Monday, October 7th, 2013. 2:09 AM EDT.
Manhattan, New York City.
Max panicked at the realization that she couldn't see. After a few seconds it passed as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.
She was...Somewhere Else. That was all she could immediately discern. Her back was up against a hard, rough brick wall, hedged in by two others to the left and right. The smell...
Ugh! Oh gross! This is just...fucking horrific!
As she made out more details, it became increasingly obvious she was in some sort of alleyway. The air was chilly, but no more than what she would expect from Seattle this time of year, so she was glad for having the coat. She was in a city; the sounds of traffic, people, were all around her. But...
Where the hell am I?
The last thing Max remembered was rewinding back from Monday afternoon, ready to take herself back a full twenty-four hours. She'd then run to find Davies and give her the Edit Order. Everyone would get to work trying to prevent New York City from being destroyed in a nuclear fireball.
That was when she glanced down at her lifeclock.
Eastern Daylight Time? What the hell? Why would I be getting that, unless...
...oh shit.
She suspected the answer immediately, ran out towards the opening of the alley, doing her best at ignoring the occasional scurrying rat jumping back into the garbage piles as she worked her way to street level.
Though she'd never before been to New York City, it didn't take more than a few seconds observation for Max to realize that was exactly where she'd ended up. Near the corner of Orchard and Canal, according to the street signs.
The abundance of foreign characters on the signs clued her in to exactly where.
Holy shit! I'm...I'm in Chinatown!
Davies and Martinet planned for pretty much every contingency...except this one. That said, she wasn't a babe in the woods. She was trained to deal with urban jungles just as well as actual ones. But damn if this wasn't something that initially knocked her for a loop.
The first thing she needed to figure out was not only how did she suddenly jump several thousand miles to the east, but why she only managed to rewind back thirteen hours.
Maybe I can just continue om, and then get in touch with HQ? Or maybe it'll pull me back to Seattle? Hey! What if I just learned how to teleport? Neat!
She tried to stop the excited beating of her heart as she contemplated the ramifications of this new development. Maybe she could jump back, and hide her new ability. And when the time was right, she'd get the hell out of this whole Damocles Initiative nightmare once and for all!
Okay...um...Seattle. Think of that. And think of being back in base?
She rewound back the five or six minutes that passed since she came to her senses, but found she could go no further. There was a slow, gradual pushback, like she was trying to swim against an ocean current. Worse yet, she was still in the same physical place she started. So if there were new powers in her repertoire, she'd yet figure out how to reliably draw upon them.
Maybe I need to rest a little?
She spent almost half an hour walking around, reconnoitering the local neighborhood. For the middle of the night, New York City was amazing busy, especially with drunk tourists making their way out of the bars, and bright lights that lit up the busier intersections.
Geezus, this city looks huge! And Manhattan is hardly the whole thing!
She tried again, hoping that perhaps rewinding back from a further time period would - how best to describe it? - give her a bit of extra momentum to smash through whatever barrier she was up against.
But it was no use. Again, she can to a gradual halt. For whatever reason, Reality had decided that Max Caulfield would simply not pass backwards any earlier than 2:09 AM.
Okay. Fucking shit.
Max found she now had a decision to make; one that would set the course for the rest of her entire life.
God this is...this is crazy. I'm here, actually here, in New York City. As far as I know, I don't have a tracker on. I could just...walk away. Run. Escape. I'd have to keep running, but at least I'd be my own woman, for the first time in...in my entire life.
Max gave a pained smile as she continued.
Yeah, and then what do you do? How do you make a life for yourself? More importantly, how do you just walk away from this mission? Right here and now. That's not even on the table, not up for consideration; freedom at last...and all it costs is a few million innocent lives.
It wasn't a decision she needed more than a second to make. But that didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell all the same.
Fine. Fine! Shit! Fuck!
I guess it's time to get in touch with Cammie and figure out what the hell's going on. I mean, damn, what a disaster! Less than eleven hours to try and prevent whatever the hell is going to happen.
