Author: Apenamee
Rating: R
Genre: Adventure, Romance
Disclaimer(s): Based on the movie directed by Guillermo del Toro. Mike Mignola (comic books) Guillermo del Toro (screen story) ... please do not use Wen for fan fiction. Tell me whether or not you consider this Mary sue.
Summary: A weapon falls into the hands of an antiques dealer
Archive: here
Feedback: penamed@yahoo.com
The Reference of
Dr. Sapien
Volume
One
Earworm
Abe swam laps the same way humans jogged, for exercise, five miles a day. I started swimming with him, in the underground pool at the BPRD, partly from boredom, partly to keep up with him. Every three months or so he needed my strength. Spawning can be very demanding.
I would snorkel at the surface, facing to watch him swim half way down in the water. He used his respirator and goggles, as the chlorine stung his gills. Abe race through the water, traveling at five times my pace. Sometimes he would swim below me, matching my speed, with no perceptible movement but the sway of his shoulders, a gesture of his fingers.
If we wanted to, we could swim inches from each other, Abe controlling my body. It was like being carried along in a wave.
When we held hands, Abe could share perceptions with me - it was as if we inhabited each other's body as well as our own, or had one body with two minds. I could see what he saw, he could feel what I felt. It took practice, but in time we could move as one person, all the while the others at the BPRD thinking we were just behaving like newlyweds, wanting to be close.
I realized that without his suit and respirator, Abe would be all but invisible in the blue. Of course if anyone had seen him, there would have been all sorts of questions about our relationship. I'd have to look at those pity-filled eyes of the others in the bureau. I don't know if they would have been fully able to grasp the whole truth, as too much of it lay outside the realm of human experience.
_*_*_*_
He was tired of watching me sleep alone on the floor in the library, and was lonely in the tank by himself. The only thing I could do was to learn to sleep like he did - totally submerged. After much discussion, a regulator with a long hose was installed in the back chamber of the tank. Air would pump from the room to me, like a diving bell.
The dreams I had during the trial naps were strange in a way I had little experience with. Perhaps I was visiting memories from long ago, before I was born. Abe told me they were diffused, elemental. He found them quite satisfying.
When the trial run worked, and I was ready for my first night underwater, I suited up in light neoprene from ankle to wrist, as sleeping all night in the cool water would rob me of warmth. Abe had a tough, smooth skin that insulated him. I turned down the lights, put the regulator in my mouth, and jumped in the tank. He brought me down into the middle of the water. We spent some time Talking together until both felt sleepy, then I took out my regulator to kiss him. Abe unzipped the front of my suit.
I turned with my back to him. He crossed his arms over me, and slid his hands into the half-open suit, attaching them to my ribcage to monitor my breathing. He put his cheek next to mine. I was wrapped in his wings, my hair floating around our heads.
We dreamed together all night.
_*_*_*_
"I'm glad you have time to talk to me, I know people like you are SO busy. Believe me, you are the first person I thought of when I saw this,." The skinny, unkempt man talked to his customer on the other side of the desk, while he fished around in a bag. The antiques shop owner should have been able to set his own hours. But then were cranks like this, who bothered him with regularity, but then every once in a while came in with something interesting for him to buy.
"You know I don't buy damaged goods," the owner said when he saw what the other man had pulled out of his breast pocket.
"Oh, but just wait till you see this," he said, handing the assembled device over to the antiques dealer. "It will change your mind," the scruffy man said, as he picked up the phone on the shop owner's desk.
"Hello, we have an emergency. A man is very sick - yes that's the address. Hurry."
The antiques dealer stared into the object, transfixed. The skinny man wiped off the phone, took his device, and removed any traces of himself from the shop. Just after he left, paramedics tore up to the shop door, shoving the door in.
_*_*_*_
Abe was soon coming into spawn, behaving a bit anxiously. A fish might engage in courtship behavior. He preferred to distract me from work. I was sitting, scanning a book. Abe came up behind me, put a hand on either hip, then ran his lips along the side of my neck. He moved the thought back and forth within me, and I felt the blood rush from my head. My book dropped.
Abe paused. Someone is outside the doorway, he Thought, straightening up. My head was down, and my arms wrapped around me when the agent came in. Abe's hand continued to rest on me, as he tried to control his thoughts, just enough. I wondered if the agent could hear my teeth grinding from where he stood.
"Sir, we think we've got a problem. You need to talk with Manning ... Is your wife OK?"
