"It has to be simple. Enough to blend in without looking weird." Cosima looked around the lab for something they could use, her emphatic gestures tamed by the progression of her disease.
"Something sharp? She'll have surgical instruments around." Scott rifled through a couple of drawers.
"That's a start." Cosima moved as fast her body would allow. "But we need more. What if she's like, tied down?" She couldn't exactly overpower anyone with a manual weapon in that situation.
"She'd need something to do it for her." Scott tried to keep up. Her body may have been weak, but her mind was still going a million miles an hour.
"Something with pressure." Her eyes landed on her oxygen tank. Too much pressure. Blow-up-a-room pressure. Just above it, on the wall. "Fire extinguisher." Her eyes lit up. Crazy science. "We rig it. Instead of shooting foam, we shoot something smaller. Faster. Her hands were going again.
Scott picked a pencil out of his lab coat pocket.
"Bingo." Cosima smiled for the first time in ages. A simple modification, and they would be off to the races. Where they would go, what they would do…that was something they could figure out when the time came.
"Just one thing." No, Scott wasn't worried about the device. "How do we tell Sarah?" A piece of equipment was only as good as its operator. It was science lab 101.
"They have to let me see her." Cosima tried bargaining with Martin before, maybe it would actually be of some use. She knew too well that DYAD wasn't always a keeper of their word.
"I have an idea." Scott headed for the door.
"Dude, where are you going?"
"Making sure I stay on the case." He had an idea, and it was just crazy enough to work. Now, to find Martin.
Sarah kept thinking back to the one-way mirror. Rachel was dangling Kira in front of her, reminding Sarah just how powerless she was here. It wasn't what she had in mind when she demanded to see her daughter. Stone cold bitch.
"You got what you want. When's Cosima gettin' her transplant?" Sarah had been poked and prodded in more ways than she cared to share. She'd lost track of the hours she'd been in the bloody building. So much was out of her hands.
"Cosima's procedure is imminent." Dr. Nealon jerked her arm back in his direction. He still had plenty of labs to draw, and tests to probe. They had their white whale, and they damn well were going to take their time to get everything right.
Whether Sarah believed him was another story. Truth was a loose term to DYAD. And yet, she was forced to have faith that they weren't complete monsters. After all, to let Cosima die, was to let their experiment fail. "Do what you want to me. Just…keep her alive." She was the science. She had the answers. She was absolutely lost without her.
Cosima insisted on walking to Kira's room. She refused to let Rachel see her defeated by a disease she allowed to perpetuate. As expected, she was just outside Kira's door, waiting for the exhausted scientist.
"How are you feeling?" Rachel asked, as devoid of emotion as she was the last time she'd inquired, bursting in on Cosima and Delphine.
"Amazing. I should be in a vitamin commercial." Cosima defiantly silenced a cough, trying to maintain her composure in front of the arrogant puppeteer. She was tired of being a bargaining chip in DYADs greedy quest for information.
"You have fifteen minutes." Rachel sneered. "You'll be needing your rest."
"How very generous of you." Cosima wheezed. The constant reminder of how little energy she had to fight. Still, it was all the time she needed to get Kira on board with their bizarre plan to spring Sarah free.
"Fourteen minutes." A security guard opened the door on Rachel's order, and ushered Cosima inside.
"Auntie Cosima!" Kira beamed, overjoyed to see a friendly face.
"Hey, monkey." Cosima gave her the best hug she could muster. The skype sessions with Sarah didn't do her justice. In person, this child was a radiant beam of goodness.
"Is my bone marrow making you better?"
"It will soon enough." Cosima couldn't tell her the whole truth. She didn't need to know her marrow was being held hostage. She settled in on the bed, grateful to have a moment of rest. "You were really brave, Kira, thank you."
"It didn't hurt, I already feel better." She shrugged, turning her attention to the coloring utensils on the bed.
"That's good. That's good, I'm glad to hear it. You're a superhero." She managed a smile, stealing a glance at one of the surveillance cameras. The clock was ticking. "Um, you wanna do some science?"
"Hello, Arthur." Helena greeted the detective, having already destroyed the donut package on his kitchen counter.
"Helena?" Sarah hadn't said a word about her in a long time. "What are you doing here?"
"I had a long trip. I was hungry." The answer left much to be desired. She was a detective's worst nightmare
"Yeah? Where you coming from?"
"I went to see my sestra, she was not at home." Sarah was nowhere to be found at Mrs. S's place. She went to the next safe place she could think of
"I mean, before that." By the looks of her dress, it was either the Prolethean Ranch, or a Colonial Williamsburg reenactment party.
"Where is Sarah?" She dug into his cereal container. This was going to be a one-way conversation.
Despite his Clone Club membership, Art was not equipped to handle a surprise visit from Helena. Not by a long shot. Felix couldn't pick up the phone fast enough.
Scott paced around the corner from the grand glass office. Rachel was gone, but her man Martin was minding the house. Perfect. "Uh-uhm, Martin?" He approached the desk.
"Mr. Smith." He rose cautiously. Considering their last encounter, he couldn't be too careful. He did not expect Scott to wrap him in a bear hug.
"I'm sorry." Scott didn't even hug his mother this well. "Cosima's my friend, I just got carried away." His hand slipped in Martin's suit pocket, slyly groping for his passcard.