Max did her absolute best to not dwell on the fact that she was now dangerously in the thick of the situation; if she couldn't figure out how to stop this disaster, and if for whatever reason was unable to reliably rewind back even the eleven hours she now had left, not only would she be dead, but there would be no way to save the several million other innocent victims also slated to perish.
Yeah, so I'll just call up Cammie on my...
...uh...
...where's my damn smarpho - awww fuck!
She realized, all too late, she'd left the device in her locker when she was changing. Didn't seem to be all that important at the time, since she had no reason to believe she would be leaving Zion Control during the entire operation.
Alright Max. You have the training. You have the skills. Most important of all, you have your fabulous power. So get shit done!
Having spotted a local dive three or four blocks down Orchard Street, Max calmly walked up to a particularly drunk looking man in a three piece suit, futilely attempting to work his iPhone while standing on the street corner. Max gave him a steely, appraising gaze.
Smiling lopsidedly, the businessman slurred, "Hey baby, how about you and I..."
Before he could continue, she slugged him hard in the jaw, grabbing the scruff of his collar before he could fall backwards, and then wrenched the phone out of the considerably weakened grip of his hand.
Davies and Reese would have probably winced at how totally unsubtle her technique was, but Max wasn't in a mood for it; given her powers, it's not like she had to be super-discreet all the time.
She rapidly dashed off before anyone else could react, turning the corner of the street, and rewound back all the way to 2:09 AM.
Like taking candy from a baby! Woof woof woof!
She looked down at the phone, and started to tap away at the dial pad in emergency call mode, inputting a complicated set of codes. As part of her training, she'd been made to remember the activation keys for an NSA sub-system that existed in all of the major phone carrier networks; it would mark the phone as "commandeered in field for black ops work.", ensuring that not only would it now operate as a virtual ghost in the system, none of the calls it made could be traced via standard corporate or law enforcement channels. It also flashed up the locking PIN, so Max could get fully in.
Sucks you lost your phone, dude, but national security takes priority! Just be happy I'm one of the good...ish...guys.
Making her way into another nearby alley, Max squatted down next to a large dumpster, and did her best to ignore the no doubt sixty jillion rats that were probably hanging out all around her. Another complicated set of codes were typed in, allowing her to access Camilla's work cell, a similarly 'ghosted' phone.
A few seconds after it rang, she heard Davies' voice intone, "Are you there?"
It was her standard answer for the line, since only agents under her command should be calling it. Max could hear the tension and expectation in her voice; clearly she wanted to know if she was correct in figuring out who was now calling her, but there was protocol that absolutely had to be followed in these circumstances.
"This is Flashback, authentication code Alpha Zulu Four Two Zero Delta Nine Tango Hotel Charlie."
A slight pause. Davies responded back. "Authentication code verified, counter code Aki Zeta Fawks Saxpence Theobromine." Another pause, and then, "Max! What the bloody hell is going on?! Are you okay? Alanna and I were just about to run out the door to check in with HQ when you called."
"Yeah, I'm...I'm fine. It's long and it's complicated, and we don't have a lot of time: I've been sent back into the past on a Storyteller Protocol mission, but there's been some major complications. First, I'm in fucking New York City for some reason instead of Zion Control. Second, something's keeping me from rewinding back any earlier than 11:09 PM, your local time. Now this is the really important part: New York City is going to be destroyed by a fifty megaton nuclear blast in less than twelve hours. I have an Edit Order token full of P-O data for you, but I need to get it transmitted, somehow. Any ideas?"
To her credit, Davies did not miss a beat; Max could imagine her commanding officer was brimming with a million questions and concerns, but Cammie was a professional, immediately focusing on the problem at hand.
"Alright, listen closely." Davies began, her voice crisp and confident. "There's an apartment complex in the Turtle Bay neighborhood, I'll give you the address in a moment. It mostly functions as a personal safe house. You'll be able to get in, and access any additional equipment you might need. There's a computer system with a secure high speed fiber line tied straight into the DHS node on MilNet. Just plug the token in, and the firmware will handle the rest. It's in a rather nice complex tower, the Halcyon Arms.I'll phone the concierge ahead, tell him that you're my niece Kathryn, and that he should let you in."
