work out for you?” Victoria asked, trying to hide a vindictive smile as she spoke.
“I found out everything I needed to. This whole mess now? This is just a setback.”
“So you went from being a P.I. to a Memory Analyst? Just like that?” she asked, unconvinced by his story.
“Yes,” Owen said. “I was a damn good private eye. I did an amazing job. I came highly recommended, and word must have gotten around about me, because after a few of those high profile ‘in the spotlight’ jobs, I received a phone call that turned my life around.”
“This all sounds a bit cliche,” she said, still unconvinced by what she was hearing.
“I know, I know. But… just stick with me for now. You’ll get your answers soon enough,” Owen said, again off-putting certain pieces of his story. He didn’t realise just how much he was getting to Victoria by doing this. But she kept her composure and made sure that his minor annoyances didn’t show.
“Carry on,” she said, once again gesturing with her hand calmly.
“It sounded interesting,” Owen continued saying. “So I took the bait, got some information, and just like that, I was lead on the New York PRoGRaM team. That was two years ago, right around the time of PRoGRaM’s creation. There were a few drawbacks of course. I signed a lot of secrecy agreements, in the fact that I couldn’t tell anyone what I did.” Owen put a lot of emphasis on the word anyone . But then he thought about it and decided to clarify his previous statement.
“Well, actually… My employers were fine with me telling my wife, there were no problems there. I just had to keep it vague. I couldn’t give her the specific details of my job. I just played it off as a promotion. Annie was pleased.”
“Your partner is Annie Archer, yes?” Victoria asked, flipping through another one of her endless files that now lay scattered across the table in front of her.
“Yes,” Owen said bluntly, knowing that these questions would have come his way sooner or later.
“Let’s talk about Annie,” she said, finding Annie’s file in amongst everything and bringing it up so that she could read through some of the finer details. “After all, isn’t she central in all of this?”
“Yes.”
She nodded in agreement with him. Annie was the centrepiece of everything that had happened. “How did you two meet?”
“We met in high-school. Stayed together ever since. We got married at the age of 25 after seeing each other for over seven years. And this year, three weeks ago, almost ten years into the marriage. I buried her.”
“Tell me what happened with your wife’s… accident,” Victoria probed, wondering if she could get away with such difficult questions this early on into her interrogation.
“Well,” Owen said. “We both know it wasn’t an accident. Don’t we?”
Chapter Fourteen
Date: December 9th 2035
Location: Owen’s Apartment, New York
Owen opened up the attachment that had finally finished downloading onto his personal system. It started to play, but for the first few seconds, all that could be seen was static and white noise. Owen began to think that maybe this was some kind of error, some glitch in a system somewhere, and that maybe the file had been sent in error, but suddenly, the static started to become a little more clear, and out of nowhere, a voice started talking to him.
“Your name is Owen Archer,” the pre-recorded voice said, causing Owen to snap up to attention. If he hadn’t been committed to watching the video before, he certainly was now. Their contractors, the ones who usually sent information through to the secure email address shouldn’t know his name. How they hell do they know my name? Who the hell is this from?
Owen stared at the computer screen in front of him. He waited for the voice to speak some more as he held his breath intently. The video that he was looking at was unclear and fuzzy, like looking at static noise on a TV screen that isn't
“I found out everything I needed to. This whole mess now? This is just a setback.”
“So you went from being a P.I. to a Memory Analyst? Just like that?” she asked, unconvinced by his story.
“Yes,” Owen said. “I was a damn good private eye. I did an amazing job. I came highly recommended, and word must have gotten around about me, because after a few of those high profile ‘in the spotlight’ jobs, I received a phone call that turned my life around.”
“This all sounds a bit cliche,” she said, still unconvinced by what she was hearing.
“I know, I know. But… just stick with me for now. You’ll get your answers soon enough,” Owen said, again off-putting certain pieces of his story. He didn’t realise just how much he was getting to Victoria by doing this. But she kept her composure and made sure that his minor annoyances didn’t show.
“Carry on,” she said, once again gesturing with her hand calmly.
“It sounded interesting,” Owen continued saying. “So I took the bait, got some information, and just like that, I was lead on the New York PRoGRaM team. That was two years ago, right around the time of PRoGRaM’s creation. There were a few drawbacks of course. I signed a lot of secrecy agreements, in the fact that I couldn’t tell anyone what I did.” Owen put a lot of emphasis on the word anyone . But then he thought about it and decided to clarify his previous statement.
“Well, actually… My employers were fine with me telling my wife, there were no problems there. I just had to keep it vague. I couldn’t give her the specific details of my job. I just played it off as a promotion. Annie was pleased.”
“Your partner is Annie Archer, yes?” Victoria asked, flipping through another one of her endless files that now lay scattered across the table in front of her.
“Yes,” Owen said bluntly, knowing that these questions would have come his way sooner or later.
“Let’s talk about Annie,” she said, finding Annie’s file in amongst everything and bringing it up so that she could read through some of the finer details. “After all, isn’t she central in all of this?”
“Yes.”
She nodded in agreement with him. Annie was the centrepiece of everything that had happened. “How did you two meet?”
“We met in high-school. Stayed together ever since. We got married at the age of 25 after seeing each other for over seven years. And this year, three weeks ago, almost ten years into the marriage. I buried her.”
“Tell me what happened with your wife’s… accident,” Victoria probed, wondering if she could get away with such difficult questions this early on into her interrogation.
“Well,” Owen said. “We both know it wasn’t an accident. Don’t we?”
Chapter Fourteen
Date: December 9th 2035
Location: Owen’s Apartment, New York
Owen opened up the attachment that had finally finished downloading onto his personal system. It started to play, but for the first few seconds, all that could be seen was static and white noise. Owen began to think that maybe this was some kind of error, some glitch in a system somewhere, and that maybe the file had been sent in error, but suddenly, the static started to become a little more clear, and out of nowhere, a voice started talking to him.
“Your name is Owen Archer,” the pre-recorded voice said, causing Owen to snap up to attention. If he hadn’t been committed to watching the video before, he certainly was now. Their contractors, the ones who usually sent information through to the secure email address shouldn’t know his name. How they hell do they know my name? Who the hell is this from?
Owen stared at the computer screen in front of him. He waited for the voice to speak some more as he held his breath intently. The video that he was looking at was unclear and fuzzy, like looking at static noise on a TV screen that isn't
Similar Books
