Unremarkable (Part Eight)

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Sam

I don’t know how, but this guy is somehow affecting the world around him. Maybe it’s all some elaborate scheme or maybe he has some kind of power that science hasn’t discovered yet, but this guy is the key. It was time to get some answers. The ambulance and fire crews were starting to arrive and Sam didn’t want to get caught up in the whole clean-up and investigation. He had his own fish to fry. “You’re coming with me.”

Cutter was still visibly shaken up and confused from the blast. He stood up and started following Sam, staggering towards his car without thinking. He put Cutter in the passenger seat and the hurried around to the other side to get in himself. He drove away quickly getting away from the area before it was sealed off. He drove around randomly, trying to think of his next move.

How could he be doing this? He had to know. Maybe I can learn to do it, too. Then nothing could stop me. Sam looked over at this dock worker – this nobody. Cutter looked as though he was about to cry. He was so weak, he thought. He cuffed Cutter on the back of the head. “Snap out of it!” Sam could see him momentarily getting angry at the blow, and then deciding against trying to wrangle with a cop, Cutter settled into a mute resignation.

He debated which tactic would yield the required result, and quickly decided on the direct approach. “Every time something goes wrong in this neighborhood, there you are right in the centre of it. There’s no use trying to hide it. We’ve been aware of you for quite some time.” Sam gave him a moment to let the paranoia fester. “You might as well come clean now.”

Cutter, with a shocked look on his face, just stared at him for a few seconds. Finally, all of his questions came out at once. “Are you crazy? What are you talking about? Am I under arrest? I didn’t do anything.”

“I’m the one asking the questions here.” This guy was either playing or dumb or he really had no idea. Was it even possible to have that kind of power and not know it? Best not to tip his hand and just carry on with the bluff. “We don’t arrest your kind. We just ship you off to secret military bases overseas where they can study you.”

“You are crazy. You’re completely out of your mind.” Cutter looked ready to jump out of the moving car if he had to. Sam wondered if he would somehow miraculously land in a pile of pillows.

I think he really doesn’t know. It was time to try a different tack. “Okay. This is how it’s going to work. There’s nothing I can do to you directly, at least nothing I can think of at the moment. But I know what you want more than anything. A certain brunette with close cropped hair and a tragic fashion sense.”

Cutter’s look of terror quickly changed to astonishment. “How could you know…?”

“It’s my job to know things. So if you play along and do everything I tell you, I promise I will help you with your problem.”

“And if I don’t want you help?”

“Well, let’s just say, as a cop, I can make your life here – and hers – very uncomfortable.”

“You bastard!”

“That’s right. Grade A, choice cut, son-of-a-bitch. Now, do we have a deal or not?”

“It seems I don’t have a choice.”

“Oh, now. That wasn’t very enthusiastic. Let’s try that again.” Sam put that extra bit of menace in his voice that he usually saved for pushers and pedophiles. “Do we have a deal?”

“Yes. I’ll do whatever you say.”

“Good, I’m glad we have an understanding.”