The Hunt: The Oakmont Saga, Book 2

“I’ll begin by letting you all know that this will be kept very formal, in order to ensure civility and maintain an orderly process. Everyone will raise their hand to be given an opportunity to speak or ask questions. You will not be called otherwise, and if you violate these rules, you will be removed. Now that our order of operations have been explained, this conference is called to order. Just to ensure all participants are up to speed, we’mre here to arrange the consolidation of the Oakmont and Werdlmyre programs. With the latest revelations, along with the recent collapse of the primary Oakmont facility, preference is currently in favor of Werdlmyre. However, the Werdlmyre facility is not capable of handling the number of residents that it will be required to house, should it be the final choice. Separate discussions have been had concerning expanding the facility, but the physical space isn’t sufficient, and at the same time able to maintain the current environment. In short, we need another solution,” Senator Jacob said, opening the top secret conference.

“Why is Senator Riley not involved in this, as he is the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee?” Headmaster Raughlin asked.

“Because he is involved in an ethics probe and is otherwise...indisposed,” Senator Jacob replied.

“There is also the Committee Chairwoman for the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Kelley. I would also like to ask why these children are present?” the Headmaster then said.

“As with the Senator, she is involved in the same ethics probe. These children are present, as this directly involves them. They may not have a say in the final decision, but they should at least be able to provide feedback, and possible suggestions,” the Senator said, looking at Headmaster Raughlin, daring him to interrupt again. Raughlin had a very disturbed look on his face, which had been there before he’d asked his questions.

“There are several options on the table already, as presented by various stakeholders. These are listed in no particular order of desirability, or any other preference. They are; first, rebuild the Oakmont facility and make it primary. The second option is to purchase the necessary land to properly expand the Werdlmyre facility. A third option is to continue operating two distinct facilities, but under one command structure. With this last option, the command structure would need to be established between the two locations,” Senator Jacob said.

I thought about what he’d said, but I felt there was another option. However, I wasn’t sure if I should speak, but I raised my hand.

“I acknowledge Melanie Brager. She has the floor,” the Senator said.

“Stand up to speak,” he said to me, with a smile of encouragement.

“Senator, sirs, and ma’ams, forgive me but I don’t know all of your titles and I hope what I say isn’t silly,” I began, and got smiles from most of the adults, except Raughlin. “But, what about building a new facility in a location where we’re mostly out of the way?” I asked, once I stood up. A woman on the other side of the room raised her hand, as I sat down.

“Representative Clayton of Texas, you wish to reply, or provide your own suggestion?” he asked.

“I wish to reply,” she said, with a very deep southern accent.

“This young lady proposes an interesting idea. I’d like to hear more detail about what she has in mind, such as where she might think this could be built,” she said, and sat back down.

“Melanie Brager, a question is asked, please reply,” he said.

“We have a lot of land in Alaska, and we’re somewhat remote, at least from the rest of the United States. It seems like a perfect place to me, and the federal government already owns most of the land,” I explained. Several people were nodding at my suggestion.

“She just wants to be near her home,” Raughlin suddenly blurted out.

“Headmaster Raughlin, you’re out of order, for the third time. If you’re out of order once more, you will be removed,” Senator Jacob told him, and the Headmaster got a little redder. He also seemed to be more frustrated, but I couldn’t tell why.

“The representative from Texas has the floor again,” he said.

“That suggestion has merit. It puts something that could be considered dangerous in a more remote location, and also lowers the burden on the taxpayers. I like it,” she said, and sat back down.

“Headmaster Trudeau, you have the floor,” the Senator said.

“These children aren’t dangerous, but I understand the perception that the public could see them as such. Werdlmyre has operated as a top secret facility for 30 years, for that very reason. Although I know we need to enlarge the facility, I suggest staying in North Carolina. There’s history there, and it means something to those that have come through our school. Many return for reunions, and have very fond memories of their time under our roofs,” he said and sat down. No one else raised their hands.

Discussions on the location continued for what seemed like hours. At some point, I tuned it all out, and sank into my own little world.

“Melanie,” someone said, gently shaking me.

“Huh?” I dumbly replied.

“It’s lunch time. Let’s go get some food,” Dad said, helping me up. We went to a steak restaurant, not too far from the Senate office building. A limousine had picked us up and driven us there. I didn’t really remember the meal, my mind too numb from my former Headmaster and his odd actions.

“What’s wrong, angel?” Dad asked me, jerking me back to reality.

“Nothing,” I replied.

“There’s something wrong. You’re too preoccupied, considering the conference we’re at. Is it the Headmaster?” he asked, but it was more a statement. I nodded, but remained quiet.

