Brennan kicked petulantly at the steel bars, splashing water from the shallow tray they all stood it. He felt wet, and cold, and miserable. And most of the misery was from knowing that Jesse was somewhere back behind that concrete door, undergoing a procedure that would leave Benji a super-soldier one man wrecking ball and Jesse a vegetable. Or worse. Wait—was there anything worse?
Emma had awoken earlier, screaming in borrowed agony. Her eyes were still red-rimmed, remembering and feeling what Jesse had just gone through. No one asked if their team mate had been sedated or simply passed out from the pain of what Dr. Sutter and Brickman were doing to him. None of them really wanted to know. Emma sat on the floor, heedless of the water that surrounded them, not caring when a tear slipped silently down her cheek to join the puddle that prevented Brennan from blasting them out of here. Shalimar squatted beside her, conserving her strength for when she would be able extract revenge on these foes. Even Benji with his super-soldier strength and agility would be no match for the feral on a rampage.
Brennan tried not to pace, tried not to think. He glanced at Adam; the man looked haggard, far older than his years. Brennan wondered what Adam was coming up with. An escape plan? A way to put Jesse back together again, once this was all over? For Brennan was certain that Adam wouldn't give up on the molecular.
This whole thing is your fault, Adam, he thought. You didn't have to help Bea Sutter and her son. You didn't have to volunteer our Jesse. You knew that Jesse couldn't say no. Not our Jess.
Emma shot him a dark glare. It didn't take much to decipher: don't blame Adam for wanting to help another mutant.
But Brennan wasn't in the mood to be forgiving. Adam should have told us long ago. We could have done something. It shouldn't have come to this.
The silent argument was interrupted by noise at the concrete door. Emma and Shalimar scrambled to their feet, heedless of the water dripping from them. The door was opened from behind, and Dr. Sutter led Benji in, a syringe of clear liquid in her hand. Brickman trailed after the duo, clearly pleased.
Behind them, bringing up the rear, two of Brickman's men had an unconscious Jesse slung between them, dragging him forward so that Mutant X could get a good look. Jesse's head hung low, the temple swathed in white bandages. A splotch of red dampened one area, hinting of the damage beneath.
"Jesse!" Shalimar clung to the prison bars, desperate to fly to her little brother. There was no response.
"What have you done to him?" Adam asked harshly.
Bea Sutter wouldn't meet Adam's face. "This was for my son, Adam."
"You've exchanged one life for another," he accused. "Bea, of all the things you've done, of all the errors you've made, this is the one that I can't forgive. You have always had people's best interests at heart, Bea. You've made sacrifices in your own life for the good of others, for the good of your son. You've thrown that away, Bea."
Her voice was low. "I'm sorry you feel that way, Adam."
"Give Benji the serum." Brickman jumped in. "Give it to him right here. Let Adam watch my success. See Benji take his place in the world of mutants."
She flicked him a glance. "You're disgusting, John. Adam was right about you all along."
Brickman grabbed Sutter's arm, the one hold the syringe with a clear liquid inside. "Don't go getting squeamish on me now, Bea. You were eager enough to take the money I brought when you thought it would help your half-wit son. Now, all of a sudden, you don't like the price? Too bad, Bea. It's a done deal. Give Benji the injection and get it over with. You'll have a real son instead of this moron, and I'll have something to show Genomex. Mason Eckhart will be begging me to come work for him." He pulled at her arm. "Give it to him, Bea, or I will."
"Mommy?" Benji looked at the arguing pair, not understanding.
Sutter jerked her arm free. "Let go of me. I'll do it."
"Bea." Adam's voice was full of warning.
"I'm sorry, Adam. There's nothing more I can do. Except this." Gently extending Benji's arm, Sutter slid the needle home into the vein, ignoring Benji's little whimper of pain at the stick, slowly and carefully working the plunger to instill the serum into her son. She withdrew the needle, bending up the arm of her son to seal the tiny hole. Adam clutched the bars, unconsciously echoing Shalimar's own actions.
It began in seconds. Benji staggered back, clutching for the wall. Sutter and Brickman eased him to the bench behind, Benji looking at first one and then the other with innocent bewilderment. He shuddered. Then he whimpered, and his eyes rolled back. Sutter caressed her son's face, comforting him, knowing that she couldn't interfere with the process. Benji nestled his head against his mother's shoulder, waiting for the change to take place.
