Michael stared out the second-floor window as Christine gently pulled the stitches from his shoulder.
"Is it still sore?" she asked softly as she pressed a swab against the scar.
"It’s a dull achy pain that I can zone out." Michael replied.
Stuart was asleep on a couch tucked in the corner of the room. On the ride to Christine’s place, he’d informed Michael of something he already knew; Gary was still out there. They needed his assistance again, but Stuart admitted, once again, he had no idea what that would look like.
"If you want to stay somewhere else for the night, I understand. We can come find you in the morning." Christine's voice was soft and calming.
Michael couldn't help but laugh, "Go wherever you want! We can find you by that GPS device we implanted inside of you without your consent."
Christine cracked a smile, "I'm sorry, I just meant if you want to go wherever you were going today, you can have this last day of freedom."
"Thank you. Very thoughtful." Michael mocked.
She laughed again. It was strange to see her like this. Her hair was down, she wasn't dressed in a suit, she almost seemed like a person.
"So, what comes next?" Michael asked.
"I don't have the slightest idea." When she saw his questioning look, she blurted, "honestly, I don't."
"Why do you do it?" Michael said sternly.
"You know I don't have a choice." She answered.
"Weren't you the one that put together my whole Alaskan adventure? Wasn't that your plan?"
"It was." She looked away.
"So why do you do that? Stuart's followed me around the last three months, he hasn't hurt or threatened anyone."
"That's true, but he also hasn't helped anyone either."
"What do you mean?" Michael was unconvinced.
"They wanted to torture you. Their plan was to film you getting tortured and send it to Gary."
"And they expected Victor to just show up?"
"Who's Victor?" Christine sat up.
"My fiance' s—my ex-fiance's father."
"Why would he show up?" Christine was confused.
"Because he's the real Harvey Sinclair," Michael stated bluntly.
Christine laughed. "I highly doubt he’s Harvey Sinclair. But anyway, I volunteer because I can lessen the pain felt by others. It's impossible to do good while you work for The Company, but I try to lessen the evil as much as I can. Instead of being tortured, I got you a free trip to Alaska." She smiled, but Michael did not return the smile.
"But you threatened that man's kids?" he said sternly. "I wasn't tortured, but his kids' lives were on the line."
"His kids were never going to be touched." She turned, "If you recall, the instructions were for you to take a picture of the body, right?"
"I believe so."
"You didn't take a picture and trust me his kids are fine." She stood, "I believe there is a stream of words that can convince anyone to do anything you want them to. Often times those words involve a threat. The kids were a false threat."
"What if neither of us was dead?"
"I was hoping neither of you would be. Claude wanted out of The Company as much as I did; if he survived, he was free. I knew him. His work was breaking him down as a person," She paused, "Gary's the one that shot Claude. We thought we found him, but he had paid a local druggie to walk into the woods with a rifle. We chased the druggie, he confessed to being Gary. Obviously, we were wrong, and now here we are." Christine stood up, "It's getting late, I'm going to get some sleep. If you want to leave for the night, wake me up so I can lock the door behind you, I”ll be on a couch downstairs. I'll be finding out tomorrow what exactly is going to happen next." She turned to leave. "I'm sorry for everything that's happened to you, Michael. I just wanted you to know I volunteered because I want to help you." And with that, Christine left the room.
Michael turned and stared back out the window and contemplated how much of Christine's words were true. Probably none. Tomorrow it'd all start again.