“The next section of the meeting might be hard. They’re going to discuss the pros and cons of both programs, and why one should be chosen over the other. Do you think you can handle it?” he asked, and again I nodded. However, I wasn’t sure I could do it, especially if Oakmont won.

“Alright sweetheart. You always were strong. Sometimes, I think you’re too strong, and need to let people help you. For what it’s worth, I’ll be with you,” he said, and smiled at me. I returned a half hearted smile.

When we returned to the conference, there were more people, many wearing military uniforms. One of them was in a whispered conversation with Headmaster Raughlin. He looked mean to me, even though I’d never met the man. I wondered if he was the general that seemed to make the decisions for the Oakmont program.

Every one of the military officers nodded to Dad, and he nodded back. He’d been one of them, and he probably still had a lot of those connections.

“I call this conference back to order,” Senator Jacob announced, once everyone seemed to have returned, or arrived.

“Joining us is General Sartrious, current commanding officer for the Department of Defense with regard to the Oakmont program. General Attison, Air Force Special Operations Command. Admiral Seton, Director of the National Security Administration. Also joining us is Secretary Hunt, of the Department of Defense and Director Hatcher of the CIA,” he told everyone.

It was tempting to attack General Sartious. My gaze was riveted on him, and as I looked at him, my vision began to become a hazy red. Knowing what was about to happen, and what it could do to our chances, I strained to regain control.

Once I had regained control, I whispered to my Dad, “He ordered all of us to be killed,” indicating General Sartrious.

“Are you sure?” he asked, and I knew he was surprised. It wasn’t as much of a surprise as when I told him about Bert Riley, but it definitely affected him. I nodded that I was, and he pursed his lips, seeming to come to some inward decision, and remaining quiet for a while. As usual, he wasn’t gong to tell me anything about it.

“He was my friend and mentor, as we were coming through the ranks in the army. He won’t get away with that,” he quietly said to me, surprising me. He never told me his inner thoughts, yet he had just done exactly that.

“Senator, I understand you’re running this conference according to a rigid format, which I understand and appreciate. However, I need to interject before any further discussions occur. The Department of Defense has given me and my staff full support for maintaining control of the Oakmont program and every subject that’s a product of it,” General Sartrious stated, his voice very commanding and deep.

“General, you will also appreciate that this conference is being held to determine the future of both programs. If this conference decides a particular path for the Oakmont program, and the DOD refuses to accede to the recommendations of this committee, we’ll remove funding from all special programs within the department,” the Senator threw back at him.

“Senator, I have the backing of the President, and although you can threaten us with our funding, you can’t pass a budget without his approval. You don’t have that large a majority to approve an override,” the Secretary piped in.

“You are correct, Secretary. However, there are accusations concerning the program that should they come to light, there are many that will not only lose their jobs, they will lose their freedom,” he stated.

“Your threats are empty, Senator,” the general exclaimed.

“You have come to a conference that you were not invited to nor welcome at, and you begin telling me what this conference will be able to do? That is extreme hubris, General, and Secretary. As for your statement concerning the President, this conference was organized at his request,” the Senator said, the first time I’d seen him angry.

He turned his attention back to the group at large, not giving the General or Secretary a chance to say anything else. “Returning to our earlier discussion,” he began.

“This discussion is not over, Senator,” General Sartrious exclaimed, very loudly.

“Oh, but it is,” said the Senator. Although his voice was nowhere near as loud, there was just as much will exuded in it.

“It’s a mockery anyway, as you have a child here, and one that’s a subject of the Oakmont program. I should have the subject returned under guard,” the General said.

“General, you were once an honorable soldier,” my Dad said. “You have become something altogether corrupt and contemptible. You’re not worthy of that uniform,” he continued.

“At least I still wear it,” the General said.

“General, if you or your men ever attempt to take my daughter again, I’ll be there, ready and waiting,” Dad told him, and I could feel the threat emanating from him. He was ready to kill the General, and I had no doubt of it.

“Good luck with that, traitor. As were you when you became a subject of the X-factor experiment, that child is property of the United States government. Your continued withholding of our property constitutes treason. She is the failed product of a failed experiment,” the General fired back. Dad almost bolted from his chair, only just held back by several men around him.

Raising my hand, I waited for the Senator to notice me. It took a few very tense minutes, but he finally did.

“Melanie Brager has the floor,” he announced, although that rule had long since gone out the window.

“I know I’m just a kid, and all, but isn’t it illegal to do experiments on people without their permission? Isn’t that kind of like what the Nazis did to people during World War 2? I didn’t think the United States did that kind of stuff. I always thought we were the good guys,” I said, putting on my best little girl impression. As I finished, there was dead silence in the room. It was eerie, how silent it had become.

