A Father's Duty Part 5
Part five
Jeff angrily paced the tiny length of his cell. His wife and daughter were missing. It was beginning to sink in. too much time had passed. They weren’t off on some holiday, or mother/daughter outing. They were gone. The two most important people in his life. The apple of his eye and his whole reason for living were nowhere to be found and he was stuck here, helpless to do a thing to help them.
He couldn’t believe he’d actually been arrested for trying to enter a public residence. That was insane. What was happening to this town, and what did it have to do with Nancy and Liz?
He had no answers to those questions, nor the dozen others that were plaguing him.
Hearing the heavy door at the entrance of the holding area swing open, Jeff shot to his feet. “Hello! Hello? I need to speak with the Sheriff.”
“Now, hold on there, Jeff,” Sheriff Hanson approached to his everlasting relief. “I was just coming to see you.”
“Any sign of them?” Jeff demanded.
Removing his hat, the sheriff scratched at his head, “No. Not yet, but don’t go getting all upset now, because I’m sure…”
Jeff reached through the bars and grabbing a fistful of Hanson’s shirt, pulled him flush with the unyielding metal. “Don’t get upset!? My wife and daughter are missing. Missing! And I’m in jail for trying my damnedest to find them.”
Pulling himself free, Hanson refuted calmly, “No, you’re in jail for hindering a Federal investigation. They warned you not to interfere, yet you pushed them anyway. What were you thinking, Jeff?”
“I was thinking of getting some answers. Maybe some clue. I just… I,” Jeff could barely continue, the stress of the last 24 hours getting to him. “I… It’s my *wife*! Can’t you understand that? I need to find her! I need to know where she is. And Liz… She’s barely more than a baby! They’re in trouble, I know it. Please,” Jeff was not above begging. “Please, let met out of here. Help me find them. Please, I’ll do anything, but you can’t leave me in here. I’m telling you I’ll GO INSANE IF I HAVE TO STAY HERE!!!”
“Mr. Parker, you need to calm down, now. You’re going to make yourself sick.” Hanson appeared to have no idea of how to deal with the distraught man he’d known most of his life. “I’ll see what I can do, but I’m not making any promises. Those FBI guys are a real strict unit, and you did try after all to enter a building after you’d been warned not to, but I’ll try talking with them. For now, best you can do is sit tight and let me handle things.”
Having no other option, Jeff nodded, and moved wearily away.
“At least, I can tell you that I saw the list of people they’ve detained and Nancy is not being held here for questioning.”
Jeff hadn’t really expected she was, not after all this time. They’d kept him locked up for 16 hours from the time they’d picked him up at graduation to when they let him go. It was now 28 hours since anyone had seen his wife and he could think of no logical reason why they would have held her that long. Where ever she was, whatever she was doing, it had to be unrelated to the FBI’s presence here, which left him back at square one without a single clue of where to start looking for her.
“What about Kyle?” he rasped out over the lump in his throat.
“I couldn’t find him,” Hanson admitted.
So Kyle was gone, too. “The Evanses?”
“Philip and Diane were held overnight, just like you. They were released only a couple of hours ago. They’d hadn’t seen their kids since they were brought in.”
“So they’re all gone,” Jeff whispered. All the kids in Liz’s clique were missing, which told Jeff one thing: Road trip. Despite her promises to never just take off again like she’d done the day they’d gotten a notion to head for Las Vegas, Liz had allowed her friends to talk her into running off again and worrying him to death. When she got home, he promised himself, he was going to blister her backside, then he was going to forbid her to ever see Max Evans ever again. Or any of her friends, for that matter.
“Did your people find out anything at the CrashDown about the break in?”
“Nothing really concrete yet, which just tells us that whoever did it was a pro. We haven’t found a single fingerprint or fiber yet that isn’t accountable for, but we’ll keep looking. There’s a lot of stuff to analyze at the lab and that could take a few days. We aren’t even sure yet why Liz’s room was targeted, unless it was someone who knew her out for revenge or something.”
“But you just said it was done by a professional,” Jeff questioned.
“Yeah, like I said, no real evidence yet to say one way or the other.” Donning his hat, Hanson took a step away. “Look, Jeff, we’re going to keep looking. Maybe after they’re done here, we can get a couple of these FBI guys to help us.”
Snorting, Jeff scoffed, “Yeah, like the FBI would concern themselves with helping me find my wife and daughter.”
Smiling back, Hanson agreed, “Yeah, you’re probably right. I mean we’re just small fish here, and I’ll tell you what, whatever it is they’re doing here, it’s big fish stuff.”
