S i b lings, p.8
S.I.B.lings, page 8
“What do you want to do with these people?” Secretary Davenport inquired of AG Haskell.
“I would like for them to be assessed medically to ensure all of them are healthy. Then I want them interrogated. I need to know what they know or do not know about this operation on Virginia soil. And, most of all, I want them protected. The man who escaped has mind control substances. We need to find him and locate the drugs. We may not know what his full intentions are at this point. Nonetheless, we do know that he blew up the laboratory with the intent of killing not only these women and these children but the agents and civilians who were in that building. I consider the man armed and dangerous.” Assistant AG Haskell replied.
Secretary Davenport nodded in agreement. “We cannot hold them indefinitely. Do you have a time frame in mind?”
“I think we hold them until we have the answers that we need or until we are certain we can release them into society so that they can have productive lives. These women and children according to what we know have never been outside of that laboratory. Their lives have been controlled from the time they opened their eyes till the time they closed them at night. I want to ensure that they will be able to live in the real world independently before we let them go,” Genesis replied.
“Then I have to ask the question of who's footing the bill?” Director Vance inquired. “The agency’s budget is already bursting at the seams. They have no apparent skillsets that we know of. Those who are old enough will have to be trained so they can find gainful employment. What about the children? As far as we can tell they have no parents. Who is going to care for them? Are we planning to put them in a foster care system that is already overflowing? How are they going to be educated? Who's going to be responsible for raising them from this point on? I can go on here. There are a lot of questions that have to be answered before an informed decision can be made.”
“We have found answers before and we will find them again,” Secretary Davenport stated. “Agent Morgan, I'm going to request that you continue to care for the people. For the time being you are their lifeline. The Department of Homeland Security will ensure that you get the resources that you need and the proper professionals in here to assist you. By all means, feel free to reach out to whatever resources you have connections with to prepare these women and children for the next step.”
“Director Vance, Agent Morgan will be on this assignment until further notice. At the moment, I am thinking 90 days should give us enough time to determine whether there's a threat level concern.” Assistant AG Haskell stated.
“It is so ordered,” Secretary Nicolas stated. “Agent Morgan we are depending on you to prepare these people for their new life.” He looked around. “Sounds good for everyone?”
“I’m not sure I can agree with this, Mr. Secretary,” Director Vance stated.
“Don't agree, file a complaint. That's my decision for now.” Secretary Davenport stated. “Agent Morgan, may I have a moment?”
“Yes, sir,” Genesis said as she followed the secretary to another room.
When they were away from the others, Secretary Davenport spoke. “I know this is not what you signed up for but, I do believe you are the best person to care for these people. I agree with Assistant AG Haskell. I think there is a threat. This man, whoever he is, is going to come after these women and children. They did not go through years of planning and manipulating their lives to just let them go. While I think their danger to us is limited, I do believe that the danger to themselves is greater. While I am certain I can get you emergency funding for what you need, you and I both know how the government works. Your time is limited. We need a quick assessment of what these women and children know. Then we need a plan to determine where they go from here. Are you up to the challenge?”
Genesis simply stared at the man. She would be responsible for all the women and children—every one of them.
“She's up for it.”
Genesis turned to see assistant AG Haskell standing behind her. “I want there to be limited knowledge of what is happening here. If I could have you placed on this assignment without involving your director, I would have done so. The situation involving these women and children is a part of a major threat to our democracy. It is not just about Chambers and the Society of Intellectual Beings. There are other connections we have to take into consideration that I cannot disclose at this moment. We may be dealing with a small army of men, women, and children who have been given mind control drugs and we have no idea what ideology may have been fed into their minds. Before we let them go, we need to determine that.” He exhaled. “Genesis, you are one of the best interrogators that we have in the department. I need to know what they are up to.”
“Thank you for the compliment, sir but I interrogate bad guys, assholes, murderers. I don't interrogate women and children.”
“The methods all work the same,” Secretary Davenport stated.
“Oh, so you don’t mind if I threaten their lives with my whip, or use my knife to cut their tongues out?” Genesis glowered at them.
Haskell and Davenport chuckled.
“I wouldn't go quite that far,” Secretary Davenport smirked. “You have a way with people, you will figure it out.”
Chapter 13
Special Agent in Charge, Genesis Morgan looked around. The building was the temporary housing for the people that were rescued from Bristol, Tennessee a little over a month ago. The building was an abandoned mega church, that had sleeping quarters for the homeless, a childcare center, a large kitchen with a dining area that could hold hundreds. Currently the 34 women, in different stages of pregnancy, were occupying 17 of the double bedrooms. The children’s sleeping quarters were in twenty of the other rooms that had been furnished with 4 bunk beds each. While size wise it was decent, the atmosphere was not one Genesis believed was conducive for children and pregnant women. However, the Department of Social Services came through and deemed the place acceptable. The problem was Genesis felt it was not a good fit. While the place was decently clean it was just not the kind of place where you would want to raise children.
