Widow

"So let's get started. Why exactly are you here?" asked Dr. Morses, clicking his pen in and out.
I was willing to say I was being held here, but let it go.
"Coincidence," I replied instead, and he wrote something right down. I squinted my eyes a little. This is getting off to a great start. To leave the situation now would be childish. Stoic silence as well. So I had to make sure that I answered the questions at least partially and as neutrally as I could.
"What do you currently work as?" he continued.
"I work in the free market economy," I said, a little amused. Possibly this could even be a little entertaining. Jonas also raised his eyebrows with a slight shake of his head.
"What business are you in?"
"Murder."
Dr. Morses paused and looked at me.
"Did I hear correctly, murder?" he inquired, as if he didn't understand acoustically. I nodded and sat back, relaxed. No matter how this turned out, it wouldn't be for my own good anyway. The best would be if they would do without my help. I still didn't know what I was supposed to help with either.
If it was just the data carrier, they probably wouldn't have done this genetic manipulation.
"So you're some kind of private investigator?" he assured himself.
"If the payment is right, I can find objects and people on request, yes," I said truthfully. Basically, I really did track people down most of the time, though not necessarily with the best of intentions.
"And so these cases mostly involve murder?" he continued, taking notes.
"In one way or another, yes.", that was also true.
They were usually involved in a murder case, even if in the end the person they were looking for was the murder victim.
"Mhm, school career?"
"Private."
"Private schooling?"
"No, just none your business," I said coldly.
"Alright, next question, where did you get your education?", Dr. Morses changed the paper and I could hear from his pulse that he was nervous.
It was a question that had about as much to do with my life today as the Queen, so I should be able to answer it without hesitation.
"With the police.", I said, and couldn't help but notice Jonas' surprised eyebrow raise.
Perhaps I should have insisted he leave the room before the questioning had begun.
"So you have knowledge of weapons?"
"Yes."
"And through the police, you then took a liking to investigations, and that's how you got the idea to go into business for yourself?"
"Something like that," I lied, eyeing him as he wrote something down again.
My background had been a tiny bit different, but nothing that should show up on paper.
Especially since I didn't know if this man was privy to the overall situation.
"Interesting, one does not see that every day:" the Doc said and sat up, "Now about your childhood," he said and I screwed up my face a little. I definitely wouldn't talk about that.
"Where did you grow up?"
"London.", I growled after a few seconds of silence.
"Anything more specific than that?"
"No."
The surveyor nodded and went back to writing something down.
"Family?" he continued.
"No."
"Friends?"
"No."
"Any hobbies?"
I frowned.
What did that matter, please?
"Reading, when I have time," I grumbled after another hesitation. Then he asked a few more incoherent questions, taking note of my answers if I gave any. When he was done, he packed up. Hopefully today was the first and last time I had to go through this kind of shit.
Jonas walked the man to the car and came straight back to the room. This time he sat down in the chair across from me.
"Cop, huh?" he asked, leaning back.
I should have guessed he'd come back to the subject.
"Hm," I grumbled in response.
I was unwilling to go further into the subject.
"Shall I now describe what happened down there from my point of view or am I done for the day?", I changed the the topic.
"Not so fast my friend, I need more info about you."
"I'm not your friend.", I said in disgust, "And I don't think I'm in much of a mood to talk about anything even remotely related to my life today, alright?", I watched as he sat down more relaxed and crossed his arms as I had been doing all along.
"Whatever you say, Widow, we're welcome to sit here until tomorrow, I have time," Jonas said.
He just couldn't resist testing me.
"We can sit here until you die of old age for all I care, I don't happen to have anything concrete planned either," I said, raising my left eyebrow a very tiny bit, just in the motto 'it's your turn'.
If he wanted to play, go ahead.
He just smiled and waited. And we stared at each other. The clock kept ticking and then after a few hours had passed he asked, "Don't you want to maybe listen to the question I want to ask you first?"
I shrugged my shoulders in boredom. My leg had fallen asleep by now and I was getting tired.
"How old were you when you were bitten?" his gaze was fixed on me, surveying my reaction.
I wrinkled my nose slightly. Not because I thought the question was so shitty, more because I couldn't remember for sure.
Twenty-one? Maybe a year or two older.
I turned my gaze sullenly to the window.