“What are they looking for?”
“Hell if I know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone on their Ten Most Wanted list was here for the way they are acting.”
“Jesus,” Jeff swore softly think about the possibilities. “What if there’s a serial killer on the loose? What if he got to Nancy?!”
“Jeff, now worrying like that isn’t going to do you any good.” The distraught husband glared at the other man for his useless attitude causing him to say, “Ok, I’m going, but I’ll be back as soon as I find out anything. I’ll also send a deputy in with the Missing Persons paperwork to be filled out.”
Brokenly, Jeff said the only thing he could think of which would neither set him off crying like a baby nor shouting at the man who was, after all just trying to help. “Thanks, Sheriff.”
“Just doing my job, Jeff.”
*~*~*~*~*
“Agent Deirks.”
“Yes, sir General Hopkins?”
“What is the status on the mole hunt? Are your men secure?”
“Yes, sir. However the targets found out about the attack, it wasn’t from my men.”
Hurmph. “If your men were the only ones who knew the plan, and none of them tipped the suspects off, then how the hell did they know we were coming?”
“Commander Chen has an idea about that sir, after studying the evidence.”
“Well, don’t just stand there, what is it?”
“This, sir.”
“What the hell is that?”
“It’s a book, sir…”
“I can see it’s a book! What the hell does it mean?”
“We found it in Subject 2A’s room. See the author? Bryce McCain. He was the guest speaker at the kid’s graduation.”
“What of it? So the kid reads.”
“Sir, all three snipers have reported that the targets became extremely agitated as soon as his name was called. Rover said his target was actively looking around and nearly saw him camouflaged in the shadows. Shortly after was when 1A made his move to provide cover while the others escaped.”
“Agent, I’m not normally this dense but are you saying that somehow merely seeing the author of a book they owned in some way alerted all the targets to our highly covert plan to wipe them out?”
“It would seem so, sir. Remember that were not dealing with normal people, here. Who knows what these things are capable of?”
Sitting on the cot in his cell, Jeff listened avidly to the cryptic conversation taking place directly outside his window. It was apparent that the speakers, Deirks and Hopkins thought they were completely alone, unaware that he sat a mere four feet or so away.
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, wasn’t sure he even comprehended it. Something about snipers and the graduation. He recognized the name Bryce McCain as the man Max had removed from the podium so he could make his unannounced speech. Snipers. These men were saying that there were snipers in the auditorium, positioned to take out some sort of threat. Again he replayed that voice in his head, “I’ve lost target! I’ve lost target!” the instant the lights came up in the house. One of the snipers?
A chill went down his spine. Who was the target, he wondered. Who had very nearly had his life snuffed out right there in front of hundreds of kids and their parents. What kind of sicko staged a military sting in a place where there would be so many civilians around? Anything could have gone wrong. God, all of them had been in danger! he thought, considering the possibility that whoever they were hunting would have returned fire. Any of the kids on the stage or down below could have been caught in the crossfire. Liz could have been hit!
Not to mention, the psychological damage of seeing someone just assassinated right in front of them! There were small kids in the audience! What kind of monsters were these guys? They were the government in action? Shouldn’t they be protecting the innocents, not putting them in more danger?
Jeff got to his feet to see if he could see either man, but the window was too high and he didn’t want to risk the noise of dragging the bed closer. So instead he just listened, trying to understand through the code just what exactly the military was doing in Roswell.
“So your people are thinking they possess some kind of forewarning system, like ESP.”
“Don’t yours?”
“We haven’t ruled out the possibility,” General Hopkins was playing his cards close to his vest. “What do your people suggest we do, then if any attempt to capture them will be preempted before it even begins?”
“Oh, we’re not planning to chase them, General.” Agent Deirks sounded a little too smug at having beaten the general to the perfect solution. “We’re going to use their abilities against them to lure them right to us. Even as we speak the means to that end is being transferred to a secured location. Don’t worry, General. The threat will be eliminated soon. Very soon.”
“I hope so. I hope you’re not setting yourselves up for another repeat of Rogers’, you smug bastard.”
Rather than taking offense, Deirks just chuckled callously.
“Did you get any information out of the Evanses?”
“No, not much. We knew more than they did.”
“How is that possible? They lived with those monsters for thirteen years.”
“Apparently they never questioned the likelihood of three kids just wandering around the desert with no clothes, no parents, no human traits. They never knew what the subjects were until a week or so ago. Right around the time Rogers went sky high, as a matter of fact.”
