Darkness faded out of his mind and the rage against his captors exploded. The strap that held his right arm tore free.

“What the hell?” came the cry from the orderly tending the monitor.

A surge of power leapt through his body when the ECT discharged its load, but it only fuelled the chemical combination further, catalysing it into a new unknown substance.

Donald snapped the remaining restraints and turned to face his torturer.

“Don’t hurt me!” the orderly screamed as the telephone receiver fell from his fear stricken hand.

“Doctor Green, Doctor Green please report to Ward 4 immediately!” a speaker crackled in the corridor.

Donald’s hand fastened around the orderly’s throat. He grabbed a full syringe from a medication trolley and plunged it into his body. The orderly collapsed onto the floor, writhed in pain and then lay still.

Donald heard a key turning frantically in the door lock and Dr. Green entered the room.

“My God, you’re awake!” Green said mesmerized by the restraints dangling from the table.

“Who am I?” Donald growled as he advanced toward his tormentor.

Dr. Green backpedalled towards the door but Donald caught him and flung him onto the table with a crash.

He had the strength of a giant.

He wrapped the restraints around Green and removed his keys from his hand. Green’s shocked eyes held his as he pleaded.

“We can work this out. Let me help you.”

“Who is Donald Card?”

Surprise registered on Green’s face.

“Everything you want to know is in your file on the table, but only I know the truth.”

Donald grabbed the headset and clamped it onto Green’s head before turning to charge the machine to maximum. He felt nothing but contempt for these pathetic profiteering fools, but he was intoxicated at the prospect of freedom and retributive acts.

Vengeance would be very sweet!

Green’s screams were cut short when the current jolted through his head and he bit through his tongue, blood sputtering from his mouth.

Donald put on the orderly’s uniform, took his file and locked the room behind him with its smell of blood.

His mind was coherent, cunning and at peace.

He marveled at his Samson like strength.

Donald stepped into the warm sunlight, got into Dr. Green’s car and as he drove away, a thought from deep inside the unlocked chest crept out.

“Power is holding someone else’s fear in your hand and showing it to them.”

Fear was the key to Carducci’s box.

He would search through his medical file, find those who had stolen his freedom; extract their darkest fears and show it to them.

An image of a decapitated woman filled his mind’s eye and his empty stomach lurched at the graphic vision.

“Am I really guilty of murder?”

Donald forced the vision from his mind as he drove into the city.