Civil Disobedience

Participants:

elias_icon.gif odessa_icon.gif

Scene Title Civil Disobedience
Synopsis Odessa finds herself entangled in another secret plot to save the world from Kazimir Volken. This one proposed to her by Elias.
Date January 15, 2009

Eagle Electric

Perfection is not an accident.


It's been a while, a long while, since Elias has had any reason to come to Eagle Electric. But now, he has many reasons, and all of them are, unfortunately, inextricably tied together. But fortunately, not much has changed since he was last there, all those months ago, and when he appears, it is not at the front door or even in the middle, but up high in the rafters, out of sight for the most part. His immediate goal is, of course, to make sure he's not about to interrupt something that might get him into serious trouble, and to this end, he looks down at the warehouse floor to see who, if anyone, is milling about. If the timing is right, he can get on with the rest of it. If not, he can always come back….

In the lab, Doctor Knutson sits hunched over her workbench, jotting down notes and monitoring slides under a microscope. She runs her fingers through her hair and tips her head back to stare into the rafters.

It's fortunate, perhaps for Elias that when Odessa tips her head back, she gets a full view of the rafters and nothing else; the teleporter quickly relocated himself to the ground, out of sight. That's question the first answered; there doesn't appear to be much of anyone, which means there is either an unseen sentinel, or Kazimir is counting on little more than mystery and fear to keep the workshop here a secret. Either one is acceptable.

Taking a moment to make sure he's presentable, Elias steps out from his hiding place. Time to get as much of everything else he possibly can. "Yahoo-hoo," he says, just barely loud enough to get anyone's attention at all. As far as he knows, he's allowed to be here. "Anybody home?"

Odessa jumps almost a foot out of her seat when Elias announces his presence. She presses a hand over her chest and blinks at the man several times before responding. "Can I help you, Mister de Luca?"

"Just giving you a little scare," Elias replies. In an instant, he's moved from his spot across the warehouse floor and is next to Odessa, practically right in front of her. Elias has a habit of appearing from nowhere as well, although for different reasons than Odessa does. "And also doing a general check-up. How long until you're done hunching over the ol' workbench? Can't be good for your back. Lighting conditions are probably bad for the eyes, too. You need a vacation, if you ask me, how about it?

"Bermuda? The Bahamas?"

The bewildered doctor stares steadily at the teleporter for several moments. "Pardon me?" Odessa straightens up in her seat. "You're not serious." Is this some sort of trick? It must be.

"Well, maybe not right now, no." That clarifies things. "But when this is done with. I mean, I don't know exactly what is going down, but I don't want to be around when it does, you know what I'm saying?" Elias doesn't quite give Odessa enough time to answer, before he asks a second question. "What, exactly is going down, anyway? I mean, I know I should probably know that already, but I think I missed a couple meetings, or something. Fill me in?"

"I'm engineering a virus to wipe out all Evolved life on Earth," Odessa deadpans. It's not been a good day, and she isn't about to play nice. "It's meant to kill every last one of us. So, no, we don't want to be here when it goes down."

Casually, Elias stretches his neck out, taking the opportunity to make sure that there is no obvious interloper about. "Seems to me," he says, "Like a little break might do you some good. Just some fresh air, you know. The view from on top of the building isn't half bad, you might like it. It's not Bermuda, I know, but it's a chance to give your eyes a break. Just a few moments, I'm sure everything here will be fine."

Odessa shrinks back. "The… top of the building?" She shakes her head quickly. "N- No, that's okay. I think I'm good in here. I really have an awful lot of work to do." She busies herself with paging through her notes aimlessly.

Well, not quite the answer he was looking for. Really, though, coming from a semi-retired hitman, that kind of statement probably wouldn't inspire much confidence in anyone. "Thing about high places, huh?" he asks, moving slightly to Odessa's side. He couldn't make heads or tails of her notes even if he had the time to actually read them, but that's irrelevant. "Just a few moments isn't going to hurt. Don't worry-" As if to say 'come on', he casually extends his hand towards the doctor, making no move to actually grab her. "I know it's kind of a long way down, but I won't you fall. I swear." And, as he's said before, Elias isn't in the business of breaking his promises. "On my mother's name."

Rising from her seat with no small amount of trepidation, Odessa takes Elias' hand. "I'm not scared," she insists. "I'm just really busy." Smooth.

