Chapter Ten
"I'll see you soon," Simon said, reluctantly pulling out of Kaylee's arms. He didn't like leaving her. It was little consolation that Mal didn't particularly like this part of the plan either, not when the Captain still wouldn't do anything about it. Simon tried to tell himself that there was nothing for it, but all he wanted to do was stay with Kaylee and keep her safe.
Kaylee nodded and looked away. Tears were forming in her eyes. Simon tried to tell himself it was the hormones reacting, but he couldn't quite convince himself. If one little thing went wrong, he'd never see her again. "Good luck," she said.
Silently, Simon added, "We're going to need it." He nodded back, gave her hand a final squeeze, then followed Zoe and Jayne out of the ship. River gave the ship one final loving pat as she, too, left the safety of Serenity.
Simon turned to see Mal giving Inara some last minute advice on the catwalk.
"Sir, we've got a schedule to keep to," Zoe called.
"Just a minute!" Mal yelled back. Simon couldn't hear what exactly he was telling Inara, but he saw Inara shaking her head and trying to usher Mal towards the steps. Mal put both hands on Inara's shoulders, looked her right in the eyes, said a few more words, then abruptly let her go again. Then Mal turned and rushed down the steps and out the door. "What're we waiting for? Let's get a move on!" he yelled as he took the lead.
"Shoulda told her ages ago, Captain," River sing-songed after him.
"Better late than never, I expect," Mal muttered back.
"Don't think Williams will be apt to agree with you on that point, Sir," Zoe said under her breath.
As they walked down the streets of Khonsu City, Simon couldn't help but feel glad and relieved that they would soon be leaving this god-awful place. Nothing was as it seemed here. There was no such thing as simple folk in Khonsu City. It made Simon for once long for the black. It was quiet out there. Relatively speaking.
Simon just hoped that this time, just this one time, everything would go according to plan. It was at least starting out that way. So far, so good.
River looked at Simon and commented, "Thought the man who leapt off a cliff wearing home-made wings."
"What?" Mal and Simon asked at the same time.
"So far, so good. So far, so good. So far, so good - "
"Splat," Jayne muttered.
Williams was waiting for them in an alley a block away from the Tower of Khonsu. He was nervously pacing up and down the dirty alleyway, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the crew approaching. On closer inspection, it was apparent the doctor was sweating profusely. Simon half expected the man to keel over any second from a heart attack.
That would have put a slight wrinkle in the plan. The least the weasel could do was wait until he got the crew inside before dying on them.
"Here's your, your keycard," Williams said between breaths. He sounded like he was running a marathon. "For the side door," he continued. "I'll go in, make sure the hall's clear, then signal you the all clear," he stammered, handing Mal the security card.
"Keys change every morning, but the service entrance on the side here is basically unguarded," Williams said, pointing to the blueprint.
"It's the door for the people who want to remain invisible," River whispered.
"Sounds like our kind of door," Mal muttered. The rest of the crew nodded in agreement.
In the planning stages, Williams had seemed so calm and collected about the whole thing. Now that they were actually doing it, it seemed he had lost his nerve.
Williams gave them a final nod of approval before running off down the alley towards the main street.
"If there's any trouble, guess we know what he's going to do," Jayne muttered, gaping after him. River put a hand on his arm. Simon tried not to notice.
"Last chance to back out," Mal said, examining the key. Everyone was silent, though Jayne was looking hopefully at the rest of the group. "Shiny. Let's go be good guys."
Mal led the way back down the alley to the hidden side door. There was a red light centered above the doorway. They stood there waiting a few minutes, staring at the light. Simon didn't like waiting around. From the looks on the faces of the rest of the crew, they shared his feelings. The light started blinking. Mal swiped the card. Nothing happened.
"Flip it over, Captain," River muttered.
Mal shot a look at her. He flipped the card the other way and swiped again. The light turned green, and he pushed open the door. The crew slipped into the building and met Williams again.
Now came the fun part.
"And how do you expect us to move about as we please once we in this gorram tower?" Jayne asked, glaring at Williams from across the table.
"Sleeping powder," Williams said, holding up a canister. "We can rig it to the air vents."
"You mean we can rig it to the air vents," River said, taking the canister.
