Turn the page for a
special preview
of the next novel in
MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi’s
of the next novel in
MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi’s
Jennifer Scales series
Coming soon from Ace
Books!
The Last Interview of Dr. Loxos
The following is a
transcript of a recording recovered from the Saint Georges Secure
Medical Facility in Cloudchester, Minnesota. According to staff at
the facility, the conversation took place in a secured room in what
would have been the facility’s psychiatric emergency care
center.
The Cloudchester
Police have blacked out some information for reasons of decorum,
and to maintain discretion during their continuing investigation
into the death of Dr. Collin Loxos and the disappearance of at
least one other patient at the facility.
[Recording
begins.]
LOXOS: September 18,
5:12 P.M. Dr. Collin Loxos, conducting our second interview with a
female patient, age approximately twenty, height five feet eleven
inches, weight one hundred fifty-five pounds, hair black, eyes
gray, refers to herself as , no given surname. has been with us at Saint
Georges for just under twenty-four hours; she was a voluntary
self-admit. She has barely spoken to anyone since her arrival. Her
first interview an hour after entry was, in the words of my
colleague Dr. Eisenstadt, “an hour-long staring match with the
table.” Since then patient has become increasingly agitated. Under
Dr. Eisenstadt’s direction, staff have attempted sedation with a
progressive schedule of benzodiazepines. None have had any
discernable effect. Patient has submitted to restraints, which I
have recommended due to the increasing danger she presents to staff
and herself. has made multiple vague references to deaths, and to
the town of Winoka. This has caught our attention, for obvious
reasons. I have notified local authorities, but would like to see
if I can learn more prior to their arrival. , I am Dr. Loxos. You can call
me Collin.
[Long
silence.]
LOXOS: ? Are we going to have
another staring match with the table?
: you, Collin.
LOXOS: , I wonder if you can tell
me why you came here.
: I wonder if you can tell me what you think these
restraints and all the drugs are for.
LOXOS: We’re taking
measures for your safety, and the community’s.
: I’ve heard that line
before.
LOXOS: Where? In
Winoka?
: I didn’t come here to talk
about Winoka.
LOXOS: But you’re
from there, right?
: You don’t know about
Winoka.
LOXOS: I know there
was a natural disaster there—
: The Regiment is
not a natural disaster.
LOXOS: What is the
Regiment?
: You know what the
Regiment is. They probably run this place. If they don’t, they know
the people who do. That’s why I’m here. Well, it’s the first reason
I’m here. You’re taping this interview, which means they’ll get a
transcript. Right?
LOXOS: Let’s suppose
for now that this “Regiment” exists. What message would you like to
send?
: I would like to tell them
they are wasting their time.
LOXOS: How
so?
: The people they’re hunting
don’t have the
information they
want.
LOXOS: This Regiment
is hunting people?
: Doing a good job of it, too.
I’m sure you’ve seen the headlines.
LOXOS: I have. They
are gruesome, some of these headlines.
: Nothing worse than what I’ve
seen for years. It’s easy to treat people like that when you
consider them “not human.”
LOXOS: What do you
mean, “not human”?
: Don’t insult my
intelligence, Collin. Everyone listening to this tape or reading
this transcript is going to know who’s dying and why.
LOXOS: Because this
“Regiment” of yours is killing them, is that right?
: It’s not my Regiment,
Collin. It’s yours. You’re a member.
LOXOS: Who else is a
member?
: You know it’s not like I
have a directory! I just know you—
LOXOS: . . . have you considered
that you may be a member of this
Regiment? Or more precisely, that the Regiment is nothing more than
a psychic construct you use to distance yourself from your awful
actions? That all of the hunting you are talking about . . . that
it’s you doing it?
: That’s not true. That’s not
who I am.
LOXOS: You’re so sure
of that?
: I’m sure. You’re not going
to confuse me with psychiatric games, Collin.
LOXOS: You think
these are games. Yet you checked yourself in here. Nobody came in
with you to Saint Georges. How long have you been alone, ?
: I’m not sure. A few
years.
