Espionage
"I am Hudson Graves Jr." I started.
"That's not funny. My work is real, not a joke," she interrupted.
"Look, I don't have time for your disbelief, I'm on the run right now, and I need you to get this information out," I retorted.
"I'll listen, but I still don't believe you," she responded.
"Look, I'm not as famous as my... my... f-father," I said, forcing the words out of my mouth.
"Is that your reasoning for me not recognizing you?" she asked.
"If that's what you want to believe. Anyways, a few months back or more, I went missing. I don't personally remember how, or why, but one day I woke up at Hudson Hospital with no memory whatsoever. A Doctor, Dr. Morton, told me who I was, and then proceeded to torture me for information and access to the Enterprise. I managed to escape, and ended up at the Servant's Headquarters, where we first met. I was nursed back to health by a girl named Paige, the one who had rushed you off the property. I was staying with her, and during this time, my mother, Maria Graves learned about my whereabouts.
It turns out that she had ordered for the disappearance of my father and I. My father decided to bribe the killers to get away, leaving me alone. My bodyguard had risked his life to save me. He used a chemical on my body that put it into a death-like state. The chemical had a strange reaction with my bloodstream, causing my amnesia. She used my death to claim herself as the beneficiary to all the company's wealth, because my father was dying of cancer, and had left all the assets to myself instead of her.
Anyways, when she learned where I was staying, she ordered another hit on me, and in the process killed Paige. I then was escorted to meet her, where she pretended she didn't know me. Her assistant forced me into the Cogitatus, trying to wipe my mind. I managed to escape, and came here. I need you to publish this information in order to send Maria Graves to prison, and for me to reclaim my assets," I said.
"What happened to Hudson Graves Sr.? And how exactly are you sure your mother ordered your death?" she asked me.
"Well I'm not sure what happened to my father. He may be on the lam, and if possible, I would also like to see him behind bars if you can manage to pull some strings. Or perhaps he is dead somewhere, his condition getting the best of him. As to Maria's scheming, I recently hired a private investigator who gathered all the information and let me know. They had no paper trail to these claims, only witnesses who I personally met and who told me what they knew. I then asked my investigator to find all the wrong doings that the Enterprise has done, which is here in this envelope," I said.
"I would like to see proof of these witnesses," she said.
"They also asked to be unnamed," I said.
"Fine, I guess I'll take your word for it. Now I want to let you know, if I publish this, there is a possibility that the entire Enterprise's assets will be frozen and compensated to the customers. This will mean that you will most likely have nothing left, no assets of your own to claim," she said.
"That is a risk I am willing to take," I said.
"May I ask why? I never heard much about you, but what reason do you have to want to throw your entire life away? All your riches, all the luxury? It probably isn't good of me to ask this because this is the story of my LIFETIME, but at the same time, I want you to be sure about this," she said.
"It was never mine to begin with. When I woke up without my memories, I had to wake up to a whole new world. I had to learn things again, and I got to see life at a new angle. I understood the value of hardwork. I understood what everyone else goes through. All the challenges, such as the pain of every waking moment, the sacrifices one has to make, the solitude of not having someone to guide you, I finally got to experience it all.
My father may have made life easy for me, but he made it hell for everyone else. As much as he seemed to be a good guy, as many excuses he made for his actions, he never understood life. He could never see what lay in front of him because he was so focused on what was behind him. His work could have changed the world for the better, and some of it did, but he mostly had his mind out for profit. I don't want that sort of shadow to hang behind myself. From this moment on, Hudson Graves, Maria Graves, and Hudson Graves Jr. are nothing. In all reality, they are dead, and their names will rot in the footnotes of history," I said.
"...you feel very strongly about this subject, don't you?" she asked me.
"You have no idea..." I answered.
"So what will you do now?" she asked.
"Find somewhere to hide until everything blows over. Start a new life, far away from anything to do with the Enterprise," I said.
"How will you do that? Your memory may be a little fuzzy, but the Enterprise is everywhere practically," she said.
"Well once you are done, the only place that will have any real impact will be the area with the hospital. As long as I never see that place again, I'll be happy," I said.
"Fair enough. I'll try my best to get this out into the world. I can't guarantee anything, but you should be safe... hopefully," she said.
"Good. Now you answer a question. Why do you want the enterprise to fall?" I asked. She fell silent for a moment, her face ashen. I hadn't paid much attention to her before, but now, sitting in this silence, I began to study her. She was short and slightly plump, not quite skinny, yet not fat either. She had brown eyes with extremely short brown hair. The sides of her head were shaved, and her bangs were the longest and were combed to the left.
"My father worked alongside the famous Jack Graves. The greatest news anchor, my dad would always say. If you wanted the truth, all you had to do was turn to his channel. My dad was a live reporter and journalist, and anywhere Jack Graves told him to go, he would. My dad knew that things were usually dark, so he adopted this television persona, a guy who was pretty erratic but also happy and upbeat. They called him Crazy Charlie. My dad wasn't as popular as Jack Graves himself, but he was still very popular, and as a kid, it was really cool to see your dad as this person.
