Track 63

“The Man Who Stole a Leopard”

Present Day

I wake up strapped to a chair that’s bolted to the linoleum floor. My fuzzy brain detects a room filled with hard shapes and metal objects. Lights from racks of equipment blink intermittently. A wide console with even more lights and switches runs the length of one wall. Above it is a huge panel of glass, tilted at a downward angle. The whole setup looks like it’s from another era.

Twisting my neck, I see the doctor working at a desk. Three flat-screen monitors are lined up side by side in front of him. On the wall above are a bank of screens. A couple display what looks like an air traffic control radar.

Through an open door to my left, I spy a room that houses more monitors. I can’t make out any clear images on the flickering screens, but they look like CCTV. More racks of electronic equipment flash with lights of red, green, and yellow.

I flex each finger one at a time. Good. At least my muscles have recovered from whatever Davis injected me with. I glare hard, as if trying to burn holes in the back of his silver head.

In that same second, a blinding floodlight turns on in the next room. I squeeze my eyes shut.

“I trust you slept well,” says the doctor. His chair creaks as he swivels around to face me. That cold, dangerous smile stretches his aged features.

I blink him into focus. The black-and-white image I’d seen on a Wiki earlier surfaces in my mind. With his hawkish nose and piercing gaze, Dr. Davis looks like a way older version of…

If you think it’ll make you feel better, sure, I can be Dr. Davis.

Oh. God.

“You’re Senator Blake.” My jaw goes slack.

“Director Blake,” he corrects me. I guess the distinction must be pretty important to him.

“So you’re definitely not a doctor?” I point at his lab coat, monogrammed with Davis’s name. It’s the same one he was wearing when I first visited Mom.

Blake rises from his chair. He takes off the white coat and grabs another from a coat rack. This one has his own name embroidered on it. He chuckles and puts it on with a deft shrug. Like the first time I met him, I’m semi-impressed by the way he moves for someone of his vintage. “So easy to get these things mixed up, you know. They all look the same.”

“Where’s the real Dr. Davis?” I demand, fully awake now. And alarmed. “Was there ever a real one?”

“Of course there was. Until about six weeks ago. And I decline to say where he is at this present moment. It’s none of your concern.”

Glaring, I say, “He’s my mother’s doctor. I’m concerned. No one told us he’d left. You didn’t correct me when I called you Dr. Davis the day I met you.”

“I didn’t feel it was necessary.”

“Because you were impersonating him,” I growl.

Stooping, Blake busies himself with scrawling on a notepad. “We have other physicians on staff here. You needn’t worry.”

I peer at the array of monitors again, but I’m not close enough to see what’s on them. “What can you tell me? This really is a black-ops program, isn’t it?”

Raising a bushy silver brow, he jots another note. “Been researching, I see.”

“I know what you’ve been up to all these years,” I spit out.

“Is that right?” he says in a way that indicates I’m wrong. “Tell me, then.”

“You study alien abductees, try to find out what they know about alien technology so you can replicate it and make a fortune.” I peer at him closely. “But the more you try, the more you fail.”

He bristles at my last word. “That’s all?”

“And you’re also holding Jane Flanagan hostage. My mother tracked her down, and now you’ve got both of them under a spell.”

“I’m not holding anyone hostage. And spell? Goodness, this isn’t Hogwarts, my dear.”

I purse my lips, noting he isn’t confirming or denying specifics. “Where are we? Eden Estate?”

“I thought you’d researched us.” He frowns with faux confusion. “Yes, we’re at Eden Estate. Or rather under it. Five stories under, in fact. The branches of Eden run wide and its roots are deep. Down here, you’re in the Parallax Human Intervention Unit.”

“Eden Estate is a front for this place?”

“The two organizations work synergistically. Eden Estate is the public face, if you will. I named it in honor of my wife.”

“Oh, I’m sure she was flattered by that.”

“Eden was very supportive of everything I did. We were quite a duo,” Blake says, his face taking on a wistful look for a split second. It almost makes me feel sorry for him.

“Everything? Including kidnapping people?”