“What about the tape.”
“Funny thing about that. When I showed it to Mrs. Evans, she became absolutely hysterical. We had to end the interrogation and sedate her.”
“And Mr. Evans?”
“Ahh, Mr. Evans. Typical lawyer. He tried to play it off as a surprise, but eventually he told us they had taped it without the Subject’s knowledge or consent.”
“Do you believe that?”
“Considering he was both drugged and under hypnosis at the time? Yes. He had no idea of their true origins prior to that.”
Jeff felt sick to his stomach at what he was listening to. He couldn’t understand what they were saying about Phil and Diane. He had no idea what tape they were talking about. What he did understand was that these kind of interrogation tactics were unethical and extreme and that they’d been used on good friends of his made his fists clench with rage. These two men were taking their powers of authority to the extreme, and what were they saying about Max and Isabel? Monsters? What did they have against two orphans who had been adopted by some of the nicest people he knew?
The comment about their strange origins crossed his mind.
Everyone in Roswell knew the story about the Evans kids. It wasn’t like it was any big secret. About where and how they had been found, and while most people had found it strange, no one had really questioned it, but Hopkins and Deirks were making it sound sinister. As if they posed some sort of a threat. How ridiculous was that? he tried to downplay it, but that didn’t still his belly from clenching painfully in reflex.
Oblivious to his growing horror, the conversation flowed onward.
General Hopkins asked, “Did he say if there were others? More of their kind?”
“No, just four. He said there had been another, but she’d died recently. He didn’t know any details.”
“She? Could she be the one who stormed the base?”
“Most probably. It doesn’t matter now, if she truly is dead. We just need to concentrate on tracking down the four.”
“Any luck in tracking Down that Guerin character?”
“None, Hank Guerin simply ceased to exist shortly after Michael Guerin filed for independence on the grounds his foster father had been abusing him. No one has seen or heard from him since. It’s a dead end.”
“You mean that in the liberal sense?”
“Considering what we’re dealing with? I’m sure I do.”
“All right then, what about Mr. Parker. Did he know anything of use?”
Jeff’s eyes widened at the mention of his name. He certainly wasn’t involved in anything having to do with the Evans kids. Other than they occasionally liked to hang out with Liz…
Liz!
Somehow Liz was mixed up in whatever trouble Max had gotten himself into this time, and apparently, once again he’d pulled her down with him. They’d mentioned the base. Had Max been in any way responsible for the attack last week on one of the nation’s strongholds? Hundreds of men and women had died out there, Jeff knew. If Max had had something to do with that kind of mass destruction, Jeff hoped the government gave him exactly what he deserved.
Just, please keep Liz out of it, he prayed, silently.
“No. He was even more clueless than the Evanses,” Agent Deirks sounded disgusted at the lack of progress from that end.
“You’re sure? He wasn’t just bluffing to protect his daughter?”
“No one can resist the combination of the drugs plus hypnosis. It would have been impossible for him to lie. And the best thing about our method is they all cooperate fully with the tests and after we’re done, they forget any of it ever happened. You gotta love head doctors. Jeff just thinks he took a short nap before the ‘real’ questioning began.”
Nearly uncontrollable fury poured through him at what he was hearing flashing through his blood to the extent that he almost missed the next question. Fighting back his anger, he resolved to stand there biting his tongue until he’d heard everything he could, then he was going to… He could think of no retaliation good enough to payback for the violations of his rights and privacies these people had perpetrated on him. When he got out of here, though, he was going to come up with something. Not now, though, now, he had to listen …and learn.
“What about the tests? Have we heard from the lab yet?”
“They came back negative, just like everyone else’s.”
“Everyone’s?”
“Yeah. Even hers, which creates an even bigger mystery. There are birth records, doctor’s records, school records. Subject 2A’s history is well documented, yet eyewitness reports claim that she is one of them. We know there are four, if she’s not the fourth, then who is?”
The General moved a little closer to the window before asking, “What’s the story with the shooting from three years ago?”
“We’ll know soon enough. One of my men just picked up a civilian named Larry Trilling who was supposedly an eyewitness to the whole thing. Our interrogator will have the story from him soon enough.”
“What about the police records? Surely there was an investigation?”
“Funny thing that,” Deirks said, though he didn’t sound like he was laughing. “My former boss, Agent Pierce ordered Agent Stevens to remove any and all related files from the RoswellSheriff’s office, which we did. I was an agent assigned here at the time. Those files, while were full of documented evidence not to mention a healthy dose of conjecture and heresay just up and disappeared not long after the incident at Eagle Rock where the former Sheriff shot Agent Pierce in the process of abetting the escape of Subject 1A. After the shooting, Pierce was never the same. He destroyed all those files and helped to bring about the disbandment of the Special Unit.”
