Chapter 1 - The Politics of Dancing
It was a good thing that Cas wasn't a human, because he was mentally and physically exhausted as it was. If he'd been human and had needed food and sleep to survive, he would surely have been dead by now. All he had done when he had first gotten back was pace around the bunker, full of nervous energy. Then he would hit the gym in the training room, and the Winchesters would look on, bemused, as their friend would heft weights. He would add more and more weight, until he was pressing impossibly high numbers. Well, impossible for them, that was. But it was mainly for show, of course. Angels' physiques didn't change like that. Whatever Cas had done a while back to make himself so built had been achieved solely by Godly means. But it made him feel better to do it, anyway. Sometimes, the brothers would work out alongside him, keeping him company. When the showdown came, it was likely going to be an all hands-on deck type of situation, and they all wanted to be ready.
Cas would ask Bobby or Liz to babysit Angela at times, and then Frank and Jody would join them. Predictably enough, both of them had gone crazy at first, when Cas had gotten back from the compound and told them what was going on there. How could he have just taken off, and left Gail and Rob there? Cas had explained the situation to them, and they had been somewhat mollified. Then he had brought them over to the bunker and asked Bobby to come down and join them, for the mother of all brainstorming sessions.
"Does such technology exist?" Cas had asked Sam, the very first thing. "Or is he bluffing?"
"I wouldn't be surprised if it did," Sam mused. "I'll make a few calls."
So Sam had, and his law enforcement contacts had hemmed and hawed, but they had eventually confirmed that the technology not only existed, but it could very well already be in use. The innovations in the field seemed to be coming mainly from Europe these days. France and England, in particular, had several experts in the area of subdermal implants, Sam told the group.
"Sub-who whats?" Bobby asked the younger Winchester.
"Planting computer chips under the skin," Sam simplified for him.
"Why would you even DO that?" Frank said with distaste.
"It can have a lot of practical applications, Frank," Sam told him. "People can access security buildings by just showing their hands to the control panel, or pay for goods and services directly, without worrying about carrying cash, or credit cards."
"Which would cut down on muggings, and those types of crimes," Jody remarked.
"Yeah, until some yahoos decide to start grabbing people and cuttin' those chips out of 'em," Bobby said bluntly. Everyone looked at him, startled. "Oh, like you weren't all thinking about it," he added irascibly.
That comment had acted on Cas like a slap in the face. Why hadn't he thought of that? But then, his heart sank. It didn't really matter. That was the same problem they'd had with the bracelets. Even if they could somehow carve all those kids up like pumpkins and get the chips out of them, there was no way that they could do all of that before Vincent commanded the computer to detonate the chips.
"My contact said he's never heard of RFID being used for explosives, but that doesn't mean that it couldn't be," Sam went on. He looked at Bobby. "RFID is 'radio frequency identification'. That's what the technology is supposed to be used for. But he also told me that if they were working on a munitions detonation aspect, he wouldn't be able to tell me. So, I'm gonna call it: Not only do I think the technology is feasible, I think it's being worked on in the U.S. right now."
Dean frowned. "And, that bastard Benoit is from France. He must have brought the technology over from there. Terrific."
"I don't know if that'll catch on here, though," Jody said, frowning. "It's fraught with problems. Not only because of what Bobby said, but I know that people worry about Big Brother watching them, or they're afraid of being hacked."
"Hacked?" Cas said, puzzled. He was still trying to visualize methods to employ that might separate those computer chips from the victims, including a momentary mental image of amputation.
"Yeah, Cas. Computer hacking," Jody said to him, somewhat irritably.
"Could YOU do something like that?" Frank said eagerly to Sam. "Hack that bastard's system?"
Sam shook his head. "No. No way. I wouldn't know the first thing about it, Frank. Even if we hired a computer expert, there's no precedent for a matrix like that."
"Dammit, Sam, wouldja quit throwing around twenty-dollar college words and just tell us what the hell we're supposed to DO, here?!" Bobby exclaimed.
"Bobby, if I knew that, we'd be doing it!" Sam said, raising his voice.
"OK, settle down, everybody," Frank said sternly. Now, everyone looked at him. "I know," Frank said. "Everybody's expecting me to go to pieces. But I'm not going to. I just want to march over there with Cas, dig those computer thingies out of their arms, and shove them up Vincent's ass. But we can't afford to lose our cool, here. Too many lives are at stake. What kind of people would we be if we just saved Rob and Gail, and let all those other ones die? That's not what we're all about."
Jody put her arms around Frank and kissed him. "And that, right there, is why I love you," she told him.
"I hate to say this, but maybe we should just call in the authorities," Bobby said reluctantly.
"No way, Bobby. Not gonna happen," Dean said, shaking his head vigorously.
"Normally, I'd agree with you; but, let's face it, they have the firepower and the expertise to deal with these kinds of situations," Bobby persisted.
"Yeah, until you get something like Waco," Sam said grimly.
"What is that?" Cas asked him.
Sam sighed. "In the early 1990s, there was a cult called the Branch Davidians, led by a man named David Koresh. They were holed up in a compound near Waco, Texas, with all kinds of law enforcement personnel trying to figure out how to get them out. The siege lasted nearly two months, and resulted in a deadly fire that killed all 76 occupants."
"Well, they obviously screwed up," Dean said, frowning. "Why the hell did they wait so long before doing something?"
