Twenty

Oscar plays mind games

Oscar walked slowly and deliberately to the phone. It hung on an unpainted brick wall in the middle of the waiting area for arrestees. Not very private but Oscar had confidence in his ability to talk quietly. The silver box was punctuated by the black receiver which hung limply over hook next to the box. It was on hold.

‘There you go sir’, said the guard, directing him to the phone. Oscar walked over and put the receiver to his ear. Looking at the guard standing too close for his liking, he pulled it away and placed it next to his chest,

‘A little privacy buddy’, the guard begrudgingly walked to the other end of the room. ‘Yes’ he spoke with a harsh whisper into the mouth piece.

‘Bockscar?’

‘Yes its f*****g me. What the f**k is going on’, Oscar was spitting onto the phone. He was angry, he didn’t like being misled.

‘Don’t worry, this is all part of the plan’, the voice said calmly,

‘Part of the plan? Part of the f*****g plan? You cut my breaks and you knew I’d crash?’

‘We estimated’ the voice hardly changed inflexion.

‘How did you know I wouldn’t die’

‘We had faith’

‘That’s twice you’ve done that to me now. I’m not having it anymore. One of these days I’m gonna f*****g die and…’

‘Enough of this now’ the voice interrupted, ‘This was the only way to get you in the same building as Dr. West. We had to improvise and we’ve done pretty well. Now are you listening?’, Oscar sighed as the voice stopped talking. He rubbed between his eyes and replied.

‘I’m listening’

‘At exactly 7:08pm tonight, the power and back-up generator will be cut. The lights will stay off for exactly 1 minute before the generator resets and the lights come back on.’

‘And what exactly am I supposed to do’

‘Dr. West is two floors below you at the east end of the building. He is in interview room 6. You are to make your way there. We have become aware he is in possession of a flash drive. We need this flash drive’

‘What if he doesn’t have it on him?’

‘You find out where it is and get it’

‘Alright. I can do that’, the voice waited a moment.

‘Once you have the location of the drive, you are to terminate Dr. West’, this order came as a shock to Oscar.

‘Wait what? I thought he was one of ours. We came here to rescue him didn’t we?’, the voice waited again.

‘The situation has changed. Terminate the asset and find the drive. That is all. There will be a blue Hyundai parked outside the station if you need it. The keys are in the front left wheel hub. It will have any necessary arms you require. Remember 7:08 exactly. We won’t be in touch again’ and with that the phone went dead. Oscar gestured to the guard to take him back to the interview room and he did exactly that. He then started planning how he was going to get two floors down with the lights out. As he was being walked to the interview room he passed the two detectives who had been interviewing him. He caught detective Harding’s eye and winked at him. That’ll put him off. He thought.