Trust
By Robinyj
When they reached the lab at Harvard a little before 9am Olivia decided to go inside for a few minutes to see what they were working on at the moment. She didnrsquo;t have anything pressing to do at the office and Broyles would understand her need to check up on their somewhat unorthodox team. When they got inside they found Astrid already at one of the computers with a coffee cup in her hand.
ldquo;Morning Astrid,rdquo; Olivia greeted her, ldquo;What are you working on?rdquo;
ldquo;I got a new hat,rdquo; Walter beamed, butting in front for Astridrsquo;s attention before she could answer Oliviarsquo;s question.
ldquo;Oh hellip; well, itrsquo;s nice,rdquo; Astrid answered awkwardly.
ldquo;Donrsquo;t feel too special,rdquo; Peter told her, ldquo;He also showed it to two students as we came in, a professor and some guy waiting to cross the street.rdquo;
ldquo;Well, it deserves to be seen,rdquo; Astrid supplied as a response to Walter which seemed to please him as he shuffled away to go start his own work. ldquo;Morning Agent Dunham, I was just doing some filing, fixing up our notes on the Pattern, making sure we have everything, taking the crazy parts out of Walterrsquo;s reports.rdquo;
The last part she whispered secretly in Oliviarsquo;s ear to which Olivia could only smile and nod, ldquo;Thatrsquo;s probably for the best.rdquo;
Astrid moved to the side to let Olivia see the way she was arranging their files. While she scrolled through a few documents Olivia could see Peter from the corner of her eye trying to be inconspicuous as he popped back two pills while he thought everyone else was occupied. Olivia knew Peter well enough to know that she should act like she hadnrsquo;t seen anything but it still made her wonder just how much pain Peter was still in from his abduction the week before, or were the pills for something else?
Her pondering was interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone.
ldquo;Dunham,rdquo; she answered.
ldquo;Agent Dunham, where are you?rdquo;
She recognized the deep, straight to business voice as Broyles and answered, ldquo;Irsquo;m at the lab at Harvard I was just on my way in.rdquo;
ldquo;Donrsquo;t bother. Grab your team and meet me at the Symco Research Building on Granville Street. Therersquo;s been an incident, you should see for yourself.rdquo;
ldquo;Wersquo;ll be there as soon as we can,rdquo; Olivia promised and hung up.
ldquo;Sorry guys, get your coats back on, Broyles has something for us to see on Granville Street,rdquo; Olivia announced to Peter and Walter.
ldquo;Thatrsquo;s terrible news. I was just about to milk Gene, hersquo;s very full,rdquo; Walter explained.
ldquo;Astrid, sounds like you have something to do while wersquo;re gone,rdquo; Peter joked as he passed by her on his way to the door.
ldquo;And can you do me a favor, look up everything we have on Symco Research. I donrsquo;t know what I might need so gather it all,rdquo; Olivia added.
ldquo;Can do. Have fun,rdquo; Astrid yelled as they started to leave.
Just as he was almost out the door Walter turned around, ldquo;Make sure you milk him on his left side, hersquo;s touchy about his right hoof, might kick you.rdquo;
And with a smile he was gone and Astrid was once again alone in the lab. Gene mooed from across the room.
Astrid sat back down at her computer with an air of decisiveness, ldquo;There is no way I am milking a cow.rdquo;
Granville Street was fairly far across town and it was almost ten when the three arrived at the scene of the Symco Research building. It hadnrsquo;t been hard to spot the place, police were blocking off the roads for several blocks in all directions and the building was barely even in sight before they were forced to get out of their car. Amid the confusion she mostly saw FBI and Hazmat agents, the city cops were in charge only of keeping the civilians away. Almost everyone was walking around in quarantine suits and as much of the building as possible had been wrapped in plastic to avoid contamination. She spotted Broyles immediately as he was waiting for her just beyond the road block.
ldquo;Irsquo;m guessing we have something airborne?rdquo; she asked immediately upon seeing the quarantine suits.
ldquo;We arenrsquo;t sure yet but we arenrsquo;t taking any chances. The bodies are still all inside, wersquo;re cataloguing and IDing them before we move them,rdquo; Broyles explained.
ldquo;How many bodies are we talking about?rdquo; Peter enquired warily.
ldquo;We canrsquo;t be sure yet, wersquo;ve only gotten up to the fourth floor. But letrsquo;s just say it would have been a good day to call in sick,rdquo; Broyles said with only traces of compassion tingeing his voice.
ldquo;Wait, yoursquo;re telling me that everyone in that whole twenty-storey building is dead?rdquo; Peter repeated, unable to hear this.
ldquo;Thatrsquo;s exactly what Irsquo;m telling you and we arenrsquo;t sure how they died but we know it was fast. There wasnrsquo;t a single phone call to 911 until someone came into the building and found everyone dead. Suit up all of you, wersquo;re going to need you inside,rdquo; Broyles ordered.
