THE BLACK SECURITY WOMAN opened the door and escorted Reeves into the director's office. He was strapped in a straitjacket. Reeves was earlier vexing, for being belted-up in restrains, for more than an hour in the security office. Finally, he was physically brought here for the first time inside Tina Martin's office — after his own five days of failed in breaking an entry attempts.

The interior was capacious. He sat there, with his half-opened red eyes, still tearing profusely from the smarting sensation of the pepper mace spray. His hands were bounded inside the jacket — restricting contact to his smarting eyeballs...

He thought of his failed attempt to break into that very office a couple of nights back, where he almost fell off the ledge outside on which he stood. He had been coming back for five consecutive nights — but, each time he returned to his dormitory thwarted, after seeing the facility director always working late in her office — she was a true workaholic, just like she was now...

Tina Martin was present there this time too. She was ignoring him and was busy doing her report work, while Reeves sat across her desk...

He went on his habitude observation of the IIRC director, and her surrounding — his gaze was searching for the filing cabinets where records of the Intersexuals might be stored — or maybe the info that he was looking for, was in her password-protected computer that she was utilizing now — it brought him nervous thoughts, of how was he going to hack into her password?

She did not look up, and was constantly typing on the PC keyboards — then she finally spoke to Reeves, who was still in the restrain bound, with a Black security guard nearby...

"Do you remember Morgan, about three years ago? Well, he was the last boy whom I last saw wearing what you are wearing now."

It then got Reeves thinking hard of who was this Morgan that she had just spoken of. He finally recalled the field trip for Sports Day at Templeton Girls School, when he was nine. An ugly incident happened over there, when some girls teased one of the visiting Intersexual boys from Wesleyan — the Mulatto named Morgan got really mad, and physically attacked them. Since then, the boy was removed from IIRC — and was neither seen nor heard of again.

'Was that one of the ways out from Wesleyan?'

Reeves thought — if he was not in the jacket, he could do something eccentric, like he did in the classroom earlier — by overturning of the Science teacher Freda Mitchel's table...

Maybe, he would be soon sent away like Morgan for earlier beating up the big-cow sized Joe — but, would he escape from wherever they will send him to next?

His reverie was interrupted when Tina Martin spoke up again in between her typing...

"So Eve, do you want to be another Morgan?"

He was quiet. Tina Martin finally stopped her work, she cracked her fingers and it popped loudly. She looked at the security guard standing at the door...

"Farah, remove the jacket."

The bulky, Black woman censured. "Are you sure about that, Ms Martin? The way I saw him beat the fat kid up — it was really scary brutal. This kid here is some whacked-job psycho."

Tina smiled back, and as a trained child psychologist she knew about angry-boys — and the Intersexuals were no different — it was always the same cryptic rebelliousness behaviour residing in every one of them. She even based the views from Dr Ira Kirby's Wesleyan recreation lounges studies on some of the wayward boys, which were not any different from per-Medusa normal boys of that age.

"Remove it — I am sure, Eve has calmed down by now."

She then smiled at Reeves. "You must be a very-thirsty-boy in that thing, yes?" Tina stood up and paced towards her mini-refrigerator — while the security guard unbuckled the jacket's straps.

"Okay Farah, that is all — you can go now."

"Are you sure again, Ms Martin?" Even the guard was still concerned — while she had broken up the fighting between the two boys, some hours ago.

"Yes, Eve and I will get along well."

While Tina was looking inside the fridge, Farah the security guard pointed the can of pepper spray on her belt to Reeves — as a silent-warning before she left the room. That annoyed Reeves even more.

Tina returned with two cans of Coca-Cola. She placed the Diet-coke can in front of Reeves, and the red-regular can on her side of the table. She turned over to grab a box of tissue serviettes. When she turned back to notice — that Reeves had switched the two cans ...

The thirsty boy drank the regular red-canned beverage. Tina smiled at his latest cunning moves by switching the cans — she sat down at her seat, observing him drinking up while wiping her damp fingers with a serviette — this was the same boy who alleged that he could tamper with his grades in the test room, the woman thought...

"Okay, Reeves — what is the problem here, why did you beat the living daylights out of your best friend?"

"He is not my best friend."

Reeves mumbled back. He was still disgusted that Joe had turned out nothing like a friend he once knew, during his times of need. Reeves was now back in his vexing mood while placing the chilled cola can on his closed, hurting eyelids.

He anticipated Martin would start lecturing now like his cavil Science teacher. If she ever did that, he would then definitely overturn the director's table — and next, he would attack the fat, Black security woman with the pepper spray when she rushed in, after the director hollered for help...

But, the director stumped him instead...

"Of course he is — if this Joe was not your best buddy, then who is going to accompany you, when you sneak out the cafeteria the next time to have lunch with — o yes boy, I know all about your secret place, at the old wing of the campus in Stuyvesant Hall?"

Reeves became bewildered, when he heard her...

'She knew this all the while.'

The director grinned back. "The cat got you tongue, Reeves? Of course kiddo, It's my job to know everything that is going around here — I have eyes all around me, and I know everything that is going on — from the research we do, and right to the wellbeing of every boy, residing here."

