"Jarod booked out of here a couple days ago." "I sure miss that old boy." "To know him is to love him." "Amen, brother." "I kind of took him under my wing, so to speak." "Yeah, I kept my eye on him." "I'm sure that's just like you, Junior, always thinking of the other guy." "I believe in helpin' those less fortunate." ""Darwin Transport." Yep, this is it." "This is what?" "Jarod stayed in that?" "Yep." "He'd lock himself in there for three, four days at a time." "Paid me to check in on him now and again." "You know, bring him a little bread, some water, chain him up" "Chain him up?" "Live and let live." "That's my motto, especially when there's cash comin' myway." "Hell, he'd even ask me to zap him with a carbattery now and then." "Whatever turns you on, I guess." "Why, Jarod!" "Jarod!" "I didn't know you was in there!" "I got ya, didn't I?" "Buy yourself a fifth of happiness." "I couldn't get a shot of joy for this." "There's no place like home." "Well, they say there's a fine line between genius and insanity." "Jarod's line was erased long ago." "Huh." "What's a home without TV?" "That's Jarod's handwriting." "Since when do we follow his directions?" "There's always a method to Jarod's madness." "So if it says don't touch, don't touch." "Lyle!" "Oh, no." "It won't budge." "Junior?" "Junior!" "See you later, Miss Parker, Mr. Lyle!" "Oh, damn it!" "We never told that scum-toothed idiot our names!" "Jarod set this up." "Now we're his prisoners." "Worst heat wave we've had in years... and this one's been locked in the hole for three days." "We're gonna need to scrape him out with a shovel." "Thanks, but that won't be necessary." "I could use a shower, though." "There are Pretenders among us." "I was taken from my family." "Thirty-six hours and he's already demonstrating more talent than any of our others." "How many people died because of what I thought up?" "Since I broke out, I've spent every moment searching for my past." "He's a Pretender." "A genius who can become anyone that he wants to be." "The Centre wants him alive." "Preferably." "He defends the weak and abused." "Life's a gift." "You a doctor?" "I am today." "Good morning, gentlemen." "Excuse me, sir." "If you don't mind my saying... it's creepy that you just spent the last three days in the same hole Officer Rion hung himself." "Sometimes, you gotta walk in somebody else's shoes... to understand what they've been through." "Call it a... simulation." "Is that something they teach you in criminal investigation training?" "It's just something I picked up as a kid." "Lieutenant" "Kimbrall." "Molly Kimbrall." "I'm with the provost marshal's office." "Jarod Stevens." "Yeah, I know." "The base's grapevine is pretty much sizzling... with word that C. I. D.'s here investigating Rion's suicide." "Colonel Dance assigned me to escort you around." "He wants to see you in his office A. S. A. P." "He's a little pissed." "Pissed?" "Ticked off." "You know, mad?" "Why should he be mad?" "I've only kept him waiting 72 hours and 13 minutes." "I am honored you finally decided to pay me a visit... even if it did take you three and a half days." "I was just doing a little recon, trying to be a good soldier." "That's an understatement." "Top 10 in your class at West Point." "J. D. with honors." "Georgetown Law." "And I saw Rambo 27 times." "Captain Saunders here is the leader of Rion's training unit." "He was there the night he died." "We'll be doing some talking, Captain." "Most definitely." "Your file tells me damn near everything except your rank." "I don't even know if you're supposed to call me "sir."" "Well, that is the army." "Not only does it promote the incompetent... but it allows C. I. D. officers like myself to kick around anyone... from a private to a general regardless of rank." "But if it makes you feel any better, I'll call you "sir."" "Would you excuse us for now?" "Gladly, Colonel." "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help, sir." "After you, Lieutenant." "Okay, Stevens, let's just stop all this nice crap." "Agreed?" "Fair enough." "P. O. W. survival training is about the systematic breaking down... of a man's psyche, his identity, even his will to live." "It's about survival." "Now, it is my duty... to see who can and cannot pass that test." "If a man fails here, he goes down alone." "But if he fails that test in war, he takes his brothers down with him." "Now, that's