But Peter was still in shock over the sheer scope of what they were investigating, ldquo;Olivia, thatrsquo;s hellip; thatrsquo;s a lot of people. Thatrsquo;s like six, seven hundred people at least, thatrsquo;s a massacrerdquo;
ldquo;I know,rdquo; she replied, just as disgusted as him but better trained to hide and repress her feelings. ldquo;So itrsquo;s up to us to find out how they died and why, and make sure it doesnrsquo;t happen again. Come on, letrsquo;s get some suits on.rdquo;
Still shaking his head Peter followed behind Olivia towards the quarantine tent, urging Walter forward as well. It took ten minutes to get the plain white plastic protective suits on and then they were looked over by emergency staff for another ten minutes to ensure that all closings were sealed and everything was airtight. Before they were fitted they were given earpieces and microphones so they could talk to each other as the suits were almost completely soundproof as well.
ldquo;I havenrsquo;t worn one of these in almost twenty years,rdquo; Walter commented with a smile as they were about to enter the building. ldquo;They seem much more efficient than I recall.rdquo;
ldquo;Twenty years of advancements will do that,rdquo; Peter replied as he went to pick up their forensics kits but then lunged at his father and grabbed his arm. ldquo;Whoa, whoardquo;
ldquo;What? Whatrsquo;s wrong?rdquo; Olivia demanded as she turned on them.
Peter sighed incredulously as he released his father and gritted through clenched teeth, ldquo;He was playing with the zipper.rdquo;
The sheer stupidity of doing such a thing left Olivia only able to say, ldquo;Walter.rdquo;
The scientist had the sense to look chagrined and embarrassed though, ldquo;I hellip; I was curious. Yes, quite foolish of me, yoursquo;re right. Irsquo;m sorry. Wonrsquo;t happen again.rdquo;
ldquo;All right,rdquo; Olivia said after a moment of thought but then shared a look with Peter that obviously said lsquo;keep an eye on himrsquo; to which Peter nodded his understanding.
The team walked through two sets of quarantine doors before they moved through the revolving doors leading into the building. The buildingrsquo;s lights were on which unfortunately provided more than enough illumination to clearly see the massacre in front of them. Bodies covered the floor, most wearing suits and business attire, clearly employees, Olivia spotted one man in bicycle shorts who she assumed was a courier who had made an unfortunately timed delivery. She looked down at the body closest to her, a young woman in a business suit, and examined what was evident on every body she could see ndash; her eyes were bloody masses that appeared to have melted away and blood oozed from her nose and both earlobes pooling on the floor around her head. Every corpse in sight showed the same signs; slumped on the floor, bleeding from their nose and ears, eyes bloody, empty pools that seemed to have melted back into their heads. It was horrible. It took Olivia more than a moment to collect herself and move further than her first initial step into the building.
Behind her she could hear Peterrsquo;s disgust over such huge loss of life, ldquo;My god. Everyone in the building died like this?rdquo;
ldquo;Thatrsquo;s what Broyles said, and if no one called for help that means they at least all died fast and presumably at the same time,rdquo; Olivia theorized.
ldquo;Interesting,rdquo; Walter muttered who was now kneeling on the floor examining the closest body, ldquo;Severe hemorrhaging of the telencephalon could cause such results, somehow combined with the rupture of the sclera. Could the tympanic membrane still be intact I wonder?rdquo;
As usual Olivia looked to Peter to translate, over the last few weeks they had found it much faster than attempting to get Walter to repeat himself and dumb down his thoughts for her.
ldquo;He pretty much just said their brains melted and their eyeballs burst. Hersquo;s not sure about the ears,rdquo; Peter supplied as he examined a body himself.
