***** Vol.4 Chap.45 Soul searching at the safe house *****

After Jordan left the room, Joe and George knocked and opened the door.

“Dr. Smith, we have orders to take you to a nearby safe house. If you are ready, please follow us.”

Still stunned, JB stood up and followed her captors now turned guides and protectors. Unsure whether she should feel safe or risky being with them, she had no other alternatives but to follow them.

“Do we have far to go?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Can we stop to pick up some dinner and toiletries?” With uncertain voice, almost like begging.

“No, ma’am. You can order room service or deliveries from your room. Toiletries are provided at the room. Anything else you need, just let us know.”

“Are you staying at the safe house also?”

“Yes, ma’am. We will be in a room right next door.”

They walked silently to the same suburban. She considered and reconsidered her situation.

Am I a prisoner or a protectee? She was uncertain.

If a protectee, protected from whom or what? She had no answers.

“Buckle up please.”

“After this morning’s ride, you are not moving till I am buckled up.”

They laughed.

This time, they blended into the traffic and the ride was smooth. Soon, they arrived at what looked like a 1-star hotel.

After parking the car at the back, they ascended the stairs directly to the top floor.

“George, would you like to get the keys from the lobby?”

Joe then turned to JB, “We do not normally want the hotel staff to see or know who we are housing here for their protection. The Bureau has a long-term contract with the hotel.”

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“You can either ring for room service for dinner or you can call a nearby restaurant for delivery. As guests of the Bureau, just charged everything to the room.”

George came bouncing up the stairs with the keys and gave one to JB. “You are in Room 3A and we are in Room 3B.”

“Please don’t open the door to anyone. If you need anything, just use the hotel phone to call us.”

“Good night.”

“Good night.”

JB entered the room and locked the door behind her.

The room was certainly not even a 1-star hotel. Only the bare essentials were provided.

What is this, a youth hostel?

The events of the day weigh heavily on her. She thought she would order dinner first and then do some soul searching to figure things out.

A couple of menus were provided: a Mexican one, an Oriental place, a pizza joint, and another one from a steak house. Looking through all the menus and deciding who had the most expensive entrees, she finally decided on a prime rib with baked potato and all the trimmings from the steak house.

She moved the recliner closer to a small window that looked out to a brick wall and sank into the chair.

Retracing her steps since the beginning of summer, she recalled receiving a phone call from Dr. Johan Schmidtiz requesting consulting help, then more consulting help, then actually being employed by the company. Every time she called the number on the business card, the receptionist always answered PPTSB. There was no reason to doubt that Johan was not associated with PPTSB.

That crowd of business men in the café at downtown Hilton in Pittsburg. She tried hard to recall their faces and it seemed one or two faces resembled the upper management around the conference table. She was not bothered by them then, but she now found it odd that they were there.

Johan provided the datasets and the consulting fee. She understood that the datasets were stripped of any identification information. That was common practice. The consulting fee was always there. She did find it somewhat odd that her fee was always paid in cash with brand new bills.

The expensive Porche was a surprise. That was more than she could have dreamed for.

The decrepit location of headquarters was a huge surprise! The lack of employees except guards was even more an astonishment. Come to think of it, she was never offered to tour the place nor were she allowed to even see any of the test subjects.

Was the location so top secret that she must be drugged going in and coming out?

She was told that the datasets pertained to subjects going from aggressive behavior to docile state. Though the opposite could easily be the case. There were no timestamps in the dataset to indicate the direction of progression.

She had no reference or independent verification that the ingredients had a calming or agitating effects. She was given the mass spec of the ingredients. What she thought was chamomile could very well be chili powder without further independent verification.

Could she really be working on the red pill instead of the blue pill?

She shuddered and was shaken by that thought.

Could she really be working for GL instead of PPTSB?

Fear gripped her with that trend of thought.

She sprinted up, grabbed her stuff and was about to bolt out of the door.

A knock at the door.

“Delivery.”