That wasn’t what he wanted to hear at all. Hank was just coming into the DC Metro area and working his way through the stop/start traffic. It took him an age due to the road blocks around the White House security area. There was no parking in the area at all unless you were disabled, so he pulled over just around the corner in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs offices in Vermont Avenue. He took the portable police light from his glove box and put it on the dashboard to stop him being towed and walked around to Lafayette Square. There was a bench just inside the square and Hank took a seat and looked around to see if anything jumped out at him. He could see that on the corner there was the Appledore Rehabilitation Centre and other Government buildings. There was nothing he could see that pointed towards where she would have gone to. He turned around and looked directly at the White House.
He thought to himself “All this security, and we’ve lost her. One of the most heavily guarded buildings on the planet and we’ve lost her!”
Hanks disappointment was short lived. His cell phone rang and it was the Control Centre back in New York.
“Hank, we think we’ve found her but can’t be one hundred percent sure.”
As he listened, his phone beeped as he had a message come through:
“We can’t be sure it’s her, as the person we were following was definitely walking.”
This threw Hank a little as he opened the message on his phone. The picture was of a girl in a wheelchair being loaded into a minivan outside the Rehabilitation Centre opposite where he was sitting. He looked closely at it and could see the same dark red hair, but that was all. There was something about it though. He couldn’t place what it was. Perhaps it was his feelings towards the case influencing his judgement, but he felt that this was the right avenue to pursue. They managed to get the plate of the minivan and had the address of the registered owner in Alexandria.
Hank had been on the road all day and, by this point was starting to feel it. He had a lead to follow but it was no good if he was too exhausted to follow it through properly. He got back into Laura and drove to the Hoover Building a couple of blocks away. On the top floor, there were a few single accommodation rooms for visitors to use when necessary, so he checked into one of them and flaked out on the bed. He had the overnight bag from the trunk of Laura that he’d replenished that morning before setting off, so he knew the next day he could start afresh.
It was a restless night. The bed was uncomfortable, the room didn’t have any air conditioning and was really warm. He tossed and turned all night worrying about what he would actually do if he did find Laura the next day. Would he bring her in or would he let her go? Would she even remember him? It wasn’t a good set of questions to be mulling over. The night dragged on with Hank only getting minimal sleep before it was 6 am and time to get up.
After getting showered, shaved and ready to go, Hank remembered that he hadn’t spoken to his boss in a couple of days, so he needed to update him with what was going on. He went downstairs in the building to the hot-desking area and sent a message to him explaining what he had found out and why he was back in DC. When he had finished, he walked across the street to a diner to grab some hot food and coffee. He was in a more positive mood by the end of his meal. He felt almost recharged and it wasn’t long before he was on the road to the minivan owner's address in Alexandria.
It wasn’t a bad drive to get there. It was familiar to Hank, as he had lived in the Annapolis area for a while with Laura and visited Alexandria frequently when they went out for drives on the weekend. Before long, he was sitting opposite the address looking at the house. It was actually quite a nice place. It was a colonial-style bungalow with nice grounds. The garden was well kept, with a mixture of lawn and flowers blooming in the warm sunshine. Parked on the driveway was the minivan. It was still only 8.30 am, so he didn’t want to go into the house that early as they may not actually be awake yet. He watched the house for any signs of movement but there was nothing. He gave it another half an hour before walking over to the property. He figured 9am was a decent time to be knocking on a door. What he wasn’t aware of, was that the occupants had been up for quite some time and he would have no idea of the conversation that was going on at that very moment.
Chapter 16
Restless Answers
It wasn’t the most peaceful night for Mia. She had lay there all night willing parts of herself to move. Time after time she repeatedly moved her arms and legs. After a few hours of perseverance, she found she could control the functions of them, as well as move her head freely. She was almost back! The only thing left for her to do was speak. She was cautious with this step though. She didn’t want to make any noise and risk waking Kyle.
She whispered “Hello” over and over again.
She then tried “Help” over and over until she was confident that she could control her throat and mouth.
It had taken all night but finally, she was up and out of bed walking around the room in her nightshirt.
She was planning how to play it with Kyle in the morning. She knew she needed to get the maximum amount of information out of him as possible to start piecing her life back together. In her head, she decided that it was best to keep the element of surprise and play along in her usual state to see what happened. It wasn’t long before she heard the door of Kyle’s room opening, so she quickly dove back into bed and under the covers. She could hear him going through his usual morning ritual getting everything ready. She could hear the kettle boiling and then his footsteps walking along the corridor to her room.
As he entered, he said “Morning” in a soft voice and set about getting her up and ready for the day.
She found it hard to play limp as she could move all her body now, but she carried on playing along. Before long, he had loaded her into her chair and was wheeling her into the dining room for breakfast.
As they sat there with Kyle spoon-feeding her the mushy breakfast he had prepared, Mia decided to test the water to see how much attention he was paying to her. She twitched her arm to see if he noticed, but he didn’t and just carried on.
She did it again and this time, he sat back and looked at her and said “Are you alright Mia?”
He started to stand up and she suddenly grabbed his arm. He paused and sat back down.
