Masked (5 page)

I didn’t steal from individuals,
but from banks and I never took more than $5,000 at any given time. That gave me
enough to keep going for several weeks, but at the same time not taking what I
deemed as too much from any individual institution. The more I did it the
better I was at not drawing attention. There was no way to trace it to me. Every
once in a while, I’d hit a snag, like in Troy, but my system worked pretty well.

At first, I was conflicted with my
decision, but that soon diminished. I finally reconciled in my mind the work I did
with the stolen funds, more than offset the unethical way I procured the funds.
Also, I kept track of what I’d taken from which institutions. I told myself someday,
I would redeposit the funds.

I heard Olive ask “what can I get
you?” to the customer sitting at the window.

“I’ll just take a coffee with
cream,” the nasally voice said.

When I heard the voice my body went
rigid. I knew that voice. I knew it very well.

“James,” I said under my breath.

I sat on the bar stool, frozen. What
was he doing there? How was he there?

I attempted to focus my mind on
the young man by the window. I didn’t need to see him. I knew he was there, so
my mind was able to find his. My head started to pound at both temples as I
strengthened my focus. I hadn’t given myself enough time to rest, but I bore the
pain and kept concentrating.

“I’ll be right back with that
coffee hon,” Olive said to James. “You look over the menu and I’ll take your
order.”

“Thank you mam,” he replied.

He was thinking; “He’s sitting at
the bar eating. It doesn’t look like he noticed me come in. When she comes back
with the coffee, I’ll take out both of them.”

James was not there to have a
friendly chat. He was still with Titan, working for them. I needed to move and there
was no time for hesitation.

In one fluid motion, I was up, my
coffee cup was flying towards his face and I was running out the door. I heard
a loud “ahhh”, as the door closed behind me.

I started to run towards the inn,
but didn’t get more than ten feet from the café before a fist landed firmly on my
face. A sharp blinding pain erupted from my nose and I flew backwards. I fell down
on the gravel and saw James standing above me.

I wasn’t going down that easy.

As I hit the ground, I swept James’
feet from under him and jumped back up as he fell. I had to shift to avoid his
sweeping feet. He tried to get up, but my boot connected with his head with a
crack, causing him to waiver for a second. I followed the kick with another to
his chest which sent him flying backwards. The gravel crunched as he slid several
feet across the ground after impact.

I turned again to flee towards
the inn when I felt a sharp stab in my right arm. I looked down and saw the small
silver dart. Whatever was in the dart was strong as I felt its effects
immediately. My head was swimming and my vision began to blur. Another dart hit
my left arm. I saw the blurry image of a petite dark haired form in black pointing
something at me.

“Got him,” I heard a distorted
female voice say before everything went dark.

 I watched the nurse take the
babies away as their new parents followed. My heart broke and once again I was
running. The light was getting closer. I was singing the words to that same
song in my head as the light grew brighter. I heard the constant hum of an
engine and I turned my head to make sure I was out of the vehicles path. The
light blinded me and the pain came, immediate and piercing, coursing through my
body.

As I was screaming from the
torment, the bright white light dimmed and a white room came into focus. The
sterile room looked like a laboratory or room for some type of medical
procedure. There was a variety of testing equipment both large and small
against the wall and tables lined with different beakers and vials.

Two men in black fatigues
restrained me, one on each arm with another holding a three foot rod, which
ended in a glowing bright blue electrode, to my chest. The electricity crackled
as the pain coursed through me. He pulled it away and the pain started to pull
away with it, but he put it back and the pain returned.

A girl was screaming. I looked
towards the center of the room and saw the source, a girl in terrible pain, wearing
a white gown, strapped on a hospital bed. I knew her. I was looking for her.
“Sara,” I shouted desperately despite the voltage coursing through me. “What
are you doing to her?”

“Stop, stop,” the girl pleaded,
her voice filled with torment and desperation, as the door behind me burst
open. I could only turn my head slightly to see a woman in a white lab coat
enter the room. There was a trickle of blood on her face that flowed from her
lip. The electrode was moved from my chest, but I was still restrained. The
woman in the lab coat quickly moved towards me and injected a syringe into my
neck. Sara was now thrashing on the bed, restrained and still pleading in a
fanatical scream. “Stop, stop.”

