Project Spiralbound
Page 5
stabbing, strangling, shooting, and more and more by bombing.
“No.” He shook his head vigorously and made a serious face. “Never.”
John waited for the next intrusive question but nothing came. He squinted to try and see what Jason was up to. He could see a figure standing over Hank, who also only appeared as a silhouette. They were apparently looking over the print out of the polygraph results.
“Guys?” John spoke out in a small voice. “What’s-”
“It’s OK, John.” Hank reassured him. “The first polygraph is over. We’re just looking over the results.”
The first polygraph? John thought. There’s more? Oh no. I’ve got to get out of here!
“Can I have a bathroom break while you guys do that? I have to take a leak.” John exaggeratedly squeezed his legs together.
“No.” Jason answered sternly.
“Wait,” Hank spoke to Jason in a hushed tone. “He did drink all that… Tang, remember?”
Jason sighed. “You’re right.”
Jason walked around the desk and blocked the bright light as he unstrapped John.
John made sure not to walk too hastily towards the door. He turned back to the pair and asked, “Where’s the bathroom?”
“It’s the first door to the right of the elevator.” Hank answered.
John walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. He then sprinted to the elevator and pressed the UP button repeatedly. “C’mon! C’mon!”
The elevator door open and he jumped inside and immediately pressed the L button, followed by the CLOSE DOOR button. The doors seemed to close too slowly. His stomach bubbled painfully. “Not now!” He held his stomach. A bought of diarrhea coming on.
DING! The elevator reached the level floor and he burst out of the elevator and sprinted out of Dunn Hall. As fast as he could, he ran to Wesley Hall, all the while clutching his stomach.
He reached the dorm in a little under five minutes, though it seemed much longer than that. Stomping up two flights of stairs, he reached the third floor and flew into the bathroom slamming the door behind him.
He sat down to a painfully acidic explosion. John doubled over and let out an agonizing groan.
Back at Dunn Hall, Jason and Hank toiled over the results, forgetting that they had let their subject go to the restroom. It’s been over ten minutes now, but they studied the results obsessively and in great detail.
“We’ve caught him in a few lies; there’s no denying that,” Hank observed.
“I wouldn’t need to look at this to tell. You could see it all over his face,” Jason quipped.
“Well that’s not the point!” Hank corrected him, keeping his eyes on the long roll of paper designed with esoteric waves.
Jason fell quiet.
Hank, sensing that he scolded Jason too harshly cheered him up. “Dr. Mueller will be really impressed with our findings. I know he will. This is just what he wants.” He pointed at certain peaks and dips on the polygraph where it showed John to be deceptive.
Jason thought of Dr. Mueller, whom he looked up to immensely, praising their work. He could hear him now in his deep official voice, “Good.”
John finished up in the bathroom with what felt like a burning, swollen anus. He wobbled, slightly bent over and still clutching his stomach. He knew this wouldn’t be the last of it. He imagined Jason and Hank speeding across campus to arrest him and take him away into their unholy custody and decided that he had to get out. But where would he go? He knew no one else on campus.
“I could camp out in the library,” he thought. The library never closed. It was a huge building in the center of campus with many little nooks and crannies to hide in.
“They’ll never find me there,” he laughed to himself as he packed his backpack with a change of underwear and a shirt.
Not wanting to lose any more time he turned off his light and locked his door. Swinging the backpack over his shoulder, he ran down the stairs and out into the cold night.
Jason was so excited by the prospect of praise that he suggested that they go show Dr. Mueller immediately. This was both of their first polygraphs and even Hank, who was usually the level-headed one of the duo, agreed. He too was excited to see what Dr. Mueller would say.
Hank folded the long sheet neatly and they both walked out of the door and down the hallway, smiling.
Dr. Mueller’s office was at the very end of the hallway and it took them an entire two minutes walk just to reach it. Jason knocked on the door and his respect for Dr. Mueller could be heard just in the way he knocked. Not too hard, not too soft. Not too fast, not too slow.
“Come in,” a woman’s voice called them.
The pair walked in and was greeted by the lovely Miss Holly, Dr. Mueller’s secretary.
“Hello, Holly.” Hank and Jason momentarily forgot why they came as they admired Holly sitting behind the desk.
“Yes?” she asked them, pretending not to notice the attention they showered on her.
“Is Dr. Mueller in?” Jason asked, smiling childishly.
“Yes.” She answered.
“Can we see him?” Hank asked. “It’s important.”
“Hold on, I’ll ask him.” Holly phoned him.
Hank and Jason snapped out of their state of admiration and thought of just what to say to Dr. Mueller. They looked at one another, trying not to appear nervous.
“Go right in,” Holly waved them to the door behind her desk.
“Thanks.” They both slightly bowed and rushed to the door.
Jason knocked, again with the same reverent respect.
“Herein!” Dr. Mueller called out in his native German.
They opened the door to find him sitting at his desk, toying with a Rubik’s cube. “Oh, hello.” He put down the cube.
“Sorry to have disturbed you-” Hank started in a hushed voice.
“No, no.” He saw the printout in Hank’s hands. “Oh, what’s this?”
“This is what we came to see you about.” Hank handed over the results.
Dr. Mueller looked it over and Hank pointed out different parts to him, where he made certain notations. Dr. Mueller nodded approvingly.
“Let me see Phase II of the polygraph,” Dr. Mueller held out his hand.