"That's not how it happened, Dean," Jody informed them. "When I was in the Academy, we talked extensively about Waco. The instructors used it as a cautionary tale." She sighed. "The authorities originally tried to raid the place, armed with a catalogue of charges. Some of the charges probably had validity, too, but they tried to force the issue. The Davidians were heavily armed, and a fierce gun battle later, there were 10 dead people, on both sides. So then, they tried to outwait them. A negotiation team tried to talk to Koresh, because they viewed it as a hostage situation. But Koresh claimed that everyone was there of their own free will. By then, the so-called 'good guys' were split into factions: those who wanted to negotiate a peaceful resolution, and those who wanted to go in there with guns blazing. Some genius decided to use sleep deprivation tactics, like blasting really loud music and jet engine sounds, to try to force them out."
"Yeah. Great plan. Take some guy who's unstable to begin with, try to drive him crazy, and then act surprised when he does something irrational," Bobby growled.
Jody was nodding. "Then, when that didn't work, they cut their water and power. Still nothing. By that point, there were a lot of people who were saying the situation was being handled the wrong way, but nobody seemed to have any viable alternatives, so they pushed on. They released tear gas, but the people were either deep inside the compound, or they had gas masks. Koresh might have been unstable, but he wasn't stupid. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?"
"What happened next?" Cas asked her in a quiet voice.
"Suddenly, three fires broke out and engulfed the compound," Jody replied. "Three separate fires, originating from different spots."
"Who set the fires? Koresh?" Dean asked. "Or the authorities?"
Jody shrugged. "No one really knows. But that doesn't really matter to the people who died in them, does it? Men, women and children, too." There was silence among the group for a moment. "I vote with Dean," Jody went on. "No authorities."
That had been a week ago, their so-called brainstorming session, Cas thought as he paced the floor of the bunker angrily. If you could call it that. They hadn't been able to come up with one viable idea. Not even one.
Now, they had fallen into a routine, of sorts. Frank and Jody and little Angela had moved into the bunker for the time being, using the place as a sort of headquarters. Cas and Bobby and some of the other Angels had helped them transport some belongings and the baby's things back and forth. Jody'd said their house was too quiet and eerie without Rob in it, and they all needed to be together, to keep brainstorming until they came up with The Idea. It was just a matter of time. With all of the brains they had between them, all of the experience they'd all had defeating monsters, human or otherwise, and Cas's powers, they were bound to come up with the solution.
Every day the humans would wake up and make coffee and breakfast, and someone would feed and change Angela. Cas would usually join them, just to be around family, and usually Bobby would, too. At first, Cas had usually just hung around the bunker all night, waiting for everyone to rise. He had tried working out in the gym at night, but Dean had told him that the clanking of the weights was too loud, so now when he felt the need, Cas would go up to Heaven and use one of the Academy rooms. Ethan, Riley, Kevin and Efram got wind that he had been doing that, and eventually, Cas had a whole host of Angels in there with him, working out together. His friends recognized that he needed something to occupy himself, so they started asking him about different weapons and fight techniques, and before he even realized what was happening, Cas was suddenly teaching again.
As the days passed, different Angels rotated in and out. Ethan brought Karen, and Cas very gently showed Ethan's wife a few of the basic self-defense techniques he had shown Gail. Then Linda, Henri and Paul had shown up, and Cas had paired Linda and Henri up, of course. His lips had even twitched when he had cautioned Linda to take it easy on poor Henri, and that had done Cas's friends' hearts good, because that was the closest he'd come to smiling ever since this whole ordeal had begun.
Then, as Cas walked away to assist some other pairs of Angels, he put a foot wrong at the edge of the mat and stumbled, and Kevin and Paul had rushed to grab him by the arms, keeping him on his feet. "Watch that first step..." Kevin and Linda said at the same time. "It's a doozy," Cas responded softly, and then he looked at the mother and son in surprise. "You know that movie?" Cas asked them.
"Everybody knows that movie, Cas," Linda told him.
Cas remembered watching it with Gail one night on TV. She had assured him that he was going to love the film, and as usual, she had been right. Imagine being given the chance to spend the day with your loved one, over and over again, working on redemption until you got it just right. The concept was wonderful. Absolutely enchanting. Oh, the things that Cas could do with an opportunity like that.
This was starting to feel like that, but not in a good way. Even though he knew that this time was different from the time that Lucifer had had Gail and she hadn't known who she was, aspects of it still felt the same. The constant ache of being apart from her was almost too much for him to bear, regardless of the circumstances. How did people who had lost their spouses for good ever get through the day? How could they stand it? Sometimes Cas wished that he didn't have a vessel, because his chest and stomach hurt every moment of every day, and he found it hard to breathe. He saw Gail everywhere he went. He saw her in her usual chair in the bunker, smiling at him and reaching for his hand. Throwing something Dean's way when their friend teased her. Cooking alongside Sam in the kitchen, leaning down to kiss Cas on the cheek as she set the table. When Cas went into the weapons room to work out, he saw Gail sitting perched on a chair, pairing their friends and family up to spar together, saying she was actually cut out for a supervisory role. Catching Cas's eye, and smiling. Cas had tried going to their house on Earth, but all he could see there was Gail's face when everyone had been opening their presents at Christmas. How happy she had been to see everyone so happy. Then she would snuggle against Cas on the couch and tell him how glad she was that he had received her favourite cologne on him as a gift, because she was just going to follow him around all day and smell him. And Cas couldn't go in their bedroom, of course, because then Ralph would look at him with reproach, accusing Cas of being a poor husband because he couldn't seem to stop his wife from being victimized. And it was true. Cas was God, yet he couldn't seem to do the most important job he had, which was to keep Gail safe.
