Chapter Twenty

"I… Can talk…" Frederica whispered again, seeming to not quite be able to believe it.

"Yes… But you'll want to be careful with your voice at first. You have your voice back, but as you can see, it's still quite raspy and out of use, yeah?" Linus said. Frederica nodded.

"If you want to sing, you can… That will be a good exercise for controlling the strength and volume of your voice. Just don't overdo it, or you won't be able to use your voice for a while. Moderation, yeah?"

Frederica nodded again, taking a deep breath and starting to sing. Her voice seemed even raspier and gravelly when she was singing, but somehow, Rock thought it was beautiful. He could sense that when she had full control of her voice, that it would probably be amazing. Even now, just singing Country Roads, there was something magnetic about her performance. She had to stop about halfway through for a coughing fit. Linus didn't seem surprised.

"That's bound to happen occasionally… Take it easy with your voice for a few weeks… When was the last time, before now of course that you were able to speak?"

"I think I was ten or so. I'm twenty, now so about nine-ish years ago." Frederica guessed. Linus nodded.

"I thought that might be the case. Take it slow. Talk, but don't overextend yourself."

"Of course… I owe you 1,000 dollars?" Frederica asked. Linus nodded.

In reality, even the regenerative serum would have been worth around 10,000 dollars a vial on the Black Market. But he didn't have that much money available to him at the moment, and he just wanted some money to spend on a date with Garda, and he wasn't going to demand 10,000 dollars for a few cuts and an injection.

"Alright… Well, we better get back to the apartments. There's a chance that they'll have agents looking for us in Roanapur. I don't think they'll have had time to set up their contacts yet. But I'd rather be safe than sorry. We've arranged for your friends, Lotton and Shenhua to join us at the apartment building. We'll only be there for a little while, so we can split them between your room and our room. Just so long as they're not in danger from our erstwhile allies." Linus said.

Rock nodded, thinking that Revy and Shenhua would no doubt be fighting all night. As they were leaving the building together, Frederica counted out ten 100 dollar bills and gave them to Linus, who thanked her. Frederica blushed, and spoke again. Somehow, she still couldn't believe it.

"I should be thanking you. Is there anything I can do to thank you?"

"Just help me take care of our new enemy and I think we can call it even, yeah?" Linus asked. Frederica nodded. Then her ears perked up.

"Hey, um… Where did you guys get these names you chose for yourselves? I have never heard most of them before." She said. Linus shrugged.

"Baby name websites, books. There's one woman, I guess she might still be out there somewhere who loved Shakespeare. She called herself Ophelia. One person decided to call himself Joseph. He was satisfied with his life in the organization and fought to keep us there. We killed him. It's too bad. He would have helped us a lot. He was a master of stealth tactics, yeah." Linus said, heading into the building that Lagoon Company was staying in and heading up the stairs, where Shenhua and Lotton were standing by the door.

"Ah, you back finally, yes you are!" Shenhua said cheerfully. "Sawyer! How you surgery go?" She asked. Sawyer turned a faint pink.
"I can… Talk again. Linus is a surgeon too, I guess."

"Well, not a professional surgeon, yeah. I learned medical surgery as part of my training in Genesis.

"We were expected to be able to perform surgery on each other in the unlikely event that any of us were injured in combat." Linus finished. Shenhua and Lotton nodded.

"How did you manage to fix her vocal cords, Linus?" Lotton asked. Linus sighed. He clearly wasn't going to be able to escape answering their questions. They were Sawyer's roommates, and Linus assumed, her friends.

"Well… There's a serum I have that stimulates regenerative cell division. Basically, when injected, it causes the body part so affected to stimulate rapid cellular regeneration that heals the injury in a time between 10 minutes and three hours, depending on the severity of the injury and the location of the injury. For Sawyer, it took about 20 minutes to completely heal her vocal cords, yeah.

"Because the scars are now healed and the vocal cords are whole, she can talk again. I don't know if her voice is the same as before. Well, it was around 10 years ago, so her voice would likely have changed whether or not she had gotten her vocal cords severed." Linus said, seeming very much like a clinical doctor at that moment.

"We should get inside, yeah. I'll set the room so that it doesn't register you as enemies… Shenhua, Lotton." Linus said. Shenhua raised an eyebrow.

"What going on? Sawyer is in trouble?"

"Well… Not exactly… I'm the one being hunted. But Miss Sawyer was nice enough to help me fight off my attackers, so now I suspect they'll treat her as a target as well.

"My friends aren't known to be understanding or forgiving. They will kill their target and anyone who obstructs their mission. The fact that they're not being paid to kill Sawyer means nothing to them. Sawyer hurt them. She made their job more difficult, so now she's an enemy. The same is true of Rock, and I don't think they'll hesitate to attack you to get to her."

