Episode 511: A Matter Of Leverage, Part Three

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Arden: (dry) What a nice person she is.
Kiera: Well you brought out the best side of her, Arden.
Rina: (of the lock) Mechanical. I could work with that.
Kiera: (girl, please!) With your tongue?
Rina: Just wait til I get these restraints off me. (eyes the door) Crap. The hinges are on the wrong side for me.
Kiera: Yeah. Or else this would be a really rotten room to keep us in.
Rina: You’d be surprised.
Kiera: Yeah, that your tongue was going to be involved.
Rina: The last thing that’ll die on me will be my mouth.

Nika groans and tries to rub her head—god, her crew is one giant headache.

Kiera: Sleep will take care of that headache, Captain.

Outside the room, Kappa walks with Joshua to the elevator and then says:

Kappa: Are you able to Read?
Joshua: Yes.
Kappa: Okay. I’m going to think something and I want you to understand it so we that don’t have to worry about anything, okay?
Joshua: Sure.

She closes her eyes and opens them again. Joshua attempts to Read her. Her thoughts are very clear: if you misbehave, you’re friends will die.

Kappa: Dong ma?
Joshua: Yes.

The elevator arrives and they get inside.

Joshua: You don’t mind if I snark every now and then, do you? It’s my way of relieving tension. Don’t let it … (stops, off her look)

It’s a short ride down on the elevator. They go down just one level and disembark. Joshua sees another guard station, what looks to be a door to the right, and then they enter what seems to be an operating room. Except … it looks like it’s been repurposed as well. The operating table is set at an angle, about 60 degrees, and there’s a person strapped down to it. A man. Hooked up to a bunch of equipment, with wires attached to his head. It looks like equipment used to get readings off things. Lights and squiggly lines on little screens.

Joshua: Interesting.
Kappa: So … You might have wondered what has happened to the Academy.
Joshua: (not really) Sure.
Kappa: Well, some of its … ah … graduates have been enlisted into a new … service. We’re no longer with Blue Sun. We’re independent, now.
Joshua: Yeah. I kinda gathered that.
Kappa: There’s a desire to, you know, get the team back together somewhere.
Joshua: Okay.
Kappa: You are on … the list. You were, as I recall, I had high hopes for you.
Joshua: You had high hopes for me? But go on.
Kappa: Yes, often our most … well, I suppose it’s not surprising that often our most, ah … talented … ended up being the most difficult to control.

Joshua is supremely not surprised.

Joshua: Wow.
Kappa: But one of the things that made people like you—perhaps you will sympathize with this situation—the difficulty with control with the drugs and the normal conditionings and stuff like that, made agents such as you unreliable. In the long run. Can we agree with that?
Joshua: I can agree with that. I’m terribly unreliable.
Kappa: So, Agent Rho, the one who contacted you, was similar to you in this regard. We found, however, an incentive. This facility had some interesting tools and we were able to find a way to channel particular sorts of … highly emotional states into a wave that we could send. Sort of like being able to … Read your friends, even when they are not nearby, and what they are experiencing.
Joshua: Wow. That … (words fail)

Kappa gestures to the man on the table, over whom they’d been talking this entire time.

Kappa: This young man has provided some incentive for Rho to behave. And since she has misbehaved, he will suffer so that she will suffer.
Joshua: (appalled) Wow.
Kappa: When we … discuss your fate, you will likely be presented with the same case. Now you could save your friends’ suffering by simply refusing and you would all just be killed and that would be much easier for everyone. I personally don’t believe this is a good solution. (quietly) Because, as you see, Agent Rho has continued to remain unreliable. I suspect you will be, too. (louder) Sadly, I’m not as ... respected ... on my opinion as perhaps people who are more optimistic about your utility.
Joshua: And who would these people be?
Kappa: Well, probably the sorts of people who believe you have something to offer. Which I’m not denying. But the people who have hired us have high hopes. I believe that Rho was gaining intelligence about new independence movements in this area.
Joshua: I see. So what do you want out of me, exactly?
Kappa: Do you want to see it work? It’s pretty exciting.
Joshua: I’m not sure I really do.

