Post by Hellokitty on Aug 19, 2006 9:13:48 GMT -5
Falling Book Two: Finding Marlena Chapter 14
“No way pal,” John exclaimed when Shane told him that his orders were to fly him and Marlena back to ISA headquarters where Marlena would be interrogated.
“I’m afraid that you don’t have a choice John,” Shane tried to explain, mad at himself for having to be such a prat to John. Marlena stood stoically on the boat deck observing the conversation unfold in front on her. She could tell that John was upset, just not what was being said other than his earlier outburst when he grabbed Shane by the collar.
“You’re just going to hand her over to those bastards aren’t you Shane?…Aren’t you?” John felt his blood pressure rising once again and was trying his best not to give into his impulse and slug Shane.
“Look mate, I wish there was another way, but there’s not. This order is coming from the top….my reaction was the same as yours, believe me, but I have been assured that ISA will not hand Marlena over to the Americans, they just need to talk to her and understand what happened.”
“You know damn well what happened. You showed me all those pictures, pictures that no other fucking agency was supposed to have.” Some pictures that were staged and never happened, John wanted to add but what was the point. Shane obviously had access to and had seen many more photos than what he shared with him and Roman the day Marlena mysteriously was rescued from the mental lockup at Salem University Hospital.
“I know John, but I’ve only seen a small portion of Marlena’s file….there are some items in there that only those with the highest level of clearance have access to. I was only given a small portion of the what the file contained, what I needed to know at the time.”
“You’re starting to scare me Shane…What else could there be?” The more John thought about it, the more of a puzzle Marlena truly was. They didn’t just want to question her about the murders, because they obvious had access to have for years after the murders and had to have gathered whatever they needed from her then. There was another reason, perhaps a far sinister one.
“I honestly have no idea, but the chief is adamant that Marlena be brought in.” Shane was trying his best to play the nonchalant concerned friend.
“But why? What you are telling me doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Having no choice, Shane decided to give up one of his playing cards thinking that it was well worth the risk. “My guess, and this is only my guess, is that ISA thinks that she has something on your President and they want to know what it is before he finds her.”
**********************
“Against my better judgement we agreed to come back with you to headquarters. If our demands aren’t met, we’re going to out of there before they are even aware that we arrived and I am not joking with you about this either. If ISA in anyway tries to fuck with us, we’re history and you can tell the chief I said that,” John said in a threatening yet adamant tone as he looked over at Shane.
“Understood, “ Shane said nodding his head slightly as he steered the small four-seat helicopter towards the Italian coast. A million thoughts were running through his head, the least of which was John Black and what he was going to do to him if he ever found out what he had done. Cursing himself for dancing with the devil in the pale moon light he had no choice but to sit back and let history unfold as it was meant to, history that began almost sixty years before in the damp basement of a house in Amsterdam.
“I still don’t understand why they wouldn’t let you question her. I trust you. I don’t trust them.” John really didn’t trust Shane Donovan. All of Marlena’s suspicions about him were always in the forefront of his mind. She was one of the smartest women he’d ever known, with the best intuition. If she was picking up on something, chances were there was something there.
“Not my area of expertise,” Shane said with little emotion. John sat studying him, looking for a weakness, for a reason not to follow him to ISA headquarters. As an ISA agent himself John knew what danger he was putting his own career in should he ignore the order. The ISA had been more than generous and helpful in arranging for and safeguarding them from the American government for months. Was this a legitimate interrogation, a debriefing of sorts or was it more? Were they walking into a trap?
“That shouldn’t matter…All ISA agents are trained to be more than capable interviewers. Hell we make the FBI and CIA look like amateurs,” John retorted knowing that a standard interrogation could easily and effectively be done by any agent. This was more, much more.
“True,” Shane laughed as he quickly glanced behind him at Marlena. Sitting calmly, hands in her lap, she stared out the window as the world passed her by. “But like I said earlier, whatever is in her head they only want the experts to extract.”
“See now, that worries me…she’s told us all that she knows, what else could there be?”
