Wash stands outside of the infirmary, looking in through the room's solitary window. He can see the scowl on Rhodium's face even from here. The boy doesn't even try to hide his abhorrence for Dr. Han, the woman he calls his mother, as he helps her prepare Silver for surgery. Wash knows this must be hard for him. Rhodi hasn't just had family die because of Dr. Han, more often than not he's had to watch it happen from up close. Wash can't imagine it'd be easy to follow her orders now.
Still, it's the only way to save Silver, so he's dealing with it. He just isn't bothering to hide his feelings on the matter.
Dr. Han doesn't seem to mind, of course. As long as her instructions are being followed to the letter, she doesn't care that her assistant hates her. Her only reaction to Rhodium's feelings, if any, is mild amusement. She seems to find it funny that these things she views as less than human, nothing more than tools used to further her work, could think she's wronged them.
Wash hates the amused smirk he can see on the woman's face. He thinks it would be nice to remove it with his fist. He has a feeling, though, that he'd be far down on a very long list of people looking to do the same.
"Hey," he hears behind him. Wash turns his back on the window and sees and angry Yttrium and a depressed Grif and Simmons. "Nick said you wanted to see us," the mechanic continues, glaring over his shoulder.
Wash nods. "Dr. Han says Silver's procedure will take at least five hours," he begins. "That's how long you have to make something we can use to track her ship without her noticing."
A small grin begins to form on Yttri's face and her eyes finally fix on the agent before her. "Planning to go back on your deal?" she asks.
"I agreed to let her go," Wash says with a shrug. "That doesn't mean I can't guarantee we'll be able to bring her back again. It might not be completely honorable, but…" he shrugs again as he trails off.
Yttri laughs outright at his words. "That's fine by me," she says. "I don't care about honoring any deal with her, as long as that bitch pays in the end."
"She will," Simmons says, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We'll make sure of it."
"Yeah," Grif says assuredly. Wash can't recall if he's every heard the Hawaiian soldier sound this determined about anything before. "We won't let her get away with this."
Wash merely nods at the trio. "You don't have a lot of time," he reminds. "Get going."
Yttri nods and glances back at the sim-troopers. "Come on, Cyborge," she says, ignoring Grif entirely as she starts walking down the hall.
"Hey, wait up," the other red says rather unenthusiastically as he slowly follows the pair.
Wash turns back and looks through the window again. His eyes fix on Dr. Han with a glare. She shouldn't be allowed to look so calm, so unconcerned with what's happening. She shouldn't get the peace of mind that comes with knowing she'll soon be free. Wash smiles slightly. At least it isn't true. She may think she's going free, but he won't let her get far. He thinks that, in the past, he may have felt bad for a trick like this. But Agent Washington has seen enough bad people get away with bad things, and good people pay for the actions of the bad, to no longer care about that grey area of morality. Dr. Han will pay, and Silver will live. At the end of the day, that's all that matters.
"Why are you following us?" Yttri snaps, glancing over her shoulder.
Grif jumps when he hears her speak, though he quickly tries to cover it up with his usual lackadaisical attitude. "Hmm?" he says, like he's just now noticed Simmons and the mechanic are there. "I'm not following you."
"You walked to the hangar with us and you've been standing there doing nothing and watching us work ever since we got here," Yttri argues. "That's what following is."
"Meh, must be some sort of coincidence," Grif shrugs, laying back on a crate that had once held supplies.
"Why are you here, Grif?" Simmons demands. Grif grins at how annoyed his teammate sounds.
"I'm just trying to help," he argues defensively, or at least as defensively as one can while beginning to doze off.
"By following us and doing nothing?" Yttri asks, one eyebrow raised skeptically.
"I'm not following you, I'm following Simmons," Grif explains. "That's my job on red team; know where Simmons is. That way, when Sarge is looking for someone to do something, I can tell him where to find Simmons and go back to my nap."
"Sounds like a real efficient system," Yttri says sarcastically. She turns away from the chubby soldier and focuses back on her work. She already has the tracking device in hand; a small, flat square of metal that can match the color of whatever it's touching, currently fixed on a nude brown to match the mechanic's fingers. She just needs to find the right place to hide it.
"Dr. Han didn't focus her studies on technology, but she's still a genius. Not only does she understand almost everything about how all of her equipment works, but she has very keen observational skills," she explains. Yttri knows that if the device isn't hidden well it will be found, and then Dr. Han will escape.
She won't let that happen.
"It should definitely be inside the ship," Simmons says. "If it's on the outside there's a chance it could fall off or get damaged."
"Radiation could be an issue too," Yttri agreed. "The transmitter is sensitive. The inside of the ship is shielded against energy spikes, but not the outside. The only way to ensure the tracker stays working is to keep it inside the ship."
"But Dr. Han's most likely to search the inside," Simmons says.
"Exactly," Yttri nods. "We need to put it somewhere she won't see."
"How about there?" Grif asks. His head is hanging upside down off the side of the crate and he's pointing at a section of wall with a glowing sequence of squares on the inside of the ship. "It's about the same size as one of those squares," he continues. "And they're all different colors, so if it doesn't match perfectly it won't matter."
Yttri looks at the place indicated, then at Simmons, before finally fixing her eyes on Grif. "That… actually makes sense," she says, eyes wide in shock.
"Don't sound so surprised," Grif says with a laugh. "I'm actually pretty good at hiding things. How do you think I've kept Donut away from my chocolate stache for all these years?"
"One talent and you use it to get more food," Simmons scoffs.
"He is right, though," Yttri says thoughtfully. "If we're looking for camouflage, that's really the best place. Hidden in plain sight, as the saying goes." She darts up the ramp and quickly plants the device, staying for a moment to make sure it's working and secure. "I'll leave it inactive for now," she says, holding up the holo-pad it's connected to. "That way mom won't be able to detect any outgoing signals. Once she's been gone for a while we can bring it online and track her anywhere."
"As long as she stays near the ship," Grif adds.
"Right," Yttri agrees, eyes narrowing. "Unfortunately, I don't have anything that can track her without her knowledge. Unless she'd be willing to let me inject her with something, of course, but I doubt she'd fall for that."
"I guess that's it, then," Simmons ventures. "Nothing more we can do but wait."
"Yes," Yttri agrees with a sigh. "Come on, cyborge," she says after a long pause, hooking her arm around Simmons'. "I need to run a tune up on Nick's arm and you're helping."
Simmons nods, doing his best to keep up with the mechanic's fast pace. He glances over his shoulder to ask what Grif's going to do, only to see the other sim-trooper is fast asleep. Simmons rolls his eyes and looks straight again. At least now they aren't being followed.
*Sigh* Ridiculously short chapter is ridiculously short. Sorry about that guys. I got distracted by a few other things. They were awesome things and I don't regret the time spent on them, but I'm still sorry for the short chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and as always feel free to tell me what you think.