Part 443: Lies and Truths

Matt held up his hands as Eddie escorted him into the living room. Julia and Bonnie followed behind him. The older man paused for a moment, before Eddie shoved him into the couch. The young man then pointed for Bonnie and her mother to sit on the other location of the couch. He calmly took Matt’s bag and dumped it out on the coffee table. It was mostly filled with documents, pads, pens, an empty candy bar wrapper and a cell phone. The young man calmly picked it up and placed it to the side. Matt stared back at him, looking the gun. “You heard me speak of Athena,” Eddie whispered, “I saw recognition in your face. You know what she is?”

“Of course I know,” the man grunted, “She was built at Dharma and she’s a highly advanced program. There is no way she would talk to you.”

“No, she would. Because I knew stuff that she didn’t know and as I remember from those programs they built, you guys made them TOO good. They developed a natural trait but you would consider it a flaw.”

“What flaw?”

“The quest for knowledge.” Eddie sighed, “A good man in my life taught me the value of such a thing. Athena wants to know more. And that’s what’s going to be your undoing, Matt.”

“Eddie, what are you talking about?” Bonnie asked.

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Matt told her, “Just be calm, honey and I’ll-“

Matt was then silenced by Eddie striking him upside the head with the pistol. The women yelped at the sight of what they saw. The older man slowly leaned back up, as a small blood trail began to ooze off his right eyebrow. “Don’t ever call her honey again,” Eddie said through gritted teeth, “She’s not your daughter.”

“I’ve taken care of her, Eddie,” he said, holding his wound, “Doesn’t that amount to something?”

“It depends, Matt. Tell me about Bunny.”

“I don’t know anything about her.”

Bonnie then blinked. She coughed, and rubbed her hands together; trying to remove the nervous sweat from them. “Matt?” she whispered.

The older man looked at her.

“You just said you didn’t know anything about Bunny,” she said with quivering lips, “But does that mean . . . .you DO know about her?”

Matt looked at her, exasperated. He rolled her eyes and then covered his face with his hands; bracing his elbows on his knees. Eddie looked briefly at Bonnie, seeing that the man’s reaction to her question was all the answer she needed. The redhead’s face changed from sadness to disgust. “That’s the problem with lying, Matt,” Eddie told him, “You tell too many lies, you can’t keep track of what you are lying about. Now tell me about Bunny.”

Matt slowly leaned up. Eddie was a little taken back by the tears in his eyes. He stared across at Julia and Bonnie. Then his gaze felt upon Eddie and his face twisted into a contorted fit of rage. “Damn you, boy,” he grunted, “Damn you for ever involving them.”

“Involve us in what, Matt?” Julia inquired.

Matt looked over at his wife. His face was shaking, like he was about to break down and cry. Eddie couldn’t tell if he was doing it real or faking it. It really didn’t matter because he still didn’t trust him. “Tell me what happened the day Bonnie and Bunny were born.” Eddie hissed.

Matt gazed back at him and then stared down at the carpet. “The day they were born, Bunny was given to the Hanso Foundation.” He coughed, “Walter then informed Julia . . .that Bunny had died on the birthing table. Premature crib death.”

“WHAT?” Julia gasped.

“Matt . . .are you implying . . .MY FATHER . . .purposely . . gave away my twin sister?” Bonnie found to get the words out.

“Yes, he did, Bonnie,” he whispered, letting his eyes find her, “Because Dr. Mettleweck asked it of him. He wasn’t the first employee to give up on of their twins.”

“Wait . . .what did you just say?” Eddie blinked.

“I said, that he wasn’t the first to give up one of their twins.”

Eddie was getting more flabbergasted by the minute. “This . . .sort of thing . .has been done before?” he asked.

“Yes,” Matt whispered.

Julia started to tremble. She stared at her husband, as her tears were getting incredibly fluid. “The doctors . . . .the fertility clinic . . .the free health care . . .” the woman wept, “They did something to me? To my babies?”

