Todd Revisited: Prologue

Baker remembered how he had held the file in his left hand like a child gripping a dollar. It wasn't until he had turned the corner and faced the double doors that he had noticed his knuckles were tight and tan against the dark coffee of his skin. In his mind's eye, he had thought it was one of the last times, that he would ever walk through these same halls, carrying that particular file, to see that particular detainee. That is what the agency called them, detainees. When he thought about the years of housing and controlling and keeping "detainees" that had passed in his lifetime, he tasted acid in his throat. But the memories continued.

Another set of silver-backed doors, and he had come face to face with Kent, that day. The two had a love-hate relationship that spanned years, countless detainees, countless deaths...

Baker remembered this day like it were yesterday. "So. How's he doing today, Agent Kent?"

"No change." Kent seemed smug whether he was trying or not. No different the day that the detainee called TM escaped.

"No activity at all?"

"No Baker. He's the same as he always is."

"Gonna check on him."

"I'm tellin' ya, there's no change. There's never any change."

"The Agency is shutting down the project." Knowing full what that meant, Baker paused. "I want one last crack at him before we give up."

Kent nodded and cleared the way to the single door with the single square window with reinforced glass. Detainee. Baker knew that was not the case. The prisoner stared right back at him, motionless, as he had for the last 8 years. Placing his hand on the high-security scanner, he opened the door.

"How are you today?" It had never sat kindly with him having to help The Agency "shut down a project." Nevertheless, there he was.

"All these years, there's gotta be something on your mind." And he waited. No response. "If you were ever going to say a word, this would be the time to do it." Waited. Nothing.

Here it was, weeks later. Baker remembered how he had studied TM's face and how nothing was there, that day, to give him any sign of the detainee TM coming back to the present. But he was wrong, because now, here he was, pondering what had become of Agent Kent, who was headbutted into unconsciousness when TM decided to break free. It was the shot of the compound, Baker knew it was, that revived TM and subsequently provided the setting for the escape. And now, Kent was dead. Smug, tough, arrogant Kent. Dead.

Baker knew, remembering how TM had shaken for hours after the last bit of electro-torture, that his detainee was somehow responsible.