Meryl and Milly stared at each other, wide-eyed.
"What just happened?" asked Milly.
"You two!"
Both of them jumped as someone spoke behind them, and Meryl gave a little squeak of pain as Milly's foot came down unexpectedly on her toes.
"Sorry, Ma'am!" Milly said, desperately. But Meryl was more worried about who had hailed them, and now she turned to see the woman innkeeper at the end of the hall.
"Get over here," the old woman ordered. "I want this business taken care of before I open."
"Yes, Ma'am," agreed Meryl, nodding. "We'll be dressed and ready in ten..." She withered under the glare the woman fixed her with. "Um... five minutes," Meryl finished, sheepishly.
"Fine," said the woman. "I'll be down at the bar. I'll dig up that insurance policy. Five minutes." She turned her back on them and Meryl hurriedly pushed Milly back into their room. Five minutes wasn't a lot of time, but she really didn't want to make the old innkeeper wait.
Meryl was digging through her disorganized suitcase, pulling out articles of clothing as she found them. Conversely, Milly had her usual slacks and white button-down shirt out of her suitcase and was dressing in a matter of moments, but she looked worried as she settled the red suspenders over her shoulders.
"Ma'am, we need to follow Elizabeth," said Milly, gravely. "There's something very wrong there. Can we really afford the time to look over the innkeeper's policy?" Meryl finished doing up her blouse (she had skipped a button in her hurry) and pulled on the fitted tunic, securing the clasps over her chest.
"It won't take long," she assured Milly, who was now combing Meryl's hair so fiercely it jerked her head to one side when the teeth caught on a tangle. "Ow. The damage was clearly done by—well, due to Vash the Stampede; if she has any one of the standard policies, it's covered. We'll take care of it quickly and then go after her. Them," she amended, thinking of Vash.
By Meryl's count, they were down the stairs in under four minutes, but that didn't stop her practically sprinting for the bar to meet the old woman. She was waiting there for them, and she held up a standard letter-sized envelope when the two younger women arrived.
The envelope was thick, full to bursting, and the paper was yellowed with age. Meryl was almost reluctant to take it from the old woman's hands and, when she opened it, was dismayed to find a document over forty pages long, all faded ink (in fine print, of course) on stiff old parchment paper.
"This is ancient," muttered Meryl, starting to thumb through the crinkled pages in wide-eyed disbelief.
"What was that?" asked the old woman, looking back sharply at Meryl as she walked across the room to open the saloon's doors for business.
"Nothing!" Meryl said, hurriedly. "I mean—it's just—this is a very... unique policy," she managed. "It's going to take longer to verify your claim than I originally expected..."
"Oh no it's not," said the woman, returning to the bar. She began wiping down the chipped lacquering of the bar's wood surface and now she brandished the cleaning rag at Meryl like a weapon. "That's a lifetime guarantee. I spent a fortune on this thirty years ago, and you are going to honor it or so help me, I will—"
"I don't think I've ever seen a lifetime guarantee before," said Milly interestedly, gently interrupting the old woman's tirade before she could elaborate further on that threat. Inwardly, Meryl was relieved. Milly pulled the policy from Meryl's hands and started flipping through it herself. Meryl watched the younger woman's eyes narrow slightly as she paused to look more closely at one page.
Now Meryl fretted, biting the tip of her thumb, calculating the amount of time this would keep them from tracking down Vash and Elizabeth.
"We could always just... take her word for it," she suggested to Milly, keeping her voice low enough that the old woman wouldn't hear her over the sounds of the incoming early crowd.
"Ma'am!" scolded Milly, glancing down at Meryl with a frown. "That would be..." She grimaced momentarily, apparently searching for the right word.
"Easier?" Meryl offered, hopefully.
"Cheating!"
Meryl couldn't help grinning a little at Milly's chastising expression, along with her posture now: hands on hips in a very motherly, don't-you-use-that-tone-with-me sort of way.
"It won't be that bad," Milly said, straightening the papers again. "We'll split it up, and read through as quickly as we can. And I'll get you some coffee," she added, when she saw Meryl ready to argue. This had the intended effect of shutting Meryl up—blessed, blessed caffeine—and Milly passed her the first twenty pages.