“General, this failed product just brought up some serious charges. Although the investigative process by DOJ is ongoing, this will be considered going forward, and I’m certain the President will be interested in hearing about this,” the Senator said.

“Actually, the President would very much like to hear about this...now,” a new voice said, as the door opened up.

“Mr. President,” the Senator acknowledged.

“Senator,” he returned the greeting.

“Would you come here, please?” the President said, looking my way. “Melanie Brager, I’d like to talk to you, if you wouldn’t mind,” he said, looking directly at me.

“Me, sir?” I asked, my voice kind of cracking.

“Yeah, you,” he confirmed, with a small laugh and a smile.

Working my way out of the chairs, I slowly made my way to him. I was terrified. This was the President, and I had no idea what he thought about all of this. What I did know was that he could decide my fate, and the fate of all of us, for good or bad, and there wasn’t much we could do about it.

“Gentlemen, you can continue as you like, but I’ll speak with her without all of you to interfere,” he said.

“Sir, she’s a telepath, and is capable of tampering with your mind,” the General informed him.

“I’m fully aware of that, but I have confidence that she won’t. Besides, I have a mind blocker to insure the privacy of my thoughts,” he replied.

“Sir, she’s proven to be immune to the blockers,” Headmaster Raughlin then said.

“Not this one,” he replied, clearly confident in his belief.

“Mr. Brager, would you please join us? This is your daughter, after all,” he said to Dad. That statement sounded to me as if he was sympathetic to our side, although it wasn’t a certainty.

The three of us walked out and to another conference room, one that was quite a bit smaller. There were a lot of tough looking men in suits lining the hallway. I assumed they were probably the President’s bodyguards.

“Melanie, you dropped some very serious charges in their, and unfortunately, there will never be any prosecution for them. Aside from most of the people involved being dead, we can’t allow such a horrific crime to become public. It would undermine our position in the world, and as a result our national security,” he explained, once we were settled in the room.

“So they win?” I asked.

“Not exactly. They just get away with the experiments that were done,” he said.

“But they’re still doing them, sir,” I said, getting angry at what was apparently happening.

“No, they’re not,” he corrected me.

“Dad, can we go?” I asked.

“Am I being dismissed by a little girl?” the President asked.

“Yes, sir, you are. But you don’t want to see her when she gets mad,” Dad told him.

“You’re all evil!” I yelled, and darted out. I ran into the bathroom, into a stall and closed the door. I sat there, curled up on the toilet, so angry I was crying. My vision was red, and I was struggling not to have an attack.

“Melanie,” I heard, and knew it was the President. He had actually followed me into the women’s bathroom!

“I don’t want to talk to you, sir,” I said, stressing the sir, clearly making it an insult, rather than a show of respect.

“I guess I deserved that,” he remarked, pulling me out of my position, and making me take notice.

“I had to drive you to a point that you should have used your power, but you didn’t. You were strong, and proved my point. You were being watched by a lot of people,” he informed me. That actually made me madder, and unable to stop it any longer, the attack finally happened. I felt the click, and pain exploded in me, followed by blackness.

“Melanie, angel,” I heard.

“I hurt,” I mumbled, pain in every part of me. No matter how many times I had them, they always seemed to hurt worse than the time before. For the first time, I wondered if it was just that the last time was in the past, and had faded with time.

Opening my eyes, the feeling of white hot nails pierced my eyes and I screamed. What surprised me was the feeling of overwhelming hunger. I’d had this type of reaction several times at Oakmont, but it’d been a couple of years.

“Hungry,” I moaned.

“Can we get some food?” I heard Dad ask.

A few minutes later, I assumed, a sandwich was shoved into my mouth and I rapidly ate it all. Although it helped, it really only teased me.

“More,” I complained.

I had no idea how much later it was, I had eaten at least six or seven sandwiches, several bags of chips and drank a bunch of cartons of milk. Finally, I was sated.

“Did I hurt the President?” I asked.

“A little, but he seems to be alright,” a voice said. It took a few moments for me to recognize the President’s voice.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Is that kind of thing common with you?” he asked.

“When I was at Oakmont the first time, they trained me to have them whenever they wanted,” I told him.

“They trained you to have them!?” he exclaimed, the shock in his voice palpable.

“Yes, sir,” I replied.

“You said they did experiments on you. Can you tell me about them?” he asked His question brought a lot of really bad memories to the front of my mind, and I tried to curl into a little ball. I began shaking and crying, not able to stop the reaction to his request. It took a while, and a lot of will, but I finally forced myself to calm down, breathing very deeply and forcing those breaths to be even.

“They injected me with stuff, every day. I think it was to make my powers come alive faster, but they didn’t know I already had them. The drugs they gave me made me angry, really angry, and I had those attacks a lot, before they decided to train me to have them. They happen when we get really angry,” I finally told him.