Abe nodded. "Something in the shelves overcame her." He stroked my hair. "I should see that she'll be alright. Could you wait outside for me?"
The agent left, and Abe pulled me down to the floor. He crouched over me, hands and knees on each side. He kissed me, then said, "I have to go with him. The agent is very distressed."
"You know, just a kiss would be as nice," I moaned.
"I need the intensity."
A point that was hard to argue. I might be in the tank when you get back.
"If so, don't suit up." He said as he left.
_*_*_*_
"A 911 call was put in, for an emergency at an antiques shop. The call was anonymous, we don't know who made it. We have three dead bodies - the antiques dealer and two paramedics. Being handled as an outbreak." Manning shot the autopsy reports across the desk to Abe. "Their brains were destroyed. No pathogen found yet."
"Large holes - like torn lace. This looks like mad cow disease! " Abe was intrigued.
"Whatever it was, the paramedics fell where they stood. Note the position of the bodies - we don't think they even touched the body at the desk, the contaminating agent worked so fast. We thought it might be something else, more like what you guys handle. Here is the recording of the phone call. "
They listened to the quiet, but self assured voice. "I can't pick anything from this. Can you take me to the shop, or get me the phone?"
Manning said, beaming, "The phone is being sent here, as we speak." He was proud he had thought of that almost immediately.
_*_*_*_
Agents in contamination suits combed through the shop, watched with interest by the owner's cat, now being held in a cage. Another agent carefully took the phone, and placing it in a plastic bag, carried it out to the van. He hesitated while he was sprayed down by another member of the team.
"I'm taking my suit off," he said as he emerged from the white cocoon.
"What are you, crazy?"
"Come on. A bug that powerful would have killed the cat as well."
"Absolutely not. You're endangering the whole city..."
The two agents argued as a hand snuck around them, and lifting the bag with the phone inside,
the man attached to the hand examined his new treasure. Someone would exchange this for a Ensure, I'll bet.
He drifted down the street, unseen, bag slung over his shoulder.
_*_*_*_
Abe came back from his meeting into the library, over to the tank. "I'm afraid we'll have to work," he announced to the air, before he even saw me. As he walked up to the edge of the tank, I swam to meet him.
"You're taking a chance someone might see you," he said.
"Maybe you could get a door for the library," I replied
Abe cocked his head to one side. "Mmmm, good idea." He unsuited and dropped into the water next to me. We swam to the back chamber. I came up for air, but not Abe. He put an arm around me. This is more like it, I thought.
I need to review plague reports, and the usual texts. Relax, and I'll show you the books I need.
I might as well get dressed after this was over. It would put me off anything else.
Abe reached up out of the water to put his hand on my forehead, I closed my eyes in order to shut out any distraction. When Abe was in my mind, I could never see him, but only what he was looking at. Music rose up in front of me - classic (medical and scientific), Industrial (dark arts). Abe flipped through books as if in an instant, and I had the impression of flickering images on a screen. "I'll need to start with these." He pointed out the books to me.
When we were done, Abe swam back through the portal to the front tank, and suited up. I walked out from the back chamber, fully dressed again. "You will also need to go online."
"What do you want me to look for?" I asked.
"Please find anything on prions."
_*_*_*_
Two men negotiated over a gourmet dinner, in the middle of downtown Manhattan. It was a warm summer evening, and the tables outside were packed.
One of the men was well dressed, but still rather scruffy. He had a large bag, out of which he pulled a stereoscope - an antique viewer for 3D photos. From his coat pocket he pulled out a small package. He unwrapped it , holding up two pictures.
"But they're not any good cut in two!'" The other man said.
The scruffy man clipped the two images together, and placed them in the viewer. "Humor me, and look."
The other man held it up to his eyes. "This is ridiculous..." but he kept looking, his eyes glued to the 3D image. He was still, then started to mumble softly.
The scruffy man stood up, packed up the viewer, and simply walked away. The other man continued to mumble, empty hand still in the air, oblivious to the exit of his acquaintance. His mumbling got louder, and louder.
"For goodness sake, some people are so rude, " a woman said, irritated, as she turned around in her seat. "What is he saying?"
_*_*_*_
Before we could investigate the antiques shop in Boston, Manning wanted the BPRD to investigate the incident in New York.
The team was loaded up into the garbage truck, and we set off for the island. Abe had me bring medical equipment. We would visit the contaminated site in New York, then go to the shop in Boston.
