8/9
"Nice," Domino commented sardonically, dropping her bag on the floor as she surveyed the surroundings. "I hear the concrete look is really in this year." The small facility wasn't much--hardly distinguishable from the vast majority of Nate's safe houses... the ones she'd seen, anyway. Sometimes she had to wonder about the amount of effort Blaquesmith had put into building the elaborate network that had helped facilitate Nathan's mission for so many years. As much as she disliked the annoying insect, she couldn't help but be mildly impressed.
"Haven't used this one in awhile," Cable replied, carrying the rest of the gear into the safe house. "We won't be here long anyway."
"With any luck," she muttered under her breath.
"Think that's your department, darlin,'" Logan said with a smirk as he entered the building.
"Not lately," she replied dryly. "How far are we from the base?"
"Couple of miles, " Nate said. "We'll have tree cover most of the way."
She nodded. "Good. Any idea if the truck I saw out there still runs?"
"Should," he replied. "Might take a bit of coaxing, though."
"I'll go see to that, then. Think you two can plot us a route without a brawl?"
"I can take care of the truck, Dom--"
"I said I'll do it, okay?" She replied tersely. When he didn't offer any further argument, she turned and headed back out the door.
"Wonderful." He scowled at the closed door, then glared irritatedly at the thoughtful look Logan was giving him. "What?"
"How long she been like this?"
Nathan shook his head. "She's not--she was fine."
Logan snorted. "Cut the bullshit, Summers. I know about the crap Wisdom dragged her into."
"It was her choice."
"An' that's why the bastard's still breathing." He replied casually, leaning against the wall. "How long?"
"The letter was bad timing."
Logan gave him a long look, then nodded, and also exited the building. Nathan muttered under his breath and started unpacking their equipment.
----
"Got that thing running?"
"Hm?" Dom glanced up from what she was doing. "Runs fine. Not exactly luxury," she commented, closing the hood. "but it sure as hell beats walking." She wiped her hands on a rag, then tossed it into the cab, pulling on gloves.
"You never did like the cold."
"I'm not masochistic," she retorted. "If you want to commune with nature, feel free. I'm sure Nathan would support the decision enthusiastically."
Wolverine chuckled, then gave her a pointed look. "What's all this about, darlin'?"
She glanced away from the measuring gaze. "I told you. I want to follow up the stuff in the letter."
"Bullshit. If y'r gonna lie that badly, 'least look at me while y'r doing it."
She stuffed her hands deeper into the pockets of her coat. "Life's got a funny way of making you face the past, whether you want to or not. Let's just say I didn't need the repeat performance."
"An' that's just a cryptic way of tellin' me there's more to this than what you've said."
She looked him in the eye. "Maybe. Girl's gotta have her secrets."
"Not when they're eatin' you alive."
She snorted. "First Nathan, now you. Doesn't anyone see the irony in us debating full disclosure here?"
"All I know is, right now, I'm lookin' at a fifteen year old I thought you'd put behind you a long time ago."
She gave him a humorless smile. "Appearances can be deceiving. I never was good at letting go of the past. Just running from it." She walked back towards the safehouse, pulling open the door and ducking inside. "Hey, Nate. Get your ass in gear. I want to get a preliminary look at this place while we've still got the dark for cover."
----
"So what have we got?" Cable asked as he leaned back against a tree, hands crammed into the pockets of his parka. Domino had the binoculars and was currently scanning the squat, grey building half-buried in snow set a ways off from the edge of forest they were currently sheltered in. Logan was staring intently forward, apparently oblivious to the biting cold.
"Three guys on the outside, looks like." Dom replied. "Armed, but not much of a problem. Probably an alarm on the building itself, but nothing else I can see." She lowered her binoculars. "Should be pretty cut and dry."
Logan gave a slight nod, and straightened from his crouch. "Looks that way."
"I still want a little more time to go over the layout," Dom said absently, rubbing her gloved hands together in an attempt to get back some feeling. "The less time we spend in there the better."
"Sure you ain't just stallin' for time?" Logan questioned, fixing her with a piercing look.
"It's my mission," she countered heatedly, glaring down at him.
"Are we done here?" Cable broke in, pushing off the tree. "Or should I continue trying to shield us from those soldiers while you two bicker?"
"We're done," Domino replied tersely, giving Logan one last hard glance. "We'll hit them tomorrow night." Without another word, she turned and vanished into the trees, heading back towards the truck.
----
Domino winced as the truck jolted, her head banging painfully against the door frame. There was a gruff curse from the back, where Logan was doing his best to keep from falling out of the vehicle as Cable jerked it over the jarring terrain. "Take it easy, will you Nate? You're going to break an axle or something."
