When JESS EVERLY awakens in a hospital room, she doesn’t remember how she got there. Dazed and groggy, her confusion quickly turns to fear when she realizes she is cuffed to the bed. There’s two people with her: DR. LANEY SCOTT, a physician tending to her, and DETECTIVE TOM RYDER, a stony cop who relentlessly questions Jess. Does she know where she is? How she got there? WHY she’s in the hospital?
Jess can barely piece the past together — she’d been at work, FBI agents surprised her at the office, they were prepared to interrogate her. But Jess can’t recall why — why she’s in the hospital in cuffs with a pounding headache and nausea. Dr. Scott dryly informs Jess she’s under suicide watch, a 72-hour confinement to insure her recovery from an overdose of Lorezapam, a sedative. Jess won’t be able to call her husband, her mother, anybody until Dr. Scott and a hospital shrink give their okay after the 72-hour hold. Jess’ demands to call her husband are rebuffed, but, more chilling, she doesn’t remember any suicide attempt. Or being brought to the hospital. She doesn’t recall ANY feeling or thought of self-harm.
From Ryder’s insistent questions, Jess does recall pieces: the FBI took her for questioning about a missing billion from company coffers where she was a lead accountant — Optimum Enterprises, a conglomerate lead by bad boy zillionaire Nero Voss. Scared, cut off from the outside, and confined to a bed, Jess won’t answer any more questions - she demands to be released. Maybe she knows more than she’s willing to admit. As Ryder presses her, Jess goes ballistic, necessitating Dr. Scott’s intervention with a sedative.
Awakening to K.C., a kind orderly who feeds her, Jess confesses there was trouble at work AND with her husband - if only K.C. could help her leave this place. K.C. sticks to the rules - Jess won’t be leaving - but he does provide something soothing: a device that provides soothing sounds and low-fi brainwave amplification to settle Jess’ mind. So she can relax. And talk. With the device, Jess remembers what she was doing before the Feds arrived - reviewing an audit report she had flagged as questionable. And why it reminded her of the difficult situation with her husband. But she doesn’t give up details - something’s holding her back. Does she trust K.C.? Anybody in this hospital? Her own mind?
What follows is a cat and mouse game where Jess desperately seeks a means of escape while questioning the motives of those who alternate between interrogating/badgering her and helping her recover. All done with the aid of a mysterious device that is revealed to have hypnotic powers and driving to the heart of why Jess was involved with missing billions from Voss' company. A climactic showdown between Jess and Voss reveals how the device’s covert control over people's consciousness suggests a larger, more sinister plan meant to influence all walks of life.
