Everyone waited with baited breath as Penny read through the report in front of her. Finally, she looked up.
"The blood sample is clean" she said. "No traces of nanotechnology or any associated compounds."
Relief washed through the room like a tidal wave. Both Gordon and Jeff sat down quickly, Grandma kissed Alan on the side of the head. Kyrano looked thoughtful – that gave Scott pause for a moment before he looked up to his two holographic brothers. John had thrown his head back and had put both hands over his face as he heaved a huge sigh of relief. Virgil looked just as relieved though his reaction seemed to be a little more contained.
At least it was if you didn't know him the way Scott did. To Scott, Virgil looked like he wanted to jump for joy.
"Okay" Scott said purposefully bringing the focus back to him so that everyone could get a moment to pull themselves back together. "What now?"
"Now we wait" Jeff said. "John when is her next check in?"
"Tomorrow evening father. Salvatore has called some kind of meeting."
"What is she doing now?"
"I'll find out." Now that she'd been cleared Jeff no doubt wanted to talk to Jasmine himself. John muted the family chat and opened a line to her. He waited whilst it rang out. He tried again. Frowning he switched to what he'd taken to calling her direct line.
[What, Thunderbird Five?] she sounded annoyed.
[Just checking in. Where are you right now?]
[You have my tracker just look!]
With that the line disconnected. John accessed the tracking information in her comm which put her in a pub called the Fox and Hound. It would be child's play to access their security network and see what she was doing. But he was already is so much trouble for doing just that. He tried the line again.
[Is everything alright?] He asked.
[Yes, why wouldn't it be?] She sounded harried.
[You don't sound as though everything is alright.]
[If you must know, we're in a competition and we're going to win! Now bugger off, I need to concentrate.]
A competition? She and John had made an agreement that she would tell him every time she fought. Especially since Virgil was currently close enough to help out should she need it. But her tone of voice was wrong. When she had an upcoming fight, her voice was steel and determination. This sounded more like glee… John wavered for a moment then accessed the cameras inside the pub.
What he saw stopped him in his tracks.
"Guys" he opened the line to his family and pushed the pub feed through. "Your monster."
On the screen Jasmine and another man had just finished singing and, as the song hit an instrumental solo they began a very energetic dance routine. It was one the whole family knew well. The song had been a big chart hit about five years ago, right at the perfect time to catch Alan's attention. Hours had been spent as Alan roped Gordon into learning the dance with him, the song on repeat so often that Virgil had dismantled the sound system more than once so they could get a break from it.
"Are they doing what I think they're doing?" Alan asked incredulously.
"No" Gordon said sounding impressed. "They're not just doing it. They're nailing it."
"We spent weeks-"
"Months" corrected Virgil.
"-perfecting that dance" Alan said.
"Yeah, and it was never that good" Gordon agreed. The two dancers were perfectly in sync despite the fast-paced moves.
"Man, they even got the microphone bit!" Alan exclaimed as the mics were traded backwards and forwards as part of the flow.
John killed their feed, ignoring the pout from Alan and the annoyed glance from Gordon.
"You can see why we never thought she was a biomechanoid, father" John said. "Who would programme a killing machine to do that?"
"Someone who wanted it to be able to blend in" answered Kyrano. "Master Virgil, who was she dancing with?"
All eyes went to Virgil but everyone knew the answer to the question now Kyrano had asked it.
"Warren" Virgil said. "She was dancing with Warren."
"Then he's likely to have been fodder too" Alan said seizing on the best possible answer. "John's right. Who tries to get a super soldier to blend in by getting them to enter a karaoke competition?"
"I hope you're right son" Jeff said. "But unless we can get a sample from him too then we have to treat him with the caution we treated Jasmine with. For now," he continued "I suggest we all try and get some rest. There's nothing we can do until we know more."
The crowd in the living room dispersed, the three holograms flicking off.
This is the worst part, Scott reflected as he made his way outside. Now we just have to wait and see what happens and hope that Jasmine keeps us up to date. He was still putting his brother's life in the hands of someone he didn't know but, now that everything was out in the open, he did feel as though a weight had been lifted off.