Participants:
| Scene Title | Aces And Sleeves |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Brian talks Lynette down from her crazier ideas, replaces them with new crazy ideas. |
| Date | December 16, 2011 |
Rumors have been flying around the island, some wilder than others. People here are equal parts scared and bored, and gossip is a tried and true method of combatting both. Lynette has sparked some news ones in the last few days, since she started her own investigation into the murder and stabbings that have been going on around the island.
She has been looking for Brian, but eventually sent word for him to meet her when he's able.
She's up on the battlements, sitting on a wall with her legs dangling over the side. And she's smoking a cigarette, which might explain why she's a little secluded. As much as anyone can be around here. But at least she's not making any of the rooms smell like smoke, so there's that.
Terrified with nothing to do can make an awful bad mixture.
There's been a few responses to try and quell any other poison that may drip from this dangerous concoction. Time has yet to tell if they can stop this powderkeg from blowing.
For his part, Brian Winters has done his best to impress a sense of law and order on Pollepel. People may be scared, people may be sick, but there are still consequences for actions. So he has been putting forward all he can…
Six boots march in unison across the battlements. Feet pounding in time with purpose and direction. Shoulders lowered to give that 'on patrol' look. They are all dressed similarly. Brian has done his very best to make these patrolling squads of his bodies look as if they are in uniform. So they wear varying shades of blue. One walks in the lead flanked by two carrying rifles. The lead Brian has a pistol holstered on his hip for the world to see. One of several such squads, Brian has been pushing himself to give the island some sort of sense of security. There's 'some' form of police here.
It doesn't take long to find him as he is.. everywhere. And as such he is arriving promptly after Lynette asked after him.
Marching down the battlements the two flanking assault rifle Brians take a sentry position moving on either side of Lynette, looking out at the courtyard, holding their rifles.
The one not holding a rifle steps up next to her. "Got another?"
Footsteps draw her attention and Lynette turns to see a pair of guards flanking her. She raises an eyebrow, but before she can comment, one Brian speaks up. She turns his way, nodding at his question. A pack is produced, followed shortly by a lighter, and passed his way.
"The guns aren't for my sake, I hope," she says dryly. "Come on, sit down," she adds with a gesture to the wall she's perched on. "I thought we could talk. I wanted to get your take on this mess." She waves a hand back toward the castle. That mess, rather than the one surrounding them on the river. One mountain at a time.
Taking the lighter, he lets out a dry laugh. "For you? I would've brought more if I was taking you down." The cigarette dances in between his lips, hand cupping the tip as he lights it up, inhaling to start the ember. Slapping the lighter shut he hands it back to Lynette, pulling the cigarette out with two fingers.
"Don't tell Sam, please. She thinks smoking is disgusting."
Brian goes to take a seat next to her letting the cigarette danle in his mouth for a moment. "You don't think it's too much do you?" He glances at the two. "I thought I should have more eyes on the island. And hopefully it will keep something like.. Well what we're dealing with. From happening again."
A pull is taken. "What are your thoughts?"
Lynette laughs at his reply, a warm sound that probably hasn't been heard much around here lately. "Oh? I'm flattered." She takes her pack and lighter back, but sets them on the wall between them, just in case. A silent offer. "She won't hear about it from me," Lynette says, a crooked smile appearing before she partakes of her cigarette. The smoke blows off to the side.
"No, I don't. I think it's a good idea just now." She looks down toward the ground, "I worry that this is all going to boil over." And so a few extra eyes, not a bad plan.
"Well. It's obvious that Rue isn't the traitor, right?" Maybe it isn't to everyone, but she seems to be taking it as a given. "So, I'm working from the idea that someone set her up. I'm just not entirely sure if it's the actual traitor or if it's someone trying to… make things appear in hand." Which, probably not hard to guess who she might mean. "Or maybe both."
It's a thought she hasn't spoken out loud to anyone else, and she looks over at Brian, to see what he thinks.
He busies himself by takng a long drag from his cigarette, letting the smoke envelope his face for a breath as the wind takes it back over him. "Is that obvious?" He glances at her profile, arching a brow. "I'm not saying I think she did this. But I am saying that whoever did it." Smoke seeps out of his nostrils as he pauses. "Whoever did this is going to be a lot like Rue. In the sense that we could not just fucking believe it was them."
"Rue and Samara used to be best friends. Or are best friends." He gives a shrug. The best part of the title can be mercurial it seems.
