When the helicopter came, they were sure it was the Nathan James, come to save the day. But they were both hauled up and they were looking down the barrels of guns once safely inside. The helicopter flew off and now they were hostages.
Tex thought about the twelve or thirteen lives he'd already burnt at his age and thought, this had to be about right. He had to get stuck with commodore bravery over her and become a bargaining chip to some crazy Russians who basically wanted to kill of the human race. That sounded right. He looked to Tom and Tom looked to him and they both said nothing until well after the helicopter descended onto the Vyerni, a ship that had stumped them before.
The Russians all had grins on their faces, giddy with excitement about having the great Commander Chandler and somewhat less excited to see him. He was an extra, an american was also a good hostage asset, but he knew that he was further down the list. They would have killed him already if he wasn't with the Commodore there.
While Tom cracked a joke at the Russians expense and he had to join in, they tolerated that Captain Chandler would be an ass to their face. They did not care about him. He was dragged off by several soldiers and taken to some tiny room, with a big guy in it. They shut the door behind him. And they went off laughing. Before he could even get his bearings, the guy swung at him. He managed to scuffle around just enough to really get into it. But without food or water for over half a day, he was in no shape for a long fight. And he eventually went down, it was only a couple of knocks anyways. And then he was shut in a cell.
He thought about how Rachel would probably be worried. He promised he that he would make it back. That this would be an easy one. They would get there and get back. And sadly, that was a promise that he couldn't fulfill now. Rachel had been having more nightmares even before this whole array of situations, he couldn't imagine what it felt like right now.
He thumped the back of his head on the cell's bars and thought, it could have gone so much differently if the commodore had just radioed back home some sort of code. They could have been home by now. He and Slattery were pals. He had to know a way to make it easier for the mana. There were a million little decisions they had all made, he thought. This was not just the commodore's fault.
Rachel injected the monkey with Bertise's receptors and then gave Bertrise the lesson in what exactly it would do, hopefully making the vaccine in the process. She looked at the monkey who was squealing like normal in the biohazard part of the lab, a hopeful sign, but not one she got her hopes up for.
The last time she had gotten her hopes up, they were ravaged. Tex not coming back to the ship. The Commander not coming back. They were key players. They were needed on this ship and she didn't care if that was stupid of her to think. She just needed them back.
Having Bertrise here to show all of her science was good enough to pause the enormity of her emotions, but not the presence of them. She hoped that this would all be over very soon. All of it. She wanted to see them coming over the edge of the Nathan James unharmed except maybe by time in the elements.
"I was so sick as a child. Everyone used to tease me that I was faking to get out of going to school," Bertrise said with a bit of a smile, "And now,"
That was something Rachel could get behind, "Immune to the most deadly virus of in the whole world, and possibly its savior," She needed Bertrise to be proud of who she was. She was special, because someone had put something in this virus that made it weapon, but the person who was going to save them? That's all she wanted, the ability to help.
Will Mason pushed through the door and Rachel showed Bertrise away from the computer and to the young sailor.
"Bertrise, I'd like to introduce you to Will Mason. He's the one who heard your call on the radio," She told the girl while looking at the young who had maybe been the start to saving them all. His compassion for one girl was what got Bertrise to them in the first place. He was passionate about saving her and he had made a good case.
"It's very nice to meet you,"
"I'm so glad you're alright," Will's cheeks reddened a little, Rachel thought it was cute to see him so flustered in the presence of a young woman. He was usually so confident and self assured, when she saw him in the CIC, but here, it was totally different.
"Thank you for helping to find me," She could also see the blush creep on Bertrise's cheeks and well, wasn't that fun?
As much as she loved watching new awe spring up, she had other things to think about. "Is there any word on Captain Chandler or Tex?" She asked Will, trying not to sound desperate for news. Since she left the combat center last night, she hadn't really gotten anymore information and she was starting to think it wasn't good.
The look in Will's eyes confirmed it. "No Ma'am," He said, "But we'll get them back somehow," He promised. And that was really it wasn't it? A somehow. She knew what Ruskov wanted and why he'd wanted to find them in the first place.
