SLD-160 (Book 4 Chapter 31)

Synaptic Research Laboratory at General Hospital

Robin's fingers drummed nervously on the bed sheet. She'd adjusted the pillows under Andrew's head for the fifth time. After the reagent injection, Andrew had continued to doze. That was either a good sign or a bad sign. Robin wasn't sure which. It was an ongoing internal battle to resist the urge to shake her brother awake. She checked her watch again. Her eyes drifted to her phone lying on the bedside table. One or both of their parents would be calling. She'd have to face the music one way or the other.

Robin practiced some phrases. "Mom, Dad, we had an incident on the island but everyone's okay. Maxie and Andrew are sleeping. I'm about to get to bed, too. Talk to you tomorrow. By the way, everyone thinks I faked my death and now I'm alive again. Bye now." She shook her head. "Yeah, that sounds really convincing."

Raine walked over. Out of habit, she checked Andrew's face for signs of distress while her hands checked that his restraints were still secure. "You could try the truth."

"Nothing should have happened. If something did I was sure that … that the crystal would fix everything," said Robin.

"It's a pretty rock I suppose," said Raine eyeing the crystal that lay on the side table next to Robin's phone.

"It's not actually the rock but the owner. I was certain he'd come back. There was the crystal, the storm. All the signs were there." Robin sighed. "Worst of all is that I could have killed Andrew with the reagent. I'm a pushy idiotic know-it-all."

"Robin, the reagent was a calculated risk. You knew it. We knew it," said Raine. "If you had any inkling that it would be fatal, you would not have proposed it."

"Stubborness is a family trait," rumbled Andrew's soft voice startling the two women. His eyes opened. They were bright and shining with intelligence.

"How do you feel?" asked Robin gently touching her brother's face. "Headache? Dizziness? Do you know where you are?"

"Ah, my second home," murmured Andrew beginning to rise to a sitting position. "Feel fine. Stop fussing."

"Do you remember anything after the island?" asked Robin.

Andrew looked directly at Robin. "I remember everything." He held up his restrained hands. "I am completely under control. Off, please."

Raine and Robin untied all of his retraints. Andrew stretched.

"I could hear what everyone was saying but I could not control my body," explained Andrew.

"Out of body experience?" asked Raine as she sent a positive message to CnC.

"Nothing that exotic. My body simply felt numb. No sensation of heat or cold. I felt encased in stone. Most unsettling," replied Andrew.

"And you were awake all this time? No period of unconsciousness?" asked Robin.

"If my body was at rest, my mind was the complete opposite. I could not stop thinking."

"Thinking about what?" asked Raine.

"This and that. Goals and … and dreams," said Andrew.

Three pairs of eyes went to Robin's phone as it began to ring the Mission Impossible theme.

Robin answered with a grin, "Hi, you two. How's merry old England?"

Robert's stern visage filled the screen. Anna leaned over his left shoulder.

Robin inhaled then exhaled slowly. "I guess you've heard the news."

"When Edgar and CnC evade all questions regarding our children, we start to worry. When we worry, we become suspicious and paranoid," said Robert. "When that happens, we move from annoyed to furious at the speed of light."

Anna put a placating hand on Robert's shoulder. "What your father means to say is that we would have preferred to have had some notice like a panic alert as agreed. Did that slip your minds?"

"We didn't want to worry you and-" began Robin.

Andrew entered the viewing frame of Robin's phone. "As you can see the situation is well in hand. Just a bit of excitement."

"I was on the second page of the evening edition. I'll be old news by tomorrow. Page five or six for sure," added Robin.

"Not in a New York minute do I believe that. All of you including Maxie will be out of there in the next hour. We're headed for the airport. This family has been cutting things too close to the edge lately." At a pointed look from Anna, Robert added, "I meant the children."

"Of course you did, Robert," replied Anna.

"We were careful, Dad. Really we were," said Robin.

"Until the freak lightning hit the island and the energy transferred to the crystal," added Andrew.

"Is that what happened?" asked Robin.

"I have had plenty of time to think about it," said Andrew softly. "It's the only logical answer. For now."

Robert looked thunderous. "That thing is going into the vaults and it will never be seen or used by anyone ever again. It's nothing but trouble."

"The anomalous weather pattern and the crystal's-" Andrew began to say.

"I see I need to be clearer. You WILL be returning to the villa ASAP. That THING will be isolated. Destroyed if I have my way. Neither of you will be setting foot on Spoon Island for … for a really long time if ever. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," said Andrew.

"No. I can't leave. Not yet," came Robin's reply.

"Why not?" asked Anna. "You have a fully equipped lab at home. We have professional minions to send out to do investigations or get anything you need. I intend to put our considerable resources to better use going forward."

