“I have the very same earpiece here,” said Wesley. It dangled in front of my eyes. It looked like a wire with a bit of plastic at the end. “It is a shame that the ARGO hasn’t been powered on yet. It was a failure on my part to kill Jason so quickly. I won’t make that mistake again. I believe I couldn’t track it down because the ARGO shut down after I forcefully ripped it out.

You didn’t have one on you which was a shame, but it makes sense because the ARGO main system is offline.”

“Just get to your questions. I don’t need to hear your sad monologue and annoying backstory about how you were the forgotten third child,” I said, “It is pretty clear that you are quick to anger so I would rather avoid that so I can survive.”

“Of course. That is understandable based on my embellishments to Jason’s end. It is clear to me that you don’t have access to ARGO or else you would have used it during the time I was monitoring you so why was that? Who has the ARGO?”

I thought over my answer and the broader situation. I needed to continue delaying and find a way out. If I bought more time then Rachel and the others can come to my rescue. I need a way out.

“It was last at the warehouse,” I answered unsure if my statement was true or not.

“Lies,” said Wesley as he got in close and spitted all over me. “I combed through the entire building and burnt it to the ground. I will be mine.”

“What?”

“Where is it!”

“I don’t know.”

Wesley clocked me in the jaw.

“I don’t care if you're just a broken clone. You must know something. I will get it out of you. Your secrets as a replicated creation will at least offset these delays. Why don’t we head to the lab and start opening you up? Jason seemed to open up more with some torture. You will be the same.”

Wesley laughed and stepped behind the chair I was tied to. I tried to shake the chair, but Wesley held the back and began dragging it with me attached. I continued to struggle and shake but he held my head before giving up and punching me in the head. I felt my nose break and I was bleeding. I felt the strain of my other injuries as I moved involuntarily. My broken arm felt worse, and I couldn’t focus anymore.

Wesley dragged me and the chair into a new room. This one was lit brightly, and I had to squint as we went through. The chair bumped against something, and Wesley stopped. He came to my front and had a devilish grin on. He held up a needle with something already filling it.

“This won’t hurt much but is needed so that I can move you without squirming. At least you will feel some pain relief while it is active for a few minutes before we get started.”

Wesley injected the needled into my neck. My muscles tensed for a moment before I felt everything relax. My head drooped down, and I felt weak but at the same time, I did not feel any pain besides my headache. Wesley quickly undid the knots and lifted me up onto a medical chair. Straps were put on that held down my arms and legs. Despite the drugs, I cried out in pain as my left arm was twisted and moved around for the straps to go on. It didn’t stop Wesley from doing his thing and the drugs kept me frozen like a sheep ready for slaughter.

“Get some rest Jason while you can. I’ll be back soon enough with some tools and a good friend. He should be back from his building burning activity shortly,” said Wesley before leaving my sight.

I just laid there and listened to the silence of the room and emptiness. There wasn’t much else I could do after all. I was failing and was going to be in much more pain soon if nothing happened. I had failed to find the result of the tracker soon enough. I had failed to fight off Wesley when he attacked me at the house. I had not been able to do anything for myself. Tears ran down my face. I could blink them away and little else.

When Wesley returned to my view he held scissors. He went around to my back and cut. He held up a lock of my hair.

“Your eyes are quite enlarged at the moment. It would be best if you stay calm. Your most painful moments have yet to be.”

Wesley set down the scissors on a metal tray and took out pliers.

“Depending on how much you scream through the paralytic I will be forced to gag you. I need these samples for comparison against Jason’s dead body you see. Though I have yet to find a good way to recover it. Do you have any suggestions?”

I couldn’t answer and wouldn’t want to answer anyway.

“No matter.”

Wesley used his pliers on my fingernails on my left hand. I felt the pain and my hand moved around a bit as I tried to squirm. I felt the metal pliers smash my hand before he held my arm down. It took only a few seconds longer for a nail to be removed. I released a stifled scream held back by partially paralyzed facial muscles. His next steps were to draw some of my blood and collect saliva samples. The pain varied as he continued.

It only stopped when Wesley’s phone rang. He put down the extra-large needle meant for extracting bone marrow and put it down with a sigh.

“It looks like you are saved by the bell for now. Your screams are improving but you’ll need your voice to answer some more questions. Maybe now you’ll be more willing to talk. I hear these next steps are pretty painful without an anesthetic. Though you have lasted well so far.”