Meryl accepted the stack of paper and, as promised, a large cup of coffee appeared at her elbow within the minute. It even smelled strong, and Meryl inhaled the aroma in one deep breath and let it out in a contended sigh before taking her first sip. The bitter liquid was hot to the point of scalding, and she held it on her tongue for an extra few moments to relish the flavor before swallowing. Then Meryl began reading her half of the policy.
It didn't take too long to see that the document was painfully repetitive, reiterating the same points again and again with only a slight difference in wording. She found herself newly appreciative of the contemporary Bernadelli policies' conciseness. Even the most detailed policy Meryl had ever previously read, which outlined very specific (and faintly alarming) instances involving livestock, was only six pages long.
After another few minutes, Meryl was surprised to notice that Milly's pages were turning over much more quickly than her own. She frowned and tried to glance sideways surreptitiously, watching Milly from just her peripheral vision, not turning her head. Milly's eyes seemed to scan the page in just a matter of moments before moving on to the next.
Meryl tried to read faster.
After a few more minutes, Milly finished her half of the policy and pulled five pages or so from the bottom of Meryl's stack and began looking them over just as quickly. Bemused, Meryl just watched Milly, who was so focused on her work that she didn't seem to notice the other woman staring. Milly pulled another five pages from the bottom of Meryl's stack, and then another five just a few minutes later.
By then, the saloon was noisy and bustling with townsfolk looking for a good meal and good conversation, and Meryl was easily distracted from her work anyway. She glanced around, hoping to perhaps find Vash and Elizabeth still here at the inn. But the woman would have been impossible to miss (and Vash never blended in particularly well, either) and Meryl was forced to conclude that the pair had gone.
Just to be sure, Meryl flagged down the old woman innkeeper again.
"I'm sorry to bother you," Meryl began, "but has that woman—Elizabeth—been through here already this morning?"
"Oh, her?" said the old woman, grunting dismissively. "She and that Idiot left in a hurry, just before you two came down."
Meryl sipped her coffee glumly. Who knew where they'd be now. Could she safely assume Elizabeth and Vash had gone to the plant?
"Feh," the woman went on, suddenly scowling. "That woman has been a thorn in my side since she waltzed right in here like she owned the place, looking for the Humanoid Typhoon."
Meryl nearly choked on her coffee.
"Wait, she was looking for him?"
"Asked for him by name," said the old woman, nodding. She gave a snort of laughter. "I don't think he was what she was expecting."
"He never is," Meryl murmured absently, turning this new bit of information over in her mind as the old woman turned away. That meant Elizabeth knew Vash was in Inepril before she'd even arrived. But how? And why in god's name would she let him hang all over her, when she clearly had little regard for him at all? Indeed, what did she actually think of him?
It had been scary, the look on Elizabeth's face, when she snapped at Milly earlier.
I've been planning this, she had said...
"Ma'am? Are you alright?"
Milly's query pulled Meryl from her musings.
"Hmm? Oh, yes, fine," Meryl said. Then she pointed to the insurance policy—Milly had read it in its entirety by now, she saw. "What do you think?"
"It's exactly what she told us it was," said Milly, turning a few pages without really looking at them and shrugging. "It absolutely defines itself as a lifetime guarantee. It just takes an awful long time getting around to it," she muttered, frowning.
"Excellent," said Meryl, standing. She downed the last of her coffee and then flagged down the innkeeper, who was slicing salmon for sandwiches.
"Well?" demanded the woman. Meryl couldn't help noticing that the innkeeper still held the heavy knife in one hand.
"You are entitled to full compensation," Meryl told her, formally. "I will have the report written and mailed by the end of the day, and your money should arrive within the month, barring any—" fuck-ups "—incidents within the mail routes." The mail carriers' union had gone on strike for two whole months last year, throwing all cross-world businesses into minor chaos. Meryl had been without three paychecks before it was finally resolved, and she had held a grudge ever since.
"Good," said the woman, drawing Meryl's attention back to the conversation at hand. She watched light from the ceiling lamps glint briefly on the knife blade. "I'm glad we understand each other."
Meryl swallowed, hard. "Quite."
She and Milly were at the plant within minutes. Meryl had been unsure if they would be able to talk their way in, but as it turned out, she had seriously underestimated Milly's good looks.