Max nodded, "Got it. Anything else?"
"Yes. Once you're inside, go into the laundry room. There's what appears to be a small water valve shutoff. Turn the valve three times around, and a number pad will pop up. Input the first ten digits of pi, that will open up the hidden safe room."
Max groused. "Geezus, and here I thought that was useless when you made me commit it to memory!"
"Nothing I've ever taught you was ever useless. Now, as you say, time is wasting, so get that information to us as soon as possible. Now that I know where you are, and what our situation is, Rodriguez and I will head for McChord AFB, and get the mobile command plane up in the sky ASAP. With a little luck, we might be able to get to your location with some time to spare. Give you a helping hand."
Max blinked. "Wait, isn't that kind of dangerous? What if we can't figure it out in time? No reason you should die with me!"
"Max, that's noble of you, but do you have so little confidence in yourself? Rewinding back eight hours is much easier on you than going back a full day, yes? You can keep going back, bringing back additional information as required, until we have a solution."
"Oh...I...hah, I can't believe you had to be the one to point that out to me." Max shook her head, self-effacingly. "Okay, enough talk, right? You should have the data transferred over in ten minutes or fifteen minutes. Maybe less."
"So quick? Where are y- oh! Right, yes, clever girl!" Davies said.
"Okay, talk later." Max answered, and then hung up.
It took her a little while to hail a taxi, but even at this late hour, there were a few prowling around the bars, looking for an easy fare. Max hopped in, gave the driver the address, and finally settled in. Though it was the middle of the night, the trip still took a good ten minutes; apparently Turtle Bay was halfway across Manhattan.
The ride gave Max time to ponder her situation. She still wanted to somehow have her cake and eat it, too; save New York, and escape. Maybe they'd figure it out in time; she'd save the city, and then somehow...would slip out. Break away. After some time, she'd call in, offer to help out, but only in really emergency cases, and only on her terms. Like...
...like some sort of freelancer or something. Yeah. A lone-wolf superheroine. Just like I always wanted.
"Ugh." she whispered to herself. "I'd take completely normal over anything else. Besides, I need to meet up with them, coordinate, if we're going to save the city. And there goes my chance to escape"
To be so close to freedom, and yet so far away. It was maddening!
The mission has to come first. The lives of seven million people are way more important than yours, Max. Just accept it. Besides, they're probably waiting for you to try and escape, your first time out. Now's a good chance to lower their guard. Think they can trust you, just a little bit more.
Still...if only she could figure out how she ended up in New York City to begin with!
"Okee, we here. Das...uh...eight, fitty." the Indian cab driver called out.
Max glanced down at her lifeclock, got a 'feel' for the timestream in her head. Then immediately dashed out of the cab. Before the driver could protest, she rewound, back to around thirty seconds before she hired the cab in the first place.
Nice and neat. No trace she ever took the cab, no evidence of her passing. And she zipped up four miles worth of the city in under a subjective minute.
Holy shit, I am scary good at my job sometimes!
Max strode her way into the Halcyon Arms, greeting the night concierge with a wide smile. She threw on her best British accent, one of the small repertoire she had been trained to emulate.
"Good evening. I'm here for my Auntie's place. Camilla Davies? She'd said she rung ahead."
"Oh. Yes, Miss...ah?" the older man inquired.
She tilted her head a touch, keeping her smile wide and even. "Kathryn Davies. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir."
Appropriately set at ease, the concierge provided her with a fresh keycard, and directed her to apartment 314.
Christ, Cammie, telegraphing it just a bit, aren't you?
Max was tempted to rewind again, regain the last ten minutes she spent checking in and making her way into the apartment, but decided not to chance causing any issues by wiping out her meeting with the concierge. Instead, she stepped in, taking just a few seconds to take in the decor before she hunted down the laundry room.