She made the decision that they needed a different facility. Genesis was certain the moment she made the request to the government it would become a question of budget priorities not to mention the human resources needed to give the women and children the proper care they would need. Secretary Davenport stated the funding would be limited. Then the question became what in the hell were they going to do with all of them. The women were grown and could make decisions for themselves but the children were not. Hell, it was truly a conundrum of the worst kind. She was going to have to deal with one issue at a time. Today they needed a different facility with more resources. That was what she was going to concentrate on.
She realized that social services had provided all that they could in the way of food and clothing. However, she needed more assistance. She needed to arrange for these people to have medical and psychological care, not to mention finding some way to provide education for the children of school ages. It had been close to a month now since the women and children had been in her care. It was clear the government was not going to do anything to put these people in a more pleasant environment.
Genesis walked through the door determined to find a better solution than what they had been given. She didn’t think she would ever get used to the reception she received each morning when walking downstairs into the living area. Genesis was a person who had been in the regiment just about all of her life. However, the regiment that these people had was one for the books. Whenever she walked through the door in the mornings they were up standing at attention against the wall as if it was the most natural thing in the world. It did not matter if she arrived at 6:30 or 7 in the morning, they would be in the same position, all lined up against the wall waiting for her, just as they were now.
Genesis stared at the women whose heads all turned in unison as she walked in.
"Good morning," she said as she walked past each. As she reached them their heads turned towards her every step.
For the life of her she could not understand why Deputy Attorney General Haskell recommended to Attorney General Johnson that she be the one person charged with collecting, rehabilitating and placement of the women and children rescued from the Society of Intellectual Beings. She was not anybody's psychiatrist. She did not have any idea how to go about reading anybody's mind. Her skillset was in interrogating people. Yes, she was the one who escorted them from Bristol, but to her way of thinking her role should have ended there. Why Deputy Attorney General Haskell thought that she would be the best person assigned to lead these people was beyond her understanding. No matter how many times she called him over the last month, begging him to put her back out in the field or anything other than this, he rejected her request. The truth of the matter was this experiment gone wrong at the hands of mad men was weirding her out.
As she continued towards the office she used in the building, she shook her head and murmured, "One day these people are going to realize when someone speaks, they’re supposed to speak back."
"That was not in our instructions." She heard one of the women reply.
She turned suddenly wondering how the woman heard what she said. She spoke low and was a few steps away from the one who replied. Genesis stepped back until she reached the woman.
"Thank you for responding," she smiled. "It's the first time any of you have spoken to me."
"We are taught to know our place. We only speak when addressed." another woman replied.
Genesis’ head snapped around to face her. "But I speak to you every morning."
"This morning you gave an instruction." Another said.
"I did?" Genesis raised an eyebrow.
"We are to speak when greeted each morning." The woman at the front of the line responded.
"You heard what I said all the way down there?"
"Yes. Would you like me to repeat your thoughts?"
"Repeat my what?"
"Your thoughts. Why Assistant Attorney General Haskell thinks you are the person best equipped to work with us."
"Ok stop. There will be no reading of the goddamn minds around here. Do I make myself clear? When we communicate, it is going to be through spoken words." Genesis emphasized this with her finger pointing to her mouth. "We are going to talk to each other where I can hear you, and you can hear me. So again, we are not going to be doing the reading of the minds around here. Do I make myself clear to everyone?" she said as she glanced around the room. "We don't do that here. People communicate by speaking."
"We will comply to your request." The first woman who spoke stated. “The reason why Haskell selected you is because you care.”
That comment took Genesis’ anger down a notch or two as she nodded her head. "Yeah, well, don't let that go to your brain. You know, I care because I'm responsible for you. I don't know any of you so don't think that that's an advantage or anything. I just…yeah, I just feel responsible for you. Do I have to start watching what's going on in my mind? Thoughts that are going through my mind when I'm around you guys? That's not being very trustworthy, ladies. We're going to have to communicate, you know establish some level of trust before you go messing around in my mind. I don't want y'all to know what's going on in my mind, because sometimes I'd be thinking about my man. And when I'm thinking about my man, y'all don't need to know what I’m thinking. That's personal shit, you know what I mean?" Genesis said as she walked off into the office and slammed the door behind her. She opened the door remembering she had forgotten something. "It is time to prepare your breakfast."