Yet even as he was agonizing over these things, Cas struggled to remind himself that this situation was different. At least he knew exactly where Gail was, this time. Vincent had said that as long as Cas stayed away from there, he wouldn't relocate the compound. And so far, he had been true to his word. Cas wasn't supposed to do it, but he popped over there several times a day anyway, just to be sure. He had the coordinates for the yard, so he would wink himself over there and just stand looking at the building for a while. He kept himself invisible, of course, but he didn't dare push it any further, just in case. He kept hoping that maybe she would come outside again, just so he could catch a glimpse of her. But she never did. Cas imagined that Vincent probably know he was there, and didn't want to take any chances by letting her out. Besides, if he looked at it from Vincent's point of view, this made Cas's suffering all that much more acute. So close, and yet so far.
This time things were different, because Gail knew who she was, and she knew what she was doing. Well, presumably she did, anyway. She'd told Cas before he'd been forced to leave that she was going to cooperate as much as she was able, until she was in a position to circumvent Vincent's plans. Either that, or until such time as Cas and the others came up with a way to rescue all of the people in the compound without any loss of life.
But Cas was letting her down again on that score, wasn't he? None of them had been able to figure out one single way to deliver them all from their plight. Cas murmured his thanks to Kevin and Paul now, and then he moved away from them to walk among the other Angels.
Paul stared after Cas for a moment. He too felt like he was letting Gail down. Surely with Paul's background, he should be able to come up with something. He had tried putting himself in Vincent's place. It wasn't all that long ago that Paul had been a bad guy himself. OK, well, bad-guy-adjacent, maybe. He'd blown himself up on Earth before he'd had the chance to decide how bad he was actually gonna be. And thank God he had; otherwise, he might not be here right now. He and Henri had talked a lot about that during their nightly bull sessions. How much of what happened in their lives had been by design, and how much was freedom of choice?
Paul had been wracking his brains. What was Vincent's endgame? Apparently, he was trying to winnow out the best of his offspring from the others, and form an army of sorts. For what purpose, none of them really had any clue. But the fact that Vincent seemed to consider the less talented ones expendable worried Paul greatly. It worried him a lot.
"Come on, Paul," Ethan said. "Quit daydreaming. Your knife work needs...well, work."
"Keep your pants on, Baretta," Paul quipped.
"Hey, if you can't do the time, then don't do the crime," Ethan retorted, and the two men laughed together. They were easier with each other now, but when they'd first come upon each other in Heaven, there had definitely been some tension between them. Ethan hadn't forgotten that Paul had been in Lucifer's camp when they'd first made his acquaintance. But Cas vouched for Paul, Ethan knew, and he also knew that the newly reminted Angel had helped Cas and Gail out of a couple of scrapes already in the short time he'd been here, so that was good enough for Ethan.
For his part, Paul had also been leery of Ethan for a bit. Everything about Ethan screamed "The Man" to Paul. He was white, he wore his hair short, and he acted like he was fresh out of the Police Academy. Which in a way, Paul supposed he was. He knew now that Ethan had been shot in the line of duty when he'd been just a rookie. But Cas vouched for Ethan, and Paul admitted to himself that his respect for Castiel had grown to the point that that was good enough for Paul. So they were still feeling their way, but it appeared as though Ethan and Paul were going to be all right.
But now, as the two men prepared to face off, it was Ethan's attention that wandered. As Cas meandered throughout the room, Ethan noticed that Pamela was circling him, like a shark. What was this, now?
As Ethan continued to watch Pamela, she touched Cas lightly on the arm. "Would you mind showing me the choke hold maneuver again?" Pamela asked Cas. "I'm a little rusty on that one. I teach so many females, and most of them are shorter than me. Plus, they're not as strong as you are. I need somebody who will give me a real challenge."
Pamela was trying not to gape at Cas as she looked at him now. He'd unconsciously rolled up the sleeves of his shirt in the way that Gail liked, and even though Pamela could only see Cas's bare forearms, she could tell that he had bulked up quite a bit recently. Have mercy.
Pamela had tried to forget about her attraction to Cas, and she had fooled herself into thinking that she had succeeded. He was hardly ever around, anyway. He and that little witch with a b he was married to spent the vast majority of their time on Earth, anyway. The two of them were almost never apart. But in the weird way that these things sometimes go, Cas's near-constant absence from Heaven and obvious devotion to his wife had only served to inflame Pamela's infatuation for him even more. And now he was back, stalking around the gym like a sleek and sexy tiger, looking tanned and muscular. Pamela couldn't take it anymore. She needed to feel his hands on her and his body on top of hers, even for just a moment. Then the memory would be fresh, the next time she thought about him at night. The way she thought about him every night.
"I'll do it," Riley offered quickly, stepping forward. Like Ethan, he'd been eyeing Pamela, too. Riley remembered back when they'd opened the original Academy, Pamela had been all over Cas. He'd had to ask Riley to pair up with her, because every time Cas had tried to train with Pamela, there had been something about her demeanour that had made Cas uncomfortable. She had eventually made an overt advance towards him, on that fateful day that Cas had killed her brother Scott, when Scott had made advances towards Gail. The couple had found out later that Patricia had exhorted the brother and sister to try and tempt Cas and Gail into adultery, or at least, that was the story that Pamela had given. Patricia had had a different version, of course, but no one had believed her, because everybody knew that Patricia was batcrap crazy. Cas had kept Pamela on at the Academies because she was a good instructor, and he needed all the female instructors he could get. Also, she had behaved herself this entire time. Cas had had several of the Angels report back to him about Pamela, and they said that she had been a complete professional.
So, Cas held up his hand now. "No, it's all right, Riley," he said absently. "I'll do it."
Riley stood down, but he stayed close, casting dubious glances at Pamela. "It's good to see you, my Lord," Pamela said to Cas, smiling pleasantly. "We don't get the pleasure of your company very often."
