Ducie by Chris Freeman
Chapter 16. The humanity of Kate Gaffney
As Kate walked forward, Adam adopted a cowering, defensive stance against the wall, as if he were expecting the roof to cave in at any moment. This was his friend standing in front of him. She might have been a grumpy little thing most of the time, but she was still his friend as far as he was concerned. He scanned her eyes rapidly, trying to find the familiar look of acquaintance from somewhere behind that icy, clinical gaze.
The overhead speakers crackled into life once more. Cold and to the point.
- Kate, step back from Adam please.
Kate continued to walk towards Adam. She desperately wanted to reassure her old friend that everything would be ok. If she was honest though, she didn’t know herself that everything would be ok. He’d be told about everything soon enough though and at least that would be one less person to hide all of this from. How he’d react to what he heard was a different matter, but this wasn’t the time to be worrying about that.
Again, the speakers.
- Kate, you know what’s at stake here. Take a few steps back please.
Kate edged forward even closer; close enough to feel the heat radiating off Adam’s body and to catch the sweet smell of his fresh perspiration. Up until now, she’d stared straight ahead; avoiding eye-contact at all costs, for fear that seeing Adam’s vulnerability would kick start an emotional side of her that she hadn’t seen for years. Some part of her that she couldn’t control made her catch Adam’s scared eyes for the first time since she’d entered the room. The churning in her stomach was all that she expected it would be; but she somehow held firm. No tears.
Kate stopped moving forward now, as if she’d now got close enough to see what she needed to see. She broke eye-contact and looked away solemnly, but before long, couldn’t fight the urge to re-engage with those eyes of his. Those pretty, vulnerable eyes that had seen a lot more in his life than Adam himself realised. He only knew of his poxy little reality at the Institution and that thought ripped Kate up every single time she saw him.
- Katey, what’s this about? Katey, I’m scared. Please. Whatever it is, tell them I didn’t do it. It wasn’t me Katey, I swear!
Adam had shifted from anger to pleading and these were just two of the many, many states that he would be forced to experience today. Kate couldn’t help but put herself in his shoes. He knew nothing. Nothing at all! And now all this chaos was descending on his simple little world out of nowhere! What must he be thinking? He might have asked for it. Well…kind of asked for it. He broke into the office after all, but that didn’t warrant the treatment he was getting here. She couldn’t take it any more. Kate quickly covered the remaining few feet of ground between her and Adam by sliding on her knees towards him and embracing his trembling body in her arms.
The robotic voice behind the speakers seemed to disapprove.
- Kate, get away from Adam now or we’ll be forced to intervene.
Something flipped inside of her, as she began directing her rant toward the speakers on the ceiling. She knew that the voice didn’t really live inside the speakers, but she needed some sort of inanimate object to vent her anger at.
- Oh, just fuck off will you! He’s a human being, you heartless bastards. I’ve played by the rules for you long enough. We’re people. We’re not fucking lab rats that you can prod about any way you like. I’ll tell him everything here and now if you want. Shall I? Shall I? Huh? Do you fucking want me to? I’ll tell him everything. I’ll tell him about Ducie… I’ll tell him about…
Kate felt a sharp, sour pain that she could almost taste the flavour of, erupt around her torso. Then a dull thud inside her head that she heard more than she actually felt, before a peaceful darkness came and consumed her into a heavy sleep in the middle of the Institution’s Situation Room.
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.