Chapter 347: The Rabbit Hole

It took no time at all for Twenty-three's breathing to become rhythmic and Mina knew the man had fallen into sleep. She asked Doctor Rebecca to call a medical team to have the man removed from the lab and put into a more comfortable place to sleep.

"If we do that, he will snap when he wakes."

"I will be there with him," Mina said coldly. "What was the point of showing me this area?" she asked. If Rebecca was trying to show her the cruelty of the Lee's then she had succeeded, but if she was trying to scare her it was an ultimate failure.

Mina had once become obsessed with something much in the way Twenty-three was, but because of her family, she was able to break free from the compulsion and only revisited it when she felt it was safe to do so. Mina would have been lying to herself if she said that improving upon an already established math formula was not constantly on her mind, but she had found ways to refocus herself, and it was largely due to her sister's intervention. If not, she would have been as useless as twenty-three, who seemed beyond help.

----

President Lee stood in the middle of a sparring ring facing down one of the physician scientists who had been openly discussing Mina as if she were a tool to be used to give birth and nothing more. He was not fighting for Mina, but for himself. He had warned the man, but his warning was disregarded as if it meant nothing. Even for the fact that he showed up to fight was a sign of disrespect.

"President Lee, he isn't one of our bests," Doctor Witt said. He had not seen a good fight in too long and he had no severe trauma to work on as of late. This was his chance to get a seriously injured patient, and to try out a compound he believed could speed up bone fracture recovery.

President Lee was merciless, and when he and the man began to exchange blows, he allowed himself to be hit several times, but then he laughed and threw a punch so hard that the person he was fighting had a complete change of heart.

"Sir, I understand now. Mina is off limits." The man's words had come too late. Ian pummeled him until he was an unmoving bloody mess on the ground.

When Ian was satisfied, he got up and ordered those who were around to carry the man to the medical ward, but Doctor Witt was not sure that treatment would be necessary.

President Lee turned to face the other men who had been trying to convince Mina to donate her body to 'science'. He did not need to say much, because they all understood. He was the man with the one-forty-eight IQ, and he was defending what belonged to him.

President Lee walked away from the men, intending to clean himself up before going to find Mina, but Dom, who had been pushed along by the man who was ordered to stay with him, asked him if they could have a discussion. Ian believed that Dom was going to ask for forgiveness now that he knew Mina was alive and well, but he did not.

Dom told his boss everything that Mina had told him, he was unaware that president Lee was listening to their conversation, but he also shared something that president Lee must have missed while he was walking from one room to the other.

Apparently, there were five men involved in Mina's abduction, not four. Mina had confided in him that when they got to the building they were in; someone was waiting for them. She also told Dom that the man who had beat her, was also the one who was in contact with whoever hired them.

In conclusion, Dom let his boss know that he was worried Mina was going to make another attempt at running while using herself as bait to put a quick end to everything going on.

"President Lee, I know I failed Mina, but she needs someone with her at all times. It doesn't have to be me." Ian knew that Dom cared for Mina in a way that was not dissimilar to the way he liked Mina, but where the men differed was how Mina treated them.

"Do you think you can do it?"

"If I use Mina's guilt against her, I can. It isn't ideal, but as long as she believes that without her, I am dead, she will stay put." Ian wanted to tell Dom that without Mina he would be dead, but right now he needed the man as a tether.

"If anything happens to her, you are dead."

"Agreed sir, but I also need your assistance in the handling of Miss Lisa.

----

President Lee had Dom escorted to a better recovery area. He did not change the man's tending physician, but instead of being on the floor reserved for the treatment of rebellious soldiers, Dom would now be in the area reserved for men who were injured in the line of duty. The same place Samuel and Bressaw had been sent when they were recovering, although now Samuel had retired to be at home with his family, and Bressaw was on the ground level working to get back into shape before serving out his last two years.

As soon as Ian had finished cleaning himself up, one of his men came to report that Mina and Doctor Rebecca had a man called Twenty-three put into a recovery room. Ian was worried that something may have gone wrong in his absence, but what he saw when he entered the ward was the most violent and eccentric man in the facility fast asleep, while Mina gingerly held his hand.

Mina looked as though her heart were broken and she sighed often. Ian did not think she noticed him, but as soon as he entered the room, she spoke.

"You can't keep them in there like that," Mina said.

"What do you suggest I do with men and women who were ripped from their parents when they were too young to understand? The alternative for them was worse, but my father spared them. They are free to pursue whatever they desire, but they can never leave this place." Mina remembered Dom telling her that there were people who could not leave, but back then, she understood that to mean soldiers. Not people who were so emotionally unstable that they could not assimilate.

"They need monitors, they need references to the outside world, and they need external stimuli. President Lee, do you know what twenty-three is working on?" Mina asked. She was still staring at the man, who twitched and squeezed her hand at random intervals.

"He is trying to make a world where people like him are normal. He may not say it, but I know. I know because for a long time, that was all I ever wanted."

"Twenty-three is not like you," he replied.

"No, he is not. Unlike me, he did not have people who loved him enough to stop him from going down the rabbit hole."