Chapter Three
It was about an hour later when we found ourselves standing a few yards away from the main entrance to the laboratory in which we hoped to find the scientist Van Gaarde.. From outside the tall glass-fronted building could have been anything: an accounting firm, a corporate headquarters, a college building, a library – its external appearance gave no clue whatsoever to what lay within. I suspected this was deliberate, and my mind was already imagining what terrible and horrific things we might find inside. If this was Van Gaarde's lab, then maybe he had other mutants who had been kept in the same way Gemini had. God only knew what he might be doing to them. If there were any, there was no question – we had to get them out. Maybe they would join us, maybe they would just hide away and try to forget everything that had happened to them – or they might even go crazy and try to kill everything in sight. What about the Horsemen? I couldn't say for sure what had happened to them. If, as we believed, they'd been genetically engineered by Van Gaarde at the government's request, then there seemed no logical reason why they would attack an army installation. Unless Van Gaarde himself was trying to double-cross the government and was using the Horsemen to do it. I didn't know. I couldn't tell. Maybe we would find out more once we got inside.
"The only problem is how to get in," said Vertigo, evidently mirroring my thoughts. "If we want to find Van Gaarde and get information out of him, we can't start any kind of trouble. If he gets the merest indication that he's in danger, he might disappear into a government facility somewhere and we'll never know where he's hiding."
"So you're saying we have to sneak in," said Gemini.
"Brilliant, Holmes. I've been thinking about how we might do it."
I sighed. Stealth was definitely not my preferred way of going about things. I had always been a firm believer in strength over subtlety, but unfortunately there were some situations in which that wasn't possible. This, it seemed, was one of them.
"I think we're going to have to split up," Vertigo said. "We can each use our powers to sneak inside, but no two of us can do it the same way."
"How do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, you can make yourself invisible, right?"
"Yeah, virtually."
"That's your way in. Gemini, you'll have to summon your twin. Get her to cause a distraction, and you can sneak in unnoticed. Recyclo, I know you can climb up vertical walls, so go round the back and find a window or something. Pyro's had a look at some blueprints of the building, and he says there won't be any security guards round there since the building doesn't have a back entrance."
Recyclo nodded silently. Gemini was looking thoughtful, probably trying to decide exactly what kind of distraction her duplicate should stage. Then she looked at Vertigo, "So what about you? Where's your way in?"
He pointed above our heads, "Up there."
I looked up, shielding my eyes against the glare of the sun. I couldn't see anything, only the building stretching up into the sky with an equally tall building alongside it.
"I don't get it," Gemini said. "I don't see anything."
Vertigo replied, "Don't you see the wire running between the two buildings?"
"Yeah…" she responded, then her eyes widened. "You're not serious, are you?"
"What?" I said.
"He's going to walk over the wire between those buildings. Vertigo, tell me you're joking."
"I don't tell jokes in this tone of voice, sweet honey."
She blushed, "Wh – whatever. Isn't it dangerous?"
"Hey, if you want to avoid danger and sit on your ass all day, join the X-Men," he said. "Of course it's dangerous. That's why it's fun. The building next door is a hotel, so I can get in there without any difficulty. I'll find my way up on to the roof, and walk over the wire. It's probably a communications line or something; whatever it is it looks pretty taut. Piece of cake."
I looked at him again to make sure he was being serious. He couldn't honestly be thinking of walking along the wire, could he? Or could he? I knew his mutation gave him near-perfect balance and co-ordination, but I didn't know if it was that near perfect. I told myself not to worry. He knew what he was doing – hopefully. He had been using his power for years so he had to know exactly what it would and wouldn't enable him to do. I cast my worries aside. Gemini still didn't look happy, but Vertigo either didn't notice or didn't care, "Let's move. Pyro's expecting us back with results."
He turned to head for the hotel, when Gemini unexpectedly grabbed his arm and said, "Wait!"
"What?"
"I – I – no, it's nothing, I – "
She let go of his arm, then added, "Just be careful, OK?"
"You know me."
"Yeah, that's what worries us," I said.
