Part IX
It was the stuttering sound of his own voice saying, "Oh, c... crap," that convinced Darien that he was indeed awake this time and not just in another vivid dream. Shifting carefully, he levered himself into a sitting position. The sheets were tangled about his legs, making it far more difficult than necessary, even given his current condition. Once everything was at least somewhat straightened, he let his mind wander back to the dream, and his heart immediately leapt in his chest.
It was vague, yet at the same time perfectly clear. A flash of Alyx, her hair wild, her body restrained by a straightjacket, her eyes a startling blue. Of himself edging towards madness -- madness with a dark purpose, a dark intent. A deep anger, aimed at someone that he first thought might be Hobbes; a new version of that first experience he'd had with quicksilver dreams. He hadn't been able to eat doughnuts for a month after that.
Another flash, this time of Claire, surrounded by a purple halo, saying, "I can't fix this." Alyx again, now huddled in a ball, hands over her ears, eyes squeezed shut, rocking back and forth. Then a stranger's voice: "It's all about control."
He scrubbed his hands over his face, trying to erase the images, not wanting to think about what they might mean. They made no sense anyway. Looking over at the clock, he groaned at the time the glowing red numbers revealed. Four forty-two -- no, three -- in the fricking morning, and there was no way he was going to get back to sleep now.
Why now? Why more dreams, and why so incoherent? Catching sight of the snake that coiled about his wrist, he had another memory flash. A tattoo of a rose, one that also changed color, the petals shading from blue through to purple and then to black, instead of the green-to-red his used. He was going to need a shot tomorrow, he observed a bit coolly. Maybe that was the difference -- until the inhibitor, the dreams, or his memory of them, had always been a bit fragmentary, as this one had been. Once he'd been on the inhibitor a few months, they'd become more lucid. Instead of seemingly random images thrown together, they'd become like stories that made sense to themselves. Even if some of the individual bits had been incorrect, the important pieces of information, the ones that were the core bit of truth, were always there and always left an impression upon his psyche. Now, without the inhibitor in his system, the old pattern of scattershot glimpses and confused memories had returned.
Great, so now he knew, sort of, that something bad was coming for Alyx and himself. Wonderful. "Just what the hell am I supposed to do about it?" he shouted into the room. That's when he remembered one last bit -- in the dream, he'd been walking. He shook his head; that made no sense at all. He was a minimum of two weeks from standing, according to Claire, never mind walking with any sort of confidence.
He knew he was working himself into a state of hysteria and forced himself to calm down. He convinced his pounding heart to slow, his breathing to return to normal, his mind to stop running at top speed about something that might never happen. He debated calling Alyx -- wanting to hear her voice, to confirm that she was indeed all right -- but chose not to. He was the reason she wasn't here, after all. He only hoped he'd be given the chance someday to get things back to the way they had been.
Starting tomorrow -- well, today, really -- the work would begin. He'd take whatever Claire threw at him and do whatever he could at home on his own. When he could stand again, walk to her, gaze down into her bottomless silver eyes, then he'd talk to her. She was right; he needed to find himself again, first.
With a sigh, he decided not to bother trying to go back to sleep. It was going to take him twice as long to get ready anyway, so he might as well get started.
* * *
Bobby keyed the plate number into the database Alyx had accessed through the State Police, and waited for it to spit back the owner of the Humvee. He wasn't expecting much, considering it was a government plate, most likely one of a pool of vehicles, registered to the agency and not a single person. So they were both very surprised when they got not only a name, but also an address and a picture that matched the DOT video image. Apparently their shooter was one Nathaniel Barnes, and the address was just a few blocks away from Alyx's place.
"Bullshit. How stupid do they think we are?" she growled, as she reached over Bobby's shoulder and pressed a few keys. Seconds later, her printer began to spit out the hard copy of the information.
"Very, at a guess." Bobby shook his head and exited the database; they didn't need it anymore right now. "Well, we might as well check it out, though I seriously doubt he'll be at home."
"Got a hunch, Bobby?" Alyx asked with a grin.
