Bell smiled. "You'd be right if she weren't so fragile."
"Gimme a break. Her? Fragile? I can't see her, but she's got iron in her voice."
"Iron's in her voice," Bell told Ric. "But the fire of whatever her trials were cooled much too quickly. Something has to heat her up again so that she can cool slowly.. and that 'iron' in her will be more relaxed, more flexible." He shook his head to escape getting philosophical.
Ric snickered. "You mean you have to heat her up."
Mik's eyes fluttered and he sighed having heard the relay of Bell's 'command' through Ric's head. "Don't pretend your Legion, Bell. Just don't. You wanna be a soldier, then you go to boot camp."
Ric grinned at Mik's statement even if it was rather loud. He gave the wrist cuffs a good yank. He cursed in a mutter and touched Mik’s mind. ~ You all right over there, bro? ~
~Tied down too...~ Mik gave a sour mental laugh.
~ Dammit. What do we do now? I can't even sit up. ~ Belatedly, though nonetheless sincere, Ric told him, ~ Sorry about that Mik. Didn't mean to get you tied up too. ~
Bell smiled, even blushed at what Mik said, but only Mik could have seen it. "I may just need to do that. Any advice?"
Ric offered up a sly grin. "Untie me and I'll tell you the secret." He relayed the banter to his brother. The whole thing put a knot in his gut.
"No way, Ricohh. I need my head attached to my body for a while."
"C'mon...you afraid of a blind man?" Ric was tugging all the while at his bonds. Mik could see Ric's fists tensing and his subtle pulls on the restraints. "At least let Mik go. He didn't do anything."
"He untied you, before. You can't pull IV's out like that Ric."
He was tiring himself out quickly and building up a sweat, but he wouldn't stop testing the bonds. ~C'mon, bro. Use those words of yours...sheesh. ~
~I'll see what I can do, but it's hard when I can't hear myself... I come off too strong...~ Mik protested.
~ I'll tell you if you're too loud. ~
The leather dug into Mik’s wrists and he sighed. "So now what?"
~Too commanding... ~
Mik cursed himself. ~Ric, ease up on pulling so hard; I'll try.~ "Listen, Bell, you were calling us Sir, earlier. You gotta respect the office if not the men."
Adrian said, "But I do respect the men. Too much to let you endanger yourselves or me, quite frankly. Whether you know it or not, you need me and this world needs you both. Alive and well. I have orders to see that's how this goes."
Ric grit his teeth and did as his brother told him. The twisting and pulling had stopped. "What do we need you for?" It appealed to his ego that the world might need him and Mik.
Mik sighed. "Can we at least sit up?"
"No," Adriann told him. "You've everything you need for now. You're laying there until you get it right. We've played this game before." Bell knew that both of them knew it was not Bell who’d ‘played these games’ with them, specifically; but he knew the drills of how they'd done things as boys and the words would be familiar, if not comforting. Familiar enough for RMG to know what had to be done.
"I hate this game..." Ric said, but he'd play it. What choice did they have?
Bell had never liked what he'd seen in the closed circuit tapes of this game either. He'd never had to play it and he didn't want to; but they were being unreasonable and so forced his hand. He only hoped it was what Brrace would have done. "First, I'll answer your question, Ricohh. You need me to find out all the details of the current "game." After that... when you're in control and free - you can do what you like with me, how's that?" Bell
leaned up against the counter behind him, a good distance from either man, even if they were restrained. He wasn’t taking chances.
Ric took a deep breath, then another, tracking Bell by sound. He relaxed every muscle, preparing mentally and physically for this most familiar of games. "Count on it, Bell. Fair enough." And it was.
Mik hated the game too, but it was intellectual; a thinking man's game and he was a thinking man. Something in him -- though he hated the way the game was played and how it had separated them in the past -- enjoyed the game. He and Ric were together. There was nothing they couldn't do.
Bell began... "Scenario: You are restrained and in the hospital after someone's tried to kill you; nearly succeeded." Yes, it was their present situation. "You know who, you know how and when... but you don't know why. Someone's willing to answer your questions and fill in the gaps but you're angry. What do you need to do?"
