by Scott Young
“Um...Yeah, right. I guess,” Gene said, confused.
Dr. Musik stood and picked up her purse before turning back to the Special Assistant. “Please excuse me, Mr. Harkness. Would it be all right if I went to get some lunch? I only have an hour before my next scheduled appointment. Or was there something else you wanted to say?” Her tone was light and breezy, though instinctively she was trying to get a rise out of him.
“Of course, Doctor,” Harkness said calmly. “Enjoy your lunch. We will continue our conversation at a later date.”
That thought sent a chill down Jill’s spine. “Thanks! Let’s go, Gene,” she said.
She was almost at the door when Harkness said, “One last thing, Doctor, if I may?” Jill stopped and turned slowly toward the Special Assistant. With his back still to her, he said, “Here at the NDSA we always strive to do our best so if I could give you any advice it would be this: Do the right thing, Dr. Musik. If you do that, the world will take care of you.”
Jill’s knees went weak for a brief moment. Hearing her parent’s favorite phrase coming from this horror of a man unnerved her instantly. Was it a coincidence? How could he possibly know that mantra? How? Her mind reeled at the implication but the need to get away from him overtook her curiosity. She managed to say, “I’ll do my best,” as she pushed the bewildered maintenance man out of the office in front of her.
Harkness sat perfectly still for a few moments. He stood and adjusted his suit jacket before walking over to the bookcase against the wall to the left of Dr. Musik’s desk. He reached under the bottom shelf and retrieved a tiny listening device. The man inspected it and then casually blew a short burst of air into the receiver before placing it back under the shelf. “Musik is becoming a bigger problem than originally anticipated. This situation needs a quick resolution. Eidolon is now officially active,” he said before leaving the office.
“That is the scariest person I’ve ever met,” Jill said as she sat down at a table in the corner of the NDSA cafeteria with Gene. They’d made nothing but small talk as they bought their respective lunches, but now she needed to vent a little.
“Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that guy. Who was he?” Gene asked.
“What do you mean? That’s Mr. Harkness, Special Assistant to the Director,” Jill replied.
“Who?” Gene asked quizzically.
“The Special Assistant to the Director,” Jill repeated.
“Um, I don’t mean to sound stupid or anything, but I’ve worked here for twelve years and there is no Special Assistant to the Director,” Gene said sheepishly. “There’s Deputy Director Sandra Allen, but I’ve never seen that guy in your office before or heard of anyone named...Harkness, did you say his name was?”
“I don’t know you very well, Gene, so I’m not sure, but are you messing with me?” Jill asked. “Seriously, are you making a joke because, let me tell you, it’s not at all funny.”
“No, no, of course not, Dr. Musik,” Gene said so earnestly Jill instantly felt bad for accusing him. “I would never do something like that.”
“So, you’re seriously saying there is no Mr. Harkness working at the NDSA?” Jill asked, completely confused.
“Honestly, I have a master list of every office, every room in this building and there is no Special Assistant to the Director or Mr. Harkness on it,” Gene answered. “Like I said, I’ve been here a long time and I pretty much have that thing memorized.” He took a sip from his Diet Coke.
Jill took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She played with the croutons in her salad before saying, “Forgive my language, but what the fuck is going on here?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t,” Gene said sincerely before reaching across and putting his hand on Jill’s. “But if you need help figuring it out, Dr. Musik, any help at all, you can always count on me.” He smiled at her before breaking eye contact and taking his hand away. He took a big forkful of turkey and awkwardly stuffed it in his mouth.
“Thanks, Gene. I really appreciate that,” Jill said. “It seems like you’re the only normal person I’ve met in this place.” She smiled at him and he smiled back, still chewing the turkey. “But please, call me Jill.”
“Okay, Jill,” Gene said, his face getting redder by the second as he swallowed hard. He scooped a large helping of mashed potatoes into his mouth, looking everywhere but at his lunch companion.