“Who are you?” she asked.
Kyle looked startled for a moment, then sat back in his chair.
“What do you mean Mia? I’m Kyle, your husband” he replied.
“Trust me Kyle, I know that you’re not, I want to know who you are” she said raising her voice a little.
Kyle stared at her for a moment and she saw that his eyes glanced over the counter to the telephone sitting on the worktop.
“Trust me,” she said. “If you even think about it, I’ll kill you before you leave that seat. Now start talking. Who are you?” she asked again.
Kyle put his hands up in a surrender type movement. Although he was in shock at what had just happened, he knew exactly who she was and what she was capable of so he knew the game was up.
“OK Mia” he replied slowly. “My name’s not Kyle but my real name is not important. I’m not your husband, I work for the Arena and I’ve been looking after you for the last couple of years on their behalf.”
“Why?” she asked.
“They needed you to have a normal type life where people saw you on a daily basis as part of their cover. They needed someone who couldn’t be blamed for the assassinations they needed doing.”
“Who are the Arena and why do they have control of me?” she asked.
“When you got damaged in your accident, the Arena took control of your healthcare and well-being as you had signed yourself away to them in your initial contract with the NSA. You were their perfect candidate for project M.I.A. They brought you back from the dead with their knowhow and the serum.”
“Are they the NSA?” she asked.
“No, I don’t really know who they are but they’re defi
nitely not the NSA. They are government; they’ve got big funding from somewhere. Dr Cooper is the main man. He’s head of the whole thing.”
Mia started thinking about other questions she had and what else she needed to know.
“Why do you work for them when you don’t know who they are?”
“I work for them as they pay well and I was fed up being a field agent for all those years. I’m basically a glorified babysitter now making a lot of money.”
Mia could sense that Kyle’s tone was changing the more he spoke.
“So you’ve kept me here as a complete vegetable for the last two years for a good paycheck?” she asked.
“Well, someone was going to have to do it” he replied nonchalantly.
Mia could feel herself getting angry. She hadn’t felt that emotion for quite a long time and in the back of her mind wondered what she was actually capable off.
“How many people work at the Arena?”
“I don’t know but it’s quite a few. I would say at least twenty officials,” he replied. “Why?” he asked.
“Because I’m going to burn their house down!” she replied, with serious authority in her voice.
“You can’t. You can’t get in there without the access codes. They’re only active when you're out on a mission” Kyle said with a smirk on his face.
“Yeah, but I’ve got your codes Kyle. They should do,” she snapped back at him.
He was infuriating her more and more with his attitude to the whole thing. When she said that, Kyle’s smirk slowly disappeared. He realised that her knowing what was going on was obviously not a new thing and had potentially been going on for a while. Mia had made up her mind that this man, this imposter, had been part of a group that had kept her captive for their own self-motivated agenda and that he needed to die, but not before she got as much out of him as she could.
“How much do you know about the serum?” she asked.
“Not too much. I know that when they gave it to you it brought you out of your paraplegic phase for 72 hours at a time. I don’t think they knew it would bring you back permanently. The injection they gave you when you came back was just a cleansing medication that purged the serum from your system. It returned you to your vegetative state.”
With that comment, Mia felt herself lose control.
She lunged at him, but he said “Wait! They can bring you back.”
“What?” she snapped.
“They have a formula to bring you back to who you were before they changed you.”
“Who has it?” she demanded.
“Dr Cooper. He keeps it in his office safe in case of an emergency if they needed you to take the fall for something.”
With that, Mia had heard enough. Just as she was thinking about striking him in the throat, the doorbell rang. Today was just about to get more serious than she could have imagined.
Mia looked at Kyle and said “You better play along,” as she slumped back into her chair pretending to be in her vegetative state.
She looked out of the window next to where she was sitting and could see, parked across the street from her house, was the classic Dodge Challenger she had seen in Manhattan the day before. She heard Kyle open the door.
After he greeted the visitor, she heard another voice. “Hi, I’m Special Agent Hank Richards with the FBI. I’d like to talk to you and anyone else at this address about something I’ve been looking into.”
Mia didn’t know it yet, but this was going to be the conversation that changed everything.
Forever!
Chapter 17
The New Beginning
Kyle wheeled Mia out onto the front porch of the house where Hank was sitting. He was leaning on the table in front of him, looking down at the grain of the wood, when Mia came into view. His thoughts were now clear. It was her! He had found her after all this time. He looked directly at her sitting there in her chair, not being able to move. He knew that this was not the time to say who he was, or mention the past they had together. He started talking about the case he was looking into and that their minivan was seen leaving the area where he lost the suspect he was chasing. He directed most of the conversation at Kyle, but couldn’t help look Mia in the eyes. Kyle continually played the whole thing down, explaining they had been in DC at a rehabilitation centre and that was all.
Mia was thinking to herself, “I know this guy. He was at the bridge yesterday. That was his car I saw parked in front of that fire truck. He’s going to arrest me!”
After a moment or two, Kyle offered to make coffee for everyone and headed inside.
As soon as the door closed, Hank leant forward and whispered to Mia “Laura? Is that you in there? I’m Hank Richards. Do you remember me?”