Reeves figured out fast — that her omnipresence that made it possible, was because there were more CCTV cameras than he was unaware of — so, she had also been spying on him...

'What about those nights when he came there, just to be alone?'

"So what is bugging you?" the woman asked again — and Reeves did not want to express much or else, she would suspect about his planned intention of escape from Wesleyan. He just mumbled again in reticent...

"Nothing is bugging me, Miss Martin..."

But the psychologist was persistent...

"Talk to me, Reeves — come on, I am listening. What is really bothering you? Why do you keep sitting on the parapet sometimes at night, staring out there — is it a girl problem? Did you find a cute-skirt outside the campus, is that it?"

Once again Reeves felt totally unnerving, that she had been spying on his every surreptitious move — and he shook his head again...

'Does she also know of his incipient attempt of trying to break into from her office window, off the ledge outside?'

"Since you had gone that far, where no other boys had been before — you have dodged the security guards and yet, you did not escape from here — it is clear that you are not satisfied with something in here, in this IIRC facility, am I right?"

He heard her bombarding more telling questions, while he was being more withdrawn into his self-conscious nature, to concealing his actual getaway plan. Before she suspected something — he had to talk his way out to divert her curiosity — maybe ask her a germane question instead — based on his own personal curiosity that had long bothered him...

"Ms. Martin, yes, tell me this — will we get to leave this place, once you have finished 'testing' us? I remember everyone here talking, that they can leave once they graduate." Tina now grinned at the word 'testing' that he used...

"That is true, once you are all no longer a minor, you can leave Wesleyan — but, we will counter that with a beneficial offer to everyone — with an option of employment here with a salary — where you get to stay back here, so that we can continue our research on you boys — err, young-men by that time." She laughed, and she continued...

"So Reeves, would you be interested in staying back, when that time comes?"

"No," Reeves flatly replied.

Tina laughed again, slightly nervy...

"Why is that — you don't like some of us here?"

"It is not like that Ms. Martin — you are doing some research on the species' intelligence — but I am just an average guy — you don't need me." Now, she wanted to know more...

"So what do you intend to do — get an employment outside?"

"No, I haven't thought about it — maybe I want to travel, and seek some answers."

He now regretted for having said too much — and just like he had anticipated — Tina Martin started probing...

"How are you going to survive out there without working — you make it sound like you won the lottery — or having someone who has an inheritance, waiting out there to support you?"

"Well Ma'am, I am just a single generation species — I don't want to waste any of my time left, by working my life away. I will survive somehow, when I am out there." They both laughed it off.

After breaking the ice, Tina was beginning to like this boy's aplomb candidness. His dissidence that differed from the others, whom she had spoken to so far — those who were the sequester cream of the crop group, of the top 10% of the best erudite students, in which her research was based...

Next, the twelve-year-old boy stumped her again, when he solicited jokingly...

"Who knows there may be an inheritance out there — so Ms. Martin, I know you have some stashed records on all of us over here — I am presuming maybe some of us may not all be orphans — and we may have some rich aunts out there. So will you be giving out any information of those people out there to us, when the time comes for us, say, to leave this place someday?"

She was now feeling precarious, when the boy said that...

Tina Martin recalled, looking into his file lately — and she knew that Reeves has a mother, Laura Jensen, who was nearby in Columbus. But what the boy was requesting now was totally confidential, and was against the facility's policy to be disclosed. She needed to prevaricate about his background records, in some way to protect her research.

She cleared her throat and took a sip of her cola, before she spoke again...

"When we started the IIRC, we had handpicked the candidates with no strings attached to any family backgrounds — I am afraid that is so, Reeves — I am sorry that, there is no one out there for you."

She expected to see disappointment or some sadness in him since she had seen him crying alone some night before on the parapet — but, Reeves' tearing, red eyes kept staring straight at hers, with no facial expression, despite they were smarting after the pepper spray attack ...

He was not credulous either...

Reeves had a good practice on eye contacts. He always detected oddity in Joe's and other students when they mislead — right now, he saw that occurring with Tina Martins'...

The director changed the topic...

"You mentioned that you want to search for some answers — what answers? Can't you do it here?"

Reeves shook his head; he then replied earnestly in a disappointed tone. "I am not going to get the bigger picture of life staying in Wesleyan. But, my truth lies beyond the wall."

Another slip of the tongue when he gullibly mentioned it — and the psychologist was quick to capitalize it...

"What wall?"

Reeves chuckled at his forgettable melds. "Oh sorry, it is that orange, brick wall outside the old University wing, where I sometimes go to — Joe and I nicknamed that."

Tina grinned back. "For a moment ago, I thought you were referring to Pink Floyd."

She said that out of her own cognitive state — she had written a paper during her University days at Stanford many years back — on the effect of music on rebellious youth.

"What is Pink Floyd?" Reeves asked out of his curiosity.

"Never mind, let us not go there."

The intercom on Tina's table buzzed, and the director responded...

"Yes, Linda." A voice on intercom replied...

"MISS MARTIN, YOU HAVE GOT SOME VISITORS — THEY SAID THEY ARE FROM WASHINGTON D.C."