Despite the odd circumstances that led to their lunch together, Dr. Musik was glad for Gene’s company. He was such an unassuming, gentle and thoughtful man compared to the agents and other NDSA personnel she’d met since starting her new job. The others were consumed with their careers and advancing through the ranks, full of machismo and driven to succeed, even the women. The maintenance chief was so normal. Everything about him was average. He was 5’10” and weighed around 165 with short cropped black hair and blue eyes. He reminded Jill of Justin Long, the guy from those old Mac vs PC commercials, who later did movies and dated Drew Barrymore. There was a calmness to this man that helped ease her mind. Gene seemed to know himself and, despite his shyness, Jill could tell his fondness for her was genuine. In fact, Jill doubted Gene was even capable of insincerity or manipulation.
“I’m not doubting you, Gene, but are you absolutely sure about Harkness?” Jill said between mouthfuls of Caesar Salad.
“Like I said, I’ve never seen that guy before and I have been in every room in this building literally hundreds of times,” Gene said matter-of-factly.
Jill frowned. “It’s so frustrating. I know I can’t ask General DeVane about it. I’m pretty sure he’d just blow me off again.”
“Yeah, I’ve never even spoken to DeVane. He doesn’t usually mingle with us common folk,” Gene said, taking a sip of his soda. “By the way, I wanted to say how sorry I was to hear about what happened with Agent Meadows. He’s one of the good ones around here; always had a kind word for me and my guys.”
“Yeah, I wish I could...” Jill’s voice trailed off as she remembered the incident with Meadows and the subsequent encounter with DeVane. Her eyes glazed over as she replayed the conversation with the Director in her head, her lips mouthing some of the words silently.
“You okay, Doctor – I mean, Jill. Is everything all right?” Gene asked, concerned about her.
Suddenly, her face lit up with excitement. “Gene, you said you’ve been in every room in this building? Does that include the emergency care ward?” Jill asked, her voice filled with anticipation.
“Well, yeah of course,” Gene said. “Why do you ask?”
“If you were serious about wanting to help me figure this out, and I hope you were, I need a really big favor,” Dr. Musik said with a mischievous smile. “Really, really big.”
At 10:38 p.m. that evening, Dr. Jill Musik stood at the entrance to the bottom floor of the National Defense Support Administration. In her hand was an all-access key card borrowed from her new friend, Gene. It had taken a lot of convincing but once she made him understand how important it was for her to check on Agent Meadows, he eventually agreed to help get her into the emergency care ward.
Jill had spent the last few hours pretending to work while she studied the floor plans of the lower levels of the NDSA building. She had downloaded the blueprints to her laptop earlier that day. Maybe it was overkill, but the last thing she wanted was to get Gene into trouble after he’d been such a sweetheart. The maintenance chief left hours earlier, planning to report the card lost first thing in the morning, so if she could get in and out without arousing suspicion, no one would be the wiser for their subterfuge. Jill took a deep breath, swiped the key card and opened the door, ready for anything.
What she found was an empty hallway. She took two steps down the hall, stopped and listened. Nothing. Strange, she thought to herself. Where is everyone? You’d think this place would be fully staffed 24/7.
Even stranger was the lack of a central nurse’s station or some other kind of organizational hub to coordinate whatever person
nel worked down there. This level seemed to be nothing but a maze of corridors with doors every twenty feet or so, none of which had numbers or signs to denote what purpose they served. Remembering where the emergency care ward patient rooms were supposed to be from the blueprints, Jill turned right, heading down the closest hallway. Each door she passed had a window in it. She peered into each one but saw nothing but darkness inside. She tried the doorknobs as well but they were all locked. It was eerily quiet. She suddenly had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
What the hell was going on down here? Was this simply storage space and the blueprints were wrong or out of date? Was there even an emergency care ward in this building? Why did Gene give her such a hard time about accessing the lower level if there was nothing down here? Did she simply go to the wrong floor? No, that wasn’t possible. The blueprints said the bottom floor. There was no way she could’ve messed that up. Getting more aggravated by the second, Dr. Musik continued down the corridor when she suddenly heard a scream from back the way she came.