When Will and Bertrise both left, separately, she got into her biohazard suit and went through the chambers to get to the monkey. She took a sample of its blood and cultured some petri dishes with it, so she could see what was happening in the monkey. It had been long enough that had the disease taken effect, he would already be showing symptoms, a good sign, but not a vaccine by any measure. To know it was working, she had to know that it wasn't just slowing down the virus, but flushing it completely.
What she saw was astonishing? A sample of monkey blood from before the vaccine and after, they looked nearly identical. Bertrise's receptors had worked to fool the virus in the monkey. The monkey as vaccinated. "Well aren't you the lucky one?" She asked the monkey as she put her hand on its little clear box and took a big sigh of relief.
The results of the pictures would show up on the networked computer, thankfully even without a real internet, they could network computers together for her to get to her work from the biohazard area. She quickly decontaminated the suit and stowed it away for future use and stepped out into the regular work area. She made sure to look at analysis, because it wasn't just the pictures. It was buffering, but it was working them out. Good.
She ran out onto the p-way and people were talking about how the XO had gone down to the Combat Center and she ran up to it to make sure that she could tell them. She had heard about the Ruskov situation and how of course he had given them a deal to make.
Slattery was not happy to see her, "Honestly Doctor, now's not a good time. The Russians are calling back in less than five," He told her, giving her a stern finger, trying to keep her quiet.
But she was not one to ever keep quiet when something big was happening. "I have the vaccine," She told him over his protests, "The monkey survived, the last damn monkey," She added. It was nothing short of a miracle and Slattery would understand that.
"Are you saying you have a vaccine that works?" He asked, trying not to get his hopes up.
She nodded, "In an ideal world, I'd do more testing, but…yes," She told him. Because it was as close to a gift as they were going to get. "Which means Ruskov doesn't need me anymore. You can send him a dose in exchange for Tex and the captain."
Kara was the first at bat, "Ruskov won't just take your word for it. He'll want to make sure,"
That was true. How could she not have thought of that? Which would mean that the only option was to go over. "Well, then I'll show him myself," She told everyone. Danny and Slattery's eyes went just a little wide, before they returned to normal faces, "I'm no longer essential on this ship," She told them. "From here on in, it's merely a case of mass-producing the vaccine from my original formula,"
There were more arguments about letting her go, but ultimately it was the only logical way that they were going to get the Captain and Tex back. And she was willing to go. Everyone eventually saw that and she saw gears turning in their head. She didn't know exactly what they were thinking, but she supposed that was a good thing. She did not want to be in on more than one plan at a time. And they had to plan to get her over there first and protect her while she was there.
Eventually Slattery rang over to the Russians that they would send Doctor Scott, but in order to get her ready for the journey, it would take some time. This, they seemed fine with. In reality, they needed time to perfect a mix of contrition and assault.
When Tom finally came to the prison cell, there was formalities to be had, but they were over with relatively quickly and he wasn't given a few cursory punches.
"You've looked better," He said to Tex.
Tex blinked his eyes slowly, "Oh, you should have seen the other guy," He told Tom.
"There was only one?"
Tex looked over to his friend with a smile, "He was a big unit. No sense of humor." He said, the humor slowly coming back into his voice. "You want to know the kicker? He didn't even ask me any questions,"
The guard was not pleased at hearing them. "Hey! No talk! Or I kiss your ass," He said sternly.
Tex and Tom both scoffed, "You mean kick my ass," Tex shouted from the cell. The guard just warned him to shut up again. Tex looked back to the commander and thought, this guy.
Tom whispered, "I just spoke to our friend from Chicago. If I know Mike, he's planning on paying us a visit,"
Tex nodded and lowered his voice too, "Well then, we'd better find a way to make him feel welcome,"
Rachel stood in the middle of a circle made up of the guys who were going to help spring her, the Captain, and Tex off the Vyerni. Burke, who took a no nonsense approach to this particular mission was in front of her. "This is a .45 caliber pistol," He told her. "Excellent knock down power, but the trade-off is that it's large and heavy."