"Okay, thanks — show them in."

She then glanced at him. "We talk again soon," she pointed at straitjacket and jested. "Hey Reeves, don't forget your tuxedo."

Tina used a serviette paper to wipe the droplets on her table and dropped both the empty cola cans into a wicker trash-basket.

Reeves walked to a door and reached out his hand to the doorknob, but it opened from outside...

A woman in a black business suit stepped in. Lucinda Gates smiled at the sore-eyed Reeves while he avoided her eye-contact — he left the IIRC director's office.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Yikes! I missed a Chapter in here... my bad, probably its that Kung Flu, messin'...

Anyways -- here it is...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

REEVES WAS BACK FUMING outside the office. Despite what the director of IIRC was prepossessing earlier in their conversation — he had made up his mind that Tina Martin was a damn liar — and, he was now more resolute to escape from Wesleyan.

His assumption had been right all the while — Tina Martin will retain her ‘captive test-monkeys’ for their ongoing unctuous research — and nobody will get to leave as promised when they graduate.

He wished Joe was here listening to what he just heard during the drivel conversation he had with Tina Martin — but anyway, Joe was credulously stupid — and he would not spot her bullshit nor would he understand about body-language like he just did.

The only thing that fat glib knew was to do the 'rational' things — like eating a lot and wanking himself hard in the safety of the comfort zone enclosure, created inside the walls of Wesleyan.

Reeves sauntered along the windowed corridor of the third floor. Something outside the building then grabbed his attention. There was a group of uniformed women on the campus ground field — it was not the campus security, but more of those he had seen on the TV news…

The black para-military uniform gears, matching the SWAT team.

One of the cops below was pointing to a roof of an opposite building block. Another black-attired officer stood on one of the building tops — she was communicating with the policewomen on the ground via a 2-way radio...

‘Something is going down here…’

Reeves was stirred to sense that someone was behind him. Agent Wolfe grinned at him and with a supercilious glance at the straitjacket that he held in his hand — she taunted the boy…

“Hey kid, what’s with the straitjacket? Have you been misbehaving or are there some kinky curriculum activities going on in this school? The shit you she-boys are taught nowadays, are totally hard-on amazing!”

Reeves paced away without acknowledging the stranger in the corridor...

Wolfe's laughter echoed behind him.

**

Tina Martin was baffled and was in the middle of an argument with Lucinda Gates, she then defended out aloud. “You can't do this to us — we have been doing studies on these boys for the past 10 years for W.H.O. — and our research data on the species intelligence has been speculated globally…”

Gates interrupted. “I am sorry Ms Martin but...”

She did not allow the woman from Washington to complete her sentence — the upset, Tina Martin protested in a shrill voice...

“You cannot shut us down! Right now, we are heading now into the second phase of our vital research, where we are determining, if the offspring of the Intersexuals produced, can substantiate a higher intelligent of female babies!”

“Yes Ms Martin, yes I understand — and even President Cory is a big aficionado of your in-depth research — but the buck stops here — it is really not cost-effective to carry on funding you people, while that same budget that is numbering to millions in dollars, can be used for other avenues to rebuild our country’s ailing economy,” said Gates firmly.

“But Ms Gates, what we do here is one of the greatest breakthroughs of the 21st century — and you cannot shut us down now at this point! I am going to contact W.H.O. now so that we can carry on to continue our work here,” the distressed Tina picked up the telephone receiver.

The woman in the suit slammed her palm hard on the desk…

“Please don't waste anyone's time now, because the decisions have been finalized from the top. Remember that, this is no longer the Rosewood's administration — that has starved the country economically — so it can feed the national budgets into ego-driven projects like these!”

Martin sneered back...

“I did not expect the current Cory’s administration to be this myopic, with such short term visions!”

The unfaltering Gates condemned...

“You listen here, Martin — the Cory administration will not tolerate tax payer's money on any research based on some assumptions by a group of psychologists — so who gives a damn anyway, if those Intersexuals can produce smart-sperms?

“What this impoverished and insolvent country needs right now, is the future in its economic growth in areas of trade and development — and we are all focusing, that every penny of our budget will be funnelled towards that direction!”

The woman from the Whitehouse finalized.

Both were quiet after that, with Tina looking defeated out of the window with tears flowing. Lucinda Gates reproached her in a softer tone…

“Look, Tina, we are also offering you an alternative too, where you can still continue your research — but you need to scale it down. We have Dr Jane Morris who has stepped down as head of the Pan American Health Organization — and, she is now currently running CDC...

“We can fit a small division over there for you. So all you have to do is, you handpick a few of your key personnel in your current research team — and you report over in CDC in a week.”

“What happens to the rest of my teaching staff?”

“I’m sorry, you have to let them go — and with some compensation, of course.”

“What about my boys?” Lucinda Gates prevaricated.

“They will be put into regular schools. Well, they are a bunch of twelve-year-olds — I am sure they can sure fit well, into any schools outside the system -- they will be fine, trust me.”

Tina Martin sat down and used the serviette tissue to wipe her uncontrollable tears, of being let down by the newly elected government.

Gates then walked to the door...

“Don't get too attached, Tina, just let it go.”