Episode 511: A Matter Of Leverage, Part Two

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Kiera thinks to herself: Wow. That’s the most aggressive he’s ever been. The woman in front of the crew doesn’t seem fazed by Joshua’s rudeness one bit.

Woman: You can call me Kappa.
Joshua: Kappa. Great. I love pseudonyms. So, Kappa. Here we are. Hands tied behind our backs. Secret facility.
Kappa: Can you tell me how you got here?
Joshua: We came in through a decontamination room. And before that there was an elevator.
Kappa: What brought you to St. Albans?
Joshua: Oh. It was a ship and we flew here.

Kappa stares at Joshua, her expression inscrutable. Is she amused by Joshua’s flippant response? Or annoyed? She speaks, her tone and demeanor measured and dry.

Kappa: You definitely have a comrade here. Arden is very similar to you.
Joshua: I feel like somebody’s been insulted. I’m just not sure who it is.
Kappa: Why did you come here?
Joshua: You seem nice, minus from the whole making Arden scream like a g—
Kappa: I will say that he’s partially responsible for what happened.
Joshua: That doesn’t really surprise me, to be honest.
Kappa: He had options. That was the option he took.
Joshua: I would never have gone to that extreme, but there have been times where I’m reasonably certain where I’ve reasonably considered that option.
Kappa: His female companion was more … amenable, but she too needed some … encouragement.
Joshua: I don’t know if I feel completely comfortable why I’m here without having any idea, you know, if—

Kappa cuts him off, her tone exactly one used to discuss the weather.

Kappa: Is there any value to this Arden and this … Rina? Because otherwise I’ll just kill them and we can get to your intentions in coming here.
Joshua: Okay. I was wondering how we were going to play this. (a breath) I came here looking for answers. That’s about as straightforward as it gets, right?
Kappa: Why would you think St. Albans would have answers?

Joshua knows he has to go carefully here. He can’t let slip the woman he’s hiding behind his mental door.

Joshua: A source … told me that I could basically find answers here. And that’s really as far as I want to go. I understand that you’re—
Kappa: All right. Kill the girl.
Joshua: Excuse me?

The guard standing to the side has the same expression on his face.

Guard: Right now?
Kappa: She should be an easy target. She probably still paralyzed.
Guard: Okay.

And just like that, the guard starts walking to the far corner of the room where there’s a door.

Joshua: Hold on.
Nika: (to Joshua) Stop tā mā de zuǒyòu with them.
Joshua: I’m not tā mā de zuǒyòu with them. For Pete’s sake, Captain. (faces Kappa) I ran into a Reader. Who … who suggested that I check out this place. Not in a ‘go there on your next vacation’ sort of way, but in a—
Kappa: (sighing) Right. All right. Put them in with their friends. I have to talk to a person.
Guard: You still want me to kill her?
Kappa: No, no. Let her live for now.

The guards motion the crew to the far door and they go. They’re put into a 20 by 30 room and sure enough, they find their missing crewmates. Their hands are still tied behind their backs, however, and the guards didn’t take any pains to position them in a comfortable position. Instead, they’re pretty much lying on the floor as they’d been dumped. Arden looks now to be in a blissfully silent coma and Rina’s losing her paralysis. When she sees it’s her crewmates and not the guards coming in to finish her and Arden off, she breathes a sigh of relief and levers herself to a sitting position.

The guard motions at the others with his gun.

Guard: You aren’t going to try to escape, are you?
Kiera: No, but it would be nice if you could take this thing off before it cuts off circulation. (holds her hands out behind her)
Guard: (sighs) That would be nice, but I’m not allowed to do it. Sorry.

The guard leaves and shuts the door. Kiera huffs at his back.

Kiera: We’re in a cell.

It’s not a cell. It’s rather obviously a medical exam room outfitted with the exam table and sink and cabinets and whatnot. It’s also obvious this room hasn’t been used for a while.

Kiera: They’re probably watching us with a camera.
Joshua: Would you check him and see he’s okay? (off Nika’s look) I don’t care if she doesn’t care. I’m asking her as the XO to give him the look-over.