all very noble, but let me tell you about my duty, Colonel." "Your duty is a kin to a snake in the grass." "Around here, we protect and police our own." "We don't need some Pentagon copperhead slithering around our feet." "Maybe the late Warrant Officer Rion does." "Rion's death was investigated thoroughly." "He was in the hole during P. O. W. training, and he snapped." "And mutilated and hung himself." "He snapped!" "Now, any further investigation will be a waste of your time... and, more importantly, mine." "Rion's parents are convinced that their son's death was not a suicide." "They can't accept the fact that Scott killed himself." "Now, it ain't pretty, but it is true." "The truth is exactly what I intend to find out... sir." "Whoa." "Yes, I'm studying the impact of unique physical characteristics... on sensory processing." "I would have guessed that." "There's something weird... about this shipping invoice that Jarod left at his last lair." "Weird how?" "It's such an obvious clue." "It's like Jarod wanted Miss Parker and Mr." "Lyle to go down to Texas and investigate it." "Maybe he did." "What else did Jarod leave?" "Some army stuffi -manuals, books, equipment." "A" " A worn-out Rambo video." "But there's just so much stuff..." "I haven't had time to go through it all yet." "We need to alert Miss Parker and Lyle... as this may be relevant to their investigation." "That's the other weird part." "No one's heard from them yet." "It's like they just vanished." "I can't get a signal out through these walls." "Screw signals." "Why don't you just point it at my head?" "Huh?" "Don't tempt me." "What the hell kind of game is Jarod playing anyway?" "Hmm." "Let's see." "He locks us both in here together for God knows how long... with nothing but a bucket of stagnant water and a roll of toilet paper." "It doesn't take much time to figure out this isn't just a game of survival." "This is survival of the fittest." "Well, at least he's not a complete jerk." "He left us some army rations." "Miss Parker." "Mr. Lyle." "Welcome to your home away from home." "Revise that last statement." "He is a complete jerk." "For all the years that I was locked away at the Centre... and for the three years I've been out, the key to my life has been survival." "A fun little game." "Now ask yourselves... what would you do to survive?" "I found it's important to know yourself and to know your family." "Have a good time." "Oh, by the way..." "I've whipped you up a yummy little meal." "Hope you enjoy it." "Mmm-mmm!" "Barbecued grasshoppers." "Bon appetit." "Actually, they're supposed to be very high in protein." "Tastes like liquorice." "What about you?" "What are you willing to do to survive, Miss Parker?" "Mmm." "Oh!" "Oh!" "A key." "Clever." "Another little piece to Wolfgang Puke's puzzle." "I think I chipped my tooth." "Great." "What next?" "So you've been here ever since O. C. S. and M. P. school?" "You read my file." "I'm C. I. D. I'm supposed to snoop." "You're a very capable officer." "Shouldn't you have your bars by now?" "The reason I'm not a captain yet has less to do with ability than it does with biology." "It's not easy to be a woman in this man's army, huh?" "Chief Rion used to remind me that." "You knew Rion pretty well?" "We were friends." "He treated me with respect, not like some of these gung-ho idiots." "He was nice." "Really nice." "Is it true he called his parents the night before he started P. O. W. training?" "I'm the one who's supposed to snoop, remember?" "Sorry." "It's just rumor is... he told his father that someone on base committed a breach of conduct... which he was going to report when he got back from the P. O. W. isolation test." "I guess he never got the chance to make that report, did he?" "No, sir." "I guess not." "The training area's just up the road... but I doubt you'll find Sergeant Reed any more helpful than Colonel Dance was." "Sealy, Sealy, Sealy." "Sealy!" "It's hot out here, isn't it, Sealy?" "That sure hit the spot." "You want some?" "Want a sip?" "Huh?" "Damn, I've been doin' that all day." "Hang tough, Airborne." "Don't crack, Sealy!" "All you gotta do is quit, Sealy." "Quit." "You can go over there and drink as much as you want." "We'll take you back to your nice, air-conditioned room." "Take a nice, long, cold shower." "And after that, you get to call your mommy... tell her to come pick you up at the airport on the