The shy desire for me was gone from her eyes and now replaced only by a startled anxiety.

I pressed further into the wound of her mortally wounded anonymity, "There is of course the added benefit that I will do all that I can within my power to ensure that you remain safe and have the funds you need to start up a new life elsewhere, once you've helped me solve my problem."

She still looked hesitant yet so I kept pressing.

"If I was able to find you, do you not think others with less kindly motives might also?"

She looked miserable and in a way I felt sorry for her, but I needed her to break and agree to my plans.

"Not here." She whispered out softly.

"Lead the way then." I said.

She got her stuff and told the other staff she was going home, because she didn't feel well. The staff in turn took one glance at me and eyebrows raised. I stared right back at them, until they busied themselves looking elsewhere.

We left the library and had lunch at a small café and I ate heartily, while Jane never so much as touched her food. Throughout the entire meal she watched me steadily with concerned eyes, as if she feared that I would turn on her and attack without notice.

"I'm not a monster." I said.

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She blinked, "What?"

"No harm will come to you from me, even if you don't choose to cooperate, but I really wish that you would."

There was silence for a while, as I stared at her waiting for her to comply with my wishes.

"Your Agency's problem, could you talk about it a little." Jane asked cautiously.

I told her what I knew and she nodded when I was done.

"Can you devise some method of disrupting such a device's control or at least show who is being affected by it?" I asked wanting to know if there was a cure or not.

"Possibly, but I don't have the equipment or the parts." She said in full admission of what her past had consisted of. She went on, "I'm not sure I can build an entire device either. There are four parts to it and I was only involved with the construction of one part."

She was lying to me in that last part that she'd said, but I let my observation of her sudden eye dart to the left go uncommented on. "Whatever you can do would be gratefully appreciated, because right now we're flying in the dark."

She nodded quickly.

It was strange. I got the feeling that she was both eager to help, but also reticent to at the same time. Why was she lying to me about not being familiar with the whole process?




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