Part 472: Recovery of Answers

9:23 pm

Tony and Marita waited for their friend in the conference room of the government building. The couple were waiting but they were also busy eating. It had been a long day for both of them. The one-eyed doctor sipped on his beverage after finishing a standard microwave dinner of chicken, green beans and corn. Marita munched on her roll after taking a bite of chicken. “So, Tone,” she said, with her mouth half full, “You know this Bauer guy?”

“Jack?” her husband smiled, “Yeah, me and him go way back. We had to run a few special forces operations in foreign countries I can’t pronounce. He’s a good man. I had no idea that he was running the CTU out of Los Angeles.”

“What does CTU stand for?” the Latina asked.

“Counter Terrorist Unit.” Tony sipped on his drink, “I heard of it, just before I went into the Special Forces.”

Before Marita could ask any other questions, the door slowly opened. Jack Bauer walked into the room and smiled at his old friend. Tony stood up and approached him. After the agent put his coffee down, he embraced his friend; patting him on the back briefly. “It’s good to see you, Jack.” The doctor said.

“Tony, had I known you were a part of this, I would have gotten involved sooner.” The agent promised.

“I know,” Tony replied, sitting back down next to his wife, “Let me guess. Inman put you on a need-to-know basis?”

“You know Inman?” Bauer said, pressing record on a tape recorder.

“Yeah. He was the CIA operative who questioned me and my two friends when we got rescued from the Island. I take it, he’s still looking for the Liberation?”

“Yes. He’s been made the official liaison to the government, as far as any operation looking for the Liberation. He was given free reign to use CTU to investigate.”

“Did Inman know that the Liberation would come looking for us?” Marita asked.

“From what we’ve learned about them, they operate very slowly,” Bauer sipped on his coffee, “They don’t communicate over normal channels, making them very difficult to find. Imagine . . . .you have a neighbor, who’s got a dog that barks only once and while, like everything five days. After a while, you might not even remember that your neighbors even have a dog.”

“Silence means security.” Tony whispered, remembering the age old military mantra.

“Exactly,” his friend agreed.

“Did you find the bodies at our house, Mr. Bauer?” Marita asked.

“You can call me Jack and yes, we did.” The agent smiled, “It’s already been cleaned up. You don’t have to worry about the authorities.”

“Thank you, Jack.” The doctor smiled.

“Now, we have to get down to business,” the agent sighed, finishing off his coffee, “I have to ask you some questions about the Hanso Foundation, not to mention this Dharma Initiative and anything you might know about the people involved.”

“Ask away, Jack,” Tony sighed, “We’ve got nothing to hide.”


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“Why did this Linus person want these children?” the agent asked.

Jack Shepard sighed as he sipped on his orange juice. He had been inside an enclosed room, answering the questions about the scientists who kidnapped him. He had been stuck inside a similar room all day so he didn’t enjoy the prospect of still being in one. However, to make thing more comfortable, Kate and Sawyer were with him. The former fugitive sat next to him, rubbing his back. Sawyer had his head buried in his arms on the table. He was on the verge falling asleep. “He wanted the children because he believed them to be superior.” Jack told them, “He thought he was going to create a master race.”

“Was Linus a Nazi?” the female agent asked.

“Probably.” Sawyer muttered.

“I wasn’t talking to you.” The woman promptly retorted.

“Honey,” the southern man raised his head, “ You REALLY don’t have to much talking when I’m around.”

The woman then coughed, as her cheeks turned a light red. The redneck even took the time to lean over and glance at the agent’s legs. She then pushed them to the side, and shifted around nervously. Kate sighed and gently brushed a strand of hair from her eyes. “Yeah,” she smirked, “He has that effect on women.”

“Um . . .moving on.” She continued, “When did you last see Dr. Linus?”

“Just after he threatened the children. Afterwards, I couldn’t tell you.” Jack coughed, “With any luck, he died in the shootout.”

“And these children? They didn’t exhibit any ability out of the ordinary?”

The worn-out doctor then looked at the woman. He remembered the uniqueness of Sebastian and the other children. Thanks to a rare plant infecting their parents and migrating into their systems, they received higher than normal intelligence. Ben even went so far to explain it. Jack had a bad feeling about telling all of this to the government agent. It seemed a little too cliché but what if they wanted the children for their intelligence too? The doctor was going to make sure that these kids would be allowed to be kids. “No,” he said, “Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Very well,” she smiled, turning off the tape recorder, “Someone will be along shortly to escort back to the main conference room with your friends.”

“You ready for my interview now, sweet cheeks?” Sawyer flickered his eyebrows.

The female agent then clutched her notebook around her chest as her cheeks flushed red again. She then quickly turned around and exited the room in a fast but polite manner. Jack looked at her and then leaned up, looking at Sawyer. “Is there any woman you HAVEN’T tried to pick up?” he scoffed.

The redneck rolled his eyes, pretending to think. Then he pointed toward Jack with a wild grin. “Your mom.” He smirked.


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Eddie was resting up against the side wall, propping his chair back. Bonnie sat at the table, tapping her fingers around her cup of hot chocolate. Tristan was on a nearby loveseat asleep. They were being interviewed by one of the many agents at this organization but about ten minutes ago they were called away abruptly. Eddie wondered why he wasn’t allowed to see his friends and family just yet. He was a little leery of telling them everything, especially without consulting Tony first. That may have been the very reason why he wasn’t allowed to see him.

