Wipe

Kimberly stood silently in the doorway, listening to Al and Eric talk. While her overriding feeling was relief that someone had been able to get through to him, there was a strong kernel of hurt beneath that. He listened to friends -- or in Al's case, not even that -- more readily than he listened to her. Sure, she hadn't piqued his interest by having been to a place where one of Eric's all time favourite movies just happened to have been real, like Wes had done. Sure, she didn't push his buttons and make him mad, as Al -- or should that be Alex? -- had done. All she had done was be there for him. Love him. Why wasn't that enough?

Quietly, Kimberly moved away. If she went in there now she'd probably say something she'd regret.

~*~

Before Jen could say a word more, Wes turned and started to storm out of the room. Without thinking about it, Jen slid off the desk, fully intending to pursue him and continue the argument, except that the second her injured foot touched the floor, spears of pain stabbed up through her injured ankle. Unable to catch her balance, she found herself falling...

...only to be caught before she could hit the floor.

"Jen..."

The contrite tone to Wes' voice made Jen think that, just maybe some of what she'd said had finally penetrated. But, as he gently set her back on the desk and passed her the crutches he'd knocked flying in his anger, all he actually said was,

"Learn to use those properly or stay at home."

~*~

JJ put the phone down and shook his head. "Shawn doesn't know," he said. "He knew he'd been taken somewhere else, but he wasn't sure where that 'somewhere else' was."

Alice, who, along with Rick and Namir, had just returned from the Northlands collective site, groaned. "Damnit. That's our last lead."

"There has to be something else. Some other clue," said Namir. "This guy can't just vanish into thin air."

"No?" said John. "We can -- why shouldn't The Master be able to?" He frowned. "Hm. That's a point."

"What is?" asked Rick.

"Teleportation," said John.

"Not following you," Lexia objected. "Teleportation, what?"

"There has to be a maximum range to the teleportation."

"There is," Alice agreed, "but that range just takes in everywhere from Monterrey to Northern LA, and that's assuming he doesn't have an industrial version of the devices we've got."

"Oh."

And into that disheartened pause, someone knocked on JJ's front door.

"Anyone expecting visitors?" JJ enquired. Five headshakes met his question. "Thought not."

He headed for the front door, half hoping that the caller was going to be some door to door salesman so that he could release some of the pent up tension. Somewhat to his surprise, however, when he opened the door, he found himself looking straight at Namir's father.

"Ah, hi?"

Al smiled. "JJ, right?" Dumbly, JJ nodded. "Can we come in? I think we might have some information for you."

That was when JJ realised that Al wasn't alone. With him were both Kimberly and Eric Myers. It was the first time since their return from the future that JJ had seen Eric and he couldn't help but be horrified by how different his erstwhile boss looked. Logically, JJ knew that had to be the case; he knew that there had been things done to Eric in his time away, yet it still shocked him.

"Sometime today would be nice," Al suggested.

"Uh, yeah -- sorry. C'mon in."

JJ opened the door wider to allow all three visitors to enter. He closed the door behind them and led the trio through into the living room.

"Guys?"

But that was as far as he got because at that moment, Alice, John and Namir spotted their respective parents.

"Dad!" Namir exclaimed.

"Dad?" John began.

"Mom? What're you guys doing here?" Alice asked.

"We've got some information for you," Kimberly answered.

"About The Master," said Eric softly.

~*~

Lucas, Rob and Paul picked their way through the remains of the Silver Guardian headquarters.

"Geez," Paul muttered. "What a mess."

"That's what the equivalent of twenty pounds of plastique will do," said Rob with a shake of his head. To Lucas, he said, "Was it plastique?"

"Only officially," Lucas answered. "Ven is ninety percent certain it was TX59."

"Shit," said Rob. "Lucky he didn't level the entire block then."

"Yeah." Lucas sighed. "Paul, which way are the research labs?"

"This way." Paul nodded up the stairs. "What is it we're looking for?"

