Easy reading is damned hard writing. - Veritas (1/3)

                     


                                            ~The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss others off. ~ - Harry Emerson 


Jack Carter hummed under his breath, while taking the steps leading to the office of the Director two at-a-time. He was looking for Nathan Stark, his favourite distraction in this madhouse they called Global Dynamics (aka GD). Granted Jack thought that Nathan Stark was just a tad bit insane and tad bit larger pain in the ass on a good day; however, when faced with the choice of having to deal with a combination of Vincent, Fargo and Taggart…Jack would take Stark.

They had to finish their discussion on security plans for the upcoming Thanksgiving barbecue. Although he had to practically chase down the other man earlier this morning, in order to get him to listen while he explained his predicament – they’d finally agreed that Vincent and his new rocket-fuel powered grill would inevitably lead to some serious safety issues. Especially if combined with both Taggart and Fargo’s offers to help the Café Diem owner out on the day.

~Earlier this morning~

After promising to get back to Vincent with his reasons for why he had not yet signed the approval form allowing the use of the new grill, Jack had immediately headed to Global. If anyone knew how to spoil someone’s fun it would be Stark…or Allison. Although Allison was still annoyed with him for taking Callie out to dinner last week, so it would have to be Stark. Surprisingly, once he’d explained the situation, the man did not give him too much lip. It seemed Nathan had already experienced dealing with Vincent in previous Thanksgiving Day ‘mishaps’ and was more than willing to discuss preventative tactics with Jack.

Jack had suggested encasing Fargo in bubble wrap for the day because adding Fargo to any already potentially dangerous situation would be like handing the uni-bomber a lit match and then asking him to play nice. However, Stark thought it would be far more convenient to use Fargo to test the newest model of stasis chambers and have Taggart re-exposed to the mind altering plant and then let him run naked in the forest again, where at least he’d be out of their way.

Jack had been mildly impressed and sorely tempted with both suggestions, but had instead offered the alternative of having Jo detain Taggart. Nathan had commented that excessive violence was probably not the answer here, which made Jack realize that apparently Stark had not yet heard about the budding relationship between the two. Jack took great pleasure in bringing him into the loop.

"Was it really necessary to give me those details Carter?” Nathan grimaced while using a lot of mental energy to not focus on the images of Deputy Lupo and Jim Taggart in the bunkers access tunnels.

Jack grinned, "Yep. Consider it payback for getting me locked in that stupid experimental holographic chamber yesterday."

A wicked grin rose to Stark's eyes as he remarked, "I'm impressed sheriff, you didn't even bite your tongue on that big word."

"Oh shut up -and it still bothers me that you had Fargo simulate an alien invasion while I was in there- like this town isn’t crazy enough without throwing E.T. into the mix."

"Great comeback" Nathan had muttered more to the tablet PC in his hand than to Carter.

"Really?"

"No." Nathan said with a reassuring rare smile.

And so they had bickered back and forth; however, it had been cut short by alarms going off in two opposite directions of G.D. at the same time. So, without speaking, they had exchanged knowing glances and split up. Stark headed down the west corridor, while Jack took the corridor heading east.

Jack's issue was an unauthorised breach in Level 2, caused by a runaway fleet of white mice from Dr. Jason's bio-medical lab. It had been sorted out fairly quickly and after giving his somewhat well known "Mice are just not supposed to be smarter than men" speech, Jack had headed back up to the glass tower of doom to find Stark. He wanted to finish their discussions before Vincent met him there that same afternoon.

~Present time~

Reaching the top of the stairs Jack looked around suspiciously, realizing Fargo was not as his station. Shaking his head and thinking to himself, “That can’t be good,” Jack headed into the Director's office. Whenever Fargo was out of sight Jack got worried. His eyebrows furrowed at just how quiet the place suddenly was, he entered the main office to find that empty as well. Crossing the length of the room Jack stared down at the level below to see if he could locate Fargo and or Stark.

Downstairs everything seemed normal, a few white coats going about their business. Shrugging, Jack turned to head out when an elevator opening downstairs caught his attention. Almost immediately he recognised the dark hair and blue suit of the Director himself hurriedly exiting and looking utterly disgruntled. Jack had to smile there, Stark was always mildly disgruntled in his opinion- it's what made teasing him so much darn fun.

