Tom slowly awakens and looks around him. He is in a cage. A light is above him. He stretches out his senses. And feels…nothing. No other human being. Not even Sloan. Sloan where was she? He always knew when she was nearby even when he was human baseline. He closed his eyes to examine what that meant. He knew that he must be 1.6 again. Smells were sharper; he could taste the lubricant from the air conditioning in the air. Lights were easier and yet harder to recognize. Had they taken Sloan? He knew that he had seen her. He hoped she wouldn’t do anything that would put her in danger, but she probably would. That’s the way she was.

I have to find her he thought. I’m bonded to her. Bonded. He rolled the word around in head like a bug under a microscope. He looked at it from all sides. Yes, he was bonded to her. He wished he had recognized it sooner. It would have made things easier. Now he had work to do.

Knowing that he needed to concentrate, he had to give his captors something to see. He knew his captors were human. Dominants would have done things differently. He pulled his knees up underneath him and slowly began to rock back and forth. He kept his head down and his eyes shut. And rocked hoping that they would leave him alone ‘til he got done.

He had never done this before. Using his sensing ability to find one person. He stretches himself our as far as he could go. And found nothing. Sloan was not in the building or even nearby. Now what to do?

Instead of broadcasting he starts stretching thin tendrils of himself. Searching for a hint of Sloan. Stretching himself thinner and thinner. Time is lost. Only the thought of Sloan is keeping him going. Time passes. Some one brings food and water. He opens his eyes and looks at it. Not enough of either. He closes his eyes and continues his task. Later he hears someone take it away.

Its like there is another body. One looks for Sloan one in the cage. The one in the cage is hot and sweating the temperature has risen uncomfortably high. The other one still searches. The one in the cage is cold and the sweat on his body has a harsh sheen as if turning to ice. The other one still searches.

The guards are trying to awaken the one in the cage. His head comes up and he looks around. The cage door is open and the guards have stepped back

" Come on you." One says.

"This way"

They direct him over to a bathroom area, all open, shower, urinal and toilet all open, no walls. No privacy, if there were, he might escape. Most of the large room was cloaked in darkness as he assumed they didn’t want him to have any idea where anything was. Echoes give away the size. Unusually large, almost like a warehouse, but the feel was different. He could wait. They put him back in the cage. Lots of guns. He was in a cage and they were afraid of him. He knew that they should be.

He brings Sloan alive for himself knowing that that should make it easier to find her. He thought of how she looked, no, looks, she is out there, she is alive, the curve of her lips, the angle of her jaw. Her eyes are so startlingly green that they look down into his center. The way her hair smells when he presses her close. Her breath and the sound of her voice whispering into his ear. The way she tastes when she kisses him. The way she feels when he runs his fingers over her face and arm.

Using his mental picture of her he sets out again. Sooner than he thought he would, he gets a mental glimmer. A scent of her. He follows it carefully; he does not want to lose it, now that he has something. He follows it until he finds her. She is fearful and worried but she is safe. Her mental state is relatively calm. She must be sleeping.

He feels carefully about her to find out what is wrong. She is shot through with fear and worry. He catches sight of a thin line of desperation. And what is that? Through all of her fear and concern there is a thin silver thread running through her emotions. He gently reaches out for it with a tendril of himself and almost pulls back. This is her love for him. Her worry and fear is not for herself but for him. He touches the thread with his mental fingers. It is thin and gossamer, as a strand of spider silk. This will work. Carefully he builds a chain of caring and concern for her and wraps it through with her love. Quickly and completely the bonding chain is built. Using everything he had always been told about bonded couples, he builds it. When it is done, he looks it over carefully. It will serve. Perhaps when they are together again it can be improved upon, but now he will always know if she is safe.

He touches the face of his mental image and says, "I will never leave you". Kisses her cheek and returns to himself.

He’s back in the cage with bars all around him. There is food right outside. He’s hungry but so tired. The bond is completed. Sloan is well. He can eat later. He sleeps.

"TOM" Sloan jerks awake and runs her hand over the bed beside her. She heard him. She felt him. No, it was just a dream. She puts her head down and weeps. What time was it? 4 AM might as well get up. I’m not going to be sleeping any more tonight. One thing about expensive hotel rooms is they give you nice robes to wear, she thought idly. She padded into the kitchen area of the suite and made herself some coffee. She looked around. Here she is, in a 5-room hotel suite, (didn’t that come from some song), with Attwood and Ed. This was not what she wanted.

Sloan stood at the window looking out but only seeing Tom. She gently touched the window feeling the cold seep through her. I will never leave you. But he was gone.

Someone had taken him. She hears a sound behind her. It’s Ed.

"Come on night owl, you need some sleep."

She sipped the coffee she had made and said, "I can’t."

"What woke you?" Asks Ed.

"I heard him," said Sloan. " ‘ I will never leave you’ he said. And now he’s gone." She pulled in a ragged breath.

"What will I do now? I feel as if I have lost a part of myself. I know it sounds crazy. Am I crazy Ed?"

He gently put his hand on her shoulder and turned her around and looked in two green eyes that were red rimmed from crying. He carefully takes the cup from her hand and places it on a nearby table.

