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o5-10 · 22 days ago

Text

Never before shared RP 1: Nina's kidnapping/Ludivolo-ing for Ten's assassination

Visibility: No

Warnings: kidnapping, brainwashing, injections

Liu, Hazmi, Tanushree, and Madhavan @the-end-and-the-way/ @motherfuckinchaos

Nina: Me

The operatives had not been keen to get out of bed in the middle of the night to clear out the basement. The ride at breakneck speed to the Site had been harrowing, despite the lack of traffic. And now Hazmi was nowhere to be found, despite Liu having texted him the wake phrase several times already.

Trying not to scream (because it was bad idea to do so in the heart of a Foundation site in the middle of the night), Liu wrenched open Hazmi’s door. There he was, the idiot. He’d been trying to wake a sleeping sleeper agent by text. No sign of Newport yet, so Liu thanked his stars, crossed the room and clearly enunciated the phrase into Hazmi’s ear.

“Oh-wuuuoo, what’s this?”

And just like that, Hazmi was awake and alert, conditioning repressing any residual sleepiness. Liu breathed a sigh of relief, and motioned to him to stand behind him. Newport might arrive at any minute now.

Nina glanced at her watch, well that wasn't great, she was running a little late. "Late" by the standards of support staff was, of course, quite a bit less time than most people would consider "late," and so at the 25 minute mark, she got to the office, a tired, but sincere, smile on her face, "Hi, uh, sorry I'm a bit, late, I don't really have a great explanation, I must've miscalculated a bit when estimating," she fiddled with her scarf a bit, before extending her hand to Liu.

"Anyway, he's clearly the reason I'm here, so you must be my contact, right?" She'd never been great at conducting interviews like this, she could do it, but it felt like more attention than she was comfortable with. Having the mysterious Anonymous, who now had a face, with her would help that, a lot. She was silently thankful for it.

“No worries at all, in fact, I should be thanking you for your quick response,” Liu took her hand. “Yes, Hazmi is my colleague, whose data you’re here to collect for Recordkeeping. I hope that we can get this over as soon as possible,” He turned to Hazmi, who nodded. “This interview won’t take much time at all.”

“Sorry to trouble you,” Hazmi, or the shell of Hazmi, said. “It’s... It was my fault, and I’ll cooperate with you, Miss Newport.”

She nodded, giving two shakes before letting go, "Yes, that, do you have a list of questions I should be asking? Or should I go with my gut here?" Well, that's a great start, isn't it?

She shook her head, looking at Hazmi, "Oh, no, no, I wouldn't say it's necessarily your fault. If you're suffering, and you just don't have the tools to cope, it's not a fault. Just a responsibility. But cooperation is always appreciated, does make it easier on everyone, yeah?”

“Just begin at the beginning, Hazmi.” Liu said. “Maybe asking questions as they come to mind might help. You might want to sit down though, you may need to write.” He pulled up Hazmi’s desk chair.

Hazmi sat on the bed, looking rather put upon. “We were tasked to gather intel for the ferreting out of agents whose loyalties are suspect,” he said. “Most of the data we were instructed to keep in our heads only.”

"Thank you," she gave Liu an appreciative look, taking the seat, and opening her binder to a blank page, she'd put it in the proper forms later.

That all made sense enough, internal affairs and all, "What was your role, specifically? And did you focus on any particular task forces, or did you handle all agents?”

Hazmi glanced at Liu, who had picked up a folder from the desk, and was flipping through it. “I was our team recorder,” he said. “I thought I was doing fine, but I- “ He stopped, passing a hand over his forehead. “I- did just what was required of me, I don’t understand-“

Liu slipped the glossy photograph out from the inner pocket of his parka, and inserted it into the file.

Nina noticed him flipping through files, he must've been double checking things, whatever he was doing she didn't focus too much on him, she was focused on being supportive to Hazmi, but getting the information she needed, as well.

"That makes sense. Where did the problems start, do you think? Or when did you, or those around you, first notice it? If you are okay to answer.”

“The research division. When I was transferred to the research division.” Hazmi sat up, looking straight ahead now that the distraction that Liu needed was over. “I-“

“You may want to look at this,” Liu interrupted from behind her, thrusting the folder with the defanged Berryman-Langford in it into Nina’s view.

The factotum was nodding, writing things down in shorthand as she tried to formulate how to politely word her next question when the demeanor of the man she was interviewing changed suddenly. Before she could ask him what happened, though, Liu was speaking, and shoving papers in front of her, which must have been important.

"Ah, thank you, again, I don't think you ever gave me a name," she didn't wait for a response before beginning to page through the folder. He would surely understand. This was time sensitive, and she couldn't be away for too terribly long. Learning a name didn't require eye contact.