But Kappa is already moving to the control console and doing something with it. She flips a couple of switches, powers a few things up, then fills a syringe and injects into the man’s IV. The man on the table, who’d been asleep, starts to wake up. He takes a deep breath, as if talking hurts, and his voice is thin.

Man: Again? (breath) You’re … You can’t do this to her. She doesn’t … operate this way. You can’t just make her afraid—she’s not … (breath) … That’s not the way to get her to do what you want. I can talk to her.
Kappa: (almost cheerfully) Oh, you’ll be talking to her all right.

She flips another switch and moves a lever. The machinery hums and crackles and the man tenses up on the table. His eyes screw shut and his face is locked in a rictus of excruciating pain, all the more horrific in that he cannot scream. He can only suck down air and quiver. Kappa watches this and says to Joshua as if talking about something clever her favorite child has done at school.

Kappa: I have an inhibitor that prevents him from screaming but the energy is channeled into his thoughts.

The sweat starts pouring down the victim’s face and Joshua finally finds his voice.

Joshua: Stop. Stop it.

Kappa glances at her watch as if bored and lets this go on for another forty-five seconds before powering down the device and turning it off. The man on the table passes out.

Joshua: (getting angry now) That wasn’t necessary.
Kappa: No, it wasn’t necessary. It was fun.

Joshua stares at the woman and memory kicks in and he can finally remember back to his days at the Academy. There was this one cruel kid. Just really mean, taking advantage of people by revealing embarrassing things from their thoughts. Chubby. Ugly. Glasses.

Her.

Joshua can’t remember her real name, he can only recognize her now and call her Kappa. He remembers something else: at the Academy, the other kids called her Quasimodo. His memories of the Academy are few and far between and this one is a slap in the face.

Joshua: Holy crap. You haven’t changed in the least bit.
Kappa: (brow raised) Oh? Jogging that memory of yours?
Joshua: Still as evil and demented. Just with toys.
Kappa: Well, at least you know I’m sincere. (smiles) Anyway, I’m offering you an easy way out. If you guys try to escape or something, I’ll have to shoot you all. That way I’ll be happy because the Operative will be embarrassed. You’ll be happy because you won’t have to witness your friends being tortured.

Dear God. Seriously? All Joshua can do to fend off his horror is to snark.

Joshua: Wow. That’s … Let me think about that offer real quickly. (thinks) I don’t know.
Kappa: Do you think that this young man is better off alive? (smiles) Maybe you need to experience this for yourself. To see what it’s really like.
Joshua: I’d rather not. It’s not going to …
Kappa: Well, I’ll give you some time to think about it if you want to. My experience is they can only manage a few seconds of this. A minute at the most. That’s why we usually keep a handful of them so we can work them through it. As you’ve passed by on the way, there’s a few more of them in there. You kinda have to change the routine up. Pain by itself isn’t always right. Sometimes you want to inspire despair, worry, sometimes you want to get crazy thoughts going. That’s often good. It really works the mind, when you’re feeling everything what they’re feeling, it gives you all sorts of, ah … second thoughts about doing something you’re not supposed to do. I’m impressed that Rho was willing to accept this, to be quite honest. I didn’t think she had it in her. But we’ll see.
Joshua: (low) I don’t think I’ve really ever wanted to kill anyone before. You’re moving up the list. That says something.

It does, actually.

Kappa: You know what will happen if you do do anything.
Joshua: Okay, my hands are behind my back. You have armed guards. And, I gather, painful drugs of all shapes and sizes for us. I don’t know what you think I’m going to do other than being snarky and really annoying. And I’m not even the best at it.
Kappa: (soothingly) Oh, you’ll be fine. Believe it or not, a lot of the conditioning comes back when we get a chance to work with you. You’ll be surprised.
Joshua: Actually I wouldn’t. It’s not going to happen. Not gonna happen.
Kappa: I know they got you off the drugs. That’s okay. I’ve been off them a long time. But we’ve got some new ones that are even better.
Joshua: Wow. You’re a foul bitch. (firmly) I’ll go back to the room for that thinking process now, please.

Kappa doesn’t seem upset at the pejorative. She crosses her arms and taps her lip with a finger, a thinker’s pose.

