Cover Art: Aristeo Storm
Chapter 71
Qrow was tense but also oddly excited as he let himself into a safehouse only a short distance from the research facility. Oobleck was already there with a spare set of clothes out on a wooden table for him. The older boy had a computer nearby, likely hooked up to Qrow's mask and ready to feed him information.
"I hope you understand the severity of this," he said as Qrow changed out his clothes and into the tight-fitting dark grey. It was dark enough to seem black but, importantly, was not. Black didn't blend in well. "Failure here may well mean your death. You're a deniable asset right now."
"Should you be telling me that?"
"No. But I know you're smart enough to be aware that's why the VSS is using you instead of us. If you're caught or killed, there's an easy explanation for it. You already showed anti-Atlas bias before and this will be further evidence of it. No one will expect us. You'll be abandoned to your fate."
That didn't worry him. The only reason Oobleck brought it up was because he was worried, and that was kind of him, but Qrow had gotten used to jobs where failure meant death over a decade ago. Ozpin would never willingly abandon him, but they both knew failing a mission involving Salem would mean death no matter how much the old man tried to get him back. A facility with a bunch of Atlas soldiers in it, armed with tech twenty years out of date by his standards, wasn't nearly as concerning.
Though he'd still take it seriously.
"I'll fight my way out if I have to."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that. I have a few gadgets for you."
"Ooooh. Spy gadgets."
"Don't believe the movies." Oobleck set a case on the table and opened it up. There were several small items inside. He picked out a tiny metal cockroach and turned it over to show a pair of wheels. "This is a remote-controlled drone. I'll be the one controlling it since including the controls would make it too bulky, but the camera will feed both to my computer and to your scroll. There's no need to put yourself in danger to snoop a room with this. You can also check rooms before entry to see if anyone is inside."
"Uh-huh. I was expecting something fancier. What else?"
"Codebreaker." He held up a handheld device with a scanner. "It'll automatically play through tens of thousands of combinations in a matter of seconds. Hold it to a keylock and wait five seconds. Be aware that if they have internal alarms – which they might – then one might be raised for someone entering so many combinations at that speed."
"Hmmm."
"Two gas grenades. Non-lethal, but incredibly nauseating and disorienting. Don't use them without your mask on or you'll be puking your guts out. Anti-camera tags." He touched a few little cubes with magnetic strips on one side. "Attach to a camera and they'll fry it. Honestly, attack them to anything electronic and it's gone, but you'll probably only need them for cameras. Finally…" He unrolled a small leather pouch revealing lots of tools. "A micro-pouch of sixty-four differently shaped screwdrivers."
"…" Qrow stared. "Are you a spy agency or a home depot?"
"You've no idea what screws they may use on vents and covers in there. Do you know how many people have failed missions because someone used an awkward screw that they can't get out without the proper tool? This has allen keys, Branwen." Oobleck picked one up and threatened him with it. "Twelve different sizes!"
"I am suitably impressed and awed. Where's my tranquiliser pen for knocking people out?"
"It's here." Oobleck grasped Qrow's forearm and squeezed. "Just as quick and doesn't leave behind chemicals in their system or a dart that can be traced back to us. We don't try and re-invent the wheel. You want someone knocked out, choke 'em out."
"Do I at least get a cool sportscar?"
"Can you drive?"
"…" Qrow sighed and pulled on his mask. "I want you to know I feel cheated."
"I'll be sure to inform my superiors."
/-/
It was one in the morning on a Friday night and Mountain Glenn was quiet. Being a new city, Mountain Glenn had a few clubs, but most people still considered the nightlife in Vale to be better, so many residents were back in the main city having fun. The research facility hadn't been built by any busy areas either, and certainly not near clubs, bars and restaurants. The street was quiet as the grave, though that didn't mean the guard post at the gate wasn't occupied.
Oobleck took them to the far wall, the two of them hiding their black masks and helmets with a simple pair of unmarked hoodies. It worked surprisingly well given how cold the evening air was. They stopped at the southern wall, around the corner from the guard post.
