Meliora - Extricate - 49

[lady_mab]

Jun Zhou

The announcement that Zakariah had finished investigating the sample came a lot faster than I had expected. One one hand, I wonder if it is truly enough time for him to be able to get an answer.

On the other, I'm thankful, because it means that I am one step closer to putting this behind me. One step closer to being able to have something to tell Zoné when he finally asks if I'm okay.

Lionel and I once again take the train out to the edge of the district. My hands twitch and tremble at my sides. They've been getting worse over the last few days, and I don't know if that's just because I keep trying to pretend that nothing is wrong, or if it's because whatever is wrong is flaring up.

I add them to the list of things that I wish I had an easy fix for. The list will never get any shorter.

Once we disembark, I notice a few more people than the last time we had been out here. They're heading for the station -- retreating into the city on a Friday evening.I wonder if they're people that live out this way and they just go in for the night life, or if they work out here and are starting their weekend trek home.

Lionel leads the way back to Zakariah's lab. Nothing looks out of place from Wednesday. Still the same crumbling brick, still the same unassuming door among a row of many of the same.

Still, I can feel Lionel tense before we mount the stairs and he raps on the door.

We're left on the stoop for a few minutes. I can't hear any sort of sound coming from within the lab, but I remember how heavy the door was. An industrial level installation on what at one point had likely been a townhouse.

Before I can wonder if anyone is even home, there's a click of the lock and the door groans as it swings out, just shy of our toes. Zakariah's gaze, hooded and dark, studies Lionel and then to me. He looks like we just woke him up, and I almost apologize for disturbing him.

He steps back into the shadows of the small entry hall and lets us in.

It's a lot darker inside than it had been previously. When last we visited, there were bright fluorescents filling every corner with a sterile whiteness. Now, everything is dim and low. Perhaps he, too, is shutting down for the weekend and preparing to relocate somewhere else for his days off.

Zakariah's sigh is tired and heavy. "Lao Wantong kept his promise," he says, and I bristle a bit in response. Uncle Bao had completed the transaction on my behalf yesterday evening when Lionel texted me. My voice wouldn't stop shaking when I tried repeating the words he wanted me to say. "I received the notice this morning that the charges were dropped."

I roll the words around in the back of my mouth, trying to decide what I wanted to say. Uncle Bao still never clarified what the case was, beyond the family of an ex-lover of his putting up a barrier between him and their son. "We do not want to keep you. I am sure you will be eager to contact him again. What have you learned?"

Lionel remains leaning against the wall beside me, watching us and the rest of the room with silent detachment.

Zakariah wrings his hands and drops into his desk chair across from the stool I have perched on. "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." He must catch the confusion in my expression because he shakes his head and 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."

"How are they tied together?" I ask. Lionel seems distracted, constantly looking around the room, so I tap him on the arm to bring him back into the conversation.

The man shifts and fidgets in a way that makes me feel fidgety. But I need to be an image of calm and collected. I am the representative of the Old Imp, so I will carry myself as such. "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."

A small sound escapes the back of my throat. Glen had said that he thought he had caught pneumonia from hell. "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?"

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

It is not any consolation. Lionel was right -- I just wanted someone to be angry at, and this didn't help me any.

Zakariah keeps talking when I don't respond. "The mercury is atmospheric -- this is actually what I've been trying to study all the way out here without ALICE butting in to try and police my work. You know how they came to be as a company, right?"

I don't know how to respond to this question. I know that they had us 'meet the hosts' at the start of Meliora, but the words didn't quite stick in my head all these months later.

Lionel speaks up on my behalf. "They formed in Oceanside, California. The nuclear power plant in San Onofre was right near there."

We receive a nod in confirmation. "There was a plant up near what used to be Essex. It was shut down years ago, well before SD even started. But then the Chinese bought it, and installed a new power plant there." These are all concepts that don't quite make sense to me. I don't know where Essex is, or even where California is in relation to Eminence. "When the Thames eventually started to flood its banks, thoughts turned to try and harness it for hydro-power. They attempted to build a dam."