“She understood what I was trying to achieve.” Blake unbuckles my wrist and ankle restraints. When he’s done, he backs away. He turns around to the console. My gaze locks on the old-fashioned fire extinguisher sitting nearby. It looks nice and heavy. Lethal in the right hands.

I clench my sweaty fists. “What do you do at Parallax? What are you trying to achieve?”

He smiles over his hunched shoulder. “Tremendous leaps in science.”

While some of the equipment looks new, paint peels from dented metal bulkheads and the floor is scored with furniture marks. I smirk. “Yeah, that’s obvious.”

“I’m talking about the brain and what it’s capable of,” he says, pushing his glasses onto the bridge of his nose. “It’s been quite a day for you. Would you like to see something even more exciting?”

My jaw clicks with tension. “I’d like to see you in hell.”

“Soon, perhaps.”

“What does that mean?”

He gives a thin smile and tweaks a knob on the console. The light shining through the window dims to a less retina-burning brightness. “Come step up next to me. I won’t hurt you.”

“Oh? Why stop now?”

“My dear Cassidy—” he begins in a condescending tone.

“I’m not your dear.”

He continues without missing a beat, nodding at the window. “Take a look.”

Stubbornly, I stay in the chair, checking for an escape path. There are two other doors in this control room, and I don’t know where either of them leads.

The God Room.

Yes. That’s what Jane said during my last abduction. This has to be it.

Curiosity gets the better of me. But still, I stand three feet away from Blake, close to the fire extinguisher.

At first, all I see is an expansive white room. So white it’s hard to tell where the walls, floor, and ceiling meet. Then I look down, way down at the bottom.

Bodies lie motionless. Three bodies. Stretched out on gurneys with their arms crossed over their chests.

As if they’re dead.

Waves of nausea hit me, sweep me away in a riptide. I grab onto the console to stop myself from falling.

“They’re quite all right,” Blake says, but I’m in no way comforted.

I stare mutely at the bodies as I take in their faces. They look so small and vulnerable. My mother, Hayden, and Alondra. Stainless steel carts and surgical instruments gleam beside each of them.

Far below in the room, a pair of doors opens. Wearing a lab coat, Jane trudges in, pushing another gurney.

“Is that Charlie?” I exclaim.

“He’s a good man, Charlie. Very much enjoying his retirement,” Blake says with a proud smile. “He spends most of his days virtual-fishing here at Parallax. He’s very skilled. Must say better than he was in real life.”

Again, my jaw drops. “Why is he here?”

“He was a man who knew too much. He was getting…difficult for us. Together with your mother, he was threatening to expose Parallax to the public.”

Silently, I cheer for Charlie and Mom.

Blake goes on, “Our team here has worked hard to keep Charlie’s knowledge of the abductions and of Parallax buried in his unconscious brain.”

“In other words, you brainwashed him?”

“I prefer the term ‘hypnosis,’ Cassidy. If Moira Harris were here, she would agree.” His watery eyes stare steadily at me.

I choke. “Moira works for you?”

“Don’t tell her that.” He winks, and goose bumps sprout on my arms within half a nanosecond.

“I don’t understand. What is she up to really?”

“Most of the people in the support group she runs are Parallax subjects. Notably, subjects who’ve been conditioned to think they’re alien abductees or UFO witnesses.”

“Why would you want people to think that?”

“Deflection,” he says. “In order to draw attention from Parallax’s activities, we perpetuate the idea that UFO witnesses are mentally ill. We do whatever it takes to discredit genuine encounters. Parallax is about sowing confusion and doubt. Operatives encourage conspiracy theories on top of conspiracies.”

“What a load of shit…” I murmur.

“I admit that we did lose our way when the government pulled the funding rug from under us. We had to scramble for new objectives. Without their blessing. However, our prospects have improved of late.” His smug chuckle makes me shiver. “But as I say, Moira isn’t aware that she’s collecting data or procuring new subjects on our behalf.”

I shudder, wondering what else Moira unwittingly passed on to Blake about me. Thank God Hayden didn’t go to her for hypnosis.