Kappa: Okay. I have to think about who I should punish for that little remark. Hmmm. I can’t figure which one you’re most interested in but … I’ll pick one. I know. I’ll let you pick. You pick the one who gets punished for that remark.
Joshua: Sure. Thanks.
Kappa: All right.

Kappa walks Joshua back to the elevator, picking up a guard as they go. The elevator dings! and the guard takes Joshua the rest of the way back, leaving Kappa behind on the level below. Joshua looks at him as they ride the car back up.

Joshua: There a lot of us here?
Guard: Um .... quite a few.
Joshua: They keeping you busy?
Guard: Well …
Joshua: Cuz it looks like you got your hands full. How are bathroom breaks working by the way?
Guard: I don’t think you’ve been given those yet.
Joshua: Okay. Thought I’d ask.
Guard: I’ll ask.
Joshua: Okay, that would be appreciated. Thank you.

Joshua is shown back to the room and locked in with the crew. Kiera sits up and asks brightly.

Kiera: So. What interesting things did you learn while you were away … at school?
Joshua: (grim) It is school. All over again.
Kiera: I’m kidding but you’re not. What do you mean?
Joshua: I’m not kidding. It’s Quasimodo again. I can’t believe—
Kiera: Huh?
Nika: What?
Rina: Sorry, that name doesn’t ring a bell.
Joshua: (ignoring the pun) No, it wouldn’t. Back at the Academy, there was one really … judging by how she turned out, I’m pretty sure she was a sadistic psychopath back then, only just under a little more control—
Kiera: Who’s ‘she’?
Joshua: Dragon Lady. Kappa.
Kiera: Oh, y’all were mean to her. She would’ve been a nicer person if y’all hadn’t been mean, picking on this fat thing.
Joshua: I wasn’t mean to her. I—
Nika: (to Kiera)That’s jumping to accusatory assumptions.
Arden: So what you’re saying is she’s mean and sadistic and she’s not going to let us go.

If only.

Joshua: No, it gets worse than that.
Nika: Oh good. I love worse.
Joshua: She did suggest that the easy route for us is to try and escape so we could all be killed. She’d be happy and the Operative would be happy and—
Rina: Operative?
Nika: Which Operative?
Joshua: They all go by The Operative. As far as I’m aware. I mean I don’t have any insight into it either.

Kiera drags everyone back on track.

Kiera: So we can escape and die … or …?
Joshua: Or she can try to turn me back to … to being conditioned. The way she put it, the old gang is getting back together. As an independent group.
Nika: Hmm. Personally, I like the escape and die option.
Joshua: (continuing) No more Blue Sun involved. Too many morals and strict rules under the Blue Sun Corporation.
Arden: Blue Sun? Blue Sun had too many morals?
Joshua: Oh wait for it. It gets better. Wait for it—they’ve developed some device that allows them to broadcast pain or despair or worry.
Kiera: To who?
Arden: So like what you were feeling on the mountainside?
Rina: Why is it it’s never joy? Or ecstasy?
Joshua: Because joy doesn’t work well. Maybe they use it in a painful … joy … sort of way.
Nika: Because joy is not an incentive to get what you want.
Rina: Tell that to a nymphomaniac.
Arden: I think I can follow the bouncing ball here. They’ll use it on us to get him to do what they want.
Joshua: Torturing one person in order to torture another to get them to do what you want them to do.
Kiera: So they’re basically remote torturing the Reader, as it were.
Joshua: Well, they will be. It’s just they’ll be directly torturing—they’ll be directly torturing one of you, whoever I choose …
Arden: Whoever you choose.
Joshua: That’s the fun part. And they’ve got basically more… They basically have hostages here that they’re using for that purpose.
Rina: The little girl.
Joshua: I’m assuming. And they had somebody who knew the—
Kiera: Wait. Let me think something very clearly. Actually, I’ll think it aloud: If I ever get my hands on you, you short little fat twisted bitch, you will die. In a horrible horrible way.
Joshua: I don’t doubt she’s listening.
Arden: Can I start getting my bindings off now?
Nika: Yeah, now you can start getting your bindings off now.

