Episode 404: Crucible, Part Three

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It was he who told us about the Highgate job Mike had pulled the previous September. And it was he who had a security camera shot of Mike in You Go coveralls and cap aboard a You Go tanker.

Tanner: So. We meet again.
Nika: Major.
Joshua: Sir.

Tanner looks at Joshua a little strangely.

Tanner: Have we met before?
Joshua: No, we have not.

Technically true: Joshua wasn’t Joshua as he is now, but was Melvin Jackson when last we met Major Tanner. Since then Joshua’s changed his face a bit and grown a beard.

Tanner: Okay. (a beat) Carter hasn’t agreed to meet anyone but he is willing to meet you. So I’m intrigued. We’re not going to allow a whole lot of private conversation.
Nika: Not surprising. The man’s in jail.
Tanner: And only one at a time of course.
Nika: By all means. Go right ahead. We’re all here for moral support anyway.
Tanner: It’s an interesting stance you’re taking there. Moral support of an assassin?
Nika: (nods toward Rina) I was referring to moral support of my friend.
Tanner: Oh.

She’s given permission to approach. Tanner accompanies her and Rina goes up to the cage and looks up at the man she’s loved for more than a decade. Mike rises from his bunk and meets her at the plexi. He’s obviously sleep deprived and hasn’t been eating much. He’s much thinner now, seedier. Stubble on cheeks and chin, hair short but needing a barber’s shears.

Given the height of the cage off the floor, Mike has to kneel so Rina’s not talking to his shins. Even so, he has to look down at her when he speaks. Or rather nearly shouts. The plexi is thick enough that he has to raise his voice to be heard and Rina must do likewise to be heard by him. With Tanner and the guards present, there’s no real hope of a truly private conversation.

Mike: Well.
Rina: Here we are.
Mike: (a little lower) Thanks for coming to visit.
Rina: (ditto) I wish it were under better circumstances.
Mike: Well, it could be worse.
Rina: I could be in there with you.
Mike: That would be bad in the long term planning stage, yeah.

There’s an awkward pause.

Mike: So apparently there’s going to be a trial in a little bit.
Rina: And you refused representation. You mind telling me why? (raising her voice) Do you really want to die? Do you have a death wish?!

Across the room, Nika and Joshua have a quick whispered debate on whether to Read Mike or not and at Rina’s exclamation Nika gives Joshua the order.

Nika: Do it.

Joshua Reads Mike and goes in deep. Joshua’s going to have an absolutely hideous headache when he’s done, but he’s going to do it. Joshua’s ultimate goal is to find out if Mike’s goals were his own, if his motivations were his own, if he was coerced into assassinating You Ge. If nothing else, Mike’s thoughts as he comes up with a response to Rina’s death wish comment should be helpful in understanding just what the hell is going on here.

Mike: I don’t have a death wish.
Rina: Not from where I’m standing. (a beat) Why’d you do it?
Mike: Because I didn’t want to run anymore. Not when I had something—
Rina: Oh! Suicide by cop, is that it?!

Mike looks at Rina as if he’s trying to read her and across the room, Joshua gets a head-swimming wave of emotion for a beat. Rina balls her fists in frustration.

Rina: They’re going to crucify you out there.
Mike: (calmly) Maybe.

Rina can only stare at him, appalled. Mike continues, speaking slowly.

Mike: This was … what needed to happen … to … atone for my sins. (a beat) It’s not a, ah, … foolproof plan. But it’s a leap of faith.
Rina: So you take that leap. Where do you think you’re going to land?
Mike: (small smile) Well, hopefully on my feet.
Rina: Instead of dancing on the end of a rope?
Mike: Yes. That would be preferable.
Rina: You got my vote for that.
Mike: But for the moment, I’ve only got a handful of people pointing guns at me. (gestures to the guards) Nobody’s taken a shot at me for several-odd days. I don’t think any bounty hunters will be able to get in here. Unless …

Mike eyes Nika and the crew narrowly.

Mike: Unless they’re very clever.
Rina: Not that clever.

