The Gift of Darkness, part 11
by pari106
pari106@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/pari106/damain.html
Rating: PG-13, as always.
Disclaimer: Dark Angel belongs to Cameron, Eglee, and FOX.
Summary: Okay, here's something a little different. We leave Max, Zack, and Logan for a while and
switch to…yep, Lydecker. I'll let him answer some of the questions surrounding Logan's condition. One
such question being: what are they going to do now that Logan's gotten away? The answer: he hasn't
gotten anywhere. Because Lydecker's known exactly where he was this entire time…
A/N: thanks again for all the reviews! Keep it up!
Gift of Darkness, part 11
by pari106
Just as Max was stepping into Bling's apartment, and Zack was racing Logan back to Seattle, somewhere
on the other side of Sector Nine, a lone, unmarked van sat silently outside an abandoned warehouse.
The warehouse was the location former general Donald Lydecker had chosen for his base of operations.
Inside, the tech who had been monitoring Logan Cale's tracer signal was switching rotations with another.
Meanwhile, Deck waited out in the van, Doctor Rothbauer, a lieutenant formerly under his command, and
his ever-growing displeasure with the progress of this mission his only companions.
Or make that his displeasure with the lack of progress of this mission.
They were behind schedule. Unacceptably behind schedule. By initial calculations, they should have had
Cale yesterday. But due to an unforeseen…complication they had had to shut down surveillance. They'd
lost Cale's signal. Now they'd been searching to regain it, but their efforts had been unsuccessful. They'd
spent a lot of time for nothing. And time was the one thing they did not have.
Therefore Donald wasn't particularly in the mood for chitchat when Dr. Rothbauer suddenly decided to
speak.
"We should never have implanted that tracer," he muttered.
Rothbauer was exactly the type of person Deck tended to avoid. He was a small, thin, pale, insignificant
sort of man; balding, middle-aged. Average. He had a constant air of nervous distaste about him that made
the general nauseous. He was the type who involved themselves with the government only because they
could make a profit out of it. Miles Rothbauer didn't have the vision that Donald Lydecker did.
He did, however, have a premier ability with devices such as tracers. And his very lack of commitment to
Manticore was what made it safe to involve him in these affairs.
So Deck tried not to be too disgusted with the other man's useless comment.
He did, however, sigh, having to make quite an effort not to roll his eyes, for propriety's sake, as he
responded.
"Doctor Rothbauer…only days ago you were outraged that we didn't put a *stronger* tracer in your
patient," Lydecker calmly stated. As if speaking to a child. In his eyes, he was. "Now you're angry
because we put one in at all?"
Rothbauer might have been average, but he wasn't stupid. He could recognize condescension when he
heard it. And he wasn't immune to the timely nature of their plans, either. If he were he would never have
spoken in such an informal manner to Lydecker.
"I'm not angry," he insisted, fidgeting in his seat. "I'm concerned with the patient."
Lydecker snorted. And the unexpected sound nearly caused the doctor to jump.
"Alright. With the success of the mission, then," he nervously corrected.
This time Deck didn't say anything.
He could just bet that Rothbauer was concerned with the success of the mission.
Logan Cale was walking around with some very expensive hardware in his body – a prototype tracer
Rothbauer hadn't even been privy to until Lydecker had enlisted him in this mission. If they lost Cale, they
lost the prototype. And any and all profits Rothbauer might have been able to squeeze out of it.
And since losing Cale could be considered synonymous with losing this advance against Manticore,
Rothbauer would undoubtedly lose his job, as well. And his life along with it.
His concerns weren't at all selfless.
And Lydecker didn't expect them to be. Rothbauer was an opportunist doing his job, not some benevolent
healer. What did he care for the life of one man? Particularly for the life of Logan Cale, the "enemy"?
Nor did Lydecker condemn him for his selfishness. Were his own concerns any less self-centered? Wasn't
his concern always more for the mission than for the men and women involved? Weren't his concerns for
the fate of the X5s less about his feelings for them, and more about self-preservation, seeing as their
destinies seemed to be so very intertwined?
The general's silent musings were interrupted by Rothbauer's whining protests.
"And I wouldn't say it was outrageous to want to protect our investment in this endeavor," the Doctor
continued.
It was all he needed to say to cause Deck's eyes to narrow.