The papers fell as she felt her body freeze. What the hell was that? Not that she could get an answer. She couldn't even ask the question, she could only shift her eyes up and maybe the hopeless confusion would be conveyed. What the hell kind of sick joke? Was this the kind of thing this Hazmi was doing? If it was...the prognosis was going to be bad. And she worried. About everyone involved. But she couldn't do much about it. At all. Hopefully her mysterious contact would help? He had seemed to want to. Someone had to.

“Not important,” Liu muttered, watching Nina tense. He nodded to Hazmi, who stood up. “She’s going to be conscious but unresponsive for maybe a couple hours. We’re going to the car park, one level down.”

Hazmi lifted Nina carefully from the chair, and followed Liu.

She very, very much didn't like this, but yet again, there wasn't much to do. She wasn't as self-flagellating as her boss, but she felt so fucking stupid, right then. Her heart was in her mouth when he responded like that. Oh. And then he continued, and she wanted to cry, to call someone, anything.

She was hoping for the best, but even the best wasn't looking very good from where she was, which was being hoisted by a complete stranger she had been led to believe was potentially very not okay, and was demonstrably very not a friend. She was torn between concern, fear, and rage. Which one didn't matter, though. Her mind kept drawing back to concerns about her friends, and more importantly, her boss, who she knew needed her assistance. Maybe it was to distract from thinking about the current nightmare scenario.

Well, maybe she'd get lucky and be rescued. She could just listen and store everything, in case? There had to be a way to make this somewhat useful. There had to.

Wasting no time, Liu retraced his steps exactly through the corridor, and down the staircase back to the underground car park, Hazmi behind him. The device in his jacket would disrupt the security camera feeds for the couple of seconds they would take to run past them, but there was still the risk of meeting someone on the way down. Reaching the car park, he flung the door of the van open for Hazmi, who lifted Nina into the back. For good measure, Liu snatched the cuffs from the driver side seat, grabbing Nina’s stiff hands to put them on.

Her eyes were panicked and darting, confusion and fear apparent even as her facial muscles remained fixed in their expression of professional attentiveness. Liu looked away, snapping the cuffs on. “I’ll drive,” he said to Hazmi, who was putting a blanket on Nina. “Keep her hidden, and hold on.”

He climbed into the driver's seat and clicked off the device (they needed the card machines to work, to get out of there). Once they were past the gantry and out of the Site, he floored it all the way back.

Nothing could truly have prepared her for the weight and intensity of this situation. It wasn't the end of the world, because that? Everyone she knew was prepared for. And if it was the end of the world, she would be able to respond.

She couldn't.

Screaming, crying, begging, bargaining, all were off limits to her, and that was bad enough. But the worst was being unable to even flinch. The cuffs were cold, unnecessary, dehumanizing, and her instincts screamed to flinch away, trying to force a reflex through a body that wouldn't, couldn't respond.

Blankets were supposed to bring comfort. Covering someone with one was supposed to be a gentle act. This was neither, and she knew it.

She knew the most likely suspect for the cause behind the curtain. But why her? Wouldn't someone else be more strategically valuable? She didn't have much for them. And how had she been so stupid. The acting was good. Or maybe they did need help and were trying to get two birds?

Her thoughts jerked to a screeching halt when the car did. They were going to take her wherever they took people like her, she supposed. The words of a bargain burned her throat, but she'd given up the ghost on willing that one to happen. She'd just have to run out the clock. Willpower, right?

“Welcome back, boss,” Tanushree stifled a huge yawn. She was still in pyjamas, though the hem of her pants were jammed into standard issue trainers. She levelled a gun at Hazmi and Nina, which Liu slapped away. “Tan, you idiot, that’s the sleeper and the target.”

“Oh,” Tanushree did a double take, and led them back into the base. “That’s the one for whom all that stuff is for, huh? Madhavan’s down there. We’re ready to go.”

“Thanks,” Liu said, following her down into the basement.

Madhavan was bent over the amnestics, but gave them a little wave. “Put her down,” she called to Hazmi, who did so. “Strap her in, forehead included, this might be a bit of a jolt.” She adjusted Nina’s head so that her gaze pointed straight ahead. “Eyes,” she said, cheerfully. “Eyes gotta be on the cognitohazards. And let me just give her some eye drops, because god knows she can’t blink.”

Oh. Guns. Okay, that was somehow...comforting. No, that's not the right word. Familiar. Having guns in her direction was familiar. Man, was that fucked up. Being leveled with a gun was somehow an improvement.

"All that stuff"? Oh, shit. No. What the hell could that even mean? She couldn't talk, and wouldn't be able to for a while, so torture would be pointless. Unless they were just that damn sadistic, which she couldn't rule out.