It was small, at least half the size of the loft she shared with Rodriguez, but...
...holy shit! I knew Cammie had money, but this place just screams class.
Tastefully appointed with various objets d'art, it was decorated in shades of blue and silver, giving it a calm, but simultaneously cold feel to it.
A little bit like you, huh bosslady?
And like the loft in Seattle, it had an incredible view of the city from the living room.
Another minute or two, and Max managed to make her way into the safe room, a cramped vault of a chamber, replete with supply cabinets and an impressive state-of-the-art computer terminal, built to current DI specs. Hoping that it would recognize her appropriately, Max placed her palm down on the biometric reader, letting out the breath she was holding when a soft, synthesized female voice chimed, "Agent Salinger, Artemis M. Logging you on..."
Wow, must be a remote terminal hooked straight up to the master mainframe back in Seattle.
Wasting no more time, she removed the token from her pocket, and plugged it into one of the USB ports. The computer immediately recognized the device, and began to execute an automated download of the information. With no small amount of relief flooding her body, she collapsed into a chair, and picked up the hardwired phone, dialing Davies back.
"Okay, it's done. Sorry that took longer than I thought, but I had to be careful about not crossing over my own timeline too much. I don't want to pop out of this apartment and freak out the concierge who suddenly has no memory of me checking in."
"Good thought." Davies replied. "We'll be wheels up in under an hour. I've called Jenkowitz in to start analyzing the data; I'll add my two cents once we're in the air."
"Right. So...uh...what should I do while you guys are flying over?" Max said.
"At the moment? Tell me everything you know about this situation. Any little detail could be vitally important."
Max spent the new few minutes going over what little she could remember: the size of the explosion, the extent of the damage. The fact that her rewind seemed to 'short out' as she crossed the time of the blast. And most importantly, that some sort of Emergence was detected shortly before the explosion.
"Bloody hell!" Davies replied. "That would explain an awful lot. Okay. The good news is that I think I have the beginnings of a plan. The fact that you're already in New York City ahead of us could be an absolute godsend. I'll need to double check a few things, and code a few algorithms, but...well, there'll be time enough to explain it to you in a few hours. For now, I highly suggest that you look around, equip yourself with whatever useful toys you find in my workshop, and get some rest; you're going to need it."
"Yeah. Sounds good. And uh...um...any idea how I got teleported to New York City, or whatever the hell?" Max asked.
It's tipping my hand bigtime, but if she can tell me something useful...
"Only base conjecture. One possibility is that you've somehow unlocked a new level of power in the face of the tremendous stress of the situation; highly unlikely, given how long you've had your abilities. There's never been a recorded case of another Special discovering new and completely different powers years after their flare window passed."
"Or?" Max added?
"Or" Davies began. "And this is probably closer to what happened: the blast in New York was so catastrophic that it deeply affected the quantum fabric of reality itself. It somehow interacted with your powers, even from thousands of miles away, and sucked you towards the anomaly, like a gravity well; I have to imagine that you exist out of phase with the rest of the world during the actual act of rewinding itself, where the laws of physics don't hold as firm. Furthermore, we've known for some time now that atomic detonations makes a proper mess of the local space/time, and that the effect scales up exponentially based on the strength of the explosion."
"Still doesn't explain why I can't go past 2:09 AM. What's so special about that time?"
"Absolutely no bloody idea." Davies said. "Once we save the city, perhaps we'll have time to gather some more answers. One way or the other, this is going on the Incident catalogue, that's for sure."
"Huh. Funny, you said the same thing in the previous timeline. Anyhow, you're right, I should get some sleep. Buzz me when you're close, okay?"
"I'll be in touch in three to five hours, tops. Davies out."
Max sighed, as she replaced the phone handset on the cradle.
All alone, in the city that never sleeps. Damn shame, nothing to do at this hour. Well...I could walk around but...eh. Davies is right. I should rest. But...man, I'm so hungry!
