Meliora - Emanate - 37

[lady_mab]

Lionel Darcy

Kaito fiddles with the bottles against the back wall of the bar, arranging them first one way then another before standing back to study their layout.

"Are you going to be doing that all day?" I ask, looking up from the laptop screen.

He arches an eyebrow in utter innocence. "What, you mean fixing things in my own bar? Which, need I remind you, generally does not allow minors in during business hours?"

I roll my eyes and dismiss him with a wave of my hand. "Just a few more weeks until my birthday, but Rhys told us we could come so long as you didn’t serve us alcohol and we left before seven."

"How uncharacteristically generous of your brother." He fixes the bottles again and then distracts himself by turning on the backlights for the display. "What do you think?"

"I think people aren't even going to be looking at it, to be honest." I remember Rhys' assessment back when they first started looking together, coming home and complaining about the obnoxious teenager with his cluttered bar. Rhys still maintains a similar opinion, though I think now he only disagrees with the excessive display on principal.

Kaito ignores my answer. "What do you know. You're not even seventeen yet."

"Few more weeks."

He mutters something in response, but abandons an attempted conversation with me when his phone lights up on the bar.

Fine by me. I've got work that I'm trying to do. I'm sitting in the back corner of the bar, sporting a nice view of the entire front half of the room. It's still fairly early in the day. There's not too many people at Temple Fusion at this hour.

Only Kaito is behind the bar, the rest of his bartenders not scheduled to arrive until later when the usual crowd would start to pour in. Not to mention, it's a Thursday and there is still the threat of another unloading of snow in the air.

These all factor in quite nicely to the meeting that I've planned.

I keep my one eye trained on the door as I lean back in the stool -- careful to maintain my balance with the low back. I've almost fallen out of it several times in the last half hour when I would stretch or try to slouch. "Hey, Kaito, can I ask you something?"

He looks up from where he's flipping through an inventory sheet. "Yeah?"

"Did something happen between you and Rhys?" It's not really my place to ask, but I've already sort of placed myself into the situation by cornering him on Christmas.

Kaito does a miraculous job of steeling his expression, but not before I see the slight widening of his eyes and his inability to meet my gaze. "Not really."

"Uh-huh."

"Why, has he been acting weird?"

I frown, crossing my arms over my chest. "Him? He's acting his normal withdrawn self, I guess. I've only seen him once since Christmas, but that's not terribly weird." I glare at him, waiting until he starts to squirm under my attention. "You, on the other hand..."

“Don't you have homework to do or something?" He folds his arms in front of him, defensive. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other, and I watch him attempt to appear like my question isn't bothering him.

He's saved by a man with dark, shaggy hair pulled back in a ponytail entering the bar. He shrugs out of a great coat in the door, draping it over one arm and glancing around. I wait, anxious to see if this is the man I've been waiting for, when his eyes pinpoint me across the way.

His eyebrows go up, then immediately set into a curious tilt. Without even waiting for me to give any sort of indication, he moves over to my side and drapes his coat over a stool. "I expected someone a little older."

"Generally why I don't like meeting up with associates in person," I say, attempting to keep my voice steady.

There's nothing wrong with what I'm doing, and I've attempted to keep everything open to Kaito so he knows what is going on. Only Lia and Rhys don't know about the shot that I stole the first time we went to the hospital. That was not part of the situation Kaito had to explain to Rhys.

And depending on the results of this, I'll be sharing it with the others. I'm trying to be better. The blog post from the Lady and the Ghost really got me thinking about how we need to work together if we want to beat the system.

The man releases a soft huff of laughter as he sits down. "So you are Lianel Lions. Very nice job on the security you set up for my lab. Thank you."

"A favor for a favor. Wouldn't do well if others caught on to whatever sort of results you found."

"Aye, I'd imagine not, especially in regards to that drug of yours." From his bag, Zakariah pulls out the ziplock and syringe that I had originally passed over to Kaito months ago.

Behind the bar, Kaito winces at the sight of it. "You still have it?"

"It's useless now. Everything within it is inactive. I just thought I should return it, in the interest of removing any sort of evidence it might present." Zakariah pushes it across the bar to me, but I don't move for it.

I stare at the empty syringe, feeling the phantom pinprick of the shots from the last few months on my bicep. "You're removing yourself quite thoroughly from the equation here."

