[h3][i]One Week Ago...[/i][/h3] "Come on people, let's get these moved sometime today!" Sabrina Durante tapped her foot impatiently, her expensive heels clicking against the pavement, as the interns and workers ferried the barrels from the delivery truck into the warehouse. It was a fairly standard operation; carry in the boxes, label them in big black ink 'SRI', record them, then into storage they went, easy as pie. Sure it was unusual to see someone as important as a Director of Bioengineering there, but the students lucky enough to be working under the tutelage of the esteemed scientist didn't give it too much thought. Dr. Durante did have a penchant for micromanagement, and for this delivery in particular she didn't want anything to go wrong. And the reason for that was making his away around the end of the cab to talk to her. He was a thoroughly (and intentionally) unremarkable man, whom Sabrina only knew by the name of 'Holt', and while she had no real idea what he did, Holt was certainly no delivery man. At least, not to his actual employers. "How long is this going to take?" Holt demanded in hushed tones, casting a furtive glance over his shoulder. "You said you were ready to receive this shipment, I wasn't-" "Patience, patience," Dr. Durante said calmly, keeping up her usual businesslike facade. "It needs to be done this way. It's only a simple delivery, after all. Nothing suspicious to be found, and nothing to connect us to one another." Having no real answer to that, Holt simply scowled and resumed his pacing around the truck, spinning around to look behind him every few steps. "Jumpy aren't we?" Durante remarked as Holt trudged toward her again, her eyes never leaving her clipboard. "Every right to be, after seeing...who we got this from," Holt snapped, pausing as he peered at one of the movers suspiciously. "And you know how delicate our operation is. D-Day's just seven days from now and command is-" "Yes yes, I know, this is not the first time your people have come here," Durante grumbled. "Now shut up or you can tell your friends to find someone else to...do this," the doctor continued, disguising the last part of that sentence. She gave a stern look to one of the interns who slowed down to catch the conversation before hurrying away. "Not like you have a choice, anyway." Holt, either running out of points to make or simply tired of arguing with the doctor, begrudgingly fell into an angry silence, scowling as he returned to his patrol around the truck. Ah, the ignorant are so easy to influence, Dr. Durante thought to herself, her lips curling into a prideful smile. "Hey, Miss Durante?" one of the interns called over. "We're almost done, just doing one last headcount." "About time," Dr. Durante said, glancing at her watch. "Make sure the warehouse is locked when you finish I don't-" The doctor winced as a tremendous roar ripped through the air, loud enough to rattle the windows on the nearby buildings. It sounded like the motorcycles that ninja gang drove around, but much louder and, as Durante quickly realized, quickly getting closer. Within three seconds, three massive motorbikes, not the sleek and slender type but the big American ones, tore around the corner and screeched to a halt in front of the warehouse. Durante saw Holt freeze in his tracks as three heavyset bikers, decked out in leather and spikes, their faces hidden by bike helmets and black bandanas, dismounted from their hogs. Durante slid behind the back of the truck for cover as she saw them draw guns and approach the vehicle. "You squids think you can steal from us?" one of the burly bikers shouted. "Any dogs steal from us, they get put in the fucking ground!" Durante pulled her head in just as the bikers started shooting. Some of the workers screamed as bullets cut through the air, smashing glass windows and punching through the walls of the truck. There was a loud bang and the truck listed to one side just before half of the shooting stopped. "Fuck, fuck, they got Beardy! We need more guys!" Durante dared to peek out of cover just in time to see two bikers running back to their bikes, the third dead on the ground. Holt calmly stepped out of cover and fired three times, his shots landing in the back of another attacker, who collapsed in a heap against his hog. The last biker swore in manic terror as he hopped on his bike and screamed away. Holt didn't fire, but Durante saw the biker jerk his head back, a splash of red briefly visible before the bike careened off and slammed against a wall. "Nice shot Owl 2, keep an eye out for any friends of theirs," Holt reported an unseen ally, his hand held to his ear before turning back to Durante again. "Alright there, ma'am?" "A-are you insane?" Durante spat back, her face taking on a red tinge as she glared down at him. "I thought you said you people covered your tracks! How the hell are we supposed to explain this to Silver River?" "Simply a failed attempt at a robbery, that's all," Holt explained, making a calming gesture with his hands. "We'll clean the bodies up, and the police won't suspect a thing. You'll have your precious lab back to work in no-" "Miss Durante, Miss Durante!!!" Holt backed up in alarm as one of the interns ran up to the pair of them, going so fast that he nearly bumped into her. "M-miss...we don't know what happened, there were bullets flying everywhere, we took cover, there was a crash and-" "Did you idiots break something?!" Durante snapped back, just as fiercely as she did with Holt a second ago. "I don't...miss...it's Maddy, she-" "You're going to ruin everything!" the doctor shouted as she pushed past the intern into the warehouse. Her eyes filled with anger, she shoved past the workers gathering at the opposite end of the warehouse and shoved her way through. Opening her mouth to fly into a furious rant, she stopped dead in her tracks as the color drained from her face at the sight of the latest delivery. Madeline Fen Ming was lying in one of the remnants of the tanks, the clear viscous fluid within spreading onto the floor around her. She turned her green, tear-filled eyes towards Durante, looking almost as pale as the doctor. [color=DarkGreen]"Oww...it h-hurts...