They could see it happen by degrees. First there was the slack-jawed looseness of unconsciousness, slowly to be replaced by tightened muscles firming the chin. The brow furrowed once, twice. The lines around the eyes took on a less wide innocence.
Ben finally opened his eyes, and the change was uncanny. He was no longer Benji, the trusting boy, but a man who had seen too much in twenty odd years. Ten minutes ago he hadn't understood what was happening. Now he did. "Mother?"
"Right here, Ben." Beatrice Sutter had been through this before. She had a new son again, one entirely different than the one she'd raised and cared for.
"I don't feel any different." Ben flexed his hand in front of his face, as if examining the fingers would help explain his new intelligence.
"You will when I get through with you," Shalimar hissed through the bars.
Ben looked up at her outburst, then guiltily over at Jesse. The molecular hadn't moved, was still hanging between the two musclemen, eyes closed and head down. Only the shallow rise and fall of his chest indicated that he was still alive. Ben understood instantly what had happened, a feat that he couldn't have managed twenty minutes ago. "Mother?"
"That's right, Ben." Sutter stayed calm. "Just as we've talked about."
Ben moved closer to the prison where Mutant X was, staying far enough away that none could reach out at him. "I didn't mean for this to happen. I'm sorry."
"Sorry won't bring Jesse back." Brennan wasn't going to let any of them get away with this. It wasn't Ben's fault, but he was part of them.
Brickman wouldn't let them wait. "Put the mutie into the cell and let's go. My partners are waiting for us. We'll settle with them, and then go see Eckhart."
"Don't do this, Bea," Adam pleaded. "You know what Eckhart is, even if Brickman can't understand. Don't do this. This is your son, Bea!"
"I know what I'm doing, Adam." She stopped the men who were about to drop Jesse to the floor of the second prison cell. "No. Put him in with his friends. He's close to death; let him die in their arms. He deserves at least that little comfort."
They looked at Brickman for permission.
"Do it!" Sutter snapped.
Brickman shrugged; let her have her way. It's not important. "Get back, all of you," he directed Mutant X. "Away from the door, or I'll dump your boy into the other cell," adding with a sneer, "at least there he'll be dry."
Grudgingly the four moved back. The water covering the floor sent little ripples around their ankles, lapping over their shoes. Brennan smoldered in barely contained rage, longing to fry the lot of them. Shalimar too pressed her fingers against the concrete wall to hold herself back. Emma looked eerily like Adam, eyes hooded, creating and discarding plans for escape—and more.
The two men were cautious. They'd been briefed about Mutant X, about their ability for lightning speed and fearless action. Brickman held up a tiny canister of the same gas he'd used before on Emma. She looked at him balefully. Brickman had used it once, and wouldn't hesitate to use it again. The two men dragged Jesse to the door of the prison cell and, shoving the unconscious man inside, quickly slammed the door shut with a clang.
Both Brennan and Shalimar leapt for the door, but they were too far away. Brickman held his spray bottle at the ready, but it wasn't needed. Brennan pounded at the steel bar in a fit of rage, Shalimar baring her teeth at them with eyes narrowed with hate.
Bea Sutter turned away, unable to watch the disillusionment on Adam's face, allowing Brickman to lead her and Ben out of the room, followed by their men. Mutant X was left alone in their cold and wet prison cell.
It was Adam who had caught up Jesse before he could land in the shallow water. Emma went to her knees beside them, a tear threatening to spill over. "Adam, I can't feel him at all!"
"He's alive. That's all I can determine for now." Adam felt sick with misery. "We have to get him out of here."
"We have to get all of us out of here," Brennan growled, slamming the bars again. They rang with the impact, and one even dented under protest. Brennan slammed it again. "Great. I can get us out in about ten years, when the water dries up."
"Three days," Adam corrected absently, trying to peer into Jesse's face.
"Huh?"
"Three days, Brennan. The water'll evaporate inside of three days and you can blast us out." Adam looked again at the molecular. Something didn't look right. Adam frowned. "Brennan, give me a hand. Hold Jesse for me. I want to see something."
"What's there to see?" Brennan asked bitterly, but did as he was told, shifting the man's weight to his own arms.
Adam began to unwind the bulky dressing that encircled Jesse's head. Every foot or so the gauze turned bright red as he removed the area over where blood had seeped through the bandage. In moments he had uncovered the metal wiring that had prevented Jesse from using his powers earlier. Adam tried to slide his fingers under the wiring, only to pull back with a curse as the thing zapped him in self-defense. Adam considered the problem. "Brennan, can you control yourself enough to short-circuit this?"