She was starting to hate the concept of touch. And was it necessary to pull everything quite that tight? And--oh. Good. More touching she could do nothing about.

She tried to see Madhavan through her peripheral vision, but success was limited. She didn't want to look ahead.

God damn it. More touching. And saline. She wanted so much to move.

But this was some Clockwork Orange nightmare scenario. And even shifting her gaze wouldn't necessarily save her.

And everyone's attitudes were so, so eerie.

Madhavan was talking with her hands now, animated, in her element. “First, we cover ourselves,” she said, handing one dose of 9th gen to Tanushree to administer. “Before the engrams solidify, we can get rid of the last couple hours or so.” Tanushree, donning a face mask, took the canister and administered a short burst to Nina’s face.

“The best thing about these, I find, is that in conjunction with the suggestibility techniques we are gonna use later, they can encourage the formation of plausible new memories in the missing interim.” Madhaven motioned to Hazmi to step forward into Nina’s line of sight. “It’s hoped that she’ll only remember you.”

“Next, we weaken the so-called immune system.” Madhaven handed Tanushree a hypodermic this time. “Just the smallest possible dose of Fugue-class. She may be dissociating already, but this will ensure that her principles or ingrained morality won’t get in the way of accepting the new directives which we’re gonna transplant.”

Madhavan was far too into this for Nina's liking. Very uncomfortable, to say the least. At least she was announcing what was going on. That made it easier to cope. She was powerless to do much, and it wouldn't matter, shortly, but--she felt the urge to cough when sprayed, but again, no response. Why the fuck?

She stared at the man they apparently hoped she would remember. Nothing seemed special about him.

Dissociating sure was a word for it. She felt the needle go in, but nothing else mattered. Transplant.

...she didn't know why that word stood out. The name that she thought of for that man had dropped from her mind.

Liu shifted, standing at the doorway, watching Madhavan work on Nina. A couple of hours left, he though, checking the time. “Are we on track, Madhavan?”

“Impatient!” Madhavan called back at him. “I’m already forgoing a number of recommended tests to meet your deadline. We’re making up for it by giving her a marginally higher dose of everything.” She grumbled into the envelopes of cognitohazards she was shuffling. “No immunity levels testing, no personality matrix, no history. We run the risk of wiping certain parts of her entirely.” She glanced at Hazmi. “Then again, she’s not really a long-term asset.”

“She isn’t.” Liu replied. “We just need her stable for the stated time period. You’ve read the file already, Madhavan.”

“I have, and that’s why I’ve calibrated my approach to breaking her down.” Madhavan passed the first series of cognitohazards to Tanushree. “Thirty seconds of exposure each, and for the love of God, don’t peek.”

“She jerked,” Tanushree called back, flipping the second card to make way for the third.

“Fracture,” said Madhavan, pleased. “Her brain is firing at random, now. Keep it up.”

None of that sounded very good, at all. Especially losing herself. It seemed weird to bring up, until...asset.

Not a long-term asset. By the sound of that, they meant to kill her when she outlived her usefulness. She wanted to tell them to just kill her, now. She didn't want to be their "asset". She wanted to say she couldn't be made to, but she couldn't lie to herself.

There were two emotions: she felt almost relieved when her body moved, even if it was involuntary, and a bad sign. And she felt...ow. No, not ow. Not pain. Too much? Of what. Underwhelmed? No. Pinning anything meaningful down was so damn hard. And each second that ticked, she could feel her mind shifting. Shifting to something she couldn't say.

“And... hold.” Madhavan, watching Nina’s eyes begin to roll back in her head, held a hand up to Tanushree. Leaning over Nina’s ear, she said, ”Is anyone in there?”

She felt almost numb. The discomfort was still there when the woman orchestrating this, whatever it was, leaned too close, but it was muted. Almost more like simply knowing that it was happening as opposed to experiencing it.

Part of her wondered if pretending to be gone would get her out. The thought didn't stick well enough to matter. She, instead, responded almost automatically, without thinking, by looking toward Madhavan's voice. Her eyes moved slower than normal.

“Great,” Madhavan said, satisfied. “Liu, I think you should do the honours.” She waved a piece of paper at him.

Taking the paper from Madhavan, Liu approached Nina with some trepidation. As he entered into her field of vision, he couldn’t help noting her dilated pupils and how they tracked his movements almost imperceptibly too-slowly. He cleared his throat and began to read. “I don’t look like a ghost, do I? ... I don’t look like a ghost, do I? ... I don’t look like a ghost…”

Madhavan stood close to Nina’s ear, just outside of Nina’s field of vision, watching her pupils dilate and contract with the repetition of each sentence.