Ten minutes later, she was back on the street. On a whim, she stopped into a nearby Bank of America ATM, and pulled out her daily limit of seven hundred fifty dollars. Not that she figured she'd need that much money, but more because she was absolutely grooving on being rich.
R-I-C-H! B-I-T-C-H! Oh yeah! Thats me! Oh yeah!
She coughed, realizing that the video security camera was watching her twerk, blushed and immediately stopped.
She had to settle for some donut shop she'd never heard of before, but it was better that than dipping into the supply of emergency nutrient packs she'd stuffed into her pockets back at base.
Dunkin' Donuts? Must be some weird regional chain. Huh. Damnit, I was hoping for a Blue Star or a Voodoo. I'd even settle for a Krispy Kreme!
One donut and a low-fat milk later, she paused at the door to the shop, glancing over in a midtown direction, wistfully.
Too bad I don't have time to check it out. I'm right by 42nd Street. That place is stupid famous. But I should really get back and go...waitaminute!
Without further debate, she walked on towards central Manhattan.
I can rewind time. Duh. I have all the time I need. Kinda...
Granted, she was burning off a few extra hours from the end of her life, but...but she deserved it. When the hell was she ever going to get a chance to go exploring like this. Alone and free and unobserved?
Probably never.
But Times Square was worth the trip. Even in the middle of the night, it was alive and pulsing with light and activity. Giant video displays hung from towering spires, burning back the night with an intensity to rival the sun itself. Splashes of gold, purple, blue and crimson pooled like liquid on all the shiny surfaces. Everything screamed opportunity, and excitement and adventure. Buy buy buy, spend spend spend. Live!
Max found it both sacred and profane, as she hugged herself tight, wide-eyed in wonder and terror.
And it's all gonna get wiped out in a few hours. Unless I can...unless we can figure out how to stop it.
Reluctantly tearing herself away from the rapture of simply existing in the moment, in the dead of night in New York City, she trudged back to Davies' apartment. She was tempted to rewind back the last hour and a half - all the more time to rest up - but couldn't bring herself to do so.
I want it to mean sometime. I want to be able to say 'I was there'. And just be more than a memory.
She began to poke through the various bins of gear, picking out some of the best gadgets that Cammie recently developed; Max was relatively familiar with most of them already, having been briefed on the R&D specs, or actually beta tested some of the proof of concepts over the past few years. She snagged a special issue satellite 'spoofer phone', not that she needed it, but why not? It was able to fake it's location; Davies liked to boast that even she couldn't figure out where it was coming from without at least two or three calls being placed from it.
The wearable glasses-computer, already standard issue for most agents, was essentially a pair of surprisingly mundane looking sunglasses with a small wireless hip processor. It not only possessed GPS and navigation functions, but could do on-the-fly language translation and provide targeting assistance. It also interfaced with a little communicator earpiece that would allow her to remain in constant contact with other DI personnel once the mission was fully underway.
Reaching over for a small, metal box, Max tilted her head curiously. "Hello...what do we have here?"
Opening the case, it took her a moment to recognize the smooth, sleek lines of the high-tech pistol. "Oh! No way, she actually built it!"
A couple of years ago, Davies shared specs with her for a law-enforcement gun which she dubbed "The Splasher". The ammunition consisted of an aqueous base solution of dimethyl sulfoxide held in a thin gel film, which was mixed on the fly inside the gun itself with various knockout agents, or in extreme cases, toxins. The DMSO essentially forces open the molecular gates of the skin, allowing whatever it was mixed with to enter the bloodstream; effectively, it worked as a transdermal drug delivery system. The pellets themselves were fired out via compressed air, creating a surprisingly quiet and effective, if short range, pacification weapon. There were still a few kinks to work out though; literal splash damage that might potentially affect nearby friendlies.
Wow...looks like a fully working prototype, too. Better snag it; might come in handy, and she'd probably appreciate the field testing.
It was a definite perk of the job, getting to play with all the cool tech toys.
Price of admission is still too fucking high.