Brennan considered the problem, unhappy with his conclusion. "Not in this water. I'd end up short-circuiting Jesse along with it." He looked up at Adam. "Will that bring him back? I'll chance it if you want me to. Jesse wouldn't want to live like a pansy in a vegetable garden."
"No, no," Adam hastened to say. "No, I just think there's more to this story than we've been told." He set his jaw. "I'll just have to pull it off."
"Wait a minute." Brennan held the older man off. "Adam, I can absorb the electrical current that it puts out. I won't be able to short-circuit it, but I can pull it off without letting either one of us get hurt too badly." I hope, he added silently.
"If he even feels it," Shalimar murmured, the corners of her mouth down.
"Do it," Adam directed. He spared a glance for the feral. "And hurry. Shalimar's right; I don't think that Jesse will feel it right now, but that won't last forever."
"It won't?" Brennan's face lit up with hope. Adam sounded like he knew something that the others didn't. Brennan shifted the limp body in his arms so that he could get a better grasp of the wire contraption, Shalimar and Emma slipping in beside him to help stabilize. Brennan slid his fingers under the wire, feeling it tighten against the intrusion. Little currents attacked him, trying to persuade him to leave well enough alone, but Brennan simply opened himself to the current and absorbed the energy into himself. One finger held, then the other, and then Brennan had enough leverage to lift the contraption away from his team mate. It dangled in the air from his hand, hissing and spitting almost like something alive. With a twist, Brennan disrupted the circuit and the thing did an electrical equivalent of expiration.
Jesse sighed and shuddered, the relief of the device felt even through unconsciousness. Adam pocketed the device. "I'll keep this for study. It may yield some useful clues." He then turned his attention back to the molecular. "Hold him. I want to finish taking off this bandage around his head."
"You suspect something." It was not a question from Emma.
"I do. Ah!" The dressing fell away. Adam let it drop to the watery floor. "I was right."
"Good. What does that mean?"
"It means that Bea is on our side." Adam chuckled. "It also means that Brickman is as big an idiot as I thought. He didn't lift a hand to obtain the sample, and Bea took advantage of that."
Shalimar looked puzzled, and spoke for all of them. "Care to explain that, Adam?"
Adam permitted himself a small grin, relief in every line. "I should have seen it sooner. Look at where the incision is."
They did. It was a small, inch-long line just below the scalp at the back of Jesse's neck, neatly sutured but covered with dark blood that had been allowed to seep out to stain the discarded bandage. Even now with the clot disturbed, additional drops of blood were edging their way from beneath the skin, seeking to form another barrier to infection, encasing the sutures in a bloody seal.
"And this means—?"
Adam took pity on mere mortals. "In order to upgrade the serum, Dr. Sutter needed a brain sample that contained tissue from the higher brain functions." He tapped his forehead. "The higher functions like thought and emotion live up here. Instead, we have an incision almost at the back of the neck, where the brain stem is. And the brain stem just happens to regulate the autonomic functions like breathing, telling the heart to beat…"
Emma caught on first. "You mean, she deliberately took a sample from a spot that wouldn't harm Jesse's mind."
"Not quite. I mean, she deliberately made an incision in a place where I would know that she didn't take a sample, because any sample from that area—from the brain stem—wouldn't do Benji any good."
"But the serum worked." Brennan was still bewildered.
"Exactly. Turn Jesse over." Adam pulled up the unconscious molecular's shirt to expose the broad back. "Just as I thought. Here."
'Here' was a small bandage, located almost mid-center of Jesse's back. All three mutants caught on at once.
"She did another spinal tap," Brennan stated.
Adam confirmed it. "The original version of the serum was what she injected into Benji. After the spinal tap Bea sedated Jesse to the point of unconsciousness to give the appearance of brain damage. And, because the serum works on at least a temporary basis, Brickman saw what he wanted to see: an intelligent Benji." Adam grinned in relief. "Jesse's going to be just fine." Then he frowned. "But not for a while. He should have been flat on his back for six hours, to prevent the leakage of more cerebral spinal fluid. He's going to have a blinding headache for days."
"I can live with that," Brennan grinned, and corrected himself. "Jesse can live with that. He's all right!"
Adam moved on. "But we're not, and neither is Bea and Ben. As soon as Brickman finds out he's been conned, he'll take action. Bea knows that she needs to escape before they get to Genomex. Eckhart will never let them go. Neither one of them."
