The three Invisible Men
by Cengela
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of 'The Invisible Man'.
Author's Note: This is the first I-Man fanfic I'm writing. I hope I can update this more or less frequently, but I can't promise anything.
Setting: This story is taking place before 'Mere Mortals', but then it starts getting AU.
Characters: the Official, Eberts, Claire, Alex, Hobbes and Darien, (Daniel Kalker, Antonia Messi)
Everything that is said in German is always followed by the English translation in brackets.
Slowly Darien came walking through the door. Inside the Official's office Eberts, Hobbes, Alex and the Official himself were already waiting. So it seemed as if the whole team had been called again.
"Hey, what's up today?" he asked.
"We're still waiting for Claire. Sit down, Fawkes!" Hobbes replied.
"Okay." he mumbled and sat down on a chair next to his partner.
Finally the door opened again and Claire stepped into the room.
"Sorry, sir! I know I'm late, but I've been busy with my work." she apologized.
"It's okay, Keeper. Come in and sit down, I will have to tell you something." the Official began the meeting.
Then he turned to his assistant. "Eberts?"
"Yes, sir." he got the reply. Eberts then addressed the four other persons in the office.
"I have to inform you that we got a few more files about the quicksilver project we didn't know about before."
"New files?" Darien interrupted, alarmed. "You mean you've got new information about the gland?" Hopefully that could help getting rid of that thing in his head.
"Well, it doesn't look like this." Eberts went on. "It has something to do with the other agency which was involved in the experiment."
"What other agency?" Claire asked, surprised. Obviously she did not have known anything about that.
"We didn't know about that either." the Official answered. "But it seems they had nothing to do with implanting the gland into Fawkes' brain. They just chose some other people to get a gland. Anyway, they did only use Kevin's work. So I doubt they will have any useful information about the gland."
Darien sighed. "So what's so important about that other agency? I mean you just said they don't know anything useful."
"Yeah, he's right. What exactly did that agency do, Sir?" Hobbes agreed.
"Because of their experiments Fawkes isn't the only person with a gland." was the Official's answer.
"Well, of course. There's still Arnaud." Monroe noted.
But the Official slowly shook his head. "No, I meant there are two other persons with exactly the same version of the gland as Fawkes."
Darien looked up. "You mean there are two other people with that QSM problem?"
Claire also looked at the Official, incredulous. "Yes, where do they get their counteragent from?"
The Official started to smile a little. "From us." he announced triumphantly.
"And you seem to be happy about this, Sir?" Claire could not believe this.
"Well, obviously they had a way to steal our information about the quicksilver project and Darien. With Keeper's research data they were able to make their own counteragent. But as we now have caught them at doing so, they'll do us some favors and in return they'll keep getting all relevant research data from us."
"Well, the question seems to be what we will get from them." Darien threw in. When the Official was willing to give their research data to others, there had to be something important they had offered. Probably the agency was at least getting some money which was always good news.
The Official looked back to Darien. "They will take all the costs for the counteragent."
But Darien was not convinced. Counteragent was expensive and he knew of this, but he could not believe that was all they got.
Claire seemed to have similar thoughts, because she said: "And that's enough, Sir? I mean we always have financial problems even without having to pay for counteragent."
"Well, that's right." the Official agreed. "But we'll also get their invisible agent and we won't have to pay him."
"You mean we're getting one of them?" Hobbes asked.
"No." the Official replied. "They've just got one. In fact nobody seems to know what happened to the third invisible man, except they implanted a gland into his brain."
Darien looked at him, uncomprehending. "But won't he need counteragent, too? I mean those red eyes and everything isn't really inconspicuous."
"He already would've died by now." Claire added. "But I suggest they didn't find a dead man with a gland who died from QSM, either."
"They at least have to now the man's identity." Alex said.
"Eberts?" the Official requested his assistant to speak.
"Well, it seems they first had no third person for the implantation. The reports sound like they finally just took any person, but his identity was never listed. We've just got a blood group and some information about the brain functions.
And you were right, Keeper. They didn't find any victims of quicksilver madness."
"So when does that guy come here and where does he come from anyway?" Darien interrupted.
"Good question." Hobbes admitted.
"He'll be here by tomorrow and he's coming from Germany." Eberts let them know.
"So he's a foreigner? And that agency is a German agency?" Hobbes wondered.
"Do you have any problem with that?" the Official asked.
"No, no problem." Hobbes hurried to say.
"Fine, and by the way his name is Daniel Kalker."