Honours. Honour was a good thing. This wasn't good. Longer thoughts weren't the easiest thing to form.

Was he nervous? Maybe he was a turn coat. Hopefully. But she couldn't focus too much on that, because he started speaking.

On a surface level, the question made little sense. Of course he didn't look like a ghost. Something told her it was important, but that sounded wrong, as well.

On deeper levels, levels that she wasn't aware of, the words were being etched in her memory. The lines got deeper with each repetition.

“... don’t look like a ghost, do I? I don’t look like a ghost, do-“ Madhavan held up a hand to silence Liu. Nina was now breathing slowly, evenly, staring straight ahead. “Take off the straps, Tanushree.”

As Tanushree undid the restraints carefully, Liu looked askance at Madhavan. She shrugged. “Gotta do a dry run before you go. We’ll leave about forty five minutes left for you to send her back.”

He looked at Nina, sitting quietly and blankly in the chair. Had it worked? “Miss Newport. Can you tell us something which you think about O5-10?”

She felt very foggy, but these were safe people, she was supposed to tell them things, answer them. Yes. And they were freeing her. Thank god.

Don't speak unless spoken to.

Well, that was a direct question, "They're concerning," she responded, "Very much an if you want it done right, do it yourself type." That one was pretty well known. No real issue saying it, even with the unnamed doubt and fear coloring the edges of her mind.

“Okay,” Liu pondered it. “Can you give this folder,”- he picked up the folder containing the report they’d forged, a brief dossier on their so-called mission, containing several compound cognitohazardous symbols in the body of the text- “- to O5-10, please? It’s from O5-6.”

She nodded, "Yes, of course. Should I tell them anything else?" Her hand was outstretched as she asked.

“No need to trouble them,” Liu said, passing her the folder. Turning to Madhavan, he asked, “Does that seem about right for this level of washing?”

Madhavan shrugged again. “It’s not as complicated as what we normally invest into a long term asset,” she said, indicating Hazmi, “but it will hold. Think of it as implanting a seed, or a bubble in her consciousness, which when uncovered, renders her unable to locate her moral compass, and also very suggestible. Sadly, we won’t be able to have her perform complex tasks while in this mode, again, unlike Hazmi. We’ll have to give her fairly simple orders while she’s under, and rely on her subconscious to motivate her to carry it through.”

She nodded, taking the folder, and holding it to her chest. There were a lot of words being said, and she listened to them all, but she didn't have much reaction to them. She should have, by all rights, but she didn't. She had things to worry about.

Madhavan picked up another canister of the 9th gen, and approached Nina. “Inhale, please,” she said, and sprayed her quickly in the face. “We’ve planted the seed, and now we bury it. Don’t worry, the patterns to unlock this with still exist in her pathways - they just don’t exist consciously, as we engraved them with the cognitohazard sequence.”

Liu nodded, not quite understanding. “You also mentioned before that we’d have to implant false memories?”

“Oh yes. We’re nearly out of time, so do it in the car.” Madhavan nudged Nina to the stairs. “She’s still in the fugue state, so converse with Hazmi about the fake mission and stuff, her brain will use that stuff and fabricate something plausible for the last few hours.”

The amnestics were sprayed, and Nina obeyed Madhavan, unquestioning. It tickled her throat and she coughed a little, while the two she was listening to talked. Whatever they were saying wasn't sticking.

And then she was being led back to the car. Back to her job, presumably. She had the folder to deliver, after all.

Liu drove them back, Hazmi doing most of the talking, conveying the cover story to him. Nina sat in the back seat, holding the folder to her chest.

At the Site gantry, Liu tapped his entry card (food delivery for the front that sat atop the Site) and it let them in. Back to the car park where they’d bundled Nina in just a few hours ago.

He opened the door for Nina. “Will you go back to your quarters for a rest?”

Conversations. This one, she did tune in to, and most of it did stick. She didn't notice memories seemingly coming into being in the void left by amnestics. As far as she was concerned, these memories had been there since the alleged time they formed.

"Oh, yes, I will be, but I have to drop this off, first, thank you for asking, mister...anonymous, I guess?”

“That I am,” Liu said, rather quietly. He shook her hand. “I wish you well, Ms Newport. And thanks. For all your help.”

She made an awkward laugh, "Thank you. And it's not an issue, it's my job. Maybe I'll see you again, under less dire conditions.”

“Probably. Your willingness to go the extra mile for us today was invaluable to our work, and to our team’s well-being.” Liu climbed back into the driver’s seat. “I hope you get some rest, you deserve it.”

She simply nodded, "Think nothing of it," and turned to go back up to the O5 wing.

#the right words #covalent bond #500 treasonous monkeys #under a watchful eye #brainwashing tw #kidnapping tw

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