Running on the balls of her feet as quickly and silently as she could, Jill made her way back to where she’d entered the lower level. She paused, straining her hearing for any sound. As another bloodcurdling scream echoed through the halls, she moved, in an instant, down the left corridor. When she reached the second-to- last doorway on the right, Jill peered in through the door window. She could see two men in lab coats standing by a hospital bed, their bodies blocking whoever was lying in it. The entire right wall was machinery, like something out of H.G. Wells or The Matrix. She’d never seen anything like it before. One of men walked over to the machinery, giving Dr. Musik a clear view of their patient. It was Darrell Meadows! Before she could move, the man flipped a switch and Agent Meadows’ body convulsed immediately as he let out another desperate, agonized scream.
Without even thinking, Jill burst into the room, running toward her erstwhile patient. Darrell Meadow saw her before anyone else, his eyes growing wide with fear. When she was six feet from the man at the controls, Jill spotted something in her peripheral vision coming from her left. She twisted her body, a split second before a member of the security team tried to tackle her.
Instead of subduing the therapist, the agent knocked her into the wall of machinery. Her back hit the main component, causing a huge, electrical explosion, which threw her back across the room like a rag doll. She landed in a heap with odd, blue and yellow electricity pulsating over her body in waves. Panic rose in her chest as she realized her arms and legs didn’t work; they were as limp as wet noodles. She felt an odd floating sensation, as if she were in zero gravity. The world fell away, white light playing about the edge of her vision. Through the haze, she once again saw Agent Meadows looking at her. He mouthed the words I’m sorry just before her world went dark.
Jill Musik regained consciousness slowly. Her skull ached, her body was all pins and needles and she felt lightheaded as she opened her eyes. She also had the worst case of dry mouth in the history of mankind. From where she was on the floor, the therapist could see a half dozen people gathered around the bed where Darrell Meadows had been restrained. They seemed to be ignoring her completely, which suited Jill just fine. She tried to stand, but a sudden wave of weakness hit her, forcing her to sit back down. Dr. Musik shook her hands, trying to get the life back into them, but it was no use. She decided to play possum for a bit and listen to whoever was around that bed, hoping to discover what they were doing to Meadows when she’d barged in.
“Vital signs are rising but there is no pupil dilation or other sensory responses,” a man with a stethoscope around his neck said. “We’ll need at least a CAT scan before I can diagnose the problem.”
“Will the process work with the patient in this condition?” one of the techs said.
“Doesn’t really matter what condition she’s in, since it will take days if not weeks to fix the neuro-enchephalyzer,” a different technician replied as he inspected the machine.
She? Jill thought. Who are they talking about? Were they trying to use whatever that machine was on another agent?
A wave of anger coursed through her, giving her the strength to stand. “What are you people doing down here?” she screamed as she got to her feet. “Leave that poor woman alone!” She rushed over to the bed and looked down at the patient. “I said leave her alone–” Jill stopped in mid-sentence as her mouth fell open and her stomach lurched, a powerful nausea overtaking her. It was her unconscious body lying in that bed. She was looking at herself. A new wave of numbness radiated through her body as she struggled to focus past her rising panic.
“What’s going on?” she screamed. No one moved. No one heard her. Fear and desperation took over as she frantically tried to get someone to notice she was there. “Listen to me! What happened to me? Please, someone tell me! Please!” She reached for the edge of the bed but her hands passed right through the metal frame. Jill screamed for another minute before she started to cry, finally receding from the bed side, unable to look at her comatose body for another second. She sat in the corner of the room weeping uncontrollably, unable to comprehend what had happened to her. Was she dead? A ghost? How could she be dead if her body was still alive? Was she even really crying or just imagining it? The whole situation was almost too much for her to take as these thoughts permeated her mind. Was she going insane? She sat there for another half hour, half listening to the doctors and technicians discussing the situation, when she finally heard something that snapped her out of her lamentation.
