CHAPTER FIVE: PARSONS STATE INSANE ASYLUM
They were going to Parsons State Insane Asylum and Sam couldn't help but feel like it was a bad idea, not just because it was a place like that, which she doubted would be rosy on the best of days, but because of what potentially waited there. Although, the prospect of Ancient tech had made it an easier decision than she'd wanted, even if it had meant Edward was accompanying them on this little 'mission'. The idea of spending any more time in his enforced company made her feel nauseous. You needed to trust the people out here that had your back and it was safe to say she didn't trust Edward one bit, not with her and not with Jack. The bastard was always damn well 'staring' at her now and Jack wasn't stupid; he'd pick up on it soon enough if he hadn't already, although she knew that if Jack suspected anything like the truth, Edward would have been a stain on the wall by now. Which was one of the reasons she hadn't said anything, Jack didn't need anymore cold blooded kills on his conscience, and he absolutely didn't need to know what she'd been forced to do to save his life. He was a black hole of guilt and torment as it was, she wasn't about to add to it.
Doc Cabot had tried to come along with them, but Jack had barked out a laugh and told him in no uncertain terms that geeks stayed in the labs, safer for everyone. Particularly when Cabot had bought out his 10mm and told them he could handle himself. Edward and Jack had rounded on him and soundly shoved him back into an armchair and explained in detail how, if he went with them, with that damn pea shooter and his heavy-footed untrained ass, he'd get them all dead. He'd sulked off to his lab after that, reminding them firmly that his father 'had to die'. Sam was less convinced on that, although Edward and Jack seemed to have found it a sticking point they could agree on. If nothing else, she thought she might be able to sway both men if needed.
The road to Parsons was unpleasant to say the least. Sam eyed Edward who had wisely chosen, along with his three-man team that had joined them along the way, to walk ahead of her. Jack walked beside her, his eyes scanning the horizon; she tried not to feel the need to brush against him every few minutes. Being out here so soon; it felt like he should be convalescing and recovering from his injury, not taking a stroll into a warzone. Edward had provided him with a leather chest plate. It wasn't as good as what he'd had but they'd take it given that the combat armour hadn't saved him anyway. So far the trip hadn't been uneventful. It seemed like every bug, critter and nasty was heading the same way they were.
"I thought you said you travelled this path a lot?" she stifled her pride and called out to Edward, unable to hold back the question any longer after the latest attack from something rabid, breaking her self-imposed decision not to have to speak to him again. "So why all the wildlife?" she asked, putting a bullet through the mole rat stupid enough to stick its head up. Edward didn't turn back to face her; he just kept his eyes trained on their surroundings which she imagined was deliberate. So, maybe he had some sense of self-preservation after all given their last little chat..
"Yeah, we have to clean the road out every time." he replied.
"That doesn't strike you as odd?" Sam pressed. Surely the wildlife, even as aggressive as they were, would steer clear of a route littered with remains of animals that had clearly not succeeded. Her eyes lingered for a moment on a raven stood on a burnt-out car roof, staring at the mole rat carcass, seemingly unmoved or maybe just not hungry.
Edward did glance back then, drawing her attention away. "Fairly sure the animals are being drawn to Parsons." he replied. "Amongst other things." He gave her a thousand-yard stare and she swallowed. Her eyes flicked back on the raven, a scavenger not interested at all in the body at its feet and she suppressed a shudder. It was never a good sign when nature went out of whack, even in the Wastelands.
"So he's kind of like an evil Pied Piper." Jack murmured. "Curiouser and curiouser." He began to whistle loudly along to himself as Edward stared at him like he was nuts. Until Jack started to get mole rats popping up all over as he walked on, deftly taking each one out with a bullet to the head without so much as breaking his stride. It shouldn't have been hot. She was aware of that. But seeing him in his prime again but with over 30 years of combat experience, strolling ahead of her in those leather chaps pulled taut across his backside … damn. Edward caught her gaze and smirked at her before turning back to his men and instructing them to 'do what the General does', which was something. At least if they did that she might not have to worry about this untested team accidentally shooting her. Jack demonstrating his skill also helped alleviate the niggling paranoia that Edward might decide he and his team could take Jack out as some sort of 'soft' target, right now he looked like no-ones idea of that. Not that she intended to take her hand off her gun anytime soon with the ghoul around.
Then they encountered the Raiders and Sam realised she might not have to worry about their 'team' at all. One was taken out by a sniper shot straight through his throat before they even knew they were being attacked. He went down spluttering as she dropped down behind a rock beside his body and clapped a hand over his throat trying to hold it together. She should have been more shocked, sudden ambushes like this shouldn't become an every day occurrence, nor should the familiar feel of desperately trying to stem the blood flow from a bullet wound ripping through a body beside her. But it was a futile attempt. She shook her head at Jack as he reached for a Stimpak; there wasn't enough of his spinal cord left around the ruin of his throat, whatever had hit him was a huge calibre bullet the exit wound was the size of her fist at least. She removed her hand from the ruin of the young man whose name she didn't even now; his wide unblinking eyes staring up at the sky, blood pooled around his head like a halo. Jack handed her a sniper rifle.
"Find him. Kill him." He ordered and she nodded; he then stuck his head up and darted across to more cover. A shot rang out and Sam readjusted her aim. Tracking sound in the open air wasn't the best plan but they didn't have much else; her PipBoy didn't have the range for life signs if she was right about how far out he was. They could really have done with some Power Armor with a HUDS right now like Danse's to pick out the targets. As it was her scope had some pretty decent magnification and a good stock which she pressed into her shoulder hard, bracing herself for the inevitable recoil; it would have to do. She gazed down it scanning the growth as Edward bunkered down beside her.
"I've got you." he offered which wasn't entirely comforting. Then he stuck his damn head up above the rock cover too. A shot rang out and he dropped back down. "Lousy aim." he muttered.