Then again, he still got caught up in Blake’s net. My mind whirls as I try to figure out my next moves.

“Why are you telling me any of this? Is it because you’re so sure you can brainwash me into forgetting?” I straighten and look him in the eye, challenging him with an outward confidence I don’t actually feel. But I can’t let him know that. “Or do you plan on killing me?”

“Why would I kill you?” he asks like it never crossed his mind. “You’re quite useful to the project. And I’ve genuinely enjoyed tracking your progress, seeing how you handle certain situations in life. When you took up sign language so you could communicate with Alondra, well, I knew you were special. You both are.”

“You have no right to do this to me or anyone.” Anger simmers inside me. I really want to knock him out with the fire extinguisher. Maybe do worse. But it’s better I wrench some information out of him first.

“I like to think of you more as family,” he goes on. “My wife and I came to think of Jane as ours. But I do take exception to your accusations. What Parallax has done is no worse than what aliens have been doing for generations.” Blake’s arctic smile freezes all the water in my body.

“There’s no such thing as aliens,” I say with as much conviction as I can.

“Oh, Cassidy, admirable try. I’m aware of countless UFO visits. It’s a government treaty with aliens that allows them to exist here on Earth, after all.”

Damn. Of course he would know.

“What exactly is the government’s role in all this? If you really need me to help you,” I add, hoping he buys it, “then at least tell me about what I’m helping you with.”

“It started with a good old-fashioned cover-up,” he says, settling back. “Perhaps you know the story of the local gold miners who saw a UFO in the 1940s? My uncle owned the mine. Fifteen of his workers witnessed it. The government established Parallax to find out what happened to the men, to study them. But what the public didn’t know was that the men were abducted again and again. The survivors returned with fantastical tales of alien creatures, stories extracted right here through hypnosis.”

“Why did you say survivors? Are you saying some died?” Dear God, how close did I come to dying when I was abducted? Jake’s massive nosebleeds are bad enough.

“Regrettably. A few suicides. I recall one man died due to complications from alien surgery. Parallax did what it could for the injured ones. And as the years progressed, we discovered some of the miners’ descendants were also being abducted. Not quite the inheritance those descendants expected, I’m sure.”

I drag in a quivering breath, thinking of Opa Henk, who I never got to meet. His mind and body were ravaged by his job in the mines. Mom said he was a quiet man who never explained, never complained. But I guess it’s clear now why I’m one of the “chosen ones.” Henk must have been part of that first group of abductees.

“You said your uncle owned the mine. Was he abducted, too? Were you? Are you an abductee, too?”

“Uncle Derek? Perhaps. Me? To my deep regret, no.”

“Maybe you should try it someday. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.”

Blake seems to find that funny.

“What about Jane?” I ask.

He gives me a sharp look. “She was never an alien abductee.”

“No. You kidnapped her. The president’s daughter.”

“That’s a very serious accusation, Cassidy.” Blake stares down into the room below.

“It’s true, though, isn’t it?” I watch Jane line the gurneys up in a straight line before she slips out of the room. “That is Jane Flanagan down there.”

“She’s a very useful presence at Parallax,” he says slowly, pressing a button on the console.

Useful. That word again. Like we’re machines, or tools. Not people.

“Why did you push that button? What does it do?” I search for signs of gases in the room. Panic’s really starting to set in. It takes everything in me to hide it, because God knows he’ll exploit that.

He brushes off my questions like lint on a sleeve. “Jane’s father was in a position of power. I won’t say he was the most powerful man in the United States. Most people don’t realize how impotent presidents really are. Or shortsighted. He couldn’t see the potential in Parallax. Said it was too expensive. Immoral. What’s immoral about inexhaustible studies into the human mind? It’s a tremendous cause. One I was prepared to pour my own money into after Flanagan cut the program.”

I stare at him in shock. “Isn’t it immoral to keep Jane here for revenge when she still has a family who misses her? Wonders about what happened to her?”

