LaFontaine got out of the cab and stood outside the door, of what looked to be a boarded up comic book shop. They reached for their phone in their back pocket and dialled the last number.
"This is Scott!" their cousin answered, a loud crashing noise in the background suggesting that he'd just dropped something.
"Hey, I'm at the address you sent me… standing outside an old… comic book store?" they asked with confusion. They turned to glance up each side of the street, wondering if they'd maybe gone past the actual 'top secret meeting place' or in the entirely wrong place altogether.
"Oh, awesome. Yeah, no, you're here. I mean you're outside, I'll get Hell Wizard to let you in." Scott spoke far too fast before hanging up.
"Did he just say… Hell…Wizard?" LaF glanced at the door to the store with a raised brow.
Moments later, a lanky guy, half hidden by the door frame, opened the door just a fraction and motioned for LaF to enter.
"No offence Man, but that may just be the creepiest thing I've ever seen." LaF took a hesitant step forward.
"You're Scott's cousin right?" the young man asked, his eyes flickering to either ends of the street anxiously.
LaFontaine nodded slowly before entering the comic store.
Once they were inside, Hell Wizard locked the door with the numerous bolts and keys. LaF felt their nerves on edge at the sight of the security on the door.
Hell Wizard text Scott that his cousin was there, before taking a seat behind the counter.
It was only then that he got a proper look at LaFontaine. His eyes grew comically as a thousand questions ran through his mind. LaF cleared their throat uncomfortably and their eyes locked.
LaF was used to seeing the somewhat curious expression on the guy's face. They walked to the stand closest to them and picked up a comic book.
"Believe it or not, my gender isn't even the most fascinating thing about me." LaF commented, whilst flicking through the book slowly.
Hearing the guy cough and splutter, LaF raised a brow and glanced over at him.
"I wasn't… I didn't mean to… I was just…" he stammered, losing his balance on the stool at the same time.
Scott made his presence known then, shaking his head at his friend.
"Smooth." he stage-whispered to Hell Wizard, laughing when the nerd rolled his eyes.
LaF put the comic back on the shelf, as Scott reached them.
"Long time no see!" he smiled and leant in for a hug.
LaF reciprocated, patting Scott on the back. "Good to see you, man. But why the sudden call? Your call totally freaked me out! What's going on?" LaF asked confused.
"Did you bring what I asked you?" he asked urgently.
LaF's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "Yes. But… why do you need it? What's going on, Scott?" they asked again, this time their hand clutched the memory stick in their pocket a little tighter.
Scott sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. Sneaking a glance at Hell Wizard out the corner of his eye, he took a deep breath in.
LaF glanced between the two guys, crossing their arms as they waited for an explanation patiently.
"If I tell you… No one and I mean no one can know about this… It's highly classified." his face matched his tone, deadly serious.
It sent a slight chill down LaF's spine and an uneasy feeling twisted in their stomach, at the scenarios playing through their mind.
"We're not hacking the government are we?" they asked, almost scared to know the answer.
"What? No." Scott scoffed.
"Wait, your program can do that?" Hell Wizard asked impressed.
Scott gave his friend a look to silence him, one that said, 'Not now. We don't have time.' before leading the way downstairs, to the makeshift lab that he and Cosima had created, underneath the comic store.
LaF was busy installing their decoding/recovery program, 'JP' onto the computers and sifting through firewalls and viruses, whilst Scott paced back and forth around the room. His palms beginning to sweat at the thought of ringing Mrs.S and explaining his impulsive decision to involve his cousin in this dangerous mess.
His cell rang in his hand and his heart stopped briefly as he swallowed to wet his suddenly dry throat. Scott's hand shook as he hit 'accept' and held the phone to his ear.
"S-Siobhan, how's it going?" he tried, and failed, to keep his tone light and casual.
"You tell me, Scott… you've rang and hung up three times already. What's going on?" she asked, concern creeping into her voice.
"Yeah, no… everything's fine. Just… erm…" he stumbled over his words.
"Scott, what is it?" Siobhan asked, her tone nothing but business.
"Well, you know how we lost all our data from the hack?" he asked and heard a muffled hum in response. "Well I have a way that we can maybe, possibly recover some stuff… hopefully…" he trailed off.
"Okay? Isn't that good news?" she asked confused.
"That's the thing… I had to tell someone about Clone Club in order to do it." Scott switch from foot to foot, fidgeting nervously.
He heard a long and exhausted sigh from the other end. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he braced himself for the infamous wrath of Mrs.S, but instead was pleasantly surprised to find she was less angry, and more curious as to who his "secret weapon" (so-to-speak) was.
"So… you're not mad?" he asked tentatively.
He heard Siobhan huff a small amused laugh, "I'm not angry, Scott. If you trust them, then that's enough for me. With Cosima still… well, you're in charge of the science side of things. I trust your judgement." she explained.
Scott felt a huge weight lift off of his shoulders. "Oh thank god-" he began to say.
"But, if anything goes wrong, or you get even the slightest hint that something's off, you text me the words 'Code Black' and I take over. You hear me?" she spoke so matter-of-factly that all Scott could do was nod his head repeatedly.
