Chapter Four: Bad Blood
"I don't like this."
"We have orders."
"Pretty heavy-handed ones. Did Fell even speak him and ask if he could have the information?"
"Utonium doesn't give his research away, partner. He's refused all requests for information on Chemical X and the Powerpuff Girls. Why would he just hand over the report and the specimens?"
Six favored him with a frown. "Chemical X is patented and highly dangerous. The Powerpuff Girls are his children. We're just looking for a research paper. Is it worth risking lives and property and possibly implicating Providence?"
"Ask Fell next time you see him," advised White with a wry look. He stabbed a button on the consol before him. "Let them go!" he ordered before settling back in his seat. "This is going to take a few minutes."
They watched the rain run down the windshield of the troop carrier for a few minutes. Six asked, "Why don't you and I go speak to him?"
"Stick to the plan, Six. Look at the man's daughters. We don't know what else he might have in there."
"My point exactly."
They didn't have to wait long. Not ten minutes passed before three streaks of light – blue, pink, and green – came arching out of the house as the Powerpuff Girls flew to the outskirts of Townsville to take on the hungry EVOs that had been released in Ride Park. They waited another minute, and then White gave the order.
"Move in!"
He did not want to be here or do this. Granted they had a warrant, but Fell had not exhausted simpler, more reasonable methods first to get what he wanted. This was underhanded. Wrong. Dishonorable. He fell in behind White as the old-style house was surrounded. Battering rams slammed into the front and back doors and Six joined the swarm of men and weapons pouring into the house.
Glass shattered and a gasp of surprise reached his ears. Swords in hand, he led White to the kitchen. A tall, black-haired man stood facing a row of rifles, undisguised shock and fear on his face. There were broken plates and flatware at his feet, and one of the soldiers had knocked a plant to the floor, spilling dirt. Utonium had been doing the mundane task of cleaning up after dinner when suddenly his home had been stormed. Six felt a pang of sympathy for him and his alarm.
"Doctor Utonium?" demanded White, his gun drawn and aimed squarely at the man's head.
"What?" breathed the man, backing away from the weapon.
White produced the warrant. "We have orders to seize all copies of research, notes, writing, recordings, photos, specimens, and all other data and related research to the nanobot event you detailed in your paper of last year entitled Spearhead Event."
Confounded, Utonium stared at him as if White was out of his mind. "What?"
"Refusal will result in your immediate arrest on the grounds of resisting and failure to comply with a court order."
"What? Who are you people? What are you doing in my house?" He glared down at their muddy boots on his clean white floor and by the look in his eyes Six knew that they had screwed this operation not just up, but up one end and down the other.
Before White could make the situation worse – he was a good soldier and leader but a poor diplomat - Six stepped forward, keeping his voice low and his tone even. "Weapons down. I said down," he snapped when a few of the soldiers hesitated. Ignoring White's glower, he put himself in the line of fire, forcing his partner to lower his gun as he sheathed his twin katanas and held his hands up for a moment to show the man he had no weapons readily available. "Doctor Utonium, I realize this is unexpected and unorthodox for you -"
"So you do home invasions all the time?" demanded Utonium, eyeing the completely unreasonable number of soldiers standing in his kitchen.
"No."
"You do realize I don't even have to raise my voice to get my daughters back here in about ten seconds?"
That had not come up in the pre-mission briefing. There wasn't a one of them that was under the delusion they could stand up to the Powerpuff Girls for longer than it would take the girls to hit them with their heat vision, which was why they had been drawn out of the house and far across the city.
"I do," said Six because he knew it now and because he could tell Utonium wasn't lying. He didn't have to when the truth was so much more effective. "I respectfully ask you hear us out."
"Respectfully?" echoed the Professor in disbelief. He looked at the bristling soldiers, their weapons, at White clutching the warrant in one hand and his gun in the other, and finally at the broken dishes at his feet. "If this is your idea of respectfully, why don't we just skip it and get to the point? Who are you and what are you doing in my house?"
"I'm Agent Six. This is my partner White. We work for Providence, the international agency establ-"
"I know what Providence is," interrupted Utonium coldly. "What are you doing here?"
Six reached out and White slapped the warrant into his hand. Holding it out to the unfortunate scientist, he said, "We've come to collect the data listed here."
