Reviews are much appreciated (especially since this isn't a popular ship and it's so old as well) I'd love to hear if there's something you enjoyed reading (similarly I'd be interested in what you didn't)
Nine Inch Nails – The Beginning of the End
Enigma – The Eyes of truth
Hurt – Better
Chapter 9 - Dinner with a Side of Terrorism, But Don't Forget the Dessert
"Charlie, Charlie, this is Alpha-Niner. The oven is hot, where are the muffins, over."
"Alpha-Niner, this is Echo. The muffins are ready, over."
"This is Uniform. Muffins ready, over."
"This is India. Ditto."
"This is Oscar. The muffins are still being mixed, over."
"This is Alpha. Ours are ready, over."
"Alpha-Niner, this is Echo Two. Are your buns in the oven, over."
Angela inwardly face palmed. She was beginning to wonder about accepting Mike's choice of code speak. He was having far too much fun with this considering the significance of their mission. "Echo Two, mind your own buns, they're about to get toasted, out." The size of the S.R.T. team meant that after splitting into groups of about three, they could only observe the five main locations. To ensure the success of their mission, the Toledo Police Department, MPU and Rick were unaware that they were on mission tonight and hopefully that meant the leak as well. With any luck these measures would help them capture the culprits.
"Alpha-Niner, this is Oscar. The muffins are ready, over."
"Roger that Oscar." She looked down her scope at Alpha Two and Alpha Three. Melissa and Reid had concealed themselves amongst the other homeless at their location and were lying in wait for any action. Time passed, things got quieter on the road and the team maintained idle perimeter updates (and the occasional cheeky comment) to keep everyone awake and alert. While patience and luck was a key factor to the success of this mission, Angela had to question whether they might end up waiting the entire night with no results.
"Alpha-Niner, this is Echo One. I can smell the muffins. Can I have a bite, over."
At last! Some activity. "Echo, if the muffins are hot, you can have a taste, over."
"Alpha-niner, this is Oscar, I want a taste too, over."
"Negative Oscar. It will be cold by then. Wait for your own." They all waited tersely for a reply from Mike's team. He had indicated that he had seen someone and they waited for his confirmation that they were the perpetrators.
"This is Echo Two, we've got half a dozen muffins and they are hot!"
"Echo, take them now!"
"Echo Two and Echo Three, are taking out the muffins. I'm taking out the tray."
There was silence for a while as team Echo engaged the other group and they continued to keep an eye for any movement at their own locations.
"Three muffins out, two plus the one in the tray left."
Another long pause followed the next update from team Echo's sniper.
"Alpha-Niner, this is Echo One, all the muffins are cooling."
"Echo, good job. Any burns?"
"Negative. We're putting the muffins away."
"Roger, Echo. We'll be waiting for our own before checking yours."
Angela sighed in relief; they'd gotten their guys. It was funny to think how many hours and people it had taken to reach this point and then when it came to capturing them, it had taken a matter of moments and a team of three. She almost laughed. At any rate she was anxious to interrogate them as soon as possible. For now though, the remaining teams were still watching their locations for a while longer in case there were more coming.
"Tell me more about your group, Mankind for Evolution."
"I'm not talking without my lawyer."
"Really? Well if that's what you want to do. I just hate to see someone betrayed by their friends."
The man looked unsure of what to do, but remained silent as Reid left the room.
"So how long do you think it'll take?" Angela asked Reid as he entered the observation room looking into where he was conducting his interrogation.
"It's tough to say. It's not exactly the most reliable tactic if they catch your bluff and we don't exactly have a lot of evidence pinning them to the other disappearances, do we?"
"No. It's all circumstantial. We showed their pictures to the other homeless. They had been seen in the area and a few of them had seen their friends go off with them voluntarily. And MfE doesn't seem to have ever been particularly active or aggressive. They've had a few small demonstrations about using the 'technologies available to us in order for mankind to evolve and reach a higher state of being." Angela repeated their dictum with distaste, "I'll fight tooth and nail against that future," she added looking at the pictures that had started her mission.
"They fit the bill pretty perfectly don't they?" Reid replied glancing at the photos as well. "He seems to be getting pretty antsy doesn't he? Hopefully he'll provide us with enough information to connect them all and lead us to the ring leader. I think it would really help if you bring those in at some point." Reid said indicating towards the photos Angela had in her hand.
"Sounds like an idea. Are you sure you won't take it in with you now?"
"Would have been more effective if I'd taken it in at the beginning. I'll give you a cue when I want you to come in, but I think he's about to…" Reid trailed off as the man in the room started pulling against his restraints and calling out for someone to come back. "Best not let him think we're that eager shall we." Reid said winking at Angela and taking his time to re-enter.
