by E. E. Borton
“They developed those abilities in a somewhat natural progression. For example, one of the first rounds of therapy increased the density of our muscles, but not the size. When I weighed in the day we received the shots, I was 182 pounds. Two weeks later, I was 210 without any visible size increase. After that success, they had to increase the density of our bones as well to take the stresses of the stronger muscle tissue. After that, they had to increase the density of our heart muscle to pump our newly enhanced blood designed to carry more oxygen and fuel to support our stronger muscles. After that, they had to enhance our respiratory system to intake more oxygen to support our more demanding organs and systems. And that’s how it went for years. They’d enhance one part of us and then have to adjust and tweak our other systems to support the original enhancements. Are you still with me?”
“That’s actually a better explanation than the one I received from the scientists,” said Ryan. “They just made what you already had in you stronger.”
“Correct. And we were all fired up about it, too. There was virtually no pain involved and the discomfort was minimal. And if we did experience any discomfort, they’d stop everything and figure out the problem. Almost overnight, I remember hitting the track one morning and they clocked me running at nearly 30 miles per hour. I wasn’t even trying. The same thing happened in the weight room. In a matter of weeks, I went from bench pressing 300 pounds to pressing over 800.
“I will say, the weirdest enhancement was my vision. It took a while to get used to the changes. Try walking around your house wearing binoculars and you’ll have a good idea what it was like. It took our brains a little while to catch up with that one, but eventually it did. Everything they were doing to us we wanted. And after we started experiencing the results, we wanted more. We felt like superheroes.”
“How did they make you guys sensitive to one another’s pain or location?” asked Ryan.
“Nothing that we know of,” replied Derek. “They just kept telling us it was an anomaly associated with the treatments. I mean, it didn’t really concern us at the time. In fact, it made us feel more like brothers than volunteers for biomedical research. It was kind of cool.”
“When did you start having the urge to kill?” asked Ryan, changing the mood from light to dark. He could see Jennifer’s hand squeeze Derek’s.
“About seven months ago,” answered Derek. “It happened just like the other changes. There was a funny feeling almost immediately after the treatment, but it really started kicking in a few days later. That’s when the pain started. It was mainly in our mouths and hands, but then it spread everywhere. About a week later, I woke up one morning with a toothache that was making my head spin. I looked in the mirror and my gums were bleeding and I could see bulges forming above my canine teeth. By late afternoon, the pain was fucking blinding. We had to beg the doctors to pull out our front teeth. I’m wearing dentures now.”
“That’s what made you want to murder women?”
“No, not the pain,” Derek corrected him. “That was just an indicator that something went wrong with us. Well, all of us except Alex.”
“What do you mean?”
“A week before that treatment, they discovered a hereditary disease in Alex’s DNA. They actually removed it and replaced it with normal DNA, but they were going to wait a week or two to catch him up with our treatment schedule. When things started going bad for us, they opted not to give him the same juice. That’s why he wasn’t affected. He simply missed that day of class.”
“As far as us killing, less than a week after they yanked my teeth, I started having very weird thoughts. We all did. But the craziest thing is, we were all having the exact same weird thoughts.”
“What were they?”
“Actually, it was more like urges than thoughts. There was a twenty-three-year-old intern named Bethany. She was a medical student working through a semester at the lab. She was a very pretty girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. I think she dated one of the super geeks.”
“Super geeks?”
“Yeah, he was one of the four young genius scientists running the show. Apparently, they were some of the smartest people on the planet. They looked like teenagers. Dr. Kristina Anderson was the only one that actually looked like an adult.”
“Okay, what happened with Bethany?”
Derek hesitated and looked over at Jennifer with very heavy eyes. Ryan didn’t miss the significance. If Derek confirmed his suspicion and talked about the details in front of Jennifer, it would change everything.
“Derek?”
“The urges, the thoughts I had were…” said Derek, hesitating again. “Sweetheart, I don’t know if I can talk about this with you in the room. You shouldn’t have to listen to this.”
“Baby, I have no idea how horrible this must be, but I’m in this fight with you. It’s not your fault. I know it’s not your fault, but you have to tell him. You have to tell me, too.”
Derek turned his eyes to the veteran FBI agent who had witnessed some of the worst things evil humans could possibly do to another. If Derek was trying to pretend he was a man in unbearable anguish, Ryan thought he’d win an Oscar.
“I went to one of the therapists assigned to the Didache team and told him about the urges. I told him Bethany was in danger from all of us. At first, he dismissed it and tried talking me down with some psychobabble bullshit. I shut him up when I told him about the things I wanted to do to her. What we all wanted to do to her. I told him to think of Bethany as his own daughter. Her internship was cancelled the next day. She was told she wasn’t allowed back on the property.”
“Do you know where she was attending medical school?” asked Ryan, hoping for the answer he wanted.
“Syracuse University. Why?”
“Please continue, Derek. What happened next?”
“Even though she was gone, we all thought about her every second we were awake. We were beyond obsessed. The super geeks were scrambling to find out what was happening to us when Joshua approached the guy on staff who dated Bethany. He only talked to him for a few minutes, but he came back with an address. I remember looking over at the guy. He was visibly shaking. Whatever Joshua said, it terrified him.
