Participants:
Scene Title | Old Dogs and New Tricks |
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Synopsis | After escaping St.Petersburg Russia, Benjamin Ryans and Noah Bennet catch up… |
Date | August 21, 2010 |
Somewhere in the Baltic Sea
The mission was only a partial success, as Cat was in possession of the paintings they had traveled all that way for. Only partial, as they lost Ivan in the whole thing and his wife was detained. It bothered Benjamin Ryans to know his mentor died. It was a severe blow and only one group to blame.
There was nothing he could do for the man now, so he turned his attention to the living. Mainly, one individual in particular, Noah Bennet. Pulling off his fedora, the Company agent ducks his head to step within the darkened confines of the smallish room they stuck the man in. He stands in the doorway for a handful of moments letting his eyes adjust to the dimmer light. His duster still hangs around his form, heavy with rain water that's seeped into the rough fabric.
Finally able to see Bennet, lips press together tight in a fine line when he surveys the man's condition, not happy about what he sees. Stepping further into the room, Ryans is quiet, thinking the other man is sleeping. His hand reaches for an old metal chair, not too far from the other man's side and shifts it closer to Noah's cot. When he settles his weight on it, the metal protests, loud in the quiet room, eliciting the smallest grimace from the older man.
He studies Noah a moment longer, before he sighs heavily and leans forward to rest his forearms on his knees. One hand still holds his father's fedora, while the other rubs wearily over his face.
It's been a long day after all.
The last few hours have been especially hard, ever since leaving port in St.Petersburg and heading into the Baltic Sea on a path towards safe-haven in Estonia. Jensen Raith's presence on the barge has been the only one out of the rescue team that arrived, eith Eileen Ruskin and Gabriel Gray having made themselves scarce to pursue other avenues of intelligence gathering while they're overseas.
"You don't have to sit here," is Noah's way of letting Ryans know he's awake. A little first aid and some painkillers goes a long way to being somewhat conversational, and while the barge they're all sharing isn't the most well-stocked in terms of medical supplies, it has at least prolonged Noah Bennet's life expectancy.
Eyes closed and still as he lays on the cot, Noah makes no move to shift his weary frame when he addresses Ryans. "It wasn't your fault… and I know you're going to try and blame yourself for what happened. No plan, no matter how good it is, ever survives an encounter with the enemy. Ivan taught us both that, you know it."
The hand freezes on his journey over his face again and slowly lowers to look at the injured man. There is a soft sarcastic chuckle from the older man. "You know me too well." Again a deep breath escapes his nose in a sigh. His hand joins the other with the hat.
"Katarina was detained, I was not able to get to her." He offers up about his side of the mission, his blue gaze moving to look at Noah where he lays. "The paintings are in Catherine's possession." His voice is neutral. "Unfortunately, I had to kill some of the Russian OMON to get us out." Yes, it does bother him some, since they were there to do their job. "They took Harper into custody." There is actually a little humor in that announcement. "I imagine he'll be on my ass next time he sees me." The old agent doesn't sound overly concerned about it.
The fedora is turned slowly in Ryans' hands, his expression thoughtful, as his gaze drops to it. "Starting to think, I'm getting too old for this job." A small ironic smile tugs at the corner of his mouth. "Getting too sentimental. Too many good people dying on my watch." The words spoken come out a touch rough, the death of Spektor a little tougher for him then he expected… or maybe it's just all the good men lost lately, while the Institute seemly walks away and comes back stronger.
"You're going to have to fill in some of the blanks here, Ben," Noah finally asks as he opens his eyes, looking with a bleary squint without his glasses. "I've heard the name Harper come up a few times. CIA, some sort of tie to the Institute, but I don't know much more than that. He hasn't popped up on my radar until this incident." Swallowing tensely, Noah looks back up to the ceiling. "Do you have any idea what he was at the Mariinsky for?"
Very subtle in movements, Noah's presence seems so much smaller than it usually does, perhaps in the way a wounded tiger actually seems approachable while it is in the process of healing. He has no words for katarina's circumstances, nothing voiced, though the pain of leaving behind his mentor's corpse and his widow and children… he'd promised to protect them.
"Agent Desmond Harper." Ryans straightens in his chair, allowing himself to wrap himself in business, so to speak. Tho' watching the other man, has worry gnawing at him. "Liaison for Homeland within the Company. A real pain in the ass for the Company, currently. Getting his nose into everything, bugging rooms, recruiting people for the Institute from my own people… So on and so forth."
He waves the rest of that way with a small wave of his hat as he settles back into his chair, bringing a foot up to rest on his knee. "He is a part of the Institute, that much I know. First time I met him, they were coming to pick up one of my targets. Stopped him by conscripting him into our ranks… however, seems they stole him away from us anyway." He settles his fedora on the side of his foot as it is propped on his knee. "The CIA thing is news to me. Tells me the man has his fingers in a lot of pies."
"As for why he was there… I can't be certain really. I can only imagine they are after the paintings." However, Ryans doesn't have any real evidence for that. "The only thing that makes me doubt it was his interest in a teenage girl there. I believe it was the girl Ivan was talking about. He was trying to get her to trust him." Brows furrow. "That whole situation was… odd." He really wants to say FUBAR, but avoids it. "There was a woman there taking the teenager away. Never could get any information out of them."
"I'd like to know who she was," isn't quite a request or an order, given that Noah Bennet has no clout with Benjamin Ryans, but it does sound like a favor being asked. "If you happen to have your ear to the ground and figure out who she was, I'd care to know that." Breathing in a sharp and shallow breath, Noah lifts ihs good hand to move towards his injured bicep, resting his palm over the bandaged arm with a dry swallow at the back of his throat.
