Charlie "Li" Rochester led Nathan Cryogen deep underground. The route to get there involved climbing onto the metro train tracks and opening a hatch that blended in with the tracks. It was a harrowing experience and Li seemed to get a quiet thrill from the danger of it. She had assured Nathan that as long as they timed it properly, there'd be no chance of a train coming through while they were on the tracks. It hadn't helped much with easing his fears. They also had to get on the tracks in such a way that no one would notice, which meant posing as metro workers, walking to the dark, booth-like end of the boarding area, and sneaking onto the dark tracks from there.
It helped that they were out in the early morning hours, before the trains were even scheduled to run, so there weren't any people around to give them weird looks or snap a picture of them with their phone.
The hatch led down a gritty, dark ladder into the humming, musty gloom of what looked and felt like a warehouse. The light glowed with a sinister dark green hue and Nathan shivered, grateful for the real cold weather gear that Allie had given him.
Li looked around and shrugged, "Welp, this is it. Quaint, isn't it?"
From the cold cement ground, to the still air and wide, abandoned feeling of the place, quaint wasn't exactly the first word Nathan would have chosen for it.
"Don't worry," said Li, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "It gets better. Come on, I'll show you."
Nathan followed wordlessly, his eyes alighting on her hair. The bright red hue of it stood out like a diamond amidst the dim gloom. Instinctively, he reached out toward her mind, but once more felt nothing. If his only sense had been reaching into peoples' minds, he would have thought he was following a ghost.
Li led them to a creaky iron door, which she swung open with gusto and waved him on through into what could only be described as a science lab. It didn't have beakers, test tubes, or lab coats, but Nathan recognized the haphazard style immediately and for a moment, he felt at home. The room was filled with tables and beds, and copious amounts of notes strewn about. Numerous men and women flitted about or scratched notes, with an air of practiced detachment, and fluorescent lights beamed down from the ceiling.
"This is where we conduct most of our experiments," said Li.
Acutely, he was aware of her trying to catch his eye, but his attention had fallen on something else. A familiar shape on one of the beds. He strode toward it as a dull pounding began to thump in his ears and Li muttered anxious words at him that he didn't have the wherewithal to register.
He stopped abruptly, half a step from the bed, and stared down, trying to stop the range of emotions that were threatening to overcome his composure.
"Is she...?" he said.
Li laid on a hand on his shoulder, "She'll be alright. I can explain what we think happened and why she's here, but I need you to be away from her right now. We don't know what might happen if you reconnect."
Nathan stared down at Carla Davis's prone figure on the bed. The sheets were pulled up to her chin and she looked still as death.
"It's my fault," said Nathan. He wasn't sure who he was trying to explain himself to. I should have been a banker, he thought.
"She's going to be ok," insisted Li, "but if you stay here, that may not be the case for long. Got it?"
Nathan wrenched his gaze away and looked at Li. Concern was etched on her face.
"I want to know everything," said Nathan.
"Then come with me," said Li. She offered her hand.
Nathan gazed at it for a moment and then took it, surprised at how warm and reassuring it felt. He allowed her to lead him away, past the bustle, and into a small, quiet room with a bed, a table, and a dim yellow fluorescent light on the ceiling.
He sat down heavily next to her, on the bed.
"Where do you want me to begin?" asked Li. "There's a lot."
Nathan was suddenly aware of how close she was to him. How grounded she made him feel, just being there. Though he was still worried about Carla, there was a part of him that wanted very much to run away with her and leave it all behind. A horrifying thought occurred to him.
"You aren't controlling my mind, are you?" he said. "Influencing me?"
Li looked aghast, "God no. We don't do that to our own. Not unless it's consensual or it's to try to reel in someone who is causing problems."
Nathan nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving her face. "Begin with the beginning, I suppose."
She chuckled, "There's a lot to it. How about I give you the abridged version." She edged closer and Nathan felt a thrill of warmth and safety.
"I think I'd like that," said Nathan. "So we still have time for other things, you know."
"Of course," she said, her eyes flicking to his lips. "Other things." She cleared her throat loudly. "It begins with an ambitious group of scientists in the 90s. They wanted to put technological synapses in the brains of babies. How, I don't know, but that was their plan. They didn't get far, but they did get a look at some baby brains and what they found surprised them: There were already microchips inside their brains. So subtle you'd never find them, unless you were already looking to put microchips inside somebody. Unfortunately, bureaucracy stepped in, funding got cut, and the project was trashed. That's where we come in. Twenty years later, through an ironically bureaucratic system error, some college scientist and his buddy got a look at the old project files. The technology had caught up and they were able to consider the real possibility of putting in microchips of their own. Only they realized from the files that people already had microchips in their brains, it was just a question of activating them."
"I know," said Nathan.
