Species Unknown [Book 3: Canis]

CHAPTER TWENTY

DAY 37
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
QUANTICO, VIRGINIA

One month later...

A COLD BREEZE of winter air brushed past me, and I pulled my coat tighter over my body. Tiny flakes of new snow had begun to sprinkle the winter air, falling in my path and melting on the envelopes in my gloved hand as I walked hastily down the street.

Having just been discharged from the local house, this was the first time in over a month that I have been able to walk on my own without supervision of hospital staff or physical therapists, and it was an opportunity I wasn't going to waste. Though my stride was stiff and unsteady, I kept my pace, clutching the envelopes tighter in my hands.

When I had woken up in the hospital a few days after I had been rescued from the compound, I found out that the F.B.I. had finally tracked down my message and had swarmed the place. They had found me lying unconscious on the ground, bruised and covered in blood. Apparently I was lucky to be alive, as a few more minutes or blood loss would have killed me.

Yet when I asked where Seven was, nobody had any idea what I was talking about.

When I grew angry and impatient with their lies, demanding them to tell me what they did with the man who had watched over my unconscious form, they were confused. They told me that I was alone the night they found me, that there was no sign of anyone else being down there other than Dr. Grant's body.

Hearing this, I was shocked. Days passed as I wracked my mind for what could have happened. All the while, denial settled in. Day in and day out I would yell over and over again at the staff who deflected my questions.

"Where was Seven?"

"What did they do to him!"

Yet no to avail. It had gotten to the point where they had to chain me to my hospital bed to keep me from escaping to go look for him. Two weeks passed before I finally began to calm down and focus on my recovery, but I never forgot. I knew that there must have been some reason why he disappeared, and perhaps it was for the best. For who knows what would have happened if the FBI got their hands on a man who could shift into a wolf.

Eventually when I was well enough, I was visited by Chief Hoffiled along with local police to state my statement. A trial indicting C.R.O.S.S. Laboratories would be taking place soon, along with my own trial to be acquitted of murder chargers for the death of Dr. Grant.

In my hospital bed, I watched the trials on the dinky room television as local police invaded each of his laboratories across California. All of which had evidence of human experimentation. Eventually, along with my statements, police gathered enough evidence to indict Dr. Grant for his experimentations and shut down all his facilities all across California.

As for the death of Dr. Grant, police kept his murder private and unreleased to the public, simply claiming that he had fled countries to escape charges. Yet in a private trial, fortunately they declared my actions in self defense and I was not found guilty for his death. This was kept a secret for my own safety, given that Dr. Richard Grant was a powerful and well-liked man with many connections to shady organizations.

When the trials were over; I was commended for my efforts, and Chief Hoffield insisted I return to duty as soon as I was well. Yet I couldn't help but feel as though something was missing. That it wasn't quite over.

So, while I spent a month recovering in bed, I began doing research. Looking into to all Dr. Grants files that had been recovered from the laboratories the police raided. Though I said it was for closure, I used the data to search for proof that Seven existed. That I wasn't crazy in imagining him. Days I spent hunched over my computer looking through file after file, yet I found nothing. No photo no video no journal, nothing. Nothing proving that Seven had ever existed.