"Would you say then, doctor," Lydecker said, his voice dangerously quiet. "That you are protecting
*your* investment in this endeavor by questioning my judgement?"
The atmosphere in the van was suddenly very still.
And that was all the warning Rothbauer needed, Lydecker knew, to keep him from any further
insubordination.
Because that was what Deck saw it as. They were no longer on government payroll. But, by God, they
were still at war. Even if it was a war against their former compatriots. And, when at war, you had to
maintain discipline amongst your troops.
That taken care of, Lydecker was suddenly free of all the tension that had building over the last several
hours. He relaxed in his seat and gave the doctor a casual smile.
"Besides," he said. "Why have you suddenly changed your position on the procedure now?"
"I don't object to a tracer, General," Rothbauer finally answered, though tentatively, unsure of how to
behave around the mercurial soldier. He removed his glasses for a moment, to massage the bridge of his
nose, then replaced them with a sigh. "But a basic tracer would have been less risky. And much more
accessible…"
"To being found out the second my kids laid eyes on him." Lydecker said. He shook his head. "A
conventional tracer would have been detected immediately."
"Perhaps," Rothbauer conceded. "But a conventional tracer wouldn't have killed its host."
For the first time, it was Deck who felt discomforted by the doctor's comments. This added an edge to his
response and a frown to his expression. He pointed at a nearby monitor.
"He's still alive."
The reassurance wasn't very reassuring, Lydecker knew, but noone called him on it. The experimental
tracer they had used on Cale could remain active for days after its host's death. They had no way of
gauging the man's condition by the condition of the prototype.
"Look, Doctor…the only way we'll have a problem with this is if something untoward is introduced into
Cale's bloodstream, like a depressant. He's clean, and he's with friends, so I doubt he'll be drugged
anytime soon. And I don't think he'll spend his first full evening away from Manticore getting plastered."
Lydecker reached over onto a nearby table that had been bolstered to the van's floor. He picked up the file
sitting there and threw it at his companion.
"You said it yourself – the risk of chemical interference with the tracer is minimal."
Rothbauer grabbed the file, but he didn't need to look at it. He'd written the damned thing after all.
"A minimal risk is still a risk," he insisted.
That was true. And they'd been taking a lot of risks lately. Far too many, by Rothbauer's thinking. But
Lydecker disagreed.
Risk was necessary. Just as letting Cale go had been necessary. Just as shutting down the surveillance
system had been necessary. You couldn't avoid risk. You couldn't always detect it. You could only
prepare for it, and attempt to overcome it.
And they would simply have to overcome this one. There was no other choice.
When they'd outfitted Cale with the tiny device, they'd known that they needed a tracer that would be
undetectable, not only to the X5s, but also to Renfro and her minions at Manticore, should they become
aware of Lydecker's actions. The prototype was exactly that. It was undetectable. It was also virtually
irremovable, except by someone who was aware of exactly how it was implanted.
Since this tracer was, by definition, a prototype, the only of its kind, Lydecker could count the number of
people possessing that knowledge on one finger.
The tracer was almost perfect.
Almost.
But it had its share of disadvantages. And it entailed its share of risk.
The tracer's unique ability to avoid discovery lay entirely in its sensitive placement within the host's body.
It was designed to be inconspicuous; to be placed in areas of the body where noone else would look. Areas
like the lining of a lung, for example, or, as in Cale's case, the exterior of the heart. Therefore it wasn't any
larger than a watch battery. And its signal was only about as strong. That's why they'd had to monitor
Cale so closely; it was why they'd lost his signal so easily and had so much trouble regaining it. The
tracer's signal had been intentionally made negligible to avoid interfering with the implantee's internal
organs.
But none of that mattered if extreme stress was put on the implantee's body. Or if the implantee's
bloodstream became polluted. Any significant alteration of blood pressure or breathing capacity or brain
activity could cause serious complications with the tracer's operation. And therefore, with whatever organs
the tracer was located near.
It was a risk. But a necessary one.
And Rothbauer was right. Minimizing the number of risks in this mission would have been preferable. But
they were in this thing way too deep to be worrying about what they'd prefer. They'd had to have some
way of keeping track of Eyes Only.
And if they could only locate him now they could remove the damned tracer, and the issue of that risk
would no longer even be an issue.
