Chapter XXV

illiam had lapsed into his own little world, and in his face, one could nearly read his mind as his thoughts traced back over the few days and his relationship, or lack of it, with Len Mathers.

"William, did you know Len killed Dr. Kny-pel in defense of you.  He'd hoped to take him into custody as he was wanted for questioning in several other cases.  But now, those cases may never be solved.  But, he saved your life.  And he paid the price of taking another man's life to prevent him killing you.

That killing weighs very heavy on his mind, and he's very close to quitting the FBI because of all the violence he's seen.  His is a wonderful job and he's climbed the ladder of success to be where he is right now, but he doesn't want to do it any longer."

Lane paused while William pondered all this.  At the moment, he was deep in the confines of his memory banks, reconciling all the thoughts, the conversations, the moments he had with Len Mathers and checking all those against his actions, his character, and his being.  It was all compared and confirmed with what he was hearing and learning of the man at this very moment.

When William's eyes refocused, and he again became cognizant of his surroundings, Lanes secretary said, "William, would you like a refill on that coffee?" He jumped, as he wasn't aware of anyone in the room with them, and stuttered a "yes ma'am," and held up his cup.

William, there's more.  William was amazed.  How could there be more.  He spoke slowly, and the volume of his voice was quite low.  "Lane, I don't know how much more of this I can take before I go completely off my rocker.  I don't know how much more pain and heartache I can take.  I feel like I have a Death Sentence following me around like one of those old 'Wanted' posters.

I'm on the poster and I can a picture the grim reaper holding it up.  He's after my soul.  Does that make me sound like a crazy man to you?" he finished.

"William, one thing I know for sure.  You are probably the most stable man I know as far as mental state is concerned.  And you have got to be one of the strongest persons physically that I know.  I shudder to think what kind of monster would have been created had Gilroy gotten someone of a lesser mental capacity than you.  Knowing this, it was nothing short of a miracle that he was able to effect any level of hypnosis on you in the first place.

But, because of your innate mental strength, you were able to retain the bonds of control of your mental self, therefore allowing Dr. Kny-pel to release you of it while you were on the witness stand.  But, unbeknownst to you, during these last times with Dr. Kny-pel, he did some serious damage to not your mental capacity so much, but to those around you who love you.

Like Sharon.  She loves you with all her heart, and she's deeply wounded because of what she perceives of you as not a viable mate for her.  But, the problem is not with you.  It's with her.  All the while you were being subjected to your own torment, she was being subconsciously manipulated against you.  This was to be used as a way of making you to decide to turn the Codes over to him.

That's not a fault of hers.  It was a direct result of mental training of Dr. Kny-pel.  He was quite the student of adverse manipulation of the human psyche."

Again, William was plunged into deep thought, and Lane watched as he wrestled with all the recollections of distinct scenes being played out in his mind and comparing and confirming what he'd just heard to those scenes.  When each was justified and/or confirmed, his demeanor would change from a frown to a smile or a plethora of other facial expressions.

Lane had taken a college course once in the reading of facial features, and he could see the sadness, the joy, the laughter, the hate, the love as the emotions flooded across William's memory banks.  A couple of times, a tear would form in Williams eyes, and once, they spilled down his face as he thought of his beloved Sharon.  It was reassuring to Lane to see that Williams emotions were still soft and reasonably able to be touched.

Williams' reflections this time went for quite a long time.  Lane had been called out of the office twice, and William, so entranced deep within the inner sanctums of who he really was . . .  his total makeup, the innate being of his heart, and his love for not only those around him, but, his love for life itself, that he never knew when Lane left the office.

Lane, needing to bring the meeting to an end, slammed a drawer in quite hard thereby creating a sharp bang.  It was just enough to jolt William from his reflections.  He would have plenty of time to deal with that later.  There were other important things he needed to hear before William left the office.

"William," he began, choosing his words carefully.  "I have a couple of other things to relate to you, of which I feel you need to be aware.  The first, is that Len Mathers has been able to quell the entire matter of the Federal Government and their desire to have not only the Codes, but you for testing as well.  He has written extensive reports on you, and has completely cleared you of any wrong doings.

He has written that there is absolutely no benefit that can be obtained from you.  He has been able to knock down any justification of the expense required to obtain from your psyche what Gilroy was able to effect.  Because of that, the orders to pick you up have been remanded, and new orders were given.  This time, to leave you alone.  But, there is still a physical problem which must be dealt with.

Sometime or another, you were implanted with a micro chip not much larger than a grain of rice.  This micro chip has been studied by the FBI as much as could be without your knowledge, and, the FBI know of it.  Not only that, they want it.  They want to know what it is, where it came from, what all it will do, and, what will it allow or make a person do.  It's going to take a small medical procedure to remove it, but, William, it must be removed.

I've already made an appointment with Dr. Randall, who can see you this afternoon.  You may have already observed it in the back of your neck."

William broke in.  "Yes sir, I have, and I had in mind of making an appointment my own self to see what it was.  I just thought it was a lump or something."

"Well, because the FBI wants it so bad, they will be taking care of the medical expenses of having it removed.  It is supposed to be done on an outpatient basis this afternoon at three o'clock.  Can you be there?"

"Sure, I have nothing much to do, nor do I have much of a life any more since I lost Sharon.  She was what I lived for.  She was my whole life.  I would have never done anything deliberately to offend her in any way, and when she walked out of my life, well, my life ceased to exist.  From that moment on, I've only experienced an existence.  It's a far cry from actually having a life.

But, because I loved her so much, I wouldn't want her unhappy or dissatisfied with me in any way, so, I let her go.  I figured her parents had quite a lot to do with her choice of leaving, and I wasn't about to make a scene in front of them and risk being an embarrassment to her.  There's no other person I've ever known or seen who can take her place in my life."

Lane was so touched by his speech he had to fight to keep back the tears in his own eyes.  He'd watched the facial expressions of William as he spoke, and knew of a surety, that William spoke from his heart, and that, full of love, admiration, respect and the pure joy of knowing and loving Sharon.

"There are still a couple of things which needs to be brought out into the open," Lane was saying as soon as William had regained his composure. First, to completely wrap up the deal with the disks, the FBI needs them. If nothing else, they need to know for certain they've been destroyed. Will you give them up, for me.  Just so we can put this whole FBI investigation to bed."

William looked straight into Lanes eyes, and, saw honesty, integrity and a pure motive there.  He never even hesitated.  He simply flat out said "sure." He paused for a moment, then continued.  "We can retrieve them tomorrow, but there's a couple of things I need to do before I will release them.  Is that OK?"

"That will be fine.  I'll set it up for you and call you with a time."

"Great.  Well, I guess I'll be going.  Thank you for your time.  I really appreciate it.  I feel like a great burden has been lifted off my shoulders.  I only wish I could have talked to you that day while I was in the hospital.  It would have saved so much heartache and grief." William said.

"I didn't know all I know now, so there was nothing I could do or say that could have helped you.  There are several other things that I would like to inform you of, but at this point, we've covered what needed to be covered.  I'm very glad you chose to come to me." Lane finished.

"Yeah, me too.  Although a great burden has been lifted off me, I still feel like there is a Death Sentence on me.  I don't know what I'm going to do about that." William stood up, stuck out his hand toward Lane, which he took, shook vigorously, then said "William, there's just one more thing I feel we need to cover before you go."

William had a confused look on his face, and sat back down rather stiffly.  He nodded to Lane that he was ready.  Lane sat back down in his own chair and said "I need to tell you about the Lord."

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