- Location
- St. Petersburg
What do you want to know, then? The only things the readers know that Luce doesn't are the things mentioned in the Chapter intros. There isn't a lot.If so, now's a time to ask more questions about Us. And also to get our kids in the know about things that we readers have picked up on.
And the kind of things I want to know is the kind of things Geneva is unlikely to divulge... or even know himself. For example, I am interested in what Moth was trying to say when he told us to run.
What are we supposed to do?Mars - no, Moth, keeps shaking, the layers of armour looking more and more like some sort of horrible predator from the depths of the Amazon that strangles and constricts its prey. "Run. We have hope, if you--"
He is somewhere in the same wing, not directly behind the door to the Medical Bay. He also pretty explicitly doesn't want to meet us... which could mean we can expect further obstacles between us. The intercom is right here, though, so since it's uncertain if we meet again or if we'd be on talking terms once we do it might be better to ask him the more pertinent questions now.Hmm, we can get through the door now, yes? Why not have these conversations in person?
Marinette about Charles Brighton:
Elaine Paris about the situation:"I'm looking for my father. I can't find him. He's a red-haired man with glasses, he's very important, and I can't imagine he's not in this very building. If you're any sort of detective, you'll help me find him." She takes a deep breath. "Please."
[...]
"The last time I remember seeing him, he was having an argument with Dr. Paris and Mr. Stockholm. It was about... me, I think. Something of some sort has gone horribly wrong here, and they wanted... something or other, from me. He refused. I wasn't supposed to be listening, but I did anyway. The next thing I knew, I was here. I suppose if anything's happened to him, it's my fault."
Dr. Ankara about the situation:"Sol?" Her tone is resigned. She knows what the answer will be.
"Still loose, somewhere in the west wing. I haven't heard back from Marshal Kyoto's team in three hours. I think we can assume they're done for."
"Goddammit. Any sign of Brighton, the bastard?"
"None. I've been able to find Ankara, though. She's in the maze, for whatever reason."
"Soft-hearted idiot. This is all her fault." The hatred in her voice is like tar, choking, thick and boiling.
The man shrugs. "Any orders, Doc?"
"Don't call me 'doc', that's an order for you. Make sure Gaia's secure."
Dr. Ankara about the staff:"The world, children, is in grave danger. There is... something approaching, that is beyond our understanding. Or at least, that was beyond our understanding, before the institute you're standing in right now figured it out. To protect the world, we needed a weapon. And you... not just you three, others as well, you were needed to help us create that weapon.
Jack Brighton's 'Emergency broadcast':"And as for personnel... this facility is on lockdown. I cannot tell you exactly where my colleagues are, but I can guess. The elevator at the end of the Labyrinth will take you to the main part of the facility, the east wing, specifically. That's the medical wing. I think, in the case of an emergency, Dr. Geneva would have stayed there.
[...]
"In the west wing, you may meet other staff members trying to escape: Klaus Helsinki, perhaps. If you see him... tell him I said he's an idiot, and that I'll meet him when I can. He'll help you. If she was anywhere, Kyoto would be there too, the bull-headed woman that she is, still trying to do her job amidst all of this chaos. Paris, that horrible assistant of hers, and your father," she gestures at Mari, "Should all be on the above-ground levels."
Helsinki's admission to Kyoto:"Good evening, everyone who's listening. I know it's been a hectic day, hasn't it? A little more hectic than I presume you'd hoped it would be, Elaine. By the way, I'm surprised you don't seem to have worked this out yet, darling, our superiors - well, your superiors, I should say, I've chosen the winning team - aren't going to be arriving to salvage you or this project any time soon. I've blocked all signals entering or leaving this facility, including your distress signals. I know a miserable fucking psychotic bitch like yourself," he adds, tone and smile remaining at exactly the same level of mild affability despite his words, "Might have a neurotic breakdown now that you're not in control of absolutely everything there is to be in control of in this situation, but I'm afraid that you'll have to live with it, for however long you live. Which, seeing as Sol is on her way to meet you, can't be long. Ta-ta!"
Geneva's conversation with Jack Brighton:Pressed against the door, the man's taut grin of anxious terror only stretches a little wider, a bead of sweat trickling from his hair and down his face. "Look, look, okay, come on, this whole thing," and at this he makes a grand sweeping gesture to indicate the whole building, "Didn't work out. It's all going to hell, and the only people who are going to have a career or, you know, a chance to be alive and not dead at the end of this, are going to be the ones who get out of here and wash their hands of it. So let's part ways, and we can just-"
"You're dodging the accusation. Have you taken part in Ankara's sabotage of this project? Yes or no."
"Now, I wouldn't call it sabotage, actually, it's just..." he trails off as his eyes widen, hands trembling as the woman in front of him fingers the trigger and he realizes he's said the wrong thing.
"Don't fuck with me, you prick," the voice on the other side of the phone growls like a furious animal, all pretense of civilization lost for an instant before there are a few seconds of silence and he resumes with a touch more composure. "Might I remind you, my good man, that we had a deal? And may I, perhaps, go so far as to suggest that letting Helsinki through your wing unscathed was a glaring act of de facto betrayal?"
The man in the coat smirks, a smile like a knife wound. "Ah, yes. Well, I'm going to have to tell you, Jack, I really don't think that the reality of this situation is living up to your pitch. Besides, what can I say, he surrendered himself into my care. I'm hardly going to harm a patient, you know. I'm a man of medicine."
[...]
"Is this it, then. Am I not going to be able to get a serious word out of you?"
"Well, let me see… after you betray me and leave me for dead, the only serious thing you are getting out of me, Mr. Brighton, is that I hope your ridiculous plan backfires and kills you horribly, and painfully." This last word is punctuated by the man in the white coat driving the scalpel into the table in a movement so fast it would be difficult to follow with the naked eye.
"Be reasonable, Geneva, for God's sake. Ankara's off in some corner of her own maze, bleeding to death, Paris is holed up in her bunker waiting for her demise to come to her, my idiot brother's mad as a hatter - I'm the only one here offering you a way out."
When Mari said her father had 'disappeared', I initially thought he went rogue after his daughter had been kidnapped, and the project fell apart. I based this on Elaine's quote which indeed talked about 'that bastard' Brighton going AWOL. What I got wrong, though, is that she referred to the different Brighton - Jack, not Charles.
It is unclear who set fire to the powder keg, and what exactly did they do. My money is on Ankara releasing the test subjects, and Helsinki assisting her. Apparently, somewhere along the road Jack Brighton decided to switch sides, ally with whatever is coming, and let the project burn. He convinced Dr. Geneva to join forces with him. Some time later, he betrayed Geneva and left him for dead, but miscalculated. Not only did Geneva survive, but he also rescued Helsinki from an almost certain death by Kyoto's hand, and let him through his - eastern- wing. Meanwhile, one of the children, Sol, is approaching Elaine's bunker in the western wing, presumably with the intention to exterminate her former captors.
It looks like Charles Brighton is still the head of the project and working together with what is left of the staff now that Ankara, Helsinki, Jack and Geneva have taken a leave. I didn't expect him to still support the project after the kidnapping of Marinette, but apparently he isn't exactly right in the head, and the completion of his wife's goal is all he can think about right now. Which might be for the better, considering that it may involve the survival of our species.
Gaia is the weapon Ankara mentioned that should be able to repel the threat. She is currently somewhere under Elaine's control, and Charles is attending to her. We might want to hurry to get there first.
[x] What happened to the rest of the children injected with the serum?
[x] What does Dr. Geneva know of Gaia?
[x] How do we get to wherever Gaia is kept before Sol does?
Anything else we want to talk to Geneva about?
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