by Amity Cross
Mei led me into a room that housed a lot of technical equipment. Tools, and pieces of electronics were scattered over a large workbench, and a row of computer monitors lined one wall. She led me through another door and into what appeared to be a medical lab. A few technicians sat at their stations and watched as we walked through to yet another room that housed a large MRI. It was a large cylinder machine with a table that slid inside, and up this close, it looked imposing. They’d take a snapshot of my brain and then they would take me to have electrodes map out my brainwaves…among other things.
A man was fussing about with the computers as we entered, and when he noticed our arrival, he jumped in surprise, holding his hand over his heart.
“This is Jackson,” Mei said, introducing me to the technician. “He’s our tech guy. He does a lot of things for us around the office. Operational tech, hacking, security,” she waved her hand at the bulky machine in the room, “MRI's…”
“I also take care of the copy machine when it gets jammed.” His voice broke, and he swallowed hard. I made him nervous.
Mei shook her head, and I realized this was just how he was.
“What should I call you?” he asked me. “Mr. Blood? Agent…”
I raised my eyebrow as Mei undid the handcuffs.
“Don’t worry about that right now,” Mei said. To me she declared, “We can’t have any metal in the MRI because of the magnetic field.” Then she pointed to the CCTV camera in the corner before unwinding the chain. “I’m putting a lot of trust in you.” Then she lowered her voice as she leaned forward. “There are a lot of eyes on this room.”
I grunted as she pointed to the table. Jackson stared at me the whole time, his hands shaking, as I lay down and waited.
I looked him over a little more thoroughly this time and didn’t recognize him, but he obviously knew me. He was short, weedy and pale, his glasses kept slipping down his nose, and he’d pushed them up eleven times since we’d walked into the room. I glanced at Mei, and understanding the overtures in my look, she nodded.
“We went to the football together once,” Jackson blurted. “Well, not just you and I, there were a whole bunch of us, but you were there as well. Arsenal versus Chelsea. Arsenal won, two nil.”
Mei smiled down at me as I grimaced at the technician, my patience wearing thin.
“He’s got a photographic memory,” she said. “And he gets nervous.”
“She’s right,” he went on as he checked the MRI. “I’m sweating like a pig, though you were always intimidating. I mean being the Director’s son and all, but now you’re like a badass assassin. That’s massively intimidating. My palms are all gross.” His eyes widened. “Are you going to kill me now that I know? I’ve got to pick my son up from school tonight. His mum is—”
“Jackson.” Mei elbowed him in the ribs.
“Ow,” he complained.
“Are we good to go?”
Rolling my eyes, I laid back and stared at the ceiling as they left the room.
“Well, he’s cheery.” Jackson’s voice echoed over the intercom, and I raised my head, glaring at him through the glass. Was this a fucking government operation or a sideshow?
Mei slapped him as the table slid back into the MRI and pointed. Jackson’s expression fell, and he began to turn red.
“Sorry, Mr. Blood. I mean, Agent Cassel. I mean—”
Laying my head back down, I said, “Just get on with it.”
The intercom clicked, and Mei’s voice echoed in the chamber. “I hear it can get a little claustrophobic in there, so try not to move.”
I’d been in tighter, and much darker, spaces. Closing my eyes, I centered my thoughts as the machine fired up, making a whooping sound as it began scanning my body. I had no idea what they were hoping to find, let alone trigger. The thought of remembering what had been taken from me might do more harm than good.
Focusing on the reason I was here in the first place, my thoughts carried me off into a memory. Mercy Reid hiding in the crawl space behind my depravity.
I hadn’t fallen asleep, or gone anywhere, but my thoughts had carried me back to her yet again. She’d hidden from Weiss when he’d come to my apartment looking for her. That had been the first moment he’d started suspecting what I’d done…that I was no longer Royal Blood's. I’d opened the panel in the back of my closet, and she’d been curled up against my safe. The first thing she’d done was launch herself into my arms. Despite everything I was, she’d placed her unfaltering trust in me.
