The long drive back to the facility was tense to say the least. Riggins had left on his own to organise his part of the operation, leaving them with instructions on how to get into the facility once they got there. Dirk was seated at the back again, this time with a conscious, though brooding and tense, Todd. Amanda had left them to join Farah and Vogel in the middle, while the rest of the Rowdies sat up the front taking care of the driving.
"So, Todd, how about a game?" asked Dirk after almost an hour of continued silence that was making him fidgety. Todd scrunched up his brows, turning from the window to glance at Dirk.
"What game?" he finally responded drearily, drawing a sharp breath when his body tensed, trembling.
"Are you-"
"I'm okay," he quickly cut Dirk off before he could ask. "I'm… fine…" he trailed off, looking out the window once more.
"So… game?" Dirk tried again after a moment. Todd sighed.
"Fine… what game do you want to play?" he asked, turning back to Dirk.
"Well… I was kind of hoping you'd know a game… I… haven't really played games before in a car," Dirk replied, shrugging and eyeing Todd keenly.
"Huh? How-" Todd paused, staring at the man before him for a second, before shaking his head, as though he just realised it was Dirk he was talking to. "Like I spy?"
He scowled when he heard Amanda snorting, obviously eavesdropping in on their conversation.
"I spy… that sounds like an interesting game! How do we play it? Does it have anything to do with spies?" enthused the man beside him. Todd did all he could not to roll his eyes, reminding himself that it wasn't Dirk's fault he never had a proper childhood.
"No, you just choose something you see, and you say 'I spy with my little eye something beginning with' and then the first letter of whatever you chose, and the other person guesses what it is," he explained. "It's for kids."
"Oh… so like, I spy with my little eye someone beginning with 'A'?" asked Dirk, widening his eyes and staring obviously at his 'object'.
"Amanda?" asked Todd, this time actually rolling his eyes.
"Wow Todd, you guessed it!"
"Dirk, you're meant to make it… less obvious what you are choosing. Like…" Todd scanned his surroundings. "I spy with my little eye something beginning with A," he continued, spotting an ant on the window.
"Hmm… Amanda?" guessed Dirk, smiling when the girl turned around to grin at him.
"No, you already used Amanda."
"Umm… is it air?"
"I can't see air, Dirk."
"Okay, how about an armadillo?"
"What? Do you even see an armadillo?"
"Well, no, but maybe youhave?"
Todd rolled his eyes again.
"I haven't seen an armadillo, Dirk."
"This game is hard, Todd."
Todd closed his eyes, willing off what felt like an impending headache.
"I don't even want to play this."
"How about an alligator?" Dirk tried again, ignoring him.
Five more guesses from Dirk, and each getting more ridiculous later, and Todd was ready to crack his head against the window to knock himself out.
"Oh for gosh sakes, it was an ant!" he finally cried, exasperated. "Aren't you meant to be psychic or something?"
Dirk pouted.
"I'm not psychic."
"Says the guy who apparently can read my thoughts," muttered Todd bitterly.
"For the nineteenth time, I can't read your thoughts, Todd! I just… sense emotions?"
"Yeah, myemotions."
"It's not like I can help it. I don't even know how it happens. I've… actually never been able to do that with anyone else."
"Great, and I should thank you for the privilege then?"
Dirk shrugged, his expression hurt.
"Todd, what is wrong with you? Stop being such an asshole to Dirk," scolded Amanda, turning around from her seat to shove her brother. "You shouldthank him, if it weren't for Dirk we'd never have found you last time."
"Fine. Thanks a lot," the man muttered, shrinking back into his seat, crossing his arms and scowling.
Dirk sighed. It was going to be a very long ride after all.
They arrived at the facility on time as planned, parking the van a fair way out and covering the last couple of miles by foot. Without Ken's help in cloaking the security systems, they needed to be a lot more careful this time, though Riggins did promise them he'd take care of the surveillance within the facility. Once they were inside (following Riggins' instructions to meet up with an Officer Z and give him a specified password), they split up into groups, using the vents again to get to their assigned search locations undetected. This was how Dirk now found himself crawling up the front in one of the so very cold vents again, Todd and Gripps following behind him (they had assigned a Rowdy to both Todd's team and Amanda's team in case either of them had an attack).