"Mom, there's been at least two deaths from Fly. Two that I know of. There's probably more," said Robin. "Matt agreed to give high doses of the blocking drug to one critical patient. I want to stay around to see if the modifications I made will work."

"I'm sure that if you give Matt some instructions, he can-"

"No he can't. It doesn't work like that. Peter's conversion method worked because I was able to make adjustments to the treatment AND the compound solution on a case by case basis."

"You told us that you stabilized the compounds. Perfected the recipes as it were," said Robert.

"I perfected the BASE formula so it was not fatal or debilitating to 98% of cases on initial application. The bases became chemically stable foundations for customization," said Robin. "Without the custom solutions, the subjects would not have been fully receptive to further training or adapt to new behaviors. It was a two step process to create a solution unique to every case."

Anna sat beside Robert. Her gaze was intense. "Robin, how effective is this second step? Who else knows about this step?"

"Peter created a computer program to automate the second step but its success rate was only 10%. Most subjects reacted negatively to the adaptive mixture. Either they descended into passive aggressive robots, docile amnesiacs or babbling children in adult bodies. It was a horror show," said Robin. "My success rate was 90%."

"90 percent," said Anna in a near whisper.

"It's not something I'm proud of but I do know the compounds inside and out and the production process, too. I can almost … almost feel when the solution is not right for a specific patient. Maybe it was all the trial and error testing I've done. I can't explain it. I just do. I take the basic formula and then customize it to the case at hand. It's then administered. I sometimes adjust the following treatment steps as I monitor the patient's progress. The ten percent were those with undetected or unknown pre-existing chronic or gene-based conditions. Or those pre-conditioned to resist psychological manipulation."

"And you're the ONLY person who knows this? Compound A or X? Both?" asked Anna.

"All of the compounds and the variants. There were some things that could be standardized like height, weight and age. I put those in as user specified variables in the production program. The techs would verify that the initial mix was correct based on the variables' values. But I would have one additional examination of the formula and make small tweaks."

"And Peter let you do this? Every time?"

"It was either me or the computer. I wrote down the tweaks I made but not all," said Robin. "Can I help it if Peter thought I'd told him everything?"

"That was a dangerous game to play, Robin," said Anna. "You have no idea how much."

Robin exploded, "It was the ONLY thing I could do to fight back. I was questioned about everything - my life, your life, Dad's life, my friends, my boyfriends, everything. I was restrained and sedated. I couldn't fight the truth drugs all the time. But every single thing I could keep to myself or that I could change to mean something else were all little victories. Over time I didn't think about it, plan it. It became a reflex to be secretive. I made sure that no one else could do what I could and especially not Peter. Did I like murdering personalities left and right? No but I was damned good at it. I had to be."

"Customized learning and training gone subliminal," murmured Anna. "Utterly unique. A one off chamelion. And completely sane."

"There are some days I don't feel very sane. Anger issues and stuff," replied Robin.

Robert said with a hint of pride in his voice. "You made your own insurance policy. Doing your best with what you got. You were a soldier in a war. You do what you have to. In the end, you got out. That's a win."

Robin nodded. "You always told me that no one could defeat me as long as I didn't surrender in my mind and heart. I never forgot that. As long as Peter needed me, I'd live. Living meant another day to find a way out. Since I got here, I've tried to put on paper everything in my head but some things are … are just in there. I can't explain it. I can just do it. Maybe with Andrew's help, we can create a computerized program for SIMON that-"

"Oh, my god, no!" exclaimed Anna. Her eyes widened. "That knowledge, you, Emma, Andrew and Simon all have to be kept a secret. There's no choice to make. Not now."

"What's that about Emma?" asked Robert.

"This is the rare instant that I am in complete agreement with you," said Anna glancing at Robert before turning back to her children. "To paraphrase your very wise father, both of you WILL be at the villa BEFORE we take off. Robin, you can keep tabs on the patient from your lab. Raine, assign someone to see to it that Matt has a communications set up with Robin and secure access to the lab there. And, Andrew, you're grounded."

"What? For how long?" asked Andrew.

"Until I feel it's safe to unground you. Whenever that will be," said Anna. "Why are you all still standing there? Move!"

They moved.

North American Aerospace Defense Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado

The ramrod straight communications officer handed a report to the duty officer Colonel Maxwell. Maxwell studied the report.

"Has this been confirmed, Lieutenant?"

"Yes, sir, two independent sources," replied the junior officer.

"Very well. I will take it under advisement," said the colonel.

The lieutenant did not move.

"Yes, Lieutenant?"

