Eve watched the nurse feed Lin with growing annoyance. The woman would force her small mouth open, shove the spoon in and scraped it across her tongue before pulling the spoon out, then repeat the process until there was a mess all over the girl's chin and front. Once she was done, she'd roughly wipe her face and strip her top and use the same cloth to wipe her down before dressing her again.
"You don't like your job, do you?" She asked darkly as the nurse gathered her things.
"What makes you say that?"
Eve glanced at Lin before looking back at the nurse. "The way you treat her."
"How am I treating her?"
"Like she's a chore, not a person." Eve replied, keeping her tone level.
The nurse glared at her, but said nothing as she strode from the room. Eve sighed and looked back over at Lin, who only stared blankly ahead, unbothered by the rough treatment she'd just received.
"I was supposed to kill you not too long ago. And your friends just left me alone with you." She said to the unresponsive teen.
The pair sat in silence until the sun began to set. The same nurse returned carrying a tray and Eve intercepted her. "I'll take care of it."
"Be my guest." The woman snapped, thrusting the tray into her hands.
Swallowing the urge to beat her with it, she walked over to Lin's bed and sat down on the edge. "I had a baby brother who didn't like to eat, either. Can't say I blame him. Baby food isn't all that good." She sniffed the bowl. "This stuff smells better, at least."
She took a spoonful of the thick mixture and raised it up, pressing it gently to the girl's lips. Slowly her mouth opened and Eve slipped the spoon inside, pulling upward slowly until it was free. She watched until Lin's throat moved. "Good job. Let's go for two."
It took half an hour, but the bowl was empty and Eve was carefully wiping her down with a clean cloth when a different nurse entered the room. "Nearly done?" She asked sweetly.
Eve nodded, dropping the cloth on the tray and pulling the clean gown over Lin's shoulders as the Nurse gathered the soiled things and picked up the tray. "You're good with her."
"Not a high bar, considering." Eve replied dully. "I trained to be a nurse before... Nevermind."
The nurse tilted her head, but shrugged. "Well, if you need anything, just give me a shout."
"Copy."
She walked out, pulling the door behind her. Eve finished tying the gown on and laid Lin back onto the pillows. "I'll tell your friends that they need to do this from now on. This was a one time thing because I didn't like that other nurse, understand?"
Lin's only response was to close her eyes and exhale through her mouth gently. Eve shook her head and pulled the blanket up, tucking it around her arms and thighs. Just as she sat down, the door opened and Clint walked in carrying a paper bag. "You eat yet?"
"No."
"You like burgers?"
"No."
He grinned, setting the bag on the table and opening it. "Too bad."
She groaned and pulled the chair over to the table. Clint distributed the food before sitting down and looking over at Lin. "Heard you took over for Yolanda."
Eve froze. "Yolanda?"
Clint's grin froze. "Yeah, why?"
"Where is she?" She snapped, jumping to her feet.
"Why?"
"She's Vanguard."
Clint shoved his chair back and pulled his weapon. "Stay here."
"No, she-"
Clint grabbed her shoulder. "Look, if there's more of them here, I need to know that Lin's not alone."
Eve felt her teeth creak as she clenched her jaw. "Fine. But don't hesitate. Hesitate and she'll kill you."
"Understood." He said, bolting from the room.
She pushed the door shut, then dragged the table in front of it. It wouldn't do much, especially if there was armor involved, but it'd buy her a few seconds. She walked over to the bed and looked down at the girl, whose eyes were open again.
"It'd make me feel a lot better if you could move on your own, kid." She muttered, looking back at the door. "But, I'll figure it out."
~
"Yolanda! Hey!" Clint shouted, jogging after the nurse. "I'm glad I caught you. Look, I just wanted to thank you for looking after Fuse and Lin on the graveyard shift."
She smiled brightly. "It's no problem. She's a very sweet girl and he's an easy patient."
They laughed. "Yeah, who'd've thought, right?" Clint said. "Are you heading to check in on him now? Because I was just thinking of taking a peek before I headed out for the night."
"Er, yeah. I'm sure he'd appreciate seeing a friendly face."
They rounded the corner and he pressed the call button for the elevator, giving the young nurse his brightest smile. "How long have you been here?"
"Just a few days. Transferred in from the Spire."