Almost at once Jack noticed that something wasn't quite right; Stark kept throwing worried glances behind him while quickly shedding his jacket and stalking across the floor to stuff it into a nearby recycling bin. He paused only long enough to press the red button clearly labelled ‘Incineration’. He kept moving, while reaching for his tie and eyeing the next bin near the exit – all the while  throwing anxious glances over his shoulder. Jack could not see why he was so worried - there was no one else near him.

Suddenly Allison, Taggart and Fargo all tumbled out of a nearby elevator and collectively headed towards Nathan. Two other elevators opened, one to his immediate left, the other to his right and people began pouring out, ultimately surrounding him from all sides. It seemed to Jack that everyone was talking excitedly and determined to trap the Director from leaving the level.

For the first time since Jack met him, Nathan Stark actually looked a little unnerved.

“Oh that really can't be good” Jack murmured to himself, eyebrows furrowed as he took in the sight of GD's director being engulfed by the crowd, all clamouring to get to him before anyone else. Jack quickly exited the office and made his way down the stairs while mentally going through his list of what chaotic issue this could possibly be about now. Perhaps a love potion, or some sort of violence exhibitor, a super-powered attraction hair gel, or even Stark’s incredibly bad taste in purple shirts with blue suits. Jack didn't know but he was betting on something stupid. As he reached the floor he was immediately stopped from getting any closer to the Director by the large boisterous crowd.

"Geez where's Jo and her PEP guns when you need her?" he grumbled to himself, trying to at least get through to where Allison stood. When he attempted to ask anyone in the crowd what was going on, they just ignored him and kept trying to get themselves closer to the Director. Jack did notice that most of them were grinning and did not seem a serious threat, only one or two actually wore disgruntled faces. He also realised that the closer he got to Stark, the less amused the faces seemed.

Still elbowing his way through the crowd Jack made his way to Allison. Cursing under his breath as someone accidentally elbowed him in his stomach he groaned loudly, “Allison what the hell is going on now?”

Before she could answer, he glanced over the crowd and happened to suddenly catch Nathan's eye. Surprisingly the man's gaze held for the moment, his stare meaningful in some way that Jack just wasn’t sure of yet.

Eyebrows furrowing in concern Jack called out over the crowd, "Stark, what's going on?"

The man couldn't answer him over the noise.

As Jack turned back to Allison, he heard a woman closer to the center called out, "Dr. Stark, what do I have to do to get a raise?"

Jack threw her a confused look, which became even more confused as he heard Nathan answer.

"Show progress with your anti-venoms before Christmas."

Feeling someone pushing insistently behind him, Jack turned just in time to see Vincent elbow past him with amusement written all over his face as he called out loudly, "Dr. Stark, how do you feel about whipped cream?"

"Vincent what the hell?" Jack asked now utterly confused by this shift in events.

Vincent quickly shushed him by flapping his hand blindly towards the Sheriff, not wanting to miss hearing the reply.

"Oh he's not going to answer that Vincent," Jack said exasperatedly, 'It's Stark! Am I the only sane one here…again?”

"Should not be put on my coffee unless you have a death wish, but good on apple pie," came the answer drifting towards them from Nathan..

Jack's eyes widened and he pushed his way back over to Allison, who had taken his few minutes of distraction to get closer to Nathan. Itching to pull out his handcuffs and start arresting people, Jack grabbed her arm and spoke loudly and directly into her left ear,

"Allison what the hell is going on here?"

Allison only smiled at him, obviously trying to resist the urge to grin. She stopped tiptoeing over the crowd to see Nathan and answered Jack, “Nathan was in the-" but she got cut off by Taggart who had also made his way over to Stark.

Taggart called out airily, “Oy Natie, how do you feel about fluffy bunnies mate?"

