Episode 054

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“Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling you something.”

The Dread Pirate Roberts, The Princess Bride

 

            Amy stared forward with a blank gaze.  Sitting on the side of her bed, she leaned forward slightly, her arms crossed over her knees.

            “We don’t have much information at this point,” Eliot explained, standing by the door.  His hands in his pockets, he faced the floor.  “We know that the bodies of the pilot and the co-pilot were retrieved, along with roughly half the debris.  But there’s no sign of Lisa, or Sarah and Irene, bodies or otherwise.  There’s also no sign of the monster’s body, either, though nobody seems to care about that.”

            Amy stared forward.

            “Nobody should,” Emma said with an angry tone.  “We’ve got bigger problems.”

            “Bigger problems, yes,” Eliot nodded, his agitation refusing to let him back down, “but that doesn’t make that body NOT a problem.  If it floats to shore or something, we could have a real issue on our hands.”

            Amy stared forward.

            “Alex and Jin are upstairs now, monitoring the recovery efforts,” Emma said, standing at the foot of Lisa’s bed.  Her black trench coat held over her arms, she was unable to bring herself to do more than barely glance at Amy.  “As soon as they have something, we’ll deploy.”

            Amy stared forward.

            Emma stood up, turning to the door.  “Come on,” she said to Eliot.

            “Amy, there is one thing you should know,” Eliot said hesitantly.  “I really hate to bring this up, but…you’ve read the Responders manuals.  You know our role with the UN and you know…”

            “Don’t do this,” Emma pleaded quietly.

            “We don’t negotiate,” Eliot said.  “If they are alive, and if this is a hostage situation…”

            Amy stared forward.

 

            Alex sat back, his headphones hanging over his neck.  He stared at the media stream, watching the video feed of the wreckage crew standing on the deck of the ship.  They watched as a large piece of the plane’s wing was pulled up by a crane.

            He heard the door open and turned.  Assif leaned inside, a grim look on his face.  “Alex, a moment,” he said, stepping back out.  Alex stood, leaving his headphones on the desk, Jin still staring at his own screen.

            Outside, Alex shut the door.  In the dark main room, Assif stayed close to the doorway.  “I just got a call from Dr. Howitz.”

            “The head of the Responders committee?” Alex asked, suddenly worried.

            “He told me that the UN has received an anonymous tip that the Clan of Caine is behind the attack,” Assif explained. “The tip went to Dr. Howitz’s assistant.”

            Alex crossed his arms and sat back.  He tapped his foot on the floor for a second.  “Any idea who made the tip?”

            “They traced the phone line back to Tel Aviv,” Assif said.

            “So it was routed,” Alex concluded, Assif nodding. He rubbed his eyes in frustration.  “This isn’t good,” he said with a mix of frustration and anger.

            “It’s not good, but it may not be bad for us,” Assif said.  “This means either someone is attempting to undermine the Clan of Caine or they’re attempting to frame the Clan of Caine.  Either way, it looks like we need to start looking into the Clan’s enemies.”

            “Paranormal groups usually don’t have many enemies,” Alex said.  “They either stay too quiet for anyone to know about them or they kill anyone who opposes them too virulently.”

            “Then the search shouldn’t take long,” Assif said with confidence, turning away.

            “I’m on it,” Alex said, heading back inside.

 

            Denmark’s got a lot of weird monsters,” Isaiah said, laying down several different magazines of bullets.  All the same size, they were loaded with bullets demonstrating subtle differences.  He took out several rolls of tape from underneath the table, beginning to tape distinctive strips on each.

            Across from him, Til took out a heavy pistol.  He switched on the laser sight built into the gun just below the barrel and took aim.  The sight projected a tiny red dot onto the wall that he lined up.  He looked at Isaiah, switching off the sight.  “They grow them big in Denmark.  We may need bigger ordinance than we usually carry.”

Isaiah thought for a moment, then turned back to the stock bins and began to take out considerably larger magazines.

 
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