Clint's eyes widened. "The Spire. Wow. Talk about far from home. What brought you out here? With the kind of education you got there, you could've landed a job at C-Corp's medical facility."
She shrugged as they stepped into the elevator and waited for the doors to slide closed. "I just needed a change. Wanted to see more of the world, but settle in a more quiet place. Doesn't get more quiet than Mercy, y'know?"
"Yeah, it's certainly as far away from somewhere as you can get." He muttered thoughtfully. "A few days, huh?"
Her eyes sharpened and her body tensed, but Clint's gun was already pressed to her head. "How'd you know?"
"I didn't." He said, pressing the emergency stop button. "Are there any others?"
She glared up at him, grinding her teeth, then sighed. "No. The Vanguard that weren't killed are all suckling at the teat of Lord Rinku."
"Rinku?"
"Look, if you're gonna shoot me, shoot me. Won't make a difference. I'm on borrowed time anyway."
His finger flexed slightly on the trigger, then backed off. "What do you mean?"
"Vanguard operatives have nanocharges in their heads that need a code every thirty days to disarm. Tomorrow's day thirty and since I'm technically KIA, my data was archived and the codes wiped."
Clint frowned. "Fuse doesn't have one of those, does he?"
She scoffed. "HQ's little pet? No, they wouldn't allow it. It's a GA special. Otherwise they would've detonated it themselves when he went AWOL and blew up Alex with his armor."
"Why are you after them?"
"You have a lot of questions. It'd be easier to just take that gun and kill you, y'know?"
Clint chuckled. "You might be fast, but I can pull this trigger before you've even moved. Now answer me, why are you after them?"
She set her jaw. "Why haven't you killed me yet? Answer for answer."
"Not sure I need to." He said. "Your turn."
"I'm not. I'm making sure that you don't let either of them get transferred. It'll be a trap so they can finish the job. And before you ask, it's because Fuse could've killed me and didn't. He told me to run. And I did, so now I'm here trying to return the favor."
Clint pressed the button and elevator began moving again. He held her at gunpoint until the doors opened, then holstered his weapon. "Let's go."
"Go where?"
"To see Fuse. I wasn't lying about that. Then when Bex gets here, us, her and Eve are gonna decide whether to pull that bomb or let you die." He said, stepping out of the steel box.
"Why?" Yolanda asked, following hesitantly.
"I need more eyes and you guys are supposed to be faceless. Does anyone know what you look like that we need to be aware of?"
"Some will know my voice if I'm not Miss Cheery the Nurse, but they couldn't pick me out of a crowd."
"And you didn't recognize Eve?"
She shook her head.
"Then that buys us security until we can figure out what HQ's up to. And just who the hell Rinku is." He said, walking down the hall.
She shook her head. "It won't work out how you hope. Things are moving quickly now that the Vanguard situation is dealt with."
"I'll take all the time I can get."
He stopped and pressed a button, grinning as the door hissed open. "And hopefully, we can get this guy on his feet soon."
~
Rebecca watched Eve carefully feed Lin and leaned close to Clint. "You sure about her?"
"Lin's responding to her."
"Yeah, but..." She lowered her voice further. "She cut out her eye last night and threw it out the window. And she tried to kill them both while they were asleep."
He nodded thoughtfully, then looked at her. "You think she'll try again?"
"You both know I can hear you, right?" Eve said, her eye narrowed in their direction.
Clint laughed while Rebecca furrowed her brow. "I just want to make sure that we're not making a mistake out of desperation."
"Unfortunately, neither of us are in a position to believe the other at the moment." She said, returning her attention to Lin. "Your man was right, though. With Yolanda on Fuse detail and me watching this one, you guys are free to come up with a plan that keeps us all safe. At least until Fuse comes around."
"Doctor's not sure that'll happen. Too badly beat up." Rebecca said coldly. "Haven't had a chance to say anything about it yet, but he says brain damage at a minimum is what we can expect."
"Pity I didn't think to keep hold of that armor before scuttling the transport." Clint muttered.
"I wouldn't be able to use it." Eve said, touching the bandage on her eye gingerly.
"Neither would I." Yolanda said grumpily. "They adjust to their user. Some kind of rudimentary learning program that helps us manipulate them better. It's why we're basically supposed to live in the things."