At the same moment, a scientist Jack recognised as being from on Level 4 called out, “So Dr. Stark, about level 5…”

In that second something clicked for Jack and he understood what was going on; for some yet unknown godforsaken reason, Stark was honestly answering every question thrown at him…and probably against his will. Thankful that the crowd was too loud to hear the answer Stark gave Taggart, Jack’s eyes grew wide as the implications of this situation hit and he turned from Allison to face Nathan, just in time to see Nathan throw Allison a glance of pure pleading. Thinking that Allison would help him with this, as a matter of National security secondly and as the ex wife first, Jack grabbed her upper arm and forced their way to the center of the crowd until they reached him. Without speaking Jack grabbed the taller man’s upper arm with his right hand tugging him downwards and then clamped his left hand over Stark’s mouth, muffling any sound and then forced him to walk – pushing their way through the crowd and into the nearby corridor where Allison used her key card to open the first door they saw. Jack shoved the Director unceremoniously in and slammed it shut behind them.

Both men gave  sighs of relief as the door locked securely behind them, the green light flashing reassuringly.

“Can you override it so no one else can open it right now?” Jack asked Allison breathlessly.

“Not from here,” she shook her head.

Jack sighed; someone with a key card was going to open that door soon then. He turned to face Nathan who had already pulled out his PDA. “Finding us a clear exit Lassie? “ Jack quipped as he moved around the room searching for a possible exit strategy knowing that the pounding would soon begin. 

The scientist answered automatically, “This is a small section lab Carter, it’s one way in one way out.”

“What about the ventilation?” Jack asked quickly, pointing a small covered vent that might be large enough to pass through.

“The ventilation in these small labs are filtered there is no way to get through. This was an issue last year; General Grant saw the area as a high security risk. Not the DoD’s smartest move.”

“I can shoot the lock and destroy it but it’s probably better to just get you out of here,” Jack remarked as he turned back around to face him. Stark was shooting him a slightly nervous glance since Allison had moved over to glare at him with both hands planted firmly on her waist. As the brunettes gaze narrowed, Jack just grinned. Stark getting told off from Allison for getting them into this whole mess in the first place, then blaming the DoD, would be very entertaining; however, he unfortunately had to throw the man a line as they had to get moving before someone found a way in.

“Okay Allison, how about you argue with him later?” Jack offered. “-and preferably when I’m around?”

The pounding on the door began and the frame itself began to shake.

Jack continued, “-and really as much fun as it would be to throw him to this crowd, his big evil brain is full of things I'm betting the government doesn’t want released to the whole wide world,” Jack peered through the frosted glass window pane on the door and remarked, “Stark, really what did you do? “

Nathan shrugged, “I was exposed to a vapour in Dr. Jedkins and Kerns behavioural management laboratory, but that has nothing to do with the rising anger levels of those people outside.”

Jack sighed, “Ok explain and explain quickly.”

“Carter the explosion we heard came from Kerns lab. After that there was a mishap during a case-study presentation that Allison was attending. It released microgenes into the air, which in small amounts it will stimulate the medulla oblongata and simulate anger. The Dr.’s Lisbon were presenting their case study to a small group when the centrifuge malfunctioned thereby releasing its contents into the room”

“Ok that explains why some of the people out there looked so pissed – they got doused with that but that doesn’t explain why you’re telling the truth for everything. You’re not angry- well that’s not entirely true you always do have this chip on your-" Jack broke off as Stark glared at him and Allison rolled her eye, “Ok lets just put that in the box for now, until we get you out of here at least.”

To his surprise that got him half a smile from G.D.’s director, whereas Allison only looked stonier.

Jack resisted the urge to return the smile and instead turned slightly to face Allison now, “Let’s try this, you get Stark to his office and I’ll deal with the angry people.” 

Nathan continued explaining, “Carter I got doused in Jedkins lab, he and Dr. Kariun lost control of the experiment, letting the pressure exceed the maintainable capacity. They got automatically locked into the lab when the hazard sensors tripped but I was already outside the range of their shields. You will probably need to send someone to separate them by the way.”

“Okay then, so you’re telling the truth and everyone else is slowly getting angrier with each passing minute and because they know you’re telling the truth they’re asking you iffy questions?” Jack squinted, trying to see the whole picture.

“Something like that and really anything- including my truthful responses will only enrage them further.”

“Okay, how many people were in the anger case-study thing?”

“Maybe six.” he guessed.

“Ok but there are about 28 people out there trying to get to you.”

“Ah well then it must not have been a gas explosion or it would have spread to everyone in the building. Only six are feeling simulated anger, everyone else is just taking advantage of the situation.” He looked to Allison for clarification.