He shot her a quick glare. "Do you want to drive? If not, shut up so I can concentrate. This isn't exactly a paved highway, if you hadn't noticed."
Dom scowled at him. "Why are you being such an ass all of the sudden? I would have left you at home if I'd known you were going to be such a bastard about it."
"I'm not," He bit out, then cursed as the truck hit a half buried rock and shuddered again. "But I don't like this. At all."
"Opinion noted." Dom replied irritatedly. "Believe it or not, I don't much like it either. But then, I never asked to have all of this dropped in my lap, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't take your misgivings out on me." She settled back in her seat again, wrapping her arms around her in an attempt to keep warm. The wind cut right through the vehicle, however, making any real comfort almost impossible. "And it hardly matters, anyway. We're here now. Might as well get it over with." Cable didn't reply, and she tipped her head to the side, so she could see his face again. His features were set in a stern, determined look, and she sighed, turning away again to stare at the darkness outside the window.
----
She dreamt she was drowning.
Black water stretched for miles around her, curving with the horizon, vanishing without sight of land. The only illumination was the stars dancing coldly in the void above, reflecting on the water with all the warmth of chips of ice. She treaded water for an impossible amount of time, until her arms and legs screamed with the strain and the sting of the frigid water. She fought against it, but couldn't move any longer, as if her joints had locked up, bones frozen in place. She tipped her head back trying to keep her head above the water, watching her breath frost in the air as she felt her chest constrict, squeezed tight by the cold.
She was swallowing water suddenly, and couldn't stop, as though it were just the same as air filling her lungs, numbing and suffocating. She caught a last glimpse of the indifferent stars, shimmering through the water as she sank downward into the darkness.
She woke shivering, and yanked the blankets tighter around her shoulders, while trying not to fall off the too-narrow cot she was sharing with Nathan. The cold from the dream seemed to follow her into wakefulness, beyond the reach of warmth from mere blankets. Nate mumbled in his sleep and his arms closed more tightly around her waist. She could faintly hear Logan's breathing from across the room. The room itself was nearly pitch black, save for the scant green glow from some of the equipment on the far side of the room. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
Domino hadn't been this jittery the night before a mission in ages--certainly not over one as cut and dry as this one looked to be. Then again, it wasn't the op she was concerned about, was it? She'd been fighting the urge to axe the whole thing since they'd arrived. Truth be told, she'd been half-hoping they'd find some legitimate reason to abort the mission. Still, she found herself wondering, could anything she found here be worse than the nightmares or the yawning gap in her memories?
----
#Split up?#
#Probably still the best way to go, yeah,# Dom replied through the link Nathan had connected the three of them with. #Wouldn't want anyone alerting his buddies--or the staff inside.# She crouched down amongst the scrubby foliage only meters from the perimeter of the base. #They haven't even got cameras,# she noted.
#It was a dead-end Cold War project. Probably doesn't rank high on their list of security concerns.#
Dom shook her head. #It's all too damned convenient, if you ask me,# she sighed. #Okay--# She scanned the building a final time in the fading light of the fast-setting sun. They'd spent the brief daylight hours fine-tuning their plan as best they could, going over the building's layout and security routines they'd observed the evening before. The building itself was L-shaped, with one wing to the east and the other to the south. The forest they were currently concealed at the edge of ran from north to west. There was one guard patrolling the north and one on the west side, with the remaining soldier guarding the east and south, which faced a featureless expanse of tundra.
The only entrance was on the south-facing leg of the building. #Logan, you go west. There's enough scrub to cover your approach. I'll take the guy out here, and Nathan can go east, since he won't need the cover. We'll meet at the entrance.# She looked away from the building and the visible soldier, and back at her two companions. Wolverine gave her a quick nod and vanished into the trees. Cable lingered a moment longer before he too moved off. Domino rocked back on her heels and took a deep breath, watching for the right moment to move.
It wasn't long in coming. Shortly, the soldier began digging around in his coat pockets, slinging his rifle over a shoulder as he clumsily shook a cigarette from a battered pack and began fumbling with his lighter. The wind blew the flame out twice, and with what sounded like a curse, he turned towards the building for better shelter. As soon as his back was turned, Dom moved from her position, sprinting quickly across the hard-frozen ground.
The impact as she collided with the guard knocked his rifle away, and a none-too-gentle slam of the head against the concrete of the building rendered him unconscious. She grabbed up the weapon and the guard's radio, and left him tied in the shelter of the building. Cautiously, she made her way around to the east end of the building. If Nathan hadn't made his move yet, she didn't want to alert the guard. The caution proved unnecessary; the guard was bound and propped neatly against the side of the building, and Nathan was nowhere in sight. She moved on towards the rendezvous point.
