The Alpha Men's Secret Club 5(14)

He squeezed.

With the air literally choked out of her windpipe, green zigzags began to appear before her eyes. Her first instinct was to beat at his chest and shoulders with her fists, but she was better than that. She was a trained operative.

She brought her knee up sharply in between his legs. Then she pushed him with all her might. His grip loosened around her neck, and she was able to clamber away. Although her brain was deprived of oxygen, she reached for the gun she always had in her bedside drawer.

She aimed it at him.

He did not raise his hands.

“Shoot me,” he said. He lifted his chin proudly and proffered her his chest. He still had an erection. “There’s no future out there for me anyway. They won’t let me live.”

“OK,” she said.

She pulled the trigger. The bullet sang and embedded itself into his chest.

She would say he broke out and came to her room later and tried to kill her. Which was partially true.

Her need for Rust O’Brien brought back that painful memory, and it was as if she relived every moment of that betrayal. She had to remember that Rust O’Brien was no different from any other detainee. She had to fight this – her desire for him.

Dan came in again. He must have had a swift hand job.

“Alyssa,” he said, “you have to see this.”

He turned on the news channel.

Rita Cunningham appeared on CNN. The woman had undergone a drastic transformation since she won the Pulitzer.

“Is that Rita Cunningham?” Dan said.

Which was unnecessary since the teletype clearly showed ‘RITA CUNNINGHAM, INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST’ below the teleplay.

The anchorman was saying, “So what do you think the FBI should do?”

Rita said, “Show proof that Rust O’Brien and his parents are still alive. We’re still a free country, I’d like to think. Rust, Moira and Connor O’Brien have been detained by our government without trial for more than a month.”

Cut screen to a family photo of Moira and Connor when they were younger, together with Rust as a pre-teen. They were a great-looking, all American family. Alyssa knew that Rita had that photo personally chosen to incite empathy from the public.

“So Rust is a shifter. So they are putting him through experiments,” Rita said. “But what sort of experiments? Even chimpanzees have rights when they turn into lab animals. When I exposed Rust O’Brien to the world, I fully intend him to be treated with dignity. He is a human being, by all appearances, and he has done nothing wrong. He simply is who he is, just like if you are born Jewish, or without legs, or LGBT. Which by the way stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered, for the uninitiated.”

She paused significantly.

“What exactly do you want the FBI to do for the O’Brien family?” the anchorman said.

“I want the FBI and our President to show us the O’Brien family in the flesh. Are our government agencies still in the habit of torturing and humiliating detainees like we have seen in Abu-Ghraib? I would like to think that we Americans have progressed. The O’Briens have not conducted acts of terrorism against our country. In fact, the three of them have been upstanding contributors to our community.

“Connor O’Brien is a psychiatrist at the Bellevue Hospital for the criminally insane, and we all know that is a thankless job. Moira O’Brien is a psychiatrist and a psychologist with a very large New York practice. Rust O’Brien is a professor of psychology and he once served at Bellevue with his father. The O’Brien family has been part of charities and causes and foundations – including that for autism, mental disorders and Alzheimer’s disease.”

Rita gazed up at the camera.

“I want to see Rust O’Brien. I want to know he’s safe and sound. I was the one who unmasked him, and it is my patriotic and moral duty to ensure his wellbeing as well of that of his parents – just as it was my patriotic and moral duty to unmask him to the world. He is still contributing to our society by willingly becoming a test subject.”

“You bring up many points,” the anchorman conceded. “At this stage, the FBI has no comment.”

“We want to see the O’Briens,” Rita concluded. “If the FBI has done nothing wrong to them, then show us the O’Briens.”

Behind her, the screen showed a large crowd outside Times Square with signs and placards with:



‘SHOW US THE O’BRIENS’

‘NO MORE TORTURE’

‘OUR GOVERNMENT GIVES AMERICA A BAD NAME’



and even



‘SHIFTERS WELCOME IN USA’.



Alyssa was astounded.

How had Rita Cunningham managed to wrangle public support in such a short period of time? Or had she been planning this all along?