"Cute, kid. More like experience. They know we won't buy it if it's too easy." Bobby got to his feet and grabbed his jacket, which he'd thrown over the back of a chair. He watched Alyx carefully, wondering how she was really doing, but she made a point to hide it. Fawkes had been rather subdued when Bobby had picked him up this morning. Not really unexpected, but he didn't even ask about Alyx, or stop by her office to see if she was in, just headed straight down to the Keep. Alyx must have noticed Bobby's gaze.
"What? I'm fine, Bobby. Let's get this wild goose chase started." She shrugged into her jacket, grabbed her gun from one of the drawers in her desk and holstered it on her hip. She waited until he nodded, then followed him out the door and to the van.
The drive was familiar and led them to a decent apartment complex about a mile from Alyx's place. It didn't take them long to discover that Mr. Barnes was no longer in residence, though; a chat with the manager revealed that he had moved out over a month ago. The manager gave them the forwarding address, but it turned out to be a fake. They spent the entire day tracking down other leads, and ended up with a post office box at a Mail Boxes Etc. that he used, and another address.
They looked at the time and decided, rightfully, that this had been enough for one day. They'd hit the next address in the morning.
* * *
It took them a week of following false leads and addresses that had been abandoned before they finally caught a break.
Bobby showed up at Alyx's door before dawn, and wasn't the least bit surprised to find her both awake and dressed. She waved him in as she drank from a cup of fresh coffee.
"Is it Darien?" she asked as she moved to the kitchen. She poured him a cup in a travel mug and added the right amount of sugar and non-fat cream before handing it to him.
"Nah, kid. He's doing okay. We watched some cheesy horror flicks last night. I brought Italian." He took the cup from her and sipped at it while she hunted up a pair of socks and found her boots. "You should stop by sometime. He... he misses you, kid."
Alyx paused as she was slipping one boot on. "Yeah, well... I miss him too, but he keeps turning down my offers. We went to Balboa for a couple hours on Saturday, but it was a bit awkward." She stood upright and knocked the boot's heel into the floor to get it comfortable. "He won't even come over here. I don't know what else to do."
She grabbed her own cup and headed to the door with Bobby right behind her. "Keepy says he's doing quite well, but won't give me any details." He left the obvious question unasked, knowing she could fill it in.
In the elevator Alyx shook her head. "Don't look at me. Except for making sure my head was fine last week, Claire hasn't really spoken to me, and Darien....well, we talk, but not about anything of importance. He's still awfully depressed, and he refuses to let me help."
"Yeah, he's shutting us all out," Bobby agreed. The two of them had been working their proverbial tails off, trying to track down the shooter during the day and taking turns in the evening watching Fawkes. Even Claire had gone over a couple of times. The bullet wound had healed with little trouble; it was just a matter of Fawkes regaining the ability to walk that seemed to not be progressing as it should. The Keep kept insisting everything was fine, so Bobby tried not to worry and just gave Fawkes whatever help he'd accept. He was more worried about Alyx, who he suspected had made a few more after-hours forays into the lairs of the SWRB.
When they were ensconced in the van and driving, he felt safe enough to broach the subject. "Kid, you been causing trouble at night?"
"Not really. Just digging up what I can." It was evident by the slight tremor in her voice that she had stumbled onto something that seriously bothered her.
"What did you find?" He figured it would be better for her to talk about it than have whatever it was eating at her.
"My possible future." She rubbed her hands along the sides of the coffee mug as if to warm them. "I found the SWRB's asylum. Where their mistakes go to live out their days, being studied to find out what went wrong so that the next test group doesn't fail as badly. Not succeed. Doesn't fail as badly." She shuddered at whatever images the commentary had brought up.
"Shit, kid. You're gonna get your ass fried at this rate." He knew there was no way to stop her. She had a vendetta against these guys, and she wasn't going to let anything stop her, even if it got her killed in the process. Turning to look at her profile in the dim light of the dashboard, he could see the far-off look in her eyes and the hint of fear in her features. She trusted him enough to not hide her emotions completely anymore. "You won't end up in a place like that. I -- we -- wouldn't let it happen."
"Thanks, Bobby, but even you couldn't prevent it if I went screwy again. And next time they won't be able to control me." She said this in a matter-of-fact tone that, to Bobby, said she knew something he didn't.