"Listen, I haven't done anything! We were all just helping out some bums when you guys attacked us!"
Reid sat down in front of the man, his calmness contrasted starkly in comparison to the other's agitation. "You're going to have to give me something better than that Davey. My partner has some very disturbing evidence and that excuse is not going to fly for either of us."
"There's nothing else…" he weakly protested as Angela entered the room. She was carrying the pictures in her hand and she had put them down in front of Davey.
"Really? You mean to tell us that you pick up these people and then what? They disappear into thin air? I think you know exactly what happens to them. This!" She barked at him showing the picture of someone transforming after being infected with the G-virus. His faced turned pale at the sight of it, but she continued, "How many have you picked up? There are over 200 missing people within the last four months missing from the homeless community, how many of them were you responsible for putting in that chair?!" She hadn't really thought of how she would approach the interrogation, but she hadn't expected herself to react the way did and she stepped back from Davey as she caught sight of the raw emotion that looked back at her in the two way mirror.
"No! No! I swear I didn't know it was this! We just, we were just so thrilled about getting recognition finally…and the funding! They gave us money, to do whatever we needed to do and to help them get subjects for the research. They said, they wanted the ragtag of society, because that's where the most benefit would be seen – no one noticed them before, but they would make them healthier, stronger and better and then society would take notice of them and appreciate them. I…I had no idea! This isn't what we wanted!"
"Davey…" Reid said while Angela took a seat beside him and schooled her face to hide her distress. "You had best start from the beginning. Who are these people who you're talking about?"
"I don't really know. There were two of them who came to our group one day. They said they believed in us and wanted to help. They just needed willing volunteers and we…we did volunteer! But they told us that we needed to really make an impression on the rest of society."
"Do you remember what they look like? Have you seen them since?"
"No…that was the only time we saw them. After that Juliet dealt with them I think. That was five months ago and I never really got a good look at them. But I got the impression that one was rich or a businessman and the other, some sort of scientist. They both must have been middle aged but the one doing all the talking was really smartly dressed and the other guy looked a bit geeky, he was quieter."
"So are the six of you the only ones doing this? How long has it been going on for?"
"I'm not sure to be honest. We were…chosen to gather people, but we were told it couldn't be traced back to the rest and we had to keep to ourselves as much as possible. We haven't really been in contact with the others for the past few months apart from when we met at the dock…We started about five months ago; go out maybe twice a week and get about two or three people each time. But we'd gotten a call about two months ago telling us they needed more and we've been picking up a dozen or more in a week."
"Did you know the person who called you?"
"Yeah, it was Juliet. She said that unfortunately some of them had been really sick and the tests couldn't be done on them. She said that…if they had more people then maybe they'd be able to get their research done quicker and be able to help the sick ones."
Angela clenched her jaw at what Davey told them. He'd been a naïve misguided fool and she recognised what a shock it must have been to find out what really had been happening to the people he took, but he had been too careless for her to forgive him and she interjected before Reid could continue his questioning, "If you thought that you were helping them you wouldn't have used force. What did you tell them….to make them come with you?"
Her eyes looked at him resolutely and he couldn't face her as he replied. "We…I…took advantage of their weaknesses. We offered drugs, food, booze, shelter, even dogs to play with. So many of them had been so trusting. We said that we would take them to a better place and it seemed like that was happening. We had instructions to take them out to this abandoned warehouse that was set up like a shelter and hospital; we'd leave them there and when we came back later they were all in these tubes, but they were looking good; clean and groomed, rested... The doctors said they were in stasis chambers to recover and get healthy on the way to the lab."
Her blood ran cold at his answer. Davey seemed to care about them, so why would he be so stupid to think that what was happening was good? Why didn't he question it? She wanted to rip the answers from him, but they weren't as important as the facts and she bit her tongue as she let Reid continue with the interview.
"Did you know anyone from the warehouse?"
"We would see the same doctors when we came through, they'd help us get the people out before taking them for a medical assessment. But we never exchanged names. And even at the dock we just handed them over to the guys there."
"What would happen at the dock exchange? Tell us as much as you can about what you saw and who you spoke with."
"We usually get a call from Juliet to tell us when to go pick up the people and drop them at the docks. Maybe every fortnight, and always the same pier, 11. We'd drive the containers over and then let the others take it. They put them on the ship. But it wasn't always the same guys when we were there, they'd rotate around, but there's always quite a lot of them there. Some of them were MfE, but I didn't know who the others were. They looked pretty intimidating and when I tried talking to them they said they were just hired to operate the machinery and weren't there to chat. I always thought my fellow MfE at the dock were shameful because all they seemed to care about was the money they were getting."