It was automatic to respond with the answer. "Detach," Ric said. The channel between he and Mik had been opened fully. Mik could hear, though muffled, through Ric's ears. And Ric could see through Mik's eyes. Unfortunately for Ric, all he could see was the ceiling.
"Correct."
Mik's eyes rotated downward, in a deepening of that open channel, he willingly handed over his own control to Ric; hearing was control non-specific, but a man needed to be able to order the eyes to see
what he needed to see. ~Look all you like bro,~ he trusted.
"Now that you're detached... what do you do?"
It was a gentle seizure of control, not the grasping of the drowning man he had been just a few hours ago. He fell back into old patterns, patterns that allowed him to survive and win games just by sheer determination to do so. And there was Bell, leaning against the counter. He could see the man just
over Mik's toes.
Always before the games had been about remote situations.. battle scenarios, dangerous games; but none they were ever actually a part of... then the games ended with them still being in their rooms in the Complex, no matter how far afield their minds had gone to solve the problems. This was different... this was reality, their lives... vital puzzles.
Quietly, Ric said, "Invite the man to sit down. Then grill the crap out of him." There was just a hint of sarcasm in his voice, leftover from a pre-game Ric.
"The difference in this scenerio is that the man you invite is more than willing to sit down and be grilled. Here I am. Grill me, gentlemen."
Mik took a breath and wished he could scratch his nose. It itched. "You're going to just tell us everything you know?"
"Damn right he is." Ric said, though he couldn't really back up the threat in his tone of voice.
"I won't even say it's providing you ask the right questions. I'll tell you everything I know and when Brrace gets back, hell, you can order him to tell you. I'm just a lowly civie scientist."
~ I don’t know what to ask him first! ~ Ric squashed down the urge to pull at the bands securing him to the bed rails. It was him that was glaring, but it was Mik who actually did it.
~I do.~ Mik spoke clearly then, in an insistent voice. "Is the Complex still in operation?"
"I don't know," Bell told them. "After you two were hit, we took as many of our toys as we could and found a new home. I presume the others did much of the same. I haven't been back -- but I think there's not much left except the buildings. Brrace isn't sure at all who we can trust."
Unbelievable. Ric couldn't help suffering a pang of loss imagining the complex, the place he grew up so hard in, empty. Void of everything that had made it vital. Mik felt Ric's pang, but maintained his 'gamers' detachment.
"I'm sure by now the supplies are gone. The Complex in Kermadickk is still functional, but that was under Freemen control. Raines used it, I used it… but he’s locked out now.
That was why Ric never did well in the games on his own. He got too emotionally involved. "You and Brrace and who else are together still?"
On the surface, Bell found this amusing. He was even smiling. They were prisoners and he yet he was the interrogated. "Dr Ainsleighh isn't with us, but we know where she is." In fact, she'd gone out with another Freemen unit to 'hide in plain sight' so to speak. "Raines is ... in hiding. Mikkael Blackk is probably with him."
"I remember now. He was there, in Immin. Pulled Raines out before the blasts." Ric was thoughtful. "Thought I'd shot one of 'em...Guess I didn't."
"I wouldn't be so sure you didn't, Sir. There was blood, typed and crossed. Raines wasn't on file but the blood doesn't match anyone’s who is. You didn't hit Blackk from the samples we collected."
He shifted his body as best he could to ease tired muscles. "You mentioned other projects...ones that Raines wanted to scrap ours for. What are they?"
Bell was finding this much easier than earlier... at least he didn't have to fear for his life... right now. "Other projects..." He looked dubious for the first time. "You... you do know what project you were... part of?" He suddenly looked as if he felt VERY uncomfortable again.
The thought he actually tagged Raines was satisfying to Ric. Was this guy stupid? "We were part of the Messiah project.And then..." ~ Gimme a hand here. I never paid much attention ~
"The Messiah Project," Mik began, "was conceived by the Powers to manipulate remnants of the blood lines of the families that produced the leaders of Sabatt before the Great War. Early experiments failed to produce the desired results. The coveted conclusion to these experiments being a Leader for the future to free the world from Tyranny." It sounded like a quote from a text book. "And then..." Mik continued in a more huumunn tone, "we were
born."