"If it looks like Rue is going to be punished…" He gives a shrug. "My fiancee is a wonderful woman. And will do anything to protect those she loves." He lowers his cigarette, resting his hand on his thigh. "Plus she can walk through walls. So that makes any friend of hers, that is also a prisoner…" He lets the rest be an implication.
"So why, why is it obvious it's not Rue?"
"Well, I would have a hard time believing that anyone here would sell us out, but seeing as it's happened." Lynette lets out another puff of smoke, shaking her head a little. "Honestly, she's probably safer where she is. If she disappeared, it would only look bad. And Megan has sorted out people to protect her."
Looking out at the water, Lynette needs a moment to collect her thoughts. "It's too sloppy. Whoever it is, they've been very careful. Very quiet. But eventually, they had to make a big move. And when we started looking for them more actively, they took out our telepath. So, if that person was Rue, why would she leave the weapon to be found, wrapped in her own clothes and then attack the man trying to bring her in? Now? When we're all locked in here?"
Lynette scoffs. "I don't believe it and the people who are letting this happen have been at this a lot longer than me." There's a pause. She looks at the cigarette between her fingers. "Do you think it could be Eileen?"
"I don't know if my fiancee would agree." Brian cants his head to one side. "Hopefully we could sort this all out before it comes to that."
He listens quietly, watching her impassively. His features hard to read as she highlights her points. A few drags are taken of the cigarette, his legs swaying back and forth in the breeze. He gives a nod a few times in agreement with Lynette's words. They were more careful. If Rue did it, it was sloppy. "Not to mention motive. Many of Rue's loved ones are here. Why would she do something that would mean impending doom for those she cared about? She could be insane, or maybe a finely cut deal…" He shrugs.
His body tightens somewhat at the final question. He places the cigarette back in his mouth. "You saw the vision. We were attacked by birds." A beat. "No. Torn apart by birds." The cigarette is left to hang limply in his mouth, "We wake up and she throws away the evidence."
Finally he reaches up to take another pull from his cigarette, before bringing it down. "That said. Eileen. Has had many twists and turns. But I believe she fights hard for where her heart is. And I believe her heart is for the Ferry." A puff of smoke ejects from its mouth.
"If the vision implied that Eileen was killing those on the island, I don't think she's doing it intentionally. She can be a motherfucker if you're not falling in line, but I don't think she would ever plan something like this. Against her own heart." He shakes his head. "If she hurts us, it's impulsive, it's a mistake. It's not a drawn out calculated plan."
"But I do think she will hurt us. If she hasn't already."
"Hopefully. But, in the end, I trust the people who have Rue's best interest at heart. And certainly have no method to stop a phaser," Lynette says, a more mischevious tilt to her smile there.
Bringing her cigarette back to her lips, she nods at Brian's points. All of them. "It looked bad at the time, didn't it? And she didn't listen, not even to run checks. At least, if she did them, she left me out of it." Which… wouldn't be unheard of around here. "But I agree, she cares about the Ferry. I don't want to think it was her." It does linger in the mind, though. She can't help it.
"She has. You know she has. She may care about the Ferry, she may give everything she has to it, but it certainly isn't what it once was."
"But I don't believe she would do it with malice." He lets out a long sigh. "She's done a lot for me. She helped me out a bit in the past.. Granted she's also fucked me over. But.." He shakes his head. "If she fucks the Ferry over, it's not her intention to do so. And again. Motive." He shakes his head. "Whoever did this. Is either a trained operative, or someone who the government has something on, or a fucking lunatic."
He puts the cigarette back in his mouth seeming to get a little more worked up at this point. "If you're right, if Rue was set up, than.. A lunatic probably wouldn't be this smoothe."
"So we're looking at a trained double agent or someone who has something big to lose that isn't on this island that Heller has access to. And.." He looks around. "That's probably half the island."
"Does Eileen think it was Rue? What about her crazed guard dog Epstein?"
"You're right," Lynette says with a sigh, "of course you're right. If she was going to feed us to the dogs, she could have done it a thousand times over. Hell, all she would have had to do was work less hard." It's hard to say if she feels relieved, though. But it's likely to be general unhappiness. There's a lot to be unhappy about. "If it was a lunatic, I think we would have an easier time finding them. As it is… I'm hoping it's someone they've got something on and not someone who's been lying this whole time."
