Pete Wisdom strode down the hallway, the black haired older man quietly complaining to Rachel the whole time. "Then Cecelia decides I haven't been poked and prodded enough," he waved a hand, "an' tells me to drop my pants!" "Poor Pete," Rachel said, the redheaded young woman looking visibly amused at hear about his various woes. "Your sympathy overwhelms me," Pete chuckled, the two of them reaching the keypad for the detention block beneath the island. He tapped in the proper sequence of numbers and the heavy door groaned open, lights coming on automatically. "If you hadn't farted around with keeping your appointment for so long," Rachel pointed out to him mercilessly, "she probably would have just kept things simple." "Fair enough," Pete conceded as the two of them continued on to the cell that was holding their involuntary guest. The man called Bezerker looked up from his breakfast, finishing off a bite of sausage and toast. Out of his suit of mystical battle armor he looked a bit smaller, his sandy brown hair falling boyishly into his eyes. "About time you got down here," he grumbled, taking a swig out of his plastic cup of orange juice. Pete gave him a look, "I was unavoidably detained." "Yeah, right," Bezerker growled. Rachel hung back out of his line of sight, watching the young man as she fired up her telepathic ability. She wasn't there to scan his mind fully; instead Pete wanted her to linger in the surface thoughts and try to determine if Bezerker was really telling them the truth. 'Easier said than done,' she thought in surprise, 'he's got pretty effective psionic shields.' "So," Pete met his eyes coolly, "what where you and your friends doing at Endtech a few weeks back?" "You already know that," Bezerker scoffed. "Let’s say I'd like to hear it from you," Pete said calmly. Bezerker looked to the ceiling with a sigh. "I was contracted by a lady named Codex to work with her mercenaries," he said patiently, "we hit the place under the orders of somebody who called themselves the Director." Pete gave Rachel a look, the young lady shaking her head no to indicate that he was lying. "Of Weapon X, I take it?" he went along, referring to a semi-covert US agency that was using mutant criminals as field agents. "Yeah, for some reason or another they were interested in genetic data on computer harddrives and organic samples," Bezerker continued. Rachel nodded slightly this time, indicating he was being truthful. "Who trained this guy,' she wondered, 'the last time I saw shields this good was when I was working with Cable.' "To build some king of enhanced soldiers," Pete said flatly. "Yeah," Bezerker nodded, "or maybe to upgrade his own people." A short nod from Rachel confirming that, too. 'Damn it,' Pete thought, feeling more than a bit annoyed at seeing his worse case scenario unfolding before his very eyes. "But Sinister double crossed you," Pete chose his words carefully, "he's using your team's DNA without permission." "Yeah, I..." Bezerker blinked, suddenly realizing he'd been tricked into confirming his true employer and yelled, "Hey!" "It wasn't that hard to guess," Pete shrugged, "and the trail your hacker friend planted in Endtech's systems was just a bit too blatant." Silently he added, 'Not to mention we had Kate's future based information.' "If you know so much," Bezerker asked resentfully, "why are you here?" "There's a lot we don't know," Pete said. He studied Berzerker thoughtfully a moment, "Where is Sinister based?" "I don't know," he admitted. Bezerker smiled wryly, "The only one in the team who got face to face with him was Codex." Another nod from Rachel, and Pete noted she was looking a bit stressed. 'These guys probably knew they'd be facing telepaths,' he mused, 'he's got to have some decent defenses.' Looking back to Bezerker he decided to end the interview then, "The mainland police want you turned over to them, if you've got anything more to say I'd do it now." "No," Bezerker shook his head. As Pete was moving off he asked, "You know how powerful Sinister is, are you still taking him on?" "Someone's got to do it," was Pete's dry answer as he opened up the door for Rachel and they both headed out. Bezerker waited a bit to make sure they were gone, then seemingly talking to himself he asked, "Did you get all that?" "Every word." He didn't really hear Codex's voice; instead it vibrated in his bones from the transmitter and receiver hidden in the back of his mouth. "Not bad at all," she calmly commented, "Wisdom is sharper than I thought." "That wouldn't surprise me," Bezerker quietly admitted, "he's been a British field operative for years, after all." "I'm a bit annoyed he caught on to the faked computer data," Codex sounded irritable; '"I thought we did a good job on that." "You're a pretty good hacker, boss, but that doesn't mean that there aren't even better ones out there," Bezerker pointed out. Changing the topic he asked her, "So what's the ETA for you guys busting me out of here?" "Change of plans," Codex started. "What?" Bezerker sat up in surprise. Continuing on as if he hadn't spoken Codex said, "We're going to wait until you're taken off the island in police custody. It'll be easier than launching a frontal assault against the sort of defenses that island has." "Tough nut to crack?" Bezerker asked. "They've upgraded since the Brotherhood broke in," Codex agreed, "we could probably do it, but it'd cost us." "You almost sound like you're worried about your teammates," Bezerker teased, curious to hear how she'd react. There was a moment's pause then Codex said, "I went to a great deal of effort to form this team, it'd be a shame to waste it." "Fair enough," Bezerker said, knowing that was the most he was going to get from her. He sat back on his bunk with a muttered, "Things were so much easier when I was just an archeologist studying the Vikings." "Tell me about it," Codex actually chuckled. A bit more seriously, "Good luck. This is Codex, signing off." Back in her apartment Diana Ramsey removed the communications rig, the blonde smiling to herself slightly. "Does he know we're coming after him later?" Sienna Blaze asked, the orange-blonde haired aristocrat lounging nearly naked on Diana's bed. "Yes," the equally unclothed Diana shrugged, getting up from the desk and walking over to join the other woman on top of the bed. "I still wish we could have sent Reaper," Sienna purred as she drew Diana into her arms, "then we could just skip the rescue mission." "He knows how unpopular he is," Diana shrugged, "besides, he'd have sung like a canary and told them everything, not just what we want them to know." "True," Sienna kissed her gently. Softy she asked, "Do you really think we should double-cross Mr. Sinister?" "He's the one who betrayed us," Diana shrugged uncomfortably, “I'm just interested in making sure he doesn't get to enjoy it." Sienna chuckled, "That's my girl."
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