Justice Ch. 06: The Gift of Freedom

"So, what's going on?" I asked.

"There's a fella being held in a hospital over in Arlington that really needs our he'p," Grandpa said. "He was in an accident nearly a year ago. Doc took care of the injury to his head, but he's holding the man prisoner while he rakes in the insurance money. It's worse than that, though.

"This 'doctor' has turned the man's wife against him. He's turned her into his personal slut while humiliating the poor fella."

"Why not just take him out of there the way you did with me in Mexico?" Danni asked.

"Under normal circumstances, I would," Grandpa said. "But this feller wouldn't survive the trip. He looks like one of them people you see in pictures of old death camps. Nothing but skin and bone."

"Why doesn't this man say or do something?" Danni asked.

"He can't," Grandpa said. "This doctor's done something to him. The poor feller can't do anything but lay there in his bed. Can't talk, can't move, nothing. It's like he's in some kinda trance or something."

"But he's conscious and knows what's going on around him?" Danni asked.

"Yes," Eli said.

"So, what do you need from us?" I asked.

"I'd like Danni to he'p me get him outta there, legal-like. Once I can get him out, I'll take him to my place, get some meat on his bones and keep him outta harm's way while I deal with the snake that done this to him," Eli said. "You still have ties to Judge Stone, right?" he asked Danni.

"Yes, I do," she said.

"I'll get you the evidence you need to show him what's going on," Eli said.

"Alright," Danni said. "Give me all the information you can on this man, the hospital he's in and the doctor. I'll take it from there."

"Thank you," Grandpa said. Grandpa spent the next half hour giving Danni all the information he had. Danni took copious notes as he talked and recorded the conversation on her phone to ensure she got everything right.

"This will take me a day or two to sort out," she said. "I'll need to do a bit of research and get the paperwork ready."

"Do what ya gotta do, Danni, but don't take too much time," Grandpa said. "I don't think Mr. Eastland

has much time left. And do me another favor, if you would please."

"What's that?" she asked.

"When you go see Judge Stone, I'd like ta join ye," Grandpa said, his accent returning.

"That's fine with me," Danni said with a slight smile.

"What do you need from me, Grandpa?" I asked.

"Make sure yer Winchester's in good shape, son. Ah have a feelin' this might jes' get a bit messy," Grandpa said with a solemn wink.

...

"Take us to see Mr. Eastland, please. Immediately," the man wearing a fedora and long trench coat said to the young woman behind the counter. The woman, whose name tag read, "Lisa," looked at the man and the two others with him, a petite blonde woman and another man, younger than the one who just spoke.

She usually checked with the administration office of the private facility before allowing anyone beyond the front office. Still, she felt... compelled... to do as the man ordered. She already knew what room James was in, so she motioned for them to follow her.

Lisa escorted them past the nurse's station and into James' room. When they got inside, the petite blonde turned to Lisa.

"I'd like a cup of hot water please," Adrestia said.

"Do as the lady asked, then close this door and do not let anyone know we are here," Max said firmly. Lisa nodded her head and left. She returned less than a minute later with Adrestia's hot water.

"Thank you," Adrestia said.

"Now, please leave and say nothing to no one about our presence. No one. Understand?" Max asked.

"Uh, yes, sir," Lisa said. She left the room, and Max locked the door as soon as it closed. They all turned to the emaciated man lying in bed. His skin was stretched over his bones, and he reminded Max of pictures he had seen of Holocaust victims. He fought the urge to kill someone and turned to Cameron.

"Why don't you see what you can get from him," Max said.

"Yeah, right," Cameron said, shocked at James' appearance. He took James' hand in his own and felt the tell-tale spark that indicated a brain feed download. "It's going to be alright, Mr. Eastland. We're here to help," he told James as Adrestia mixed two tea bags in the cup of hot water.

Cameron stepped away after the download was complete. Adrestia went to James' side and helped him take a few tentative sips of the hot liquid. James looked at her as she fed him like a baby. She saw the fear in his eyes and put one hand on his head.

"It's going to be alright, Mr. Eastland," she said quietly. Adrestia looked at Max.

"Sweetheart, could you please help him drink the rest of this while I take a look at his chart?" she asked.

"Sure," Max said, walking to the side of the bed. He took the cup from her and helped James drink. "We're friends, Mr. Eastland," he said. As he looked into James' eyes, he saw a tear fall down the man's cheek. Cameron, meanwhile, had pulled out his laptop and headset and was busy downloading the brain feed into his computer.

