Torniquet.

1.

Monday; the 23rd.

Grant Ellis hated fire.  He was never really sure why, since he had never had any traumatic run-in with fire, at least none that he could recall, but he disliked it all the same.  Perhaps because it destroyed things so indiscriminately, so carelessly, incinerating anything in its path, with no regard to the damage it was doing.  Grant didn’t like this behavior, as he saw it as nihilistic and barbaric.  Sure, first didn’t have any self awareness, so it didn’t subscribe to nihilism, but Grant had seen many people and groups who were like an out of control wildfire; destroying everything in their field of vision because their passions burned so bright that the black smoke clouded their judgement.  He and his F.B.I. partnet Jason Dawkins had just finished a case that brought a close to a series of terrorist attacks that began in 1999.  Four years of nearly nonstop domestic terrorist attacks in major cities, carried out by ideological extremists on many sides of the spectrum.  They raged like fire, without reason or remorse, and destroyed things in the name of nothing more than their own myopic passions that were fueled with a poisnous ennui that had instilled them with a deep, irrational discontentment with modernity. Grant and Jason, along with a huge joint F.B.I.-N.S.A.-D.E.A. task force had put out that fire, and were glad to be done with that debacle.  After all of that, working a seemingly ordinary homicide case was a welcome relief; Jason and Grant were part of the Violent Crimes unit, but due to the severity of the situation, they were loaned out to Counterterrorism, but now that all of that was behind them, they were back on Violent Crimes, and had been given a case that had a few oddities about it, but was largely run of the mill.  A series of murders were linked to a local mental hospital that had a bit of a negative reputation, but nothing had ever come to light that had allowed it to be shut down.  Grant and Jason figured that the killer, who was apparently a patient here, had an accomplice on the inside; probably a janitor or something, who was letting him out after hours for who knows what reason.  Grant should have known that things never turn out just as you expect them to. 

Grant paced about the grounds just outside the main building of the Serenity Mental Health Center, as police, F.B.I., paramedics, and firefighters swarmed the place.  Grant was trying to arrange his thoughts, to put what happened together in a logical progression, and make some determination that would lead to the prosecution of the individuals involved in what was quickly becoming a long and grisly list of crimes.  He wasn’t walking anywhere in particular, and found himself drifting around the corner, where he came face to face with a fenced off outdoors area, probably used for the patients to take smoke breaks or something.  He walks along the chain link fence, observing the dilapidated benches and ashtrays sitting in the fenced area.  A few hours ago, someone had tried to kill him; Grant had come here with Jason to pursue their investigation, even though Jason had the day off.  It didn’t occur to Grant until that moment that, had Jason not come with him, he himself would be dead and no one would ever know what was unfolding here.  Grant had been escorted to an isolation room to speak with the murder suspect, whom the director of this facility, a slightly grotesque, at least personality wise, man named Lee, denied was involved with what Grant had described. He had recognized right away that this Lee guy was full of himself and did not appreciate the presence of two J. Edgar’s in his hospital, and as far as Grant was concerned, the feeling was mutual, as he took a dislike to Lee almost instantly.  Grant was left alone with the suspect, who had somehow procured a knife, and tried to stab Grant with it.  Fortunately, the Bureau’s self defense training proved sufficient to avert that outcome.  Lee was mysteriously missing, and not a single staff member was anywhere to be found, leading Grant to suspect that the presence of the knife was no accident and he was not meant to leave this place alive.  Of course, the staff would chalk it up to a tragic accident, and probably have some orderly or nurse take the fall.  Meanwhile, Jason had made friends with a timid patient named Adam, who, for some reason, decided to tell Jason that illegal activities were afoot in this facility.  This is what led to the fire; Lee had attempted to deter Jason from pursuing this new lead, which only emboldened him to investigate further.  In a desperate bid to hide whatever was going on, Lee locked himself in a room and started a fire, using some sort of chemicals; the first destroyed what was probably the most essential evidence, and seemingly killed Lee in the process, although forensics was going to have to make that determination.