But neither of them seemed to hear me. Vertigo looked at Gemini and she looked right back at him. For a moment or so their eyes were locked; her hand was still on his arm, and for the tiniest most infinitesimal fraction of a second they were moving towards each other. Then the spell was broken; Gemini's eyes dropped and her arm fell back to her side.
"Just don't do anything stupid," she mumbled, unwilling to look him in the face.
"I won't. Pyro reckons Van Gaarde's office is most likely on the tenth floor. Make your way there as quietly as possible and I'm sure we'll bump into each other before long."
"Right," I said. "And if we hear a thud, that's you about to be scraped off the pavement."
"Don't say that!" Gemini cried.
Vertigo said, "I'll see you guys inside."
With that he turned and began hurrying towards the hotel building. Gemini watched him go, then she turned to me, "Is he going to be all right?"
"I don't know. I guess he knows what he's doing – I hope so, anyway. We'd better get inside too."
"Right."
We looked for Recyclo but he was gone. He must have already gone around the back. Gemini and I headed for a shady spot at the side of the hotel. Using my invisibility or her duplication would not be a good idea in plain view. I made sure nobody could see us, then I called on my camouflage mutation. Gemini gave a little jump of surprise as I vanished from her sight, then she said, "OK. Here goes."
She closed her eyes, tensed her muscles, and gave a gasp of pain as her twin materialised into existence beside her.
"Are you OK?" I asked, steadying her.
"Yeah…yeah…it's getting easier with practice."
"What kind of distraction are you going to cause, exactly?"
"I'm not sure yet. I'll think of something."
It probably wouldn't be difficult for Gemini to cause a diversion. She was stunningly beautiful, even for a fourteen year old girl. More than a few eyes had turned her way during our journey through the streets of New York this afternoon, and not all of them had been our own age. I knew she would think of something.
"I'm going to go in now," I told her. "Good luck."
"You too."
I touched her lightly on the arm as I left, and she smiled. It occurred to me that I could use my power to hide both of us – I had done it before – and we could have gone in together. I hadn't mentioned it to her since I felt it was too risky. I could just about maintain a state of camouflage when I was only hiding myself. It was a lot harder to achieve when more than one person was relying on it. And I knew she probably wouldn't have agreed to it anyway. Gemini would have wanted to be independent, to rely on her own gift rather than needing me to – quite literally – hold her hand.
I glanced behind me as I hurried towards the target building, and I could see one of the twins – presumably the duplicate – moving out towards the main street. It was crowded with traffic and humans, so there was plenty of scope for whatever she had in mind. I brought my attention back to my own attempt at stealth. It was still making me uncomfortable. I had no real experience at this. With enough practice I could probably have used my camouflage to move unseen anywhere at any time, but that wasn't my style. I had grown up a fighter, not a sneaker.
OK. This was the first test. The main entrance to the building was locked, and there didn't appear to be any way to change that fact. No, wait, there was a numeric keypad at the side of the door. Great. It needed an access code. I definitely wasn't an electronic hacker. If only Recyclo were here…no. I had to do this myself. There had to be a way past this, other than smashing my way through the door. With my strength it would have been easy enough, but Vertigo had said we couldn't afford to start a scene. That wasn't why we were here.
I was in luck. As I stood off to the side, a human approached the door from inside the building, and pushed it open. I panicked slightly as she looked straight at me, but my invisibility held and she looked straight through my chameleon form. Completely unaware of my presence, the human moved away, and I reacted quickly to grab the door before it could close behind her. Slipping inside the building, I allowed my eyes a moment or two to adjust to the dimmer lighting within, then I took a deep breath and looked around. It was some kind of entrance hall. Ahead was a security desk, with three or four human guards sitting or standing, two of them locked in an animated conversation about something. Further beyond the desk lay a bank of elevators. The tenth floor…that was where Vertigo had told us to meet up. Moving as quietly as I could, I made my way around the security desk and towards the lifts. Hitting the 'up' button, I looked behind to make sure the guards were unaware of my presence. So far, so good.
I stepped inside the lift when it arrived, and hit the button for the tenth floor. Luckily the lift was empty, and thus no-one would get suspicious that it had been called and nobody – at least nobody visible – had got on board. I knew I would have to deactivate my invisibility once I reached the tenth floor so the others could see me. At that point we would have to trust to luck that we could find this Van Gaarde before anybody became suspicious about our presence.