"Why that matter? We good enough keep ourselves safe, yes we are… Well… I good enough keep us safe." Shenhua said, smirking at Lotton, who blushed slightly in embarrassment. It was true. He still wasn't terribly skilled with his guns. He was getting much better, but not good enough.

"Well… My friends are superhuman. I'm afraid if they set their sights on you with any seriousness, you really don't stand a chance.

"Rock has already contacted Hotel Moskow, and Miss Sawyer has obtained the Chinese Triad's assistance in one way or another. But our position is still a tenuous one. Please, come in. We'll have some alcohol and go to bed."

"Oh, no alcohol for me! I teetotaler, yes I am." Shenhua said.

"And I have no head for alcohol. I appreciate the offer, though."

"Lotton, you seem slightly out of place in Roanapur. Even Rock, who was a businessman before he came here seems more sinister than you. How did you even end up here?"

"Well… I wonder that myself sometimes. I'm too clumsy to be a gunman. I'm not charming enough to be a gigolo, as several people have suggested, and frankly, I'm not smart enough to be a white collar worker.

"I guess Canada just wasn't the right place for me, so I came to a place that was as different from Canada as I could conceive. Perhaps the United States would have been a better choice." Lotton said, seeming despondent. Linus laughed.

"I lived in California for a while. The US isn't so great. The people are obsessed with guns and the government declares itself a democracy, even though it's clearly an oligarchy." Linus said.

Lotton nodded. Then he cocked his head.

"What's an oligarchy?" He asked. Linus sighed, shaking his head. Lotton really was terribly dense.

"An oligarchy is a government in which the wealthiest rule. It's a system that tends to perpetuate a wide divide between the rich and the poor by making the rich richer and the poor increasingly impotent. Linus described America very well, especially with the current leaders." Rock said.

"I see. What a shame. I was under the impression that America was ruled by criminals and incompetents. I thought I would fit right in." He sighed. Rock was suddenly struck by the impression that Lotton was much cleverer than he gave himself credit for. The current leaders were almost certainly criminals, although nothing had been adequately proven yet. And they were certainly nothing if not incompetent.

"All politicians are criminals… They just rule the country, so nobody can complain about their crimes." Revy said. "Now get your asses in here and shut the fuck up! I'm tryin' to sleep!" She demanded. Lotton sat down quietly. As soon as everyone but Revy was sitting around the table, Linus sat down and started talking, making sure to stay quiet.

"Alright, so we've got all the traps set up. There's almost no way for anyone to break in without alerting me. We've fixed Miss Sawyer up and we have a small army of highly competent fighters on hand. I suggest that anyone who needs to go anywhere go in pairs or threes, preferably with at least one superhuman. There's always the chance that a normal human could take down one of the Genesis Project by chance, but the odds aren't what I'd like them to be, yeah?

"Tomorrow, we'll go out and draw the enemy into a location that we can control the fight. We'll use Hotel Moskow and the Triad to our advantage to funnel them into the area of our choice and take them down if we can't turn them to our side. Alric and Ludmilla were quite close during their time in Genesis. They would have chosen each other to have children with if we hadn't betrayed the organization and escaped before that could happen.

"So I'll draw up a plan for all of us, if you don't mind. Dutch, Rock… Maybe you two could watch in? I know that you were in the Navy, Dutch and you were instrumental in defeating some mercenaries that were hunting you, Rock… I expect that you know your team better than I do. Know your abilities and your strengths and weaknesses. Rock… Tell me about Revy… She seems to be a bit of a wild card, yeah?" Linus asked. Rock nodded.

"Well, almost everyone that Revy has been in combat with has lost their mind in some way or another. She has a very provocative style of combat. She'll harass and antagonize while she fights and unless she senses that she can't drag on the battle without losing, she'll make the battle go as long as possible. She likes aiming to cripple rather than kill and watch the person try to fight anyway. She's good at making people lose their temper just with her wild and unpredictable style of fighting.

"She can't be pinned down very easily, so she should utilize that while drawing the enemy's fire."

"Good… Good… What about Miss Sawyer? What are her strengths?"

"She can deflect bullets with her chainsaw. She's done it multiple times, once when she was fighting Revy and used her chainsaw to block Revy's attacks. Roberta was able to break the chain on Frederica's chainsaw with a bullet."

"Alright, well that won't likely happen on her new chainsaw, yeah. It's resistant to all but the heaviest gunfire. A sniper bullet travelling at thousands of meters per second might be able to snap the chain. But nothing less than that, yeah." Linus said.

"Frederica… Tell me all that you know about Miss Shenhua and Mr. Lotton."