She nodded, if a little harshly and agreed, “It was some a visco-elastic fluid that escaped into the room.” 

Nathan nodded as if he had guessed that, then turned to Carter, “How did you get there so quickly by the way, Carter? I was about to call you or Lupo.”

Jack shrugged, “I was in your office waiting for you, only came down when I saw everyone in the lobby. “I still don’t know why you’re telling the truth? And why don’t we call your SWAT team, have them get you out?”

“When Kern and Jedkins lost control of their experiment their shields dropped, exposing me. Their experiment dealt with growth points in thinking-for-speaking. Basically they were examining the link between how much more effort the human brain required to lie instead of telling the truth,” he took a quick breath and continued as his body fought the urge to breathe instead of answering every question immediately, “and we can trust the team to get us out but not their superiors to take advantage of the situation.”

Jack spoke aloud, mostly thinking to himself, “So you basically can’t lie?” 

Nathan nodded, “The higher cognitive functions of my brain which allow me to fabricate temporary false memories, which really enable us to lie quickly, have been disabled.”

“Ok so just don’t answer?” Jack offered quickly

Nathan shook his head, “An individual’s first reaction to being asked a question is to answer, it actually requires deliberation to do nothing.”

Jack sighed, “Geez, how many things can go wrong in one day?” Seeing Stark had opened his mouth to answer he quickly added, “Don’t answer that.”

Almost thankfully alarms began blaring from all directions.

Jack grinned, “–and that would be Jo. Alright, we have to go through the crowd so you two have to stay behind me and move quickly. Stick to the back corridors and I'll get rid of this crowd with Lupo’s help,” he said as he turned his back on the pair of them and pulled out his walkie talkie to talk to his deputy.

"Why did our marriage fail Nathan?" Jack instantly spun around; Allison was facing Stark with one hand on her waist.

Jack couldn’t believe she chose a time like this to do this, “Oh Allison come on... give the guy a break- we need to get these people out of here- it could get ugly fast-" but he wasn’t fast enough.

Stark had already answered, "We were both too focused on our careers and Kevin keep in touch with each others needs."

Seeing the grimace pass over Nathan’s face as he answered, Jack rolled his eyes at the brunette- then seeing Allion's face enrage only further his eyes widened in understanding and he quickly stepped between Allison and Stark, as Allison promptly smacked his upper arm.

“Ouch!” he said matter of factly.

Nathan rolled his eyes at Jack, “You saved me from a slap on the arm?”

Jack answered exasperatedly “I didn’t know what she was going to do!”

“All around hero, aren’t you Sheriff,” Nathan said half amused

Keeping his back to the director he added in an undertone, “Stark, Allison might be affected too, right?”

“Yes, you’re correct, but I didn’t see any fluidic traces on her clothes.” Stark replied in equally low voice.

In response, Allison lashed out again and Jack sidestepped into it again. This time he caught the harder blow on his chest.

“Dammit, Allison! What the hell?”

“Stop whispering!” she said angrily.

Jack had no idea how to respond to that; so he turned to face Nathan instead. Nathan was eyeing his ex-wife with scientific interest from safely behind Jack.

Jack rolled his eyes, “You can find this interesting later Stark. Right now, we need to get out of here before she gets more agitated.”

“I was married to her Carter; I think I can handle her in the early stages of agitation.” came the flippant reply.

Sighing Jack said, “Exactly…she knows which buttons to push in your big head full of government secrets. “

“It’s Allison.” Stark said dismissively, his eyes already back on his PC tablet.

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and on behavioural meds.” Jack said warningly under his breath, even as he turned to give the DoD liaison in front of him a patronizing smile.

Nathan acquiesced to the point with a thoughtful nod.

Jack continued, “Ok we have to do this now, let’s go and you just try to keep your mouth shut.”

He grabbed the DIrector's upper arm and pushed him towards the door with Allison following them. As they opened the door they were immediately engulfed by the crowd, who were much more vigorous and louder than before.

“Dr. Stark, what is the real reason for halving my funding this quarter?” A redheaded scientist asked angrily.

Jack manoeuvred  them through the crowd aiming for the exit doors which were maybe 30 feet away.

