Welcome to the Facility

[Ash]

Director Freeman waited behind the two way mirror looking into the room with his hand at his mouth. He appeared to be deep in thought but it made no difference to the guard behind him.

"You're not actually gonna' let him go are you sir?"

The commander turned his head to face him with his arms folded facing the mirror.

"No, but I've got a feeling this one knows something"

The guard said nothing more and left him to his own thoughts. Of course he didn't know anything, he was a Kruger pilot not a secret service agent. He'd already told him all he knew about his mission and the extraction of the data from his ship would only cover his life for so long. What Freeman was actually thinking about was what he could do to keep him alive. As before his common sense bombarded him with the sheer stupidity of letting him live in the first place, but his personal wants had grown over the years and he had missed too many opportunities in the past. So he acted on impulse and spared his life, but now he could either follow it through with what he had wanted to do all these years, or put an end to this madness that would have him flushed out of the airlock himself. Over the years that threatening thought that had at first seemed so terrible had worn off and run it's course on him, and now only curiosity and opportunism seemed to relay.

"Order the other guards out of the room, and turn off the recorders, i want to speak with him alone"

The guard to his left couldn't believe his ears, he had no option but to comply and had gotten used to "Flush him, leave no trace". He himself was interested in what the Director had planned but dared not ask. After recovering himself from his daydreams he replied as he always should without hesitation. But he hesitated.

"Uh...Hum, Yes sir."

He bent down to a microphone on the desk in front of the mirror and flicked a few switches.

"Alright men, everyone out, orders of the Director"

Soon the door beside him opened and three men filed out one by one. Freeman still stood staring into the room at Tristan who appeared to have drifted off again, all of the guards exchanged glances amongst themselves with a shrug here and there.

"Ok, I've got this under control, your all dismissed and may return to B division. Tell Sally on the way out to open a private comms channel with my mobile communicator."

The three guards that had come out all were as astonished as the one beside him was at first. They all exchanged glances and looked at the guard beside him who just shook his head and shrugged. He then gestured down the hallway and they all walked off mumbling amongst themselves.

Director Freeman waited where he had been with his arms folded as if the guards had never left. After staring through the two way mirror for a further minute he re-entered the room and faded into the darkness again. He walked around the edges of the room staying out of sight and circled Tristan sitting at the center. He had got half way around and standing behind his seat when Tristan suddenly spoke.

"Any of you boys happen to have a smoke would you?"

"Smoking is bad for you Mr Freeman, your intelligence continues to serve you well"

"Oh. Jasper, as always a pleasure..."

The Director did not answer but instead walked over and took his seat opposite Tristan again. He waited a moment before speaking.

"Mr Free..."

"Call me Tristan"

Another punch landed onto Tristan's jaw leaving him motionless for a slight moment before he let his head roll back down onto his right shoulder.

"I don't care if you don't care Mr Freeman. I will remove each and every one of your fingers to show you how you should value every last inch of your life at this point"

Tristan brought his head up from his right shoulder slightly to look at the Commander again.

"You have caused me a great deal of trouble in the past few hours Mr Freeman than I have had in years. As i've already stated, by now you'd usually find yourself in a prime location to view our outer airlock. Quite frankly I'm tired Mr Freeman. I'm tired of watching people die for seeing something you shouldn't have"

The Director shook his head for a moment before he continued.

"Listen carefully. I'm going to do what I can to keep you alive but this means you must do exactly as I say, is that clear?"

Tristan held the Director's gaze for a moment before sitting upright again and adjusting his sitting position. He regrouped himself for a moment and coughed under his breath.

"So...what's option number two?"

"You are currently on a research facility overseen by myself. You are to become a test subject for one of our experiments with a lesser mortality rate. I'm not going to lie to you, I am uncertain as to whether you will ever leave this place, but i will do what I can for you."

"So who are you? Zoners or...?"

"I can't tell you anything like that as you are a test subject and revealing such information would compromise our operations if you were to...flee.

Tristan fell back into his seat and slumped down again.

"Great"

"So..subject? What is that? Am i gonna' get experimented on?"

"...Strictly speaking, Yes"

"Great"

"Look here Freeman, you could be sucking space right now if it weren't for me, so you better get a grip or I'll flush you anyway."

"Why are you doing this?"

The Commander paused for a moment and looked at his hands now resting intertwined on the table in front of him. Then he suddenly brought his head up to meet Tristan's gaze.

"Someone has to know that I never wanted some of the things that have happened here happen. I never had the final word on some of the projects but they still press forward under my supervision."

Tristan sat there wide eyed silent staring at The Commander speechless. The Commander let his gaze fall back down to his hands and he suddenly pushed himself out of his chair and strode to the door and let it slam down behind him. Once outside he put an earpiece to his ear and started speaking.

"Sally?"

"Sally I'm gonna' need a subject relocated from C43 down to a free subject containment unit in E division."

"Great, uh FYI he will be unattended but restrained when they get here k?"

Commander Freeman took the earpiece from his ear and put it into his pocket.

"Dammit!"

He punched the desk before him and strode away down the corridor with no particular destination.

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