Kiera’s hands are bound and she can do little more than put her ear to Arden’s chest. Of course, she has to flip him over to do it and by using her foot and her elbow, she’s able to manage. Being unconscious Arden doesn’t feel a thing.

Kiera: Heartbeat’s strong.

Nika leans against the exam table and regards her XO.

Nika: You know you’re not going tap dancing.
Joshua: No, I’m not.
Nika: So why did you try?
Joshua: I promised.
Kiera: But … obviously they had a Reader here. They knew you and they knew us and—
Joshua: I was hoping to try and keep that information away from them.
Nika: She sent us here. She sent us here and you broadcast the entire time we were on our way here.
Joshua: Would you care to dig it in a little bit more, Captain?
Nika: No.
Joshua: I realize I was a total báichī and screwed it up.
Nika: (sighing) Never mind.
Joshua: No, I understand. I understand but part of it was just needing to know what … where they stand on this sort of thing. Like, where their limits are, what they’re going to draw—.
Nika: Unfortunately Arden had already ticked them off beyond the point that was going to work at all for us.
Joshua: There’s a difference between being willing to cause pain and being willing to kill without remorse or …
Nika: Did you get the answer you needed?
Joshua: About what her limits were?

He tips his head toward the door.

Joshua: Yeah. Sure.
Rina: And?
Nika: Did you get anything?
Joshua: Yes.
Kiera: What’s her limits?
Joshua: I don’t think she has any. At least, not that I noticed so far.
Kiera: So … Pure scientist. Abstract. Things were just subjects. Right?
Joshua: I don’t know about that.
Nika: There were two possibilities coming into this. Either we were rescuing someone that they’re holding or the entire area is her friends and she wanted us to come and talk to you.

Meanwhile Rina’s listening to all of this and wondering why anyone’s saying anything about our purpose here. Just because they can’t see any cameras doesn’t mean there aren’t any, any more than the lack of visible microphones rules out their every word being overheard and recorded somewhere. She resigns herself to having them blab everything to the opposition and tries to be patient as she waits for her friends to work it out for themselves.

Joshua: My impression is that she opened me up like a can of sardines and got the information she wanted and is promptly doing whatever she’s going to do with it.
Nika: She looked mildly peeved that someone had given away their location.
Kiera: So, Captain. Our next move is to try to make us look as innocuous as possible? So they’ll let us go? Or just consigning us to hanging out here for a long time?

Kiera nudges Arden with her foot again to see if he’s awake yet. Nope. She checks Rina and sees she’s doing fine. She nudges Arden again.

Kiera: Wake up, beautiful. C’mon. (boot!) C’mon.
Arden: (blinking awake) Ow.
Kiera: There we go! See? He’s fine.
Arden: Ow.

Right now, Arden’s seized with that nasty pins and needles feeling all over his body. Nothing’s numb, but that pins and needles is intense. His extremities are hypersensitive and touching anything with his fingers and toes hurts.

Arden: Great.
Joshua: You all right?
Arden: No. That really hurt. Whatever that drug was that she used, it really really hurt. She was really a bitch.
Joshua: Yeah. I can hear that.

Rina starts inching up the wall until she’s on her feet again. Kiera steadies her with a hand, then asks the engineer:

Kiera: So .. what knocked you out and what knocked him out?
Rina: Long story short?
Kiera: Well, that would be nice. (a beat) Oh, I don’t know. Long story. We might be here a while.
Rina: (nods to Arden) He was being an ass. They hit him with a dart. And he started screaming—
Arden: I was not being an ass.
Rina: Oh, yes you were.
Arden: No I wasn’t.
Joshua and Kiera together: Okay!
Kiera: We will go forward that he was being rational and was misunderstood.
Rina: I stepped away, they hit me.
Kiera: With what? The same dart?
Rina: No. Something different. Something that just paralyzed me.
Arden: I’m not surprised they gave you something less what than I got. You were being cooperative with them.
Rina: We were outnumbered. We were outgunned. Our hands were tied.
Arden: So we had to cooperate?
Kiera: That seems a good idea.
Nika: It was the smart thing to do, Arden.
Arden: Yeah, but if they wanted to put me in a prison, they would have to put me in a prison . I wasn’t going to walk into it.