With her equipment loadout taken care of, and nothing else to do, she curled up on the nearby cot; the idea of napping in Davies' bed seemed a little too weird to her for some reason, and besides, she needed to stay close to the phone.
She fell asleep quickly, and stayed sleeping longer than she intended; almost a full five hours passed before the insistent, alarming ring of the phone yanked her out of a sound sleep. Max rose and picked up the handset, doing her best to chase away any groggy tone from her voice.
"I'm here." she intoned.
"Max, I've got both good news and bad." Davies replied. "Now that I've had enough time to analyze the data you've provided from the previous timeline, I'm almost positive the disaster event was caused by an Emergence. Better still, I've narrowed the epicenter of the blast."
"Oh yeah? I...think I have an idea whereabouts."
"How do you mean?" Davies asked.
Max answered. "When I teleported-slash-got yanked into New York, I was in an alleyway on Orchard Street, near Canal. A bunch of the writing was in Chinese. If your theory that the blast made this kind of like...temporal black hole or something, then you figure it's gotta be right on that street, yeah? Or at least in Chinatown."
"Good thinking! And possibly, but at the same time, you may have simply entered the event horizon, and the true epicenter is somewhere deeper inside the neighborhood itself."
Max suppressed a yawn. "Shit...Davies, even a neighborhood like that, gotta have what? Hundreds of people in it? Thousands? How the hell are we supposed to find one person in time? Although..." she snapped her fingers. "I got an idea. We get as many of our people as possible, spread them out, and we look for..I don't know. Signs of someone about to...uh..freak out? If we can time it right, I might be able to keep rewinding it back, like we did in Yemen, before it all goes to hell. Figure it out and then act."
There was a long, silent pause.
"Davies?" Max inquired.
"That's the bad news. There's not going to be a 'we' in the equation. A massive storm system mysteriously popped up over the last hour, and it's causing terrible havoc with the air traffic routes. We can fly around it, but by the time we do, it'll be too late."
"...well that's just fucking great..." Max drawled sarcastically.
"I've been tracking several other curious phenomena; sudden shifts in bird migration patterns, anomalous fluctuations in local magnetic fields, et cetera. Nothing that would look all that unusual in the grand scheme of things to the untrained eye. We know better. But Max...you're going to need to finish the mission solo. I'm sorry. But I have absolute confidence in your abilities."
"Shit!" Max swore bitterly. "How?! How the hell can I possibly do this without a support team, Camilla? I mean...we...we can get some guys from DHS over right? And...I can coordinate..."
She knew the reason why that wouldn't work, as soon as the answer popped out of her mouth.
"Max, the true nature of your existence is one of the most classified secrets in the country. And not a knock on you, but we're already having jurisdictional issues with trying to get the local police and FBI to assist us with cordoning off and clearing out Chinatown, and very few of the NYPD are going to see fit to take orders from a young teenage woman, no matter how capable we all personally know you to be." Davies comforted. "But we've caught a lucky break, in that this blast happened in Manhattan."
Max blinked. "I think there's seven million people who would kinda have issues with your definition of 'lucky', bosslady."
"Oh. Quite!" Davies responded, somewhat sheepishly. "The point being: after Tokyo and London, New York City - lower Manhattan especially - has one of the densest sensor meshes in the world. Using the pre-existing sensor grid spread throughout the city, I can code up a program that should allow you to triangulate the location of the target as their abilities begin to emerge; it will be close though, possibly as little as five minutes to spare, but we know that won't be a problem for you. All you need to do is grab one of the wearable computer sets from the safe room, and interface it with a new application module I've been tinkering with. It'll be silver, with the Damocles logo on it; can't miss it. Hook it up to this terminal and I'll be able to complete the remote configuration."
Max quickly located the small box. "Got it. So. Just as simple as that, then? Stake out Chinatown, wait until I get a ping, and then...then..."
Oh God, please don't make me kill anyone...
