Pierce brought the car to a stop and leaned one arm out the window to poke a button on the small intercom that sat just to the left of the road and about ten feet in front of the fence.

Trying not to be obvious, Liz watched his every move. Getting in, she figured, would be easy. It was getting out she was worried about. After punching one of the two buttons twice, Pierce cleared his throat and spoke, “Pierce, Daniel A.”

“Please confirm identification,” the intercom said back.

Taking a small plastic card out of his pocket, Pierce slipped it across a scanner next to the intercom and then punched in a six-digit code on the intercom keypad. Watching carefully, Liz was able to see the first two numbers.

After about ten seconds, the intercom spoke again, “Identification confirmed.”

Then, the fence began sliding back and finally stopped fifteen feet later. Pierce, placing the card back in his pocket, began driving through. Only when Liz looked back, before the gate fully closed, did she notice cameras mounted on top of the fence. Be careful Michael and Isabel, she thought. Please see the cameras.

Looking around the inside of this place sent a shiver up Liz’s spine. The inside of the fence was metal, with wires running across the top. She guessed it was electric. In the center of the fenced in area was a small one story building that looked no bigger than Liz’s house.

Liz jumped as Pierce slammed the car door shut and then quickly got out of the car and walked around to meet him. Nodding to her, they walked to the heavy metal door on the building. As Pierce went through the same identification process he had at the gate, Liz took the opportunity to look around again. It was then that she noticed armed guards patrolling the perimeter. They seemed to come by every few minutes in pairs of two.

Liz looked back at Pierce just in time to see him punch in the code. This time all she could get was the third number. Moments later, the thick door opened and the two of them stepped inside. Together they walked down a short hallway that ended with two men guarding an elevator door.

“Good evening Agent Pierce.” The one on the right said.

Entering his name in the logbook, Pierce looked at them briefly, “Conrad, Owens.” he said, acknowledging them. The guard on the left, Owens, leisurely came over and patted down Pierce, then Liz. As Owens’ hands moved of Pierce, Liz saw the gun Pierce had in a shoulder halter and shuttered. Owens did nothing when his hands floated over it, which meant Pierce would be carrying it with them. When Owens began his search on Liz, her heart began speeding up. She was so completely paranoid that they would notice she was not Tess. Just think of Max, she told herself.

Gesturing for them to go on, Pierce and Liz continued their journey to the steal doors in back of Conrad and Owens. Once again, Pierce went through the identification steps, only this time, there was an added step. Liz watched as he placed his hand against a scanner. Moments later, the machine beeped and a green light flicked on. A small screen to the left showed the picture of him from his I.D. card and some other information Liz couldn’t read.

Stepping into the elevator with Pierce, he punched in his code and slowly the elevator went to the only floor it could go to: the basement. When the doors opened, Liz could feel the immense space around her. Biting her lip, she finally understood why the building above had been so small, and the outside fence so unassuming. No one would ever think a covert government operation was being held behind a wooden fence and in a tiny little building. Everything had been built underground.

Liz felt as though she was in a hospital, florescent lights left none of the gleaming white walls in shadows. She could hear the tapping of every shoe in the corridor on the clean white tiles as well. As they walked down a long corridor that seemed to be never ending, a man in military garb began to approach them. Liz’s heart raced once again. I have been caught! She figured, balling up her hands as the pressure built. But once the man met them in the hall, he turned toward Pierce, “this is for you sir.” He said, handing Pierce a piece of paper and then walking away.

“Christ.” She heard Pierce whisper, before jamming the paper into his pocket. “We have to take a quick detour to my off ice, then we will go see Max.”

Liz’s face paled at the mention of his name and Pierce noticed. “Don’t worry, he is still alive and kicking.” he said. “Very much alive.” unbuttoning the collar on his shirt, Pierce pulled it down so Liz could see the red hand marks that surrounded his neck.

“Max did that?” Liz said, almost forgetting to impersonate Tess. She had never seen Max display such violence.

Pierce simply nodded as he led her around several corners and finally stopped at the third door they passed. “He was not suppose to have that kind of power, it came out of no where!” Pierce said, scanning his card and punching in his code.

As they entered the office, Liz swallowed hard, “what do you mean, ‘he was not suppose to have that kind of power?’ What did you do to him?”

