Search and Seizure - Chapter 13
- infie
Recap: (Sunday)
"Yeah, what can I say? My relationships never last." 511 paused. "Except for you. You I can't seem to get rid of."
494 laughed weakly, then the pilot punched the throttle and he was pushed back into his seat. The pressure built against his chest and he felt himself greying out again. This time he leaned his head back and let it come.
(Thursday, Manticore, Washington facility)
Lydecker stood over the sleeping form of 494, an expression on his face that none of his kids would have recognized. Relief, and tenderness shone in his eyes, and he had to resist the desire to touch 494 to reassure himself. He turned to his head to look at 529 in the adjacent bed, and this time gave in, patting the silky black hair awkwardly. The only light in the room came from a nighlight that glowed a soft yellow from the corner of the room.
529 looked much the worse for wear, though the transfusions and innoculations with the serum from 494's blood had blunted the worst of it. Still, he looked terrible, with faint bloody streaks still showing against the caramel skin.
Sandoval came to stand beside him, and Lydecker's face smoothed back into its usual irritated look.
"Christ, Deck, what the hell happened to you? You look like you had an argument with a bus."
Lydecker raised his hand and touched his bruised eye and fat lip gingerly. "Mugging." he answered curtly. "What are you doing here, Sandoval?"
"Do we have everything we need?" he asked in reply.
"Yes. We can generate enough serum from these two to innoculate the rest of our people."
"Good, good. When are we expecting the DNA workup on the virus?"
"Tomorrow morning." Lydecker turned away from 529 and headed for the door. Sandoval stepped into his path.
"What was it, Lydecker? What gave 494 his protection?"
Lydecker's face tightened, and he drew Sandoval into the hallway, closing the door behind them. "Smallpox." he said, and he looked almost embarrassed.
"The last repositories of smallpox were destroyed in 2004, Colonel."
"No. They weren't." Lydecker paced tightly. "We designed these kids to be resistant to biowarfare elements. We needed to test our design."
"And you picked smallpox?"
"No, not originally. We went through botulism, anthrax, plague. The usual. Then we picked a dozen kids to test smallpox against. For our test group, we needed to have some that had been innoculated, and some that hadn't. 494 was one of four that hadn't been."
"And?"
"The eight that had been innoculated, no problem. Of the other four, two survived."
Sandoval was getting impatient. "Come on, Colonel. Get to the point."
"494 survived in the usual way; you make antibodies, they fight the virus, they win, case closed, right? But when we did a DNA workup afterwards, we found that a change had been made on a genetic level. 494's genetic code had spontaneously mutated to resist an entire class of virus. Smallpox." he paused meaningfully. "And its derivatives."
"Orono was derived from smallpox." Sandoval was finally piecing it all together.
"Yes. Usually, if you have an immunity to a virus that is obtained through innoculation, it is just that virus you are immune to. Small mutations in the virus' code results in no more immunity. We discovered that 494 had a much greater range of immunities while he was in the Balkans. Unfortunately, the mutation has not been reproduced."
"And since Argent was based on Orono..."
"We knew he'd be sick, but that he would almost definitely survive. And we needed a survivor to generate the vaccine that will protect the rest of us."
"And 529?"
"An aspect of 494's mutation is that he eradicates the virus from his bloodstream. To test the vaccine we needed a sample of live virus. Argent's life expectancy is only 4 hours outside of cold storage or a live host. That wasn't enough time to get it back here."
"You are one cold bastard, Colonel." Lydecker didn't respond. "What about the other survivor?"
"Completely immune. Genetically."
"Why wouldn't you copy that genome, then?"
"Because 452 escaped before we could." Lydecker turned cold eyes on Sandoval. "Now, if we're done the interrogation, I'm leaving."
Sandoval stepped aside. Lydecker left.
494 woke to the smell of disinfectant and the feel of clean sheets against his skin. He wriggled a little, snuggling deeper into his pillow. {Ahhh, home.}
"I know you're awake." 511 told him cheerily.
"Huh." 494 refused to open his eyes. "Even I don't know I'm awake yet, Habib."
511 laughed, then threw a convenient shoe at him. "We're home," he said. "It's just plain old 511 now."
494 reluctantly opened his eyes and stretched hugely, groaning. His leg barely hurt at all, and the bullet scorch across his ribs was healed. "How long was I out?"
"Just a couple of days." 511 slouched deeper in the chair set between the two beds. "They kept you out cause they figured you'd regenerate blood faster that way. Vampires."
494 looked at the plethora of needle marks marching up his arm. "Sweet jesus!"
511 rubbed his shoulder. "They were making vaccine. I got my shot a minute ago."
494 rolled his eyes. "Sorry to cause you such pain." He shifted uncomfortably. "So, what happened?"
"Not much. We landed in Anchorage, much to the surprise of the control tower, rearranged you two sleeping beauties, then headed for the Alberta facility where Miranda is based."
"Miranda?" 494 interrupted, a slow smile spreading across his face.
"The pilot who picked us up." A blush stained 511's cheeks.
"You seduced the pilot." 494 closed his eyes and tried not to laugh out loud. "You've got two wounded buddies at death's door, and you seduced the pilot?"
"Hey, you two were in perfectly good hands." 511 said defensively. "She was intrigued by the whole enhanced thing. And she was hot! And Canadian! You know what they say about Canadian women!"
494 let loose the laughter, curling into a ball on the bed. "No, 511, what do they say?" he managed to choke out.
"They say... they're... argh!" 511 spluttered. "Well, it's all true!" he finally said firmly, sending 494 into even greater gales. A sleepy mutter from the other bed caught their attention.
"Could you guys keep it down, please? Recovering transgenic over here." 529's voice was a croak, and 511 immediately gave him a cup of water to sip from. "Thanks, man." He sounded almost normal. 529 looked over at 494. "I can not tell you how much I wish I had never gone on this mission."
511 laughed out loud. "I tell him that after every mission!"
"Not this one. This time, you got to sit warm and cozy, listening to us suffer. Then you get to steal a tank, and finally, you get laid. Somehow, I don't see a lot of room for you to complain here."
"Yeah. Listening was fun." All of the humour drained out of 511's face as he remembered 494's screams, and he rubbed his knuckles thoughtfully. 494 noticed the bruises, but decided he didn't want to know. "But you know I crave the action." he sent 529 a grin.
"Uh huh." 529 stretched gingerly. "Not me. Next time I'll be the eavesdropping tank thief." He paused. "Especially if I get laid afterwards."
The other two looked at each other. After a long moment, 494 spoke. "Christ, when you put it that way... get in line!"
The laughter of the three transgenics echoed down the empty infirmary hallway, and in his chair near the nurses station, Lydecker smiled.
Renfro slammed closed the metal document case in her hands furiously, dropping it on her desk. A moment later, she reluctantly opened it again, surveying the contents angrily. "Fuck!" she said. "How could they have gotten so close?"
The open case revealed a single piece of paper, with an electron imaging scanner picture of the Argent virus taking up most of the page. Ebola had been described variously as a lasso, or as a fish hook, and Marburg as sausages or cigars, but there was only one way to describe Argent.
A caduceus.
A/N: I'm so sad the mission is over. But missions end, and at least there's plenty more to come!
A/N#2: Okay, now that Search and Seizure is completed, I want to say how much fun I had writing this. To *everyone* who reviewed: you made me want to write more. And to the folks who sent me email or reviewed for the first time... you made my day. You really did. Thank you.
A/N#3: I wanted to explain why the transgenics seem to be immune to the Familiars' virus, despite not having Max's 'perfect' genome. I think this is as good an explanation as any. =)
-Inf