He kept explaining. "It's got an eight round magazine, loaded. And I'm going to give you an extra, let's hope you won't need it," He told her, putting both the gun, loaded and armed, and the extra magazine, in the bottom of the box. "And lastly, the suppressor. Without it, you'll wake up the entire ship. But you'll need time to attach it. Are we clear?" He asked.
Rachel did not enjoy the prospect of having a gun in her medical box, but it was crucial for the plan to work that she might need to defend herself. She gulped. "Crystal,"
"Outstanding," Burke said as he put the suppressor in the bottom of the box.
Quincy put the actual medical parts together as she gave the flash drive with the original formula in Doctor Rios's hands. He would be sure to make it if she couldn't get back to the Nathan James. This was an insurance policy though, they assured her.
Slattery came and got her after a few more minutes of that. "The Russians are picking you up in one of their helos, out in the middle of nowhere, taking you to their ship. We won't have any contact after that," He told her.
She nodded briskly, "I understand,"
"It's a little late to ask if you really want to do this," He admitted. "Let me just say that what you're doing, it's very brave. I'm proud to know you,"
She almost teared up at the notion. Slattery had been one of her biggest detractors on this mission, but he was coming around. She looked up at him and gave him a small smile and thought what would Tex do? He would inject some humor into the situation, "You're making it sound like goodbye," She said in a slightly sarcastic tone.
"I'll see you for breakfast," He said right back and gave her the life jacket that she would need to get on the boat, already set up for her with Danny as the driver.
They raced into the water and a few miles before they got to their intended destination, Danny throttled down for a moment, "I know you're ready for this, but there's one last thing you need, he said." He looked at the growing sunset around them and thought there could be a better plan but they wouldn't find it.
He took a small piece of paper out of his pocket. "Are you okay with a little seduction?" He asked.
She laughed a little, "Look, I don't know what Tex has told you about me," She started.
He shook his head, "Not me, ma'am. As much as I like you. There's another for me. But we need you to get a message to Tex and the Captain, so they know we're coming," He said as he gave her the small sliver of paper that also had something else in it, "Don't look at it, just put it in your mouth, they probably won't search you thoroughly. And kiss one of them when you see them, that way you can swap the note to them," He told her.
She blushed deeply at the thought of this. It would make her look like a schoolgirl, which is why she supposed it would work. They would just take it as feelings and not craftiness. She nodded and took the piece of paper and stuck it in the driest place she could easily get to, so the moisture of her mouth wouldn't bleed the ink too bad.
He throttled up again again and laughed a little at the thought that Tex had said anything but an unkind word about her. They moved into position, in some random part of the ocean and the helicopter flew over about an hour after they had fully stopped where the Russians asked. Danny gave her a two thumbs up as the harness came down. She got in it and he handed her the standard issue CDC box they had prepped and she was away.
The helicopter ride over was quiet. None of them wanted to speak to her. They were all sent to retrieve her, not explore her mind. As the helicopter descended onto the Vyerni, the half dozen Russian soldiers climbed out, and then she was allowed. An armed soldier was left on the helicopter behind her, lest she should get any ideas. She was pulled forward by her guards and shown to a commanding officer. He looked unphased as he shined a bright flashlight into her eyes as he looked her over thoroughly, comparing her to a picture. She tried not to blink too hard at his light but it was hard.
He nodded and instructed her to take off her life vest for the water. She handed it to one of the armed guards that stood around her, and he simply threw it on the ground, while the officer patted her down. He, at the very least, made it quick and as comfortable for the situation as it could be. It was never going to be easy, but for what it was, it was fine.
He gave her an affirmative and she picked up her case again, this he seemed more curious about, having someone inspect the inside of it. Even when she tried to push it off as just virus samples. They still needed to look. Thankfully, she had packed virus samples. But they were getting very touchy. She just thought back to putting it in the ocean, "Careful," She told them. They nodded affirmatively.
After that, she was quickly taken to Ruskov, in a private dining area it looked like, he was sitting down with fine china, such a difference it was to living on the Nathan James where the wardroom had coffee mugs for everyone that were basically identical and they were not considered fine china.
