Darien Fawkes flopped into the chair in front of the Official's desk, his partner Hobbes taking the seat next to him.
"You wanted to see us?" Darien asked, staring out the window.
"I have an assignment for you." The Official leaned forward, putting his elbows on the desk. "I need you for a rescue."
"Rescue?" Hobbes perked up. "What kind of rescue?"
Eberts opened a folder and handed them a picture of an attractive young woman. "This is Magdalena Rourke, Maggie. She works for us. Or she did until she was kidnapped almost a month ago." He handed them another picture. This one was of a non-descript suburban house. "We're tracked her to this house where she's being held by a group called Cobalt. 112 Sycamore Lane in Paradise Hills."
"So why do you need us? If you know where she is, just go in and get her." Darien asked.
The Official spoke up. "She was kidnapped by a terrorist organization interested in using her unique abilities for their own gain. However, they wouldn't hesitate to dispose of her if they lose control of the situation. We want to do this as low key as possible. I don't want to risk something happening to my agents if we raid the house. The two of you or more specifically you, Fawkes, can slip in and out without harm to Rourke. She's being held in the basement. Hobbes, you're going to create a distraction so Fawkes and Rourke can get out." Hobbes nodded, busy reading the file. Darien peered over his shoulder, looking at the file. "You'll have some back up from the anti-terrorist unit but you're objective is to get Rourke out. Not to take these guys down. Leave that to the professionals."
"He says that like we're not professionals." Darien remarked to Hobbes.
The Official gave him a look. "I'm serious about this. I don't want any of you getting hurt."
"When is this going down?" Hobbes asked the Official.
"This afternoon."
"Right. I'd better get my shot." Darien left the office.
Hobbes followed him. "Yeah, you better. I don't want you going wacky in the middle of this thing.
Darien gave him a look that said, 'who me?' as he swiped his ID card through the lock. The door slid open and they walked into the lab. Claire, also known as The Keeper, was typing furiously on her laptop.
"Hey Keep. Time for a shot." He hopped into the lab chair in the center of the room.
She shut the laptop and turned to face him. "Are you sure?" She came over to check the snake tattoo that served as a monitor for the level of quicksilver in his blood. Four of the segments on the snake were green. "Darien, you could go at two more days with this. Just don't use the quicksilver."
Hobbes spoke up. "We've got an assignment."
"I'm probably going to have to quicksilver someone else too." Darien explained.
Sighing, Claire went to the cooler for the Counteragent that kept Darien from going insane from the level of quicksilver in his blood. "All right. But you'll have to take it easy until it's time for the next one." She told him as she prepared the needle.
"Yes, mom."
"You promise?"
"Scouts honor." He held up his hand in a Boy Scout salute.
She slid the needle into his arm. "Somehow, I doubt you were a boy scout Darien." He bent his elbow up after she pulled out the needle and placed cotton over the spot.
"Sure he was. Got merit badges for lock picking and breaking and entering." Hobbes said sarcastically.
"Hey!" Darien exclaimed indignantly as he put on his coat. "Thanks, Claire."
"You're welcome. You boys be careful."
"We will." They told her and left the lab.
Maggie Rourke sat in the middle of the padded room wearing a straight jacket, staring aimlessly at the television on the wall. The door opened and two men stepped inside. One was hired muscle, big and brawny. He wore a taser gun on his belt and watched her with an evil grin. She surpassed a shudder when she caught a stray thought about what he wanted to do to her.
The other was a doctor. He was thinner and always wore a white lab coat over his well-made suits. "Good afternoon, Miss Rourke. Hungry?" The tray he carried held her lunch. She stood up, using the padded wall to help her balance.
"Not particularly."
"Miss Rourke, if you don't eat, I will be forced to feed you myself. You really wouldn't enjoy that." He stepped closer to her. "Or I could have Wynn feed you. I think he would enjoy that."
"You don't scare me." She lashed out with her mind, knocking the tray across the room where it hit the metal door with a clatter. She gave the doctor a mental shove and he flew back against the wall. Wynn rushed her and she found herself pinned between him and the wall.
"That wasn't smart." He said. His voice was deceptively quiet.
She could see the doctor approaching, carrying a syringe. Maggie began a futile struggle against Wynn. He wrapped his massive arms around her and turned around. The doctor jabbed the needle into the back of her neck pushing the sedative into her body. Wynn let go of her and she dropped to the floor unconscious.
"This is the place?" Darien asked, peering out his window at the plain cape cod style house down the street.
"That's what the Official said."
"And I'm supposed to go in there and find her?"
"Yup."
"Think there's a lot of guards?"
"Probably."
"Think we can pull this off?"
"Fawkes, buddy, you broke into that FBI office. I have complete faith that you can pull this off." Hobbes watched the house through binoculars.
"You're only saying that cause you don't have to go inside."
"Think about it this way, the anti-terrorist unit is standing by. I say the word and the house is swarmed."
