Jeff took a moment to compose himself. He'd dismissed both John and Kyrano following the message that Jasmine was now ready for her interrogation.
The phrasing made him feel sick to his stomach.
For all that he knew he was doing the right thing by putting the restraint on her and keeping her in a secure room, he couldn't help it, when he looked at her he saw a young girl who looked lost, scared and utterly devastated by what he'd done.
He knew it was a trick. He knew she was doing everything she could to manipulate him, all of them, into feeling that way. But knowing it and feeling it were two very different things.
Oh Lucie, what am I doing? He thought, resting his head in his hands. International Rescue was never designed for this. Jeff made it his touchstone that they never got involved in politics, they didn't take sides in arguments. International Rescue was only meant to save people's lives.
That's the problem, isn't it he thought ruefully. No matter what dad said, now that I'm looking at her, I can't see a machine. I know I should, but I don't. She looks too much like a person.
He wanted a drink. Actually, he wanted several. There was so much on the line. John's utter foolishness had left him open to the full force of the law. This potential threat to Virgil that, if she was to be believed, involved things too awful for him to contemplate his son enduring.
Another of his son's enduring…
It was only in the past few years that Scott had begun to return to his old self. Jeff firmly believed his role in International Rescue was a big part in that, but to see his usually proud, head strong eldest son so broken… And now it might happen to his middle child, his gentle soul who reminded him so much of his late wife. Of his four elder boys Jeff knew in his heart that Virgil was the least suited to stand something like this.
Captivity.
Though he didn't say it aloud the word twisted in his gut. Virgil always saw the best in people and always gave the benefit of the doubt, something Jeff had tried to nurture in his dark-haired boy. He also knew Virgil didn't see Jeff behaviour in that way. He felt constantly compared to his military brothers and, if Jeff were honest with himself, he knew he'd managed to foster that as well. The military had been his way of life so when Scott had chosen it for himself it had given them a common ground. He felt same for John when he fulfilled his dream of astronaut training. But Virgil had always been more like Lucie. It had warmed his heart to hear them playing the piano together and he remembered fondly the times he'd come home to find a young Virgil covered in paint and his mother beaming over another piece far too good for a usual six-year-old.
It was the first time that Jeff realised he and Virgil were fundamentally different but along with that realisation came the understanding that this was no bad thing. Virgil was so often the soothing balm to Scott's rage, the grounding to John's laser focus and later a crash mat for Gordon when he pushed things too far and much later still an open pair of arms for the youngest when he needed nothing more than a cuddle and the reassurance that everything would be alright.
Jeff knew he was none of those things. His temper too sharp to quell Scott's, his own singlemindedness blinding him to John's and his absence preventing him from seeing what his youngest two needed most. Jeff tried to tell Virgil just how much the role he played meant to him but he always failed because, as integral as Virgil was, he also knew how to push Jeff's buttons in a way that none of the other four ever managed. Art University. Jazz pianist in some backwater club. Virgil was meant for more and, thankfully Jeff had managed to steer him into engineering where Virgil's true talent had finally shone through. But, of course, now that decision had led him here.
Sometimes, when the nights were long and he felt truly alone, he wondered if Lucie really would approve of what he'd done by starting International Rescue; purely for the danger it put her boys in. She hadn't lived to see Scott enlist or to see John shoot through his education and out into space. She would have had no idea that Gordon would follow the military tradition in his own way and Alan was so small when she was forced to leave them, he could have been anything. For Jeff, to see his boys' taking risks was just something they did. They had a world-famous astronaut for a father and a hot head pilot for an elder brother. But that didn't give him the right to garner a situation where they were risking life and limb daily. Yet, he'd done it anyway, and each of them had (eventually) signed on the dotted line to join up.
They joined for all the reasons he'd initially given them. No one should have to go through what they did. No one should be left feeling as though help wasn't coming. Nobody ever said anything about determining who to save and who not to – they'd decided early on to save everyone.
By that argument we should save her too Jeff thought. But what were they saving her from? What was she even asking for?
Nothing.
She hadn't asked for anything. That in itself was suspicious. No one threw themselves into the line of fire for complete strangers without some-kind of ulterior motive.