"I'm a busy man, these days," he replied.
The two of them began to circle each other on the mat. "Not too busy to maintain your tan, though, I see," Pamela remarked.
Riley frowned, but Cas kept his expression neutral. "I enjoy the sunshine," he commented. "There's just something about - " Suddenly, he lunged at Pamela, and grabbed her from behind in a chokehold. He had her head in the crook of his arm, and his other hand was on the top of her head, as it would be as if he were about to twist, breaking her neck.
Pamela's hands automatically flew up, grabbing his arm. She squeezed his bicep, intending to use a pressure point in the crook of his arm or on his wrist, but she lingered for a moment. She just couldn't help herself. His arms were so big now, and his muscles were rock-hard. He smelled amazing, too.
"Why are you hesitating?" Cas growled softly in her ear. "Had I been a real assailant, I would have snapped your neck by now."
Pamela felt weak in the knees. She had imagined this type of scenario many times. He would spin her around, and she would look up at him adoringly. Then he would pull her to him and kiss her roughly on the mouth, telling her that he and his wife were not going to remarry after the annulment, and that he'd been attracted to Pamela for a long time now. Then his hands would be on her bare skin, and -
Cas threw Pamela down on the mat and took his blade out of his pants pocket. He touched the spring and went down on his knees, holding the blade tip to her throat. All of the Angels stopped what they had been doing and froze in place, watching quietly.
"If you ever do that again, you will join your brother in death," Cas said angrily. "Do you think I do not know what you are doing? Now get up, and leave my sight. I am a married man, as you well know."
Cas took his blade away as Pamela struggled to her feet. "That's not what I hear," she said tartly. If she had been a human, Pamela's face would have been bright red now. Everyone was staring at her. Now she was humiliated, and she was also angry. "Even if you get your wife back in one piece, you're in the midst of the ancient annulment process, aren't you?" Pamela said bluntly.
The Angels in the room all gasped. Only their close family and friends had known about that, although rumours had circulated, of course. But they couldn't believe the utter audacity of the girl. Cas and Gail were currently apart, not due to any annulment, but because Gail was in mortal peril on Earth.
Cas's eyes blazed a bright blue, and he raised his hand towards Pamela. But before he could smite her into oblivion, Cas felt someone grab his hand from behind.
"Careful, your Godship," Gabriel said softly. "You don't want to do something you'll regret."
"I cannot imagine that I would ever regret it," Cas said through clenched teeth.
"Now, how do you think our little Kitten would feel when she comes back, and you have to tell her you're getting locked up in your own prison?" Gabe asked Cas. "I don't think she'll be too happy about that, do you?" The Archangel made eye contact with Riley and Kevin, the Angels who were standing closest to Pamela. He jerked his head in her direction. "Take that bit-" He cut himself off, glancing at Liz. "Take that bit of fluff away."
Riley and Kevin moved forward and grabbed Pamela by her arms, and they were none too gentle about it.
"No. Gabriel is wrong," Liz piped up, and everyone looked at her, puzzled. "Take that BITCH away," Liz said deliberately, glaring at Pamela. The Angels hustled the girl out of the room as Gabriel relaxed his hold on Cas. Gabe smiled at Liz. "I couldn't have said it better myself," he said to her.
Cas took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, trying to calm himself down. He looked at Gabriel. "Go about your bid-ness, everybody," Gabriel said casually. "Nothing to see here."
As the Angels went back to what they had been doing, Gabriel peered closely at Cas's face. "You doing okay there, big guy? Do you need a minute?" Then, because he was who he was, Gabe smirked. "'I cannot imagine that I would ever regret it'," Gabe quoted, repeating what Cas had said about Pamela. "That was pretty good. You're gonna have to start writing those down for me. I think I have to up my verbal game. As it is, Liz has installed a swear jar in her office."
Cas sighed. "I'm not in the mood to joke around, Gabriel."
"I know, Cas. I'm sorry," Gabe said sincerely. "Look, I want to help, any way I can. Do you want me to go all Archangel on your father-in-law's ass?"
"No," Cas said, frowning. "Force isn't the answer. Believe me, if it were, I would have rained down Holy fire on the place by now. What I wouldn't give..." His eyes flashed bright again, and his fists clenched. "But we can't risk it. We have to take a subtle approach in this case. But it's killing me, Gabriel. The longer this goes on, the more frightened I become."
Gabriel's forehead wrinkled. "Is there anything I can do, Cas? Anything at all? I owe you and Gail one. Actually, I'm pretty sure I owe you more than one. Do you want me to send you back in time, to before you guys went to that bar in Virginia that I'm not supposed to know about?"
Cas opened his mouth, but Gabriel put his hand up. "No, Cas. It's OK. Gail was really depressed, and Liz thought if I came, I might say something inappropriate. Me. Can you imagine?" Cas stared at him balefully, and Gabriel added, "OK, OK. Bad example. But if I take you back to before you went there, she's not in that compound. Right?"
Cas was miserable. "Yes, Gabriel. But everyone else still WOULD be. What kind of a God would I be if I were to even entertain such a notion?"
Gabriel looked at his Brother with compassion. He was right, of course. But just as the Archangel was trying to think of something comforting to say, Cas's cell phone rang. He had been keeping it in his other pants pocket. He took it out. The display said "Unknown Number". He answered it, but the room was noisy and he couldn't make out who was on the other end, so he hurried out of the gym and into the corridor.
"Hey, dumbass, watch your flank," Paul said to Ethan, smirking. Then he reached down, extending his hand to Ethan to help him up from the mat. Paul had lunged at Ethan with the pretend knife and Ethan had used his best evasive move, but he had overbalanced, falling to the mat with a thud.
