"Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

The Iron String

Chapter 7

Harper dragged her eyes down to Aaron's feet then back up to his face as he flicked a glance at his companions. She gave them each a cursory glance and came back to Aaron, her hands dropping slowly down to her sides. "I was June Munroe. Once. Going by Harper Finley these days."

"Why?"

"Why the name change or why am I here?"

Relief made her smile when he lowered his weapon. His friends did too, and that took some of the tension out of the atmosphere. He walked a few steps closer, his blue-gray eyes searching her face. She knew she looked the same as she had the last time they'd seen each other. Her hair was shorter and streaked with blonde, but it was still her. Funny how all these years later she still missed their time together, their friendship.

"Both."

"Same as you, I expect. My designation in the program was Outcome Two."

Still wary of her, but willing to let her talk in order to gather information, Aaron said, "Outcome Five. Byer had everyone killed. Or so I thought."

"So did I until…" she looked at her watch, "…two minutes and seventeen seconds ago. I should be asking what you're doing here and why you brought the heat with you. Didn't think you could handle me alone, Kenny?"

"Aaron."

Pursing her lips, she hoped Aaron would see the humor in their situation too. When they'd known each other before, he hadn't been that quick on the uptake though he'd made progress in the time they'd known each other. Back in the day, he hadn't had the air of confidence and power surrounding him that he did now. A change for the better as far as she was concerned.

The cop's eyes and expression didn't waver though the taller of the three still frowned. Nodding at each of his companions, Aaron made introductions, "Colonel John Sheppard, Air Force. Detective Javier Esposito, NYPD. His partner's in the hospital. We think he was dosed with Trance. If you're not the one manufacturing and distributing it, why are you here?"

"Sorry about your partner. What I'm doing here is the same thing you are, apparently. Trying to stop the one doing it before he or she kills more people or turns them into assets, and does what he's been planning to do for whatever reason."

Aaron scoffed. Harper could see he had ideas, but wanted to hear her take on the situation. "Oh? And what is he or she planning to do, June?"

"Harper, please. In my opinion…" her eyes widened making her look more than a little crazed. "He's going to try to take over the world."

~~O~~

The last was said in a voice that Aaron hadn't heard in a long time. Not since he lived at the state home in Reno. When he met June-Harper-they'd gotten to know each other as friends and found a mutual fondness for a defunct cartoon called Pinky and the Brain. It made Aaron smile wistfully. Realizing what he was doing, he forced himself to stop. "The entire world? How very supervillian-ish of him."

Motioning them to her, Harper returned to her seat, hands back on the keyboard. "Not all of the world, but parts of it. Don't know everything yet, but I'm working on it. Wanna help?"

Aaron and Harper didn't see Esposito and Sheppard exchanging befuddled glances behind them as they came to stand where they too could see the monitor.

Over her shoulder, Harper said, "Not so close guys. Can't work with you breathing down my neck."

She typed a few more commands and a moment later, a large plasma screen lit up displaying what was on the monitor in front of her. Sheppard and Esposito, reluctant to trust Harper so easily, moved back and turned to watch the information flow over the screen while keeping an eye on her at the same time. Aaron knew they would take their cues from him until the three of them could talk. He would trust her…for now.

"I need your help for this next part, Kenny."

"Aaron."

Harper twitched her shoulders in a sort of shrug without looking at him. There was a time when he had trusted her implicitly, without question. That had been in the early days of the program. The years since then had taught him otherwise, and not just about her. Years ago, Harper left without saying good-bye and never tried to contact him again. Now he knew why. That bullsh** in Alaska with Outcome Three aside, he'd never met another member of the program, and to find out that she was like him, that she understood the dangers-and the joys-of being enhanced… He shouldn't have been surprised, but he was.

Seeing what she was up to, Aaron took a seat in front of another computer and began typing. The system was more complicated than either of them had thought and it would take their combined skills to hack in.

More than a little curious about, well, a lot of things, Aaron made a mental note to ask the questions when their lives slowed down a little. Surreptitiously, he stuck a thumb drive in the port on his right. It was programmed to automatically download the computer's information as soon as it was accessed. And it started doing just that a moment later. "Where're you getting your chems?"

She shrugged indifferently. "Don't need them. Found out by accident that the greens weren't necessary and hadn't been for almost a year. Got help with the blues."

Nodding though he knew she wouldn't see, he said, "You were viraled off. How? Dr. Shearing's the only member of the Outcome staff still alive. There's no way you could've contacted her until a few months ago."

She didn't bother looking up as she continued to type. "It wasn't Shearing. Didn't even know who she was until the shooting at the lab. By the time I reached her home, there was nothing left but pile of ash. The news reports said she'd died in the fire."

"They lied."

"How do you know?"

Aaron didn't want to talk about Marta, but he had to get to a place where it no longer hurt to hear her name or think about her. Strange but just now, when he thought about that day, it still pained him that they'd had to destroy her home. However, he no longer felt a twinge in the region of his heart that had plagued him since the day they'd broken up. Maybe he was starting to heal. "A wet team was sent to her home. I took them out. We were on the run together for the next two years."