When they arrived, the building was a solid, intimidating wall of steel. They could only find a small door near the edge of the facility, and when Meryl approached it—to knock? or what?—it slid open automatically, eliciting a small squeak of surprise from Milly.
Past that door (which slid shut behind them, nearly catching the hem of Milly's cloak), they found themselves in a fairly small and sparse room—a reception area, Meryl assumed—which contained only a young man in a blue jumpsuit and matching red-striped hat (which was turned backwards), waiting at a desk stationed before a set of heavy steel double-doors.
Meryl was pretty sure the man was asleep. His feet were propped up on the desk and he was leaning back, his head resting on the back of the chair. She cleared her throat when she and Milly reached the desk, and when the man didn't respond, she said, "Excuse me, sir?" Meryl noticed the name stitched on the shoulder of his jumpsuit: Ainsworth.
"Mr. Ainsworth?"
When there was still no response, Meryl had no qualms about reaching forward to shove his feet over the side of the desk. She thought she heard a quiet, chiding, "Ma'am," under Milly's breath, but it had worked. The young man sat up, making a startled noise as his feet hit the floor again. He hurriedly pulled his hat around so the bill was forward, blinking dazedly. He saw caught sight of Meryl and scowled, and then—in the manner to which Meryl had been accustomed, over the course of their travels—his gaze jumped over her head to Milly.
His jaw actually dropped, and Meryl did her best not grind her teeth.
"Excuse me, Mr. Ainsworth," she said, in a half-growl. "My name is Meryl Stryfe, and this is my partner—"
"Milly Thompson!"
"We work for the Bernadelli Insurance Company," Meryl explained. "We need to speak with your head engineer, Elizabeth."
"No one outside the union is allowed inside the plant," said Ainsworth automatically, and Meryl recognized it as the standard response, though he was smiling up at Milly now.
"Not even just a quick tour?" Milly asked, oblivious to the attention, as usual.
A loud beep and a click heralded the entrance of another blue-clad engineer, through the double-doors behind the desk. This man's hat had a blue stripe.
"Hey," he said to Ainsworth, "I heard the outer door alarm, what's going on?"
Ainsworth just pointed, and the second man finally noticed Meryl and Milly.
"Oh!" said the man, blinking up at Milly. Meryl rolled her eyes. "Um... Hello! Can I help you?"
"Hi!" said Milly in return, smiling.
"My name is Meryl Stryfe, and this is my partner—"
"Milly Thompson!"
"We work for the Bernadelli Insurance Company," said Meryl, wearily. Before she could go on, Ainsworth interrupted, "They want a tour..." He looked up to the second man and left the sentence hanging awkwardly.
"Well," said the man, hesitantly. Meryl already knew this was against company policy, but apparently for Milly he could make an exception. "I... suppose so," he said. "But just the outer areas," he added, quickly. "Not the interior or the control room."
"Oh, thank you!" said Milly, beaming. The second man actually went a little pink, and he opened the double-doors again, tapping out a seven-digit code on the number pad. He ushered them through the doors, but had to stop Ainsworth following them.
"You're still on duty!" said the second man, sternly. Ainsworth looked disappointed, and he gave Meryl and Milly a morose, "Well... bye."
The two women followed the second man (Peterson, Meryl thought his name had been) through the empty halls of the outer area of the plant. Meryl could hear the sounds of heavy equipment scraping across metal flooring, people talking to each other, calling out information, and she didn't really listen to Peterson—Patterson?—who was pointing out different aspects of the plant as they walked. Milly was nodding and making "hmm" noises, occasionally asking questions, but Meryl was more concerned with looking into each room they passed, hoping for a glimpse of—there!
"Hey, wait a minute," said another blue-jumpsuited man as Meryl slipped past him and into what was unmistakably the main control room. To her left, several men were connecting wires and cables to equipment they had clearly brought with them, while others were clearing sand and dust off long-unused consoles of the plant's main controls. Meryl shrugged off someone's hand and made a bee-line for where she had seen Elizabeth sitting. The woman was facing a screen on the opposite wall, but Meryl recognized the oversized purple bow in Elizabeth's hair. Meryl heard her speaking as she drew nearer.
"...just because I know how to make it work, doesn't mean I understand what the plant really is," Elizabeth was saying. "But still, I'm in danger."
"You can't be in here!"
"How have you managed so far?"