There's a hint of a conversation that I overheard from some of the patrons in Uncle Bao's restaurant. I struggle to remember what they said, their comments about the problems with sitting water. "The mercury levels formed in the reservoir..." I say, the pieces of the conversation clicking together in my head. "Years of it, just soaking into the earth." They had also complained about the quality of the water in the city, why we always had to rely on it being bottled to be able to trust to drink it, the fish having to be shipped in or artificially farmed because we couldn't use the natural wildlife.

"The chance that we all have some degree of it is high," Zakariah continues, confirming my connection, "as Eminence is the city who relies on that dam 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." I glance at Lionel, waiting to see what his opinion on the matter is. These sorts of conditions can't be good for Liala.

His attention is clearly elsewhere, eyes narrowed as he stares into the shadows of the lab. "Are your computers overheating?" There’s a consistent, low buzz that wriggles into my ears the moment I give it a degree of attention. This must be what is distracting Lionel.

Zakariah stares at him, eyes wide, and turns to look over his shoulder at his computers. "No, they're not."

Lionel reaches for my wrist and tugs me to my feet. "C'mon," he says, voice strained. Not yet bordering on panic, but I can feel the start of it in his grip. Something is getting to him -- maybe the computer buzzing is causing anxiety. "We got what we needed. Let's go."

I have to struggle to regain my footing as he starts for the door. Before we can get more than a few steps, I wrangle him back to a stop and turn to Zakariah. "Why haven't you published any of this before?"

He scoffs and tosses an indifferent hand into the air. "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 be allowed to continue my research." Zakariah leans back in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest. Despite the air of relaxation, he's still fidgeting. "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."

So he's actively working against ALICE, and evidence of that is available to the public. And yet they let him remain here, unharassed, while those of us participating in Meliora have to watch our every move or else we'll be targeted. "Then why is it still allowed to continue?"

Lionel separates himself from me to push open the door to the lab. "After all this time participating in this game, you think ALICE is going to be brought down that easily?" he asks, letting in the dim light of the evening, but it's still enough to relieve a bit of the pressure in the lab. "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."

He glares daggers of challenge back at the lab technician. Between one heartbeat and the next, a hand lands on his shoulder from a body I cannot see and tosses Lionel out of the lab. As soon as it appears, it's gone, and I take a step forward to yell after him. I see Lionel struggling to push himself into an upright position, and that at least gives me a degree of calm.

I have my back to Zakariah, which is a mistake I notice too late.

His clammy hand lands heavy on my shoulder, and I shout out in surprise. The hall leading to the front stoop is too narrow for me to try and wriggle free. He forces me ahead.

He shoves me out the door, and I stumble down the stairs just as Lionel looks up from the investigation of his palms. "Did you know that I had to turn over all of my research to ALICE after you showed back up here?" The man's voice is low and rumbles like distant thunder. "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."

A retort jumps to the tip of my tongue, burning and angry, but then Zakariah turns from us and says, "They're yours if you want them."

Zakariah slams the door shut to cut himself off from us. The shadows in the doorway flicker, and peel away from the stoop. They flicker as they slip into the light, and the pale, spindly creature that’s haunted my nightmares for the last two months takes form. Its body heaves with potential movement, but it remains frozen.

There's a beat of panic before I realize that I'm screaming.

It takes a lurching step in my direction as I retreat. Pace for pace, fingers dragging across the ground. I can't look away. I can't shake the feeling of its fingers -- thin as bones, harder than marble -- yanking my arms, forcing me down dark alleys.

My scars burn in protest.

From the corner of my eye, I see Lionel roll to his feet and reach for me. I grab his hand, and he tugs.

"What the actual fuck--" His breath comes out in a gasp as we start to run. "Is that the monster you're all talking about?"

He's never seen it before. Lucky. I still think I see it in the darkness of the streets whenever my mind wanders.

I yank him after me as I take a corner at random, and then a second without hesitation. We stumble into the relative protection of a doorway. I release him and pull out my phone.

"What are you doing?" he hisses. "We don't have time for that."

"We have to tell someone." I can't stop shaking. Remembering the look on Zoné's face when I woke up in the hospital. Remembering how lost and alone I had been. "Call Kaito, or something. We need to--"

I hear the buzzing that kept distracting Lionel -- the sound from the cemetery, the sound from the gully. I press my back further against the wall as its clawed hand swings overhead. Fingers catch on brick, searching for a hold.

