Ingrams & Assoc 5: Personality Flaws Ch. 04

Dan nodded at Baker, and April turned her attention back to him, now that she knew Dan's injury was superficial.

Baker stood over her, staring down. She now understood why he'd moved position – the light now fell on his face in way to darken parts of it, and make his eyes even more prominent. The bruising helping the effect, rather than hindering it. The moment her eyes met his, she was lost.

"April," he said, slowly, accenting the deep baritone of his voice. "You are hearing me. Hear me now. Listen April. Listen to my voice."

She couldn't tear her eyes away from him, every limb locked into place. The only thing she could see was his eyes, and the only thing she could hear was his voice. The rest of the world didn't exist, it was just him and her, and she wanted to obey. She needed to obey.

"You can hear me, I can see. Finish this April. End this. Remove the obstacles, and let's move forward together. I know you want that. I want that too. Do it April. End this."

April had a maelstrom of emotion, feelings and thoughts in her mind; it was a complete tsunami of conflicting desire, urge, need and duty.

Instinctively, her weapon moved from covering Baker to aim at Dan, who looked up at her, piteously, April crouched next to him, now pointing the weapon at his head. Obviously Dan was in the way. He needed to go. Marcus – her Marcus – had said it needed to end. This was the obvious way. Then they could be together, as it was meant to be.

"No April. You are stronger than this. Fight this!" Dan urged.

She heard Dan, but curiously didn't comprehend the words. She barely even recognized him. He was just...there.

But she couldn't shoot him. She knew what Baker wanted. And she wanted it too. To do what he wanted, make him happy so he'd make her happy. She yearned to pull the trigger and make him smile at her.

But she couldn't. Something in her wouldn't let her. She looked into Dan's eyes, and suddenly realized he was human too, like Baker. Like...her? She couldn't kill him.

In an instant it changed. "End it," Baker had said. End it. She knew how to end it. She could stop all of this. Remove the threat to everyone. To Dan, to Baker, to the world.

The gun twitched and moved and it was now under her chin, her finger on the trigger. She wasn't even aware of ordering her arm to move it. This would end it all. Removing her from the equation would make the world safe for everyone. Baker would be happy, and she wouldn't have hurt Dan and that made everything all right.

Dan's eye's sought hers, desperate to stop her pulling the trigger and ending her life.

"Nooo..." His anguished shout rang out. "No April. Not that. NO!"

And suddenly the screaming voice in the back of April's head – the one that had always been there, all through the whole conditioning process, desperate to get her attention – broke through.

The voice screamed, and she suddenly realized it was her screaming, out loud. Both hands were on the sides of her head, trying to keep her brain from exploding. The voice was her, her innermost self, screaming in an inhuman howl. It went on and on, and when it was done, April knew exactly how this had to end. How the threat to everyone had to be removed.

Smoothly, moving fast but precisely, the gun moved from her being held against her ear back to cover Baker, pointing at his head, and without hesitation she squeezed the trigger.

The gun roared and bucked in her hand, the .45 bullet being ejected from the barrel at eight hundred and thirty feet per second, traveling a few feet and penetrating a very surprised Marcus Baker's chin with almost no resistance.

The bullet was a jacketed hollow point, meaning the nose of the bullet had been hollowed out. The intention of this design was when the bullet actually hit something, it mushroomed out wider, and did more damage. Often the incoming wound was a neat little hole, where the exit wound would be a large gaping hole. In the case of a .45 caliber bullet, it entered his head just below the lower lip, travelled back and up, because of the angle April was at, crouched down with Baker towering over her. It went through the mouth, piercing the lower skull on the top of the mouth, then traveled through the brain cavity, shredding the cerebellum – responsible for all the involuntary body systems like heart beat, breathing, blinking and so on, while also destroying the back part of the cerebral cortex, effectively taking the entire of the back of Marcus Baker's head out as it exited his skull.

Brains, skull fragments and hair all splashed out in a red explosion, shortly followed by the window. Baker's now brainless body jackknifed and leapt into the air from the force of the impact, smashing against the wall next to the elevators.