"That's the project we were part of. I know there were others. And I know you guys didn't stop with us," Ric concluded.
"No we didn't. And I didn't know about this until two weeks ago... "
"They didn't tell you?" He had only heard rumors, really, about the same time he realized he
was the unwanted one. The mistake.
"I knew what it was called. It wasn't personal to me. It was "the project." I knew who you were; but you weren't a result of my genetics testing but of those who had preceeded me. You weren't numbers to me. There was someone involved in another branch of the Messiah project that I was working on."
"What do you mean? There was another kid?"
"Up until you were hit, it was all numbers and vials..." Bell nodded. "Not there was. There *is* another kid. Worked on... conceived, born... in case something happened to you. Raines tried to force that something. Get you out of the way."
Mik's face paled and he felt his heart skip. "Raines planned this? What was he going to do; have his pet project take over the Freemen?"
"Gods..." Ric whispered.
Bell shook his head. "I think you're thinking far too small... Not just the Freemen, guys. Everything. Raines wanted the world. He might yet get it."
"Lurudd..." Mik prayed.
"The mother and child are safe for now.. Raines will try to get to them, but they're safe, in Kermadikk."
"Are you sure?" Finding Raines was imperative now.
"Bryan's with her now. If she's not safe with him, she'll never be." He didn't feel he had the right to tell them about the relationship between Macy and Brrace... or even if he should tell them who he knew that she was... "I only learned about her... I mean who she was when you were hit... I didn't know before." His voice dropped to a softness and sorrow for his guilt in the project that treated people like numbers. "I swear..."
Ric lost his detachment completely and began to work on the restraints. Something had to be done. Wait, he suddenly told himself in response to Bell’s words. "Do we know the mother?" He was half expected him to tell him it was Myrr.
~What's he talking about?~ Mik asked Ric at pretty much at the same moment he asked his question.
Bell cleared his throat. "Yeah. You do." He cursed silently and shifted his weight. "Her name's Macy."
Ric laughed, thought he heard Bell say Macy. "Say that again, Bell. I couldn't hear you."
~Macy... he said Macy.~
~That can't be right, Mik. She's dead. ~
"I swear..." Bell held up both hands. "As soon as I knew I went to Bryan! That's why he's over there now..."
"I only know one Macy. And she's dead, Bell. I saw her body." Crisp and charred though it was… he thought to himself.
Mik's pulse was racing and his composure and detachment had broken completely. He'd seen Ric's vision of Macy... heard his anguish at the time. "You're lying Bell. You're lying!" It couldn't be true, and if it were, why was Brrace so concerned for the Mother rather than the child of the project? ~Can't be!~
Adriann's expression was full of pity. "Brrace'll tell you when he gets back." Fresh guilt settled across his face about it. "I didn't know."
Ric pulled his control away from Mik's eyes and withdrew into himself. ~Gotta get outta here, bro... gotta.~
"There will be a soldier in the room. If you need anything, have more questions... have him come for me."
~I think we're stuck.~ "A soldier!" More indignities upon indignities. Of course, maybe they could order him to untie them… he thought to himself.
Bell turned to walk to the door with slow resolute steps. "It’s for your own protection... someone gave Mik alcohol... we're not sure if someone's still trying to kill you."
~Myrr!~ It was mental laughter on Mik's part, bordering on the hysterical. ~She thought I needed a drink.. that's all... ~
This was all too unreal. Too much information to be assimilated and now Ric had to worry about being embarrassed by his blindness in front of one of his own men. And Macy...what if Bell wasn't lying? ~ Myrr was here? ~
~Came to talk...~ And Mik let the conversation he and Myrr had scroll through to Ric. ~She gave me a bottle... ~ At the time he needed it. Now he was thinking it would get Ric's wife, his friend, in trouble. He sighed.
Trapped in their beds, there was little they could do and so they began scouring each other's minds for every scrap of information about Macy, Raines, Bell, Brrace and the Complexes. They would play a few mental games of their own and come up with an answer while their bodies healed.
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