The door to their room then opened and Eddie glared at the man who entered the room; it was Inman himself. The CIA operative closed the door and then placed down a folder on the desk. Eddie and the older man locked glares at each other. Bonnie looked at him, then at her boyfriend and back at him. It didn’t take an expert to know there was a tension between them. Inman then pulled out a photo and slid it across the table. It was a picture of Ben Linus. “We found him down at peer 16 at the wharf.” The older man coughed, “We found him with 9 bullets in his chest.”

“What a shame.” Eddie whispered.

“Is that your handiwork?” the CIA agent sneered at him.

“Yep.”

“I should have you arrested.”

“Then why don’t you?” the young man said, calling his bluff.

Inman winced at him and then pulled out another photo; sliding it over to Bonnie. It was a picture of Matt Tefpourth, her stepfather. The redhead took another look at the photo and then shoved it back toward him. “That was my stepfather.” She grunted.

“He’s dead too.” The CIA operative promptly replied.

“Good.” Bonnie said, sipping her hot chocolate.

“What role did he play in all this?”

“He’s was a clone of Ethan Rom.” Eddie replied.

“A . . clone?” Inman coughed, “A REAL clone? That’s illegal.”

“Then I guess your government regulations aren’t strict enough, Inman.” The young man smirked, pulling his chair up to the table.

“You were raised by Largo, Riggs and McKay, weren’t you?”

“Most of the way.”

“I can tell. You have all their arrogance, times 3.”

“Thanks.” Eddie chuckled.

“Why did the Hanso Foundation want you, boy?”

“I was told it was simply because I came away from that Island.” Eddie said, leaning into the table, “I went through some rough crap over there. I was even forced to kill someone at the age of ten. I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe, Inman.”

Inman pulled out another photo and then shoved it toward the young man. It was a picture of the remains of the charred Liberators at the Hanso outside lobby. “Like what killed them?” he asked.

“Yeah, I know what it was.” The teenager sighed.

“Then what was it?”

“It’s called Monoxide.” Eddie said, “The computer back on the Island listed it as a anti-gravity nano-cluster. I think that meant it was comprised of millions of microscopic . . .robots and it was designed to resemble black smoke. It was sentient and did things that was told to it by Watchman.”

“The computer?” Inman raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, you’ve heard of it?”

“We intercepted some communiqués between Hanso and other channels. They mentioned trying to duplicate Watchman but had failed to do so. How did Monoxide get here if he was on the Island?”

“From what Tony told me, he teleported here with the Polliwog.”

“The what?” the CIA man said in confusion.

“The Polliwog. A large creature on the Island that was designed as a security system for Watchman’s central core.” The young man smiled, “I named him by the way.”

Bonnie stared at her boyfriend, not believing a single word he said. However, the way and the seriousness in which he said it was disturbing. Almost disturbing as Inman hanging on every word he was saying. The redhead then jumped when the Operative slapped his hand near her to get her attention. “I said, what did the Hanso group want with you?” Inman asked her again.

“Oh . .uh . . Eddie said that the . . .Ben person, was going to make me the Eve of this other Island.” She stammered.

“Eve?”

“Yeah, they were going to wipe our memories and make us live brand news lives on the second Island.” Eddie concluded for her.

“And how did you come to believe your stepfather was a clone?” Inman asked her.

“Eddie showed me a picture of Ethan Rom on the Dharma website.” She said, sipping the remains of her chocolate, “ Then he showed me the two lockets. One from myself and the other from my twin sister who died on his Island. Apparently my sister wasn’t the only one abducted.”

Inman wrote down the majority of the information they were giving him. He calmly clicked his pen shut and tucked it back into his coat pocket. “One last question for you, Mr. Trascal.” The operative looked at him, “ Did you have any idea where Linus and Tefpourth were going?”

“Yeah,” he coughed, “It’s called Isla De Verde. Or commonly known as Site B.”

“Site B?” Inman raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah. An experimentation to see who survives in the game of Natural Selection. There are people there already,” Eddie leaned in, “Now . . .what are you going to do about it?”

Inman glared at him. Judging from the reaction of his face, the operative was upset by this information. He took a deep breath and gathered up the photos, and papers by into it’s manila envelope. “The associate of the Liberation with the Hanso Foundation has to reviewed in it’s entirety before any action can be taken,” Inman then stood up, “Therefore . . .there is no Site B.”

Eddie blinked. “What did you just say?” he gagged slightly.

“I said there is no Site B and you’ll do well to remember that, kid.” He pointed at him.

“Wait a second, man!” the teenager stood up, “My friend is out there! Look, I can help you guys. Before he died, Matt-“

“THERE IS NO SITE B!!!” Inman screamed at his face.

Eddie just looked at him in confusion. Bonnie was amazed that the older man bother to scream. However, his scream awoke Tristan who looked at everybody. The CIA operative tucked his envelope under his arm and opened the door. “Someone will be along shortly to escort you back to the main group.” He told them.

Inman slammed the door behind him. Tristan stretched as he got off the couch and joined his friends at the conference table. “What was that all about?” he asked Eddie.

“Bureaucracy in action.” Eddie moaned, resting his head on his hands.