Devil's Silver #10: Storms of Quicksilver (Prologue)
By Carol M.
Summary: Darien must protect his family from a madman with the help of the Agency and someone unexpected.
Rating: PG-13 to R for violence, angst, and maybe a little sex
Spoilers: little bitty ones that can be kind of fun to spot
Disclaimer: Don't own them, just play with them
Devil's Silver Stories: Devil's Silver, Gilligan and Mrs. Howell, Follow the Breadcrumbs, Brother to Brother, A Tale of Two Brothers, Wicked Game, A Wedding Story, Uninvited, A Life for a Life (all at ff.net under Carol in I-man section)
Note: Yes folks, I finally wrote another Devil's Silver. There are several things to keep in mind for this story. One is that Darien is still afflicted with QSM. DS went out into it's own universe a long time ago, so pretty much everything on the show after Brother's Keeper has been ignored. Two is that this is a basic sequel to Uninvited with references to A Life for a Life. I strongly suggest that you go back and at least skim through Uninvited if you don't remember it. For those who vaguely remember it, I'm bringing back my fave bad guy Jason Sullivan (Stark's brother, the guy who's stuck in permanent Stage Five QSM thanks to Arnaud and who nearly beat Darien to death. Oh yeah, and Arnaud still has a gland, but he's not permanently invisible anymore). Anyway, old Jason has been locked up in the loony bin for a few years and wanted to come out and play. One other thing about this story, it takes place five years after A Life for a Life. This means that Katie Fawkes is five years old and no longer an infant. I did this primarily because I wanted to focus on the relationship between Darien and his daughter. I know, I know, I aged her like a soap opera, hehehehe, so sue me. Anyway, enough of my rambling. Enjoy it, kiddies!!!
Jason Sullivan was used to the plain white walls by now. He had been in the same room for six years, sentenced to live out the rest of his life in a cell by the good people of San Diego. Three counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, property destruction, mayhem; the usual for someone who was in permanent stage five quicksilver madness.
He sat perched in his bed, looking at the nasty wall where a two-way mirror had once hung that had allowed the doctors to observe him. The mirror had been broken three times in his six-year reign. He had managed to cut the throat of one of his doctors with a piece of the glass the first year he had been there. In the second year, he had knicked one of the arteries in his left arm, leaving a thick nasty scar that stretched from his wrist to his elbow. After the murder of a nurse, the doctors and security guards had decided to remove the mirror permanently from his cell.
Besides the white walls, there was the bed. Hard as hell and just as uncomfortable. One crappy, flea infested pillow. A book. Two changes of clothing. A small toilet. Toilet paper. And a small doggy door where he got his food and other amenities.
Oh yes, and there were the thermal detectors. Detectors on the walls, detectors on the ceilings, detectors on the floor, hell, even detectors in the damn bed. If Jason decided to put his gland to use, they would see him no matter what. Or so they thought.
For six years, Jason had done nothing but perfect his use of the gland. He had gotten so good at maintaining his quicksilver, that he could turn his bed invisible for the better part of a month with just one touch. He figured it had something to do with the extremely high amounts of quicksilver in his body. Or maybe it had something to do with the permanent stage five quicksilver madness, he couldn't be sure. The more he manipulated the quicksilver, the thicker it got. Even with thermals, it was hard to see Jason. Sometimes the quicksilver was so thick it managed to reduce the outline of his body heat through thermals into nothing more than a slight sparkle through the air. And there had been that one time when he had gone completely see through, undetectable even through the most sensitive of sensors and thermal goggles. Of course, he wasn't supposed to know that.
It had happened about six months ago. Jason had been quicksilvered for three weeks straight, adding layer after layer of cold quicksilver to his body. And then the world had turned see through, literally. Jason had X-ray vision. The sensation had lasted for approximately a minute, but in that minute, his whole life changed. He didn't realize what was happening until he heard the panicked shouts of the guards outside his doggy door, screaming that the monitors had lost him and that the thermals weren't working. Jason had dropped the quicksilver instantly and feigned unconsciousness, all the while listening to the hushed conversations outside his door.
"It must be a malfunction," he had heard one of the doctors say.
"We need to heighten security," one of the guards had offered.
"He couldn't have known what he was doing, how could he have known?" another one of the doctors rambled.
Jason stayed "unconscious" for three days. When prompted by one of the doctors after he had woken up, he feigned amnesia and said he had no idea what they were talking about. He told them he had felt sick from all of the quicksilver and passed out. The doctor seemed to buy his story. But that was the last time another doctor entered his cell. Now all his therapy and words of encouragement were fed to him through his doggy door. They had even added another guard outside his door. Apparently, the newfound discovery of his temporary invisibility had them even more terrified of an attempted escape. And with Jason's history, they had every right to be.
In his first year at the hospital, he had attempted to escape five times. Once, he even made it out to the main lobby, only to be stopped by a powerful tranq dart that had left him unconscious for a week. The second year had been more of the same. Three escape attempts and the murder of one of his guards. After that, they had increased the security outside his door from two guards to four. And now there was yet another guard to contend with.