Linda strode over to the two men, shaking her finger at Paul. "You be nice to Ethan," she scolded the young black Angel. "He's a good man. We go way back."
"Ahhh, I was just yanking his chain," Paul told her, grinning. "Yeah, it's OK, Linda," Ethan assured her. "We're fine."
"OK, well...good," Linda said, sounding almost disappointed.
Paul laughed, taking her hand. "Hey, if it's a fight you're after, I can give you one later, if you want."
"Paul," she said, "behave yourself." But she was smiling now, and she gave his hand a squeeze.
Ethan's mouth dropped open. "But - we thought - "
"I know, I know," Linda said. "Everybody just assumed that it was Henri and I who were dating." Then she frowned, looking up at Paul. "I guess the cat's out of the bag now, though. We'd better have our little talk with Kevin soon. I don't want him to find out from someone else." She looked around the room, pointing her finger at all the Angels, who were looking at them. "So everybody just keep their mouths shut," Linda said sternly.
As soon as Cas got out into the hallway, he spoke into the phone again. "Hello? Is anyone there?"
"Cas, it's me," Gail said softly.
His heart leaped in his chest. "Are you all right, my love? Where are you?"
"I'm OK, Cas, but I can't talk loud, and I can't talk for long," she replied. "I'm still in the compound. But I knew how worried everybody would be, sp I wanted to let you know I'm OK. Rob is, too. Tell Frank and Jody. But I can't stay on the phone, sweetie. I took a big chance, lifting this phone. I'm playing politics right now. I told Vincent I'd cooperate, with the understanding that I refused to hurt anybody, or stand by if one of the three amigos did it. Jason - "
" - Have they hurt you?" Cas interrupted anxiously.
Gail smiled grimly. Never mind. She would tell Cas about Jason when she saw her husband next. With any luck, that would be soon. "No, but I can't worry about that. I'm doing a delicate dance, Cas. As long as I cooperate, Vincent's made me certain promises. But if he finds out I'm talking to you, he'll freak out. I made him certain promises, too. But unless you have an extraction strategy for us, I just might be able to do something from the inside, here. How are YOU, Cas? Are you OK?"
A tear dribbled from the corner of his eye. No. No, he wasn't. Of course he wasn't. He should be doing something. He should be saving her. Gail had been very evasive to him about her sojourn in Hell, but Cas had elicited some details from their family and friends about the team effort it had taken to get her out. But apparently, aside from them telling her where the Portal was, Gail had done it all pretty much on her own. Now, she was on her own again. Cas hitched in a breath.
"I've got to go, Cas. I'll try to get outside at some point. If I get far enough away from the building, maybe I can call you on Angel Radio. 'Bye," Gail said, and then she hung up abruptly.
Cas stood there, staring at the phone in his hand. He hadn't even told her that he loved her. He hadn't even apologized to her for letting her down.
He put the phone back in his pocket, then winked down to the bunker to tell everyone about her call.
Gail returned the cell phone to Benoit's jacket pocket, putting a finger to her lips. Rob gave her a quick smile, and then he sat up straight in his chair as Gail touched Benoit on the forehead.
"So as I was saying, I'm going to lay out some cards on the table, face down," Benoit told the young man, as if they had just been speaking a moment ago. "You will tell me what you think the symbols are on them, and I'll record your answers. If the results are good, we will proceed to more difficult tasks."
Rob's lips were twitching. Wow. That had been awesome. It was so weird seeing Aunt Gail being so pleasant with these guys, pretending to work with them. But Rob was smart enough to know that she was up to something. So he'd kept his mouth shut, and followed Benoit's instructions. Gail had hooked Rob up to the machine that was supposed to measure his brain waves, telling Benoit that, since he was her nephew, Rob would squirm less if it was her who was doing it. So Benoit had allowed it, sitting back in his chair to wait. While Gail was taking care of that, she was sending Rob a message with her mind, hoping that he would pick up on it. She had no way of knowing if he had, but he had seemed to relax under her ministrations.
Then, when Gail had finished hooking everything up, she had walked back to Benoit's side of the table and stood behind him. Suddenly, she put her hand quickly on his head, modifying his memory. Benoit was still talking, explaining the testing process to Rob, as Gail drew up a chair next to Benoit. But even as she was deftly checking his pockets, the man didn't react at all to what she was doing. It was the weirdest, coolest thing that Rob had ever seen. But he didn't dare laugh, because the situation was too serious.
Gail couldn't believe her luck when she'd found the cell phone in Benoit's inside jacket pocket. They weren't supposed to have those, especially not in the testing rooms. But she'd discovered quite a lot of things about the dynamics between Vincent and the testers in the last few days that they probably wouldn't want her to know, things that she thought could prove very useful.
When Cas had been forced to leave the compound, Gail had initially been very angry. Recalcitrant. Go ahead and blow her up, then, she'd told Vincent. Blow them all up. What the hell did she care? While he was at it, though, he should blow himself up too, because that would be a merciful death compared to what Cas was going to do to him. Vincent had just smiled indulgently at her, and then he'd snapped his fingers, putting her back in her suite.