Olivia didnrsquo;t think she would be able to offer much to the medical aspects of this case so focused on a tent that had been set up inside the lobby of the building. She grabbed the arm of a passing agent.
ldquo;Excuse me, whatrsquo;s in that tent?rdquo;
ldquo;The woman who called it in, Rachael Sutton. Showed up late for work and found the building like this. Wersquo;re keeping her for questioning and observation, so far shersquo;s not showing any signs of illness just hysteric,rdquo; the agent explained and then went back to his tasks.
Olivia nodded but was intrigued, ldquo;Guys, apparently we have a survivor, Irsquo;m going to go talk to her hellip; Walterrdquo;
Her cry of shock caused Peter and several other agents to turn around in time to see Walter finish removing his protective headgear. Completely disregarding her exclamation he bent his head over the body he was examining and listened to the sloshing sound it made as he rolled the head back and forth.
ldquo;Walter, what are you doing?rdquo; Peter joined in a cry as he lunged at his father again and tried to replace the mask. Walter batted him away in annoyance.
ldquo;Get that off me, stop it, itrsquo;s totally unnecessary I assure you,rdquo; Walter cried in annoyance as Peter persisted.
ldquo;Yoursquo;ll forgive me if I donrsquo;t take your word on it,rdquo; Peter yelled and tried again but Walter stood up and moved away from him.
ldquo;This could not have been caused by a disease, virus or any kind of chemical,rdquo; he yelled emphatically. ldquo;The speed and extent of these injuries indicate a weapon of some kind was used, not in the biological sense but something that could attack the cells of the brain, disrupt them. The entire mass of gray matter has become soup, you can hear it when you jiggle their heads.rdquo;
With a sigh Peter gave up on Walterrsquo;s helmet and threw it aside, if it was something contagious then Walter was infected by now anyway. Olivia came to the same conclusion so instead of being angry asked:
ldquo;What kind of weapon? How could this happen?rdquo;
But Walter could only shake his head, ldquo;I donrsquo;t know, not yet. I will need to do a more extensive examination, I will need one of these bodies. Can I have one? Two would be even better.rdquo;
ldquo;Yes, once hazmat releases the bodies wersquo;ll have two transported to the lab, you can examine them here until then,rdquo; Olivia allowed. ldquo;Peter Irsquo;m going to go talk to our witness but I donrsquo;t know how forthcoming shersquo;ll be. Would you mind looking around this place see if you can find anything unusual, check out their labs? I want to know why this place was attacked.rdquo;
ldquo;Sure thing boss lady,rdquo; Peter said as he picked up his kit, actually glad to get away from Walter as he was angry at the man for doing something so ridiculously insane as remove his protective suit in the middle of a quarantine zone. ldquo;Walter can pretty much watch himself now anyway.rdquo;
It was obvious that Walter would not be budging from the side of the corpse he was examining so Olivia asked two agents to keep an eye on him and added, ldquo;And nobody removes their suits until Hazmat says so, I donrsquo;t care how sure he is.rdquo;
As she watched Peter disappear up a flight of stairs to investigate the rest of the building Olivia made her way towards the isolation tent set up for their survivor. Pushing aside the plastic barrier Olivia found a woman who appeared to be in her early thirties with a smart business suit who was normally probably very well kept in appearance but now had her hair strewn everywhere and mascara running down her face as she had been crying for some time.
ldquo;Hello, Irsquo;m Special Agent Olivia Dunham, are you Ms. Sutton?rdquo; Olivia asked softly, trying not to startle her.
The woman looked up at Olivia and made a visible attempt to calm herself, ldquo;Yes, you can call me Rachael.rdquo;
ldquo;All right, Rachael. How are you doing?rdquo; Olivia started.
Rachael rolled her eyes at the seeming ridiculousness of the question but Olivia was thankful that the woman was cooperative to reply without sarcasm, ldquo;I feel fine, physically. I donrsquo;t think my eyes are going to melt out of my head, at least I hope not. My co-workers are all dead, but thankfully I didnrsquo;t like very many of them anyway.rdquo;
Olivia offered a fraction of a smile for the poor attempt at humor, ldquo;Can you tell me what happened here? Everything you know.rdquo;
ldquo;Itrsquo;s not much. I hellip; I was running late, I had to get to a meeting, I thought it was weird that the doorman didnrsquo;t get the door for me and when I got inside I saw everyone hellip; like this. I ran out of the building and called 911,rdquo; Rachael explained as she wiped her eyes of more tears.