Instant silence fell, and then April fired again, the gun bucking again with a roar, and the bullet expending itself harmlessly into the wall. And again, and a fourth time, instinctively repeatedly pulling the trigger over and over, 13 rounds in total, till the magazine was emptied, and the slide locked open.

April just stared, unblinking, down the still pointing barrel of the gun.

"April," said Dan, weakly. He got no reaction.

"APRIL," he tried again, louder. It broke April's introspection and she dropped the gun and turned to him.

"You need to move the other guy. He's blocking the elevator," he said to her, urgently. "Our people, they are trying to get up here..."

As he said so, the side door burst open and two men in black tactical suits, like Dan, exploded in, each looking down the barrel of their weapons, scanning the room for threats.

They took in Dan and April, and one instantly came over to Dan, the other taking up position on bended knee, covering the corridor they had come from.

The newcomer immediately gave Dan some first aid from a small medical kit in his belt, and then got up and moved the body in the elevator. Instantly the doors closed and it started the journey down.

April, by now, was in the advanced stages of shock. The tears had started, she was shaking and shivering and the newcomer spent the time waiting for the elevator to return just holding her, as she shook with body wrenching sobs.

As it turned out, it was early morning – almost five thirty am in fact. April was taken down to a van, sitting outside the loading dock of the building. They were actually located in the Canary Wharf area of London, in the East End. There were two vans, one loaded with communications equipment – April saw a glimpse of George sitting at a small desk with a headset on, his intense look staying with her. She gave him a weak 'thumbs up', as a large body sized blanket was placed around her shoulders, and saw his face breakout into a massive and extremely genuine smile.

But the real surprise was when the second van's doors were opened – and April found herself starting at the worried and concerned faces of both Rachael Hicks and also Jessica Ingrams herself, with Mark Scholtz sitting behind them.

Jessica leapt out of the van and embraced April, hugging her tight.

"Oh, April. I was so worried. We thought we'd lost you." By now, Rachael had also descended from the van and was waiting for her turn to hug April.

"We were so worried. So glad you got out of that hell hole," Rachael said, equally emotionally overwhelmed, as she embraced her tightly.

April just stood, swaying slightly, not saying anything but trying to smile. When Jessica got the idea of how April was barely hanging on, she snapped, "Mark, I want to be at that clinic an hour ago. I don't care what you have to do to make that happen."

"Yes Ma'am," Mark said, in a supplicant fashion. As he was getting out of the van, Jessica added, "In the meantime, get up there and get all the people still stuck in rooms in there out. I want them shuttled out asap. Take them to the clinic also. We'll cover whatever the costs are. I just want them out. Also, get whatever you can copied from their file servers. Do we have anyone on staff who is capable of that?"

Mark grinned at her and said, "Not on staff, but we don't need to. We have a contractor standing by, one Solomon Dresdin. He's back in the States currently, but online and ready as soon as we connect to their server to do all the things hackers do. Get the data, destroy what is there, whatever you want."

Jessica nodded, then thought for a moment, and then said, "Destroy it all. Particularly anything referring to April. I don't want there to be any record of her being there. We can't stop people's memories, but we can kill any record."

"Do you want us to do anything else? I mean, if we just leave and don't report this to the authorities, then they effectively get away with what they are doing. They'll just carry on."

"I don't think we need to. Think about it. They've been hit by someone. They know someone else knows what is going on here. What's the first thing they are going to do? They are going to shut down and hope to god that no one calls the cops. And we can't afford for cops to be involved because I don't want to explain what Ingrams is, and why we were there. Need I remind you, we are able to operate because we are very quiet about it and we have some friends in high places. Drawing attention to us being in places like this," she gestured at the building, "means that quietness goes away and people start asking questions I'd rather not be answering right now. Yes, they might get away with it, but they with any luck, according to what Dan reported, April dealt with the head man anyway. No, my order stands. Get what you can in a few hours and then torch it digitally."

Mark nodded, and ran around to give instructions to the van driver while April was helped in the back.

As she did so, she looked back at the building that had held her, and a shiver went down her spine. She shook it off and then sat down, the doors closed and the van sped off.

