Manipulator (45 page)

“I’m going to have to leave," Owen announced, standing up defiantly but not rudely. “Gentlemen, we’ve done some great work, but I’m afraid that it must end here for me, I cannot be a part of this any longer.”

Owen slowly walked around the room to Marcus, Alex and Ethan, and one by one he shook each of their hands. Regardless of the fact that he was about to leave, there was no point in making enemies. Not in this game.

“But…” Ethan started to say as Owen shook his hand. “We’re going to need your help.” He spoke bluntly and matter-of-factly, with a hint of surprise in his voice. Ethan was shocked that Owen genuinely wasn't interested in helping him.

“We’re doing good work already with the PRoGRaM memory analyst teams,” Owen said, speaking calmer than he had done all night. “Look at my team for example, it works perfectly. Why do we have to mess with a system that already works? We have everything we need already to do a good job! We’re already changing the world." And on that note, Owen turned from everyone and walked away, without even as much as a goodbye. As he stepped out through the door and out into the oddly cold corridor, he could feel the agitation seeping out from Ethan back in the room.

“You do not have a choice!” the man burst out, shouting in the direction of the door that Owen had just left through. “You will be a part of this one way of the other!”

Owen continued to walk away, proud of himself for what he had just accomplished. He had finally stood up to Ethan and told him
No
. It was a real milestone.
Besides, they can complete Phase Two without me. They don't need my expertise for that.

He continued to head towards the exit, thinking about the night ahead of him and how he was going to spend it. Annie wasn't at home. She'd organised a night out for her and her friends because she knew Owen had a work related meeting that evening, so he'd end up having the place to himself.
Get out of here, get a pizza and get home.

Owen patted his pockets down on his jacket, in search for his car keys. He quickly found them from the rattling noise and pulled them out, flipping them around on his finger for a little while as he walked. He then grabbed the keys in his hand and
 
made a fist. Once again, Owen started to pat down his jacket and jeans, this time looking for his phone.

Slowly, Owen came to a stop in the grand entrance hall, near the huge wooden double doors before he figured out where it was.
You idiot.
He said to himself as he realised that he'd left his mobile back in the common room on the table which he had been sitting next to. His mind had been so pre-occupied with the idea's that Ethan was bringing back to the table that he'd completely forgotten to pick it up when he left. For a second, he genuinely considered leaving it behind.
Is it really worth going back there?
It was going to be both embarrassing and humiliating at the same time, especially given the terms on which he had left.

No.
He thought to himself.
You can do this. Just make a joke, apologise for interrupting, grab your phone and be on your way.

Mentally, he forced himself to turn around. Slowly and quietly, Owen walked back towards the common room at the far end of the house. As he edged closer to the room, he could hear the three men inside talking in hushed tones. Owen slowed himself down and light-footedly creeped towards the door, treading as quietly as he possibly could.

“Why can’t we just kill him?” Ethan said out loud, the anger obvious from his tone of voice. Owen stopped dead in his tracks, holding his breath and listening sharply.
They surely can't be talking about me, can they?
He thought as he slowly creeped forward, attempting to get a clearer hearing of the conversation going on inside.

“You heard the boss,” Marcus replied quietly, talking to Ethan.

A few seconds went by on the other side of the door without anybody talking. For a second, Owen genuinely thought that Marcus, Alex and Ethan had heard him. He held his breath, waiting for whatever was to come next.

“It’s not our decision to make,” Ethan said, speaking slowly and carefully. It was as if he was trying to convince himself of the words that were coming out of his own mouth. Owen moved closer to the door, the tension and adrenaline rising within him with every step that he took. He could see inside the common room now. He had a thin field of vision through the small gap between the open door and its frame. He stayed as far back as possible, trying desperately not to be spotted.

Inside, he saw Ethan pacing up and down the length of the common room, obviously trying to work out some form of stress. “The boss made the call. Not us,” he said slowly, nodding to himself as he spoke.

“Why Annie though?” Alex chipped in out of nowhere.
He sounds almost… scared?
“Why does it have to be her?”

“I don’t know,” Ethan said, shaking his head angrily from side to side. “But we know what we have to do next.”

Ethan stopped himself from pacing around and casually looked towards the gap in the doorway in which Owen was peeking through. For a millisecond, both men locked eyes, and in that split second, a million thoughts ran through Owen's mind.

Annie!
They were talking bout Annie!
What are they planning to do? Are they going to kidnap her? Are they going to kill her?
 
Or more realistically… Are they going to take my memories of her?

Owen snapped out of it once he quickly realised that the possibilities were endless. He always knew deep down that the people he worked for were ruthless, but he never once expected this.

Why Annie though?
Alex had said.
Why does it have to be her?

Marcus and Alex.
Owen thought.
Those two aren't bad people, they'd never go out of their way to hurt innocents. But Ethan? Ethan's a loose cannon.
He never really had been the full ticket for as long as Owen had known him. If their mysterious boss had given him an order, then he'd follow it without question.

Think about it logically Owen!
He said to himself.
If phase two is Ethan's next step, that means that he's going to need your skills to pull it off. He couldn’t possibly do it with just the help of Alex and Marcus. So that means they’re going to need some leverage over you to get you to help.

That's why they mentioned Annie. It has to be. Face it. They're not going to kill her, Owen. Why would you ever help them then? They're looking for leverage. They could have meant that they were going to start taking my memories of her. Or her memories of me… Anything to get me to help.