The table began to move, and my eyes snapped open. I couldn’t pinpoint the feeling that had overcome me the moment Mercy had been taken, but it felt like a limb had been severed from my body. That my regenerating heart had been taken from me again. I’d done a lot of cruel things, but this seemed the worst of all. How many people had I done it to and not given a shit about?
How many people wanted revenge on me?
The door opened, and Mei came in to collect me. I followed without question, my thoughts scattered as we emerged back into the lab.
“Have a seat,” she said, nodding to a table at one side. It looked like a makeshift exam room with a curtain, a bed, and a sterile area.
I glanced at her, waiting for the handcuffs to come out again.
“What?” she asked, looking me up and down.
“You’re not restraining me.”
“No. They trust you enough to not have to go back just yet.” She nodded to the pair of guards just outside the door. “Besides, we gave you an escort.”
I snorted. Like they would stop me if I really wanted to get out of this place. I had an idea of the layout after my parade through the main office, and I’d seen enough to make an educated estimation of the size of their operation. It was a test on MI6’s behalf, and since I still needed them, I would play along and be nice.
As I sat on the table, a woman in a white coat came in, holding a folder in her hands. She was busy flicking through the papers and when she stopped in front of me, she glanced up, and her cheeks flushed red. She was this petite little thing with curly blonde hair and glasses with a thick black rim around them.
Mei hid a smile. “They just want to give you a check up to make sure we’re treating you right.”
Well, this was a novel experience. I was used to having information beaten out of me, but that was only if they could get their hands on me first.
“This is Dr. Simons,” Mei went on.
“I just want to check your vitals,” the doctor said, shrinking back into her hair. “And your wrists. If you could…” She trailed off, her cheeks flaring redder than ever.
I assumed they wanted me to take off my shirt, so I reached behind my head, fisted my hand into the material and yanked it up over my head. “Knock yourself out.”
Both women tried to hide their reactions at the same time, one more successful than the other. In the light of the lab, it was easy to see the scars that peppered my entire left hand side through the black of my tattoo. Dr. Simons gasped audibly and slapped a hand over her mouth. Mei paled and glanced away.
“Burns,” I said blandly. “Some of them are cuts, but most of them are burns.”
Mei’s gaze rose. “Did he…”
I nodded.
“Okay,” Dr. Simons declared, regaining her composure. She went through the motions, taking my blood pressure, listening to my chest, testing reflexes… Then she took the bandages off my wrists and inspected the stitches. She glanced up at me as she dabbed the wounds with antiseptic, expecting me to flinch away, but I didn’t move. It stung like a bitch, but pain was a manifestation of weakness. That was one piece of training I’d probably never be able to let go of. Pain could be pleasure, or it could destroy.
As Dr. Simons was wrapping up my wrists, Jackson burst into the room waving at Mei. “Results are up.”
Mei glanced at me. “Want to see?”
“Do I have the right clearance?” I retorted, beginning to get fidgety as I dragged my shirt back on.
>
“It’s your head we’re poking around in,” she said, ignoring my tone. “You can either understand what is going to happen, or deal with it.”
Raising my eyebrow, I slid off the table and followed Jackson, my silent guard detail following my every move. Mei only sighed before bringing up the rear.
Jackson was seated in the first room, a myriad of computer screens lit up with the scans from the MRI.
“What are we looking at?” Mei asked, positioning herself beside me.
“Everything looks normal,” he said. “But these parts of…” He trailed off and looked at me, still unsure which name to call me. “They're slightly darker than usual.” Jackson pointed to the image on the monitor. “Here and here,” he said. “Those are the places in the brain that house long and short term memories. This part is where we think a little stimulation might trigger something.”
I glanced at Mei. “Stimulation?”