Davies interjected. "Going on the theory that this is most likely an Active undergoing their Emergence, and they're possibly panicking and losing control, simply knocking them out should shut the worst of the process down. We keep them under, possibly in a medical coma until the flare window is passed, and then rouse them. Admittedly, we're treading new ground here, but there's an Incident from 1977 that this bears some similarities to."
Max fit the earpiece in, cut the call over, and murmured. "I just switched channels over. Are you still there?"
"Reading you loud and clear."
She scrubbed frustratedly at her face. "Geezus. Lot of the unknown we're kinda dealing with, huh?"
"I'm sorry, Max. Sometimes the best you can do in a situation like this is simply mitigate the risks. Keep in touch with us; let me know if you find anything worthwhile, and I'll radio back if our situation changes, or if we acquire new data."
"Right. Uhh...Salinger out."
Man, that's going to take time to get used to.
"...Good luck, poppet."
Max bit her bottom lip, and gave a slight smile. This had to be tearing poor Davies up, this whole fucked up situation. But at least there was a plan, now.
A chance.
"Time to get to work."
Once the application module was coded, Max gathered up her belongings, and exited the apartment. It wouldn't be until much, much later that she'd realize the critical mistake she'd made.
The vital piece of equipment left behind.
Getting to work largely consisted of wandering around Chinatown for several hours. Max would have loved to explore more of the city, but the last thing she needed was to get a ping while she was halfway across town. Not that she couldn't just rewind time and make her way back but...it just felt too terribly irresponsible. She didn't know how many times she might have to rewind, again and again, to get this right, and she needed to conserve her energy.
Still, it was a lovely late morning of window shopping. A dress shop caught her eye as she was passing through, and she paused to admire the cheongsam's hanging in the display..
Ha ha! Alanna would totally pull that look off. Davies too. Even me. Yeah...we could be like Charlie's Angels or something. Hmmm...maybe she'll let us hang about for an extra day or two? I mean...fuck! If I pull this off, it's the least they could do for me. A little mini vacation.
She killed time in a few restaurants; first a dim sum house - the name of which she couldn't figure out at all - which was really good, despite it being totally vegetarian, and then the dessert cafe. There, she stuck with one of the safer-looking dishes, some sort of milk tea with weird little black tapioca-like balls in it.
Mmm. This is pretty damn tasty, whatever it is.
It was all so exotic, so strange. Not that her experiences were wide and deep to begin with, but New York City seemed like a whole different planet; Chinatown felt like being in a different country, albeit an exceedingly tiny one where people still mostly spoke English, with its cramped, dirty streets, and noisy storefronts. There was such an incredibly different vibe from what she experienced in Seattle.
It took her hours before she finally put her finger on it.
The buildings...everything's so...old! I can almost feel the history here, like a weight.
It all served to remind her how terribly sheltered she'd been, the past five years
Davies checked in, every so often, to see if she had any luck. And Max regretfully reported back that nothing had changed. She did her best to keep a calm disposition, but as the minutes and hours wore on ever closer to 1:12 PM, an icy desperation began to claw at the back of her mind.
1:00 PM? What the fuck, what the fuck!?
And then, blessed relief! The heads up display in her glasses lit up...
ANOMALY DETECTED
It was close. Chinatown for certain, but the streets were crowded, and she knew there was no way she'd make it in time. Fortunately, she didn't have to.
Winding back an hour, she reached up to her earpiece and spoke softly.
"Davies, it's me. What's your current status."
"We've past the storm, but at this point, we've decided to put ourselves into a holding pattern over Pittsburgh. If for some reason, you absolutely need us to try and make it to New York City, just rewind back and let us know. But please tell me you have good news?"
"Yup." Max said, with a rising note of confidence in her voice. "An hour from now, I'm going to get a ping."
"Blood hell, that's cutting it close" Davies said.
"No shit. It looks like it's gonna happen somewhere on Elizabeth Street. So I'm going to head over and stake it out."
"Right then." Davies replied. "Be careful!"