Jason wasn't worried though. He had spent the past three months planning his last escape attempt. He had decided he would either get the hell out of this place or die trying. He wanted his freedom. But more than anything, he wanted revenge. Revenge against the two men he hated most in this world: Darien Fawkes and Arnaud De Phon.
He kept a mental picture of them in his head at all times. It kept him going in this place. It was something to live for. He had to take revenge against the man responsible for his brother's death and the man who had let him go permanently insane.
So he had planned. Planned and schemed. He knew exactly what he had to do. And today was the day he was going to do it.
**
"How's Marshall doing?" asked Jeffrey, the newest doctor at Fairbridge, as he glanced at the five monitors sitting in front of Tom, the security tech.
Tom looked up and shrugged. "Fine. Completely out of it. Hasn't moved from his bed all day."
"Good, good. What about Sullivan? What's that crazy son of a bitch been up to?" asked Jeffrey curiously as he leaned down closer to the monitors. "Damn, he's still invisible, huh," he said as he saw the blue specks of Jason's invisible figure on the screen.
"Yep," answered Tom. "Been that way for almost a month now."
Jeffrey sighed heavily and stood up straight. "I just wish we could see him. Make our jobs a whole lot easier."
"You're telling me, man," said Tom as he picked up a bag of chips that was sitting next to him. He began to noisily crunch the chips between his teeth.
"I'm going to head out," said Jeffrey as he headed for the door.
"Okay man, see you…. whoa," said Tom as he dropped the bag of chips he was eating and sat up straight, staring at the monitors straight ahead.
"What? What's wrong?" asked Jeffrey.
"I lost him," said Tom as he pointed at Jason's screen. "Wait, he's back."
Jeffrey bent down and stared at the screen, seeing images of the blue glow of Jason's figure convulsing. Every few seconds he would disappear completely from the monitor, only to come back moments later in a sparkling hue of blue light. "What the hell?" whispered Jeffery. "Alert the medical team now," he shouted as he ran out of the room.
Tom picked up a phone and dialed three. "This is security, we need med staff to room two stat."
As Tom was talking to the operator, Jeffrey was making his way quickly down to Jason's room. He passed the armed guards and showed them his I.D. badge. "Sullivan's having some kind of attack."
One of the guards stepped in front of the door with his gun drawn. "My orders are not to let anyone in or out of this room," he said firmly.
Jeffrey sighed in anger. "Look, I appreciate that Sullivan is a dangerous person, but that doesn't mean he should just be allowed to die. Come in there if you want, I just need to check him out."
The guard stared long and hard at Jeffrey and finally pulled up his gun. He pointed down to the ground and handed him a pair of thermal goggles. "Check him through the door."
Jeffrey gave the guard an irritated stare and then got down on his hands and knees, putting on the goggles. He pushed open the doggie door and glanced at the blue convulsing form of Jason who had started to moan and whimper in pain. "Mr. Sullivan, can you hear me?"
Jason's response was more violent convulsions, followed by a harsh moan of pain. "Something's wrong," said Jeffrey as he stood up. "I have to get in there."
"No can do, sir," said the guard.
"He could be dying," said Jeffrey.
"He could be faking," countered the guard.
"Fine, then cover me when I go in there. Sullivan might be able to turn invisible, but that doesn't mean he's bullet proof," said Jeffrey.
"What's going on down here?" came the angry voice of an older man as he ran up the hall. He carried a medical bag in his arms and two female nurses were trailing behind him.
Jeffrey pointed at the guard. "Dr. Edwards, he won't let me in."
The guard gave Dr. Edwards a cold stare. "My orders are to not let anyone in or out of his room."
"And who do you think gave you those orders, son? Just because Mr. Sullivan is psychotic doesn't mean it forfeits his right to medical care. Let us in please," said Dr. Edwards firmly.
The guard raised an eyebrow and then pulled a key out of his pocket. "Fine, have it your way," he said as he handed the key to Dr. Edwards along with another pair of thermal goggles.
Dr. Edwards eyed the key fearfully, his face illustrating that he was having second thoughts. He took a deep breath and then stuck the key in the keyhole. "Cover me," he said to the guards as he turned the lock.
The door popped open and the group was greeted with the sight of Jason's blue quivering form on the floor. Dr. Edwards and Jeffrey cautiously approached the patient while the guards all aimed their guns right at him. The female nurses, who both lacked thermal goggles, stared in fear at the empty floor of the cell.
Dr. Edwards slowly moved next Jason. "Mr. Sullivan…It's Dr. Edwards. It's been a while," he said as he kneeled down cautiously next to him. "Can you tell me what the problem is?" he asked, trying not to quiver too much in his proximity to the killer.
"Can't breath," rasped Jason as his blue glowing body started to convulse again. The doctors stepped closer to his glowing figure and then suddenly, Jason disappeared from their thermal radars.
