BRAINSTORM

Chapter Twenty-three - United forces.

Jack brooded as he gazed through the glass wall, keeping one hand molded around his cup of coffee while tapping the other on the café table.

Reading Ellen's letter sent his emotions and his reasoning power careening in opposite directions. He was left stranded on an island in between, not knowing how to escape.

He was impressed with the courage required to be that honest. But maybe, he thought, Ellen had been too honest.  It couldn't just be about sex anymore. It was way more complicated than that. She deserved his honesty, though it seemed she thought differently.

Vitali entered the cafe, stopping in front of his table. "Mind if I sit down?"

Jack tore his mind from its meanderings. "Sure."

Elvis knit together his rather abundant eyebrows and peered at him. "You sure? You look like you might want to be alone."

Jack huffed. "I definitely don't want to be alone." Hearing the irritability in his voice, he added, "Please sit down. Sorry. I'm acting like an ass."

Elvis seated himself with his coffee and a donut in hand. "Want to talk about it?"

"Nope, and I don't want to think about it, either. Which is why I don't want to be alone. So help distract me. What's up with you?" Jack sat back and absently took a sip of lukewarm coffee.

"Not much." After a pause, he asked, "What do you think about what happened to Dr. Jameson?"

"What? I haven't heard anything."

"He got carted off to the loony bin." Elvis took a bite of his donut and chewed slowly.

"Are you kidding?"

"I'm dead serious. They say he had some kind of breakdown, and Maxwell had him taken to a high-security psychiatric center for his own protection. Jameson can't have visitors or anything. It's so sudden." He lowered his voice and leaned closer. "Kind of fishy if you ask me."

The man Jack met was definitely sane. He might have had convoluted notions of right and wrong, but he was both smart and lucid. Jack would bet his life on that.

From the moment those blue lasers at CIRAS's entrance scanned him, Jack was on guard. Now he was on high-alert –  his heart beating more rapidly, his pulse racing. Defiance surged, and he wanted to ignore it, but it wouldn't subside. Whoever was running the TR project,, it wasn't Jameson. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been committed. That left Maxwell - the weirdo who employed Ellen as a highly paid prostitute and spy - Jack still hadn't wrapped his mind around that one completely.

"Um. Jack?"

"Huh?" Jack's focused back on Elvis, who looked troubled. "Sorry, I was in my own head."

"Guess I'm not being a very good distraction."

Jack ran a hand through his hair. "It's better anyway. Ignoring it isn't going to help anyone."

Elvis appeared completely confused. "Good luck figuring it out."

"Luck would be good. Might be the only thing that will work."

~~~

Jack's concern for his personal safety was blurred by his need to end whatever madness was occurring at CIRAS. Jameson had essentially been imprisoned. That was the truth. Ellen was trapped into working for Maxwell. The researchers were being controlled and spied upon. And the TR members were clearly being manipulated, and maybe even hurt or killed. Jack vowed to save whoever he could, however he could.

The worst feeling he'd ever experienced was his total impotence against Jeremy's disease. He raged against experiencing that feeling again, and if it cut him off from nature's inherent program of self-protection, then good. That would make everything a lot easier.