Nodding sympathetically Olivia continued, ldquo;Ms. Sutton what exactly does Symco Research do research on?rdquo;
ldquo;Technology.rdquo;
Olivia waited for more. There was none.
ldquo;Just technology, thatrsquo;s a little vague donrsquo;t you think?rdquo;
Rachael shook her head, ldquo;Irsquo;m not at liberty to say anything more.rdquo;
ldquo;We have a building full of dead innocent people, I think you can take some liberties,rdquo; Olivia pushed, slowly having her sympathy replaced with anger.
ldquo;No, Irsquo;m afraid I canrsquo;t. We better and create new technologies, thatrsquo;s all you need to know.rdquo;
ldquo;I think I need to know a little more than that. What kind of technology? Weapons? Could your researchers have brought this upon yourselves? Caused this somehow? I have to know if whatever happened here can happen again and what could have caused it,rdquo; Olivia told her seriously but Rachael seemed unphased by her passion.
ldquo;It wasnrsquo;t anything of ours, I know that much. We arenrsquo;t working on anything that could do this,rdquo; Rachael replied her back straightening as if challenging Olivia to argue with her. But Olivia could tell she would be getting very little solid information from this woman and decided she would do best to get answers on her own.
ldquo;Well, if your work is that big a secret then Irsquo;m betting the surveillance cameras around here are pretty high tech. Mind telling me where I can find the videos.rdquo;
Rachael hesitated and Olivia worried she wouldnrsquo;t tell her, but in truth Rachael wanted to find out what had happened as well, she just wanted to keep her job too.
ldquo;Security centre is on the second floor, room 230. You can take an access key off any of the security guards, they donrsquo;t need them anymore.rdquo;
ldquo;Thanks for your help,rdquo; Olivia said as she started to walk away, ldquo;and I hope yoursquo;ll be all right.rdquo;
ldquo;Thanks,rdquo; Rachael muttered, hoping the same.
ldquo;Oh, one more thing,rdquo; Olivia exclaimed when she was almost out the door, ldquo;does your company happen to be a subsidiary of a larger corporation?rdquo;
Rachael hesitated again, but it was public knowledge, Olivia would find out eventually, ldquo;Yes, wersquo;re owned by Massive Dynamic.rdquo;
Olivia shook her head in disbelief, ldquo;Of course you are. Thanks again.rdquo;
While Olivia made her way to the second floor to check out the surveillance tapes Peter had just exited the staircase leading to the seventh floor. After checking the building schematics he had seen that the seventh floor was marked as Research and Development so he figured it was the best place to start if he wanted to figure out what was really going on at Symco Research. After walking down a pure white hallway for several feet he passed three bodies, all the same as the ones downstairs, several offices and then at the end of the hallway spotted a door that required an access card labeled Lab 3. He considered calling down to Olivia to get someone to open the door but knew a much faster way.
ldquo;Sorry for this, just trying to find out what happened here,rdquo; Peter explained to the corpse of the security guard whose pockets he was patting down. In the front breast pocket he found the keycard which he swiped through the keypad and watched it turn green as the door unlocked. Stepping inside he found a large, sterile white lab. The room appeared to be divided into three different sections with dividers as if several scientists shared the lab and were working on different projects. Each of the three stations had a filing cabinet and two tables covered in computers, tools, microchips and machinery, only some of which Peter recognized. There were also two bodies in front of each workstation, all wearing lab coats and spilling blood from their eyes, ears and noses. Peter was tempted to examine the devices on the first two tables more closely to learn what they were for but he was drawn to the third workstation, mainly because it was practically empty. Whereas the other tables were covered in computer parts, files, paperwork and complete or dismantled machines, this table had only tools on it but no files or equipment even though two dead bodies lay in front of the station which would indicate they had been working on something.
ldquo;So what was sitting here?rdquo; Peter asked aloud as he moved towards the table to see if there were any clues as to what had been there before. As he moved around the body of a young female lab assistant though he noticed something odd and knelt down to get a closer look. Whereas every other body had a precise pool of blood around their head this womanrsquo;s blood created more of a trail and extended further away from her body than it should. It was almost as if someone had moved her after death and smeared the blood across the floor. Having seen enough he knew he should report in. Peter tapped the earpiece as he had been shown and opened up a link with Olivia.
ldquo;Hey Dunham, I think I found something up here,rdquo; Peter reported.
ldquo;What have you got?rdquo; she asked eagerly.
ldquo;Irsquo;m in one of the research labs on seven and I canrsquo;t be sure but I think therersquo;s a piece of machinery missing, therersquo;s a table that looks like itrsquo;s missing some equipment and files, therersquo;s no sign of what might have been in here though,rdquo; he told her.
ldquo;An empty table doesnrsquo;t tell us much Peter. Whatever was there could have been routinely moved, but it might mean something,rdquo; Olivia replied, more than willing to take any lead she could get.
ldquo;Also, do you know if anyone else has been up here yet?rdquo; Peter added.
