xp_logs | Trinity: Taking The Silk Road (Reply)

Nathan hears some vaguely alarming things from old friends in Kazakhstan about a central training school for mutants. Deciding that an investigation is in order, he also decides that he and Angelo need some company on this trip. His first stop is the school's resident expert in nomadic peoples.

Nathan paused in front of Wanda's office door, pondering for a moment precisely what he was going to say. After all, this wasn't a particularly attractive offer he was about to make her, given the time of year. But surely she'd find it interesting. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking. Nathan rolled his eyes, then raised a hand and knocked on the door.

"Come in!"

The reason for the muffled voice soon came apparent as Wanda struggled to remove two large maps from an even larger duffle bag. Peering up just long enough to see who it was, she immediately went back to what she was doing. "What brings you by, Nathan? Hoping for more inspired midnight writings?" Even preoccupied, she still found the time to tease him.

His answering smile was a bit faint. They had talked about what Askani had done, leaving Wanda with as much of the Clan's history as she could in that last, desperate moment, but none of the conversations had been comfortable. "Actually, no. Business of an entirely different kind," he said, closing the door behind him. "Wanda, have you ever been to Kazakhstan?"

"Once. It involved a lot of drinking, two badly drawn maps, one guide who was partially blind and, I think, on drugs." She stopped and straightened, putting a hand on her hip as she stared at him. "Why?"

"Sounds like Kazakhstan to me." Nathan sat down in one of the armchairs, gazing up at her thoughtfully. "Did I ever tell you that I lived there for a year? I was nineteen. My one and only deep cover assignment for Mistra. I actually stayed with one of the clans who went back to the nomadic lifestyle."

"You sound like you actually liked it," Wanda mused, giving up on the maps for the time being. Instead, she leaned against the desk and thought. "My time there was not bad but it was not the best, either. It was...okay, I suppose."

"It was..." Nathan trailed off, his eyes gone distant. "They treated me like a human being. It was pretty much the first time for that, for me. I got to feel like a part of their lives, like I was one of them. And it was quiet. I know that sounds like a strange sort of thing to say like it was something really positive, but still. I had all this time away from Mistra to be who I was..." And now he wasn't making any sense. He mustered up a wan little smile. "Or, you know, I could break it down to the fundamentals and admit that because they showed me kindness I imprinted on them like a wounded puppy."

She returned his smile. "Traveling folk tend to either completely shun people from the outside or bring them firmly into their midst. It is a way of maintaining identity while making sure there are still friends on the outside. But I do not think you came in here to reflect...?"

Nathan shook his head. "No, I didn't." His mind was wandering a little too much, these last few days. Not a good sign. "And actually, you just demonstrated to me why I'm here. Your expertise with traveling folk." He rubbed at his jaw, trying to think of how to sum up. "I've gotten news of some disturbing developments in Kazakhstan having to do with a central training 'academy' for mutants. I know, not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself... but apparently there are children being removed from the nomadic groups and enrolled forcibly."

Wanda froze, back stiffening noticeably. "~Scum~," she murmured, after a second, getting up to pace, hands clasped behind her back. "They target those with no ties like that because most of them are afraid of the law or the law simply does not care. Or they go around the law, as we have seen before." The implication of Amanda was there but there was no need to go further down that road. "Easy prey, they would believe. How long has this been going on? Do the reports go back?"

"Six months or thereabouts, from what I've been able to tell. I found out when I got back into touch with a couple of contacts in Astana and Almaty - I've been trying to built myself something of a network, I suppose." Ironic, still. Him who'd never had any head for intelligence. "Maybe it's wrong to home in on this simply because of my personal connection," he went on, "but I want to. I'm leaving in a day or two to check the situation out, most likely with Angelo, and I was wondering if you'd like to come along."

She didn't even have to think about it and waved a hand at him. "Of course. I do not have the experience there as I would other countries but..." Wanda shrugged. "This strikes too close to home, yes? I will get my affairs in order with off-campus things but I'll be ready."