Pierce sat down in his office chair, sighing. “We did the same thing we did to you. Except for you it was a little more pleasant than it has been for Max. He has not been cooperating at all. I tried to scare him this afternoon, but obviously that didn’t work.” Pierce said, gesturing to his neck. “I have got one hell of a lump on my head too. Now, I am going to make a phone call, then we can go check in on your destined partner.”

With that, he picked up the phone and began dialing. While he was on the phone, yelling at one of his subordinates, Liz took the opportunity to look around. The office was surprising normal. Pictures dotted the walls and the furniture was expensive, but nothing was as impressive as the mahogany desk and the plush chair that Pierce sat in. Liz noticed that the room had a window too. Before she got the chance to go over and inspect it, Pierce slammed the phone down.

“Was there anything important in your car?” He asked.

Liz shook her head, wondering if they had found Isabel and Michael.

“Well, when one of the men went to pick it up a few minutes ago, it was gone. Don’t worry, we will find it.”

She showed no emotion on the outside, but inside Liz let out a huge sigh and then checked her watch. It was getting late. She was not sure how much longer the hologram of Tess would last, “Um, can we go see him--Max--now?”

“You are awful ancy.” Pierce said, giving Liz a smile that almost made her sick. “Lets go.” He said, gesturing toward the door.

As they left the office, Liz turned to Pierce and biting her lip, asked: “how exactly did you try to scare him this afternoon?”

Pierce said nothing for a moment, lost in thought, then turned to her as they reached another guarded hallway, “Oh, I threatened to kill Liz Parker.” He said uneventfully, stopping in front of the two men guarding the door behind them.

Liz’s mind reeled. For the first time, she was really scared. Now she knew that if this plan didn’t work they would, most likely, torture her until Max gave in. The funny thing was, she was not worried about herself, only about what Max would allow them to do to him in order to keep her safe.

Pushing the shiver down, she waited again as Pierce went through the safety Check. After Pierce was cleared, the two guards pushed open a heavy iron door and he and Liz walked through.

Liz immediately knew Max was close; she could feel it. The hall was like any other, and as she passed the heavy white doors, she wondered which one Max was behind. Finally, Pierce stopped in front of one of the last doors. This one was slightly different than the others, it had a small window cut in it and Liz noted the funny glass as well as the armed guard that stood outside the room.

Nodding to the guard, Pierce peered through the window and frowned. As he moved away from the window, Liz took the opportunity to peer through. Standing on her tip toes, Liz tried to look around the room inside. She could see a small table with chairs strewn all over the room and papers covering the floor. She could also see a partition separating the room and a bed with a figure in it; she guessed it was Max.

Turning away from the window, she listened as Pierce instructed the guard, “Matthews, I thought I ordered that this room was to be cleaned up! Why is it still a mess?”

“Sir,” Matthews replied, “I do not know anything about that, sir. I just came on duty to relieve Private Lewis.”

Pierce unhappy with the answer waved his hand at Matthews, “I don’t care! After we are done with our business, see that it gets cleaned up.”

Matthews nodded as Pierce grabbed Liz and led her to the room next to Max’s. As his hand clasped around Liz’s arm, she shuddered and tried to keep her composure. “You are awful quiet today Tess.” he observed.

“I am just anxious to see Max.” Liz replied, self-conscious of her imitation. But it appeared as though Pierce was buying it.

“Well, we are going to go talk to Agent Reeves and see what Max has been doing the last few hours and check the cameras and then, if he is awake, you will see him.”

Moving to the room next to Max’s, Pierce entered his code, swiped his card and scanned his hand. Opening the door, he ushered Liz into the room. She looked around curiously at all the equipment that was hooked up. There were four large televisions in one section of the room. The top two showed Max’s room from different angles while the bottom two had been turned off. Liz stared at the image of Max’s outline in the top right tv.

Tearing her eyes away from the image, she also noted several computers in the room. Sitting in front of one of the computers, was a raven-haired woman with a long white lab coat on and wire-rimmed glasses.

“Hello Agent Reeves.” Pierce said as she stood up to meet him.

“Agent Pierce,” she replied with a brief nod, then turned to look at Liz. “Hello Tess. So, you are back huh?”

“Actually, I was going to have Tess have a little talk with our newest subject, how is Max?” Pierce asked, looking at the monitors.

“He is doing well.” Reeves said, pressing some buttons on one of the large machines below the tv screens. “He awoke about forty minutes ago.” Here, she pointed to one of the lower screens as it flickered on. The screen had been stamped with the date, time and a line that said, “subject” and listed a bunch of numbers.

