Target

I lay on a bed and stare at the ceiling. I have no idea where I am and I cannot comprehend what happened. I hear the door open. I look up and see Gwenn. I am not surprised to see her, but I am surprised though that she has a bruise on her cheek. Anyway, I guess I expected her to be a part of this as well, considering how close she and Alysha were, are... I still haven’t figured that part out yet. “Hey,” she says softly. “What’s happening?” I reply. She shrugs. “Is it true?” she asks. I nod. “Did you know about Alysha?” I ask in return. “She only told me the day after her ‘funeral’.” She is upset about it, I can tell. She looks at her watch. “Okay, listen. If you need to talk about this, we can do that later. They come within a few minutes to pick you up for interrogation and I wanted to warn you… Alysha… she is… she is on medication and basically acts like a bitch.” “What do you mean?” “Don’t take anything personal.” “Did she do that too?” I point at her cheek. She nods. “What do they want to know?” I ask. She shrugs. “I have no idea. They took me off the case a few weeks ago. And technically Alysha too…” I hear somebody approaching. “Be careful okay? I’ll be watching, if that makes you feel any better.” At least one friendly person in this place. She hugs me at the moment the door opens again. It is this guy Alysha called Nate. “Gwenn, what are you doing here?” he asks. “That is none of your concern,” Gwenn replies. Nate rolls with his eyes. “Liam, come with me please. Gwenn, we’ll talk about this later.” “Yeah, but no…” Gwenn murmurs.

Nate brings me to a room which is an exact copy of those interrogation rooms you see on TV. I have an idea what is going to happen, but that does not comfort me. I wait for a few minutes, that feel like ages. I am anxious to see Alysha, but I still keep Gwenn’s warning in mind. To my surprise, it is not Alysha that enters the room, but the nurse and some woman I’ve never seen. “You’ve got to be kidding me…” I murmur. “What?” the unknown woman says. I shake my head. “Where’s Alysha?” I ask. “Miss Parks will be here any minute. My name is Moira Clark and this is Kate Price. We’ll be interviewing you about the work you did for Conrad Hayes.” I nod. “We’ve retrieved 22 files from your apartment. Are those all the case files?” Kate asks. I nod again. “We’re going through all the cases and tell us as much as you remember,” Moira says friendly. She takes the top folder of the stack. Seeing them there, well, it was confronting. “April twenty 2012,” Kate starts. “Damion Lockheart died under mysterious circumstances.” I shrug. I remember that it was about that time when Conrad had made me kill for the first time. But I have no idea who this man was. After all: Don't even speak the name of your target. It was the one rule I lived by, since ignorance made it slightly more bearable. “Appeared it was an overdose. His family urged for extensive research, since he had never used before. That’s when we found something odd. He had taken drugs, mixed with polonium 210, a radioactive material, only produced in Russia.” “If you know this already, what do you want me to tell you?” I ask. “Why?” “Conrad told me to do so.” “You remember any details about this evening?” I stare at my hands. “No.” Suddenly, Alysha enters the room. “Sorry I’m late,” she says. “That’s fine, sit down,” Moira responds. She doesn’t sit down, but leans against the wall. “Liam, think. Anything that stood out?” Kate says. “No, I just snuck to his room, dumped the stuff there and went back. That’s it.” Alysha shakes her head.

It goes on like that for hours. I try to remember as many details as possible and the more recent, the more there are. Kate puts the twelfth folder aside. “We’re done for today,” she says. “We’re not even close to done yet,” Alysha objects. “We are done for today,” Kate repeats. “Alysha, can I talk to you?” I ask. “No,” she replies sharply. She leaves and I stare at the door she slammed behind her. I get the urge to punch something. Life is unfair. I wish she would let me explain. And it’s not like she has been completely honest with me. “Come on,” Moira says. She takes me back to my cell. I lay on the floor and close my eyes, trying to forget everything. This place is driving me crazy, and mostly, not knowing anything. I hear the door open again. “Hey.”

Notes

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