Chapter 5: Reckoning

Sarah couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread as she watched him leave. The thought of him being a plant, a test of their moral fibre was chilling, but she knew they had to deal with the hand they were dealt.

Cynthia couldn’t shake the feeling of unease as she watched Jared exit the observation room. His casual demeanour in the face of their horror was disconcerting, but she had to admit, his methods had yielded results. “We need to set clear boundaries with him,” she murmured to the warden. “We can’t have him thinking he can just manipulate our prisoners however he sees fit for us.”

Herbert nodded solemnly in agreement with Cynthia’s words, his face a mask of contemplation. “Jared, he’s ... different, but effective,” he muttered under his breath, as if trying to justify the use of such extreme tactics. “Slippery as the devil himself, but I imagine “they” knew that sending him in”, he added bitterly, before he asked if they wished to join him for something to eat in the mess hall, suddenly needing a distraction from what they had just witnessed to help him process it, as he knew they might need one as well.

Sarah agreed to a simple lunch unsure what her stomach could actually handle, as Cynthia joined them too, more purely out of morbid curiosity to see what Jared was like again outside of the current, working environment he had manipulated to his purposes.

In the mess hall, the air was filled with the clanging of metal trays and the low murmur of conversations between guards and staff. The smell of overcooked meatloaf and gravy wafted through the air, a stark contrast to the sterile environment of the interrogation room. Jared walked in with the same confidence as before, as if he owned the place, his guards trailing closely behind. He grabbed a tray and began filling it up with food, not seeming to care about the glances thrown his way, especially not as both guards and the three senior members of staff joined him if rather reluctantly, highlighting him as the odd one out but at the same time showing a form of camaraderie that was eerily out of place. Seated beside him, with a cold confidence similar to Jared, on a middle aged African American man, possibly around Jared’s age aswell, but unknown to them, he introduced himself calmly as he sat in his chair in the same reverse manner as Jared was currently doing, with a fresh confidence none of three members of the senior staff team could quite place along with his reason for being there.

He was neither army or a strictly authorized visitor, as his plain civilian clothes easily singled him out much like Jared beside him. “Allow me to introduce myself properly, my name is Jared and the man you see beside me is actually a willing participant in a self-explained plant by your higher ups, designed to suss out your character and work ethic as he’s more than likely explained to you, what you don’t know, is why is he impersonating me but the purpose behind it is simple: he is the true test of the Traitors Dream variant, instructed to be impersonate me since before his “orientation” this morning to until now, to pass himself off as its creator and foremost specialist in methodology of its extreme application, after a length and calculated set of instructions, with the contingency that if at any time he perceived himself to be a threat or unable to perform within the established parameters of his instructions that he would either remove himself and inform us of any real or perceived danger, beyond his ability to compensate for or to establish if the psychological makeup of any senior member was not seen as fit to operate, with this new drug in mind with an established sense of total certainty”, he handed the warden his personnel file and psyche report, recognizing him as Jared, instead of the man next to him whom no one could otherwise identify with any confidence. The “fake” Jared for lack of a better word, was a thin Caucasian man of British descent, with long almost lanky dark hair tucked behind his head, with dark brown eyes, and pale but not unhealthy skin and boyish good looks which had lent him a devilish sort of quality when smiling. He did in fact look allot like the British actor Matt Smith from the Doctor Who Franchise, something that when pointed out in public in the past he’d happily admitted he got referenced to allot, as he sat and eagerly ate his lunch a mixture of sausages, fried fishfingers he dipped voraciously in custard.

Jared on the other hand, the “real” Jared, sat with a quiet confidence and a patience that bellied a form of self control the fake Jared rarely demonstrated, unless it was totally necessary, as it was now. “If you’re wondering, the guards knew, but were instructed by the same people I offered this idea to not to inform you, to test the drug thoroughly on even grounds and it’s been especially effective, in convincing all of you of it’s true depths in the manipulation of perceptions, even ways you could never have expected”, he added evenly, allowing them the time to let it all sink in. “Everything else was real, the prisoners, the interrogation, the only thing that was not, was my friend here”, he gestured towards the fake Jared. “He opted for the program we have in mind, willingly, he’s not just some random person or worse a prisoner in this facility, he understood the assignment and the risk of failure, with no immediate danger to himself or anyone else, other than the prisoners of course. Despite how he conducted the interrogation, which was how I would have done it regardless, believe it or not, at least in this situation, in the future, all methods will be differed to you, I’ll just be the technician in others words, helping you weed out any problems that might arise unexpectedly with full transparency from here on out, what say you?”, he asked aloud as Sarah was the first to speak up, “I need a moment to process this”, she said as she pushed back her chair and walked out, leaving the warden and Cynthia with the man who was supposed to be their bogeyman.