Silence. Rina thinks of Mike’s 18 months on Salisbury, of his digging in and living hair-triggered against the possibility of bounty hunters and assassins. What Mike thinks, she cannot say. She tries to reason with Mike again.

Rina: If things go as you wish … what happens with us?
Mike: Well …

Across the room, Nika looks aside. It’s the only privacy she can give them. Kiera keeps her eyes on the guards.

Mike: It was, as gamblers say, an all-in bet. So … that’s the only reason I did this, right? If I wanted to fight it out, I could have done that on Salisbury. But we had our talk. And I needed to make sure that that was possible. Right? And I assume you’ve been doing what you need to do to make that possible as well.

He assassinated You Ge for her? For their future together on Miranda? What?! She should be floored. She should be reeling from it. Instead she’s just numb. She absorbs the hit and doggedly continues.

Rina: I’ve been waiting for your call.

Nika leans on Joshua’s arm.

Rina: This is one helluva call, Mike.
Mike: Well, actually it was like stepping into an old pair of shoes.
Rina: (breathing a laugh) That’s the most familiar thing to come out your mouth since I got here.
Mike: I, ah … you know they … (a beat) I’m still sincere in my desire to be out but I guess you can … take the spy out of the Business but you can’t take the Business out of the spy. (softer) It was … odd, though. He … I think he knew. I think he knew I was going to kill him.
Rina: Was this when he saw you? When you were … Before …?
Mike: Just before. He … maybe he heard me but … he put his data pad down and he just ... sat upright. Not looking back at me, but sort of … waiting for it to happen.

Rina tries to take it all in. She can’t. It’s too big. And so as usual, she focuses on a tiny detail and goes on from there.

Rina: What was on the data pad?

Back with Nika and Kiera, Joshua shakes his head. Yeah, that’s the Rina he knows.

Rina: Do you think he was warned ahead of time, is what I’m trying to say.
Mike: Well. If he was, he didn’t do anything to stop me.
Rina: That’s weird. Or maybe he knew there was just no point in running.

Not running works on too many levels right now and it takes a beat for Rina to get a grip.

Rina: I, um … I’m … If the worst case scenario happens … (to self) God, how do I say this?
Mike: Which is the worst case scenario?
Rina: You go home in a box.
Mike: Dead?
Rina: (breathes a laugh) That’s … the usual practice, yes.
Mike: Well?
Rina: If, if I can … If I can swing it, I’ll take you home. If that’s where you want to be.

Mike says nothing for a bit. Then:

Mike: Hm. My other option’s being paraded around on a pike through Lorngaard?
Rina: The way the media circus is out there? Yeah.
Mike: (facial shrug) I’ll have to think about it. I’ve never really had a chance for fame.

Across the bay, Nika leans over to Kiera.

Nika: He’s such a damn smartass.

And in the cage, Mike relents.

Mike: I’m not so much worried about where my body’s going to go. I have some doubts about the rest of me, but I … I decided to go all-in, and that’s everything. I don’t know if that’s the worst case scenario. Or is the worst case scenario that I walk free and you look into the eyes of someone who killed a good man, just to be free. And you walk away.

There is nothing Rina can say to that that wouldn’t sound like a platitude or two-faced lie. She can only stare at him, her heart on her sleeve…

Mike: I didn’t even ask why.

… Gutted. And shoulder the blame.

Rina: I’ve … been looking over my shoulder and … and seeing … The shadows have been full for so long with … real and imagined adversaries that I’m … I don’t recognize the truth anymore when I hear it. I don’t … and when it comes to you I’m … (struggling) I believe there is always an angle with you. That there’s something else beneath the surface that you’re not telling me. That … that … both times I thought it would be better for me to be out of the picture, out of the way, so you could do what you had to do. Something you wouldn’t tell me. And … truly, what you showed me the last time when we were dirtside, I thought I was right. That I… (sighs) … I was wrong. I was wrong. It’s my fault. I should be in that cage. Not you.

That puzzles Mike a bit.

