Mister Nobody

Chapter 15

The night was long and full of incoherent thoughts. Jack felt like he had just lived through parts of his entire life over again, and he was having trouble discerning dream from memory. Waking up after a while, he could see that the window was open, and Alison was sitting in a chair and looking outside at the New Jersey sky, the sun just peeking over the horizon. Turning back to him, Alison stared into his eyes. "Good, you're awake. We're going to be moving out in less than an hour, so get changed and grab your things." Nodding, Jack got up out of bed, his head still hurting as he groaned slightly and went into the shower. Stripping down, he turned on the tap and let the cold water running over his body help wake him up. Then, he could feel his mind searching for something again, and the coldness of the water triggered a memory. He remembered being immersed in ice water, being held down by a strong and sturdy hand, being forced to hold his breath as long as he could, sometimes blacking out. Panting, Jack felt like he couldn't breathe as he put both his hands against the shower wall, trying to focus and come back to the real world. Gasping as he finally managed to push the memory out of his head, he washed himself off quickly and then turned off the shower, stepping out to wash himself off. Looking in the mirror, he could see a different person than yesterday, when he looked in the mirror in New York. The man he was now was staring back at him, or perhaps the man he always was.

Walking back out of the bathroom, Alison was standing right outside the door, making Jack jump a bit. "Christ-" Jack panted as he looked back at her. "You don't know how to knock?" Alison held up a pair of plastic gloves and a tube of black liquid. Frowning, Jack looked at it. "What's that?" Alison sighed. "It's hair dye. The FBI has probably sent your face all around the country at this point, you need a disguise. If you don't know how to do it, let me." Nodding, Jack walked back into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror, letting Alison don the gloves and run her fingers through his hair, covering it in the bleach and dye. It was cheap and smelled horrible, but it would hopefully work. Alison was almost as tall as he was, but her stature and attitude made her appear taller. She could easily intimidate anyone if she wanted to. Looking in the mirror, Jack could see the brown roots in her blonde hair. "You've done this to yourself, huh?" Nodding, Alison finished dying Jack's hair, which was now a more jet-black appearance. "It's not the only thing." Reaching behind her, she pulled the entire messy bun out of the back of her head, revealing it to be a clever extension, and showing her true hairstyle, a short pixie cut with a small curl to one side. "Brand new man." She said as she threw the styling kit out. "In more ways than one." Jack muttered as he put his clothes back on, being careful not to mess up his new hair.

The stolen truck drove down the highway, Jack turning his head back to Alison. "So, where to next? You got some secret bunker or something?" Alison kept staring at the road. "We're going to a man I know who can help us get some supplies. That pistol isn't going to help us against half the FBI." Alison turned to stare at Jack for a moment. "And before you ask, yes, I trust him. He's helped me before, and he doesn't work for Castling or the FBI. He's his own man." Jack looked ahead for a bit, then asked the question that had been burning in his mind ever since she'd brought it up. "The whole reason you brought me to New York was so that you could talk to me without worrying about getting yourself killed, that I can accept...but you said something about the whole reason you did this was because you found out Castling was planning something that you needed to stop." Looking back at her, he stared at her intensely. "If I'm going to help you, you need to tell me what that thing is." Alison didn't speak for a long time, and Jack knew she was battling herself internally as to whether or not she should tell him. Then, she spoke. "In less than 48 hours, Castling is going to execute their plan to kill the United States Secretary of Defence in Washington D.C."