"What the hell's going on?" yelled Dr. Edwards as he adjusted his goggles.
One of the guards raised his gun, but it was too late. The gun was pulled from his grasp and suddenly blood was leaking from his chest. The other guards started to fire random shots, but one by one, they went down, all shot point blank in the head.
The two nurses went running down the hall, while Dr. Edwards and Jeffrey stared at one another through their goggles, trying to mask their panic.
"Oh my…" Jeffrey was cut off by a bullet to his brain. He fell to the ground, already a memory.
Dr. Edwards raised his hands in surrender, his body shaking like a leaf. "Please, I'll do whatever you want."
"Key," he heard the voice of Jason say out of thin air.
Dr. Edwards shakily reached into his pocket and pulled out the card key that let him in and out of the various floors and passages to the building. He threw it on the floor and then started to cry. "Please, I have a family, a little girl. Please," he begged. Jason's body suddenly reappeared through Dr. Edward's thermal glasses, the outline of his blue body seeming to be something out of a horror movie.
"Thanks for the hospitality," said Jason as he slugged Dr. Edwards across the face with his gun. Then he quickly ran out of the room and down the hall, barely avoiding the thermal equipped guards that were approaching from the other end of the hall. He rounded a corner and then stuck out his gun, firing his gun with everything he had. Before the guards knew what hit them, they were dead. Jason breathed a sigh of relief and quickly made his way to the door that led to the emergency exit, all the while praying that the hallways and the rest of the building weren't equipped with thermal sensors since he was no longer able to maintain the quicksilver level required for complete thermal invisibility. When he reached the ground floor and hadn't been stopped, he realized that luck had been on his side. He reached the door that led to the outside world and bashed through it, basking in the sunlight that greeted him. He took in a deep breath of fresh air and started laughing maniacally to himself as he tore off into the woods surrounding the hospital. Once he had gotten about a hundred yards away, he turned around for a moment and glanced back at his home of six years. It was deceptively calm outside, the only thing signaling that something might be wrong was the sound of an alarm that must have been triggered by one of the guards. Jason blew a kiss at the building and then stalked off into the woods, whistling a happy tune to himself. Today had been a good day. And they were only going to get better.
**
Hours later, Tom was staring at the mangled corpses on the video screen in Jason's room. He watched in horror as the medical staff began removing the bloody bodies out of the room one by one, trying to forget the images of their deaths in his mind.
The door slammed open and Tom quickly turned his head in a panic, still a tad paranoid that a psychotic invisible man was floating around the halls. Instead he was greeted with the tired looking face of Dr. Edwards. He was holding an icepack over a giant bruise that had formed over his left cheekbone. "What can I do for you, sir?" asked Tom.
Dr. Edwards ignored him and walked straight to the VCR recording all the activities going on in Jason's room. He tore the tape out of the VCR and dropped it on the floor, smashing it into a million pieces with his foot.
"What the hell are you doing?" asked Tom as he quickly kneeled down on the floor to try and salvage the remnants of the mangled tape.
"This didn't happen," said Dr. Edwards simply.
"What didn't happen?" asked Tom in confusion.
Dr. Edwards arched an eyebrow. "There was no escape today."
Tom shook his head in protest. "Sir, what about the families of Jeffery? Hell, what about Mark and Noah?"
"Who?" asked Dr. Edwards.
"The security guards," answered Tom.
Dr. Edwards shrugged. "One of the guards went nuts. Seems that after all the years of guarding psychotics he became one himself. Nearly killed everyone before he was stopped."
Tom sat back down in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "So you're just going to cover this up? Sullivan is dangerous. Probably as dangerous as they come."
Dr. Edwards shrugged. "And how do you propose that we catch him? Canvas the earth with thermal goggles? What exactly are we supposed to do if pulls his little thermal invisibility trick again?" yelled Dr. Edwards. "Look, this hospital is in enough trouble as it is with all the murders that have taken place here the past couple of years. What good will it do acknowledging that he escaped? There's nothing we can do. There's nothing anyone can do. So in other words, it never happened."
"Sir," countered Tom.
"Aren't you trying to get into medical school, son?" asked Dr, Edwards.
Tom nodded. "Yes, but…"
"Well it wouldn't look too good on your record if you disobeyed a superior's order, would it?" said Dr. Edwards.
Tom sighed. "No it wouldn't."
Dr. Edwards smiled coldly. "Good, so we're in agreement."
Tom clenched his jaw. "Yeah, we're in agreement. Nothing happened."
"That's what I like to hear. You're going to be a fine doctor one day," said Dr. Edwards. He took one last glance at the live feed still coming from Jason's room and then walked out the door.
Tom closed his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. Then he glanced back at the screen, staring at the blood that stained the ceilings and the floors of Jason's former cell. Something told him that this was only the beginning of Jason's bloodshed.
TBC—This is only the beginning, folks. It's gonna get real rough. Bring ropes and a warm jacket. Just trust me on this one.