Rude prick, I thought to myself.
He didn’t say a word to me as we rode the elevator to the top level, and I didn’t bother trying to make conversation with him either.
29
A few minutes later he had led me into a part of the top level I hadn’t seen while we were housed there. As far as I could tell, it was in the south wing, directly above the hospital on the middle level.
We came to a door that was guarded by an armed Homeland officer and Williams rapped on it sharply without acknowledging the officer.
“Come in.”
Williams opened the door and put his hand on the small of my back, guiding me in before pulling the door closed. It was the Professor’s office, book cases lined the walls and the man himself sat behind a large, impressive desk. He looked relaxed and had a welcoming smile on his face. The man standing beside him, Ragg, didn’t appear quite so welcoming; his intense gaze was already creeping me out a little.
“Young Isaac, come in, come in. Please, sit.”
I ignored Ragg and said thanks to the Professor as I sat down.
“How was your first night on the Midlevel?”
“Good thank you, Sir.”
“Excellent, did you have any questions?”
I had a ton of course, most specifically about why the women were being segregated. For the moment though, I didn’t say anything that might cause a problem or prevent me seeing Sonny. Assuming that’s why I had been summoned, of course.
“No, Sir.”
“All righty then, as promised I’m pleased to inform you that Mr. Ragg and I interviewed your friend Sonny this morning and that it went very well. Would you like to see him?”
“Yes please, that would be great. Will he be moving to Midlevel with the others now?”
He paused and seemed to weigh his words very carefully before answering. I got a sinking feeling.
“Alas, no. Not yet anyway. He will remain on the science level with us for the time being.” He stilled my protest with a raised hand. “It’s for his own protection, you understand. I know that you think of Sonny as an American, but unfortunately all that the general population will see is one of the enemy…I don’t think it would end well if one of the rasher inhabitants got a silly notion into their head.”
“He is an American, it’s not just what I see, it’s what he is and we have rights. Can’t you issue a directive letting them know that he’s not one of the enemy?”
“Well that’s not quite correct,” he said, the smile slowly fading. “We’re not Americans anymore, we’re survivors and our rights have been taken away from us by a ruthless enemy. It has fallen to me to ensure the safety of one and all in this facility and it’s not a responsibility I take lightly. Your friend will remain in custody…protective custody you understand, until I work out how to integrate him into the general population. Okay?”
I could see he was not going to be swayed and decided not to argue the point any further. Choose your battles wisely, I remember my father saying to me years ago. This wasn’t a battle I could win right now.
“Okay,” I said quietly.
Professor Leahy’s oily smile returned in an instant.
“Excellent, I’ll have Mr. Ragg escort you to see him now, you can visit for twenty minutes or so.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Will we be able to come visit while he’s locked up here? The others would like to see him too, especially Allie.”
“I will work something out,” he said, looking vaguely annoyed, probably at my choice of words. “Enjoy your visit.”
Apparently that was conversation closed and he turned to his computer screen without another word. It could have been my imagination, but Mr. Ragg seemed to deliberately invade my personal space as he walked by me and opened the door.
The compact man didn’t say a word as he led me back down the corridor of the south wing. I took the chance to examine the forward facing Ragg a little more closely than I had before. Beneath the fabric of his grey suit I could see a hardness to his shoulders and torso. He wasn’t overly muscled but from what I could see, he was tough and toned. We took a left at what I supposed was the equivalent of the Square on the floor below us. On this level, it was a large open area with sofas and tables and a sink and coffee making facilities. Two off duty Homeland officers were playing cards and talking. They clammed up when we passed. Whether it was my presence or Ragg’s that prompted their sudden silence, I’m not sure.
For his part, Ragg ignored them and took us left down the same corridor Williams had taken us on our first day. This time, instead of turning when we came to the glass wall, Ragg stopped in front of it. The two guards stepped aside as Ragg opened the airlock and led us through, waiting for the first door to close before opening the second. I felt the air pressure change, and swallowed to unblock my ears.
“Why is he being kept in here? He’s not contagious you know...”
Ragg kept walking, and for a moment I thought he wasn’t going to answer me. When he did, he didn’t bother looking at me.
“The Professor thought it best, in case word leaked out that we had a…had someone who might be mistaken for the enemy here. It’s the most easily defended area in the complex.”
Something about the explanation didn’t quite ring true but I chose not to question it. On our left we passed, what I could only describe, as cells. I’m sure they probably called them observation rooms or something harmless, but the square, sparsely furnished rooms with glass walls on the side facing the corridor seemed to have a dual purpose to me.