first flight home!" "Is that what you want, Sealy?" "I'm not giving up, Sergeant." "Hang tough, Sealy." "Don't crack!" "Mr. C. I. D. Step into my office." "Don't give up!" "I understand that you were in charge of training the night that Chief Rion died." "Not only that, but I'm the one... who opened up the hole and found him hanging by his belt." "It's all in the report." "You must at least have a theory about what happened." "He went in there by himself, stayed down there all night by himself." "We were all right outside the whole time." "Boy must've been scared of the dark all I can figure." "Let his mind get the best of him." "Enough to mutilate and hang himself?" "Never got a chance to ask him." "You here to arrest me?" "Not today." "Good, 'cause I got work to do." "See, these boys are still alive." "It's my job to keep it that way." ""Dear Mom and Dad, We're almost finished here." ""I can't tell you how much this opportunity means to me." ""Ever since I was little, I've wanted to be on the Special Forces..." ""just like Dad was." ""Our talks about his experience as a P. O. W. in Vietnam..." ""prepared me for what I had to go through here in training." ""And like he always said, the most important survival tool is the mind." ""I miss you both very much and look forward to us being together soon." "Your loving son, Scott."" "We should've heard something by now." "There's been no word from Miss Parker... no word from Mr. Lyle, no answer on their cell phones." "Syd, I'm gettin' kind of freaked here." "I'm concerned as well." "You think their disappearance has something to do with Jarod?" "All those military manuals we found in his lair, don't they all have a survival component?" "Yeah." "I'm going to send another Sweeper team to Texas." "Broots, dig deeper into that shipping manifest and all the other items we found." "Okay, I'm on it like a cheap suit." "What are you up to, Jarod?" "Some P. O. W.s returned from the brutality and isolation ofprison camp intact... others as mere shadows of the man they once were." "They seem haunted." "You're right." "Study these men, Jarod." "Help us understand why some survive and some shatter." "Come in." "I found Cap" "Captain Saunders and the rest of Chief Rion's unit... sort of." "Where?" "Well, they finished the P. O. W. phase of their training... and headed out to the south range for some kind of initiation." "Initiation?" "Yeah." "They could be anywhere in this 50-square-mile area." "Well, I guess I better bring my canteen." "Um, nothing personal, sir, but you'll never find them." "They are experts." "They just go out there and disappear." "Brand's ready, Captain Saunders." "You've earned it, soldier." "Give me the bottle." "Take a hit." "You ready?" "I'm ready, sir." "Whoo!" "Yeah!" "You did it, man!" "You did it!" "Is this what they call a weenie roast?" "How the hell did you find us, C. I. D.?" "I followed your tracks." "We don't leave tracks, Stevens." "Call them what you will." "But there was a pressure indentation by the creek bed... a stone was kicked over by the outcropping... and someone with a size 11-and-a-half boot has a crack in their heel." "Sending up a flare would have been less conspicuous." "You know, I'd be careful who the hell you're sneakin' up on, C. I. D." "And I'd be careful about violating regulations." "This is tradition, and it's voluntary." "Right, Sealy?" "Yes, sir." "Demolitions man." "Yes, sir." "You don't find that very often in survival training." "We all come from different disciplines." "I was a medical officer, counterintelligence." "Rion was logistics." "Duvall here took his place." "And Walker's our weapons expert." "Different disciplines, one mind, body and soul." "We train to become a team." "So you all knew Scott Rion pretty well." "When your training's about survival, it's as important... to get to know your friends as it is to get to know your enemies." "Your life depends on it, sir." "A whole lot of good that did Scott Rion." "Scott had his own problems." "What kind?" "Personal." "In fact, I sensed he was fallin' apart." "There were times I even covered for him during training." "Look, I wanted Rion to make it." "We all... wanted Rion to make it." "And I guess I should've gone to the colonel, but I was afraid he'd kick Rion out." "Maybe if I had, he'd still be alive." "Well, like you said... it's as important to know your friends... as it is to know