October 6, 1975
"I'm sorry that my warning didn't reach you sooner," Sapphire said. "I trust the Fates, but I don't always trust the Postal Service."
Garnet smirked. "The Postal Service wasn't the problem," she muttered, looking from Sapphire, calm and placid as ever, over to Ruby, looking furious and ready to fight with anyone, still showing bruises and injuries from her rough treatment by Aquamarine.
"You didn't tell your friends, did you?" Sapphire said.
Garnet seemed a little surprised - not that Sapphire would know that, but that she'd confront her so directly.
"I didn't," Garnet admitted, her face sad and tinged with guilt.
"You did it for the right reasons, I'm sure," Sapphire offered. "You wanted to protect your friends and not get them upset before you knew what you were up against. It's understandable. And...you can't have predicted when and what Aquamarine would do."
"Yes," Garnet said, considering her words. "But I failed to protect my friends. And that's the problem...I didn't trust them to handle that information the right way. And...what kind of ally...what kind of friend am I if I can't do that?"
"Not to interrupt, Sapphire, but...this isn't a therapy session," Ruby growled, cutting in. "State your piece."
"Ruby, please," Sapphire interrupted. "But, she is right, Garnet. As much as I'd like to help you untangle your personal guilt, you must have another reason for coming here."
"Yes," Garnet admitted.
"They took your friend," Sapphire guessed.
"Yes. Quite violently, in fact."
"And you're worried whether she's alive or not."
"Hmm."
Sapphire nodded. After a moment, she closed her eyes and concentrated, as if meditating.
"She is alive," Sapphire said.
"Do you know where she is?"
Sapphire pretended to conjure an image.
"She is...in a location not far from here. I don't know the address, but she's...in a black site. Somewhere near the Potomac. I can smell the water and the car exhausts. She's in a basement somewhere, two men - or women - watching her constantly. They're treating her terribly."
Garnet gritted her teeth. That much, she'd guessed on her own.
"I believe they're keeping her alive because they expect her to talk," Sapphire offered.
Garnet sighed and looked down at the floor. She wondered what she was even doing here, if this "psychic" could only offer the most obvious information. If her visions were worthless.
Maybe Amethyst was right about her. Maybe this was a waste of time.
She decided to put her faith to the test.
"I have another request," Garnet asked.
"Oh? What is it?" Sapphire asked. Garnet was amused to have genuinely surprised Sapphire, for once.
"My friends and I know that they have Lazuli for a reason. She knows the whereabouts of some sensitive files and they're using her to locate them."
"The Family Jewels," Sapphire said. "Yes, I know what you're talking about. The secret Agency documents."
"Do you know where they are?" Garnet asked, more pointedly than before.
Sapphire concentrated again. Garnet looked away to Ruby, who stared at her with her arms crossed and an angry scowl, sensing Garnet's growing skepticism.
"It's a blank," Sapphire said sadly.
Garnet sighed and stood up.
"Thank you, Sapphire," she said guardedly.
"I'm sorry that I couldn't be more helpful," the psychic offered.
"Well, one's powers aren't always on, are they?" Garnet asked, not wanting to give offense but eager to leave. "I appreciate your time and effort on my behalf."
"Please stop by again," Sapphire said, a hint of desperation creeping into her voice. "I value our conversations so much."
Garnet stopped for a moment, but said nothing. And exited through the beaded curtain, her faith shattered. And, at the same time, her own guilt towards my behalf compounded.
"I've been telling you Sapphire's running a scam for years," Amethyst chided her friend. "Amazed it took you this long to figure it out!"
"I never thought she was actually psychic," Garnet grumbled defensively. "But she does know things that aren't common knowledge. I don't especially care how she knows them, so long as they're accurate."
"Fair enough, but come on, G," Amethyst said. "She's a con artist. She pretends she's psychic so she can sell books and make money off of idiots..." She winced seeing Garnet's reaction to that comment.
"...Sorry, I didn't mean..."
"No, it's all right," Garnet sighed. "Maybe I am an idiot if I thought she could actually help us. Unless she's an actual psychic, there's no way she's gonna find Lapis, let alone where the Jewels are located."
"Well, if the spirit world isn't gonna help us, we mere mortals have some work to do," Amethyst reminded her. "We're gonna see if we can make the exchange with Helms and Aquamarine by the end of the day."
"What are you going to give them?" Garnet asked. "They're gonna want something from us to show good faith."
"Perry's got it covered," Amethyst said. "She's getting something together right now that should satisfy them."
"Oh?" Garnet raised her eyebrow separately.
"Remember that she works for a Senator," Amethyst reminded Garnet. "She has access to a lot of classified shit. Plus, she can bullshit with the best of them."
Garnet chuckled slightly. But she still looked upset, and Amethyst couldn't figure out why.
"Hey, don't feel bad," Amethyst said. "So we're gonna have to do the spade work on our own. That's not so bad, is it?"
"It's not that," Garnet commented, still reluctant to come to terms with what was really bothering her.
"I knew," she said finally.