"Good enough to take your friend's head nearly clean off!" Sam snapped. She'd got a bead on their attacker now though and she adjusted her scope. "There you are." She spoke more to herself than for them. The idiot was only half in cover. His head exposed as though the idea that they might have a sniper rifle, or anyone able to shoot that range too, hadn't occurred to him; he thought he'd outranged them by their lack of earlier response. She inhaled, held it and released, seeing the spray of blood and his surprised look before she dropped her sight. She took the rifle down and nodded over at Jack who was instantly up and sprinting across to the body. Sam stayed where she was, scanning for more. There wasn't anything. Jack returned loaded with another sniper rifle and a Stetson style hat that he dropped on Edward's head.
"Good shooting Rex. A hundred and fifty metres give or take." He acknowledged her with a grim smile and she nodded. If nothing else, if she ever needed to requalify to shoot back home, she was going to be able to add a hell of a lot more proficiencies to her resume, including dead shots at a hundred and fifty metres with no prep, wind resistance and a sniper rifle held together with gaffer tape and a rudimentary targeting sight.
He handed over the sleek black sniper rifle he'd acquired. "This should make it easier." he grinned and she stared at the thing. It was a proper Army recon sniper rifle with a dual night vision, infra-red scope, marksman's stock and high capacity quick eject mag. She could easily modify this baby to take some 0.50mm rounds, which they had a tonne of
"You get me the sweetest things." Sam smirked and blew him an air kiss, but she damn well meant it and he winked at her strolling off. She could shoot probably a 1000m with this thing. No wonder the Raider asshole on the other end had thought he'd outranged them. He had no idea how to use what he'd got, but she did. Hell if she'd had this before she could have taken out all those damn Super-mutant's from a mile off at that construction site without needing her and Jack to be in the hot zone at all.
They quickly got moving again which was when Edward decided to walk beside her, despite her mostly ignoring him.
"I get the feeling you and he did this a lot back in your old life?" he spoke finally after a few miles of uncomfortable silence as she tried to outpace him and he stubbornly kept up, he indicated Jack who'd just hurled a knife at Stingwing that one of Edward's crew hadn't noticed poised behind him, hitting it straight in the gut. The young man he'd just saved was thanking him grimly and retrieving the knife.
Sam shrugged. "We saw a few tours of duty." she admitted leaving it at that.
Edward nodded. "Yeah … most people get pumped with adrenalin going into a fight, makes them jittery and quick." He eyed her. "Him though … he gets real still." He nodded. "Conditioning like that, even out here, takes some doing. I'm nearly two hundred years old and even I get jittery now and again." He pointed at Jack. "But that right there, that ain't no jitter." He stared at her and she looked away, not sure she liked what he was saying or trying to say, or why.
"Man's a killer." Edward stated bluntly and Sam hesitated at the accusation and concern laced with that plain statement from him. Ironic she thought from an opportunistic rapist. She bit the inside of her cheek to prevent herself from saying just that and starting a row he might end up shot in. They still needed him and his damn team to get into Parsons if she wanted to find out just what the Ancients had to do with what was happening up there, if anything.
"Don't give me that look. Oh he's got a fine mask I'll admit but I've seen eyes like his glinting with a killing instinct out of the dark. It's been cultivated and I don't mean by no damn Army. Some sort of Spec Ops, am I right?" He hit the nail on the head and she let out a huff exasperated that the one man she'd rather not talk to, had something interesting to say. Although she was morbidly satisfied to hear a faint trace of fear there. He should be afraid. She was certain Jack would do a lot worse than kill him if he found out what Edward had done to her, the thought chilled her enough to attempt to put distance between them again.
"Something like that. Yes." she replied vaguely, lengthening her stride and hoping he'd get the idea that she didn't want him near her.
"That what you like … killers?" he gruffed not letting her escape him and having the audacity to sound like he was judging her. Sam's temper snapped as she spun on him gripping him by his shirt front and pressing herself closer to his rotting ear than she really wanted to be.
"Better than a rapist!" she snarled, her breath barely above a whisper and he flinched, the bastard actually flinched and she curled her fingers tighter around his shirt. "What I like. Is none of your damn business." she hissed. "Leave me the hell alone or you'll see just how well they trained me too." She shoved him back and away, striding to catch up with Jack, not looking back at Edward; not certain what the impact of that statement would be. By the way the hair on the back of her neck was feeling and the prickle to her skin she knew he was still watching her. Knowing her luck she'd probably just succeeded in making him more fascinated with her, she never had much like with driving the stalker types away, her personal history was littered with them. Pete… her ex-fiancé being just the latest in an embarrassingly long line, she was big enough to admit that now, if only to herself.
Jack matched her stride drawing her attention back to him as his hand touched her wrist briefly for a moment and their eyes met. He asked without a word if they had a problem. She shook her head imperceptibly. "Let's just get this over with." she snipped. Jack turned and looked at Edward; there was an unspoken communication there and Edward looked away first as Jack turned back around. Sam ignored them both. She had a job and possibly an escaped psychopath wielding alien technology to deal with up ahead.
Turns out the Raiders that had been drawn to Parsons were getting bolder were getting better too. There was a full-on turf war happening ahead of them by the looks of it. Edward stood looking grimly as the bullet fire from the Raiders ahead of them took out an entire contingent of Rust Devils and their Assault Droids without breaking a sweat. Explosions rocked the area and debris flew to where they were clustered. Violent barely covered it. Sam watched one of them blow the legs off the Assault Droid with a shotgun and then stuff a grenade into its chassis.
"Determined bunch aren't they?" Jack commented, staring through his own shorter scope at a relatively 'safe' distance.
"I've never seen them this aggressive ... or effective." Edward replied. "If I'd known I'd have bought more men." she thought she sensed an apology in there somewhere, because he clearly didn't rate their odds of success very highly now.