With the sharp jab of the
needle I felt myself immediately begin to fade. I fought to keep my eyes open.
“Sara, Sara,” I mumbled as everything faded to black.

With a start, I awoke, to a world
cold, dark and quiet.

Confused, I frantically tried to
assess my surroundings in order to get my bearings. I attempted to move, but couldn’t.
I felt constrained somehow. It took a few seconds, but my alert response lessoned
and I realized I was sitting upright in the front passenger seat of my truck.
It was still night time and all I saw around me was darkness and trees.

Again I was stopped as I tried to
move forward off of the seat before I realized I was strapped in with the seat
belt. After I unlatched the seat belt I opened the door and swung my legs out to
try and stand. My feet hit the ground, but my head didn’t like that idea.
Dizziness hit me, sudden and hard. The world moved side to side and up and down
all at the same time. I was about to lose all balance and fall over when I grabbed
the outside of the truck to stabilize myself.

I stood still to let the
dizziness pass until I began to feel like I wasn’t going to fall over and
vomit. Looking around, I saw I was parked on the side of a gravel road, right at
the tree line. Dense forest walled in both sides of the road.

A chill breeze gusted by and cut
right through me. Each time I breathed mist lingered before slowly dissipating.
I had no memory of how I had gotten there. Images were murky as I tried to
remember what happened. It was difficult to sort through the dreams, memories
or whatever with the distraction of my screaming headache. Freaking headache!

James was at the cafe. He was someone
I thought I’d never see again. I had assumed he was dead, that they killed him
after what I did. Apparently, I was mistaken. James was at the café to take me.
That much I saw. Whether he was there to capture or kill, I wasn’t sure. It
seemed James did join them then.

Once I had realized it was him, I
knew chances were slim of getting away. Throwing the coffee cup had been my
lame attempt at trying. I knew what he could do though. I knew it wouldn’t
work. There was no way to out run him. He was wearing his PTD and mine was
locked in the back of the truck. I’d locked it up after the bank in Troy.

It usually stayed in the truck
with the weapons. The weapons were there more for the comfort of having rather
than actually needing. Most of the guys I took down were not trained fighters, mercenaries
or super-human like me. It usually took nothing more than strength and the
element of surprise to stop them. If Titan was now after me, the rules had
changed.

I took a mental note to always
wear my PTD.

Even though I was quickly fading
at the time, I recognized the blurry raven haired attacker who shot me with the
tranquilizer dart as Rachael. I never would have believed she’d join them as
well. I guess I had misjudged her.

The events at the café and the
fact I was left out in the middle of nowhere with my truck, raised several
questions. How had they found me? I’d been on the run for over a year. Why now?
Second, why was I not with them? Why wasn’t I taken back to the HUB or killed?
It didn’t make any sense to capture me, only to drop me.

I looked to see if the keys were in
the ignition. They were.

“Good.”

Pulling away from the door, I
noticed a small black rectangular form on the drivers’ seat. It looked like my
phone. I checked my pocket and it wasn’t there. I powered on the phone and it went
straight to the GPS application. The image showed a map with a red blinking
dot. It was showing my location. I was only fifteen miles or so northwest of
the café. I could follow the mountain road south and get to a road leading back
to the highway.

Nothing made any sense. James and
Rachael took me out to leave me up on a mountain road with my truck and directions
on how to get back? Did they think I didn’t know how to use Google Maps? That
was kind of insulting. I thought it was safe to assume James and Rachael didn’t
capture me, only to let me go. Which meant someone was helping me, but whom? I
was the only one I knew who had any chance taking on James and Rachel in a
fight, if I was properly prepared. It had to be some sort of trap. The
throbbing intensified as I tried thinking too much about it.

It was 1:30 am. I’d been out for
a while and was fortunate I wasn’t unconscious until morning. On second
thought, I noticed the truck was left in a spot where the trees would have
shaded me from the rising sun.