"The facility doesn't have any outward-facing cameras other than at the guard post." Oobleck's voice came in through the mask. "Vale's privacy laws are more than what is in Atlas, so even the one on the gate only looks down on it. Once you're inside, however, the facility becomes private property and that means cameras."
"And you can't hack them?"
"No. Not without cutting the power."
That sounded like bullshit, but it might just have been technical limitation. Qrow had to remind himself he was still twenty years ahead of these people when it came to that. Security cameras had evolved to use internet access and that made them vulnerable to attack. These ones were probably still on an old-fashioned closed circuit.
"You can just rush through them if you like. It's only a problem if you're caught—"
They both went silent as a vehicle drove by. It was a large lorry, marked with a popular drinks brand. The part that made them stop talking was how it was slowing down, indicating to turn in toward the facility's gate.
"Any news on an iced-tea shipment to this place?"
"No. This must be how they're smuggling Grimm in. New plan. You go in now. The soldiers on security will have all their attention on the shipment. They'd be fools not to if there are Grimm in there."
Oobleck stooped and made a cradle with his hands. Qrow stepped in it and vaulted with his help, grasping the barbed wire with his hands. Metal spikes bent under his aura. The wire wasn't much of an impediment for a huntsman. Still, it'd snag in clothing so he flattened a stretch of it before pulling himself over and dropping on the other side.
No alarm. No shouting. Qrow glanced left to where a good six soldiers were walking out toward the gate, along with two scientists. All their attention was on the truck pulling into the compound, and the driver was leaning out the window to talk to them. Qrow loped forward, jogging quickly across the open ground to the building ahead. As expected, there were cameras above every door into it, but the ones controlling them had their plates full.
He touched a door entry button and was surprised at how it slid open. No need for a key to get in, apparently. That might have been fine on a place designing cybernetics and prosthetics, but such low security on a facility holding Grimm was downright reckless. Qrow slid in and closed the door, checked the corridor ahead, and quickly stepped into a side room – an office of some sort. It was empty and not in use going by the lack of a computer and a thin cover of dust.
"I'm in."
"I'm not yet back at my computer. Any trouble?"
"None. They're occupied with the shipment like you said they would be."
"Put the camera roach down outside. I'll control it once I'm back and get some footage of the delivery. We might be able to figure out who it came from."
Qrow opened the door and then the main door and set the small device down to the left of it, out the way of anyone leaving or entering. It didn't move. Oobleck had to make it back to the safehouse. Heading back inside, Qrow checked the building plan that had been downloaded onto his scroll. There was no guarantee the marked rooms were being used for the purposes they said they were, but he could make some extrapolations.
The Grimm would surely be kept as close to the centre of the facility as possible. That way the soldiers would have as much time to react as possible. He also had to assume that the room was accessible by wide corridors, since they needed to transport sizable cages of Grimm to it from the front entrance, and they weren't going to smuggle Ursa through tight corridors.
The labs would have too much expensive equipment in. Hazardous storage would be the most likely place from what he could see. It was designed to be accessible on a straight line from the main entrance, likely so they could use a forklift to drive down a pallet full of potentially harmful chemicals without risking a person dropping them.
"I'm back." Oobleck reported. "Taking control of the camera now. I'd say you have a good window to move about while they're distracted. Best make use of it."
/-/
It really was criminally easy moving through the facility. He didn't even have to take to the vents – which was probably a bad idea anyway since he wasn't exactly Ruby's size. Now and then he came across people in the corridors moving about, but they did so with a purpose and Qrow was able to wait in a side room for them to go by. The floors were hard material so footsteps clicked a good distance away, giving him plenty of warning.
I'd call this too easy but this level of security makes sense. They're understaffed – which is possibly why the Grimm escaped in the first place!
If Atlas had more men here, Mountain Glenn may not have fallen in the first place.
Noise from the left had Qrow ducking into another room, this time a toilet. The noise was raised voices but also a mechanised sound. Peeking his head out, he looked to the end of the corridor and watched as a large procession went by. Two soldiers in the lead, then a scientist, before finally it came.
