Bad Jack ((Ascension: Book 1)) (15 page)

Chapter 40: Day Six

When his alarm went off Melanie was already gone.

H
e hadn’t had the dream so he hadn’t pissed the bed; that would’ve surprised her to say the least.

His heart skipped a little ditty when he thought about last night. He couldn’t wait to see her at
two o’clock.

He showered and met Billy at the door. Billy was all smiles and innuendo as they walked to the dining room for breakfast.

“A gentleman never tells,” said Jack with a smile, knowing that by saying this he was affirming Billy’s suspicions.

Billy clapped him on the back.

“Good for you. It’s been four months since the last time I saw any action.”

“Don’t they let you out for like mental health reasons or anything; you know, like conjugal visits?”

“No. I don’t have a girl on the outside but the truth is, if they let me I’d pay for it at this point.”

Jack laughed. It had been a
long time for him too so he understood the desperation.

“Maybe Melanie has a friend who’s desperate. I can always ask.”

“Is that her name? I haven’t seen her up on this level until you came along. Maybe they keep hundreds of female guards like her on the off-limits levels. It’s a frickin sausage fest up here. Yeah, ask if she has a pal who’d like to meet a dashing Brad Pitt look-alike with abs of steel and a heart of gold.”

Billy laughed at himself and Jack laughed too. Jack was glad they’d smoothed everything over. Billy was the first friend he’d made since Samantha had chased all his old
buddies off. What a bitch she was, he just now fully realized.

After breakfast he started in on his
bio again just to keep the General off his back.

He was beginning to understand that he was becoming far more important to the team than anyone else he’d met so far but he also kept his obligations; it was a fla
w of his.

He reread what he’d already written and cringed a couple times.

He decided this was the time to wrap it up and be done with it. Talking about ones self is boorish to the extreme.

He began:

While hopping from one hopeless job to the next I met Samantha. She wasn’t my first post university girlfriend but she shaped me the most, all in bad ways.

But in the beginning she was great. She was beautiful and smart.

Over time she became a soul crushing juggernaut who could not be stopped
or reasoned with but I’m getting ahead of myself. The worst part’s that I saw it coming and I let it happen.

Now that’s pathetic.

A knock at the door put a stop to his typing.

The General walked in and closed the door. He slipped behind Jack to see what he was working on and for some reason Jack felt ashamed. That was stupid though because the General was seeing all of this anyway.

“I’m glad you’re still working on that
biography Jack. I was sure you’d quit before now.”

This pissed Jack off a little. He and the General didn’t see eye to eye but that didn’t mean Jack was flawed. Jack had dealt with shitheads like this before; they thought they were perfect so if you didn’t agree with them or if you simply didn’t get along, they’d automatically assume you were weak
er or less substantial than they are.

The General clapped a hand on
his shoulder and Jack shuddered. This was a new tactic. That couldn’t bode well for what the General was about to impart.

“Listen
pal, I’m going to have to restrict your access to the outside from now on.”

The General
added emphatically, “You had privileges before because all you had access to were the objects and this office but now you’re seeing things downstairs I can’t even fathom. What I do know is that they are so secretive that no one with access is allowed to leave the premises.”

Jack
would have refused to go down there in the first place had someone forewarned him about this.

He wondered how long it had been since Melanie or Oliver had been outside the gates.

“When does this take effect?”

“The Doctor insists that since you weren’t warned in advance about any of this that you should be allowed a one day pass to take care of whatever you need. You’ll be escorted of course.

“
So when am I supposed to do this?”

“I need you to do it
today.” He paused and grinned wickedly. “I’ll understand if you decide to waive the opportunity since you were given so little notice and since your workload’s so immense.”

Fuck you asshole
, is what Jack should have said.

Instead he said, “I want to choose my own escort
this time.”

The General furrowed his brow and studied Jack
’s face.

“Why? W
hat’s wrong with William?”

“He’s
great but there’s a guard downstairs you may or may not have met. I’d love to show her where I’m from.”

The General nodded knowingly.

“That might be tricky because she’s technically never supposed to leave since she works below. Any other escort from these upper floors has clearance so long as I approve.”

“No
thanks. I want her so long as she agrees to it. If you need to get approval from the Doc I can wait.”

The General kept his composure but Jack knew him well enough already to see tha
t he was furious underneath his calm mask.

“The
Doctor thought you might say something like that. I’ll have her come and get you in ten minutes. Billy will be coming with as a back-up. We can’t have another incident like last time, now can we?”

Jack
caught the inferred attempt to place the blame on him for that fiasco at his apartment but that was just childish on the General’s part. He’d never met those people before. In fact, they wouldn’t have come after him in the first place if the General hadn’t hired him, bringing him to their attention.