Jack shook his head. "More men won't help. More rifles might have." he replied, eyeing her again. "You're going to have to do your thing from here. We'll take out anyone that gets close enough to be a bother." he replied and she could see the anger flashing in his eyes that he was making a killer of her out again. She nodded in acceptance. After all, this was kill or be killed and she was a soldier first, scientist second. 'Woman' was somewhere third in there she suspected … 'human-being' had dropped well off the list out of necessity.
"I've got it Sir." she replied, not realising until his slightly grim look that she'd slipped back into the honorific.
"Very well Colonel. Light them up." he ordered, trusting her instinct to let the soldier take over; easier to deal with the fallout that way, especially if he was ordering her to kill them. She didn't know if that made her a coward. She hoped not; unwilling to accept responsibility for this level of cold-blooded murder for little more than a payday.
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Jack hated having to order Sam to kill but he'd rather take the hit if she could let it be 'orders' and spare her soul some of that stain. Her shots were clean, precise and relatively silent. It was a damn fine rifle but she was a bloody good marksman. Edward directed his two men to flank sideways and approach from the rear whilst the now panicked Raiders were trying to spot the sniper. His priority though was to try and cut the power to the strobe lights and turrets.
Jack darted forward to the cover of a brick wall as a spray of bullets showered him in dust. He wiped it out of his eyes and took a peek. A raven was stood there on the brick wall, inches from him bold as brass amid the chaos of gunfire. Jack reared back in surprise, expecting the damn thing to screech or peck at him but it just stared, inches from his face. He drove a blade into it anyway, silencing it and tossing it away. Was this the Pied Piper fucking with its head he wondered, or was it something else? This wasn't the first damn raven he'd seen on the way here acting strangely, or in the Wasteland for that matter; damn things were everywhere. It made him think of that horror movie 'The Birds' with a shiver. He had enough actual nightmares without letting that one into his headspace. Ever since his first brutal and encounter with the Horus Guards of Ra's back on Abydos in their freakish gold masks he'd had something of an aversion to birds. He tried again, more cautiously now, peeking up over the wall wishing he had a damn mirror so he didn't have to literally stick his neck out.
The Raiders were determined and aggressive but not too bright. Distracted almost. Maybe dear ole Dad's influence was giving them a headache. He took two out with a well-placed grenade. He got one back for his trouble and snatched the thing out of the air without hesitating and tossing it back and up. It took out a turret which was more luck than judgement on his part but that didn't stop him from giving a quick fist pump to himself anyway. Edward skidded to a halt beside him and they both watched as a Raider that they hadn't spotted dropped down dead beside their hiding spot, his head minus a face from a high calibre round. Sam.
"She's like the Angel of fucking Death." Edward rasped with clear appreciation for his wife and Jack eyed him darkly. He wasn't blind to the tension and unease he'd sensed in Sam. Something had happened to her whilst he was out of it more than just 'something she'd seen' and she was deliberately keeping him in the dark about it. The thought rankled but he suspected she was doing it in some misguided attempt to protect him. But the row he'd seen between her and this ghoul on the road had looked … personal. Sam didn't tend to manhandle anyone if she could help it and Jack had sensed she'd rather have liked to throttle the ghoul in that moment. Jack was starting to wonder if he'd need to have a little 'chat' with their tour guide soon and find out just what the hell 'mission' they'd sent his wife on in exchange for his miracle serum.
"She's a fine, fine woman." Edward added, and Jack was certain he heard a tinge of … something that sounded a hell of a lot like intent there, which set just about every warning he had off. Propriety could go fuck itself. He wasn't not responding to that, nor waiting for a more appropriate moment when they weren't been peppered with gunfire.
"My woman." Jack replied calmly but the tone was ice cold and Edward stilled staring him dead on. Oh, Sam would flat out kill him for declaring her 'his' in public, like she was a possession, but sometimes it was the easiest way to keep her safe when another man decided she was something to be claimed. He didn't like that he'd had more than one occasion to 'claim' her, on several different Worlds now.
"Just so." Edward replied firmly with a dead stare in his ravaged face that was more than a little unsettling and Jack held his look for a moment until there was a shout and another explosion. He shot his head up to see the two men Edward had sent dropped from the roof of the asylum, hitting the floor missing various body pieces. He ducked back down grimly.
"They've frag mined the generator." he realised grimly; shutting off the power to the upper levels was going to be more bother than it was worth.
"Damn it!" Edward hissed, looking genuinely upset for his men. "They were good men. At least they stayed alive longer than most." he muttered. "Guess it's just us then." A bullet took out the first strobe light then another in quick succession; pop, pop, pop.
"Sam's got us." Jack replied. With that they went for it, picking out their targets and trying not to get into close quarters with the hyped-up bastards. It took about an hour to draw them all out. As Edward put a round in the chest of the one he'd dragged down from his minigun turret, Jack watched Sam begin to jog down to meet them.
"What are the chances that we open that door and there's no one left?" Jack muttered and Edward gave him a grim look. "Right." He unclipped his assault rifle and checked the mag. It was going to be a long bloody day.
He wasn't wrong. Inside was like a House of Horrors … or pretty much every creepy movie ever set inside a damn insane asylum. The Raiders seemed half mad and they weren't going down like they should. The one he'd popped two in the chest of was getting back up with a feral cry. Sam slammed her foot down on his throat and with dead eyes emptied a round into his skull.
"Headshots only. Don't waste the bullets." she reminded needlessly and he promised that after this they'd try and get a few days of peace, whatever the hell that looked like out here. He could have gone for a little sunbathing on the top of the damn Castle surrounded by mortar launchers to feel safe. He had to get her out of the combat zone for a while. She wasn't like him; her soul needed a little light. He had all the light he needed with her beside him. Figures she'd all but enlisted them up for a military tour with the Brotherhood. He didn't expect that was going to be plain sailing or combat light. He wanted to reach for her, wrap her in his arms and kiss her softly; tell her she wasn't a monster or a killer, but he couldn't. Right now she needed to be at least one of those to survive this.