Kiera sputters. Nika gusts a sigh and looks away from him and counts to ten. She makes it to three. She stares at Arden.

Nika: You know, I realize you’re a genius—
Kiera: No he’s not.
Rina: Not from where I’m standing.
Kiera: (off Nika’s look) Okay, we’ll give him this: great amounts of intelligence …
Nika: Itty bitty common sense.
Kiera: Not a bit. ‘Smart like rock’.
Arden: She wouldn’t even tell me her name!
Kiera: She wouldn’t tell you her name?
Joshua: Kappa.
Arden: No, that’s not her name.
Joshua: That’s what she gave me.
Kiera: (again!) She wouldn’t tell you her name?
Nika: (to Arden) That’s what you took a stand on?
Kiera: Do you want to do her? Why is the name important? I don’t understand.

That’s it. Kiera’s verbal hand grenade goes off and Rina starts to snigger, despite the situation. Even Joshua manages a chuckle.

Arden: It wasn’t that important.
Nika: Stop. Picking a fight amongst ourselves is not going to help.
Arden: But at least it distracts us from the serious fèn we’re in!

Kiera: All right. So now what do we do? If we pop the zip ties off, they’ll just knock us with what they have.
Nika: Obviously we sit tight.

Rina’s making a circuit of the room, examining everything with the eye of turning it into a weapon. It doesn’t take long to see that it’s been cleaned out of equipment. No conveniently stocked drawers with scalpels to cut off the zip ties. Nothing that can be used as a weapon. The light fixture is high above everyone’s heads, even if someone stood on the exam table, and the cover over it is a hex grate made to channel the light downward. The cabinets are blank stainless steel, with no plastic or glass panels to allow anyone to look inside … or smash into shards for an edged weapon. There is a window in the door but it’s small and too high up on the door to try to kick it out. Nika can see the wheels turning in her engineer’s head and knows that once the Russian’s hands are free, mayhem will swiftly ensue. Despite Rina’s good sense in her initial encounter with the forces outside, Nika knows it’s out the airlock the second Rina gets her hands on something useful. She nails Rina with a hard stare.

Nika: Sit down.
Rina: I just got up.
Nika: What part of sit tight didn’t you catch?
Joshua: I think it was the ‘sit’ part. Maybe the ‘tight’ part.

Rina growls a sigh and slides down the wall to sit, then thunks her head against the wall at her back: thunk! thunk! thunk!

Kiera: Hey, that’s a good dance beat. (fakes a jig)
Joshua: (appalled) Really?
Arden: So what are we waiting for?
Joshua: They’re going to figure out what to do with me and we should probably figure out some way to finagle you guys getting out.
Arden: I don’t think they should be doing anything with you.
Rina: ‘You guys’. Not ‘we guys’.
Joshua: Well I’m happy to go with the ‘we guys’ plan. That would be the ideal situation but I would also like us to have a ‘you guys’ plan because clearly I’m their focus and I would prefer us to have an alternate back-up plan.

Off to the side, Rina realizes Joshua’s intention to trade his life for theirs and her head hits the wall just a little bit harder.

Nika: I would like to know why they want you.
Joshua: Well, that’s essential to the ‘you guys’ plan. Because if we had some idea why they—well, other than the fact that she’s a Reader and I’m a Reader and she seems to know me—
Arden: You know her?
Joshua: She’s very familiar for some reason. Like I’ve seen her before but I can’t put a finger where I’d seen her.
Nika: Great. Her greeting to you was interesting. Certainly indicating she may have known you in the past.
Rina: (stops thunking) What did she say?
Nika: ‘You look like hell’.
Joshua: Basically. She said, ‘You’re certainly a mess’.
Kiera: Yeah.
Rina: (bitterly) Bozhe moi. Of all the stupid freaking secret bases stocked with Readers we had to walk into, it had to be one where they knew you.

Rina’s head hits the wall once more with a solid thunk! again.

Kiera: How would they not know him. There’s not that many of them.
Joshua: It’s a small community. A very small community. We all know each other.
Rina: Yes.