Nathan unfortunately answered before Jack could react, “Because I think your present research is fruitless and a waste of valuable resources that can be better utilised elsewhere and because I can.”

“Was that really necessary?” Jack said angrily, “this is hard enough.”

“No not necessary, but I’m answering against my will here Sheriff.” Nathan answered exasperatedly.

Allison was still right behind them and took the opportunity to ask, “What really happened to my rose bushes Nathan?”

Thankfully the crowd was now so loud that she didn’t hear Stark’s reply. He nodded confidentially to Jack as though he’d wanted to tell this particular truth for a while, “I axed them!”

Only the pulsating crowd around them made Jack stifle the smile tugging at the corners of his lips at Stark’s self-satisfied tone.

As the crowd pushed in from all sides, despite the blaring alarms going off, Jack stopped trying to fight their way through - they were getting nowhere, the crowd was continuously tightening around them and Stark for some unknown reason was letting himself get pulled into a yelling argument with Allison.

Jack stopped trying to pull him and instead came to a halt, shook his head angrily at Allison and quickly bellowed, "OK that's it! The next person to ask Dr. Stark a question is spending the afternoon locked up in the Sheriff station!" he added for good measure looking at Allison, "and that goes for you too!"

Thinking that this might be worth being locked up for a few hours, Fargo, who had fought his way to the front of the crowd called out, "Dr. Stark, how do you really feel about me?"

Before Nathan could answer Jack had turned back to him and clamped his hand over Nathan’s mouth, muffling the answer. “That's it!" Seeing his deputy fighting her way through the crowd to get to him, “Jo, take Fargo to get some much deserved downtime, everyone else clear out if you don’t want to join him.”

At his deputy’s raised eyebrows, Jack shouted “Just trust me Jo! Stark’s being super honest and just Stark- and some of them the rest of them are gonna get violent if he keeps it up. Just find Henry and-" he turned back to Stark, “ Who can reverse the oblong medal thing?”

“Dr. Kern, level 4 behavioural therapy, Stark answered obediently and then added, “and it’s the medulla oblongata.”

“Right, find him -to fix that" Jack called over to Jo.

“Her,” Stark and Jo interjected.

Jack rolled his eyes, “Fine, her and get Henry to find the mole so he can ventilate the level. And you- come with me", he said to Stark, urging him to move forward, his hand raising again to muffle his mouth.

People were still shouting questions for Nathan as Jack struggled their way to the exit and finally made it outside the main building with Jo left inside to try and detain the crowd

“You don’t need to ventilate Carter,” Nathan informed him, wrestling his head free, “It was a contained explosion, only about six of them are actually infected, the rest of them are just having fun torturing me.”

“Ok fine, which six and if it’s only six why are we hiding you?” If Stark kept struggling like this Jack just might warm up to the idea of throwing him to the crowd.

“In my present state I am a threat to national security.” Nathan replied automatically.

“I knew that. Okay, quickly, who were the six?” Jack’s eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he heard the crowd banging on the other side of the door.

Stark quickly pulled out his PC tablet and gave Jack the names of the six people who would have made up the audience for the experiment. Jack repeated them on his walkie talkie to Jo while again tugging Stark away from the door and towards the parking lot.

Nathan started to struggle and point out that there as no one else around at the moment, but broke off as someone exited the building and called out, “Hey Dr. Stark what’s in section 5?”

Jack just clamped his hand down on Stark and tugged him lower while asking, “You still want me to let go?”

Nathan mumbled a dejected “No” against the inside of Jack’s palm.

Jack grinned as they doubled their pace towards the Sheriff department issued SUV.

A security guard on his cell phone not ten feet from them suddenly turned to face them calling out loudly, his hand going for his baton.

Jack rolled his yes, “I’m not kidnapping the Director here, this is a matter of…”

He was interrupted as the guard called out, “Dr. Stark, are you single?”

Jack groaned and then resisted the urge to grin as he felt Stark stiffen with indignation. He tightened his hold on him and dragged the taller man along faster, bypassing the guard.

Stark’s head turned towards Jack, his mouth still muffled and supposedly answering the question, Jack was just thankful he couldn’t decipher what the man was saying.

