XXI: Follow Me
She is standing there in front of him, and he notices first that she has positioned herself directly between him and the computer. Furthermore, she is staring at him in a way that, if she rattled him, he might call unnerving. Such as it is, he cannot say that he is genuinely afraid of Kate, but neither does that expression so typical to her assuage his doubts. Her brows are drawn together, and her face is poised between confusion, consideration, and what he suspects is a certain frustration that is liable to explode as suddenly and sharply as that of anyone else on the island.
"You have a question," Sayid states evenly, thinking, I am not sure if I can answer it. I wonder how she will react if I don't know something that she wants to know, for once. He lifts a hand towards her, signaling that she should ask. Curiously enough, she seems to have waited for such a sign. He has noticed that she's always polite around him. If anything, that only further concerns him.
"Do you think he was telling the truth, about the window?" She is halfway between suspecting Sawyer of lying and, from the slight tremble to her words, very worried indeed that he could be right. Sayid is unsurprised that she waited until the con man stalked off, given the nature of her question, and also unsurprised that she is asking him. He certainly would not say that he believed Sawyer if, indeed, he did not.
However, what can be said? To agree with Sawyer without further investigation would be foolish, idiocy of the highest degree. To tell Kate that he does not believe the man would be a lie, though, and he does not want to run the risk of telling her something she might disprove; he has striven to be honest with her, fully aware that she herself cannot be trusted. Either the interrogator or the person being questioned must be honest; two people lying produces nothing but stalling, frayed nerves, a lack of results, and he does not relish that possibility.
He smiles a little at her, shrugging as if to connote exactly how much certainty he has in the decision he's come to. It's definitely very little confidence. "I think that Sawyer was telling the truth, as he sees it." The irony of saying this to Kate is not lost on him, but it is an observation which he chooses not to share.
"And as you see it?" He should have known that he would not be reprieved quite that easily. She takes a step closer towards him and, conveniently, away from the computer. He takes the opportunity to angle himself for the computer, taking no steps forward, but simply moving so that, if he had to, he could get to the computer first. "He said we're being watched. If we're being watched, then maybe we shouldn't be in the hatch. Maybe we shouldn't use the computer."
"Nonsense," Sayid tells her bluntly, putting on that same small smile to soften the blow. "If we are being watched, we have been watched already. If we have been watched already, then what we do now ought to be unaffected by whatever surveillance they might have. This is different from Australia – " She gives him a strange look at that, but he does not elaborate. " – because they already know, here, and they are known to us, and there is no obfuscation. We want to get off the island. They know this. If they did not know it within the first few weeks, I strongly suspect that building a raft and launching it into open water would have been a definite hint."
She smirks a little at that. "Yeah, I'll bet it would have been," she confirms, though she's studying the window now. Has he been released from the conversation? He doubts it, and watches her as she leans in towards the window, peering at it like she knows exactly what to look for. That is definitely unnerving. She lifts a hand towards the window, palming it as if tracing its surface, and then leans in towards it. He understands too late why she let him get close to the computer, and curses his distraction.
He is too far away to intervene and can only watch as she whisks the screwdriver up and drives it sharply into the window. He is not sure how thickly the glass is tempered, so at first he worries that it will shatter, but when it only seems to fracture around the point of impalement, he is relieved. Then, he realizes, If there were electronics there, she would have been electrocuted. And the girl that turns back towards him, looking somewhere between phonily apologetic and oddly satisfied, is not literally a conduit for an electric current. Nervous energy flickers around her face, though, and she looks like she doesn't know what to say to him before she manages a brief, "Sorry" that she doesn't mean one bit.
He blinks a few times, staring, and is momentarily lost for words. If Charlie or Sawyer were here, they would be applauding her appetite for destruction, but he cannot muster such approval. All he can manage is to shake his head slowly, and take a few steps away, as if to distance himself from the madwoman.
"Sayid!" Kate's voice is suddenly plaintive, as she realizes she's been rebuffed. "Don't you want to see what's back there, if anything at all? Sawyer thought there was something back there." She gestures to the damage she's done to the window. "Now we can find out if what he said is true." She corrects herself after a moment: "We can find out if he was right."
It is not fair of her appeal to my curiosity, and she knows that it is unfair. He wants nothing more than to keep walking, to avoid the whole situation, but he must mind this. If he does not, she is liable to incur the wrath of Locke or Jack or God knows whom else, and he will as well. He must see that things are put back to rights. It is his responsibility, because Kate can scarcely be trusted to be responsible for herself, never mind the world around her.
"I will take a look," he allows, and he can hear how grudging his voice sounds. He thinks it over for a moment before deciding that, yes, he is indeed satisfied with the way it sounds. He does not want it to be obvious that he's so easily swayed. "On the other hand, you will stay here. If there is something that needs to be done, there needs to be someone here to do it."
"So I'll take a look, then, and you can stay here." Her hand tightens around the screwdriver, and he can tell that she is spoiling for an argument. "Besides, you know mechanical things. I don't. What happens if something like that happens?" She holds herself defiantly, staring at him. "Besides, I've been all through this hatch before. You haven't."
"Kate," he declares, trying his best to sound reasonable, to keep his patience, "stay here and do not destroy anything else. Listen to what I tell you and follow it. Please." He is not in the mood for discussing particulars at the moment. If she indeed wants him to find out what is contained within the window and beyond it, then she will have to be patient and allow him to do exactly that. He notices then that the room has not palpably changed in temperature or let in a breeze, so beyond it does not lie the outside world, he is sure of that. "And if Jack or Locke come, you are to stall them."
He does not trust her, but he knows that she will do as he asks, should he ask it. He has asked her not to break anything else within the hatch, and he knows that she will not. Her motives are uncertain at best, but her cooperation is not. She wants desperately to cooperate, and he has given her an opportunity to do so. It seems that the opportunity comes with questions, however, as she lets out a slightly frantic, "How am I going to – "
Whatever else she might have protested, he does not hear. He is already on his way out of the living area and passing the computer rooms, to see what the corridor might branch off to that leads to the back wall of the false window. He does not get very far, however, before the blonde woman wanders into his path. He recognizes her as one of Ana-Lucia's crew, but does not have a name for her. Upon catching sight of her, he motions her over, telling her, "You were with Charlie when we made it into the hatch, weren't you? What's your name?" He would feel better talking to her if he knew whom she was.
She stares at him for a moment, and he thinks that it is strange how the question seems to unfocus her, making her take a moment before responding. "… Right," she confirms slowly, dubiously, sounding like she's gathering her wits. "Libby. And yes, I was with Charlie."
He starts walking, unsure if she will walk along with him. She does, which surprises him to some extent. "Libby, then. And he said he would break the computer, as did Sawyer. Curious, that. The two of them have little contact with the hatch, but what they have makes them both quite determined to destroy its property."
That should be explanation enough to pique her interest in the matter, and a quick scan of her face reveals that, yes, she is indeed interested in the situation. Her brows are raised, and she looks more than interested: She looks surprised. What was she expecting? He almost asks that very question, but manages to restrain himself. Whatever she had been expecting is not as pressing a concern as is ensuring that nothing else in the hatch progresses without them having figured out the conditions of it, the composition of it, the correlation of it. He must know how this all fits together in a real sense. He will deal with what present-day concerns he can before moving on to the past.
Does this Libby have the same present-day concerns with the hatch? He is fairly certain. But is she interested enough to help him out? He is not certain of that. Regardless, she has some knowledge of the matter at hand, was in the same situation that he currently finds himself in, and he suspects she might know something about the whole thing. "We should talk, and, if you please, you'll help me figure out the whole situation down here. Follow me."