Had I been left in the shade on
purpose or by accident? More questions. If whoever left me there put me in the
shade on purpose, they knew about me, but the only people who knew about me were
from Titan. I was back to the question of why they would capture me, only to turn
around and release me.

I opened the rear door and pulled
out the duffle bag. Finding the latch on the floor of the truck, I opened the
hidden compartment. The weapons were still there. I pulled out the small steel box,
opened it and took a small control device that looked like a black wrist watch
and three small black bands. I fastened the control on my left wrist and one of
the bands on my right. Ignoring my throbbing head, I loosened my boot laces and
fastened the other two bands to each of my ankles.

After selecting the 9mm in a
black shoulder holster, I fastened it over my t-shirt and covered it with a
jacket.

The touch screen on the wrist
control lit up as I activated it. It was extremely bright in the dark night. The
display was divided into three windows. The first showed a coordinate, the next
indicated a distance of ten feet with a small arrow above it, and the third showed
another coordinate. Once I was comfortable the device was online and ready to
go, I turned the display off.

When I turned the key in the
ignition, the truck sputtered for a couple seconds and started. I swallowed the
pills from the glove box dry yet again hoping I would eventually shake the stupid
headache and headed south towards the highway.

“Michael, let me introduce you to
the others,” Dr. Roberts said as she lead me through a large grey metal door
into a room where there were four other people waiting.

I didn’t know any of them and
even though I couldn’t remember anything earlier than two days prior, Dr. Roberts
had already confirmed I didn’t know them. She explained the people I’d be
meeting had the same condition as I did. What she hadn’t explained yet was what
that condition was.

The room was a bare bones
conference room with plain grey walls, grey floor and a scent of disinfectant in
the air. There were four rows of chairs behind long tables facing the front of
the room, six chairs in each row. At the front of the room was a large screen
mounted behind a raised podium. I walked forward towards the group of four,
each positioned separately throughout the small room.  Some glanced in my
direction as if awaiting my arrival.

Each of the four strangers looked
to me and then to Dr. Roberts as if waiting for instructions. They all looked
about my age. I didn’t know for sure what that age was but guessed fifteen or
sixteen. My body and face were made of the lean whipcord of youth and my facial
hair was still on the junior varsity team.  They looked as lost as I felt, which
was a relief.

“Well, I’ll make the introductions.
Michael, this is James,” Dr. Roberts motioned to a slight pale man just to the
right of me.

He closed the gap between us with
his hand stretched forward. “Hello Michael. It’s good to meet another one of
the clueless,” he smirked.

He was about a head shorter than
me. James’ hair was a light brown color, cut short and he had dark brown eyes. There
was an effort of a mustache that needed to be put out of its misery. I’m not
sure what the smirk was for, it seemed out of place, but I took his hand and shook
it.

“It’s good to meet you as well,”
I said. James stepped back.

A girl with pale skin and
shoulder length light blonde hair stepped forward. She was a little shorter
than me as well, but tall for a girl. “This is Sara.”

Sara smiled, but it seemed forced,
as if she was trying to hide her fear.  Her eyes, an exquisite blue color,
looked worried. She was beautiful and I caught myself staring. She laughed.  “Don’t
worry. None of us know what’s going on either,” she said misinterpreting my
gaze.

She put forward her hand. “It’s a
pleasure to meet you Michael.”

“It is nice to meet you too,” I
said a little embarrassed as I took her hand.

Sara stepped aside and a shorter bronze
skinned girl with short raven colored hair approached.

“Hi, I’m Rachael; well at least I’ve
been told my name is Rachael.” She had on a crooked smile and her voice had a
light Latin accent.

I reached for her hand and shook
it.

“I don’t know about you, but if
they don’t give us some sort of reason for holding us here soon, there’s going
to be hell to pay,” she said.

Rachael seemed to be older than the
rest, maybe closer to seventeen or eighteen. I wasn’t fooled by her petite
form, pretty face and big light brown eyes. The impression I got was wronging
her would lead to a lifetime of regretting you did so.

“Now that you’re here, maybe they’ll
finally tell us what the hell is going on,” she said looking slyly at Dr. Roberts.