Arden’s already found a sharp edge and starts sawing his zip tie on it.

Kiera: And actually that’s a really brilliant idea. If you get a good cutting surface and it doesn’t seem to be working, could you show us how to slit our wrists and bleed out and die.
Arden: I could turn around and you can chew through the bindings for me.
Kiera: I would be willing to do that for you.
Arden: (Yeah right) Would you.
Kiera: I would. Cuz I care.
Arden: Mm-hm.
Kiera: So. How long do you have to choose a person?
Joshua: She didn’t say.
Arden: Of course not.
Rina: She wouldn’t tell you anyway.
Kiera: Well, I’ll volunteer. Of anybody to get on yours and you not care about, it ought to be me.
Arden: Yeah. It ought to be.
Kiera: See?
Joshua: (firmly) No.
Kiera: Consider it Karmic will.
Joshua: No.
Kiera: (to Nika) No, you need to be able to fly.
Joshua: No.
Kiera: See they just need one—
Joshua: No. No. No.
Nika: Why?
Kiera: They might let the rest of you go.
Arden: Well, you’re going to have to shoot someone.
Joshua: No, I’m not.
Arden: Then do all four of us.
Nika: If you choose someone or they’ll choose for you, is what I’m getting from you.
Joshua: I know.
Kiera: And they’ll pick the one that will hurt you most.
Joshua: I’m not sure they know that, by the way.
Arden: Remember, it was roughly three hours ago, I said I wasn’t going to walk into confinement, that they were going to have to carry me in. It’s sort of the same thing.
Joshua: She said she wasn’t sure which of the three of you I cared more for.
Arden: I guess that means you don’t care for me. I’m hurt.
Joshua: Would you like to be chosen?
Arden: Sure!
Joshua: (breathes a laugh) I thought you’d say that.

Joshua points out that the rotten thing about the machine is you can’t simply choose to be stoic and endure the torture—not only are you being tortured, someone else is being tortured as well.

Arden: Thing is, I might be able to block off that side of my brain.
Kiera: (come again?) Really?
Arden: Maybe.
Nika: And we’ve tried that how?
Arden: It’s not everything you know about me.
Rina: He has that extra … (clams up)
Nika: Multi-modal reflection sorting.

Which technobabble term cracks us up. Things are grim enough already, so for God’s sake, crack a joke. Even so, the humor wears off quickly and Joshua’s back at square one.

Joshua: I need guidance.
Arden: What do you want?
Joshua: (getting desperate) I don’t know. I don’t know.
Kiera: You’re still going to have to pick somebody or she’s gonna make you choose.
Joshua: No, she’s going to—
Arden: I know. You can say ‘I’ll choose but you have to give the rest of us food first’.
Joshua: I don’t think it’s gonna work that way. I don’t think she plays well with demands.
Arden: I don’t think she plays well with anyone.
Kiera: I don’t think she plays well with others. She runs with scissors and everything.
Arden: Yeah.
Kiera: Would you rather her pick someone or would you rather go ahead and pick, Joshua?

Joshua shakes his head and gusts a breath—what the hell kind of choice is that? Who does he choose? How can he choose? Kiera rolls her eyes and raises her hands to Heaven.

Kiera: All right, he’s gonna go into a corner. We can draw straws and just make it easy for him.
Joshua: How is one better than the other. I’m not sure if there’s really any … I mean …
Kiera: Out of the useful people, like Arden said before, you and I—(to Arden)—well, in this case you are useful. I am now the only lonely useless person. So. (shrugs)
Joshua: You’re not useless.
Kiera: No. Really.
Joshua: You’re not useless.
Nika: They’re going to take the person who hurts him the most and I’m pretty sure he’s already said she’s pried his head open like a sardine can.
Arden: (to Kiera) You’re not useless. No, really, you’re not. If you get shot, none of us will care that much. That’s useful.
Rina: Speak for yourself, Arden.
Joshua: When I said she pried me open, I meant about that one particular piece of information. It’s not like you can pry something open and get every single bit of information out their brain.
Nika: Joshua.

Everyone stops at her tone.