"Knew what?"
Garnet looked away from Amethyst. "Sapphire warned me that Aquamarine and her crew were coming the night before they did. And I didn't tell you."
"Wait, how did she warn you?" Amethyst asked.
Garnet reached into her pocket and pulled out the crumpled tarot card.
"What a load of bullshit," Amethyst murmured, throwing it in a trash bin. "Typical Sapphire."
"No, it's a Tower card which means that peril or death is imminent," Garnet said. "But I didn't know the details. I guess that's why...I didn't want to alarm you without having time to look into it or get ready. I didn't think..."
She sighed again, and sat down at a desk, still unable to face Amethyst. Amethyst could tell this had been weighing on her for some time.
"Garnet, it's all right," Amethyst said. "You couldn't have known..."
"It's not that," Garnet interrupted. "It's that...We place so much premium on trusting each other, and...a lot of times, we don't. You and I don't tell Pearl a lot of things, and...I don't know how much she knows, but she's smart. She can guess. And you know how Pearl gets about things like that."
Amethyst nodded and moved closer.
"And now this...I'm a bad partner," Garnet said. "A terrible friend. I rely on you ladies to have my back, and you always do."
"You think you don't have our back too?" Amethyst said gently. "G, trust me, swords and whips aren't worth shit without your shotgun behind us."
Garnet just grunted in response to this.
"Besides, now I'm curious about what you're keeping from me," Amethyst joked. Though Garnet didn't take it that way; she looked away and choked back a sob.
"I'm sorry," Garnet said. Amethyst lost control and walked over, giving Garnet a tight, firm hug.
"I'm not gonna hold it against you," Amethyst assured Garnet. "You know that. Any more than you hold me being me against me."
It took Garnet a moment to untangle that sentence's syntax, then she snickered.
"Well, we still need to tell each other the truth," Garnet said, more to herself than Amethyst. "And not hide anything. Otherwise, what good is our working together?"
Amethyst nodded. "Agreed."
The two remained in each others' arms for a long moment, their tears turning to an awkward chuckle.
"This mission's forcing me to be a lot more serious than I usually am," Amethyst said, only half-joking this time. "First Pearl, then you. I'm not sure I'm cut out to be the rock everyone leans on for strength."
"You're stronger than you think," Garnet assured her, pulling away from Amethyst. And Amethyst felt happy hearing this.
Their moment was wrecked, however, by Peridot bursting into the room with a bulging briefcase.
"Guys, guess what?" she enthused. "I made it into Senator Dewey's office and procured some facsimiles of the latest load of Agency files we received..."
"Dewey still lets you in the building, huh?" Amethyst snarked.
"For now," Peridot said, opening the briefcase and starting to lay some files out on the desk.
"Here we have it, about 250 pages' worth of bureaucratic mess, communications cables and so forth. Most of it's pretty banal stuff, but we didn't agree to give them the entire document, just a selection of it for leverage. I'm sure we can sort through this mess and find some juicy bits to compile into a makeshift file."
"Nice job, Peridot," Garnet assured her with her trademark thumbs up.
"Yeah, this is great," Amethyst said, looking over the papers. "I just hope they're dumb enough to fall for it."
"Or at least willing to play long enough to keep Lapis alive," Garnet said.
Peridot shuddered at their words, but managed to keep it together. And noticed the tears drying on Garnet and Amethyst's faces. And couldn't help grinning.
"So, what did I miss?"
Before they could answer, a telephone rang. The threesome looked at each other uncertainly, until Peridot went over and grabbed the receiver.
"Hello?"
"Peridot!"
Peridot instantly recognized the voice on the other end; and her heart skipped a beat.
"Lapis! Oh my God, you're okay!"
"Okay is a matter of perspective..." she groaned, her voice barely above a whisper. "But I'm alive. For the moment."
"What are they doing to you?" Peridot asked, struggling to restrain her voice until Garnet placed a steadying hand on her shoulder.
"Treating me to the best hospitality money can buy," Lapis said sarcastically. "Steak and lobster for every meal. I've probably gained about twenty pounds in the past few days since I've seen you."
A long sigh which sent a chill down Peridot's spine. She couldn't keep up the pretense any more.
"Anyway. They're in the room listening to me, so I can't tell you anything useful. Just...They want their first delivery. There's a locker in Union Station where you need to drop it off..."
"How do we know we can trust them not to set up a sting?" Peridot asked. Garnet and Amethyst exchanged a suspicious glance.
"You don't. But you'll have to trust me."
Peridot wanted to trust Lapis so bad. But she knew it wasn't really Lapis talking - at least, the words weren't hers.
"I'll do my best," Peridot said.
"Good," Lapis said.
"Lapis..." Peridot barked in panic as the call suddenly dropped. She dropped the receiver and stared into space, terrified.
"Did she give you the locker number?" Garnet asked.
Peridot was so stricken by what had just happened that she almost forgot. She had to hastily scramble her brain to think of what she'd just learned.
"Yeah, locker 329, I think."
"You think? Or you know?" Garnet asked, evenly but firmly.
