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The Assassination - Part VI

02/01/2007 - "Dad," Anna Cohen said, relieved that Jonathan was home to answer the phone, "Elijah and Roy still aren't back."

Jonathan was about the last person Anna had wanted to call when she realized she'd drifted off while waiting up for Elijah and awakened the next day still alone. She, Elijah and the Pattersons had been trying to protect him by not telling him the things they knew about the assassination, but Elijah had told her he and Roy would be three hours at the most. She'd called the Patterson's house first, but

Elizabeth said Roy wasn't back either. Visions of what had happened back at the hospital flashed through her mind and she was growing more and more apprehensive. She had considered calling the police, but, not knowing the circumstances, they wouldn't be much help and she didn't hold out much hope of them believing her if she tried to explain it.

When she told Jonathan where the others had gone and why, he immediately decided to go after them and she learned pretty quickly that there would be no talking him out of it. She hadn't told him about the assassination and wasn't sure whether she should or not, but decided against it, so after a quick goodbye that she feared would be his last, he was on his way. She wondered if she should have told him more, but it was too late now.

Elijah and Roy had busied themselves trying to detach the metal squares from their arms, but it was futile.

"What do you think they're for?" Roy asked.

"I don't know, but at this point nothing would surprise me. Whatever it is, it takes a long time to set in. We've been here all night."

"So, what's the plan now?" Roy asked, but Elijah replied with silence.

"Look at this screen, Doctor!" said one of Dr. Maximus' workers named Jack.

Maximus looked over the man's shoulder. "Where?"

Jack regretted having drawn attention to himself. All the men had seen Dr. Maximus angry and feared crossing him.

"I saw headlights through the trees, but they're gone now." He winced, hoping Maximus wouldn't be mad.

"It was probably just a passerby, but scan the area just to be safe." Max seemed to shrug the incident off and moved to the next screen. There were computers lined up side by side along all four walls in the room. Jack flipped the scanner switch and within seconds the screen had zoomed in on a dark green Suburban, barely noticeable through the thick branches of the woodsy area that lined the field outside the Chandler

building. Jack felt triumphant to have found an enemy for Max to defeat. He knew this would earn him favor. He leaned back in his office chair and swiveled around to face the rest with an air of confidence. "Who wants to go welcome our guests?"

Jonathan shut off the headlights and slowed to a stop, not daring to move any closer to the building. He had dressed in all black, shaved his beard and put on a hat in hopes that if he was caught, he could pass himself off as one of them. Before he got out he grabbed two items off the seat beside him. They were the yellow "mouse" and the phone they'd found in Max's hospital room. He'd swung by the Cohen's house on the way out, with the afterthought that these things would come in handy, for appearance if nothing more. With them in his coat pockets he began to make his way across the field. He felt so vulnerable, knowing the intelligence of the men he was up against, but he knew he had to do something and he had put all the odds he could control in his favor. Sometimes you just have to lay aside your fears and go he told himself, so that's what he did. When he reached the building undetected he was relieved. He hadn't held out much hope of getting that far. He pressed himself up against the wall to catch his breath and ponder his next move. He pulled out the yellow "mouse" and began to examine it. I can figure this out he said to himself, I can.

"Well, men, the box should have accomplished it's purpose by now," said one of Max's men, who had entered Roy and Eijah's prison. The man held up the black box that the strange metal squares had originally come from and pushed one of the keys. The squares immediately dropped off of Roy and Elijah's arms and were pulled as if by magnet over to the chains they'd come from, automatically reattaching themselves. Then the man began to count down, "10, 9, 8 ,7..." that's when Elijah noticed something strange aout the black box.

After examining the mouse for a few minutes, Jonathan began to feel like it was hopeless. After all, Elijah had been studying it day and night and he was a pretty intelligent person. If it could be figured out by looking at it, then Elijah would have figured it out a long time ago. Besides, Jonathan was beginning to feel like a sitting duck just standing there. That's when he noticed something strange about the mouse, but before he could examine it closer he heard a voice shout, "Hey, who are you?"

Roy didn't know how to describe what had come over him. When the captor had said "ten," he still felt normal, but by the time the man said "one," he felt strange. Not bad, just strange, but he couldn't put a finger on how.

"Now," the man said sitting down and getting comfortable. He appeared to be excited about whatever was going to happen next. "Do you know what I just did to you?"

Elijah and Roy shook their heads.

"I just injected a formula into your bodies that combines a poison Dr. Maximus himself concocted and an antidote. The metal square deprived the formula of it's most crucial ingredient, without which it's competely harmless, until the formula was so ingrained in your body that it couldn't be countered except for one way that only Dr. Maximus knows, and he shows no mercy to hardened men. The poison and the antidote combined together will cause a very strange sensation known to no one on earth except those who experience it, so unique is the doctor's concoction that there's nothing even similar yet known to humankind. At this point many of our captives have been won over by the fear alone and throw themselves at our feet begging, in which case their sentence is decided by Dr. Maximus, but we've had a few stubborn fellows who just won't give and that's where the fun begins. The antidote will only last for so long, and then the poison begins to take it's toll. We've had a few who were strong enough even in their weakest hour to resist us -- I've never seen such a strong will power, but they died shortly after. The only hope for you lasts thirty minutes beyond the time the squares are removed from you. After that there is no hope, even if we were to give you to Doctor Maximus himself."

"What does he want from us?" Elijah asked.

"He only wants Jonathan Moore. He could care less about the two of you idiots. Dr. Maximus wants power. He wants to own the world. He's traveled as far into the future as he has made machines capable of going and he's seen a war lead by Jonathan during his presidential term in which his kingdom will be overthrown, so he wants to prevent it. He's afraid of Jonathan. I'm the doctor's right hand man, I've seen him in a weakened state before. He's mortal just like everyone else, though he wouldn't admit it to you."

"We'll never give Jonathan up to you! Dr. Maximus is not the one the world should fear and serve! You don't know the future you're hurtling toward."

The man held up a hand and cut him off, "Heard enough," he said stepping out the door. "May you rest in peace."

...But once the man shut the door, he lingered just outside of it.

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