Meliora - Emanate - 50

[lady_mab]

Lionel Darcy

Friday rolls around, and it's a repeat of Wednesday's events.

After algebra, Jun latches onto my arm and I have to start to wonder if she's ditching her last class. In the past, she’s used the excuse of her biology class going to the lab and they were able to leave the class early. But a part of me doubts the truth of that claim now.

We make a quick exit, catching the bus and retracing our trip to the train station. We once again progress in silence and with a lack of contact from Lia and Zoné. I breathe a little easier once we are on the train, because it means that there is less of a chance of Lia catching up with us.

Jun picks at her nail beds, seemingly without realizing what she is doing. I study the progress of the destruction until I realize that blood wells beneath her skin.

"Are you okay?" I ask, uncertain how much I'm allowed to step into her personal bubble. "You're sort of..."

She jumps at the sound of my voice, then glances down when I motion to her hands. "Oh. Er." She remains frozen with her hands extended awkwardly before her, caught in the act. "It's... Um, how do I explain. I sort of can't feel things very well in my fingers anymore. So sometimes I don't realize if I cut them or hurt them."

This prognosis is delivered with such a studied level of calm that it takes far too long for the implication of the words to sink into my brain

"Wait," I press, scrambling to my feet as I follow her off the train. She walks with a straightforward determination that I can barely match. "You're losing feeling in your hands?"

"Just some fingers." She holds out her hands and I notice that they're shaking slightly, though that can be any number of reasons. Her fingers are littered with small, faint traces of healing cuts and nicks, and they don't rest comfortably together. "It's only a problem when I'm cooking or nervous."

I don't point out that she's training to be a cook, so she's probably cooking all the time. The evidence of the fact that she's well aware is scattered across her hands.

We make our way through the mostly deserted quarter with our footfalls echoing off the buildings around us. When we arrive at Zakariah's run down lab, we don't hesitate to mount the steps and knock.

It takes him a bit longer than I'm comfortable waiting for him to answer it. His dark eyes stare at me for a second, switch to Jun, and I wonder if he's going to announce that he doesn't remember us and slam the door in our faces.

But instead he takes a step back and lets us in with solemn silence.

The lab is washed in darkness, and the atmosphere weighs heavy on me as soon as I enter. Any light from the street is cut off as the door swings shut and Zakariah confronts us with a tired sigh.

"Lao Wantong kept his promise. I received the notice this morning that the chargers were dropped."

Jun nods as she takes a seat. "We don't want to keep you. I am sure you will be eager to contact him again. What have you learned?"

I lean against one of the walls beside her, arms crossed over my chest. I don't want to step too far into the lab. Something feels off about the whole situation, though I can't put my finger on it.

Zakariah hesitates, wringing his hands together before dropping into his desk chair. He leans forward. "From what I can tell, and keep in mind I'm not a doctor in a hospital, so my knowledge is somewhat limited, the coughing and the muscle pains were connected beyond just a cause and effect." His fingers tap against his knees and then he tries again. "There was evidence of muscle deterioration, but without a better sample, it is hard to tell. However, and this I have seen before, high levels of mercury were evident."

There's a high pitched buzzing noise that catches my attention, drawing me away from the conversation at hand. I lean toward it, trying to find its source, but Jun gives my arm a light tap to bring me back.

"How are they tied together?"

He won't stop fidgeting. In the brief span of time that I watch him, he doesn't sit still for more than a few seconds before changing positions or his hands twitching in his lap. It's starting to make me feel jumpy. "A common side effect of heavy metal poisoning -- mercury, in this case -- is respiratory troubles, such as coughing or shortness of breath. It could also lead to a buildup of fluid in the lungs to mimic a bad cold or even pneumonia."

Jun makes a small sound and it's enough to cut through the whirring computer noises to bring my attention back to her. "So you're saying... Not only did he have vitamin E poisoning which led to him bleeding out, he was being poisoned with heavy metals also?"

"I don't know if it will be any consolation, but I'm quite convinced that he was a victim of happenstance."

I frown, staring down at the top of Jun's bowed head. The atmosphere doesn't add up, though I don't know how to bring it up to Jun without drawing attention to my unease. The computer noises keep distracting me, humming closer and louder in even pulses -- like a drawn out heartbeat or a huge beast breathing. Did he have that many computers?

