Chapter 4

"Now are you sure this isn't an April Fool's joke?" Jane asked as he, Echo, and Lisbon entered the apartment building matching the address provided by Agent Ballard.

Lisbon shook her head. "Why would anybody make a joke about something like this? No wait, scratch that. Don't get any bright ideas, Jane. I mean it." She looked around at the doors until she spotted the number for Ballard's apartment, and knocked on its door. "Agent Ballard? It's the CBI."

Ballard opened the door just a crack, took a look at his visitors, then closed the door temporarily so he could take the chain off and let them in. "Good, good," he said. "Agent Lisbon, I assume you still want to know what exactly we're up against?"

"Of course I do," said Lisbon. "Why else did we come here?"

Jane, meanwhile, started poking around the tiny apartment space. Echo, not knowing what else to do, followed him around, mimicking most of his actions, including the occasional sniffing of things. He listened to the distant sounds of Lisbon and Ballard's conversation.

"The Dollhouse," began Ballard, "is a secret arm of the Rossum Corporation. What they do is they take people and offer them a huge payday for five years of service, but they don't tell them that they're going to be slaves. The Dollhouse uses some kind of special technology to take people's memories and personalities from them, and from there they can upload any other memories and personalities they like. They've even been able to give people temporary disabilities. Echo here," he said, gesturing to the girl as she continued to follow Jane, "once was made blind so she could infiltrate a doomsday cult down in Arizona."

Lisbon frowned. "Like Jim Jones?"

"Yeah," said Ballard. "Basically, these Actives - that's what the Dollhouse calls their little slaves - can be anything for the right price. A mercenary, a prostitute, a spy. All at the expense of their freedom."

"Wait a second," said Lisbon. "Technology? What kind of technology?"

"I don't really know," said Ballard. "My source didn't give a real explanation. He just said it's a chair with electrodes in the headrest or something."

Lisbon glanced at Jane and Echo. "Sounds like science fiction."

"Remind me, who just found the body of a girl with wings in the desert?"

"Point taken."

Ballard bent down to his coffee table to grab a file. "You've actually had dealings with the Rossum Corporation before, but you probably didn't realize it at the time."

Taking the file, Lisbon perused it briefly and rolled her eyes upon finishing it. "Fremont College?" she asked. "Not that poisoning case. You're saying Rossum did that?"

"By accident, believe it or not," Ballard said. "Of course, the school took the blame for it because nobody can know what Rossum really does. If the truth got out-"

"Let me guess," Jane burst in. "Mass riots, paranoia, everyone killing everyone?"

Ballard nodded. "A polite way of putting it, I guess."

Lisbon approached Jane and whispered, "Still think ter Borcht was lying about the Prophecy of Blood?"

"He's just saying something to justify some evil corporate plan," said Jane. "Excuse me a second..." He turned back to the entrance to Ballard's bedroom, and started sniffing again. "I knew it," he said after a second. "Lisbon, there's something here that shouldn't be." He walked into the room and opened the closet, revealing a small number of potted plants under a single bright blue grow lamp. Jane and Lisbon both recognized the long, thin leaves, so reminiscent of serrated knives.

"Agent Ballard, I really hope you have a genuine medical reason for this," Lisbon said, gesturing to the marijuana plants in the closet.

Ballard stood aside to let Echo enter the room and sniff the weed before she turned away, making gagging noises. "I know you've probably heard this a million times before, but it's not mine."

"That's right," said a new voice, that of a blond man who took that moment to step out of the bathroom. Echo looked up, saw the man, and screamed in fear.

"What the...who is this?" Lisbon asked.

Ballard smiled. "My source," he said. "As it were. Agent Lisbon, Mr. Jane, say hello to Alpha. Echo, I believe you two have already met."