Lord, Grant Me The Freedom…
Part 19
"You
can't separate peace from freedom because no-one can be at peace unless he had
his freedom."
Malcolm X
14 weeks to
go.
"My
God!" The blue-eyed woman stopped dead in the doorway, her brown hair, now
streaked with gray, hanging over one shoulder, and stared at the man sitting at
the table, his hands on the scratched surface in front of him, wearing baggy orange
prison clothes.
"Have I
really changed that much? I mean, I know it's been a few years..." Jarod
grinned and left the rest of his sentence unfinished as his latest visitor
entered the room, Sam behind her. "I know I've grown up a bit. After all,
thirty years is a long time." He looked critically at her as she sat down
on the other side of the table. "You've hardly changed at all."
She looked at
him longingly as she sat opposite him and placed her hands on his. "I'd
love to put my arms around you again, like I did that last time."
"Save
it," Jarod looked around in disgust, "for when I'm out of this
place."
"I'm not
sure why you feel you even need to stay here."
"To
avoid the publicity that would go with any escape I might make. Neither Steve
nor I can be publicly referred to, at least as long as Raines is alive. What I
can't understand is why you took so long to get here."
"Trying
to avoid the Centre. We tripped a new sensor as we were leaving and we’ve only
been able to avoid them by moving around a lot. I don't know how you've managed
it for so many years."
"It sure
hasn't been easy..."
"I've
been doing my best, Jarod."
Jarod smiled
and gently squeezed her fingers. "I know you have, and I appreciate it. If
it wasn't for you, my life and family would still be the blank slate it was
when I first escaped."
"If only
I could take you away from here..." The woman looked around the room with
the same disgust that Jarod had.
"Save
it," he interjected. "And then you can put your arms around us both
together."
Sam watched
the screen, replaying the bit of footage showing the reaction to the discovery
of his disappearance and that of the other member of their trio. He was soon
joined by the said members and they watched, in silence, the explosive
reactions of those now in charge.
"Funny
that there should only be two of them." Sam grimaced, his eyes traveling
from Lyle to Raines.
"Oh, no
doubt the ex-Chairman is hiding away somewhere and waiting to make his move. If
my partner had turned into that," the black-haired man nodded at the
screen showing Brigitte's subservient actions, " I wouldn't be too keen to
show my face either. But I have no doubt that he's waiting behind the
scenes..."
"With
who?" Sam demanded. "There aren't too many left to conquer that army
of people. Six or seven, at the most, that I can imagine. And against that lot!
It would enough to turn even our beloved Chairman pale."
"But you
know," the woman sat down on the edge of the other bed in the room and
slung one leg over the other, "he was the one who completed all of the
arrangements with the other international organizations. They recognize him as
the major role player in the Centre and might see a threat to him as a threat
to their own securities."
"If
so," the third member spoke up, " then all we have to do is sit back
and watch them destroy themselves. Very handy."
"And
then," the woman looked at him, "the Centre will be more powerful
than ever before, making them almost unable to be beaten. Besides, who would
you rather have win? Raines and his cronies or my former husband and his
accomplices?"
The doctor’s
blue eyes widened in shocked realization. "I begin to see what you
mean."
The man
stared at the screen in front of him and then up at the pale figure in front of
him. A pure albino was, in the man's view, different from himself and therefore
inferior. Mr White was aware of this fact and it made him decidedly
uncomfortable.
"So who
else do we have?"
"I have
a list of possible contacts here for you, sir. However all of the sweepers have
been trained to become and army for Raines and his cohorts and are probably no
use to you at all. Otherwise...well...that's it."
The man
glared at his associate, who would have gone pale but for his inability to do
so. "So I have to content myself with an army of imbeciles? Well, it will
have to do. Call them and see what you can arrange. Organise a meeting for some
time this week."
"Here?"
"Of
course not here, you idiot! Do you want the whole world to know what we're up
to?" The man scuttled out of the room and the remaining occupant turned
the screen around and stared at the figures on it, frozen in time by the push
of his hand. He was now waiting eagerly to be able to do such a thing in real
life.
He thought of
the mysterious disappearances which had occurred within the Centre in recent
times and wondered, briefly, whether there was a third group at work, trying to
undermine all of the great work which had been thus far accomplished. But no,
he shook his head, that was impossible. Such a group would be unable to exist
without someone finding out about it and, with his network of security cameras,
he would know as soon as they did.