Phoenix Feathers, Part II Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Joss is Boss, and if I could ever meet the man, I'd thank him for dreaming up this wonderful 'Verse for us all to play in, and then I'd babble and drop a string of non-sequiturs on him. He'd understand.

***

For Dr. Robert Barnes, time was running out.

During the past few hours, Subjects 01 and 02 had worked tirelessly at analyzing the twin escapes of their fellow students, breaking down the sparse information on the event and looking for patterns.

Barnes marveled at how the pair worked. They functioned like a supercomputer, reaching conclusions and extrapolating from Barnes’ computer. They systematically narrowed down the possibilities with a rapidity that shocked him, even though he had been in part responsible for their development.

With special access to the Osiris planetary Cortex network, it was not long before the two students discovered a few chance happenings that disturbed Barnes. A ship had landed inside of the Blackout Zone soon after the escapes. It had not at any point made contact with the modified shuttle that had taken River Tam, but had remained in the vicinity for roughly twelve hours before being pounced on by a squadron of Alliance patrol boats.

The pair of the Academy students stopped typing and stared at Barnes from where they lay chained to the floor. Barnes knew that he was in no danger, but their unfocused eyes still made his skin crawl. Besides, the last time that he had been around a restrained Academy student he had woken up with a cracked rib and a splitting headache.

Barnes nodded his thanks and moved to scoop up his computer, keeping a close eye on the broken students. As soon as he had the data tucked under his arm he bolted for the door, murmuring a word of thanks.

The guards outside the cell were alert and standing at attention when Barnes emerged. They escorted him the short distance to the elevator with military precision.

“Thank you, gentlemen.” Barnes stepped inside the elevator and paused. “Oh, and if anyone should ask for me, I am not to be disturbed.” He held up the computer. “Some new evidence has come to light. I will be in my quarters seeing where it leads.”

The guards nodded as the elevator doors closed, sealing Barnes into the elevator. He slipped his personal keycard into the appropriate slot, and a row of buttons lit up, each linked to one of the Academy’s many levels. His trained eye easily found the symbol that would take him to the Dormitory level. Barnes hesitated, then moved his finger to a symbol closer to the top and pressed it down.

“Re-checking security clearance…” the Academy’s mainframe computer told him. “Security clearance Override confirmed. Destination: Level One, Hangar Complex.”

The elevator hissed smoothly into motion, lifting Barnes up hundreds of meters towards the planet’s surface.

***

Barnes strode in to the federal substation of the Traffic Control tower at the Horizon City Spaceport with supreme confidence.

He had to move fast. Barnes knew that Mathias had been growing increasingly stressed as their charade progressed, and Barnes could see that he was near the breaking point. He knew that Mathias’ paranoia would mean that someone was keeping an eye on Barnes, so he could not afford any delays in his quiet excursion to Horizon City. If Mathias suspected that he was absent without leave from the Academy, he could jump to conclusions.

Barnes approached the bored-looking elderly Operations Supervisor and waved his ID. That woke the man up. He fumbled with the documents on his desk as he raised himself to his feet.

“Sir!”

“I’m here regarding a security breach that occurred inside the Sector 9 Blackout Zone several days ago.”

The man’s eyes were as wide as saucers. His head nodded nonstop as Barnes made his pitch. Barnes told him that he was a Customs official in pursuit of a highly dangerous criminal who had made a daring landing in the Blackout Zone, but had been apprehended by a squadron of patrol ships that had been dispatched by the man’s own security team.

Unsurprisingly, the man ate it up. He led Barnes over to a youthful Lieutenant who claimed to have led the operation, and tottered away, leaving them alone.

Barnes nodded to the young man and said without preamble, “I would like everything you have on the freighter, its crew, cargo, where it came from, as well as transcripts of your interrogation of the crew.”

The Lieutenant stood slowly and marched without a word towards the back of the substation, Barnes following him. The man led him past a firing range, a cell block, and what looked to be a records room before he found the door that he was looking for. Turning the handle, he stepped into a darkened room and flicked on the lights, revealing to Barnes racks and racks of junk. Each of the hundreds of devices was tagged and labeled, corresponding to some investigation or other. The Lieutenant picked up an oblong unit about a hand-span in size and presented it to Barnes.

Barnes turned the object over in his hands, noting the tangle of clipped wires that protruded from it at odd angles. He frowned.