"So… where are we going?" asked Todd, following Dirk around yet another corner in the vents. In working with the way Dirk did things, their group hadn't actually been assigned a search parameter.
"Well, usually, I need to just go, and I will be where I need to be. You should know how this works now, Todd."
"Sure, but it doesn't make it any less weird."
"Hmm," hummed Dirk, glancing out another vent. "No, not that one."
"We don't even know what we are looking for… so how do you know we haven't passed it?" asked Todd, shuddering as he remembered the ice that encased him last time he was in one of these vents.
"Again, I will be exactly where I need to be-"
"Right," cut off Todd, sighing as they made another turn. They continued to crawl for a while, Todd feeling his hands and knees starting to numb before Dirk suddenly came to an abrupt stop, causing Todd to curse as he crashed into him, Gripps also crashing into Todd from behind. The three men were thrown forward, Dirk at the front being pushed with enough force to knock against a vent panel, the panel giving way. All three toppled out into a thankfully deserted corridor.
Dirk grinned as he picked himself up off the ground, ignoring the pained protests of the two men beside him as they untangled themselves.
"See, we're meant to get out here then."
"Uh… Farah?" called Amanda, gesturing to the little girl staring expressionlessly at her from inside one of the cells. Their team, consisting of the two of them plus Vogel, had been assigned Area A, and after locating the area through the vents, they had crawled out to search on foot. Farah turned around now, backing away slightly in surprise when she also saw the girl, who was gesturing desperately at them with her hands.
"Help me?" said Amanda.
"Huh?"
"Help me. She's signing 'help me'," she repeated, glancing at Farah.
"You can read sign language?" asked Farah, raising a brow in admiration. Amanda smiled.
"I was stuck at home a lot, remember? Do you think we can get her out?"
Farah glanced at the lock on the door, then fished inside her pocket for the override device Ken had made for them last time.
"That shouldn't be a problem."
A beep, and the door unlocked, the little girl rushing out to throw her arms around Amanda. Pulling away after a moment, she signed some more, glancing desperately at the three of them.
"She saying to please help the others too," translated Amanda.
Once out of the vent, Dirk, Todd and Gripps crept down a deserted corridor, stopping when they reached the end and it split in two directions.
"So, which way?" Todd asked, turning to Dirk.
"Hmm… they look equally good," said Dirk, glancing one way to the other. "Ooo, duck!" he suddenly yelped, spying an agent walking past. Without hesitation, the three of them managed to dive behind a nearby trolley, but the agent had already seen them, pulling out his gun. Panicked, the three men ran down one of the corridors with the trolley in tow as a shield.
"You were saying?" yelled Todd as they raced further down the corridor until they reached another dead end, the agent continuing to follow them, yelling at them to stop, and now firing a few stray bullets in their direction.
"Oh dear," muttered Dirk, ducking quickly again when a bullet sped past, missing his head by merely an inch. "It's like he wants to kill us," he cried.
"Not on my watch," gritted Gripps suddenly, stopping and somehow pulling out a metal pipe from his pant pocket. He stood up, Todd gasping when the saw the agent aim his gun squarely at the Rowdy. Acting on pure instinct, Todd pushed the trolley they had been hiding behind towards the agent with all his might. Time seemed to slow down to Dirk as he watched the trolley collide into the agent sending him flying just as he pulled the trigger, the bullet from his gun ricocheting off a metal door and back towards the man as he landed hard onto the ground. Bullet found flesh, burying itself into the agent's arm. He dropped his gun. The metal door slowly swung open from the force of the bullet. The three of them silently shared a look before Gripps jumped into action, pouncing on the now disarmed agent.
"Go!" the Rowdy ordered the other two, throwing his pipe to Todd. He scowled when they heard footsteps running towards them, the previous commotion having attracted more attention. With a quick snap against the floor, Gripps knocked the agent on the floor unconscious, picking up his gun.
"Go, I've got this," he repeated, glaring at Dirk and Todd. Still heaving breathlessly, Todd nodded gratefully at the Rowdy, before grabbing Dirk's hand and pulling him through the door that had opened, slamming it shut behind them.
"In there?" Farah asked the girl who was gesturing towards one of the doors to a different corridor. She nodded, signing back at her.
"Yes, we can start here," translated Amanda.