A metal box sealed and rivetted on every side. It shook and bounced on a large trolley pushed by a forklift. Telltale sounds of growling and snarling, and the occasional slam of a meaty fist on metal made it clear what was inside.
"Oobleck. You seeing this?"
"I am. We knew this was happening but seeing them transport a Grimm with no more than four soldiers… It's the height of irresponsibility."
It really was. Two soldiers ahead and two to bring up the rear. They had rifles but probably not aura or good control of it, otherwise they'd have been in the specialist program. Atlas liked to make the best use of its people possible, and they wouldn't have aura-capable soldiers in a low-key security role out here.
"Sounds like two Beringels inside."
"How can you tell?"
"Experience."
"You're younger than me."
Oops. Qrow played it off. "But I've seen trapped Grimm before when I was younger. Listen. Ursa and Beowolves use claws, Beringels punch. You can tell from the sound of flesh on metal instead of bone."
"I'll take your word for it. Let them go by for now. You can't challenge them."
He absolutely could, but he knew that what Oobleck really meant was that he shouldn't, not when those men were all that stood between two Grimm breaking out. It was safer to let them store the Grimm away and hope that they did it properly.
"Hey Oobleck. For safety's sake, should I maybe kill the Grimm before I leave?"
"It's tempting. My main concern is that the researchers might panic if you do and hasten the acquisition of more, and then they'll take even stupider risks to get hold of them. As long as the Grimm are stored acceptably, it should be fine to leave them."
"But you want me to make sure?"
"Yes. Yes, let's see how they're stored. I have the roach following them still. You try and find where they keep records. Dr Merlot's office will be your best bet. I expect he'll want to see his new Grimm and make sure they're secure, so it should be empty."
Qrow waited five minutes for the procession to be well and truly gone, then moved, crossing the arterial corridor and heading further north into the facility. Merlot's office wasn't too far from the central area itself, so it didn't take him long. A cautious knock on the door to see if anyone inside replied suggested it was empty, as predicted. Qrow pushed on it but the door remained shut. Finally, some security.
The codebreaker made short work of it, flashing a green light as the door unlocked. Qrow let himself in and then closed it, scanning the room for any cameras. None could be seen. Not obvious ones, anyway.
Merlot's office was a chaotic mess, as befit a man pushed to the edge. Books and scraps of mechanical equipment lay everywhere, including all over the man's desk. It surprised Qrow to see him working on machinery instead of on Grimm research. He picked the device the man was working on up. It had a silvery exterior shaped like an eyeball, and the inner side of it had some nasty looking spikes on it.
Under it was a black and white photo showing a much smaller mirror image of the device implanted onto a rat, literally spiked into its face over its left eye and a bit of its cranium. Qrow grimaced. He wasn't a big fan of rodents but animal testing – at least when it wasn't for life-saving medicinal purposes – never sat right with him.
"It looks like a prosthetic," Oobleck said.
"You're seeing this? What of the Grimm?"
"I'm watching that, too. They've just reached the containment area. It's slapdash, but functional. Big room, heavy doors. They've glass windows but have reinforced it with metal bars on both sides. Some of the glass is already shattered but the bars should keep the Grimm in. The main problem I'm seeing is that there aren't any other Grimm there. Where have the rest gone?"
"I'd assume they've been tested on in much the same way these rats were, going by these diagrams. Not to mention the fact this device is about five times the size. These spikes are far too vicious for a human to consent to, but you'd need them to hold the device onto a Grimm."
"Prosthetic devices grafted onto Grimm. It fits with their research specialty, but the question is why. What's the goal here? About the only thing I can imagine is that they want to capture, tag and release Grimm as some means of tracking them. Maybe for airstrikes later when the Grimm form packs."
"Maybe…"
Nothing like this existed in the future as far as he knew. There'd been no Grimm-based technology for him to use his future knowledge on. It'd all died here in Mountain Glenn, presumably.