The whole area, corridor and rooms included, was topped with a low glass ceiling a few feet below the actual concrete ceiling. To our right was the occasional door and through the tiny reinforced windows I could see that they were also labs.
The third and final ‘cell’ contained Sonny. He was laying on a cot reading what looked like a paperback novel. He looked up when he saw me, his face creasing into a smile. The Kung Fu expert sat up, clearly happy to see a familiar face. Unfortunately the smile only highlighted the large fading bruise on his cheek. My own smile faded a little. I was pretty sure that bruise hadn’t been inflicted when he had been zapped back at the lodge.
Ragg stepped up to the lock and swiped a card, pulling the door outward and allowing me through. I saw Sonny eye him but couldn’t read his expression.
“Twenty minutes,” said Ragg evenly before swinging the door closed and stepping back to stand in the middle of the corridor, staring at us through the glass. I couldn’t help but feeling like a bug in a specimen jar.
Sonny’s eyes left Ragg after a moment and looked back to me.
“Isaac!” he said, stepping up and grabbing me in a bear hug which I returned wholeheartedly.
“Hey Sonny,” I said, as he clapped me on the back. “How are you?”
“I’m fine,” he said and grasped my wrist, leading me to his cot. We sat side by side and he nodded surreptitiously to a camera positioned in the top corner of the room. “Tell me, how are the others, Ben and Brooke? Allie, Indigo?”
“They’re all fine. Worried about you, of course. How have they been treating you?” I asked him earnestly. He glanced at Ragg who was still watching us, his reptilian eyes barely blinking.
“Well, it’s been okay for the last few days. I did actually have a run in with our friend there on the second day. But the Professor called him off.” He leaned in close to me and gestured to the bruise on his cheek. “You need to watch that one, he’s dangerous and…efficient.”
My uneasy feeling about Ragg was confirmed. I didn’t know the circumstances of course, but unless Sonny had been restrained, the fact that Ragg had managed to mark his face meant that he was clearly skilled in hand to hand combat. It wasn’t his potential prowess that bothered me so much though, it was his whole demeanor.
“What about you? What happened to you guys after we were brought in?” Sonny asked.
I spent the next ten minutes telling Sonny as much as I could rememb
er about what had happened. He didn’t say too much, but I could tell he was as bothered by the segregation of the girls as I was.
“It doesn’t really ring true, this whole ‘for their own safety thing’,” he said. “Unless the bulk of the male population is a pack of women hungry rapists, I’m pretty sure that the mixing would be healthy and normal. It’s not as if they lack personnel to keep things under control. I think you’re right, it stinks.”
It was nice to have my view point validated by someone I respected and I promised that once Luke was back we would do a little more sniffing around and try to get to the bottom of it. While a little guarded with what he said, I could see that he approved of my acceptance of the role in the military detail. It was clear he knew I could perhaps use it to my advantage down the track.
I did ask Sonny what had happened since he had been separated from us, but he was unwilling to go into details. He did say that the Professor had seemed reasonable to him during the questioning that morning and the few other times that he had met him.
“If you can, you should keep your lines of communication open with him. Just watch it though, I couldn’t quite get a handle on …a certain person’s…role.” His eyes briefly went to Ragg and I nodded.
“What do you think of this whole ‘protective custody’ thing?” I asked.
I jumped at a loud rapping on the glass behind me. Ragg was holding up one hand, with five fingers splayed. I nodded and turned back to Sonny.
“Jumpy?” he asked.
“I guess.”
“Good. Don’t get too complacent until we have this place worked out.”
“Okay.” With those few words, Sonny had dashed my idea of letting go of my leadership role and getting back to being a kid. Somehow, I didn’t mind... I had already started to feel that responsibility upon me again, anyway.
“About being kept out of the general population for my own protection, it seems to make sense. Although if the Professor has as much control over the place as I think he does, there are probably other ways it could be handled.”
“That’s what I think! I…”
He put a hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t worry about it Isaac, I’ll be fine. He can’t keep me up here for too much longer, surely? I’ll do my best to make sure I’m so annoying he’ll be glad to send me down.” He smiled and stood up. “Looks like time is up.”
We gave each other a hug and I turned to the door as Ragg swiped his card and pulled it open.
“Look after everyone,” Sonny said, and then more quietly. “Any means…”
“I will,” I nodded seriously and stepped out. I raised my hand to my friend as the door swung shut with a hiss.
I never saw Sonny again.
End of Episode 2
America Falls continues in Episode 3 – Cold Comfort
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Thanks, Scott
America Falls (Book 2): On The Run Page 19