Olivia shook her head though he obviously could not see her, ldquo;As far as I know the other teams have only made it up to six. Why?rdquo;
ldquo;Then I think there was someone walking around in this lab, after these people died. Therersquo;s a smudge in one of the blood pools around the body by the empty table. I think someone took something,rdquo; Peter concluded.
Down on the second floor Olivia closed her eyes in disbelief and begged, ldquo;Peter, please donrsquo;t tell me that someone might have killed a whole building full of people just so they could steal some new piece of technology.rdquo;
ldquo;I donrsquo;t like it either, but thatrsquo;s exactly what Irsquo;m saying,rdquo; he hated to tell her.
ldquo;All right, Irsquo;m in the security centre now going over surveillance tapes, Irsquo;ll check the seventh floor and let you know if I see anything. Good work though, let me know if you find anything else,rdquo; she instructed.
ldquo;Sure thing,rdquo; he said and was about to turn off his earpiece when she added:
ldquo;Oh and Hazmat cleared the scene of a biological threat. Looks like Walter was right, you can take off your gear if you want.rdquo;
ldquo;Great, thanks,rdquo; Peter said sarcastically as he signed off. He sometimes hated it when Walter was right, it made it that much harder to convince him when he was actually doing something crazy.
A few stories down Olivia sat in front of a huge security monitor. After a moment she found the feed to the seventh floor and the toggle switch that would rotate through all the cameras on that floor. It took a few clicks but she eventually found a readout that looked like a research lab and she knew it was the right one when she saw Peter entering the frame and removing his quarantine suit. So this was where she needed to look now she just had to go back. She hit rewind and watched as the tape swiftly moved backwards. She watched as Peter arrived in the lab in reverse but once it was the past the point where he had entered the tape showed only lifeless corpses for more than an hourrsquo;s worth of film. After two minutes she reached the moment she was looking for. She let the tape rewind further than it needed to and regretted her decision. Instead of just watching the lone man who had come into the lab steal the device she had gone back to before the people in the room had died. Alone in the security centre she sat in a terrified stupor as she watched the muted scene play out before her.
The lab had six people in it, going about their business, writing, talking, working and then without warning all of them grabbed their heads as if they heard a loud noise. She could see they were screaming as blood poured from their eyes and ears, some even clutched at each other seemingly begging for help, but it didnrsquo;t last long. Within moments all six of them had collapsed on the floor, bleeding, eyes gone: dead.
Olivia put a hand over her mouth and silently prayed for them. Then she saw him.
As casually as if he was shopping at the mall the man walked into the room, completely unperturbed by the bodies around him and moved around the lab, inspecting what was on each table until he stopped at the final one, picked up the large machine sitting there and the files that were with it and then left just as casually.
ldquo;Who are you?rdquo; she asked aloud as she rewound the tape slightly to watch again. The man had a medium build, was wearing all black, appeared to have brown hair but had no distinguishing features. He had a set of metal, heavy duty headphones covering his ears and she wondered if that was what had kept him alive while everyone else in the building bled to death. If nothing else he was ordinary in appearance, except for the fact that on his head was a plain black stocking cap, seemingly the same as the one worn by John Mosley, the man who had abducted Peter little more than a week before. It could just be a coincidence she knew, a lot of thieves wore ski hats, but it didnrsquo;t feel that way. She saw the security monitors were hooked up to a printer on the far side of the room. She printed several stills of the footage, close ups of the manrsquo;s face and what he had taken, and then left the room. In the hallway she met another agent and gave out instructions:
ldquo;I have the seventh floor camera paused on a man who came into this building after the attack. Get someone to track his movements backwards and find out how he got into this building and how he left, ASAP.rdquo;
The agent nodded his understanding and went off to do what she had asked. Now that they both had their suits off Olivia called Peter on her cellphone instead of the earpiece.
ldquo;Hey, find anything?rdquo; he asked immediately as he had had no more revelations on the seventh floor.
ldquo;Yeah, you were right. I got footage of the guy coming into the lab and I have some still shots of what he stole. Irsquo;m going to go show them to our witness, Rachael, see if she can tell us what it is, but I doubt shersquo;ll talk. Why donrsquo;t you come down here, see what you can make of it?rdquo;
ldquo;Sure, Irsquo;ll be right down, Irsquo;m not coming up with anything up here anyway,rdquo; he said, hung up and headed back for the stairs.