“Later that night Joshua pulled us aside. He told us he knew where she was. I wish I could tell you we fought the urges and told him we didn’t care, but that wouldn’t be the truth. We listened and thought about the relief we would feel if we could just get to her. If we could do what we all wanted to do.”
“What did you want to do?”
*****
Dallas’s phone rang as he was sitting with Scott and Tom at the kitchen table. It was Deputy Director Donaldson.
“Agent Chase, is Ryan with you? He’s not answering me, and we can’t locate him through the GPS in his phone.”
“He’s interviewing Derek’s sister and probably out of cell range, sir.”
“Shit. Agent Chase, we have good information on Derek and Joshua’s location. I’ve mobilized the Atlanta SWAT team, and they’re heading to the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office now. You and your team need to get there as soon as possible for the assault briefing. We have a chance to end this tonight, so stop talking to me and get everyone over there now. I’ll send some other agents to go look for Ryan.”
“Yes, sir,” replied Dallas.
“Tom, call Michelle and let her know we’re coming to get her. That was Donaldson. They have good intel on Derek and Joshua’s location. It’s not far from here.”
“We need to wait for Ryan,” said Tom immediately.
“The director doesn’t want us to wait,” said Dallas. “And I don’t want to wait either. We have a chance to put them on ice tonight.”
“You guys can’t leave,” said Scott, turning both their heads.
“What are you talking about?” asked Dallas.
“That’s what I needed to talk to Ryan about,” said Scott. “Colonel Brown, Alex, and another team are here to take Kristina tonig
ht. They know where she is. You need to move her out of wherever she’s being held.”
“Fuck,” said Dallas, frustrated. “We need to take those guys now, Tom.”
“This is moving too fast, Dallas,” replied Tom. “We need to slow down and wait for Ryan to call.”
“Slow means a missed opportunity to take both of them now. Do you really think Ryan wants us to sit on our fucking hands while the SWAT team goes after them? They have no idea what they’re dealing with and we do. We need to go.”
“Dallas, did you hear what I said?” asked Scott, becoming agitated. “They’re going to kill her. I can’t let that happen. I won’t let that happen,” he said, drawing on the emotion of visualizing his daughter scared and alone in a cell.
“Ryan, answer you damned phone,” said Dallas, looking out the window.
*****
“I wanted to tear her apart limb from limb,” exhaled Derek. “I wanted to make her feel unimaginable pain. And I…” He hesitated once again. “This is the craziest part, but along with the urge to hurt her, I also wanted to taste her blood.”
“What?” asked Ryan. “You wanted to taste her blood? I’m assuming you’re not speaking metaphorically?”
“No, I’m not,” said Derek. “And yes, I wanted to actually taste her blood. It was a big part of the addiction. I wanted to tear into her neck, severe her arteries, and drain every drop in her. Listen to me, Ryan. I have no fucking idea why. I have no idea why I wanted to hurt her, let alone drink her blood, but the urge was there. It consumed me, and all of us, to the point that we didn’t care how Joshua found out where she was. We just wanted to get to her. It seemed like the only way to end it. I had no idea why we felt that way. All I knew is, they must have put it in our heads. They must have done something to make us go from normal people to what we were.”
“Was the urge to rape her as intense?” asked Ryan.
“No, it wasn’t,” answered Derek, looking down at the floor. “I didn’t feel any urge to rape her or any of them. I don’t think Peter or Richard felt it either.”
“You answered as if you knew I was going to ask.”
“Tell him, Derek,” said Jennifer. “Tell him about Joshua.”
*****
Dallas paced back and forth across the kitchen. Tom sat quietly in his chair after calling Michelle to let her know they were coming to get her.
“Steve’s men can handle the relocation,” said Dallas. “We need to go now.”
“Michelle agrees this is moving too fast,” said Tom. “She has a feeling something is wrong.”
“Ryan has been breaking his neck trying not to let the deputy director know we’re on to him, but Donaldson has been right on the mark about finding Arrington and Elliot,” said Dallas, pleading his case. “I believe Derek and Joshua are where he says they are. If we disobey Donaldson, he’s going to know we doubt him. Do you think Ryan’s ready to let that cat out of the bag?”
“I’m not saying they aren’t there,” said Tom. “But the fact that Colonel Brown plans on taking Kristina tonight makes me extremely uncomfortable leaving Steve’s men to handle the relocation alone.”
“I’ll go,” said Scott. “I’ll make sure she’s safe.”
“No offense, Scott,” said Tom. “But I don’t think you’re qualified to run the relocation.”
“He won’t be running it,” injected Dallas quickly. “He’ll be a familiar face to keep her calm. I’ll give him my phone so Ryan can call him as soon as they arrive at the new location. I like the idea, Scott. Let’s make it happen, Tom.”
*****
“I didn’t want to believe it at first,” said Derek. “But after Jennifer put it all together, I couldn’t deny it anymore.”
“Deny what?” asked Ryan.