Harper was silent so long Aaron thought she hadn't heard him. Then she said, "I'm sorry." She sounded sincere. He also knew that she'd gone through the same training as he did and could be whoever she wanted or had to be. However, he sensed that her regret on his behalf was genuine. If she'd been lying, her heart rate would have increased enough for him to detect it though not enough to show on a polygraph. During training, they were taught to control basic body functions: heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, even electro-dermal activity. A polygraph could easily be defeated, making it useless for people like Aaron and June because the increases were too small and insignificant for the machines to pick up.

"Ah-hah!"

"What?" Aaron stopped what he was doing to look at Harper's screen. He quickly scanned the information scrolling the monitor. "That's interesting."

Sheppard's voice came toward them, his footsteps mingling with Esposito's. "What's interesting?"

Peering over Harper's shoulder, the detective was none the wiser. "Yeah. So?"

"Now we know why some people who use Trance die or fall into a coma." Harper swiveled her chair so she could see all three men. "It was right there in front of us, but we were looking for something more complicated."

Aaron continued, "It's in your blood."

Next it was Harper's turn. "You see, the ABO blood group system is the most important blood type system or blood group system in human blood. The associated anti-A and anti-B antibodies are usually Immunoglobulin M or IgM antibodies, which are usually produced in the first years of life by sensitization to environmental substances such as food, bacteria, and viruses."

She paused to take a drink, and Aaron took up where she stopped. "Second to that is the Rh system. There are 50 antigens with the most significant Rh antigen being the D, because it's the most likely to provoke an immune system response of the five main Rh antigens. It's common for D-negative individuals not to have any anti-D Immunoglobulin G-IgG or IgM antibodies, because anti-D antibodies are not usually produced by sensitization against environmental substances. However, D-negative individuals can produce IgG anti-D antibodies following a sensitizing event such as a fetomaternal transfusion of blood from…"

Aaron paused for a breath giving Sheppard time to interrupt, his expression a little suspicious. "Are either of you related to someone by the name of McKay?"

Exchanging a puzzled glance with Harper who shook no, Aaron said, "No. Why?"

"Just curious."

Aaron wanted to laugh at Esposito's glazed expression, and though he seemed not to understand a word that was said, he proved otherwise with, "So, what you're saying is that a person's blood type determines how their body will react to Trance?"

Sheppard added his own thoughts which were going in the same direction. "And mutations are completely random?"

Aaron shared a long, deadpan look with Harper. "Yes."

"Why couldn't they just say that?" The Air Force officer said in an aside to Esposito who had come to stand beside Aaron. Not close, but close enough. They obviously hadn't taken his augmented senses into account, and this close, he could hear their heartbeats and smell the sweat as if it were a part of him. He wanted to ask them to back off, choosing to ignore it instead.

"We need to find the cure ASAP before Ryan dies or goes crazy. We're gonna take a look around. Check for booby traps. If we find anything…"

Esposito handed Aaron a headset. They did a sound check, Aaron nodding that he could hear the detective. "We'll give a shout if we find anything, and you do the same."

The two men moved into the dusky blackness that surrounded the work area, disappearing from sight, though not hearing range for the two Outcome participants. Eventually, they were far enough away that Aaron could ignore their whispered conversations about Harper and himself.

"Viraling off the chems was not fun. I almost died. Literally." As she talked, Harper went to the living area and returned with two full bottles of water, handing one to Aaron. He nodded gratefully, popping the top and taking a long drink while she did the same. Sitting on the table next to him, she swung her feet. "My guess is that there were several doctors who were assigned to see to our physical health, and to keep any one of them from knowing everything about the program, they never spoke to or attended to anyone other than their assigned charges. Too bad they didn't show the same conscientiousness regarding our mental and emotional well-being."

Aaron had to agree with her there. The periodic psych evals were actually quite easy to fool due to his eidetic memory. He would've expressed his opinion, but Harper needed to talk and he was willing to listen. Stopping his work, he leaned back in his chair and gave her a small nod of encouragement. It also gave him hope. If she was still enough like June for him to read her, then maybe a part of his old life existed within him.

"When I heard about the shooting, Dr. Ortiz's name wasn't announced as one of the deceased so I did some very intense checking. Because he wasn't an official member of the project, his name wasn't listed in any of their paperwork. I didn't know for certain that he would be able to help me, but my chems were getting low. As you can expect, I was desperate. Going back to the way I was prior to Outcome wasn't an option so I tracked him down. At first, he flat out refused to even acknowledge his association with the program. But, I'm pretty persuasive when I want to be."

A wry grin, accompanied by a snort, crawled up Aaron's face and Harper had the grace to return it. After all, she'd convinced him to have coffee with her when he'd been told in no uncertain terms to avoid becoming friendly with strangers at that point in his "treatment." And he'd tried. Really tried to do as his handler, Anamarie Hernandez said. Just go to the coffee shop, order a drink and a muffin then sit by the window and observe the people inside the store as well as those walking by.