He folds his hands in an absurdly demure way on top of the bar. "I had some unwelcome visitors recently. I would rather not repeat that. I might not like ALICE, but I do not want them snooping around my lab."

Kaito and I exchange a brief look at the implication. His jaw clenches around words that he swallows.

Zakariah is implying my security wasn’t enough to keep him completely safe, so undoubtedly they’ve worked their way through whatever I put up to keep myself safe. They’re just letting me think I’m getting away with it.

I remember a man with a charming smile, but I can't remember his face. I remember feeling like he could completely see through me with a single glance.

I remember how much that terrified me.

Without saying anything, I take the bag and slip it into my laptop case.

"Now," Zakariah begins, clapping his hands together and pulling out a paper-thin reader that he passes over to me. It's meant to be disposable, a one-time use that stores data but has no signal of its own. "Two things of note in the shot. The first, and I think this is the easiest to explain, are the RFID transmitters that comprise the liquid."

"Right. I got that from your initial email." I flip through the pages of the document, which is more detailed than the one that he emailed to me. "Short term trackers that are injected into our blood. Sort of figured that was the case." Especially after the event in early December when the ALICE agent was able to locate all of us using some sort of app on her phone.

I still wish I had the chance to look at what she had been using. It would be an interesting piece of technology to reverse engineer.

"The transmitters were encrypted, of course, and I might be one hell of a chemist, but that level of digital security is beyond me." He leans over and flips to the third page of the report. It definitely resembles medical reports that I've seen online -- filled with charts and chemical compounds and long words that I can't even begin to pronounce. "The liquid itself was largely composed of Rivastigmine. That's an Old World solution used for helping slow the progression of dementia and memory loss. They've progressed on to more invasive solutions, such as surgery for implants or other, stronger chemicals to combat memory loss over the years -- by and large, ALICE has done that research. This is something, from my understanding of the company's abilities, that is well within their realm of expertise."

A shiver runs down my spine. "I've heard of the rise of implants, and I can see, from a tech standpoint, how those would work. Jump starting points of the brain to trigger the memory receptors."

His shoulders move in a silent chuckle. "Exactly right. And a decidedly clinical way of describing it. This drug, however, is easier to create and administer in large doses."

"No one would question..." Kaito mutters. I hadn't noticed that, during the course of the conversation, he had moved closer to us. "We already have to go in for a yearly shot. It's just something that we took in stride after learning that ALICE is in charge of the game."

Zakariah nods once. "It's also easier to eliminate traces of, and does wear off after a time." He pauses for a moment, glancing between both of us. He lets the meaning of his words sink in before carrying on. "The Rivastigmine is mixed with the antioxidant alpha tocopherol, better known as Vitamin E. When used in conjunction with Cholinesterase inhibitors like Rivastigmine, it will protect brain cells from naturally occurring chemicals that would otherwise wear away the issues."

"So... It coats the memory bits of our brains to keep them stronger?"

He purses his lips, mulling over my words. "Something like that."

I wonder what he's contemplating, what other sort of situation he might be deciding not to mention. "Okay. What else? You mentioned something about the transmitters being bonded to the enzymes."

"Yes. From what I could tell, and you'd likely be able to figure out this better with an active set, but the transmitters are encoded to the specific shot, and then, I'm guessing, associated with the participants."

Again, Kaito and I exchange an uneasy glance. Every single time we've gone in for a shot, I've erased Liala's data to have it replaced with my own. There’s too many questions that I don’t have the brain power to start contemplating at the moment.

I glance down at my phone, thinking about the map that was texted to Kaito during the event on the twenty second. "Then what's the point of having an app on our phones if they're going to track us with our blood? I mean, beyond saving us from having to check in with a blood sample each time…”

The digital information that is transmitted from our mobiles to whatever database ALICE has can, in some way, be manipulated. Location signals for a phone can be scrambled. Point values for a check-in can be multiplied.

Zakariah shrugs. "A fail safe, perhaps? I can't answer that with any certainty. Maybe they are strictly to track your chemical levels to ensure that, from a medical standpoint, nothing is wrong with the drug they are using. They are still a medical company first and foremost."

My fingers drum against the bar, staring down at the Rivastigmine structure on the reader. Its shape means nothing to me from a scientific point of view. A lot of my understanding of the details could be aided by simply snatching another shot and breaking into the transmitters. Or, better yet, to get my hands on a backup of the medical records when I break in to delete Lia's. Then I could see what sort of information they are tracking, and how they plan on using it.