Wesley stepped back and I relaxed a little when he had his back turned and walked out of the room. A mix of dried and fresh tears covered my face. I could move my neck around a bit and saw the array of tools left to go. They did not look good. Wesley had pulled mostly from my left arm because he could hold it down with one hand easily. My hand and forearm looked like a mess. There were a few holes and a tear in the strap because I had been shifting around so much with the pain. I wanted to continue crying but nothing came out. I wished Rachel and Caleb could get here right now. I wished I had been smarter. I just wished I had some help.

said a robotic voice in my head.

“What is happening?” I mumbled with part of my mouth still under the paralytic effects.

I felt a chill come over me as I felt a tingle come from my neck and then spread outward from the rest of my body. At this point, I was confused about how this was happening and when ARGO was a part of me. And then I remembered. Frey had spoken about what he ‘did’. I had thought he had meant using his powers to bring me back from the brink of death, but he also meant something else. Something he hadn’t brought up. The old Jason had met Wesley at noon leaving some time between the timestamped camera footage and then. Did he know more about his disappearance and what about ARGO? Was the thing he actually ‘did’ connect me to the dormant ARGO.

The voice in my head continued to list a dozen different ailments including dehydration. Most of it wasn’t actually helpful. One thing I did make note of in the list of problems was the paralytic.

a minute later the second set of reports came.

‘ARGO’ I thought, ‘send help’.

I thought ‘No’ and the ARGO voice stopped giving me some time to be in silence. ARGO was my lifeline at this point, and I needed to get out of this chair. I might have been able to take him on when I wasn’t injured but with a broken arm, it was going to be hard to fight Wesley. I focused on the movement of my neck and forced my head around while I scanned the room. To the side was a metal pan with knives, blades, and other surgical tools. I would need them to escape but I would just barely be able to reach the plate if my arm was out of the cuff. The bad news was that he had put the plate of tools to my left side. Wesley returned to the room with the bull-man behind him I thought about ARGO and told it to activate the external situation scan.

I started twisting my hand as instructed and followed every instruction as soon as ARGO spoke.

“Back for round two,” I said keeping his focus anywhere but my left hand.

It took all the effort I had not to check my progress and focus on moving my doubly weakened hand. I started to wince in pain and Wesley saw it as a sign of weakness. He turned to look at the metal plate. I kept my hand frozen still. I followed his movements with my head. It was one of the few parts of my body I could now move easily. I worked on fiddling with the strap as best I could with my limited movement, but ARGO assisted in pointing out the flaws in the slightly damaged strap. I began to exploit that damaged strap.

Wesley lorded over me, and I saw the knife in his hand. At this point, I was feeling weak and tired. I pulled out the last card I could play to have him focus on anything else other than my escape attempt.

“It is true I don’t know where the ARGO is, but it was turned back on,” I practically shouted as he brought his knife closer.

Wesley paused thinking it over. He spun the knife in his hand thinking it over.

“How do I know you’re not lying? It wasn’t active yesterday.”

“I wasn’t in danger yesterday. You said you could check it yourself. If it isn’t true then you can have my life.”

“I already have your life clone. Still, this is interesting. I can see the desperation in your eyes and your face says that it is true.” Wesley nodded to the bull-man behind him, “Go check if what he says is true.”

I sighed in relief internally as Bull-man left the room to go somewhere else within this prison I was in. Now it was once again just me and Wesley alone. He paced around the room while I focused on my returning limb movement. I couldn’t move quickly both because of the aftereffects of the injection and the need to avoid attention from Wesley. The voice of ARGO echoed in my head calming me and instructing me on my next steps.

The dexterity in my left hand was shit at the moment but the ARGO did its best to recommend ways around it. I could slide my hand up and down around the mostly leather straps which made things a bit easier. That combined with the small tear and holes I had gotten Wesley to inadvertently make was helping make progress. I had no idea how long it would take bull-man to return so I was working quicker than the ARGO wanted to. I used the time Wesley was separated from me to fidget with the strap on my left hand. I continued to make noise with the other straps but for the moment Wesley seemed to think it was still part of my continued struggle session with him I had started since I woke up. I felt the sweat on my brow as I panicked internally as I worked. If I fucked this up Wesley would end me like he did my parallel self. He only wanted me alive for the suffering as he collected samples from me to test my clone status. While it was something I was interested in finding the results I didn’t want to die soon after finding out.

I continued to fidget with the buckle. My arm felt sluggish, and I had tears on my face, but it helped me slow down so as not to get noticed. ARGO also worked on getting me an estimation of how much longer it would take to get out of the strap. It first gave an estimate of five minutes but quickly went down as I worked until it could make a better guess for the time. In working on the estimation ARGO made note of the best time to perform the final steps.