Try to imagine what their life is like, what it's like to be that person and how you'd act if suddenly, you, Aaron, had to take their place, fit into their life without anyone noticing.

"Daniel-Dr. Ortiz was able to get his hands on everything he needed to help me. Because I was on the run, he let me stay with him for a few weeks after the viraling. We became…close, but I got restless and was afraid he'd be killed if someone came after me, so I left."

Mentally shaking his head, Aaron reflected that they'd both turned into a cliché by falling for their doctors. Not unusual by any means. At least there was one aspect of their lives that had turned out normal…ish.

"Within an hour of being injected with the virus, I got so sick my heart stopped. I was lucky that Daniel had a portable defibrillator and ventilator on hand or I'd be dead now."

"I was holed up in a cut-rate motel above a siomai stand in Manila. Had some really bad dreams."

"Do not get me started on dreams. Sometimes they still…" She cut off and looked away, embarrassed at showing weakness. Her hand lay on her thigh. Aaron took it in his and just held on, letting her know through touch that he shared the sensation and that she needn't be embarrassed with him. With a smile, she squeezed back and Aaron felt something stir inside, a rekindling of their friendship. Pulling away, she got to her feet and returned to the computer she'd been using.

Turning to face his computer, they both got back to work. Smiling to himself, Aaron realized that the feelings coming to life inside him weren't anything new, but long dormant emotions that he thought had died when he became Aaron Cross. Just like all those years ago, he again felt comfortable with having a genuine friendship with another person. Sheppard, Espo and Bourne aside, June was the first person he had been able to be himself with since the bombing in Ramadi.

His good humor drained away at the memory of the dream he'd awakened from during the night, just managing to keep from screaming himself awake, and in the process, awakening Sheppard and Espo as well. Eventually, he'd been able to go back to sleep, and thankfully, hadn't been plagued by more of the same.

The sensations of fear and anger were swept away way when the computers all shut down then came back up, now showing a timer. A voice he didn't recognize said a few words in Russian then it began counting down from ninety seconds.

~~O~~

Leaving Aaron and Harper to hack the computer, Sheppard and Esposito crept through the darkness coming to the living area. The bed was empty, bags of paper plates and microwave dinner boxes were piled in a corner. Clothing, dirty and clean, lay in two piles giving Sheppard the impression that the owner had given up on living a long time ago and was just marking time, unwilling or unable to hurry the process along by taking their own life. That type of person would probably go for suicide by cop rather than do the deed themselves. He didn't know if that made them really stupid or really smart. They were dead either way.

With his sniper rifle clenched in both hands, the light attachment piercing the darkness, Esposito's face was only partially cast in shadow giving his eyes an eerie appearance. Having worked with the man in Afghanistan, he knew his friend could be as dangerous as he looked at the moment.

They'd checked out most of the huge building and found nothing that would tell them who made Trance or why when Sheppard's headset crackled and Aaron's disembodied voice sounded in his ear.

"Guys, we tripped a self-destruct program. Seventy seconds to get as far as we can before it blows!"

Sheppard and Esposito didn't take the time to answer. They just took off for the nearest exit, hitting the door as his mental counter reached twenty seconds. No way they could get far enough away to avoid being killed. Didn't mean they wouldn't try. The data pad beeped in a pattern that Sheppard recognized. Taking the device from his back pocket, he touched a specific key as his mental counter reached zero.

~~O~~

"Go-go-go!" Aaron commanded though Harper was already several steps ahead of him and moving very quickly. They twisted and turned through the pallets of supplies, the exit just ahead of them as their time ticked away.

Harper opened the door and stopped to wait, motioning for him to hurry, as if he needed the encouragement. Behind him he heard, "Desyat, devyat, vosem, sem, shest, pyat, chetiri, tri…"

Outside, he wrapped his arms around Harper and bore them both to the ground with the hope that it would minimize their injuries from the explosion. They both grunted from the impact, Aaron immediately ducking his head and covering it and Harper with his free arm.

The immense boom nearly deafened the former Outcome agent and it had to have done the same to Harper, leaving their ears ringing. There was a moment of disorientation, the sounds and smells of the fire ending as quickly as it had come. The sudden quiet pushed against his sensitive eardrums in a second assault, the combination of the two giving him a headache.

A hand touched his shoulder and he looked into concerned faces he'd never seen before, backlit by bright lights accompanying an almost antiseptic smell. The mouths of the strangers moved, but he couldn't hear them, couldn't respond. It took all the willpower at his disposal to keep from blacking out. Even then, it wasn't enough. Aaron's muscles lost tension as his consciousness winked out.

~~O~~

Esposito and Sheppard ran as fast as they could through the dimly lit warehouse and out the door that materialized in front of them. Once outside, they only slowed down long enough to swerve around the rusted out dumpster. And even though they were out in the open, Esposito knew they had little to no chance of getting far enough away to keep from being injured or killed.

Chancing a quick glance over his shoulder, Esposito heard the explosion and saw the building's structure pushed outward as the rapid release of energy achieved by the explosives knocked both men off their feet. He heard Sheppard grunt at the impact, cry out in pain then…nothing.

TBC