That was Vash; Meryl saw him now, previously hidden out of sight behind a thick set of twisted cables hanging unsupported from the ceiling. Vash stood at Elizabeth's side, his hand on the high back of her chair.
"The union always sent an escort with me," said Elizabeth, shrugging. Then she turned her face up to Vash's and cooed, "But when I came here, you were here for me." Meryl saw the woman's sickly sweet smile in profile, and Vash gave another little shiver of pleasure as Elizabeth reached up to stroke his nose. Meryl felt her left eye twitch.
When she reached them, Meryl slapped Vash's hand away and grabbed the back of Elizabeth's chair herself, pulling the woman around to face her. Elizabeth's expression went from surprise to annoyance in an instant—then briefly to something darker, something Meryl wasn't sure she could name.
"We need to finish that chat we started this morning," said Meryl, coolly.
"How did you even get in here?" demanded Elizabeth, her eyes narrowing. By now Milly had caught up to Meryl, with Peterson—Perkins?—hot on her heels, looking flushed and extremely guilty.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am," Peterson—Parkinson?—wheezed. Apparently Milly had come here at a run. Elizabeth turned a death glare on the man and he shrank away from her in fright.
"Ma'am?"
Someone was trying to catch Elizabeth's attention and all five of them (Meryl, Milly, Elizabeth, Vash, Peterson—Pinkerton?) glanced sideways at the man who had risen to his feet. Elizabeth stood and swept across the room to his workstation. The rest of them followed.
"What is it, O'Brian?" Elizabeth asked, leaning forward to look over his shoulder. Meryl saw the man's eyes were drawn involuntarily sideways for an instant as Elizabeth's proximity offered him an excellent view of her chest.
"The production system in reactor 3 suddenly started operating," said O'Brian, after clearing his throat. He tapped a single key on his console, repeatedly. "It shouldn't have even begun cycling yet, we haven't finished setting up the proper equipment."
"Just shut it down," ordered Elizabeth.
"Yes, Ma'am," said O'Brian, now tapping a long sequence of keys. He waited, and then frowned. He retyped the same sequence, and waited again. "It's—it's no good," he said, puzzled. "It's not shutting down, it won't respond to commands from the main console." He looked back to Elizabeth again.
"I'll do it manually," she told him, strangely unsurprised by this information. Meryl frowned. Snapping her fingers commandingly, Elizabeth ordered, "Come along Poochi!"
Meryl watched through narrowed eyes as Vash followed along in Elizabeth's wake, leaving the control room through a door towards the interior of the plant itself. She surreptitiously nudged Milly with her elbow and inclined her head slightly towards where woman and Idiot had disappeared. The younger woman just nodded and faced the engineer sitting beside O'Brian, resting one hand on the back of his chair as she turned her back to Meryl. Milly leaned forward over the man's workstation, asking interestedly, "What does this button do?"
"Don't touch that!"
Hidden behind Milly's broad shoulders, Meryl slipped away from the rest of the plant workers unnoticed. She grabbed a pen from a clipboard laying unguarded on an empty work surface and followed Vash and Elizabeth through the open door.
Elizabeth was walking a few paces ahead of Vash down a dimly-lit hall, and Meryl wanted to catch his attention—but not hers. Meryl pulled the cap off the pen as she followed them, several yarz behind. Then she balanced the plastic cap on thumb and forefinger, took aim, and flicked it as hard as she could.
The pen cap hit Vash squarely in the back of the ear and Meryl couldn't help grinning, giving a silent fist-pump and internal Yesss! of triumph. Vash just clapped his right hand over his ear and started looking around for what had struck him. Meryl scowled in exasperation—turn around, Idiot!—and was moments away from trying to hiss at him, quietly enough that Elizabeth wouldn't hear her.
Thankfully, it only took Vash a few seconds to find the pen cap, which had bounced off the wall and rolled across the floor behind him. He picked it up curiously before finally noticing Meryl.
Vash looked surprised for one instant, and then his eyes narrowed suspiciously. He held up the cap and pointed at it while giving her an unmistakably accusatory glare. Meryl just rolled her eyes. This began a strange, wholly silent conversation between them, spoken almost entirely though raised eyebrows and significant glances.
Meryl felt the muscles of her forehead practically twitching as she brought her eyebrows together fiercely: What the hell are you doing?