----
"What kept you?" Wolverine asked casually, leaning against the side of the building.
"Traffic," she retorted dryly. "What have we got?"
"Standard military security," he replied. "Tin-Man didn't bother to get us the code before he knocked his guy for a loop," he continued, jerking a thumb in Cable's direction. The other man scowled and made a motion to reply, but Dom waved it off.
"Not now, boys. Besides, we've got it covered." She reached into a pocket and pulled out a flat, rectangular object, and fitted it over the electronic lock's keypad, eyes on the display as the software went to work. There was a soft 'beep' a few moments later, and she looked up again. "And we're in."
As the door opened, Cable and Wolverine slipped inside as Domino removed the device and tucked it away again, then followed her companions into the facility.
The corridor they found themselves in looked like that of any government facility; bland, utilitarian, definitely boring. The facility seemed deserted--only its cleanly state betrayed its occupation. Doors punctuated the hall at even intervals, leading to dark, empty offices. What little activity that might be occurring in the building seemed to be centered elsewhere.
They moved quickly, finally stopping at the juncture between the two wings. The information they'd come for was in the records office in the east end of the building. Domino put down the rifle she was carrying and stripped off her bulky coat. "This is the last stop for you guys."
"Dom--"
"It's not up for debate. Either of you." She shot them both warning looks. "This is my mission. Either it's what it seems, I get the info we came for, or it's not, and I deal with it. But it's my shit to deal with." She glanced down the hallway. "If you want to be useful, make sure you keep this place clear."
"Twenty minutes. Then we're coming after you," Cable grated. She gave him a curt nod, and vanished down the corridor. He watched her go, muttering under his breath.
"It was her call."
"Doesn't mean I have to like it."
----
The way was remarkably clear. She'd expected at least a guard or two, but except for the security they'd encountered outside, there was nothing. The facility was empty. She sprinted silently down the darkened halls, stopping finally just short of the target room. She checked over her weapon one last time, steeled herself, and went in.
"Hello, Nika. I was wondering when you'd get here."
The room was filled with tall shelves in long, even rows, stacked with boxes, and filing cabinets lined the white painted cinderblock walls. Her eyes narrowed as she assessed the man standing before her. Late 50s, tall, still in decent physical shape, his dark hair streaked with grey. "Who are you?" She demanded.
"I think you know," he replied.
"Humor me. And stay where you are."
He sighed. "My name's Andrei Dashkov. I sent the letter."
"Then I guess you have some explaining to do, don't you?"
"Please, put the gun away? I'm unarmed."
After a moment, she lowered the weapon, but kept it un-holstered. "You've got twenty minutes. Start talking."
"All right," he replied in a conciliatory tone, pulling out a chair from a desk near the door and sitting down. "Where do you want me to start?"
"I know what this department did. I know my mother fled from here, and I know you--if you're who you claim--had something to do with my sister's death. What I want is the truth. No more tricks, no more mind-games. Just tell me what happened."
"You're very persuasive," he replied wryly. "All right. The truth, then." He let out a long sigh, eyes closing briefly as if gathering his thoughts." Jenica--your mother, was never happy here. From the moment she entered the program, she hated it. But it was better than starving, and that was her only real alternative. She was a--" he paused. "Empath, I think that's the term. Low level, but she could tell when people were lying. She was very good at it. We met not long after she joined. She told me she liked me from the start because I didn't lie like every one else." He shook his head sadly. "Won't you sit down? I'm not going to hurt you."
"I'll stand, thanks," she replied icily.
"Very well. As I said, she hated it here. It didn't matter that we were treated well, better than most of our people at that time. But we had each other and that was all right. There wasn't a problem until after your sister was born. Fayina--" He closed his eyes. "She meant the world to her...to both of us."
"Ironic, since you stood by and let her be killed."
"That was never meant to--" He stopped. "You need to hear this in order. I can explain what it is you think you remember."
"So far, you're not doing a very good job." Domino narrowed her eyes, shifting her weight as she watched him, trying to keep herself focused on the surroundings and avoid the conflicting emotions and fragments of memory at war in the back of her mind. "She left here, eventually, with Kristian Gaines."
"The spy, yes," he replied dryly, a dark look flashing momentarily over his features. "She knew about him, and things between us were... strained. She was pregnant again, and the department had the profoundly bad timing to announce that they were going to start monitoring the project members' children for special abilities--mutants were not well understood then and they weren't sure what to expect. Jenica... did not want her children to grow up as soldiers," he said with a hint of ironic humor. "So she left with Gaines. Maybe she blackmailed him. I don't know."
