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Author's Chapter Notes:

Well, this is will be the last Escape chapter for a while, I got a story that needs to  be written before I get back to this.

I may have rushed this so there might be a few errors in the chapter, feel free to point it out.

 When he got to the mainland, Jack had to pass through a military checkpoint but it was a brief stop, Wallace and Michael waiving Jack’s need for any kind of search. A by the book officer tried to enforce it but Michael threatened to bring up the delay to Lauren. They got through.


 After a long ride in a civilian car escorted by military jeeps through swamp and unmolested forests, Jack reached the headquarters of the Leighton Corporation , finding himself being driven in by an entire convoy of vehicles.


 “ Do I really need that much protection? You afraid of  Godzilla coming to step on me?” Jack looked back at the multitude of vehicles , weary from the long ride. He was more troubled by the military presence than the thought of Jessica coming to settle his debt.


 “ Better safe than sorry. I’d love to explain why but you can ask Lauren that when you see her, she wants to have a few words with you,” Michael’s explanation wasn’t helpful, Jack’s worried thoughts showing on his face, eyes wide with fear and forehead wrinkled with anxiety.


 “ However I promise you it has nothing to do with Jessica, the girl wouldn’t hurt a fly,” he was jovial as the car came to a stop.


 “ She did step on three dogs,” Jack almost felt pity for one of them, its body exploding like a grenade when her foot crushed it.


“ She stopped them from turning you into dog chow didn’t she?” Wallace said, waking up from the little nap at the front. Jack had nothing to say after that.


 Following that, both men escorted Jack into an elevator but only Michael followed him all the way up to Lauren’s office, Wallace exiting without a word on the fifth floor, mumbling to himself about some paperwork that needed to be filled in.


  Lauren herself was a blonde woman in her early forties but the multitude of wrinkles on her face revealed a level of stress commonly afflicting people in seats of power. Jack had expected her to receive him like a foreign dignitary but she only gave him a cold stare, her icy blue eyes scrutinising him.


 A chill ran down Jack’s spine, he did not like how she looked at him. She eyed him as if he were a grain of sand caught in her eye but just as soon as he was done analyzing that, her expression warmed considerably and she now gave him a little smile, as if he were now a pearl.


“ Is that an Australian accent ?” Lauren flashed Jack a smile, warm and friendly, a side of her she never showed in the boardroom.


Jack cringed, his mouth pulled into a grimaced as his eyes narrowed. This happened too often in the States, Jack’s rather subtle accent being mistaken for Australian. Jack assumed Lauren jumped to this very wrong conclusion because of Michael, the only way he could be more Australian would be if he were to carry jars of Marmite around with him and quote Crocodile Dundee.


“ No, it’s an English one.We sound more classy, Australians can sound almost like a Anglicised rednecks,” Jack answered curtly but if he wanted, he could have been more open with his displeasure  but he did not; Lauren projected an aura of dominance and his gut told him not to test that.


 “ Oh yes of course, it slipped my mind,” Lauren laughed heartily.


She leaned in a little closer, her fingers intertwined with each other, “ Before we let you go, I need to describe to me…” She lifted a finger as she pondered her next words, “ in full detail, the events of your little stay with Jessica. Leave nothing out because I am obliged to inform you that if we find out you withheld or falsified facts, you could be persecuted for endangering state secrets and it’ll be more than just perjury.”


 “ When you put it that way,” Jack tried his best at a poker face but  he wasn’t as good as Lauren, his uneasiness seeping through a weak facade.


“ I really have no choice but to tell you everything and I assume that you’ll be getting Jessica’s side of it too so  there is no chance of her turning me into the villain,”He hissed.


 “ Go on then,” Lauren folded her arms across her chest and reclined against her chair.


   Jack did as told with great gusto, even describing the events on the yacht and how Jessica proceeded essentially insulted every pore in his body with her put downs and wit.


