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Capricorn Facility May 28, 2008 0400 hours "How ya doing?" Baz said grimacing as he sat down in the chair next to Paige. They were almost alone in the main lab, just them and two other Section agents who were standing off to the side. Carter hadn't come back yet not that Paige was looking forward to it. "Tired, but ok. What about you? What did she say to you?" "Who? Madeline?" Paige nodded. "I'll tell ya...that is one creepy bitch." Paige snorted. "Tell me about it, I used to work for her." "Ugh. She totally creeps me out. She is definitely working an alternative agenda then what's going on here," he said looking around the lab. "Madeline always has an alternative agenda. That's just who she is." "They gonna kill is when you're done giving them what they want?" "I dunno. I haven't decided exactly what there is to give." "I don't claim to know anything about Section, what your role in it was, or what any of this has to do with them. But I don't buy into the shit that Joshua is behind some sort of take out the world plan." "You don't know Joshua," Paige shook her head. "I know him well enough..." "No, you don't know him. These people, these Section people...their life is nothing but one big lie. Nothing but screwing over anyone and everyone for whatever cause they've invented in their head." "And Madeline is Section." "Yeah, a head honcho..." "Then what's to say she isn't lying to you?" Paige stared at Baz for a moment. "Nothing," she finally said softly. "But you believe her anyway?" "It's like you said," Paige said with a sigh, "you don't know anything about Section." She didn't mean it to sound harsh but that's the way it came out. "I don't," Baz said leaning forward and grasping Paige's uncasted hand with his good one. "I don't know about them. But I trust you. Right now I trust you with my life. Tell me...just tell me...in your heart who you believe and that's good enough for me." Paige gripped his hand. It was weird how sometimes you could find strength in the strangest of places from the most unsuspecting people. "It's a lesser of two evils. And I'd never thought I'd say this...but Section is the lesser of those two right now. Joshua can't win this." Baz nodded slowly. "Then he won't," Baz said, "we won't let him." Paige smiled. "Now I know why I've always like you." Baz grinned, "so it's not the hair, huh?" Paige giggled softly, "no, I'm afraid it's not the hair." He shrugged, "no matter. I'll get some coffee, I think I saw some somewhere. You get...doing whatever it is you're gonna do." "Ok, thanks," Paige said as Baz got up to search for coffee. Paige sighed and stared at the computer in front of her. Just what exactly was she going to give them? 0730 hours Perhaps it was the way his hair fell across his forehead or his light brown bangs overhanging his blondish eye lashes. Or perhaps it was the freckles that dappled the skin over his nose and his cheeks like chipped almonds over vanilla ice cream. Or perhaps it was his eyes. Perhaps they reminded her of her former lover, Jaime, so deep, so blue, so melancholy in their look. An infinite sadness, a wisdom that spoke volumes beyond their years if you would only take the time to look for it. Perhaps it was that, that blue, that struck her so profoundly, that for a moment, it was hard to take in a simple breath. Either way the boy approached, his solemn blue eyes fixed on hers, and she felt that spark, that instant connection, that drew them closer, entwined them with each other like no other had done on that level in such a long time in her life. He was like her. She knew this profoundly, like the quadratic formula or the speed of the acceleration of gravity or the role of the Okazaki fragment, she knew this. And she just stared at him her mouth hanging slightly open and her hands still and hovering over a keyboard. "Hey." Hey. So simple, she caught herself, merely moving her head slightly. And he smiled, a small smile, an innocent smile, but one that told her that he knew, that he felt it, too. She was like him. "Hey," she said back offering a smile of her own. "Paige," she breathed out slowly. He nodded walking behind her and sitting himself in the seat next to her. He still stared at her intently and the smile still remained. He said nothing, just continued to stare at her. "What's your name?" she asked quietly. His tilted his head just the slightest bit, almost surprised that she should have even bothered to ask the question. Surely she should have known better, should have because she had been there before at some point. "I don't have a name." She nodded her head suddenly understanding, suddenly forgetting almost, what it was like. "What do they call you?" she redirected her question. He seemed pleased with her astute observation and extended his hand, "Brian," he said softly, "Brian Hofman." She took his tiny hand in hers and shook it briefly, "pleased to meet you Brian Hofman." "You're not like...them," he said nodding his head. "No," she shook hers, "not like