Skeleton Coast: Dead End?

[x-cable.livejournal.com]

Thursday afternoon. When they reach Luederitz, the next site on Esther's map, Nathan and the others find out that Gideon is a step ahead of them - and was a step ahead of Esther, as well. There's a solution, but not a simple one.


The Eris office was as tiny as it had appeared from outside, and as Dutch-neat. The young man that rose, smiling, at their entrance was wearing an immaculate suit and wire-rimmed glasses. "Hello," he said brightly, "may I-" His eyes went very wide behind his glasses as he got a good look at them. Absurdly, his smile only brightened.

"Mister Morrow," he said, coming out from around the side of the desk and extending his hand to Nathan. "What a pleasure it is to-" Nathan lashed out with his telekinesis and flung him against a wall, pinning him there. "Uhhh..." the young man managed to choke out. "Uhh... you prefer Mister Dayspring?"

"You're damned right I do." Nathan was peripherally aware of Alison thinking at him very pointedly. #No!# he snapped back without looking at her. #I am not putting him down.# "Where's my uncle?"

Sighing, Alison moved forward, leaning on her cane perhaps more heavily than she'd done so earlier - hardly a surprise with the running about they'd indulged in of late. A silver highlight gleamed in her hair as she stopped near the only small window of the office, close to the young man. "Nathan," she drawled out the words. "The man is happy to see us. To see you. Don't make the man unhappy," she added in a low murmur, giving him a reproachful look. "I'm sure if you set him down he'll be delighted to answer your question." She beamed at the topic of their conversation, reaching out to pat his chest reassuringly.

Disgusted, Nathan dropped the young man, who staggered, but got his balance back quickly enough. The smile stayed on, if a little strained, as he looked from Nathan to the others and then back again. "Well," he said, adjusting his tie. "Mr. Faraday did warn me that this could be an... unpredictable sort of business meeting. I believe that's what the bonus was for."

"I've had more than enough of arseholes like you this year, shiteyes. Take a look at our faces, and ask yourself if we're in the mood to pretend to be civilised men right now, and play at fucking 'business meetings'." Pete spat the last two words out with terrible venom. "And then answer the fucking question, before one of us does something you'll regret."

"There's a problem with doing that, sir... Mister Wisdom, I'm presuming," the young man said with a sigh, still adjusting his clothes. "I don't actually know where Mister Faraday is." Nathan glared, opening his mouth, but he shook his head. "Sir, you can scan me if you want. In fact, I'm under orders to let you, so that you know I'm telling the truth."

"Christ's sake," Cain grumbled as he stood blocking the open doorway, watching outside. "Peel his damn brain like a grape and let's get a move on."

"Sir," the young man said with a sort of wry amusement as he took off his glasses, examining them for a moment, and then put them back on again, "seriously, there's no grape-peeling required. When I said I was under orders, I didn't mean I was doing this against my will." He focused on Nathan. "I'm a baseline human," he said clearly, "and I've had no defensive mental training. It makes it very simple for you to verify that yes, I am indeed telling you the truth. Your uncle believed that you'd need to do that, to fully understand what's going on here. You have an... issue with taking his word, or that of those associated with him, I understand." He shrugged, smiling a little. "This way you won't have to, and we save a great deal of time."

Frowning, Nathan glanced sideways at Alison and Pete, then back at the young man. He reached out, hesitantly but rapidly, to brush his thoughts - he might seem like a baseline human on the telepathic level, but Nathan wasn't going to take his word for that, either.

But it took him perhaps five seconds to ascertain that he was indeed telling the truth. On both counts. "He doesn't know," Nathan muttered, withdrawing back behind his own shields. "Gideon didn't tell him."

He had, however, told him something else, and Nathan took a step back, not looking at the other three as he tried to process it. Son of a bitch...

The young man blinked, shivering a little. "Odd sensation. I haven't had much experience with telepaths before."

"Well," Alison sighed a bit, unable to resist nodding politely at the young man - good manners demanded as much, really, and he'd been nothing else but cooperative through the whole thing, "it's not like Gideon's ever been one to be helpful except when he wanted to."

She looked through the small room, then shrugged. "And he'd hardly hand over an easy answer. Survival of the fit, and all that."

"That sort of reductionism really isn't appropriate, Ms. Blaire," the young man pointed out courteously, fixing his tie. "Not in this situation, at least." He gave Nathan a thoughtful look. "You saw it all, I trust?"

Nathan leaned back against the desk, not meeting any of the pairs of eyes that suddenly focused on him. "He knew," he said quietly, "right from the get-go. About the map."

"He was very often in telepathic contact with your mother. What she saw, he saw. And he finds precognition very interesting. That's what all of this is about, when it comes right down to it," the young man admitted. "He wants to test yours."

Pete leant back on the wall, staring at the man with a strange, distant expression.

"You know, you're awfully fucking calm about all this, given that you're helping a twisted fuck play his stupid, sadistic little games. I mean, if I were in your shoes right now, I'd be bricking myself. Which means you think you have some kind of ace up your sleeve, don't you? Something that'll keep you alive?"

"Well, I did call the police when I saw your car pulling up," was the reply. "They should be arriving shortly, factoring in the usual response time." He shrugged slightly. "It's a flimsy sort of protection, obviously. Any one of you could kill me, and Mister Dayspring there could make our local law enforcement not notice a thing. I suppose I'm counting on a lack of consensus between the four of you on the whole issue of swatting the irritant I represent." He may have glanced at Alison, just briefly.

Nathan shook himself out of the near-reverie and focused on Pete suddenly. It struck him that it would be a good idea to put himself between Pete and Gideon's flunkie. Just in case. "And if you walk away from this alive," he said, taking those two very carefully measured steps, "you get another bonus, I'm guessing?"

"That and a great deal of personal satisfaction in a job well done."

"Which was all you were doing, with no harm to anyone," Alison said contemplatively. "Gentlemen? This would be the time, I suppose,.were one points out that there's no use in harming the messenger and all that jazz." She pointedly did not say 'killing'. "Do we have everything we need, then?" It was easy to move to face them all, back to the young man, the still open door visible behind the three men before her.

"No," Nathan said, his gaze lingering on Pete for a moment before he looked back at the young man, "but I think we have everything we're going to get."

Now all he had to do was see the future. On cue. And the memory he'd seen in the young man's mind of his conversation with Gideon made one thing perfectly clear.

Gideon fully expected him to be able to do it. Which said things about his experience with precognition and his relationship with Esther, that Nathan didn't really want to contemplate right now.

"Your uncle's looking forward to seeing you, sir," the young man said, going back around his desk and sitting down. "Catching up on family news and the like - you should have heard him speculating on how much his great-niece must have grown."

This time it was Alison who moved between him and the young man. She looked pointedly at the door. Nathan swallowed his rage with some effort, and turned away.