It took about 15 minutes for James to finish the tea. By then, Adrestia had seen enough in James' chart to know what Dr. Skitz was doing to him. She made notes, then adjusted the IV drip in James' arm.

"That should start counteracting what Skitz has done," she said. "But his status is worse than I originally thought. We need to get him out of here, immediately."

"Wh... wha..." James stuttered. They all looked at him.

"Mr. Eastland, please remain calm," Adrestia said. "Don't try to move or speak just yet. We're going to try to get you out of here."

"Better do it quick," Cameron said. "I just looked at his last few memories, and it appears Skitz is about to pull the plug on him. You wanna see?"

"Sure," Adrestia said. Cameron queued up a video from two days earlier. They saw Skitz and a woman in the video window, but the video itself was somewhat blurry.

"Why does it look like that?" Max asked.

"This is from James' perspective," Cameron said. "It plays back as he saw it. Probably due to the cocktail of drugs Skitz has him on." Cameron hit the play button, and the video began with Skitz sneering at James while the woman sneered at him from behind Skitz.

"I just heard that your insurance company is questioning my chosen treatment," Skitz said in the video. "Of course, I responded, but how dare they question me -- a doctor. Not only are they challenging my treatment, but they're also threatening to not pay. This is unacceptable. But I'm not entirely unreasonable.

"I'll be taking your wife on a little trip for the next couple of days. Of course, I'm going to fuck her brains out, and I may have her fuck a few others. Just for fun. If the insurance company refuses to relent by the time we return, which will be about noon two days from now, then I see no real reason to keep you alive. In fact, you may be worth more dead," he said, laughing. "Come dear, let's go."

"I'd like to say I love you, James, but the fact is, I've fallen for Jack here. So, no, I don't love you anymore. Besides, your little wiener can't even compare to his nine-inch cock. So bye, James. Nice knowing you," Tina said with a smirk. "And don't worry, I'll take good care of your insurance money," she added, causing Skitz to laugh out loud.

"Noon. That's about 25 minutes from now, assuming he's punctual," Cameron said as he looked at his watch.

"Alright, change of plan," Adrestia said.

"Should I call for an ambulance?" Cameron asked.

"No," Adrestia said, shaking her head. "That would cause unwanted attention. And Skitz could already be on the premises. I'll take James with me back to the gallery."

"But you heard Eli. James may not survive the transport," Max said.

"Eli is correct. James would never survive the transition to Eli's safe place. But I'm not taking him out of this plane of existence," Adrestia said. "I'll let Eli know of the change. You take Cameron back to his place so he can get working on James' brain feed. I'll meet you back at the gallery."

"Alright," Max said. "We'd better get going before one of the nurses try to get in here."

"You're right," Adrestia said. "We've already been here too long." She turned to James. "Hold on, James. I'm taking you out of here right now. As Cameron and Max watched, Adrestia and James disappeared from sight, leaving an empty bed with tubes and sensors limply hanging from the post next to the bed.

"Hurry and pack up before those nurses realize he's not connected up," Max said.

"Already on it," Cameron said. They heard someone try opening the door, only to find it locked.

"Let's go. Now," Max commanded. Cameron grabbed his things and stood by Max. Max pressed the button on a ring, and they found themselves at Cameron's house.

"That was close," Cameron said.

"Yeah," Max said. "We don't have much time. I need you to get on his brain feed and give us whatever you can by tomorrow morning."

"No problem," Cameron said. "I'll get Bill and Ginger on it as well." Bill was an old childhood friend of Cameron's who now worked with him, and Ginger was Cameron's wife and the mother of their twin children.

"That would be great," Max said. "Call me in the morning."

"Will do," Cameron said before Max touched the ring on his finger. In an instant, he was gone.

...

"Why is this door locked?" the nurse asked as she tried to open the door to James' room. "Get me the master key." Another nurse handed her a keyring from behind the nurse's station. The nurse at the door, whose name tag read, "Allison," opened the door and got the shock of her life. No wonder Mr. Eastland's monitors indicated no signal -- he was gone. But where did he go?

Shocked, she went into the room and looked around. The windows were still sealed, and nothing looked out of place. Of course, James' bed had no one in it. His IV lay on the bed, and the expensive liquid medication it dispensed oozed out by the machine it was attached to. There was no way James could've gotten up and walked out. So, where did he go?

