The Facility

Chapter Seven

Thursday, October 5th, 2018
9:07 a.m. Fen-Rock Facility
Meredith Gray

Adam didn’t say a word, still glaring at the photo. She could see his eyes darting over the man’s face, anxiously taking in the news. Meredith was shocked, but Adam seemed to be extremely horrified.

“Adam listen.” She snapped her fingers in front of his face with a loud, persistent click. “We need to get to Nome.”

Ignoring her, his finger tapped the computer screen over the photo. “This guy sat next to you. He sat right beside you.”

Meredith slapped his hand away, the hard hit ringing loudly throughout the small library. When heads turned and peeped over shelves to look, Meredith hunched her shoulders and slouched in her chair in a poor attempt to hide. God, she hated negative attention. 

“Yes, I’m fucking aware of that Adam. Focus,” she frantically whispered.

He turned to her. “Fuck, do you think they brought him here?”

“Lee? No way. He was supposed to be brought to Florence ADX after my investigation. And if he was here don’t you think that there would be some sort of documentation? Eddie said he couldn’t find anything.”

Adam thought about it for a second and Meredith swore she could see the gears working in his brain. “Yeah… but nobody knew about Fen-Rock until Monday; I doubt Eddie even knows now.”

Adam hastily ran his hands through his hair, pulling on the ends as he tried to wrap his hands around Lee’s disappearance. “I mean Director Tate said they sent the worst criminals here. What Lee’s convicted of is some pretty heavy stuff--he pissed off a lot of people in D.C.”

Meredith grabbed Adam’s hand, squeezing it firmly. “Adam, people die here.”

The tension flurried between them, and Meredith felt a wave of heat and anxiety fall over her.

“People die everywhere, Ms. Gray. I’d hoped that Fen-Rock’s activities wouldn’t come as a surprise to you.” Jasper Keenly stood over the back of the computer, staring down at her.

Freezing in her seat as if paralyzed, Meredith was completely unsure what to do next. “I-I, sir, please forgive me, that was said out of context.”

Jasper waved her off with a simple smile. “It happens. I’m sorry, I must have interrupted something big then. I was only curious. I could see your angst from over by the coffee machine.” He took a long sip as if to prove his alibi was indeed true.

“Guilty, sir.” Adam said. “My wife had a scare, thought the baby was coming. False alarm, but you must know what a first-time pregnancy is like.”

Jasper laughed openly, “Oh yes, back when my wife and I were expecting our first, technological advancements were not as they are now. I was afraid that when my son William was actually being born that our parents weren’t going to show up. I mean after three false alarms I almost wouldn’t blame them.” 

“Almost like the boy who cried wolf,” Adam added.

“Yes! Exactly.”

While Jasper and Adam were busy talking, Meredith quickly opened a new page, clicking on one of the first news captions that popped up. 

“Wow, well I hope that’s not the same case for us.” Adam leaned back in his chair. 

“How old is William now?” Meredith asked.

Guilt filled Meredith instantly when she saw the happy glimmer in Jasper’s eyes grow dim, leaving him with an unfocused gaze. “He’d be thirty-two. He died from complications after an accident in Afghanistan in 2008.”