Authors: Palladian
“What?” Serena looked at Riss quizzically, almost skeptically.
“The people that run the facility said as much to me, that they'd never allow me to leave, and that there were much worse places to be. Let me show you.”
She pulled up the roster that she'd showed them before, then pointed out a name on it. “Casey, do you remember Ivy Walker? The records say that she was on the team when you arrived.”
Casey frowned for a moment, and then nodded. “I didn't know her well, especially since I spent the first couple of months here on the medical floor. She seemed really nice, but I remember that a few months after I'd really recovered she got sick, and we didn't see her anymore. A while after that, I remember being told that she retired, and I never heard anything more after that.”
Riss nodded. “I'm sure that's probably what they told you. In reality, she was moved from the facility we're at to the main facility. I'll show you a live video feed of her today,” she continued, clicking up another window and maximizing it to the whole screen.
All four women watched the screen closely, and then the other three of them glanced at Riss, puzzled. “It just looks like a greenhouse,” Casey finally said, confusion in her voice.
“Look now,” said Riss, pointing at something.
And Lex jumped in surprise as they all saw human eyes suddenly appear in the greenery, and something that had appeared to be a plant moved. As they watched they could see she wasn't a plant, although she didn't appear very human anymore, either.
Lex stared at Riss in horror as the other woman minimized the window. “What the hell happened to her?” Lex asked, listening as her voice shook.
Riss sighed. “That's what it took me a while to figure out,” she said, pulling up another document. “Once we were attached to the other facility, though, I found out lots of interesting things. This shows the list of 'treatments' that Ivy was given, the first of them dating a couple of years before she disappeared, around the time she was put on the team.”
“What were they for?” Casey asked, frowning.
“To find out, as well as translate what I found, took time,” Riss said, pulling up yet another document. “They gave her a standard regimen that they put together at MSI headquarters, which is a biological research facility.”
Everyone just stared at Riss blankly for a moment, so she sighed again and continued. “They assigned Ivy an experimental gene therapy protocol designed to modify human bodies to go beyond normal human abilities. Lex, you are currently being given this regimen, and so is Casey.”
In the silence that followed, Riss pulled up two more documents, one with Lex's name and one with Casey's, and put them side by side with Ivy's “treatment” document. Lex glanced at them briefly, noting that what she could see of them matched almost exactly. She swallowed against her dry throat and just looked at Riss.
“Why?” she finally managed to ask, and the word hung heavy in the quiet room.
“Well, from what I can tell, we're all being used as test subjects in the main facility's very theoretical gene therapy experiments. For now, they have their own 'monster army,’ as I've seen them put it in company documents, but eventually they hope to be able to bottle and sell what we can do, especially to the army. Due to the political climate several years ago, around the time filling Guantanamo got popular, someone passed laws that denied standard human rights to anyone who can do things beyond a normal human's abilities: in essence, declaring us not human. They are, as a result, legally able to keep us here within the teams, or, if we start looking or acting less than human, they're able to keep us permanently within their main facility and use us as lab rats if they wish. Since it got passed along with a lot of the homeland security garbage, I guess you could say we've been nationalized. These laws have never been repealed by successive administrations, either.”
Lex's head spun and her stomach was in the process of tying itself into a tight knot, but even so, she looked at Riss again, trying to catch her eye even though the other woman attempted not to look at her. “There's something else, though. You said my life was in danger, not mine and Casey's.”
Riss nodded, still looking at the screen. “Actually, yes. I wasn't initially happy to hear you were coming along today, Serena, but now I'm glad. Do you remember a woman by the name of Cynthia Cross? The roster puts her on the team in New York around the same time you were.”
Casey looked across at Serena with a raised eyebrow, murmuring, “So that's where you came from,” while Serena nodded in affirmation at Riss' question.
“Yeah. I didn't spend enough time there to make many friends, but I remember her. She seemed pretty smart. Kind of stuck up, though; she never wanted to talk. I think she could move things around with her mind or something like that.”
