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<P><JC><B>CHAPTER SIX: The Games Begin 
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<P>"This," Joseph Manderley began, staring at the wall before him, avoiding eye contact with his prisoners, "has been a most... interesting experience. Our billion-dollar experiment defects, and gets flushed down the toilet. So, naturally, we tie up all his loose ends... Which would be you three, apparently... Perhaps more, but if there's anyone else, they'll be caught soon enough... You were all tracked, you see. We were watching you rather closely. Two of you try to leave via unscheduled helicopter flight. One is caught... Drugged, actually... on an unscheduled flight to Hong Kong. The cattle are rounded up back to their pens, and everything seems to be under control." He paused for a moment. 
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<P>Alex Jacobson watched Manderley closely through the glass window in the concrete wall between them. Jock looked at the floor, thoughtfully. He tensed.
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<P>Jaime massaged the back of his neck, sitting in his cell, across the hall.
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<P>Manderley took a sip of water from a glass he held in his right hand. He glanced down at his watch... Then continued his stare at the wall.
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<P>"But of course it isn't. That's just not possible, is it?" He slipped out a twisted chuckle. "No. Then one of our best agents has to go apeshit and paint the walls with his colleague's head. Hermann's gone. We don't know where the hell he went." Manderley now seemed to be talking more to himself than to the prisoners. "Vanished. Blocked us from tracing him. We'd hit his killswitch, but so much money... We've lost so much money already, maybe we could... If we could just salvage this one..."
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<P>Manderley trailed off. He stared blankly at the wall. A bead of sweat hung on his chin, then detached, and fell to the ground in slow motion. 
