Guiltless

Chapter 2

John sat there in shock. Running out of patience, even though Cathy gave him all of a minute before continuing, “Oh, snap out of it already John. I still have some things left to discuss.”

When he still stared at her wondering how she could be so calm, she let out an exasperated breath and answered his unasked question, “John, I am one of the high level officials of the Resistance. In our group, there is no room for disobedience and every single high official has to have had the situation to deliver the news of death sentence or exile to the guilty person, or people for that matter. You surely didn’t suspect that we didn’t hold our followers in a tight grip of discipline to ensure no one went rogue, did you?” Even though she started this in annoyance, probably through the look of horror on his face, she seems now a little amused. Either that or she was being rhetorical, he can’t say clearly because his mind was still reeling from the shock and disgust.

His mind keeps asking me that has he, in order to get rid of one group of people dangerous to the world, unwillingly aided another? He has no answer to that.

Cathy clears her throat and she seems annoyed by his reactions. And for one moment, he wished someone had given her the same notice she had given me, perhaps then she would have sympathised.

“Alright, that’s enough time for you to deal with it. I am now continuing this and will treat no reaction from you as complete agreement.” Cathy says and he barely nod to her before she starts again.

“Simon will be one of us and so we must have a contingency plan for him as well in case he ever goes rogue. For this purpose, we have decided that this time, the psychiatrist will seal more than just his discovery of new power. We have arranged for an organic locator bug to be placed into Simon’s veins to always be aware of his position. It will be small enough to avoid causing any side-effects but will still deliver his location far clearer than any public, and almost all private, surveillance methods.”

Before she can continue, John interrupts, feeling guilty for pointing out this potential risk, “What if he ever gets injured and the bug slips out along with the bleeding? Or if it reacts with something in his blood?”

“Good to see you are thinking about all the possible ways he could be rid of the bug.” She says in an amused voice but he still didn’t miss the pointed reference she gives: ‘Could be rid of’ instead of ‘Can get rid of’ to suggest that someone else, like him in her unspoken words, might try this.

“The bug has been specially created to leave the signalling part of it in Simon’s heart. There is no consumable in this world which can harm it. If the moving part is ever removed from Simon’s body, the fixed part will immediately spawn a new replacement for it. Taking it to a further level, we made sure that if anyone containing the bug gets a heart transplant, the movable part will fix itself into the subject’s brain as soon as it can and then generate a new stationary part for the new heart. We do like to cover all of our bases, you see.”

He nodded, unwilling to respond any further to her than that. One side of her mouth quirks up a little and then she continues, “The installation of the bug has to be done through surgery though and we have already made the arrangements to do so tonight, exactly one hour from now. The psychiatrist has been instructed to make him forget the insertion and replace it with an accident he had in which he injured himself on an abandoned knife. To make this seem real, we have already informed our cook Mr. Zachary to leave this place forever, seeing as he has been offering Simon treats to have a bond with him – a direct violation of his employment conditions and made sure all other servants to behave as if this incident really happened.”

This time, he barely managed to control himself from bursting into a ‘What?’ and then ranting about this was wrong and unnecessary while Cathy watched his face. It was quite a sight because even though she showed indifference on her face, her eyes seemed to be laughing at the conflicting emotions on his face. A moment passed before Cathy’s eyes went back to being flat.