“What about Meadows?” Harkness bellowed as he entered the room purposefully.
“He...He’s in solitary, sir,” the head technician said nervously. “The process was interrupted before it was complete. As per protocol, we are keeping him away from everyone else until the machine is repaired.”
“I suppose that will have to do,” Harkness said, looking down at Jill’s unconscious body. “Once the neuro-encephalyzer is up and running, complete Agent Meadows’ nullification and reaffirmation immediately. By the time the device is operational, I’ll have your marching orders in regards to dear Doctor Musik here. As for now, make sure nothing else happens to her.” He touched her hand and ghost Jill shuddered. “She really is an amazing creature; such a pity she couldn’t see things more clearly.”
Harkness turned and walked out of the room. Jill stood and followed closely behind in ghost form. She knew instinctively that if she was going to find the answers she’d been searching for since this whole ordeal began, Harkness was the key. At the end of the hallway, at what seemed like a dead end, Harkness took what looked like an ordinary car key fob and pointed it at the wall. A loud hiss filled the air as a doorway appeared, opening into an entirely new wing of the building. Harkness walked through the opening and Jill entered a few seconds later. The Special Assistant stopped to converse with one of the doctors, giving the confused therapist a chance to look around.
This section was buzzing with activity and personnel, much more like what she’d expected upon first entering the lower level. It seemed to be a fully functioning hospital with various doctors, nurses and orderlies all going about their assigned duties. Jill looked over the shoulder of one of the nurses and saw a progress report on a patient named James McElroy. It was stamped Priority One and at the top of the report was the classification Section 8. She looked around, noticing that designation stenciled on all the walls and equipment too.
“That’s weird.” she said out loud, confident that no one could hear her. “Isn’t that what Klinger on M.A.S.H. was always bucking for? A section 8? A psychiatric discharge.”
She noticed Harkness walking away and fell in behind him again, wondering how much stranger all this was going to get. The Special Assistant entered the third door on the right, closing it before Jill could get there. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and walked right through it. When she opened her eyes, she was in a large conference room. Harkness took his seat to the left of General DeVane while s
even men and women she didn’t recognize filled the other chairs surrounding a large, rectangular, black table. She moved into the corner behind Harkness, eager to find out anything that would help her understand what was going on.
“Progress report,” DeVane said curtly.
“Agent Meadows’ procedure was interrupted by Dr. Musik, just as we planned,” Harkness said dryly. “She was led right to the procedure room by the fake blueprints uploaded to her computer. We could easily have altered her memory of the incident with Agent Meadows after his reprogramming was complete. However, she suffered an accident when she was pushed into the neuro-encephalyzer by an overzealous Sec-1 agent. Unfortunately, she is now in a comatose state.” Harkness hesitated for a moment before adding, “The machine is down for at least a few days, maybe longer. The techs weren’t able to give me a more accurate timeline. Meadows is in solitary until it can be repaired.”
“Well, isn’t that just a clusterfuck of epic proportions?” DeVane barked. “This complicates matters. A situation like this is exactly the reason I’ve been telling the appropriations committee we need additional funding to replicate the damn machine. Idiots.” The General turned to look Harkness in the eyes, “We’ll discuss Musik later, just the two of us.” Jill could swear she saw Harkness wince a little. Ha, so that bastard does have feelings. “Let’s get back to business shall we? Who’s up next?”
“That would be me, sir,” a rigid-looking man sitting in the third chair to the General’s right said. He paused, waiting for permission to go on.
“Get on with it, Kingman! I want to finish this meeting sometime today!” DeVane said.
“Yes, sir,” the man said. “Per your instructions, we placed a mole inside Gionta-Rictor Pharmaceutical two weeks ago and it’s already paying dividends.” He paused again, beaming with pride. When he didn’t get the accolades he’d hoped for, Kingman continued, “Their board of directors have been up to no good. Everything from sexual harassment to illegal dumping to industrial espionage. We definitely have enough intel to persuade the CEO to play ball.”