Mike: You were wrong about me always having an angle? You were wrong about … Miranda? Where were you wrong?
Rina: Pretty much everything. Pretty much everything.
Mike: You seem to think there’s some right answer. But everything I’ve discovered in this Verse is that … you know… you can tell yourself you’re on the right side, and then perhaps the first bit of innocent blood that’s spilled, you cry over it. Then at some point you have to add up all the innocent blood and say … either there is no right side and maybe I’ve strayed. You’ve been … I thought you were wanting me to be in. You seemed to be a true believer. More than me.

True believer? More than Mike? Rina knows she isn’t but what did she do to convince him that she was? Where did everything get so wrong?

Mike: This isn’t your fault. Don’t think I’m bluffing, but … this is what I am. (a long beat) That said, if this—all that you see—doesn’t go to hell, and things don’t end up in the worst possible situation … it may be that there is time for redemption.
Rina: Seems to me that … dying at this juncture … might actually be shortchanging the redemption you could be doing. But I’m not … the right person to judge that sort of thing.
Mike: Well, you’re going to have to make that judgment. If it comes to that. Perhaps the good people of Highgate will take that decision out of our hands. (another shrug) Or perhaps they won’t.
Rina: So. You are going through this to atone. Is that right?
Mike: I went through this to atone. Not to God. That I still have some atoning to do. (a beat) I was a marked man. In theory, this should remove that mark. I may have a new mark … But I couldn’t head off somewhere, with a side arm and with you by my side thinking that the next assassin or bounty hunter is not going to work. Or the one after that. It had to end.
Rina: I thought the plan was to go somewhere where they wouldn’t come after you.
Mike: And where is that?
Rina: There’s nowhere to do that. I get it now.

Rina takes a deep breath and nods.

Rina: You really set on this course?
Mike: What’s my alternative at this stage? (laughs) Do you really have a back-up plan? I didn’t really fix a back-up plan on this one.
Rina: (agreeing) No. No, you refused representation. Like an idiot. No, that suggested to me you did not have a back-up plan.
Mike: Representation would not benefit me at this stage. I can’t serve them and antagonize them at the same time.

What the hell is that supposed to mean? Rina wants to ask him further but it’s too much to take in.

Rina: All right. Is there anything you want me to do?
Mike: (breathes a laugh) Um … Don’t get captured by … (nods at the Feds all around)
Rina: It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?
Mike: I was told you wouldn’t be detained. For long. (a beat) What is your plan? Tell me that.
Rina: It changes by the second. Right now? It’s to keep myself together. Five minutes from now? Hopefully, to walk out of here without killing anybody.
Mike: Okay. Well maybe before, you know, you condemn me for my lack of back-up plan, you might want to have a primary plan.

Nika steps forward and says loud enough for her engineer to hear:

Nika: I don’t think that was a very funny joke, Rina.

Nika, Kiera, and Joshua flank Rina … just in case she loses it and does something stupid. Like go ballistic. For her part, Rina glances back, notes their position and turns around again to Mike.

Rina: Is there anything you want me to do? While I’m still a free woman and while I’m out there. Able to do something.
Mike: Nothing I want to tell Major Tanner.

After all, the Naval Intelligence officer is standing right there, watching and listening to everything they’ve said. Tanner laughs at Mike’s gallows humor. Nika looks at Tanner and catches his eye.

Nika: Major Tanner.
Tanner: Captain Earhart.
Nika: Actually let me rephrase myself. Mr. Carter, is there anything you need and Major Tanner, are we allowed to bring him magazines or data pads to read or such things?
Tanner: Mr. Carter. Would you like a magazine?
Mike: I’m okay.
Nika: That’s fine. I figured I would ask.

Mike rises to his feet and looks down at Rina.

Mike: Well if you’re gonna put your stake with me, I suggest you say goodbye to everyone. There’s … ( a long beat ) … there’s something ….

Mike looks at Tanner.

Mike: Major Tanner, might I have a word with you in private?
Tanner: (me?) Yes.
Mike: If you could ask everyone to leave the room please.

