There was a click as the door was locked, Jonny wasn’t quite fond of being locked into the room, but he waited to hear Race’s receding footsteps before bum-rushing the drawer. He had questions to answer, and he was sure what was inside the drawer would help clarify things. He spotted a small note with rather clear instructions underneath one of his old shirts. “Go to the gardening shack tonight at midnight, don’t be seen? What the hell, Hadj?” He folded the note and put it into his pocket, aware that it would be a good idea to take the teen’s advice.

--

Hadji and Jessie sat in the kitchen as Race debriefed them. “Both of you know what this means, I presume.” The two nodded, “Really, and he started to calm down again.” Race shook his head, “I don’t want Dr. Quest interacting with him, I don’t have to explain why, do I?”

“No sir.” The two said in unison.

“Good, I’m going to talk to Benton. That invention doesn’t seem so innocent as a pet-project…” He let out an annoyed sigh.

“Aren’t you going to explain things to Jonny? It could be dangerous for him…”

“Absolutely not and neither of you are to say a word! You know that this is confidential, he’s not from here, and he’s not our Jonny. We can’t trust him with that sort of thing! As far as he’s concerned, he’s to stay in that room until we’re ready to send him back.”

“Right, so he’s pretty much a prisoner?” Jessie asked, though the innocence to it seemed feigned.

“Prisoner nothing, that’s protective custody and you know it.” Race shook his head, “Really I can’t tell what Benton’s thinking, but I have to get in touch with Korvin now. I’m heading to town, I need you two to keep an eye out to make sure those two keep apart.”

Hadji nodded, “Well, duh. I don’t want to see a repeat of…” He swallowed, “I don’t want to put any unnecessary strain on dad.”

“Good boy.” Race ran his fingers through his hair, “Jess, you babysit Dr. Quest, and be careful. You know how he gets when he’s …giddy… like that.”

“Yes sir.”

--

Jonny spotted Race’s sports car pulling out of the garage before gunning it down the long driveway before he decided he had played nice long enough. He wasn’t going to wait until midnight… Looking through the drawers he spotted something of use for disabling the locking-mechanism and approached the door. He seriously wondered why this world’s Jonny actually had lock-pick equipment, he thought he’d find a screwdriver from a model set, but to actually have lock-picks, really now?

He put his hand on the door to turn it a quarter turn and thus free up the lock-surface, instead he found the door to have some give, he tapped the handle before pulling it open to spot Hadji.

“Hadji?”

The teen entered the room and locked the door from the inside.

“You, you don’t leave this room without me unless you plan on going out the window. You got me?”

“…Uh, no actually, I have no idea what you mean by that. Wait you mean I’m seriously being kept captive here?”

Hadji nodded, “Yes and no. What I’m about to tell you, I’m not telling you, you understand?”

“Top secret stuff? Why are you acting like this is a spy-movie? Man just get on with it, bro.”

“Not until you swear confidentiality. I know you won’t lie if you swear it on your mom.”

“Damn, you’re serious… what do you mean though? You mean I can’t say anything in this world or in my world?”

“I don’t give a damn about your world right now, you can’t let dad, Jessie or Race know anything that I’m about to tell you, and you can’t tell anyone on this Earth either, you get me?”

Jonny nodded. “Alright, what is this all about, Hadji?”

“…You can’t be near dad. You don’t want to even know why.”

Jonny’s eyebrow quirked, “What the… wait, I do, I do want to know why.”

Hadji rubbed his forehead, “Officially, Jonny ran away and was presumed dead. After that, people realized dad …cracked. He… he wasn’t the same after that. In fact, he’s kept here more than he just chooses to stay here. Race wasn’t fired after you died because he was assigned to keep watch on dad. He might have lost it, but, well… he’s still a genius with a lot to give back to the world, you know?”

“…So you mean he’s crazy?”

Hadji shook his head, “No, absolutely not… if you like staying alive.”

Jonny’s eyes went wide, “Did you just threaten me?”

“I think Jessie’s with him in the lab. Come on, I’ll show you the grounds. You really should see the garden.”

He wasn’t quite sure how to take that kind of response.

“We’re heading out through the window, the door’s locked, so we’ll also head back in through this way. We can’t exactly go there when Race or dad is around, and Jessie… well, it’s better if we keep that from her.”

Swallowing, “Alright, but first, I see the flash bombs in your pocket, those aren’t for me are they?”

Hadji shook his head, “Surprisingly not. Heh, I’m impressed you spotted them, Jess never spots them ‘til it’s too late. I mean it when I say keep away from dad, though. Let him keep working on the portal so you can get home, unless you’ve become attached to here that is.”

“Well, I have to say, it’s fun to see this side of Hadji again, oh, I mean… well, my Hadji isn’t anything like this, he’s all ‘do not abuse power’ this and ‘you must not be irresponsible, brother’ that… heh, he lost his sense of humor completely.”

“This is a bit of a defense mechanism.” Hadji slid the rope-latter from the window before climbing down and steadying it for Jonny to climb down.

“Defense mechanism you say?”

Hadji smiled sadly, “Come with me to the garden, you’ll figure it out.”

Jonny paused at the entrance to the garden, on the opposite side of the compound from the lab.