Lee may have killed himself in the fire, but there was, it turns out, more than enough in this place to make a few convictions.  Patient testimony alone should do it, to say nothing of what the paramedics were finding; the boy, Adam, had told Jason that Lee had subjected him to brutal torture for some unknown purpose, and showed Jason a number of scars that seemed to confirm this.  A quick medical exam seemed to back up the story, so the boys in blue started searching the building for evidence of this being done to other patients, and sure enough, it seemed that systemic abuse of an extremely bizarre nature was occurring.  Everyone was preparing to dig further, and find out what ha gone on, when a few staff members panicked and began to confess to all sorts of macabre goings-on.  I guess they figured if they gave themselves up this early in the game, they could cut a deal.  What did they give up, exactly?  Grant wasn’t sure; he had nearly been killed, and then everything was a mass of confusion, in which Jason took a few staff members hostage, a patient riot nearly ensued, and Grant somehow managed to call for backup.  When other agents and police arrived, Grant excused himself,, as he needed to catch his breath and make sense of what was going on.  Jason had taken Adam to the medics at once, to make sure he was okay; Grant could already see that Jason was getting attached, as he tended to do in these situations.  Grant decided to head back to the front and see what new information was available.  As he was about to turn away from the fenced in area, at which he had been gazing for some time now, he noticed that someone had written something in marker next to the door that led inside; “Narrenturm”.  It may have been nothing, but he made a mental note to find out what that meant.

Back at the front of the building, police were leading out a few staff members in handcuffs.  He approached a fellow F.B.I. agent, John Lynch, who was standing there observing the events.

“John.”  Grant began. “Glad to see you back from Wisconsin.”

“Grant Ellis.”  Agent Lynch smiled, turning to the other agent.  “It’s good to be back.  Fuck, if you think it’s cold here, you should try heading up there.”

“What’s up?  I’ve been a little confused, since everything happened so fast.”  Grant asked, nodding at the staff members being led away.

“Well, let’s start with what’s right in front of us,” Agent Lynch said, turning towards the staff members.  “Seems there was something pretty big going on here.  Our guys found these four trying to destroy evidence.  They had started a damn bonfire in an office, and were heaping all kinds of stuff on it.  The fire alarm went off and we just followed to smell of smoke.  Two damn fires in one day.”

That certainly seemed to seal the deal that something strange was up here.

“Well, we do know something was going on, and that those four, and the administrator were involved, at the very least.  Any idea what?”

“That’s a little tougher.”  Agent Lynch said.  “The medics are confirming that some kind of systemic brutality was taking place; we got people with weird burn makes, scars all over their bodies, missing digits in some cases, and the medics are just getting started.  No telling what they’ll find when they get em’ to a real hospital.”

“This is unbelievable.”  Grant said, looking at the patients being led out.  His eyes also drifted to Jason, who was sitting in the back of an ambulance with Adam, apparently entirely caught up with speaking to the boy. 

“Some of the staff started giving the others up, right?  What have they confessed?”

“Well,” Agent Lynch began. “so far it’s pretty jumbled, and we’ll have to verify their stories, but they’re saying that the staff was intentionally torturing patients, doing all kinds of strange stuff to them, as well as letting some of them out to do who knows what.”

“That certainly correlates with my case.”  Grant said.  As they stood there, another F.B.I. agent strode out of the building, looking around at the confusion and bedlam surrounding him.

“Here’s the man with the answers.”  Agent Lynch said somewhat loudly, eliciting a humble blush from the agent approaching him and Grant.

“David Carpenter!” Grant exclaimed. “Good to see you!  I thought you transferred to San Diego?” Grant asked.

“Well, I did,” Agent Carpenter said “but some issues brought me back to D.C.  You know what I mean.”  He said, alluding to the agent’s involvement in Majestic-12.

“So, Dave, what’s the story? You got a picture to paint for us?”  Agent Lynch asked, expecting a very complete explanation from Agent Carpenter, who was a forensics genius and was capable of reconstructing a complete narrative for a crime from the most minute evidence.

“Well,” he began “I’ll start with the basics.  I looked over the entire building, and it seems that what was being done to the patients was some sort of…human experiments.”

“Experiments?” Grant asked, incredulous.

“Exactly.  I recognize many of the M.O.’s from past cases; this operation was connected to our primary enemy, without a doubt.”

This revelation had a chilling effect on the two agents, as neither was expecting ‘official’ business to be brought in to this investigation.

“What the hell were they trying to do?”  Agent Lynch asked.