She’s no stranger to the concept of small underground communities. Her former lover, Mike, was a member of a fairly small and secretive one. Why should her current lover be any different? Thunk-thunk-thunk, goes her head as she vents her frustration.

Kiera: It’s not like there’s a planet of them—Is there a planet of you?
Arden: I really hope not.
Nika: Dear Lord.

Joshua reflexively looks at his watch and the action is thwarted by the zip ties. He sighs and explains:

Joshua: Remember, not two weeks ago, no, three weeks ago I wasn’t completely certain I wasn’t Lieutenant Commander Rex Wise.
Kiera: I’m still not sure you’re not Joshua. But that’s okay.
Joshua: Yeah, you see, that’s what I’m saying. So the fact that there may or may not be a planet of us somewhere—
Kiera: But she obviously knows you because she knows you deep down inside your heart and soul kinda thing.
Nika: What?!
Kiera: Cuz how would she have a comparison? ‘You look like hell’.
Nika: No, she didn’t. ‘You look a mess’.
Joshua: No, not that but close.

Actually, she’d said, “Well, you’re a mess.” And to be fair, Joshua got the impression she wasn’t really referring to is physical appearance.

Kiera: Well, we’re not too shabby. We weren’t doing anything dirty.
Joshua: Let’s just sit for a little while. (to Rina) Okay, would you stop banging your head against that?

Rina does. Scowls. Looks elsewhere. She hates being told to do nothing. Nika says into the sullen silence:

Nika: Okay, look. She could be out to get you. She could be out to help you. Or she could just be neutral on the whole situation.
Joshua: I’m going to have to pass on the looking to help me option.
Nika: Here’s the thing. We have no idea. We came out here with nothing more than a set of coordinates.
Joshua: I’m not arguing that point. The only other point that I’m even kinda semi-arguing is that, you know, somebody who would threaten to kill one of my companions to get a piece of information—
Nika: No. Let me put it to you this way. Where do Readers, in general, work? Who do they work for?
Joshua: (grinning, despite) The cola company.
Kiera: I hate that stupid cola.
Nika: If you were in her shoes, and you had no idea why we came here and we came with a Reader, what would your response to the team?
Rina: Military intelligence.

Of course, that would be the first thing to pop into Rina’s head, addled from banging it against the wall or not.

Joshua: Well, actually since she looks like she’s got an entire … she’s got a decontamination room for God’s sake. It looks like she’s got a medical wing. I would suggest she’s got access to some sort of truth drugs or something.

Looking around, we get the sense that this is a base that’s been repurposed. It’s not exactly a lost base but this is definitely a war-era base. It has that kind of style common a little over a decade ago. Like inquilines in the wild, new inhabitants have found this little warren underground and have taken up residence long after the original inhabitants have left it. Nika remarks about it and then goes on to say:

Nika: If I were sitting in this base and I had a bunch of people that I was trying to keep safe from them out there and they have Readers, and a team showed up with a Reader in it, and I didn’t know this person and I don’t know how they got my coordinates, do you not think that my first instincts would be to taze him into submission—(nods at Arden) and make sure of what you people are doing on my grounds?
Joshua: (quietly) I could buy that.
Nika: Okay.
Kiera: So the question is do we ask her if she’s on our side or not.
Joshua: But I don’t like her techniques.
Nika: You don’t have to.
Kiera: You don’t like my techniques. I do the same thing.
Joshua: You’re right. I don’t.
Kiera: See?

Thinking about it some more. No one in this base is wearing any uniform. The armor is of a uniform style and quality but it’s not a uniform per se. The clothing is non-descript shirts and trousers, of a quasi-military cut, but is not of a regulation style from anyone’s military service. There is no insignia on it anywhere and never has been. It is simply a light blue color, suggesting no one’s flag or political affiliation.

Kiera: Captain, you would know this from being in the military but did you get the impression that the guards were just mercenary guards or that they were actually ex-military and that they had a certain sorta somthin’? Cuz I was never in anwhere.
Nika: I wasn’t military.
Kiera: (askance) Hm. Anybody?

