Author's Note: I know a number of you were wondering why no one in Washington had stuck up for the Doctor.
Colonel Haviland had just about had it with Green.
No, that was a lie. Colonel Haviland had long past had it with Green. At this point, he wanted to slice Green into about 20,000 pieces and feed those pieces to wild dogs.
But apparently, Green was connected. Very well connected. After what happened with Julie Parsoner, Colonel Haviland spent two hours trying to convince Washington to — at the very least — let him fire Dr. Green's ass. Or, if he was lucky, do something worse. But Green had a number of mysterious friends from higher up who were protecting him. Mysterious friends that Colonel Haviland couldn't overrule.
Basically, the only way to get rid of Green was to shove him in a time machine, travel back to the McCarthy era, and get him accused of being a communist. Which wouldn't have worked even if their resident time travel expert had been willing to do it.
(And Colonel Haviland would probably redirect the time machine to Mount Vesuvius or something and kick Green out on his doomed ass.)
Colonel Haviland had put Green in the one position where he could do the least damage — guarding and testing an alien who could heal from basically anything they did to it, and needed to be conscious and aware most of the time, anyways. And Haviland had thought that was a good solution. Hostile 29 had escaped less often, Green got out his more sadistic tendencies without having to hurt any of the women (what was it with Green and women? Seriously), and given Hostile 29's time tested habit of wiggling its way out of the nastier tests, Green didn't really have all that much of an opportunity to hurt even Hostile 29.
And Green had still found a way to do something despicable!
Colonel Haviland had just finished explaining to Julie that he was very, very sorry, but there was nothing he could do to Green for what had just happened. He offered her monetary compensation, but Julie had just stormed off. Understandable.
Poor woman.
And one of the best employees around here, too.
Colonel Haviland had known that it would be hard work overseeing the Initiative during Washington's investigations concerning the murder of Professor Walsh, but he hadn't known it'd be nearly impossible. First Adam on the loose. Then Green growing more and more cold and hostile towards his female employees (exponentially so, whenever Hostile 29 acquired a new female visitor). Then this scandal with Julie. And, of course, there was the extraction of information from Hostile 29, which was a task far more impossible than all the rest.
The Initiative had been designed for one purpose. To create some sort of non-human military advantage that the United States could use for its own protection.
It was supposed to be Adam, and now that Adam had become an evil unstoppable killing machine, Washington was trying to find a way to cover its tracks. See if there was any way to rectify the situation and still come out ahead.
Enter Hostile 29.
A two-hearted alien who travelled through time and space, calling itself "Doctor" and "helping people". A creature who was famed for its knowledge of technology, weapons, and warfare. Who had knowledge about the future of this country, about every future military defeat the United States would face, and why it happened. Adam had been entirely without a conscience, but Hostile 29 had no such problem. If anything, the military would have to crush part of Hostile 29's conscience to get it to cooperate. But if they could use Hostile 29, incorporate it into the military machine… well, that would be worth it.
Colonel Haviland wanted Hostile 29 transferred to the Pentagon as soon as possible. All the officials he was speaking to thought the same. Get Hostile 29 to Washington, make sure it was secured with no chance of escape, then find some way to force it to work for them.
Problem was, there were… complications. Fewer now than before. When Haviland had first begun campaigning to transfer Hostile 29 to the Pentagon, just after it was caught, there seemed to be quite a number of people who thought Haviland should let Hostile 29 go. Who believed Hostile 29 was not only a person, but one with actual rights and privileges. Over the last two months, however, this particular problem seemed to have taken care of itself. These voices had spoken out less and less, until finally, it became a unanimous decision to keep Hostile 29 contained.
But still, there were problems transferring Hostile 29 to Washington. Old laws and precedents relating to a "Doctor" with "two hearts" who supposedly was to be heralded as a great hero of the country, who had apparently been honored by George Washington, who had been given a commendation by Abraham Lincoln. And then there'd been some big hullabaloo about how Richard Nixon might have apparently hired this same "Doctor" for a short time to help solve some terrible crisis in the United States — followed by a discussion of whether this was a good or bad thing, considering it was Richard Nixon.
But Colonel Haviland was holding out hope that they'd get Hostile 29 to Washington where it could be properly interrogated and fully incorporated as part of the military machine as soon as possible.
In the meantime, Haviland was stuck here, at the Initiative, doing everything in his power to make sure that Hostile 29 did not escape. If that meant allowing Green to torture it, then Green could torture it. If that meant starving it so that it was too weak to get very far, then that was fine as well. If that meant letting Agent Finn beat it to a bloody pulp every so often, then Agent Finn was free to do so. The most important thing to Colonel Haviland was that Hostile 29 remained exactly where it was.
Then Hostile 29 had been suspected of murder. Which wasn't helped by the fact that all records of Hostile 29's last conversation with Penelope had been completely blanked, and Hostile 29 had practically confessed to the investigators that it had killed Penelope. With an extensive review of the footage of Hostile 29's cell during the time of the murder, followed by a hefty bribe, Colonel Haviland had managed to get the charges against Hostile 29 dropped.
Which avoided a very messy end for Hostile 29, and let Colonel Haviland continue to push for Hostile 29 to be transferred to Washington as soon as possible.
Considering that Green was growing worse and worse every day that Hostile 29 stuck around, the moment Hostile 29 left couldn't come soon enough for Colonel Haviland.
There was a knock at the door, which turned out to be Private Dixon. He stood to attention, and Colonel Haviland told him to stand down.
"Report," said Haviland.
"We caught Agent Finn smuggling contraband into Hostile 29's cell, sir!" said Private Dixon.
Haviland jumped up from his seat. "What contraband?"
"It was… a chocolate bar, sir," said Private Dixon.
A chocolate bar? What did Haviland care if Hostile 29 had a chocolate bar in its cell? With Parsoner angry enough to sue the hell out of all of them, and Green turning into some crazy evil genius, and a group of women led by Marianna Forlich arranging to meet with him later that day — presumably to beg for Hostile 29's release, as Dr. Forlich had done in the past — a chocolate bar was not a significant event!
"Then let Hostile 29 eat it!" snapped Haviland. "What do I care?"
"The scientists are upset," said Private Dixon. "Dr. Green especially. He says the chocolate adds an extra variable into his tests."
"You can tell Dr. Green to shove his scientific tests up his ass!" Haviland informed him. "Stop wasting my time!"
Dixon faltered. "There was… something else," he admitted. "Hostile 29 seemed to act as if the gesture was… important in some way. What with Finn's renewed interest in Hostile 29, it's likely that this is some sort of hidden communication between the two, sir. Another escape attempt."
This was all Haviland needed.
"Confiscate the chocolate bar," said Haviland. "Dixon, you and your men administer Hostile 29 its punishment. I'll discipline Agent Finn."
"Sorry, sir," said Dixon, uneasily. "Hostile 29 has already eaten the chocolate."
"I don't care about the damn chocolate!" barked Haviland. "Just administer the punishment!"
Dixon saluted, then ran off to carry out the order. Colonel Haviland got up from his desk. This was shaping up to be a very, very bad day.