It’s 7pm on Friday and James calls Thomas. Thomas answers and says, “Hey James.”

 

“Listen Thomas. Let’s meet somewhere else other than the graffiti tunnel. How about the skate park where we used to hang out a lot when we were younger?”

 

“That sounds good. I can be there in half an hour. Sounds good?”

 

“Yes that works.”

 

Both men are standing in the parking lot of the skate park. There’s no one there at this time of the night. There’s dogs barking in the distance. James sees a couple of skunks crossing the open field.

 

“Listen James. You haven’t asked me to do this but I thought I would bring you another syringe of liquid in case you needed it. I had free time and so I was able to do this.”

 

“Well you read my mind,” James says as he laughs. “Yes I definitely need it. That’s actually what I was going to tell you to do. I needed another syringe of this stuff.”

 

“I saw the news. There’s a picture of Michael on TV. James, they are really searching everywhere for this guy. You better be careful….”

 

“Yes I know I have it covered. They won’t find him. He’s outside their search perimeter. I’m actually going to buy him dinner. He never ate anything for lunch.” 

 

“Listen, I don’t know what you are going to do with him, but just don’t do anything you will regret.”

 

The 2 men walk their separate ways. James has the syringe of liquid in his pocket. He smiles.

 

James stops in at the Wendy’s drive thru. “I’ll have a diet coke and one number 4 please.”

 

An hour later James makes it to the Comfort Inn. The chicken burger is cold. He opens the door to the room he booked.

 

“Hello Michael. I’m back. I brought you food. It’s gotten cold. I’m sorry I’m not familiar with the area and don’t know any good restaurants closeby.”

 

James takes the zip ties off Michael’s hand. He then takes the cloth out of his mouth.

 

“Go to hell,” Michael says. “I’ve been here for so many hours unable to move. I feel like I’m going to die.”

 

“Just relax and eat.”

 

Michael eats half the chicken burger in 30 seconds. James opens the bottle of coke and pours half of it into the sink. He injects the coke with the I.D. Tech. 

 

“I’m thirsty.”

 

“Here’s a diet coke.”

 

Michael finishes drinking and then James says, “I will need to put the zip ties on your hands again and put the cloth back in your mouth. I need to go back to the minivan for something.”

 

James retrieves his laptop from the van and makes his way back to the room. He’s downloaded the I.D. Tech software to his laptop. He also has his headset.

 

“Listen Michael. I guess I will just tell you. I spiked your drink with nanotechnology. It took 1 minute for it to reach your brain. We used this to interrogate you. It can do all sorts of unimaginable things. I’m not an expert on using it as Derrick is primarily the one who uses it. But I know enough to use it on you tonight.”

 

Michael starts squirming around and tries to speak but the cloth muffles his voice.

 

James places the laptop on the plastic table in the corner of the room. He enters the wifi password. ‘Connected’ it says in a notification. He then opens the software. ‘Checking for updates’ pops up on the screen. 

 

“What the hell it never used to do this.”

 

‘No updates found’ the notification says. James breathes a sigh. He puts on his headset and begins.

 

James tortures Michael for one hour. And he’s getting bored and isn’t satisfied. He thought his pain and anger would go away if he did all this. James gets curious and opens the advanced settings in the I.D. Tech software. He sees a bunch of options but one stands out. ‘Ocular vision’ it says. He clicks on this. ‘Run live video’ pops up on his screen. He clicks on it. All he sees is black on his screen. James is puzzled. He clicks on the description. It says ‘see live video of whatever the suspect sees’. 

 

James smiles. He takes the blindfold off Michael who has tears in his eyes. He then sees a video of himself standing in the room. James waves his hand. Sure enough he sees himself waving.

 

Essentially whatever Michael sees through his eyes is being uploaded as a live video on the laptop. 

 

“Imagine what I could do with this,” James says out loud to Michael.

 

“Listen Michael. We can’t stay here because the police will be expanding their search perimeter to 300 miles starting 12pm tomorrow. We have a lot of driving to do tonight. I haven’t thought of where we are going… I actually never planned this far ahead. I actually never planned to keep you alive.”

 

James calls his wife. “Hello this is Vanessa Morley. I’m sorry you couldn’t reach me right now. Please say your name and number. Thank you.”

 

“Vanessa I’m sure you’re worried about me. I just want to let you know I’m safe. I won’t be coming home for a while. There’s business I need to do. Just call my work and tell them I needed a leave of absence due to medical reasons. I never told anyone there about my brain cancer… Man I’m sure Derrick will be concerned. Anyways I love you.”

 

James plans for half an hour and decides Montreal is the best place to go to. It’s outside the 300 mile radius. It will be a 6 hour drive. Originally he planned to go to New York in the States but decided that it would be too much of a risk crossing the border. 

 

“I have to do one thing first… I need to get my SUV back,” says James.

 

Enterprise is open until 11pm. It’s 10pm right now. If he hurries he can get to Enterprise on time. 

 

“Okay Michael I will make you a deal. You get to eat warm meals, and stay in good hotels for the next few weeks. I won’t keep the zip ties on you or anything else. If you try to run you will be caught by the police. I’m your best bet when it comes to you staying out of prison. All you have to do is obey what I tell you.”

 

James takes the cloth out of Michael’s mouth.

 

“Okay your offer sounds reasonable. I guess this is a whole lot better than being in prison. I’ve witnessed first-hand what this technology can do.”

 

The 2 of them make their way to the pink minivan. James turns on the radio.

 

“The manhunt is still underway for 45 year old Michael Douglas of Toronto Ontario. Michael escaped the van that was transferring him to London’s maximum security prison earlier today. There’s a huge police presence in the city. If you see Michael do not approach him. Police are treating him as being armed and dangerous. Call 911 instead,” the radio host says.

 

“Oh that’s right. If I bring you back to Enterprise we’ll likely encounter a police roadblock. I can’t have you with me. Stay here in our room and wait for me to return.”

 

It’s 10:45pm and James is at Enterprise. He walks through the front door.

 

“Sir we are about to close. What can I help you with?”

 

“I’d like to return this pink minivan. I’m still a little flustered that I was given this today instead of the grey cube van. I’ll feel a lot better if you could give me the keys to my SUV.”

 

James hands the minivan keys to the employee.

 

“Okay. I’m guessing you own that blue SUV in the back.”

 

“Yes that’s the one."

 

James returns to Comfort Inn. Michael gets in the SUV. James turns on the radio and starts turning the dial. He hears Michael countless times. One station is playing classical music. Another station is playing Empire State of Mind by Alicia Keys. The chorus comes and she is singing ‘New York’. James thinks to himself “yeah well we are going to Montreal haha. New York sounds good too though but I’ll save that for another road trip.” James eventually decides to play Q107, Toronto’s rock music station.

 

1 hour passes and the radio station starts getting more faint and static is starting to come over the air waves. They are moving further and further away from Toronto. James turns off the Radio and tells Michael to sleep.

 

4 hours later James sees a sign that says, ‘Bienvenue au Québec” and underneath it says, ‘Welcome to Québec’. Another hour passes and they’ve made it to Montreal.