Three days later, there was a post mortem at the Ingrams & Associates London offices. In the conference room were Jessica Ingrams, Mark Scholtz, Dan Boutrous, George Pipe, Chandra Patel and April Carlisle.

Everyone had coffee, although Dan had already spilled his once, since he was using his left hand, the right being in a hardened sling, to immobilize it due to the shoulder wound he had.

"OK, lets get this going. I have a six pm flight and we need to have this wrapped up by then. I called this meeting so we can all share what we know once, and not have to keep repeating it to everyone else. In the interests of internal transparency, I'd like everyone to know all we discovered. Doctor Patel, thank you for agreeing to attend. I know this has been an imposition on you."

"Not at all!" exclaimed Chandra, clearly excited. "What I've learned in the past few days has been staggering. Worth it all for that alone!"

There was a stunned silence and, realizing what he'd just said, he added quickly, "For me. I meant for me. Not for...well, you understand what I mean..."

Jessica just stared hard at him for a moment, as his voice trailed off, and then moved on.

"Let's start with the one question April has. How did we find her?"

For April, she'd already heard a bit of this story, with her sessions with Chandra, but she'd not gotten the full story, and she was consumed with curiosity.

Mark cleared his throat and then said, "That's mostly down to Dan and George here."

He gestured at the duo, and George tried to shrink down into his seat and Dan was suddenly interested in the wall light fittings.

"After April vanished, and the little therapeutic practice folded up and vanished, they doubled down and started looking at the mix of companies who had rented the facilities. Then they started seriously tracking the companies that benefited from the few brainwashing successes they've had. It was a mess. Whoever set up that trail seriously knows their business. We lost the trail of most of them when they hit Cayman or Swiss companies. But we tracked three back to holdings here in the UK. They had – have – holdings of about eight different facilities here, spread out throughout the country. We were somewhat sure that April was being held at one of them, but which one?"

He paused to sip his coffee and continued, "That's where Chandra here really helped out. Knowing what we knew from the initial session April had, Chandra went back to Lee and tried to get past his auto blocking. It took a while, but he did it. Eventually, he was able to talk about what happened to him, at least in generalities. His memories of that time were pretty much scrambled, but the one thing that he did recall was the view from the building when he was removed and delivered to those two winners out in Bath. Oh, speaking of them, French police picked them up in St. Tropez for passing bad checks. George had to troop over there to interview them – I'm sure that was horrible for you, right George?"

George grinned a smile little grin and raised his coffee in salute.

"They basically confirmed they met the people they got Lee from at a building in Canary Wharf. That tallied with one of the facilities the holding company owned, and so, we camped out. Lee indicated that it was high up and we couldn't get anyone up there on any pretense – they had security up there way past what would really be required for any normal company, which just hammered home the fact that this was the place we were looking for. But not knowing what was inside, what could we do? We knew Baker was in there – he was seen going in. We were considering snatching him if he came out again, as leverage, but he just didn't come out. Or if he did, we didn't see it.

"That's where Dan and George came in, yet again. They suggested an armed strike, to get out anyone we found. I suggested that, yet again, we talk to the experts, but no, that was overruled. By the boss here..." he indicated Jessica, without rancor.

"They would have taken too long," said Jessica, crisply, indicating Mark to carry on.

"We've had some laser sonic probes focused on the windows of the upper level, trying to work out which levels they were actually on. Turns out the top three. We've had a mercenary armed response team on standby while we worked out how to get in there. We can't just blast in, because we had no clue what the conditions were. Would we face a bunch of heavily armed men? Brainwashed people who would attack? Was April even really in there? And then the alarm went off, and all of a sudden the two guys at the desk, who were really guarding the elevator, vanished. So in we went. The rest, everyone knows."

"Thank you Mark," acknowledged Jessica, curtly. She continued, turning her attention to Dan and George, "Mr. Piper, Mr. Boutrous. I know you are employees anyway, but please accept my thanks on behalf of one of the most valuable and necessary agents we have in Ingrams. Without your advice, tireless work and dedication, we would have lost April here. Mark, please ensure that there is a bonus for these gentlemen to the tune of at least fifty thousand pounds each in their next paycheck."

