What Are You Hiding? | Henry Creel / Peter Ballard / 001

Part 3 - Something Fishy Is Happening...

"And this is the rainbow room," Peter explains as we enter a room that, despite all of the friendly rainbows, I get yet another disturbing feeling from. 

I look around, slowly turning in a circle.  This is rather strange.  It feels like the waiting room of a doctor's office, miscellaneous toys scattered throughout.  All of the toys are put away neatly, clearly not having been used recently.  I approach a chess board, eyeing it skeptically.  I carefully trace a finger across it, observing the streak it makes through the dust coating the board.

"How long has it been since children have been here?" I ask, turning to Peter as I hold up my finger coated in dust.

He sighs.  "Well, the lab has been short on child participants as of lately."

"So how is it still running?"

"We did have one participant, but she ran away a few days ago."

El. 

I shake my head, making sure I look confused.  "Ran away?  Was she not consenting to the research?"

"Somewhat," he shrugs matter-of-factly.  "We had her parents' consent, and that's all that matters."

I look back down at the chess board, his words raising many red flags in my head.  I mean, look at poor El; she clearly was not thriving here.  I look back up at Peter.  "What research has been going on with the children, exactly?"

"I'm afraid that I cannot tell you that until you have signed confidentiality papers."

I carefully look around the room, spotting security cameras in each corner; however, none of them have red lights on, so I'm hoping that means that they are not recording.  I turn to Peter, now dropping all formalities as I bluntly ask, "What the hell are you guys hiding here?"

Peter only appears slightly surprised.  "I beg your pardon?"

"How the hell do you have the government funding your research when it's only being performed on one child?  How and why is it that this one child ran away?  Was it really that miserable here that she ran away from her home?  And don't even try to bullshit me and say that she wasn't living here, because I saw her stuffed animals and drawings in one of those depressing bedrooms that you claimed had minimal usage."

Peter sighs as he walks towards me, trying to take my hands as disarmingly as possible.  I skeptically allow him to do so, carefully watching him for any signs of attacking me.  "Listen, Jules, we will answer all of your questions once you have signed the papers.  You're really lucky that you are voicing this skepticism to me and not Pa- Dr. Brenner because he would have you kicked out at once."

I stare into his eyes in slight shock.  He was about to call Brenner Papa.  Why in the hell would Brenner have his assistant call him Papa too?  I mean, I guess he could just be used to calling him Papa in front of the children, but it is unsettling regardless.

He squeezes my hands, drawing my attention back to him.  "Jules, are you okay?"

"Yeah," I sigh, quickly realizing I need to get this back on track so as to not raise any suspicion.  "I guess it's just a lot.  But, I mean, what did I expect?  In a social experiment serious enough to be run by the government, you can't have any outside variables that could possibly influence the behavior of the children, including family."

He smiles brightly, making it clear that was the correct response as he squeezes my hands affirmingly one last time before releasing them.  "I knew you were perfect to work here.  See, scientists must separate emotion from their work, and you just did that."