Whether it was luck or otherwise, the main concourse of floor 10 was empty. I looked around for any signs of my friends, but I couldn't see them. Presumably I was the first one inside. I decided to remain invisible until I saw one or more of them. In the meantime I decided to have a look around. A corridor on the left led down to what looked an array of offices – Van Gaarde's was probably down there. From the turning to the right I could hear sounds of somebody tapping away at a computer keyboard, and I went that way. Around the corner I found an opening on my right, and I glanced inside to see Recyclo. It was he who was working at the computer, his hands flying over the keyboard with practised ease.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
I was still invisible, and I knew he hadn't been aware of my presence. Only Recyclo could have showed no surprise whatsoever at suddenly hearing my voice out of nowhere. He glanced briefly in my direction, then back at the computer screen, "I'm trying to access their files and find out what I can about the Apocalypse mutants."
"Good idea. Have you seen the others?"
"No."
The tone of his voice was conclusive. Conversation over. Recyclo had said so, and thus it would be.
"Is this place empty or have we just been lucky so far?" I asked.
It was a rhetorical question really, and I wasn't expecting him to answer. I was therefore quite surprised when he replied, "It's Sunday."
Was it? I didn't really keep track of the days or the date any more. They didn't matter. I knew that the day the last human drew breath would be the first day of the first month of the first year of our new age. But if it was Sunday then that would explain the lack of humans at work. I just hoped that Van Gaarde was here. I felt pretty sure he would be. He sounded like the kind of man who would devote himself 24/7 to a project like this. I said to Recyclo, "I had a thought earlier. Can you find out if Van Gaarde is keeping any other mutants captive here, like he was with Gemini?"
"That's what I am doing."
"Good. I'll see if I can find the others."
When I stepped back outside the room I could see Gemini exiting one of the lifts, glancing around apprehensively to make sure she was alone. She relaxed once she realised there was nobody there. I deactivated my camouflage so she could see me. The suddenness of my appearance had its usual effect. She jumped in shock, "Stop doing that!"
"Sorry. No problems getting in, I take it?"
"Not really," she said. "My distraction worked according to plan."
"Nicely done."
Suddenly her eyes widened and she said urgently, "Have you seen Vertigo? Is he OK?"
"Dunno. Recyclo's in the room just around the corner. He's playing with the computers as usual. I'm guessing Vertigo isn't here yet."
"Oh, I hope he's OK…"
"You like him, don't you?"
"Shut up," she said quickly, a red flush rising in her cheeks. "He's – just my friend, that's all."
"Right…well, we'd better wait until he gets here before we start any trouble. In the meantime let's try and find out where Van Gaarde's office is."
I turned to head down the corridor on the left, but Gemini put her hand on my arm and said, "Gladiator, wait…there's something I want to talk to you about."
I faced her, "What?"
She lowered her voice, "The traitor."
Of course. The X-Man spy within our ranks. I hadn't given the matter any thought since our victory over our enemies. The spy had been trying to undermine our plans by giving away information to the X-Men, but it hadn't worked. Pyro had been pursuing the culprit's identity with his usual angry determination, and seemed confident he could find the one responsible. I myself had no idea who it might be. I knew who it wasn't, and could thus rule out about half of the Brotherhood, but that didn't mean I was any closer to the solution.
"I've been giving it some thought," Gemini said. "I've been doing the same thing you were doing, starting off by eliminating the people I knew it couldn't be: you, me, Pyro, Cassandra – Acceleratus, obviously. That leaves five."
"Yeah," I said. "I think we can rule out Recyclo too. I know he's weird and we don't like him, but he hates the humans and the X-Men as much as we do. Possibly even more so."
"OK. I decided I could exclude Scarab and Vertigo as well. Scarab just doesn't have the brains to pull it off, and Vertigo – well, he's…he just doesn't act in the way you'd expect a spy to. Like, if I was a spy, I'd try to hide in the background and attract as little attention as possible. That isn't Vertigo. It's not – he isn't like that at all."