Riss nodded. “From what I see on her records, she has several talents like that. There's another protocol our sponsors developed that they give to people with special mental abilities. Unfortunately, Cynthia is now in one of their experimental facilities, too, having suffered brain damage as a result of the drugs they gave her. I won't bother to show her to you, unless anyone particularly wants to see.”
Everyone shook their heads in the negative, Lex trying not to wince at the motion. Her head had started to ache and moving it now felt painful.
“The people on this team currently getting this type of 'treatment' are me,” said Riss, pulling up some more documents, “and…you, Lex.”
Lex stared at the screen, her hand now on her stomach as if trying to keep the twisting pain in, and saw that Cynthia's protocol document matched almost perfectly with one with Riss' name on it, and one with her own, paged down from what Riss had shown earlier.
“For some reason,” Riss continued, “they're not giving any drugs to you, Serena, or to Joan. Joan didn't surprise me; I know she's a ringer, here to watch us. She's really a high ranking military officer, but as you can tell from how often she's at the facility, they don't consider our team a big flight risk.”
Serena shrugged. “I figure they're not giving me any crap like that because of my family. My father arranged to get me assigned to one of these teams to give me something to do because I'd embarrassed him one too many times hanging around the house, but I am still his daughter,” she sighed.
Riss nodded in agreement. “I don't know if they have a hard strategy like this, but it seems most of the people they choose don't have many, or any, family ties—that is, few people will ask around for them if they disappear.”
Lex felt a cold sensation running down her jaw to accompany her now pounding head and churning stomach. “So, what's their idea?” she heard a voice ask that sounded somewhat like hers, but almost hollow in tone.
All the other women looked at her in concern while Riss continued. “Well, this type of double treatment isn't something they've done before. In your records there were a lot of arguments about whether they should go with the brain or body regimen with you. In the end, they decided to give you both.
“The reason I'm worried is that their hypothesis is that because you're being bombarded with twice as many drugs as anyone else, it will affect you faster. But they really don't know what will happen, so they're monitoring your video and audio feeds closely.”
“So this is why Kate and Victor ran,” Lex said, almost to herself, but Riss nodded in response.
“That's actually what I was hoping we could talk about,” Riss said, looking sideways at Lex. “I tried to get out of that place once before so I'm well aware of what won't work, but from what I've seen of you and your planning skills, I'm betting you can work out how to get us out for real.”
“I'm in,” Casey nodded. “I'm not going to stick around to be experimented on like a sick animal.”
Serena shook her head. “I can understand why you'd want to leave, but I'm staying here. I've been a rich girl too long and I'm too used to the money. As you said, Riss, they give me preferential treatment anyway, so I think they'll continue to make allowances for me. But I'll help you if I can, as long as it doesn't blow my cover. At least I'll turn a blind eye to anything you need to do.”
Lex stood suddenly, realizing she had a short amount of time to make it to the bathroom before she got sick. Her stomach felt so tied in knots it seemed it might tear its way through her abdomen, and her head pounded like she was being struck.
“I'll be right back,” she said to the others, almost fleeing the room.
She felt some kind deity must have been watching over her, because she found the empty ladies' room right away and no one else came in while she retched up the contents of her stomach. It didn't take too long, since she hadn't had much to eat that day, and Lex mentally thanked the people who cleaned the building, since her velvet dress remained clean when she got back up off the chilly tile floor. Quickly, she rinsed her mouth out, splashed her face with cold water, checked her dress in the mirror, which thankfully looked fine, and hurried back to the table.
“I'm sorry,” she said as she sat back down.
“Are you all right?” Casey asked, looking over in concern.
Lex sighed. “No, I'm actually not. I haven't told anyone because I've gotten suspicious of the doctors who come to see us, and I didn't want to worry anyone, but I have headaches now every day. I can't leave the facility for too long, either, or I feel sick. The headache gets worse and I have a queasy feeling until I go back. I have nightmares every night now. I'm really not all right, unfortunately.”
