Someone's In My Head (WATTYS AWARD WINNER 2015)

Chapter Twenty-One (Pt. 2)

We were at the next scene, a dark, dimly-lit room that looked like a private office. How many has it been? Five? It felt like five hundred.

Surprisingly, Lenny did not drop a single tear when Jason's time of death was finally announced. I guess dead men don't cry.

"After Jason's death, guilt ripped me apart," Lenny admitted. "Although my subconscious kept telling me that it wasn't my fault, I felt responsible for the kid's death. I began to find excuses to skip work; 'I'm down with the flu', 'my car broke down' and 'I sprained my ankle' were my favorite ones.

"And then one day, The Duke summoned me to his office. Talk about insecurity; he even had his personal 'squadron' escort me there! Well, it wasn't quite a hellish trip, if you can ignore the fact that I was blindfolded for the entire journey. Sneaky bastards." Lenny scoffed derisively.

"The trip wasn't long; it was around half an hour, give and take a few minutes. When I reached his office, The Duke was perceptibly pissed at my skyrocketing truancy rate―that's the term he used―but I didn't give a damn." Lenny shrugged.

Well, 'perceptibly pissed' was an understatement; The Duke was FURIOUS, with capital letters. His straight back whipped around like a, well, like a whip as he paced back and forth, reprimanding Lenny Jr. in a low, menacing tone.

Lenny Sr. snickered. "He went on and on for about half an hour before dismissing me. However, just before I was about to leave, something on the table caught my eye."

It was a brown manila folder. At first I had no idea why a perfectly ordinary, everyday paper folder would be of interest to Lenny, until I saw the words on it, written in bold.

ATHENA'S CHILDREN

"I stuck the folder into my coat's inner pocket and made my leave, trying to look as innocent as possible." Lenny Sr. narrated. "I was lucky. Apparently, The Duke had other more important issues than a missing folder. So, once I was sure I had total privacy, I opened it."

We were in a bathroom, I think, and Lenny Jr. was opening the folder. There were several pieces of paper inside, each one printed with tables of identical proportions. Written in the table, were names, the first of which being―oh God.

Jason Davenport

As Lenny Jr.'s eyes scanned frantically through the papers, I saw more names, each complete with their respective ages, genders, blood types, and―holy shit―the types of accidents planned. There were about a hundred of them.

Realization began to dawn upon me. This was the List―the same list which was intercepted by the CIA a couple of years ago. Oh, and it's also the vital piece of evidence that incriminated the Malader Org's of its nefarious activities. It occurred to me that this Duke guy, for obvious reasons, must have decided to operate under a pseudonym. And guess what? The pseudonym happened to be the perfect anagram of the acronym of the name of Lenny's facility.

Coincidence? I don't think so. Too many 'of's in one sentence sounds fishy to me.

The bottom line? Lenny's worst fears were confirmed. Mine too. The Duke was planning deliberate accidents to provide Operation Athena with fresh, brain-dead teenage patients. Guess the Optimus Prime trailer won't be turning up in the NTSB's records anytime soon.

Jeeeeez-us Christ.

Lenny cleared his throat, shaking me from my reverie. "Finding the list was my last straw." Lenny rasped. "It was at that moment when I decided to kill myself."

Whoa. Change of gear. "Wait, what?" I gasped.

"I decided to commit suicide," Lenny repeated, louder this time. Then, a glimmer of grim determination flickered onto his face. "But not before I've had my last stand."