"I'll handle visas and the like. Charles is very good about fast-tracking those. And," he said, rising from the chair, "I also still speak fluent Kazakh. Which will simplify things enormously in terms of talking to the families in question."

"I speak Russian and a few dialects in that region, so...well, at least you speak it fluently. What do you think we will find there?"

"Russian will be good when we have to talk to the official types," Nathan said. "I bet you that the two of us could pass as natives if we had to." He didn't quite have the Eastern European look, but his linguistic skills tended to make up for that. "As for what we'll find..." He shrugged. "Not sure. A Kazakh version of a residential school, from the sounds of it. But I'm hoping it's not as bad as it sounds."

"As do I." The unspoken 'but' hung between them until she nodded, turning back to her desk. "Go spend some time with that adorably evil child and wife of yours, I need to prepare."

---

Afterwards, he checks with his loyal minion to make sure that Angelo is indeed up for another trip to Central Asia. Angelo is of course ready and willing. Nathan also takes the opportunity to give him a raise and tell him how pleased he is with the job Angelo's doing.

Angelo was sitting at his desk, alternately checking the NGO directory and adding details of new ones to the database. He glanced up as the door opened, and smiled.

Nathan waggled an eyebrow at him. "You're looking distressingly chipper. Have you bent the database to your will yet?"

"More or less, I think. Just been puttin' the new ones in."

"By the way," Nathan said, flopping down in the chair opposite Angelo's desk, "you're getting a raise. I did mention that, right? It being a new year and all."

Angelo glanced up, his grin broadening. "No, you didn't. Thanks."

"Thank yourself for doing such a damned good job these first few months," Nathan said seriously. "You've earned it. And you're having to put in so much extra time on your languages - not that you're not picking them up fast, don't get me wrong - that it's really only fair."

"So how much of a raise'm I gettin', then?" he asked cheerfully.

"Thirty-five percent sound good?"

"...really does." He hadn't been expecting that much. "More than, even."

"You have a talent for this sort of thing," Nathan said. "The nitty-gritty of the information crunching and the detective work." He waved almost dismissively. "You just need more experience, and I won't have a research assistant, I'll have a partner."

Angelo hadn't stopped grinning since Nathan had started talking, but he brightened still further now. "You mean it?"

"I mean it. And hell, it's not like I'm a polished expert at this... I'm a little better at getting people to tell me things they don't want to, yes, and I smell rotten fish when there's rotten fish about, but to some extent we're learning the ropes together here."

"...well, thanks. Again."

"You're welcome." Nathan slouched in the chair, propping his feet up on the edge of the desk. "So, one piece of business down. Second piece of business... how would you feel about a trip to Kazakhstan in a couple of days?"

"...in a couple of days? If I can get a dogsitter - an' Bobby'll do it if no one else can, he likes her - I'm there."

"Short notice, I know," Nathan said apologetically, "but it's a fairly nasty-sounding situation." He filled Angelo in, quickly and succinctly, on the news about the mutant school and the enforced enrollments of children from the nomadic groups. "So basically, fact-finding again. We need to figure out precisely what's going on."

Angelo nodded, smile gone now. "Shouldn't be too hard to find someone to watch Joyita. I'm in."

"Wanda's coming too. She's got a lot of experience with non-sedentary peoples, after all, and she speaks Russian well. Might be someone else, too," Nathan said thoughtfully.

Angelo tilted his head curiously. "Who'd the someone else be?"

"Mmm. I'll tell you if it works out," Nathan said, filing the idea away for later - not too much later, mind you - consideration. Might be very interesting. And educational. "It'll be cold on the steppes," he went on more briskly. "Have you got suitable cold-weather gear?"

"...for the steppes? Probably not."

"I didn't think so." Nathan dug in his pocket for a moment, coming up with his wallet, from which he removed the credit card attached to their expense account for trips like this. "Go to the Patagonia website," he said. "Get the full range of what you think you'd need -chances are you're going to need it again. Get it rush-delivered, obviously."

Angelo nodded, reaching out to snag the card. "They can send stuff out that fast?"

Nathan nodded. "They've got a store in New York. They'll have it here tomorrow if you want it by tomorrow."