“Noninvasive,” Jackson blurted, holding up a sensor that was sitting on his workbench. “We’d use a special electrode that transmits a wave on a specific frequency. Totally cutting edge. You can’t get this stuff in stores.” He grinned like this shit got him hard.
I picked up a sensor and peered at it. “So, you stick this over the point of my brain that you want to stimulate a response in, and shock me?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“And what if it doesn’t work?” Mei asked. “Are there any side effects?”
Jackson grimaced. “Well, it’s experimental. Nobody has really documented any human trials…”
Mei snatched the sensor from my hand. “Jackson.”
“I’m under orders,” he replied, glancing nervously at me. “It works in theory.”
He was hedging around the truth, but I understood. Shock me too much in the wrong place, and I might end up a vegetable. I got how the brain worked.
Glancing back to the scans that showed my full body, I pointed to several places on my ribs, my legs and my arms. Old breaks that showed clear as day on the screens. “They conditioned me with pain,” I said, ignoring the moment where Jackson’s mouth dropped open. “Pain might be the only thing that can undo it.”
Jackson let out the breath he’d been holding. “Yeah, well it’s going to hurt.”
I shrugged. “Where do you want me?”
“You want to do it now?” Mei asked, disbelieving.
“Yes.”
“We’re not really set up for this kind of thing,” Jackson said, visibly nervous.
I gestured to the sensors. “You have the equipment.” I nodded at the door behind me where I’d seen the rest of what he required. “You have a chair you can lash me to.”
“Oliver…” Mei obviously didn’t like the sound of what I was suggesting.
“What’s the alternative?” I snapped, turning to face her. “Send me to London? Take your time with it? Understand that Mercy doesn’t have any time. We do this now, or I fight my way out of here. And you know I will fight.”
The sound of two weapons cocking at my outburst hardly registered.
“Um…” Jackson muttered. “No need to get all stabby.” We both turned to glare at him at the same time. “I have an IQ higher than Einstein. I can lash you to a chair.”
Mei raised her hand and the guards stood down. “You really want to do this?” she asked me. “In an uncontrolled environment without the proper equipment?”
“You heard the man,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “He’s a motherfucking genius.”
Jackson began bouncing up and down on his chair, waiting for Mei to give the order. He was obviously confident, so who the fuck cared? I didn’t see how this could trigger anything, but it was still a means to an end. It was my ticket out, and I was taking it.
“Mei,” I said firmly.
She blinked hard, shaking her head. “Do it.”
Jackson snapped to attention and began dashing around the room like a madman as Mei and I stared each other down.
“You wanted me to believe,” I said. “This is the only way I will. You can show me all the photographs and evidence you like, but you know it will never satisfy me.”
“Only seeing will,” she said through a sigh, finishing off my thought.
“C’mon,” Jackson declared, waving his arms at us.
Mei nodded, giving her acquiescence, and we went back through to the lab where I’d seen the chair. A flurry of movement greeted our arrival as monitors and machines were rolled about the room, a whole horde of excited technicians milling about to see what would happen.
Sitting in the chair, I allowed Mei to strap me in as Jackson fired up the equipment. She made it feel like I was going to my own execution with the way she moped about. She didn’t think this was going to work, that much was clear. If they sent me to London, she would have more time. I never understood how some people had such a difficult time letting go of the past.
“Everyone out,” she barked, and the room began to clear. To me she said, “I don't think you want an audience for this.”
I didn’t have a chance to reply as Jackson stuck the sensors to my forehead, positioning them over the parts of the brain he was going to fry with electricity. Flipping on the screen next to the chair, an image of my brainwaves flashed up. It was all these lines that arced up and down, much like a heartbeat. On another screen were the MRI images.
“Now,” he said. “I’m going to start at a low setting and see if we can get anything. I don’t know what you’ll see, if you’ll see anything at all, but tell me to stop if you need me to.” He fiddled with some settings on the machine as Mei stood beside me, her arms crossed over her chest in disapproval. “It’ll be one long shock in short bursts,” he went on. “The current will stimulate your memories for as long as it is active. Theoretically…”
“We get that bit,” Mei said thinly.