It was creepy as all fuck the further in they got and he was acutely aware this place used to house complete whacko's. The ruined building was crumbling. The entire middle seemed to have collapsed like it was being pulled down from within. He hoped to hell that was just his imagination but Edward's slightly alarmed look told him that maybe that damage hadn't been there before. They slid down the ruined floor and dropped into the lower levels; his eyes doing a quick sweep of what were clearly the 'residents' rooms, complete with locked doors and padded cells. Some were decorated with desperate claw marks and odd assortments of dolls and weirdness. Horror movie scenarios began to press into his brain and he pushed them back. "I swear to God Sam, if a dude jumps out with a hockey mask and a chainsaw I'm going to lose my shit." he muttered and she merely gave him a grim nod as she blew the head clean off the Raider that had clearly been hiding under the bed and lunged at him the moment his back was turned. They made it all the way to the Doc's office. Edward approached the terminal and Sam followed. Together they assessed the situation.
"Power's still on in his cell." Edward informed them. "Looks like the Raiders couldn't get through the elevator security." He hit a button and the metal blast door slid open to reveal a lift. Somehow Jack doubted that had been on the original building plans. Edward nodded at his assessing look. "The Doctor had it installed just before the War. Precautionary measure in the event of a breach. The whole lower level is designed to seal it … and his father, off."
"Clever." Sam replied. She was in the computer now and hitting keys faster than Edward had clearly ever seen anyone use a keyboard. He watched her with no small measure of surprise; apparently, Sam kept on surprising him. But then how often did you meet a woman that could fell a man at a thousand metres and hack a computer like she was merely playing Pac-Man? Jack was fortunate that he'd actually met several in his life but none that did it looking as good as Sam did, or with quite so much sass.
"There's some sort of radiation trap around his containment cell." Sam shared. "It looks like it has to be manually triggered to either release the cell locking mechanisms or it will fire a lethal dose of something called zeta radiation."
That didn't sound good. A whole new type of radiation. Joy. "So, switch up … crispy Dad. Switch down, he comes out to party." Jack interpreted and Sam gave him a humouring look.
"Something like that." she admitted.
"So we fry him?" he queried making certain that was the plan all round and Edward nodded, that had been their unspoken agreement after all.
"Lorenzo should have died a long time ago for his crimes. It was only on the Doc's insistence that he got locked in here instead, in the hopes of freeing him from that damn artifact. But the World's gone to hell. I ain't letting the Devil out too." he told them firmly and Jack nodded.
"Fair enough." He beckoned Sam as he turned towards the elevator door that arrived with a ping.
"NO!" Edward's sudden shout startled him and he saw almost too late what the ghoulified man had; a straggler they'd clearly missed appeared out of the damn woodwork, weapon pointed right at Sam. He was too far away half turned to the elevator and her body between him and a clear shot. Jack felt his heart in his chest. He was going to watch Sam get shot he realised with horror as he tried to make his feet move. But Edward was faster. Jack could do nothing but watch as the ghoul slammed into Sam, spinning them and giving him a clear shot as the Raiders gun went off the same time as his.
There was a ringing silence following the blasts and Jack ran forward, terrified of what he was going to see when he reached their fallen bodies. Edward was on top of Sam … and they were both still.
"Sam!" he yelled, dropping to his knees and rolling Edward off her; there was blood. Sam's eyes were open and she was patting at Edward's chest.
"It's not me … it's not me." she was stammering as she got her hand over the wounds in Edward's chest. He'd taken at least three or four slugs from the automatic handgun. Blood was leaking out of his mouth, his chest barely rising but his eyes were on Sam, as if making sure she was intact.
"You saved me." she rasped with a pained sob her face an odd mixture of fury and relief, as she cradled him almost in her lap, trying to staunch the bleeding futilely. Jack knew that was too many holes and too many vital organs for a Stimpak to help, ghoul or not. They stared at each other, his wife and Edward. It seemed like there was a whole damn conversation in that look that he had no way of reading and it made his skin prickle with unease.
"Thank you, Samantha." Edward rasped smiling and lifted his hand to her cheek for a moment. Then his eyes went blank and his hand that had been touching her fell boneless to his lap.
Jack placed a hand gently on Sam's shoulder when she didn't move just continued staring seemingly in shock at the body in her lap. "He's dead Sam." he told her when she didn't seem to be letting go. At his words, she shook herself and looked away, wiping from her eyes the tears that she clearly didn't want him to see. She stood up, easing herself out from under Edward's dead body and gently leaning him, propped up, against the wall. Then she paced away for a moment before violently kicking a cracked globe from the floor with a resounding smash as it hit something harder than it.
"FUCK!" she screamed and dropped her hands to her knees, sucking in breath like it was going out of fashion. He gave her a moment, surprised but knowing better than to pry. He needed her to get her head in the game before they went to face this Lorenzo and his magic blood. He considered maybe going down himself and sparing her having to murder a man in his cell but he wasn't keen on the idea of splitting up. After all, what the hell did he know about zeta radiation? But also, the main reason was staring him in the face; the still warm body of the ghoul that had died instead of Sam. He'd just almost lost her, again.
That was enough to make his chest thud with panic and a wave of relief so painful it almost made him want to throw up. He stalked to her and gripped her around the waist, spinning her back around to face him. He held her by the back of her neck carefully but firmly stilling her and drawing her into his lips as he crashed his mouth against hers. Desperate to confirm that she was in fact alive. She kissed him back furiously for a moment before a sob escaped her and she pulled away. Her hand to her mouth as she fought to control herself; her eyes flashing with fury and grief and a dozen other things he could only guess at right now.