Olivia was making her way towards the quarantine tent when she passed another junior agent and handed her one of her close-ups of the man who had robbed the laboratory.
ldquo;Get copies of this made ASAP and have an APB put out for this guy, I donrsquo;t know who he is but I want every law enforcement officer in the city looking for him.rdquo;
ldquo;Yes Agent Dunham,rdquo; the agent replied immediately and ran off. Olivia wondered when she got so accustomed to handing out orders.
But she didnrsquo;t have time to ponder the subject. She had questions for Rachael Sutton. Barging into the little room they had set aside for her Olivia wasted no time in forcibly handing Rachael a picture of the man in question.
ldquo;Who is this?rdquo;
Rachael looked at it for a moment and shook her head, ldquo;Irsquo;ve never seen him before. Why, who is he?rdquo;
ldquo;Hersquo;s the man who robbed your laboratory on the seventh floor moments after everyone in this building was killed. This is what he stole, mind telling me what it is,rdquo; Olivia demanded more than asked.
Again, Rachael looked at the picture of the machine, it was bigger than a computer, was covered in wires and appeared partially dismantled. From the look on her face Olivia could tell that Rachael knew what it was and was not going to tell her.
ldquo;I canrsquo;t say,rdquo; was all Rachael gave her as she handed back the photo.
ldquo;Canrsquo;t or wonrsquo;t?rdquo; Olivia pushed.
ldquo;Itrsquo;s the same difference,rdquo; Rachael replied with a shrug.
ldquo;Everyone in the building may have died because of this thing, now what is it?rdquo; Olivia demanded again.
ldquo;Maybe you should ask your superiors,rdquo; Rachael replied cryptically but Olivia could detect a trace of honesty in her answer.
ldquo;Why would I do that?rdquo;
Rachael had no answer to this and sat quietly but met Oliviarsquo;s eyes.
ldquo;Okay, fine,rdquo; Olivia said, not willing to play games at this point she stormed out of the tent and back into the lobby. Sighing in frustration she was about to look for Broyles to see if he could shed any light on this situation when she spotted Peter first, emerging from the stairwell by the elevators. He immediately moved towards her and after a glance around the lobby asked:
ldquo;Wherersquo;s Walter?rdquo;
ldquo;Some agents took him back to the lab with two of the bodies, hopefully hersquo;ll know something by the time wersquo;re done here,rdquo; she told him and then handed him a photograph. ldquo;Here, you were right, that man was in the lab after everyone died. I have someone working on tracking how he got in and out.rdquo;
ldquo;Great, but I donrsquo;t recognize him, I donrsquo;t think I can help,rdquo; Peter said handing her back the photo.
ldquo;Well how about this one. Thatrsquo;s what he stole from the lab. Can you tell what it might be?rdquo;
Peter took the offered picture and his eyes grew wide with recognition.
ldquo;What? What is this?rdquo; Peter asked, his voice becoming strangely deep and dangerous.
ldquo;I was hoping you could tell me, our witness wonrsquo;t tell me anything,rdquo; Olivia replied. ldquo;Do you know what it is?rdquo;
But Peter would not answer her, his anger was building, ldquo;That girl who works here, is she in that room? Is she back there?rdquo;
ldquo;Yeah, but hellip;rdquo;
Even before Olivia answered Peter was charging back to the quarantine room where Rachael Sutton was still waiting.
ldquo;What is this?rdquo; he demanded, shoving the picture in her face, ldquo;Where did you get it?rdquo;
ldquo;I canrsquo;t say,rdquo; Rachael repeated but Peter persisted.
ldquo;Where? Did you build this thing? Is this your doing?rdquo; he shouted, so furious for answers that Olivia had to reign him in.
ldquo;Peter, back offrdquo; she yelled, grabbing his arm but it did nothing to calm him down.
ldquo;I want to know where you got this, what was it doing in your lab?rdquo; he demanded again still in Rachaelrsquo;s personal space.
ldquo;As I told Agent Dunham, yoursquo;ll have to ask your superiors,rdquo; Rachael told him in an attempt to please him.