"When are you likely to get another call?"
"Probably…in a few days. It's been a week since the last dock visit."
"Will you cooperate with us Davey? To bring down the ones responsible for 'that'?" Reid said indicating the photos.
He nodded. "What…whatever you want. I can't believe…what I've done."
Angela couldn't hold her tongue any longer, "Davey, you don't get to wallow in self-pity. What you get to do, is put this right. It's the best justice for your actions and ignorance."
He nodded mutely before Reid stood him up and directed him back to his cell. Angela remained behind a moment to compose herself. She stared at the pictures of the people strapped down to the operating table looking terrified and the rows and rows of them in stasis chambers, unaware of what they would be facing. She hadn't even conducted the interview and she was emotionally taxed by what she had been told. He didn't even seem to question what was happening once.
"Hey are you okay?" Reid said resting a hand on her shoulder.
"Sorry Reid, I didn't think I'd be that…explosive. When I look at the pictures…at the terror on their faces when they're confronted by the virus…I imagine what it was like for…" she couldn't finish her sentence and didn't correct Reid when he said what he thought he had been thinking
"It's okay. All of us know you were part of the team deployed to deal with the T-virus outbreak, I know none of us have been through that, but we're here if you need to talk about it."
Angela appreciated the thought, but the photos hadn't been a trigger for the events at Harvardville. They'd brought forward images of her nephew and sister-in-law living their last moments in fear and pain.
"Patrick? He was sacked a while ago. Kept skiving off when he was supposed to be working, doing god only knows what. Don't expect to see him again. Is that all you wanted to know Mr Smith?"
"No. That's all, thanks." Leon hung up the phone. His conversation with the TRICELL employee had just cemented in his mind the large pharmaceutical company's involvement with MfE and the abductions. The man who tried to take Angela away had had one distinguishing feature, a tattoo on the back of his hand. It had been a pretty time consuming search, but eventually it had led to a Special Forces team that had gone MIA. One of them had a tattoo which matched the one he had seen and was a good match for the man from the club. Similarly, running his face through the Homeland Security database showed him in Toledo multiple times and he was still on file as an active security employee at TRICELL. So, it was very convenient that the one person they knew of and who could link TRICELL to the abductions was sacked and missing at the moment. While his current investigations hadn't been fruitless, they were moving along too slowly.
"Hunnigans, I need your expertise."
"What is it Leon?"
"I need you to follow up some things. I want you to track down the members of an MIA Special Forces group, and I want you to look into TRICELL. Be especially scrupulous when it comes to them. I'm sending the details over to you now."
"Will do, Leon."
As Leon put away his phone, he looked up at the neon sign flashing in front of him. It was about time Mr Sanguini started singing.
"Good evening Mr Kennedy, how good to see you again. Did you enjoy what our young patron had to offer the other night? You were very…cosy with her. And after the doctor said she would be easily impelled in her state, I had to wonder…who really was responsible for slipping her the drugs."
"What are you implying Mr Sanguini?" Leon ground out. He was furious at what the man was hinting at. His actions had been inappropriate that night, but he never would have gone that far if it wasn't for their history.
"I'm not implying Mr Kennedy. I have footage of you. Firstly taking advantage of her in the private booth and then again of you in the shower."
At the mention of having footage of Angela in the shower, Leon had grabbed Mr Sanguini by throat faster than his bodyguards could react. This disgusting scumbag had filmed her in the bathroom…when she was vulnerable and exposed…and just because he wanted some leverage against him. "Listen you filth. I take care of trash; trash that would have you crying like a baby, and when I've got some in front of me, I don't hesitate to take it out. So, give me a reason not to do exactly that right now."
Mr Sanguini had been shaken up by Leon's actions. He hadn't been expecting the government agent to actually threaten him and to be able to render his bodyguards useless. "Pl-please wait! Some of the boys that come through my other establishments, they're with that terrorist group, MfE. They always talk about the shipments that they have to cart around the place. They say it's usually people, but sometimes other things, research things, and about every fortnight they have new lot come through."
"Just when were you about to share this information with me Mr Sanguini?"
"I-I-…next week, it goes down next week. Shouldn't you act quickly Mr Kennedy? Jason has full details, if you would let go of me, please."
Leon brusquely let him drop to the floor. "You'd best watch yourself Mr Sanguini, you should be more aware of whom my employers are and of what I'm investigating. If you're not careful, I might start thinking you're involved with all this as well. Remember that for next time."