"Scott?" she asked impatiently from his lack of response.
"Yes, ma'am. Of course. Code Black. Got it." he stuttered.
"Alright. I'll check back in with you later." she smiled.
"Copy that." he saluted, then shook his head at the reaction.
Before the call ended, he heard Siobhan's amused laugh, no doubt at his reply.
"Er… Scott? I think I have something." LaF motioned for him to check out the computer screen.
Scott hurried over, fixing his glasses as he focused in on the screen.
"Is that… Is that a fully sequenced genome?" LaF asked in awe.
A small smile spread into a wide grin on Scott's face, "YES!" he shouted. "Do you think you could recover anything else?" he asked eagerly.
"I'll keep trying. Whoever hacked you was an amateur in comparison to JP… I'm just saying." LaF said smugly, before getting back on task.
Scott searched through drawers and found three blank USB sticks.
"I need you to back everything, and I mean everything, you find onto each of these. I'm not risking our progress again." he said solemnly, placing the USB's on the desk beside LaFontaine.
"Don't worry, I've got you covered. JP automatically keeps a copy of everything he finds too." LaF said distractedly.
"Alright, let's keep going then." Scott pat LaF on the shoulder before grabbing a stool of his own and watching the computer intensely.
Siobhan raked her fingers through her hair and huffed an amused laugh, as she pocketed her mobile.
"Benjamin?" she called out.
He appeared through the back door and waited for his instructions.
"Could you just go and double check on Scott at the comic book shop? He's brought his cousin into this… they're helping him try and recover any of the research and data they lost in the hack." she informed him.
"And you want a second opinion?" he asked and she nodded gratefully, "I'm on it." he said before he disappeared through the back door again.
She'd sent Felix and Ira to the shop to get some supplies, lord only knew how long they'd be holed up in that safe house for. To pass the time, she put the kettle on and offered Ferdinand a cup of tea. He was still sat in the chair where she left him, his head down and unusually quiet.
Kira was in her room when she got the feeling that something was seriously wrong. She went to the door to her room and peered through the crack. Ferdinand shifted on the chair and out of the corner of her eye, she could see S getting the milk out of the fridge. She watched silently as he pressed his hidden weapon into S' back.
Siobhan held her hands up in surrender and stepped back from the fridge, closing it gently.
"I'm guessing you don't want that cup of tea then?" she asked sarcastically.
He dug the point of the gun into her back a little harder, causing her to grunt. She moved slowly to sit in the chair he previously occupied.
Siobhan held her arms up and he searched her for weapons, that's when Kira ran back to her bed. Scrolling through her phone, she found 'Uncle Felix'. Throwing a glance over her shoulder, she heard the floorboards creak under the man's weight as his footsteps got closer. She quickly text Felix 'HELP!' before hiding her cell back under her pillow, thanking her lucky stars that Cal had given her his spare in case of emergencies.
Ferdinand pushed the door open and motioned for Kira to follow him. As calm as she could, she slowly walked towards him, jumping only slightly when he grabbed her shoulder and shoved her towards Mrs.S.
Siobhan wrapped her arms around Kira and sat the young girl on her lap. Kira hid her face in the crook of S' neck and whispered in her ear.
"I text Uncle Felix for help." she whispered before wrapping her arms around S' neck.
Siobhan hugged Kira closer, putting on a front for Ferdinand's sake. He rolled his eyes and got his phone out to text someone.
"Good Girl." S whispered back, kissing her granddaughter's cheek.
Ten minutes must have passed before the eery silence in the room was broken, by that of her phone ringing. Siobhan's mobile was on the table in front of her, panic automatically coursing through her as Sarah's face lit up the screen. She reached for it carefully and answered.
"Mum?" she heard Sarah ask, discomfort evident in her voice.
"Sarah-" she tried to tell her what was happening, but stopped when Ferdinand pointed his gun at her. She twisted on the chair slightly, shielding Kira from his line of sight.
"Mum, I need your help." Sarah choked. Her words and the desperation in her voice causing Siobhan's heart to shatter.
Before she could reply, Ferdinand took the phone off of her and placed it to his ear. A sinister smirk appearing on his face as he did so.
"Hello Sarah, I'm afraid your family are a little pre-occupied right now. Can I take a message?" he asked with a laugh.
A lump formed in Siobhan's throat as she heard Sarah on the other end, threaten him if he played a finger on any of them.
"Don't you worry, I'm taking very good care of them. Isn't that right Kira?" he asked loudly, holding the phone out to the frightened young girl.
"Mummy!" Kira yelled out.
Ferdinand laughed menacingly down the phone, before hanging up and going over to the stove to make himself a cup of tea.
Siobhan rocked Kira back and forth, glaring daggers at the back of her captor's head. A million and one ways of how she was going to kill him, ran through her mind at once. The sound of a car's engine cut off and her grip on Kira tightened reflexively. They both knew that what was to come next, would be extremely dangerous. "Don't let go of me, Love." she whispered to Kira.
Kira nodded and held onto S for dear life.
"Here we go." Siobhan mumbled.