Sitting on her bed, while Rex was sitting against one of the walls of her room, bouncing one of his plastic balls up and down, the teen seemed to be much more introverted than usual. Holiday could tell that something was bothering him and decided to break up the uncomfortable silence they were in.
"You shouldn't worry this much," she said, trying to smile to comfort him. "I mean, I'm as safe as I can be and Six and White always make sure that I get everything I need."
"How can you be so calm, being confined here? I can't even stand being in my bedroom for more than a couple of hours," Rex sighed as he looked at her. "If I could just find them and be more helpful, but Six insists that the more we investigate, the more evidence we leave behind."
"I think I can understand their concern, as this information could help to even build machines capable of reorganizing the configurations of the Nanites on any creature or human body, even yours." Rex stood up and, sitting in one of the chairs at the dinner table, he crossed his arms and raised both of his eyebrows at the woman. He had only heard bits of information from Six, but he needed to understand the situation more.
"Haven't you ever wondered the reason why your nanites, once they touch others, can organize and deactivate them, curing the subject?" Holiday handed him a stack of papers she knew he wouldn't read, so she had to summarize it in terms that he could understand. "It is quite possible that there could be other humans like you, even stronger than you are. Your abilities to communicate with machines or even with other nanites could be attempted to be reproduced with this information and cause an instability in other humans, practically creating killing machines, capable of also curing like you do, but with other kinds of purposes. Maybe they could reform each other and make them perhaps invincible."
"But, no one has been able to do such a thing before! Not even Van Kleiss, who needs to absorb other's Nanites to stay alive!"
"This investigation could help to understand the real use the Nanites had in the past, even going back to ancient cultures."
"Then, why am I not their subject of interest but you?" Rex asked and Holiday simply shrugged.
"I have been studying your Nanites long enough to have enough knowledge to be considered a target. If what White believes is true, they only have the resources to build whatever they want with this information, but not the knowledge for it."
"Let me see if I understand. Could they awaken dormant nanites in any human and give them abilities like mine?"
"I'm still not sure what all this knowledge could do. But as we know, each creature on the planet was infected by Nanites, but not everyone experiences a structural disorder to provoke a transformation into an EVO or a half human, half EVO, like you. If they could reorganize the Nanites of any creature or human without any conscience, it could become a real problem. Take Bobo for example; his sentient mind can still have control of the Nanites in his body."
Scratching his head, trying to process all the information, Rex gulped and wondered what he would do if he had to deal with an enemy that could heal as he did, but only to heal itself and not even let him communicate with the nanites inside. A knock on the door interrupted their conversation as Rex stood up to look through the small window. He opened the door to Six, who seemed to have brought more food than was necessary, so it made her feel happy that they would eat together as they had done before her confinement.
"You're exceeding yourself, dude!" Rex smiled at the food on the table. "I didn't know you liked to cook. How is it even possible with your past as a mercenary?"
"We were part of a team, but each one of us had our own individual lives and skills to master."
"Right... that's why Five likes music so much."
"You haven't even heard her play the guitar as much as I have." He said, and that made Holiday laugh, but she couldn't tell exactly why. She simply decided to enjoy the moment, even if it was a passing one, as she would have to go back to her own reality sooner or later. "I couldn't help but overhear that you both were talking about the research," Six said while serving what looked like milk in three glasses. "I guess you understand now, Rex, the severity of the situation. If we were to go against this organization without any clue, we could end up leading them to our own research and to Holiday herself. It's better if we send undercover agents to deal with the situation, or they would know that Holiday didn't just go AWOL. They would quickly piece everything together and know that we're hiding her, instead of just making up a fictitious story."
"But how do we even know if one of these undercover agents sold us out and that's why she started to receive these death threats to work for them or die?"
"That's White's job to discover who our traitor is. But so far the man or woman remains well hidden and under custody. I suppose they aren't that stupid as to not cover their own tracks as well as we did."
"But Holiday had to remember something. If there was, all of the sudden, any fake co-worker too interested in what she was doing, it would have called her attention right away."
Rebecca shook her head at her spot at the table, tapping her chin with one of her fingers and wondering if she had indeed noticed something worth mentioning. But no, there was no one but her that day in the laboratory when she started to receive messages on her computer and cellphone.
"Perhaps there is no traitor, but simply a group of hackers that somehow infiltrated our network and downloaded part of my investigation. Since they do not know how to proceed without the rest of it, or me, they made threats of kidnapping and putting my life in danger if I refused to cooperate."