“At this point I’m not certain, but skimming through what records there are of it, and getting info from the staff who are cooperating with us, I can tell you that the boy Agent Dawkins met was their primary subject, their patient X, so to speak.”

“What about the killer we came here to find?”  Grant asked. “Any idea if that’s connected to all of this?”

“Most certainly.”  Agent Carpenter responded.  “It’s going to take some reconstruction to get all the details, but it seems that the cookout those nurses were having was to destroy records involving violent tendencies of that specific patient and their correlation with procedures being done to him.  Every time he exhibit more violent behavior, it was seen as ‘promising’.”

“Are you saying they were trying to make this guy in to a killer, or something?”  Grant asked.

“It’s possible, but I’ll know more later.”

“We’ve seen them do this kind of thing before.”  Agent Lynch piped up. “But we thought they had more or less given up their Manchurian program.  Unless this is something new.”

“I don’t know.”  Grant said.  “But I expect Faireborne will want a very long meeting with the three of us.”

“Three?”  Agent Lynch asked.  “So, Agent Dawkin’s still isn’t in?”  Grant shook his head.

“His parent’s still concerned about it?”  Agent Carpenter asked.

“Yeah,” Grant said. “They’re bringing him in eventually, but they still have misgivings.  Maureen says that she can’t even imagine how her grandfather was able to bring her in.”

“Well, I can’t blame them for worrying.” Agent Lynch said. “If it was me, I wouldn’t be too enthusiastic about bringing my kid in to it, but we could really use him on the inside.”

“If you two will excuse me,” Agent Carter said “I need to speak with some of the officers.  I’ll keep you appraised.”

Large piles of ash-covered debris were being wheeled out of the building, being prepped for their trip to a facility where a forensics team would go over them with a fine toothed comb.  Ambulances and buses were arriving to transport the patients from this facility to other hospitals, as they obviously could not remain here.

“Is Jason gonna be okay?”  Agent Lynch asked, motioning to the younger agent.

“What do you mean?”  Grant asked, feigning ignorance, not wanting to discuss Jason’s current emotional state and his seeming attachment to this boy until Grant had discussed it with Jason himself.

“You know what I mean.”  Agent Lynch said.  “I can see it in his eyes; he’s getting ready to save the world again.”

“Saving the world is what we do, isn’t it?”  Grant asked rhetorically.

“It may be, but you know his track record with this stuff.  He’s just gonna get himself hurt again.”

Grant said nothing; he knew what Agent Lynch was talking about, and he knew Jason probably was going to get personally involved with this case.  Grant wasn’t sure that was such a bad thing, but he knew it might not end well for Jason, at least not emotionally.

“Just keep an eye on him.”  Agent Lynch said.  “No one wants to see him go through hell again.”

2.

            “So, are we ready?”

“Yes ma’am. 50 beds ready and waiting.”

Frankie Ellis walked the halls of Pine Hill Psychiatric hospital, preparing for a sudden influx of new patients who would reportedly have special needs, although the details were scant.  About two hours ago her husband had called her and informed her of an unusual situation and told her that they would need to receive 42 new patients very shortly.  Frankie protested, saying that it would take everyone working as fast as a bat out of hell to be ready, but he simply said there wasn’t much choice.  She made a note to take this up with Grant in very loud, angry detail later that evening, but for now, she had work to do.

“Mrs. Ellis,” a young nurse approached. “where are all these patients coming from?”

“Well, I’m not entirely certain of all the details right now.  I’ve been focused on simply receiving them.  I’ll let everyone know what the story with this is once I know myself.”

Frankie was slightly irritated at being so uninformed, but she knew that her first order of business was to prepare to care for these people, and there would be time to sort out the how and why of the situation once that was accomplished.

--

            Back at Serenity, Grant was stepping past the crowd of police and medics near the ambulances.  He noted with slight irritation that news crews were starting to arrive, and could only imagine what tale they would fabricate about this entire incident.  Making his way past the EMT’s, Grant found himself at his destination; the ambulance where Jason and Adam were located.  Adam was no longer being examined, but he was due for a trip to Georgetown General where he would be examined more closely, especially since he seemed to be to primary test subject for whatever was going on here.

“How are you two doing?” Grant asked, deciding against breaking the ice with some sort of preposterous joke about the crowd being here for the release of a new iPod.

