“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
tonight. 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.”
“What he’s still going through,” added Jennifer.
“Did you tell anyone what happened?”
“No. We didn’t even talk to each other very much after.
When Joshua returned, we pretty much kept quiet. We all knew it was a terrible
thing we did, kidnapping and hurting her, but we were still trying to wrap our
heads around why we did it in the first place.”
“If you thought the girl was still alive, why did all
four of you run?”
“Joshua came to us a day later and said the girl
identified him as the man that attacked her. That’s when I told him I talked to
the therapist about our urges. He said the therapist and the other scientists
went to Colonel Brown to tell him we needed to be destroyed. Joshua overheard
Colonel Brown telling the super geeks to inject us with potassium chloride
instead of the painkillers.”
“You thought they were going to kill you in order to
preserve the Didache Project,” said Ryan, putting more pieces of the puzzle
together. “If it were leaked to the press that the government was responsible
for manufacturing serial killers, they’d shut it down for good.”
“Absolutely,” said Derek. “There’s no way the Colonel
was or is going to let that happen. Colonel Brown
is
the Didache
Project.”
“Why did Peter and Richard separate from the group?”
asked Ryan. “Seems to me you’d be more formidable together.”
“Because they figured out what Joshua was before Derek
did,” answered Jennifer, “They figured out he was pure evil. I think he was a
monster long before he volunteered for the project.”