She looks over at him, giving him a weary, but amused glance. "More than half, probably. You see my dilemma." His last question, though, gets a blink. "I haven't asked them. Eileen was there when she got brought in. Epstein… who knows what he's thinking half the time?"
"Would that be better?" He gives a shake of his head. "Someone doing their job versus someone who has decided that whatever Heller has on them is more important than…" He gestures to the island with his free hand. "I've had too many enemies become friends to put too much blame on how someone was brought up." He takes a final drag of his cigarette before crushing the embers against the stone next to him.
"It's the difference between someone who is a true believer in trying to get rid of us versus someone who decided their kid or husband or whatever is more important than my kid. Than my newborn kid." He pushes the cigarette hard into the stone, a harsh gaze going out across the water to the dome and those beyond.
He pushes some air out between his nostrils in time to look over and see her weary gaze, it softens his features and brings up a smile. One hand goes to catch her shoulder giving a soft squeeze. "We're not dead yet, hey?"
"So if it's a double agent. They're skilled. How do we suss out someone who's skill…."
A pause.
"I may have an idea." He bites down on his lip. The two Brians flanking him step out further onto the battlements. "It would require bringing someone in from outside the dome. But he could get here relatively quickly and safe, if we took the dome down for a second."
Lynette looks over at him, smoking while he talks, her expression thoughtful. "I suppose I didn't think about it that way, exactly. I just hate the idea of being lied to. Especially if it's someone who's been here. Someone pretending." She shakes her head lightly. "Same result for us, whatever their reasons."
When his hand touches her shoulder, she turns back his way and smiles lightly. "Not yet." It's dry, but there is a glint of hope in there, instead of cynicism.
"You don't ask for much, do you?" she asks when he voices his idea. Or the skeleton of one. "We'd have to pitch it to the others. What's the idea?"
"We bring in a telepath. Another one. Doesn't have to be a telepath. A lie detector. Someone to do what Kaylee was doing." He nods briefly. "The dome would only be a second. And it's ok if he had to do a couple tries." His thoughts are going faster than his mouth now as his eyes search the distance as if the key to the rest of his plan was past all that.
"Maybe not a lie detector.. Some power that would be difficult to understand. But people would get the gist that he could see into their past. We would have to be careful with the demonstrations. He couldn't demonstrate much of course." He purses his lips. "But we announce his power, loud, and often. That we got him on the radio to finish where Kaylee started…" He nods again.
"And we start interviewing people. Again."
"It would make him a target." Lynette snuffs out her cigarette, but it's only a moment or two before she pulls out another. "You got someone in your back pocket who'd be okay with all this?"
She looks out at the water, out at the dome. And then back over to Brian. "Okay. Start working on that. When you've got a fish on the line, we'll ask them to bring the forcefield down. None of us are going anywhere anytime soon. Might as well give it a try." She sighs a little before she adds, "I'll talk to Eileen, see if there's already something in the works. Maybe she's got a really good plan herself."
"Yes. I do." He smiles lightly. "Because it would be me. With another face." He grins a little, glancing over at her. "There was an Evo who could change what you looked like. I had him change one of me years back. I've had that face for quite a while. Most of them died at the Ark, however. One got out with a robot.." His features screw up for a second, "Nevermind that. Point is. I would see everything. If I am lucky enough to get made a target. I see the killer."
He brings his hands up as if offering the idea over to her. "We would need to either drop the dome for me to send my thoughts through, or radio me. Then drop the dome to get me in." He gives a light nod.
"Maybe she has something better. But at the very least we can rattle whoever this person is. Make them feel their plan isn't so perfect."
Lynette opens her mouth, then closes it again.
"You're sneaky. And I like that about you." She laughs and brings her hands up to press over her eyes. It might sound a bit manic, but then, she's not immune to feeling trapped just like everyone else. "I don't like volunteering you for another death, but one is better than a while boat full." Her eyebrow lifts, but it seems that's as far as her protest is going. Because it's a good idea.
She slides her cigarette back into the pack, unlit and unused. Maybe to save for later. "Shake the trees, see what falls out. That's a plan I can get behind." With a glance downward, she pulls herself back from the edge and comes to stand up. "Just, ah… leave the robot at home yeah?" Her cigarettes slip into her pocket before she looks back over at him. "And thank you. For not telling me I'm crazy. And for listening." The moment of sincerity passes when she gives him a crooked smile and nods back toward the castle. "And walk me back, yeah?"