"Well, then we'll just have to keep that from happening, now won't we?"
They had crossed the Coronado Bridge, heading out to the island and towards one of the many piers. There were police vehicles already there, as well as a tow truck and small crane, all being lit up by small spotlights. Parking out of the way, they got out and headed for the police tape strung across the area. They were stopped momentarily by a beat cop, who let them by when they flashed their badges and directed them to the detective in charge.
Bobby spoke to the detective while Alyx sidled closer to the action at the end of the pier. The detective looked a bit confused by their presence at this crime scene.
"Agent Hobbes, exactly what might Fish & Game have to do with this?" Detective Hernandez asked as he sipped at his cheap cup of coffee. It was obvious that he'd been there for several hours already, and suspected he was going to be there for several more before catching anything even resembling a break.
"We think the owner of that vehicle was involved with a case we're investigating," Hobbes answered smoothly. He glanced past the cop, watching Alyx as she made her way through the crowd and to the end of the pier where a hastily wrapped body was being pulled from the water. A couple of police divers followed it out. "How did you find the vehicle?" Hobbes asked the detective.
"Dumb luck. This pier has been closed for repairs, and when the divers went down yesterday to begin some preliminary work, they found the Hummer. The guy almost drowned when he found the body still sitting in the front seat." Hernandez obviously didn't see any reason to be evasive.
Bobby frowned, not liking the convenience of their perp being dead just as it looked like they were getting close to him. Though it made sense for the SWRB to do it this -- toss them the bone and then tie up all the loose ends for them. Since he wasn't going to be talking, there was no way for him to point the finger back at his bosses. "How long had it been down there?"
"At a guess?" Bobby nodded. "Three, four days, based on what's left of the driver. Long enough for the fish to have their share."
Okay, that was an image that Bobby really didn't need in his mind. He almost gagged on his coffee, but didn't let the cop see it.
*Bobby, you might want to see this.* Alyx's mental voice was overly controlled and without any emotion at all. Usually there was some...color to her words.
Looking over, he saw her standing next to the gurney where the body had been placed. Bobby and the detective both headed towards her. She had borrowed a pair of latex gloves and was carefully going through the pockets of what was left of Barnes' jacket. Damn, the kid had balls bigger than Texas. The look on her face was a complete blank.
"Please tell me you took the forensics course recently?" He had a hard time keeping the queasiness out of his voice. He'd seen bodies plenty of times before, in a variety of states. Hell, he'd made more than a few bodies himself over the years, but this one was...was icky.
"Ummm, yeah. Couple of months ago. Why?" She lifted her head to glance at him, but she gave away nothing.
"Oh, no reason." He shook his head as she fished Barnes' wallet out of one pocket, followed by a gun from a shoulder holster. She handed the gun over, but went through the wallet carefully. He'd bet a month's salary that she was memorizing everything she could. When done, she handed it over as well, to be placed in an evidence bag. He was amazed at how calmly she was able to look over the body. Barnes was pretty well... chewed at this point, and the water hadn't done a whole lot for him, either. You could just barely tell he was the same guy from the pics they had. Alyx gently turned the corpse's head to look at something -- he had no fricking idea what -- before finally nodding her thanks to the coroner and backing away. She peeled of the gloves and tossed them away as she walked back towards the end of the pier with Bobby trailing along. A female cop walked up to her and handed her coffee mug back. Alyx ran one shaky hand through her hair and sipped at the lukewarm coffee.
"Bobby, I'm willing to bet that guy was long dead before he ever got near the water." She kept her voice quiet; no need for others to overhear.
"Why, kid?" Bobby was trying to get the image of Barnes' face out of his mind, not to mention the smell out of his nostrils. He could deal with this stuff, but that didn't mean he liked it.
Alyx sighed and drank more coffee. "He was too clean." When Bobby's mind still refused to process, she nudged him towards the crane. They were finally raising the Humvee -- definitely not a civilian Hummer -- out of the water and onto the end of the pier. "You tell me: what happens when a car hits the water nose first?"
