Chapter 06

Ten Minutes Ago

Tom walked out of their research building, casually sauntering around the open premises. "What do I do?" the blonde boy asked himself "what the fuck do I do?" Tom had been racking his head for a game plan for almost a week at this point, but the bottom line was that the entire place was too electronic and sci fi for Tom to fight evenly, Tom sometimes had trouble trying to handle the apps on his phone, he possibly couldn't hack cameras and sensors around the compound.

Something moved abruptly in Tom's periphery vision; and he turned to see something small falling from the sky. Tom rushed in its direction, only to find the steel wire fence in his way, but he was still able to glean the bird, specifically a sparrow; hurt and struggling to stay alive, only a few yards away from Tom, with just a fence in between them.

"Thank you, God!" Tom silently prayed. A perfect opportunity had just been delivered into his lap. "I just jump the fence, and walk over to the sparrow, see how much time they take to respond" with a giant grin on his face, Tom scaled the fence with unnatural ease.

Landing on both feet, Tom was able to take three steps towards the sparrow before he fell. "Motherfucker!" his spine felt like it was being crushed while his ribs groaned in pain. The sensation was that of a two-ton weight being directly dropped onto Tom's back.

"Motherfucker!" Tom swore again, "what kind of a safety measure is this? A one ton weight being dropped on me? Is this a fucking looney tunes cartoon?" Tom tried to glance back and realised that nothing was on his back.

"What the hell?" Tom rasped "What's going on?" Tom heard a door open in the back and called out "HELP! HELP!" Isaiah, Paloma, Katie and co rushed over to him.

The Doctor ignored Isaiah and leaned down near Tom's head. "What are you doing out of the compound walls Mr. Cassidy?"

"Rescuing a bird" Tom raised a finger towards the dying sparrow,

"Oh" Tom heard a click and suddenly the weight disappeared off his back. "Fuck" Tom lay on the ground, pretending to be too tired to move, lest the doctor see his anger "This asshole rigged my OWN FUCKING BODY TO HOLD ME DOWN"

Tom heard them argue and learnt that the mountain like weight originated from something called concussive pads set inside his back.

"Enough" Katie ended their argument "let's just get Tom inside and see if there's any permanent damage before we start ripping each other a new one" Tom schooled his features as Katie and Isaiah carried him inside.

XXXXXXX

Tom's feet dangled in the as he sat on the examination table at the med bay; Paloma was giving him a check-up. "You'll be fine" the Latina finally declared "Some soreness and bruising; nothing that won't go away in a week or so."

"Do I need to take any meds?" Tom questioned her

"No" Paloma shook her head

"Can I?"

"Go away" was all paloma deigned to say, making Tom let out a deep sigh.

"Hey" Isaiah entered the med bay "How're you holding up?"

"Physically; fine" Tom ran a hand through his hair "but by head's all twisted around, inside out"

"I'm sorry" Isiah looked away "I didn't think the Doc would use my technology like this"

"Me too" Paloma apologised "I didn't think twice about Doc setting up those pads inside your back"

"It's not your fault" Tom waved away their apologies "you guys were just doing your jobs"

"Well," a hard look came upon Isaiah's eyes "let's go find out what the hell Doc thought he was doing"

XXXXXXX

The five people of the facility placed themselves down at the dining table. "I understand that you all are upset" Doc spoke first "and rightly so, but all I can say is that, I will not apologize for doing my job"

Isaiah slammed his hands on the table "How is manipulating my technology to create a virtual cage for Tom, your job?"

"why is he more pissed than I am?" Tom wondered, but stayed silent, opting to peer at the man and woman sitting at the other end of the table.

"because that's what he was told to do" Katie lied through her teeth "my bosses demanded a contingency in case the subject tried to escape"

"Why not use willing subjects then?" Tom questioned. This was something that had been bothering him from the beginning, the military should have tens of soldiers willing to take part in such super soldier experiments, so why experiment on unsuspecting civilians.

"I felt it was much easier to try and save a dying man, than put a healthy man at the risk of death" the Doc's voice was a whisper "the military wouldn't let us openly recruit civilian volunteers, thus we had to resort to such means for finding volunteers.

"you could still have told me about the pads" Tom pointed out, "let me know that I physically cannot step outside the compound fence"

"it's not like I could read your mind and determine beforehand what your intentions were" Katie defended herself "I didn't know if you were harbouring thoughts of escape or not"

"why not tell us?" paloma questioned Katie "why keep me and Isaiah in the dark?"