"It's…it's alright." Martin tentatively returned the embrace as robotically as his DYAD-programmed self could.
"And if there's anything I can do for Cosima, or Sarah, or even Kira, please, just let me know." Scott kept his arms on Martin's shoulders. God, was he selling it.
"Right." Martin backed away a step. He was willing to do anything to never experience that kind of human warmth again. "Why don't you assist Dr. Nealon in his procedure? Tell Cosima to think of it as our gesture of good faith."
"Thank you." Scott pulled him in for one more deliciously awkward hug before breaking off for the lab, all access passcard safely tucked in his pocket.
Force. Mass times acceleration. So simple, a child could grasp it. Certainly not the easiest way out of the room, but the jerry-rigged fire extinguisher was all they had. The measurements were precise, the calculations were sound, all they needed to do was get the damn thing to Sarah's room. Cosima reached for another layer of duct tape, but her legs folded beneath her, too weary to finish the job.
"Cosima…" Scott peeled her trembling body off the floor as she fought to steady herself.
"I'm okay, sorry, I'm okay." She fought back with every last ounce of her waning energy.
"It's not gonna work." He pulled her up to her feet once more.
"It has to work, she needs us." They were the only people in position to help. They weren't allowed to fail. Bust out of DYAD together. It was the only option Cosima would accept.
"Cosima…hey." She was losing the battle against gravity. The mad science experiment had pushed her to the brink. "Let me do this." He flashed Martin's card.
"Where'd you get that?" One did not simply procure an all-access DYAD pass.
"We're only gonna get one chance." He'd laid out his cards. He was all in for Cosima, no matter the cost.
"They'll ruin you, Scott." She didn't want him to be another casualty in this war. She couldn't afford to lose another one of the few friends she had.
"Let them try." His eyes wandered to the clock on the wall. He was going to have to move it if he wanted to beat everyone to the OR. He helped Cosima back to bed. She'd given everything she had. It was up to him to pass the torch to Sarah. "I'll come get you when it's over, and we'll get the hell out of here, okay?"
"Deal, man." She hugged him gently. Words couldn't to justice to her gratitude to have him in her corner. He'd never seemed so confident. So sure. They were going to pull this off. "Tell Sarah I said hey."
"What kind of crisis of Faith?" With or without Felix, Art was still hitting roadblocks.
"He was stealing babies. So I put babies inside of him." Helena replied with a mischievous grin.
Felix had never been more relieved to hear his clone phone go off. "Bloody Christ, thank you." He mumbled, stepping out of the room to answer. "Cal? What's going on?" He tried to be mindful of his tone with Helena nearby. He wasn't ready for the onslaught of information that followed. Secret DYAD Powersuit springing Sarah and Kira free, Cosima too, could he fetch Alison? Like that wasn't enough to swallow. "And you're sure?" He confirmed, spinning on his heel back towards the other room. He didn't care if he had to drive Alison on a pedicab, buck naked in the freezing cold if it meant his sister was safe. He'd probably pick up a few more clients for his troubles. Actually…. He entertained the thought for a fleeting moment. No. Not the proper circumstances.
"Art, keep feeding her. Meet at my flat in an hour." He buttoned his coat all the way before looking to Helena. He had to give her something. "Sarah will be there waiting."
Moments after Scott's exit, Cosima was greeted by a new seemingly all-powerful woman, flanked by her own set of men. She couldn't help but notice one looked horribly out of place. The flannel and beard was better suited for the hipster bar around the corner, not the fifth floor of the DYAD.
"Marion Bowles." The suit introduced herself. "I must admit, I am an avid fan of your work." The warm smile was off-putting after what Cosima had seen that day.
"Okay." She replied through a cough. The name was meaningless to her, but damn it all if Marion didn't look the part of someone who actually had a say in the mess she was currently buried under.
"We've arranged a ride home for you, you can leave whenever you're ready."
"What about Sarah and Kira?" Together. That was the plan.
"Arranging their discharge as we speak." It would be easier to rebel if that smile wasn't so damn comforting. "Do excuse me." She silenced her ringing phone. "I look forward to our next meeting, Ms. Niehaus. Get some rest." She strode off to her next problem to solve, leaving Cal alone with Cosima.
"Uh, thanks." She turned her attention to Cal, eyeing him suspiciously. How did she know she could trust him?
What was the thing Felix told him to say? "Just one, I'm a few, no family too. Who am I?"
"Is Sarah safe?" The relief washed over her. Finally, an ally in a high place.
"Sarah, Kira, Alison, we're taking care of everything." He confirmed, helping her gather the essentials. She'd been living in the lab since her illness took a turn, there really wasn't much to salvage. Her laptop, some files, and a spare oxygen canister. She was ready.
"Maybe, uh, send Felix to get Alison, she doesn't do well with strangers." Of anyone they could send, he was the least likely to get maced.
"It's handled, don't worry." He didn't expect someone so sick to be worried about so many other people.
"And Scott? I don't know what Marion can do, but she's gotta help him." She wouldn't be much of a friend if she didn't use the one chance she had to repay the favor he'd granted her.
"She's got people." He helped her along to the limo waiting downstairs. "Let's take care of you first."