"Do you have any devices to get me in this computer?"
"Yes. It's called using your hands to steal the hard drive."
Qrow snorted and did just that, pulling the computer tower open and taking what he could once Oobleck pointed them out to him. It'd be obvious someone had been in here and stolen stuff, but his intrusion would probably be caught later anyway. The security hadn't seen him now, but they'd revise the tapes later and realise someone got in. Saying secret after the fact wasn't necessary.
"Hold up. I have eyes and ears on Merlot himself."
"Relay it to me?"
"He's saying that the Grimm will be left in storage to calm down, that he currently has some tests ongoing and doesn't need more for now. He's telling them payment will be arranged as promised…" Silence. "Good news: he's got some experiments to attend to and won't be going back to his office."
"And the bad news?"
"We want you to see what those experiments are."
To be fair, he wanted to see them as well, so it wasn't all that bad news. He wouldn't be satisfied with just stealing a hard drive and getting some vague idea that Merlot was testing machinery on Grimm. Qrow wanted to know what was so important that Atlas would risk the fall of an entire city to achieve it.
"Follow him and then tell me where to go."
/-/
Following Merlot wasn't as easy as getting into the facility. For one, the distraction was over now and security were back at full attention. Scientists and engineers were also moving about, though their numbers were beginning to dwindle as they closed up for the night. It seemed they'd stayed late to see the shipment in but were now heading home to their apartments to rest for the weekend.
Qrow spent a full hour hiding in toilet cubicles as people chatted about what they were going to do on the weekends while washing their hands. He learned more about the dating habits of Atlas researchers than he wanted or needed to, and not much of any use. The only mentions they made of the Grimm involved how annoyed they were having to stay so late on a Friday to get them in.
Obviously, they weren't going to talk to one another about what was being done or why, because they already knew that. Qrow considered abducting and threatening one for answers, but ultimately gave up and let them go. There was no need to risk that, and the best answers would come from the man in charge. A man who was apparently such a workaholic that he'd be staying for the weekend even as the place was reduced to a skeleton staff.
"You have time," Oobleck said. "There's no reason we can't keep this operation going well into the morning and Saturday if you need it."
"My team would react if I went missing. Besides, Merlot has to sleep at some point."
His words proved true – not that it was a crazy guess given the man wasn't a cyborg of some kind. Penny Polendina didn't exist yet. It took two hours, leaving him at almost half-four in the morning, but Oobleck finally reported that Merlot had fallen asleep in his lab. Sadly, the roach camera couldn't get high enough off the floor to see what he'd been working on.
Shockingly, the man didn't have a guard or any security on him. That was likely down to the short-staffing and the fact that the soldiers were guarding the facility perimeter and the Grimm storage area, but it still felt incredibly shortsighted. Qrow was able to reach the inner part of the facility and reach the door to the lab Merlot was in without coming across a single person.
I get that they don't expect they'll have to keep anyone beyond curious civilians out, but this is stupidly negligent. I hope they're being more vigilant with the Grimm.
Slipping into the room, he checked on Merlot. The man was passed out over his desk. He looked to have been pulling a few all-nighters. Enough to exhaust him. Qrow checked what he'd been working on and slid the pages out from under Merlot's arms. He held them up to his mask both so he could read and so Oobleck could record the texts.
The research was on Apathy influence. It started with testing Apathy on animals with little results – Grimm didn't attack animals other than in self-defence. The Apathy hadn't even reacted to them. More shocking was that they'd moved onto human testing. Qrow checked the names and saw most had ranks, marking them as military. That meant they were testing Apathy on their own people, and while that probably came by volunteer and with a monetary incentive, it was still incredibly dangerous.
"You seeing this, Oobleck?" The mask would keep his speech quiet, so he wasn't worried about Merlot hearing im. "They're testing Apathy on their own people – security staff, no less."
"It looks to be consensual."
