Ch. 4 Here Comes the Sun

It was around dinner time, but no one was around so Eliot just ingested a six pack with a side of the leftover chicken casserole. He tried calling Hardison, since he hadn't seen him all day. Hardison just told him that he was safe, but occupied. Eliot asked about Parker as she hadn't returned to Headquarters since the night in the jungle gym. Ironically, she would only check with Hardison to say she was safe. Apparently, that was still the case.

Eliot began wandering around the building, trying to convince himself he was bored and not looking for where Savannah and Dani had disappeared off to, but that's exactly what was happening. He'd wandered about for almost an hour when he finally heard the chatter of female voices. He looked around and realized he was near Parker's bedroom. Of course. The door was ajar so he peered in.

Savannah and Dani were lounging on the bed looking like they were talking shop, but Savannah looked up at the door immediately, like she could feel Eliot there. She excused herself, "Hold that thought, Dani; I've got to handle some things." She got up, headed towards the door, met him in the hall, and firmly pulled the door closed behind her. "You don't need to be here," she said darkly.

Eliot responded weakly, "I wanted to make sure she was settling in okay." She rolled her eyes so hard, he could've sworn they rolled twice. "Are you..." He wasn't sure how to ask, but she knew.

She shook her head, looking uncomfortable. Clearing her throat, she clarified. "I can't leave her alone in a strange place. Not on the first night."

Well, that was hopeful. But still, he wanted her attention, "We need to talk about-"

The angry discontent in her returned. "We're not doing this now, Eliot." The way she spat his name stung.

"Then when?!" He tried to keep his voice at an aggressive whisper. It was wordlessly important that Dani not hear the conversation. She looked like she was about to answer, but then with a pained expression she opened the door to go back in the room and leave the exchange. "Savannah!" The gruff demand slipped out and startled Dani. Savannah glared at him as she hit a switch near the door, and he heard a low buzzing. She had turned on the laser grid over the door. If he crossed it, the best case scenario, a screeching alarm would sound, and she'd probably pummel him before she deactivated it. Worst case, it was a fatal booby trap. His shoulders slumped in defeat. As a gloat, she even left the door open as she rejoined Dani on the bed.

He stormed off, but less than an hour later, he was back. He carefully peeked in. The girls were sound asleep. He backed a few feet down the hallway and sat down against the wall, taking a strange comfort in hearing Savannah's breathing. A few minutes later, he heard a shrieking gasp, but he realized it wasn't Savannah. Of course, Dani had night terrors too. "Dani. Dani, I'm right here." Savannah was trying to calm her. "Oh, what was it? Right." Savannah started humming a familiar tune. It wasn't until she began to softly sing the lyrics that Eliot recognized The Beatles song "Here Comes the Sun". He heard Dani's breathing calm instantly. Dani had her own version of security. She had The Beatles while Savannah's was Eliot...or it was. Eliot shook his head and decided to head to his apartment; this place had never felt so empty. He was haunted by the question, after the scene with Parker, of Savannah's true relationship with Dani.

Eliot's phone rang, and he snapped it up without looking. His hope dissipated when Hardison's voice came through. "Meeting in the conference room. How far out are you?"

Eliot groaned and rubbed his brow. "I can be there in less than ten minutes."

"Great." Hardison's voice was unreadable.

"Hey, how are things with-" But Hardison had already hung up.

He had never had difficulty stepping over the threshold to headquarters before, but this time he had noticeable anxiety. He braced himself as he walked to the conference room. Dani and Savannah had their backs to him, unaware of his presence. Parker glanced up at him, her face tired and awash with guilt. Hardison walked in with the obligatory orange soda and handed Eliot a beer. They sat down, awkwardly silent for a moment.

"Alright, let's cut to the chase. Dani, what's the situation?"

Dani pulled at her sleeves nervously and took a deep breath. "So, obviously, not a lot of us at The Academy were really into the whole 'being sold as super soldiers for wars we wanted no part of' thing. But the treatments, you can't really just go back to normal civilian life once you've experienced them. We figured we could use what happened to us to, you know, help people. However, when you guys took down The Academy, a lot of students hadn't finished treatments, and while the treatments were shattering in every way, you ran at optimum capacity if you finished them. A few years before I completed the program, I ripped the research files. After The Academy was taken down, I decided to build my own lab based on the research, so that the students who felt compelled could finish the program. There was a break-in at Van House last week, and a bunch of equipment was stolen and several files were ripped. We poked around, and we think it was this group." She took Hardison's ThinkPad, tapped around, and images flooded the screen. "They call themselves Strife. They're basically like the younger, more juvenile version of The Academy. Instead of money, though, their goal is chaos, start meaningless wars and supply every side with the tools to cause as much destruction as possible. They'll want to develop and sell soldiers to opposing sides just to watch them tear each other apart."

Noises of disgust sounded around the table. Eliot noticed a distinct look of disappointment on Savannah's face as she listened to what was likely the second run of this story. She was likely uncomfortable, like the rest of them, with the idea of a lab like that existing again. Her eyes was swam with the tortures that plagued her nightmares.

Parker exhaled. "Wow. Alright. Well, at least we have some time before they can get soldiers out there."

Dani flinched. "That's the thing. I didn't duplicate the lab. I tweaked all the equipment, the entire program. You can create an adequate, while not entirely optimum, super soldier in about six months if they already have basic training, which it's likely whoever they're going to use it on does."

"We've worked with less," Hardison shrugged. There were noises of agreement.

Parker tapped her fingertips on the table. "Okay, well, I think step one is to take a look around your facility, see if we can find clues about how they broke in, get an idea what we're looking for. Hardison, can you-"

"Send crawlers across the web to get an idea where Strife could set up a duplicate lab?" Hardison and Parker seemed to be able to interact, with eye contact and no negative subtext. Maybe that's where he had disappeared to the day before, to work things out with Parker.

"Great, thanks. We're going to check on the Van House facilities. We'll use cam glasses so Hardison can get schematics for the crawlers."