"Once circulating, it will take effect almost immediately. Knock everyone out. It'll wear off naturally in six hours, but we can use the smelling salts on the kids. Within five minutes, the gas will clear, and we'll have the run of the place," he said, handing River another canister.
"Don't mix those up, now," Mal warned. River stuck her tongue out at him.
"Masks on," Zoe said, handing Williams his.
River studied the mask intently for a few moments before saying to Mal, "They're very easily suited to our unsavory purpose."
"And that means what, exactly?"
"Williams will go to sleep, too," River said, flipping a switch on the side of the mask she was holding.
"Awe," Jayne said glumly, "I was looking forward to knocking that weasel out."
There was a long hiss as River put the canister of sleeping powder to the air vent.
"How will we know when it's working?" Jayne asked.
Williams fell to the floor.
"Oh," Jayne muttered, reaching to take his mask off.
Simon held up his hand and checked his watch. "A couple minutes yet."
"Let's start moving," Mal said, taking lead along the narrow corridor.
"We'll come along he corridor this way," Williams explained, pointing out the path on the blueprints. "Then we'll take a left into the main corridor and head for the elevator banks."
Mal led them quickly and silently through the halls and to the elevators. When the doors pinged open for them, they found the elevator was already occupied by a handful of staff. They dragged the doctor and nurses from the car. Jayne gave the security guard a swift kick just for good measure as he threw the unconscious lug into the corridor.
"Was that necessary?" Simon asked.
"It was for luck," Jayne said, storming into the elevator.
"For luck?" Simon repeated.
"He also has a rabbit's foot in his back pocket," River said, giving Simon a look as the rest of the crew piled into the elevator.
"A rabbit's foot, Jayne?" Zoe asked.
"Never knew you had a superstitious side, Jayne," Mal muttered as the doors closed.
"Hell, Mal, we gonna need all the luck we can get ahold of for this gorram mission," Jayne answered. Simon looked at the mercenary in bewilderment. River just smiled and shook her head. Mal pressed the button for the sixty-sixth floor. As the doors pinged open again, Jayne nodded and repeated, "Yup. Like I done said. Needin' all the luck we can get." To River, he added, "Told ya we shoulda looked harder for a garlic necklace."
"They aren't vampires, Jayne," Zoe said.
"Couldn'ta hurt none," Jayne muttered back.
Simon surveyed the corridor in front of them in wonder. It looked like a college dormitory floor, except with a lot more security. There were three guards sprawled out near the entrance and three other staff members collapsed over an information desk. To their left was a common room where two students sat with books in their hands, looking like they'd just fallen asleep while reading. They couldn't have been more than fifteen years old.
"Gem and Eye," River said, nodding to the boy and girl. "The twins."
"How many students are there in the Academy?" Simon asked.
Williams hedged the question by describing their ages again.
"Dr. Williams. How many are we lifting out of there?" Mal asked more forcefully.
"There are thirteen."
"Mighty big tower for only thirteen students."
"They are only the current class," Williams explained. "Our work is not about quantity, Mr. Cobb. It is about quality."
"Current class? Where are the graduates?"
Williams ignored the question.
"Simon," Mal said, snapping the doctor out of his memories. "Go do your computer thing." The captain nodded at the information desk. "Plug in your program and let's get moving."
"Best idea ever," Jayne muttered, glancing around. "Don't like this place."
Simon didn't care for it either. With all the sleeping people around, the compound bore a strange similarity to Miranda. Simon ran over the to computer terminals and started working. He pulled a memory chip from his pocket and inserted it into the console. A few keystrokes later, Simon was confident his program would get the students to follow him out of the Academy. Once the crew woke them up, that is to say.
Simon took this opportunity to copy all the information that he could find on the students' programming to the memory chip, hoping the information would later lead to his breaking the code for good.
Williams had been vague and elusive in answering Simon's questions, and although River knew probably everything he needed to know, his little sister wasn't telling. A few seconds later, Simon realized why.
The programming was all that was there. Without what the Alliance had hard-wired into the students' brains, they would have no memory, no personality, and no ability to form either of those. Even their short term memories were shot to hell. The Alliance hadn't just brainwashed these kids; they'd wiped them clean. There wouldn't even be a hint as to who they were before the Academy.
