The recording had a lot of white noise. Mikiko apologized, “The techs couldn’t clean up the audio entirely for some reason.”
Jessica heard, “Good morning, Zach. My name is Dr. Serrano. Do you remember who I am?”
“Hello, Dr. Serrano,” Zach responded. “Where am I?”
“You are in a safe place. Do you remember me?”
There was a pause.
“No, I don’t. I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay.”
“Where am I?”
“You are in an assisted living home. We are here to help you get better.”
“Who are they?”
“Oh,” Dr. Serrano said, “These are physician’s assistants who are observing and learning today.”
“Do I know you? I don’t seem to remember much.”
“What is the last thing you remember?”
“I remember talking to my friend Jessica. She came to my house to pick up some things.”
“Where is your friend Jessica now?”
“She had to go on a trip.”
“What trip?”
There was a long silence until Dr. Serrano repeated his question. “Can you tell me more about this trip that your friend Jessica was going on?”
There was a pause again until Zach said, “Are you friends with—” There was loud static that interrupted the recording. Both Jessica and Mikiko turned their heads and grimaced at the harsh pitch.
“What did he say?” Jessica asked.
“I had a tech team run some analysis to clean up the audio,” Mikiko said as she got up and walked back to her bag. She pulled out a small tablet. “They just sent me the updated version yesterday.” Before pressing play, she warned Jessica, “Brace yourself.”
Jessica was confused, but she nodded her head to show she was ready. Mikiko pressed play, and the two heard Dr. Serrano’s voice again.
“Can you tell me more about this trip that your friend Jessica was going on?”
Zach paused, then said, “Are you friends with Evelyn?”
“Who’s Evelyn?” Dr. Serrano asked.
“Did Ori send you?” Zach asked.
“Who are you talking to?” Dr. Serrano asked. “Please note that the patient is speaking to the physician’s assistants who are sitting in the room with me.”
“Zach,” Dr. Serrano continued, “Can you tell us more about Ori and Evelyn?”
Mikiko stopped the recording. “There’s nothing else after that. He doesn’t respond to any further questions.”
“Wonder why he was asking about them? And better yet, how he even knows who Evelyn is,” Jessica said.
“Bizarre, right? Even if someone had told him about Evelyn, why would he bring them up then? And what’s more bizarre to me is that when we listened to this, my team seemed to only have a vague knowledge of who Evelyn was,” Mikiko said. “I thought that they were messing with me, but they weren’t. Those who did have a faint memory of her failed to remember what she looked like, and I came to find that this was widespread. It’s almost as if she only ever had minor involvement with the Bureau.” Mikiko paused, shaking her head. “I don’t know what’s happening.”
“That’s more than bizarre,” Jessica concurred.
“So then, I tried to pull up videos and news coverage of her last case and Ori Clayborn’s mysterious disappearance. Have you looked lately? Gone from the internet.”
Jessica pulled out her phone and searched for an article. “There’s nothing,” she said in disbelief. “Have you spoken to Leslie?”
“I have. I mean, she remembers Ori, and so do all of the employees who had direct interaction with him during his tenure. I couldn’t press Leslie too much, especially after the investigation all those years ago.” Mikiko appeared bashful. “Now I am the one who seems delusional.”
After the investigation into Ori’s disappearance and the entire incident, one of Leslie’s statements to the FBI leaked. Some media outlets called her delusional and questioned whether she was fit to run the Singularity Group.
“If you’re delusional, then so am I,” Jessica said.
“That’s a relief,” Mikiko said with a smile. “Given that Zach clearly remembers you, is asking about Ori and Evelyn, and you remember who they are, I have a favor to ask.”
“Okay,” Jessica said, encouraging Mikiko to continue.
“I can get you access to Zach. Could you try to talk to him and see if he responds better to you? Perhaps seeing you will spark some memories.” Mikiko slid an envelope to Jessica. “Here’s a burner phone. Use this if you need to get in touch with me.”
“I, of course, want to help Zach in any way I can,” said Jessica before pausing momentarily. “But if you aren’t able to actively investigate this, why does it matter so much to you?”
“If Zach does have evidence of what Confidence Biotech is doing, and any of that is on US soil, I need to know. Especially if they are vying to become the nation’s point for contact tracing.” Mikiko’s face softened a bit, and she continued, “And if there’s some link to Evelyn…”
“Understood,” Jessica said empathetically. “I’ll see what I can do.”