“Fair enough, anyone else, I’m here to answer all your questions if I can, not because I’ve been ordered to restrict my answers, but because there’s only so much I can answer myself of course with relevance to the situation”, he affirmed with an even tone that matched his expression. Cynthia was the first to respond; her voice measured and calculated “How do we know he wasn’t lying?” she asked pointing at the man who had just claimed to be the imposter, the fake Jared. “Good question” the real Jared offered, “just to keep it simple, this gentleman is Theodore Wilson an interrogator in his own right, who will be reporting back of his success to his own government official in the shared usage of the “Traitors Dream” programme he volunteered his services for, to have the drug administered after a lengthy set of instructions were agreed upon and observed by his own countries legal representative. The point was a joint exploration of the drugs benefits and drawbacks, so he could report back to both sides how effective or ineffective it was, he won’t remember anything in less than twelve hours, so soon after this two separate guards will escort him to record everything he’s learned from his personal, firsthand experience so that we might share this information with our allies in the United Kingdom, as a way to present a greater joint front against global terrorism, where I suspect a similar method of sussing out potentially unethical personnel is in place at their own black sites and will reveal if such flaws exist, same as we did here. Let me reiterate, he is not here against his will and his own dossier is right here”, he said as Jared handed it to Cynthia confirming his identity for starters and anything else she needed within its confidential files as further proof.

The warden also gleaned the dossiers contents for obvious peace of mind as Herbert’s expression matched Cynthia’s, mixed with a sense of small relief at finally being in on the operation being carried out to fully assess the usage of such a previously unheard of drug compound within their established facilities, understanding the need for a total secrecy and considering the sensitivity of the facility and the new tool they’d been supplied with, but equally amazed and terrified at the lengths and the depths the drug itself could be used to change a person’s whole persona. “If you wish”, Jared began “He’ll be revisiting the facility again, for the first time, if that makes sense, as himself, in less than ten hours time or so, you can meet him then, and help him confirm for himself what he reported, I imagine much like you he’ll be disoriented with the truth of the matter even though he was successful”, he said, as both Cynthia and Herbert nodded, acknowledging the complexity of the situation they had just been thrown into without any prior knowledge of the true intentions of the demonstration.

“Until then, take it easy, if you can, I’ll be here if you need me, my office will not be established until after Theodore makes his report and I can officially “exist” as part of the official staff here”, he said as light joke with genuine warmth in his humour. “When Miss Carmichael feels she is ready, I’ll gladly explain everything as I have to you, so as I said before, take your time and relish you now know the truth”, Sarah slowly slipping into view, entered the mess hall as she asked plainly if abit understandably pissed “was what he was spouting even true in there? Was there a question? Was there even an answer for what he asked those prisoners for”, she said highlighting the something both Herbert and Cynthia had both missed, which considering the confusion they were sorting out through in their own time, was understandable, as Jared gestured she take her seat, as he indicated he was more than willing to answer her fully, as she spotted the dossiers and their contents strewn on the table.

Sarah took a moment to compose herself, sliding back into her seat with a heavy sigh. “The question he stated was essentially “what am I looking for?”, in the acts he’d committed, he hinted to I imagine, until I see the exact report that it was a greater truth, that he could not explain outright but must be felt, experienced to be understood, correct?”, he asked the three of them at once, with a soft patience that held their attention.

Herbert nodded slowly, “Yes, something like that, but what was he looking for?” he pressed, his curiosity getting the better of him.

“Simply put what he found, love, the greater truth was love, even in its plainest form. Your need for example to make sure the prisoners were not irrevocably injured, either physically or mentally, how you need to preserve your souls from obvious corruption that came with the power of being able to control a person’s mind so completely you could make them do anything. Without love, we’d be monsters, corrupted absolutely. I imagine he also brought in a “prism” of sorts to try and help them discover this, possibly in the form of a maternal figure maybe? Something relatable to both the prisoners in question he was assigned you, which were higher priority?”, he asked obviously sympathetic to their plight and the deception used to expose their ethics and their morals, laid bare before them tested to breaking point, as they answered him in unison with a nod, as he leaned back in his chair.

“And I can also imagine that when he impersonated me he painted a less than flattering picture of my personality and my motives as well?” he said honestly, as he leaned into his chair, not in defeat but in preparation to explain himself as they nodded. “Be fully aware, I would not be allowed to enter this facility, let alone insert any kind of influence over the drug I produce at all, should I be perceived as unstable, either physically or mentally, it would simply not be allowed for obvious reasons, understood?”, he said as they nodded once more, “I am the creator yes, but I am also a servant in its use, I do not get to decide who or how it’s administered, I merely offer my expertise when it’s needed and requested, which is why I was sent here, not to oversee, not to control, but to help you understand and to learn, to improve upon. As we both know, the enemies we face are not going to hold back their punches, so we must be prepared to throw a few ourselves, but not at the cost of losing our own humanity”, he said as he leaned forward with a seriousness that seemed to have never left his face, as he picked at his food, which was still steaming hot, despite the conversation’s intensity.

“But in the spirit of full disclosure, if you’ll allow me to add one final note of importance before we dive deeper into this”, he said basically asking for their consent to give them access to pertinent information that was at the same time as sensitive as it was personal as they jointly nodded their heads in understanding and anticipation of his words. “The em...”aspect” for lack of a better word, of me he portrayed in the interrogation room, he put into place, as horrible as it all was, was based on me, on who I was before I learned to outgrow the part of me that wanted mastery over people, over things like love that could not be mastered with tools like deceit and guile alone. I realized through a family member that the future would have none of it, and none of me in it, if I continued to obsess as I did over such things as carnal desires over the simple truth that love, worth more than any simple pleasure you could desire or wish for, drug or no”, he said with calm reflection.