Celtic Island

The nameplate read Dr. Kennedy.
Mr. Brooks knocked two times — as politely as a gentleman could.
"Please come in." the voice said from inside.

"Morning Dr. Kennedy, I'm Joseph Brooks." said Mr. Brooks while introducing himself.

"Welcome Mr. Brooks, pardon me but I don't recall any appointments scheduled for the day." stated the doctor with slight uncertainty.

"And that would be the very reason, doctor, that I'm here today. See, I know it's remarkably challenging to find a vacant slot in your crushing schedule but when I see one, I'm sure to seize it with the first opportunity I get." Said Mr. Brooks.

"I must say you are very well informed Mr. Brooks, but I don't take any patients on my rest day." asserted the doctor.

"Very well then, seems like we're both on the same page, as I have arrived not as a patient — though my wife says I need help — but as a confederate." said Mr. Brooks.

"You mean to say, you too are a psychiatrist?" questioned the doctor.

"Not exactly. Though I do deal with murderers, sociopaths, psychopaths, and compulsive manipulators but I'm not yet regarded as a doctor. Maybe because I don't hold the fancy degree which you great minds do. I work with government agencies. They appoint me to the cases which demands deployment of intricate academic strategies. Which in turn sometimes demands the involvement of great intelligence such as yours." explained Mr. Brooks.

"Interesting." said the doctor feeling slightly skeptical. "May I know, what would be the purpose of your visit."

"Ah! I was waiting for you to ask me that. Let me explain, I have come here to extend you an opportunity, which I'm quite convinced you would be eagerly anticipating. To interrogate the most notorious manipulator of modern time. The measure of effort which you have put into studying his behavior and to trace his next move is much appreciated in our department. Because of your work, we were able to prevent many of his infamous movements. I'm certain that after all those years of hard work, you won't decline this offer, probably the offer which you were looking for since the day you started digging into his cases." said Mr. Brooks, leaning himself on the furniture which looked of Roman era, giving the doctor adequate time to come out of his bewilderment.








"This keeps getting interesting!" exclaimed the doctor.

"The offer, or me being the impolite guest, taking a seat before the host's insistence?" humored Mr. Brooks.

"Let's talk about the offer first, shall we?" Said the doctor, still skeptical of the whole situation.

"As I can sense, you must be having a number of questions. I'm here to answer each one of them." said Mr. Brooks.

"The officials have always been prompt to inform me about Robert's transgression, I find it hard to believe that they would miss the news of him being arrested." said the doctor while expressing his concern.

"The officials have informed you about the cases which were reported, whereas, this particular incident is different. As you know, no one has seen Robert's face  — yet. He might have let a trail here or there but never allowed the cameras to capture his profile. When we were finally able to catch him, It took us an entire week to authenticate that the man in our captivity was the infamous Robert Herth." explained Mr. Brooks.

"No one knows his last name." said the doctor quickly. Mr. Brooks adjusted himself on the uncomfortable furniture.

"We got that while we were interrogating him." said Mr. Brooks. Something caught Dr. Kennedy's eye, a flinch, which made the argument unconvincing.

"It's a condition." said Mr. Brooks.

"Pardon!" said the doctor, considering this unusual statement.

"The flinching. I'm not lying if you may assume. The flinching is a condition. It happens involuntarily, that too on the most inappropriate situations if you ask me." said Mr. Brooks, this time without flinching.

"Oh! I didn't see that. Well now that you said, I'll keep that in mind." said the doctor while chuckling.

"One has to be careful around talents like you. The ones, trying to deduce your dispositions through movements which others would unquestionably miss." said Mr. Brooks, camouflaging himself in the light moment.

"Where have you kept him? if you may answer." asked the doctor curiously.

"I would like to, but I'm not allowed. You see, I'm forbidden by higher authorities to disclose the location until you accept the offer. And since you haven't expressed any desire to do so, I sense a bit of hostility in the air. Correct me if I'm wrong but I get it. It's too much to take in. You have dedicated fruitful years of your life, towards studying this man's behavior. And someone out of nowhere comes in and offers you an excuse to investigate this man. I would have been overwhelmed myself." carefully addressed by Mr. Brooks.

Doctor Kennedy held his position, still trying to grasp the entire explanation. He was indeed overwhelmed. Never did he think he would be presented with such a proposal. While trying to weigh the pros and cons, he certainly couldn't find any cons. He had waited so long for this to happen. His most curious personality is being served to him in a platter. Then why is he feeling this skeptical? This uneasiness has no logical explanation. He decided to accept and get the location. And later on, if he did feel that the requirements (or 'catch' if you may say) were too much, he would gladly back out.

Dr. Kennedy eventually asked, "What's the catch here?"

"Let's refer to them as conditions. So do I take that as a yes.?" Mr. Brooks asked curiously.

"Doctor, we need your help in this case. No one knows about this guy as much as you do. If we have any chance to get him out of his shell, to make him confess, that chance starts and dies with your agreement. So please, I request you to reconsider and help us out here."

"Okay. I agree to help you guys out on this one. Besides, he is confined right?! There will be no way he could manipulate the staff or other officers for that matter." said the doctor, dismissing his reservations.

