One of Them (Vigil #2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

him at the park—multiple eyewitnesses. The proof was indisputable. Jessup was there, and then he wasn’t. We initiated an intensive search of the surrounding area when we received the call about what had happened to you. Our officers in the townhouse had finally emerged and scared Jessup off you. He got away, but they were able to get to you. Poor Beth was already dead, but the helicopter we had on stand-by set down on the frontage road and we were able to get you back here within the hour. The doctors we had on call knew next to nothing about your condition, but the Feds flew in some experts of their own—serious experts. They were way more up to date on this malady than we were. I was taken aback by that. Our supposed benefactors had not been straight with us.” He motioned up at the ceiling. “And this building they set up for us. I wasn’t even aware of this part of the place existing. I am supposedly in charge and I didn’t know what had been built down here. I was so angry when I found out. I was angry that it had come to this and Beth was killed and someone like you with all the potential in the world has had your life taken away from you. It eats at me, Grace. This should not have happened. I apologize for letting it happen. It is all on me. I accept full responsibility.”
    I stood motionless, uncertain, considering the truth in what had just been said. “This is what bothers me,” I told him. “Why didn’t you tell me all of this in the beginning? If you wanted my cooperation, all the subterfuge kind of eliminated that. Now, I cannot believe a word that you say.”
    “Can you believe action reports? Can you believe videotape from the park, with clear images of us searching for Jessup?”
    “All of that can be altered or faked after the fact. It will not change my perception of the events. I was left alone. I was fucked with. I was broken to pieces, and I was turned into this.” My arms flared out and the orange covering swished and swayed.
    “We can help you with what that,” he said. “We can ease the transition. All the experts from DC say so.”
    “Maybe, but help is the last thing on their minds. This is a laboratory, isn’t it? I am not stupid. I am going to be studied and then used in whatever manner the government chooses. If you really want to make things up to me, you will get me out of their clutches.”
    The mere suggestion of my release was making him wince. “Sorry, but that’s impossible. The system has taken hold. You understand how these things work.”
    I did. I grew up under the thumb of that machinery.
    “Look,” I said, “I get that you are not the one who’s really in charge here, and never have been. You are, however, a face I know and that makes you a presentable candidate to come out here and make me see the situation the way my jailers want me to. But it will not work. You’ve told me a credible story, but you have also told me many other stories. The truth has become all mixed up, and that means I can only trust myself.” I turned my back on him. “It’s time for you to go away and tell your overlords that this gambit has failed, too. What happened or didn’t happen doesn’t matter any longer. I am being kept in a cell and you will get no cooperation while my imprisonment is ongoing. So, just go ahead and pump in whatever lethal gas you have waiting and be done with it. I am no one’s prize—and I am no one’s slave. I want my freedom or I want death. Why don’t you tell your bosses that.”
    “There is no purpose in being extreme, Grace.”
    “Maybe not, but I’ll do what’s necessary if it comes to it.”
    I listened as Castellano stood and folded up his chair. “You will be brought dinner, human dinner, in about an hour. You need to eat that as well as the blood, at least every so often. Water will be supplied as well. Both will be delivered through the bars. Please stand back when the attendants pass items on to you. They’ve been ordered to