Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence Chapter Six
Title: Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence
Author: Alex Foster
Category: General
Word Count: 50,000+
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A trip home for the holidays turns into a race to protect a young special from The Church of the Nephilim. Claire/Gretchen/Elle triad relationship.
Contains: Polyamory, established relationships, original characters, cursing, misogynist language, threats of violence to a child, sexual situations, descriptions of violence.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by NBC. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.
....
Chapter Six
Dinner was a large spread from the local supermarket deli, served on pattern china.
Elle sat next to Gretchen, Claire’s empty seat conspicuous next to her, while Lillian and Martin sat across from them. Howard took the head of the table.
"It’s all lovely, Bergs," Elle said. "No dairy with the meat; just the way I like it."
Gretchen gave her a sidelong glance.
"Thank you." Lillian took a healthy sip of wine. "Gretchen failed to mention if you or th-Claire had any restrictive dietary needs. Or were vegetarian."
"None at all." Elle placed several spoonfuls of vegetables on her plate and handed the serving bowl down. "And I do love meat. Not ham or bacon though!"
Martin snickered into his hand.
"Son," Howard warned.
"Ah…and kosher of course," Elle said, scrambling for a save. "Gretchen keeps strict kosher at home."
Howard’s expression softened slightly. "It is very kind of you to lie for my daughter’s sake."
"We were rather fond of getting the high holy days off from school," Martin said. "That was about it."
Gretchen shrugged but agreed.
Utensils clicked against plates as they ate.
"So what do you do, Elle?"
"I’m a social worker of sorts," she said. "I help…specials."
"Oh. That’s nice." Lillian shared a glance with her husband. "Have you been doing it long?"
"Couple of years. Ever since I di-had a health scare."
Howard raised his eyebrows. "I hope you are feeling better now."
"Oh, yeah. Just needed a little blood transfusion and I was good as new."
"That’s nice." Howard glanced pointedly at Gretchen. "As is your specials work."
"Yeah, some of them mostly just need to talk to someone or learn about their ability. It is the least I can do since I screwed most of them over while I was with the Company." As the words left her mouth Elle knew it was the wrong thing to say.
"You worked for that organization on the news?"
Gretchen stepped in. "Yes, she was a Company agent like Claire’s father."
"Wow." Martin looked from one person at the table to the next. "Way to go, sis. It’s like you’re filling out a bingo card."
There was a thump under the table and he winced.
"Well, bless your heart."
"Thank you, Lillian, I appreciate that."
Utensils clinked again and wineglasses were refilled.
"I’m, ah, looking forward to Hanukkah this year," Elle said. "It’s my first. I’ve been reading up on it."
"Raised Catholic?" Martin asked.
Elle shook her head. "Not raised anything, really."
"Elle’s father kept her rather sheltered," Gretchen said diplomatically.
"He did at that," Elle agreed.
Howard gestured. "Have you heard from Claire Bennet? I hope all is well."
"She texted in the car," Gretchen said. "She’s staying another night in New York."
"Does she have family there?"
"Yes, but she isn’t visiting. She’s helping-"
"An old friend of ours," Elle finished. "Keeping him company. Holidays can be tough for some people."
Martin nodded as he chewed. "Bless her heart too, huh?"
~
"Claire?"
She glanced up from her phone, thumbing the ignore button on the missed call. "Yeah?"
"We’re ready," Micah said. "I need you present for this."
"Sorry." Claire clicked off her phone.
He gave an understanding nod. "I’d give you one last chance to back out but I think it is too late for that."
"It’s fine. Let’s just get this done." She straightened the dark clothes she’d changed into for the mission.
Across the alley from her Micah was similarly dressed. Above him was a sign that read 'shipping and receiving'. Next to that was a welcome mat for a technopath: a sign that said 'protected by security cameras'. He tapped the screen of his tablet and then touched his earwig. "How’s up above look?"
"Ready whenever you are," a voice crackled in Claire’s ear.
"Let’s hope we won’t need an evac," he said. "You’re backup only. If all goes well we will just walk out the same way we walked in."
"Roger that, Red Leader."
Micah tucked his tablet into a shoulder bag and walked to the fire exit. No handle or knob on the outside, the door was electronically sealed from the inside for emergency use only. Micah put his hand on the door, closed his eyes, and seconds later it clicked open. "After you."
Claire peered inside and then stepped over the threshold. She reached for the ski mask on top of her head and started to pull it down.
Micah stopped her. "Cameras are dark. I programmed a system reboot; it’ll give us a few minutes to get upstairs."
The door shut behind them and the lock engaged once more.