I raised en eyebrow, "Are you saying that because you think it's true, or because you want it to be?"
"Huh?"
"Are you sure you aren't just ruling him out because you like him?"
She sighed, "All right, I won't lie to you. I do like him. Don't tell him I said that! He'd probably just laugh. But you must see what I mean. He just doesn't act the way you'd expect, if that's what he was. Think about it – if he was the spy, he could have flown the helicopter straight to the X-Men's base and given us over to them."
"Yeah…I suppose that's true. And I agree about Scarab. If we can eliminate them, that just leaves two."
"Atlas and Mole."
"Who's your money on?"
"I don't know," said Gemini. "That's as far as I've been able to go. Atlas is always acting so paranoid, you know, looking over his shoulder and checking behind doors to make sure there's nobody there. Something's obviously worrying him."
I shrugged, "I've noticed that too, but that could just be his personality. Some people are like that; they can't help it. And if he is the spy, I don't imagine he could keep it hidden from Pyro for very long. As for Mole – "
Gemini nodded, "All the evidence points to him. You fought the traitor once and you couldn't see who it was, but you said it felt like his style of attack. And he let us down in battle that time, remember? He should have known the X-Men were coming and he seemingly didn't raise the alarm."
"No arguments about the evidence, but are you sure you aren't just saying that because you don't like him?"
"I don't hate him," she said. "I just think he's a bit of a creep. I can't wear a skirt or a dress when he's around, because I know he'll try to look at my panties all the time."
"I, uh, I think most teenage guys are like that."
"You're not."
"I'm spoken for. Anyway, why don't you ask Pyro what he makes of the traitor?"
"I haven't been able to speak to him alone. Same with you. It's terrible, not knowing who I can and can't trust. I really hate it."
"Hate what?" came Vertigo's voice from behind her.
She turned, smiling with relief, "You're OK!"
"Of course. You have any problems?"
"None at all."
"Still waiting for Recyclo?"
I indicated behind me, "He's in someone's office around the corner, playing with the computers."
"OK. We've no time to waste, so let's get to it."
We walked around the corner to the small office where Recyclo still sat rigidly in front of the computer, his hands still flitting across the keyboard with unbelievable speed. It was like someone had pressed fast-forward on a video recording of a person typing.
"Hey, Recyclo, ready to go?" asked Vertigo.
Recyclo didn't look up, "You three go. I'll stay here. I might find something important."
"What have you got so far?"
"Not much. It seems Van Gaarde was released from a high-security prison by the government, on the condition that he work on a special project for them: the Apocalypse Project."
"The Horsemen?"
"Yes. It's something to do with your President's assassination."
"Ah yes, your finest hour."
Recyclo did not respond to the joke. Instead he went on, "From what I can tell, the Horsemen were genetically engineered as a 'first line of defence' against further mutant attacks. The plan was that they could act as bodyguards for the President and other important officials. However, when it became clear that none of them could pass for ordinary humans, another use had to be found. The government decided to utilise them as their own counter-force against mutants, to prevent any further attacks from us."
"That's why they were sent to the X-Men's school to wipe them out," I said. "To eliminate any threat they might pose."
"Yes."
Gemini looked confused, "Then…why did the Horsemen attack an army bunker? Were there mutants there too?"
"No. That's all I've got so far. I can only guess that Van Gaarde has lost control of them. I've no idea exactly what method he was using to manipulate them, but presumably something went wrong. Perhaps it was a revenge attack."
"So they might be on our side after all," I said. "If they weren't acting under their own volition when they attacked the mansion, we've no way of knowing what it is they want."
"Well, that's why we're here," said Vertigo. "All right, Recyclo, keep on it. We'll try to find this maniac's office and see if we can persuade him into telling all. Gem, Glad, let's go."
We left the office, and followed Vertigo down the corridor that led to the other rooms. Behind me I could still hear the sound of Recyclo's fingers tapping at the keyboard, but it faded into silence as we got far enough away.
"If I'm right, Van Gaarde's office will be at the end of the corridor," said Vertigo.
"How do you know?"
"Because he's head of the project, and the most important person's room is always at the end of the corridor."