“Would you please stop talking about me like I’m not here?” Marlena finally spoke up. She was growing tired of John treating her like a child and Shane’s deception. John trusted Shane, she didn’t. There was something about him that was off and as hard as she tried to deny it and act like things were okay with them, she couldn’t. She was being set up. Breathing in and out through her nose she tried to ward off a panic attack. John already saw her as weak; she didn’t want to further validate his perception.
“I apologize Marlena,” Shane offered as he nervously picked at a hangnail on his index finger. The small pain he felt then was nothing compared to what he was going to feel if he didn’t follow his orders and bring her in as instructed.
“Sweetheart, I didn’t mean to,” John said as he turned around and looked back at Marlena. He could see her attempt at masking her feelings. As hard as she tried to hide from him, he would always be able to read her like none other.
“Well I’ve been thinking and your plans have changed.”
“What do you mean?” Shane asked, wondering what she had up her sleeve. John was predictable, Marlena wasn’t. From what he’d seen in her files, her high IQ, sharp whit and ‘training’ made her a dangerous and formidable adversary.
“There’s an old NATO listening post near the town of Bad Orb in Germany. Once you refuel in Italy you may place a call to the ‘chief’ and let him know that our plans have changed. If they want to question me, fine, but they’re going to do it on my terms.” Sitting back in her seat, arms crossed over her chest, Marlena Evans Black was the picture of a determined and serious woman. John was stunned, the feisty woman that he loved had returned and with more of an attitude than ever before.
“Marlena, I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Shane tried to interject.
“Why? Because it’s not convenient? Because you didn’t plan it? Because it complicates their plans?” Marlena asked snidely.
“Well no,…”
“Then it shouldn’t matter…they way I see it, I’m the one calling the shots now…If they want to question me, then they’ll have to do it my way.”
“Okay, fine,” Shane said in defeat. This was not an argument that he was going to win. John turned and looked out his window and the dark blue sea below him, hiding the smile on his face.
*****************
“Marlena, my name is Herbert Gunther,” The small bespectacled man said as he held out his hand. “I’m pleased to meet you.”
Taking his hand and shaking it in the expected and customary manner Marlena remained silent, not sure of what she could say and not in the mood to break the ice. So much of the ISA was frightening to her. Although John and Roman were agents for the ISA and had been for most of their lives, the world of ISA was still so foreign and secretive to her.
“Please have a seat.”
Marlena slowly sat down in the institutional chair and crossed her legs. She wanted nothing more than to take a shower but that would have to wait. Along with new pictures of her children and information on Eric, they promised that she could talk to Roman on the phone. She needed to hear about her babies and knew that she wouldn’t be able to talk to Sami or Belle without breaking down on the phone. They needed for her to be strong, for her to be okay.
“What do you want to know?” she asked defensively.
“Dr. Evans, may I call you Marlena?
“That’s fine.”
“This should only take a little while and then you can see John again.”
“What do you want to know?” She asked again, not sure what more could be told that they already didn’t know.
“Everything,” he said as he donned a pair of glasses and flipped the button on the light switch. The room suddenly went dark and a series of red lights started intermittently flashing along one wall of the room. Marlena tried to look away but was drawn to the blinking pattern.
*********************
“What’s taking so long?” John asked Shane as he crushed his empty standard issue paper coffee cup in his hand and threw it against the wall. The minute the helicopter landed several members of the elite ISA security force greeted them and took both him and Marlena to a secure building in the center of the former Army post. How the hell Marlena even knew that this place existed was puzzling to John.
“I’m not sure.”
“Bullshit, they’ve been questioning her for hours…what the hell for?
********************
“Then what happened?” Dr. Gunther asked her as he ran his callused hand down her arm slowly.
“I don’t remember,” she pleaded with him. He’d been asking her questions for what seemed like hours. Her mind was confused, not being able to differentiate between fact and fiction. The longer the questioning went on the worse it was. The man kept calling her Julie but she was Marlena, yet she had Julie’s memories.