"Locker 329," Peridot repeated, punctuating her assurance with a resolute nod.
"Well, let's start going through this mess," Amethyst said.
The phone rang again, and everyone froze again. This time Garnet picked up the telephone.
"Hello?"
"The Family Jewels are located at a farmhouse outside Toledo, Ohio." Garnet instantly recognized Sapphire's voice, speaking with her usual firmness and conviction. "It's an old property that once belonged to a Welsh farmer named Damien Llewelyn and was abandoned several years ago. No one's living there now, so it's probably rundown and beat up. I do not know the address or the precise location, but you should be able to find it through land records and newspaper searches and, you know, primary research."
"What...?" Garnet sputtered, baffled not by the information itself but at Sapphire providing something that detailed and uncalled for. And that soon after she'd decided to disavow her friend.
"Are you still in DC?" Sapphire asked.
"For now," Garnet answered.
"But you sent your friend Pearl to Toledo, because Lapis told you they were in the vicinity."
"Hmm."
"Well, get word to her however you feel it's safe - send a telegram if you have to - and have her do the necessary legwork until you get up there. In the meantime...Don't try and find Lapis Lazuli. They are expecting that. Even if you find the location where they're holding her, you're gonna walk straight into an ambush and get cut to pieces. Bye bye, Crystal Gems, and good night, Lapis Lazuli."
"We just heard from Lapis," Garnet said. "She is alive...like you said."
"Yes, that's a ploy to shake your nerves and win your trust. Garnet, whatever else might be said about Helms and Aquamarine and the rest of these people, they aren't stupid. They know that you're playing them. And I wouldn't make that drop off at Union Station, either."
Garnet didn't expect to hear this, either. She stared at her colleagues, who were listening in expectantly, then back at the phone as it sunk in.
"Well, we need to do something," she said. "At least pretend we're still playing along. If we just run off in the middle of this..."
"Just find another way," Sapphire said mysteriously. "I can't offer you a solution to your problems. That's on you. But I know you and your friends aren't stupid either."
"I hope you're right," Garnet muttered.
"And Garnet, one thing I didn't get to say earlier..."
"Hmm?"
"I don't know how much you can, or should trust me. Maybe not at all, any more. But there are more important things than that.
"Trust your friends. And more importantly, trust yourself."
The phone clicked. And Garnet hung up.
"Well?" Amethyst demanded.
Garnet looked around at her friends again, all waiting expectantly for her to suggest a course of action.
"Change of plans," Garnet said. "The Union Station bit is a set up. We're gonna have to find another way to outsmart them while keeping the game alive."
And she snapped into action, walking over to the table and grabbing about twenty pieces of paper at random. She snapped up a paperclip and attached them together.
"Peridot, mail these to the State Department courtesy of Richard Helms," she said. "Express mail. Pay for extra stamps. It should reach him by the end of the day if we do this right."
"But, you just picked up papers at random," Peridot sputtered, looking through the documents Garnet had clipped together.
"Does it matter? Either way, they're gonna figure out we're playing around with them once they open it. Stick in a manila folder and we've bought a little time."
"What's our next move?" Amethyst said.
"Get in touch with Pearl and Greg," Garnet said. "Do we know where they're staying?"
"They said they'd call us once they reached Toledo," Amethyst reminded her.
"Hmm. Well, my concern is that they could easily tap this telephone. If they called here, they know where we are."
"Then it's probably best if we go somewhere else," Peridot said.
"Not yet. If we move too suddenly they'll be ready for us. Let's wait it out at least until this evening. Then we hightail it up to Ohio."
"What if Aquamarine calls our bluff?" Peridot asked, her voice cracking with panic. "What if she just...kills Lapis? Because they didn't get what they want. Or maybe even for fun. What if we get the documents and it doesn't even matter? Or what if we don't?"
Garnet looked at Peridot, who seemed on the verge of tears.
"It will matter," she said, her voice steeled with conviction. "Even if Lapis dies...We can expose these documents. You can give them to the committee. We can leak them to the press. There are a million things we can still do after that."
Peridot didn't seem much comforted by the thought.
"Lapis isn't expendable," Garnet assured Peridot. "She's our friend now as much as yours. And we'll save her if we can. But trying to find where they're holding her is a waste of time. This way, we control the cards. We have the initiative and we force them to fight on our turf. And this time, we'll be ready for them."
Her little pep talk went over swimmingly with Amethyst. Her usual brash smile returned and she looked ready for a fight. But Peridot still seemed uncertain.
"I can't and won't promise anything," Garnet said gently. "But you're a vital member of the team. Besides, you're in it now regardless. You're a Crystal Gem, whether you like it or not."
"I'm a Crystal Gem?" Peridot said quietly.
Garnet nodded and smiled.
Peridot's face broke into a smile, and her old energy returned.
"Well then, what are we waiting for?" she said, bursting into frantic activity. "Let's deliver these papers and shove them up Aquamarine's ass!"
Garnet and Amethyst exchanged a look and a knowing smile.