Chapter 4: Jane’s Fate

Chapter 4: Jane’s Fate

“What!? Jane is gone?”

The outburst was from Matt shortly after the team returned from Russian and their mission to destroy Peter the Great, a Russian satellite weapon they had hoped would help them destroy the Church and One World with electronegative pulses. Instead, they found they had to destroy the powerful weapon to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.

“Well, she tried to break into Bishop Crofton’s headquarters and…”

“I suppose she was trying to find Dawn?” Matt interrupted.

“Well, yes, she was. But she was captured.” The speaker was a young man named Tom who had been in charge of the Resistance movement while Matt was gone.

Matt sat down at the table and shook his head. Behind him, Rene and Lance, the other two members of the Russian team stared in disbelief.

“I told you to keep an eye on Jane,” Matt growled. “She would do anything to save Dawn. They had a thing going.”

“I know. But I couldn’t keep an eye on her every second of every day, could I?”

Matt sighed loudly. Rene and Lance took seats at the same battered and wobbly table. They were in the underground headquarters of the Resistance, such as it was. In this case, it was literally underground, hidden in the sewer system and abandoned utility tunnels under the city. There were two other members, both seemingly too young to be doing such dangerous work.

Lance, the oldest of the group, rested his bandaged hand on the table and took at Tom. “Where is Jane? At the Church headquarters?”

“What happened to your hand?” Tom asked.

“Rene shot me. Never mind. Long story. Where is Jane?”

“She was shipped out a day after she was captured. We still have that tap into their computer system, so we saw the transfer orders. She’s gone to someplace called ‘Saint Susan’s’.”

“Where have I heard that name before?” mused Matt.

“I did a search through their databases,” Tom told them. “Jane showed me a lot about their computer system before she left, plus what I already know about computers. Saint Susan’s is classified Top Secret. There is very little about except…”

“Well, what?” snapped Matt.

“Well, sir, apparently it is a prison with the sole purpose of punishment.”

“All their prisons, or Retraining Centers, as they call them, are places of punishment,” commented Lance. “What’s different about this one?”

“From what I could gather, it is not a Retraining Center. Nor is it an interrogation center like Saint Dorina’s. It is a place where sinners are sent to be punished – tortured, actually – constantly.”

Rene glared at him. A slender but hard woman, she could face down most men. Tom withered under her stare. “For how long?” she asked, fearing that she knew the answer.

“No one every returns from Saint Susan’s.”

There was a silence for a long time. The three returned members were tired, and disappointed that the Russian secret weapon had not proven useful to the Resistance, and now depressed at the news of another of their group captured by the Church.

It was Tom who finally broke the silence. “I also found transfer papers to the same place for Dawn and, this is more interesting, a Julie Crofton.”

“Crofton?” asked Matt, “any relation…”

“It is her daughter.”

“Oh, my Gawd! She sent her own daughter to be tortured!” Rene burst out.

Matt shook his head. “What kind of people are these?” He did not really expect an answer and none came. Finally, “Let us get some sleep and then we’ll see what we can do.” He did not sound very enthusiastic.