Turn the page for a special preview
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 003 , no given surname. 004 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. 005 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. 006 , I am Dr. Loxos. You can call me Collin.
[Long silence.]
LOXOS: 007 ? Are we going to have another staring match with the table?
008 : 009 you, Collin.
LOXOS: 010 , I wonder if you can tell me why you came here.
011 : 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.
012 : I’ve heard that line before.
LOXOS: Where? In Winoka?
013 : I didn’t come here to talk about Winoka.
LOXOS: But you’re from there, right?
014 : You don’t know 015 about Winoka.
LOXOS: I know there was a natural disaster there—016
: The Regiment is not a natural disaster.
LOXOS: What is the Regiment?
017
: 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?
018 : I would like to tell them they are wasting their time.
LOXOS: How so?
019 : The people they’re hunting don’t have the
information they want.
LOXOS: This Regiment is hunting people?
020 : 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.
021 : 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”?
022 : 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?
023 : It’s not my Regiment, Collin. It’s yours. You’re a member.
LOXOS: Who else is a member?
024 : You know it’s not like I have a directory! I just know you—
LOXOS: 025 . . . 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?
026 : That’s not true. That’s not who I am.
LOXOS: You’re so sure of that?
027 : 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, 028 ?
029 : I’m not sure. A few years.
LOXOS: What about before that? Did you live in—
030
: 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?
031 : Yes. I wonder if you know a 032 .
LOXOS: Of course I do. She’s a patient here. Has been for years.
033 : Why is that?
LOXOS: I don’t see why that’s relevant—
034
: Let’s get to the point. You preach the fiction that 035 suffers from severe, chronic psychosis.
LOXOS: She’s been experiencing secondary delusions for over a decade. Possibly since childhood.
036: Her “delusions” have been documented and disseminated worldwide, using unedited video—
LOXOS: Please, 037 . 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—
038 : 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—
039 : You and I can interrupt each other all day long, Collin, but we know 040 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?
041 : 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.
042 : 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 043 ’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.
044 : Not just hide it, Collin. Destroy it. Murder it.
LOXOS: Murder it, like you’ve murdered innocent people?
045 : 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, 046 , but you are not walking out. You’re a woman with deep emotional problems who likes to hurt people to avoid the awful truth.
047 : 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 048 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.
049 : Are the authorities here yet?
LOXOS: Probably. What does that matter?
050
: 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, 051 , it’s over. What do you—what do you think you’re doing?!
[Snapping sounds.]
052
: 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, 053 . Nurse!
[Struggling noises.]
LOXOS: 054 . Officers! Officers!
[Shrieking, followed by gurgling, followed by crashing.]
055 : Let’s go find her, shall we?
[Recording ends.]
Rise of the Poison Moon
titlepage.xhtml
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_000.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_001.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_002.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_003.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_004.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_005.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_006.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_007.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_008.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_009.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_010.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_011.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_012.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_013.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_014.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_015.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_016.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_017.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_018.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_019.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_020.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_021.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_022.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_023.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_024.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_025.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_026.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_027.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_028.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_029.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_030.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_031.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_032.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_033.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_034.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_035.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_036.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_037.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_038.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_039.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_040.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_041.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_042.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_043.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_044.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_045.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_046.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_047.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_048.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_049.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_050.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_051.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_052.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_053.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_054.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_055.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_056.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_057.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_058.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_059.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_060.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_061.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_062.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_063.html
Rise_of_the_Poison_Moon_split_064.html