"Or arrest me," he reminded, looking around Six to address White.
The burly blond gave him a hard look. "Those are our orders."
"Convenient." Utonium held his hand out for the warrant. He took his time reading the document, and Six knew full well that he had it committed to memory by the time he looked up and gave them a cool, disgusted look. "George Fell. I should have known."
"You know the doctor?" asked White.
"Obviously." By his tone they could tell he held Fell in contempt, a sentiment many people in Providence shared but left unsaid. "He was a year ahead of me at Harvard. He failed to graduate with his class or mine." He returned the warrant to Six, glancing at the show of force going on in his kitchen. "Providence seems about his speed."
They deserved that dig. Six took the paperwork back, uncertain of what the man intended to do. Utonium folded his arms and remained silent.
"Well?" White finally demanded. "Are you going to hand over the items listed?"
Utonium ignored him and addressed Six. "My cooperation depends on what will happen to my research and the specimen I still have. Where will it go? How will it be transported? Who's going to be responsible for it? Who will have access to it? What guarantees will you give to secure the safety of the nanobot? It was incredibly difficult containing and destroying them. They're self-replicating in the presences of adequate carbon. If the one I have left were to escape, the results could be disastrous."
Six knew if he was willing to risk arrest and incarceration to keep the world safe from the nanobots then the danger these robots presented was very real. Professor Utonium was a man of honor and principle and despite his mild tone there was steel beneath that pacific surface. They should have just spoken to him, not threatened him. He was a genius and on the defensive and they had grossly underestimated him and mishandled the whole situation.
Or was this Fell's ego they had tripped over?
"I will be responsible for it," Six said. "I'll see it safely transported to Providence headquarters. Once there it will be kept in one of our secure facilities. I can't answer your other questions because at this point, I don't know."
His honesty and willingness to be accountable gained at least a bit of goodwill. "Then I want both of your signatures on a document stating I'm relieved of all responsibility for any destruction or harm caused by the nanobot if it should escape containment once it's removed from my lab," insisted Utonium.
Began White, "We're not -"
"Right now it's safely contained and has been for years. I don't trust George Fell to handle the nanobot with the seriousness it deserves and I have absolutely no reason under the sun to trust you or your storm troopers with something so fragile and dangerous when you can't even enter my house without breaking my daughter's African violet."
White pushed forward and gave Utonium a look that had made lesser men quail. "We're not going to bargain or debate. Hand over the information and the sample or you're coming with us."
This was a man who was used to dealing with heroes and monsters alike and neither White nor his warrant could intimidate him when he had science and the Powerpuff Girls on his side. Matching threat for threat, Utonium said, "I'm calling my daughters in three . . . two . . ."
"Done," said Six. He pointed to the counter top where lay a tablet with a grocery list started. "Can I borrow that?"
Utonium handed it over along with a pen. Less than five minutes later Six signed the brief note, handed it to White to (very grudgingly) sign, and turned it back to the scientist. As satisfied as he could be at the moment, Utonium tucked the pad under his arm.
"You and you come with me," he said, pointing at Six and White before heading toward the front of the house. His partner growled, but Six nudged him to shut up and follow. Utonium was cooperating as best as they could expect, given the circumstances. Unless White wanted to tangle with a trio of first-grade girls that could take on EVOs and monsters and most likely all of Providence without a second thought, he would be wise to take whatever flack Utonium wanted to dish out.
"Clean that up," Six hissed to the soldiers as he left, pointing at the spilled plant. "Now!"
He caught up with White and Utonium. The scientist was standing before a non-descript door off the living room, punching numbers into a keypad and saying, "Touch anything in here and you'll be explaining to Buttercup why she got pulled away from a fight with a . . . oh, I see." Suddenly he realized the extent of their deception and he looked at White squarely. "They're some of yours, aren't they? The girls aren't fighting monsters. They're EVOS."
White didn't answer. He didn't have to. Six found himself hating this assignment more and more.
"Lure my daughters out of the house and then move on in. Very courageous. I know who to contact if anyone gets hurt, at least," promised the scientist, opening the door. He led the way down a flight of stairs to the basement. The lab they entered was small but state of the art and spotlessly clean. Immediately he went to one of several computers and began pulling up data. "How do you intend to transport the nanobot?"
