What's Next? -- Chapter 11

Disclaimer:  The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Alec, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me.  No money is being made off of this fic.  I only own the original characters (Becky/X6-405, etc.).

“So, Colonel Robinson, how long have you known about this relationship that you and General Murphy share with the two transgenics?” the reporter asked. She and Caroline sat opposite each other in the studio, both of them as calm and composed as can be.

“I was informed by one of my superiors shortly before the negotiations opened up between the president and the transgenics,” Caroline replied. “General Murphy was informed at the same time.”

“Yeah, the president does qualify as a superior,” Wes remarked. His and Jeff’s family plus Becky’s and Zack’s families sat around one of the big TVs in a recreation room inside Terminal City watching Caroline’s interview.

Jeff rolled his eyes. “No shit, Sherlock. Shut up and let us watch the TV.”

“Have you had any kind of contact with either of them?” the reporter asked.

“I have,” Caroline said. “Both General Murphy and I…”

“She’s good,” Brent said. “Do all authority figures have this innate ability to bullshit convincingly?”

“When I have I ever bullshitted you, Brent?” Becky said.

“The first time that I went parachuting out of a chopper when I was nine,” Brent said. “You and everybody else who’d been jumping before were there and we had to have been I don’t know how many feet up but you said ‘It’s okay, 570. Parachuting is easy and it’s fun. Calm down and you’ll enjoy it.’”

“You would have enjoyed it if you hadn’t caught that gust of wind as you were jumping,” Becky said. “That was blind luck and you know it and you caught yourself perfectly and got down just fine. You eventually liked parachuting as much as the rest of us do, so I didn’t bullshit you.”

“Hey, Max, did you get to parachute jumping?” Felicia asked.

“I did,” Max said. “It was really good.”

“Good? That was one of the greatest rushes known to all of mankind,” Jondy said.

“Colonel Robinson, the relationship that you and General Murphy share with those two transgenics was not the only formerly classified information that we have obtained,” the reporter said.

“Shhh, this sounds like it’s going to be interesting,” Syl said.

“We have also received some information that states that you yourself was once targeted by Project Manticore for accidentally uncovering some information concerning your…your son and subsequently, Manticore ordered one of it’s transgenics to kill you, which it nearly succeeded in doing by causing you to wreck your car on February 27th, 2013. After you woke up from your coma after several months, you were left with no memory of the accident or of the preceding month. Is that true?”

“Yes, I was told all of this by the same superior who informed me about Zack and Becky and my relationship to them,” Caroline said.

“I see,” the reporter said. “Have you been able to regain your memory of that lost month before your accident at all?”

“I have,” Caroline said. “After I was informed of the true nature of what I had previously believed to be and was told was an accident, my memory of the month before came back to me over the next few days. I remember the neurologist who was in charge of my case after the wreck had said to me after the examination that he performed after I had come out of the coma that if I didn’t start to regain my memories of that month within the next few weeks after I had woken up, then I would either never regain them or I could regain them at some point in the future but it would most likely take a shock of some sort to get me to remember.” She smiled slightly. “This definitely qualified as a shock.”

“This will probably come as a shock to most of our viewers, but according to the information that we received, the files that you came across belonged to none other than your ex-husband, Colonel Patrick Nelson, who was secretly involved with Manticore,” the reporter said. “And it was Colonel Nelson who reported this to the then-head of Project Manticore, Colonel Donald Lydecker, who himself was targeted by his successor at Project Manticore several months before it was destroyed for unknown reasons. How did you feel about that, both at the time and when you regained your memory?”

“Angry and betrayed by both of them,” Caroline said.

“Both of them?” the reporter said, confused.

Max grinned. “And here is where the fun really begins, boys and girls!”

“Yes, both of them,” Caroline said. “Donald Lydecker was an old friend of my family. In fact, he was the best friend of my late brother, Christopher. I’d literally known Donald for my entire life. He was the one who talked me into donating some eggs to what he’d led me to believe was simply government-sponsored medical research but was, as I’d later realized, Manticore, because he’d found out from my mother that my car, which was back home in Ohio while I was at West Point, had been damaged and I needed money for a new one. Donald was also the person who introduced me to Patrick.”

“So the same person who helped you get some much needed money and even introduced you to the man who would become your husband and the father of your youngest child was the one who essentially tortured your two older children?” the reporter said incredulously.

Caroline nodded grimly. “Exactly the same person. Even back then, I had a feeling that something was off about the whole situation. General Murphy did as well, though neither of us could possibly have known just how off it was. The most that we could do to correct it was to burn the checks that we’d received from the office of the clinic where we’d made our donations in the fireplace in our the lobby of the motel that we both happened to be staying at, which we did as soon as he gave me a ride back there after my procedure was over.”

“This is unbelievable,” the reporter said. “It looks like we are now out of time, so let me thank you again, Colonel Robinson, for taking the time to speak with us.”

“It’s been a pleasure,” Caroline said.

“Back to you, John,” the reporter said.

Jondy took the remote to the TV and hit the mute button. “Ladies and gentlemen, especially those of us who were from Gillette, let’s celebrate for we have witnessed the day when the general public has learned that Donald Lydecker is a first-class asshole scumbag!” Many of the other transgenics in the room cheered, but all of them had at least big smiles on their faces.

“And what a sweet moment it is,” Becky said.

“Here, here,” Max said.

Rena stood up. “I’ve still haven’t packed my clothes and I’ve got an early flight to Dallas tomorrow morning. If I don’t get started now, I never will and I’ll be rushing around like a chicken with its head cut off after I wake up in the morning. I’ll catch you guys later.” She got up and started to leave, but she turned around and grinned. “That really was a sweet moment when Zack and Becky’s mom busted Lydecker on the TV. You know that’s going to be all over.”

“It sure will be and I can’t wait until it is,” Becky said.

“Me too,” Zack said. “No question about it, this was a satisfying moment in my life.”

“…who helped you get some much needed money and even introduced you to the man who would become your husband and the father of your youngest child was the one who essentially tortured your two older children?”

“Exactly the same person. Even back then…”

Lydecker just stared in anger at the TV screen in his apartment. How dare Caroline do this? How dare she put her spin on what had happened? I did not torture 599 or 405 or any of the other soldiers! I did what had to be done! She always was stubborn. He looked back at the TV screen and saw that the interview had ended, so he turned the TV off and walked over to the window and stared off at his view of downtown Tacoma. I always knew that one day that either that stubbornness or her anger would get her into trouble.

He looked out for another few moments before he turned around and pulled out his cell phone and dialed a phone number. I hope that he hasn’t changed his voice mail number from the last time I spoke with him. He waited for a moment and smiled briefly when he heard the instructions for leaving a message. “It’s me. I’m alive and well and I hope that you didn’t believe any of the shit that Elizabeth fed you, because I’m going to need your help. It’s imperative that you get back to me as soon as you can…”

TBC