Jeff sighed. He was going round in circles and all in an attempt to delay the inevitable. He reached for the intercom on his desk before remembering that he wasn't at home. He opened the door to the small study to find Kyrano, Scott and Gordon all pointedly not talking to each other. That was another thing he'd have to fix.
"Kyrano, can you fetch Jasmine please?" he asked before he thought better of it or found another reason to put off speaking to her.
"Oracle" Gordon said.
"I'm sorry, son?"
"She told Virgil that Jasmine wasn't real. That she was made up by Thunderbird Five. Her name is Oracle."
Jeff blinked. Judging by the looks on the faces of his two boys this was going to be a lot harder than he thought.
"Right" he said. "Kyrano please fetch Oracle." The man servant bowed and walked away.
"What's the plan dad?" Gordon asked his voice heavy. "She thinks you're going to interrogate her."
"No! No that's not what's going to happen" Jeff tried to reassure him. "But we do need to ask some pointed questions" he took a deep breath "and I do need her to answer them."
"And if she won't?" Gordon asked. "Will you use that?" He pointed to Jeff's pocket. Jeff had forgotten all about the small device he'd hastily stuffed there but now he remembered it, it began to burn a hole through his clothes once more.
"Dad won't do that, Gordon" Scott said. "She's not going to hurt us."
Jeff regarded the eldest, there was something off about him. He looked caught between fight or flight and was doing his utmost to ignore both.
"Perhaps it would be best if you two waited out here" he said thinking to spare them whatever was to come.
"No!" Both chorused, though Gordon was much more forceful than Scott.
"We do it together or not at all, remember?" Scott said before shouldering passed his father and into the room, Gordon following on his heels. Once inside Scott began configuring furniture. He bought the chair out from behind the desk and shoved the desk against the far wall. Gordon nodded thoughtfully and helped him drag out the remaining chairs until they formed a mismatched circle. Jeff was left with the office chair, Gordon and Scott took the two armchairs to his right and left leaving Oracle and Kyrano with the guest chairs, their backs facing the door.
Moments later they entered, this time Oracle carried about her a grace that had been missing before. Jeff recognised it instantly as a fighters' grace and his guard went up. But she sat carefully in the seat offered, her eyes flicking briefly to Scott and back.
Now that she was here Jeff didn't know where to start. As the silence stretched, he began to find it unnerving that she didn't react to it at all. Both Scott and Gordon unconsciously shifted in the tension and it was only Jeff's iron will that kept him still. He decided to start with something simple.
"What is your name?"
"Oracle."
"Nothing else?"
"Jasmine Oracle?" The question at the end was the barest hint but it was there. Jeff seized on it.
"Do you consider yourself to be Jasmine?"
She hesitated. Doubtless years of training stayed any expression from her face and eyes but Jeff could practically see her brain whirring. Trained for this she might be, but a natural at it she wasn't.
"I want the truth from you" Jeff said calmly.
"I wanted to be Jasmine" she replied. "But it turns out that isn't possible."
"Why is that?"
"Oracle is a biomechanoid. Property or a slave. Jasmine should have been a free person. I do realise that I was wrong for thinking such things."
Third person detachment. No emotional response. Punishment accepted before it is given. Jeff mentally ticked off the symptoms. He thought about the recorded conversations he'd listened to between herself and John, mentally reread the reports from Virgil and Gordon. A puzzle piece clicked into place. These were the answers she was expected to give. The ones she thought he would want to hear.
"Who am I to you?"
"My master."
"You serve no other?"
"No, master."
"What would you do if I commanded it?"
"Your bidding, master, whatever it may be."
"If I told you to kill Scott, here and now, would you?"
"Yes, master." No blink, no hesitation. Jeff saw both Scott and Gordon stiffen but he ignored both of them. Instead, he leant forward in his chair and rested his elbows on his knees.
"And how would you do that?"
An almost smile ghosted across her lips.
"That would be telling" she said. Jeff almost smiled. Gotcha he thought in a moment of ecstatic relief.
"Why are you helping International Rescue?" he changed the subject. She went with it.
"Because I wanted to."
Gordon's gaze flicked between the two as he unconsciously dug his fingers into the arm rests of his chair.
"Do you have the ability to reason right from wrong?"