"Why?"
"So they can see what everybody else is doing as they walk past, of course."
We turned left, and the corridor ahead was a dead end. I glanced at the doors as we passed them, but none of the names were Van Gaarde's. It wasn't until we got to the room at the end of the corridor that Vertigo smirked, "And what a surprise: I'm right."
The last door that faced us read ELIAS VAN GAARDE – HEAD RESEARCHER in gold letters. Vertigo tried the door, but it was locked. A number pad beside the door seemed to be the only way to gain access.
"Do we break it down?" I asked.
"Recyclo can probably open it up and play with the electronics. I don't know if – "
He was cut off as the door opened from inside. A female human wearing a tight blouse and an obscenely short black skirt smiled at us, "Can I help you?"
Another voice barked from further inside the room, "I don't want to be disturbed! Who is it, Miss Drake?"
"I'm not too sure, sir," the human replied, raising her eyebrows at Vertigo for an explanation.
"We'd like to see Dr Van Gaarde," he said lazily. "You really don't want to try and stop us."
The sub-creature made no attempt to stop him as he gently but firmly brushed her aside and entered. Gemini followed, and I went after her. The human looked me in the eyes as I passed, and a strange sort of smile appeared on her face. As quickly as it had appeared, it was gone, and I gave it no more thought. Entering into the room, I could now see the scientist seated behind the large wooden desk, looking up impatiently.
"What are you, reporters?" he snapped at Vertigo. "I haven't got time to talk to you just now! I'm sure my secretary can arrange an appointment at a convenient ti – "
He stopped the second he saw Gemini's face.
"You!" he yelled. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I'm going to kill you," she said, the hatred plain in her voice.
He gave a laugh, "I don't think so."
From beneath the desk his hand moved in a flash, and he was pointing a gun directly at Gemini's heart. No – it wasn't a gun. I couldn't tell what it was. It was a smooth, metallic cylinder, about the same size as a bike handle-bar. He was holding it like a weapon, but I didn't know what, if anything, it might do.
"How fortuitous that you should return," said Van Gaarde, speaking to Gemini. "My research never did recover from losing you – or, more correctly, from that other mutant burning down my old laboratory."
"Shut up," Gemini snapped angrily, stepping forward threateningly. "Tell us what you know about the Horsemen or we'll kill you!"
"The Horsemen? What is your interest in them?"
"Shut up!" she spat. "I said tell us! Or do you want my friends to persuade you?"
Van Gaarde laughed, "You always were a spirited, stubborn little one, weren't you? You have no idea of the pleasure I took in breaking your spirit and destroying your will to live."
Gemini gave a scream of rage, losing control as she launched herself furiously towards the scientist. He moved quicker than his age might have suggested, bringing the cylinder to bear on her moving figure and flicking a switch on its side. Gemini gave another scream, but this one was not borne of anger. This was borne out of pain. She collapsed to the ground, still screaming, writhing about, her hands tightened into fists, Van Gaarde still pointing the cylinder at her.
"What's wrong with her?"
"It's that thing he's holding! It's doing something to her!"
"What is that thing?" I demanded
The human smirked, "The government employed me to design weapons which specifically target mutants. Let's just say I haven't been idle."
Vertigo didn't waste any time, stepping forward, flipping over in the air to kick the cylinder from the scientist's hand. Van Gaarde was thrown backwards by the force of the kick, and the cylinder spun away to land at the opposite side of the room. Gemini gave a weak gasp as she was released from whatever terrible pain it had been inflicting on her, and Vertigo knelt by her side, "You OK?"
She nodded, her hand reaching out to clasp his as she got herself under control, and he helped her into a sitting position. The cylinder was still lying in the corner, and I asked again, "What is that?"
"That's his mutant torture device," said Gemini, her voice still shaky. "It fires out some kind of energy that plays havoc with our nerves and our pain receptors. He used to use it on me all the time, sometimes for an experiment and sometimes because he just wanted to see me – or any mutant – suffer."