"Start?" questioned Farah, glancing at Amanda who shrugged.
"Martin said they locked all the others up too," burst out Vogel, beginning to pace around in distress until Amanda lay a hand into his shoulder to calm him.
"Others?" enquired Farah. Vogel nodded jerkily.
"Others like us. And like Dirk and Bart… and Todd."
"Do you know how many there are?" Amanda asked, turning back to the little girl. The little girl shook her head.
"No, but I think I can find where they all are," she signed to Amanda.
"Well," concluded Amanda, glancing at Farah. "Looks like we've got work to do."
"You're a fantastic assistant, Todd," commented Dirk as they walked down yet another corridor. "Great intuition to push that trolley into the scary man like that."
Todd creased his brows, still feeling his heart racing from the exchange.
"Right."
Dirk nodded.
"Of course, Gripps wasn't too bad either. And I sure hope he's okay holding off those other men." He paused, glancing around.
"Now, where is what we're looking for," he murmured, coming to a stop at a part of the corridor with a door on each side.
"Hmm… left," he concluded, reaching for the handle just as Todd uttered "right," at the same time, also reaching for the other handle. Todd raised an eyebrow at him.
"Left then?" he asked.
"Hmm, no, let's go with right," said Dirk.
"But… we're following you aren't we? Your special non psychic intuition thing?"
"Well… yes, definitely not psychic. But… my intuition istelling me that I should follow you Todd… plus, the left door is locked," he finished, smiling sheepishly.
Todd raised an eyebrow at him again.
"That's not an issue, we still have the device Ken made to open it. Plus, if the files we're looking for is so top secret, wouldn't they be more likely to be inside the locked door?"
"Maybe, or maybe it's inside the unlocked door?"
"Whatever," sighed Todd, gulping before cautiously pushing ajar the door to their right. The door squeaked a little as it opened, revealing a small room, lines of labelled drawers inside.
"Storage of some kind?" He shrugged, turning to Dirk. Dirk merely frowned, walking inside. Todd followed behind him.
"These symbols, I've seen them before," gasped Dirk, studying the markings on each drawer. He paused suddenly, pulling one opened, gasping when he looked inside.
"My shirt!" he exclaimed excitedly, grinning like a kid on Christmas morning as he pulled out a clearly labelled specimen bag containing a Mexican Funeral t-shirt from the drawer. Todd hesitantly peeked in, spying Dirk's jacket in another bag, along with the rest of Dirk's clothes all neatly packaged and labelled. Glancing to the next drawer, he absently ran his finger along the neat black lines of the imprinted symbol. Hesitantly, he pulled the drawer open, shuddering at the neatly packaged and labelled bags inside, each containing one item of his clothing from when he had first came to rescue Dirk. In the corner of the drawer, he also spied his phone and the small orange bottle containing his pills.
"That's better! How do I look, Todd?" Dirk suddenly asked, drawing his attention. He was proudly grinning, having slipped the slightly tight t-shirt on over his sweater. Todd couldn't help smiling at the sight.
"It's an improvement," he jested. Taking another shaky breath, he turned back to the drawer filled with his things again. Somehow, seeing his old clothing stored like this in separate and marked bags felt violating, as though confirmation of how they had all been lab rats for the doctor. He looked up when he felt Dirk's hand on his shoulder.
"Did you want to take anything, Todd?"
Todd glanced at his things again, his hand hesitantly hovering over his bottle of pills for a moment, before returning to his side, shaking his head.
"Let's see what's behind the other door then."
Todd nodded numbly, closing the drawer with a click.
"So much for being inconspicuous," said Amanda, staring at the carnage before her, agents strewn across the floor and walls, blood splattered around.
"Gripps!" Vogel suddenly yelped excitedly, running up to the man. Gripps was also covered with blood, brandishing a gun in each hand. He turned towards them, nodding in acknowledgment, eyes scanning curiously at the small crowd of the others they had rescued following behind them. "Are you okay?"
"Not my blood," was the stoic reply.
"Where are Dirk and Todd?" asked Farah.
"We got separated," Gripps answered. "I dealt with these guys while they went to find the files."
"Who are they?" he added, now glancing at the people following the three of them.
"Hi… I'm… I'm Jacob," introduced the man standing closest to Amanda, waving his hand, his eyes blinking nervously with every word.