LOXOS: What about
before that? Did you live in—
: Let’s stop talking
about Winoka. You’re trying to pump me for information. You’re
stalling until the authorities show. It’s not going to work. I’m
here because I want to be here, Dr. Loxos. Like I said, I wanted to
get a message to your friends in the Regiment.
LOXOS: Yes, you said
that was the “first” reason you were here. Was there another
reason?
: Yes. I wonder if you know a
.
LOXOS: Of course I
do. She’s a patient here. Has been for years.
: Why is that?
LOXOS: I don’t see
why that’s relevant—
: Let’s get to the
point. You preach the fiction that suffers from severe, chronic
psychosis.
LOXOS: She’s been
experiencing secondary delusions for over a decade. Possibly since
childhood.
: Her “delusions” have been
documented and disseminated worldwide, using unedited
video—
LOXOS: Please,
. We both
know the Internet is a storage house for manufactured fantasy.
Those special effects films she crafted to impress the world were
nothing more than a clever stunt to get attention after the death
of her mother and subsequent emotional abandonment by her
father—
: Who believed her, after the
rise of the Poison Moon.
LOXOS: You are
referring, I presume, to the unusual but completely explicable
phenomenon of the “green moon,” which happened most notably
approximately twenty years ago. Astronomers have noted that certain
phases of the moon, when viewed through an aurora borealis, can
give the impression—
: You and I can interrupt each
other all day long, Collin, but we know has never suffered a psychotic
episode. Neither did her father.
LOXOS: Well, he’s no
longer alive to tell us what he has seen, is he?
: Yes, that’s very convenient
for the Regiment.
LOXOS: Convenience
has nothing to do with it. He died in a military training exercise
at the air base he commanded. He was highly decorated and received
a hero’s funeral. I suspect he would be very sad, as are we all, to
see the depths to which his daughter sank shortly after his
demise.
: The Regiment is all over the
military. All over law enforcement. All over every level and agency
of government, in schools and hospitals . . .
LOXOS: You’re
suggesting the Regiment killed ’s highly trained and
decorated father during a military exercise. That doing so somehow
supported their false case that she should be committed. That she
never suffered any delusions about dragons, and enormous spiders,
and interdimensional travel, and pixie dust. That these things
actually exist. That there is a conspiracy to hide this
truth.
: Not just hide it, Collin.
Destroy it. Murder it.
LOXOS: Murder it,
like you’ve murdered innocent people?
: I’ve never murdered anyone.
Not in this lifetime. Not yet.
LOXOS: You believe
that will scare me? I don’t know who
you think you are, but let me tell you where you are. First, you’re strapped down in a bed
with steel and leather restraints. That bed is in a locked room
here with me, inside the most secure wing of the most secure
psychiatric facility known to North America, and likely the world.
We use highly trained private security forces, at an unprecedented
guard-to-guest ratio, to ensure the safety of everyone inside and
in the surrounding community. You walked in here, , but you are not walking
out. You’re a woman with deep emotional problems who likes to hurt
people to avoid the awful truth.
: What truth is that,
Collin?
LOXOS: You’re a
monster. And you belong in here, in a place far deeper and danker
than any cell your friend will ever experience. You cannot be cured of your
need to kill. With luck, whatever unfortunate bastard serves as
your public defender will lose his or her bid to plead insanity on
your behalf, and they’ll inject poison into your veins within a
year or two. Meanwhile, you’ll be our guest here. Get
comfortable.
: Are the authorities here
yet?
LOXOS: Probably. What
does that matter?
: Because escape will
be so much more impressive if I’m blowing past not just your
vaunted private security guards but a couple of actual police
officers as well.
LOXOS: It’s more than
a couple. Honestly, , it’s over. What do you—what do
you think you’re doing?!
[Snapping
sounds.]
: I think I’m
rescuing my friend from a lobotomy factory. And if I don’t find her
one hundred percent intact, I think I’m contemplating my first
murder.
[Crackling
noises.]
LOXOS: Oh, .
Nurse!
[Struggling
noises.]
LOXOS: . Officers! Officers!
[Shrieking, followed
by gurgling, followed by crashing.]
: Let’s go find her, shall
we?
[Recording
ends.]