1104 Q9

After a few minutes, there was soft knock at the door, and then the handle turned. Doctor Lightwood walked in a moment later, then nodded at both of them.

"Hello again, Sam, and--hello, Kat," Doctor Lightwood pushed the door shut behind her. "I trust you are doing okay?"

1108 Q9

"Perfectly Ma'am. I do think that she's come around."

Kat nodded, biting her tongue for the benefit of her brother. If she was going to be stuck here, she might as well make the best of it. Sam was right, she needed to be friends with Lightwood. And she was no stranger to pretending to friendly.

"You could say that." She replied after a period of silence, Katherine sure could plaster one mean fake grin onto that face of hers.

1109 Q9

Lightwood studied her for a moment, then smiled an equally pristine smile back at her.

"I understand this is rather...abrupt for you, but it will be for the best, or at least, that's what I hope."

The smile disappeared and was replaced with a frown, but this too disappeared as she turned toward Sam.

"I was reminded of something I saw on your military file, Sam, and I wanted to ask you about that," Tamara began. "You are in charge of the Nova Task Force, are you not?"

11012 Q9

"Yes ma'am, I'm in the process of a selecting my team. But I should have it together ASAP, why do you ask?"

11012 Q9

"I...think it would be best, then, if you made the acquaintance of Dr. Lance Steele, our head doctor and the man who runs Quadrant 9. If you are bringing people here," Tamara paused and studied Sam. "If you are bringing people here, you need to know what, exactly, goes on in this compound."

11013 Q9

Sam, considered this for a moment. "Yes ma'am, I do believe that you are correct. I've been itching to meet Doctor Steele from the moment I arrived here, if you would point me in the right direction, or get me an escort, or whatever. I'll leave Kat in your hands."

1113 Q9

Tamara reached over and hit the intercom at the base of her lamp.

"Sydney, can you send and escort by?" she asked. There was a moment of silence, then the intercom clicked.

"Do you need one or two, Doctor?"

"Just one, thank you."

She turned to Sam.

"I hope you find your time with Dr. Steele productive, Captain Talon," she said. The door opened and a tall man stepped in. Tamara nodded at him. "This is Captain Talon, Robby. Please take him over to see Dr. Steele. They have some business matters to discuss. Captain Talon is...touring the facility as a representative of our military counterparts."

"Good to meet you, sir," Robby nodded. "I can take you over to Dr. Steele's office right now, if you are ready."

Dr. Lightwood nodded at him.

~~

After the door closed, Tamara turned back to Kat.

"I'm sorry that our first meeting had to end so abruptly," she said, smoothing out her skirt. "But I am very glad that you came to me before a grab team got to you."

1113 Q9

"Yeah, I'm ready. Thank you for this Doctor Lightwood, it means a lot. If you ever need something, let me know. I'll be around, the same goes for you Kat."

"Goodbye Sam," Kat said, urging her brother along. The faster he left the faster she could get around to dealing with her new set of circumstances.

"Alright, Robby was it? Lets go."

---

Kat was quiet for a moment, then asked one very direct question. "How'd you get Sammy to come in here and spit out those lies to me? Seriously though, tell the truth."

1114 Q9
Q9 Tour

"Yes sir," Robby led him down the hall. "I'll take you the long way through so you can see everything. Feel free to ask me any questions. I'm no doctor by any stretch of the imagination, but I get around, so I know a lot. Just be careful, though. I know you got all your military training, but when one of these things jump at you, well, just get out of the way. You shouldn't be near any of 'em, though--all of 'em are contained. Steele's assistant is one, too, but he's petty calm. Steele's got a good handle on him so he's nothing to worry about."

1114 Q9
Lightwood's Office

"I'm sorry, but I'm not quite sure what you mean," Tamara said. "What did he tell you?"

1114 Q9
Q9 Tour

"Thank's for the tip, I'll be sure to keep it in mind." Samuel agreed outwardly while simultaneously internally scoffing this security guards vast under estimation of what exactly his training had entailed. Still all the same, he couldn't afford to alienate anyone on this base, he knew that he might eventually need the connections for whatever reason. And sometimes you've just got to cut through the red-tape.

"I'll have to take you up on your offer though, so in your honest opinion, how are the inmate's living conditions here?"

