"From me?"
"Yes, our machines. You were going to deliver at least one of them to him, and if I know my uncle that wasn't his only plan" Kayo said from where she was lounging "information would have been almost as valuable. So I bet there was a way to get you to hand over plans or schematic or something."
"Perhaps, that sounds like him" Brains agreed, "but unfortunately if that is the case I don't know a thing about it."
"Sure you do. It would have been part of the instructions he planted in your subconscious – we just need to help you access them."
"Is that even possible?" Brains frowned in thought – this wasn't really his area of expertise, he was much better at physical problems than psychological ones.
"Maybe, there are various techniques to aid memory recovery. If you are willing to try it we could work out where he is going to be, lay a trap and catch this son of a bitch." John leant forward in his enthusiasm, leaning slightly to one side to avoid whatever was his most aggravating injury today.
If only it wasn't John that was asking. For anyone else he might have hedged, hesitated at least, queried what was involved, done his own research. But right now there was very little he could refuse John, what with the fading bruises and dark circles under his eyes.
And that's how Brains found himself in the med bay strapped up to various monitoring machines and having just received a hefty dose of a cocktail of relaxants and what he was sure was a mild hallucinogenic.
Scott gave him a firm, reassuring squeeze of the shoulder but Brains was already starting to drift. His head was heavy, pressing deeply so deeply into the bed it was in danger of being swallowed, his sight blurring until he was surrounded by a rainbow of oil on water.
"This might be quite intense in places." Virgil was saying, his voice strangely clear but with an echo to it, as if there were two Virgil's speaking in not-quite unison. "A bit like a lucid dream if you've ever had one of those, but we are right here with you."
"Uh huh" Brains muttered to the swirling room.
"You have to go back to the conference where you met the Hood."
He had been settling in for the night, dithering between a quick shower and a bite to eat or just a long bath before bed. The scene jumped and he was opening door to the impatient rapping – Brains hadn't wanted the noise to disturb his neighbours at this late hour.
"I opened the door" Brains murmured, narrating the action of his dream self.
"And he would have made you let him in."
The smell of lilac had been sudden and overpowering, dazing him. He staggered back, almost tripping as he thumped down on the bed.
"He... He..." Brains struggled to speak, the memory convulsing as he tried to recall what the Hood had said to lower his barriers, to access his mind in such a foul way. Probably a biological agent, making him suggestible to those burning, piercing eyes. Brains knew that the power of his mind was by far his greatest strength so the fact that he was reduced to a deer in the headlights so swiftly was a matter of shame, the pressure of another consciousness on his almost too much to bare.
"Brains, your heart rate has gone up too high, too quickly. We don't need to know the method he used on you: let's skip over that and go straight to the part where he gave you instructions." Virgil said, soothing.
With a second of focus Brains found himself able to ease out of that stuttering moment with it's swirling darkness to something sometime later when the Hood's gaze was not so intense. The Hood was speaking – a snort of contempt when he named the Tracey's; a lingering curl of avarice when he spoke of the Thunderbirds.
"Where were you going to take Two?" Kayo asked, her voice drifting through the scene.
Brains reeled off the co-ordinates in unison with the Hood, remembering before they were spoken in an uncomfortable incident of deju vu.
"And if you were going to deliver something a little bit smaller?"
"Check back in" the Hood said with smug superiority. "I'll be watching the hotel so you can hand over all your little secrets."