Frantic, she went to the panel on the wall and punched a code. Blue lights instantly began flashing throughout the facility. A minute later, Allison heard a man's voice come through the panel, and she recognized the voice as belonging to Dr. Skitz.

"What's going on? Who is missing?" he asked.

"James Eastland, Dr. Skitz," Allison said.

"WHAT? How is he missing? What the hell happened?" he asked.

"I don't know, Doctor," Allison replied. "The door to his room was locked from the inside. I opened it with a master key and found him missing."

"I'll be right there," the doctor said, ending the call. He entered the room a couple minutes later, with Tina on his heels. He looked around, wondering where James had gone.

"There's no way he could've gotten out of here by himself," the doctor said. "Did anyone come to see him?"

"Well, Lisa from the front desk escorted three people here earlier," Allison said.

"She did?" Skitz asked. "Do you know who they were?"

"No, Doctor, I don't," Allison said.

"So there were four people in that room and they just... disappeared into thin air? Is that what you're telling me?" he asked, his face turning redder by the second.

"I... I don't know," Allison stammered.

"Where's the security footage? I want to see it, right fucking NOW," Skitz bellowed. One of the nurses came forward with a DVD. Skitz grabbed it and inserted it into a DVD player. They all watched as Lisa escorted two men and a woman into James' room. Lisa then walked out and returned with a cup before leaving. The door was shut after she left the second time and remained closed. Skitz looked at the nurses, then at Tina.

"FIND HIM! RIGHT THIS FUCKING SECOND," he screamed. The nurses scrambled around, but there was nothing they could realistically do. Skitz went to the front desk and confronted Lisa.

"Who were those people who came to see Mr. Eastland earlier today?" he asked.

"They showed me some credentials and said they were here to do a wellness inspection on him for the insurance

company," Lisa said. "I, uh, don't know anything more than that, Dr. Skitz," she added. The doctor's face looked as if it were about to explode.

"Did you see them leave?" he asked.

"No, Dr. Skitz, I didn't," Lisa said quietly.

"Lisa, it's a good thing you swallow," the doctor said. "Otherwise you'd be out on your ass right now."

"I'm sorry, Dr. Skitz," Lisa cried. "Is there anything I can do to make this up?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, there is," the doctor said as he unbuckled his trousers. "On your knees. NOW."

...

When Max returned to the gallery he shared with Adrestia, he went to the guest suite to find James sitting up in bed. A woman wearing a plain floor-length dress and a bonnet was feeding him something from a bowl. He watched as she spoon-fed James, wiping his mouth after each small bite.

"How is he?" Max asked Adrestia, who stood in one corner of the room holding the chart she "confiscated" from James' hospital room.

"Not too well," Adrestia said quietly. "But he is a bit better. The tea I gave him kept him together long enough to transport him here, but..."

"But what?" Max asked.

"I don't know if he's going to make it," Adrestia said quietly.

"Who is that with him?" he asked.

"Oh, sorry, let me introduce you," Adrestia said. Max followed her to the bed.

"Clara, this is my husband, Max," Adrestia said. The woman turned and offered a hand to Max, who accepted it with a smile. "Max, this is Clara Barton."

"Clara... Barton? THE Clara Barton?" Max asked.

"Yes," Adrestia said. "She was given permission to come and look after James until we felt he was well enough to get out of bed on his own." Max saw the sad expression on Adrestia's face and pulled her into the next room.

"What's the matter, sweetheart?" he asked.

"I feel somewhat responsible for this," Adrestia said. "I know I've been extremely busy lately, but I can't help but think I should've caught this earlier. Maybe if I had acted sooner, he wouldn't be in this shape."

"Sweetheart, you said it yourself," Max said. "You're immortal, not omnipotent. You can't be everywhere all the time. Your own protocols prevent that. It's not your fault he waited so long to ask for help."

"I know," Adrestia said quietly. "Still..."

"But nothing," Max said. "Look, after this is over, why don't you and I take a little mini-vacation. A break from all of... this. Maybe zap over to the Mediterranean and take in the sights or something." Adrestia chuckled at that.

"That sounds like fun," she said. "I'm sure Eli would love to take some time off to be with Lizzy."

"There you go," Max said.

"Oh, speaking of Lizzy... She made me a new toga. Maybe I'll model it for you tonight," Adrestia said.

"Now that sounds like a plan," Max said.