When he thought about it a bit more though, he was glad for the extra protection. He didn’t know how his would-be kidnappers had found out about the boy even before he knew of the boy’s existence. That fact alone made him weary about going
outside unprotected. He also imagined vividly what they’d do to him to make him give up the child’s location.

Before he could ask for even more
armed escorts the General had already left.

Chapter 41:
Day Pass

Melanie was practically bouncing up and down in the driver’s seat. “I haven’t been out in nearly a year. I’m surprised I remember how to drive.”

Jack felt like a hero. Billy had taken up the rear in a se
cond SUV.

As the drive dragged on and on
her enthusiasm remained.

She
had the window rolled down and the sunroof open to get her hair flying.

She glanced at Jack every few minutes with a big dopey smile on her face.
She messed with the radio stations until it became grating.

It was funny how too much joy in someone else could be irritating.
Then again, he could only imagine what it must have been like to be caged up for so long. It must be like getting out of prison.

He was sure he’d know exactly how desperate it fe
lt a year from now. Maybe they’d keep him locked in longer than that. The thought frightened him but he crammed it to the back of his mind.

“It’s a beautiful
day for a drive, huh?”

She smiled sinfully.
“It’s a good thing they sent the other guy to follow us or I’d say we just keep on driving until we hit Tahiti and never come back.”

He
imagined his newly swollen bank account mingled with her savings would be more than sufficient to get them by no matter where they went.

But he knew nothing about going on the run. He was a
by-the-book guy like everyone else. He was the kind of guy who would make a serious error almost right away and get them caught. And then what? The General might decide he was important enough to drag back but Melanie was just a guard, a good one, but replaceable. And he knew what happened when someone under contract breached it. The General hadn’t minced words about that. She’d be eliminated.

She added, “I need to learn not to just blur
t out my fantasies. This truck’s probably bugged.” Louder she said, “I was just joking about Tahiti.”

He
snickered. It was too bad though, he’d love to see her on the beach under the vibrant sun, wearing nothing but a string bikini. Then he imagined her like that but with a gun in each hand. Now that would be a sight.

They’
d driven now for nearly three hours and for the first time Jack had to wonder why. He had nothing he cared to put in order from his old boring life. If the General hadn’t just told him that this was his only opportunity to leave he wouldn’t have gone back.

He looked over at Melanie and he was glad he had
; she was radiant.

Maybe he’
d box up a couple keepsakes just for show. Maybe he could get Billy to take a walk so he could get a little alone time with Melanie too.

They
parked beside each other when they finally arrived at the parking lot outside his apartment.

Billy got out first. He asked Jack for his door key and strode off
with purpose toward the entryway. He was a man on a mission. They remained seated until he returned to give them the all clear.

When Jack saw his front door, at first he was puzzled by the ‘Do not cross’ yellow police tape but then he remembered that shots had been fired in there just a couple days ago
; surely a neighbor must have reported it.

Billy ducked under it but Jack tore it off; it was
still his apartment.

The place had been ransacked
but he didn’t know enough about police procedure to conclude that the cops had done this. Maybe the kidnappers had just enough time to go through all his shit before the cops arrived.

He didn’t care as much as his two escorts assumed he would. They looked like they were just waiting for the opportunity to comfort him but none of these possessions meant anything to
Jack. As long as his photos weren’t torn to shreds or missing and his old dream journal was still here he’d be alright.

He found them right away.

The journal was personal, peppered with little rants and insecurities, plus he’d written everything down as he’d seen it in his adolescent dreams whether it was shameful or not. But nearly twenty years later it was embarrassing to the max. He was only taking it so no one else would find it.

He grabbed the shoebox
full of pictures and a couple copies of his book.

Melanie read over his shoulder, “The art of dreams and how they shape you. Did you
write that?”

She must have guessed from the fact that he had a stack of the exact same book strewn across the floor or because his name was on the front cover.

“Yeah, a long time ago.”

“Can I have
one?”

Before he had the chance to talk her out of it she helped herself to one of the many at her feet.

He wished she hadn’t done that. They were an embarrassment to him nowadays. “It’s not very good. I wrote it because I thought you can make money writing books but I found out the hard way that it’s just not true.”

She
reassured him, “I’m sure it’s great Jack. You’re too hard on yourself.”

She looked about and continued, “Are you thirsty? I saw a coffee shop around the corner when we were pulling in.”

Jack shrugged. “Sure, I’m always up for coffee and they have some of the best. You wanna go now?”