"Crap," Bobby muttered. Barnes should have smashed his face into the steering wheel -- military issue vehicles didn't have air bags -- breaking his nose at the very least, if not more than that. Aside from being chewed, though, he'd looked fine. "Sorry kid, guess I'm not quite awake yet."
She shrugged. "I got another addy; thought we'd check it out after we look at the Humvee." She waved at the vehicle that was just now being lowered onto its tires.
"Yeah, and get more coffee. I have the bad feeling we're gonna need it." They stayed back as the Humvee was unhooked from the crane. The doors were opened, releasing a flood of water, fish, seaweed, and less savory things onto the pier to run off back into the harbor.
Once the tide had slowed to a trickle they, along with several cops, approached and began to go over the interior. There wasn't much, just the basics for ownership and insurance in the glove box. The car was registered to a local business, supposedly, but Bobby recognized it as a cover for the SWRB, especially since the license plate was the same as in the pics they had and used the coding for general use vehicles. Alyx carefully examined the front seat on the driver's side, but was very careful not to touch anything. All she did was nod slightly. He saw it as well; there was no damage inside the Humvee. There should have been some damage, to the steering wheel, the windshield, or something. The front end was completely unmarred, too, and any significant impact with the water should have caused impact damage. The hood wasn't even popped.
Backing out of the Humvee, Alyx brushed a stray piece of seaweed off her boot and walked over to a piling. Bobby joined her, after taking a moment to speak with Detective Hernandez. She was taking long deep breaths with her eyes closed. "You okay?"
She nodded. "Good enough. This whole thing stinks." She ran one hand over her face and rubbed her eyes. "Like they want us to know it's a fake."
Bobby scratched the top of his head a bit absentmindedly. "Not much we can do about it. This is the end of it, at least with the info we're allowed to use."
"Not quite," Alyx said quietly. It was a good bet the kid knew something he didn't. "Come on, let's check out his place. I'll explain on the way."
Bobby was still shaking his head in disbelief as he picked the lock to Barnes' most current residence. As he turned the knob to open the door, he realized Alyx could have done this in half the time -- not that he'd taken very long -- and without lock picks. The place had been nice at one time, but now was decidedly cluttered, like the owner had been overly involved with something and hadn't taken the time to follow a normal routine. Mail was piled unopened on a counter; the pile had become top-heavy at one point and spilled onto the floor. Dishes were sitting unwashed and, at this point, growing in the sink. There were bullet molds sitting on the kitchen table, as well as several guns. On a coffee table in the living room was an ID badge that had been defaced, the agency name scratched out and deep lines cut into the picture with a sharp object. There were also various official letters, including a psych report, once again with the agency name scratched out.
It was looking pretty much like the kid had said they'd find here. A set-up to make it look like Barnes had stolen the Dubrimium and gone rogue. Though why he'd been at the shooting remained unexplained.
"Kid..." Bobby stopped when she shook her head.
*The place is bugged. Just call it in. We'll talk later.* She hadn't even turned to look at him, just continued snooping about looking for more evidence.
"Yeah." Pulling out his cell phone, he did exactly that. A team would be here in twenty minutes to begin collecting the evidence. Right now, all they had to do was wait.
* * *
Late in the afternoon, a couple of days later, they were standing in the Official's office listening to a seemingly-apologetic gentleman explain about Agent Barnes and the reasons he might have been near the cruise ship dock that morning. About how the accidental shooting of Agent Fawkes was done by a more-than-slightly-deranged mind who'd been fired just days before. Explained how he'd managed to steal a small amount of Dubrimium and must have created the bullets on his own. On and on and on.
Bobby didn't believe a word of it, and he could tell Alyx didn't either. The Official was accepting it, just to save face on both sides, and sat there with a bored expression, even when nodding or making the appropriate comments.
When the man -- he'd never given his name -- was finished, Alyx spoke up first. "Bullshit," was her quiet comment.
The man turned on her. "Excuse me? Are you doubting what I've told you?"
"Doubt? Oh, no. I think... no, I know you are outright lying," Alyx snarled at the man.
"Miss Silver..." the Official warned without success.
