"Wait, you told Lord about your research on the Helgrammite?" Lucy asks concerned.
"Yes, I had to give him something to throw him off," Alex explains.
"How exactly did that throw him off?" Kara asks.
"He's never examined a Helgrammite, so he asked me a lot of questions and asked me what kind of testing that I had done. I learned a lot about his methodology from the questions he asked," she explains further. "Oh and he has a genome lab, which surprised me because he's so tech oriented."
"Okay, so you think this will help you evaluate his research?" Lucy questions.
"I hope so," Alex answers.
"Well keep me posted on how it goes tomorrow morning. I have an early editorial meeting, but I'll be available later," Kara says, staring at Alex a moment too long.
"I'll walk you out," Alex says suddenly realizing that Kara wants to talk to her.
"You haven't told her everything Alex, don't do this. Don't lie to her, she trusts you, tell her the truth," Kara advises.
"I will, I just didn't want to do it in front of you, okay?" Alex says a bit embarrassed.
"If you don't tell her, she'll think that you're hiding something," Kara points out.
"I'm not hiding anything," Alex counters. "I'll tell her."
"I may not have super hearing, but I gather there's something more to tonight that Kara wants you to tell me?" Lucy asks crossing her arms and leaning back against the couch.
Sitting down lightly, Alex takes a breath. "Kara's upset because Max kissed me goodnight," she blurts out.
"Oh," Lucy says visibly stunned.
"It was just a good night kiss and before you ask, no, I didn't initiate it. I kissed him goodnight on his cheek," she explains. "Lucy, this was like being undercover, my reaction had to match the tone that I'd set all evening," she adds.
"Okay," Lucy replies exhaling a breath that she didn't realize she was holding. "Thank you for telling me," she adds.
Alex scoots closer to her and slips an arm around her. "You're amazing," she says softly into her hair. "I still can't believe that you got them to pull the Prometheus contract."
Nuzzling into Alex's arms, Lucy let's herself be comforted, but then she remembers that she's got one more thing to tell Alex tonight.
She takes a deep breath and exhales slowly. "Alex, I heard from Hank today," Lucy says softly.
"When is he coming back?" Alex asks immediately, pulling away from her to see her face.
"Uh, I'm not sure. He wouldn't tell me where he was, just that he hasn't located what he's searching for yet," Lucy replies. "But I'm wondering if you have any idea as to why he would be in Peru?" She questions.
"How do you know he's in Peru?" Alex blurts out the question.
"I checked the flight log on the plane today," Lucy answers. "What's in Peru Alex?"
"What the hell is going on Lane? All of my government projects have all been terminated without notice?" Lord yells angrily.
"You need to turn over the remains of The Detonator and all test results and specimens. You have two hours to get everything together and my men will assist you," General Lane explains. "Then you have until the end of the day to gather and turn over the remaining projects. I'm as surprised as you are Mr Lord. I just received word from Washington this morning," he adds.
"Where is everything going to? What lab?" Lord asks, gesturing wildly.
"I think that you know the answer to that Mr Lord," Lane replies stoically.
"Oh, that's perfect! Alex Danvers is behind this, isn't she?" Lord questions.
"Alex Danvers is a scientist, she has no clout in Washington Mr Lord," Lane reminds him. "But the acting Director of the DEO is well versed in Washington politics and she was able to use the Bizarro case against you. Seems no one in DC wants to be associated with the man who practically kidnaps comatose women for private experimentation."
"I didn't do anything that the government isn't doing under cover of Project Cadamus," Lord says with a sneer.
"Project Cadamus doesn't exist as far as Washington is concerned, Mr Lord," Lane reminds him.
"How exactly is that funded General?" Lord asks.
"I'm not at liberty to discuss that matter with you, but perhaps we could find a way to promote our mutual interests in a less official capacity," Lane replies.
Alex takes a deep breath when she sees the caller id on her phone.
"Max, good morning," she says answering the call.
"Good morning Dr Danvers, that was quite the setup. I don't know whether to be impressed or concerned at your little trick last night," Max replies.
"Max, I didn't have anything to do with this, I just found out this morning," Alex replies lying easily to him.
"You almost had me fooled last night, the Helgrammite was the perfect distraction Danvers. Have you even examined one?" He asks angrily.
"Yes, I have, it attacked a DEO agent and was killed," she explains, leaving out the part that she was the agent who was attacked.
"So you've seen the effect of the Hellgrammite venom on the human body?" He asks suddenly interested despite his anger.
"No, the agent wasn't injured in the attack," Alex replies.
"Seriously? You expect me to believe that a DEO agent bested an alien like that?" He scoffs.
"An agent who has carefully studied these aliens and knows their weaknesses would be able to best them on a good day," she replies carefully.
"Wait, it was you?" He blurts out. "Remind me to be more careful around you in the future Agent Danvers," Max replies, no longer remembering why he called her.
Taking advantage of this unforeseen turn in their conversation, Alex replies, "I'll know if your reports aren't complete Max, so don't make me come over there to get the missing ones."
