Eve Took Marie out side to sit down like Josiah had instructed. She needed to calm herself too. She wanted to believe, needed to believe that even if just for the for the moment,  Josiah and Cody had everything  under control.  Cody and Josiah had both given her a sense of security she had not felt since she had taken this job.  She felt safe with them.

.  She looked around the courtyard.  Afraid, and desperate;y hoping she would not see anything  or anyone that would be a threat.  It made no sense to Eve the things that were happening.  This was all crazy and  inside she wished it  would somehow be some terrifying dream.  She wanted  to be awaken from this horrifying nightmare.  She knew there were "things" within the study that were kept under close watch by the board of directors at Copelands main office.  Things that even she was not privy too. She had suspected there was somethings not quite right, two weeks ago, when a one of the young male participants and an orderly had suddenly vanished in the night without any word as to what happened.  When she had questioned her staff the next day know one seemed to know anything regarding the release of either.  The file of the study participant had simply been stamped withdrawn consent, case closed.  The orderly's dismissal papers turned up the next day on her desk and that was it.  No further contact.  The disappearance of the two men had bothered  her deeply.   The board of directors had given her some lame excuse that the study enrollee had changed his mind in the night. He  had contacted headquarters  to be released.  As for William  her night orderly, he had some sort of emergency and had needed to take a leave of absence effective immediately.    There were just to many details kept secret -And that was what scared Eve the most.  The unknown.  Which was now exploding into her hands.

Eve  recalled the conversation she had a few days prior with headquarters.  They had been very insistent that she handle things quietly and effectively.  If there were any unusual disturbances as  they called it, any occurances that might be questionable, were to go directly through the head office.  First, before any actions outside the compound  be taken,  she was informed for strict security reasons, under no conditions, should the law authorities or the press be contacted, without Copelands headquarters being alerted first.

Her hands trembled as a memory flashed through her mind.  A flashback of the day earlier when she had placed a call to one of the administrators at Copeland's main office. she had told them one of her staff was having a difficult time with one the first enrollees into the study.  He seemed to be having sever side effects to  one of new drugs they were administering.  At her superiors  request she was asked to asses his condition herself and that was when she was attacked. The next thing she  remembered was that she had found her way to Codys ranch.

Marie was shaken and in shock. Eve tried to comfort the woman.  They sat in silence with their arms linked around each other  as the sound of some sort of emergency vehicles siren  could be heard in the distant approaching in their direction.  Both woman turned toward the noise.