I opened my eyes and I shifted my head to the left where Boris was sitting on the chair. His head was lowered towards the ground. I lifted myself up, but he didn’t hear my shuffling noises. I glided my body to the left slightly to reach his shoulder. I tapped his shoulder slowly. He lifted his head up and stared at me. I positioned myself back to the middle of the bed. He smiled and said, “Good morning.”
He was not the Boris I knew. I thought him very well and I felt he was a different person. I said, “I would say good morning, but …” He interrupted me and said, “Do you feel better or your head still pounding? Should I get you breakfast?” I hesitated and said, “I don’t want to eat.” I looked at the side table where the cup of water is, and I moved my hand towards it. He grabbed it quickly and came closer to me. He held the cup near me and said, “Here you go.”
I grabbed the cup from him and sipped some water. I felt that my throat needed something smooth to coat it. I lowered the glass and said, “Why am I here?”
He looked at me and said, “They wanted to kill you. You’re safe now with us.”
I stared blankly at him.
He looked at me and took a heavy breath. He said, “Do you want me to tell you what happened or …” I blurted out, “Yes tell me. Please. Now!”
He looked down at the ground, and then back up. He had a grim look and said, “I will tell you. But just keep an open mind and understand you were not their only target.”
I stared, waiting for him to continue. He just stared back at me. I lost my patience and asked, “Well, who else?”
He looked at me and said, “Dana.”
I said franticly, “What? She was in her lab all day conducting research. What can she have possibly done?”
He looked blankly at me and said, “She is dead.”
I froze. So many thoughts were permeating my head. I didn’t know what to say or feel. I felt like crying, and inevitably, my eyes started watering and tears ran down my cheeks. I tried to help her when she was stabbed by the knife, but I couldn’t. Why her? Of all people!
He stood up and sat on the edge of my bed. He stared at me with his deep eyes, and took the cup away and laid it on the side table. He breathed loudly and said, “Why did they use you?” I didn’t know how to respond. The tears wouldn’t stop, and he wiped my cheeks with his hands. They may seem rough, after all these years of brutal training, but he did it gently. He said, “I will ask you one more time. Why did they use you?”
I didn’t know how to respond. Should I tell him what I saw? He would think I was crazy and just dreamed it. Me tears stopped flowing and I stared at the covers between my hands.
He came closer to me and his face was near mine. He said, “I followed you, John, Joseph and Zack. You went into the Project Merge sector.”
I raised my head and looked at him with wide eyes.
He continued, “After you went inside by yourself, the main security doors shut. John and his lackeys were frazzled and didn’t know what to do. They ran back and I hid in an empty hallway to the right of the corridor. They ran to another hallway and I followed them without noticing me at all. Their minds were somewhere else. So much for high security.” He had a disgusted look when he said it.
My head was spinning and my heart beating faster. Boris looked at the screen behind me and said, “Calm down. I will never hurt you. I am telling you what I saw.”
My heart kept beating fast, and my eyes stayed fixed on him. Was it his way to be gentle and trustworthy to interrogate me? Was compassion his way of getting the answers he needed? I didn’t want to answer him. I didn’t want to be fooled by him any longer.
He kept staring at me and said, “They went to a small hallway north of where they were. They approached a medium sized door, but they didn’t know how to open it.”
I kept staring at him and he said, “I tried to get closer to hear what they were saying, and John said, ‘She has to come out alive. She is our only chance.’ I knew they were talking about you and not Ellen.”
Something in me wanted to stay quiet, but my curiosity clouded me and I said, “Why did you follow them?”
He laughed so hard. I didn’t know that my question was funny at all. He said still laughing, “And you think this show stopping act of theirs was convincing from the beginning?” I had a puzzled look and stared at him. He said, “That’s why they used you all these years as their doll. To run around and do their dirty work for them while they monitored you.” I was confused and I didn’t know how to respond.
He continued his story and said, “The door after a few minutes opened, and you were on the floor with blood near your head. I thought you were dead. I wanted to get you, but then I saw Ellen too. She stared at John with a long metal rod in her hand. John said loudly, ‘No, no, no, no!’ Ellen didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Then she said, ‘She knows it’s not real now and is slowly stopping it. I had to end her.’”
The story seemed awkward, and it didn’t make sense. Where did she come from? I was next to the door and the hallway was not wide. I only turned back for a second before I was struck. No human being was there. Was I only imagining what happened? Boris kept staring at me, wondering what I was thinking. I said, “How long did this scenario take?”
He stared at me and said, “About five minutes from beginning to end.”
I was in there for more than five minutes. I walked slowly down the black sided hallway and it took me more than five minutes, and the conversation with Sara, more than ten minutes. Was I only imaging things? Was it all in my head?
Boris continued, “John kneeled on the floor beside you. He said, ‘She is dead. Lina is dead. Of all people.’ Ellen didn’t appear amused and threw the rod on the floor beside you and John got up and said to Ellen, ‘She has been at service for all these years. She did what was ordered of her and …’ Ellen interrupted him and said, ‘Yes. She did her job but did not complete what she was told to the very end. Something went wrong and she failed.’”
I didn’t understand anything and Boris kept staring at me. He continued, “Joseph spoke and said, ‘What do we do with her now?’ John looked confused and did not say anything. Ellen spoke and said, ‘Leave her inside and shut this door. We need to leave this place and find Dana.’ They closed the door and started walking towards me. I quickly hid in the corner and I took my gun out. ”
“I waited, but I heard a door to the right that was hidden open. I turned and Zack looked at me. He took his gun out and started shooting at me. I shot back and all of them went in and the door shut. I was too late. I stared at the hidden door then back at the medium sized door. I approached it and I saw it was not completely shut. The rod propped it open.”
Boris seemed breathless, irritated, but he continued.
“I opened the door, and I kneeled beside you. I checked your pulse and it was faint. You were not dead, but reaching that point. I lifted you up and saw that the left side of your head was bleeding, and the floor had a large puddle of blood. You were bleeding to death.”
He turned, stared at the wall and then back at me, “I carried you out of the Project Merge sector and near the glass room. My troops looked at me and you, and led me to the ward. I used a security transponder that was on my wrist to speak to my authority and told them what happened. They told me to find Dana immediately. I didn’t know where to search for her, but the scientists said that they will take her to the ward. I looked from room to room and then asked a doctor that was standing near a door where Dana might be. He said she is passed this door, and I tried to pass him to go in and he stopped me. He said, ‘She didn’t make it. Her wound was too deep and she bled internally to death.’”
I didn’t know how to respond. He seemed distant and for a second, his dark blue eyes seemed like an ocean that was slowly building a large wave of water.