Chapter 10

A few years ago, when Jason was only a freshman at college, he sat at the dinner table over winter break with his mother and father. Chris was gone, working at his new job, unable to join for the holidays. He rarely had time for them anymore; his new job consumed all of his free time.

His mom cooked dinner for the three of them, rice and microwaved Indian curry, an easy favorite of both Jason and his father’s. About halfway through dinner, his father started to sweat, wiping his forehead with his napkin. Jason didn’t think the curry was that spicy, but his father was never one for hotter foods. Soon after he had turned pale and began to shiver, nothing like Jason had ever seen before. Both Jason and his mother asked him if he was alright as he looked up and closed his eyes, continuing to shiver. It was at this point that Jason realized it wasn’t the curry that made him sweat, it was something else entirely.

Jason stood up from the table and moved over to his father, putting his hand on his forehead. It was wet from the sweat, but icy to the touch. Jason looked at his mother who was in tears staring at his father, hands covering her mouth. They rushed him to the hospital as he sat shivering in the back seat, wrapped in a blanket Jason grabbed as they rushed out of the house. Jason sat with his mother in the waiting room not doing anything, not saying anything. They just wanted to hear that his father was okay, that he just had the flu.

The doctor came through the swinging doors with his clipboard and asked for the Sottoways. Jason could hear his mother’s short, labored breaths as she stood up to hear what the doctor had to say. He walked over to them and began discussing his father’s history with prostate infections, and said that his latest one had begun to spread.

This was the first encounter that Jason ever had with cancer. Ever since then, his father has had difficulty with daily tasks, but the cancer would occasionally go into remission. He offered to quit school and stay home to take care of him, but his father said that the cancer wasn’t going anywhere soon, and neither was he.  Jason took his advice and continued school, coming back home every now and then to spend time with him. A few weeks before Chris showed up in Jason’s bedroom, their father’s cancer had come out of remission. Again, Jason offered to stay home and take care of him, but his father said no, telling him to finish school.

His father had always been persistent like that, always looking out for others before himself. Jason found it difficult to obey his father in a time when he needed him most. He told himself, in time, he’d finish school and go home to take care of his father.

If there is still time.

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“Save Dad?” Jason stared at Chris, questioning the absurdity of what he had just said. “We can’t save dad, he has cancer.” Jason stifled a laugh, not wanting to make light of their father’s cancer.

“I’m aware of that, Jay. I may not be around much but I know that Dad is dying.” Chris stood up from his chair, “I’m not lying to you. I really think we can save him.”

“Don’t joke about this, man,” asserted Jason, punching his brother in the shoulder. “You make it sound like you cured cancer.” Chris grabbed his shoulder, groaning from the blow. He then looked up at Jason and stood there quietly. Jason heard the yelling of the party from outside his door, drunks laughing and yelling over the music. Neither one said anything.

The corner of Chris’s mouth turned upward. Not a full smile, but Jason could sense something different about his attitude. “Bullshit. No you didn’t.”

“Not me, personally, no. But someone did.” At that moment, Chris’s eyes lit up and he let out a deep breath, as if he just told Jason his darkest secret, finally revealing it to the world. Jason scowled at Chris, sickened that he would joke about their father’s health. He punched the arm that Chris wasn’t covering, this time with force behind it. “F**k you, Chris. You haven’t been back once to see him since he was diagnosed, and now you have the balls to joke about it?” Chris groaned again, grabbing his other shoulder, having to take a step back to prevent from falling down.

“Jay, stop. I’m being serious.” Chris’s smile was gone, conveying a sense of gravity that led Jason to calm down. “I know I’m not around at all, I’m sorry. I’ll explain it all to you sometime, but you have to listen to me right now. No more punching me, alright?”

Jason took a deep breath and exhaled. “Fine. Explain away.” Chris sat back down in the chair while Jason remained standing, having no intention of sitting down, his adrenaline coursing through his veins. He wasn’t sure whether to be pissed off at Chris, to be happy for his father or to go out and drink with his friends. He just wanted answers.

“When I called you, I told you people were looking for me.” Jason nodded, recalling the strange phone call he had a while back. “They’re still looking for me, but I wanted to come see you.” A flood of questions rushed in to Jason’s head, What do they want? Don’t they know you’ll come here? Why don’t you ever see Dad? Jason chose the question that he wanted answered the most, “Who is chasing you, Chris? Who the hell would want to find you?”

“My…previous employer. They’re not exactly the kind of management that will let you quit and go on with your life.” To Jason’s knowledge, Chris had a government contract overseas and had acquired security clearance for work. His work was confidential and took away a lot of his time to call or visit his family. Jason always pictured him as being a secret agent, the James Bond type. Now it seemed surreal, an actual possibility that Chris was a ‘00’ agent with everything that was happening. 

“So, you can’t tell me what you do. You can’t tell me who you worked for. You don’t work for them anymore, though, so why not tell me?”

“For your protection. If you don’t know, they can’t hurt you.” This startled Jason. They’re trying to hurt him? Why? 

“These guys…cured cancer, and now they’re looking for you? What the hell did you do to them?” Jason always envisioned the people that would cure cancer to be a nice bunch, but by the way Chris was describing them, this seemed not to be the case. Jason had trouble keeping his thoughts together, there’s a cure for cancer and whoever discovered it is looking to hurt my brother. None of this makes any sense.

“It’s a lot more complicated than that, Jay. For now you just have to trust me, alright?” Jason looked away in contemplation, trying to put the pieces together in his head. He turned back to Chris who was still rubbing his shoulder from the punch and nodded. “Yeah. I trust you, man. You know that. So about this whole curing cancer thing…” Chris’s smile returned at the mention of the cure.

“Ah, yes. I seriously think…” before Chris could finish his sentence, Jason could hear screaming coming from the party. This wasn’t like the yelling before where people wanted to be heard over the music, and it wasn’t just one person. More and more people began screaming as Jason heard mobs of people rushing out of the house, bottles of beer shattering as they hit the floor. Jason looked at his door and then back at Chris. “Hold on man, let me see what’s going on. I’ll bet it’s just the cops.” Chris started to object but refrained from saying anything, curiosity getting the best of him.

Jason opened the door and walked out into the hallway, people running past him toward the front door. He turned and walked toward the kitchen where everyone seemed to be running away from. As he turned the corner, he saw a face that he instantly recognized. A man that he only caught a glimpse of, but he vividly remembered the man’s stark white hair, the reason Jenna bolted after their first date.

The man from the limousine. What the f**k is he doing here?

The man looked directly at Jason and aimed a gun at him. “I’m sorry Jason; it’s for your own good.” The second Jason turned to try and run, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck. He reached up and felt something protruding, something metallic. A dart. He shot me with a dart.

Jason dropped to his knees, putting his hand on the wall for support. Some more men in black suits that Jason could only assume were the ones looking for his brother ran passed him toward his room. He tried to yell but the tranquilizing dart had already taken enough out of him that he was unable to even muster a whisper. As the men ran into his room, Jason’s hand slipped from the wall and his head fell to the floor, succumbing to the sedation.