"No, master."
Scott seemed to have stopped breathing.
"Do you have the ability to feel emotions?"
"No, master."
"If I asked to you murder my son here and now, in front of me, would you?"
"Yes, master."
"Would you?"
The world waited. Jeff and Oracle sat locked eye to eye. Him leaning forwards, her ramrod straight in her chair.
She sneered at him.
"No."
The atmosphere broke. Both Jeff's sons let out a breath and even Kyrano took a fraction of a second to resettle himself.
"Why is that what it always comes down to with you masters?" she said her tone conveying exactly what she thought of people who considered themselves masters. "All you ever want is to wreak havoc and destruction from the safety of your desk but not one of you is man enough to go out and do it for yourselves."
Jeff fought the urge to swallow under the molten gaze of her hatred. The relief he'd felt a moment ago when he realised that there was more than just a programmed personality to her crumbled to ash and the other shoe dropped. If she was a real person then that had happened to her was unfathomable and that in itself made her unpredictable and, potentially unstable.
"Why did you choose to help International Rescue?" He asked. Careful to keep his tone calm and neutral.
"Kill me" she said instead. A wave of shock ran round the room as each man there realised she was completely and utterly serious.
"Pardon?" Jeff faltered.
"That's the end of the line for me. You're in bed with the GDF, Thunderbird Five told me so right at the very start. You have to report my existence to them and they will come and they will load me onto a heli-jet and I'll be dead before it's left the ground. So, I think I'm done answering any of your questions."
In the silence that followed Gordon began to slowly shake his head.
"No" he said. "No, we're not going to let that happen." He looked at his dad imploringly.
"I'm sorry Gordon but you don't get a say" Oracle's eyes never left Jeff; her tone never changed. "You're not the master here. He is. Apparently."
"What do you mean by that?" Scott asked catching the distain in her tone on the last word.
"Well, you're not a very good one" Oracle said to Jeff. "Any other master would have had me beaten six ways from Sunday for speaking to you like I did just now."
"I have no intention of hurting you."
"I know" she agreed. "You'll only hurt me if I hurt one of them" she indicated Scott. "And even then, you'll have the GDF do it for you so you can pretend you didn't have any other choice. Maybe that way your conscience will let you sleep without half a bottle of Scotch. But I doubt it."
"Why did you decide to help International Rescue?" Jeff asked again. Scott fidgeted in his seat and Jeff knew that her words were banging on some very well sealed doors in his eldest child's mind.
"Tell me why I should tell you?" she countered.
"Because right now I haven't called the GDF. Right now, I am the only thing that stands between you and freedom I believe you want."
She sniffed and dropped her posture settling back into the seat and folding one leg over the other.
"Technically the activator is the only thing standing between me and the freedom I want."
If the move was meant to throw Jeff off it worked.
"I can't give you the activator" he said.
"No shit."
"I don't condone swearing either" he growled without thinking.
"Ah yes, but I'm not a real person" she said off handedly. "So, what does it matter? You're clearly not going to torture me for information – something I'm quite pleased about – and I have no intention of forcing you to give me the activator so, what do we do now?"
"Why don't we start from the beginning?" Gordon said leaning forward to insert himself into the conversation fully.
"You told both Virgil and Thunderbird Five that you grew up in a home. We know that was actually the biomechanoid facility. Tell us about it?"
"What?" she looked genuinely confused. "Why would you want to know?"
"Our father here wants to know one thing and one thing only" Gordon said. "And no, it's not why you chose to help us. He wants to know if you're a person or if you are trying some kind of long-term manipulation. Now myself, Thunderbird Five and most definitely Virgil think you're on the level. Scott here doesn't know you but in a way that doesn't matter because, as you said" he barrelled on ignoring the hurt look from his older brother, "he's not the master here. Father is."
"You seriously think there's a question you can ask me that will convince anyone that I'm real?" Gordon nodded. "You're insane. We're fighting against years of prejudice and propaganda, never mind the fact it took a life ending injury and more than a years' worth of deprogramming for me to believe it. How on earth is one conversation going to convince anyone?"
"It won't" Jeff said. "But it's a start. I can't tell you how things will end, Oracle, but I am willing to listen."