They were in a receiving area, large drop doors covered bays used by delivery trucks. The main lights were off but emergency lights outlined the walls and provided a dim glow.
"This way." Micah started walking. "Most of the security should be on the lower levels. Anything above the twentieth floor is locked after business hours."
"Is that going to be a problem?"
"Shouldn’t." He glanced over his shoulder at her. "This isn’t my first B and E."
The halls started looking more corporate as they moved toward the front. Utilitarian walls gave way to neutral paint, fake plants, and nondescript artwork. Micah walked like he knew exactly where he was going, like he was an executive on his way up to the office.
This really wasn’t his first B and E, she knew. Long before she outed specials he was doing just this thing as Rebel against Building 26. Not for the first time she wondered exactly what he and Elle did when she went off on assignments for him. It wasn’t always just talking to damaged specials, she knew.
They found a pair of elevators down an empty corridor. Micah touched the call panel and the doors opened with a ding loud enough to make Claire wince.
"It’s fine," he said. "No one is coming."
They stepped into the elevator. "I don’t suppose you can see through the cameras?"
"Not yet. It is closed circuit so I have to get to a security station to splice in a loop and then take control to monitor them."
The buttons above floor twenty were dark on the elevator’s controls. At his touch though they came to life. He pressed the one for floor thirty.
"That’s the nearest auxiliary station above the lock," he said. "It should be empty for the night. I’ll set up there and guide you where you need to go."
"Okay."
The elevator lurched underneath them and began rapidly climbing.
"AAT is on the thirty-eighth floor." He stared at her. "You still good?"
Claire swallowed. "Yeah, I’m good."
Muzak was playing and she caught sight of their reflections in the door: two dark clad cat burglars complete with masks. It would have been comical under different circumstances.
The doors opened with another loud ding to a dark hall. Micah peered out and then nodded to her. "Keep your earwig in and I’ll talk you through it." He touched the thirty-eighth floor button and stepped out before the doors closed. "Good luck."
Again the floor lurched and she was moving up.
"All is still clear in the sky," a tiny voice crackled in her ear. "If you were wondering."
Claire smiled. "I wasn’t, but thank you."
The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened.
"Don’t leave yet," Micah said. "The system might have finished rebooting so the cameras could be live. I’m in the auxiliary station now-give me a second to get full access."
Claire blocked the door with her foot and stayed safely inside. She glanced up and wondered how tightly they kept the cameras monitored. Because surely the elevators had them too. "Micah…" she breathed. "Now would be g-"
"Done," he said in her ear. "Cameras are looped and I’m in the building’s security system. Scanning the floor now."
Claire stepped into the dark and let the doors close behind her. She was in a small lobby, reception desk directly in front of her and smaller offices off to her left. To the right was a hall. She adjusted the earwig. "Which way?"
"Your floor looks clear," he said. "Go to your right and read off the names on the doors. I’m hacking into their client list now."
Claire dug a small flashlight out of her shoulder bag and flipped it on. Down the hall were a series of offices, all closed. She shined her light on the nameplate next to each one. "Dobson, S. Sterling, B."
"Not them. Keep moving."
"Williams, R. Williams, A. Mmm, must be married."
"Not them either. Interesting client list though. I wouldn’t mind seeing some of those files."
"Well, as long as we’re here," Claire said dryly. "Hockligher, R. Tam, C."
"Hockligher," Micah said. "That’s the one."
Claire tried the doorknob. Locked.
"Hold on."
She put the flashlight handle in her mouth and reached into the bag for the tool Micah had given her in case she ran across a locked door. She found the small metal tool and pulled it out. At one end were two grooved pins and the other end a trigger.
The pins slipped into the lock and she turned her wrist like Micah showed her until she felt the grooves fall into place. She squeezed the trigger gently so nothing would break off in the mechanism and heard the lock turn.
She withdrew the pick gun and tried the knob again. It opened.
"I’m in."
"Good. Tell me what you see."
Claire shined her light. "There’s a desk but this is more of a store room than office. Heavy duty filing cabinets mostly."
"Alphabetized?"
Claire closed the door behind her and looked at the nearest cabinet. "Numbers."
"Damn. Give me a second to crack their encryption."
There were no windows in the office and everything seemed stuffy and smelled like ink. This was the digital future, she thought ruefully. Hard copies in place of hard drives to hide from hackers and specials. Just a couple of years ago Micah would have been able to find out this information from a search engine.
She realized then that it was entirely possible the church had learned the hard copy trick from the Company. That meant there could be Company records kept out of digital storage they haven’t even found, and possibly never would.
"Try case B48 to C21," Micah said.