They had no answer. Six looked at White and they had a silent exchange, their exasperation mounting at yet another thing Fell had overlooked in his zeal. They had not been issued any suitable equipment for that purpose. Finally the blond said, "If you have a containment unit, Doctor, we would appreciate the use of it."
"It's Professor, not doctor." Utonium sighed and shook his head in disgust, starting to download the information they were here to seize. "What were you planning on? A cardboard box? You know if Providence had contacted me and struck up a dialogue I would have been happy to get rid of the nanobot and I would have had time to make a secure carrying case. As it is, you're getting it exactly as I've got it contained right now."
As he spoke he unlocked a heavy, vacuum-sealed door similar to the ones Six had seen in Providence's laboratories. He moved to keep him in sight, but the scientist did nothing more than unlock a case on a shelf within the secure storage unit and pull something out. He locked up behind him and, stepping over to White, plunked a pretty, little, glass perfume bottle in front of him. The computer pinged, and the ornate bottle was joined by a datastick a few moments later. Six stared, realizing the bottle's glass stopper was melted to seal the opening.
"It belonged to Bubbles," explained Utonium. "We were in something of a rush. It was the only thing we had readily available that didn't contain carbon that was readily available to the nanobot and could be sealed. It's possible there was perfume or some other residue in it, so odds are good the one nanobot I had multiplied." He smiled. "It's all yours."
"How do we know this is the only copy of the information?"
It was clear the man's patience was wearing thin. "It's not. Don't be ignorant, White. More than half a dozen scientists around the globe have copies of the final paper. Fell wasn't one of them – he must have heard about it from Hawk or Quantum. Even if I erased everything off my computers I could still sit down right now and reconstruct the whole report from memory."
Six saw his partner's blue eyes grow sharp and narrow. He hadn't expected that, but then he wasn't used to dealing with scientists outside of Fell and he'd never encountered a genius of Utonium's caliber before.
"Our orders were to remove all copies of the research."
"Does that mean you'll be removing me as well?" he asked brightly. "I'm a living, breathing copy of it. If that's the case then the nanobot and the data stays right here. Your choice, but if Providence can't provide adequate care, my daughters will have to come along, too."
He had them and they knew it. There was no denying that he was cooperating, but he was also doing an excellent job of pointing out the weakness of their case and using their own rules against them.
"You mentioned other people have copies of the paper you wrote," said Six, giving White time to think over their dilemma. "Hawk and Quantum. Who else saw your work?"
"Why? You haven't kicked down enough doors in one night? Nice try, Agent Six, but that list isn't included in your warrant. Besides, all but one of the scientists who saw it dismissed my findings. Find out for yourselves, gentlemen."
"We could detain you on charges of obstruction right now," stated White.
"Probably," agreed Utonium, nonplussed at the idea of being arrested. "Proving as much would be another issue and frankly my lawyers are going to have a field day with this as it is."
In the end they left him alone, taking the datastrip and the perfume bottle holding the nanobot. Utonium even gave them a padded case from one of his instruments to carry their spoils. Six and White were silent as they returned through the pouring rain to the troop carrier. They didn't have to speak – they each could sense the other's feeling of not just losing this round, but of having been soundly beaten. Once in the vehicle they learned their night had just gotten longer still – the Powerpuff Girls had overpowered the EVOs and, thinking they were monsters, brought them to Monster Island and let them go. The trio of EVOs had scattered, and now they had to go and get Providence's property back before returning to headquarters.
"Not our finest hour," Six said, still holding the case with the nanobot.
White started up the carrier's engine with a savage growl. "Not even close, partner."
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
"So then what?" Rex asked, as entertained as sympathetic at hearing the sordid tale.
Six's voice, while bland, held a hint of disgust. "Fell started something of a negative press campaign against Utonium in retaliation."
"Sounds like George," Holiday replied. "So Utonium was probably right."
"I don't know. I do know that Utonium sued Fell and Providence for damages, slander, and libel, and . . . won."
Her green eyes narrowed. "Is that why we didn't get any raises for three years?"
"Yes."
"It's a good thing Fell left Providence."
"Not many people would argue."