"Alright, I'm going, I'm going." Darien checked his earpiece before letting himself become invisible. "I better get some time off after this." He muttered as he slipped out of the van.
"Keep in touch pal."
"I will." Darien walked up to the back door. There was a man inside sitting at the kitchen table, a semi-automatic weapon in plain sight on the table. He knocked on the back door and waited until the man got up to see who was there. The door opened and the man looked around. When he didn't see anyone, the guard stepped outside to investigate.
Darien took the opportunity and slipped inside the house. He found the stairs to the basement. The lock on the door was the kind that needed a key card to get in. He looked back at the guard who was coming inside. Darien could see his ID card hanging from his belt. When he opened the fridge and leaned inside Darien carefully lifted the card, detaching it from his belt.
He slid the card through the reader and waited for the light to turn green. The lock clicked and he pulled the door open enough for him to slip through. Stairs led down into a gray basement hallway. He looked both ways down the hall and headed toward voices. A door next to him opened and a man in a lab coat and a bigger, bodyguard type came out of a room. The lab coat was speaking quietly to the guard. Darien caught the door before it closed, pushing it back open and slipping inside. Both men looked back at the door, peering inside to see what might have caused the strange occurrence.
Darien let the quicksilver fall away from his body once the door closed and looked around the room. A feeling of déjà vu came over him. The room was set up like mental hospital padded room. There was no furniture, only a small television attached high up on the wall. The walls and floor were covered in soft white padding. A person was slumped on the floor wearing a straight jacket.
"Hobbes, I found her." He said quietly.
"Let me know when you need me." The response was equally quiet in his ear.
"Okay." Softly, Darien padded over to her and helped her sit up. She was very thin and pale. Baby fine red-gold hair stood out brightly against the whiteness of her face. "Maggie?" He shook her lightly and called to her. There was no response. Reaching up, he touched her face. "God, what'd they do to you?" Her eyes half-opened, not focusing. "Maggie? I'm here to get you out." She turned her head to follow his voice, green eyes focused on him for a moment.
"Nick?" She slurred inaudibly.
"I'm Darien Fawkes." He unfastened the straight jacket. "Can you walk?"
She leaned heavily against him and shook her head. "Drugs."
"Okay. Just hold on to me and don't make a sound." He swept her into his arms. "Hobbes? I'm ready for that distraction."
"Roger. Coming right up."
Darien quicksilvered them both and banged on the door. Wynn opened it and looked around. He stepped inside when he noticed it was empty. Darien hit him, connecting with his jaw. Wynn fell back and Darien hurried to the door, pulling it shut behind him. He carried Maggie up the stairs. Halfway up the alarm went off.
"Oh crap." Darien muttered. Praying no one would try to come down the stairs, he pulled the door open. Quickly, he went into the kitchen and out the back door.
Out front, Hobbes heard the alarm and was slowly backing away from the house. "Okay, thanks for your help." He said nervously. The doctor nodded exasperatedly and slammed the door shut. Turning away from the house, he sprinted back to the van. "Fawkes, pal. Talk to me. Fawkes! Damn it Fawkes." There was no answer so Hobbes gave the signal for them to move in. Agents dressed in black swat gear swarmed the house.
The guard in the kitchen jumped up when the basement and then the back doors flew open. He ran outside just as the agents came into the backyard and he opened fire on them. Darien dropped to the ground, Maggie underneath him.
"Hobbes? What the hell's going on?" He yelled, trying to contact his partner.
"Fawkes? Is that you?" Hobbes' voice sounded in his ear.
"Yeah."
"I didn't think you got out. So I sent in the cavalry." There was a pause. "Where are you?"
"In the back-" He was cut off when a bullet ripped through his arm. He lost concentration and they became visible again.
"Fawkes? What happened?" He sounded worried.
One of the agents grabbed Darien and helped him up. "I'm alright. We're coming around." Darien picked Maggie back up and quicksilvered her again before the three of them ran around to the front of the house.
"Thanks." He shouted to the agent as he carried Maggie across the street to the van.
Darien climbed into the back. "Get us out of here Hobbes."
"I'm goin'." He pulled away from the curb and drove off. "Is Rourke okay?"
Darien let go of Maggie and the quicksilver fell away. "I'm not sure." He touched her face. "Maggie? Can you hear me? Darien pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around her. She was shivering, her lips tinged light blue.
"Nick-" She began but trailed off. Her hand came up and touched his arm. "You're hit."
"Yeah. Don't worry about it." He pulled her closer to his warmth. "We're taking you back to the Agency." He told her. "Hobbes, give me your coat."
"Huh? What?"
"Just let me have it."
He tossed his coat in the back as he pulled onto the highway. "We'll be there soon." Darien didn't respond as he wrapped Hobbes' coat around Maggie.
