Genosha - Step by Step: Meeting with the Double Agent

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Jean, Garrison, Angelo, and Bishop meet with Russell Davis, who tells them that two popular members of the Commission may be pursuaded to speak out against the Genoshan government if they're provided with evidence of mutant mistreatment.



The hotel was really high-class, not at all like the seedy motels where people met with double agents in the movies, since the seedy motel might have raised concerns to anyone watching Russell Davis's movements. Their fake IDs and some low-level computer hacking allowed Kane, Angelo, and Jean a suitable cover story for a meeting with him that they hoped would not raise any red flags with either the hotel staff or Davis's people, allowing them to procure some rooms and gather in one of them to wait for their contact to arrive.

After some decent sleep and Jean's medical attentions, as well as a shave and fresh clothes, Angelo looked at least closer to the kind of person who might fit in at an upscale hotel. He nodded to Davis as the man entered the room. "Glad to see you made it."

Jean lowered her sunglasses as she glanced up from the Genoshan newspaper she had been skimming. There was nothing of particular interest unless one counted sightings of the mutant 'terrorists.' But that was not unusual. Every corrupt regime always hit the press first when it came to whitewashing the truth.

"Any trouble getting here?"

"Considering that I'm the only person in the room that his here legally, no." The young man crossed the shaking hands briefly before sitting down. He looked every each the professional staffer; short dark hair, intelligent eyes, and a complexion that suggested several races in his ancestry. His accent was clipped; university British with just a hint of his native drawl poking through. "So, three days ago, I get a brush drop with on the bus, and today I'm sitting down with you people. What's the deal here? You're weeks early."

"We're not British Intelligence, Russell." Garrison said simply, and the man froze. The Canadian put up a hand. "We're also not a trap. You've been, well, loaned to us by British Intelligence because of your unique position and your recent reports. Are you aware that the Genoshan leadership ordered a reprisal attack in response to the attempted asylum bid by Phillip Moreau and Jennifer Ransome? That attack forcably kidnapped over twenty mutants, most of them minors, and secretly put them into cells in the Citadel."

"You have to be joking. President Moreau is a hard ass, but he's not crazy."

"Russell, I was one of the ones kidnapped. Several days ago, a rescue attempt was made which failed, breaking out some of the captives and leaving others in their hands. As of right now, over forty foreign mutants are trapped into Genoshan borders being hunted, and another dozen are held in that top secret jail."

"Jesus wept." Davis blew out a long breath. "We got briefings about drills, disturbances and a failed terrorist attack, but nothing on that scale."

"It gets worse," Jean said as she slipped off her sunglasses so he could get a good look at her sincerity.

"A few of those foreign mutants, our friends, some of them children, have been converted into mutates, slaves whose only purpose is to obey their handler and serve Genosha. Their minds are stripped of everything that was them and replaced with just a shell. Their orders are to kill us. All because we tried to help two scared teenagers. Their own citizens."

Jean shook her head. "We need help, Davis. We're hoping you might be able to give us that help. Can you do that?"

"Let's slow things down a second." Davis held up one hand. "Briefings on geopolitics aside, I'm a staffer, which means my political power is about zero. The people that I work for - well, that's a different story. But this is a pretty unbelievable story, even for someone like myself who already believes that something has gone badly wrong in the system. So before I take anything anywhere, I need information that isn't going to be laughed at. And please, don't just ask me to trust you. That won't fly."

"What are you looking for?" Bishop asked directly. "If someone doesn't want to believe, a possibly altered picture or video isn't going to cut it. Neither are interviews with those that have escaped."

"You've got to have some kind of additional evidence."

"What if we could show your person that the official number of mutates on the island has been falsely kept much lower than reported?" Kane said. "We've got some people looking into it. If that's enough to sell your people, will evidence from a live feed or a video from them convince others."

Davis paused, considering. "It might, but Joseph and Jobeth are going to check very carefully. Any mistakes or attempts to twist the data, they will find."

"If we find the data, we won't need to twist it", Angelo said flatly. "This is happening."

Jean glanced up. "There's nothing to twist. No mistakes. You're right. It does sound hard to believe. It's easy to ignore it when you aren't living it. Hell, I don't want to believe it myself. But you can't tell me that you haven't thought about it...how far they were going...how far they could go....what could go wrong...Well it all has gone wrong. Horribly," she said, then leaned forward.

"I get the feeling you wouldn't still be talking to us if you didn't have some inkling in your heart that we might be right. We will get you your proof. We just need you to get us an audience."

Davis paused for a moment, and then took a sip from the glass of water in front of him. "My uncle was a mutant. He was killed in an industrial accident at the Prenovan geothermal plant about two years ago. Before he died, he snuck an email to me, broken up in texts from a stolen cell phone. It said that they were working them to death, everyone who objected to the new mutates. A week later, he was gone." Russell met their gaze levelly. "So, yes, I wouldn't be here if I didn't think things were wrong. I just wasn't expecting a secret bloody slave caste with immense power being created to funnel money and power into the hands of a few elected politicians. So you can bear with me when I try and verify things before believing that things are this fundamentally fucked up."

He sighed and stood up. "Get your information together. Make sure it's airtight and untainted. The two people you are going to meet pulled this country back from oblivion on their own backs. Convincing them it's all turned rotton is not going to be an easy thing. But I'll make sure they meet with you. I have your number. I'll be in touch when I have something."