Adventures of Matt Parkman, Chapter 21: Not just an assignment
Minutes passed, perhaps a quarter of an hour. Patty got up and scurried out of the room, thinking she needed to try again to curry favor with the top dog. Maury brushed her off yet again and directed her to eat. He called out, verbally, "Matt? If you want breakfast, please come get it. I'm going to throw it out if you don't."
The younger man considered telling him to go screw himself again, but oddly he flashed to his memory of waiting for Ryan get himself a donut when he was hungry. His shoulders slumped. His father was picking his words carefully, not telling him he had to eat, just telling him it was there if he wanted it. If he was any smarter than Ryan, any better than him, then he'd get up and go help himself to food.
He got up and grabbed a shirt with a wince and walked out, putting it on. His father stood and spooned the last of the scrambled eggs onto his plate, then added the last of the bacon. He looked at his son, meeting his eyes for a long moment. Matt looked away. There was nothing he could think to do against him. He was enslaved as thoroughly as anyone Matt had ever worked over. He pulled out the chair and sat down. He fiddled with his fork, then ate. The food had grown cold, but it was still fairly good.
Maury took away the serving dish and his own plate, rinsing them and stacking them next to the sink. He came out and picked up the folder he'd taken notes in the night before. He looked across the table at Patricia and said, "Patricia - do you want to make me happy?"
She smiled hesitantly, then more broadly, thinking she was going to get the chance she wanted. "Yes, of course."
"Good. Wash the dishes when everyone's done, then clean the place up. Matt and I have some business to see to today." His tone changed slightly. "You are to spend the day here and not call anyone, don't communicate with anyone in any way until I tell you to. Do you understand that?"
With the way she blinked, jerked her head to the side, then bobbed and nodded agreeably, Matt could tell his father was ordering her, at least with the last part of what he'd said. Matt frowned and finished his food, not bothering to object even though he wanted to. He couldn't see what he'd object to anyway. It was only common sense.
Patty had figured out from the night before that Maury was intent on dismantling their criminal organization, taking out all the carefully structured links between people that culminated in everyone doing what she and Matt told them to do. She wasn't stupid and she was wildly power-hungry. His father had correctly deduced that she wouldn't sit idly by while they ruined her.
She looked between the two men, frustrated but desperate. "Could I help you, somehow? Can I go with you?" Both of them knew she was talking about when they departed for good, not simply today's expedition. Maury sucked at his teeth and stuck his hand out for her plate, as she'd just finished. She handed it over but didn't let go. "Answer me, please?" She looked at Matt and said, "He needs me."
Maury tugged the plate away from her with a jerk and snorted. "That's the last thing he needs. You take care of the house. I'll see what I can do for you." He said the last grudgingly, but he said it.
She watched his back warily as he walked into the kitchen and rinsed it. After thinking it over for a little while, he added, "You'll be fine when we leave here, as long as you don't get in my way. I don't have a lot of patience for that sort of thing. Never have."
He stacked the plate and walked back out. "Speaking of which, if you interfere with my son too much, I'll count that as getting in my way. Making him miserable is my job, not yours. Your job is to make him happy." He glanced at Matt, then back to her, "Though that might not be possible at the moment."
Patty was silent as Matt finished his meal and carried the plate in on his own to clean it, ignoring his father's outstretched hand. He got his shoes and socks on. They left.
After they got in the car, Matt said, "I would have thought you'd of said something to me by now about hitting her."
Maury shrugged. "What woman doesn't deserve to be knocked around a little? It's when you get carried away that's a problem. People get all excited about domestic violence these days like folks will shatter and break if you hit them once or twice. That's stupid. Same goes for kids. Every kid needs a good beating now and then so they remember who's the parent and who's the child."
Matt blinked at his father and tried very hard, but unsuccessfully, to keep his disapproval to himself about the blatant misogyny and endorsement of child abuse.
Maury laughed at him. "Yeah, you think that now. Friend of mine used to say the only excuse for child abuse is children." He grinned at Matt. "I always thought that one was particularly funny."
Matt exhaled tightly, tense. "Yeah, because you were such a wonderful role model, such a great father. Your son just adores you, you know?" he finished sarcastically, bringing his hate together.
"Clearly he does, since he grew up to be just like me," the older man said quietly.
Matt's righteous fury deflated like a balloon with a pin stuck in it. Matt heaved in deep breaths, looking out the window as they drove. "That's low. That's low, Pop."
"But true. Sadly true. You wouldn't have been hitting her if you didn't agree, now would you? You wouldn't have left your kid if you didn't think it was a good idea, for the best. Reasons not too far different from my own, in fact. You'll do better with your own kind, some people who can beat some fear and respect into you if you get over the line. Everyone does.