Hobbes pulled into a space in front of the building. Darien threw open the door and carried Maggie inside. Hobbes flashed his badge at the security guard, who waved them through.
"I'll call The Keeper and let her know you're coming." He told them as they rushed down the hall.
Darien could feel the wound in his arm was starting to protest. Hobbes held the door to Basement 5 open and Claire met them on the other side.
"We'll put her in lab 3." She told him. He carried her into the lab, setting her down on the bed. Claire looked at him and ordered him into her lab. "I'll be there in a minute."
Darien wandered back down the hall and into the lab. He tossed his jacket on a chair, hissing in pain at the movement and climbed into the chair. "Is she going to be alright?" Darien asked when Claire came into the lab.
"As soon as she warms up and the drugs wear off. They had her on some very powerful sedatives. She's going to sleep most of today and probably tomorrow." She turned to look at him, seeing the blood on his white t-shirt. "My God, Darien. Were you shot?"
"Yeah."
Gathering some supplies, she ordered him to take off his shirt. "It just grazed you. I think you'll live."
Oh, good. Oww! That hurts." Claire smiled at him in apology as she cleaned the still oozing wound. "How come she was so cold?"
"The quicksilver has such a low temperature, anyone, except you who is in contact with it for a long enough period of time will develop a kind of hypothermia. This is just a local, so I can stitch you up." Claire stuck the needle in his arm.
"So what's so special about Maggie Rourke? The Official only said that she has unique abilities." He asked as she waited for the local to kick in.
"Maggie's a psychic."
"What?"
"Psychic. Among other things, she's a tactile empath. She can read emotions and surface thoughts of a person by touching them. She's also telekinetic. She can move things with her mind. Before she was taken, she received a shot every two weeks that helped her control her gift while she learned how to on her own." She started stitching up the bullet wound on his arm.
"A girl after my own heart." He watched her draw the thin thread through his arm.
Claire smiled. "In a way, she is. If she doesn't get her shot, touching other people would drive her slowly insane before becoming catatonic. She looses total control of her telekinesis and things start to move around." She wrapped his arm with white gauze as a buzzing sound made her look up. She went back out of the lab. Curious, Darien followed her pulling his shirt back on.
Claire went back to lab 3. Maggie was awake, staring at the ceiling through half-closed eyes.
"You're awake!" Claire exclaimed and checked Maggie's vitals.
"Not really." The response was soft. "Thirsty."
Claire helped Maggie drink some water. "Better?" She nodded. "Good. Now back to sleep. You need to let the drugs wear off, give the inhibitor time to work." Maggie nodded. "If you need anything else, just press the call button.
"Kay."
Claire left but Darien stayed in a darkened corner of the room. He felt a deep connection with her and there were questions he wanted to ask. But they would have to wait. He could see her green eyes softly glowing and they drew him to her bedside. He brushed a lock of hair from her forehead, their eyes still locked. She finally drifted off and he left the lab, heading back to the Keeper's lab.
"Hey Keep." He called out, letting her know he was there.
She peered out from behind a glass divider. "What can I do for you Darien?"
"Who's Nick?"
"Nick?"
"Maggie kept calling me Nick."
After a moment, she responded. "Nick was Maggie's Keeper." She set down her pen and turned to face him.
"Maggie's an experiment?" He leaned against the lab chair. "These powers she has, she wasn't born with them was she? That's why she's here instead of a hospital."
"It was a long time ago, a joint project with the army. I don't know much else about it."
"This Agency just loves messing around in people's lives, doesn't it?"
"Darien, the men involved in her project haven't worked here since the mid-seventies. The vast majority of the project was done by the army."
"Why is she here?"
Claire pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose. "I think you should ask her these questions."
"How come I haven't seen her around before? Where's her keeper?"
"He was killed when she was kidnapped." She said softly. "You should really ask her these questions. It's really not my place to tell you." Claire told him and went back to her report. "The Official wants to speak with you, by the way." She added. Darien sighed and left the lab.
Hobbes was already in the Official's office when Darien entered. He took his usual seat.
"What happened boys?" The Official looked grim.
"The guard at her door set off the alarm before I could get out." Darien told him.
"Fawkes wasn't answering me so I gave the signal." Hobbes said.
"My headset wasn't working right." Darien added. "Hey, we got her out, didn't we?"
"And you were shot." The Official pointed out.
"I think it was friendly fire. They couldn't see me."
Shaking his head, the Official leaned back in his chair. "The anti-terrorist unit arrested everyone in the house. There are only a few members still free and we have agents tracking them down. Go on home, boys. I'll see you tomorrow."
Hobbes got up but Darien stopped him. "How come you didn't tell us we were going to save another of your experiments?"
"Maggie has not been an experiment for almost twenty years. She is an active member of this Agency and was an agent in trouble. That is all you need to know." He opened a file and started reading, indicating the conversation was over. Darien got to his feet and followed Hobbes out of the office.