“Your world’s Jonny, did he really run away? Or did he join up with terrorists or something? I mean, that sounds so unlike me… but, I mean… that could make sense as to why Race has to keep Dr. Quest on lock-down here, to prevent him from switching sides…”

“You’re wrong. Jonny was such a great person, and really fun… no, go in the gardening shed, brace yourself.” Pushing the door open, Hadji waited for Jonny to enter.

“Brace myself? For what?” Jonny said as he walked through the door. Hadji walked in behind him. Jonny’s eyes shrank back into their whites, “Oh my g… who… what… how?!”

Hadji bowed his head, “This is why you can’t go near dad. Our world’s Jonny isn’t going to walk around town ever again, you doing so would make things very… difficult for Race to explain away.”

Jonny’s hand clamped to his mouth as he dry-heaved.

“In this world, I was already a part of the family before your mom left, but not by much time. She ran off with another man. I noticed how dad would get angry more easily, especially if things became more serious in tone. He took it out on you… well, on Jonny the worst. One day she called, she said she wanted to take you from him, and you seemed okay with the idea. Race wasn’t sure if he could let it be authorized. Dad threatened to stop producing if he lost Jonny to her, so Race said that Jonny had to ‘run away’ in order for Rachel not to get custody.”

Jonny slammed his back against the wall, sliding down it with his hand still clamped to his mouth.

“Of course, Jonny wanted to go, and one day dad took things way too far. Jonny said something very stupid for the given situation, he said, ‘I want to go live with mom, I can’t stand it here anymore, when you do this you aren’t my dad, you’re a monster!’ I had heard the argument from my room and came to see it, hoping to break it up before it would get too bad.”

“…Too bad…?” Jonny pointed to the decomposing body, “…I’d say you were a little late!”

“I was. Once Jonny said that, there was nothing I could do to calm dad down. He slammed Jonny to the wall and was choking him one-handed, Race came in and pulled him off, after that Jonny stayed in his room, the locks were really a safety mechanism.”

“…Then why is he dead if he survived that?!”

“Because one day he miscalculated his window of opportunity, he went to use the phone to call Rachel and tell her she had to get him out of there, dad was supposed to be out on business, Race had a meeting and Jessie and I were in school. When I got home, I found your body, he had the bags around you already. He said you fell down the stairs, but with the phone cord wrapped around the throat it was a bit hard to believe. Of course, when Race got there, he went into damage control mode. He isn’t your ally. He’ll do anything to keep dad productive, it isn’t that he doesn’t feel guilty about it all, but he gave us the checks-and-balances speech, so there really wasn’t anything we could say. He wasn’t going to let Jonny’s body be found and risk dad’s productivity. His job is pretty much to keep him productive and away from society.”

Jonny’s hand shook as it approached the body before him, Hadji smacked the hand down. “W… Why didn’t they bury me… him… though? You said they held a ceremony, why not later?!”

“Two reasons, because your mom would be suspicious of it, and dad comes to check on the body to make sure he really doesn’t try to run away. He’s completely insane, you can’t go near him alone. Even if you say nothing wrong, he could snap and do this to you again, he doesn’t hold qualms about it. The only person he’s ever been violent against was you, so no one would have suspected it as more that Jonny really running away… but, yeah. You understand now, right?”

Swallowing hard, Jonny looked at Hadji, “Right, so this is where we go back to the compound, I pretend everything’s normal now that I’ve been scarred slightly-more for life, and pray he actually fixes that machine instead of set up a line of lifeless-Jonny-plants.”

Hadji nodded, “Frankly, I think he might have actually wanted to make the device for that purpose, well it is a possibility at least.”

“…And this, this is all for the sake of science that he can get away with murder?!”

Hadji hung his head, “He cured two types of cancer, did you know? He developed a drug from the extracts of several rare plants in the Amazon, and found a way to stop a specific mutation, of the SR433 gene, it cured hundreds of people so far, he also made a device that filters water from parasitic worms that costs under five dollars and lasts for seven years, do you know how relevant these this are around

the world? The government well, their stance is that you weren’t worth it to keep that happy and productive. I disagree, but there isn’t really anything I can say to change things, I can only keep close and hope he doesn’t do anything more.”

“…I… I just can’t believe any of this, this is all so much.”

“And your dad, on your earth… he isn’t like this at all, is he?”

Jonny shook his head, “No, he’s never so much as smacked me on the up-side of my head for crashing Questworld the day before a major teleconference.”

Hadji smiled, “Well, I’m very glad. I hope we can get you back to that world soon.”

“…Do you really think he’ll actually let me leave though, if he’s really… if he really is that crazy? I mean, come to think of it, he sent me to my room as if I belong here.”

“That is what I’m hoping to prevent, I don’t feel like taking care of a human garden.”

Jonny nodded, “Uh, I know my voice might not sound the most flattering, but… thanks Hadj, I’m glad you didn’t try to hide this from me.”

“I wouldn’t forgive myself if you died again because I didn’t stop it somehow. Now, please make sure to keep away from him.”

“Yeah, so let’s go back before anyone comes a-knocking.”

“Right.”

The two left the garden, Hadji put the pad-lock back on the garden shed’s door before they went. Hadji climbed the rope ladder first, helping Jonny back through the window, after all, he did have a lot of experience sneaking in and out of the house.

To Be Continued.