There was no going back now. Curling my hands around the arms of the chair, I said, “Do it.”
“Three, two, one.” He flipped the switch.
Electricity coursed through my skull, and I felt like I was boiling from the inside out. Squeezing my eyes shut, I focused on blocking it out, but as my concentration slipped, a vivid image slid into my mind’s eye.
Moving silently through the lounge and into the bedroom, a woman was shoving clothes haphazardly into a duffle bag. Her long, lean body was hunched over the bed, her long black hair falling in soft waves down her back.
I wouldn’t need the tranquilizer. I could just shoot the bitch and be done with it.
Pressing the barrel into the back of her head, the woman tensed.
“Turn around,” I snarled. “Do it fucking slowly. I'm going to look into your eyes as the bullet passes through your head. That's the best bit, don't you know?”
The woman began to pivot on her heel slowly, her hands rising. As the barrel of the gun tracked its way across her skull, a feeling of dread began to settle in my gut. When her blue eyes met mine, my arm went slack, and the gun fell away.
I'd been played. The master had been played.
“Mercy?”
“No,” I snarled, slamming back into reality. My head ached, but it wasn’t the pain of the electric shock that I felt the most.
“What did you see?” Mei asked, glancing nervously at Jackson.
“Her…” I couldn’t say it, but she got it.
“Too recent,” I heard her say to Jackson. “Try something else.”
“How…”
“Jackson.”
He shuffled before saying, “I’m shocking you again.”
He didn’t count this time, he just flipped the switch and sent bolts of electricity straight into my head. As before, the pain was excruciating, but my vision slipped again.
Green eyes, messy brown hair… Fighting over his acceptance into the academy… “I don’t want this life for you, Phillip.”
The image dissolved, and I was back in the lab. I gasped, holding onto the chair so tight I felt the stitches in my wrist be
gin to burn.
“Oliver?” It was Mei, but I didn’t care that she’d called me by his name.
“Do it again,” I rasped, catching my breath. “I saw Phillip.”
Mei gestured to Jackson.
“I’m not sure it’s safe to go any higher…” he said, his gaze flashing uncertainly from me to Mei and back again.
I tried to thump my fist against the arm of the chair, but my movement was restricted by the restraints. “Again.”
The snap and pop of a camera going off blinded me for a second. Smiling, I held my father’s hand as the photographer took one more shot.
“Congratulations, son,” he said proudly as we were finally left alone for a minute. He straightened the medal pinned to my suit jacket and clapped his hands on my shoulders. “As always, your work is impeccable, but you know what we have to do with this.”
Nodding, I unpinned the medal of bravery I’d just been awarded as my father held his hand out to one of his minders for the box. Placing it inside, he snapped the lid shut before moving off.
Mei appeared beside me, looking stunning as always in her navy suit, her legs going on for days
“Sucks,” I said, smiling at her
“Yeah, it’s a shame we don’t get to keep them,” she said, laughing
I watched the guard take away the box, knowing it was going to be locked away in a vault underneath the building with all the other medals. It was the job. Secrecy was the game and we all played it
“Fuck,” I hissed as I came back to reality once more.
“Are you okay?” Mei was kneeling in front of me, her expression worried.
“You said that I didn’t quite believe,” I said, breathing heavily as Jackson peeled the sensors off my temples. “Well, I fucking believe you.”
“It worked?” she breathed.
“It worked.”
Twenty-Two
Mercy
Somehow, I’d given them everything without understanding any of it.
They never gave me any time to understand what I’d betrayed because the questions about X stopped, and my training began.
I was supervised around the clock, and the moment I began to fall asleep, I would be shocked awake, the clarity blinding and overloading my senses. Hallucinations were hard to distinguish from reality as The Watchman worked, feeding his lies and poison into my ears as I languished.