"No, I think you are a woman in love." As he said it he felt his heart crash to his feet. He had loved Sloan for years but she wanted nothing more than to be his best friend. He hoped Tom would understand what he was going to do next. He didn’t want Tom to think that he was encroaching on Sloan. Somehow he had the feeling that that would be very dangerous. He pulled her close and stroked her hair.

"He didn’t leave you. Someone took him, and we will get him back for you. Back for all of us."

She sobbed on his chest as if her heart would break. When her sobbing stopped he felt the strength go out of her. He picked her up.

"Hey, I can walk."

"I’m not as strong as Tom but I can do this."

He took her back to her room and put her in her bed, covered her and saw that she was sleeping. He pulled the chair that was in the room over in front of the door and grabbed the spare comforter from the foot of the bed. Tom had slept on a chair for months watching her. Now it was his turn. He didn’t want her to harm herself.

The light is still shining as he slowly wakes. He feels their fear. He wonders what it would be like to only feel fear for the rest of his life. The cage door is open again. He doesn’t even wait for them to tell him to get out. They stay in the shadows. He follows the lighted path to the toilet facilities. He looks at the shower and wonders if they will let him bathe. As he returns to his cage he steps a little harder than necessary. The echoes reverberate through the room and he listens carefully. He smells the fear on the guards and something else. Apparently only one of the guards keeps his weapon well maintained. Soon he will have a much clearer view of what is going on.

He returns to the cage and a tray of food is placed before him with a 2-quart container of bottled water. He picks it up. It’s still sealed—not that that means anything. He opens it and takes a drink. Definitely artificial ‘spring’ water but no contaminating chemicals that his taste buds could detect. He had a quite extensive education in chemical indoctrination. Today there was fresh fruit, some bread, sliced vegetables and nondescript meat that looked as if it could have come from almost any source. The only thing that was cooked was the meat. As hungry as he was, he ate slowly. No need getting his stomach upset. After he ate everything the tray was taken away. He kept the water bottle and let himself sip on it through the day. He closed his eyes and mulled things over in his mind. They did not want to hurt him, yet. They had discovered isolation was the easiest way to break a Dominant. The guards were stationed far enough away that he couldn’t sense them, or could he? He wondered. He always had been able to sense Sloan, even under the influence of the Genogenesis serum. Maybe he could sense them. Setting the water bottle aside he crouched again. He started rocking as he had done before. He broadcast himself in order to see if he could find anything. Nothing. There were some dominant signatures but these were faint and far away. He had noticed that the guards’ emotions were somehow blunted. Was that him, or were they under drugs. The person who brought food emanated very little emotion also. Well trained or drugged? He filed that information away in the back part of his mind. It might come in useful.

He might as well give his captors a show. Slowly he stretches. He can’t stand but he can stretch. He carefully goes from one muscle group to another. Stretch and relax. Let one muscle push against another. The heat is rising again, he soon starts sweating. In a corner of his mind he wonders how hot they let it get in this room. He continues, as he knows that soon it will get cold. Not cold enough to form ice although it feels like it. He doesn’t know what they want from him. No one comes close enough to sense; no one says anything to him. Isolation, fairly easy and can have devastating effects on a Dominant, a fairly easy and effective way to ensure cooperation. They must know that many drugs do not have the desired effect upon Dominants. Nor would physical torture have worked. He had learned to disconnect from his body if necessary. Standard practice if you were any kind of spy, and as a chameleon, that may be the best definition of him.

It suddenly occurs to him that the other techniques had probably been used against the other prisoners. It looks as if he is going to be here for a long time if they want to use isolation to break him. He settles into a meditative posture and takes a deep breath. He closes his eyes and slowly disconnects himself from his surrounding and thinks.

Lewis had always said, "If you can control yourself, you can control your surroundings." Now he had to find out if that was true. Recently it seemed as if nothing was in control. He took inventory of himself and went over his meager store of knowledge about his surrounding. He came to the conclusion that the first priority was to gather more knowledge about both his captors and his surroundings.

When he awoke to his surroundings he knew several hours had passed. He felt the tremor on the floor that indicated that the guards were coming. Since he was not asleep this time he moved to the far side of the cage when they came to unlock it. He felt the surprise of the guards. Actually, he was surprised that they didn’t put him in chains. Perhaps that would come later. Another ‘bathroom break’ as he had come to think of it and more food. This was no more appetizing than the rest had been but he ate it. His bottle was gone and replaced by a new one. For some reason they wanted him under some stress but not too much. After he ate he slept

When he awoke he looked around. He had no idea how long he slept, but the first order of business was to evaluate his surroundings. He carefully examined the way the cage was attached to the floor. He ran his fingers over every inch of the cage. The bars the door the lock. Every joint was examined and tested. During his examination he located three cameras, watching his every move. He ignored them. The lock he could pick if he had a tool. Some of the welds were weak; if he got a chance he could break one and get out. It would appear that at least some of his ability to escape depended upon fortune.