I felt a surge of anger flowing through my system, the first signs of an impending berserk rush. I knew Gemini's mental health wasn't 100%, and this was just another example of the horrific torments that her nine year old self had been subjected to. In some ways she wasn't that different from Marina. Both of them had suffered unimaginable mental agony, yet both of them had dealt with it in very different ways. While Marina had burrowed deep inside herself, refusing to face the world that was so cruel, Gemini was the opposite, acting as outgoing and demonstrative as she could, almost as if she was trying to forge a new persona to cover up or even replace the tortured soul that dwelt within her. My fury escalating higher and higher, I turned to face the scientist. Van Gaarde had been stunned, but he now regained his composure and made a dive for his desk drawer. I thought he must have another cylinder in there, but this time he did pull out a gun.
"All right, get down on the floor, all of you!" he yelled, flicking off the safety catch.
Gemini's weakened form hadn't risen from her seated position, and Vertigo was still kneeling beside her. Neither of them moved, and Van Gaarde pointed his weapon at me.
"What are you going to do with us?" I demanded, trying to buy some time to think of a way to disarm him.
"You and he will be killed," he said, gesturing at Vertigo. "Then my little friend and I will resume our lost acquaintance."
Gemini flinched, and instinctively drew closer to Vertigo for protection. I narrowed my eyes. I knew I would give my own life before I allowed her to be subjected to that torture again. My anger was still rising. My berserk power would increase my speed along with my mutant powers, but whether that would make me fast enough to dodge a bullet, I had no idea. Van Gaarde's secretary walked gracefully around the desk to stand beside him, and he gestured towards the telephone with his free hand, "In a moment, Miss Drake, you will phone security and assure them that they did not hear the sound of two gun-shots from my office."
Her hand reached for the telephone, and Van Gaarde aimed the gun at Vertigo's head. I knew my friend didn't have any time to get out of the way, not from the position he was in. There had to be something I could do to stop this. I couldn't let him shoot. But if I went for the gun, he'd just turn and shoot me. That certainly wasn't any better. Unable to think of anything, I watched helplessly as his finger tightened on the trigger.
With a speed and viciousness that shocked all of us, the young secretary swivelled to send her foot into the man's jaw, flinging him to the ground. Recovering quickly, he brought the gun to bear on her, but she was already moving to kick it out of his grasp, finally knocking him unconscious with a punch to the throat. The whole thing had taken about two seconds, and I was still standing in shock as the human stood, straightened her skirt, tidied her disarrayed hair, her breathing slowing down to normal.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"Oh, I'm…an old friend."
Her features began to morph, and a second later it all made sense.
"Mystique!" Gemini exclaimed, hurrying across the room to put her arms around the blue woman. "You saved our lives!"
Mystique looked less than comfortable with the teen hugging her. I had noticed the same thing with Pyro too; Gemini liked to hug him as if he was her father, though he clearly didn't see their relationship that way. They were the only adults she had contact with – did she see them as natural replacements for the parents who had never loved her? I didn't know. I could only guess. A little awkwardly, Mystique patted Gemini on the back and said, "I've been waiting for you."
"You've what?"
"I knew that Pyro, or someone sent by him, would come looking for Van Gaarde before long. I knew he would want to find out about the Horsemen. I decided to lend him my aid in that respect."
"So you're coming back to us?" Gemini asked eagerly. "You're coming back to the Brotherhood?"
"No. I can't, until a leader rises who can truly succeed Magneto. I can't join Pyro – his vision isn't the same as mine and Magneto's was. I – it doesn't matter. I will help, but I won't become part of his group."
"What you can tell us about the Horsemen?" asked Vertigo, getting straight down to business.
"Come down to the labs and I'll show you. They're on the underground level."
Gemini let go of her, and Mystique morphed back into the shape of the secretary.
"What about him?" I said, pointing to the unconscious scientist.
"Leave him. Nobody will find him. Only he and I know the access codes to this room. Take the gun and the cylinder though."
I nodded, and bent to pick up the two weapons from where they had landed on the floor. Mystique shuddered inadvertently as she saw the cylinder in my hand, "We thought we had destroyed all of those things. I suppose evil can never be truly destroyed."