Nika: Joshua. How many of your memories are tied to one particular person?
Joshua: I don’t know, but she wasn’t—let me put it to you this way: She said at least one thing that made me think—in fact she said she wasn’t sure which of the three of you I cared most about.
Nika: That’s because she hasn’t looked. But once she looks, it’s going to be self-evident.
Kiera: I know. What we should do is leave it an open ended question and when he says, ‘The redhead’, and she goes, ‘No. That one will be the one I choose’—(nods to Rina)—She’ll know. She’ll know at that point. It don’t matter. So he can pick anybody he wants to because she’ll override it. Which means she did go in there. So you might as well pick somebody.
Joshua: (giving up) Fair enough.
Nika: Thank you.
Kiera: See? I have moments of logical brilliance.
Joshua: Are you guys working on getting your bonds off?
Arden: I am.

Arden’s found a sharp edge and has been working hard on sawing through his bonds. He’s almost done but he’s got a little way to go yet. Having seen the trick, the others are likewise sawing their bonds across similar surfaces but like Arden, it will still be a little while before any of us are free. Even so, we talk as we work, trying to get as much done in the time we have left. Rina clears her throat and finally speaks up.

Rina: (calm) Personally, of everyone in this room, I think Kiera and I are the most expendable, because you have a backup position on the ship for—
Kiera: You—! Grrahhgh, you are the mechanic and—
Rina: So’s Beglan. We already have a doctor. (nods to Arden)
Arden: Stop.
Joshua: (evenly) I hate all of you. Stop arguing about who’s more expendable. Because none of you are expendable. Stop it. None of you.

He takes a deep breath and Rina lets the matter drop.

Joshua: So, somebody’s coming—
Arden: Someone’s coming?
Joshua: Not directly at the moment. I gather somebody else, whoever they’re working for.
Nika: We need a headcount. Joshua.
Joshua: Yes, ma’am.
Nika: Can you do a wideband scan and tell me how many people are in this facility? Is that even possible for someone with your ability?
Joshua: (breathes a laugh) It’s … maybe possible but I’ve never done it and I don’t know what—
Nika: Okay. It was just a thought. That’s why I thought I would ask if that was something even feasible with your ability.
Joshua: I tried it once. It didn’t work out so well.
Kiera: Wait a minute. That means she probably couldn’t torture him adequately if he’s not able to Read at the level she is, cuz he’s out of practice.
Joshua: She did test me to see whether I could Read.
Kiera: And?
Joshua: I Read her. Because she needed to give me a threat over the mental airwaves.
Kiera: Yeah but she was actually pulsing it at you at that point, wasn’t she?
Joshua: Well, yeah, but she was just making sure I can Read.
Kiera: Go ahead and grab a random thought and see if you can do it if they’re not thinking at you.
Joshua: I don’t know who to grab.
Nika: He usually needs to have a target.
Joshua: Yeah.
Kiera: What about the little girl? Her thoughts wouldn’t be very shielded.

One thing you can say for Kiera—she’s relentless once she has an idea.

Joshua: No, no they wouldn’t, but …
Nika: Of what use is she?
Rina: (grim) She’s leverage. Just like we are.
Nika: I know. That’s what I’m saying. If you were going to make a last ditch effort to reach someone’s mind, a four year old child would not be the person to choose.
Kiera: What about that man you talked about, was rubbing his head? He wouldn’t have people here. He’s obviously free.

In order to get a headcount by Reading the number from someone, Joshua would have to go fairly deep. It’s not a surface thought sort of job.

Nika: Like I said, it was just a random thought. I thought I would ask. It’s no big deal.

Joshua’s back at the door again, looking through the window, talking while he’s looking. Eventually, he sees coming out of the same room as the lab-coated man who had that bump on his head a pair of guards dragging out a man in a straight jacket. He’s a big guy, a little rough around the edges. He also sports a bump on his head and though Joshua cannot hear anything through the soundproofed door, he thinks the other man might be swearing.

Joshua: Rock on, brother. Rock on!

The trio disappears from view. Joshua tells everyone what he’s just seen.

