Alan regarded them, trying to be calm. “You guys are out of your mind.”
“You need to be punished,” Mark Hodges said, his voice a flat monotone.
“You know what? I’ve had enough of this. I quit!” Alan made to leave the room. He grabbed the doorknob and turned it. The door was locked.
“You can’t quit. You’re part of the company.” Mark’s gaze was direct, yet empty.
“Bullshit! Unlock the door and let me out! I’m quitting!”
Mark turned to Debbie. “Call Mr. Marstein.”
Debbie picked up the receiver of a black phone on the desk, punched in a series of numbers and waited. “Mr. Marstein? Debbie White from the data center. We have a little problem in the disciplinary room.” Pause. “We discovered a consultant named Alan Perkins planting homemade explosive devices in the data center.” Pause. “No, I don’t know how many he planted.” Beat. “Yes.” Longer pause. Mark and Bob watched her, their emotions wooden as Debbie listened to Frank Marstein. Alan couldn’t help but feel terrified. “Yes, Mr. Marstein. I understand. We’ll wait until she arrives. Yes.”
Wait until who arrives? Alan thought. Did Michelle get caught, too?
Debbie hung up the phone and turned to her co-workers. “Mr. Marstein is sending somebody down for Alan. We’re to wait until she arrives.”
“Okay.” Mark nodded, his eyes lighting briefly on Alan’s for a moment and then the three of them became motionless. Alan watched them, studying each one of them intently. It was like they were robots or puppets that had suddenly been turned off; they stood motionless like wooden statues. He felt his skin gooseflesh.
Who are they sending down? Is Michelle okay? I hope they didn’t catch her, I hope—
His mind jumped into overdrive as he tried to think about what to do. He hadn’t anticipated this sudden chain of events and he tried to think of a way out of this. He could try making a break for it when this other person showed up. He was going to have to plan his escape by ear now. He glanced at his watch. It was two-thirty. He had to work fast, get out here, and call Rachel to give her the message to detonate all the explosive devices that would blow this building and its occupants, not to mention that dark hellish creature that controlled it, off the face of the earth.
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts and his heart began to race. Here it is, he thought, priming himself up to make a bolt for the door.
Mark unlocked the door and opened it.
A woman entered the room, nodded at the data center employees and for a moment Alan was too stunned to do anything. He was rooted to the spot. The three data center employees left the room and the door closed behind him, leaving Alan alone with the woman who had captured his complete undivided attention.
“Oh my God,” Alan said, feeling his emotions crumble.
“Hello Alan,” Susan Vickers said. She smiled.
IT WASN’T AT all like Dracula or ’Salem’s Lot. When Connie Dowling looked at her, Michelle felt no hypnotic power coming from her mother; she wasn’t held by the power of her mother’s gaze. If anything she was repelled. Michelle got over her initial fright, then snapped open her briefcase quickly and pulled out one of the explosive devices. She knelt down to place it underneath the cot and scrunched up her face in disgust at what could only be described as a thick jelly-like substance bubbled beneath the cot. The substance had no scent but it appeared to have texture. The spiderweb strand things emanated from it and crept over the cot, engulfing her mother, attaching themselves to her scalp and arms. That must have been what I felt when I got up, Michelle thought with rising disgust, remembering the slight painful sensation of a bandage being ripped off her arm suddenly. She had no idea what the things were, and had no desire to come in contact with them. Somehow, she knew that if she touched it the thing would grab her, like the Blob in that old 1950’s B-movie. So instead of shoving the explosive device beneath the cot she simply placed it on the floor next to it and stood up.
“Honey!”
The sound of her mother’s voice was so alien, so… so wrong, yet at the same time hearing it felt so good. Michelle stopped at the sound of it and turned around. Her mother was trying to raise her head up, and at the sight of Connie Dowling’s face Michelle almost broke down in tears.
Connie Dowling was struggling; that much was apparent from the strain in her anguished features. Michelle stood rooted to the spot, fighting back the tears as she watched her mother. There was something different about her, something Michelle had never seen before, and as she watched, trying to decide what to do, her mother made eye contact with her again and said in a raspy voice. “Help me!”
That broke Michelle’s temporary paralysis and she was at her mother’s side in an instant. Michelle almost touched the stuff covering Connie’s face and body, her instinctual revulsion to coming in direct contact with the thing strong, holding her back. Connie Dowling looked up at Michelle, tears brimming at the corner of her eyes. “Michelle… honey… please help me…”
“What’s going on?” Michelle said, terrified at what was happening.
“You know what’s happening,” Connie said. The older woman closed her eyes for a moment and Michelle could sense the struggle going on within. Connie opened her eyes again, seeming to get her strength back, and then looked up at Michelle. “It’s hard to fight it. So hard. It gets into you… makes you feel so strong and good… makes you feel… wanted…”
“Mom?” Michelle’s voice threatened to break. Something was happening here. It looked like her mother was trying to fight Corporate Financial.
“I knew it was you when I saw you yesterday but I didn’t want to say anything,” Connie Dowling said. She was breathing heavily from the exertion of her struggle. “I didn’t know how… deep they’d gotten you. I didn’t want them… didn’t want to… didn’t want them to…”
“It’s okay Mom,” Michelle said, still afraid to touch the stuff attached to her mother.
Connie Dowling looked wounded and beaten. “Please help me… I never… never wanted to be away from you like this…”
And then Michelle let forth the sob she’d been holding back and she felt her emotions collapse. She almost sunk to the floor. “Oh, mother!”
“I know you can do it,” Connie said, struggling with her words. “It’s… it’s so strong, but… you’re stronger… I can feel it. Just… just…” Connie closed her eyes and something happened—it almost looked like her mother was having a light seizure. As quick as it came it was gone, and Connie opened her eyes. “…pull those… tendrils off me…”
Michelle looked at the thin strands of webbing covering her mother and shuddered. “Oh my God… I can’t!”
“You can!” It came out as a hiss. Connie Dowling’s eyes were desperate, pleading. “I want… I want you in my life, Michelle. Please! I know things weren’t so great when you were growing up and… I regret that… but… it’s just so strong…”
Michelle felt the tears roll down her cheeks as she stood over her mother. She did want to help her. If this was the chance to save her and perhaps have the relationship she’d never had with her, she wanted to take it. “Oh mom!” Michelle said, her voice breaking.
“You can do it,” Connie said, struggling. “I know you can. Just… get these…”
Michelle tentatively put her right hand close to the tendrils wrapping her mother’s body and instinctively flinched. Her belly crawled. “I can’t!” She cried.