The streets around a small, gated park were blocked off, police redirecting traffic. they ignored the waved fists, and the insults from a TV crew trying to enter. People watched from windows, unable to leave their homes. Our truck pulled up, and Red and Blue got out in plain sight of everyone. They were completely disguised in contamination suits, as was the rest of the team. We headed to the site. The outlines of fallen victims spread across the outdoor tables.
"I need to remove my glove, to see," Abe said. The hazard crew directed us to the back door of the empty restaurant. "Please wait outside," I directed the CDC crew, and the BPRD team went in alone.
Abe walked up to the front window. He took off his glove and put his hand out in front of him, then on a chair. He went from chair to chair, touching each one. He stopped, looking out toward the window. "There are two gentleman sitting together; that is where it started. He has a stereoscope. The other man has it to his eyes. He is saying something - he's stricken! The first man leaves."
Abe Showed me the murderer. He looked just like a quiet killer.
"Others are falling! All are ... I need to go out to the sidewalk. Wen, come out with me," he said. He opened the door and walked through, then crumbled to the pavement.
Red rushed out to grab him. Abe was unconscious. The team rushed back to the van, Red running as fast as he could, carrying Abe all the way. I asked the hazard team to hose us down , then turned to look at my husband's inert form. We climbed in the truck and took off, still in our white suits.
Back at base, the medical crew immediately had Abe X-rayed, then put in his recovery tank. There was damage to his brain, but it had stopped quickly, the doctor told me. Abe had been silent from the time he fell. I stayed by him, and asked for an artist to come in so that I could describe the man Abe had shown me. Over the next two days, Red was my constant companion in the infirmary, sometimes with Liz curled, sleeping in his lap. He was someone strong to lean on.
"Wen." Abe was awake. I looked up, and put my hand out to the glass. "No, my dear - I'm contaminated," he said, tapping his forehead.
He couldn't Touch me.
_*_*_*_
"Put an ad in the antique publications for, 'stereoscopic and antique photos bought and sold' " Abe said. " He should be easy to spot in this end of town, if we can lure him here."
He was better, but still floating around in his recovery tank. I pulled articles for Abe exclusively from the web, as our own library didn't help much. I had to read everything to him; physical and mental contact was too dangerous. If I caught the illness, it could spread through me to the rest of the building almost immediately. Abe took medication to prevent him from dreaming at night, to keep me safe from his unconscious thoughts. He was heavily sedated, and still he struggled to solve the mystery of the prion.
He showed me a picture of the molecule that had been isolated by the CDC. It looked like a child's jack, with other jacks at each tip.
"It's quite large for a prion," Abe said. Big enough to tear apart brain tissue quickly. It seemed beautifully crafted. How could something like that be spread by a photo, or by word?
The breakthrough came one day as Abe talked with his nurse, as he glanced in the microscope. "Something that big can't come from outside. It's almost as if it was already in us," he mumbled as he looked.
"A prion all ready in our bodies - and the picture was a 'trigger' " said Abe. I emailed the information to the center's lab. Word came back confirming that - yes - every person did indeed have a prion-like substance, used in our nervous system. The trigger was what infected Abe, his altered DNA halting it.
"The trigger caused the altered prions to clump together. The trigger organizes a, 'prion cascade', that quickly kills its victim," Abe said, gesturing.
"We need to find out why this hairy gentleman is not affected." Abe ran the scene over in his mind. The man had watched, unaffected, as others began to fall. "I'm afraid I must Touch him to find out why," he said.
Oh great, I thought. "Even though it is dangerous," he added, looking at me.
_*_*_*_
We floated in the private chamber of our tank, looking at each other from opposite ends. Abe was deeply in spawn. In the darkness, half-submerged, he looked navy blue. I looked down in the water to see the row of large orange spots on either side of his stomach. He stared at me. I knew without being Touched, what his thoughts were.
"Wen, you have to leave," he said softly. I got out of our tank, and went to the storage room to sleep.
_*_*_*_
After the killer's success in the city, and the ensuing news frenzy, the scruffy man was quiet.
I hoped he hadn't been there in one of the windows, looking down at the restaurant the day of Abe's disaster, or that he wasn't smart enough to have realized why the figure in the contamination suit was struck down, but silent.
Responses came in to the ad we posted. To any interested sellers, we set up a meeting in town. Agents were posted throughout the city as waiters, busboys, diners. We had them in hotels, anywhere our customer might want to go.