“What am I looking at?”

“It’s a pulse beacon, sir. It emits a signal that identifies the ship it’s hooked up to. It’s a long-distance transponder that can be tracked by our radar.”

“I don’t understand. Where is the ship?”

The Lieutenant sighed. “That is the ship, sir. Or rather, the only piece of it we got from the crash site. You see, someone on that ship rigged it with a spare battery so it would continue to transmit its signal after it was cut from the freighter. When my patrol got to the signal, the freighter had already left orbit. The pulse beacon stopped operating only this morning.”

Barnes wanted to scream, but instead he turned back to the Lieutenant. “Do you have anything else on this freighter? You must have gotten a read on it when it made its approach.”

“I’ll see what I can do, sir. I’m sorry about this, sir.”

Barnes just stared down at the ship’s pulse beacon until well after the Lieutenant left the room. If 04 had left the planet onboard that freighter, then he had all of the ‘Verse to hide in.

***

“What?!”

Mathias’ angry shout echoed in the expanse of the nearly empty Situation Room. The Warden winced and looked down at his feet while the Other repeated his findings.

“It appears as if Doctor Barnes has left the premises, sir. About two hours ago he told the security team in Housing that he had uncovered new data relating to the kidnappings and was going to be in his room. I have ascertained from a bio scan keyed to his vital signs that the doctor was not in his room, nor anywhere else in this facility. Also, one of the ground shuttles has gone missing from the hangar.”

“What is he doing? Do you think he’s trying to get away?”

“Unlikely, sir,” said the Warden. “The ground shuttle was too easy to trace. He wouldn’t try to steal one from here.”

“Then what could he be up to?”

The Warden frowned. “Perhaps he is investigating a lead, as he said. It is possible that he was worried that you would react this way if you knew that he was leaving the Academy during the current crisis.”

Mathias half-stood, pointing a quivering finger at the Warden. “You’re wrong,” he snapped. “You’re both wrong. You’re forgetting the Independent fanatic who caused this mess! Who would be in a better position to engineer these escapes than one of the senior staff members like Barnes?”

The Other cocked his head, but said nothing.

The Warden chose his words carefully. “We don’t believe that Robert Barnes has compromised this program. He has gone to extraordinary lengths to search for the escaped students, including using the remaining late-stage subjects in his investigation.”

“What?!” Mathias barked again. “Do you mean that he has had access to 01 and 02? My God! What has he done to them? What have you let him do to them?”

The Other looked up sharply. “He has only input data that is pertinent to the manner and circumstances of the other subjects’ escapes. It was a smart move, enabling him to arrive at and explore plausible conclusions very quickly.”

The Warden nodded. “And now Barnes has left to investigate a lead. We would suggest that you make use of this time with the remaining students to further your own investigation.”

Mathias blinked, then sat back down. He nodded.

“Good work.”

***

Two hours later Barnes was back and was working once more with Subjects 01 and 02 on the data that he had retrieved from his trip to Horizon City, while Mathias and his personal bodyguards, the Warden and the Other, stopped in front of a simple door on the Dormitory level.

The Other rapped on the door, then tried the handle. It turned freely, and he stepped inwards into the living quarters beyond. A few seconds passed, followed by a shout coupled with the distinctive barking of a handgun, and the Other was pitched back onto the floor, his left arm a bloody mess.

The Warden jumped over his fallen partner, drawing his laser pistol and training it into the darkened room. At first it was too dark to locate his assailant, but he blinked his eyes until he could see, hugging one of the walls for cover. He knew that the Other must have stepped into the main room before he had been shot, since the bullets had hit him from the left side.

Hardly daring to breathe, the Warden crept along the inside wall, listening hard for any movement in the room beyond. Looking back towards the door, he motioned for Mathias to stay absolutely still, then brought his pistol up near his face. After a minute, he heard the creak of a mattress as their assailant got off of his bed, apparently satisfied that nobody else was coming for him.

The Warden took aim with the pistol and fired a long shot, burning though the wall at ground level. He heard a shriek and tumbled around the corner, rising from his crouch to meet his enemy face to face. The man was falling forwards, grasping at the remains of his feet. The Warden’s first punch knocked him backwards into the wall, and his second connected with the man’s temple, dropping him unconscious to the ground.