She'd sat there stewing for a day, maybe two. There was no real way to mark time here. No windows, no clocks. So she just sat there, staring straight ahead, her mind inventing creatively painful ways for Vincent to die. Then she had tried to put her mind to more constructive use, wondering just how the hell she was going to get them out of this predicament. Cas would be at the bunker brainstorming with everyone, she knew, but she needed to do her part, too. How many of Vincent's progeny were here? What kind of talents did they have? How could those be used against him? But first and foremost, in her mind was the chip with the explosives. Her wrists were still red, and she examined them carefully now. She looked up nervously at the security cameras. But then, she'd decided it didn't matter. Even if they were watching her right now, she was only looking. It would be pretty normal behaviour to want to look, if someone told you that you had explosives embedded in your arm, wouldn't it? She couldn't see anything under her skin, but that didn't really mean anything. She thought about feeling around, but the thought made her nervous. Who knew how sensitive the things were? Just because Vincent said they were computer-controlled didn't mean that they couldn't be set off by other means. And if she started playing around too much and they saw her on the cameras, they could...what? What would they do?
Who knew, but she'd decided to tread lightly for now. What she needed was more information. She had way too many questions, and zero answers. So then she decided that the next time that he came for her, she was going to ask him for some. If she appeared to be considering giving him a modicum of her cooperation, maybe they could do a "quid pro quo" kind of thing. Gail had no problem picturing the bastard as Hannibal Lecter. None at all.
But she would have to be careful. Vincent was a lot of things, but he wasn't stupid. If she cooperated too easily, he wouldn't believe her. So she turned on the TV and sat watching it for a while, and then, when she thought the time was right, she said aloud, "If you meant what you said about letting us all go home after the testing, I might be willing to talk about an arrangement."
She waited a few more minutes, and predictably enough, there was a knock at the door. A moment later, Vincent let himself in.
"Of course I meant what I said," he told her, without preliminary.
"Wow. Stalk much?" she said sarcastically, indicating the security cameras.
"You knew very well that I was watching you," he said matter-of-factly. "It was me you were talking to, wasn't it?"
"OK, you've got me, there," she said. She shut off the TV and looked at him. "If you know me as well as you think you do, then you know that I'm not happy here without my husband. So, since you won't let him stay here with me, I might be inclined to help you, just so we can speed the process along and get home. That's if you were telling the truth, of course. I'm sure you'll understand that I have some trust issues. That tends to happen when people plant bombs in me, and menace my family."
Vincent smiled, giving her a half-shrug. "Sure, I get that," he said casually. "But I needed to get your attention, somehow. That husband of yours is insanely hot. Why would you want to leave THAT to spend some time with your dear old dad?"
Gail said nothing. If he was trying to get a rise out of her, he would have to try a lot harder than that. He should try a verbal joust with Crowley sometime.
Vincent appraised her. "Do you have the full Angelic array of powers?"
Gail laughed shortly. "I'm not even sure what that means, but yes, I have the standard powers. I can help you with the testing, if you want. But I refuse to hurt anyone, and I won't tolerate any of your testers hurting anyone, either. If you can assure me of that, and promise me that we'll all walk out of here explosion-free at the end of it, I'm willing to help you move things along. I can teleport, modify people's minds, and do a bunch of other cool things."
Vincent smirked. "Those are a lot of conditions for someone who's not in any position to dictate conditions."
She shrugged. "Take it or leave it. I'm an eternal being. So unless you're going to blow me up right now, I can wait. How good's your intel? Are you aware that I was dead, recently? Yet, here I am. I've died for my principles before, and I'll do it again, if I have to."
"Well, aren't you noble," Vincent said in a harsh voice. He was pissed off now. She had been dead recently? He hadn't known anything about that. Why hadn't he known anything about that? But he took a breath and thought about it for a minute. What she was requesting wasn't unreasonable by any means, and it wasn't anything he wasn't prepared to give. But he didn't want her to think he was that easy. "Maybe I'll just blow up a bunch more kids, then," he added nastily.
Gail felt sick to her stomach when he said that, but she was determined to stand her ground. If she kept letting him hold that over her, they'd never get anywhere. She visualized Cas, sitting at the high-limit poker table. Cool as a cucumber, while holding absolutely nothing. She shrugged. "Then I guess you won't be testing any kids, will you?"
They stared at each other for what felt like an eternity. Gail didn't blink; she was afraid to even breathe. But then, Vincent smiled slowly. "Very good, Gail. Good girl. There's my DNA, kicking in. Either that, or Castiel has injected some of his ice water into your veins."
Gail felt a sudden chill. What a strange thing to say. For a moment, she had a vision of Cas, holding her down and injecting her with his own poisoned blood. But that had never happened, and besides, she hadn't thought about it in years. She shook it off. "I just don't think you would go to all this trouble only to sabotage your whole operation," she told him, "especially when I haven't asked you for anything you're not already willing to give. Am I right?"
Now it was Vincent's turn to be a little disconcerted. That was exactly what he'd been thinking, just a moment ago. Maybe Gail should be staying in the Psychic Wing, instead. But if she was truly willing to play ball, he supposed he could, too. Besides, he had the upper hand, in a number of aspects. If he needed her to capitulate to something before his secret weapon took hold, he could always explode a couple more kids. But Vincent was certain that he could outwait her on that score. Even now she was being compromised, and she had absolutely no idea.
"Oh, and I want to see Rob, too," Gail added. "Make sure he's all right."
"OK, now you're pushing it," Vincent said, frowning. "I'll tell you what. I'll start you out with Dr. Roarke and the teleporters. You can actually be a big help, there. We'll set you up in the receiving area. Then you can shuttle them back to the testing room afterwards. He wants to attach a monitor to the subjects, measuring their vital signs, and all that crap. But don't worry, it won't hurt the poor things. Not that I really care. But, he's the doctor, and I gave him the green light to do his thing." He smiled again, but it was an insincere, wolfish one. "And just so you know, the testing area will be covered in sigils."
Gail nodded. Of course it would be. That was okay; there was no way she would just up and leave, deserting Rob and all the other innocents who were here.