Rebecca jumped, then sighed and looked over at Yolanda "How'd it go?"
"Well, my eye's still there, but I can't use it for a few days." She said, smirking at Eve.
The other woman set the bowl down firmly on the bedside table. "Keep it up and I'll make sure you can't use either for a few days."
Yolanda rolled her eyes. "I'm teasing you, dumbass."
Eve shot up off the bed, but Clint got between them. "Same side, ladies. Bigger picture."
They scowled at each other for a few tense seconds before Yolanda dropped into the wheelchair and Eve sat back down on the bed. Breathing a sigh of relief, he sat back down at the table and gave Rebecca a worried look.
"I wouldn't have been able to do that." Yolanda muttered after a few minutes. "Cut out my eye."
Eve bristled at first, then sighed. "It's not something I plan on making a habit of. Just don't tell me we've got bombs in our knees or something."
Yolanda grinned. "Middle fingers, actually."
"Oh, like this one?" She said, holding up the digit.
The women laughed while Rebecca and Clint breathed sighs of relief. "And you were worried about them getting along." He said quietly.
She patted his arm. "That was you, dear."
"Ugh, don't say that word. Reminds me of your mother too much." He groaned.
She smiled and rested her head on her elbow. "What d'you think she'd make of this?"
"Honestly? Knowing her, it would surprise me if everything up to this point wasn't part of some plan of hers." He sighed. "She played her cards close. Got her in trouble more than once in the time I worked for her. But it always seemed like she knew everything before it happened. Moves people would make before they even had the idea to make them. She was almost never surprised."
"Could really use that about now. I mean, how do we deal with a handful of soldiers that're stronger than Kurokawa? And then this Rinku character who seems to be in charge of it all. I mean, what's the end goal of all this? And why haven't they come for us yet? It's no secret who we are and where we're at."
Clint shook his head. "They know we'll be on our guard, and since the Five don't really have any control in the Frontier, they don't want to risk starting another war just to drop a few bodies. If they're interested in us at all. I mean, there's no telling if Fuse is ever going to recover and Lin's the furthest thing from a threat possible, so it's possible they'll wait to see what becomes of him first."
"Are you saying they have spies here?" Yolanda asked.
"I'm saying it's possible that Fitzsimmons is still working for HQ." Clint said. "But there's nothing we can do about it right now. Fuse can't travel and Lin..."
They looked over at the empty girl. Eve stroked her hair and tucked a few strays behind her ear. "She's trying."
"So, basically, we're just sitting around and waiting to see if we're going to have to fight for our lives or if absolutely nothing is going to happen?" Yolanda asked.
Rebecca laughed bitterly. "Seems about the size of it. But you forgot the spies."
"Aren't you spies? Shouldn't you be able to, I dunno, figure out who?"
Rebecca shook her head. "We're not technically spies."
"Oversight." Clint said. "Every one of The Five have moles in everyone else's business all across the continent. Most of them are employees, but a good number of them are freelance. Echelon's primary role was ensuring relationships and balance across the board, so we never used freelancers. And that was because our people went deeper. I can't tell you how many we've lost to the competition just since I was recruited. But that's the game."
"It was, anyway." Rebecca said dully. "HQ and C-Corp were in talks about merging before Lin was taken."
"And the Grand Army already owns Transpo." Eve added.
"That would've made three out of the five into one. Balance was broken. That's why we were actively working against HQ. The only holdout was The Markets. They hated us, but with the GA's continued assault on their largest customer base, we were starting to win them over." Clint said.
"But then Lin was taken." Rebecca sighed. "C-Corp pulled back, The Markets shored up their defenses because they'd supplied the terrorists who'd taken her, and the GA used the opportunity to make an example of any and all rebel factions they came across."
"C-Corp and HQ are practically one now, thanks to Rinku. Which puts everything back to where it was, except Echelon doesn't exist anymore." Yolanda said. "So the Markets are gearing up to go to war with the GA."
"So that's why." Clint mumbled. "HQ, Fuse's old squad, they aren't outright attacking us because they can't. Fuse is high profile, even up here. If they act in territory they don't control, the Frontier will launch their own attack and they can't risk those numbers joining the Market's. But if they can prove that Fuse is a threat..."