"I had the DOT tape analyzed. Went back to find the original. Our copy is a fake; the time code has been altered. I checked some records as well. Agent Barnes -- one of the SWRB's top shooters by the way -- was in good standing just two weeks ago. In fact, he handled most of their projectile weapons testing, including the Dubrimium experiments." Alyx paused, looking at the man whose face had gone completely blank. "You have also failed to explain why a half dozen of your agents were attempting to kidnap Agent Fawkes."
"Enough!" the Official roared as he got to his feet.
"Not quite," Alyx snapped at him before turning and stalking towards the gentleman from the SWRB. "I would suggest you go back to your boss and tell him we're not buying any today."
"Hobbes, get her out of here, now!" The Official had gone nearly purple with anger.
Bobby didn't say one word, just grabbed Alyx by the arm and literally dragged her from the room. In the hallway, she pulled herself from his grip and stalked away without a word. Bobby wasn't sure what to do. If he had known she was going to pull something like this, instead of waiting and digging up more information like they had talked about, he'd have done everything in his power to stop her. This was crazy. All she was going to do was bring down the combined wrath of the Official and, more importantly, the SWRB, on her head. There was nothing he could do to protect her when -- not if, but when -- it happened.
"Shit," he muttered, heading to his office to await the Official's summons that he knew would be coming. He had promised to keep her away from the SWRB, and instead he had both helped her and ignored the obvious signs that she had been snooping around and digging into places she shouldn't have.
* * *
Darien sat just outside the still partially opened office door -- he had helped the door stay open just a little bit -- as he listened to the conversation going on between the stranger from the SWRB and the Official. It didn't take him long to realize that, whoever this guy was, he was not some lackey sent to deliver the message about Barnes. This was the guy in charge.
"I apologize about Miss Silver. She is sometimes too curious for her own good." That hint of fear was back in the Official's voice.
"I would suggest you remind her of her place. If you can't keep her in line, perhaps someone else can." The threat was obvious, even though the tone of voice was mild.
"You know as well as I that that won't happen. She has proven too useful to other agencies, and they won't break the deal even with you threatening them." The Official didn't sound quite as confident as Darien would have wished, but he didn't sound like a frightened rabbit either.
"Look, it's simple, you give me what I want and we'll get out of your way. It'll go back to business as usual." The man's voice was smooth, oily, and made the hairs on the back of Darien's neck stand up in reaction.
"It's out of my hands," the Official said, with a touch of smugness to his voice.
"If you don't keep her out of our business, I will take action. They can't stop me unless I allow them to, and so far I have, but my patience is wearing thin." The words were calmly spoken, but had a dangerous edge to them. "In the end, it's all about control."
Darien shivered, as those words triggered a flashback to that damn dream. Deciding he'd heard enough, he rolled away from the office and dropped the quicksilver once around the corner. Damn, he'd hoped he'd have more time, or that this would be one of those occasions when the dream turned out to be nothing more than a dream. He only hoped he was ready enough for this.
Moving faster, he headed to the office he and Bobby shared to see how things were going. Badly, at a guess; Bobby and Alyx were in the midst of an argument, but silence descended the instant he opened the door. Rolling through, he looked from one to the other. "Don't stop on my account. I haven't seen a good battle between the two of you in ages."
"Fawkes, good timing, maybe you can talk her out of this foolishness." Bobby looked like he was about to tear his hair out, except for the small fact he didn't currently have any to spare.
"Bobby, if you think I'm just going to stand back and do nothing, you are even more nuts than usual," she snapped at him. Her hands were balled into fists, and anger was written in every line of her body.
Bobby's eyes narrowed, but he didn't comment on her rather nasty shot at his state of mind. Somehow he knew she was just blowing off steam. This situation was starting to take a toll on her from all sides. "Kid, just calm down."
"Alyx," Darien's voice was soft, and her focus swung to him. He saw something in her eyes, a desperate need to end this before something worse happened. "What do you have in mind?"
Bobby threw up his hands in frustration. He wondered why he even bothered asking Fawkes to help; he should have known he'd side with the kid instead of common sense. When it came to Alyx, Fawkes had no common sense.
