Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Full of Sweet Dreams, and Health, and Quiet Breathing.
Sitting in the observatory of the higher of Jewell Island’s WWII fire control towers, Chase Taylor looks away from his surveillance of the lower tower to stare at Dr. Anderson.
Taylor: “She ain’t come in with Bob an’ the rest o’ them?”
Dr. Anderson: “I have not seen Ms. Bell since she went with you to the tunnels. Did she say she was going back to Warden Tyrrell’s office?”
Taylor: “Naw, I done asked her to go over her story with ya afore them Coasties get here. Figured she’d go directly to you an’ then get some rest. She were acting real tired.”
Anderson: “Maybe she decided to go over her story with somebody else first. She could be worried about what Dr. King or Agent O’Toole have to say about her.”
Taylor: “Aww, sweet Jesus, doc! You don’t think…”
Anderson: “There is no reason to panic. Let us start by checking if she answers on her radio.”
With the radio he captured from a Manhanock guard set on the frequency agreed on with Bell, O’Toole and the helpful African-American guard, Pat Whittaker, Taylor starts calling Sherilyn Bell’s name, requesting an immediate check-in. There is no answer. Increasingly agitated, Taylor tries O’Toole’s name, but receives no answer either. Finally, he tries Pat Whittaker’s name.
Whittaker: “Whittaker, reading you loud and clear. Over.”
Taylor: “Hey, Pat, Chase Taylor speaking. Where are you now an’ might could have you seen Ms. Bell anywhere around? Over.”
Whittaker: “I’m in C Wing with Randall, Arden, Armstrong and Bernard. We’ve managed to deal with the fire here and Gordon, Cardillo, Caldwell, Bender and Reyes from the towers just turned up to help us with the clean-up. We haven’t seen any sign of Ms. Bell. Is she missing? Over.”
Taylor: “Naw, don’t worry ‘bout it, we’ve probably jes’ missed running into her. Y’all seen Agent O’Toole? Over.”
Whittaker: “Not since he sent us out here. He told us not to bother him again unless it was a real emergency. Over.”
Taylor: “That sound jes’ like the man. Y’all take care now. Out.”
Wordlessly holding up a cell phone, Dr. Anderson indicates that Agent O’Toole’s mobile number is the last number dialled. Taylor grabs the phone from Anderson’s hand and dials. After several rings, there is an answer.
O’Toole: “What the [fornication] is it now?”
Taylor: “We’ve gotta talk, O’Toole. Where are ya?”
O’Toole: “We are [fornicating] talking, aren’t we?”
Taylor: “I reckon we’d better meet. We kin come to whereever you are.”
Dr. Anderson shakes his head, doubtless to indicate his views on any plan where Taylor plans to go gallivanting around Jewell Island in preference to having the unwounded O’Toole come to them.
O’Toole: “Lookit, Chase, I’m apparently in charge of everything until the new incident commander gets here and I’ve got a list of problems needing dealt with longer than my [male genitalia]. I really don’t have [fornicating] time for your bull[excrement].”
Taylor: “I’d take it right kindly if’n you’d make some time, Agent O’Toole. The Doc an’ me, we cain’t find Sherilyn Bell. I reckon I don’t need to tell ya that we need to find her before anybody else gets here.”
O’Toole: “Well, [excrement]! Is that all, Chasie-boy? She’s not missing. She’s right here, in her cell in J Wing.”
Taylor: “She’s with you? Let me talk to her!”
O’Toole: “Uh, sure.”
Taylor waits impatiently as Danny O’Toole hands off the mobile phone.
Cherry Bell: “What?”
Taylor: “I… we couldn’t find ya.”
Bell: “You told me to get some rest. I’m getting some rest.”
Taylor: “I guess I figured you’d wanna talk to Doc Anderson first. Go over ever’thing, make sure there ain’t nothin’ that kin surprise ya when we hafta give our statements. I know that all we did was defend ourselves an’ you ain’t even supposed to be here, but these are ruthless, dangerous people. They ain’t gonna need evidence, if’n they think we ain’t playing square, they could throw us all in another place like this. Or jes’ kill us.”
Bell: “I know. You’ve told me. More than once.”
Taylor: “An’ you’re sure you’re ready for them?”
Bell: “Urrgkh! Chase, I’m not a baby. We’ve gone over this. We’re all gonna tell the truth and nothing but the truth. When you do that, you don’t need to worry about your story. I’m the damsel in distress here, so what do I have to fear from the authorities?”
Taylor: “I ain’t gonna allow anybody to put you away again, not without locking me up too, but you gotta work with me. If we’re stupid, we ain’t never walkin’ free. Homeland Security is supposed to be in charge of this place. You think they ain’t gonna be lookin’ for somebody to blame for this mess?”
Bell: “[blows raspberry]. That’s a worry for Agent O’Toole and the others. Nobody’s going to scapegoat a convict and a mental patient. That would just look bad for whoever allowed us to be in charge of anything.”