With that she turned and led the way to the exit. We went to check on Recyclo, who was still searching computer records, but he hadn't found out anything new. He said he would stay where he was and keep at it. Nobody argued. The rest of us stepped into the elevator, and Mystique hit the button for the underground level.
"That's disgusting," Gemini was saying. "That skirt, I mean. How can you wear that?"
"Van Gaarde expects all his female employees to dress this way. I have to keep up appearances."
"It's obscene!"
"Maybe so, but since this isn't my own figure, I don't really care what it's wearing. I don't normally wear anything, remember."
"I guess…"
"OK. Here we are. There shouldn't be anybody down here on a Sunday, but if there is I can probably get what we need without any problems. Being Van Gaarde's secretary has its advantages – it means I can get people to do things for me with no questions asked."
The doors opened, and we stepped out. A quick glance or two told that us nobody else was around.
"This is the lab where Van Gaarde first performed the research on genetically engineering the Horsemen," said Mystique. "I hate to say it, Gemini, but part of that research was you. Anyway, it was a different facility in which the actual 'breeding' process took place. I believe Pyro had you destroy that one."
I nodded. She went on, "In doing so you released the Horsemen a month or so earlier than Van Gaarde had intended. Think of it as a premature birth. They are not quite as strong, not quite as 'perfect' as he planned them to be. That may work to our advantage."
"But what's the point of creating them?" Gemini asked. "What are they – well, what are they supposed to do?"
"They are the government's latest attempt to solve the 'mutant problem'. The old adage goes something like 'it takes a thief to catch a thief'. In this case they believe that the easiest way to destroy mutant life is to use our kind to do it."
"But the Horsemen have gone rogue. Something's gone wrong," Vertigo guessed
"Correct. Van Gaarde's method of controlling their minds and their actions is something of a closely guarded secret. All I know is that the Horsemen have some kind of bio-mechanical devices implanted in their heads. From this lab we can use the computers to send them instructions and information. Recently, however, their behaviour has been increasingly erratic. Two days ago they stopped responding to the implants at all. Whether they are acting under their own volition, or whether the input to the devices is being corrupted and warped in some way, I can't tell. But that isn't the only strange thing."
"Go on," said an intrigued Gemini.
"OK. I've been here less than a week, posing as his secretary. Everything I know is from reading the files here and at her home. What I mean to say is, I've never actually met the Horsemen or had any sort of contact with them. And in the files I discovered something very, very odd."
"What?"
"About three months ago there was an accident in the breeding lab – that's the one you destroyed, remember. I don't know exactly what happened – some kind of radiation leak, I think – but according to the files, two of the Horsemen died."
Had I misheard?
"Say again?"
"Two of the Horsemen died."
"So what, there were six originally?" asked Gemini.
"No. There have only ever been four."
"I thought you said two of them died."
"I know! I know it doesn't make any sense. I spent hours going over the files, trying to make sense out of it, but that's all I got. Two of them died. The next report, a week later, is a standard report on the status of all four. Something must have happened – I don't know if it's possible to clone them or something like that – but something must have happened during that week. There are no files from that period, neither here or at the secretary's house. Van Gaarde must have destroyed them or hidden them."
"Maybe it's on the computer. Recyclo might find it," I suggested. "Mystique…out of interest, which two Horsemen died?"
"The ones Van Gaarde named Famine and Death. Am I correct in assuming that you've already encountered them?"
"More than once," I said. "I fought them when they tried to kill off the X-Men."
She looked at me suspiciously, "What, the X-Men had you there to rescue them?"
I knew Mystique probably still didn't trust me. I couldn't really blame her. The rest of my family were human sympathisers, and I was only a recent addition to the Brotherhood. Still, when she found out about my victory over Crusader she would probably be convinced. I replied, "It was while we were breaking Pyro out of their base. You helped us with that, remember? The Horsemen tried to kill the children at the mansion; that's why I got in their way."
"Fair enough. Tell me, what does Pyro intend to do about this?"
"About the Horsemen?" said Gemini. "I'm not sure. I think he just wants to find out what they're doing. If it threatens mutant life, we stop them. If it doesn't, we mind our own business. We came here to try and find out where they're hiding, so we can keep an eye on them."