Zakariah is still talking, hands clasping and unclasping, legs shifting, eyes glaring holes into the concrete at his feet. "The mercury is atmospheric -- this is actually what I've been trying to study all the way out here without ALICE butting in to police my work. You know how they came to be as a company, right?"

Jun doesn't seem to know the answer. That, or she's too distraught to listen to his question properly.

"They formed in Oceanside, California. The nuclear power plant in San Onofre was right near there." I search my brain for the rest of the answers, but I am having a hard time focusing. There's too much information coming in at once. What does ALICE's background have to do with any of this?

He nods absently. "There was a plant up near what used to be Essex. It was shut down ages ago, well before SD even started. But then the Chinese bought it, and installed a new power plant there, though England’s whole anti-immigrant sentiment made it difficult to maintain. When the Thames eventually started to flood its banks, thoughts turned to try and harness it for hydropower. They attempted to build a damn."

"The mercury levels formed in the reservoir..." Jun says suddenly, lifting her head. Her face is pale, worry lines standing out in stark contrast. "Years of it, just soaking into the earth."

"The chance that we all have some degree of it is high, as Eminence the city who relies on it more than others. So I've always been very interested to see why ALICE continues to work here in this contaminated city instead of just letting it waste away."

"Or even providing a more pointed clean-up effort of the affected area." Jun glances up at me, waiting for my response to this revelation.

But I'm too distracted. "Are your computers overheating?"

Startled, Zakariah stares at me in confusion before glancing at his bank of computers. "No, they're not."

The sound is getting on my nerves. Now, it’s beyond distracting.

It's becoming alarming.

I reach for Jun's wrist and tug her to her feet. "C'mon, we got what we needed. Let's go."

She stammers and struggles for a moment to regain her footing. She turns to Zakariah before I can pull her too far. "Why haven't you published any of this before?"

"You don't think I have? I'm a scientist. I have to publish an article or a paper a year if I want to get paid and allowed to continue my research." His jaw works in silence. He folds his arms defensively and leans back in his chair. "Just because I'm not popular in Eminence doesn't mean that someone hasn't heard of my research. I’ll have you know that the Thomas West Foundation in the Americas is quite fond of my work."

"Then why is it still allowed to continue?"

I snort loudly, tugging open the door to his lab. "After all this time participating in this game, you think ALICE is going to be brought down that easily? I don’t think they really care. It’s one guy barely staying above water yapping his head off about stuff that no one here knows about, and everyone else is too far away to help."

Zakariah’s gaze flashes, anger at my words reaching a boiling point. Good. Perhaps, if he gets frustrated enough, he’ll get louder. Or at least find another way to get his word heard.

A hand grabs onto my shoulder and yanks me off my feet. White-hot pain flares to life where fingers dig through the layers of my uniform. Before I hit the ground, I try to remember if there had been any other people in the lab.

The buzzing is painfully loud in the dusk outside. My shoulder burns. I give it a careful test rotation to ensure it wasn’t dislocated. Nothing damaged except for skinned palms and my pride.

Jun's surprised shout catches my attention. I look in time to see Zakariah shoving her out of the door after me, his face a cloud of thunderous darkness.

He advances a step before halting in the doorway. "Did you know that I had to turn over all of my research to ALICE after you showed back up here?" His eyes are focused on me, when before they had been drawn to Jun. "Everything that I've worked on. I imagine that they'll start deleting my papers next. I told you I didn't want to get involved again."

Then Zakariah turns and says, "They're yours if you want them." The door slams shut.

Before the words can connect into a coherent sentence, Jun releases a shrill cry as she notices what he had been speaking to.

Slowly, hesitantly, I turn to look as well.

The beast lurches as it walks, knuckles dragging against the asphalt of the empty street. Its eyes are milky white, focused on Jun -- advancing a step every time she takes one in retreat. Its fingers are spindly claws, but I have no doubt that it is what yanked me into the street.

I roll to my feet, ignoring the way its elongated neck swivels to track my progress.

Jun catches onto my hand as I reach for her, and we start running at the same time.