"I'm a science geek, sir, and I have an interest in electromagnetism."

"Go on," prodded Colonel Maxwell.

"While a localized electromagnetic pulse is possible, it's not possible to deploy a pulse, even a low level one, in as wide an area as the one detected in upstate New York," said the lieutenant. "Not without a bomb detonation somewhere in the atmosphere. We haven't detected anything of the kind. It's impossible."

"I think you mean improbable," said Colonel Maxwell. "In my experience, nothing is impossible."

"An EMP pulse that wide just isn't feasible without an obvious source device. It would be like aliens coming to earth," said the lieutenant. "It makes for great fiction and that's where it belongs."

The colonel glanced at the report. "Does the name Port Charles ring a bell?"

"No, sir."

"Do a quick news scan. You'll find it's at the center of some strange weather and a CDC field op," said Colonel Maxwell. "An EMP pulse fits right in."

"The CDC?"

"Life is truly stranger than fiction," chuckled the colonel.

"Should I mark the incident as open or closed, sir?" asked the lieutenant.

"It is closed for NORAD. Submit an inspection request for the two monitoring stations who picked up," ordered Colonel Maxwell. "We can't have faulty equipment can we?"

"No, sir. Will do, sir." The lieutenant returned to his duty station.

Colonel Maxwell folded the report and slipped it inside his uniform jacket. He had friends, fellow patriots, who would find the information intriguing and possibly useful.

The Court, Milton Keynes, England

In the foyer, Robert and Anna said their farewells to Augusta and Elyot. The front door swung open. Mr. Hare entered followed by a young brunette who flung herself into Augusta's arms.

"Sabrina, safe at last," said Augusta.

"I couldn't stand it a moment longer," said Sabrina. "My nerves are shot."

"And what was the cause of the delay?" asked Elyot turning his wheelchair to study Mr. Hare who seemed slightly put out.

"I had to take a rather circuitous route and employ some friends to create suitable diversions and obstacles," said Mr. Hare.

"You were pursued?"

"It was more a pervasive sense of being observed from a distance," said Hare. "We switched cars three times to be safe."

Sabrina eyed Anna like a cat studying a ball of string. "You have to be Anna. The Anna. Cesar's Anna. She is, isn't she, Uncle Elyot?"

Robert flinched and pursed his lips. Anna expelled a deep breath very slowly.

"Anna and Robert Scorpio, may I introduce my niece Sabrina," said Elyot.

Sabrina used a finger to curl an errant strand of hair over and behind her ear. "There is a resemblance. The hair, the eyes, the skin tone. But you have an air of dangerous mystique I'll never have. I faked it of course but you are all natural. Amazing. The one and only Anna Devane."

"You seem to know more about me than you ought to," said Anna carefully choosing her words. She glanced at Augusta. "Long lost relative?"

"Oh, not a Devane. She's Elyot's niece but we've raised her like she was ours," said Augusta.

Robert harrumphed. "Someone please explain what this is about. Quickly."

"I desired to study Faison and his methods more directly. Sabrina was molded to be similar enough to Anna to intrigue the quarry to a chase. That she did. Then she was set to play mouse to his cat for a period of time," said Elyot. "I needed to know for myself how he thought, how he operated."

"That's like dangling a sheep in front of a wolf," said Robert studying Sabrina. "You do sort of look like Anna. Younger, too."

Anna glared at her spouse. "Faison isn't easily fooled."

"Aunt Augusta drilled me for days," said Sabrina.

"Did she now?" asked Anna.

"Sabrina had to be similar not exact. She had to employ enough of your attributes to attract his attention not hold it for the considerable length of a true affair of the heart. Easy enough to do," said Augusta.

"The right place and time was selected to introduce Sabrina into Faison's orbit. It was a bit of a fait accompli," said Mr. Hare.

"Did the wolf bite?" asked Robert.

"He formed an unexpected and disturbing attachment to her," said Elyot. "For her safety, we had to bring Sabrina in and destroy her cover completely."

"I kept moving but he kept finding me. Leaving flowers at my door, notes in my mail and my workplace. Street urchins approached me at random with small gifts from him. It was altogether upsetting." Sabrina shivered. "I'm glad to get out intact of mind and body."

"Faison doesn't abuse women. Not physically," said Anna.

"He was kind even tender seeing you in my form and face but he's not right in the head. He's insane in fact," said Sabrina.

"Crazed, obsessive, deluded and dangerous. You're not telling us anything new." Robert looked at Elyot. "Were you satisfied?"

Elyot nodded. "I am. Faison is no adversary. He is an alpha predator. Would that he was a wily lone wolf but he is not. He and his associates must be culled with exquisite care and utter ruthlessness."