"What the fuck!" Lionel shouts. He flattens himself against the wall, chest heaving. "What the actual fuck?!"

The creature hauls itself into view, head quirking and swiveling in consideration. "What?" it mimics, hundreds of voices morphing into words. I feel sick to my stomach as it tries again. "What are you doing?"

He waves an angry, trembling hand at the thing. "Is this really what ALICE sends out to do its dirty work? A thing that looks like it grew up in a radiated sewer?"

I slip out from beneath its arm, but it seems too focused on Lionel at the moment. I search around frantically for something, anything, to use as a weapon.

Behind me, it says, "Dirty work and cheaters."

My fingers, stiff and disjointed, wrap around a broken piece of asphalt and I hurl it without stopping to consider my aim.

The stone passes straight through it, and it whirls on me with a snarl as I grab another.

The heft of the stone in my hands gives me a bit of confidence, but not much. Enough that I snarl back. "Once is enough," I spit, and I throw my second round.

Again, it passes through.

Lionel stares wide-eyed, unmoving, but the creature has turned its focus to me. Its mouth opens and closes with words that it hasn't decided on yet.

Lionel is the first to react. "It's a hologram!"

"A what?" I can’t be hearing him right. That makes no sense.

"Like--like--like--" He shrivels beneath its pale-eyed stare. "At Halloween. The woman on the stage. It's not real."

I remember standing beneath the stage, seeing the woman up close. I remember how she looked real, but that it was very clear that she was not there. It doesn't add up. "It certainly felt very real as it kidnapped me, Lionel!"

Deciding that Lionel is the better option to pursue, the creature turns away from me completely. It takes one step, two, then lunges.

I cry out at the same time Lionel jerks back against the wall. He grabs for it, scrambling for purchase as it clutches his shoulder.

And then, just like that, it lets go.

It buzzes and whirs and in that fit of noise, I hear the combination of voices say, "Dangerous. Dangerous, boy. Beware beware the defect."

And then -- it's gone.

Like I blinked and it vanished. But I know that's not what happened -- I couldn't tear my gaze away.

Lionel wheezes, doubling over to clutch his knees. His legs are wobbling, weak, and he slides down into a sitting position as he starts laughing. "Holy shit!"

There's no more buzzing. No more creature. No more nightmare, staring at me with milky blue eyes.

I drop into a crouch where I stand, pressing my hands to my mouth. My heart is ready to leap out of my chest and run away. "How does it work?"

"I don't know, but it's bloody brilliant!" he admits, too fascinated for my comfort.

Every inch of me is weak, and I double over my knees and cover my face with my hands. My breath and pulse refuse to return to normal. I'm caught between wanting to scream and cry and the emotions wedge themselves in my throat.

"Hey..." Lionel asks, voice hesitant. "You gonna be okay?"

I honestly don't know, but it's too broad an answer for too broad a question. So I narrow down my thoughts to the moment and nod. "I will be, I think."

At our own pace, we push ourselves back upright and test our weight on our feet.

Lionel waits for me to join him as we start walking back towards the main street. He leads the way. "This is definitely going onto the Lady and the Ghost blog."

I haven't given that blog much consideration at all. "Do you run it?" Perhaps it is something that he manages with Liala.

He shakes his head. "No, but I have a secure email to send things to." Something passes over his face, and his jaw tightens in response to that thought.

I touch the back of his hand, and when he glances at me with a lifted eyebrow, I say, "Perhaps refrain for a bit. We need time to figure out what this new information means."

It's clear that acting too quickly is what brought ALICE down on us just now. We messed up somewhere along the way, and not only did we jeopardize ourselves, but we dragged Zakariah Jenkins into this as well.

I hope that things work out for him after the work my uncle went through to get him to help us. Zakariah must have known that it was likely ALICE would track us or that they would reach him eventually. Hopefully, he considers the reward worth more than the risk.

At this point, we all have to remember the final end point of Meliora: To learn the truth, and to get out of this city once and for all.

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