"Michael Zaskin's body or bodily components," said Lucas. "If we don't find those then we're in even deeper shit than we knew about."

"Forgive the dumb question," said Paul, "but why?"

"Entirely forgiven," Lucas answered as they started up the stairs. "And are you sure these are safe?"

"Yeah -- the engineers have been in and certified them safe," said Paul.

"The problem with Zaskin being missing," Rob explained, "is that Michael Zaskin is one of the foremost experts on genetic science and technology. Even in our time."

"Shit," muttered Paul.

"If he's dead then it's probably going to do bad things to the timeline," Lucas continued, "but as he's already established most of the principles of genetic science that he was supposed to establish, that's probably not so much of a problem. But, much as I like the guy, I'm almost hoping we'll find proof that he is dead."

"Because if he's not then he's in The Master's hands?" Paul suggested.

"Got it in one," said Rob.

"Which would be bad because Mike Zaskin knows some scary stuff," Paul concluded.

"Yep," Lucas agreed. "And that may very well make our job all the harder." They reached the top of the stairs. "OK, which way now, Paul?"

~*~

Alice looked at Eric intently. "Dad?" she said. "You know something?"

"Sort of," Eric answered.

Alice glanced at her mother, who shrugged. "Sort of?"

There was a long, painful silence, and Alice realised that whatever this was, Eric wasn't particularly keen on relating it to everyone and in particular to her and to John.

"Guys?" she said. When she had the attention of the other five Vengeance Rangers, she nodded in the direction of the door.

JJ and Rick, at least, grasped exactly what she meant because JJ rather loudly mentioned going to make coffee, while Rick made sure that John didn't object to leaving and closed the door behind them.

"It's just us, dad," Alice said once she was sure John, at least, was out of earshot. "What have you got for us?"

~*~

Trip glanced up from his research as the lab door opened, then wished he hadn't as he saw Wes' expression.

"Don't say a word," Wes muttered, resuming his seat.

"Wasn't going to," Trip replied, returning his attention to his research.

"Good."

Trip studied the data he'd compiled. One of the very first things he and Wes had done between them was do a full scan of one of the victims of Redemption, which had included blood tests. Trip had taken that blood work analysis and set up a comparison between it and the blood work analysis for thousands upon thousands of twenty-first century diseases in the vague hopes of finding a match.

It seemed, looking at the data now on his screen, that the search had turned up just that: A match that, while not perfect, certainly bore a striking resemblance.

"Wes?"

"What?" Wes snapped.

"I think I've got it," Trip answered, wisely ignoring Wes' tone of voice.

"Got what?"

"It," said Trip. "Redemption. I know what it is -- and more importantly," he added, "I know how to cure it, too."

~*~

Guided by Kimberly, Eric took up a seat on what felt like either a wide armchair or a couch, he wasn't entirely sure.

"Dad?" Alice prompted.

"It's The Master's base of operations," Eric replied. "I know where it is." Not pausing to let Alice ask the obvious question, he continued, "It's an abandoned ore processing plant between here and Malibu..."

"It's a couple of hours' drive out of Silverhills, heading south," Kimberly put in.

There was a pause. Then Alice asked one of the two questions that Eric had been dreading. "How do you know about this place?"

"Someone did some moustache twirling," Kimberly answered.

Eric could hear Alice shaking her head. "Not what I meant; I figured they let something slip when they interrogated dad, but you know exactly where it is; I don't believe they were dumb enough to let that much information go."

"They didn't," said Eric. "I've been there before."

"And I figure it's not exactly a tourist spot," Alice said softly. Something in her tone of voice told Eric she had a very good idea of just what this place was. "And would I be right in thinking that mom knows more about this place's location than you do, dad?"

She did know. How did she know? "Yeah," he admitted softly.

"OK." Alice hesitated a moment. Eric mentally braced for her next question. "Maybe..." She stopped. "I think maybe when this is over, dad, we need to talk." He could practically hear her chewing her lip. "But I can leave bel Abis out of what I say to the others."