Rina looks at Mike, her eyes narrowing. What the hell is Mike up to now? Mike catches her expression.

Mike: I need to speak to Major Tanner before I can talk to you.
Rina: (resigned) All right.
Nika: Good luck, Carter.

There being nothing left to do, we leave the bay. Nika has a hand on Joshua’s back, pushing him gently forward as we go. For his part, Joshua’s still trying to make sense of the Read he got off Mike.

To wit:

There is a darkness to Mike, something that Joshua finds a little odd that Rina find so attractive. As Mike told Rina about killing You, Joshua Saw Mike living through it, the moment Mike had when he took over security, sees the last person out, and reaches over and deactivates the cameras. And then goes into the washroom and stares at his reflection, into his eyes. And Joshua Sees the image in the mirror turn skeletal, as if Mike is becoming unto Death itself, as it were. And then as Mike approaches his target, it’s like he’s plodding through molasses, as if every inch is harder and harder and he’s going slower and slower. And Joshua can See You at his desk working on something. Then You puts his databook down and he just sits there. Through Mike, Joshua Hears You’s last breath go gently out, Sees Mike’s hand come up with the pistol. Mike fires a single shot into the back of You’s head. From a distance. There’s something else. Joshua gets the sense from Mike: The Mission. The Mission.

And that’s all. There is nothing more to the Read. And now, standing outside in the corridor, Joshua has to analyze the data and try to make sense of it through the reaction headache he can feel coming on.

Rina spends the time pretty much making plans in her head, devising and discarding scenarios and options as fast as she can make them. She’s seen the set-up. The Feds have the high ground. Anyone entering the chamber would be shot from above like fish in a barrel. They are too far apart to gas unconscious and there are too many to shoot with tranq darts all at once. Someone will see the others fall and raise the alarm. And that’s even assuming she makes it as far as the guards. Security has been tightened significantly since her last visit. If she breaks Mike out of here, it’s not going to be the cakewalk the Gordon op had been. And she’s also not discounting the fact that Mike might have arranged a fix somehow, perhaps going so far as to fake dying. He’s done it before and survived. He might be able to do it again. Fool everyone. Walk free. Wheels within wheels. All of them spinning and going nowhere fast.

It’s several long minutes before Tanner joins us in the corridor. He looks at Rina.

Tanner: Mr. Carter would be happy to see you again in a moment. Mr. Drake?
Joshua: Yes, that’s me.
Tanner: Would you come with me?
Joshua: If I say no … ? (rethinks) I’ll come with you.

Tanner crosses the corridor and opens the doors to the bay opposite. It’s the bay that housed the recovery ward for Dr. Gordon’s patients and the vibe that hits Joshua is weird and bad and yet, it’s somewhat cleansing after the darkness he’d Seen in Mike. The atmosphere is still charged with the freaked-out emotional residue of prior events and Joshua Sees (and sees) the hospital beds with their stitches patients from before and the scrubbed down bay converted to the offices that occupy it now. It’s a little disconcerting, to say the least. Tanner leads Joshua to one of those offices and closes the door. The office is blessedly clean of double images, though the feeling lingers.

Tanner tells Joshua to sit down. He sits while Tanner boots up his Cortex box and types a few things on it. Then:

Tanner: Mr. Carter has this odd belief that you might be a Blue Sun operative.
Joshua: And where did he get that belief from?
Tanner: Let’s see… He says that he got some intelligence that you’re part of a job moving—trying to capture Reavers on an Alliance cruiser.
Joshua: Oookay. I’m not sure where you’re going with this.
Tanner: Well he says you’re part of a program to produce some sort of mole/chameleon type people. It’s his odd claim and I’m not sure what his gambit is here.

Oh tah ma de. Really? He said that? Joshua keeps it together, plays along with Tanner for more information.

Joshua: (flummoxed) I … don’t know what his point is either.
Tanner: Have we met before?