The Warden stooped to take the man’s pistol, not bothering to wonder on how he got it past Security. He then took the man by the arms and dragged him into the hallway, then moved to kneel by the Other. His partner appeared to be in good condition- the shot had gone through his arm and been stopped by his body armor. A clean wound.

He looked in his jacket for a painkiller patch and slapped it to the Other’s neck, then gave him a hand up. The Other nodded gravely to him, then turned to regard the man who they had been sent to find.

Mathias examined the man’s feet, then nodded to the Warden. “Cauterized. You think this is who they meant?”

“Do you want my opinion of the guy before or after he started shooting at us?”

“Good point. Well, I believe he’s got some questions to answer.”

Mathias motioned for the two black-clad men to take the informant to his laboratory.

***

For Dr. Mathias, any time spent in his lab felt like time at home. He heard a faint groan and turned to see the man beginning to stir in the operating chair. He moved over to him from where he had been preparing for the coming interrogation and waited for the informer to focus on him.

When he did, Mathias smiled. The man summoned the energy to spit at him, making the doctor recoil, wiping at his eye. The Other calmly stepped in and hit the man, who bit back a sharp cry of pain. Mathias turned back to the man, all humor gone from his expression.

“Where is River?”

The man chuckled. “Who’s River?”

The Other hit him again, and he cursed a long stream of Cantonese, describing the anatomical deficiencies that Buddha had gifted Mathias with.

Mathias pulled the operating cart to the center of the room, exposing rows of surgical instruments that glinted in the harsh overhead lights.

“Here’s what I think. I think that you are a member of a terrorist network, composed of former Browncoats, as you call yourselves. Now I know that you know the names of at least some of the people who got you into this place, and you’re going to tell me who they are. And while you’re doubtlessly intending on bravely suffering to the bitter end, as your kind are so adept at, let me assure you that I am very good at my job.”

Mathias nodded to the Warden, who drew another patch from his jacket and pressed it to the man’s neck. Instantly, the man’s balled fists fell limp onto the chair’s armrests and his shoulders fell. He looked down at his paralyzed body and cursed at greater length than before. The Warden came forward with a bit and forced it into the man’s mouth to prevent him from biting his tongue.

Mathias clapped lightly at the informant’s master of the Chinese vocabulary, then continued speaking calmly. “You know what I love about assistants? They already know how painful these types of procedures are. But to make sure you’re properly prepared for this ordeal, I will tell you what’s going to happen. I’m going to insert several rods into your brain. I will then send electrical impulses down them to stimulate various regions, looking to stir up some memories of your involvement with this group. This electrical stimulation will no doubt affect your nervous system. You will experience pain, but you will also experience heat and cold as you have never felt before. Or you can tell me what I want to know, before I break you.”

The man’s eyes widened and his breathing was very rapid, but he bared his teeth around the bit in his mouth. “Go to Hell!”

Mathias shrugged, then busied himself moving equipment into place around the operating chair. “I want you to know that no matter how painful it gets, you will not die on the table. I am a doctor, after all.”

Then Mathias drew a scalpel from the surgical cart and, pushing the man’s head back, began to cut inwards.

*** “Mathias?” Barnes called from the hallway outside the lab.

A minute later, Dr. Mathias exited the room. Barnes smelled a particular smell and looked over his shoulder at the abomination sitting in the operating chair. He shied away from the terrible sight, backing away down the corridor.

“Jesus.” Barnes threw up, leaning against the wall. “Jesus.” He stood up shakily to look into Mathias’ eyes. They were hard and unwavering.

“It had to be done, Barnes. He wouldn’t talk.”

Barnes fumbled in the pocket of his lab coat for a tissue, which he used to wipe his mouth clean with. “So that’s our mole?”

“Yes. Give it time, and we’ll know everything that he does about this plot.”

“Time? We don’t have time, Mathias! We’re out of time. Titus is at Parliament! They’ve summoned us for a hearing!”

Mathias’ eyes narrowed. “How long?”

“Two hours.”

Mathias nodded. “I may know a way out of this. Be ready to lie through your teeth, Barnes. We’ve got to sell this story.”

Mathias trotted off down the corridor, making for the elevators. He called over his shoulder to Barnes. “Hey, keep an eye on things here for me, okay, Barnes?”

Barnes chanced another look inside Mathias’ lab, but shied away as he caught another hint of the distinctive smell. He leaned against the wall, trying to control his stomach.

“Jesus.”

***