"I'm really glad that you agreed to do this. We have kept him in our high-security confinement located in Celtic island. This confinement is specially designed for most aggressive and naturally dangerous sociopaths. The staff is uniquely trained and everyone is restricted from contacting any of these crooks individually. Direct conversation is prohibited. And continuous monitoring is in place. I hope that rests all the other queries which you held back." said Mr. Brooks. letting a gush of air after finishing his short monologue.

"That seems safe. But I had never heard of such confinement before. Certainly nowhere near the Celtic island." said the Dr. expressing one more concern.

"I understand. That is because this confinement is top-secret, even some minor government bodies are unaware of its existence." explained Mr. Brooks.

The answer seemed rational to the doctor.
"So when are we leaving?" Dr. Kennedy asked curiously.

"As it would be a one-day affair and we won't like to steal any patient of yours, we are ready to leave right now. You would be home by tomorrow morning, not losing any appointment as such." said Mr. Brooks presenting the ideal scenario.

There wasn't anything which could have overpowered or even questioned the sensibility of the offer. And this was the life-time opportunity which the doctor was waiting for. Seemed surreal to him. He nodded in agreement within a moment.












"Let me just grab my case file." said the doctor while eagerly getting up from his chair.

He hurried into his study room. came back with the thickest pile of papers, somehow covered with a thin file case. Mr. Brooks glanced on the cover, 'Robert' was written on it. They both proceeded towards the pavement. Mr. Brooks had a luxurious car. One which was rare on the streets of Wales. They both drifted towards the Helipad. Mr. Brooks had his chopper waiting for him. Dr. Kennedy was amused. He thought that Mr. Brooks must be really confident about his offer. He came well prepared. And in the chain of thoughts, he wondered what would Mr. Brooks had done, in case he had to face rejection. All things aside, there they were, riding over the cliffs to a remote and unknown location, which was kept secret from the rest of the humans. Maybe for their betterment.

As they landed after a 4 hour long and exhausting ride, Dr. Kennedy wondered how could he possibly return tomorrow morning so that he couldn't miss any of his appointments. That seemed impracticable now. He should have cleared it out with Mr. Brooks before but the thought of meeting and questioning the most notorious manipulator of the modern era took precedence over everything else. The gates were guarded by 2 guards who weren't sporting any sort of uniform. On Mr. Brooks' gesture, the gates were opened and one personnel led them inside.











Dr. Kennedy was examining this place. This was unquestionably made for souls with severe psychological conditions and abrupt behavior. The rooms were noise-proof. Every room had a miniature glass windowpane — barricaded such that no-one could penetrate it from either side — He saw some rooms with some patients. They all looked anxious. Fidgeting from one place to another.

"Where's his room?" Dr. Kennedy enquired.

"Patience, doctor, Few more blocks from here." Mr. Brooks said calmly.

"Where's the restroom? You see, the ride was tiring and I don't want my bladders to obstruct our session with Robert as I assume it would be time-consuming." asked the doctor, feeling slightly embarrassed about the question and the avoidable reason behind it.

"Nothing to worry about, Jeffrey here will take you to the rest-room. It's in the basement. I'll wait here till you come back." said Mr. Brooks still maintaining that gentle smile.

Jeffrey and Dr. Kennedy proceeded downstairs. Jeffrey avoided eye contact which would have raised Dr. Kennedy's curious eye-brows but not today. Today was probably the biggest day of his career. He was busy formulating the questions and the order in which he would ask them to Robert. Jeffrey gave Dr. Kennedy some privacy in the rest-room. When the doctor was finished with his business, a guy suddenly came from one of the other doors. He was panting. Had nervous eyes. It looked like he was running away from something or someone.

"May I help you lad?" asked the doctor.

" I haven't seen you here, you look new to me, you are not a part of our team. who are you?" asked the young man, with his lips quivering with unknown fear.

"Yes. I have come from Wales to interrogate the infamous Robert. I'm on a one day visit. By the way, which team are we talking about here?" asked the doctor after answering the previous question.

"Oh no no no no no no! you don't have the slightest bit of idea of what's happening here, do you! This place is built to hold the most dangerous cases of behavioral science. Things were going great until we had one more admission named Robert. He manipulated his way with the guards and slowly got into their head. The people you see locked up — which you may have assumed to be patients — are actually the staff and guard members of Celtic Island's confinement. And the ones who are portraying as guards are the real patients. They took over the confinement and are holding us as prisoners. We are not allowed to talk about this but you should be careful. Get out as soon as you can, before every possible exit is closed." said the young boy and ran into the opening from where he had come.

Dr. Kennedy couldn't hide his dismay. He was hysterical about the whole situation. With Jeffrey, the doctor —  who was still unable to control his laughter — went upstairs. Mr. Brooks was waiting as he had said at the very spot.

"You have some serious lapse in your security Mr. Brooks. I just met a boy who narrated me one of the most bizarre stories that I have ever heard. He said this confinement is now run by patients." said Dr. Kennedy somehow controlling his laughter.

Mr. Brooks was amused. He laughed with him, simultaneously pointing the guards with a head tilt. Before Dr. Kennedy could come out of his laugh ride, he observed, that the guards were closing all the exits. The grin faded within no time and he looked at Mr. Brooks with questioning eyes.
Mr. Brooks said, while still maintaining the calm gaze, "You can call me Robert Herth, doctor."