, again confused by their need for his presence.
“Like I already said, delicacy is needed in this situation. She may not have the stone on her person and in any means may be unwilling to help us if she has in fact been persuaded by Dr. Ambler. We need you to find her and coax her back to us, safely and secretly. If he finds out someone is helping her, you both might be in danger.” Jake could sense the irritation in Mike’s tone of voice; maybe he would finish asking questions for now.
Jake watched as a series of numbers were pushed into a small panel attached to the main door. Once the doors unlocked, and finished sliding open, they all went inside and waited until the doors slammed closed again. Two men sitting in chairs, glanced up at them and then back down, systematically, left to right, looking at what must have been security monitors. Past the reception desk were several large doors along the back wall, they were all closed with little key pads implanted in the wall beside each, similar to the main entrance.
They waited for an elevator inside the main lobby, but then only Mike and Jake entered. The other two men that accompanied them inside, continued down the corridor, both splitting off into different sides of the reception desk, disappearing as the elevator doors closed.
“Where are they going?” Jake asked, forgetting that he wasn’t going to ask any more questions for a while.
“They’ve got some work to manage in the holding suites. As for us, Major Bradshaw is awaiting us down in the number two blue room lab. I believe you have spoken to the Major before, am I correct?” Mike asked, while watching the elevator levels pass by.
The elevator dropped six levels underground before it finally stopped at the B level.
“Yes, um, he questioned me a while ago about some strange power surge, but I really had no idea what he was talking about. I was really only in trouble for drinking.” Jake volunteered the information, more than Mike cared to hear.
Jake got the impression that Mike was forcing the small talk, not particularly interested in anything Jake had to say, as if this was just another job for him, another job to locate and entertain some random kid. The idea sent a chill down Jake’s back. It seemed odd that someone could become so callous.
“What’s the B stand for?” Jake asked.
The doors slid open and no more than eight feet in front of Jake was a large white wall with a huge two foot blue horizontal stripe painted all the way down it, and in large blue letters above the stripe were the words ‘Blue Sector.’
“Oh, never mind,” he blushed and quickly mumbled loud enough so that Mike wouldn’t respond to his obviously stupid question.
They immediately turned left down the hallway. It was a hallway among many hallways it seemed, and then continued until they found a room with a blue painted steel door and keypad implanted in the wall next to it, with the number four inscribed on the heavy metal door.
“Boy, security is really tight around here,” Jake hinted at a joke, which apparently was not funny to Mike, because he looked down at Jake with disapproving eyes.
“Security is no laughing matter here, as your presence being required to obtain something already stolen from us, proves. Please contain yourself in the presence of Major Bradshaw, he will consider you a soldier, and as such, you must act like one.” Mike’s dawning presence suddenly changed to a more confident soldiering one as he punched in the pass code on the keypad.
Jake sighed, wondering if Mike would always be so unpleasant, and then tried diligently like a good little boy to pull a more serious face, hoping to ease Mike’s edgy temperament.
The large metal door echoed a click from behind, and then began whirring as it slid open, disappearing into the wall. Jake took all of about half a second to make certain of the figures inside the room and then jumped back, slamming with fright into the door across the hall.
“What the hell?” Jake yelled, absolutely alarmed, his heart racing. He stood plastered to the door for more than a minute forcing his body to obey his mind, trying desperately to calm down. When finally he felt the blood rushing back to his fingertips and toes, he swallowed hard and just starred at the six, straight from hell, gargoyle like creatures gathered around the table inside the room, hardly making notice of Mike or Major Bradshaw, calmly standing just inside the doorway greeting each other warmly.
Chapter XVI: Cyndac Oil Refinery
After a few moments, Mike quickly returned to Jake, leaning close to his ear and whispered, “I thought I asked you to keep it under control? Remember I was telling you about the side effects?” He stressed.
Jake swallowed hard, realizing that he hadn’t prepared for something this massive, something so gruesome. Eyes still locked on the six figures in front of him he searched through his memory for the conversation he had with Mike, and found the one he was looking for. “I – uh – thought you said the side effects were reversible?” He choked out the words as calmly as possible, taking deep long breaths, hoping to slow his heart beat.
After a few moments he regained enough self awareness that he was able to pull away from the door he had plastered himself to.
“There are, only we need the stolen portion of the stone to reverse them. These were six of my best men, injured in battle years ago, when they finally volunteered for the experiments we gladly excepted them knowing that injured war heroes deserve proper, if not the best care possible.” Mike explained while Jake cautiously stepped into the number four blue room lab, keeping a close proximity to the wall.
He browsed over each figure first, taken aback by the all too familiar humanlike features each creature contained, noting the distinc
tions silently in his head, between the colors of the skin, if you could call it skin, and the shapes of the wings, wild and elegant, and or course who could forget the tails, strangely familiar, but not something you would find on a human, as Major Bradshaw made the introductions.
“Jacob Stevens, good to meet you again,” Major Bradshaw caught Jake off guard with a handshake and then quickly released it motioning to the other bodies in the room.
“You’ve been getting acquainted with my old friend Mike here,” he commented, throwing a hand over Mike’s shoulder roughly patting him like a good dog.
Jake nodded.
“Now you will get the pleasure of meeting some of the best fighters I’ve ever had the satisfaction of working with.” The Major bragged, as if he were showing off all the old trophies he’d won.
“First Lieutenant Rachel Dawson,” the first gargoyle at the left side of the table tipped its spiny bone notched head forward, in acknowledgment. Her teal green eyes glaring directly at Jake, slightly shadowed by her bone etched brows that protruded like crowns over each eye, made him feel uncomfortable. And although she was horrifying, there was also small traces of human features that made her distinctly woman, and frightfully beautiful, in a nonhuman sort of way.
“Nice . . . to meet you,” she hissed, like a snake, and then returned to her stance at attention behind the table.
“Second Lieutenant Matt Marshall,” the Major motioned to the next figure, vastly similar to the first, minus the female attributes.
“Pleasure, I’m sure,” he hissed as well, making no other acknowledgment of his presence, never breaking his stance at attention. He too like Lt Dawson, appeared bone carved and spiky, with bones protruding from strange areas, like the eye brows, and shoulders. His body was the same teal green color as Lt Dawson, but rather than scales, his skin appeared to be a very rich leather, and just slightly deeper toned that Lt Dawson.