"I'm sorry." he told her and he was, for so many things. But right now he was sorry for needing to hold her when she so clearly needed to be left alone. "We can mourn later." he apologised without saying it, "But we need to get down there before more of these damn bastards show up. 'Cause if this is what the blood of this nutter does to them, we can't let it out. I don't want a Wasteland full of supercharged Raiders … and I certainly don't want to come across some immortal psychotic despot with a God complex, pissed at me for taking a dip in his magical fountain of youth."
Sam nodded, gripping herself around the stomach as if she might throw up and taking a few sharp calming breaths. "I'm fine … I just … I didn't expect him to do that for me." She carefully didn't look at the ghoul's dead body and his sense of 'something wrong' increased. He'd have to deal with this, whatever it was, later.
"You good to go?" he pressed, almost saying 'Colonel' but deciding to let her gather herself before he dragged the soldier back out. She nodded.
"I'm fine. Let's get this done." She strode into the elevator but her eyes lingered on Edward's body right up until the moment the doors closed, the tension in her frame clearly visible in her rigid stance.
The elevator opened onto a sterile console filled room with a large glass viewing window and airlock sealed doors. Inside the observation room were massive pylons. He presumed these were the radiation generator switches that needed toggling on or off. Within that was a metal and transparent cell holding a man in a snazzy three-piece white suit complete with tails, cravat and a flashy gold headpiece on.
Jack got closer to the glass and stared at him.
"Ah friends. Welcome." Lorenzo Cabot spoke. Sam came to stand next to him but half her attention was already on the dials as she stooped to check the readings. "Travellers from another world. How marvellous." The nutter in the cell exclaimed and Sam's head shot upright at that, sharing a look with Jack.
"No idea what you're talking about." Jack played dumb; he was good at that even if Sam had already shot their poker face in the … well, face.
"The 'Fam' sends its love. Apparently, you've been a very bad Daddy." he quipped.
"How … unusual." Lorenzo continued as though he hadn't spoken; his eyes were fixed directly on Jack. "I feel you." he touched his forehead, "In here, pressing back at me." He cocked his head. "You are an Alteran."
Okay! Jack did startle at that. He glanced at Sam nonplussed, his eyebrows up. That was what the Ancients had called themselves, he recalled that much from Daniel's prattling's. So either that was a lucky guess or the guy could read minds. Although he definitely hadn't been thinking anything like the word 'Alteran' for him to read. He doubted Sam had either, although what went on inside her head was anyone's guess.
Sam looked in through the security window, her gaze on the artifact stuck on his head like a gaudy golden pineapple. Frankly, Lorenzo Cabot looked ridiculous Jack thought, in his fancy white suit and that on his noggin.
Sam cocked her head, "Perhaps it's like one of the Ancient databanks you found … only portable?" she reasoned talking to him and ignoring the guy in the cell. "Clearly not the same effect otherwise Mr Cabot here would have been dead a long time ago … his brain a puddle on the floor." Sam reasoned checking the console again. Jack assumed she was calculating something based on her lip bite; she had her 'maths' face on.
"Professor Cabot my Dear, if you will." he corrected snottily.
"I won't." she replied tartly. "Your son showed me some of the things you'd done before you got locked away down here. You don't deserve my respect. Mostly you deserve to rot." she told him just as snottily.
Lorenzo sneered at her. "To rot perhaps but surely not to die. After all, I am a helpless victim am I not? Controlled and overtaken by an alien entity … surely you of all people can sympathise."
Sam flinched and Jack slammed his hands on the glass. Oh that was cold and way to close to the bone to level at her. "Don't you dare attack her!" Jack barked his instincts to blow this guy up flaring. "And keep that mind reading shit to yourself. We're not impressed." Jack snapped. He turned to Sam. "I'm convinced he's a jackass. How do we kill him?"
Sam though was staring at Lorenzo thoughtfully. "Do you have access to the knowledge of the Ancients or are you merely reading our minds?" Jack was mildly impressed that he'd already had that thought himself.
Lorenzo shrugged. "Impossible to say really." he retorted smugly and Jack grabbed Sam's arm, sensing what was coming and realising he had to put a stop to it.
"Oh for crying out loud, NO!" He shook his head at her, exasperated with the scientist in her that found this fascinating. "I don't care what you think that can do for your research into getting us back. He's dangerous, unstable and the Doc's right. He needs to die before he tears what's left of this world apart for his own amusement." Jack sighed, "And besides, we both know nothing good ever comes from sticking your damn head in anything Ancient." He was a little slow on the uptake but after two near deaths he'd learnt his damn lesson. He wanted nothing the hell to do with it, if it was even remotely similar.
"That's it Jack. Tell the little woman what to do!" the asshole cackled. "Put her in her place. Better yet, give her an order. She does so love it when you give those." Lorenzo sneered and Jack grit his teeth, ignoring him.
"Give her orders General or the pretty little thing might get it in her head that she can sort things out for herself." He barked out a laugh, mocking Carter's intellect which was so ironic it was almost funny. Even Sam seemed utterly non-plussed by that insult. She knew she was brilliant; she didn't need this little twerp to empower her in that department. Although he imagined their recently dissolved Chain of Command might not stand too much proding – he was still overly prone to telling her what to do in the field.
"Oh shut up!" she glared at Lorenzo. "No-one's listening."
"No … certainly not poor infatuated dead Edward." Sam's hands froze over the keys as she went unnaturally still and Jack stared between her and Lorenzo; apparently that insult stuck. "To think he died for you." he sniffed. "Such a waste of a good soldier for the life of a 'whore' like you."
Jack was about ready to rip his head off with his bare hands, twice in one week now someone had called his wife a whore… and he was not taking it this time. He stalked towards the vacuum sealed door. "Open the God damn door Sam, I going to kill this son of a bitch!"
