Lost Bird

2

2

James only had to wait the 20 minutes before Diane came in with a large glass of clear liquid. James knew exactly what that was. It was a fast-acting sedative. It tasted awful, but was still better than being beaten unconscious. That had only happened once. It took almost two days for James to wake up. Diane had been annoyed with having to check on her until she had woken up. Hence the new liquid sedative. She would have to drink it all and then curl up in "the box" to be transported to the new compound. As soon as Diane had her secured James let the darkness consume her.

James groggily woke to the sounds of yelling and a jet engine. She heard orders being barked about securing cargo. She was jostled around painfully, but knew to keep quiet or face dire consequences. The smell of jet fuel and engine oil faded to be replaced by a weird kind of floral perfume. She heard a feminine voice greeting her father, probably a flight attendant, and offers of storing his trunk below. He shot them all down and insisted he keep it with him. No one was stupid enough to ask twice. Her father was a scary man.

She felt her box being settled and listened for the sounds of take off. Once they were in the air James heard her father talking with a familiar masculine voice. She had figured out this man was her fathers second in command early on.

"Where are we touching down?" John asked.

"We'll be flying into Veliky Ustyug Airport. It's a smaller regional airport and should only be about two hours drive from the new compound." Chris, his second, answered.

"Did we solidify the new Russian contacts we needed?"

"We've got everything in place John. Don't worry about that end. What are you going to do about Diane? She is getting out of control. She's a liability we can't afford anymore."

James could hear the utter contempt this man had for her stepmother. Guess Its not just me then. James thought.

"I know Chris, I've got something in play now. That's why I told her that we needed to travel separately. She won't make it to the airport tomorrow." John let out a heavy sigh. "She crossed the line when she killed the daughter of the local prosecutor. I still don't even know how they crossed paths. Anyways, it's taken care of and we have more important things to worry about."

James quietly listened to their plans as she laid in her box at their feet. Her father still hadn't worked out that over the years of travelling like this, James had worked up a resistance to the drugs he gave her and they wore off more quickly every time she was sedated. Because of his ignorance James was able to learn more and more about his business and future plans.

Russia this time eh? James mused. At least she knew the language.

For the past two or three years James had learned a lot about herself. She had managed to sneak an old laptop into her room from Diane's trash one night. James had gotten really creative in hiding it and was quite proud that her parents hadn't caught her with it yet. It was her one tie to the outside world. It took her a couple of weeks but she had slowly worked out the piece of tech and how best to use it. She accessed different reference libraries and had started to retain all the info at a surprising rate. She wasn't sure but she didnt think it was normal to be able to recall all the information she was studying the way she did. She could close her eyes and bring up exact images of what she had seen on the screen. She never seemed to forget anything she was exposed to. Unfortunately that also included all of her punishments, in excruciating detail.

        She wanted to understand herself a little better and started to develop a little of what could be considered an obsession with how the human brain worked. She decided to do some research and discovered that she had a condition referred to as eidetic memory or commonly called a photographic memory. As soon as she learned everything she could about the condition, she started to use any technique she could find to train herself on how to retain more information at a quicker pace and with more comprehension. She really didn't consider herself anything special, but she always felt a little bit better about herself with each new skill she learned.