Erik II:
Erik sat in a parking lot, fiddling with the cylinder of the revolver in his hand. The lot was almost empty at this hour, the night sky drowning the environment in darkness.
“It’s a good thing you have so many connections, I hardly needed you anymore.” Erik said.
He looked to the corpse in front of him.
“That’s the last good thing you’ve done Eugene. A shame you couldn’t make it to the end of it all.”
The man was leaving the courthouse. Apparently over some silly custody battle. Was that all it took for the man to sell out? Erik sneered at that.
Erik had asked the appropriate questions.
Where was his daughter taken?
Who took her specifically?
Is she even alive?
Uncertainty in all of them. Eugene only gave him a name when asked who took her.
Chris.
Erik carved the name in his skull. He called HQ, demanding they looked into it and send him the appropriate information regarding any person name “Chris” in the P.A.L. That would take a while considering information was scarce to the public, he’d have to get it elsewhere.
He smirked at the notification on his phone. The contact “C” answered an hour later, with a photo of his targets ID page.
He was a captain, and led a team. Furthermore he helped found the organization. The man responsible for his daughters kidnapping seemed more impressive than he first thought.
Would make it all more satisfying killing him.
Sadly there was no information about his current home or residence. No family either. He’d have to root the P.A.L out some other way. He couldn’t attack the base when they were all there. Planning was needed. With that Erik got inside of his car, giving one final glance to Eugene’s body before driving off.
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Emma II:
Emma eyed the microscope. Something was off. She repeated the action, looking into it but the same anomaly made itself known.
There were major differences between Virus X and Virus Y.
Virus Y duplicated its cells rapidly whenever disrupted or tampered with. It also rapidly took over whatever it infected. A drop on a plant and the plant withered and died.
Virus X however was different. Instead of duplicating the cells it strengthened them. When she gave a drop to a flower seed, it began growing rapidly. It was almost completely grown.
“Fascinating.” She marveled at the samples. She reminded herself to thank Chris a thousand times over for giving her first access to the samples. It was extremely generous despite her screw up on the mission. She had gotten too impatient, too excited at the sight of potential scientific breakthrough.
A buzzing noise from her pocket snapped her attention away from the work. She looked at the contact name contemplating if she should answer. Giving in she pressed the answer button.
“Hey dad. Sorry don’t think I can make it home tonight.”
She winced at her own words. Some daughter she was.
“It’s alright pumpkin, I know your work is important. I was calling to see if you knew where I left my glasses?”
She sighed, dropping her head on the desk.
Her father was extremely forgetful.
“Did you try your glasses case?”
He said nothing, the metal case being fumbled with from the sound of it.
“Oh! Thanks honey, guess it slipped my mind.”
She smiled weakly.
“No problem, but look I gotta..”
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll let you get back to your work. Love you pumpkin.”
“Love you too dad.” Emma said before hanging up.
The phone dropped from her hand, clanking on the desk. This job was great until it wasn’t. She loved forwarding their progress. She hated being away from her father. A father whose own mind was leaving him.
The lab doors opened, a drunk Benjamin stumbling inside. With a quick sigh, she got up from her chair, guiding the drinking man to a seat.
“I thought I told you not to bring that inside the lab.” She grabbed the whiskey from his hands, putting it in the fridge.
“S…sorry about that Em.” Ben slurred his words out, his eyes unfocused.
With a roll of her eyes she turned back to the samples. The gold vials of Virus Y called to her. To crack its secrets. She didn’t know how long that would take, seeing as she was starting from scratch with next to nothing for information.
Ben called behind her.
“You really need to learn when to relax.”
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“I’ll relax when the works finished.”
“You’ll be here the rest of your life then.” He replied, his voice suddenly sobered up.
She turned around, surprised by the change. His eyes were still unfocused but he sat up straight now.
“I was like you at one point kid, it’s not worth it. Get all the work out in one sitting then what’s left. Nothin.” He seemed to be somewhere else, going through memories.
Emma contemplated his words, before signing in concession. She put the samples back, her hands itching to grab them again. Deciding to distract herself she turned back to Ben.
“Any progress with that Jaene woman?”
Ben shook his head.
“Captain couldn’t get anything important out of her. Somethin weird happened though.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“She started talking about how she was P.A.L defending the world against us. Acted all confused when captain showed her the documents of her own viruses at work.” Ben was practically sober again, Emma didn’t know how he did it. But she focused on his words, their implications rather confusing.
“Why she bother acting like that?”
Unless..
“No clue. He’s gonna try again in the morning, with a different approach. Can’t blackmail her cause we have nothing on her. She’s practically a ghost.” Ben stood up, grabbing his whiskey from the fridge. Emma rolled her eyes, she’d have to lock that someday.
