Society Rules (25 page)

She noticed another break in his emotionless façade as he spoke the words. He shook his head slightly, as if to knock loose the unwanted feelings and pressed on.

“Would you say it’s like he was
born
just for you? A perfect match to you, physically? Emotionally? Intellectually? Maybe you could say he was your . . .
Equal
?”

He whispered the words as he leaned forward, eyes narrowing, watching her reaction.

Indie felt a reeling dizziness. Her legs vanished from beneath her, and she tumbled forward. Will’s hands flashed out automatically to catch her, but then he very deliberately withdrew them, allowing her to collapse into a heap on the floor.

She couldn’t move.

Or breathe. He could not possibly know this, and yet he’d said it—said the very word—
Equal
! What was happening?

“You know,” he began speaking in a light and friendly tone, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. “you’ve never asked me about my work. I’ll bet you’ve never even wondered to yourself, ‘just what
does
William do all day long in that boring old office’?”

Indie didn’t answer. She still couldn’t speak.

Will continued in a pleasant conversational tone, talking to the pen in his hands.

“We have a kind of running joke at our office. We call it the ‘Department of Myths and Legends’, because what we do is investigate those kinds of things. And to top it off, we agents ourselves, have become something of a little mystery . . . the fodder of urban legends. It’s amazing what a preference for a certain color in clothing, vehicles and choppers can achieve in the minds of the masses, isn’t it?

“Men
in
black!”
Will rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion, as if they were both in on some private joke.

“A lot of the other agents in other security branches think it’s funny; at least the ones who believe we actually exist.”

His expression returned to dead serious now. “But, we have a very crucial job. In the interest of homeland security, the Government is always conducting investigations. Sometimes on things that seem outrageous in their improbability.

“We follow up on every mythical beast sighting, strange lights in the sky . . .
UFO’s
”. His eyes darted down to Indie’s for a brief second, as if to gauge her reaction.

She was silent.

“That part of my job is fascinating to me. I’ve always been interested in things like that. All mysteries, great and small . . . ghosts, ancient worlds, full of mysticism. Unfortunately, or maybe I should say
fortunately
for the world, most of what we investigate proves to be explainable in a very unexciting way. True proof of anything ‘otherworldly’ is usually very elusive. Sometimes, though, we get lucky.

“About five years ago, six agents brought in an old man. They insisted that they had captured someone who was not of this world. I flew out that day to see this ‘person’, for lack of a better word.”

Will paused to drop his pen and pick up one of Jake’s small, metal matchbox race cars that had been precariously balanced on the edge of the desk. He gripped the car tightly, spinning the rear wheels of the toy car with his thumb as he continued.

“This person . . . he just looked like an ordinary old man to me. I thought they were crazy.”

As if by accident, he looked down at Indie, and her eyes shot to his. He looked quickly away before speaking again.

“It’s funny. We didn’t live here at the time, but the facility where he was kept is close to the Canadian border. I’ve been studying him for the last two years, as best I can.”

Will shifted in his chair, displaying for the first time, some sort of discomfort with the conversation.

“It’s horrible actually, the way they’ve kept him. He was continuously under a chemical restraint. It took ten times what should have been necessary to incapacitate him, but once he was under, the scientists took over. They took measurements of his facial features, and drew his blood . . . lots of it. They ran every test imaginable, and everything came back perfect.”

He looked down at her again. “Too perfect. It was as if this person wasn’t human, but
superhuman
. He was too strong. It had taken six of our hardest core agents to bring him down, when he looked like just an old man, albeit, an old man in extremely good shape.

“But the testing continued. We knew we had something truly unusual when we began examining his brain activity. He had extraordinary mental abilities. He was telepathic. He could read our thoughts, that much was clear. However, he was defiant . . . and would refuse to speak for months at a time, although we knew that he could. He was observed before capture, talking and laughing with a woman who looked similar in age; a woman who he made sure managed to escape by actively engaging all six agents while she fled.

“He used to sit, eyes closed for hours, with the encephalogram sensors attached to every part of his scalp.

“The scientists had shaved his head to fit him with permanent sensors.” Will winced, as if the memory was difficult for him, but continued.

“The readings were off the chart. It was as if his brain was in overdrive; in constant conversation, but nothing we could hear.”

Will suddenly paled at what he was about to reveal next. He stared at the floor once more as he spoke.

“They began more intrusive testing, opening him up for exploratory surgeries, needle biopsies to the brain . . . horrible things.

“We learned the hard way that he could also move objects with his mind when he used telekinetic force to hurl an entire shelving unit across the room, injuring several of the scientists. It was this that made them realize that they had to increase his sedation, and keep him disoriented. He was also under twenty-four hour armed guard.

“He began to speak, but was so drugged and out of it by this time, that what he said could never be trusted as reality. I questioned him myself, many times. When I asked his age, he laughed, and said that he had seen nearly three centuries!”

Will studied the computer screen now, as he spoke.