"We'll see how you do with Roarke," Vincent continued. "If you cooperate and don't cause any trouble, we can talk about extending your privileges. Sound good?"
No. "Yes," Gail said. "Yeah. Fine."
Vincent stood there for a moment, looking at her. "You know, I really don't want to hurt you, Gail. I know you've been hurt plenty, in the past. Sometimes, by the ones who claim to love you the most. I'll be back for you in the morning."
As Gail sat on the couch puzzling over what he could possibly have been talking about, Vincent let himself out of her suite. Then, he smirked again. Out of tiny acorns, mighty oaks sometimes grew. Roarke had assured him that the formula would work on her very effectively. It would just take a little systemic dosing, just like with her husband. But in the meantime, she could be Vincent's little Angel flunky, while thinking that she was pulling one over on him.
He walked down the corridor, whistling a happy tune.
Gail had thought that the hardest thing would be to deal with Vincent. But now, as she walked into the test lab and saw Dr. Roarke standing there, she realized she might have been wrong about that. This was the Angel who had dosed Cas to the brink of madness in Heaven's jail. Dr. Roarke? Dr. Mengele, was more like it.
But she had to grit her teeth and work with the man, if she had any hopes of getting them out of this mess. However, that didn't mean she should be too nice, either. Vincent wasn't here at the moment, but he would doubtless be receiving a report. If she was too polite to the man who had done those things to Cas, Vincent would smell a rat.
"Let's get one thing straight, right away," Gail said to the Angel. "I hate you. If you and I were meeting under any other circumstances, and I had my blade, you would be one dead doctor right now." She heaved a sigh. "Having said that, I have agreed to work with you. But if I see one syringe coming out, or if you hurt any of the test subjects, I'll kill you anyway, and I'll do it with a smile on my face. Are we understood?"
Dr. Roarke stared at her. He had heard a lot of stories about Castiel's wife, and now, he saw that most of them had apparently been true. Patricia had told him that Gail was common, and that she was rude. She was obviously violent, as well. Considering who she was married to, that came as no real surprise. The instant that Castiel had accidentally acquired the Office from Patricia, the good doctor had fled Heaven, using the Portal that Patricia had created for her spies to use. He had been taking no chances. Jason had brought Dr. Roarke into Vincent's employ, although how a vampire who used to be an Angel would know an ancient voodoo High Priest was beyond Roarke. He wasn't sure he even wanted to know.
But Dr. Roarke had his own reasons for being here. Gail's bitter mental reference to Dr. Mengele a few moments ago was closer to the mark than she might have realized. The Angel doctor had been fascinated by pharmaceuticals for as long as he could remember. When he had been a human, many drugs had been in their infancy, as far as research and development were concerned. He used to stay late in the lab, experimenting with different combinations. But he'd never had the chance to try out any of his concoctions on any human beings. Before he'd had the opportunity to formulate any sort of plan, there had been a fire in the building, and Dr. Roarke had perished in it. Because he had helped so many people in life in his profession as a physician, he had gone to Heaven. People weren't sent to Hell on the basis of their mental meanderings, but on their deeds. If Roarke had had the chance to follow through on his thoughts of experimentation on humans, his fate would have been quite different. But as it was, here he was, an Angel, working for an ersatz Axis of Evil. Patricia had availed herself of his dark hobby in Heaven in order to subjugate Castiel, and even though he'd had to flee Heaven when Castiel had taken over the reins of power, Roarke had found a new home here.
He looked at Gail dispassionately. It was so strange, the idea of working alongside Castiel's wife. The doctor felt complete apathy towards her, though. He could understand why she was upset with him, of course. But that did not concern Roarke. Vincent had assured him that she would cooperate with him, and if she did not, he need only report it.
"I will explain to you what we will be doing here," he said to Gail, ignoring her little speech. He showed her the equipment he would be using, then handed her a walkie-talkie unit. "You will be in the receiving room," he instructed her. "Once I have hooked the subject up to the monitor, I will give the coordinates for the receiving room, and tell them to transport themselves there. Then I will call you on the transmitter, to let you know they are coming. As soon as the subject appears, I would like you to note the time, and the numbers that appear on the monitor."
"What is this 'monitor', exactly?" Gail asked him suspiciously.
"It's just to measure vital signs," the doctor said in a businesslike tone. "I'm interested in seeing the effects that the act of teleportation have on the human body."
Gail was seething inside, but she was being careful to maintain a calm facade. Yeah, she could just bet he was "interested in the effects". He had obviously been interested in the effects of toxic injections on Angels, too. Her hands curled into fists and she dug her fingernails into her palms, taking a deep breath. "What if they don't show up?" she asked him, trying to maintain her focus on the task at hand. "When I was first learning how to teleport, sometimes I missed, and ended up elsewhere." And do you know who helped me learn how to do it, teaching me patiently and lovingly? The guy you were systematically poisoning in Heaven, she thought angrily. Boy, she'd better stop having those kinds of thoughts right now, though. Either her fingernails were going to pierce straight through her hand in a minute, or she was going to pick up the nearest blunt instrument and study the effects of repeated bashings on a doctor's skull.
"This facility is set up for many contingencies," Dr. Roarke told her, maintaining his calm tone. "This particular area is sealed off from the remainder of the compound. Once we get them in here, it'll be impossible for them to teleport out of the grid. If they don't show up within a few seconds of when I call you on the radio, it'll be your job to walk around the corridors and look for them. Vincent has advised me that we have to work within the framework of sigils here. Therefore, neither of us can teleport, even though the humans can," he added, frowning.