Ruskov jumped up, delighted to see her, "Dr. Scott, how long I have waited to welcome you aboard Vyerni," He said.
She looked down at the ground, "I won't be talking further or doing any kind of work till you bring up your prisoners," She told him firmly. This was part of the game. She had to see them. She had to have them in the room with her. Otherwise, the plan would never work.
Ruskov nodded. "Of course. It was expected," He said and gestured to one of the men.
A door behind him opened and Captain Chandler and Tex were pushed through by armed guards. She felt so thankful to see them.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Chandler asked, but she simply didn't have time to answer him.
The Captain may have been the obvious choice for the craft, but Tex was her true heart's desire, and she took two long steps forward, pulled him into her by grabbing him at the base of his neck and then did what she set out to do when Danny had brought it up. She kissed him long and hard and tried not to think about how this was their first kiss, and it had been as spycraft. Hopefully, they would make it up later to each other, when they didn't have to worry about not getting themselves killed. Still, it was a good kiss, once he leaned into it. She didn't think about how it make her weak in the knees.
They were pulled away from each other and Tex gave her a bit of a dumbfounded look when it was all said and done.
"Now I understand why the good doctor agreed to pay us a visit," Ruskov said from behind all of them and Rachel rolled her eyes at him. She hated that they had to endure so much of this gloating and bragging. It was unsubtle and stupid. He spoke to his men in Russian and the boys were ferried back through the door, they came.
"You said you'd let them go. You said it was me for them." She demanded. They would need to be let go, but she supposed it would never have been that easy.
"Not until I confirm that you've delivered what I've requested," He told her.
They got pushed back into the cell by bad english, who went back to his desk quickly, leaving them alone to talk. "I can't believe it. She kissed you?" Tom asked. "I didn't think you were serious back there in the ocean. Up until last night, we all saw you flirting with everyone? Does she know that you flirt with everything with a pulse," Tom asked him a million questions in a hushed tone, so Bad English wouldn't come looking.
Tex rolled his tongue and pushed the note out of his mouth to which Tom immediately stopped his line of questioning. 0400. Ladder Room. Portside. "You know what this means?" Tex asked as he looked around the room, trying to be subtle about the whole thing.
Tom nodded. "I got an idea," He said. "First we got to get by this guy," He said nodding over to Bad English.
"And there's two guards on the P-way," He told the Commander. He felt like sharing, "I like her, and if that kiss was any indication," Tex said as he looked up with a shit eating grin on his face. That woman was something else. Bold at all the right moments.
"Tex, ladder room," The commodore whispered sternly to him and he blushed like a mad man. This was certainly not how he thought this day was going to go, but it wasn't bad as far as being a hostage went.
Rachel was ferried down to the lab by Russian guards, including the officer that had shined a light in her face on the open air deck. In the room, was a large plastic liner room, just like she had as her biohazard lab, but there was someone in it. Remarkably, he wasn't wearing a suit or anything different really. He was just a man dressed in smartly casual clothes and glasses. "So nice to see you again." He told her.
"Do I know you?" She asked. He didn't look like anyone she had any key relations with, but she wasn't great with faces, she could be wrong.
"European Congress of Virology, 2011." He said proudly, "You spoke on techniques for hemagglutination-inhibition with arthropod-borne viruses. And afterwards, I introduced myself, shook hands, Neils Sorenson."
She gave the whole room a thorough once over, "I'm sorry," She said, distracted, "I don't recall,"
"I was with Professor Lindblom," He told her.
That was a name she knew. "I remember Jonas." She told him. "You were in his department?" She asked.
"For a time," Neils said, clearly uncomfortable with the topic of the professor. "He never really saw clearly what I was trying to…" He was stuttering. And he trailed off the subject, like there was something more there.
"I'd invite you in but it's such a mess," He said and for that she felt the gross intensity of misdirection in his comment. Because, while it was untidy, it did seem like for the most part he kept it relatively sanitary. And many scientists knew that sometimes you could get hyperfocused on the research part, that the organizing part fell by the wayside.