"What the actual fuck--" I gasp. "Is that the monster you're all talking about?"

Her response is a sharp nod.

We stumble down the street and she pulls me around a corner, then around another without even hesitating. It takes my brain a moment to realize that we're tucked into a doorway and Jun scrambles for her phone.

"What are you doing?" My voice is no more than a whisper. Eyes like those things’ means that it will be able to hear better than see. And in this low light, we'll have a hard time seeing it too. "We don't have time for that."

"We have to tell someone," she snaps back. Despite the fear in her eyes and the way her hands shake, her tone leaves no room for argument. "Call Kaito, or something. We need to--"

The whirring noise of a hundred engines running at top speed gives us a few seconds warning before a clawed hand scrapes the brick just above Jun's head.

"What the fuck!" I shout, pressing against the cool, porous wall behind me. "What the actual fuck?!"

The strange, misshapen head quirks to the side at the sound of my voice. "What?" it echoes, a mashup of other voices struggling to mimic speech. "What are you doing?"

"Is this really what ALICE sends out to do its dirty work?" I gesture at it with a wave of my hand, unable to look away as Jun shuffles to safety. "A thing that looks like it grew up in a radiated sewer?"

It hesitates, and for a second it looks like it is processing my words. Then its mouth splits into a horrible grin -- too many teeth shoved into its gums and nonexistent lips. "Dirty work and cheaters," it says, and I shiver despite myself.

A chunk of broken asphalt passes straight through it, clattering into the wall right next to my elbow.

With a snarl, it whirls in Jun's direction as she readies another volley.

To my surprise, she snarls back. "Once is enough." When she throws the second jagged piece, I notice that instead of passing cleanly through, it fizzles.

An image stopping and restarting.

Pixels recovering.

A yell of triumph erupts from my throat. "It's a hologram!"

Jun hesitates, starting to lower her next weapon. "A what?"

"Like--like--like--" I'm having a hard time thinking as it stares at me. "At Halloween. The woman on the stage. It's not real."

"It certainly felt very real as it kidnapped me, Lio!"

It's standing uncomfortably close now, completely ignoring Jun in favor of me. Its body twitches and shifts, but there's no noticeable tensing of muscles before it lunges.

I grab a bony finger as it wraps around my shoulder. My hand passes through, and the tension eases.

I attempt to grab the whole thing, but then I'm released and my fingers pass through nothing.

Its jaw opens and closes, opens and closes. It grins again. "Dangerous. Dangerous, boy. Beware beware the defect."

And then it’s gone.

Like someone reached out and unplugged the simulator.

My breath wheezes through my lungs, and I double over to try and steady myself. But then laughter starts to break free and soon I can't stop. I'm laughing so hard that I have to sit down. "Holy shit!"

Jun drops down as well, eyes wide and hair disheveled from our dash. She stares at me in shock. "How does it work?"

"I don't know, but it's bloody brilliant!" I rake my hand back through my hair, thinking of the ALICE agent from the night that Liala and I were found together. Perhaps he was something similar, though I don't remember the whirring.

When I finally look up, Jun's hunched with her face buried in her hands and her shoulders rising and falling with deep breaths.

"Hey... You gonna be okay?" I ask.

It takes another breath in, breath out before she lifts her head and pushes her hair out of her face. "I will be, I think."

We struggle to our feet, and I dust my hands off on my pants. "This is definitely going onto the Lady and the Ghost blog."

She quirks a brow as she falls into step alongside me. "Do you run it?"

"No, but I have a secure email to send things to." My stomach lurches as soon as I say that. Zakariah implied that ALICE came back as soon as we approached him a second time. And, in an effort to keep himself free of them, he gave us up.

That or he had been working for them this whole time, though I doubt it. He was too passionate about his research against ALICE to sound like he would give in that easily.

Jun touches the back of my hand. "Perhaps refrain for a bit. We need time to figure out what this new information means."

She's right, of course. We've learned a lot in a very short amount of time. There is a lot to process and a lot to rationalize with what we already know.

We return to the main street, tensions high between us until we reach a place where other people are milling about. The rest of the walk to the train station is spent lost in our own thoughts.