Simon could write programming to override the default blank-slate, and with River's help, he could probably make it a pretty good imitation, but he couldn't give these kids back their lives. None of them could. It would always be the programming doing the talking. They would always be little more than robots.
"Simon," River said softly.
He looked up. He hadn't realized how long he'd been standing there. Mal was especially looking worried. Everyone else had removed their gas masks.
"We've got to get them out of here," she said, handing him a packet of smelling salts.
"Yeah, right," Simon muttered, taking the medicine and removing his mask. He took a few deep breaths, and then the crew got to work.
They started with the twins who'd been reading Alliance literature on serving your government and your duty as a citizen. Simon's programming had taken a few seconds to filter into their brains from the network, but they followed the crew without much trouble, and even helped them find the other students.
Aries and Taurus were the oldest boys, each about nineteen. Libra was the oldest girl at twenty. They had take-charge attitudes that Simon hadn't counted upon.
"Hard-wired to be the alphas of any situation," River said under her breath. Simon gave River a confused look. Apparently his programming hadn't been that good, after all. Simon could only guess that there was an underlying program as a default for the students' personalities. They were probably the baseline for all the other codes that programmers wrote for them. Simon's apparently hadn't been detailed enough to completely override the defaults. That gave Simon some uneasiness. If the kids were still exhibiting traits the Alliance had put into their minds, they might be in trouble.
Splat.
"We need to move quickly, Simon," River reminded him.
Simon didn't argue. The crew sped through the remaining rooms. Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. Code names. They were the only names the kids had, and they were stuck with them, like they were stuck with everything the Alliance had given them.
They piled back into the elevator to go up the remaining forty floors to the roof.
"Where are we going?" Pisces, the youngest one, barely thirteen by the looks of him, asked.
"We're leaving," Simon said.
"Ohhh," Pisces said slowly. "Why?"
Simon blinked at him.
"Naturally inquisitive. You would have given them a run for their money," River muttered. The elevator abruptly stopped before the boy could ask what she meant by that. The doors slid open.
"What in the hell?" Jayne asked.
"The elevator doesn't go up to the roof," Gem said.
"We aren't allowed on the roof," Eye finished for her brother.
Mal and Zoe exchanged a look. Simon knew what they were thinking. Williams hadn't said anything about this.
"I'm gonna kill that gorram bastard," Jayne said.
"Now, honey," River muttered, "What have we talked about in regards to killing in blind rage?"
"That it's a healthy outlet for my frustration?" Jayne guessed.
"Enough," Mal said more calmly than he probably felt. "Everyone out. I suppose the stairs go up to the roof?" he asked the twins.
"But we aren't allowed on the roof," Eye repeated as one of the others said, "Yes, Sir."
They marched out of the elevator and immediately came to a long, strange corridor. It immediately branched out in three directions. Mal looked at River. River shrugged. Mal looked at Libra.
Libra pointed to the left.
River and Jayne led the way. They weren't five steps in when an alarm started sounding. A glass wall suddenly slid down, cutting River and Jayne off from the rest of the group. Simon rushed forward. River was obviously yelling to them as Jayne pounded on the glass, but it was no good. When Jayne got out his gun, River pushed his arm back down, shaking her head. She looked back at Simon, who stood there in shock, just watching. River pointed to her left, Simon's right. She caught Simon's eyes and mouthed, "Go." Simon shook his head and shrugged. He had no idea which way the stairs were. None of them did. "Cancer," she mouthed.
Simon turned to the girl called Cancer. "Do you know the way out of here?" he asked her.
The girl, who Simon guessed was about sixteen, nodded.
"Will you lead us to the roof?" he asked.
The girl nodded again and began leading the group back the way they came.
Simon looked back at River. She nodded. "Go," she mouthed again. Simon took a deep breath and nodded. Then he locked eyes with Jayne and tried to tell him with his mind to get his baby sister out of this thing alive. Jayne nodded as if he understood. Simon gave River one last look, then turned and ran down the hall with the others. He didn't like having this much faith in Jayne Cobb, but Simon knew the man-ape would die before letting anyone hurt River. That had to be good enough for now.