"Doctor," Lydecker looked at Rothbauer intently. "I know we've taken a great risk here. But, believe me,
giving Eyes Only what we've given him and letting him loose, without any way of ensuring that we could
get him back…that wouldn't have been a risk. It would have been suicidal."
The doctor didn't say anything. He'd known nothing about Eyes Only before this had begun. He was
aware of the man's activities when they became publicized, but he had no idea just how far those activities
concerned Manticore. Even now, all he knew about him, Logan Cale, were the cold, hard medical facts
he'd off-handedly observed and noted in his files. He hadn't thought that he needed to know anything
more than that. But now something about the general made Rothbauer rethink his decision.
Lydecker was interested, he realized. He had an interest in Eyes Only that he usually reserved for the X5s.
That in itself made Rothbauer certain that there was something more worth knowing here.
"How well do you know this young man?" he suddenly asked, surprising himself maybe as much as
Lydecker. He hadn't really intended to speak the question aloud. But once he had, the general didn't seem
bothered by it. He answered immediately.
"Not at all," he admitted. "He's been somewhat of an…enigma."
Then he just raised an eyebrow; seeming to consider his thoughts on that. He looked as though he were
considering a great many things.
And then, to Rothbauer's continuing surprise, he sort of laughed. "To be perfectly honest," Lydecker
continued, "before all of this began, I didn't even know his name. But I'm learning." He looked at the
Doctor, nodding, suddenly very serious. "I'm learning."
Rothbauer had no idea what Lydecker meant. But then, unbeknownst to him, there was a lot of things
about Lydecker's mission that he had absolutely no idea about.
Nonetheless, he pushed away the feelings of unease his conversation with the general had caused, intending
to spend the rest of their time waiting for their technician's return in silence.
"For all our sakes, general," he said first. "I hope you don't learn that you're wrong." About Cale or about
any of this.
Lydecker didn't comment. He was a soldier. He didn't entertain his feelings aloud like Rothbauer did.
And yet, secretly, when he considered the doctor's words…
'I hope you don't learn that you're wrong.'
Secretly, Lydecker hoped so, too.
by pari106
pari106@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/pari106/damain.html
Rating: PG-13, as always.
Disclaimer: Dark Angel belongs to Cameron, Eglee, and FOX.
Summary: Okay, here's something a little different. We leave Max, Zack, and Logan for a while and
switch to…yep, Lydecker. I'll let him answer some of the questions surrounding Logan's condition. One
such question being: what are they going to do now that Logan's gotten away? The answer: he hasn't
gotten anywhere. Because Lydecker's known exactly where he was this entire time…
A/N: thanks again for all the reviews! Keep it up!
Gift of Darkness, part 11
by pari106
Just as Max was stepping into Bling's apartment, and Zack was racing Logan back to Seattle, somewhere
on the other side of Sector Nine, a lone, unmarked van sat silently outside an abandoned warehouse.
The warehouse was the location former general Donald Lydecker had chosen for his base of operations.
Inside, the tech who had been monitoring Logan Cale's tracer signal was switching rotations with another.
Meanwhile, Deck waited out in the van, Doctor Rothbauer, a lieutenant formerly under his command, and
his ever-growing displeasure with the progress of this mission his only companions.
Or make that his displeasure with the lack of progress of this mission.
They were behind schedule. Unacceptably behind schedule. By initial calculations, they should have had
Cale yesterday. But due to an unforeseen…complication they had had to shut down surveillance. They'd
lost Cale's signal. Now they'd been searching to regain it, but their efforts had been unsuccessful. They'd
spent a lot of time for nothing. And time was the one thing they did not have.
Therefore Donald wasn't particularly in the mood for chitchat when Dr. Rothbauer suddenly decided to
speak.
"We should never have implanted that tracer," he muttered.
Rothbauer was exactly the type of person Deck tended to avoid. He was a small, thin, pale, insignificant
sort of man; balding, middle-aged. Average. He had a constant air of nervous distaste about him that made
the general nauseous. He was the type who involved themselves with the government only because they
could make a profit out of it. Miles Rothbauer didn't have the vision that Donald Lydecker did.
He did, however, have a premier ability with devices such as tracers. And his very lack of commitment to
Manticore was what made it safe to involve him in these affairs.