“That will all be coming soon
enough,” Dr. Roberts said.

“Well nice to meet you,” I said
in a friendly tone.

“And this is Alex.” Dr. Roberts pointed
to the last stranger in the room. He was probably an inch or two taller than me
with dark chocolate skin, short hair and brown eyes.

He approached with his hand
stretched forward and a face void of expression. “Hey,” he said in a deep
monotone voice.

“Hello.” I shook his hand. His
grip was so tight, it hurt my hand.  Not that I'd let my pain show.  After all,
I had my pride.

Alex let go of my hand and he stepped
back.

“Ok, that wasn’t awkward,” said
James with a short laugh.

“A little,” I said.

Dr. Roberts didn’t acknowledge
the comment.

“So what’s with the weird
introductions?” Rachael asked Dr. Roberts.

“You all have something in common
and today as promised, we will provide you with answers as to what that is. I
know you are all curious on how you got here, why your memory is gone and why
you have been held with no information as of yet. I really would like to thank
you for being patient with us, especially those of you who have been awake for
a couple of weeks. I’m sure it has been difficult, not knowing who you are and
not being able to remember anything prior to waking.” Dr. Roberts said in an
almost robotic manner.

 “Please, could you all take a
seat in the front row?” Dr. Roberts asked politely with her open hand stretched
towards the front of the room. “A few others will be joining us shortly so
please have a seat while we wait.”

I shuffled over with the rest of
the group to the front row. I was the last to sit on the far right of the row,
next to Sara. I’d made it point to sit next to Sara. Based on the brief
introductions and my sense of her, she seemed to be someone I might be the most
comfortable talking to and initially getting to know.

Even though I didn’t know who I
was, there were things I just knew and felt about the kind of person I was. I
couldn’t tell you my name or where I was born, but I could tell you the type of
things that would make me comfortable or uncomfortable. I could tell the type
of person I would get along with well or confide in. Somehow I instinctively
knew Sara was someone I would really get along with. Of course it could have
been because she was really cute.

Sara was the first to enter the
row of seats, so I casually walked around the front to the other side. She saw
me and left an open seat at the end. I congratulated myself on my slickness as
I sat next to her.

“How are you feeling?” Sara asked
as I sat. I could see James, who was on her other side listening.

“I’m feeling better than I did when
I first woke a few days ago. I’m still a little shaky,” I said.

When I first awoke, I felt like absolute
crap. It was like a light suddenly came on in my head, but too bright all at
once. I tried to open my eyes, but when I did the intense brightness of the
room was too much. My head throbbed intensely, compounded with the confusion of
not knowing who or where I was. I think I was pretty doped up at that point.
Once they started to bring down the dosage on the meds, the shakiness came. I
guess it was my body’s reaction to withdrawal of whatever they had me on. The
shakiness was still there, but it had greatly been reduced.

“I’ve been awake for a week now
and just got rid of the shakiness yesterday. Whatever it was they put in us, my
body was hooked on the stuff,” she said.

“Have they told you anything?” I
asked.

“No. Not really. I’m sure you
know as much as I do. All I’ve been told is I have just recovered from some illness
that we were all exposed to and that they wanted to wait until we were strong
enough to fill us in on the details.”

That’s what I was told as well. I
didn’t think any of the others had any more information, but thought it
couldn’t hurt to ask.

“They also said they’re not sure
if our memory loss is temporary or permanent, that it’s a result of the
illness,” she continued.

“That’s pretty much what I’ve
been told as well,” I said.

After that, the room stayed quiet
for what seemed like an endless amount of time even though it probably wasn’t more
than a couple of minutes. We were five strangers in a really strange situation.

“So, some of you have been awake
for a couple of weeks?” I asked the group, trying to break the awkward silence,
plus I was curious. “That must have been horrible not knowing what was going on
for so long. I’ve had a hard time with just the couple days I’ve been awake.”

