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Post by Jordanna on Jul 5, 2006 0:59:47 GMT -5
Sid grinned. "Oh, don't worry, I'll be a good boy. An' so will he," he added, chucking a thumb toward Huber.
* * * * * * * *
The time after that was passed, once again, in quiet waiting. It was nearly four hours later when the cellphone finally chirped out a nondescript ringtone.
Vance picked up the phone, toggled the speakerphone setting, and set it on the bed next to Huber, gesturing for the scientist to speak.
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Post by skybright on Jul 5, 2006 1:12:36 GMT -5
Huber cleared his throat nervously. "Jessica?"
The woman's voice on the other end of the line was worried. "Franz? What's going on? Who are these people? Why haven't you called? What happened to the confer--"
"Jessica, please." Huber broke in, looking mildly embarrassed. "Just let me speak."
"Where are you?"
Huber sighed. "I'm . . . in the city. There's been a major complication, Jessica. We're going to cease work on the pathogen."
Silence. "Franz . . ." the woman's voice was tinged with deep suspicion. "Who else is there with you? Are you being held against your will? Should I call the police?"
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Post by Jordanna on Jul 5, 2006 1:24:24 GMT -5
Vance cupped his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone, and murmured to Huber, "Calm her down. Tell her we've picked up the two of you for your protection. It's the truth, anyway."
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Post by skybright on Jul 5, 2006 1:33:19 GMT -5
Huber nodded tersely and waited for Vance to remove his hand.
"Jessica, listen to me very closely." He said. "If I were being held against my will, I'd have given you the codeword by now. You know that." He sighed. "These people are part of a network who uncovered evidence that someone wanted us abducted -- and killed. They've taken action to keep us out of harm's way."
There was a moment's quiet. "You should have contacted me as usual."
"I wasn't able to," Huber replied.
"And what's all this about ceasing work? Franz, we're so close . . ."
"It's complicated." Huber glanced briefly at Vance. "Someone will be in contact soon to explain things."
"Someone?" The woman's voice crept closer to hysteria once more. "What do you mean? Won't I see you?"
"No!" Huber said, slightly panicked. "No, that's not possible now. Just . . . stay where you are, Jessica. Someone will be there to explain. All's well with the world." He added, placing peculiar emphasis on the phrase.
Presumably it was a safeword of some kind, for the woman's voice grew much calmer. "All right, Franz. If you say so."
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Post by Jordanna on Jul 5, 2006 1:45:00 GMT -5
Vance gave Huber a nod, then spoke up himself, in a calm and surprisingly reassuring voice.
"Miss Brandeis, I'm one of the people that's had you and Doctor Huber taken out of harm's way. I'll be leaving here now to get where you are and explain things. There may be a lot that you're not gonna want to hear, but we need you to stay calm and keep a clear head. Nobody's gonna hurt you, or Doctor Huber either--we're going to make sure of that, however weird all this may seem to you."
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Post by skybright on Jul 5, 2006 1:48:44 GMT -5
"I understand." Jessica Brandeis said with perfect composure. "I'll be very anxious to find out what's going on." There was a brief pause. "Franz? I'll see you soon." That last was only half a statement.
Huber's lips pressed into a thin line. "Take care of yourself, Jessica." He snapped the cell phone closed before she could make any other reply, and wordlessly held it out to Vance.
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Post by Jordanna on Jul 5, 2006 1:59:49 GMT -5
Vance took the cellphone, slipping it into his pocket.
"Alright, Huber. We need to know how hostile your little friend is gonna be to us, and how to handle her. If you've got any ideas of what to say, let's hear 'em." He quickly added, "And don't try slipping in any of those code words of yours, either--I'll know if you're trying to pull a fast one on us."
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Post by skybright on Jul 5, 2006 2:09:27 GMT -5
Huber frowned slightly. "It's difficult to say, really. Jessica has been known to have a . . . mercurial temperament." A faint smile played briefly across his face, before being replaced with a frown again.
"I don't think she'll be violently hostile, particularly as she wants to know what's happening. However, I've no way of knowing how she'll respond to the de -- to Dawson." He cleared his throat.
"It might be best to tell her that the research is simply too dangerous with your adversary after us. And tell her that the records have been found and destroyed." The scientist looked vaguely grieved. "I should think it best, though, if you do not tell her by whom."
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Post by Jordanna on Jul 5, 2006 2:20:50 GMT -5
"Well, that's sort of a given." Vance raised an eyebrow. "Alright, what do you want us to tell her about you--and about when she'll see you? Because you know she'll ask."
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Post by skybright on Jul 5, 2006 2:29:25 GMT -5
Huber looked down at his hands and then closed his eyes, looking faintly nauseated. "What can you tell her? Tell her it's too dangerous for us to be in the same place. Tell her . . ." He shrugged hopelessly. "Tell her I don't know when she'll see me."
The scientist opened his eyes and stared at his corrugated lavender skin. "She'll never look at me again." He murmured.
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Post by Jordanna on Jul 5, 2006 2:34:53 GMT -5
Vance shrugged and shook his head ruefully. "This is why I'm sorry for all the people like you who don't see past the skin."
He turned and moved toward the door. "Keep the watch, Handy. Come on, detective," he added to Daws.
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Post by skybright on Jul 5, 2006 2:38:41 GMT -5
Daws nodded and retrieved her fedora before following Vance out of the room.
"I've been in that hotel room too long." She muttered as they made their way to Vance's nondescript brown van. "I'm actually on the verge of startin' to like the guy. I need my head examined."
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Post by Jordanna on Jul 5, 2006 3:05:59 GMT -5
"They got a word for backwards Stockholm Syndrome?" Vance mused ironically. "Don't kid yourself. I think he'd still like us all dead. He'll have to walk quite a few more miles in our skin before he wises up."