[/color] A dark spot was spreading on her chest, and something red was beginning to stain the clear liquid. ----- [h3][i]Present Day[/i][/h3] "Good morning! You're looking much better today, Miss Ling." [color=DarkGreen]"Thanks doctor, and please just call me Maddy."[/color] "Yes, now let's see your chart," the doctor continued absently, picking up the clipboard attached to the bed. Smiling, Maddy continued finished opening her mail. Another 'Get Well Soon' card, this one from her favorite professor back home. She reached over, struggling to work her way around the IV and sensors on her arms, and set it up in the small forest of cards she already got, right in the shadow of an oversized greeting card from her coworkers at Silver River. Even her boss Miss Durante had signed it, making sure her own name was twice the size of everyone else. "I must say, considering the state you were in I'm pretty impressed that you've made such a speedy recovery," the doctor commented. "Bullet went right through, no lasting damage to your vitals, the worst of it was blood loss..." [color=DarkGreen]"Yeah, my brother called and said I should buy a lottery ticket."[/color] "While I can't prescribe that, I wouldn't say it's a bad idea either," the doctor responded with a laugh, flipping over a page before finishing his reading. "In the meantime, I think you're healthy enough to be sent home. Just be sure to eat healthy and drink plenty of fluids and you'll make a full recovery, and if you feel anything worse then a bit of fatigue don't hesitate to come back, okay?" Maddy smiled again, eager to get out of this stuffy hospital and back to work. [color=DarkGreen]"Loud and clear, doctor,"[/color] "Excellent, I'll send the nurses right over and we'll get you discharged." Fifteen minutes later Maddy was riding the elevator alone to the ground floor, happy to be back in her favorite jacket (which she had been fortunate enough not to wear that night) and comfortable clothes again, her greeting cards stuffed into her folded laptop under her arm. She had baffled her coworkers who came to visit when she insisted on continuing her work for Silver River while she still had an IV and was barely conscious, but Maddy didn't mind so much. She would have gone stir crazy if she wasn't productive, and working on her writings in between playing Civ4 just wasn't going to cut it. It would be nice to return to the lab and get moving again, Maddy figured. Rolling her shoulders to soothe her aches, Maddy felt something pop near her back. Suddenly concerned, she quickly took her jacket off to get a good look at herself in the reflective elevator wall. Wondering if there was a stitch somewhere that she didn't know about, Maddy considered going back upstairs before she noticed the real culprit: her jacket had burst a seam. That was odd. Slightly confused, Maddy put her jacket back on and noticed for the first time that it was feeling a bit more...snug then usual. "Great, I probably gained weight or something," Maddy said aloud just as the doors opened. Feeling a bit glum, she nevertheless strode out the door and made her way to the front desk, where her ride was waiting for her. "Hey, Mads!" came a voice tinged in a Bulgarian accent. [color=DarkGreen]"Yavor!"[/color] "Correct!" Yavor Valeriev said with a laugh as she came in for a big hug. The secretary at the front desk gave the pair of them a confused look before prompting Maddy to sign her discharge papers. "Sorry I couldn't visit, the institute had me tied up so much I couldn't get out," Yavor explained apologetically. "Did you get the card I sent?" [color=DarkGreen]"Yeah, and I got the bruise you gave me from that one civ game we did,"[/color] Maddy said in joking anger, aiming a light punch at him. [color=DarkGreen]"The praetorian rush is SO cheap..."[/color] "Hey, when you have a legion, everything else looks like a barbarian," Yavor said innocently. [color=DarkGreen]"Oh shut it."[/color] The pair of them made their way to Yavor's car, all the while chatting about games they played and the things they were working on for Silver River. "Alright, back to the labs right...uh, Mads?" Yavor asked, waving his keys for emphasis before he got into the car. Maddy frowned slightly, her interest caught by the odd pause. [color=DarkGreen]"Something wrong, Yavor?"[/color] she asked him. "Nothing...besides, it's silly." [color=DarkGreen]"Aw come on, tell me,"[/color] she continued to pry. Yavor gave a dramatic fake sigh. "Fine if you insist...I was just thinking that you looked a bit...taller then usual, is all." [color=DarkGreen]"...what?"[/color] "I told you it was silly," Yavor said defensively as he started the car, not before catching onto her sudden silence though. "You haven't been getting taller, right?" [color=DarkGreen]"Why, are you feeling threatened?"[/color] Maddy asked, spinning her pause into a quick joke and punctuating with a evil chuckle. [color=DarkGreen]"Better watch out Yavor, or soon [i]I'll[/i] be the tall one!"[/color] "But I'll still be better at Civ4!" [color=DarkGreen]"Damn it!"[/color] The two of them broke into laughter as Yavor pulled out of the parking lot, and as the car turned towards the Institute, Maddy quietly shifted her seat back. She needed some more leg room.