"Uh… thanks Jacob," said Amanda, grinning awkwardly at the man. "They're others that have been taken here. We're helping them get out."
"We have to find Martin and Cross," cut in Vogel, "and then we have to go."
"Is that everyone then?" asked Gripps, gesturing to the crowd again. Amanda looked towards the small girl standing just behind her, nodding when she signed to her.
"One more wing to go."
Farah scanned her eyes over the many bodies again.
"Unfortunately, it doesn't look like our presence is going to be hidden for much longer. New plan of attack. Vogel and Gripps, find Martin and Cross and start getting everyone out of here," she ordered the two Rowdies. "Amanda and I will go and release the others, then get Dirk and Todd."
"What about the files?" asked Gripps. "Don't we still need to find that?"
"Dirk will find it," she answered confidently. "… and he better do it soon."
Once unlocked, the door to the left, which Dirk had initially wanted to go in, led them down another corridor. Another few twists and turns later, they stumbled upon what looked like a small office, papers scattered everywhere atop a desk in the centre, the name Dr D. Schultz displaying proudly on a nameplate near the edge.
"This must be Dr Schultz's office," said Dirk, staring around in amazement at the mess before him. Todd gulped, feeling his heartbeat speed up.
"Looks like it has already been searched," he supplied, staring at the open drawers, files spilling out everywhere and scattered across the room. "Should we… I mean, is it worth searching it again?"
"Hmm," was Dirk's reply as he paced into the room, towards the desk, only to end up tripping over a pile of books and landing hard on the ground. "I guess so," he moaned, Todd regarding him with equal amounts of amusement and concern. After helping him up, they began sorting through the piles, looking for any signs of pararibulitis, Todd's name, or Project Alpha.
"Todd, are you okay?" Dirk asked when he noticed his friend seemed to be shaking (he could also sense his fear, but tried to block that out thinking that Toddwouldn't like him sensing it). Todd looked up at him from the file he had been going through.
"Uh huh… I just…" He paused, swallowing hard. "I don't know…"
"Maybe you should sit down?" suggested Dirk, pulling out the chair from the desk. "If… if that's what you want to do…"
To his surprise, Todd nodded, his brows creasing as he carefully made his way over to the chair, even allowing Dirk to help him down into it.
"Do you need your pills?" asked Dirk once he was seated. He knew Amanda had given him a bottle of them just in case when they left the cabin.
Todd shook his head.
"It's not pararibulitis… I… I just need a moment," he responded. "It's just that… ever since we came in here…" he trailed off.
"You can feel it, can't you? What I'm feeling," he suddenly asked, glancing up at Dirk.
Dirk pouted, looking away.
"I haven't been… or trying really hard not to-"
"What is it?" asked Todd to his surprise, cutting him off. "What am I feeling?"
Dirk frowned, wondering if Todd was testing him for any reason. He sighed when Todd continued to stare at him expectantly.
"Fine… as long as you promise you won't get mad."
Todd nodded.
"I can feel fear… you're scared… and more than usual. I mean, more than usual after everything that's happened..."
Todd gulped, nodding again.
"I don't know why, Dirk… maybe it's because we're here in… in this place… in her office, but… I thought I could just get over it," whispered Todd, taking a slow breath to try and will his heartbeat to slow. Dirk bent down, cautiously placing a hand over Todd's knee.
"Todd," he began, but paused, suddenly squinting curiously under the doctor's desk, now at his eye level.
"What is it?" asked Todd.
"There's a strange bit here…" He reached in, running his finger over the uneven surface, his eyes widening.
"It's a secret button!"
Dirk wasted no time in pressing the button he found, grinning maniacally when a bookcase to their side slowly shifted to reveal a door.
"A door!" he gasped with grandiose, even though he was simply stating the obvious, as Dirk would. Despite the situation, Todd couldn't help but smile and shake his head at the man for doing it.
"This looks like a scanner of some sort," Dirk mumbled, studying the lock on the door. "Ooo," he exclaimed excitedly, straightening to turn to Todd. "It's one of those hand print reader thingys!"
"Great. And it probably needs the doctor's own handprint to unlock," sighed Todd, weary of yet another obstacle.