“Okay, I suppose.”  Jason said, his voice fatigued and weak.  “Just, trying to catch our breath, or something.”  Grant could tell Jason was not handling this well, although there were any number of reasons why this could be.

“They’re ready to take most of the patients from here to Pine Hills.”  Grant said “Except those who need more immediate medical treatment or exams, who will be going to Georgetown General.”

“Keeping the press away from this won’t be an easy task.”  Jason said, his attention still largely focused on Adam.  “It wouldn’t even be as issue if the press was fucking honest,, but I can just imagine them using this to sow hysteria of some kind or another.”

Grant had just been thinking the same thing, although nothing could be done about it now.  Given the Org connections to this incident, cover stories would be put out, but that would not stop the press from simply making up an explanation if they don’t like the official one, which they probably won’t, as the explanation Majestic-12 will put out is going to be notably clear of paranoia and fearmongering.  Before Grant could say anything else, an EMT approached them, and informed Jason and Adam that it was time to go to Georgetown General.  The EMT didn’t seem so sure about Jason riding in the ambulance with them, but a quick flash of his badge deterred any further whining.  Grant and Jason agreed to speak later, as Grant was going to Pine Hills in case his wife needed any assistance.

3.

            The traffic moving out of the complex was slow going, as many ambulances were heading away, in addition to the busses heading for Pine Hills.  Grant decided it was best to simply drive through the grass to get a head start, as he wanted to be on hand in case Frankie needed his assistance in any way.  He was preparing to call her, when his ccell phone rang, the caller I.D. telling him that it was Agent Carpenter.

“Ellis.”  He answered formally.

“Agent Ellis, it’s agent Carpenter.”  The younger agent said on the other end. “I thought I should inform you of some new discoveries.”

“Go ahead Dave.”  Grant instructed.

“Well, I have people going over patient files, but it seems that many patients, including the boy Agent Dawkins is helping, were not committed here legally.”

“How’s that?” Grant asked, not liking where this was going. “What do their records say?”

“That’s just it.”  Agent Carpenter replied. “For many patients there are no records, and the staff in charge of the record keeping says most were simply brought here by other staff members, or people in civilian attire.  I had some of my people search the system for the names of these people, but there is no record of many of these patients in the mental health system at all.”

“So,” Grant began “Are you saying they were just abducted, and brought there against their will?”

“It seems so Agent Ellis.”  He continued.  “There is also little evidence of any actual treatment taking place here.”

“Then, this was all for the purpose of those experiments you said were taking place?”

“I believe so, yes.”  He replied.  “We’re still searching for more evidence of that.  The patients and staff seem to be describing a large amount of equipment than we have found; they could be lying, or the equipment could have been moved before today.”

“What else are they say? About the experiments in general.”

“Well, they aren’t calling them that.  Some of the staff is, but most people seem to have no idea why this was being done, and those in charge are being notably uncooperative.  In any case, there’s a lot of fantastical talk about machines in the walls, moving gears and the like under the floor, things coming out of the building itself at night, mostly from the patients.  I’m not sure how seriously I should…”

“Knock down the walls.”  Grant said, a flash of insight blinking like a lightbulb above his head.

“Excuse me?”

“Knock down the walls, see if there really is anything out of the ordinary there.  It’s just a hunch, but give it a try.”

“Yes sir Agent Ellis, I’ll get some people on it right away.”

“Good.  Thank’s Dave.  I need to get off here and make a few calls.  Keep me updated.”

“I will Agent Ellis.”

With that, Grant hung up, and began dialing Frankie’s cell phone number.  He was well past the parade of busses and ambulances that were heading to Pine Hills, and the snowy streets were largely empty at the moment.  Hitting the send button, held held the phone up to his ear, and after a few rings, his wife answered.

“Hey!  Are you on your way yet?”  Frankie answered, demanding as always.

“Of course.  I’m ahead of the large procession.  How are things on your end?”

“We have everything set up to receive the patients.  I’m still a bit in the dark; what was going on over there?”

“Well, there have been a few developments since w last talked, all for the worse.”

“Tell me.”

“Not over the phone.”

“….I don’t like the sound of that.” Frankie said, after a nervous pause.

“You shouldn’t.  Looks like we have a bigger problem than we thought.  I’ll explain in more detail when I get there.”

“Okay, see ya then!”