"I don't know, who cares?", I then replied.
After a few minutes of silence, Jonas then sighed in exasperation, but nodded.
"Well, we can come back to this later. Then tell me what happened at the Gliss compound."
I reluctantly relayed what happened there, including that I had approache at Jennifer for being inattentive. He insisted on knowing when I had been shot and by whom so that he could better understand what had happened.
And since the bullet wounds in my back had occurred when I saved her ass because of it, I unfortunately had to tell.
When he asked why I had killed Gliss myself, I told him, albeit very reluctantly, about the job.
I also knew what question was coming next.
"Do you still have the phone?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
"...Hm," I grumbled, taking it out and slapping it on the table in front of me. Jonas took it, looked at it for a moment, then pocketed it. As one might expect.
"I've got a few things to take care of in case you plan to completely shut me down for the next few weeks. Among other things, I need to either take a leave of absence from my employer or continue to do small jobs on the side that don't raise any questions," I informed him coldly.
"Questions from our side?" inquired Jonas with raised eyebrows.
"Questions from my professional side. Even for people like me, there are insurances and other things where I have to pay monthly contributions. That's why I have to look where I'm staying, because cancellations have to be worked out months in advance, and if I don't go on it, leaving early is impossible."
"And how do you imagine that? You want me to give you a cell phone and risk you infiltrating my company or endangering me and my agents?" he now stood up and looked out the window again.
"Believe me, I've been getting orders sent to me for years with your name on them. If I had any interest in killing you, or getting in the way of your great company, I probably would have already," I shook my head with a slight smile, "It's all about business. If I can keep paying my bills and no one blabs that I'm stuck with you guys until you get what you want, there's little problem from my end."
"Who says you're stuck here?" asked Jonas, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.
"The gun in the holster under your suit jacket, the silver bullets stuck in the magazine, the people standing at the hangouts. I don't doubt that you or any of them would hesitate for even a second to shoot at me, should I try to escape."
He nodded slowly.
"Well observed." he said thoughtfully, "Give us a rundown of your expenses, then we can take care of your bills for the time you're here." he then said and sat back down.
"Mmm, so you can get an account summary of what I'm doing, huh? Do I look like an idiot?", I snorted in annoyance, "I'll write out your charges if you let me use a computer."
"Only under supervision," he stipulated.
I considered for a moment, then nodded.
"I still have to write my employer that I'm taking a vacation," I added. Jonas took out the cell phone again, put it on the table, stood up and was about to leave.
"You have ten minutes. Don't make me regret leaving you that thing.", he said and turned towards the door. I grabbed the cell phone, but didn't use it yet.
"Have you been able to find out anything about the people in the cells?", I asked before he left the room. He looked at me a little surprised, but shook his head.
"Nothing has been noted, no records, no data."
I nodded thoughtfully. Why would they be doing experiments on homeless people if they didn't make any notes about it?
"Do you know anything about this?" he then asked me hesitantly, as if he hadn't even considered it before. Partly I wanted to tell him what the man had told me, but partly I did not.
Maybe they could do something with it after all.
"Just that most of the people there were homeless. They were picked up and brought there. That's all I could find out," I chewed my lip. What exactly the purpose of the torture was, I kept to myself for the time being. As long as nothing was certain, I didn't want to make any assumptions.
Jonas nodded and left the room.
I used the next ten minutes to request my leave and to get a confirmation for the next four weeks. After that, I was finally allowed to leave the room and take a nap.

I didn't really get much sleep, though.
I couldn't get any rest.
Several times I woke up just like that and didn't know exactly what had woken me up.
The first time in the afternoon. Then in the evening. And two more times when it was already dark. When I finally woke up for the fifth time, I gave up on it and flipped back the covers in frustration to get up and go for a walk.
Actually, I was supposed to go see Jonas so he could finally explain to me what such a big company, like his was, needed my help with.
By now I strongly doubted that it could have too much to do with the stick. In a bad mood, I got up, slipped on my shoes and went downstairs to leave the house.
However, I had barely opened the door when I was stopped by someone.
"Where are you going?", I heard Max's voice from upstairs.
"I think my intention can be generally described as 'getting some fresh air'," I said annoyed without turning around. I didn't feel like talking. For the fact that I usually lived alone and was also quite silent, I had talked more than I would have liked in the last few days.