your enemies." "We need fluids, or we'll dehydrate." "This tooth'll kill me before then." "When it comes to survival, Jarod doesn't know the first thing about me." "Too bad you quit smoking." "Give it up, Daniel Boone." "Brr!" "I bet it's getting pretty cold in there." "I hope you two are getting along okay." "You know what they say:" "When opposite polarities come together, things can get hot pretty quickly." "Oh, in case anybody's interested, there's a tube of Anbesol in there somewhere." "Searching for it can keep you warm." "No." "Matches for a fire would keep me warm." "Shut up and find the Anbesol." ""Opposite polarities."" "Oh, great." "We'll suffocate." "Found the Anbesol." "I bet you're glad I'm here now." "You can thank me later." "We're gonna choke on the smoke... if I don't get this thing sealed." "I need... duct tape." "Perfect." "Gotta hand it to Jarod." "They say duct tape is the best thing to have... in a survival situation." "Very clever." "But he's not as clever or smart as he thinks he is." "Few people are." "What are you doin' here so late?" "I was going over files in Colonel Dance's office." "After midnight?" "Well, I guess you didn't get the memo on the colonel's new "open door" policy." "You do like to ruffle feathers, don't you?" "Hop in." "I'll give you a ride home." "Get out of the car." "Get out of the car!" "Taking a stroll down memory lane, Sealy?" "You scared me, Stevens." "Well, there's a lot of that going around tonight." "Somebody tried to blow up me and Lieutenant Kimbrall." "Somebody who knows their way around a firecracker." "It wasn't me." "If it had have been, they'd be mopping you up about now." "I see." "So, you having trouble sleeping?" "I just thought I'd take a walk." "To the place where Chief Rion died." "Interesting." "You can still hear him, can't you?" "His screams." "His pain." "I was here when it happened." "It was his last night in the hole." "He was down there howlin' and screamin' all night... callin' out Captain Saunders's name... and yellin' all kinds of crazy stuff." "It was horrible listening to him the whole night." "Then around daybreak, it just stopped." "I thought he passed out till Sergeant Reed opened the door... and we saw him... hanging from the ceiling." "He'd gone and scratched himself all up." "It was like something out of a horror movie." "I don't know who or what could cause someone to flip out like that." "I swear I don't." "Why didn't you get him out?" "I wanted to." "We all did." "But we were ordered not to." "Captain Saunders?" "And Sergeant Reed." "They said if we pulled" "Rion out, he'd be kicked out of training." "So they just left him down there to die." "It's not like they knew he'd kill himself." "How could anyone have known?" "It hasn't been easy trying to put the murders out of my mind." "Looks like you've done a pretty good job." "I met Sue at the University of Virginia." "She was part of an exchange program with her sister Cindy." "One night, I stopped by their apartment." "The door was open." "So I went on in and found 'em- what was left of them- in the bedroom." "I was a suspect at first." "Then the police found a roll of duct tape... in the trunk of Cindy's ex-boyfriend's car." "The same tape that had been used on both sisters." "Or maybe someone planted the duct tape on an innocent man." "You know, to survive." "Don't you see what Jarod's trying to do?" "Whether it's in this trap... or at the Centre, he's trying to keep us from trusting each other." "You've gotta trust me, Parker." "It's a must for our survival." "What's that?" "Parker?" "You think of everything, don't you, Jarod?" "What's the watch about?" "Survival." "Sydney!" "Syd!" "That Sweeper team you sent to Texas" "They didn't find them, but they interviewed some bum... who had taken Miss Parker and Mr. Lyle to a shipping container where Jarod had been living." "The shipping container-was it still there?" "Oh, no, it's gone." "I can't find it." "All anyone seems to know is that it's heading east." "Along with Parker and Lyle?" "But that's not all." "For 10 bucks, the bum told the Sweepers that..." "Jarod had turned the container into a kind of a P. O. W. camp... and that he was the prisoner." "Hmm." "Survival." "Exactly." "I sifted through everything from Jarod's lair." "Most of it is used in training at military," "P. O. W. and survival units across the country." "Jarod may have been at one of