His days drifted into a blur of sameness. Awaken, ‘bathroom break’, food, exercise, observation, meditation, ‘break’ again, food, sleep. His captors did not seem to want to injure him or even want information. The isolation and calm were disorientating him. He knew that Sloan was safe, even though there were days that he worried about her because she was so upset. Because of the constant light and the sameness he was unaware of how much time had elapsed. Day and night had no meaning.

Upon observing the guards, it appeared that they were on some rotation. He saw the same six guards after every 3 sleep periods. He didn’t know what that meant. Another piece of information. One day when they took him for the ‘bathroom break’ they motioned for him to go to the shower area. When he entered the shower area he heard a distinctive sound. He had only seconds to prepare himself for the blast. Fire hose. He braced himself against the pressure. It felt like his skin was peeling off. He dropped to the floor and hugged the wall. They sprayed him thoroughly and then the pressure stopped. He cautiously got up and shook himself like a wet dog. It appears as if they have raised the stakes. Most of the guards seem to think it humorous, but at least one did not. He looks at the sweat pants he is wearing and removes them. They aren’t much use to him and worse wet. His nudity doesn’t bother him, but it does the guards. Nude and soaking wet and he still feels their fear.

He’s getting thin. Without enough to eat his ribs are starting to show and he can feel his bones under the skin. He knows his body is eating his muscle. He may have to do something soon, take a chance and try to escape, regardless of the consequences.

At times he thinks they want to bore him to death, but he knows that it is a technique to break him. Eventually there will be a time where there is only change and he will desire the boredom. He tentatively comes to the conclusion that they don’t want to break him but control him. They want his cooperation and at least let him think it will be voluntary. He wonders how much they really know about Dominants, or if he is just another experiment.

He wonders when he’ll get another water treatment. It should be soon if his judge of time was anywhere near accurate. The floor trembles. The guards are coming. He moves away from the door and lets them unlock the cage. He gets out and moves over to the bathroom area. They motion him over to the shower area. He tenses for the spray when a bar of soap is slid over to him. He reaches down and picks it up. "What?" His voice sounds harsh in his ears.

"The boss is coming. They want you cleaned up and made presentable. You can do it easy or hard. Your choice."

He nodded and turned on the shower. Warm at first than hot, hot as he could stand it. He soaped and scrubbed, trying to scrub off the stink of this place. A thought crossed his mind that if Sloan were here she could scrub his back. He shakes off the thought and continues to scrub until he thinks he has scrubbed off most of his first layer of skin. He turns the water off and shakes himself. A thick white towel comes sailing at him out of the darkness. He catches it and starts to dry himself. As he leaves the shower area he is thrown another one. "Hair", says one of the guards. He rubs his hair until it was almost dry when he came to the cage. "Towel." He tosses it at them and enters the cage. There is a pair of sweatpants, he puts them on and waits

‘Made presentable’ he thinks about the phrase. Perhaps his treatment was not what had been ordered. He wonders if he could use it to his advantage.

No food was brought to him. He assumes this to mean that the mysterious boss would be here soon. As he waits he thinks. He assures himself that his bonding is secure. It had become a habit. He did it several times a day now.

After a while the guards enter and surround his cage. "King Kong", wasn’t that what Lynch had said. A freak in a cage. Put on display. When he hears the click, click, click of high heels he knows who had taken him.

‘Ice Queen’ Sloan had called her. The title seemed appropriate. Here she is, looking him over in her cage, cold as ice.

"Hello, Tom. You know your friends will never find you. You are mine now."

"Sloan will not stop looking. She will find me. I still have friends."

"Ahhh, yes, the good Dr. Parker. She not only won’t find you, she can’t find you.

She’s dead. Read it yourself." She slides a newspaper on the floor over to the cage.

DISCOVERER OF NEW SPECIES MISSING

Pictures of Sloan and Ed on the front page. Titled Missing presumed dead.

He is stunned. Staring at the newspaper. He checks his bonding link with Sloan. She is alive, but SHE thinks Sloan’s dead. He crushes the newspaper in his hands and slams into the side of the cage, arms reaching out to grab her.

"You killed her!!" he screams.

"No, Tom, your own people did that. Read the paper. I had nothing to do with that." He knows she’s telling the truth but doesn’t let that stop him.

"Nooooooooo!!! She can’t be dead! She can’t be."

He collapses on the floor of the cage, sobbing uncontrollably. He holds the crushed newspaper to his chest and lets the tears flow. She waves the guards away and looks at him, crushed at the bottom of the cage. He hears the click, click, click of her heels as she turns to leave.

She gets to the room where the attendants are, open the door, and walks in. "He should be no more trouble. Without his little playmate, he has nowhere else to go. He’ll break soon." She turns to look at him on the floor of the cage, sobbing, moaning Sloans’ name over and over.

She looks at her men in lab coats. "Make sure he eats properly. He’s thin as a rail. I want him to know that all things come from me. Eventually he will learn all things come from me both good and bad. I want him broken and rebuilt my way. Where he’ll do anything I ask." She closes the door.

He hears the conversation in the room. Sobbing on the floor of the cage Tom smiles in his head. He gave her exactly what she wanted, what she expected. Now comes the hard part. He has to be crazy enough that they’ll be careless. But not so crazy that they put him in chains. He let himself sob until he slept.