She didn’t move. She just kept moving her eyes, scanning him up and down.
“You and I used to be married. That’s your car over there.”
“What?” thought Mia. “Married? Us?”
The emotions building up inside her were difficult to explain as she didn’t remember him at all.
She again felt a certain familiarity towards his face but nothing else.
“I’ve been looking for you for a long time. Your name is Laura Richards.”
That name struck a chord with Mia. That was the name on the cards she used to pay for hotels. Those people at the Arena had her using her real name at the hotels!
Within a few minutes, Kyle returned with a coffee for Hank and a tea for himself. He also had a smoothie-type drink for Mia which he fed to her while he spoke to Hank. Again he played the whole thing down, but Hank could see in Mia’s eyes that she was dying to say something to him. While Kyle fed her, Hank looked at her and looked at her body sitting there in the chair. Mia knew that there was emotion in his voice when he was talking to her. She wanted desperately to give him some kind of sign that she was still in there, but she couldn’t speak out loud or it would give the game away. Instead, as she saw him look her body over, she noticed him look at her arm. She gave it a slight twitch. Hank noticed it straight away but didn’t say anything. He looked at her in the eyes and raised half a smile on his face to show her that he noticed. He sat with them for a while longer and after Kyle fed her, Hank finished of his coffee and Kyle cleared the table of the cups and went back inside. Throughout the conversation with them both, Hank had worked out that Kyle was a bit of a nothing and that Mia was there in mind even if she couldn’t move her body. He had a gut feeling that Mia wanted to talk to him but just couldn’t at the moment.
So, when Kyle went inside, he again leant forward and said “I need you to contact me when you’re ready. You can get a message to me in any FBI office. Just drop a note off when you can to let me know you’re alright and what’s happening.”
Mia again twitched her arm as a sign she knew what he was saying. Hank was content with the response. It was as if an enormous weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
When Kyle returned, Hank thanked them for their time and made his exit back towards Laura across the street. As he did, just as he got back into the car and started the engine, Kyle picked up his cup and said to Mia that he would be back in a minute and went back inside. Mia wasn’t stupid! She knew exactly what he was doing. He was going to call the Arena and blow everything. As Hank drove off down the street, Mia stood up from her chair and watched him disappear into the distance. As he vanished over the horizon, she turned and went into the house.
It didn’t take her long to find Kyle in the living room with the house telephone in his hand. It was as she suspected, he was calling it in. Mia flew across the room, jumping the coffee table between her and Kyle. She kicked him under the jaw and he flew over the back of the chair he was attempting to stand up from. He hit the wall behind with an enormous thud. Before he had time to regain his composure, Mia was there and struck him hard in the throat with a single blow. He sank to his knees, grasping at his throat and trying to take a breath. She had shattered his windpipe.
S
he stood back and looked at him, watching him struggling for breath. She knew he was finished and that she didn’t need to do anything else. In her mind, justice had been served for the years of torment that she was starting to understand. After a few moments, he fell backwards again against the wall and slumped into a heap. Lifeless. To most people, it would be a traumatic thing to see, never mind do to someone, but to Mia there was a sense of relief as she could now do whatever she wanted.
Mia started to put together a suitcase with her clothes in it. She was leaving for good and wouldn’t be coming back, so she took as much as she could. Once she had finished in her room, she had a look into Kyle’s to see if there was any money lying around as she had nothing. After searching all of the drawers, she moved onto the wardrobe. In the bottom, she found a shoebox that contained Kyle’s personal documents. His passport, driver's licence, as well as a few other bits and pieces. As she rifled through, she found a newly banded stack of one hundred dollar bills. It said $10,000 on it. That was what she needed to get her by. Since Kyle had failed to notify them of what was happening, she had time to do whatever she needed given that they only used her once a month.
Before leaving the house, Mia took the time to sit at the dining room table with a paper and pen and write a letter to Hank Richards. She needed to explain to him everything that had gone on. She didn’t name any locations in the letter as she was formulating a plan in her head to deal with the Arena and didn’t want anyone spoiling it. She wanted her memories back! She did, however, explain that if she was successful in getting her memories back, she would make contact with him again but not to wait for her.
As she slammed the door behind her, Mia felt a great sense of relief knowing that she wouldn’t be coming back to this house. It was actually a nice place but the things she now knew about tainted it. If she had her way, she would have burnt it to the ground but that would cause too much of a scene. She jumped into the minivan and headed towards DC. She had decided that it was too risky to take the minivan into the city, so she drove to Crystal City and ditched the car in a side street not too far from the Metro Station. After about thirty minutes, Mia was back in the heart of Washington DC. She headed towards Pennsylvania Avenue and walked past the J Edgar Hoover building. As she did, she posted the letter to Hank into the post box at the front of the building. She carried on walking as if nothing was wrong. She didn’t look out of place. She was just a normal person in DC. As she reached Freedom Plaza, she decided to check into a beautiful looking hotel on the corner. This would be her base from where she would get back what was wrongfully taken from her.
The Arena: The Awakening (1) Page 8