"Someone sold us out," Noah explains in a hushed tone of voice, looking over to Ryans after leveling that accusation. "You, Abigail, Catherine, Lashirah, Rene amd myself were the only people who knew where we were going, who knew about Ivan's house. I'm willing to call that coincidence, but that we were attacked at our drop point…" There's a slow shake of Noah's head. "Ben, someone sold us out."
Looking back to the ceiling, Noah closes his eyes. "The three people I had on the boat and Rene are trusted, that leaves you, Lashirah, Beuachamp and Chesterfield. I'm not going to blame you because I know better… and I can't imagine Chesterfield had anything to do with that. Beauchamp… I don't think she'd sell us out, we weren't doing anything against her own moral code. That leaves Agent Lee."
Yes, Noah Bennet is accusing Lashirah of selling out the operation to the Institute.
A deep breath is taken as the accusation is put out there, Ryans brows lower slightly. "I don't believe that." The old man sticks to his gun when it comes to Lashirah. Not that he can blame the man. "I don't believe her to be on their side." The hat taps his foot, a sign of irritation, but he doesn't show any anger. It wouldn't do any good here.
"Your forgetting an important possibility here, Noah." The assistant-director points out. "Only you knew what we were going for. Your forgetting the possibility of a precognitives, remote viewers… or other such." The hat is plucked from his foot, so he can drop the foot to the floow and lean forward to fix a look on the wounded man. "We don't know what they might have tucked in their backpocket. How many operations were compromised when a Precog viewed something?"
A deep breath is taken and exhaled softly, "I… understand your reluctance to trust Lee, but she's been nothing but loyal to me in all this. I'm… not ready to pin all this on her. Not after she's stuck her neck out for me. Protecting Darryl, killing those agents." Lips press firmly and he shakes his head firmly. "I don't believe this was her, Bennet."
"You can plug a leak," Noah explains in a hushed tone of voice, "but dealing with a precognitive," there's a look across to Ryans, and a smile Noah offers the older agent that is mostly one of weariness and fatigue masked as amusement, "you know how hard that is to deal with. For a network like mine, a security problem like that means losing everything, means needing to start over again." Bennet's eyes close slowly and a sigh slips past his nose. "I don't know if the Ferrymen can start over again if we lost everything, Ben… I don't know if they could do it."
Angling his head to look up to the ceiling, Bennet's brows furrow nervously. "You proved yourself to me. You proved that the Company can do the work, pull their weight. I'm going to go to my council and let them know that our organization is going to be ready to harbor refugees from the Institute… they're not going to like it, but they're not going to have much choice." Bennet's stare angles back to Ryans.
"You earned your keep," Noah adds with a crooked grin. "But you also earned yourself your fair share of our troubles."
Reaching out, Ryans grips the mans good arm gently, giving a bit of a smile. "I'll take on those trouble, gladly, Noah. Especially if it'll protect some of the good ones still within the Company." The words coming from the old man, are honest. Letting go, he leans back studying the other. "Not all of them agreed with what the organization became. When I took up the position of Assistant-Director, I had hoped to see it be what it was when it started… but…" That ship has too many holes.
"I've been finding myself sympathizing with the other side more and more." It's admitted, with a chagrined look, his head nodding a bit. "It's hard to see what you are in the eyes of your own child." He's quiet for a moment before saying, "Delia is evolved. She's like Hokuto, if you remember Ichihara's little girl." He sighs softly, brows furrowing. "She honestly believes I would hunt her." The look he turns to Noah, is one of pain, one he's probably felt himself at one time.
"It really puts things into perspective… beyond seeing what the Company was coming back with a new face and name, but different players." Ryans smiles a bit, "I've got your back as best I can Bennet. You and that little outfit of yours. I like what I've seen so far.
"Tho' I do question your judgment on Sylar."
The news about Delia is taken in silence, just a nod of understanding and sympathy from Bennet at first. "My little girl Claire… she manifested before the bomb." It's a hard thing to talk about, easier than Sylar though. "The Company wanted her, I went rogue to protect her from them. I saw what happened to girls like Elle, raised in Company care. I wasn't about to hand her over to them, not like that." Blue eyes angle back to Ryans, and Noah offers a weary smile. "You're doing right by your girls." There's a subtlety there, girls.
It's as if Noah is giving Ryans just a little warning.
"Sylar doesn't go by that name anymore," Noah says with a sarcastic tone of voice, "he isn't one of mine. He's a tentative ally. It's… complicated, and I don't rightly like it myself. Trust me, Ben, if the opportunity ever came for me to put a bullet in his head and not lose some of the allies the Ferrymen have?" Noah actually considers his own words for only a moment before he adds, "I'd do it."
"I hope so." Ryans rumbles softly, on the subject of his girls. He doesn't feel like he is. "I don't plan to let her register right away. She doesn't want to, worried about lists and being hunted from it. I — think she's right." His vision could be very well, him protecting her from being hunted by others.
His fedora is settled back on his head, and hands press to his knees and he pushes himself up on his feet. "It's good to know you haven't gone completely soft." A smile smile curling his lips as he makes that small jab at at an old colleague.
"I'll let you get your rest. Abby will flay my hide, if I keep you up too long." Ryans glances at the door, brows furrowing in thought. "It's been good workin' with you again, Bennet. I miss the old crew everyday." Glancing back at the man on the cot, he inclines his head a little, with a hint of a grin he adds. "We should do this more often. You know how to get a hold of me."
"…and you know how to get a hold of me," Bennet offers over to Ryans, turning his head just enough to regard the older agent. "When you're ready… when Delia is ready to get out of sight, my people will be there for her, Ben." That much is a promise, and despite what may have happened in St.Petersburg Russia with the Spektor Family…
Noah Bennet keeps his promises.