Cosima covered her mouth with her hand. She'd let herself fear the absolute worst. People on DYAD planes had a terrible track record. "Oh my God!"
Delphine touched her hand to the monitor. She'd snuck her laptop into the lab after hours to steal a moment of WiFi before she could be caught. Cosima was still alive, but just barely, by the looks of things. She longed to reach through the screen to brush aside the tears welling in her lined eyes. "I don't have much time, but I had to see you, Cosima, I'm so sorry."
"No, no, hey." Cosima didn't want to spiral into an apology-fest, not yet, at least. "Are you safe? Where did they take you?" The good news was, it didn't look like she'd been harmed.
"Frankfurt, she was telling the truth. A military base, I think." At least it seemed that way. Battle-dressed soldiers greeted her on the tarmac when they'd landed, before she was whisked away to the fortress-like building compound. She couldn't take her eyes off Cosima. She got on a plane she feared she would never leave alive, never having the chance to say goodbye to the woman she'd somehow managed to fall deeply in love with against a barrage of obstacles. She wanted to use every second to take in that face. That face that seemed much paler and hollow since the last time she'd seen her in person. It was worrisome. "Are you feeling side effects from the treatment?"
Of course she didn't know, she was on a plane the whole time. "You kinda missed a lot while you were up there." She dabbed away the tears. Delphine kept looking over her shoulder. It was only a matter of minutes before she'd have to leave to avoid security. Cosima was going to have to give her the Cliff Notes version. The rest would have to come when time was back on their side. "We got Kira back, but uh, there wasn't a treatment, and Ethan, he's gone." That was putting it gently.
Delphine's mouth hung agape for a moment while the blow landed. She definitely missed a lot. Rachel. Merde. The urgency to find a cure was ramped to eleven, and the man who could help them was no longer around. Worst of all, Cosima needed her doctor back, and she was thousands of miles away. "We…we'll keep working, maybe if we can somehow get into the files…"
"You didn't let me get to the good news." Cosima reached for the book, turning to a marked up page. Delphine squinted at the screen, making out a few of the acronyms.
"Where did you get that?"
"Ethan left it for us." She thumbed through a few more pages, pausing to trace a diagram with her finger. "He sketched it out in a book no one would think twice about opening, it's-it's so freakin' genius."
God, how she missed those hands. She loved how they flew higher the more excited Cosima felt. She caught a glint from a flashlight coming down the hall. "Cosima, I have to go." If she had her way, she'd talk through the night, planning their next move. "I will call you again when I find a secure way to reach you. Please, just wait for my call." She didn't need Cosima's safety to be compromised on top of every other crisis they were wading through. She kissed her hand, touching it to the screen. "Je t'aime." The window flicked to black. Just like that, she was gone again with an uncertain return.
"Against all odds, you found your sisters, and you fought for your own. Now, I'm counting on that fierce loyalty, because what I'm about to share with you can put me at grave personal risk. " Marion had certainly delivered on her promise for answers. One more clone, 400 attempts in the making. DYAD found a way to carry on without Ethan after all. Marion was invested, alright, but Sarah still had her lingering doubts. She'd taken betrayal from all sides, and Cosima didn't have time for a dead end.
"I just met my 8-year old sister, and you're tellin' me there's more?" It was a long way down the rabbit hole, and Sarah was coming up with a far more questions than answers. She ran her hand through her hair while she calculated her next move. It was time to fight harder. "If you want my loyalty, Marion, I need you to bring back Delphine. She's the only one left who can help Cosima." It was her only bargaining chip, and she would not hesitate to use it on her dying sister. She had to look beyond her past betrayals; selling them out to Leekie, hijacking Kira's cells, and remember she did it all to help her. Cosima needed Delphine to live, and Sarah wouldn't settle for any less.
Marion bet on the right horse. That unwavering allegiance was going to be absolutely vital. But first, she had to break the bad news. "Unfortunately, Delphine's reassignment was Rachel's doing. It will be difficult for me to reverse it without drawing suspicion." She shot down the proposal immediately. She didn't approve of Rachel's actions, but she was going to have to work overtime to cover her tracks in this affair enough as it was. "I'll bring her back as soon as I can, but I assure you were have our very best working on a treatment for Cosima." Her brilliant mind was a potential resource for their cause, but they had to cure her first.
"Your very best, like Dr. Nealon?" His was a name she would not soon forget.
"Dr. Leekie may be gone, but the Neolutionist virus plaguing DYAD seem determined to keep his memory alive." It was one of the many crises Marion had to juggle in her position. "There are still good people here, Sarah, and they want to help. Just like you."
"Yeah? Well right now'd be a good time to show it."
"We've only just begun, Sarah." She rose from the table, beckoning Sarah to follow.