Joshua: Well, there’s the cause of the doctor’s head butt.
Kiera: Huh?
Joshua: Just saw a fairly big guy in a straight jacket with a matching bump on his head. (to Nika) Next time, I think I’ll let you just let me just abseil in from the ship.

Nika vetoes that right quick, pointing out that she could very well screw the pooch and slam him into something that could kill him. Kiera gripes that has he listened to her, he would have gone in alone and died trying but at least the rest of us would still be free, instead of captured and being all-in.

Kiera: All right, Cap’n. Now what?
Nika: I want to get us all loose at this point.

Once we’ve got our hands free, our options expand considerably. Including not being in the room to be shot when Kappa finally comes back. Arden finally wins free of his zip tie and quickly helps the others with theirs. Everyone groans and stretches—a relief. Then we start searching the room for anything we can use to get us out of here.

The medical cabinets are metal with blank metal doors—nothing with a glass panel that could easily break. It doesn’t take long to see that the original occupants of this facility left in a hurry—certainly the half-used/non-tactically useful stuff got left behind. Cotton swabs. Bandages. Otoscope cups. Gauze. What the hell are we going to do with a gross of tongue depressors?

Apparently quite a lot. In Arden’s hands, they make pretty nifty lock picks. At least, that’s what we think he’s done with them. He trades places with Joshua at the door to let him talk to Nika. And as usual, we’re all talking as we work, planning the next step out of here.

Joshua: Captain, I still can’t decide if getting out of here is going to cause more trouble or less.
Nika: Ultimately? I’m not sure if there really is more trouble when it comes to this.
Joshua: You keep saying that but I’m not sure that’s true.
Nika: Okay, so what’s the worst case scenario here, Joshua?
Joshua: My point is, she can come in here at any minute. (a beat) We’re still alive, right now, which is a better state of being than not being alive.
Nika: And sitting here and being bait or being leverage against you? Not a way any of us are planning on living for very long.
Joshua: Alive, there’s a chance of escape. I’m not saying that—
Nika: I’m thinking there’s a chance to escape now, as opposed five days from now. Which means essentially putting balls to the wall and take whoever comes in through the door next and go out fightin’.
Rina: I agree. I’ve got one good fist left. Or do I play dead on the floor and then come up swinging?

Meanwhile, Arden’s been busy at the door and miraculously, he jimmies past the deadbolt on the door and the door springs free. Or at least, that’s what we think he’s done.

Arden: The door is open.
Rina: What did you use?
Arden: Tongue depressors.
Rina: Awesome.
Joshua: You are … wow.

Nika goes right over and whispers in his ear that she loves him. Kiera feels something considerably different toward him.

Kiera: You can do that but I can’t get you to do surgery and hold a frikkin’—Arrghh.
Rina: I think he’s missed his calling. Let’s go.
Kiera: I think he has.
Arden: It doesn’t matter. She said she loved me. That’s all that matters.

Nika smiles a wicked little smile, grabs Arden, and kisses him hard. Then she pulls back and says:

Nika: Let’s go.
Kiera: I’m feeling nauseous. I’m glad I haven’t eaten lunch.

Joshua pauses.

Nika: Are we going or no?
Rina: Let’s get the hell out of here.
Joshua: We’re going. Unless you’re planning to release everybody in this thing and get us all shot.
Arden: We sort of need more tools.
Nika: We need to get out of here.
Arden: What I’m saying is why don’t I stick here around the corner, yell for the guard and Miss Deadly-with-her-Fists here knocks him out unconscious when he comes around the corner.
Rina: And I’ll grab his gun and his comms.
Nika: Because yelling through the door is not going to work. You have to open it, which lets them know we’ve opened it. So basically we have to creep up to the edge here and hope there’s nobody out in this huge room.

We take a minute to remember how we all got here—which doors we had to be buzzed through, where the guards are stationed, and so on. When we’re done, we all slip out of the room and go to the corner of that short hallway leading to our door. Arden’s in the front of the line. Rina is hard on his heels. She spots the surveillance cameras before he does and she grabs him by the back of his collar and hauls him back before he can step out into the room.

Arden: Whoa!
Nika: What?!
Rina: Cameras.

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