“That Joshua was enjoying it. That he embraced being what he was and wanted more beyond the urges they put in our heads. You see, with Peter, Richard, and me, we’d fight the urge to stalk and kill as long as we could. But every six weeks, there are two or three days that we simply can’t. I know that’s impossible for you to believe, but it’s the truth. It’s an indescribably powerful addiction.”
“Why do you think Joshua’s urges are more intense?”
“I really don’t know,” said Derek. “We left the facility the night he found out where Bethany lived. It was easy to slip past the security detail. None of us hesitated or tried to talk each other out of it. Like I said, we just wanted to get to her.”
“Wait,” said Ryan. “Where did she live?”
“The lab had its own dorms set up a couple miles away for the staff and interns from all over the country. It only took us a few minutes to cover the distance.”
“So she didn’t make it back to the campus in New York?”
“No, but her room was full of boxes. The poor girl was probably leaving the next day. Why do you ask?”
“The file I received from my boss put the murder scene near the Syracuse campus. The file also failed to indicate any connection between her and the lab. Two very important pieces of information that would’ve had us looking hard at the facility six months ago.”
“Are you saying the deputy director is in bed with Colonel Brown?”
“It’s very much looking that way,” said Ryan.
“Jesus,” said Derek, “You’re about as fucked as I am.”
“Again, it’s very much looking that way. Okay, what happened next?”
*****
Tom, Dallas, and Scott left the FBI house and drove to Kristina’s location. Michelle met them outside on the sidewalk. Patrick, the leader of Steve’s security detail, was with her.
“Has anyone talked to Ryan?” was Michelle’s first question.
“Not yet,” said Tom. “We need to follow through with Donaldson’s orders. I don’t think Ryan is ready to tip our hand at this point. The fact that he can’t get in touch with him is bad enough. If all of us don’t show up, he’ll know something is wrong.”
“How do you know the Colonel is coming after her tonight?” asked Michelle, glaring at Scott.
“I was standing beside him and Alex when they were making the plans. Is that good enough for you?” asked Scott, glaring back at her.
“When will you be ready to move, Patrick?” asked Michelle.
“The plane will be at the airport in forty-five minutes. We’ll leave here in twenty.”
Michelle pulled Patrick away from the group. She put her face inches away from his.
“I’m not going to lecture you on how dangerous these people are,” said Michelle. “But you need to be ready for anything. If things go bad, you grab her and run. Don’t engage in the fight. You won’t win. We had the element of surprise and two assault teams ready to ambush them at the decoy house. That won’t be the case if you run into them again. You just grab her and run. Do you understand me, Patrick?”
“I understand, Michelle, I really do,” said Patrick, convincingly. “As long as I’m alive, they won’t get to her, I promise.”
Michelle reached out and squeezed his arm. “Look, you get her out of here and safely tucked away, and I may forget that awful line you used on me. I hate to admit it, but I’ve grown a little fond of her. Do your job, and dinner’s on me.”
“I’m on it,” smiled Patrick.
Michelle opened the car door but took one last long look around before climbing inside. She smiled at Patrick as he and Scott stood in the front yard. The vehicle lurched forward as the team headed for the briefing in the neighboring county.
*****
“We arrived at her dorm just after three o’clock in the morning,” continued Derek. “There really wasn’t much of a plan. We were all shaking, thinking how close we were to having her. Sneaking past security at the dorm was easy. Only the front and back entrances had cameras on the doors. It was nothing for us to jump straight up and grab the rail on the balcony of her second-floor room. We slid the glass door open and walked right in.
“Joshua punched her in the
face while she was sleeping to keep her unconscious. He picked her up, jumped off the balcony, and calmly walked into the woods with her over his shoulder. He was carrying a large duffel bag in his other hand. The three of us followed behind like ducklings to an abandoned steel mill less than half a mile from the dorm.”
“And then you killed her,” said Ryan.
“No. I wanted to and thought I would. I replayed the moment over and over in my head as soon as we grabbed her. But when we saw her lying on the dirty floor with a broken nose, we just couldn’t do it. Whatever they pumped into our heads hadn’t completely removed our impulse restraint. We lost all control a few weeks later; none of us could stop it then.”
“Joshua killed her, didn’t he?” asked Ryan.
“He became irritated, but he didn’t seem pissed that we could fight off the urge. He told us he couldn’t do it either and he was going to take her to the hospital. Peter, Richard, and I ended up going back to the lab. Joshua said he’d rather be the only one taking the risk trying to get her help for her injuries.”
“She never made it to the hospital, Derek. You didn’t see Joshua back at the lab for two days, right?”
“Yeah, the staff at the lab was asking us questions about him, but we told them we had no idea where he was. We thought maybe he was picked up by the cops once he tried to get her into an E.R. When he did come back, he told us he almost did get caught and had to hide out in the woods after he dropped her off.”
“He killed her, Derek. He kept her alive for two days while he brutally raped and tortured her. The things he did to her were inhuman. You had no idea?”
“I don’t think you fully appreciate how fucking confused, scared, and isolated we were. We were in constant pain, and the thoughts we could control were slowly losing the battle to the ones we couldn’t. And nobody there seemed to know why.”
“I’m sorry,” said Ryan, “You’re right. I have no idea what you went through.”