Vash looked mildly puzzled: What?
Meryl jerked her chin up sharply at Elizabeth's retreating back: With her. But then she was distracted for a moment, watching the other woman swaying as she walked.
How the hell did she make her hips do that? Meryl's hips never did that.
She was pulled back to the conversation as Vash waved a hand in her line of sight and then brought her gaze around again, pointing to his face: Hey. Me. Pay attention to me.
Meryl scowled at him, then pointed solidly at the corner where Elizabeth had disappeared: What the hell is going on? What is she doing? What does she want with you?
Vash just grinned broadly at her and shrugged, then very clearly mouthed the words, "We'll see." He gave her a huge wink and turned the corner.
Meryl's jaw had dropped at this reaction, and she was ready to scream after him, no longer caring if Elizabeth heard her or not. But someone else cried out first.
"There you are!"
Taken by surprise, Meryl's shout to Vash became just a weird gurgle in her throat as she jumped nearly a foot in the air in alarm. Apparently, they had finally noticed her missing from the control room and sent someone to look for her. It was one of the junior engineers, Meryl assumed (she thought could tell from the red stripe on his hat; O'Brian's had been blue), and he looked annoyed to be the one sent on the errand.
"You can't be back here," he said, taking hold of her elbow. Meryl yanked her arm free and gave him a severe look. He yielded, raising both hands in a placating gesture, then inclined his head and waved her forward to return the way she had come. Meryl preceded the man to the control room and took up her place at Milly's side again. Peterson—Packingham?—still looked sheepish, but seemed to be trying to redeem himself by keeping a close watch on her and Milly, perhaps to keep them from stirring up any more trouble (though Meryl thought there wasn't much they could do at this point; just stay put and wait for Elizabeth to return).
"O'Brian," Meryl said suddenly, an unpleasant thought striking her, "what will happen if Elizabeth can't shut down the reactor?"
The man turned to face her with a worried expression, his mouth set in a grim line. He traded a glance with another blue-striped senior engineer sitting a few consoles down, and said, quietly, "It will trigger an overflow. Once it reaches the enomes range—that'd take a few hours, mind you—there'd be nothing we could do."
"Nothing you could do about what?" Milly asked, her voice hushed.
"Nothing we could do to stop the reactor from exploding," finished the other man.
"What size of explosion are we talking about here?" asked Meryl, emergency preparations already taking shape in her mind.
"We'd be—or whatever's left of us—would be sitting in a crater over 200 yarz in diameter."
Meryl sucked air in through her teeth.
"But it won't happen," Peterson—Pumpernickel?—assured them, with a weak smile. "Elizabeth is already on her way to fix it."
"Wait," said O'Brian suddenly. He frowned, his eyes quickly scanning the screen at his workstation. His fingers tapped even more quickly on the keys of the interface. Meryl stepped closer to look over his shoulder and noticed that each key was marked with a symbol she didn't recognize.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"The power levels," he said. "They should be dropping—if Elizabeth is inputting the right information—but they're only going up. They're sky-rocketing!"
The other senior engineer they'd been speaking with jumped up suddenly from his seat, pointing to the largest screen with a wordless cry of alarm. Meryl didn't have any plant-engineering training, but even she could tell that the array of flashing red triangles was a Bad Thing.
"Evacuate the plant!" Elizabeth ordered, and Meryl nearly jumped out of her skin. The woman had appeared again in their midst completely silently, and now her face was set with a severe expression. Meryl couldn't quite tell what it was, but there was a new wrongness about Elizabeth. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her perfectly made-up face was off, and when she moved toward the emergency exit it was with a strange rigidness that hadn't been there before.
"Wait, Vash—where's Vash?" Meryl asked, noticing suddenly his absence.
"He's not coming," Elizabeth said, sharply. She reached the fire door and pulled the faded red lever in the corner. A klaxon began to wail and everyone simultaneously put their hands over their ears.
"Why the hell not?" demanded Meryl, practically shouting to be heard over the alarm.
"He opted to stay behind," said Elizabeth, not looking at Meryl. She was gesturing at the other plant workers, trying to usher everyone out. "He's seeing it through to the end."