"The good General doesn't know, does he?" Lorenzo taunted, "That he's in love with a whore." And there was that word again, Jack didn't know which of them was angrier as he slammed his fists into the glass, but Sam seemed to have broken free of her stupor as she charged at the door looking a whiter shade of pale than usual.
"Stop it." Sam snarled at Lorenzo, but her hand caught Jack's fist before he could strike another blow at the glass which was doing more damage to him than it. She looked through the viewing portal glaring daggers through the glass and Jack glanced back at her; genuine concern pinging through him, making his heart pound. Sam was practically vibrating with rage but she'd barely acknowledged Lorenzo. He should be taking a leaf out of her book but it seemed like Lorenzo had his number and was burying under his skin like a fucking tic.
"It must be such a burden for the General, dragging you around the Wasteland. Having to defend his honour everywhere he goes because his woman is such a pathetic liability. Attracting trouble and cocks wherever she goes with that pretty little face … like you just rolled off the factory floor." Okay now he'd gotten to her. He was like a dog with a bone and he could see Sam starting to rise to it; a head of steam was coming and he sure as shit wanted that bastard dead before she exploded.
Jack rattled the door, he needed to calm himself and her, they had a job to do and this asshole needed to be dead… right fucking now! "Ignore him Sam. He's just trying to get inside your head using your own fears." Hell, he even recognised those words. The ass-wipe was just picking stuff out of their memories or thoughts and manipulating them with it. Dirty trick but a trick none the less.
"Did you tell Jack how it felt to fuck that ghoul?" The bastard let those words hang and Jack felt something in his chest freeze with horror, "No…?" Lorenzo taunted, "Not even how his rotted tongue felt against your skin." Lorenzo taunted and Jack bowed his head, taking in a trembling breath. Sam didn't deny it and he didn't look at her. Giving himself a moment to process. 'God no. Please no. Not Sam, not because of him …he was certain it was because of him.'
"Edward raped you?" he hissed into the glass door, watching her through the reflection as she straightened and stared at the back of his head but he couldn't make out the expression on her face. The horror at the notion though was enough for him. The idea that he'd been dying and she'd been forced to … he felt bile rise.
"He's sickened by you." Lorenzo cackled. "The idea of you with that ghoul. How could he touch you now knowing that disgusting creature had you?" That was so far from his thoughts right now but he was almost speechless; incandescent with the kind of rage he'd only ever once directed at Hathor as he'd hurled her into a cryo-vat. Oh he'd have liked to repeat that trick right about now.
"He didn't rape me and he didn't touch me." Sam spoke calmly. Jack was staring at nothing, his eyes fixed on a spot on the door as he fought his natural reaction. Sam though was merely speaking calmly to Lorenzo. "But thank you, now I understand your power." She pushed a few buttons, "Jack his brain waves are similar to what we saw with Anubis's clone." she replied, "Alpha patterns. But nothing too remarkable." she huffed. "He can't read our minds, just surface thoughts … a few emotional undertones at best, nothing complex." She glanced into the cell. "But his ability to manipulate his environment is more pronounced. Magnetic manipulation perhaps and building. The cell has been taking structural damage. It won't hold him much longer. It seems four hundred years was its limit." she declared, focused entirely on the science of it and not the casual dismissal of Lorenzo's horrific accusation.
Jack turned finally staring at her; she wasn't looking at him. Deliberately so. "Look at me." he demanded. She complied, bringing her eyes to rest on him, her expression utterly unreadable. He didn't like not knowing what she was thinking. A part of him wanted to go to her, slide his fingers around her face and hold her until she told him everything; to tell her how damn much he loved her no matter what. But they had a job to do here; he had to focus. Every time he'd lost focus it had almost cost him his life out here, or hers.
"We're going to talk about this later." he promised her grimly and she looked away, not agreeing but not disagreeing and he buried the feelings that sparked for now.
"The levers act like switches, all four of them circled around his cage need to be toggled up." she instructed instead and the door clicked open, not protesting the need to kill the bastard anymore. She remained at the controls and he spared her one more searching look before he unclipped his pistol and stalked inside.
Lorenzo prattled and threatened and generally rattled the bars of his cage figuratively rather than literally, his cage was a reinforced box made of metal and some sort of off-grey bulletproof glass by the looks of it, a box sat inside a faraday cage – it was a pretty grim way to spend four hundred years Jack had to admit. Good. Asshole deserved it. Jack had long stopped listening to his bile. If the man had thought riling him up and letting him go would work out in his favour he was sorely mistaken. No-one could brood with a single-minded focus like Jack could as he tuned out the blow-hard. Flipping up one giant damn lever after another, he circled the small ten by ten cell within a cell. He reached the last lever.
"If you put this helm on, you could take her home." Lorenzo called out. The words were so insidious that they penetrated Jack's focus. He tightened his grip around the last lever. Damn it. He turned slowly to stare at the bastard who was stood there calmly in the centre, hands behind his back staring out the glass at him.
"You could take your precious Samantha home where her beauty is an asset not a bargaining chip. Where her intellect can be used to better humanity rather than eke out a living." Lorenzo tilted his head, calmly asserting the thoughts that had been ricocheting around in him. "Take her home where she wouldn't be forced to kill again and again just to survive one more unspeakable day, where ghouls can't touch her with their rotted flesh and force her to commit unspeakable acts for the man she loves." He stepped closer to the glass and Jack felt that knife twist in his gut. "Or better yet, I'll help you. The serum has already restored your vitality … a few more doses and your mind will expand again. All that power in your veins awaking the Ancient knowledge. You could be a God amongst men."
Jack sniffed. "You mean I'm not already?" he smirked at Lorenzo; his flippancy apparently throwing him. But honestly what interest did he have in playing God? He'd seen how that ended; it was all fun and games until someone blew up a sun. He flipped the last switch deliberately, knowing this would kill the man and gave him a lazy salute.