I heard the metal clip holding the strap together like a belt unclasp before I felt it. I had timed the movement, so Wesley started his turn away from me as I escaped. I ripped the rest of the strap off and reached for the one on my right hand opening it up in seconds. Wesley spun when he heard what I was doing and rushed at me. ARGO pointed me to the easiest knife to throw and flicked it out as quick as I could. The small precision knife did not bury its end in his head, but it did cause a small cut on his arm. He had to step aside to dodge allowing me a little more time to undo myself.

Wesley didn’t have a weapon in his hand but used my failed throw and my restricted movement as more time to pick up the knife and move around me. I got one foot out before Wesley got to me.

“I will kill you. You insufferable lab rat! You will obey me.”

I twisted my body as ARGO instructed and grabbed Wesley’s knife hand before kicking him with my free leg. Wesley was quick and moved out of the way of my kick. I still had a grip on his hand but was losing it as he moved around the chair. One leg was still stuck so I focused on defense. Wesley stuck to my left side due to my arm but with both arms freed and ARGO’s assistance, I was able to block Wesley’s stab attempts.

He wasn’t any faster than me and ARGO alerted me to his body movements but then Wesley decided to grab a second weapon. The metal plate clattered to the ground as he took one of the larger blades and pushed the plate aside. My left hand was a liability and ARGO could only do so much to work around it. I ducked down to avoid a knife and to push away Wesley’s other hand. The fight was draining me quickly and I needed time to recover.

Wesley stabbed towards my head, and I flinched knowing what was about to happen and what ARGO needed me to do. I felt pain in my left shoulder as I blocked the knife with my arm. It sunk in and I threw the punch before the second knife could hit anything. The uppercut punch went right through his middle and into his jaw with as much force as I could muster. Wesley was caught unprepared and dropped his second knife and stepped back. The first knife was still buried in muscle. I clenched my teeth because of the pain and got the second leg strap off. I turned to look at the door and heard the thump of shoes coming down the hallway. I already knew who it was before they entered the room. Bull-man had returned due to the clatter of the tools.

I stepped back and pushed the chair over in the direction of the door. It wouldn’t slow him down for more than a few seconds to move around it but at this point, I needed every second I could get. Because I had stepped back through the spattering of tools and potential weapons was right in the middle of the two of us. I braced for the pain once again knowing the next steps were the best option.

I felt woozy as I removed the knife from my arm. Wesley jumped for the platter of tools. Something I had considered before ARGO advised against it for the moment. Wesley realized a moment too late what I was doing as he knelt on the floor. I threw the blade towards his center mass as best I could. Wesley picked up a saw used to cut the bone and used it to swat away the flying knife. In the corner of my eye, I saw the bull-man leap over the fallen chair slowing his charge a little.

This time it was my turn to dodge flying objects as the knife I threw came back to get me. I jumped and twisted as best I could which caused the knife to land on the side of my leg instead of a lung. I dropped to one knee and held my arms up and took a deep breath. Bull-man hit me a second later and despite my planning, the wind was knocked out of me, and I felt my consciousness fade in and out for a few seconds after I hit the wall. I groaned.

“Stop,” said Wesley.

Bull-man agreed and stopped his preparations for a second charge. He took a step back. I took some deep breaths in and rolled over. I felt bruising in my ribs, and I had mainly landed on my already damaged arm leaving it in an even worse state. I slid myself up to a sitting position as best I could while leaning against the wall for support.

“I want to do this last part myself,” said Wesley.

I looked up at Wesley and he approached me while twirling a blade.

“I will cut you up and then trash your house until I find the ARGO,” Wesley turned towards Bull-man, “Did you run the program?”

“It started and didn’t fail upon starting.”

“So, you didn’t…”

As Wesley turned back towards me I flung the serrated knife in my hand towards Wesley’s distracted form. I had picked up the knife earlier when I bent and ducked under one of his attacks earlier. Wesley’s eyes went wide and clutched his face when the blade sunk into his cheek. Some blood started flowing down his face. He was in shock when the bull-man reacted and charged at me. I grimaced and prepared the knife in my leg for defense. I removed it from my leg and held it up waiting for him to come to me. I didn’t have the energy to attempt another throw. All my focus was now on staying conscious. Bull-man passed Wesley and was two feet from me when he stood frozen in place before awkwardly falling over. Wesley’s face was contorted in shock and fury. I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all, but I realized I couldn’t. I was under the spell as well.

“It looks like I made it in time.”