“I can hardly let her go, can I? She belongs here. This is her life now. Besides, she has built up quite a rapport with your mother. And she hasn’t been starved of stimulation. There’s always much to do here. We didn’t expect young Hayden to move to Dawson. It was quite a marvelous surprise when he was captured for examination. He’s one reason why things are looking brighter for Parallax.” He pauses. “You do know your beloved is an alien, do you not? Yes, we had to resort to using a dart gun to administer our formula to him tonight. We’re nothing if not resourceful here.”

“Leave him alone,” I say in a low, gravelly voice.

“No, I don’t believe I will.” He claps his hands, breaking the stillness of the God Room and scaring the bejesus out of me. “We’re engaging in a new kind of mining. Data mining. We can literally dig into the minds of genuine abductees like yourself and download information about other worlds. Seems appropriate considering my mining heritage, don’t you think? But the gold we’re looking for comes in the form of technology. Some aliens’ cerebral cortexes are quite the puzzle. Hard to extract data. Hard to keep sedated, too. I suspect this has something to do with the way they metabolize our drugs.”

“The aliens know you’re after them. They’re furious that you’ve broken the agreement. You’re supposed to let them live here in peace.”

The triumphant little grin Blake gives makes me nauseous. “Well, once my team gets the formula right—and they will—your alien friends won’t know what’s being done to them here in the noble name of science.”

“Th-they’re sending reinforcements,” I say, hating the tremble in my words.

“Oh my! How exciting for Parallax.” He rubs his hands. “Tell me, since you appear to be their envoy now, would they care to leave a ship at Parallax for us to study? It’s all very useful to be able to delve into the brains of an extraterrestrial. But to have a fully functioning ship? Tremendous.”

The door behind me whooshes open, interrupting Blake’s horrific “musings.” Head down, Jane ghosts to the center of the room. Her hands are clasped so tightly together her knuckles are white. She doesn’t dare look at me.

“Ah, Jane. Are the Subjects prepped for surgery?”

I whip around to face him. “Haven’t you dug up enough data for a while? Jake’s been getting serious nosebleeds. He’s been through too much already. We all have. Just let us go for one day.”

“Yes, those nosebleeds are concerning. A side effect of certain surgical interventions, I’m afraid. Our interventions aren’t normally this frequent. But we had to seize on opportunities when they presented themselves.” He gives me a look that I suppose is meant to be that of a kindly grandfather. Instead, it makes me feel like I’m facing off with a serial killer. Maybe I am. “Still, trust me, it’s safe to conduct tests.”

“You want me to trust you? That’s not gonna happen.”

He smiles. “I could make it happen.”

I’m reluctant to say Over my dead body aloud. “Who’s the surgeon? You?”

“I’m a man of many talents, but I leave all surgeries to Jane, since the, uh, departure of Dr. Davis.”

Wide-eyed, I look at Jane. She remains mute, gaze fixed on the floor. “When did she gain her medical degree? How?”

Blake says without batting an eyelid, “Don’t worry. Your friends and family are in good hands. Like I told you, Jane trained under Davis. She knows exactly what’s required of her. Isn’t that right, Jane?”

“Yes, Director,” Jane replies immediately, robotically.

Heart pounding, I peer down at the others in the white room. I need to stop this. I don’t know how, but I have to try.

“Why don’t you take Cassidy downstairs and get her prepped,” he suggests.

I throw a panicked look at Jane. She stares at the floor and says, “Yes, Director.”

He smiles and moves to his bank of monitors. “Thanks for stopping by, Cassidy. I trust you won’t remember our meeting.”

Jane steps away and opens the door. Trying to look as meek as possible, I start to follow, then quietly snatch the fire extinguisher. Jane’s jaw drops. With my eyes, I beg her to stay quiet.

Easing the pin from the extinguisher, I call out, “Senator Blake?”

“Director.” He looks up.

Without another word, I aim the hose directly at his face. I soak the floor and a bunch of consoles and equipment for good measure. He slips in the mass of white foam, cracking his head on a desk on the way down. I force myself to wait a few seconds to see if he gets up.

He doesn’t.

Throwing the extinguisher down, I run out, taking Jane with me.