---

1114 Q9
Lightwood's Office

"Well, for starters he told me you were trying to keep me safe. That I should try to be friends with you, last time I checked, friend's don't drug each other and ship them off to a secret military base for mutant freaks."

1115 Q9
Q9 Tour

"Pretty stripped down," Robby admitted. "Food's alright, got all your usual heating and air stuff. Have to have a good system for that, with all that goes on in here. Guess this place used to be a training spot for high level spooks, so they didn't make life easy on 'em. They've dressed it up some since then, and they'll let 'em earn things to put in their rooms, but they start out pretty dull. Just a bed, some drawers, a chair and a table. I can show you one of 'em, if you like."

1114 Q9
Lightwood's Office

Tamara nodded and walked over to the couch and sat down, motioning for Kat to join her.

"I had a choice, Katherine," she said, after studying her for a moment. "A very hard choice to make, yet I find myself making them every day. That choice is what I face constantly. You see, there is no good choice for me. With our government, what is right is now impossible. In your case, my choice was between keeping an eye on you and taking you in myself, or letting you go, knowing that there would be a team waiting back at the base for you, and that, if you survived, it would be months before I laid eyes on you again. There was no other choice."

She paused, then looked back at Kat.

"You're right--I'm not your friend. I barely know you, and you know next to nothing about me. But what we have is an opportunity to start again and try to build a friendship."

1115 Q9
Q9 Tour

"I think that I'd like that," needless to say Sam was relieved that his worst fears hadn't come into fruition. The empowered (that's what had taken to calling them) weren't living in holes or anything, still he could come up with some other possibilities.

1114 Q9
Lightwood's Office

"I don't suppose I have much of a choice, so mine isn't very hard to make." Kat said, coming to the same conclusion that her brother had just a few short minutes ago. "So, what are you planning?"

1118 Q9
Q9 Tour

"Sure thing," Robby said. "We'll cut through part of the medical wing. Bit faster that way and less doors I have to punch codes into."

Robby turned down a side hallway and coded through a door, then stepped through and held it for Sam.

"Don't let the light get to you," he said. "Some find it a little disorienting at first. Made one girl just about faint. No harm in it, though, least, that I know of."

1114 Q9
Lightwood's Office

"Well, I guess the first thing to do would be to get you settled and oriented. You'll get your own room, of course, and then once you get used to everything I'll see about getting you a key card so you can move about on your own. I'm presuming your father at least insured you knew how to defend yourself, right?"

1115 Q9
Q9 Tour

"Thanks for the warning." Sam pulled a pair of aviators out of his chest zipper pocket, flicked them open and slide them onto his face all in one motion. It was something he practiced, Samuel usually utilized it to impress the ladies at the officers bar, so it was pretty slick. Of course, considering his surroundings that move was probably a bit inappropriate. After the taking a look at the first few patients he got a feel for what was going on in this medical unit, the headphones were what tipped him off.

"Some type of psychological manipulation? I've seen something similar done to soldiers with PTSD, nothing to this extent though. Back then, we were just trying to get them to feel confident about themselves. So we'd give them these self worth tapes to listen to at night. Some how, I don't think that's what y'all are doing here."

---

1116 Q9
Lightwood's Office

"Yeah. Sammy, his buddies and I used to make a killing at the fight clubs back home in Burg, no one would ever bet on the girl. You could say that I can hold my own."

1119 Q9
Q9 Tour

"It's more than that. I mean, they got the right idea, but this goes deeper," Robby shook his head. "It's a cognitive analysis thing. Some of them are getting analyzed, some are actually being treated. Helps them get over stuff that's messed them up, make them more stable and predictable like. It's like the worst of the worst got all the powers. These things do something with 'em, though. I think it makes the good ones better and the bad ones worse. But I'm no doctor. That's just what I think, don't got much proof for it."

1116 Q9
Lightwood's Officd

Tamara laughed.

"Well, I guess you know how to handle yourself, then," she smiled. "That's one less thing you would need to train for. We don't expect anyone getting out that might cause trouble, but if there is something and we go into lockdown, I want to be sure you can take care of yourself. Of course, all in all, you're probably the most likely to get to safety in that case..." Tamara mused.