It might have been a dark thought, but the fact of the matter was… If Owen was in their position, that would be exactly how he'd play it. He quickly shook that thought from his head, annoyed at himself for even going there.
You can’t escape from here.
Owen said to himself.
They're going to catch you. And then they are going to wipe the memories of Annie from your head.
You’ll never make it back to the car. You need to do something right here, right now. Something to remind yourself of this…

Take control of the situation.

And on that thought, Owen instantly knew what he needed to do.

He broke eye contact, turned, and ran as fast as his legs would go.

Owen ran at full speed down the corridor, heading back towards the grand entrance hall of the mansion. As he set foot out into the hall, he grabbed the nearby banister and swung himself around on it. Instead of leaving the building through the front door, he was heading upwards, consciously cornering himself on the upper floor of the building.
But all I need is just a few minutes.

He ran left and right, turning and weaving himself down familiar corridors, heading in the direction of the upper floor's eastern wing. At the speed he was moving, it didn't take him long to find the room that he was looking for. Owen darted
 
inside and quietly shut the door behind him. It wouldn't help his cause much to broadcast his position, even though he did have a head start on his pursuers.

Owen quickly pressed his left ear up against the closed wooden door, listening out for Ethan and the others. There were no sounds beyond. Only silence.
Good. That gives me at least a little bit of time…

Archer looked around the large, open plan administrative room that he had just stepped into. It was a far cry from the architecture and decor that covered the rest of the mansion. This room
actually
looked modern. Endless desks lined with top of the range computers and communication equipment stretched out as far as Owen could see. But before he could execute his plan, he needed to buy himself some time. Ethan, Marcus and Alex knew that he was somewhere in the building, and sooner or later, they’d find him…

With all of his strength, he managed to create a makeshift block in front of the only door to the room by dragging over one of the computer desks nearby. Amazingly, it fit perfectly under the door handle, making it extremely difficult to get into the room from the outside. At least without resorting to sheer brute force.

The room was secure enough. It was time for Owen to think about what he had to do next. Quietly he moved to the nearest computer system and began to boot it up. He hadn't picked this room without thought. He had picked this room purely because it was the only one that held the two exact things that he needed. A phone, and a computer system.

Right now, he needed both.

As he waited for the computer to boot up, Owen grabbed a landline phone from nearby, punching a memorised number into it. He let it ring, praying that it would be answered soon.

"Hello?" Annie Archer answered politely.

“Annie," Owen said breathlessly. The run across the PRoGRaM mansion had tired him out, and it was clearly showing in his voice right now, but he didn't have time to explain. "Remember what we talked about? This is that time. Get out now. Don’t contact me after this, it’s not safe anymore. I’ll come to you as soon as I can. One month. I love you.”

In all of the time that Owen had worked on the PRoGRaM conception team, there was never a doubt in his mind that one day something just like this was going to happen. Subconsciously, he wondered if it stemmed from all those years of watching Hollywood movies. The ones where the good guy gets betrayed at the last moment. Annie wasn't supposed to know a thing about Owen's job, but in reality, she knew everything. From every detail of PRoGRaM and how it worked, right down to the boss that neither Owen, nor Ethan, Marcus and Alex had even met.
The robotic voiced man from Veridian.

Together, he and Annie had seriously talked in depth about a situation like this before. About running away when and if the time ever called for it. It had been Owen's idea all along. He never fully trusted the nature of his job and always thought it was safe that he and Annie have an escape situation ready.

And maybe having that paranoia was about to pay off.

It was because of that paranoia that the two of them had an escape plan, and it was because of that paranoia that both he and Annie secretly owned a small, secondary apartment.
The escape apartment.

Everything that Owen was about to do was only to guarantee that he would see Annie again. Even if Ethan, Marcus and Alex managed to wipe his memories of everything,
including
the location of his escape apartment, then this plan almost guaranteed that Owen would still be able to find out the truth in the future.

More importantly, it would help him find Annie.

After saying his quick goodbye's, Owen put the phone down and watched as the computer finally finished its power-up sequence. A few keystrokes later and the camera attached to the PC was online.

More importantly, it was recording Owen's every word.

“Your name is Owen Archer,” he began to say, talking directly into the camera. “You were born on February 27th, in the year 2000. By the time you are watching this, you will be 35 years old. Don’t be surprised to see me, I can guarantee you that this is real.”

Owen had to talk fast and cover all bases. Owen's plan to make this video was purely based on his intuition, which told him that once Ethan got a hold of him, he was going to start taking out some of his memories.
At least when the future me receives this video, it'll tell me where Annie is.

Archer had already pre-programmed the video message to be delivered to his team’s email address on a predetermined date, a few weeks from now.

In fact, it was set to be delivered on his own wedding anniversary.

“Today, is your wedding anniversary, and Annie is not with you. But she should be, and there are people to blame for that,” he continued to say, basing his entire speech into the camera on what he had heard downstairs.

Why Annie though? Why does it have to be her?
All that he could hear was Alex saying those words, repeating and repeating over and over in his mind. “First of all, a very important address that you need to know. 45 Redford Avenue. That address will mean everything to you, and only you know why. I will keep this short, because I don’t have much time.”

The escape address.

It stood a chance that his pursuers could take that information away from him. If that was the case, how was he ever going to find Annie without this video? This was Owen's way of fixing the future in his favour.