Rina noticed that the guards moved in a military fashion. It spoke to her loud and clear in the way they approached corners, kept a sight line between at least two people at all times as they moved out, and their confidence overlaid everything they did, as well as the familiarity and ease of tactical movement that came of ingrained practice. They were also extremely fit, something else that showed in the way they moved. It suggested not just military grunts but special forces. She shares her observations with the rest of the crew.

Nika: Here’s a question for you Joshua. All the way up here you said there was something going on and you were talking to someone.
Joshua: Wait. No … that …
Nika: Or sensing someone.
Rina: (softly) The anxiety attack?
Joshua: No, it … it was … It was something along that line. It was worry worry worry.
Nika: And it’s there still.
Joshua: No, it shut off almost right before the vent.
Nika: So you’ve gotten nothing since then?
Joshua: Not particularly.
Nika: Okay, no, because that’s one of the things I was wondering about. If we were here to rescue someone, you would think that they would be still broadcasting concern.
Joshua: I’m not sure it was them.
Arden: They could be unconscious too.
Nika: There is that, too, certainly.
Kiera: Or it could be one of the scientists … (leaves it hanging)
Joshua: (quietly) … Yeah …

Joshua recalls how it was like flipping a switch in his head, or turning off a speaker—the worry was suddenly and completely gone.

Rina: So the person who was broadcasting to you, in the beginning, who was anxious?
Joshua: Worried.
Rina: Perhaps they found out about that person and knocked them out and then you got … somebody else?
Nika: Right. Just in broadband, general. That’s why it changed.
Joshua: It generally doesn’t work that way.
Nika: You were sensing this person. Are you still? Have you yet, beyond that point?
Joshua: No.
Rina: Well we have nothing to indicate that he was getting the impressions from the same person throughout.
Nika: That’s true. He could have been getting multiple people for all we know. Like I said, the question was more are you sensing anything from anyone at this juncture?
Joshua: Nope.
Kiera: I guess the question is can you try to reach out and touch someone.

Should he try to Read? That’s an interesting question.

Joshua: I could try.
Nika: I think that maybe you should hold off on doing that. If they have Readers in here that they are knocking out if they believe them to be broadcasting in any fashion, I think that might be not prudent. Because the next thing they do may be to come in through the door and shut you down.
Rina: Or scramble his brains from a distance.
Joshua: (to Rina) Really?
Nika: A little from Column A, a little from Column B. You know, I’m thinking maybe opening up your brain that’s not on medication right now—.
Kiera: (interrupting) How could they do that?

Rina leans in toward Kiera and intones:

Rina: Try MKULTRA.
Kiera: But—!
Rina: Doesn’t anybody read history anymore?
Kiera: I’m still trying to figure out how they’re going to scramble his brains from a distance.
Rina: Stalin would have did it like that.
Nika: Now here’s a question. She said, ‘You look a mess’. Or ‘You are a mess’. Is she a Reader? And can she sense what you are going through? In terms of what you are—
Joshua: No. I won’t say that I’m 100% certain of it but …
Rina: I am.
Joshua: If you’re 100% certain, more power to you but I—
Rina: She took one look at us and she said, before we said anything, ‘It’s not them’.

She did. Before either Rina or Arden could identify themselves, or deny their identity.

Joshua: Okay, then I’m pretty sure she opened me up like a can of sardines and got the name of the person that I’ve been trying to keep behind my door.
Arden: But I thought you didn’t know the name the person.
Joshua: I don’t need to know anything. She doesn’t need a name if she can see a face, if she can get a face from my memory.
Kiera: How do we get it where she talks to you or him? Cuz if I were her, I’d just leave you in here but a conversation would be kinda nice.
Arden: You don’t get faces when you try to Read someone, do you? I thought you got mild impressions.
Joshua: It depends on how deep I go, how much effort I put into it.
Arden: It’s a lot harder for you to do it, isn’t it?
Joshua: It … I normally Read on the surface level, yeah. I can Read deeper but it does take effort. On the other hand, I was trained at a level where I didn’t need more than surface thoughts most of the time.
Arden: Okay.
Joshua: So … I think we’ll sit here for a little while.
Kiera: There’s not a bathroom in here to save our soul, is there?