 “ Strange,” Lauren commented in a drab fashion, Jack’s story was unremarkable to her and really, it matched up perfectly with the accounts given by many of Leighton’s employees.


 “ She never did it with me, must be something about you. Anyway I wouldn’t be offended, life be mundane on that sand heap. She probably used you as a toy to entertain herself, nothing more. So, other than that arm and a bruised ego you’re perfectly fine?”


 Jack had hoped for more, maybe Lauren would punish Jessica but as pleasing it sounded, he didn’t wish for that anymore.


  “ Yes,” Jack felt ridiculous at what he was about to do next but  he had to ask the question.


  He leaned in a little, bursting to the seams with laughter at the comical nature of his quiry but he wouldn’t leave without asking.


“ What exactly do you need Jessica for? Some giant soldier thing or is she an X-men?”  He found both idea preposterous.


 Lauren shrugged her shoulders and formed a gun shape with her hand, which she then pointed at Jack.


 “ If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you,” She pulled the trigger on her imaginary gun and chuckled but her dark humour did not catch on with Jack.


 “ Oh? That kind of secret,” He slumped back, disappointed with her answer.


 “ I wish I could tell you but I have orders to obey. Maybe when its declassified I’ll let you in on it.”


 “ Okay, how long until I get home? And why the need for so much protection? I felt like the president on the way in,” Jack felt it pertinent to ask.


 Lauren’s eyes shifted away as she thought about it,” Soon my dear, very soon.” He didn’t know it but she had big plans for him.


 “ I’ll get you to your room for the night, all of our drivers are out at the moment. I’ll take the second question as a compliment but just know its for security, that’s all I can say,” Lauren pressed a button on her phone, a buzzing sound permeating throughout the room.


 A knock followed by a turn of the doorknob revealed Michael, calmly strolling in.


“ You rang Madam?”


“ Yes I did Mike,” She forcefully jerked her head towards Jack.

 “ Take the young man to his room and make sure he’s comfortable,” That would be Jack’s final meeting with Lauren for the day.


**************


 Jessica deposited her plate in the kitchen sink and turned the smooth metallic faucet. A jet of water strong enough to pin a man to the floor poured down. Slowly, Jessica scrubbed the plate with a sponge the size of a Prius. Her mind was elsewhere, flipping back to the day before.


 Why, she asked herself? She was racking her brains over this feeling, a new one. She had longed for companionship, missing Wallace during her first weeks here. It was a literal nightmare, every bout of sleep brought with it horrific dreams. She’d dream of crushing her parents as she went from 8 feet to 200 feet in seconds, stepping on Jamie as her body took on a mind of its own, meting out bloody revenge to all who had crossed her.


  There weren’t any dreams for now but then Jessica hadn’t slept all day. For the first time in her life she trekked through the jungle, keeping to the path she made. It was an eye opener as its denizens got an eyeful of the largest being on the planet. Most of them fled but a few stayed to watch.


  Then she lay in bed and reflected on everything that had happened. Often she’d get all philosophical and ponder about religion, science and whether a day would come where she’d get to return to USA. All of these took a back seat to Jack, his body and mind were all she could think of right now.


 Right now, she needed her father again. Firing up her tablet and Skype, the familiar sight of her father materialised on the screen.


“ Jessica? I didn’t expect you to call so soon,” His eyebrows creased as a look of apprehension formed.


 “ Sorry Papa, am I interrupting something? Is Jack okay?”


Wallace shook his head, “ No you’re not sweetie. I was just about to go for dinner but I  won’t deny my favourite daughter time with her father.”


 “ Sorry, it’s just that I...I don’t how to say it but,” She nibbled on her thumbnail, she had to be crazy for having such feelings.


  “ I miss Jack,” Jessica blurted out. Those were not the words she expected to ever use in the same sentence, why now?


 “ Oh my…” Wallace gasped, lips parting in shock.


 “ Is it love?” Wallace had to address that elephant in the room before he could move on to another line of questioning.