"Which means we still have to get out of here." Shalimar summed up their situation. "Did Dr. Sutter have a plan for that? A key in Jesse's pocket, perhaps, to this jail cell?"
"Can you keep it down?" asked a peevish voice. "I've got a hangover that rivals Mt. Rushmore, and didn't even have the fun of drinking the night before."
"Jesse!" Shalimar exclaimed, hushing her voice after one syllable as her team mate winced. "You're awake!"
"Not by choice," Jesse muttered, keeping his eyes closed. "Is general anesthesia an option?"
"Not yet, Jesse," Adam said as quietly as he could. "We're looking around for the escape hatch. You up to phasing us out of here?"
"Give me drugs, and I'll consider it. But only if you keep your voice down."
"My voice is down, and all the drugs are outside the prison bars." Adam couldn't help the smile. Even in this state, Jesse had the power to make him laugh. "However, we do have Emma."
To his credit, Jesse sobered. They could see the change come over his face even with his eyes tightly closed. "Don't let her do it, Adam. I wouldn't wish this headache on Mason Eckhart."
Emma took his hand into hers. "It's okay, Jesse. Let me in. I'll help you." Eyes hooded, she took on a faraway gaze. The lines in Jesse's face smoothed out, and his breathing evened.
"Move him to the wall," Adam ordered, trying to be as quiet as possible so as not to disturb the telempath. "Guys, I don't think he's going to be able to hold this for very long, so Brennan, you be prepared to dive out as soon as he phases. Everybody ready? Emma, give him the nudge."
They were floating among the clouds, bodies as light and as airy as the mist they were in. Jesse felt at peace with the world in a way that he hadn't for a long time; no walls around him, closing him in. No needles poking at him, no headache pounding at him, no fear that this time, or maybe the next, might be the time that Genomex won instead of the good guys. No worries that Adam thought he couldn't measure up to the others. He could barely see Emma next to him, and it was just too much trouble to turn his head to watch her closely. Taking a nap sounded like the best thing right now.
"Phase, Jesse. You can do it."
Why? Why phase a cloud? It was already insubstantial. And it seemed like a lot of unnecessary effort.
"Hurry, Jesse. Phase."
Now Emma sounded like Brennan, always impatient. Always pushing to do things his way. Brennan's ideas. Brennan's way. Who put you in charge, Brennan?
"Phase, Jesse. Phase."
Heavy sigh. In her own way, Emma could be as persistent as any of them, sometimes more. Might as well get it over with. Then he could go back to sleep.
"Yow!" Brennan shoulder-rolled back to his feet. "That was close." He took a second look, and blanched. "Uh, Jesse? You left my shoes in the bars. Can I have 'em back?" He wiggled suddenly bare feet, carefully not watching Shalimar's nose wrinkle up.
"Huh?" Jesse tried to pick up his head to look. He failed miserably, and Emma tightened her hold on his mind. He settled back into her arms with a tired sigh.
Adam's smile was a little lop-sided. "I'm going to suggest going barefooted for a while, Brennan. Jesse's taking a little nap right now."
Brennan twisted a few million electrons between his fingers. "Stand back. Let's see if he can sleep through this."
"Is that a challenge, Brennan?" Emma lifted her eyebrows.
"Take it any way you'd like it. Just stand back."
"A challenge," Emma decided. "Do your worst." She concentrated, brows furrowed. The others could almost see the lines of psychic force surrounding the pair.
The snappings in Brennan's hands crackled more strongly. Shalimar and Adam turned away, protecting themselves as best they could against the far walls, sheltering the other two.
Brennan hurled a lightning bolt at the dry concrete floor just in front of the prison bars. Dry as a bone, there was no danger of electrocution, but the floor exploded with enough force to rock the farmhouse above. Dust flew. Shalimar and Adam hunched lower to shelter the pair below from the concrete shrapnel.
Slowly the dust settled onto the water that covered the prison floor, turning it into a watery mud film. Some of the water trickled out into the hole that Brennan had blasted, soaking into the ground below. Brennan had no time for that. Setting his unshod feet, he grabbed onto one of the steel bars that he had just passed through and yanked. The bar gave, protesting.
Adam and Shalimar helped him twist enough bars out of the way that the rest of them could escape, pulling Jesse through with barely a groan from the man held unconscious by the telempath. The others could see the strain on Emma's face, coping with Jesse's pain.
Then she looked up. "Guys, Ben and Dr. Sutter are in trouble!"
No one asked how she knew. Adam took the molecular from Emma. "Go."