"Uh-oh," Kaito teases. "That's your 'hatching a scheme' face."

"Every face of mine is a 'hatching a scheme' face." I turn to the man next to me and hold out my hand. "Thank you for the report."

He shakes it, a quick and curt motion. "Certainly. I am very interested in the reasoning behind all of it, but there's nothing more than I can pull from this."

"I'm very interested in the whole protecting the memory cells bit." I continue to flip through the report, highlighting bits now that I recognize what Zakariah had been talking about.

"Good luck with that, Lianel." He slides off the stool and drapes his jacket over his arm. “And again, thank you for the security. But I think at this point, our collaboration is complete.”

"Sure you don't want to stick around for a round? I just like listening to your evil villain voice." Kaito holds an empty glass in one hand, waving it temptingly in the space before him.

Zakariah chuckles. His voice certainly is deep and smooth. "I do have errands to run, but it was kind of you to offer," he says, a bit more dramatically than the entire conversation had been.

Definitely an evil villain sort of voice.

"Holy shit," Kaito whispers, eyes wide. "Are you sure you're not the one secretly running ALICE?"

This time, Zakariah's laughter is accompanied by a wince. "Don't insult me."

"I'll try not to. I'd rather not die at the hands of some nefarious plot of yours." Kaito sets the glass aside and winks. "Rain check on the pint, then."

"Ta." Zakariah nods to me before rounding the bar and heading out into the growing gloom of the evening.

There's a brief silence, broken by a round of laughter from several of the other patrons across the way. Kaito and I look over at the same time to stare at the cluster of men in a booth.

"Well..." he starts. "That was informative."

"I want to crack into some of the transmitters, but I don't have the resources to actually... access them." They become inactive after a month, according to Zakariah's report. The ones in the shot I gave him are useless. "And it's not like I can just plug the syringe into my computer to access them."

"No. You'll have to find some other way...." Kaito trails off and visibly flinches. "God, I'm starting to sound like I actually condone your behavior."

A smirk makes its way across my lips. "That makes for an interesting turn of events." I start to gather up my things, already planning how I might be able to store the data from Liala's records when we go in for our next round of shots at the end of the month. "Thanks for letting me hang here."

He reaches out and ruffles my hair, and I surprise both of us by letting him get away with it. "Be careful, Lio."

"I would say that I always am, but my record lately speaks for itself, doesn't it?" I start to head for the doors as several more people filter into the Temple. It will start to fill up with the after work crowd soon. And I want to be sure I get home before Liala. But before I can get too halfway across, Kaito calls out to me.

I stop, slowly pivoting in my stop to glance at him. "Yeah...?"

He's fidgeting with his phone, which I don't know is better or worse than the bottles. It's definitely a nervous tick. "About Rhys."

"Ah-hah. So something did happen." I’ve had my suspicions, but it’s nice to get some sort of confirmation.

The look he shoots me can best be described as 'witheringly guilty'.

But before he can say anything, I shake my head. "I don't want to get involved more than I already have. But at least I know that you were dumb and you haven't apologized yet."

He scoffs, but doesn't correct me.

"Give him time to come around, or suck it up and apologize first." I jab a finger in his direction. "It will just eat away at Rhys until you do."

I know that my brother and I don't see eye to eye on a lot of things. We've argued over anything and everything, and I'll admit that a lot of it is my stubborn ass.

But it doesn't change the fact that he is still my brother, and the only one who can cause him grief or antagonize him is me.

Kaito snaps his mouth shut, biting back whatever he wanted to tell me. "Yeah..." he says eventually. "It'll work out."

It sounds more like he's telling himself an excuse instead of reassuring me, but I accept it anyway. "Don't be too hard on yourself, man. Rhys will forgive you no matter how bad your apology is."

He laughs and runs a hand back through his hair. "I think even he might have his limits."

At least I know he's sorry about whatever it is that he did. It's a start, and it means he's taking what I said to him into serious consideration. "I'll text you when I get home."

I pull my jacket close when I step out onto the street. The temperature is dropping quickly, and I won't be surprised if there is more snow before the month is out. Checking my phone to make sure that there's no messages from either sibling, I strike off in the direction of the train station.

Zakariah's reservations about the drug compound have definitely given me something to think about. ALICE could, conceivably, have used any enzyme as a base to attach the transmitters to. So why use such a short-lived transmitter attached to an enzyme primarily associated with memory enhancement?