“But I think you do Julie. I think you know everything and have known it all along but for some reason are afraid to tell anyone.” Dr. Gunther was concerned that his questioning wasn’t going according to plan. He’d used the standard ISA drug and light hypnosis on her, similar to what had been done when he’d treated her thirty years before ameliorate what was Julie Dimera and create Marlena Evans. Despite his best efforts Marlena Evans had become such a strong part of her personality and was inadvertently putting up blocks to prevent Julie from recalling details of her past that she could easily recall years earlier when her treatment started.
“Honestly I’m telling the truth, “ she said as she grabbed his hand to still his movement. “I don’t know Maxwell Owens.”
“Think back to your childhood Julie. Think back to that. What do you see when you close your eyes?”
“I don’t remember.” She was trying to remember, but all she was seeing in her mind was her in this same room 30 years before, green tourniquet applied to her arm and some man that she called Marvin shoving a hypodermic harshly into the thin layer of her dermis asking her the same set of questions over and over again. “what do you see when you close your eyes?….What’s your given name? Who are your parents? How old are you? Who are your siblings? Where do you live? Who is Rafael Torres? Does the name mean anything to you? When I say the name Rafael Torres, do you feel anything? Is so what? Who is Channing Owens? Does the name mean anything to you? When I say the name Channing Owens, do you feel anything? Is so what? Who is Mason Jones? Does the name mean anything to you? When I say the name Mason Jones, do you feel anything? Is so what? Who is Alexander North? Does the name mean anything to you? When I say the name Alexander North, do you feel anything? Is so what?”
“What did you just remember Julie?” The man asked as he learned over her as she squirmed on the hard vinyl chair. She could smell the stale coffee on his breath mixed with the perspiration of his armpits.
Turning her head away from the smell, meekly she said, “nothing,” not knowing if what she was seeing was real or just fantasies. Somehow she knew the answers to all of those questions. Her name was Julie Dimera and Marlena Evans; her parents were John and Katherine Dimera and Frank and Martha Evans. Her only sibling was Samantha. She knew Rafael Torres, Channing Owens, Mason Jones and Alexander North. She also knew Matthew and Suzanne Dimera…she knew them all, everyone on the list that they tried so hard to make her forget. Every touch, every death, every once of pain and joy she felt. Feeling an incredible sense of loss deep in the pit of her stomach she suddenly grabbed her stomach and bent over in pain.
“What are you remembering Julie?” Dr. Gunther asked, unsure of what was going on in her head that was manifesting itself in physical pain.
“I’m going to be sick….I don’t want to do this….I don’t want to remember,” she begged him to stop.
“Just a little while and it will be over. The sooner you tell me everything that you remember, and everything that you remember about El Diablo, the sooner that we can stop and you can rest. Do you think you can do that?” he asked in an almost patronizing manner.
Shaking her head yes, she said nothing.
“What were you remembering that caused you to grab your stomach earlier?”
Unable to put into words the extreme loss she felt and the overwhelming sense of grief and sadness at the forefront of her mind, she bent over in pain holding onto her stomach and willing herself not to vomit.
“Give me a name? Who are you remembering? Give me a name? Who are you remembering? Give me a name? Who are you remembering?” he fired the questions off in rapid succession not wanting to give her time to put up her defenses.
“Forrest….I remember a boy named Forrest,” Marlena said right before she passed out.
***********************
“Get the chief on the phone,” Dr. Gunther said as he exited the small interrogation room, locking the door behind him. “This is far worse than we thought.” He clipped the key ring onto his belt and then wiped his brow with the sleeve of his shirt.
“What do you mean Dr. Gunther?” The ISA agent assigned to the case asked. He had been assigned to several cases over the past couple years where Dr. Gunther had been the doctor in charge of memory wiping and restoration and this was the first time he’d seen the good doctor so flustered. Something had happened during the interrogation that Dr. Gunther was not pleased with.
“Apparently at some time, despite our best efforts, Julie Dimera and Forrest Alamain met.”
