Note-some dates and time lines might not add up to the film such as the time between Cross joining operation outcome and the present, it says Kenneth J. Kitsom died 2003, so in this story it was 1996 in order to get the timings right... This starts part way through the film as I don't really want to try and re-tell the bulk of it, so this started in the same way as the film. We join at the point Cross and Shearing are driving along when Aaron is yelling at her to get out of the car if she has a better plan... Enjoy! R&R
The car had pulled to an abrupt stop. Aaron's mind was now racing. Manila, the Philippines. That was a long way to go, but he would have to make this journey and take Shearing with him in order to be viraled off the blue chems. He held his head in his hands. He had no chems left. He couldn't get to the Philippines without chems. From around the side of the car Shearing appeared.
"I think I can get you some blues. Not much, but some. We need to drive." She gestured to the car. "Come on. I'll explain." She was tugging the door handle and swinging inside as she spoke. For a second Aaron just looked at the car. Manila. Quickly he got back into the car, he didn't want Marta to change her mind about helping him. She gave him a few instructions on where they were headed. Then paused for a second.
"So? Where are we going to get chems? All other outcome agents were killed?" He looked across at her.
"I told you you were 5 of 8. That isn't necessarily true. You are 5 of 9." She looked at him now, her eyes quickly darting back to the road. "When I joined the team of researchers there was a big 'move' going on. Only a few knew about it. Sally was the woman I was replacing. She was practically thrown out because she was to old to carry on. She told me all of... Everything." Agin she paused. "When you joined, there was a big idea. They took three surrogate mothers, made fake family's wanting them to carry children for them. The embryo's implanted were made from random combinations of outcome agents." Aaron nearly crashed the car.
"They made a child? That had to go through... All of this?" He shook his head as he regained control of the car. Marta nodded.
"One didn't get any results. The other two had multiple successes. Unfortunately one mother and the babies were killed in a freak car crash. The other carried one baby to full term. She gave birth to a healthy baby. The mother was never associated with the child again. The baby never has never had a birth certificate, and not really a name. She was given a fake passport, as soon as they could she was taken to England. They raised her in the English lab."
"So this baby was smuggled to England? Was she terminated? How long ago was this?" Aaron missed the turning, swearing slightly under his breath.
"As I was saying, she was raised over there. They found that whatever chems the parents had been taking, she got the effects but on a much smaller scale. When she was 6 they started giving her chems. After..." Aaron cut off her sentence.
"What was she on?" After a second he got a reply.
"All of them." For a minute they looked at each other, the car coming to a full stop in the road.
"All of them?" He repeated.
"Not at the same time. When she was 8 the English lab got shut down. All the doctors were... they were all killed. One of the doctors from our branch went out there as soon as they could. They found her and bought her back. She was already viraled off the greens."
"They viraled her off at, at what 7 years old? It nearly killed me, what about her?" He was nearly yelling, his voice getting louder.
"Aaron. They bought her over here, she lived in the lab un till she was 12. They then moved her out to a house tucked away that isn't on any map. Sally, the woman I replaced? She lived with the girl, un till they decided that Sally was a liability. The government don't know about nine. She's a secret. Completely unknown. Apart from a select few in the lab. She's been viraled off every chem. They didn't bother with any placebo drugs, I don't think. But she might still have some of the blues. They were the last they viraled her off of. Nine could be valuable." Aaron didn't reply to her.
They drove in silence apart from the times Marta gave instructions. They pulled into a forest road, bumping along. They carried on along the road un till a house came into view.
"Remember, Nine's been viraled off everything. She smart, strong, flexible all of it." Marta turned to him, she had to tell him. He had to know before going in there.
"So whats her real name?" He said reaching for the door handle.
"Stop." Marta grabbed his arm. He turned in his seat to face her. "Her name is Nine. She doesn't have another name." Aaron stared at her, turning back to the door, but once again Marta grabbed his arm. "Aaron, we had to do a DNA test on her when she was born. We had to know what enhancements to expect from her." In an instant he the realisation hit him. Marta let out a loud sigh. "She's your daughter. DNA proved it." Aaron shook his head. He couldn't have a child. "It was repeated multiple times. There's no doubt about it." He carried on shaking his head.
"How old is she now? How old?" He had to repeat because Marta was looking ashamed, zoned out from reality.
"umm, She's 16 now." Aaron smacked the wheel.
"damn it..." He had such mixed emotions at this point. They had created a child, from him, and not told him? "Does she know?"
"She knows the number. She knows her father was 5 of 8. Thats it." She looked at the house. "We'd better get going, she'll get suspicious otherwise." She looked at Aaron, taking his hand and squeezing it slightly.
Marta gently knocked on the door. She heard a slight movement on the other side.
"Nine? Its Dr Shearing? It's Marta."
"You're supposed to be dead." A voice said from no where as the door opened. Marta stepped through the door, followed by Aaron.
"Who are you." A voice said again from a more obvious point now, as there was a gun pointed at Aaron's head. There was a girl stood her arm outstretched with the gun in her hand. Marta quickly put a hand on the top of the gun.
"This is Aaron Cross. He's not here to kill you. Or hurt you."
"Aaron Cross?" She looked at Marta. "Outcome?" Marta looked at the floor. Then at Aaron, finally looking at Nine.
"Operation Outcome. 5." Nine lowered the gun.
"He know?" Marta nodded. "Okay then." Aaron noted the English accent. She holstered the gun, heading down the hallway to the kitchen. "Coming?" She asked turing her head.
In the kitchen Aaron could see her properly. She had short hair cut into a kind of bob. It was dark like his, messy and unruly. She was slim, with a rounded face. Her eyes were all green, unlike his blue eyes with a small amount of green in each. She was calm, very sure of her actions. Her and Marta began having a conversation about chems or something along those lines but to him it sounded like it was in a foreign language. It finally returned to something he could understand.
"Blues? Probably. You'll have to look though Dr Shearing. All the chems are upstairs, in the bathroom. There's a cupboard behind the door. It has all the chems I still have." Marta nodded leaving the room. Nine pulled herself up onto the side, crossing her legs beneath her. She sat taking this man in. The man that was supposed to be her Dad. She couldn't even remember the name Dr Shearing had said. They both realised they were staring at each other at the same point, neither knowing what to say. Marta's voice floated down the stairs.
"Nine, how do you keep this place so clean?" She smiled to herself. Aaron looked away for a moment.
"Don't you mind not having a name?" Aaron asked, absentmindedly. "I mean, thats just your outcome number. Didn't you ever want to be called, I don't know... Jenny?" He looked over at her. She was still smiling.
"Would you have called me that? If you knew about me? Would I be Jenny?" Aaron instantly decided he liked her smile.
"I don't know. I never thought of having any kids. I wouldn't know what to name them..." He trailed off.
"I think of Nine as being an unusual name. Like being called November, or Wednesday." Marta came back in.
"Aaron, I found some blues. Only enough for a day. Maybe 2 if you ration." Marta quickly realised she had walked in on a moment she shouldn't have. She passed the chems to Aaron.
"Is that your real name? The one you were born with?" Aaron looked at her, his mind swimming with memories.
"No. I had another name, many years ago." Nine opened her mouth to ask what it was, but decided against it. "Where are you heading?" She looked hopefully up.
"Manila. I need to be viraled off." He looked down at the few chems.
"Well then. You'll be needing a little extra help?" Nine grinned, jumping down off the side, landing gracefully.