So Deck tried not to be too disgusted with the other man's useless comment.
He did, however, sigh, having to make quite an effort not to roll his eyes, for propriety's sake, as he
responded.
"Doctor Rothbauer…only days ago you were outraged that we didn't put a *stronger* tracer in your
patient," Lydecker calmly stated. As if speaking to a child. In his eyes, he was. "Now you're angry
because we put one in at all?"
Rothbauer might have been average, but he wasn't stupid. He could recognize condescension when he
heard it. And he wasn't immune to the timely nature of their plans, either. If he were he would never have
spoken in such an informal manner to Lydecker.
"I'm not angry," he insisted, fidgeting in his seat. "I'm concerned with the patient."
Lydecker snorted. And the unexpected sound nearly caused the doctor to jump.
"Alright. With the success of the mission, then," he nervously corrected.
This time Deck didn't say anything.
He could just bet that Rothbauer was concerned with the success of the mission.
Logan Cale was walking around with some very expensive hardware in his body – a prototype tracer
Rothbauer hadn't even been privy to until Lydecker had enlisted him in this mission. If they lost Cale, they
lost the prototype. And any and all profits Rothbauer might have been able to squeeze out of it.
And since losing Cale could be considered synonymous with losing this advance against Manticore,
Rothbauer would undoubtedly lose his job, as well. And his life along with it.
His concerns weren't at all selfless.
And Lydecker didn't expect them to be. Rothbauer was an opportunist doing his job, not some benevolent
healer. What did he care for the life of one man? Particularly for the life of Logan Cale, the "enemy"?
Nor did Lydecker condemn him for his selfishness. Were his own concerns any less self-centered? Wasn't
his concern always more for the mission than for the men and women involved? Weren't his concerns for
the fate of the X5s less about his feelings for them, and more about self-preservation, seeing as their
destinies seemed to be so very intertwined?
The general's silent musings were interrupted by Rothbauer's whining protests.
"And I wouldn't say it was outrageous to want to protect our investment in this endeavor," the Doctor
continued.
It was all he needed to say to cause Deck's eyes to narrow.
"Would you say then, doctor," Lydecker said, his voice dangerously quiet. "That you are protecting
*your* investment in this endeavor by questioning my judgement?"
The atmosphere in the van was suddenly very still.
And that was all the warning Rothbauer needed, Lydecker knew, to keep him from any further
insubordination.
Because that was what Deck saw it as. They were no longer on government payroll. But, by God, they
were still at war. Even if it was a war against their former compatriots. And, when at war, you had to
maintain discipline amongst your troops.
That taken care of, Lydecker was suddenly free of all the tension that had building over the last several
hours. He relaxed in his seat and gave the doctor a casual smile.
"Besides," he said. "Why have you suddenly changed your position on the procedure now?"
"I don't object to a tracer, General," Rothbauer finally answered, though tentatively, unsure of how to
behave around the mercurial soldier. He removed his glasses for a moment, to massage the bridge of his
nose, then replaced them with a sigh. "But a basic tracer would have been less risky. And much more
accessible…"
"To being found out the second my kids laid eyes on him." Lydecker said. He shook his head. "A
conventional tracer would have been detected immediately."
"Perhaps," Rothbauer conceded. "But a conventional tracer wouldn't have killed its host."
For the first time, it was Deck who felt discomforted by the doctor's comments. This added an edge to his
response and a frown to his expression. He pointed at a nearby monitor.
"He's still alive."
The reassurance wasn't very reassuring, Lydecker knew, but noone called him on it. The experimental
tracer they had used on Cale could remain active for days after its host's death. They had no way of
gauging the man's condition by the condition of the prototype.
"Look, Doctor…the only way we'll have a problem with this is if something untoward is introduced into
Cale's bloodstream, like a depressant. He's clean, and he's with friends, so I doubt he'll be drugged
anytime soon. And I don't think he'll spend his first full evening away from Manticore getting plastered."
Lydecker reached over onto a nearby table that had been bolstered to the van's floor. He picked up the file
sitting there and threw it at his companion.
"You said it yourself – the risk of chemical interference with the tracer is minimal."
Rothbauer grabbed the file, but he didn't need to look at it. He'd written the damned thing after all.