Claire found the right file cabinet and again had to use the lock pick gun to open the drawer. Inside she found thick folders packed with loose papers and notes clipped to them. It was hard with gloves on, but she flipped through several pages looking for telling information. "‘The Church of the Nephilim’," she read. "Got it."
"Good. Get to work. I won’t take my eyes off your six."
Elle’s voice in her head took exception to that comment and Claire figured the former agent really was a bad influence on her. She kept the joke to herself however and began pulling folders out of the drawer. There were three total, hundreds of pages, all associated with the Church of the Nephilim.
Claire lowered them all to the floor and dropped her bag along side them. She pulled out her phone and another gadget from the bag. The gadget plugged into the charging port on her phone and lit up, bright blue in the otherwise dark office.
She opened the first folder and then ran the small hand scanner down the entire length. Flipping the cover page over, she repeated the scan.
"Micah," Claire said. "I’m seeing some familiar terms in some of these records."
"What do you mean?"
"Bag and tag, level containment, procedures regarding certain abilities. Company terminology."
Static crackled over the line for several seconds while both specials considered that.
"Get what you can," he said finally. "We’ll go over it back at the townhouse."
It was slow frustrating work. Claire knelt on the office floor for what felt like hours. It was her imagination, she knew, and did her best to keep the scanner moving steady even when she wanted to hurry. Save for the occasional audio pick up of Micah typing the comm was silent too.
~
Eight floors below, Micah also knelt on the floor. He had his tablet jacked into a nearby computer terminal. His fingers idled over the touch screen as he listened to what the network had to tell him. Feed from the now privatized security cameras popped up in the corner of his computer as he scanned the floors for activity.
He tried to get the network to tell him how often AAT received shipments from the Church of the Nephilim, but it didn’t want to cooperate with him.
He was about to try another avenue of attack when movement caught his eye from the computer screen. Micah adjusted his stance and glanced at the feed location.
"Claire, you might have a problem."
"What?"
"Two security guards three floors below you."
"I thought the floors were clear?"
"They were," he said. "That’s the problem."
On the screen the two uniformed guards were inspecting the elevator he and Claire had used. Both were large burly men and, he saw, armed with guns.
"What are they doing?"
"Nothing yet. How is your scanning going?"
"I’m halfway through the second folder. Another full one to go."
One guard started talking into a radio, nodding in agreement when he heard something back. He gestured to his partner.
As Micah watched, the second guard dropped to all fours and started sniffing the ground. He stopped at the control panel and led with his nose as he stood.
"At least one of them is a special," Micah said. "A tracker. Get out of there now, Claire."
"I’m not done yet."
On the screen, the first guard spoke into his radio and moments later red lights started flashing on Micah’s tablet. And then a siren sounded.
~
"I’m not done yet," Claire said. She scrambled to put the already scanned files back into the drawer. The third still lay in parts at her feet.
Suddenly an alarm sounded through the office. "Micah! What is that?" She pushed the earwig in as far as it would go to hear him.
"Intruder alarm," he said, sounding like he was running. "The security system is on to me. I’m trying to keep all electronic doors from locking. Get out of there and take the stairs-elevators are too hard to keep unlocked."
Claire glanced down at the unscanned folder and debated with herself for a second. Then she grabbed the folder and slid it into her bag with all the other tools and her phone. She took one last look around for anything left behind that could identify them and then started running.
"Which way?"
"All the way down the hall and to your left. There is a stairwell that goes up. Take it all the way to the roof and wait for extraction."
She was already moving. "What about you?"
"I’m on my way down now. I can get to a freight elevator not connected to the main system. I left behind a virus in their system that will buy us some time and erase the last few hours of camera footage."
"If you need a pick up tell him," Claire said as she rounded the corner. "I can always jump."
"Don’t. There are guards on the lower levels and you might not heal fast enough to get away. Plus, there are going to be firefighters here soon."
"Why?" Micah wasn’t the scorched earth type, but Claire still wondered for a moment if he would burn the building down to escape.
"We have a tracker after us," he said. "I’m not sure how powerful he is so we need to lose our scents now so we don’t lead him back to the townhouse. I rigged the fire suppression system. Sorry."
A new alarm sounded in conjunction with the first, this one a familiar ringing. Claire figured out what it was seconds before all the sprinklers went off at once. Icy cold water rained down and caused her to gasp in surprise.
He was right though so she made sure she was good and soaked before pushing the stairwell door open and heading up. A tracker powerful enough could follow a scent clear across the city. She took the steps two at a time, the heavy file in her bag slapping against her thigh with each step.
