Falling Into Place (28 page)

He spoke like they were old friends sipping lemonade on the front porch of a Georgia Plantation instead of NDSA members in an office located in one of the most secure sections of the U.S. Capitol. “I understand you made a formal request this morning in that regard.”

“Yes, sir. I thought it best-” Jill began before getting interrupted.

“Ah, yes, I see,” Harkness said without a hint of emotion. He reached into his jacket pocket, took out a small cloth, removed his glasses and methodically began cleaning them. “I believe I understand the situation. Let’s see if I can lay it out in a recognizable pattern for you, shall we?” he added with perhaps the most insincere smile Jill had ever seen.

“Please,” Jill said stoically. Despite maintaining a calm outer veneer, her anxiety was rising. Something about this peculiar man gave her the heebie-jeebies.

Harkness nodded, placed his glasses back on the narrow bridge of his nose and returned the cloth to his pocket. When he began speaking again, there was an edge to his voice, a steely forcefulness that hadn’t been there before. “Dr. Musik, you come from the civilian world and as such it is perfectly understandable that you may be somewhat confused by the way the NDSA conducts its business.” The way he said the word
civilian
made it sound like an unforgivable sin. “I am here to clarify things for you in the simplest way possible. Yes?” Again, he flashed that smile. Jill continued to show no outward emotion as she maintained eye contact, not wanting to appear intimidated by this man.

“Simply put, you don’t get to make requests or question orders, my good doctor. That is considered unacceptable behavior at this agency,” Harkness said. “What you think and what you want have no bearing on this agency’s protocol or procedures. Remember that in the future and your tenure here will be much more pleasant.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jill said before she even realized it.

Harkness’ eyes narrowed. “Dr. Musik, I can assure you, I don’t kid,” he said with calm certainty, making her even more uneasy. Jill could feel the animosity radiating off of him. “I want you to be successful here, Doctor. As I’m sure your friends and family do, especially your mother, who is so dependent on you right now. A shame, really,” he said without a hint of compassion.

Was that a veiled threat?
Jill thought, struggling to suppress her rising anger that he’d brought her mother into this. “I just want...I mean, I intend to do my job to the best of my abilities, sir.” Jill stated, with a steely gaze. “Isn’t that why you brought me here?”

Harkness didn’t answer. Instead, he sat motionless, taking her measure like a cobra studies its prey before striking. As the moments crawled by, Jill fought the urge to say something else, feeling like it would be admitting defeat. She felt like this was some kind of mind game, a psychological test. All she wanted to do was get out of there, away from this bizarre, frightening man, but she refused to give in, to fail at whatever sick crucible this was. She felt a drop of perspiration run down her left side under her blouse. Harkness continued to sit in silence, his eyes boring into her impassively.

“Excuse me, Doctor,” Gene, the head of the maintenance staff, said as he entered the office. “Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were in session. I’m just here
–”

“– to pick me up for lunch!” Jill interrupted, happy for the distraction. “Remember you promised to show me around after we eat. You know, because I’m a civilian and all, I don’t know my way around quite yet,” Jill continued, purposely poking the bear named Harkness.

“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 personnel 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.