"A minimal risk is still a risk," he insisted.
That was true. And they'd been taking a lot of risks lately. Far too many, by Rothbauer's thinking. But
Lydecker disagreed.
Risk was necessary. Just as letting Cale go had been necessary. Just as shutting down the surveillance
system had been necessary. You couldn't avoid risk. You couldn't always detect it. You could only
prepare for it, and attempt to overcome it.
And they would simply have to overcome this one. There was no other choice.
When they'd outfitted Cale with the tiny device, they'd known that they needed a tracer that would be
undetectable, not only to the X5s, but also to Renfro and her minions at Manticore, should they become
aware of Lydecker's actions. The prototype was exactly that. It was undetectable. It was also virtually
irremovable, except by someone who was aware of exactly how it was implanted.
Since this tracer was, by definition, a prototype, the only of its kind, Lydecker could count the number of
people possessing that knowledge on one finger.
The tracer was almost perfect.
Almost.
But it had its share of disadvantages. And it entailed its share of risk.
The tracer's unique ability to avoid discovery lay entirely in its sensitive placement within the host's body.
It was designed to be inconspicuous; to be placed in areas of the body where noone else would look. Areas
like the lining of a lung, for example, or, as in Cale's case, the exterior of the heart. Therefore it wasn't any
larger than a watch battery. And its signal was only about as strong. That's why they'd had to monitor
Cale so closely; it was why they'd lost his signal so easily and had so much trouble regaining it. The
tracer's signal had been intentionally made negligible to avoid interfering with the implantee's internal
organs.
But none of that mattered if extreme stress was put on the implantee's body. Or if the implantee's
bloodstream became polluted. Any significant alteration of blood pressure or breathing capacity or brain
activity could cause serious complications with the tracer's operation. And therefore, with whatever organs
the tracer was located near.
It was a risk. But a necessary one.
And Rothbauer was right. Minimizing the number of risks in this mission would have been preferable. But
they were in this thing way too deep to be worrying about what they'd prefer. They'd had to have some
way of keeping track of Eyes Only.
And if they could only locate him now they could remove the damned tracer, and the issue of that risk
would no longer even be an issue.
"Doctor," Lydecker looked at Rothbauer intently. "I know we've taken a great risk here. But, believe me,
giving Eyes Only what we've given him and letting him loose, without any way of ensuring that we could
get him back…that wouldn't have been a risk. It would have been suicidal."
The doctor didn't say anything. He'd known nothing about Eyes Only before this had begun. He was
aware of the man's activities when they became publicized, but he had no idea just how far those activities
concerned Manticore. Even now, all he knew about him, Logan Cale, were the cold, hard medical facts
he'd off-handedly observed and noted in his files. He hadn't thought that he needed to know anything
more than that. But now something about the general made Rothbauer rethink his decision.
Lydecker was interested, he realized. He had an interest in Eyes Only that he usually reserved for the X5s.
That in itself made Rothbauer certain that there was something more worth knowing here.
"How well do you know this young man?" he suddenly asked, surprising himself maybe as much as
Lydecker. He hadn't really intended to speak the question aloud. But once he had, the general didn't seem
bothered by it. He answered immediately.
"Not at all," he admitted. "He's been somewhat of an…enigma."
Then he just raised an eyebrow; seeming to consider his thoughts on that. He looked as though he were
considering a great many things.
And then, to Rothbauer's continuing surprise, he sort of laughed. "To be perfectly honest," Lydecker
continued, "before all of this began, I didn't even know his name. But I'm learning." He looked at the
Doctor, nodding, suddenly very serious. "I'm learning."
Rothbauer had no idea what Lydecker meant. But then, unbeknownst to him, there was a lot of things
about Lydecker's mission that he had absolutely no idea about.
Nonetheless, he pushed away the feelings of unease his conversation with the general had caused, intending
to spend the rest of their time waiting for their technician's return in silence.
"For all our sakes, general," he said first. "I hope you don't learn that you're wrong." About Cale or about
any of this.
Lydecker didn't comment. He was a soldier. He didn't entertain his feelings aloud like Rothbauer did.
And yet, secretly, when he considered the doctor's words…
'I hope you don't learn that you're wrong.'
Secretly, Lydecker hoped so, too.