"So long whack-job!" he called out. Then he watched as he heard the charge crackling and he jumped as electricity began to arc across the room, making the hairs on his arms and his head stand on end and setting his teeth to humming. Oh that couldn't be good.
"Get in here!" Sam bellowed from the doorway and he darted forward, practically rolling through the door as she slammed it shut with a button on her fancy console. He turned staring through the glass as the whole place seemed to light up exactly like the giant faraday cage he'd imagined it was.
"What the hell is it doing?" He stared surprised; he hadn't quite expected the fireworks or he wouldn't have hung around so long.
"Building a charge … the power requirements are enormous. This Earth's capacitors really are appallingly designed." Sam muttered, pressing a few buttons. Then she hit a big red one.
"NO!" Lorenzo screeched and a funnel of electrical energy seemed to arc into the centre of his cell straight into his body, lighting it up like one of those damn cartoons Jack used to watch. He was sure he could see Lorenzo's skeletal structure light up at one point.
It stopped suddenly and the power shut off plunging them into darkness until a few emergency red lights flickered on. The sudden silence was making his ears ring. He thought he could see spots of light imprinted behind his eyes as he blinked them away.
"So … is it safe to go in there?" Jack asked.
Sam was busy flipping buttons again. "This zeta radiation seems short lived. But aggressive. The system is filtering it out, I'm not sure how long it will take to reach safe levels."
He nodded, watching her work. "Is there a way to retrieve the artifact?" he asked, not certain he wanted that at all.
She finally looked at him. "The cells deadbolted. A failsafe triggered by the zeta ray trap. Cabot realised that if he had to use it he might want to ensure that there was no way out. But I can probably override it. Just give me a moment to hack his systems." she admitted but he remained silent. Sam glanced up frowning at his clear lack of enthusiasm for that plan.
"Jack. We can't leave it here! Whatever happens it needs to be put somewhere away from idle hands."
He nodded grimly; he thought she might say that. Personally, he was a big fan of just bringing this whole building down and leaving it, and the very dead Lorenzo, trapped inside the cell. He doubted anyone other than Carter would ever be able to get it open anyway.
"Do we really need it Sam?" he pressed, coming up behind her and letting his hand slide over hers on the keyboard, stilling them.
She hung her head and took a few shaky breaths. "I don't know. All I know is that if it was an Ancient design then …"
"Then what?" he pressed. "Best case scenario we end up sticking it on one of our heads and we go nuts like Lorenzo. And you said he was reading our thoughts. He'd got to know that something like that might interest us. Maybe he just told us what we wanted to hear. Who knows what the hell that thing is. Just because it might be alien doesn't mean its Ancient."
Sam slid her fingers from beneath his and curled them at her side, standing straight to meet him. "All the more reason to study it."
Jack sighed. "Doc Cabot thought that four hundred years ago. The man made immortality juice out of it. If he's smart enough for that, he's smart enough to have found some other use for it. Or a way of getting it off his dad's head. He didn't." he grimaced. "Sam, I think we should leave the damn thing alone." She opened her mouth to speak and he held up his finger to stop her a moment, not done. "It's not like it's a hyperdrive or detailed specs for a ship." he countered "Or a Stargate."
Sam gave him a calculated look. It was one she usually reserved for idiots and he felt it hit home. "The last headpiece you stuck on gave you the ability to create a power source from junk and build a weapon to annihilate the Replicators; retrofit a mothership to fly faster than it was ever designed to; heal wounds at a touch and made you smarter than the damn Asgard." she snipped.
Jack paused, considered his argument and realised for the first time ever that Sam was being almost deliberately obtuse about this.
"Sam … you've done every single one of those damn things too without the head device. Granted the healing one was with a Goa'uld hand thingy." he argued, digressing a little. "My point is. Given enough time and access to materials like we might get at the Brotherhood or this Institute, you could probably build a damn hyperdrive and a ship to stick it in, and you know it. You don't need the headgear. You're already the smartest person on the planet."
She seemed to consider that but her expression crumpled for a moment and he realised it was the pressure. It was all on her to save them because she refused to give up hope. But here he was asking her to reinvent the physics of this world and build them a damn ship to escape on. He stalked forwards and wrapped her in her arms.
"I know it's a lot Sam and no one should be asked to do the impossible, but damn it, that's sort of your thing. Besides no pressure … we've already accepted we may be here to stay. If not, that's great but Sam baby, it's not the end of the world." He cradled her face and she closed her eyes, tugging his head down to meet her lips as she angrily devoured his. They pulled apart and let their foreheads meet, breathing heavily together, locked in a moment as she considered.
"We leave it." he ordered, sensing she did in fact need him to make it an order otherwise she couldn't just let it go. She was just hurting herself over and over with this damn snowball she kept chucking into the furnace.
"Okay." she murmured, pressing one last kiss to his lips and running her hand across his chest, following the path of his recent wound he realised grimly; knowing where her head was at and not liking it.
"Okay." He kissed her forehead. "I've got a bunch of explosives. I say we blow this place in a chain reaction."
Sam shook her head. "No need." She slid out of his arms and resolutely approached the console. "I can set the capacitors to overload. They're holding that charge they just absorbed. Ordinarily it would release gradually but I can force it out in one go. Blow the fuse. There's essentially a mini-fusion reactor under this facility keeping it going". She moved to a console and plucked out what he knew was a fusion core. Hell, he'd seen enough of the little miracles. She opened her pack and rummaged around, extracting a core that was streaked red and looked angry.
"I modified this one. Its inherently unstable. The fusion cycle has been designed to create heavier elements once introduced into a live system. It's an explosion waiting to happen." she admitted and he chewed on the inside of his mouth nervously. Sam and a bomb was truly a thing to behold. Particularly one she just happened to have made and was carting around in her pack. "The density disparity should create a localised implosion." she advised.