"I'm not sorry about what I had to do" Doc reiterated "but that doesn't mean I was okay with it; and I knew you two wouldn't be either, I just wished to spare you the burden of knowing the dark side of our work"

"this is bullshit" Isaiah jumped to his feet "you were just trying to cover your own lying ass"

"Isaiah" Paloma soothed him "calm down"

"calm down?" Isaiah was getting more and more livid by the second "he took MY technology that I made to help the military, and twisted it into.... Like a cage for Tom"

"you feel hurt" Doc addressed Isaiah "manipulated, betrayed"

"I understand that I have hurt you, much more than Tom or Paloma; I cannot take back what I have done, all I can promise you is that I will confide with you the usage of your technology"

"you mean there's going to be a next time?" Isaiah was breathing heavily now

"the government takes its secrecy very seriously" Katie interjected "voluntarily or otherwise; all test subject will be outfitted to prevent their escape"

"this is bullshit" Isaiah walked away, leaving the other four sitting in silence.

"we're cool" Tom declared, opting to chase after Isaiah.

XXXXXXX

Doc and Katie regrouped in his office.

"Thank you" Doc handed a glass of whiskey to Katie "for taking the blame today"

"no problem" Katie raised her glass in a silent toast with Doc "but now, one of our cards has been opened of everyone to see"

"Indeed" Doc took another sip of his whiskey "it seems that I have been foolish enough to underestimate Mr. Cassidy"

"you think he was doing this deliberately?" Katie asked the doubt that had been lingering in her mind all day "that the whole bird thing rescue thing was a ploy?"

"indeed, I do" Doc leaned back in his chair "and it worked wonderfully for him"

"so, what do we do now?"

"damage control" Doc explained "you need to talk to Paloma, alleviate her fears and doubts; she shouldn't feel the need to help Tom escape when push comes to shove"

"and Isaiah?"

"I'll handle him myself; he's going to be far trickier to loop back in"

Silence filled the office as the two people in it contemplated their moves. "very well my dear" doc finally broke the quiet stillness "you should go rest, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, and you also need to fetch that comatose patient first thing tomorrow morning"

Katie drained her glass and wished the Doc farewell as she headed back to her own room. "Oh" Katie suddenly turned "do you mind if I take Paloma with me tomorrow?"

"not at all" Doc shook his head "have fun"

"yeah...heh" Katie snorted "goodnight Doctor"

"goodnight Katie" Doc smiled as the door closed ahead of him.

XXXXXXX

Tom's knuckles sharply rapped twice against Isaiah's open door. "may I come in?" Isaiah was lying on his bed, bouncing a ball against the ceiling.

"Sure" the black man shrugged; their rooms weren't very big, just enough space for a bed, a desk, and a chair.

Tom dropped down into the office chair by the desk and spun around on it. "so... wanna tell my why you're all bent out of shape?"

"No!" Isaiah didn't miss a beat in replying.

"look... just promise you won't do something stupid... like leave the project" Tom pleaded. Isiah was clearly Tom's best option for an ally in this place, and Tom would hate to lose him.

"don't worry; I won't" Isaiah allayed Tom's fears "I know this gig is a godsend for me; I'm not going to screw it up over petty differences"

"good!" Tom nodded his head "that's good" the room went silent as the two men became lost in their own heads.

"so... excited for the game tomorrow?" Tom asked once he was out of his reverie.

"good night Tom"

"good night Isaiah" Tom took his leave. The blonde man headed back to his room, but didn't go to sleep; instead choosing to pace the room's length while he planned his next move.

"Isaiah, I need to convince just a bit more, if I can paint Doc in a slightly bad picture, he just might be willing to help me" Tom theorised "he could change the settings of these concussion pad to how he had them in the first place"

"which is good because I doubt, I could convince Paloma to remove these pads from my back" Tom too had seen the way Paloma looked at Katie.

"If Isaiah can handle these pads and the security measures, and I take care of Katie and Paloma, then we can escape without a hitch" Tom had completely disregarded Doc, believing that the frail old man wouldn't be able to provide much resistance without the help of Katie and Paloma.

"right!" Tom slammed his right fist into his left palm "just a couple more hurdles to cross and then I can safely get the fuck out of this place"

It was the first night in a long time that Tom would get a good night's sleep.