Back at camp the team of abnormal-friendly researchers they'd hired to assist the operation were rushing around, so involved in the tasks they'd been set that they barely registered Magnus and Tesla's return. Something had obviously cropped up. Helen headed straight for the command tent, where Will was stood hanging over one of the techies – an abnormal called Norma, if she wasn't mistaken – reading the screen in front of them. It was hard to miss the girl when she insisted on dying her hair bright neon pink. The flap of tent fabric drew Will's keen attention in an instant, onto that slight frown of concern now hovering on his boss's face.
"How'd it go?" he asked, before Tesla followed her in.
Her fingers slipped into the tops of her canvas pockets as she stepped within range, "She'll need regular check-ups but we've stabilised her condition."
The use of 'we' – and not in the royal sense – piqued Will's interest immediately. He straightened up, mirroring Helen's stance until she unconsciously withdrew her hands.
"There was a cardiac arrhythmia," she gestured openly as she explained, "Something had placed a severe stress on its nervous system, so I administered a beta-blocker to re-set her pulmonary rhythm…" a smile ghosted on her face, "and she… seemed to quite enjoy the magnetic massage."
Will followed the tip of her head towards Tesla with a questioning look, but as usual the vampire was feeling unhelpful and didn't look like he wanted to elaborate.
"What, you thinking of going into physiotherapy now?" the psychiatrist jibed.
Tesla shot him a withering look sharpened with a bitter smile, as he reached for the lone bottle of wine on the side – his only ration, and sole concession on these missions, "Sorry Junior. I'm sure you're just dying for the experience, but I only take on select, private clients," he leered in Magnus' direction. His mood noticeably improving at the sound of Will's disparaging sigh, even if it did earn him a roll of the eyes from Helen as well. There was an audibly supressed giggle in the vicinity though – Norma, it seemed, found it amusing too – and the sign of his shenanigans being appreciated by someone in the room only encouraged Tesla's smug self-satisfaction.
Head shaking, Will leaned back against the table and rested his arm on the back of Norma's chair, "So you tagged her with the tracking device?"
Helen nodded.
"I'll go ahead and arrange for a series of routine checks with Abdel and Mohammad then."
"Good, make them every month."
She could tell from the way her old protégé was standing that there was more on his mind, probably whatever had set the rest of the camp into a spin.
"Any news?" she asked, with another nod in the direction of the computer Norma was working from.
He flicked a brief glance at the vampire screwing the cork back into the bottle of wine, distracted by just how unconcerned Tesla appeared; lounging on the camping chair – glass in hand – as if it were actually comfortable. Never was a team player, Will mused briefly, before addressing the rather pressing point.
"As it just so happens…" he began, demeanour shifting from the cautious observer to that of a leader, uncrossing his arms to take up a tablet and tapping on it to select the correct files. "Henry's sent in some more reports about the other disturbances, and then…" he looked to her, passing over the notepad, and then gesturing at it, "this."
Helen pressed play on the online video, concentrating on the footage: a group of men in camo-style gear, some pretty impressive calibres hanging from their shoulders and waists, all of them in the prime of life. They were speaking Arabic – far from unusual for East Africa – mocking, gloating. The bandanas around their necks couldn't hide their excitement, their wide white grimaces of pleasure, as a large abnormal, the size of a bear, was brought into their circle. The creature – similar to a Haileorus, but she couldn't identify it off the top of her head – roared at its antagonists, as they tied it to a steel post: now it really was starting to remind Helen on the bear-baiting she'd once witnessed in her youth.
From the seat Nikola's eyes had zeroed in on her, or rather the video, with interest at the unusual sound – and not just the tortured cries of pain. Waiting only a moment before sidling up behind her, he frowned in consideration at the rather Sanctuary/SCIU-like weapons being deployed for their own amusement. Zapping the creature, the figures laughed as it howled, as it attempted to get at them, before the crack which followed ignition changed frequencies and the creature promptly fell down dead – as though someone had merely hit a switch.
Watching, as he had many times before, Will caught the resigned twinge of sympathy in his boss's steely gaze, the unusually sombre countenance Tesla could only seem to manage when something important or complex came along to test him. Yeah, you always knew when things were bad when the egotistical pain in the ass that was Nikola Tesla had gone quiet. Or if Magnus started pressing her lips together like that.