Grant hit the End button on his phone, and then began dialing Faireborne’s number.  Will answered almost immediately.

“Faireborne.”

“Hey, it’s me.”

“Grant.  I’ve been wondering when I would hear from you.”

“Sorry, I’ve been a bit swamped.” Grant said, making a turn on to another road, taking a shortcut few people were aware of.

“Have you spoken with Agent Lynch yet?” Grant asked, wondering if Will was aware of the Org connection.

“Yes, I have.  He’s told me everything; the activities at that place, their purpose, and who was behind it.  Looks like we’re going to be pulling an all-nighter to get a handle on the situation.”

“Have you spoken to anyone else on the council?”  Grant asked.

“Yes; I spoke to Mr. West, as well as Steve and Maureen.  We have a meeting planned for this evening.  I trust you will be there?”

“Affirmative.”  Grant Answered. “I’m heading to Pine Hills now to assist Frankie if she needs it, so I’ll come with her.  Will Agent Lynch and Agent Carpenter be invited?”

“Of course.”  Will responded.  “I understand Agent Carpenter has made some surprising discoveries.”

“That’s putting it mildly.”  Grant replied. “He’s still working though, so I’ll have a better idea of what’s been found later.  I should get going, though; I’m almost at Pine Hills.”

“Okay.  Keep in touch.”

--

            “This is actually leaving me at a loss for words.”  Agent Carpenter said, looking over what he and his people had discovered.  Photos were being taken of it, and a team was on standby to begin disassembling it for transport back to a lab.

“What the hell is it?”  A police officer asked, staring with surprise at the large hole in the wall, which had revealed a large network of machinery, not unlike the patients had described.

“I’m not entirely certain,” Agent Carpenter began “but I doubt it has any legitimate therapeutic use.  In fact….” He trailed off as he leaned in close, shining a flashlight at the machinery.  “It looks like it was made to generate and enhance soundwaves.”  Before he could go on, a loud crash sounded behind him, as a piece of the floor fell away.

“Agent Carpenter!” Another agent called. “We got something!”  Beneath the floor was another set of machines, similar to what was in the wall.  There was also a crawlspace of some sort, which led out in to the hall.  Agent Carpenter looked in to the space, and surmised he could fit in, which prompted him to climb down, following another hunch.

“Agent Carpenter!”

“I’m fine.”  He said to the agent who had unearthed this discovery.  Agent Carpenter knelt down, walking as he half stood up, shining the flashlight in the strange tunnel, surrounded on either side by odd machinery.  The tunnel went in to the hall, as well as further in to the room by about two feet.  He made his way to the end of the tunnel, and looked up, finding a hatch of some sort, which he proceeded to open and push up.  As he suspected, it opened in to the room; under the bed, to be exact.  Agent Carpenter crawled out from under the bed, as the officers and agents stared with perturbed expressions.

“It seems there really were monsters under the bed in this facility.” Agent Carpenter said, nodding to the trapdoor. “It looks like those tunnels lead further in the hallways, and go in both directions.  I think if we look closer, we’ll find they extend to many, if not all, of the rooms in the building.  I would like these tunnels mapped, please.”  He instructed, brushing off his suit, and then removing his cell phone.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to make a phone call.”

--

            Grant drove his car past the main gate of Pine Hills Psychiatric hospital, and up the driveway to the primary receiving area and crisis stabilization building, where the bulk of the patients would be taken.  As he pulled up under the awning of the building and parked his car on the curb, keeping it as out of the way as possible, his phone rang; it was Agent Carpenter. 

“Ellis.”  He answered.

“Agent Ellis, your suspicions were correct; there was something in the walls.”

“What did you find?”  Grant asked, feeling vindicated; he had suspected that, if many of the patients were there against their will and not by legal channels, then many of them were not mentally ill, but simply random people who the Org had abducted under the guise of a mental hospital.  This seemed to rule out that stories of things in the wall were simple delusions, and based on past Org activities, he knew this was likely some twisted mind game they were playing, using mental patients because no one would believe them.

“We’ve found equipment in the walls, some of it made to generate soundwaves.  We also found a series of tunnels under the floor, leading to each patient room, and exiting under the beds, of all places.”

Grant rolled his eyes. ‘Monsters under the bed’ he thought. ‘Sick.’

“Good work Agent Carpenter.  I want that place gutted; find out everything there is about that stuff.”