“Yeah, Alex and I have both been
awake for almost two weeks. James and Sara have been awake for six days. There
wasn’t much we could do, not knowing exactly what our conditions were. I
thought I was under some sort of quarantine due to the illness and they seemed
to be taking care of us. Dr. Roberts has been friendly, but not especially
helpful.” The last part Rachael said muffled under her breath as she glanced up
at Dr. Roberts who was still in the front of the room, standing quietly.

Rachael continued. “We were
locked in our rooms. I discovered this on day three when I wanted to get out
and stretch my legs. I’d felt strong enough to get up, but I couldn’t get out.”
She looked up at Dr. Roberts. “Our good doctor later explained due to security
at this facility, we are not allowed to move about freely.”

“Sounds like a pile of crap to me,”
Alex blurted out in his deep voice. “I feel like I have only been shoveled crap
since I’ve been awake.”

“I guess you tell it how it is,”
said James responding to his comments.

Dr. Roberts looked up when Alex spoke,
but didn’t say anything.

My story was much the same. When
I first woke, I was in a small hospital room with IV’s, fluid bags and several
different monitors connected to me. I had no idea who or where I was or how I
had gotten there.

Almost immediately, a nurse came
in.

“So you’re awake?” She asked with
a bright smile.

I’d tried to respond in my drowsy
confused state, but couldn’t. When I think back though, it was uncanny how fast
the nurse had gotten there. I guess the monitors would alert them if I was
awake or maybe the response wasn’t as fast as I had thought, but due to my
state of mind it seemed that way. I guess it didn’t really matter.

“Just rest dear. You are weak.
You need to rest to get stronger.” She said as she injected something, which I
soon found to be a sedative, into the IV. Her image quickly faded as I went back
to sleep.

When I woke for the second time I
remember, I was more alert. The nurse came in and told me I should be feeling a
bit better now.

“I do.” I said, now able to
respond. “Where am I?”

“In a hospital,” is all she said.

“I don’t remember anything,” I said,
trying to get more of a response.

“I know. Dr. Roberts will be in
soon.” She checked the IV and left. Her bedside manner wasn’t exactly
top-notch.

So I waited, and a couple hours
later Dr. Roberts came in to see me.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Better, but still weak.”

“Your body is recovering. I’ll
have the nurse try and get you up to start walking around the room in a couple
hours. You need to work your muscles back into strength.”

“Why am I here?” I asked.

“You were the victim of a
terrible illness, almost fatal. You were brought here at the point of death. We
were able to treat and cure your condition,” she explained.

“Why don’t I remember anything?”
I continued, hoping for more answers.

“It’s, unfortunately, a residual
effect of the illness. We’re not sure if it’s temporary or long-term. There are
others here who had the same condition and were also cured. Everyone suffers
the same memory loss.”

“There are a lot of details to go
over. We’ll give you more information when you get stronger. Give us some time,”
she said and nothing else.

During what was mostly silence as
we were waiting on whoever it was we were waiting on, I noticed Dr. Roberts
shuffling through notes and trying to look busy as she made several casual
glances at us here and there, quick so we wouldn’t notice her.

“I’ll be right back,” Dr. Roberts
said as she stepped out of the conference room.

“All I can say is there better be
a damn good reason to have kept us locked up with no information,” Alex said to
the rest of us once she was out of the room. “They’re really starting to piss
me off, not answering any of my questions. I have a right to know who I am,
where I am, what the hell happened to me.”

“Settle down there big guy,”
James said belittling Alex.

Of the four people, I would rate
James the lowest on the first impression scale. He seemed very confident and
way too comfortable with the situation. If I had to write in his yearbook and
predict his most likely profession, it would have been a used car salesman, the
really smarmy kind.

“We all feel the same way. Let’s
see if they can explain themselves first before we start throwing punches,” James
added.

“Boy, I don’t know you?” Alex
thundered, slamming his fists on the table. I felt Sara jump slightly. “Even if
I did, you damn well better not call me something like big guy.”

“Sorry man.” James backpedaled with
his hands in the air still with a smug look on his face. Part of me thought it
would be entertaining to see Alex’s fist wipe it off, but just a little part of
me.

“Whatever’s going on here, we are
in it together,” Sara piped in trying to ease the tension in the room. “We may
need each other’s help.”