"I want to follow him and confront him. Hell, I'll cut a deal with him behind the 'Fish's back if that's what it takes, but I want him out of our lives." She kept her voice steady and she met his gaze with a look that said she'd do this no matter what.
"Kid, this is stupid. You don't want any part of this. For everyone's sake, just drop it." Bobby felt torn. He understood her wanting to do something, anything, to keep herself as well as the rest of them safe, but in this business, in this day and age, there was no such thing as safe. He hated having to use this tactic, but it might be the only thing to get through to her. He lowered his voice, forcing her to listen. "You have kids; do want them to end up in the middle of this?"
Alyx paled, but it was Darien who spoke. "Bobby, you accused me of being cruel? Even the Fat Man wouldn't use that against her."
Bobby sighed and shook his head. "Sorry, kid. I'm just trying to make you understand. These guys will stop at nothing, can find out anything, and will do whatever it takes to get what they want and keep their little program secure. If it wasn't for the fact that they know almost nothing about you, I'd put them at the top of the suspect list of those your... your ex worked for." He sat down in the chair behind the desk, forcing himself to calm down. "These guys could easily have done it."
Alyx closed her eyes and backed up until she was able to lean against the wall. "Then what do I do? I can't just drop it."
"Kid, you were in the room with that guy; didn't you get anything from him? Hell, even I figured out he was someone big and damn dangerous." Bobby was working to get her past the emotions and into rational thought again. When she thought things out, she was very, very dangerous.
"I don't trust it -- anything -- I get superficially anymore." Alyx looked uncomfortable and unhappy. "I don't dare."
"Huh?" was all Bobby could think of.
"Why not? You pretty much rely on it for first impressions, or you did." Darien rolled back and forth in place, unable to decide whether or not to move closer to her, or if she'd even allow him near.
She shook in place for a moment, then whispered one word. "Eberts."
At her words, Darien did move. Stopping in front of her, he reached out and took her right hand into his. "Alyx, it wasn't your fault. He fooled all of us."
"Hell, kid, I worked with him for years and never suspected a thing. I didn't really like the little brown-noser, but I had no idea he... he was..." Bobby stopped at the look of pain on her face.
"You don't get it, do you Bobby? I should have known." Her voice was tight with anger and fear. "I should have known. He was my god-damned friend and I didn't know." She looked down at Darien and asked sadly, softly. "How can I trust my senses when I didn't know?"
Darien didn't know what to say. She had a point. Of all of them, you would think she would have been the one to know, to have figured out there was something odd going on with Eberts, but she hadn't. Perhaps it was because she'd been too close to him to notice the signs, if there had even been any. Darien hadn't been able to believe it even as he'd watched the drama play out before his eyes. Nerdy, subservient, Eberts suddenly taking on the characteristics of a trained killer? If it had been suggested to him, he would have thought it was a joke and burst out laughing. Because she didn't figure it out, because she felt she should have known all along, because she probably felt she could have stopped this long ago, she felt responsible. And now she no longer trusted her abilities.
He'd been shoving her away over his own personal fears, and never even noticed her loss of confidence in herself.
"Alyx, you've said these guys are good. That they can hide from you. Don't you think Eberts would need to be twice as good? Don't you think he would have been prepared, warned about what you could do?" Her hand had gone cold in his and he tried to warm it.
"Yeah, kid. Even you said the Eberts we dealt with daily was an imposed personality. Not the same guy as at the end." Bobby wished he'd known she was feeling this way. She had to have been holding this in for weeks, not letting even a hint of it escape.
She shook her head. "Doesn't matter. I screwed up and...and we still don't know what it might have cost us. You mentioned that the SWRB might go after my kids...well, whoever Eberts and Jess worked for, they have already tried that twice since we faked my death." Both Bobby and Darien looked shocked. No one had told them. "I will do what is necessary to protect my family." She looked from Darien to Bobby. "All of them."
Bobby didn't need an explanation as to what she meant. "All right, but you'll do this with backup." He looked at Fawkes, who nodded in agreement.
Alyx relaxed marginally. "Well, we better get moving then. He's just about done getting his pound of flesh from the Official."