It was a horrible video. Nothing but cruelty for their own entertainment, and the weapons, well, that was the most worrying thing of all.
"May I?" Tesla asked her, open palm awaiting the notepad expectantly.
She nodded and handed it over, briefly casting a knowing gaze towards Will.
"Can that weapon..." she began, turning towards the vampire who was standing a little closer than she'd anticipated, "is it emitting an electro-magnetic pulse?"
One which could have over-loaded the magnetically-resistant Sand Ray, she was suggesting, without killing it like the less resistant abnormal on the video.
"Yeah," Nikola didn't look at her at all, focused on skipping to the relevant parts of the video – he was avoiding confrontation, big time, Will thought to himself. Tesla, though, seemed to sense she was waiting for more of an explanation, and so started to fill by way of a diversion: "In effect. That's what all sparks do. Only this is amplifying its effects, turning your garden-variety by-product into a central part of the weapon."
It was a little late for a smokescreen of droll turns of phrase however, she'd already clocked the delay in his response. Twenty-seven years and a baby together, made Helen a lot quicker in registering the little things - Nikola too, actually. In fact, it was hard to purposefully hide anything from each other when they'd been a couple longer than most people were married.
"Nikola…"
His back prickled a bit at the use of that tone, but he didn't let it show save for the momentary flinch of distraction as he worked. It didn't take a genius to know that if he looked up right now, the two grown-ups in the room would have their arms crossed, and the newbie would be all goo-goo-eyed and lost in a sea of secret code; a code like only people who'd known each other for decades could muster.
"…is this… looking a little familiar to you?"
The arch tone hazarding a pretty accurate guess wasn't as angry as it used to be, back in the days when she'd been oh so very sure, at every turn, that he was about to disappoint her with yet another mad scheme. Nowadays it was almost expectant. The kind of knowing, nagging voice of someone who knows they're going to have the pleasure of saying 'I told you so', later on.
On Helen's part, it was the hesitation, the absence of complaint that she was 'always so ready to believe the worst in him' – the hissing intake of breath – which actually started to worry her.
"Weeeell…"
"Oh my God. Every time!" Will burst out at his minute confession, not needing to hear the rest to join the dots, "I swear, I have been cleaning out the leftover hell-spawn of your 'genius' brain-children for the last twenty years…"
Nikola was about to retort with some viperous snark when Helen jumped in with one of her particularly crisp British reminders of who was in charge: "Er, gentlemen. Let's not get into another round of that debate please." Sensing he was done with the tablet and merely using it as a metaphorical shield, she reclaimed the device from Nikola's grasp – forcing his attention back onto the group.
With nothing left to hide behind he stared William down sourly… as much for the fact that, often as he protested his innocence, he knew old Huggybear had a point. So many of the ideas which had grown on the fat of SCIU funding had been twisted and modified, completed and deployed, once he'd left. No matter how much they sabotaged, no matter how hard they tried - the dog fence had only been the start.
It was something he'd had to live with since he'd thrown in his lot with Helen, with the Sanctuary. Before, he had never had to face the long-term consequences of his schemes – not really, not once the major crisis was over. Sure things came back to bite him on the ass from time to time, like the college-brat vamps, or bending over backwards for the Queen of the Damned, but that was all par for the course – you picked yourself up, brushed yourself down, and moved on. At least that's what he had done, all those times before. Before someone bound him to a place, to the people who inhabited it – gave him a reason to stand and face it, to grin and bear the idiots, and boredom, and evil of the world, whether it came from within, or without… still didn't mean he had to like it though.
"It's a simple enough modification," he complained sharply, "they could've worked it out from any number of the weapons you and Heinrich have left lying around all these years."
"Simple enough for these guys?" Will asked.
"Not unless they've got an amplifier that's resistant to a couple of thousand volts, no."
"Can you find an effective way to stop them?" Helen cut in – Nikola hadn't called Henry Heinrich in a good long while, and though the intelligent question had distracted him she didn't hold up any hope that it would do so for long.
Tesla stood a little straighter, turning to answer with one hand sweeping past his zipper-jacket, onto his hip, "Of course."
"Then do it."
It was an order, and he listened to their captain like a good little soldier, even if it was with the slight exasperation of someone who really wanted to carry on justifying themselves.
Sure in the knowledge that he would do as she asked, Magnus didn't wait for him to start. She turned back to her second in command, and the newest member of their troupe, who was currently gawping at them as inconspicuously as possible.