"I still don't understand, I thought Topside was in charge of the whole ruddy operation." The battle to get just one rung above DYAD was hard enough.
"You won't find Topside in any company directory, we steer the DYAD group, with many other multi-nationals." Working in the shadows made it easier to manipulate their enemies. Marion would keep that to herself, for now.
"You're a Cabal." Terrific. A secret organization running a secret experiment with secret motives.
"Yes. Securing monopolies on a future that embraces genetic engineering, synthetic biology, a future that I passionately believe is inevitable"
"And if you don't profit, someone else will." Money, of course. The windfall from patents, the inevitable book, or movie or whatever, of course it was the root of their cause.
"Yes. But it's not only about profit. There are other forces at work, Sarah. I had evidence of another agenda, but I couldn't verify it without your mother's help." This was the crucial moment for Marion. If that wasn't enough to keep Sarah on her side, then she was as good as lost.
Mrs. S. It definitely got Sarah's attention. What the hell did she get her in this time? She followed Marion down the next flight of stairs.
"The military never shut down Project LEDA. It was compartmentalized into two autonomous programs. While DYAD carried the females to term, the military carried the males. This is project Castor."
Males. More clones, this whole time? Sarah approached the door carefully. Several inches of ballistic glass between her, and the back of the so-called Castor clone. She noticed the bullet holes, as he grunted through a pull-up, and turned to face the pair. Holy shite. "I know him."
"You do?" Marion raised an eyebrow. Perhaps she would learn something today as well.
"Not-not him." She shook her head. "A Prolethean. He tried to come after me." She shook off the memory of that harrowing night in the diner. "He knew about Kira." How a clone found himself in the middle of a clone-curious cult was rather troubling.
"Then you understand the urgency of the matter, Sarah." There were two competing forces at loggerheads. Sarah took off down the hall. She couldn't look at the captive clone any longer. "You can't run from this." Her hushed tone echoed off the stark white walls.
"Just give me a bloody minute." She reached for her phone. She had to tell Cosima. She would know how to handle this bombshell. After their talk that morning, Sarah was just terrified she wouldn't be around long enough to help.
"It's still goin' to voicemail." Felix hung up his Clone Phone for the umpteenth time.
"We have to keep trying, if Sarah's with Marion she—" Cosima cut herself off with another coughing fit. "She can use it." She finished, wiping a spot of blood from the corner of her mouth. Cosima wanted to leverage their new information as quickly as possible. She'd already sent Scott a few snapshots, but perhaps Marion's position could speed things along.
"Cosima…" He was interrupted by a rapid knock at the door. Alison.
"Sorry I'm late, Donnie had to get the kids to school." Alison balanced a few trays on her forearms.
"I have a stove, you know." Felix shut the door behind her.
"Yes, you use it for your sweaters." She set the trays on the counter, moving to make space in the refrigerator while Felix peeked at the contents.
"Alison!" He peeled back the foil. "Pot brownies? Really?"
"Many studies suggest they help build an appetite and give pain relief." Two things Cosima desperately needed, even if she refused to acknowledge the need for help.
"Just checked the pharmaceuticals section of The Joy of Cooking, then?" Dire circumstances or none, Felix wouldn't miss the opportunity to rib her a little.
"I found the recipe on the internet, and got my…supplies from Ramon."
Felix took a nibble, and was impressed with the results. "Right, I'll be needing his card, then."
"Those are for Cosima." Alison batted his hand with a spatula. "Where's Helena?" She noted the Ukranian's sudden absence.
"Gone." Felix shrugged. "Must've left this mornin', too much sisterhood to handle. She'd be bloody pissed she missed the food." His eyes wandered to Cosima, slowly trudging her way across the loft to the couch. "Oi, what part of rest did you not understand?"
"That was before we found the cipher." Cosima's breaths drew slower, more deliberate. The short trip felt like a thousand-mile march. "Hear anything from Sarah?" She looked to Alison, hoping at least one of them could make contact.
"Not since last night." She shook her head, preparing a plate for Cosima. "Wait, what about the Cipher?" she quickly held up her hands. "I don't want to know." Plausible deniability. She had to assume DYAD was watching them at all times. Worst-case scenario, she didn't want to have important information that could be squelched out of her. Call it paranoia, she just wanted to keep her sisters safe.
Cosima was too busy typing away at her laptop, sending samples of their hopeful cipher to Scott for analysis. She had the solution in her hands, but no idea how to use them. It was beyond frustrating for someone so used to having all the answers. Her phone buzzed to life beside her. "Sarah? Are you okay?"
Sarah jammed her finger in her ear, trying to overcome the weak reception. "Cos, there's a whole bloody rabbit hole" She was trying to find the words, but they just wouldn't come out.
"Okay, okay, just slow down, dude, what happened?"
"Male. Clones. Cosima."