“Gonna call it a night Em. You should too.” Ben said, walking out of the lab.
Emma stood there, deep in thought. She wondered why Jaene would try to play hero now. As if she was trying to stop them? The woman was intelligent, no doubt. So why bother?
Emma exhaled. She was getting roped back into her work.
She grabbed her keys leaving the lab.
She’ll leave such things for tomorrow.
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Ada IV:
Ada waited outside the interrogation room. Peering through the one way glass, she watched the woman inside. Jaene kept her gaze to the table, as she had the entire time when not questioned.
Her face was similar to one of shell shock, it had been that way ever since her captain had spoken to her. It made Ada furious. What did she have to be shocked about? This was all her damn fault. Everything that the A.L.F accomplished was because of her research. To try and play hero now made Ada seethe.
From her left, Director Serge approached.
“Director.”
“Lieutenant.”
They sat there for a moment, both staring at the woman in the glass.
“She really does look just like Olivia.” Director Serge said, his usual deep voice cracking at the name.
Wanting to be respectful Ada simply nodded.
“She does.”
He wasn’t wrong, she was Olivia’s spitting image. At least from what Ada saw on the woman’s file. Olivia was a former commander here, and the directors daughter. She died, roughly six years ago. Ada had only been apart of P.A.L a year by then, so she heard of the woman but never officially met her.
The director was known for his headstrong personality and willingness to do whatever it took to move forward with the investigation. The scar across his eye spoke volumes of the sacrifices he took to get the organization this far. However he was also known for having a weak spot for his daughter. The day she died was the day he changed permanently. His moments of compassion were minimal and his ruthlessness on full display.
“She claims to be P.A.L?” The director asked.
Ada nodded again.
“Well that’s impossible. Nothing about a Jaene exists in our records. Especially not such an advanced bioengineer.” He stated.
“She’s lying.” Ada responded simply.
“Perhaps she is. Simply buying herself time. Perhaps not, and there is much more to this situation than we first thought.”
Ada’s lips curled into a frown hearing that.
“I doubt it, she’s a terrorist. A murderer. Shes trying to save her own skin because she’s caught.”
“I see Captain Moore’s forwardness rubbed off on you.” The director began stroking his beard.
Ada didn’t like where this was going.
“Even he had to learn the valuable lesson that you all seem to want to forget.”
“And what’s that?”
“Perspective.”
Ada turned to the director, wanting him to elaborate but he was already walking off. Chris had entered the room by now, his face showing he was ready to get this over with.
“Captain.” She saluted.
Chris nodded to her, opening the door to the interrogation room and closing it behind him. Seemed he wanted to do this alone.
Ada watched from the glass.
What perspective could possibly redeem a person like that?
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Chris VI:
Chris sat down, his eyes analyzing and watching the woman in front of him.
Chris barley slept last night, he couldn’t after their last interaction. The way she was so insistent that she was a P.A.L agent. That she was fighting for the betterment of humanity. It was infuriating to hear and all the more confusion.
“I don’t wanna ask you about your virus, or anything like that. I just..I want to talk.”
Chris spoke honestly, waiting for her reply.
She slowly raised her head, the sunken eyes telling him she didn’t sleep at all.
“What is there to talk about?“ She said, her voice hoarse. Was she not drinking the water brought to her?
“You can’t just say what you said yesterday and not expect anyone to want to hear more. People are on edge. An A.L.F agent claiming to be P.A.L, denying involvement in the outbreaks despite being the creator of the viruses..”
“You know what’s funny?” She cut him off.
Chris waited for her to continue.
“One of the ‘viruses’ you have isn’t even a real one. I hate referring to it as such, it’s really a serum. A performance enhancer. The gold stuff, that’s a virus though.”
“And what about the other viruses you created the past 18 years? Any misconceptions about those?” Chris said, his jaw clenched. Was she really gonna continue this narrative?
“I made tons of them alright. Never used them. They were always scrapped.” She replied, coughing into her hand.
“Scrapped? Scrapped by who?” He pressed on.
She didn’t answer, laying her head on the table.
Chris gave a frustrated sigh. He finally felt like he was getting somewhere. If this continued they’d have to take drastic measures for answers. He didn’t want that.
“They were never strong enough. Became obsolete so I got rid of them. Made better ones, the ones you have now.” She said after a moment of silence, still avoiding his original question.
Chris took the information regardless. It was better than nothing.
After sitting in silence for a few more minutes, her coughing became more frequent. Chris got up from his chair, heading back to where Ada was waiting.
“Get her some water. Force it down her throat if you have to.” He walked off, throwing the notes he took onto nearby a desk.
No progress today.