No, no bathroom. But there is a sink. Or there might be bedpans in one of the cabinets. Good luck using either one with our hands tied behind our backs, though. Arden tries to put himself at our backs and hook a finger under our zip ties, hoping to twist or yank them free. No luck. Zip ties are engineered not to unlock once engaged and therefore need to be cut or clipped off.

Rina: I’ve got my teeth.

She may be strong like Russkie but unless she’s filed her teeth to a sharp edge, her teeth won’t have the necessary cutting edge to do the job. It gives Arden an idea, though, and he starts looking around the room for a sharp edge to saw the zip tie on. Like … the flange of a stainless steel counter, where it turns downward to make the counter’s edge. Or the crimped mitered corner of a cabinet door. Could any of the cabinet handles be worked loose of their door panels? Are they integral to the cabinet or are they u-shaped hardware screwed on from the inside? Pulling one free might net us a sharp or pointy end capable of cutting through the plastic of the zip ties.

Nika vetoes the whole idea. Arden protests.

Arden: I just want the binding off.
Nika: Yes, and I said don’t.
Arden:'Why?
Kiera: What would you do with it off?
Arden: I’d be more comfortable.
Nika: I don’t want you to be comfortable.
Rina: (muttering) I can get behind that.

Joshua goes over to the door to look out the window. The large room looks pretty empty. At least, the narrow slice of it he can see. Our door is at the end of a short 10-foot run of 10-foot wide hallway and the angle of view to either side is rather shallow. Joshua spies a guard walking across the room, going left to right across our field of view, before disappearing past the corner of the 10 x 10 run of hall that leads to our door. The guard comes back into view a few minutes later accompanied by a little girl. She’s maybe three, four years old and she’s doing the dance that kids the Verse over do when they really need to use the bathroom.

Everyone else in the room with Joshua can see him moving his head to track something going on outside, but they cannot see out the window. It’s too small to allow more than one observer.

Nika: What?
Joshua: It’s a girl.
Nika: A what?
Joshua: A four-year-old girl. She can’t be more than yea-big.

He measures hand off the floor at waist height without looking away.

Rina: She’s a prisoner, too?
Joshua: I don’t .. I think she’s …

He breaks off as he watches the guard open a door on the other side of the room. She runs in.

Joshua: She’s in the room. (draws an air map) We’re here and she’s in the room across the way from us.
Nika: You tellin’ me they got kids in here? No wonder she tazed the crap out of us.
Joshua: I’m telling you there is a kid in here—.
Kiera: But she’s not being guarded? She’s … ?
Joshua: It would explain some things.

Joshua maintains his watch at the door and a few minutes later sees the girl reappear with the guard. He can’t hear her but he can see her talking to the guard as they cross the room. The guard seems to be amused, in the I’m-an-adult-you’re-a-kid sort of way. Joshua notes the details—the girl’s physical condition, dress, demeanor … She’s in normal children’s clothing, no prison togs here. She appears uninjured and not mistreated. There are no signs of violence on her. She doesn’t seem afraid of the guard, behaving as if she’s at least acquainted with him. He’s guiding her with a hand on her back but it’s not restraining or grabby. She’s not happy or playful but she has that resilience of children to adapt to situations that are less than ideal. Joshua relays all of this to everyone else behind him.

Rina: Do you think she’s Dragon Lady’s daughter?
Joshua: No. At least, I don’t think so.

It’s hard to nail the little girl’s ethnicity, other than she isn’t Chinese. She has blonde hair in pigtails but there’s something about her that doesn’t follow the stereotypical Anglo blonde. Then she passes out of range and Joshua can’t see her or the guard. Joshua rejoins the rest of us.

Joshua: I wonder if she was the ‘worry’.
Nika: I was wondering that myself just now, yes. If she’s the Reader they’re trying to protect.
Arden: I don’t think we have enough information.
Joshua: Yeah, I agree.
Nika: I know, absolutely. The fact of the matter is, they’ve got at least one child down here. Can you blame them for being hugely protective?

The guard outside seemed more guardian than guard.