"That doesn't make any sense!" Meryl said, shaking her head violently with both hands still pressed over her ears. "That doesn't make any goddamn sense!" Elizabeth ignored her. She had taken yet another of the senior engineers aside, giving instructions Meryl couldn't hear, and the man ran for the hall behind them toward the interior of the plant.
"Everyone get out!" Elizabeth ordered, her low voice making an impressively commanding bellow as she hurried back to the exit, following the rest of the workers. "The plant is becoming dangerously unstable!"
Meryl leapt forward and seized the other woman's wrist, halting her progress.
"Where's Vash?" Meryl demanded, again. Elizabeth turned back around, yanking her wrist out of Meryl's grasp as she glared down at the smaller woman. Everything was wrong with Elizabeth now, her mouth lined and eyes ablaze with hatred.
"What is he to you, anyway?" Elizabeth asked her, angrily.
"My job!" shouted Meryl, equally angry.
For a moment, the other woman just stared at her. Then she burst out laughing. With Elizabeth's low voice, the laughter was rich and rang out loudly enough to rival even the klaxon.
"You honestly believe that, don't you?" said Elizabeth, shaking her head scathingly as she stared down at Meryl.
"What?" asked Meryl, utterly confused, her anger momentarily forgotten in the face of this baffling statement. But Elizabeth didn't explain the comment further.
"Get out of here now, if you value your life," she warned Meryl.
"And what about Vash's?"
Elizabeth might not value his life... But Meryl found that she did.
"Fine," said Elizabeth, baring her teeth in a wolf-like snarl. "Stay, then! Stay and die with—" Her jaw snapped shut on the end of the sentence, but Meryl already knew what it was.
Die with him!
She gaped in total disbelief at the other woman, but Elizabeth just stared her down with those furious eyes, daring her to say something. The situation was just wrong, this woman was all wrong—Meryl was sure now of Elizabeth's intent to kill Vash, and it seemed she was willing to destroy the plant along with him. Meryl's fingers curled into fists, and her breath hissed out between clenched teeth, and every muscle in her body tensed.
And she lost her temper. Meryl reached up and seized Elizabeth by those idiotic pouffed shoulders of the dress she wore and pulled her off-balance, throwing the woman down with her back against the nearest desk-console. Elizabeth gave a high-pitched scream and beat ineffectively at Meryl's arms with her fists. Meryl grabbed the huge ruby brooch on Elizabeth's collar, twisting it in her grip, tightening the fabric around the woman's throat until Elizabeth choked for breath.
"What have you done?" Meryl shrieked.
"Ma'am, no!" cried Milly, wrapping long arms around Meryl's entire torso, hauling her backwards and away from the other woman. Elizabeth slid to the floor, coughing.
"You're insane!" gasped Elizabeth, standing unsteadily as she pulled at her collar. "You're both fucking crazy! You deserve each other!" she screamed, racing for the exit without looking back.
Milly put Meryl down on her feet again, but still held solidly to the smaller woman's elbow.
"Ma'am, we have to go!" said Milly, desperately. "We have to aid in the evacuation, get people to safety!"
"You go," said Meryl, peeling Milly's fingers from around her arm. Milly looked perplexed, almost angry, and tried to grab her elbow again. Meryl retreated further from Milly's grasp and had a sudden flash of inspiration: "Get people behind the steamer," she said. "It's heavy enough to withstand even this kind of explosion, and there's room for everyone—the whole city."
"But Ma'am—"
"Go!" Meryl ordered, pointing toward the exit, already moving in the opposite direction. "I'm going for Vash!" She went through the door at the back of the control room and ran for the end of the hall, where she had last seen Vash turn the corner, only then realizing that she had only the vaguest idea of where she was going. But she was going to find him. Meryl took long strides down the empty metal corridors, her boots making loud, echoing footfalls as she ran.
Meryl's mind was racing. Something had happened between the time Vash had followed Elizabeth around that corner and the time the woman had returned, alone, to the control room. Elizabeth looked like she had met the Angel of Death himself, and Vash... Vash was missing. Elizabeth had done something, Meryl was sure of it, had compromised the plant somehow, and now Vash was gone, lost somewhere in an apparently labyrinthine building that was only minutes from a catastrophic meltdown.
Meryl thought suddenly of their last real conversation. What had she said to him, then?
This time, I'll let you drown.
She broke into a dead sprint.