The pair made their journey in Vance's lumbering brown van. Their destination was a small, unassuming old wood-frame farmhouse, in the middle of a dusty, dirt-roaded nowhere across the New Jersey border.
"Old geezer that lives here's a pal of mine," Vance explained as they climbed out of the van. "A mutant, naturally. Only problem is his skin's sorta the color of a tangerine, so I told him he needed to make himself scarce while we borrow the place. He's gone off to the market down the road or something."
While he was speaking, a figure had emerged through the screen door of the house. He was a young man, not only normal-looking but genuinely handsome. He gave Vance a wave, and nodded politely to Daws.
"Codenames only, please," Vance murmured. "Rip, this is..." He paused, glancing at Daws. "You got a nickname, I assume. We all do."
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Post by skybright on Jul 5, 2006 3:11:21 GMT -5
Daws chuckled wryly. "Yeah, an' one of these days I'm gonna write a book about how ridiculous they are, too." She shrugged one shoulder. "But it's your show, so I'll humor ya. Grimalkin will do."
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Post by Jordanna on Jul 5, 2006 3:28:11 GMT -5
Vance raised an eyebrow and half-grinned, then turned to Rip. "How's our guest?"
"Getting impatient." Rip headed toward the door, prompting Vance and Daws to follow. "She was a little agitated at first, even though that note convinced her to come with us. Your call calmed her down some, but she wants to know where we've got this Huber guy and what we're going to do."
"Fair enough." Vance climbed the steps to the narrow porch and slipped in through the screen door. The small, wood-paneled, mothball-tainted living room was crowded with the photographs and possessions of its nostalgic old resident--which, thankfully, did not give away his mutant nature. Another young man beside the door gave the Major a nod.
Conscious that people occasionally took the scars on his face for a sign of mutation themselves, Vance attempted to remain half in shadow as he approached the woman who was sitting nervously on the edge of an armchair.
"Hello, Miss Brandeis," he said smoothly. "I'm the gentleman who talked to you with Doctor Huber over the phone."
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Post by skybright on Jul 5, 2006 3:35:24 GMT -5
Jessica Brandeis was a small-boned, pretty woman with dark hair pulled back in a tight bun. She nearly leapt out of the chair at Vance's approach.
"Please, what's the meaning of all of this? Who are you people? Who is this person who's supposedly after us?" She clasped her hands nervously. "And where is Fra -- Doctor Huber?"
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Post by Jordanna on Jul 5, 2006 3:48:44 GMT -5
Vance stepped forward, touching his face. "You'll have to excuse me, Doctor. I had a nasty little encounter with an RPG in Fallujah a while back." He said it not only to completely reassure her about his appearance, but to indicate that he was a military man--which would give her impressions of duty and honor and the intent to protect others. Whether she would construe him as still being an active servant of his country was up to her own imagination.
"I'm sorry for any worry we're causing you--but I'm afraid I can't do all that much to answer your questions. Doctor Huber is perfectly safe--but I'm afraid you may not be seeing him anytime soon. It's too dangerous for the two of you to be in the same place, much less continue your work." Too dangerous for mutants, that is.
"As for who's targeted you... well, that one I can't answer. If it got out that we're working to bring him down, it'd get a lot of people killed. We can't risk having that kind of a leak come from you."
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Post by skybright on Jul 5, 2006 3:58:42 GMT -5
Brandeis nodded slowly. "Doctor Huber has always been so worried about security -- now I finally understand why it was so vital to him." She worried her lower lip between her teeth. "But what can be --"
Her voice broke off abruptly as her wandering gaze fell on Daws, who had hung well back in the relative darkness at the room's edge. Apparently, that wasn't enough to keep Brandeis from recognizing the other woman's obvious mutation.
Brandeis' lips moved in wordless horror for a moment before she suddenly gave a terrified cry -- and backed rapidly across the room.
"Stay away! Don't . . . don't you dare hurt me!" She turned a panicked gaze on Vance, abject terror in her voice. "Just leave me alone, all of you!"
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Post by Jordanna on Jul 5, 2006 10:44:42 GMT -5
Another man might have lost his temper and become forceful with Brandeis, but Vance stood impassively, regarding her with a bored look. "Gimme a break, lady. I had to go through this whole dog-and-pony show with Doctor Huber, too."
He folded his arms and glanced over at Daws. "And that's the last time I'm taking you anywhere--even if you are the best double agent we've got."
Daws gaped at him, but he ignored it. He was more interested in the confused look he'd won from Brandeis. He turned back to her with a hapless shrug.
"Sometimes you draw the short straw on these jobs," he said resignedly. "Can I help it if I have to work with a mutant who's working against her own kind?"
It was a breathtaking bluff--and the most bizarre part was that, in essence, there wasn't a single untruth in his words. It was his perfectly calculated delivery that suggested something else altogether.
Dawson would probably hate him for it, but if they were lucky, Brandeis at least wouldn't start throwing things at them.
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Post by skybright on Jul 5, 2006 23:19:00 GMT -5
Daws stifled a grin -- it was a brilliant bluff -- and instead did her best at an aggrieved sulk. "Hey, I don't like bein' one any more'n you like workin' with one." She muttered -- which, like Vance's statement before it, was probably not far from the truth.
Comprehension and relief swept over Brandeis' features. "Oohhh, I see." She glanced at Daws with a concerned frown, bit her bottom lip, and then turned back to Vance.
"It -- er, that is, she -- she's not at all dangerous, is she?" She asked, in a stage whisper that was more than loud enough for everyone -- including Daws -- to hear perfectly.
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