Peterrsquo;s eyes widened in shock, ldquo;Our superiors? What are you talking about?rdquo;
Olivia had enough of Peterrsquo;s anger though and forcibly separated him from Rachael, ldquo;Peter, thatrsquo;s enough. Now calm down and tell me what the hell this thing is.rdquo;
Laughing mirthlessly Peter shoved the photo back into Oliviarsquo;s hands, ldquo;This ladies and gentlemen is a torture device.rdquo;
That was not what Olivia had expected to hear and she examined the picture again, ldquo;How can you tell?rdquo;
There was a hesitation as Peter became more somber and answered quietly, ldquo;Because a person tends to remember all the machines theyrsquo;ve been tortured with.rdquo;
ldquo;You mean this is hellip;rdquo;
Olivia didnrsquo;t have to finish. Peter nodded, ldquo;Sure is. Thatrsquo;s the machine that tortures you and reads your mind. And they had it in their lab so I want to know, did you build it or did you steal it?rdquo;
Rachael Suttonrsquo;s eyes were fixed on the floor. Knowing the device had been used on him, she could no longer look Peter in the eye, but she would also be answering no more questions as Olivia and Peter could both tell.
ldquo;Letrsquo;s go talk to Broyles,rdquo; Olivia suggested calmly. Peter had to grit his teeth to keep from lashing out at Rachael again and nodded sharply.
ldquo;Fine.rdquo;
Then he stormed out. Olivia sighed, she almost hoped Broyles would have no idea what she was talking about.
She doubted it.
In a seemingly worn down warehouse across town the man in the black stocking cap climbed a flight of stairs leading to a plain wooden door. Putting his key in the lock he pushed the door open. On the other side was a pristine laboratory complete with test tubes, machinery, assistants and white sterile walls. The assistants wandering about, working on their own pieces of the project paid the man no mind as he strolled by purposefully, package held under his arm. He was headed for the far side of the lab where another door led to a spacious office. He knocked quickly and let himself in.
ldquo;Doctor Connell, the package you requested,rdquo; he said as he placed the machine on the manrsquo;s desk. The man behind the desk was in his late fifties, graying but with a full head of hair and eyes that were as alert and sharp as a man half his age. He smiled at his operative as he inspected the machine.
ldquo;Ah, the Reader. Excellent work, hopefully they havenrsquo;t done anything irreparable to it,rdquo; he noted as he looked at the panels that had been removed by the scientists that had been working on understanding the piece of technology.
ldquo;Irsquo;ll leave that to you to find out,rdquo; the operative replied and then placed a file on the desk as well. ldquo;That was with it at the lab, itrsquo;s the FBIrsquo;s report on the device. It mentions something very interesting, something wersquo;ve been looking for.rdquo;
This got Connellrsquo;s attention, who immediately started flipping through the report, ldquo;Oh yes, and what might that be?rdquo;
ldquo;The FBI has a Reader of their own. A human one.rdquo;
ldquo;What? Thatrsquo;s impossible, wersquo;ve been working on that technology for years, itrsquo;s impossible to stabilize,rdquo; Dr. Connell exclaimed, but also knew his operatives were not ones to lightly report on such things.
ldquo;They took a different approach. He picks things up subconsciously, doesnrsquo;t even know hersquo;s doing it,rdquo; the operative explained.
ldquo;Interesting, that could stabilize the input received, make the mind more able to process it. We have to be sure though. Test him but keep your distance, we donrsquo;t need the FBI breathing down our necks just yet. If he passes, bring him in, Irsquo;m very eager to meet this boy. Whatrsquo;s his name?rdquo; Dr. Connell asked as the operative started to leave.
The man half smirked, ldquo;Peter Bishop, son of Dr. Walter Bishop.rdquo;
Dr. Connell smiled as well, ldquo;Hmm, that does explain a lot doesnrsquo;t it? Good work, let me know how it goes.rdquo;
With a nod the operative left and Dr. Connell reposed back into chair, ldquo;Oh Walter, have you done our work for us again? Either way, Irsquo;m very excited to meet this boy of yours.rdquo;
TBC
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