"That's not the point! Apathy exposure has lasting effects; I felt that myself when they got a hold of me. Lethargy, loss of focus, dark thoughts, depression. Even if they're pulled out before it takes hold in a major way, the influence is going to impact their job performance for a few days."
"You think they'll make mistakes because of it? I see your logic. If the testing continues like this then they might start caring less about keeping the Grimm secure. One mistake could cause an outbreak."
Exactly. These people weren't stupid and they knew how dangerous Grimm were. It had always felt strange to just assume they made a mistake and let them loose in Mountain Glenn. But if the people were being exposed to Apathy as part of testing, then that could explain it. For all he knew the security teams may have just given in when the Grimm started to break free. They may have already fallen to apathy without realising it.
These idiot are playing with dangers they don't understand. But why? What do they want from the Apathy…?
"Wait, there's more here. Future test logs. They plan to test…" Qrow read incredulously. "They want to test Apathy on other Grimm!?"
There was silence from Oobleck for a long minute.
And then, "Would that even work?"
"No. Of course not. Grimm aren't people. They don't have human brains and chemical reactions and all the things that make us feel emotions. And that's even assuming the Apathy would bother to use their powers on the Grimm in the first place. Why would they? That'd be like expecting Beowolves to attack Boarbatusks."
"And yet they're convinced it'll work. Look, it says third round of tests. That means they've done it twice before with some degree of success."
Impossible.
Setting the papers down, Qrow checked the rest of the lab and soon found a sealed window, metal grates having been pulled down. It looked like the lab overlooked a carved-out basement area.
"This must be an observation area. The tests are probably run in the room below this window."
"How quietly do you think you can open it?"
"We'll find out."
When Qrow pushed the button, the blinds began to ratchet upwards, but thankfully the glass was reinforced enough that it was just a muted whirring. Not even as loud as Merlot's breathing. He watched the man anyway, ready to charge and choke him out if needed. It wouldn't be difficult, and Qrow had been tempted to do it pre-emptively just in case. The only problem was, depending on what he saw, he might want Merlot conscious to answer questions. If there were innocent people down there…
Well, no one would hold Qrow back from interrogating him.
Luckily for Merlot, there were no innocent civilians trapped and used as guineapigs. In fact, it was the Grimm in such conditions. Beowolves, four in number, lined the far wall, strapped into place by large metal cages over their shoulders, checks and stomachs. It was as if they were being held in cockpits tied to the walls.
Much more concerning was that each of the Beowolves had a silver contraption grafted onto their faces, and another one grafted over their hearts and shoulders. Red lights flashed on them showing they were active, and on the metal plates was stamped the insignia of Atlas.
"What the hell am I looking at…?"
"Grimm as a part of Atlas' military…? That doesn't make sense. There's no way they can be thinking of doing this."
"Apathy," Qrow realised. "Their ability to dampen emotions and make people apathetic. They want to try and make Grimm apathetic to control their violent impulses. Turn them into… what? Soldiers? Police? Ornaments?" Qrow shook his head. "This is insane. It's nonsense. You can't control what isn't there. The Grimm don't have thoughts and feelings like people do."
"They seem confident they can."
Then they were wrong. Very wrong. If their research suggested otherwise… then what did that mean…? Qrow knew for a fact Grimm couldn't be controlled because he knew the truth about their creation and Salem. The only who could control how they acted was Salem herself, and to a lesser extent those loyal to her like Cinder.
No…
This is Salem's doing. The Grimm are acting like it's working, they're pretending, but the only way they could do that is if they're under direct control from Salem or one of her people to pretend like that's the case.
Act subservient, let Atlas think their research was succeeding, then have them lower their guard and let them out the strict containment, maybe to show off to Atlas top brass, at which point Salem or her agent would trigger the attack. Grimm slaughter the Atlas contingent here, escape into the city, and disable the defences from inside the city walls, allowing a horde from outside to rush in before anyone could react.
"Qrow! Branwen! Report! You've frozen up."
"This has to end," Qrow hissed, advancing on Merlot. "It ends right now!"
Next Chapter: 29th March
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