Jack blinked. Implosions were bad and normally - if he was remembering his physics from flight school and from listening to her for years - meant something was denser on the inside. A little lightbulb went on, that he hoped wasn't a lingering effect of the 'possible-Ancient' serum still circulating inside him which was courtesy of the dearly departed lunatic.
"Sam … is that a damn blackhole bomb?"
She pushed it into the core slot and gave him a thousand-yard stare. "Yes." She hit the red button.
He wasn't sure what to say for a moment. Sam was brilliant, perhaps even beyond brilliant. Hell! The Asgard had needed her help and she'd managed to retrofit stuff he'd built as an Ancient. Sometimes the power of her mind terrified him as much as it amazed him.
"It's actually a similar principle to the one I used to blow up that sun. Trigger a chain reaction of increasing density and it will collapse into itself, at least until the core material is expended." she added, as though that was supposed to make him feel better about it.
"And I take it the planet won't be, you know … sucked into a black hole?" he asked mildly concerned. He'd seen her when she was on a mission; overzealous barely covered it.
She smirked and packed up her gear. "No, General." She stroked her hand across his cheek. "Let me worry about the bomb. You worry about getting us to the surface in …" she glanced at her Pip-Boy, "… We have approximately fifteen minutes before the reaction goes critical and uses up all its available mass. We need to be at least a mile from the structure before that happens."
"Right." He started grabbing his weapons and together they hastily jogged for the lift. Stood inside, with a bomb ticking away beneath them, he stared sideways at her. "You're terrifying, you do know that right?" She smirked and looked through her lashes with those deceptively innocent, shockingly blue eyes at him; her lips curving into something impish. If the Devil were to take a face he'd have probably chosen Sam's, he realised quietly; had in fact, several times.
"You like to be a little scared Jack. It's why we work." she pointed out.
He accepted that, striding out of the elevator and almost straight into Edward's body. He still had no idea what happened between them and what had been Lorenzo's lies but he knew something had. He wasn't sure that saving her life excused that… his hand was up raising his gun before he could think much and he emptied five rounds into Edwards rotten face and chest before Sam placed a hand over his.
"Stop wasting time and ammo." she hissed and he strode forward and kicked the corpse violently. "Jack." she gripped his wrist desperately.
"Please … we don't have time for this. He's dead. He can't hurt me." It was the right thing to say as he sucked in a shaking breath; rage emptying out of him at the sight of the mangled remains. He followed Sam out quickly, both of them jumping over debris and panting with exertion as they clambered up the ruined structure until they reached the surface level and made their quick retreat to the front doors.
"Just over four minutes." she gasped as they shoved open the door and the murky red sky flowed in; radiation storm … perfect. But it couldn't be helped. He shoved his hand in his chest pocket and retrieved the Rad-X and Med-X combat enhancer that he'd stashed there; wordlessly swallowing one of each and handing the other to Sam to do the same.
"Four-minute mile in a radiation storm." he groused, thanking God his new knees were up to it and hoping to all hell that she'd given them a little leeway in her calculations. Because that was a bit of an ask even without all the gear', though that's what the Med-X was for. Better, faster, stronger … until your heart gave out anyway.
"Move!" he barked and they ran flat out, his multitude of weapons strapped around him jostling as they ran. His vision started to reduce to a red haze from the drug but her long legs were beside him as he leapt a small, ruined wall and landed heavily. Something moved with a growl and he drew his pistol and shot at it, not even caring to look as they flew across the uneven ground and undergrowth. He hadn't cared which direction; just straight open ground and she'd followed. Adrenalin was a wonderful drug to help Med-X along and he felt them both pumping around his body with powerful intent.
"Two minutes." she panted out and he nodded, his lungs straining and chest aching but he was doing it. If there was one thing the Wasteland had been good for it was physical conditioning. He'd never been this lean and mean is his entire damn life, even before the age reset. Every inch of him hardened for fighting or fleeing … or fucking he thought absently. Jack was glad he was physically 'younger' right now or he'd have been screwed. He jumped a rock and landed in a roll, not breaking pace as Sam panted beside him.
"One minute." she barked and he pressed the pace. If they were far enough she'd have said which meant they needed to keep running.
The ground trembled and he turned grabbing Sam's arm. They both dived to the ground, hands over their heads. There was a sickening sound; a groaning as tonnes of metal and concrete shrieked and twisted. A blast of displaced air and dust skimmed over his back and into his hair. He stayed perfectly still for a moment, checking himself mentally for injuries. When nothing sounded off he sat up and shook the dust out of his hair, checking on Sam who looked unharmed.
"Huh." she muttered, glancing at her Pip-Boy. "Surrounding area must have been denser than I thought. The circumference of the collapse was 200m shy of what I predicted." Jack panted still recovering his breath.
"So that last 200m was just for funsies." he muttered. "Swell." He stood, grabbing her hand and pulling her to stand as they surveyed the damage.
"Wow Carter. When you make an impact on the local area you really go big or go home, don't 'cha." The entire area in front of them was one large rubble filled crater.
Sam sighed, bent double to catch her breath, hands on her knees. "Yeah … Well … What with all the other impact craters around here I doubt anyone will even know the difference." she admitted.
Jack looked around. "I keep expecting someone to turn up … like you know … Police or the Fire Brigade. National Guard." He spun on the spot, just making sure. "Technically you just detonated a nuke within several miles of a civilian population on American soil."
Sam smirked. "Cool huh."
He cocked his head. "Kinda."
"We probably shouldn't hang about though." she conceded, "A subterranean implosion like that would have caused a lot of disturbance. I wouldn't be surprised if it woke up a whole bunch of nasty."
"Right. No rest for the wicked." he muttered. "Let's go back to ol' Doc Cabot's house and tell him Daddy dearest is well and truly gone."
"He'll be pissed about the artifact." Sam reminded.
"He can bill me."