“Now, most people would dismiss this as nonsense, but in our line of work, everything is a fact, to be verified, or discounted later as fiction. I took notes on every single statement the man made. I listened as he called to ‘her’, someone he called his ‘
Equal’
. In his more lucid moments, he told me how the relationship worked, and that he and ‘the others’ were here to show us the way, and to prevent evil and negativity from destroying mankind.

“I learned that he believed he was descended from some sort of ‘super race’, although he refused to elaborate on his origins. This is why the government got involved, as legends make mention of beings similar to this man from the beginning of recorded history.”

Will sighed as if repeating lines from a script that he had been forced to read a thousand times.

“Anything claiming to be of a super or superior origin has to be considered a threat, and that threat needs to be studied and evaluated.”

Indie continued to simply stare at Will in a vacant trance; hearing everything, yet unable to react.

She didn’t blink as he went on.

“At the very least, scientists are interested in studying their unusual immunity from disease and illness, and seemingly perfect function of all body systems, not to mention their mental abilities. Although he was the first and only . . .
one
 . . . I ever saw, I later learned that there have been several captured in the past, all over the world.”

Will leaned back in his chair, hesitating. His expression held in it his obvious distaste for the words to follow.

“The captive’s mental state deteriorated rapidly, with the increased testing. He was, in essence, being dissected alive, and I suppose no one could endure that forever, although he lasted longer than I would have expected. He had been in what you might call a persistive vegetative state for the last few months, with no brain wave activity at all. That is, until yesterday.”

Indie looked up at him suddenly. He had paused, quite deliberately, after he said this, and was looking at her again with appraising eyes. “Why,” she whispered. “What happened yesterday?”

Will’s eyes were burning straight through hers.

“Yesterday,” Will leaned forward, “he spoke! He opened his eyes, and laughed, looking right through all of the people at his bedside. He just said something like ‘speak now my darling, or forever hold your peace! Our time is near . . . ‘

“He said it like it was some kind of specific direction. Then he closed his eyes again. No one had a clue what this could mean, and he could not be compelled to speak or even open his eyes again. He died very shortly after.”

Indie’s thoughts shot straight to Maggie. It was becoming pretty clear that this had been her
Equal
.

Equals
are born at the same time . . . and, it seemed, they died at the same time. How horrible, to think . . . to
know
that she had been forced to live without him for five long years, sharing in the pain inflicted upon him.

It made her sick.

Will was still staring down at her, and she slowly climbed to her feet.

She tried to pretend that this had nothing to do with her. Indie felt an instinctive need to try to protect the Society, even though she also knew that her efforts were pointless.

“Why . . . why are you telling
me
this?” she faltered.

“Still want to play games, do you, Indie?” He sounded so far away, that Indie felt compelled to look down at him, just to see if he was still in his chair.

Will gestured to the computer screen.

“It’s all in the math, really,” he shrugged. “It was right here in front of me, all these years, and I never saw it. I guess I
have
been a bad husband to you, never really studying your face, as a man should. A husband should have the map of his wife’s face committed to memory, and in great detail.”

Indie looked back at her picture on the screen. Miss Maggie’s words floated through her head . . .”
It’s
as
plain
as
the
nose
on
your
face
 . . .”

Will spoke again, startling her out of her flashback.

“You might as well know that since our latest captive Society member has . . .” he paused, “
expired
, every agent has been given the priority assignment to capture another.”

Expired.

How impersonal this sounded. Dehumanizing.

As if the man had been a gallon of milk, or a coupon clipped from the paper.

Indie stared at him, speechless. “You . . . you wouldn’t . . .”

She couldn’t finish.

“No?” he asked, thoughtfully. “Why wouldn’t I?” He looked past her as he spoke now, and focused on the wall behind her.

“I have to remain committed to my job, my duty to my country.”

“What about me, Will? Am I meaningless to you? No commitment now, is there?”

Will struck her with his glare. “Don’t you
dare
talk to
ME
about commitment. You do not want to go there, do you?”

Indie felt moisture seep into her eyes, and once again, there was a break in the impassive look that Will had kept in place throughout this ordeal. He looked down again at the toy car that had become one with his hand.

“What do you want me to do, then?” Indie pleaded in a whisper

“I want you to run, Indie,” he whispered back, not meeting her eyes again. “I want you to grab what you can, and start running. Consider it a parting gift for you and your . . .
Equal.
” His words were bitter, but his voice was calm.

A running start? Indie’s mind raced. “But, the kids . . . I can’t just leave . . .”

“Oh, but you will,” he cut her off.

He was on his feet, backing her against the wall in one fluid motion. “You will always be looking over your shoulder from tonight forward, and with good reason!” He rested his hands on either side of her, speaking harshly.

“You will not bring my children into danger like that . . . how could you even want to?”

Indie felt the tears rush out. “No . . . no I wouldn’t” she agreed in a broken voice. “I would never want them in harm’s way, but,” she choked on a sob, “they’re my babies!”

She ventured a look at him again.

Will’s face was hard, but as he looked into her distraught, tearful eyes, he seemed to soften for just a moment.