"Well… that would make sense… but surely, the doctor would've programmed it to take another print besides her own in case anything happened to her," reasoned Dirk, his brows scrunching deep in thought.
"That would be if she was expecting anything to happen to her… I don't think she knew she was going to… die?"
"Still… it's the CIA… they must have some sort of back up access."
"Okay... even if they did… it'd be… Major Wilson or someone right?"
"Hmm… no, not her…" Dirk replied, his eyes shifting around. "Someone that anyone would have access to if they were trying to use this data. Someone they would need for this information to be useful."
Todd kept silent this time, noticing the familiar look in Dirk's eyes. The one he would get whenever he was solving something and it was all falling into place in his mind.
"Todd," Dirk suddenly turned around to face him, grinning. "It's you."
"Wait… what?"
"You, Todd. You're Project Alpha. If anyone was going to be accessing this information about… well, you, they would actually need you for it to be useful. You must be the backup access. Quick, put your hand here," Dirk instructed, pointing at the scanner on the door.
"Dirk… that's… that's crazy… they wouldn't… but…"
He sighed, glaring at the man that stared at him expectantly as he got up and walked towards the door. Rolling his eyes when Dirk continued to grin at him, he took another deep sigh, before placing his hand onto the scanner. The scanner blipped, a red light waving over his palm for a few moments, before it blipped again. Then, with a neat click, the door slid open.
"Oh Christ," he cursed softly under his breath.
The two men exchanged a glance, both gulping before walking in.
The light automatically switched on as soon as they entered, a wall of various screens illuminating before them.
"Password… oh bother," sighed Dirk, glancing at the main screen in the centre. Todd kept silent, glancing around the small room.
"Hmm," Dirk continued. "Todd? Alpha? Brotzman?" he guessed, typing into the console, frowning when it denied him access each time. "It's probably not that easy I guess."
"That's a little strange," Todd uttered, watching Dirk's attempts. "I mean… if the doctor made a way for someone to get in here without her, then she must intend for them to know the password too, right?"
Dirk glanced up from the console.
"That's true, great assisting again, Todd! You must have the password!"
"What? I mean… what?"
"Well, since your hand opened the hand print reader thingy, then they wouldn't just let someone in here to stare at blank screens, would they? You must also have the password."
"I…" Todd paused, his eyes searching through his thoughts. "Unless…"
He paused, releasing a shaky breath.
"There's some sort of mark on my back… I… I saw it in the mirror but it was too far for me to see properly and I just thought… well… I just didn't really want to…"
He took another deep breath.
"It could be a code or something?"
He trailed off, shrugging at Dirk. Dirk's eyes lit up eagerly, but he didn't insist, only reaching out to squeeze Todd's shoulder. Todd sighed, turning around. Swallowing hard, he started unbuttoning his shirt, before slowly gliding it down, revealing his back to Dirk. He tensed, feeling Dirk's fingers brushing his skin.
"What… what is it," he stammered. He felt Dirk's hand on his shoulder again, this time pulling him around to face him.
"I'll try it," he simply said. Todd nodded, his hands fidgeting nervously at his buttons as Dirk punched some letters and numbers into the console. The console blipped, the screens around them lighting up.
Subject: Alpha
DOB: 01281983
Blood type: O-
Abilities: Pararibulitis
Todd gulped, seeing his details appear on the main screen, his photo taken from his driver's licence staring expressionless at them. Glancing to his side, he couldn't help but back away, seeing other details on the smaller screens, images, notes, even footage, all that had obviously been taken while he had been here at the facility.
"This... this is it," said Dirk solemnly, trying his best to concentrate on their task at hand, as much as he wanted to just run and take Todd away from it all. "There… must be a way to wipe these files, or a main drive or something we can take with us?"
He glanced at Todd, who was still silently scanning each screen.
"Todd… I'm… sorry."
Todd shook his head, though his eyes continued searching.
"It's not…" he began, though stopped when one of the screens caught his attention. Slowly, Dirk followed his line of sight, gulping when he saw what Todd was staring at. A video was playing of one of Dr Schultz's "tests". Todd in the video was restrained into the chair at the lab, while one of the researchers made small methodical cuts along his forearm with a scalpel. Video Todd was flinching at every cut, eyes wide in terror, glued to the scalpel each time it made another track.