"I don't think I can let you do that, who knows what you'll do then.", Max said then and came downstairs.
I sighed in annoyance.
"I came with you because you have something on me. I'm not that stupid and just fuck off," I explained to him as if I were talking to a small child. Sullenly I stared at the frame of the front door.
"I'm still not letting you get out.", The idiot stopped behind me and I heard him cross his arms. I turned to him and gave him an intimidating look. He was a whole head shorter than me, I was just now realizing.
"You don't really think you can stop me from walking out that door and taking a lap around the house now, do you?", That had been a rhetorical question, but he answered anyway, pulling out a gun and pressing it against my chest.
Unimpressed, I looked down at the gun and back up at him with an amused expression on my face. Just as he started to say something, I disarmed him and aimed the gun directly at his head.
"What were you going to say?", I asked coldly.
He looked at me angrily and raised his hands slowly.
"I have orders not to let you leave the property," he said just as coldly. I put the gun down, removed the magazine and the cartridge that was already in the barrel. Then I tossed the gun to him and pocketed the ammo.
"I don't give a shit what your order is. Now get the fuck out of my way and do something that suits you. Snitch or something.", I said annoyed, made a shooing hand gesture, then turned around and walked out without giving him any more attention.
It wasn't until I was outside and had closed the door that I took a deep breath. Thanks to the cold night air, I was able to relax a little for the first time in days. I stood just outside, the closed front door right behind me, and looked around in the darkness of the night. These lighting conditions were more pleasant to my heightened senses than the glare of daylight, even though I really liked the sun.
The sky was covered with thick, heavy clouds.
Somewhere, very far away, you could hear a dog barking. After a few minutes I went off to have a look at the area.
When I reached the edge of the forest I heard something cracking in the undergrowth.
Not a sound that would cause a startled animal.
Rather one that was caused by someone who was trying hard not to be discovered.
Attentively, I stopped and peered between the trees, searching for the source of the sound.
I heard the front door open and close, but I did not turn my attention away and continued to peer into the darkness.
I did not hear a heartbeat, nor did I detect the smell of human blood. Only the one that was now coming at me from the house. And angry footsteps that belonged to the heartbeat.
"What are you doing?", Jennifer asked me when she arrived next to me, "I assume Max told you not to go outside."
I ignored her as I spotted a shadow that looked very suspicious to me. With a furrowed brow, I tried to make out what was there.
"Widow.", She crossed her arms impatiently and bobbed one foot.
"What?", I growled, my eyes fixed on the shadow.
"You don't have permission to go out."
After a few minutes of silence, during which I couldn't notice anything else unusual about the shadow, I then turned my gaze to Jennifer.
"Doesn't anyone actually sleep in this house?", I then asked and turned away to continue my walk.
"Didn't you hear me?!" she asked insistently, running after me.
"Yes, I did."
"Then get the hell back inside!", She stood in my path, her hand resting on a pistol she carried on a holster.
"And if I don't?", I said simply, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a window on the upper floor of the house brighten. Shortly after, it was opened and Jonas stared at me angrily from a distance.
In the night stuff.
In the background I saw Max standing.
Wanker.
So as long as I was here, my every move was being watched. I wasn't here to help, I was actually being held captive here.
"Suit yourselves.", I growled then in a bad mood, turned on my heel and went back inside.
Jennifer followed me every step of the way until I was once again standing in front of the room I had been assigned to.
"Get lost," I growled to her as she followed me into the room.
"I want to talk to you.", Jenny said as she closed the door behind her and leaned her back against it. I walked over to the window and opened it wide to have a view of the forest again. My gut feeling didn't suggest anything good.
"With me? Thanks, not interested."
"I want to thank you.", She continued and I heard from her voice how serious she meant it.
"Thank me?", I laughed softly and looked at her over my shoulder, "You don't need to fucking thank me for saving my own ass."
"Excuse me?" she inquired sharply.
"If I'd let you die, I'd have been lynched too. So don't mention it, but leave it."
She fell silent.
"You're kind of an asshole, you know that?"
"Noted."
"There's a mission scheduled for tomorrow. You're coming with me.", She then said very distantly and left.
She had sounded hurt, at least a little.
But better that way, than otherwise.