these facilities." "Or still may be." "I've evaluated the data, Sydney." "And what have you determined?" "It's not necessarily the prisoner who suffered the most physically... or were held in captivity the longest who experienced the most significant trauma." "Then what is the critical factor to their survival?" "Their minds, Sydney." "Their will to survive." "If the captor removes their hope... their ability to understand their fears and overcome them... the prisoner loses his grip on reality, self-destructs." "Lucy, you got some explainin' to do." "I saw that on a rerun." "This isn't what it looks like." "I hope not, 'cause it sure doesn't look very good to my friend over here." "I came here to look in Chief Rion's file." "I can't just sit back and hope this all goes away." "I have to find out what really happened to Scott." "You don't believe that it was just a suicide either, do you?" "I don't know what to believe." "All I know is Scott's family deserves the truth." "And if that means risking my commission to get it to 'em, then so be it." "What you're risking is your life." "That bomb in your car wasn't meant for me." "Why don't you tell me about Captain Saunders." "I see the way he looks at you." "Well, when no one's around, he's touched me... inappropriately." "How long has this been going on?" "A few months." "First, it was just comments." "Suggestions." "You get used to that kind of crap when you're a female in the military." "You just learn to ignore it and hope it stops." "But it didn't?" "No." "And you told Scott about it?" "I made him promise not to tell anyone." "What happened?" "About a week before Scott's death..." "I went off base to meet some friends for dinner." "Captain Saunders was there, Chief Rion, the rest of the unit." "Captain Saunders kept staring at me... to the point that it was scaring me." "So I got up and left." "I just wanted to get out of there and go home." "Captain Saunders grabbed me." "He wouldn't let go." "I tried to fight him." "I was yelling at him to let go of me." "Get off of me!" "But he wouldn't stop." "I was so scared." "He was trying to push me into the car." "Then, all of the sudden, someone pulled him off of me." "Scott Rion." "He told Captain Saunders he was going to report him." "They argued." "Captain Saunders told Scott he'd forgotten the first rule- that the unit always comes first." "He said it wasn't over between them... that he'd make sure Scott learned his lesson." "When Scott committed suicide, I felt responsible." "Scott did commit suicide, but it wasn't by choice." "I don't understand." "His psychological profile showed no signs of instability." "Prisoner of war training is tough... but Scott knew he only had to endure one more night." "Then what could have made him go out ofhis mind?" "Something I found in his mind." "You're saying he was given something to make him go crazy?" "That's what hewas trying to tell us." "He wasn't mutilating himself." "He was writing a word." "Scott knew he was drugged." "He was attempting to tell us who did it and how." "That seems so impossible." "Rion knew that Saunders was involved in a secret research project... to develop drugs to interrogate prisoners of war." "The name of that project was" ""Abyss."" "Scott knew he was given the Abyss drug." "As he became more psychotic and disoriented... he attempted to tell us." "So what are you gonna do about it?" "I'm going to give Captain Saunders... a little taste of his own medicine." "It's okay to drink now." "Trust me." ""Tick tock." Jarod wanted you to find that watch." "He knew it meant something to you." "It was my- our mother's." "She won it in a swim competition when she was little... and Daddy gave it to me for my 12th birthday." "I used to use it to time myself... treading water when we would go to the lake." "And this one particular morning, it was early." "I took the skip out alone, and I went way out into the middle." "I t started taking on water, and before I could make it back, it sank." "And I tried to swim... but it was just so far." "All I could do was tread water and hope someone would find me." "My legs were cramping, and my arms were aching." "It was terrifying." "Every time I wanted to give in... and to surrender to the pain, to let myself sink..." "I would hear the ticking of this watch." "And it was like Mother's voice whispering to me... to fight for my life- to fight to