"Todd," Dirk whispered after a moment, hesitantly reaching out to him. Todd, however, flinched away violently as soon as he made contact, clutching his arms and falling to his knees. Dirk gasped at the blood that came away onto his hand where he had brushed Todd. Looking up he could see deep cuts now appearing across Todd's arms, Todd's large blue eyes staring distressfully at the wounds.
"Todd, it's not real, you're having an attack," Dirk tried to reassure him, noticing that the blood had disappeared from his hand as soon as he pulled them away out of Todd's sight. Kneeling to face the distressed man, Dirk reached out hesitantly again. "Todd, where are your pills?"
Todd didn't respond, his eyes momentarily tuning in to the screen playing the footage again. Todd in the video was no longer merely staring at the scalpel, now screaming instead, straining desperately against strong arms and restraints that held him down.
"Please stop," whispered Todd.
Dirk felt an unwelding lump rise in his throat.
"Stop… please," Todd repeated again. A tear escaping down his cheek.
"Todd, Todd… look at me." Dirk could only utter desperately, until bright blue eyes met his own. "Todd, it's not real… they can't hurt you anymore-"
BANG.
The sound of a shot sliced through the air. Dirk collapsed to the ground as soon as he felt the exploding pain hit his shoulder.
"Dirk!"
He felt Todd's hands around him, calling out to him in a panic. And Todd's concern for him would've almost have been nice if not for the ever growing throb of excruciating pain, and the blood. Oh yes, there was a lot of that too, wasn't there…
"Target has been shot, ma'am," came a voice through the entrance, making Dirk squint to focus on the new presence. Oh bother, Friedkin. Of course it was Friedkin.
"D… Don't come any closer," he heard Todd stammer beside him, moving to shield Dirk from the Sergeant. From where he was, Dirk could see that his hands were still shaking, deep hallucinated wounds still bleeding freely.
"I didn't say to take the shot, Sergeant," entered another voice, heels clicking as she walked in. Major Wilson glanced down at them, her cold eyes momentarily cutting through the growing fog in Dirk's mind. "Project Alpha, Project Icarus. Nice of you both to join us," she greeted. "And thank you for helping us locate this valuable information."
Studying the various screens around them, she nodded in approval. "Schultz was meticulous."
"Uh… ma'am… something is wrong with him?" spoke up Friedkin, scowling curiously at Todd. Dirk shifted his head to see that the cuts down Todd's arms had gotten worse, the man now almost bent over in double, eyes tightly shut while he tried to will the pain away. Major Wilson squinted her eyes, studying him for a moment, before grinning in realisation.
"You're having one of those 'attacks', aren't you? The disease of yours?"
Todd ignored her question, though Dirk wasn't sure if he would've been able to answer if he wanted to. The Major glanced around at the consoles again.
"You're going to be very valuable to us, Todd Brotzman."
"No," Todd suddenly gritted out. Forcing his eyes to open to focus on the Major.
"No?" asked the Major.
"No… I'm not. We're not… not your… we're not your science experiments…"
The Major laughed in response.
"It seems like you already are, Todd. You see, you and Icarus, and others like you, you have these… abilities. We have a duty to our citizens to keep them safe, and that starts by understanding potential threats."
"But we're... we're not threats. You can't do this to us. We're just people."
"You are dangerous subjects."
Todd paused, glaring at the Major for a brief moment, before suddenly picking up the metal pipe Gripps had given him, turning around to smash it down hard onto the main screen of the console. The glass shattered in one hit, sending shards of sharp crystals over the four of them. Ignoring the fresh real cuts on his cheeks and arms from the glass, Todd continued to smash the other screens, sending more glass flying, electrical sparks zapping.
"Ma'am?" Friedkin shouted for instruction among the chaos.
"Stop him," Wilson yelled back. The man obeyed immediately, pouncing on Todd, the two of them toppling to the ground. From where he was, Dirk could make out the sounds of fists connecting hard with flesh, the two men grunting as they struggled. He tried to push himself up to try and see if he could give Todd a hand in any way despite feeling like his shoulder was on fire, but paused when he suddenly felt the coldness of metal on his forehead.
He had barely managed to contemplate why it was always him that ended up staring down the barrel of a gun when the pain suddenly exploded. Right through his skull.