"Well…" Frederica said, her voice still a bit raspy, but natural. "Lotton's ability to survive things that would kill even a greater fighter is probably his greatest ability. When Lotton, Shenhua and me were hired to kill a woman named Greenback Jane, he wore a bulletproof vest to survive gunfire, but he also survived a fall from about 30 feet and landing on his back. It was fairly impressive. He uses dual handguns now, though in the past, he was able to use dual Mausers.

"So he was clearly strong enough to wield automatic weapons one-handed."

"You have a beautiful accent. You're Irish, yeah?" Linus asked. Frederica blushed slightly, nodding.

"I'm from Belfast, yeah… I mean, I'm from Belfast." Frederica said. Linus nodded.

"I've been to Belfast… A long time ago. It's beautiful. It rains a lot there, yeah." Linus said. "Well, all the same… Tell me all you can about Rock… I know a bit about him, but I'd like to know all that I can, yeah."

Linus said this to Dutch, who smirked and took a long drag on his cigarette, blowing it out away from the crowd, especially Rock who had quit and was doing well staying off of cigarettes.

"Well… Rock is about as smart as they come. A better tactician I've never met… There was a situation in Roanapur almost a year ago when Rock took it upon himself to manipulate not only us… But also Hotel Moscow, the Chinese Triad, the American government, all of Roanapur and a psychotic terrorist.

"He played all of us like puppets and saved all of Roanapur because of it. It was a little bit frightening to see how damned effective he was. But what he lacks in physical ability, he more than makes up for in analytical genius. And I thought it was impressive when he outwitted some damn mercenaries sent to kill us. That was nothing compared to some of the stuff he's managed to do since then. Still, he's becoming more skilled physically. I've seen him shooting with Revy and training in his martial arts.

"He's getting good. It can only help. He's hardly a master of any of the martial arts he's practicing, but he's good." Dutch said. Linus nodded.

"I can talk…" Frederica muttered, tears filling her eyes again… I… Can talk…" Frederica muttered.

"You can freak out about your little existential crisis later, Freddy, yeah? Right now we're kinda busy with keeping ourselves alive." Linus said. Frederica growled.

"Don't call me Freddy! Call me Sawyer or Frederica…"

"I'm sorry, Miss Sawyer. I didn't mean to be flippant. Please excuse my rudeness. Benny, tell me about Dutch and Dutch, you tell me about Benny. Benny, you first, yeah?"

"Right… Well, Dutch is an exceptional leader. He was in the Navy back during Vietnam. He's got a range of skills from leader to gunslinger to fistfighter.

"He's definitely the leader of our group. I don't know that any of us could do better." Benny said.

"Good, good. What are his weaknesses? We need those as well." Linus said. Rock stepped in here.

"Dutch has many of the same weaknesses as most other citizens of Roanapur. He's arrogant. So am I, so is Revy. But primarily, he's very levelheaded, even when a certain amount of panic would be warranted." Rock said. Linus nodded. "Now Dutch, you talk about Benny."

"Well… He doesn't have a lot of physical skills. Most of his ability is in hacking. He's hacked government computers… Sadly, that's what brought him here initially. He got caught hacking and we had to save him. But, his skill with computers is nearly unrivaled." Dutch said. Linus nodded again.

"I think I get the general idea of your group, now, yeah. I'm sure I can work out a plan. How good are you at taunting enemies, Rock?"

"Not as good as Revy is. She's driven most of her enemies insane just from fighting them. She's a very provocative individual." Rock said, causing Frederica to glare at him and touch her throat, only to realize that she could talk normally again.

"Oh, yeah. I can talk… Rock… I hear you talking like that about another woman again, these mercenaries will be the least of your worries." Frederica said. Rock nodded.

"Sorry, dear. I just meant that…"

"You should quit while you're ahead, Rock." Linus said with a laugh.

"Sorry, Frederica… I didn't mean anything by it." Frederica laughed at this.

"I know. It feels weird to be talking again… Does my voice sound alright?"

"I've never heard a more beautiful voice." Rock said, kissing Frederica tenderly, causing her to blush deeply. Rock always somehow managed to make her feel self-conscious.

Lotton and Shenhua were sitting there. Shenhua was smiling widely, like she was laughing inwardly while Lotton had his usual deadpan look. Finally, the group all went to bed, finding somewhere to sleep. Rock had to say, even sleeping on the floor, he had slept in less comfortable places. One time, he had been stuffed in a crate and had to sleep with his knees tucked up to his chin. One time, he had slept tied to a chair. He had definitely slept in worse conditions than this.

And now, Frederica was sleeping next to him, her arms wrapped around him, breathing slowly, occasionally twitching when she dreamed. Rock silently wondered what someone like Frederica dreamed about. Still, he fell asleep, smiling gently as he drifted off into his own dreams.