"Norma, keep looking online for any more of these videos," the girl nodded in response, and in her periphery Magnus could see Nikola had shifted to get on with his task, taking the wine bottle with him. Which left her with; "Will…"
He understood instantly, even with the barest tilt of her chin, that she wanted him to come with her, and follow her to the other side of the tent – well out of Norma's earshot.
"If these criminals are the reason for the Sand Ray's altered behaviour," she began earnestly, "are they merely good sport in their path… or being actively hunted down?"
Will sighed in sympathy – it had crossed his mind the minute she'd so much as hinted it. "To be honest we haven't got enough information on them Magnus." He shrugged, "Are they mercenaries for hire letting off a little steam, or an anti-abnormal militant group? What worries me," he pointed in thought, "are those weapons. You heard Tesla; chances are they're not kitted out to make this. So where did a group of gang-bangers, hell, even a group of professional mercenaries, in the Sahara desert, get those specific weapons?"
Magnus thought about it a moment. Will was right, the weapons were the key. She very much suspected this went deeper than it seemed… and from the look on his face, so did Will.
"The only way to know is to get in close," her once-protégé suggested.
Helen held his eyes in that ironclad way that would not shy away from what needed to be done – but he could detect nervousness in the press of her lips, an apprehension at the prospect which she was trying to deny. In truth, her stomach had done a quick lurch at the notion; the simple, singular, selfish thought that she shouldn't be putting herself in the firing line again quite so soon.
It had been the same after Ashley had been born. A maternal instinct to make certain you'd be coming home to the tiny creature that still needed you. Somehow, knowing that, made her all the more stubborn to overcome it, to act as though it were just another day-in-the-life and nothing had changed. She was, after all, still head of the Sanctuary, and she always preferred to lead by example.
"Do we have any lead on their location?"
"It's okay Magnus, one of the team can go."
He'd started doing this a lot, she realised: taking on the responsibilities which he detected she secretly wished she had a little help with. It's all he'd ever wanted to do really, ever since he'd gotten his head around the whole abnormal thing… he just hadn't been ready. Nowadays though? Well, Will had proved himself too many times for her not to honour his offers of help with a little more acceptance.
"We have got locals on board."
"Right," she said, acknowledging the slight bone he'd thrown to save her loss of face, but it didn't come across as happy, "they'll be more familiar with the area - less conspicuous."
He nodded, pulling that expression which said there was more to it than that and they both knew it, "…and you've got a daughter to go home to."
There was a twinge of bitterness in his voice which made Helen flinch automatically, no matter how hard she tried not to. It wasn't aimed at her. It was the simple loss of his own child, his son, brought up afresh, and she understood that pain – acutely. She also understood that though having a baby in the Sanctuary had brought it all back to him, he didn't want to talk about it now: not here, and maybe not even with her. So with a sympathetic look she said nothing, and filed that little nugget of concern away again for another time.
"Make sure it's someone whose loyalties we're sure of Will-"
"Don't worry," he cheered, "I already eliminated Tesla."
"Will," she warned – her sense of humour in that department had lessened somewhat over the years, at about the same rate as she'd become more and more certain of Nikola's commitment. Almost as if she thought that by merely mentioning it they'd somehow encourage the vampire to start planning for World Domination all over again, and force that other shoe to finally drop. None of that had ever stopped Will from taking a shot though, even after he'd stopped actually worrying about Tesla turning to the dark side and betraying her.
Zimmerman threw up his hands at his sides, a faux-affronted lilt to his mouth, "I'm kidding."
She smiled mysteriously, "Volunteers only Will – and make sure they send in regular reports. We'll go from there once we have more information."
Author's Note:
Yeah, I've been majorly distracted by this fic. :)
Big thanks to carmesdi, Guest and trekmomma, as well as those of you who faved/followed! I'm sure if any of you write you'll know how much that means to me. Please do take time to check out Immortals All… for some Five-related fun. There'll be a new chapter there after I've published the next one for Vienna in Springtime (which is being delayed by historical research and nice weather – I just HAD to know what types of trees were planted on the Ringstrasse! XP)
carmesdi – I just love tie-ins, I can't resist them when I read them in other people's fics it just makes me squee with fan-glee. :)
07/04/14 Update: some comments may no longer make sense because I changed a few minor things. That is all.