"Your boss just signed up with the enemy." Addison's voice rang out behind him, the operation had been clockwork the abnormal captured and shipped off. Then he turned up and tried to stir things.
"I only get one set of days I think you need to appreciate what it means if I give them all to you."
He was certain the waver had only begun because of her cavalier treatment of Abby. There were feelings towards Abby certainly. But, as he had said – or rather sung – on a parapet, amongst their friends was not where it was going to end. With her on the gurney, flat lined he had felt anguish, for not having stood up to Magnus, guilt at her death. That it had been a no win situation. Since then he had been looking for a way to gently bow out of her life.
It had been the situation that had created the waver, not his emotions for the girl that lately his mind had thought of as too fluffy for the bureau. Where though, should his loyalties lie?
"The enemy, how?" The tiredness sounded out in his voice; tired of Addison, of SCIU, of his boss never seeing fit to tell him anything about her plans. Partners. He had told her that he wanted to be partners, and this was how she repaid him. Or perhaps this was a divide and conquer situation and he was setting him up for yet another idiot trail of wild geese.
"She's signed up with Terrorists," Will felt his heckles rise at the word, but continued listening. "The real deal. I have no idea what she is doing. I suspect you don't either. Come with me and I can prove it to you."
"They're abnormals, they aren't terrorists." Will scoffed.
"They were behind the bombing in Lisbon. That makes them terrorists, they killed innocent humans and your boss is consorting and making deals with them, what does this make her?"
Will turned and regarded the man. A thousand thoughts ran through his mind, the frontrunner being if this was a trap. Addison looked at Will and smiled, if one could call a shark's grimace a smile. He opened the door to the shiny black car
"No traps, Dr Zimmerman." He sounded almost kind, underneath a veneer of near smugness. Will supposed turning the protégé of Helen Magnus was a big even in Addison's life these days. He regarded the man with condescension and entered the car, hoping his bike would still be there.
The drive was over fairly quickly, Will snorted with derision at the fact that the Sanctuary Network knew where this SCIU facility was. They of course hadn't tipped their hand and raided the facility, or even attempted to hack their computers. No they kept a close observance though. There were ways they could do that; at least Henry was good at that. He wasn't so sure he was good at body armour though.
Will walked the corridors, which were mostly empty, something that disquieted him a little more than he thought it would. Today, he supposed, would be no show and tell for Addison. He was shown into a room, Addison leading the way, which could barely be described as decorated. They certainly had a fondness for grey and the sterility of the place reminded him of a hospital. He locked that thought out of his mind as fast as he could; childhood memories of hospitals were not friendly ones.
"You," Addison started with force. "Are a man who requires evidence." He laid photographs in front of him. Helen and the back of a man, Helen and the backs of several men, Men passing Helen guns, each photo was only damning in the innocent eyes of Addison, Will supposed. Will was nonplussed; Ashley had had a line with an arms dealer for her guns, he wasn't surprised that Magnus did the same. "I see you are not worried. Perhaps you will be when I show you the men your boss is consorting with."
A heavy thwap hit the air as a pile of photo's hit the table, Addison spread them out and each one looked a little more damning than the next. These photo's were not the backs of men these were side shots. These men showed Magnus shaking hands with the men, men who were known terrorists; terrorists who had killed many people around the world; terrorists with links to the Cabal and also to abnormal slavery, a few even looked like abnormal species he had seen only in books. He certainly didn't want to believe them.
"Photo's can be doctored." It was a flat statement of fact.
"These aren't." Addison supplied. He had known that breaking this particular young man's trust in his mentor would be difficult.
"And I trust you why?" Will countered.
Addison sat heavily in the seat in front of will and relaxed. He was on his home ground; he had nothing to worry about here. He sighed and smiled a genuine smile at the young man in front of him.
"We are at war, whether it is official or whether it is cloak and dagger, smoke and mirror to the world at large. I don't have time to watch your fair mentor and then begin the process of photoshopping photos. You aren't that big that you warrant that much." He snorted at the thought. "You are however an interesting person. You have morals in a world that looks at times to lack them." He leant back and took his glasses of, cleaning them and replacing them. He folded his arms and shrugged. "You are someone who is on the inside, moralistic and also someone with whom terrorism is a thing that will hardly sit well."
Silence reigned supreme in the room; Will looked at the photos with a little more interest and picked one up, then another.
"How long?" Will's voice was silent and thoughtful, he hadn't raised his eyes to Addison, but were now looking more intently at the photos trying to find a reason in his mind for Magnus to even talk to these men and finding absolutely none.
"I'm sorry, how long, what?" Addison replied. Will looked up at him; his eyes showing the betrayal Addison had hoped he would see when he had seen these pictures himself.
"How long has she been under surveillance?" Will voiced hollowly.
"Since the beginning, since she disentangled herself from the governments of the world, since she made herself and enemy of the state – take a pick." Addison said, feeling a small part of compassion for the man who now looked more like a cheated upon teenager.
"And you want me ... for what purpose?" Will stared at him, sure he had wavered, but he was still concerned about what Addison wanted him to do precisely.
"I want you to join SCIU. It's rather simple. We don't deal with terrorists, or even those consorting with them. And someone who is getting in the way of an ordered world comes perilously close to consorting if not actually being one." Addison laid his cards on the table, it was nowhere near all of them, and he rarely gave that much away.
Will looked at the man, sizing him up, he'd met men like Addison before, was never happy with them around, there was so much politicking just to get a clear path to navigate, never a sure footing either. He weighed the situation up though. Something felt off. Hell it had felt 'off' from the moment she had 'returned' from Praxis, one hundred and thirteen YEARS older. There was all the double dealing and the never telling him of their plans not to mention becoming a rogue organisation.
Where she had once shared, even something of her plans, had given him a brief outline of an overall plan for the year, there was nothing now. Those years in isolation had helped her none in the quest of opening up, if anything she was more shut down, more secretive, and apparently more likely to do the outlandish. If there was a decision to be made it came down to this, know roughly what your organisation is doing, or fumble blindly and if Addison was telling the truth talk and cohort and deal with the very people you were against when he had first started. The decision was simple and out of his hands.
"What do you want me to do?" Will looked deflated, but resigned, not to mention coerced into a position sooner or later he would have had to take.
"I want you to arrest Helen Magnus." Addison said like an adder snake, the final blow being fatal.
Will felt he had little choice.