Interesting, Gail thought. She showed no reaction to the fact that Dr. Roarke had basically just told her that he was as powerless as she was, at the moment. It was too soon to act right now, but she filed that little tidbit away for future reference.
Then the testing began, and Gail soon lost herself in the routine. The "subjects" ranged in age from early teens to a couple of people who looked like they were in their 40s. One by one they filed into the test lab, and Dr. Roarke put them through their paces. Most were cooperative; docile, even, as if they had been sedated. Gail looked suspiciously at Dr. Roarke, but he couldn't have injected anyone with anything, as she had been here with him the whole time. She had insisted on staying with him until each subject was outfitted. Then she would take the radio and the clipboard and pen, and walk down the hall to the room where the person was supposed to show up. Roarke hadn't been pleased that she had insisted on walking back and forth each time instead of just remaining in the receiving area, but she had glared at him balefully, and he had given in, rather than start an argument.
There were a couple of reasons that Gail had wanted to do it that way. The first reason was that she wanted to make sure the doctor wasn't doing anything he shouldn't to those people when her back was turned. But there was another reason, as well.
She had been hoping that a couple of them would mess up, and sure enough, Dr. Roarke called her on the radio four subjects in to tell her that the girl who was supposed to be in the receiving area had left.
"You mean Violet?" Gail said into her walkie.
"Subject 004," he said back.
"If that's Violet, then yes," she replied sharply. Gail had made it a point to ask them all for their names as Roarke was sitting them down and hooking them up. She was determined to make the point that these were human beings, not "subjects".
"Well, she's not here," Gail said into her radio. "I'll go look for her."
Good. Gail walked out of the room and up and down the corridors, looking for the girl. It afforded her the opportunity to check the place out. Ultimately, though, she was disappointed. There was absolutely nothing to see. No rooms, no exits. The place was like a mouse maze. She came upon Violet in one of the hallways and brought her back to the test lab, after assuring the girl that everything was just fine. Violet followed her complacently. It was really strange. None of the people seemed agitated, or had any questions. They had to be sedated somehow.
But then, a few people later, a young man walked into the test lab, and Gail had to do a double-take. Rob? No, although he resembled her nephew enough for her to have had to look twice. Then, she remembered: When she had first gotten here, Vincent had told her that Rob had a twin brother, who was also here.
"Hi! What's your name?" she asked the young man, her pen hovering over the page on the clipboard.
"It's Eric. What's yours?" he asked boldly.
She looked at him, intrigued. Eric. Eric. Gail was pretty sure that was the name that Vincent had used. Also, he was the first lively person they had seen. The others had just shuffled in, followed instructions, and then shuffled out.
"I'm Gail," she told him. "If you'll have a seat, we'll be done in a jiffy."
"Oh, yeah? Why, are you going, after me?" Eric said sarcastically.
Gail's lips twitched. She couldn't help it. She liked this guy. That was exactly what she would be saying, if she was in his position.
"Never mind; just sit in that chair and hold out your arm," Dr. Roarke said to the young subject. The doctor was puzzled. Everyone else had behaved themselves. Maybe he should check after this session, to make sure the air vents were working properly in the young man's room.
But even though Eric was frowning at the two of them, he sat down and allowed the doctor to attach the equipment to him without further comment.
As soon as Roarke gave Gail the nod, she left the room and headed down the hall. Her heart was beating a little faster now. Rob's twin brother. Wow. She liked the fact that he'd been a little defiant. Maybe they could use that, further on down the line.
Gail waited in the room, but Eric didn't come when the doctor said he was supposed to be there. So she went wandering through the halls again and found him rushing around, examining the ceiling and the walls.
"Hi," Gail said to the young man, making him jump.
"All right, fine. You caught me," Eric said, shrugging. "I was actually trying to get outside the building, but I ended up here, instead."
She was bemused. "They've sealed this whole wing up, just in case anybody tried that," Gail told him.
"What do you mean, 'they'?" he said irritably. "Aren't you working with them?"
She sighed. "It's complicated. Do you think you could have made it, if the place wasn't sealed?"
Eric smirked. "Lady, I would be in Mexico right now if I could have gotten the hell out of here."
Gail's lips twitched again. OK, she really liked this guy. She could see the family resemblance when she looked closer at his face. He was a little shorter and stockier than Rob, but there could be no doubt that they were brothers.
She opened her mouth to say something; anything, because he was looking at her strangely now, almost as if he knew what she was thinking. But then, the radio crackled. "We'll be right there," she said irritably, giving Eric an apologetic look. He frowned again, but followed her back to the test lab.
Then, a while later, they were finished. Dr. Roarke gathered up all of the sheets of paper that Gail had given him and changed the frequency on his walkie unit. A minute or so later, Vincent came in.
"So, how was your day?" he asked Gail cheerfully.
"Just let me punch my time card, and then you can take me for a beer," she quipped.
He threw his head back and laughed. "See? It's not so bad, is it?" he said to her. As Gail tried to formulate a suitable retort, Vincent looked at Dr. Roarke. "How was she?" her father asked the Angel.
"She was adequate," the doctor said expressionlessly, engrossed in the data he was studying.
"Wow. Remind me to take you off my list of job references," Gail said dryly.
Vincent laughed again. He'd had no idea she would be this much fun. "You know, if you really meant it about that drink, I have a fully stocked liquor cabinet in my suite," he told her.
She looked at him coolly. A couple of quips from her and suddenly, he thought they were besties, or something. Was he honestly trying to schmooze her? But then, she thought about it some more. While he was trying to schmooze her, she'd best be trying to schmooze him. The more information she could gather about him and his operations here, the better.
"Do you have any whiskey?" she asked him.