"I feel that his delusions have a foundation of truth. He speaks of his family. You, Anna, and he and Andrew, your son, together and-" said Sabrina.

"Never his son," said Anna with icy disdain. "Andrew is mine and Robert's."

"But Faison truly believes he is his. He dreams about him," insisted Sabrina. "I can't get what he said out of my head. I must know what are the singing crystals or the mountains of mourning?"

"Did you say crystals?" asked Robert.

"Yes. Powerful crystals that he would give to his … to Andrew," said Sabrina. "That he would be a champion of the Krieg Destiny. What or who is a Krieg? Faison was entirely serious and sincere."

"He said all that?" asked Anna.

"Yes. He was talking in his sleep. I thought he was asleep and I was listening. But he opened his eyes and turned towards me. He called me Anna and began to talk. He was absolutely terrifying," said Sabrina.

Robert rubbed at his temples. "Crystals, Anna. Bad weather. A weather machine is the definition of power. I know first hand. Can it all be a big coincidence?"

"It sounds like part of the plot for his unpublished book - the Celestine Prophecy. I read the whole thing. It's fantasy," said Anna. "How could it be real?"

"City-wide blackout. Glowing things that had no business glowing. Birds that follow orders."

Anna looked at her husband. "Our children fascinated by a piece of crystal. The two of us conveniently out of town at the same time."

"While he's there doing God only knows what," said Robert holding Anna's gaze. Robert took out his phone and contacted CnC. He began issuing orders to find Faison if he was in the city.

"We leave in a half hour." Anna turned to Sabrina. "In the meantime, you must tell me exactly what occurred between you and Faison. I want to know every word he said. Elyot, Augusta, we will be sending you a dossier on a past case. It will be hard to believe but we lived it. It's all true."

"Something to do with crystals?" asked Augusta.

"As obsessed as Faison has been with me, he has been equally mesmerized by the power of crystals. He's spent decades studying them," explained Anna. "It's not metaphysical theory for him. It's all about enormous energies and controlling that power for his own ends. Robert and I have seen things that would seem impossible but truly happened."

Robert ended his call and said, "And we'll see him dead before he involves our children in his madness again."

"He has proven adept at evading that particular fate," said Elyot.

Robert scowled. "I'm willing to do anything to end his lucky streak."

"Anything?" asked Elyot.

"Try me and see," replied Robert.

Bucket of Blood bar on the waterfront

Luke slouched on the bar counter. His hat was shoved way down on his head. His long overcoat was worn by use and age. He looked like any other bar rat. The stool next to him groaned. Someone sat down. An envelope bulging with cash changed hands discreetly.

"This should help you out," said Sean softly.

"Kinda late for you isn't it? I thought you were the reformed family man," said Luke.

"Something came up. I had to move up the meeting."

"That something named Robin? It's all over the news."

"Could be," said Sean. "Let's go for a walk while you tell me a story. You owe me one, remember?"

"I want to know about Robin first," insisted Luke. "Was that whole deal with the syringe a … a big play? Fake death, resurrection, the works all to put one over Helena?"

"I'm not the man with the answers, Luke. If you think that Anna or Robert would use Robin like that, then you don't know them at all," said Sean.

"You knew about it from the beginning didn't you?"

"Yes."

Luke snorted. "Of course they'd ask you if they needed help. Who else would they ask? Not me obviously."

"Don't make this about you and Robert. It wasn't about your friendship," said Sean.

"He let me stew in anger and guilt for weeks. I thought I'd caused her death. Then he had the gall to be furious at ME," said Luke. "He was playing puppetmaster the whole time. Now, he's got Tracy involved in a plot against Sonny for ELQ shares. Scorpio's getting a god complex."

"Calm down. Don't jump to conclusions."

"He's got quite the interest in the Alcazar network. He denied wanting to take Sonny down but that's what he's really up to isn't it?"

"Robert could care less about Sonny. It's about the briefcase. It needs to be put in safer hands. That's all."

Luke groaned. "You know about that, too?"

"Talk to Robert before you make more assumptions."

"Whatever." He patted Sean on the back. "I know who my real friends are. I won't forget this. Whatever you want from me, you got it."

"No waffling when I call that favor in?" asked Sean.

"Absolutely none," said Luke. He got to his feet. "Let's shake this joint. Do I have a doozy of a story for you."

The two men made their way out of the bar.

Author's Note: Many thanks to the readers who have followed me from the website. I think Sean's painted himself into quite a corner. Will he have any friends left? Just how much more singleminded will Robert become to get Faison? Or Anna in protecting her children? No secret every stays a secret without great cost.