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Scene Title | Yet |
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Synopsis | Silver gets a letter and shares its contents with Cat. Cat shares some brain melting information with Silver in return. |
Date | September 7, 2010 |
Silver's Apartment
It's the day after Labor Day and upon returning home from a long day in court, Silver is still trying to make some sense out of everything that he doesn't know and everything he does. Cryptic words from those he entrusted to find his love and still he's nothing.
Nothing until today.
Having heard from Harrison in regards to what she knows second hand, Silver's heart is still hurting and there may be nothing he can do about it except for the single envelope sitting in his mailbox upon his arrival home from work. He carries the letter up several flights of stairs and as he reaches his door, he's struggling to fight back the tears as he drops his keys several times trying to open his door. The first thing he did was call Cat.
Now as he sits on his couch clutching that letter in one hand and a glass of scotch in the other, he just sits on his couch.
The cross-city trip to his residence took longer than he might've expected she'd need to get there, because she employed a few cautions along the way. Parking a few blocks distant, finishing the transit on foot so she could get a very solid look at the area around the building and thus commit it to memory, attempting to spot any measure of surveillance being employed.
Finally she enters the building and knocks upon the door, then waits for admittance.
Pushing himself to his feet, he sets the glass on the table in front of his couch and he walks to the door, unlatching the sliding lock, twisting the bolt lock and turning the door knob until it swings open and he moves away. "Thanks for coming." There's an edge to Silver's voice, tinted with frustration and anger. He takes a deep breath and runs his hand through his thinned hair. And while his voice takes on that tone, his eyes have a different one. One of someone lost and confused. The letter still clutched in his hand.
The plane is crossed, Cat closes the door and secures it behind her, then turns to face the man. "I wish I could tell you positive news," she laments solemnly, "but I can't. Yet." Hope and positivity aren't abandoned, despite the situation. It's not how she operates. Staying on her feet, she moves to stand near a piece of furniture meant for cushioning backsides and eyes the sealed envelope he's clutching.
It's a conscious choice here, not asking about it. He'll make it a topic of conversation if he desires, or not.
Silver seems to want to as he holds it towards her, "It's fine. I probably know all I'm going to know at this point." It's not a letter on a piece of paper, persay, but an actual card, of the fairly generic variety; a little red toy pickup perched on a swathe of synthetic 'grass', with sky painted behind it. The inner (previously blank) pages of the card are very nearly drenched in black ink, the writing a finer, smaller version of the lettering on the envelope.
James,
You probably figured this wasn't from Sarah as soon as you saw the envelope; I apologize for the minor subterfuge, but — you're part of my history, and the people looking for me know that. I don't know if they know I've been in contact with you, but I can't take the chance they don't.I won't answer any of the questions you probably have here, in case it is intercepted. I won't tell you where I am, either. Where to find me. I'm not… sure, yet, that contact is safe. That you would be safe. I shouldn't even do this much, but— I have plenty of time to think in, now, and I find I mostly think about you. I hope you are safe. That you understand. I hope—
Sorry is an inadequate word, but it's the only one I have. I want you to know that I am safe, as safe as I can be in this. I'll find a way to meet with you, one that won't endanger us both. Soon.
All my love,
April
He honestly has no idea what this really means except that she's gone and she'll try to get in touch with him as soon as she can. "I guess I know she's safe, or she was when she wrote this."
April's words are read in silence after fingers close on the item, afterward eyes close and a sense of some slight relief is shown. "I prefer to believe she is, Silver," Cat states in hushed voice. "She's resourceful, but also scared. When the two allies I said reached her, she was on the move. It wasn't the ideal situation to have a conversation about shelter that's available, and she wasn't trusting of them while evading capture by agents of a ruthless organization."
It isn't spoken, she makes no claims of having been there and knowing what it's like to have someone she loved be in the hands of such an organization, but it's there just the same in the haunted cast to her eyes, the quiet display of stoicism she so often exudes since December of 2008.
Knowing very little may be a benefit to James Silver, however it doesn't give him much peace, even if it will keep him safe. This 'ruthless organization' that's spoken of doesn't sit well with him. "Why are they after her? Has she done something to them? This makes absolutely no sense." He gives a sigh of resignation and his body sits sharply down onto his couch. He's trying to get the bigger picture, when he should really be thankful for small favors. He takes a deep breath when that realization comes to him. "At least she's safe. At least she's safe." There's also the spoken promise in a single word that she'll come to him when she said, 'Soon'.
Blue eyes glance up and he offers Catherine a half smile at best, which is better than what he had been sporting. "Thanks for all your help in this. I'll wait for her. If you hear anything more, you'll tell me?"
"Of course," Cat responds sans hesitation, as she begins to partly address his questions. "I also said I'd tell you the larger story, if you wished to know and she hadn't shared it herself. That's still true, if you want to hear. The people after her were the Company, the same one taken down by the Feds with great publicity, acting on orders from another operation called the Institute which has replaced the Company in Federal favor. I don't know what they want her for, only that they do and when they tried to grab her, she escaped."
