10. 10 #3
I walked toward the door, letting go of Elias. He followed behind me, his footsteps light against the floor. At the doorway, he pulled his gun back out from its holster and held it casually at his side.
He’d abandoned his ready stance, but still chose to walk ahead of me. The next room we entered had double doors that opened automatically as we approached. From the hallway, I could see that this was a laboratory, and I nearly pushed Elias to the side to get through.
He didn’t stop me.
The metal workspace in the middle of the room was littered with photos and reports of Taylor’s work. I spied a photo of Dr. Fassi amongst them, from when he was still human. It was the same photo that was on his name tag.
The photos that followed were much more disturbing.
Dr. Fassi, head blown apart lying on an operating table. A photo of him stapled back together. Photos of machines I’d never seen before plugged into his dead body.
A report in English laid beside the photos.
Subject exposed to NT01, symptoms onset rapidly.
After subject’s untimely death, he was rebuilt, and resuscitated with cocktail 9: NP4x, T-7, and NT02.
This particular combination, in addition to NT01, makes subject pliable enough to obey, but sturdy enough to fight.
Long term effects have yet to be studied, but progress suggests viability beyond NT02’s typical survival window of seven days.
For a living subject, this cocktail will need to be improved upon, but in an emergency will accomplish what it needs to. The glorious contributions made by Dr. Novikov-
I looked across the room to find Elias in front of a television screen, watching it.
and Dr. Petrova-
“Oh my god, Elias, come here.”
will ensure a stronger world for us all. NT02 is still being perfected, but has the potential for greatness. Beyond its capabilities in war, it will be on the forefront of medicinal research.
An anecdote was added at the bottom of the page, written by a shaky hand.
If they will not save me, then I will save myself.
Elias didn’t come, so I grabbed the stack of photos and the report, and walked over to him.
The video on the screen was grainy footage, like a security camera, in what looked like the room I’d grown familiar with in the basement at the CIA building.
I couldn’t see his face well, but when he spoke I knew it was him.
Elias with a buzzcut, alone besides the woman sitting across from him.
He sat as still as a stone, hands clenched together on the table, back straight as an arrow in his chair.
“You’ll be compensated fairly for your outstanding work, Correa, on a new team.”
Elias didn’t move. “They’re all dead. Mission failed.”
“Mission objective was to eradicate the lab before reaching the evacuation point. You completed the objective,” she said, her voice a cold formality. “It is unfortunate that your team was not able to do the same.”
“Unfortunate?” Elias yelled. “I let them all die, on my watch.” Elias began to pace around the room, hands reaching for hair that wasn’t there. “The government lost an entire unit of their best soldiers and all they have to say is that it is unfortunate?”
“Sit down, Correa.” The woman didn’t move as Elias marched angrily around the room. She waited only fifteen seconds before she spoke again. “I’m telling you to sit.”
Elias sat roughly in the chair and hung his head in his hands.
“You survived because you did what you were trained to do,” she said.
“Fuck my training. I should’ve protected them instead–”
The Elias beside me grabbed the VCR beneath the television and ripped it from the cart, wires flying as they disconnected. He threw the box to the ground, stomping on it, and pieces of plastic broke off like shrapnel. His foot came down, over and over, until he was satisfied and stepped away.
“I didn’t know they taped that,” he said, staring at the broken VCR.
“Was that–”
“My debrief following the mission in Cote d’Ivoire.”
I reached for his hand and he let me take it.
There wasn’t anything that I could say. Those wounds, the ones fresh in the video, never healed.
I’d seen them reopen when we were in his office at the CIA building, and found that his entire team had been wiped out, once again.
With how hard he worked to keep me alive, I didn’t think that they would ever fully close.
“I’m done for the day. I’d like to leave,” he said. “I’m not going to leave you here with Petrova, so can you please leave with me?”
“Okay,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. Elias was leading us out of the room before I could take a breath. “I found a report about Dr. Fassi.”
He kept a hold of my hand as we walked, and I could feel him shaking. “Are you going to talk to Novikov?”
“Yeah, I think he’s got the answers I need.”
“Keep the gun on you, and don’t come back here without me.”
“Are you going to our room?” I asked.
“I’m going to update Parsons, but I think I need some time for myself.” He didn’t look at me.
“I can give you that.”
I walked with him to our room, pausing at the door. Before he opened the door, he turned to me and spoke.
“Please come get me if you need me.”
I nodded, and he went into our room, alone.