“You were never meant to give birth to twins, Julia,” the man whispered with remorse, “ The embryo was severed and then nurtured. With the right doctors, it’s not that hard to do.”

“Making people give birth to twins on purpose?” Eddie said with a grunt, “Why?”

“Natural selection,” was all Matt whispered.

Eddie blinked, remembering the information he saw from the computers on the Island, not to mention the video tape orientation. “The Red and Black Project?” he asked, “all those kids I met on the Island . ..the ones with Goodwin . . .they all had TWINS, in the real world?”

Matt rubbed his stubbled chin and looked at Eddie. He had the look of defeat on his face. He calmly leaned back into the seat, massaging his wrist around his watch arm. “The Red and Black Project is different from the . . .children that were with Goodwin.” He whispered, “The ones with Goodwin had twins. The Red and Black Project kids had none.”

“Matthew?” Julia whispered

Matt looked at her.

“Walter . . . .his car wreck . . . was it REALLY a car wreck or did your people kill him?” she asked.

“Julia, NO!” he leaned up, “Walter was my friend, we wouldn’t do-“

“ANSWER ME!” she screamed, making Bonnie put her hands around her.

Matt looked at her. His hatred for Eddie was growing because he was responsible for turning Julia against him. He would have taken the secrets of Dharma to his grave but now, it was took late. His wife was slowly believing Eddie more and more by each passing minute. “We didn’t kill him.” He said, cupping his hands and resting his chin on them, “He killed himself.”

“WHAT?” Bonnie screamed.

Julia didn’t say a word. She then embraced her daughter as she started to weep in her arms. The older woman looked at Matt and the man’s heart was breaking. He could see the love escape her eyes. She had nothing but contempt for him. “He felt guilty.” He whispered, staring at the carpet, “ The more he saw Bonnie growing, the more he felt guilty that he had another daughter in the world somewhere and he wasn’t raising her. He begged Dr. Mettlewelk to let him go get her but he refused. Then he took out a massive life insurance policy and drove purposely into that semi-truck.”

“How the hell would you know such a thing?” Eddie demanded.

“Because . . .I was . . . .assigned to get close to Julia.” He stared at Eddie with a look that could kill, “ And take Walter’s diary. He said it all right there as they had feared.”

“I thought I lost that book,” Julia whispered, “You had it the whole time?”

“Julia, what I am about to tell you is real,” Matt looked at her, taking off his glasses, “ I was assigned to date you, yes. But the more we dated, the more I got close to you, the more I began to love you. When I asked you to marry me, that was ME. Not Hanso, not Dharma but ME. I felt I owed it to Walter to look after you and Bonnie.”

“DON’T!” Bonnie pointed at him, “DON’T YOU DARE . .say my father’s name!”

“Bonnie, he knew exactly what he was doing,” the man begged, “How am I any different than a man who gave up his own daughter?”

“He . . he . . .he was forced! He would have had to have been!” Bonnie was getting hysterical.

“All right, time to change subjects, “ Eddie said, pointing the gun closer to Matt, “What do they know about me?”

Matt looked at him. He then shifted his position to face the young man directly. “They didn’t know who you were, Eddie,” he whispered with a stern face, “But they do now. The moment you accused me of being Ethan Rom, I told them that. They put two and two together to come up with you.”

“And you were going to send them after me, weren’t ya?” the young adult hissed, “But now I’ve got you as a bargaining chip and you’re going to tell them to leave us alone.”

“You don’t get it, Eddie,” he said, leaning on one knee, “ They’ve been searching for you for a while now. The moment they knew who Jenny Baker and Kelley Schroeder were when they investigated the killing spree of that rouge Jaeger Unit, they began looking for you all.”

“You and Dharma had been looking for us since we left the Island, right?”

“No, Eddie, we haven’t. You don’t want to know who was REALLY looking for you.”

“NO, you admit it now, scumbag!” Eddie yelled, “You set me up to fall in love with Bonnie. You knew I’d eventually figure out she had a connection to Bunny because you knew what I went through on that Island.”