The expression she shows him upon going silent is inquisitive, asking without words if he wants her to continue.
Part of him wants to hear it from April, but another part of him wants to know. To understand what she's going through because right now it's killing him that she's out there, in danger and he doesn't know why. The Company is all over the news now and so some of this is starting to click. He hasn't completely kept up with it, but he knows enough to know the history as shared on Headline News. When he turns to her at that revelation, he nods his head. He needs to know the rest. Silver is certain April would want him to know.
"Some of the Company's founders met in 1961," Cat commences, "four of them were teenagers, almost adult, held at a place called Coyote Sands where the government experimented on them and others found to have extrahuman powers. The site was closed after soldiers massacred the subjects, those four people escaped using their own abilities before the crime of those murders was committed. They resolved to work so nothing like that would ever happen again, to protect people with abilities from exposure to the public and to the government." His face is watched to be sure he's following.
"Over time they met others like themselves, and by 1977 thirteen people founded what they called the Company. Their original goals held, they recruited people to work as field agents who would find others with such powers and make records of them. Any person found to be dangerous with their posthuman talents got locked away, both to protect the population at large and to also hide their existence. They knew the world wasn't ready to know about us, much less to make the discovery through tragic or criminal events. April Bradley was one of those field agents when she died. April Silver was also a field agent. In the future she came from, the Company had also fallen and she was imprisoned. Whether or not she was given a fair trial or swept up and convicted through simple association and outrage at the Company's acts, I don't know." Another brief pause.
"Like so many other things that once started out noble, they became corrupted over time. Some of what the Feds say is true, the founders did make a grab at political power, and they did engineer the destruction of Midtown. But Petrelli's administration is also spinning it to advance his own agenda and only telling part of the truth. The Company has been replaced by another agency with his support, one worse than the Company ever was."
Listening to the story, Silver isn't sure whether or not he can believe that April, in either life, was a part of this corrupt organization. Rationalization sets in as he begins to tell himself she didn't know it was corrupt, didn't know it was doing bad things. It's something he'll have to address her directly with when he sees her again.
"So, this new agency is the one looking for her? If she was loyal to them during her service, why would they want to hurt her?" Then one word sticks out to him, as if just realizing what she said as he looks at Cat and asks her, "You said the 'world wasn't ready to know about us'. Do you have one of these abilities?" Silver knows about April's ability. He's always known, so it's not as if he's offended that Cat would have one, just that he never knew.
"I thought you'd figured it out, Silver," Cat informs quietly, "maybe wondered why I never seemed worried about exams or overly troubled by the load when we were in law school. How I always seemed to be able to point people in the right direction, supply the references they were most stuck on in study group sessions. Hell, how I pulled off earning bachelor's degrees in music and poli sci from Yale at the same time without making myself bald. I remember each and every word from every minute of lecture time in classes, haven't forgotten a single bit of all the reading we had to do." Sharing this makes her show a slight grin.
But seriousness returns soon enough. "It's called the Institute. They put out word among the Company's agents a week or so before the takedown that they wanted to bring her in. I don't know why. It may simply be for her ability itself. The Institute has a bad habit of simply reaching out to grab whoever they want, Constitution be damned. They were responsible for the mass blackout and the visions."
"I hate you," says Silver as he shakes his head at her revelation. He's teasing of course. The fact that he struggled hard through college and she can recall everything. Not fair. But, he's glad she's able to do it. She helped him tremendously. Without her, he may not have done as well as he did.
The topic slides on to the Institute, he listens, taking in every word and he nods. He does start to get angry at this point. This Institute is causing the love of his life to be on the run and there's not a damn thing he can do about it. "So, what's being done about this? If the government is involved like you say it is, how can I protect her? How to I make it so she can come back?" The questions asked, probably have no answers. None that really can be explained, but he asks them none the less. He looks up at her and rises to his feet, "If there's anything I can do to help, please, make sure to let me know." He means it.
"It's not all good," Cat quips, "every bad movie I've suffered through since 2002 is burnt into my brain and won't ever go away." She wasn't always so stoic, so somber, evidence she's seen a lot of worse things not spoken of which attach to that statement. That quality is shown again as she studies his face across a stretch of seconds before forging onward.
"There's no proof, Silver. So the only solutions lie outside the law. Some people taken by them have been retrieved, but at cost. Taking them down entirely is a large nut to crack, especially without solid evidence to show the media and other Federal agencies. Making things public would only result in being called insane, labeled as conspiracy theorist nutjobs. There's an organization which helps shelter people in need. If I manage to contact April, she'll be offered safety with them." She pauses again.
"Now I've told you just the tip of the iceberg I started revealing the day I handed you a dollar and spoke of confidentiality. There's a lot more, I won't tell you all in one dose, it might make your brain melt."
Shaking his head, Silver listens to everything she has to say and when she mentions the brain melting, he smirks. "I think that since I have court in the morning and I need to put on a solid defense, my client probably would appreciate my brain remaining intact." This whole thing does make his brain hurt, but it'll at least give him something to focus on.
At least they don't have April.
Yet.