Elias only offers a smirk in reply, and in the blink of an eye, neither of them are inside of Eagle Electric any longer, but have been relocated to the roof of the building. Or rather, to the roof of one of the buildings on the grounds, further to the east. The view is pretty nice, sure, but this isn't quite the view Elias had promised. "Here we are," he says, "Take a moment, a breath of air, try to forget about what'll go down in New York City. If it goes down."

It's hard to calm down when she finds herself faced with one of her fears, but Odessa takes a few deep, calming breaths and looks around. Determinedly, she looks at the horizon, rather than down by any means. "What's the point of this?"

"What if," Elias begins, looking off into the distance and seeming to ignore Odessa's real question, "What if it didn't go down? No virus, no mass Evolved death, no nothing. You ever stop and think to yourself, 'What will happen if it doesn't work? What then?'"

"Kazimir has made it abundantly clear what will happen if I don't do what he tells me," Odessa informs Elias. "Do you think I'm keen on basically signing my own death warrant?"

It may come to Odessa's attention that despite their transit having completed several seconds ago, Elias did not release her hand, although she may only realize it because he begins to squeeze it more tightly. To the point, in fact, where it may well be uncomfortable. "You let me," he says, turning his attention fully onto the doctor, "Worry about Volken." The edge in his voice is clear, and this is not a casual half-request. If it borders along anything, it's an order. But in an instant, it's gone, replaced with his more usual, casual tone. "Not that I expect it to come to that," he says, "I mean, it's not as if you have the capability of producing a dummy agent, which he would be completely unable to tell the difference between until it's too late. He knows you wouldn't do that to him."

"I…" You're hurting me, is what Odessa would like to say, but she keeps it to herself. Instead, she turns her eyes to Elias' face, rather than the landscape around them. "He'll kill Ethan and Wu-Long if I don't do what he wants," she pleads. "Are you going to worry about them, too?"

Just a bit, Elias relaxes his grip, keeping it firm, overall. "Doctor Knutson, if you do do what he tells you, they'll be dead anyway." He wonders, very sincerely, if she had actually thought of it that way. "So will you."

Odessa nods slowly. "All right. I'll… fool him. I'll do what I have to do to stop him." But it's obvious she's still uncertain. "How are you going to protect them? I need some guarantee from you that this doesn't blow up in my face." After all, Amato gave her an alternate plan, too.

"My guarantee is that Volken has to be alive in order to do them any kind of harm," Elias replies, "Alive and, more importantly, not in a thousand pieces." What that means, the teleporter does not clarify. "How long until the virus is ready?"

"Suresh and I have until the end of the month." Then, her expression turns steely. "Killing Volken isn't an option right now. He's in Sylar's body, and I won't let you kill him. He can be saved. I know he can." Odessa has to believe he can be.

The instant that Odessa says that Kazimir is in Sylar's body, the expression washes away from Elias' face, being replaced with stoney indifference. But it's the stoney indifference that comes with revelation; this is a fact that he did not know. One that, perhaps, he wishes he knew sooner. "If, it's reasonably practical," the teleporter says firmly, "He'll be saved. But if it comes down to it, he's one man. One man versus thousand. Versus millions." Versus me. "If it's not avoidable, it's too bad. Keep Volken absolutely certain that you're doing what he wants you to. He can have no doubt in his mind that that's exactly what you're doing, and it will be exactly what you'll do. Keep working on the virus. Let me worry about the details. And don't tell anyone else. I'm already in contact with the ones I can trust."

The second secret plot she's been brought in on. Should she tell him? Odessa just nods. "Our secret. Promise. But… I might have a way to separate Volken from Sylar. If you come up with no alternative, allow me the chance to act."

"I already have an alternative," Elias replies, "And your plan had better work, or none of us are going to be happy with the result." Elias has spoken his piece, and with a single thought, the two of them are, once again, back at Odessa's workbench. "See?" Elias asks, "Head feels a little better now, doesn't it? Fresh air's good for that, you know."

"The method of travel leaves something to be desired," Odessa mutters. She reclaims her seat, resisting the urge to kiss the floor. Her stomach has done enough flipflops for now. "I am seeing things a bit more clearly now…"

"Happy to help," Elias replies, "I, however, am going to need some sleep before I can see things clearly. I'll see you around, and for the love of God, don't work too hard. Won't do anyone any good if you drop dead before the end."

"I'll do my best," responds Odessa dryly. Without further comment, she turns back to her workbench and picks up where she left off. The Work waits.


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January 15th: The River
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January 15th: Literary
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