Inner Workings

Inner Workings - Part 1

"Agent William?"

Will shuddered awake on a hospital bed, fully clothed in jeans and a long sleeved shirt. Blinking, he shook his hair out of his eyes. Hospital bed? When did he get here? The lights in the room were too bright, almost blinding, but he could see who called him. He froze. Martin Zachs stood at the doorway, wearing slacks and a half-buttoned shirt, head down, wringing his hands. Around him was the faint, arrogant silhouette of the man that had gunned Will down.

"What are you doing here?" snapped Will, reaching for the bedside security button and finding his limbs and torso tied down by Velcro straps.

Zachs closed the door and approached. No one outside would hear them.

"I... wanted to talk to Louis, but I can't find him."

"I don't know where he is," said Will, pulling on his restraints.

"Oh, but I think you do." Zachs loomed over Will's bedside and lifted up his shirt, placing his hand over the bruises on Will's stomach. "I think you know exactly where he is."

"Let go of me!" yelled Will. He tried to twist away from the invading touch but the straps were too tight

"No," Zachs whispered calmly, pressing his fingertips into skin until Will choked back a yelp of pain. "You let go of him."

The bruises bubbled and burst under Zachs' hand, parting through flesh. He pushed deeper, shoving his fingers all the way into Will's body. Will's scream bounced off the walls and ceiling, the volume overlapping like a wave. The hand inside him searched, brushing his heart and making it hard to breathe. Blood speckled under his nostrils and the corners of his mouth. Then Zachs grasped something and pulled.

Zachs brought out a full size hand and kept pulling, drawing out an arm, shoulder, head. It was Louis, unconscious.

Zachs smiled; a feral glint in his eyes. With one hand he kept Louis aloft by the back of his neck, with the other he held a gun to the blonde's face.

"No..." whimpered Will, shaking as his body went numb. "Put him back."

"He doesn't want to be there, William."

Zachs fired.

Will jerked awake, chest heaving. He was in his apartment, in his own bed, and wearing what he had fallen asleep in; t-shirt and boxers. It was still dark outside.

Pressing a hand to his stomach, Will took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. It was just a nightmare. The bruises had faded weeks ago, and Zachs was in lockup because of his betrayal of the Watch. Louis was safe at his own place. It had been well over a month since the Luvor Mission, and longer than that since the Devil's Neckbrace. There was nothing to be worried about.

Then why did nightmares still plague him?

The alarm clock read a quarter before five. Thursday morning. He wouldn't get back to sleep at this rate; might as well get up and start morning exercise early. As he clicked the button to keep the alarm off he eyed the Yoda figurine that kept sentinel over his nightstand.

"Named must your fear be before banish it you can," croaked Will. "Easier said than done."

***

"Thank you for your work," said Cetz, walking the latest psychologist to the Watch Two exit. "I'm sorry we couldn't find more use for you."

"Quite alright, Mr. Cetz," said the prim woman as she handed over a thick file folder. "Five days was ample time for my diagnoses. My preliminary observation report should be a start as to how to handle those two agents I talked about earlier. And if you need my help again I'm available through Watch relations."

"Again, I thank you." Cetz left the psychologist in the care of the exit guard. "Have a safe trip."

Once the woman was gone Cetz carried the huge folder back to his office, scanning through a few pages on his way. Passing through Main Tech he took note of which agents were at their desks and those who were not. In his office Rachel sat waiting on the sofa, two lunch trays heaped with Chinese food on the coffee table.

"How did it go?"

Cetz held up one finger, put the file down, took a small box out of his closet, and went to the metal lined Ethernet pipe running through his office wall. He unhooked two wires from the box and held them to the pipe.

Through the wall he heard a screech.

"Back to your desk!" Cetz commanded through the wall.

The door to the storage closet on the other side of the wall slammed open and then shut, swearing followed two sets of footprints.

Rachel shook her head as Cetz put the box away and fetch up the file again. "I almost feel sorry for them," she said.

"Beni and Reese already figured we've been bringing in shrinks, they can't know any more than that."

"I think Will and Louis know too. So... how did it go?"

Cetz rolled his eyes and dumped the file on the floor next to the coffee table, the thump making Rachel wince.

"That bad?"

"The two agents she homed in on were Beni and Reese, saying they had a child-like mentality and their past history of theft made them dangers to the Watch." Cetz sat down on the couch and stabbed a fork in his chow mein. "She observed Will had the eager puppy-like mentality of a boy scout and Louis had subtle rage issues and should have counseling. Grant is an introverted shut-in. And apparently Olivia has a sexual psychosis."

"We already knew that."

"Her report is the same as the last four. The "camaraderie" in Watch Two is dysfunctional and non-productive."

"Bullshit," said Rachel crunching through the shell of a crab rangoon. "We are functionally dysfunctional and damn productive."

"Damn right," said Cetz around a mouthful of noodles. "We got any eggrolls?"

Rachel passed over a plate of rolls and plum sauce. "You know, I'd hate to play devil's advocate, but what kind of psychologist are you looking for? Someone who can read minds?"

"Not I, we. And I don't know," admitted Cetz. "But each one was here during a test day when Will was walking around with Louis inside him, and none of them noticed a damn thing."

"That's the point," pointed out Rachel with a pair of well used soy sauce stained chopsticks. "If those two are picked up for a mission where one has to be concealed then no one is supposed to notice it. What are our criteria for a psychologist?"

Cetz put down his fork with a sigh. "Someone open enough to consider the possibility of what Louis can do and what Will is willing to do. The shrinks we've interviewed think in strict lines when what happens in Watch Two is so far outside the box it isn't even geometric anymore."

Rachel sighed and plucked out a noodle from Cetz's plate. "I'll go through the personnel files again and pick out a few more choices."

Cetz frowned. "Aren't you still working on the machine we brought back from the Freewill compound?"

"And the experiment data for Watch One, keeping up contact with Palmer, upgrading the BTs, keeping Bella on her diet while she's sick, and doing my rounds in Med Tech."

"You know the psych also said you had control issues and was overworked."

"She's a quack."

Cetz lifted an eyebrow. "Whatever you say, doctor. I'm just advising you delegate."

"Well, at least I have some good news." Rachel handed over her tablet screen before picking the bell peppers out of her rice.

"What's this?" asked Cetz.

"Massaru Devi's medical report."

"What's wrong with him now?"

"Nothing. You get Watch One approval and he can finally go home."