Page 51 of Creeping Beautiful

Some FBI agent. Company black ops. He’s on the inside. And his brother is how I tracked down Sasha. Her name’s Aston now, by the way. I think this might be helpful in the future.

I don’t want to see Sasha ever again. You understand me? Nick Tate is out there killing kids. Did you know that?

I’ve heard.

Well, then you know that Indie is on his shortlist. And if he finds out she has a trigger word—

I highly doubt he knows that. Or anything about Indie. She’s been here for almost two years now. If he knew where she was, he’d have taken her out already, trust me. I know that guy pretty well. At least I used to, before that shit show out in Santa Barbara. Just… try to calm down. Have McKay put up extra security cameras. Get some dogs, maybe. I’ll be back on Friday night, but I have to leave Sunday. I’d like to talk to McKay before I go though. Can you call him in?

Are you dismissing me?

No. Of course not. I just have to go and I need to make sure McKay understands how we’re going to proceed. He’s in charge of her training. Unless something has changed and—

Fuck you, Donovan.

(Transcript note: Several minutes go by on the recording while McKay and Adam argue in the other room.)

MCKAY: What?

Donovan: Close the door. Good God, don’t you people believe in privacy?

Just tell me what you have to say. I need to go hunt down Indie and her little boyfriend and make sure he’s not asking too many questions.

…

What? Why are you looking at me that way?

Are you… jealous of him?

Fuck you. You have two seconds to spit out what you need to say or I walk out.

OK. So she has a trigger word—

I just heard.

—and we need to fix that. I’ll be back as often as I can come, but in the meantime, you need to keep her very busy.

Because you’re the expert on this.

I’m all you’ve got, McKay. So shut up and listen. I’ve been studying this shit for as long as I can remember. I know more about it than anyone you know. Keep her busy. Plan some jobs for her to do. And by plan I mean fake, OK? Set them up. Set her up to succeed. Send her into… I don’t know. New Orleans, probably. And make her complete simple tasks. Get her confidence back and help forget this… incident.

How long is this gonna take?

Years. Probably two or three? Hard to tell. Not many people have gotten out of the program. Only four total case studies over the past fifty years. But one of them went on to live a long, almost normal life.

Well, that makes me feel better. Not.

Well, it should. At least we have some hope. She’s young. No one’s used her much yet. We can undo it. It’ll just take time.

You better be right about this.

SESSION #19 NOTES

SESSION #19 NOTES

Indie Anna is smart, capable, and is living as close to a normal life as she could’ve hoped for. Despite McKay’s agitation with the boy next door, he will play a critical role in Indie’s healing. The news that she has a trigger word is an unfortunate development. But I am confident that I can lead her through this deactivation period and get her back on task.

SESSION #19 NOTES - PRIVATE