Just when Jack thought nothing else could happen before they reached the truck someone exiting lower down headed straight for them while calling out and holding up a tape recorder, followed by someone with a video camera, the first looking grim while the second looked gleeful.


“Dr Stark why was my funding really cancelled?” the first called out loudly, but carefully staying just out of Carter’s reach. It was a smart move; Jack was nearly ready to start slamming people together.

“Oi Stark! What about little kitty cats, how do you feel about them, mate?” This was shouted by Taggart who had somehow gotten past Jo and was somewhere behind them. 

Jack didn’t stop to look, he just tightened his hand around Nathan’s mouth, dragging the taller man down slightly and kept them moving.

Taggart, grinning widely and obviously enjoying himself, suddenly got more serious. Scratching his chin he called out, “Stark how do you REALLY feel about Gigantipithicus Americainus?"

"Taggart CUT IT OUT!" Jack bellowed to the man behind him as he pulled Stark more firmly against him still awkwardly manoeuvring them through further into the first parking lot.

A few people near their cars on their cell phones, having clearly just heard the news, turned to watch them. They began cautiously calling out questions as if they weren’t sure if Dr. Stark would suddenly snap up and fire them all.

“Dr. Stark… what do I have to do to get a better bonus next quarter?”

“You three- clear out or consider yourselves arrested!” Jack told them waspishly and thankfully they left. “Ok this is getting out of hand,” Jack muttered to himself. “We need to hide you.” He added exasperatedly as he turned to face Nathan and removed his hand from his mouth. He knew they only had seconds before the rest of the crowd got past Jo and followed them “And what did you cut everyone’s funding this year?” 

Nathan glared at him even as he answered, “No only forty-six projects were reduced."

Jack sighed, “Sorry didn’t mean to ask a…anyway look you’d know better. Where is the safest place outside of G.D., but within Eureka?”

“The bunker.” was the prompt response.

"Seriously?" This just kept getting worse for Jack.

“The bunker was created as a stronghold as well as a Self-Actuated Residential Automated Habitat.” Stark supplied

“Huh?”

“S.A.R.A.H. is an acronym.”

“Right I knew that.”

Jack fumbled in his jacket for his keys as they reached the jeep saying, “Block your ears! If you can’t hear the questions you can’t answer them.”

Nathan shook his head, he had already had that thought but without proper auditory protection it was more than likely that sound would get through. By this time Taggart was not the only one to get past Jo, as Jack started the engine some scientist he didn’t recognise had reached them.

The scientist called out loudly, “Dr. Stark what’s your greatest fear?”

Jack glared at the white coat and threw the front door open shoving the taller man in unceremoniously and making him hit his head hard against the rear-view mirror. After getting in himself and flinging his right hand over Stark’s mouth, he slammed the door shut and threw the gears into reverse. He really didn't want to hear the answer to that one. Jack didn’t let go until they had exited the compound and were on the empty back roads of the town. He was just thankful that Zoe would still be in school.

~*~

As they rapidly put some much needed space between them and Global Dynamics, Nathan could feel Carter glancing over at him repeatedly. The Sheriff continued to peer at the slight blood on Nathan’s forehead from where he had just hit it. When he got fed up of it Nathan angled his body in the seat to look over at Jack as he arched his eyebrow and his lip curled into a smirk, “Aw Sheriff, I didn’t know you cared that much.”

Jack was speechless for all of two seconds before he realised that Stark was just being Stark.

Rolling his eyes he said, “I am not going to justify that with an answer, now hand over your cell phone. We’ll see about your head at the bunker.” 

Nathan opened his mouth to argue, but almost immediately recognised that Jack was making sense, his phone could be tracked. He sighed as he reached into his pants pocket for the tiny silver phone and held it out to Carter.

“Don’t lose it, ” he muttered.

Jack didn’t answer; he just switched it off and pocketed it, glancing one more time at the taller man. "Sorry about your head," he offered awkwardly after a few moments of silence.

"You got me out of there," was Nathan's only reply as he closed his eyes, relaxing back into the seat as they raced through the quiet back roads of Eureka.

Jack didn’t  say another word or slow down until they had arrived at the bunker; clearly it was going to be one of those days...


Veritas Chapter 2