Chapter 4
Jesse was still staring at the computer three and a half hours later. He still didn't quite believe what he had found, but knowing Adam and his peculiarities, it did make sense, in a convoluted way.
He heard steps emanating from the hallway. The others were finally back from the room downstairs. They hadn't come back immediately, so he assumed that they had found what they needed.
When Shalimar, Brennan and Lexa entered the room, they found Jesse in mid-stretch. He had been sitting at the terminal almost non-stop and his muscles were aching for relief.
"Find what you needed?" Although Shalimar's voice was soft, it held a hint of exasperation. No doubt is was from the hours of inactivity, Jesse thought. He smiled to himself. Some things about some people were still predicable, like Shalimar's need for action and movement.
"Yeah. Hey guys, I'm sorry about the outburst earlier. I was just…well, focused."
"Forget it, man. We all get frustrated sometimes."
"Yeah," Lexa chimed. "You just in your little 'pit-bull' mode. Not much distracts you when you get that way."
"OK, well, ahem," Jesse cleared his throat. He may have been distracted before, but now he was all too aware of Lexa's presence again. Recent events hadn't made him immune to the sultry, sarcastic pout that now marked her features. "I think I've got our next step planned out. But, uh, did you guys find out anything about the Dominion's movements?"
"Nope. Zilch. All three of us tried everything. When I tried to access the dominion network, all I received was a message saying that a Code 3 lockdown was in effect, meaning all communications and access are suspended for at least 24 hours."
"But, the information we did find points to the fact that the Dominion's regrouping too," Brennan said.
"OK. Sounds like they're just as blind as we are. It will give us a chance to get ourselves set up."
"We can't work out of here, Jesse. The safehouses were designed to hide mutants for only a few days, two weeks, tops."
"And it would take us that long just to get a few bits and pieces about what the Dominion is doing, let alone find Adam and rescue him."
"Shal and Lex are right. Plus, don't forget, we've got half a dozen other non-Dominion mutant problems that we've been monitoring – we have to stop the crazy ones and save the innocent ones. And, oh, yeah…we might expire before we even have a chance to do any of that."
Jesse's body was abnormally still, save for the hand running through his long hair. "Yeah, guys, I know. Believe me, I know. There's so much to do it boggles the mind. But." He paused, closing his eyes. "Adam had contingency plans. In case anything ever happened to Sanctuary."
"What? How come he never told us? You'd think that after 10 years I'd know about it!"
"Shal, Shal," Brennan soothed. "We all know that Adam had his secrets. Hell, we all thought he was dead for almost a year." He stroked Shalimar's arm with his fingertips before turning back to Jesse. "When did Adam tell you about them?"
"This morning."
Lexa and Shalimar looked sharply back towards Jesse.
"How? We saw him taken by the Dominion."
"Well, he didn't exactly tell me directly. There was a hidden file in Sanctuary's system. From what I can tell, the file was activated when I used my passwords and emergency codes and started searching through the database for certain specialized equipment that wasn't at Sanctuary. I had, uh, just found it this morning when I blew up at you guys. When I finally managed to decrypt and work my way though the data, I found that there were detailed plans for a second Sanctuary."
Silence pervaded the room as Shalimar, Lexa and Brennan absorbed the idea.
Brennan broke the silence. "Where is it?"
"OK, um, where are Mike and Donna?"
"They left about half an hour ago. They said they were planning on entering the Mutant underground today, anyway. We were lucky they were still here." Lexa took a sip of her coffee.
Jesse walked over to the computer. The others moved to follow, but he stopped them. "I'm just activating the electronic jammers. Just in case anyone is listening in."
He returned. How much of it should he tell them? How could Adam have done this? Adam knew what it would mean. Jesse made his decision, took a deep breath, and began to explain…