Pausing a moment to consider that, Lex swallowed a little water, then turned to Riss. “What is it that they say happens to the people that they experiment on?”
Riss' brow furrowed. “They call it a body event, and it seems they're different for each person. Some people’s physical bodies change radically, some only a little, or sometimes all of the changes are internal. Many of the people that they've experimented on die as a result, but apparently the chances of survival are slightly better if you're a woman,” she said, looking meaningfully around the table.
“They still don't seem to really know what they're doing,” Riss continued. “Their theory about why we can do things most people can't is that we've either inherited some capability or that somehow during our lives our bodies learned to adapt in very different ways than most people's have had to. That's why they keep giving us the gene therapy protocols, thinking that our bodies are more likely to adapt to it than the average person, and probably hoping one day they can reliably replicate the process.”
Lex just thought for a moment, looking at her knuckles whiten as she held onto the edge of the table, the heavy tablecloth wrinkling in her hands. “OK,” she said after a while, “so I'm running against the clock. I'll figure out a way for us to escape, but I can't handle everything. Casey, I'd like you to be in charge of logistics. Find a way for us to get transportation away from here without having to use credit cards or identification, if possible. Figure out how to stash some basic supplies for that day. Think of everything we might need, and figure out how to get it ready. Can you take that angle?”
Casey nodded, the movement quick and sure. “Not a problem.”
Lex then looked to Riss, sitting to her right. “Riss, can you figure out a way for us to communicate secretly while we're in the facility? At least daily would be best. I'd also like for you to be our researcher. If anyone needs to find out anything, they should pass it along to you to find out. Also, we'll need new IDs and credit cards. Can you take care of arranging that?”
“I'll figure it out,” Riss replied while typing into her computer.
“Good. Please work together on anything that needs it, because we know Riss can't leave the facility other than for a job, at least until we all get out together.” She looked at Riss and Casey then, and they both nodded back at her.
“In the meantime,” Lex continued, “I want to start team practice a few times a week. I'm not sure how this is all going to work yet, but we're going to have to be prepared for just about anything, and we should be comfortable with how everyone else thinks, fights, and reacts by the time we're ready to go. Serena,” she said, turning to the other woman, “you're more than welcome to join us for the team training. Actually, I'd be grateful if you did, since it wouldn't look like we're trying to leave you out.”
“I'll try. It sounds like fun, anyway,” Serena replied.
Lex looked back at each of her companions for a moment, taking in Serena's serious look, Riss' matter-of-fact gaze, and the concern in Casey's eyes. Fortunately, the food arrived at that point, so after the waiter had situated everything, they all began to eat dinner, Lex mostly picking the mango slices and pomegranate seeds from her small salad and ignoring her entrée altogether. After a short while of silent eating, Serena turned to her.
“I forgot to ask until now,” she said, “but you said you'd think about what I could do about my family and the business and that stupid man they want me to marry. Did you come up with anything?”
Lex had been fishing some headache medicine out of her purse, and took the pills before answering. “I thought of a few things, but the best one requires some effort on your part. Do you want to go over it, or do you want to hear the options that wouldn't require much or any work on your part? I have to admit, though, they're not as foolproof.”
Serena thought for a moment, then replied, “Tell me your best idea and then I'll figure out if I need to hear any of the others.”
“All right, but I need some information from you first, to be sure it's going to work. First of all, did you go to college?”
Serena shrugged. “Yeah, I got a business degree from Columbia. I managed to do OK, even though I was never really very interested in school.”
“Good. My second question: is there someone that you can trust completely, hopefully with your life? Maybe someone you met at school, someone who'd have the same type of degree, experience, and preferably some interest in running a business. Someone who could be discreet and wouldn't mind being the power behind the throne.”