Her stomach had tightened itself in a knot, her grip on the gun so tight her knuckles ached. She didn't like the way this was playing out--every word, every gesture seemed an act put on for her benefit, as if trying to persuade her. As if anything he said could make up for the hell that still haunted her sleep. "And ten years later, you hunted them down and killed them," she snarled. "Why? Why couldn't you just let us go?"
Andrei shook his head and muttered something under his breath. "You have your mother's temper, you know. I never wanted them dead. I still loved her, but I also felt betrayed. At the time, there was too much else going on--Gaines didn't know anything of value and we couldn't spare the manpower to track them down. It was deemed unimportant. It took me a long time to convince command to let me look for you."
"For what? So you could avenge yourself?" She glared at him, rage bubbling up beneath the surface. He seemed so collected, as if he'd rehearsed it all a thousand times before. For all she knew, he had.
"I was a father! I had one daughter torn from my life and another I'd never even seen! Can you blame me? Can you blame any parent for that?" This time genuine feeling punctuated his words, the first glimpse of real emotion she'd seen from him.
"When you resort to the murder of your former wife and her husband, I can." She stared him down, body tense. "When you let one child die and the other be sold like nothing, I sure as hell can blame you!"
"You don't understand." He waved a hand, as if dismissing her anger. "If you had children of your own, perhaps..." He trailed off. "You would know what that sort of love can drive a man to do, how it can tear you apart." He stopped, as if waiting for a reaction. She gave him none. "Their deaths were not my idea," He continued finally, sounding suddenly weary of the conversation. "I wasn't even in that house. Your sister had taken you into the desert to hide, and I was tracking her. I don't know what went wrong there--but it was a mistake. There were too many mistakes. She was smart, your sister... it took me a good while to finally track you down. She wanted nothing to do with me, though, and when we brought you both here... there was a struggle, and Fayina could be dangerous. Someone made a bad call, and she was killed. There wasn't anything I could do to stop it." He stood, walking over to her, and reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder. Domino stepped back a pace, gun leveling at him before he dropped his hand. "You look so much like her."
"Like who?"
"Your mother," he said sadly.
"I don't remember her, or you... hell, about all I remember of my sister is watching her bleed to death on the fucking floor!"
Andrei stepped back, posture subdued. "That, I am afraid, is all my fault. If you must hate me for something, hate me for that. I was grieving, I'd lost my life and one child already, I couldn't bear the thought of losing you as well. They told me she could--" He ran a hand through his hair, expression pained. "I didn't want you to remember all that violence, to think that was who I was. But the telepath warned me... I should have listened."
"And you let her tear me apart."
He looked away. "Yes." Domino clenched her jaw, unable to move as she stood there staring at him. "You were in a coma afterwards," he continued. "There wasn't much hope of recovery, I was told. The chances--" He trailed off. "I know you can't remember, but I stayed by your side until the day I was ordered to send you away."
She laughed humorlessly. "You make it sound like a damned boarding school!"
"I didn't know!" He cried plaintively. "I had someone else make the arrangements, someone I never should have trusted. I was told you died a few months later, that the body had been 'dealt with.'" His eyes narrowed. "Viktor must have done it, he was opportunistic. I wouldn't have been allowed to care for you anyway. But if I had known! If he weren't already dead, I would kill him for it."
The look of anguish on his face was real, his anger real. Domino shook her head, looking away. "Why did you do this?" She asked quietly. "Why the hell did you lead me here?"
"When I found out you were alive... I wasted my life, Nika. I managed to destroy everything I had, and for what? A war that never came? To become the head of a department that is only a shell now, without purpose? You're my last tie on earth. I wanted to see you again, to talk to you."
"What? So we could trade Christmas cards? Maybe take a nice father/daughter trip someplace?" She laughed. "To me, you're nothing more than a shadow who's stalked my nightmares for the last twenty years. You're an old man trying desperately to pretend he's not responsible for what happened to his own damned family. You've brought nothing but *hell* into my life. Why the fuck should I want anything to do with you?"
"I'm your father."
She slid her gun into its holster. "You're a stranger."
"I wanted to see you again," he repeated, walking over and pressing something into her hand. "I was wrong. I thought perhaps we--but even I cannot think of a reason why you shouldn't hate me for what I did. I never wanted to hurt you." He paused, then kissed her lightly on the forehead. "Be happy. Prove despite everything I did, your mother didn't die for nothing." He turned and walked away, departing through a door on the other side of the shadowed room.
Domino looked down at the old, creased photograph in her hand, then tucked it in her belt and left.