Then Jack Graves killed himself. This great news anchor, this figure my dad looked up to, just gone. My dad was crushed. It didn't make things any better when the station went bankrupt, and got bought up by the "evil" news companies. Everyone would say that these stations were funding the work of the great Jack Graves, that they made his influence greater and worldwide. My dad didn't believe it. Once these stations took Jack Graves legacy in their own hands, my dad told me that the truth was officially dead. His health started deteriorating and he couldn't find a job he thoroughly enjoyed. It broke my heart to see it.
Then after a decade or less, Hudson Enterprises rose from the ashes of Jack Graves' work. My father would look at me with such joy in his eyes and tell me that this was the new Jack Graves, the new hero, Hudson Graves. Retaking Jack Graves' station and making it into something new, bringing people hope. He did everything he could to find a job, any job, just to work with a Graves once more. He got a job being a janitor. From this great reporter to a janitor. Yet he didn't care, he did the job with every ounce of pride.
I started schooling to become a reporter, trying to follow his footsteps. I decided to do what he did, and I went deep into the working of the Enterprise, trying to see all the good my dad talked about. As I dug deeper and deeper though, I found more and more evil. I tried to tell my dad, but he never believed me. We eventually drifted apart, and my dad died later that year, leaving everything to the Hudson Enterprise. All they did to honor him was name a wing of the hospital after him. I had a friend run the numbers, and most of his money went directly to Hudson Graves. Ever since then I have been trying to bring out the truth, just like my dad did when he first started reporting, just like his hero Jack Graves," she answered.
I sat there in stunned silence, taking the information in. I felt rather guilty pretending that I was someone who I didn't believe myself to be. I also felt guilty associating myself with a family that had done so much damage and harm to another's family. I was sure that the both of us would not forget the pain that was brought upon us. The only thing that brought me any satisfaction was the fact that giving her this information would stop anyone else from doing the same thing with a different family, and that others would not live with the same pain.
"I'm sorry that this affected you," I finally responded.
"No apology necessary, if anything it made me Cray-Cray KK," she said with a small laugh.
"Well at least you will get a good story," I said, returning her laugh with a small smile.
"True... do you have enough time to stay for lunch?" she asked.
"I'd like to say yes, but like I said before, I'm on the run," I responded.
"Well there isn't much I can do to help you with that. You could remain an anonymous source, but that would not help the credibility of all this evidence, and it wouldn't stop you from being arrested by the cops. If you do run into any legal trouble, I can recommend some people who can help you," she said.
"I'm not afraid of the cops, whoever they are. I'm afraid of the people that have been chasing me, and anyone that the Enterprise could send after. I'm also afraid of Dr. Morton and the people he has sent against me," I told her.
"Oh. Well that's very understandable. And just to inform you, cops are people who stop others who commit crimes. Most of the time they are good. In this case, the only thing that I can think of that would help you would be to get a lawyer, or turn yourself in to the cops. That way, at least you have something to back you up, and some sort of protection with the cops," she said.
"I'm not especially fond of that idea, but if you say it could help me, then I guess I'll just have to take that chance," I said.
"I can understand why you would not be too fond of that, but it's probably the best chance that you will get. I will even drive you to the station myself, and contact some of my lawyer friends," she said.
"I'll take you up on that offer. I'll just have to hide in the back or something. I was being followed on my way here, and they may have seen my face," I told her.
"You really aren't lying to me about all this huh?" she said with a laugh.
"What reason would I have to lie?" I asked.
"I'm joking around with you, I guess it's not a good time," she said.
"Maybe a joke after my life isn't in danger. Let's go," I said.
"Straight to business then! Come on, throw on this, keep the hood up, and stay directly behind me. Try not to look at anyone, and keep up," she quickly said, grabbing a set of keys off a hook. She then grabbed a jacket, and rushed out the door. I followed, struggling to keep up with her footsteps. She took a different route than I had taken to get to her apartment, going through tight hallways and down different flights of stairs, until we went out a back door and up to a parking garage. She walked up to a white car, opened the side door, then got in the driver's seat.
"Sit in the very back. If we get stopped, duck down to the floor as low as possible. I'll let you know when we have arrived at the police station. I hope to god we can make it," she told me. I did as she said, and we were on the move.
The drive was rather slow and tense. With every stop I held my breath, my heart racing. I could tell that Kenzie was tense too. She gripped the steering wheel as if she was hanging from a chasm with only a rope to support her. Her radio was playing at first, but she turned it off, saying it was too distracting. Every few minutes she looked as if she was about to say something, for she would open her mouth, but then she would shake her head, mutter something under her breath, and keep driving. Eventually we came to a complete stop.
"We are here," she said.
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