"Yeah. I'll totes step lightly around the walking nuclear apocalypse, thanks. Salinger out."
Max made her way five or six blocks over, and then began to casually stroll up and down Mulberry, waiting. One PM arrived, and once again, her display lit up.
ANOMALY DETECTED
She was close, damn close. It was clearly in one of the older buildings. The closer she walked towards the general direction of the signal, the more she could see that it was underneath her. Probably in one of the basements. She tracked it down to an old, abandoned storefront, looking particularly out of place in the wave of gentrification overtaking the neighborhood. She dashed in, looking conspicuous in the attempt, but not caring.
She made her way down the basement, the dot on her display growing brighter, the pinging more insistent. The fetid smell of mildew and age slammed into her like a wall. She preemptively drew the Splasher gun, then engaged the night vision mode in her glasses.
Her heart pounded, harder and harder still, adrenaline coursing through her veins. She had no idea what to expect, what situation she'd come across, as she made her way into a disused storage room, its tiny, ancient light bulb struggling to provide flickering light. The floor was strewn with moldering oilcloths.
By this point, her own personal sensors were starting to pick up life signs. Heartbeat was racing, body temperature way above normal.
She heard him first, before she saw him. A young Chinese boy, who couldn't have been more than nine or ten, curled up in a ball, whimpering in such horrendous agony, eyes open, wheeling around in a panic.
"Davies." Max whispered into her earpiece. "I found him. Jesus Christ, it's just a kid."
She held her Splasher away from him, then reached out a hand. "Hey...hey it's okay...it's okay. No one's going to hurt you, alright? Uh...shit, do you speak English? Where's the translation mode on this thing?"
The digital clock in her display blinked ominously: 1:10 PM.
He whimpered, crawling away from her, crying out piteously...
"Mǔqīn!" he called out.
"MOTHER" automatically flashed up on her display.
"Hǎo tòng! Hǎo tòng!" he screamed, clutching at his head.
"IT HURTS/IS UNPLEASANT/PAINFUL"
Max felt her vision swim, grow dark around the edges. Everything was starting to judder and skip, like a bad filmstrip breaking.
This...this didn't happen. This isn't...I don't remember this. part..I don't remember...
Images jumped about, disorienting her. The boy was knocked out, then he was awake. Then he was...
A voice started screaming at her.
Martinet's. All but shrieking.
"...I swear, if you disobey my direct order, you will never be let out of the base again! Do you understand me? Do you understand?! I will take away what little freedom you've been given!"
Everything dissolved in a whirling, frightening miasma of sight and sound.
Max suddenly awoke, her heart pounding painfully in her chest. She was...
...she was in Chloe's bed. Back in her room. Back...
...safe. I'm safe. Okay, I'm alright. Everything's fine, everything is...
She checked her lifeclock, found it was almost six in the morning, on Tuesday.
Early. Too damn early.
She turned around, and tried to fall back to sleep, desperately afraid to confront whatever lingering nightmare was still licking at the edges of her mind.
A/N: Hey Swanketeers, It's Black Swan Saturday! Lyta noms on turkey legs today, and continues to be thankful for Corentin's awesome edits and all the fantastic readers!
I hope everyone had a nice week, and that all the Americans out there had a filling Turkey Day. :-)
I have some news: This is probably going to be the last Black Swan update for the year. Or second to last at best. I've been so busy with work, and other stuff going on in my life that I am very quickly running out of buffer. I not only need time to complete what half-written drafts I have left, but I need to start writing new chapters, which I haven't been able to do in over a month. Also, the holidays are coming up, and I imagine that both Cory and myself would like just a little time to relax. I'm also hoping to get one last chapter of Grande Dame out before years end, as well.
So with all that in mind, I'm going to take a four to five week hiatus; so we'll be back either no earlier than the day after Christmas, or no later than the day after New Years. Sorry for such a long pause, but I figure this is probably the best place to take it, right before Max wakes up and Tuesday begins in earnest.
Thanks everyone, for all your support thus far! It is always greatly appreciated.