“I’ll get it. You’re safer indoors
with Billy. What do you want?”

He already knew what the menu had to offer. He told her what
wanted. He suggested she stay away from the Café Mocha because it was chalky.

After she took off he started to scan the apartment for anything else he just couldn’t live without. There was nothing.

Billy had disappeared into the bathroom the moment they’d entered the apartment and it didn’t look like he planned to rejoin the search effort for Jack’s prized possessions until he was good and done.

The toilet flushed
, and then it flushed again a minute later.

Melanie was back almost as soon as she left. He took his coffee and sipped it, burning his
top lip and tongue.

“Let me pay for this
.”

“
No way. I’ve had that cash locked up in my purse for damn near a whole year. It was happy to be spent.”

Billy came out of the bathroom shaking his hands out.

He started to say, “Where do you keep your towels?” but trailed off when he saw the coffee cups. He stared at Melanie accusatorily. “You left him alone without telling me?”

She looked surprised by his tone.

“I just grabbed a couple coffees. I was gone all of two minutes.”

“You’re not supposed to leave at all, especially not without informing me.”

He was getting a bit too aggressive for Jack’s taste.

“Listen, I asked her to go. I didn’t bother telling you because I knew you were in there
defiling my toilet. Drop it. It’s just coffee.”

He must have lightened up because he raised his voice in mock anger
. “Then where the hell is my coffee?”

Melanie giggled
nervously, unsure if everything was back to normal.

Billy had screwed it up last time by letting Jack out of his sight. Jack sort of understood that he couldn’t let anything like that happen again. He must have forgotten to brief Melanie about it though. That was his fault, not hers.

Jack looked about and dismissed his initial plan to send Billy outside to get some alone time with Melanie; the place was too much of a dump now. “I think I’m all done here.”

Billy loo
ked at Melanie and then at Jack. “We came all this way for a box and a book? Come on man, getting out’s like a rare thing for us. Don’t you have any things to haul off to storage or bills to set straight? There must be something.”

There wasn’t but Jack winged it.
“I’d love to have one last meal at my favorite restaurant. Are you guy’s hungry?”

Billy looked at the floor and after a few seconds he said to Melanie, “We write it up as something else. If they think we went out to eat on their time heads will roll.”

She shrugged, clearly not as bothered by silly protocol as he was.

They were seated beside a window and the sun was just starting to come down outside casting long shadows across their table.

Billy mumbled, “We’ll say we helped him put all his furniture out on the curb for
trash pickup. That would take us a while.”

Melanie agreed just to shut him up.

Jack asked, “Do you guys want to start with the Bruschetta? It’s awesome here.”

By the time they’
d finished up their main courses and declined desserts they were dizzy from the margaritas.

Melanie had scooted closer to Jack throughout the meal. He hadn’t noticed until her hip touched his.

Billy was either intently interested in the ceiling tiles or else he was being a good buddy. But it wasn’t appropriate to leave the poor guy stranded, feeling awkward like that so Jack suggested they head back.

Melanie wasn’t pleased to cut it short but she pretended it was fine as she excused herself to visit the restroom.

Billy tried to stop her. “We’re not supposed to leave each others sight.”

She laughed.
“Ok then, come on boys I can’t hold it much longer.”

Billy, clearly embarrassed said, “
Alright, alright,” holding his hands up in surrender.

The drive back was more somber than the drive out. Maybe it was the aftereffects of the Margaritas or just the idea that they were driving back for immediate incarceration with no end in sight.

Jack said quietly, “I wonder what would happen if we just drove right to a police station and
told them everything. They’d have to help us, iron clad contract or not. What they’re doing has to be against the law.”

“That would just be a death warrant. The General would probably say we were wanted for some type of National Security reason
, then he’d prove it with manufactured documentation, and then the cops would lose all power to help us.”

“I should have read that stupid contract over before signing my life away to those bastards.”

“I know. But the money was so good that you didn’t want to even question it, right?”

“Exactly. But now I can’t help but wonder if I’ll be alive long enough to see it.”

“Or if you’ll ever be set free at all,” she finished for him.

He turned the radio on to distract him from the doubts gathering in his head.

Over the course of the drive back, there were a lot of thoughts hanging in the air between them but no words to give them substance.

Once through the security gate, they walked in
side the building together. They were all frisked. It seemed stupid frisking two escorts when both of them were clearly armed to the teeth.

Jack assumed they were looking for a tracking device or a cell phone or a bomb, something that could jeopardize the operation.

A
n ugly, pallid guard went through Jack’s shoebox and his books to make sure he wasn’t smuggling something in. Once satisfied, they were allowed to go about their day.