"Or transfer him." Eve said, getting up from the bed. "If they can make it look like a legit transfer, they can move him back south and avoid conflict with the Frontier."
"They wouldn't just transfer Fuse. They'd move Lin, too. Fitzsimmons knows how HQ and those kids operate. He'll push the transfer through to avoid war." Rebecca said. "That has to be the play, wait until Fuse is stable enough to be transferred, then strong arm the administration into transferring a dangerous, high profile patient back into their territory."
"We have to get them out of here." Eve said, looking at Yolanda.
"Read my mind." She nodded.
"I agree, but there's just one thing." Rebecca said. "The pod is keeping him alive. We pull him out and he'll die."
"I can help with that."
All eyes looked toward the door as an elderly man pushed it shut without a sound. Yolanda leapt to her feet, and Clint drew his weapon. The man raised gnarled hands in surrender and smiled.
"Oh my, it would appear I'm outnumbered."
"Who are you?" Clint asked, as Rebecca reached for her weapon.
"My name is Erik Carthage and I suppose, technically, I'm your boss Mister Roberts." He said, his tone gentle, as if he were speaking to a small child. "That won't be necessary, Miss Chase."
"Erik Carthage died ten years ago." Clint said. "Try again."
Eve and Yolanda tensed as the elderly man stepped away from the door. "Since you destroyed my building, I can't prove it to you. But I give you my word that I am he."
Clint moved, putting himself between the soldiers and the man, raising his gun. "I've used up about all the good faith I have in me the last couple of days. You have one minute to explain. Bex, once you count to sixty, pull the trigger."
She nodded and pressed the barrel of her gun to the man's temple. "One, two..."
Clint and the others only had time to blink, then Rebecca was stumbling forward into Clint. Erik quickly disassembled the gun and dropped the parts to the floor before sitting down in her vacated seat. "Three, four..." He said with a smile. "Should I continue the count myself, or can we talk like adults?"
Clint helped Rebecca regain her balance, then aimed his gun at the man's head. "Try that again and I'll let these two beat you bloody."
To emphasize the point, Yolanda began rolling the sleeves up on her shirt and smirked at him. "I almost want you to."
"Almost." Eve said.
"That won't do. You'll leave young Miss Lin vulnerable." Erik said, resting an ankle on a knee and clasping his hands across his abdomen. "At current, you four are her only protection. I'd hate to have to disable you when there are more pressing matters to concern yourselves with."
Clint sighed and holstered his weapon. "If you're that confident, I guess we don't have much choice but to listen, do we?"
"Now that we've established a firm grasp of the obvious, let me start again- My name is Erik Carthage and I believe that I may be able to provide some assistance to your current situation." He spread his hands briefly, then clasped them again. "Kurokawa Fuse is, at current, too critical to be safely removed from the recovery pod. What you don't know is that recovery pod is currently operating at the minimal level."
"That's not true, it's currently at the highest density it can be set to without burning it out." Rebecca said defiantly.
"So you've been led to believe. But I assure you if you were to open the panel and run a diagnosis, it would confirm my assertion. Someone at this facility is slowing his recovery on purpose. And that someone is operating independently of A-Corp's plans." Erik said bluntly. "Not that his recovery would matter given the acute brain death he'll be suffering in roughly three hours."
"What?" Clint blurted.
"I don't believe you." Rebecca spat. "Fitzsimmons would've-"
"Oh, Doctor Fitzsimmons was killed shortly after miss Cruz's operation." He said. "I believe whoever he'd been working with outside of this hospital may have realized that he was on the verge of being discovered as your saboteur. They'll find him soon as he has another procedure scheduled to happen in... seventeen minutes."
"How do we know you didn't do these things?" Eve snarled. "You seem to have the ability."
"If I'd wanted you dead, I would've done so a week ago when you first arrived at this hospital." He replied calmly. "I initially believed you chose this location because Veronica had told you about me. But when you sought out Fitzsimmons, I remained silent. However, the day's events required action."
"Okay, alright." Clint said firmly as Rebecca staggered over to the bed. "Let's assume I trust you. That you're really Erik Carthage. You just told us our trump card is off the table and that the man we thought we could trust is responsible for it. The same man that could've possibly given us our only break if our enemies come for us. What can you offer us that could be of any help?"
He smiled. "Escape."