Joshua: So I wonder if she’s the reason why we’re here.
Nika: You think we’re to take her out of here?
Joshua: Yeah, that would be my guess.
Nika: What did she look like? The lady on the ship? (a beat) Not that that would help us any.
Joshua: I didn’t really get a good look at her.

It was dark and he’d been woken from a sound sleep.

Kiera: I’m wondering if that was her kid?
Nika: That’s what I was just wondering. Cuz she just sent us here to … (holds hands up, shrugs)
Kiera: Saving her requires one of us being on the other side of that door, so we’re going to have to figure out a way to get them to come and get one of us.
Joshua: Well, he was taking the little girl to the bathroom.
Kiera: I don’t think they’re going to be as warm and inclined as that to us.
Joshua: Probably not, no.
Kiera: But you could say you’d like to talk to your Dragon Lady.
Joshua: (breathes laugh) I would.
Kiera: And come clean with honesty. She might let you out to talk to you. If she is warm and fuzzy and tryin’ to protect that little girl, then …

We just might have a chance to get out of here. Rina stands watch at the door, relieving Joshua from that duty. Ten or fifteen minutes later, Rina sees a door opening in the corner nearest us and out walks a man in a lab coat. He’s about five-ten, twenties-something and wearing the blue nitrile gloves of the health care industry. He’s rubbing his forehead as if it hurts. He lowers his hand and walks on and Rina can see a nasty bump on it—a classic goose egg. Puzzled, she continues to watch after the man passes out of sight on the right.

Joshua takes up watch again at the door and about an hour passes before anything else happens. He sees Kappa and a guard approach our door. Joshua waves at her and says ‘Hi’ through the window. Neither gesture appears to make a dent in her demeanor, which is clinical. The door opens, Kappa walks in, the guard follows. The guard motions everyone back with his rifle and we all give Kappa some room. Kiera wakes up from a cat nap at the sound of the door opening and gets to awkwardly to her feet. Our hands, to a man, are still bound behind us, so it’s a mite tricky to pull off. Rina puts her back to the wall and keeps her eyes on the guard and Kappa.

Kappa: Well, I told them she wasn’t ready. But … they decided to send her anyway and she tipped you off. Luckily, it all worked out okay. Nobody got hurt. (to Arden) Well, except you. Minor injuries.

Rina absorbs this and her mental wheels start spinning. Who is ‘she’ and why wasn’t she ready to go “out’? What was she supposed to be ready for? ‘She’ tipped Joshua off—was she the one who gave him the coordinates? Who are the ‘they’ that decided to send her out anyway? Are they in charge of the operation here? What sort of operation is this? A training facility for Readers?

And so on.

Kappa: So … she’s going to come and we’re going to discuss your fate. So I thought I’d give you a heads-up before she got her. To help you make your decision.
Joshua: That would be good.
Kappa: Are you all comfortable? (a beat) Don’t get used to it. Joshua, why don’t you come?
Joshua: Yes, ma’am. When a letter of the Greek alphabet tells me to follow, I follow. That’s what I’m good at. (to Nika) You should really change your name to a Delta or an Alpha. You’d get a lot more from—
Nika: Honey, I am an Alpha.
Joshua: Yeah.

Joshua moves for the door.

Kiera: Well that was a big giant clue by four and I need some sleep. Cuz I won’t be sleeping for, well, the next … forever.
Joshua: Okay. Have fun. See you on the other side, etc.
Kiera: Yeah. Don’t die.
Joshua: I can’t make that promise, it seems.

Kiera curls back up on the floor to sleep. Something’s coming and soon and she might as well be rested for it. No one makes a move for the door as Kappa prepares to leave with Joshua and Kappa pauses on the threshold to address us.

Kappa: Keep in mind, I can Read all your minds so don’t bother trying to escape.
'Kiera: Okay, then mine is saying, ‘yawn’. (a beat) Oh wait, ‘I gotta pee’ is in there somewhere.
Arden: My thoughts are being redacted right now.
Nika: Do you think you could you could let our hands loose and allow us a bathroom break?
Kappa: Let’s see if you can earn those privileges.

Kappa leaves. The door locks with a clack. We’re left alone again.

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