 Jessica gagged, she wasn’t twelve anymore but the thought of her and Jack hooking up for some amorous relationship really sickened her.


“ No no, it’s not love. I don’t feel lighter when I see him and I don’t hear the sound of wedding bells whenever he opens his pothole so it’s out,” Jessica expelled air from her lips, relieved at this.


 “ Then what do you think it is?” Wallace asked, choosing to adopt a more passive role in this little investigation.


 Jessica scratched the back of her head, particularly the base of her skull as she thought hard about it. Her lips pouted as the answer crashed into her like a train through a brick wall.


 “ He brought a new experience with him,” Jessica feeling lighter, curling her toes and feeling proud of her revelation.


“ Jack getting washed up broke the routine of it and everything we did wasn’t the same old banal stuff I’d do by myself. Papa, could you talk to Lauren about letting me have a facebook account on this contraption?” Jessica’s eyelids closed slightly as she anticipated his answer. She may have been a grown woman but she always felt like a little girl around her father, he exuded the most fatherly aura she’d ever felt.


  “ I’ll try but didn’t you ask her last Christmas? She said no,” Wallace hated disappointing her, the pangs of guilt gnawing away at him as he often blamed himself for Jessica’s current predicament. He did his utmost to wear a mask of exuberance, only taking it off when alone.


  “ Try again. I know she said it would give away too much but lets be honest, how big do I look on the otherside?”


 Both knew the answer to that question, Wallace nodding silently, Jessica had made her point.


“ I can’t promise it but you hey, I’ll try.” The sound of a door opening spooked Wallace, his colleague Ravi was there to


 “ Wallace we need you at-” Ravi’s Indian accented voice was slow and enunciated but Wallace


 “ Thank you Ravi,” Wallace turned back to face Jessica and looked at her, guilty he had to cut short his talk with Jessica.


 Jessica sighed and smiled at him whilst her head shook, “ Go on, I’ll still be here when you come back.”


“ Thank you for understanding,” The screen faded to black, once again leaving Jessica an isolated figure.


********


 “ This will be your room,” Michael flung open the door.


 Jack was mildly disappointed by what he saw,a simple mattress minus covers and  in one corner of a narrow room. The dust in the air smothered his lungs, grating against his airways.  As a result, he coughed, hacking and wheezing each time he had to draw breath.


“ Couldn’t you get a less dusty room?” Jack wheezed between breaths, his shirt over his mouth.


 “ Sorry, I’ll open a window and get a breeze in. This was the best we could do on such short notice. You’ve been through college, you must have lived in filthier dorms.”


Jack snorted as he walked in, it was truly derelict but if it was just for the day, he’d suck it up and sleep in such conditions.


*********


 Lauren swirled the glass of scotch  on rocks , watching the liquid twirl clockwise, switching back and forth. When her nerves got frayed and the pressure became too great, she’d lock herself in her office and help herself to a glass of whiskey or any alcoholic beverage she stocked, consuming it to some slow and relaxing classical music, Mozart being a favourite of hers.


 Sometimes when needed, she often went for an extra glass which could easily escalate in to her downing an entire bottle of it. Her expression was a little glassy eyed but she still had a firm grip on sobriety to prevent any embarrassing slips of the tongue.


 “ Ma’am,” Her company landline bristling with static, Lauren grumbling to herself about rude interruptions.


 “ What is it?” She asked the voice on the other side, Sherry her secretary the culprit behind this interruption.


 “ A Mr. Soros is here to see you.”


 “ Crap,” Lauren mouthed to herself. Sherry had left her line open and she could hear her being reprimanded by the man on the other side.


 “ Sorry Ma’am, Colonel Soros is here to see you,” She whimpered.


 Lauren groaned, she had hoped he wouldn’t find out so quickly but she had to deal with it sooner or later.


 “ Send him up,” She answered. Slumping back into her chair, she waited for the knock on the door from the last person she wanted to see right now.


 

Chapter End Notes:

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