She watched as the women walked single file to the kitchen. Their routine was simple. They prepared breakfast to feed the children who would awaken at precisely 7:30 a.m. They all sat together silently eating their breakfast. Then at 8 o'clock the children would report to the classroom. Half of the women would teach the children, while the other women cleaned up the kitchen and put things away. At 11:30 the women went into the kitchen to prepare lunch. At noon, the children would come in to eat lunch. They finished at 12:30 then reported back to the classroom while the women cleaned the kitchen. At 6:00 every evening, the women prepared dinner. Women and children both ate dinner at 6:30 together. Afterwards, the children went to their bedrooms to study while the women cleaned the kitchen. At 8:00 p.m., the women began preparing baths for the children starting with the youngest. By 9:00 p.m., they were all in the bed—lights out—eyes closed—asleep. It was like clockwork as if these times were ingrained in their minds. At times, Genesis wondered what would happen if she told them to go and prepare breakfast at 8:30 or 9:30. How would that impact their psyche?
Genesis shook her head and then went back into her office. She picked up her telephone then called her trusted friend ex-Secret Service agent Rene Naverone-Brooks. When the call was picked up on the second ring, Genesis exploded.
“They are reading my damn mind.” Naverone began to chuckle as Genesis continued. “The shit's not funny. They are reading my mind. I mean, I knew this was one of the things that could happen. I was warned about that. However, now that it has happened, I don’t think I like it. I mean, some thoughts be going on in my mind, you know."
“Did you instruct them not to?”
“I just told them not to do that shit anymore.” Genesis hissed as she sat back in her chair.
“How did you discover they were reading your mind?”
“I said something under my breath and one of them responded,” she explained. “After three and a half weeks of nothing it surprised me. This is the first time anyone has ever spoken words to me. Now get this, they responded because I gave them an instruction.”
“You gave them an instruction. What did you instruct them to do?” Naverone asked.
“I simply said under my breath, ‘someone is going to teach these people one day that when you're spoken to you speak back’. That’s when one of the women said, ‘we will comply with your instructions’. She shocked the hell out of me. I turned back to see who had said it. It was a lady further down in the line. There was no way she could have heard what I said underneath of my breath.”
“But she responded?”
“Yes, she responded because I gave them an instruction.”
“That’s your key, Genesis. From what you’ve told me these people have been programmed to sleep at a certain time, to eat at a certain time, to wake up at a certain time, to study at a certain time. You're going to have to reprogram their minds to do things at-will.”
“I know,” Genesis exhaled, “that’s why I called. I need some real help here. Social services have been here to check them out, you know giving them the basic look over and necessities. But I need some people to start working with them individually, to get all of them to a point of self-sufficiency.”
“How many people do you have?”
“Too many,” Genesis answered. “Seventy-five children and thirty-four women. All who are pregnant.”
“The agency did not give you any extra manpower to help with the situation?” Naverone inquired.
“They gave me personnel to assist with managing the people. There are two issues with that. Those folks work from 9-5 and none of them have the expertise needed to move the people forward.” Genesis spoke earnestly, “Naverone we cannot leave these women and children with the state of mind they are in. We have to make significant changes in their mindset. You know how the government works. We have a limited amount of time before these women and children are thrown into the street to fend for themselves.”
“Sounds like you are beginning to care about these people. I think they put the right person in charge.”
“They need people who care,” Genesis replied. “Someone willing to give them a more comprehensive examination and someone who can begin the process of reframing their minds.”
“I have two people in mind,” Naverone replied. “I'll have to go through Davenport to get them. I'm sending him a text message as we speak. Expect a message from him once we finish talking. I will also put Raven and Karess on notice. You may need a little extra security before this is all over with.”
“These are women and children who were left behind in a building set with explosives.” Genesis explained. “The man behind that is either going to want them dead so there is no chance of any of them talking or he is going to want then back to add to his little society.”
“He is not the only person that is a threat for your people. If it gets out that they have the ability to read minds, you don’t think that would be valuable to someone? Possibly an enemy of the president. You don’t think one of them wouldn’t try to manipulate or exploit that skillset? I do.”
“I’ve been so frustrated with this assignment that that possibility never crossed my mind.” Genesis nodded. “Yes, let the girls know I may need them for a while to handle security of the S.I.B.s.”
“Will do,” Naverone stated.
“Thank you, Naverone. I really appreciate any assistance you can send my way.” Genesis smiled, as she continued. “By the way, how is my godson?”
“Growing, trying to emulate his father’s swagger.”
Genesis laughed. “Oh no, please stop him now, before we have another Vernon Brooks on our hands.”
“I think it’s too late,” Naverone laughed. “Listen, as soon as I get things settled here, I’ll come your way to give you a hand.”
