Participants:
| Scene Title | A Leap of Faith |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Warren introduces himself to Veronica with his new identity and asks for a favor. |
| Date | July 31, 2010 |
Ruins of Midtown Mas Mechanics
After having called Veronica to meet him at Mas Mechanics, Warren stated that he wanted to update her on a few things. He didn't specify which him it was, but it probably wasn't Mortimer.
When she arrives in the specified garage, there are little robots crawling in random spots as usual, but they're mostly in corners or on a wall, with one occasionally running across the room, so they're easily avoided. He's turns around from a work bench, sitting in a wheeled office chair with his hands gripping the arm rests. He gives her that wide Jack grin, and then the door closes behind her, red lasers shut on and cover the walls, floor, and ceiling. "Excuse the lasers, I need to make sure no pesky Cardinals are spying. I'd be the artist formerly known as Jack. I go by my newly discovered birth name now, Warren Ray. Have a seat." He motions to another office chair, one randomly sitting near her.
As it's her day off, inasmuch that any Company agent ever truly has a day off, Veronica's dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, but she's still packing, and when the door suddenly shuts and lasers appear to be locking her in, she steps back, pulling her weapon even as Mortimer-Jack-Alex-Warren explains. Her eyes narrow and she tilts her head as she surveys him.
"Warren." She gives a slight shake of her head, to show she doesn't understand. "The asshole you thought was your father wasn't really your father, then?"
"According to a certain government person, some guy called the Haitian gave me over 14 memory wipes, until Linderman had every memory of my entire life wiped clean to let me form my own memories. Everything I remember is a lie, even the name Mortimer Alex Jack. Jack Williams was a name I had when two Company agents adopted me, the other two names were the last names of people who took care of me or something." Warren shrugs, not seeming all that bothered by the gun, but the lasers don't turn off. She'll find that they're simple laser pointer lasers, if she cares to inspect.
"Linderman wanted to control me for some reason, so he let me do whatever I want, that's why I went so long without getting arrested. My real mother doesn't work for NASA, she was crazy and tried to kill me, then committed suicide. My father is alive, he's in a coma and the government has him. He's apparently Cardinal's boss." He shakes his head, suddenly having a bit of a sympathetic look. "They did the same to Elle Bishop, poor thing. I was starting to feel bad about what I did to the Company, but, well, turns out I was getting revenge and I didn't even know it. Two of my first men were even spies for Linderman, but me and Elle took care of that."
The gun drops to her side, though she doesn't tuck it back in its holster, nor does she sit down. Laser-pointer lasers or otherwise, she feels penned in. "I'm sorry," Veronica finally offers, after the onslaught of information, though the fact he's very anti-Company at the moment, rather than wanting to work for the Company as he had in their prior meetings, keeps Veronica a little wary. He might have decided she's part of the problem, after all.
"Trust me, I know what it's like to have your life be a lie," she adds, and her tone is sincere. After all, she saw the video; she knows what the adopted father did to him. Another Company agent, of course.
"And then there was a video, that video. I think that's what pissed me off the most, because it showed just how far they'd go to fuck with my head." Warren states as he reaches over and grabs the sphere that he previously told her would kill whoever solved it in various ways. He's shifting slots around on it, so clearly there's probably something he never told her about it. "There was a video, I always thought it was made by some man who worked for Linderman, to research me. But no, the video was made specifically so I'd find it, it was a propaganda video. They were all actors, forming a background history so it'd be imprinted in my brain."
He continues shifting the puzzle around, until finally it begins to crack, thousands upon thousands of moving parts revealed as it opens up, revealing a number of parts spinning around, some slowly, some very fast, and it begins to play a slow music box tune. Maybe this is what happens when you win the game. "But it's alright, I'm helping Elle through it, she's helping me through it. The Company killed Elle's mother and erased Elle's memories of her, evil bastards, most of them. But I have a job now, and today I'll probably have my legal identity. The name I was born with is clean, so I'll be a citizen. Are you jumping ship from the Company?" He doesn't add any real information to the question, he just wants to know how she answers.
"If the movie was fake… did they do that to your brain, or is that … just you?" Veronica asks, trying to follow what is true and what isn't about this person she's had to work with, that Crowley made her work with. The fact he's becoming chummy with Elle is worrisome — two unstable halves can make a stable whole, but somehow Veronica doubts that would be the outcome of any pairing between the two, professional or personal. Her eyes watch the sphere in his hands, gun still held and ready to lift and shoot should something suddenly go awry.
"I'm still there. If the current climate continues, there might not be much of a there to be at, so it's probably a moot point," she says with a shrug.
"It's still true that my ability caused some instability, but the memory wipes and the tumor I apparently have did most of the damage, I think. They say they can fix the tumor so it won't kill me." Warren taps his head a few times, and sits the puzzle down, apparently done with it while it continues to play a tune. "I don't know how to work computers other than sticking a floppy disc or whatever into one, and clicking a folder. Can you look up Warren Ray and figure out who my father is? My mother's name is Carolina Alexander. I'd just ask them, but they don't trust me to walk around their facilities, I don't trust them to tell me the whole story. And I want to know why my father is in a coma, and why he's Cardinal's boss."
There's a pause, and he looks up at Veronica from his seat. "What does Cardinal do, anyway? Other than get on my nerves and spy on me."
Floppy discs. Veronica shakes her head again. "I'm sorry about the tumor, too. You're sure? I mean… whoever enlightened you on this information might not be totally honest, either. You've been lied to before — odds are, it'll happen again," she says quietly, hands relaxing a little on the gun, but clearly she's not going to be relaxed until she's no longer locked in. Or seemingly so.
"Carolina Alexander. Warren Ray. I'll look it up." She has theories about just who the father is, but Ray is a common last name. There might be more than one in the Institute's keeping~. "I have no idea why he'd be Cardinal's boss or what Cardinal does, but it's possible I can arrange a meeting with the two of you and you can discuss it."
"I already have a meeting with Cardinal lined up, but he doesn't like me, because I don't wanna play his little superhero game. It's not my fault he doesn't know how to go with the flow and just work with the government, or that he won't tell me where Liette is. He knows, I can feel it…" Warren taps his gloved metallic fingers against the edge of his arm rest, like some sort of super villain in deep thought. "He seems high on the food chain, even though he's scared shitless of me. Guy named Harper. He must be telling the truth, his story makes more sense. Why haven't I been in jail before? I can't even remember how many people I've killed. If my mother works for NASA, why hasn't she pulled strings and found me by now? I do apparently have a sister, but he said her situation was complicated, and still didn't give me her name."
"Just remember the truth can be used to manipulate just as easily as lies," Veronica says, glancing at her watch. "I'll find out what I can, but it might not be a lot. I don't have access to a lot of files at work these days, since they're locking up things that don't pertain to our current caseload, and poking around will make people curious." Specifically, Harper. "I'll be in touch. Was there anything else?"
"Just remember, I'm asking you this favor as a person, not as a Company agent. I'm taking… a leap of faith." Warren turns around in his chair, the lasers suddenly deactivating as the door opens for her. "I know I'm crazy, but let's hope that asking you for help was one of my saner choices."
There's a visible relaxation of Veronica's tense form when the door is opened and the lasers gone. She's not the nervous sort but being locked in a room with a madman who's angry at the organization she works for, along with a vision of a future where she's apparently imprisoned, have made her just a touch claustrophobic today.
If she trusted Warren more, she might warn him again about trusting her, but now that Harper and Elle are on his 'friend's list,' she just gives a nod. "I'll see what I can do," she says, and heads for the door.