Hank and Jason shot up and shot each other worrying looks. They both realized just then that they had let John go to the bathroom and completely forgot about him.
“Oh, we… we, uh...” Jason stuttered apprehensively.
“We… lost him.” Hank immediately regretted what he said.
Jason signed heavily and hung his head.
“What!” Dr. Mueller barked. “Lost him? What do you mean lost him?”
Jason let Hank answer, since he screwed up this time.
“Well, he said he needed to use the bathroom and I let him because he drank all the Tang.”
“We spiked it with Benzodiazepine,” Jason explained.
“Yes, so we could get him into the polygraph chair,” Hank went on.
“Did he refuse to do the polygraph?” Dr. Mueller inquired.
Hank and Jason thought for a moment. They had not even asked John if he would submit to a polygraph but because of his previous reactions and attempts to quit the research project, they decided this would be the best course to take.
“Not exactly.” Hank answered.
“Did you even ask him?” the doctor suspected they had not.
“No.” Hank answered glumly.
Dr. Mueller shook his head. “Well, this,” he held up the polygraph results, “is pretty useless without phase two of the polygraph examination. It means absolutely nothing on its own.”
John reached the library without encountering Jason or Hank. There were very few souls inside and he decided his best bet would be to rent out a private study room, which was free to students.
“ID,” the librarian droned.
He fished out his student ID, which the librarian scanned. She handed him a key.
John rushed to the elevator but it took far too long so he darted up the stairs. He couldn’t take any chances. He’s gotten this far.
He felt like he was going around in unending circles when he realized that the library numbered the second floor as the first floor and the first floor as the BASE floor, or floor B. So the second floor was above him.
John stamped his feet in a fit of frustration before running up another flight of stairs. There he found the neatly rowed rooms. Room 33 was in a far corner and he was glad for this. He unlocked the door and dropped his backpack onto the desk. Leaning against the door, he let out an audible sigh of relief. He turned to his left and looked at the foot wide glass pane that allowed the librarians to “check up” on what was going on in the study room. He locked the door and sat in the chair.
“Do I really have to worry about being seen through the glass pane?” he thought. “Jason and Hank will never look here.” He was sure they wouldn’t. He put his head on the table and closed his eyes. What a nightmare!
Jason and Hank sulked as they walked down the hall, away from Mr. Mueller’s lair.
“Should we look for him now?” Jason broke the unbearable silence.
Hank did not answer immediately.
“I don’t know,” he finally said. “He could be far gone by now.”
“But where could he go?” Jason wondered. “You think he went back to his room?”
“I don’t know,” Hank repeated himself. “He knows that would be the first place we would look.”
“Yeah.” Jason agreed.
“His parents live out of state and clearly he doesn’t have any friends he can count on.”
“What if he didn’t leave? I mean, maybe he got sick from the… Tang and you know.”
Hank thought it over. “Possible. But he really didn’t like the polygraph. I doubt he would have returned while we were out.”
They reached the room and checked inside. No sign of life. For a few minutes, the stood around unable to get their thoughts straight. Unable to form an intelligent plan.
“Let’s just go home and we’ll sleep on it.” Hank suggested, feeling drained and defeated.
Jason agreed and yawned. “I’ll call you if I think of anything. I think best when sleeping.”
“Good.”
The next morning Jason awoke to a phone call. It was a frantic Hank.
“Jason, Dr. Mueller wants to see us in his office ASAP.”
“About what?” Jason yawned into the phone.
“I don’t know. He sounds pissed.” Hank alerted him.
“Crap.”
“Yeah.”
“Meet me outside of Dunn.”
“OK.”
Dr. Mueller told the pair to sit. They reluctantly took a seat at his large wooden desk. The doctor stared at them with rage and slammed a student newspaper in front of them.
“What the hell is this?” he demanded.
Hank and Jason had no clue what he was talking about.
“Look!” Dr. Mueller shouted, pointing at the newspaper.
They took it and read the headline: YOUNG STUDENT FOUND DEAD IN LIBRARY
A high school yearbook photo of John graced the space beneath the bold headline.
Hank and Jason both immediately thought of suicide but the doctor quickly squashed that thought.
“And it was NOT suicide. Keep reading.”
Hank read aloud breathlessly, “Undergraduate Mathematics major, John Mortenson, was found dead around 3 AM by head librarian Natasha Waits. Drug tests are being done and the results will not be known for a few weeks. There was no sign of violence and tapes from the security cameras were checked. He was seen entering the study room around 12:30 AM and was never seen walking out.”
“Enough.” Dr. Mueller grumbled. “Just how much Benzo did you put in that Tang?”
Hank began to shake uncontrollably. “He was only supposed to have a cup or two!”
“And how much did he have?”
“The whole pitcher.” Jason answered glumly as he wondered what prison food tasted like.
“The whole pitcher? How did that happen?”
Hank had mindlessly offered it to him. They both sat silently with their heads bowed. They were sure Dr. Mueller would alert the authorities but he didn’t.
“You two had better destroy every shred of evidence that John Mortenson was ever a part of this project. Do you understand me?”
“Yes!” they both answered, glad that the cops would not be summoned.
“Everything! Every piece of paper and every file on your computer relating to… Upright.”
“We will. There isn’t much, so it can be done immediately,” Hank assured the doctor.
“Yeah, in no time!” Jason agreed.
“Good.”
THE END
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