"They won't admit it in this current pansy-fied society we got going, but I know what's in people's heads and so do you. They're vicious, mean and nasty, every one of them. Even the good ones are only that way to thwart their own baser natures. I've met some good people, took a look at them, out of curiosity, you see. They're just as bad inside, just more scared of it than most folks. Doesn't mean they're not nicer to be around than the other lot, but it doesn't mean they're pure either."
He fell silent, shaking his head. His son had stopped listening to him anyway and Maury let himself be ignored. Matt looked out the window and watched the scenery flow by as they headed to the marina. Jay wasn't making a pickup today, but he would be coming back from a dawn fishing tour fairly soon, then he'd fuel up, clean the ship, grab lunch, round up some more customers and head back out for the early afternoon. If the crowds were really big, then he might make a sunset tour too, but those usually only happened on weekends. Today was Tuesday.
It occurred to Matt his father had started at the beginning of the workweek. Dully he asked, "Am I just an assignment to you?"
"You're an assignment, but you're not just an assignment."
Matt frowned at him a couple times, then went back to looking out the window as he sat forward and slightly hunched in the chair. His back still hurt. "Why does the Company want me?"
His father was silent for a while, thinking about the vision Angela had revealed to him that either he or Matt would die within a year. Hopefully there was something in Matt's paintings that would shed light on which of them would go. He had no intention of ever telling his son the real reason he wanted him - which was to save his own hide. There was also a chance he wanted to use this last opportunity to reunite with him and share some sort of familial ties, achieve some kind of understanding in these last days, regardless of which of them went. Maury wasn't sure if he really felt that way, or just wanted to. It seemed a little sissy either way, and that made him uncomfortable.
Finally he said brusquely, "The Company can always use more telepaths, just like we can always use more precogs and bookies, more influencers and controllers. What we don't need are energy projectors and that sort of crap. Useless lot of powers. Annoying as hell."
"I thought the Company had been dismantled."
"Yeah. You thought I was dead, too."
Matt looked back at him. "Yeah. How did that work, anyway? Did you make everyone there think Arthur had killed you? That had to take some pretty fast thinking."
"Hrm, no. I made Daphne think everyone was there and played her through the whole scene, including my 'death'. Arthur told me what he wanted her to know, just like all the other stuff I put in her head. If Arthur was going to kill me, he wouldn't do it that way."
"Why did he want me to think you were dead, that he'd had you killed?"
"I don't understand all of Arthur's plans. The ones I do understand, I don't like much. Here - there's a parking spot right there!" Matt didn't notice Maury spoke about Arthur in the present tense. They'd arrived at the marina and parked near the same donut shop that Ryan and Matt had eaten at. The morning crowd had thinned out and Maury pulled into a good spot close to the piers. The boat, ship, whatever, would pull up to it soon, if Jay was on his usual schedule.
They walked down the boardwalk towards the end of the pier. Matt glanced around at the screeching of gulls and children, the sunlight bouncing off the water, the brisk breeze blowing in from the ocean. It was July with all that brought. He said, "This is a terrible place to use your ability, Dad."
"I know. But I don't have to. You've already used yours. You make him go in the cabin and then we'll shut the door and sort him out together. You do it - I'll ride along and make sure you're thorough."
"Me? Why me? You're the one who wants to change everything."
Maury reached over and put a hand on Matt's shoulder. Matt jumped at the flash of mental intensity that came with it. Maury's features twitched and he jerked his hand back like he'd been shocked. "You're the one who did it, Matt," he said in a low voice, going on like the feedback wasn't as surprising to Maury as it was to his son. "You don't get to walk away from this one. You're going to clean up your mess one piece at a time."
Matt grunted. "What about at the end, after everything's gone and he's on his own?"
Maury smiled at him. "Well then, that's when you'll see how he really feels about you, won't you? He won't be able to make sense of why he did what you told him to do, but he'll know it wasn't what he would have normally done. These are the people you thought of as your family, Matt. What possible fear would you have of them?" He gave him a predatory grin, all teeth.
He smirked at his son and leaned in close. Matt leaned away but Maury grabbed his arm and pulled him closer. This time there wasn't any feedback. "I want you to listen to every one of them, every person you turned and changed and convinced yourself they actually liked you once they got to know you. You were living in a fantasy world, Matthew, and if there's one thing I can't abide, it's lying to yourself. You listen to me, because this is an order: I want you to listen to their thoughts after we take out the commands. See how they feel about you when they aren't compelled to love you, to like you."
Matt jerked away from him as soon as it seemed he was done. "What good would that do anyone, Pop?" he said coldly.
"I don't know, but I hope it will make you think twice about making the same mistakes after I'm gone. I might not always be here to pull your fat out of the fire and make you walk what passes as the straight and narrow path among our kind." He chuckled darkly. "Besides, I've always, always loved to see someone get their comeuppance. Don't deny an old man his little pleasures, Matthew." He smirked at him again and smiled with a bit of sadistic glee.