There was a stunned silence until George started coughing. April just smiled. She knew Jessica would do something like this – it was her managerial style. Rewards very publicly given when they were due.

"Now, Mr. Patel. I know you are not an agent of this company, but from everything I've seen, I wish you were. I'm hoping that we can continue to employ you as a contractor going forward, with a retainer?"

Chandra's smiled got wider. It almost burst his face when Jessica said, "And whatever his hourly rate is, Mark, please double it for the duration of his help on this project. Retroactively."

"I..." for once Chandra was lost for words.

"Perhaps you might give us a report on Lee Hicks, and his wife?" asked Jessica, softly.

"Oh...er...yes. Of course," stammered Chandra. Gathering himself together, he launched into an animated speech.

"Well, Lee... that's a toughie. I've broken the deep hard coded programming. The whole submissive-at-all costs thing, at least. And the hard coded attacks he was getting from any attempt to access recent memory, well, those were nasty and I still don't know how they set those up, but the triggers are removed now. I've softened his memories – I can't remove them because that sets up dissonance in his psyche. If the brain knows they are there and knows it can access them, but just won't let him, it will throw up flags in unorthodox ways. Dreams, temper tantrums, weird emotional reactions and so on. Those memories have to remain there. But what I have done is made them softer. More remote. Like they are wrapped in cotton wool, or seen through a soft lens filter. Like they are someone else's memories. I've done the same for April, here, too," he gestured at April, who did her best to smile weakly back at him.

"The real issue with Lee is going to be him coming to terms with what he did. He knows that it wasn't his fault, that he was programmed against his will, but he also knows he still did them. He has to cope with his world view of himself as a manly man, an army officer and so on, having been a willing submissive, being beaten and emasculated, and made to dress in a maids outfit and so on, and him being not only willing, but actively wanting it. The emotional impact on him is not going to go away. I think the best possible thing for him is some heavy duty long term therapy, and time spent with that amazing woman he was married to."

Chandra took a long deep breath after finishing the end of that. Jessica was nodding along, particularly at the end of his statements.

"I agree. I've spent some time with both of them now, since you managed your minor miracle. My feeling is exactly the same. Some TLC and some decent therapy. And a vacation. I would arrange it, but that woman has both the money and the chupatz to do it all on her own. I can see why you like her April. She'd have made one hell of an operator if she were younger."

April smiled a more genuine smile at that. Her thoughts exactly.

"And she's made it abundantly clear that anything you need will be charged to her account, and that I am to... how did she put it? 'Make sure April has a holiday, fully paid, very soon, in the UK, as her guest.' She was very clear that this had better happen soon and I would answer to her if not."

Jessica was clearly bemused, not used to being ordered around by a client, even one with the kind of royal presence that Rachael did.

"Now, April. What's her prognosis, Doctor?"

Chandra glanced at April, and made a face at her. "I'm going to talk about you like you're not here April. Sorry about that."

April chuckled lightly and replied, speaking for the first time. "It's OK Chandra. I'm a big girl. And we'll all definitely be speaking about you when you aren't here, so that balances out."

Everyone smiled at that. The perfect response to erase some of the tensions in the room.

"OK, so we've spent the three days talking. Mostly with me exploring what those people did. My goodness, they used boots with nails out the bottom when clomping around in her head. The damage was very easy to find, and with the amount of recall April has, I can see exactly what they were doing and make an educated guess as to why.

"Essentially, they were attempting to make April question her reality. The rapes were there to give her something to hate, and then Baker – or whatever his name was – comes in and was nice to her. Add in the drug cocktails, and the bedtime video shows, and yeah, it's not hard to see how they were making her own ego turn to Baker and the font of all nice things.

"From what I can gather, they were about two thirds of the way through the programming cycle. Once April's ego had been convinced that Baker was the One True Way, then they actually start programming her in what they want her to be. They hadn't even started on that yet, from what I can gather. We disturbed that, thankfully.