“We know that….they’re married to each other now.”
“No before,” Dr. Gunther said, looking up at ISA Agent Smith waiting for his reaction. “After the Pine Mountain incident, ISA agent Evans took her and Samantha on vacation where the Alamain family was also on holiday. After all our efforts to keep her isolated from the Dimera family she was cavorting with Forrest and Matthew of all people.”
“This is not acceptable.”
“Devastating news alright….Not only was she traveling with Evans, which he was instructed not to do, the operatives assigned to the Dimera and Alamain clans failed to notice the interaction. After I wiped her memory clean and created Marlena, Evans was instructed not to expose her to anything that would trigger her memory returning. He is the only one outside of ISA that knew what those triggers were. He had to have known that if she ever met Forrest Alamain or any of the Dimeras so soon after the incident there would be a great possibility of parts or all of her memories returning.”
“Maybe she’s lying?”
“Trust me, she’s not. She not only passed out when she remembered him, but once I revived her she was able to provide information in excruciating and exact detail, things that the mind cannot make up. Oh your Julie Dimera knew Forrest Alamain all right. Furthermore, whatever was in her head she told Forrest I’m sure.”
“I’ll tell the chief Dr. Gunther. You work on Julie Dimera or Marlena Evans or whatever you want to call her. What do we call her?”
“Marlena…We’ve been instructed by the top brass that Julie Dimera only exists in very controlled settings. I worked for years to program her so that she wouldn’t remember a thing about Julie Dimera or the Dimera family.”
“What’s your next course of action? Is there any way to control the return of her memories so that she only remembers what you want her to?”
“Yes, however in order to extract the information that the chief wants I will need permission to remove the block.”
“Are you sure that’s necessary? The chief provided specific instructions not to do that.”
“I am well aware of that directive, however, it is in my professional opinion that in order for us to acquire the information that is stored in her head she needs to fully remember the past. That will only happen if we undo the block that was placed there 30 years ago.”
“What’s the risk to Dr. Evans and to the mission?’
“I won’t lie to you Agent Smith, there is a high degree of risk. Marlena is still under hypnosis right now. I’ve tried all the conventional psychotherapy techniques but so far have been unable to extract the information. She seems to have compartmentalized her past and stored it deep.”
“Compartmentalized?”
“I rarely see someone with the intelligence that is necessary to be able to do that. Most operatives and civilians I treat are easy cases; the mind will conceal and reveal what I want it to given certain triggers and events. Dr. Evans is different, although the instructions and treatment given to her were the same, due to her unusual disposition and strong sense of self-preservation, although told to do one thing, her mind did another. In only one other case have I ever seen anyone do that.”
“Do it…I’ll tell the chief.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure…I’ll take full responsibility for this one. We are running out of time. She’s not safe here. We need to get the information and get her out of here before the others find out that we have her.”
“Agent Smith, if I do it she’s got to be under guard. If she were to leave the facility with the information part of her long term memory there could be devastating consequences for all of us.”
“How bad could it be?”
“Worse than you could imagine…only in her mind does she know not only know the location of 50 billion dollars in drug money that the ISA and countless others including the Dimera and Torres families have been searching for, but she also has something on President Maxwell Owens that I have not been able to figure out what it is.”
“That’s it? That’s what everyone has been after her for?”
“That’s what the Dimera and Torres family are after her for now and why President Owens wants to chat with her. That’s not why ISA wants her though.”
“What does ISA want with her?” Agent Smith whispered, as he looked up and down the hallway making sure that no one was listening in on the conversation. Internally he was questioning why he wasn’t told this information as he was assigned to the case.
Realizing that he’d said more than he should have and that Agent Smith obviously wasn’t privy to this information Dr. Gunther turned towards the door, not answering Agent Smith’s question.
“Dr. Gunther, you have one hour to do whatever you have to do to her,” Agent Smith said as he turned to walk away. “I’ll call security and make sure that John Black is kept far away from her.” God help them all if this didn’t work.