"OK." Eric nodded, relieved at the let off. He listened and heard Alice leave the room, presumably to go and brief the other Vengeance Rangers.

"You're not going to have that conversation," said Kimberly softly, a knowing tone to her voice.

Eric felt guilty. "Not if I can help it," he admitted equally quietly. "Some things...it's just better this way."

~*~

Ven stood quietly in the doorway of Taylor Earhardt's hospital room. The scene was more than enough to make her heart clench. Taylor was lying in the bed, comatose and connected to an array of monitors and life-saving equipment. Beside the bed, Ben was sitting, gently cradling one of Taylor's hands.

It was fortunate, Ven decided, that Ben was so absorbed in his thoughts that he wasn't aware of her presence. She had come up here with the idea of using some of the thirty-first century medical equipment she had to heal the worst of Taylor's injuries, as she had been doing, surreptitiously, for as many of the victims of the bombing as she could. Unfortunately, the data being displayed on the monitors told her that Taylor was too badly hurt for anything she could do to help.

Unconsciously, Ven noted the signs of decline: Heartbeat, irregular; respiration, laboured; blood pressure, falling; brain activity, nil.

Silently, Ven walked away. She knew what was going to happen. She'd seen it many times in her medical career and she didn't need to see it again, but she'd barely got three steps along the hallway when the thin, piercing whine of the heart monitor flat-lining and hard on its heels came a cry of utter anguish and pain.

Ven swallowed and kept walking. There really was nothing she could do here now.

~*~

Alice lay just on the crest of a small hill overlooking the ore processing facility. She felt a faint sense of déjà vu, though whether that was simply from having completed reconnaissance work of this nature several times in the last few days or whether she had actually been to this place before, she wasn't sure.

I don't see any thing, she mused, frowning. Is this guy so arrogant he hasn't bothered with defences, or are they just real well hidden?

{LIA detects no defensive energy readings.}

In spite of herself, Alice jumped. It was one thing to know that her morpher had artificial intelligence and a direct tap into what she was thinking twenty-four hours a day; it was entirely another to actually experience that link without being morphed.

Can't you give me a warning bleep or something? Alice groused. LIA made no response to that. Are you sure there's no defences?

{LIA detects no defensive energy readings,} LIA repeated. Then added, {Readings indicate any defences are primitive in nature and not detectable at this distance.}

Define primitive, Alice instructed, even as she wriggled back off the top of the hill. She suspected she and LIA had slightly different definitions for the term.

So it proved, as LIA responded, {Native technology.}

Alice rolled her eyes. We're not that primitive here, thanks. LIA said nothing.

"Well?" asked JJ as she rejoined him and John.

"Have to wait and see what Rick says," Alice answered, "but it looks like there's not going to be too much difficulty in getting in, unless stealth is our aim." She snorted. "If it is, then we're screwed." She shrugged. "Can't count on there being a convenient sewer pipe twice."

John's eyebrows lifted and he shook his head. "You had all the fun in 3013," he observed.

"You don't know the half of it," Alice retorted.

Preventing John and JJ quizzing her further, the other three Vengeance Rangers returned from their scouting trip. Not unlike the scouting trip at the TOI, Rick was smiling.

"You've found something?" JJ asked.

"Easy way in," Rick answered.

"And no," said Namir, grinning widely, "this doesn't involve a sewage pipe."

JJ, John and Lexia exchanged looks.

"I figure I don't want to know," said Lexia.

"You don't," Alice agreed. To Rick, she said, "So what have you found?"

Rick's smile turned into an outright grin. "Well, The Master obviously figures no-one's going to find this place."

Alice made a winding motion with her hand. "Yeah? So? And?"

"So, he hasn't bothered with any surveillance equipment, at all," Rick answered. "I've scanned for any form of radio transmission, microwave emission and anything else that would indicate surveillance equipment -- and found absolutely nada. As long as we approach out of direct line-of-sight of one of the entries, we can approach from which ever direction we like."

TO BE CONTINUED...