“What are you implying, Agent?”
“Well, we’d never say so to his face, but there was quite a lot of talk behind his back about the possibility that he’d been body snatched, or something. And I’ll tell you something else, General. The more we look into it, the more we’re thinking that’s what happened in the Parkers’ case.”
“Are you serious?”
“Absolutely. We have documented proof that they can change their forms. What’s to say that Liz Parker didn’t die in that shooting and they replaced her with one of their own?”
“Well, I guess we’ll never know,” the General sounded in no way put out by the prospect.
Agent Deirks, on the other hand wasn’t giving up so easily. “No, not unless we catch them.”
“Catch them? No! Absolutely not! I want them eliminated! Eradicated, the very first opportunity.”
“No can do, General. In this case, my orders come from higher up than even you. If we can catch one of these creatures, we can contain it and study it. Figure out how they work, how they got here and if more are coming. And more importantly how to detect them when they’re walking among us? How else are we to protect ourselves from the threat of others?”
There was movement outside, making a bush rustle, before Agent Deirks continued. “You want to know what scares me, General? Max Evans scares me. We’ve already had him once, and you know what we discovered in the 24 hours we had to study him? He is nearly completely human. Do you know what that means? In the last 50 years they’ve been assimilating themselves into our society until they are nearly undetectable. Just like Liz Parker. Born of a human mother, what is she, really? And how many more of them like her are there out there preying on unsuspecting humans? Breeding with them? Did Nancy Parker even know what she was sleeping with when she conceived her daughter? I’m betting not. But I can tell you one thing with a certainty, that poor sap Jeffery Parker never even suspected that his darling daughter isn’t his, but rather the devil spawn of a killer. And that’s what gives me nightmares when I fall asleep at night.”
Before Jeff could even process exactly what the FBI agent was saying, there was a hurried sound of footsteps approaching. “Agent Deirks! You’re needed back at the command post. We got one of them!”
As all three men ran off, Jeff strained to hear, “Which one? Did we take it alive?”
“No sir. There was a struggle and one of our agents had to use his weapon. Sir, he took out three of our men when he went.”
“What happened,” the General barked.
Jeff had to struggle to hear the answer, “We don’t know sir. When he died, he just… Exploded!”
“Jesus Christ!”
*~*~*~*~*
Shaking, Jeff sat on his cot. Assimilating everything he’d heard. The US government was hunting his daughter and three of her friends under the pretense that they were some sort of threat to national security. Something about them being… not human. He didn’t know what they meant by that, and he didn’t care. All he cared about was the fact that Liz was in danger, terrible danger, and the FBI was closing in.
If they found her, they would most likely lock her up, if they didn’t kill her, that is.
Someone was dead. Maybe Max, maybe some other member of the mysterious ‘four’ - either Kyle or Michael, if the missing group of teens was anything to go by. And Jeff couldn’t bring himself to feel sorry for their death, whoever it was. No. Not right now. Of all the emotions he was feeling: rage, hatred, fear and grief, sorrow had no place in his heart.
Jeff wasn’t that big of a hypocrite. How could he pretend to grieve over the passing of a kid - even one that he’d known all his life - if that death meant that his little girl had a little more time yet to live.
Run, Liz, run! he thought in his head, when less than a half an hour ago he’d been praying for her return. She was a smart girl, but how long could she evade the FBI? Especially if she was traveling with Isabel and Maria, the two most likely people to cause a stir in any town they traveled. He prayed to God they’d split up, gone their separate ways, yet knowing Liz, he doubted they had. They would stick together and face what was coming. Her sense of loyalty and family would have it no other way.
Jeff didn’t have all the answers yet, but he was rapidly putting together the facts. There was something different about the Evans siblings, something the elder Evanses had known about. Isabel’s whispered comment, “I’m so glad you know the truth,” came to him, causing him mouth to tighten into a firm line of anger. Whatever the truth was, that something was most likely going to get his daughter killed.
As soon as he got out of here, he vowed, he was going to get some answers, and thanks to Deirks and Hopkins, he knew right where to look, and unlike the FBI, he wouldn’t need drugs to get the information he sought. If Philip didn’t come clean with him, Jeff would happily introduce him to his right fist. If that didn't work... Well, he’d do whatever it took to protect his child.