“That’s interesting,” the President observed.

“A little before I escaped, the first time, the doctors took me and gave me stuff, lots of stuff. Some of it caused me to hurt really bad. It felt like being on fire, and they’d shock me at the same time and ask me lots of questions. If I didn’t give them the answer they wanted, they’d make it hurt a lot worse. Then they gave me something called SHD,” I said, and began shaking as the thought of it took hold in my mind.

“If it’s that bad, you don’t have to continue,” he said, but I shook my head.

“No, it’s that good. I want it more than anything on Earth. I’d do anything to get it again,” I said, my shaking getting worse and I could feel the sweat breaking out. My mouth began watering, which was kind of odd.

“How long ago was it that they gave this stuff to her?” he asked Dad.

“Unless they gave it to her again during her most recent time there, two years ago,” he replied.

“I’m no drug expert, but I thought most addictions were gone within a couple of months,” he said.

“Not this stuff, but I’m also no expert with it,” Dad said.

“How long did they give it to her?” the President asked.

“The story I’ve been told says about a week, but we don’t have access to the study records they kept,” he said.

As they were talking, I realized that we were back in the main conference room and everyone was there, witnessing my pathetic story. I began crying, tears coming out in a torrent.

“What’s the matter?” Dad said, taking my hand to comfort me.

“I’ve done bad things and now everyone knows just how screwed up I am,” I said.

“You see? This child needs to be kept under lock and key,” I heard the General announce.

“Actually, her story makes me want to court martial you, and everyone involved in this twisted experiment,” someone else said.

“Watch this,” I heard. Then, “The government makes you stronger.”

I’d managed to resist it several times in the past, but in my currently weakened condition, it was like an avalanche descending on me. The red tint to my vision, followed by the click, the pain and the darkness came over me without mercy. I actually heard myself scream, as it happened. At least, I thought I screamed.

When I finally regained consciousness, the nausea hit me like a hammer, and I threw up for a long time. As with all things, it eventually ended, but I’d made a real mess of the place.

My eyes were closed, knowing it was going to hurt really bad when I opened them. As I was about to, I heard some noise, like people wrestling, or something.

“Have that man arrested!” a very loud male voice ordered.

“Belay that command!” another voice exclaimed. “What the hell was that?” the second voice demanded.

“She has those attacks at times and they can hurt others. It’s further proof that she needs to be in a secure location and studied by those capable of understanding what it is she has wrong with her,” the first voice said.

“I hurt,” I whimpered, curling back into a ball, little whimpers of pain coming out of me, from somewhere deep inside.

“You’re a sadistic bastard,” the second voice stated, very loudly.

“No sir, she is. She’s killed 167 soldiers, 28 telepaths, and at least 12 civilians and scientists, if not more. She’s dangerous, and unhinged,” the first voice said. I needed to know who that was, so I opened my eyes, expecting the stabbing knives of pain, but it didn’t happen.

As light returned, I saw General Sartrious standing almost beside me, his lip bleeding and his left eye a bit puffy. The President was on the floor, holding my head. Dad was being held by several guards, all of who looked a little rough, as if they had been in a fight. That’s when I noticed Dad had a bloody lip and nose.

As they were preoccupied, I slowly moved my hand and grabbed the General’s ankle. In that moment, I had direct contact with him, and inserted a probe into his mind. Direct contact was always better for establishing contact, when it was an option. There was an initial explosion of pain, but I fought it off, determined to do what I had begun.

In the depths of his mind, there was a burst of panic that made the attempt to kick my hand away, but it was too late. I had complete control. As soon as my connection was firmly established, I sent him everything I’d experienced while at Oakmont, and after. He got every little bit of it, everything that was done to my body, along with all of the emotions. It ended with the cutting open of my head, the torture and the murders.

When I withdrew my hand, he fell to the floor, drool coming from his mouth. He was whimpering, and seemed to be jerking slightly.

“What did you do to him?” someone asked.

“He experienced what’s been done to me,” I replied.

“For now, she needs to be held in an isolated and secure location...and sedated. Brager is to be released, but to be kept under surveillance. As for the General, get him to a hospital and see if there’s anything that can be done for him. If he wakes up, I want him under guard, and not for his protection, necessarily,” the President ordered, “And I want the records on her, all of them. Nothing is to be left out or I’ll have someone’s head. I want every little scrap. And why isn’t my Director of National Intelligence here?”

No one answered him, as I felt hands picking me up. There were several men handling me, and I saw Dad being escorted out. A gurney passed as I was put on another one, with a medical team inserting an IV into me as soon as I was placed on it. I couldn’t have resisted even if I wanted to, and right then, I didn’t really want to.