"Oh, you'll have everything, Mata Hari. The last thing I want is any pseudo military types snooping around my lab," he snaps remembering now why he called her.
"Any idea why there are Military vehicles parked in front of Prometheus labs removing files and such?" Cat asks entering the small office and closing the door behind her.
"Uh, do you know why?" Kara asks, not answering the question.
"My contact with the State Department seems to think that Prometheus has lost all of it's government contracts, but the reasons are classified," Cat remarks walking around the room looking at Kara's paintings.
"Hmm, interesting." Kara replies.
Cat turns and carefully scrutinizes her, this maneuver usually will cause Kara enough discomfort that she'll begin spilling whatever it is that she's trying to hide. But this time, Kara sits watching Cat completely calm and unaffected.
"You know," Cat states simply.
"It's classified. How would I know?" Kara retorts.
"What were you looking for yesterday when you were researching Prometheus?" Cat asks her.
"I was looking for a pattern," Kara replies, relieved that Cat has finally asked her something that she can answer. "Look at the contracts that he was awarded from the government over the past five years," she hands Cat the spreadsheet.
"Interesting," Cat says as she reviews the print outs. "This is all public record?" She asks to confirm.
"Yes, the contracts are awarded and there's a list every quarter," Kara replies.
"What were you looking for?" Cat asks cautiously.
"A contract for a detailed analysis of 27-QRX was awarded to Prometheus two years ago. A little over a year later, Maxwell Lord submits a patent for 28-QRZ. The government contracts stipulate that the private labs cannot profit from these contracts, yet Lord circumvented the contract, by creating a new chemical compound," Kara points out. "Now look at how many contracts he's been awarded over the past five years," she adds.
"Kara, this is volatile information. In the wrong hands, this could be quite dangerous," Cat says alarmed. "But you documented your research, correct?"
"Yes, I have a source document, that ties each report back to it's source material," she explains.
"Get Winn in here, this all needs to be zipped into a secure folder on my private drive, accessible from my computer only, no one can know that this exists," Cat says pacing the room.
"It's all on your private drive," Kara points out.
"Yes, but that's not secure enough, you have access to it through the share drive, it wouldn't be difficult for someone else to get to it from your access," Cat points out.
"Okay, I've created the secure folder and zipped it with a 20 character encryption code," Winn explains.
"Now can you go into the main frame and remove my search history for the last month, just erase everything," Cat asks.
"Uh, yes but Ms Grant that will raise red flags with the network administrators," Winn points out.
"I'll worry about them, just do this and don't look at the information Winn, this is a sensitive situation," Cat cautions.
"Yes Ms Grant, the fact that you're asking me to do this for you was kind of a tip off," he mumbles. "Your private drive should have secure key Ms Grant, that would really protect you from any sort of corporate espionage," Winn adds.
"How would that work exactly?" She asks. Winn explains it and Cat is floored, that is the type of protection that she asked for when they gave her the private drive on a separate server after she was hacked a few months ago. "Winn, come to my office later and we're going to order that on my corporate account and you're going to install it for me and set it up."
"Just pack it all up," Max instructs the scientists. He's not worried about sending everything from this lab to the DEO. He kept his own testing separate from the main one. And there's no way for Agent Danvers to prove that he duplicated the tests or held back samples and specimens. Though he's positive that she'll suspect that he did.
"Mr Lord, is the other facility prepared to sustain the cryogenic stasis?" Dr James, the lead researcher asks.
"I'm sure that they have their own version of it. Why don't you go with the body and assist with the transfer?" Lord suggests.
"Of course, Mr Lord," Dr James replies.
"How is it going Mr Lord?" Martine asks approaching him with a small box of files.
"Almost done, are those the files I asked you to print?" He asks.
"Yes and I included the jump drive that you requested," she replies.
"Great work, well I've got other projects to work on, please see this to completion," Max says waving as Lane's team continues to load up specimens and files.
"What's all this?" Lucy asks entering the lab to talk with Alex.
"They preserved him cryogenically, so we're holding him in stasis until he thaws out," Alex explains.
"Won't that damage the tissue?" Lucy asks, not sure why she's questioning her.
"I have already taken samples for testing. So I'm just going to transfer him to another holding chamber, like I did with the Helgrammite," she replies.
"Yeah, I'd rather not know that you have a collection of these things," Lucy says grimacing as Kara enters the lab.
"It's not a collection," Alex protests, "One's an alien and the other isn't."
"So what have you found out?" Kara asks her sister.
"Not much. He ran various tests trying to determine how the body metabolized the chemical compound instead of being damaged by it and I'll replicate those tests myself, just to see if I get the same results," Alex explains.
"There has to be more to his testing than that, it's been almost a month," Lucy points out.
"Oh there is, Lord did genome mapping on Mr Lincoln and there are several anomalies, which I can't explain. I need permission to bring in an outside consultant," Alex replies staring at Lucy.
"You have someone in mind, who can be trusted?" Lucy asks.
Glancing over at Kara, Alex replies, "Yes, Dr Eliza Danvers."