When an agent would sit with the suspect, and look at whatever was shown, but the agent would have contacts in his eyes that took away his center of vision. Abe's friend John Myers was chosen to play the part of the buyer.
Finally, an email was sent to us by a man who told us he had something 'unique' to sell - and he would come to the city. A date and time was set up, and we would be there to meet him.
When the email was traced, Manning's techie found it was sent from Newark. He was already here.
_*_*_*_
The trap was set. He would meet Myers at the hotel. "I won't have much time," the agent said over the phone. "I'll meet you in the lobby" ... full of BPRD. We drove the truck to the hotel and slipped in the office behind the front desk. With Red, It was a tight squeeze.
Scruffy man came in through the front door on time for his appointment. He looked around intently at the activity in the lobby. Abe, with his hand out, just behind the open mail slots, said, "he's the one, and he knows agents are in the room. He doesn't care." He pulled his hand back, so as to avoid Seeing more.
The man came up to Myers and sat down. "Let's go talk somewhere else. I'll buy you dinner." He spoke loudly for all to hear around him, and he enjoyed it. He must have thought he was invincible.
"I don't have that much time," said John. He looked nervous. "If you don't have anything for me..."
"You're from the government. What makes you think you can hold me - do you even know what I have?" He fingered his bag.
"OK, you know the truth," John said. "We'll let you go, and we'll pay you well for the weapon, whatever it is." He put a bundle of bills on the table in plain sight, hoping that the sight of the money, and the lie he just told, would distract the man. "There are agents all around you. Give me the weapon, show me how to use it. then we'll say goodbye."
The man brought out the weapon, assembling it as he talked. "I don't like the men who profit from the past. This item is special - it's a gift from below... I don't like you either." He held the assembled thing in his hands.
"You want to know how to use it? You just do - THIS!" He grabbed the back of Myers' neck and shoved the stereoscope to his eyes. John sat transfixed. I could see his lips start to move. The scruffy man looked around him as the others hung back. Agent Myers grew louder.
Scruffy man chuckled to himself, then hurried out past the front desk, where he ran into a big stone fist. He fell, surprised, and we rushed out from the back room.
Red stood over him. "Hey, woolly bully," he said.
As the man looked at the red tower above him, Abe came up and planted his hand on the man's forehead. The man's attention turned to Abe, his eyes widened. "No!" He yelled, and struggled to get away.
Abe stood up and announced, "I have the patch. Wen, over here". He turned and Touched me. He then did the same for everyone else around him. Abe walked up John, who was sitting calmly and quietly, and Touched him. The agent flipped out his contacts and rubbed his eyes.
Red pulled the stereoscope out of the bag, and put it up to his eyes.
"Piece of crap. Nothing but squiggles." He was immune.
The scruffy man was escorted out by half the agents in the room, for trial, and I hoped, imprisonment.
The team talked together in the truck, on the way back to the bureau. Red slapped Myers hard on the back. "Were you scared, little guy?" John laughed. He then turned to Abe. "How did Fuzzy get hold of that picture? D'ya ever find out?"
"He found it quite by accident. It was with a box of family items a customer was trying to sell him. 'Fuzzy' first read the patch, attached to the stereoscope. His customer was the first victim."
Quite the family heirloom.
I asked, "Why did the man start yelling when you touched him, Abe?" He knew what I had been thinking.
"I told him I took the patch away from him, but I might have left the trigger."
"You can't do that, right?" I asked him.
"No, of course not." He took my hand. And don't let anyone know that I can, he thought.
Abe rubbed his hand on his forehead. My guess was that Abe had just missed more damage to himself, as he took the patch from the man's mind. I hoped he had.
You'll have to give his guards the patch, I answered.
_*_*_*_
"These were quite popular, when I was younger," Abe said. He held up the stereoscope to his eyes, now harmless to us.
"Do you think it was a drawing of something that already exists?"
"Don't know. And I'm not going to find out right now." He put it up on a shelf. "I need to go into the tank, to rest," he said as we walked over.
I may have been on thin ice, and I didn't want to offend him, but I needed to voice my suspicions. "Maybe it was created the same time you were."
"No offense taken," he said as he removed his equipment. "We are all, created for a purpose." He looked at me expectantly. "I think you were created, for me."
Have you always heard my thoughts?
"Every thought, right from the beginning. You're easy." He said. I tripped him into the tank. His arm caught me around the waist, pulling me in with him
It was a good time for some fishing, myself the bait.
A Man, A Plan Earworm Pulling Back The Curtain Pinions