"Thank you," Adrestia said.

"For what?" Max asked.

"For being there for me. I don't know what I'd do without you sometimes," Adrestia said, wrapping her arms around him. "I love you so much."

"And I love you too, my avenging goddess," he said as he hugged her back. "So, anything interesting in Eastland's chart?" he asked, looking at the thick folder in her hand.

"Yes," Adrestia said. "A very convoluted mix of medications, all designed to keep James in a persistent vegetative state. Kept him just conscious enough to know what was going on around him, but not conscious enough to do or say anything. Also, it seems Skitz kept James' caloric intake just above the minimum amount necessary to keep him alive."

"Eli will need that when he and that Jones woman go to see Judge Stone," Max said.

"Yes, he will," Adrestia said. "I'll make sure he gets it."

"Makes ya wonder how many others Skitz has done this to," Max said.

"Yes it does," Adrestia said, her eyes flashing.

"I'll check in with Cameron in the morning. Maybe between this chart and what Cameron finds, we'll have enough to present to the judge," Max said.

"I hope so," Adrestia said. "If that judge doesn't do something about this, I guarantee you I will."

...

Edwin Skitz, MD, Ph.D., POS, slammed his fist on the desk as he looked at his computer. Not only had the incompetent nurses in C Ward lost a patient, but they also lost the man's chart. Shit, Edwin thought to himself.

He looked at the surveillance video one more time. Still, he could not identify the three people who walked into James' room. Then he looked at the time on the monitoring stats. It appeared that Eastland had disappeared within 30 minutes of those three people entering his room.

They tore James' room apart but found nothing to indicate where the man had gone. Or how he had managed to suddenly disappear, along with three others. Tina, James' wife, sat across from his desk, looking at him with concern. Then he realized he had another problem.

There were five other men in that ward in the same situation as James. Edwin had turned their wives against them like he had done with Tina. They had become part of his personal "harem," but some of them were now doing other... work. In short, they were supplementing Edwin's already bloated income with their bodies, performing as high-end escorts or porn actresses.

Like James, the husbands of these women were in controlled catatonic states, with their insurance policies footing the bills for their "treatments." If James managed to get to the authorities, Edwin's goose would become well-done, and he knew it. In his twisted, warped mind, Edwin felt he only had one option if James couldn't be located quickly. He picked up his phone and dialed a number.

"Start warming up your ovens," Edwin said when a man answered at the other end. "I may have some work for you."

"Right away, Dr. S," the man at the other end said before ending the call. Edwin put the phone down and looked at Tina. He had seduced many women into his lifestyle over the years -- all of them married -- but Tina was his crowning jewel. She happily humiliated her husband and pledged herself in a way no other woman had ever done -- by allowing him to brand her.

"So, what now?" Tina asked.

"It may be time for us to retire," he said. "If we can't find and retrieve your husband soon, I'll have no choice but to close up shop and tie up all the possible loose ends."

"And the other girls?" Tina asked.

"They've played their role. I'm sure I can unload them pretty quick. They're still in their prime and can fetch a pretty good price," Edwin said.

"What about your staff here?" Tina asked.

"I'll give them all a nice severance package and a recommendation," he said. "They'll get hired on somewhere else."

"Any idea who those three people are?" Tina asked.

"None," he said, looking at their images on his computer. "But I've got some people working on it."

"And when you find them?"

"They'll wish to God they never heard the name Edwin Skitz," he said with a cruel smile. Tina smiled back.

...

"There's several videos on that thumb drive," Cameron said as he handed a small USB drive to Max. "We're still evaluating Mr. Eastland's brain feed."

"What have you found so far?" Max asked.

"I ran it by Smith and Jones and they agree with my assessment. There was absolutely no medical need for Eastland to be kept hospitalized. The damage to his brain was corrected by surgery. He could've been released at any time," Cameron said. Max knew that Smith and Jones were the two alien beings whose experimental device was responsible for the changes in Cameron.

"So this was all done deliberately to keep Eastland in check?" Max asked.

"Yes," Cameron said. "In fact, Skitz admitted that to him. The video is on the drive I gave you, along with several others. This Skitz is certainly no Albert Schweitzer."

"Anything else?" Max asked.

"We did a deep dive on Skitz and his private clinic," Ginger said. "Over the last 20 years, there were more than 50 men who died while in his care. All of them were married and all of them were cremated almost immediately after their deaths."