It was then that it came to her, "You're infected?" She asked. He tried to downplay it, but he hadn't actually told her that he wasn't, "But you're not even symptomatic," He tried further to tell her something else, but then she understood, "It was you. You added the human gene,"
It was like a shot in the gut knowing that he was here. The man who killed the world. "You weaponized the virus."
"No, I didn't weaponize it. I was really close to a major breakthrough. I added my gene to the virus and then injected it back into my bloodstream and it worked. I am completely immune. I just-" He trailed off, like he did when he didn't want to admit to something. This, she knew about him now, "I didn't know that I also made myself a carrier,"
"So you're patient zero?" She asked, dazed by all the information he had just given her.
He scoffed. "No, I didn't start it. I'm trying to find a solution here," He told her, his voice getting angrier now that it was clear that she wasn't on his side. "I'm trying to fix it. And I can fix it. As soon as I get the primordial strain,"
She looked him straight in the eye and it was like looking into the eyes of a monster, "You don't understand what you've done. The primordial won't work now. The virus you created. The modifications you made," She said and she couldn't believe she had to tell him this, "You've made it so much worse,"
"And you could have come forward at any point?" She asked him. "I mean you must have known this," All he could go on about was himself though. "You killed four billion people and you never gave them a chance to understand how it happened?" She rolled her eyes when he tried to talk any further. She didn't even have a chance to put her case down and she was glad for it now.
He went on and on about solving it now, like he was the only mind in the world. "It's too late," She told him. "I've already done it. I already made the vaccine,"
"That's a lie," He told her.
She simply walked to the guards, "See for yourself," She told him. He kept shouting and shouting about how she wasn't allowed to do this or that or something else crazy, she paid him no mind, but she gave him one last glance before leaving, "Did you really think that your DNA could save the human race?" She asked and then she was gone, sandwiched between two soldiers playing guard taking her up to Ruskov, who she informed exactly what a liar he had living in his lab and that she already had the vaccine.
The admiral was incensed. He made his way down to the lab and everyone else followed him. When Neils saw the man, he had the sense to be deferential. She didn't know what Ruskov would do with the man's haughty attitude that he had with her, but it certainly wouldn't be an easy decision for Ruskov. I mean, he basically had to kill anyone who got close to Neils in any way. Neils had made himself his own little bubble, quite literally. A pocket of air that while he could be bothered, he wouldn't be moved from.
"Do you really think I've kept myself in here for nothing? I'm telling you Admiral, her vaccine won't work. You still need me," Neils said and the venom in his voice was palpable. Rachel put her box on a table and watched the scene unfold.
Ruskov nodded, "You're right, I do." He spoke in Russian to a few of his colleagues, who then held up a gun to one of their colleagues. He looked to her, "Dr. Scott," He said and she knew what he meant. Give him the vaccine. Show him that it worked. She tried for the gun, but as she saw Neils looking at her, a little too closely, she did what she was told and took out the needle and the vaccine and then plunged it into the scared Russian's arm like she had never been more sure of anything in her life.
"Now we test the vaccine," Ruskov said.
And they opened the plastic and pushed the poor Russian in. Ruskov baited Neils and Neils breathed on the poor Russian who had to stay in Neils's space for god knows how long. Ruskov left after that, unwilling to hear the cries of his colleague, but leaving only one officer to stand guard on her. She guessed the performance of coldness which she deeply regretted had impressed Ruskov enough to believe that she would not try to escape. Or that her escape could somehow be easily overpowered by one person. Either way, she was grateful. The less people around, the better.
Of course, Ruskov came into their little prison room, Tex thought. He had to gloat. He had to have time to be as evil as he could. "Comfortable?" He asked them. "As a boy, I shared a room not much bigger than this with my five brothers and sisters. My parents were not of the political elite. We grew familiar with tight quarters, with cold, with hunger, " He told them. As if the started from the bottom now we're here would endear them to him. It did not. In fact, it actually kind of pissed Tex off more knowing that he knew all the dangers the world afforded to people simply because they were less advantaged and he wasn't doing anything to fight that system.