"Right. I'll order it tonight, then."

"All right. I'll leave you to it," Nathan said, getting up. "I have some visas to arrange in a hurry. And I hate to ask, but I think maybe you'd better take an image inducer. We might want to make sure we stay beneath the radar."

"...right. I can do that." It wasn't so much to ask, really.

Nathan smiled as he turned towards the door. "Always wanted to show some of you guys Kazakhstan," he said over his shoulder. "Pity it's got to be under such circumstances, but we should make the most of it."

"There'll be other times, maybe", Angelo said with a slight shrug.

"Well, you'll get to meet the people I lived with, at least. Maybe we can find you another girl," Nathan said with a perfectly straight face, his hand on the doorknob.

Angelo threw a book in his general direction.

---

Arranging things with the third person he wants to take along requires making another stop first. Plans of a sort are discussed.

"Alison...." The voice calling her name was almost singsong, which was disturbing given that it was Nathan's. He peered around the half-open door of her suite, then gave her a very alarming grin. "I want something."

Alison looked up from her book slowly. Very slowly. And checked the window to see if she had a clear path for it, making sure Nathan could see the gesture. She looked back at him after, face still slightly turned towards the window, as though assuring herself it might not dissapear at any given second. "...and that would be?"

"I want to take your boyfriend to Kazakhstan and make him miserable for his own good for a week," was Nathan's cheery response as he came in, closing the door behind him. "I have vague ideas that could turn into concrete plans."

She kept staring at him suspiciously for a while longer, narrowing her eyes slightly. "Huh." Setting the book aside she made a vague gesture towards one of the chairs, and then settled down to ponder the question seriously. "For his own good, huh? How miserable are we talking here?"

"No actual harm," Nathan promised. "But he's getting in a rut here, Alison. Overthinking his inability to use his power, which is only making the problem worse. There's nothing here that's going to jar him out of that particular bad pattern, barring someone taking it into their head to throw him off the roof..."

"I've thought about it, very briefly, and decided it wouldn't work," Alison replied, bringing her legs up next to her on the couch. Her lips quirked slightly. "I'm glad to see you've decided it wouldn't help either," she added. "Sooo.. what did you have in mind, exactly?"

"Hey, I'm still not convinced that it wouldn't. But really, I don't have anything exact in mind," Nathan confessed, leaning back against the wall and folding his arms across his chest. "I just know that there are liable to be opportunities there that there aren't here. Stresses that could lead to a breakthrough if I seize the right moment. I'd watch him like a hawk, of course," he assured her. "No undue risk."

Alison smiled a bit, shaking her head. "Even if nothing shows up, Nathan, just getting the chance to move and travel and do something will do him worlds of good, really." She nodded, slightly, then gave Nathan a wry look. "Mind keeping me updated by phone though?"

Nathan tossed off a sloppy salute. "Meticulously, ma'am. I'll give you a daily report on all his comings and goings if you want." He stopped, then smiled suddenly, almost abashedly. "I'm really entirely too happy about going to Kazakhstan, even under these circumstances. I hope... well, I'd really like Haroun to see what I saw in those people."

"Well, with all of those arguments in the balance, how can I say no? Of course, now you get to ask Haroun yourself. Though I'm willing to bet he'll be perfectly happy to go." Even if he groused, he'd be happy to go, she knew.

"I'll have to practice my serious faces in the mirror, so that I don't tip my hand," Nathan said, and knew that he was sounding like a total goof, but what the hell? If he couldn't be something of a doofus with Alison, who could he indulge that side of him with?

With an utterly serious expression, Alison gave him a measuring look and replied, easily. "You know, there's this really good acting teacher in town I could refer you to."

---

Last stop, and fortunately, Haroun is intrigued enough by the concept of visiting a hitherto unvisited-by-him mostly-Muslim nation not to detect that Nathan has something up his sleeve.

Haroun was in the Hangar Bay, working on doing a firmware patch to the guidance system. As usual, the manufacturer's instructions read like a combination of English translated from the original Klingon by an Outer Mongolian with a thick Brooklyn accent dictating the instructions via a shoestring phone to a Marsailles cathouse worker. Needless to say, it was not going well.