survive." "And I did." "Anyway... eventually Daddy came and rescued me." "But it was this watch that saved my life." "I lost it a long time ago." "Looks like somebody found it." "What now?" "Syd!" "Syd!" "I found it." "I found the container, and you're not gonna believe where." "Miss Parker?" "Miss Parker?" "Broots?" "Broots, you lovable moron, is that you?" "Yeah, I guess." "Open the door!" "You'll have to do it." "What?" "It says out here:" ""To open, pull the "Do not pull' lever inside."" "Really!" "Jarod shipped us back to the Centre?" "Ironic, isn't it?" "It's a regular junior jumble." "When I catch him, I'm gonna kill him." "Well, you may get your chance." "We tracked him to an army survival camp." "Where?" "It's in Texas... right next to the container yard where you started." "Welcome back, ladies." "Sorry to ruin your "R" and "R"... but we have new orders to move up your three-day survival solo into the wilderness." "You'll be assigned separate quadrants." "Your mission is to escape and evade for the next 72 hours." "All that you need and all that you are getting... is in your gear, which you can pick up at the table." "Make me proud!" "Let's go!" "Let's go!" "Make me proud!" "Wake up, Saunders." "Wake up!" "Where am I?" "What's happening?" "I bet Scott Rion asked himself the same question." "Who's in here?" "Just demons in your mind." "And victims from your past." "What's the matter, Saunders?" "Feeling a little crazy?" "Stevens, is that you?" "You look scared." "Scared to death!" "This is gonna cost you your commission." "Well, it can't really cost me my commission, because I don't really have one." "The truth is, my name's not Stevens." "I'm not even in the army." "What have you done to me?" "The same thing you did to Scott Rion." "Rion hung himself." "He couldn't cope." "I told you that!" "Because of the hallucinogens you put in his M. R. E." "Drugs you designed to increase his feelings of fear and terror." "Man, this is crazy!" "Almost as crazy as Scott Rion must have felt... when you left him in the hole all night!" "As the drug took control of his mind, he had two options- either go crazy, or kill himself." "No!" "No!" "You knew he was going to report you for the sexual harassment of Lt. Kimbrall." "You would have been court-martialed, lost your precious career." "You can't prove any of it." "You can't prove it." "That's why I whipped up my own little special batch... of Abyss." "As you know, it starts out slowly." "And then it builds, getting stronger with each wave... until your mind slowly slips into insanity." "It should be kicking in pretty well right now." "Your eyes playin' tricks on you?" "Your skin crawling?" "Your mind losing its grip?" "Oh, uh, the key to your handcuff is." "You should have your hands free in case you wanna mutilate yourself." "Well, gotta go now." "Have fun in your own private little... hell." "Oh, one more thing." "Rion's belt... just in case you would want to, uh, hang around." "Have fun." "Wait!" "Wait!" "Don't leave me in here!" "Wait!" "Don't leave!" "Let me out, man!" "Look." "You're right!" "Okay?" "I did it!" "I did it!" "I drugged him." "Come on, man!" "Let me out!" "Mmm..." "Uh-uh." "Let me out!" "How long should we leave him in there?" "The drug should wear off in a couple of hours." "After that... he'll just weep." "Let me out!" "The colonel assures me Saunders will get everything he deserves." "Twenty to life at Leavenworth minimum." "And Rion's family will get a full apology and disclosure of what happened." "From Colonel Dance personally." "Thank you, Lieutenant." "And I have a feeling... those bars of yours won't be long in coming." "You know, I don't know your rank, Jarod... but I am honored to call you "sir."" "Thank you." "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to practice some of those... escape and evasion skills I've learned here." "Good luck." "What?" "Aside from the chipped molar... it sounds like you survived." "No thanks to you." "Actually, everything you needed was there all along." "All you had to do was open your eyes and see." "What exactly was it I was supposed to see?" "That survival comes down to knowing the difference... between your friends and your enemies." "I suppose you're trying to tell me that..." "Lyle is my enemy and you're my friend." "Maybe." "And you have to be willing... to do whatever it takes to survive." "You can sure bet that Lyle will."