“I’m on it Agent Ellis.”

--

            The sirens of the am ambulance wail as it speeds down cold, snowy roads, blazing through the chilled air towards Georgetown General, where Adam will be examined by doctors, looked over to see if there is any immediate harm from what was done to him, or if there is any permanent damage.  Jason rides in the back with the boy, whom has been very clingy towards him since this entire ordeal began. 

            While the ambulance sped to it’s destination, Grant had reached his, and was in the main admitting center of Pine Hills.  He quickly found his wife, who was engrossed in preparations for the patients that would arrive any moment.

“Hey red.”  Grant said to Frankie, approaching slowly from behind.  She spun around, startled, as she had not heard him approach her.

“Hey!”  She cried out.  “Glad you’re here.  Mind filling me in on what the hell is happening?”  She asked, still being in the dark about this whole occurrence.

“Okay,” Grant said. “but not out here.  Let’s go to your office.”

            The ambulance had arrived, and Adam was rushed to an examination room where he was looked over by a Dr. Ware.  Jason threw his authority around to make sure he never left Adam’s side; partly due to his growing concern and attachment, as well as making sure no Org operatives came to finish him off, ensuring his silence.  A cursory exam revealed a large number of scars, cuts, burn marks, and many other past injuries.  Adam was quickly prepped for a series of x-rays to check for bone damage.

            Frankie sat at her desk, listening to Grant recount everything he knew up until this point.  She was shocked, appalled, and disgusted, although she had heard similar stories before; hearing these kind of stories was how she came to this job in the first place, but that is a story in and of itself.  She certainly had her work cut out for her, as caring for these patients, many of whom suffered abuses she could only guess at, were likely to be in extremely bad shape psychologically.  There was more than enough room at the hospital, but she felt great trepidation about taking on this monumental task; would she be able to provide the utmost care for everyone who needed it, especially under these extremely unusual circumstances?  Grant spoke up, breaking her train of thought.

“I’m sorry, what?”  She said, realizing that she had spaced out for a moment.

“I said, Jason seems to be developing an attachment to this kid Adam, the one who was one of their prime subjects.  The one who looks to be one of our clones.” Frankie was visibly distressed to hear this, for a number of reasons; the Org having any of their children was a serious matter, but Jason getting romantically involved with another broken boy hit her on a more personal level, as she had seen first hand where this could lead.  However, she couldn’t stop him, nor did she want to prevent him from playing a role in assisting this Adam.

“I see.”  She responded, leaning forward on her desk.  “You think this is going to turn in to another train wreck for him?”

“I don’t know.”  Grant said.  “It’s been a long time since he was here, and he’s grown a lot since then.  It might be different this time.”

“I hope so.”  Frankie said.  “I know why he does this; why he goes for someone he has to fix, someone with some kind of troubled past, but I wish he wouldn’t do it.  It never works out for him, ever.”

At that moment, Grant’s phone rang, breaking the conversation.

“Ellis.”

“Hey, it’s me.”  Jason replied on the other end.

“Hey, did Adam get examined yet?” Grant asked, Frankie’s attention perking up at the mention of the name.

“Yeah, well, sort of.”  Jason responded.  “He’s still being looked at.  After the initial exam and some x-rays, they decided to do a lot more work on him.”

“What did they find?”

“Well,” Jason began.  “He’s covered in scars that are consistent with the account he gave us, and x-rays revealed a number of past fractures in several bones, as well as evidence that his bones were drilled in to, cut in to, and all other matter of things.”  Jason said, recounting what Dr. Ware had told him.

“Sheesh.”  Grant was able to come up with no better response.  “To what end?”  He asked.

“I’m not sure.”  Jason replied.  “They’re doing bloodwork now, and a few other tests.  We’re going to see if any drugs are still in his system, see if that reveals anything.”

“Okay.  I’m at Pine Hills with Frankie.  We’re about to receive the patients who were brought over here.”

“Okay.”  Jason said.  “I guess Adam will be coming over there eventually as well?”  Jason asked.

“Yes.”  Grant responded.  “Don’t worry, he’ll be fine.  I’ve gotta go, we have a lot to do over here.  Keep me updated.”

After hanging up, Grant informed Frankie of these new developments.  She sighed, knowing that this time she really had her work cut out for her.

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