"That could be a possibility as well, but we'd better not give them any chance to give us the opportunity to test any of these theories." Six took a bite of his steak and, after a short while, seemed to consider something else. "If they could track any of your movements with ease, it is better if we don't use any type of technology while you're here, so no cellphones or any device that could be easily hacked and give them any access to our conversations."
"All I have with me is my plastic ball and a strong wish to smash these guys' faces so the doc can finally go back upstairs. This thing sure isn't healthy for anyone, no matter how intelligent you are."
As intelligent as she was, she indeed wondered about what kind of enemy they were dealing with. The network of Providence wasn't that simply to access by just any kid with just a basic knowledge of hacking. If it was just a group of gangsters who barked more than they could bite, they were quite good at what they were doing.
"Six said that you visited Beverly from time to time, so I suppose she is as safe as she can be given the circumstances."
"I do, since she isn't allowed to text any of us to ask about you. So, we decided to visit her every two or three weeks to keep her updated in terms of your general health and to ask if she has any possible message she would like to give you. She wrote a couple of letters that I was supposed to give you early this week, but then White had Bobo and me dealing with some loose EVOs since Six is kind of busy right now, patrolling around and making sure you're safe. He comes sometimes to lend us a hand when the job is simply too much for us to handle."
She noticed that Six raised one of his eyebrows at Rex, and that made her think that perhaps he had gone to each mission with them, and then had to return to Providence to cook for her and make sure to be the only one visiting her so to not attract any suspicion. She couldn't help but feel guilty about it and wonder if at least he had a moment for himself to rest from everything he had to do for her. The same as for Rex.
"I wish I wasn't such a hassle for both of you," she sighed in defeat, looking at her food plate and suddenly losing the desire to continue eating.
"Don't worry, doc, we can handle it; your safety is our priority," Rex said as Six nodded in front of her.
But all she wanted to do at that moment, thinking of both of them and Beverly, even on Bobo and White himself, was to shed a few tears. She would save them for later.
"And the Holiday we know wouldn't let anyone put her down without a good fight, am I right?"
"Yes, Six. You're right." She smiled defiantly at him as Rex stretched on the table and clenched his fists.
"That's right! They will have to pass over Six's and my own dead body before even touching one of your hairs, doc."
"I think it will suffice with just mine," Six said sarcastically, and Holiday laughed at the flushed face of Rex as he doubted of his combat skills.
"Hey! Not in front of the doc! That's not fair that you're the only one who can look cool with the ladies!" Rebecca suddenly blushed, but was thankful that Six wasn't paying attention to her, but to the words Rex was saying and arching both of his eyebrows at the implications of it.
"I'm already as cool as I can be and don't need any fancy abilities to prove it."
"Stop you two," she couldn't help but laugh. "I think you should apologize to Rex, Six. After all, he has saved you as many times as you have saved him."
Six pushed his glasses up and whispered the quietest apology she had ever heard coming from the man, making Rex blush even more and her still laughing at them for that kind of silly but also comforting interaction.
"Right, your letters!" Rex exclaimed, looking inside his jacket pocket. "She had to find a way to write them without ever mentioning you, to avoid raising any suspicion if the letters ended up in the wrong hands." She nodded and then held them against her chest, closing her eyes and praying that her sister could be safely out of all the madness she was involved in.
"I think we should give you some alone time to read them." Six stood up and then looked inside his own jacket pocket for a bag of candies. "Bobo said you had to try this ones. Don't worry, they aren't just banana flavored."
"Oh! Next time I'll make sure to bring one of my favorite snacks as well."
"I just want to survive, not end up being fat." Holiday joked, looking at their surprised faces. "I'm just kidding. But yeah, don't just bring sweets."
"Gotcha!"
Rex was the first to leave the room, collecting the trash that needed to be disposed of, as Six had done in the morning. The man on the green suit followed him, but stopped at the last second when he saw Holiday heading towards her bed to read the letters. He held one of her hands to stop her from walking any further, and when she turned around to look at him, the man smirked.
"It's good to hear you laugh again."
"So you just messed with Rex to make me laugh?"
"Maybe... maybe not," he replied, letting her go and turning to follow the teen outside, making her shake her head and smile, wondering if Rex already knew that Six was just joking to lighten the mood of the room.