“No, Eddie. That’s just a coincidence.”

“BULLCRAP!” The young man stood up, pointing the gun at the man’s face, “ I don’t believe in coincidences! You’ve kept us in your little freaking maze, because you’re a freak and that’s what freaks do!”

“Believe what you want.” Matt sighed, “ My advice? You run and you leave the state as fast as you can.”

Before Eddie could heard anything, he heard a cell phone ringing. He then quickly bent down and picked up Matt’s phone. He flipped it open but it said NO SERVICE. The phone rang again. Eddie just blinked when he realized it was his own phone. He backed away quickly from Matt, keeping the gun on him. He quickly pulled his own cell phone out of his jacket, then looked at it. It said, McAlister, Brad, on the read out. He then quickly answered it. “Yeah?” he said into the receiver.

“Eddie Trascal?” the man said.

“Yeah, who is this?” the young man demanded.

“I’m Brad McAlister, head of Estwhile Publishing. I was wanting to know how Jilly was feeling?”

“I’m sure she’s find. Look, Mr. McAlister, this really is a bad time-“

“Oh, so she’s getting better from the flu?”

Eddie then paused. He had no idea Jilly was sick and if she was, why was her publishing house calling him? “Sir, I don’t know what you are talking about.” Eddie confessed, keeping his eyes on Matt.

“Oh, I’m sorry. She said that she was very sick with the flu and that she would be staying with family. I found your phone number under her portfolio for family contacts.”

“If she was staying with me, I would-“

Eddie then stopped talking. He stared intently at Matt, who stared right back at him. Jilly was sick and Eddie didn’t know about it? The way the older man was looking at him, almost seemed like he knew what was going on with the phone call. After everything that Matt had told him about people looking for them, it made all the sense in the world. Eddie then closed the phone and took a step closer: pointing the gun at his face. “WHERE IS SHE?” Eddie screamed, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH JILLY?!?”

Matt said nothing. Eddie then advanced closer to him, putting the gun on his forehead. He wanted to kill him; every fiber of his being was telling him to kill him. He had already killed one person in his life, how hard would it be? The gasp behind him from Bonnie made it very difficult. Could he really kill the man who raised her from age ten right in front of her? Sadly it was that hesitation that would cost him. Eddie blinked and saw a small flashing light out of the corner of his eye.

He looked down and saw a small red flashing light from Matt’s wristwatch. He quickly grabbed his wrist, getting a better look at it. He remembered the man massaging his wrist earlier but never would have realized that this was what he was doing. He looked back at the man who a slight bit of sympathy. “You should have left well enough alone, Eddie.” He told him, “You should have been content to be Bonnie’s boyfriend and be done with it.”

Before Eddie could say anything, the front door burst open. A man in black fatigues and a riot helmet quickly stepped in. The young man jolted back and aimed his gun at the man. Within one fluid motion, the armored man held up a small black box and pressed a button. A strange dart shot out of the small box, striking Eddie directly in the neck. The young man jolted as surge of electricity was shot into his neck, sending him down. He started to convulse for a few brief seconds as he landed. “EDDIE!!!” Bonnie screamed as she ran to him.

The armored man then shot her with the exact same dart. She squeaked as the strange device was shocking her too. The momentum made her fall directly on Eddie. The redhead convulsed a little bit then stopped. The young man tried to say something but after the dart was finished shooting electricity into him, he could feel it pumping something in his blood. He couldn’t move; his eyelids were getting heavy. His vision was starting to fade. The last thing he remembers was Julia running toward both of them. The older woman quickly kneeled down and grabbed the pistol that Eddie had brought. Matt begged her to not too anything but he then jerked when she fired the gun; managing to put a bullet into his leg. The armored men responded in the only way they knew how; they fired their own pistols right back at her.

Eddie’s last horrifying vision before he blacked out, was watching Julia clutching her stomach and then collapsing on the floor besides him and Bonnie.