Taylor: “I guess you’re right, Sherilyn. Jes’ take care that you don’t try an’ be clever with these people. Don’t pretty up your story an’ don’t conceal anything jes’ because it’s embarrassing or you think it looks bad. Like your cell door, is it locked?”
Bell: “If you think you can come up in here and change your mind again, it sure will be!”
Taylor: “No! That ain’t what I meant, Lynnie! I’m talkin’ ‘bout the fact that Warden Tyrrell left the cell unlocked if’n he felt you’d been cooperative. There ain’t no need to conceal that in your statement an’ you shouldn’t try to lock it now if it weren’t locked before. Even if the cell door ain’t locked, you were still a prisoner here. It’s an island an’ there were a force of armed guards. They oughta be able to figure that it ain’t as if you could have gone anywhere.”
Bell: “Whatever. Was there anything else? I’m really tired.”
Taylor: “I’ma gonna need to talk to Agent O’Toole again. You sleep well now, Sherilyn.”
Cherry Bell doesn’t reply and may have handed the phone off already. O’Toole announces his presence at the other end of the line with an ill-tempered bark.
Taylor: “What are you doing in J Wing, anyway?”
O’Toole: “Taking care of some business.”
Taylor: “Well, we still gotta see you afore you go back to them others. Please wait for us in the lobby of I Wing.”
O’Toole: “Be quick about it, then.”
Taylor stands up and prepares to leave the observation tower.
Dr. Anderson: “I realise the futility of trying to tell you that there is no question of you walking yet another long stretch, but medical necessity and a devotion to rationality compels me to try. Also, did we not originally come up here to establish that there were no die-hard holdouts gunning for the Coast Guard? Surely, we still have to establish that for the other tower?”
Taylor: “Ain’t nothing moved over there since we got here but one rat. An’ that rat strolled about on the tower like it ain’t got a care in the world, so that rules out that a human could be hiding there. We kin radio in to the Coast Guard an’ tell them the towers is secure.”
Anderson: “But you are still going to take a walk?”
Taylor: “Homeland Security is gonna be able to hear anything we say on radio or phone an’ I don’t wanna talk about our story in front of Townsend or them others. We need to know what O’Toole is gonna say.”
Anderson: “That, unfortunately, is true.”
Taylor radios the status of the observation towers to the Coast Guard, using channel 16 so that Townsend and whoever else is by the radio in Warden Tyrrell’s former office will also hear it. Then they start out, moving slowly and carefully down the stairs and then walking across the grounds of Manhanock Asylum.
Opening the door of I Wing, Anderson and Taylor find O’Toole seated on a bench there.
O’Toole: “It was about [fornicating] time. What is it, Taylor, are you cosplaying the Mummy?”
Taylor: “I’ma real sorry for making you wait. It’s jes’, I need to know what you gonna say to Onyx Rain ‘bout Sherilyn.”
O’Toole: “You do, do you? Well, shouldn’t you be more worried about what your friend, Dr. Anderson, is going to say in his evaluation?”
Dr. Anderson: “What Taylor means is that we are agreed that Ms. Bell has been badly treated by the authorities and we do not intend to give any credence to wild speculation of the sort that could be used as justification to send her to another place like this.”
O’Toole: “You want to be sure I don’t say anything that lands her in hot water? Well, don’t worry. As far as I can tell, the pretty little thing didn’t do a thing wrong, except be too sexy for her own good.”
Taylor gives O’Toole a murderous look, but Dr. Anderson stops him with a raised hand.
Anderson: “You will not support any wild allegations Col. Burr might make about mind-control?”
O’Toole: “Hell, no. They’d shoot her out of hand and wouldn’t that be a waste?”
With one hand on Taylor’s shoulder, Dr. Anderson thanks O’Toole. He then suggests that Taylor come with him to the infirmary. Taylor is not prepared to do this, but promises that if they leave him there, he’ll curl up and rest in J Wing, waiting for the authorities and experts to deal with the rat threat from the tunnels. Dr. Anderson, recognising the folly of arguing, accepts this compromise and leaves with O’Toole in the direction of the main building.
Taylor makes his way into J Wing and up to the floor where Bell’s cell is located. He sits down in front of the heavy door that leads to her cell block, where anybody that wants to get to her will have to pass him. Focusing on his sense of hearing, Taylor can hear, even through the thick prison-style doors, the quiet breathing of Sherilyn Bell. She’s asleep and alive. And tomorrow, she’ll have a chance at a life outside this place.
Dr. Anderson spoke of finding a justification he could live with for the murder of Dr. Cotton. Ain’t no justifying murder, but maybe one might could have a reason. Listening to Sherilyn’s breathing and allowing himself to hope for her future, Taylor comes to the conclusion that there are worse reasons in the world.
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela!
Last edited by Icelander; 05-22-2017 at 06:26 AM.
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