Liz then understood that they must tape all of their footage from the two cameras in Max’s room. The four tv screens in here were, of course, to watch the two cameras live, and then to watch any of the tapes without having to switch over from the live cameras.

For a moment, Liz stopped listening to the two agents talking and started to think of a way around the cameras. The security was more than she had ever expected.

“So, he is awake, lucid.” Pierce asked, still looking at the screen.

“Oh yes, “Agent Reeves replied. “He is very much awake, although he is refusing to show any sign of communication.”

“So, it is alright if Tess tries to talk to him.”

Reeves nodded.

“Okay, lets go Tess.” Pierce said, nodding at Liz and heading toward the door.

“No.” Liz replied, standing still.

“No?! What are you talking about? Ten minutes ago you couldn’t wait to see him!” Pierce said, his voice rising as his patience began to run short.

“I just need a few minutes, to get my thoughts together, to decide what I am going to say.” She said, reaching up to trace the figure on the screen.

Pierce sighed, “fine, you have five minutes, tops. I am going to be right outside, talking to Private Matthews. I suggest you hurry. I would have thought that you would have planned all this earlier.”

“I have had a lot of my mind.” She said, still staring at the screen.

“Five minutes,” Pierce reminded her before leaving the room.

Agent Reeves looked at her for a moment and then turned back to her computer screen and started typing in information.

Liz, a plan forming in her mind, slowly unplugged the keyboard from the computer in front of her and gripped it tightly. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Agent Reeves, who was paying no attention to her at all. Swallowing, Liz turned quickly and brought the keyboard down on her head.

Agent Reeves did not even know what hit her. She hadn’t even the time to raise a hand in self-defense. The keyboard crashed harshly into her skull and she fell off her chair and on to the floor.

Liz looked at the blood dripping from the edge of the keyboard and then kneeled down next to the agent. Pulling off her lab coat, glasses and hair tie, she began winding the keyboard cord around her wrists, behind her back. Going over to the computer again. Liz pulled out another cord and wound them around Reeves’ legs.

Looking around the room, and spotting a small storage closet in the back, Liz drug the agent’s body to the closet and dumped her inside, then shut the door and moved a couple chairs and then a desk in front of it.

Picking up the items she had taken off Reeves, Liz balled them up and put them near the entrance door. Looking around the room, she could see a small puddle of blood where Reeves had fallen. Quickly, looking through desk drawers, Liz found a wad of tissues and patted them on top of the blood. With most of it sucked up, Liz tossed the bloodied tissues back into the drawer and quickly ran to the door and exited.

As the door slammed shut, Pierce looked over at her, his arms folded across his chest. “Ready?”

Liz nodded mutely.

Pierce, once again went through the safety check and then pushed open the door. Liz stepped through and into Max’s world. Pierce followed her in and shut the door behind him. Seeing her look at the mess, he explained, “This was all Max, he did this when he nearly killed me this afternoon.”

Not even hearing his words, Liz walked up to the glass and put her hand on it. He was so close. “Can I go in there?” She asked Pierce, pointing to the other side of the partition.

“Sure, but I would advise you not to take off his restraints.” Pierce said, moving over to the partition door and starting to enter in the information needed to open it. Liz knew what she had to do and knew she had to do it now. Silently, she moved across the floor and picked up a titanium briefcase that was lying haphazardly on its side. Quietly, she clicked it closed.

Liz watched as Pierce scanned in his hand and the door slid back. Moving quickly now, Liz came at him with the briefcase.

“What are you doing?!” He screamed as Liz smashed it into his chest. Both of them went flying to the ground. Shaking of the pain of the fall, Liz crawled to Pierce and grabbed the gun from his shoulder holster, clicking off the safety.

A moment later, grunting in pain and shock. Pierce rolled over and sat up only to find himself staring down the barrel of his own gun. “Tess! What is going on!? Give me that gun!” He snapped.

“Shut up.” Liz replied, moving behind him, “keep your hands where I can see them!”

“This is crazy! You are never going to get away with this!” He said in a condescending tone.

Before he could say another word, or make a move, which Liz was certain he was about to do, she slammed the butt of the gun into his skull.

Pierce hit the floor with a thud.

Liz took a moment to examine him and, satisfied that he was out cold, shoved the gun in the back of her pants and then rushed into Max’s cell.