Mystique nodded, "I thought so. You can use the machines in this laboratory to track their position through their brain implants."
"Wait a minute. If these things are implanted in their brains, does that mean we can read their thoughts and find out what it is they want? Or does it not work that way?"
"I don't think so. As far as I can tell, the implants are input-only devices."
"Will you help us track them down?"
"I'll see what I can do. The machines are over here."
We followed her across the laboratory to an isolated section with four computer terminals. They were labelled DEATH, FAMINE, PESTILENCE, WAR and I assumed each of them was dedicated to controlling each Horseman. Mystique sat down in front of the first one, the one for Death. As the computer loaded into action, I stared blankly at the controls and symbols that appeared on the screen. This had to be seriously high-level bio-tech stuff – in other words, way over my head. Mystique seemed to know what she was doing, hitting a sequence of keys until she had what we wanted.
"There. GPS data. I can feed it into a computer over here – " we moved across to another machine. " – and tap into the government's spy satellite network to find out exactly where the Horsemen are."
"Neat," said Vertigo appreciatively.
"Yeah. OK, here we are. Hmm…looks like they're not too far away from here. They're in New York, anyway. I'm trying to narrow it down a bit further – hang on…"
"That's only one of them though, isn't it?" Vertigo said. "We're assuming that all four of them are together."
"I think Death is their leader – or the closest thing they have to one," I answered. "It seems likely he'd be at the centre of whatever it is they're planning."
"Yeah, I guess."
"OK, here it is," said Mystique. "He's at the south edge of New York state. These are his exact co-ordinates."
She scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to Gemini.
"So what's down there?" Gemini asked.
"I don't know. You'll have to find that out for yourselves."
"Aren't you coming with us?"
"No. I told you, I'm not going to join Pyro's group. I will help you when you need me, but that is all."
"So what are you gonna do now?"
"I will assume the form of another of Van Gaarde's staff, and keep an eye on him. I can't just kill him, because he might have more information you need. The body I'm in just now – well, let's just say the police will receive an anonymous phone call and discover that she's been murdered in her home."
"OK. Take care," said Gemini. "I guess we'd better be going. Pyro said we should hurry."
She gave the piece of paper with the co-ordinates to Vertigo; he glanced at it, then slipped it into his pocket. We turned to leave.
"Gemini, wait," said Mystique. "There is one last thing. Does Pyro know I'm alive?"
"I don't think so. We tried to tell him that you helped us rescue him from the X-Men, but I don't think he believed us."
"Good. Don't tell him about me this time. I'd prefer he continue to think I'm dead."
Gemini frowned, "Why?"
"It's – hard to explain. Let's just say I have made my decision that I don't want to be part of what he is doing. I wish to remain apart – for now, anyway."
"But shouldn't we let him know you're OK? He must have been upset when he thought you got killed."
"I doubt that. Pyro doesn't care about anyone other than himself."
Gemini looked shocked, "What did you just say? Pyro does care about us! He saved my life! It was him who got me away from Van Gaarde the first time, remember!"
Mystique sighed, "Gemini…I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but you're fooling yourself. He's neither the great hero nor the father figure you make him out to be."
"But he saved my life! He found out I was being kept here and he came to save me!"
"I'm afraid that's not quite correct. It was Magneto, not Pyro, who spent the time and effort to find out what had happened to you and where you were being imprisoned. When Magneto asked him to get you out, Pyro refused, said he had better things to do with his time. It wasn't until Magneto made it a direct order that he complied."
"You're lying!"
"Why would I do that? Look, I'm not saying you don't mean anything to him. Maybe he has changed since I last met him, I don't know. But one thing I do know for sure: Pyro always looks after number one, and rarely will he think of anyone else before himself. That's why he's different from Magneto. That's why I can't join him."
Gemini didn't want to believe it. She looked away and said, "I'm going to go back upstairs now."
Without looking back she hurried to the elevator. Vertigo watched her go, and Mystique said to us, "You can't waste any time. You'd better go. But watch over her for me. I still care about her."
Vertigo nodded, and the two of us followed Gemini. I wasn't sure about most of what Mystique had just told us, but she had definitely got one thing right. There was no time to waste.