"That's a real sob story," Tex said, "Well told. Aren't they expecting you back in Transylvania before sunrise?" He would never stop with jokes. Not even when he could have been staring death in the face.
Ruskov had a smile on his face, but he was unamused. Unlike the commodore who chuckled.
"This vaccine your Dr. Scott has developed, is now the single greatest commodity in the world." He told them. "Everyday, its value increases as those not infected grow desperate for it, and it's mine!" He said with a laugh, "The american dream, isn't that the expression?" He asked.
Tex looked to the Captain and the Captain looked at him. Tex's eyebrows knit together. "I think something got lost in translation," He told the man.
The rest of the conversation had no point. It was just a harbinger of death trying to make them another harbinger of death. The captain didn't go for it and neither did he. Ruskov's features set when he heard this and he left them to rot in their cell until such a time would come when he would kill both of them.
When it was time, Tom took the lead in getting Bad English over, because he knew Russian and talking in English would have looked more suspicious. When bad English came over, Tom held him by his shirt and Tex slit his throat with the razor they had been provided and they rushed out of there, knocking the guards on the P-Way out too and taking their guns. They were getting out of this place, their crew had told them what they needed to do and they were ready for it.
Rachel stood anxiously, fingers near her mouth as she watched Neils and the scared Russian in the plastic. The Russian wasn't saying anything anymore, he was standing on the side, dejected about the whole situation. Neils called him Dmitri.
The Captain led them to the ladder room, where he stood to watch the hatch where people were coming from and Tex stood with his gun held up to the ceiling where there was another hatch, should anyone unwanted stumble in, he could easily see and take first shot. When the door behind him arrived, Tex looked away from his hatch, and ushered them in. It was the cavalry.
"Where's Dr. Scott?" The Captain asked after a brief conversation with the guys.
"Should be one level down. Back Aft. We'll pick her up on the way to the extract point off the flight deck"
Rachel checked her watch and went back to behind her table as someone came in. A russian officer. "You come with me," He said.
Dmitri tried to plead with the man, who simply held up hand, a universal sign that he was not going to hear the man. Neils looked between her and the man. She looked between him, Neils, and Dmitri, and then looked to her box. "But I still need to give him the second part of his vaccine." She told the officer.
"Admiral wants. You must come with me now."
Uninterested. Right. Different tactic. "But if we leave the room, and the vaccine test fails, Ruskov will kill both me and you," She made sure to put extra emphasis on the word you. He paused for a second, mulling it over, obviously aware of what she was saying. He looked to Neils, who she knew could shoot the whole thing in the foot, she was practically without breath, but Neils nodded as if it were the most common thing in the world.
The officer thought again before answering, "Do it. Quick," He said.
She got into her box and somehow she knew it was now. It was now. She knew that if she went up to see Ruskov again, it would be dire. So she got into her box and lifted the false bottom gently and soundlessly and tried to put the silencer on the gun. It was hard doing it in the box. And they hadn't given her a lesson in how to do it really at all. She fumbled with it and it came apart.
As the officer approached her, she knew that if he saw inside the box, she was dead anyway, so she stopped trying to fiddle with the silencer and just picked the whole thing up and shot him. In the shoulder to keep him from disarming her first, but then in the head. She had felt such a rush when shooting him and then she aimed the gun at everyone else in the room. Neils pointed out, that she didn't want to shoot him through the plastic because she would inevitably kill everyone on the ship because of the virus. And she hated that he was right.
And the door was pushed through, "Ma'am it's us," They said.
Thank god, Americans, but she wasn't sure about what to do in the moment. She couldn't just let the gun go. She couldn't just let her safety be compromised by doing what Burke had asked and putting the weapon down, because she was still so unsure of everything that was going on.
The captain raised his hands in surrender and gently came towards her and took the weapon. Tex looked at the body and looked back to Rachel, "Well, I'll be damned," He said, with pride in his voice. This was yet another thing that she was good at. Taking down bad guys, he thought. They all left the lab, ready to get home.