"Nice to see you back in the hangar," came Nathan's voice from over by the doors as he walked in, looking around for a moment before he headed over to where Haroun was working.

"I've missed the old girl. Been a while since I've paid her any attention. Girls get jealous when they feel ignored." he smirked. "What brings you down here?" he asked as he tapped in another instruction to the EEPROM burner.

"Looking for you, actually." Nathan folded his arms across his chest, leaning back against the wall. "I'm headed overseas in a day or two."

"Where to?" he asked as he looked at his directions with a quirked eyebrow. "These make no sense. I'll make Scott do them." he said with an evil look and powered down the burner.

Nathan snorted. "Don't taunt Scott. Does he still come down here and gaze wistfully at the 'Bird?"

"I think so." he said. "But this is something he can do. He's better with deciphering this shit anyway. If we really get desperate we'll give it to Doug along with a bucket of aspirin." he said. "So - where you off to this time?"

"Kazakhstan," Nathan said with a straight face. "Want to come?"

"Gesundheit. And ... wha?" he asked, puzzled. "Why are you asking me to come with you? I'll only slow you down, and I'm hardly in the best shape to travel."

"I'm not anticipating us having to move very fast," Nathan said, and quickly sketched the situation, the reports of the mutant school and the involuntary enrollment of nomad children. "You remember me talking about these people I lived with. I owe it to them to check this out."

"A laudable goal, but I have to ask again. Why me? You know these people far better than I ever could, and you've got Angelo to do your gruntwork." he said. "I mean, yeah, I'm tempted, but I'm not exactly medically cleared to be gallivanting in the ass end of nowhere. What if I have another episode like I did at the climbing wall?"

Nathan gazed at him patiently. "Kazakhstan is a predominantly Muslim nation. You have a certain edge when it comes to functioning in Muslim society."

Haroun ah'ed softly. "Well then. This an official black-leather visit or an unofficial one?"

Nathan rolled his eyes at Haroun. "Unofficial. I don't lead official black-leather visits, remember? And Wanda is coming, as well. For her expertise with non-sedentary people."

Haroun grinned at that. "Well, at least the camp stories should be entertaining. Let me sell Alison on it, and then I'm your man." he said. "Got anything for me to brush up on these people, or do you want me to go in cold and form my own opinions?"

"I've got some files you should read. Do you speak any Russian?"

Haroun shook his head. "English, Arabic, and French." he said. "Languages are not necessarily my thing."

"Hmm. Damn. Angelo's been learning a little, and Wanda's fluent. I'm thankfully still fully fluent in Kazakh, which'll be the important thing..."

"Do they speak Arabic?" he asked hopefully. "If they're Faithful, they might..."

Nathan shook his head. "These are the Central Asian steppes, Haroun. The religion made it that far. The language didn't."

"How very odd." he mused. "At least I won't have to deal with the fucking Wahabbis." he said musingly. "All right. Go ahead and send me that prep-work. I'll go talk to Alison, see what she things." He then shook his head. "Man, I am pathetic. Gotta go check in before I go anywhere."

"Moira pouted at me terribly when this first came up. Then she reflected that she could spend the week on Muir with Rachel and continue to indoctrinate the munchkin in the necessary Scottishness."

"Isn't she a little young for whisky and pissing at the English?" he asked with a grin. "And you're married, that's different."

"Alison will think this is a good idea," Nathan said judiciously, after a moment. Of course she would. Since he had checked with her first and all. "You need to get out and about some more. You're beginning to smell musty."

"You telling me this because you've already talked to her, or are you telling me this as a telepath, or are you telling me this as a friend?" he asked suspiciously.

Nathan gazed at him patiently. "I'm telling you this as a friend who knows you both. She'll think this is a good idea."

Haroun ah'ed. He wasn't sure he was buying that explanation, but he mentally agreed to let it go. "Fair enough. I'll see her tonight, ask her then. And you're right about one thing - I've been cooped up in here way too long for my own good."