What the hell was I thinking? Cameron asked himself as he walked down the hall toward the labs. He'd gotten out of his room just fine – he'd done it dozens of times before – but how in the world was he going to get into the ECT room?
It didn't really matter, because he just knew he had to. Cameron had come to the conclusion during his brainstorming session with Olivia and Walter that whatever lay behind the door to the ECT lab held the key to his own identity, as well as the identity of Ziggy's murderer.
A flash of lightning startled him for a moment, and he had to chuckle. "It was dark and stormy night," he said under his breath, but his joke fell flat when a wave of dizziness overcame him. Holding onto the wall for support, he leaned his head against the cool tiles. Nerves, he told himself. All that big talk, and look where it gets you, genius.
He ignored himself, and continued on, seeing the double doors to the labs just ahead at the end of the hall. Getting through those doors was the easy part; getting into the actual lab? That was going to be nigh well impossible. But he'd told Olivia he could do it, and he wanted to impress her. Which was stupid. And arrogant.
"You are taking a very great risk," the voice said behind him.
"Huh," Cameron grunted. "I wondered when you'd show up." He turned to face the bald man in the fedora. "So, tell me something I don't know."
"Why do you do this?"
"I want answers, that's why," Cameron retorted. "A friend of mine – a nice, decent, harmless man – is dead. Someone killed him, and no one around here seems to care. But I do. And Walter does, and so does Olivia."
"Dr. Kohuth," the bald man said. "Was he a good man?"
"As far as I know, he was, and that's all I care about. So, make yourself useful, why don't you? Can you unlock the lab doors?"
"It is not wise," the man said. "There may be… repercussions."
Repercussions… imagine the repercussions…
Cameron squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, trying only to concentrate on the sound of thunder rumbling outside.
There's no way of telling what the cost might be. But it can't be worse than this. It can't be worse than this...
"It can't be worse than this," he mumbled, reaching out toward the man. "Give me the keys."
"There are no keys," the man said. "Are you sure this is the right thing to do?"
Cameron shook himself alert. "What? Of course it is. I'm just looking for information. Simple re-con mission. I tell Olivia what I find, she gets a warrant, she talks to Sumner. Or Newton. Or Newton," he repeated.
Lightning flashed again outside, and suddenly Cameron's head was filled with a loud, humming sound. He leaned against the wall as the man said, "It is too late. There is no turning back. You feel it now. It has begun."
Olivia Dunham was frustrated. She'd tried five different search engines, and could come up with no information at all on anyone named Cameron King. Walter's mysterious friend had volunteered to break into St. Claire's ECT lab to gather information for her, and she had allowed it. Why would she do that? Why did she trust this haggard, arrogant, snide, handsome young man after meeting him, what? Twice? Ridiculous.
"You're getting soft," she scolded herself as her cell phone rang. Angrily, she snatched it up. "Dunham."
"Olivia, it's Astrid. Are you on your way back?"
"No," she sighed. "I'm still in Mass. There's been a death at St. Claire's, and I think it might be connected to the electro-magnetic events that have been happening. I also found someone who may have been at Reiden Lake the day of that Fringe event."
"Okay, but I think you need to come back. Now." Astrid's voice sounded almost frantic. "Olivia, it's the Machine. It's turned itself on."
Stunned, Olivia couldn't speak for a moment. "Astrid, is anyone else there?"
"Liv and Lincoln. The Secretary just left before it happened."
"All of you, get out of the Bridge Room right now. Meet me in the Liberty Island office, but stay away from the Bridge Room. Tell Liv to go back to her side, and shut the room. Lock it down. I'm on my way."
"Okay. Olivia, what's happening?"
Walter… what's happening to him? His heart rate's going up… how long are we gonna let him stay in that thing? Olivia! You're alive!
Olivia blinked. "I… I dunno. Sit tight. I'll be there as fast as I can."
The hum in Cameron's head grew to a roar as he staggered toward the ECT lab. It was as though the closer he got to the room, the worse the sound became. But the man following him seemed completely unfazed, as though he couldn't hear a thing.
…forty-seven years old… shrapnel wound to the abdomen…
Cameron clutched his side. What the hell was happening? Images and voices crowded his brain, making it almost impossible for him to move.
Look… from Jacobson's file. Him. Remember? The bald guy…
…Must you always be such a smart ass? I need the aluminum foil right now to shield the frequencies of the cylinder. Your life depends on it. All our lives depend on it. Go now!
…on Saturdays... I could smell the pancakes... which meant that you were here… there'd you be... standing over the stove, flipping pancakes. You seemed so big back then…
…and I don't want to live in my apartment, and I don't want to be with you. She's taken everything...
He finally managed to get to the door of the lab. "What's in there?" he said, barely hearing his own voice. "That's no ECT machine in there."
"It is as you have said," the man replied as the door to the lab opened, seemingly of its own accord. "Be careful what you wish for. I cannot help you now. There are many possible futures. You have chosen this one."
Cameron clung to the door to hold himself up. He rested his head against the door for a moment; when he looked back up, the man was gone. "Fantastic," he groaned, and stumbled into the room. "What the hell?" he said, coming face to face with a tall man in a lab coat, who – like the mysterious bald man – looked completely unfazed by the cacophony around him.
"This won't do," the man said in a clipped British accent. He nodded to someone behind Cameron.
Cameron didn't feel the needle slide into his neck until it was too late.