Tanner’s gaze on Joshua is narrow, like someone unable to remember a name to a face yet convinced of a prior encounter.

Joshua: No, not that I’m aware of. Last grasp of a dying man? I don’t … know what …? I mean, Blue Sun? The cola company?
Tanner: I’m not sure why he would tell me this or why he would single you out?
Joshua: Maybe because I’m new to the crew, I’m the only people that… He knows, I gather, Rina and Nika already from something. Doesn’t know me. Easy target, I guess? I don’t know. It’s all kinda, to be honest, creeping me out a little. The whole … dead man walking thing.

That’s the damned truth.

Tanner: Yes. Well since the Long quiet we haven’t had the ability to really validate identities and that sort of stuff, and so it’s sort of an awkward moment in terms of this sort of thing. I’m … (rethinks) … This is the most that Mr. Carter has said since he’s been …
Joshua: You mean, to her?
Tanner: What he’s said there and what he said to me is more than he’s said since we’ve apprehended him. Now, this could be the ravings of a madman but he seemed concerned. But you’re denying this?
Joshua: I am certainly denying this. I still don’t quite get where … I mean, Blue Sun? I don’t know Mike very well but he—
Tanner: He suggested we do a … a scan of you.
Joshua: What kind of scan are we talking about here?
Tanner: He believes you might have some evidence of plastic surgeries and brain altering—
Joshua: So, on the word of a condemned criminal who has assassinated the President of this system, you’re going to scan my brain to see if I have surgery? What the hell?

Feign indignation? Nope.

Tanner: I’m actually representing the law such as it is here right now.
Joshua: I still don’t get it. Is this how the law works in blue sun. Pretty much, “Heyyyy, he might be a bad guy. Scan his brain.”?
Tanner: I’m saying what he’s suggesting. I’m not saying that I’m going to do that. I just wanted to see how you responded. So you think this would be unfair invasion of your privacy and unnecessary?
Joshua: I think it’s certainly unnecessary and I’m not particularly fond of my privacy being invaded that way. I mean, brain scan? I mean, really? I mean … really? If … he accused you of this would you consent to a brain scan? I mean, it’s just … wrong. It strikes me as … I …
Tanner: Do you think you’d be a harmed by a brain scan?
Joshua: I don’t know. I’m not a doctor. It’s possible. But on principle, hell no I don’t want to get a brain scan, harm or not. Are you one of these Browncoat fellahs, is that how it works? I don’t know a lot about what’s going on but isn’t that supposed to be the whole freedom to do what you want without the Man coming down on you and scanning your brain every time you turn around?
Tanner: Well if I were a Browncoat and I thought an agent of Blue Sun was trying to infiltrate my facility to kill off a star witness or cause other mayhem, then that might make me a little concerned.

All right. That’s it. Joshua’s had enough of this.

Joshua: (incensed) This facility? Like, the one with guards at like, every corner and cameras and like, the guy in a plexiglass cage? Okay, okay if I am a Blue Sun operative, I am really fucking good. (Takes a breath) Look. I came down to—I’m friends with Rina, I’m friends with Nika, and Rina wanted to talk to Mike and so I came along because I happened to be up there on the Decatur and it wasn’t like they were going to stop and drop me off. I’m moral support.

Meanwhile, an armed Non-com approaches Rina.

Non-com: I believe Mr. Carter has something he wishes to say to you. Will you be so kind as to follow me?

Rina nods silently and goes back inside with the Non-Com. He leads her to back to the cell. Mike kneels and puts his hand against the plexiglass. Rina immediately matches his hand with her own.

Mike: Do you remember your focus exercises?
Rina: (thrown) My what?
Mike: Your focus exercises. Can you blank your mind? (a beat) I know it’s an awkward time to think of this. But the man who came with you is not what you think. He is an agent. You need to get the element of surprise and to do that you have to blank your mind.

For the second time in less than an hour, Rina is gutted like a fish where she stands.

Mike: Rina. You asked me if there was something you could do for me. When you get out of here, you need to take care of him. Or you will be in great danger.

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