them." He puffed his bottom lip out and began to swing his feet that didn't quite touch the floor. "What do you do?" "Photographic memory," she said easily still studying and amazed by this small child. "And you?" "Physics." "Physics," she murmured. "Uh huh," he said spinning his chair to face the half dozing figure behind him. "That's Baz," Paige said quietly. Baz had joined her about twenty minutes after she came out to the main lab hours ago. And they had sat patiently waiting for Dr. Carter to come back. Once he had, they had received an impromptu explanation of what exactly Capricorn was. Not that she needed it, but Baz had. And he had argued a bit with Carter about the moral implications of his project, but that ended, thankfully enough, with Baz backing down with a shake of his head. It wasn't right, and Paige had agreed with Baz, it wasn't right for people to have microscopic trackers planted in them whether it was for their own good or not. The use of the trackers as a vehicle for an obnoxious substance...well, that was still up for debate. "What's up little man," Baz said giving the young boy a knuckle tap. "What?" "You have funny hair," Brian said. Baz ran his good hand through his hair, "why's it funny?" Brian shrugged, "normal people don't have red and orange colored hair." "Right," Baz said smiling, "cuz there's a whole lot of normalcy going around here." "True that," the boy said grinning. Paige smiled. He was just so adorable, so little brother like that it was hard not to love him with just looking at him, just casting your eyes on him. He was perfect. And he was her some seventeen years ago, he was her. Inexplicably and inexorably he was her. And she immediately was attached to him because of it. "You have that extrapolated data right?" he asked her. Paige nodded her head, turning back to her computer and tapping at it. "That's so tight that you have it in your head...there's a girl in my school...she's like you." "Well we're not exactly a dime a dozen you know," Paige said. "I know," he said to her, "actually you only make up about 0.15% of the population, and even that, not all of you have great recall. But you do." Paige stared at him. "I'm not so bad," she said almost defensively. "I know," he said with a sympathetic look to him, "or you wouldn't be here." "And yourself?" she asked. "You know how the school thing is. They send you out on these stupid ventures. I usually go with Nasa, which isn't so bad, but the people I have to work with. They are just so weird. Doc Carter is at least cool. He gets me all kinds of neat stuff when he's out." "Really? He talks to you a lot?" she hadn't meant to pry, but it was a part of her make up now, and he cast his keen eyes on her. "Yes. And he is married. His wife went missing a long time ago. Madeline promised she'd find her if he made the delivery mechanism." "You'll make a great spy some day little man," Baz chimed into the conversation. "Yeah, but that's boring. I just wanna have a normal job and do normal things. You know?" he looked up to Paige. She nodded smiling a little. She knew exactly what he meant. Being normal had eluded her from the day she was born and at some point, when she was smart enough to realize it, it had been too late, she'd already been sucked in with no hopes of getting out. Normal. That was one thing she'd never be. They had worked almost steadily all day and if they worked all night they might actually complete the project. Pulling the data from her memory banks had at first been something of a task. But as she moved through it it became easier and now the time consuming job was fitting the data into the mechanisms. They had to design many different kinds of delivery mechanisms to fit the MEMS devices to allow for solids as well as liquids, of all various sizes, to be retained within the device. It wasn't easy, but between Paige, Brian, and Carter, it was certainly achievable. Paige had been forced to take a couple cat naps through the day as her headaches increased and there were breaks for food. But what really kept things going was Carter. When he was working, he was all work, but as soon as they weren't he turned out to be not only pleasant but very comical. He loved Brian and kept the boy constantly entertained with various stories of his own childhood. Carter even got Brian to use his child like powers to convince one of the Section guards to take them outside for a break. That had been entertaining as the Section guy, who also was named Brian, was a dreaded Braves fan and enticed herself, Baz, and Brian, into a debate over whose baseball team was indeed deserving of the World Series this year. It had been nice to go outside and breathe some fresh air. But even then, even out in the openness of the compound, with Madeline, other guards, and Carter inside, she still felt like she was being watched. Still felt there was something sinister riding on the soft breeze coming in off the ocean. Or maybe she was just tired... Return |
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