Several floors below, she heard a door slam open and the sound of heavy footfalls climbing after her. "I’ve got company," she said. "How does that pick up look?"
"Coming in hot," Micah’s partner answered. "Ready when you are."
Claire was still in good cheer camp shape and easily quickened her pace up the flights of stairs. The men below her sounded large and ponderous-they were moving at a good clip but she had the edge.
Praying that Micah had managed to keep the locks open, Claire rounded the landing to the roof access and hit the door at full speed. It opened and she was back out in the cold night air and acutely aware of every drop of water she was carrying from Micah’s firemen trick.
Claire pulled her mask down to hide her face. "I’m on the north side," she said. "I need pick up now."
The sky above was empty save for stars and the moon. Below she heard the guards clear the final landing.
Sighing with impatience, Claire slammed the door shut and looked around for something to barricade it with. "Now would be a good time."
"I’ve got you," a voice said in her ear. "Start moving."
Claire didn’t have to be told twice. She ran for the roof’s edge.
The door opened and both guards hurried out to the roof. Claire took a deep breath as she neared the edge but didn’t slow. A rush of displaced air nearly knocked her over, but arms encircled her waist and the ground vanished below her feet.
"Put your arms around my neck and hold on," West Rosen said. "We’re clear."
Claire clung to him, making sure her bag was pinned between them so it couldn’t empty as he twisted and zigged their trajectory. Gunfire sounded behind them but they were already accelerating away.
"She’s out," West said. "Do you need pickup, Red Leader?"
There was silence on the comm for several long moments and then, "Negative. I’m on my way out now."
Claire relaxed as they shot through New York airspace and out across the Hudson River. That had been far closer than they planned for. How convenient, she thought, that specials were indeed guarding the church’s storage facilities.
~
Later, at Micah and Molly’s townhouse, Claire watched as the technopath looked over the data they stole. "I figured any likelihood of us going undetected had been blown out the window," she said pointing at the file folder.
"Yeah," he said, clearly not pleased, "but we wouldn’t have announced to the church that they were being targeted."
Claire shrugged. "I saw an opportunity and took it."
Micah nodded. "Hopefully it was worth it."
The New Jersey brownstone, a foreign investment firm to all the neighbors, was a nondescript office building on the outside but inside it had been completely redesigned. Wood paneling and soft recessed light gave a homey feel. One of the walls between what used to be the reception area and one of the larger offices was missing, creating a wide living space. Chairs and a sofa sat in a semi circle in the center of the great room. Several TVs hung on the wall, all muted with closed captioning running along the bottom of the screens.
Elle liked to joke the brownstone was a special halfway house, but Claire saw it for what Micah and Molly had clearly intended: a home for those that needed one. Upstairs were converted bedrooms for specials they were helping; downstairs Micah kept an office well stocked to be worthy of a war room. She was sure there were other defenses she couldn’t see but it all amounted to the same thing. A safe place.
As a special there was something about this home that she couldn’t pin down exact, but she felt safe here. Knowing Elle stayed here on missions eased some of Claire’s worry about them.
Molly stepped into the living room carrying a tray. She caught Claire’s gaze and smiled as though she knew exactly what she was thinking. "Tea?" she asked, holding up the tray.
Molly Walker was the other half of Micah’s campaign and a big part of that home like feeling the brownstone offered. She rarely used her ability these days, having given it up before the rebellion, but that didn’t lessen her drive to the cause. Surprisingly, or maybe not as Claire thought about it, she was the one person that Claire had never seen Micah finagle in his plans or pushed to use her ability.
"Thank you." Claire accepted a cup off the tray and watched as Molly moved to West who was stretched prone on one of the couches.
The three of them, Micah, Molly, and West went back a long time, Claire knew. All the way to Building 26, the rebellion, and the underground movement.
West took one of the teacups too and nodded his thanks. It was steaming hot so he sat up to sip it.
Molly didn’t give Micah a choice; she handed him the second to last cup on the tray and took the final one herself. She sat next to him and let one hand rest comfortingly against his neck.
Claire smiled at that small action. She considered her phone for a second before putting it away. She missed Elle and Gretchen but it was after midnight here so it was very late in the Midwest. She didn’t want to wake them up.
Micah began separating the file folder into parts. "Well, everyone," he said, "pick one and start digging. Claire’s phone uploaded the other files to my cloud so there is plenty to go around."
West picked up one of the stacks. "What are we looking for exactly?"
"Something fishy that the church is doing with old Company properties," Micah said. "Or just fishy in general. I’ll take that at this point."
"I went in for a first tier reading once," West said, "and they still bug me by email looking to upgrade my status with the church. Does that count?"
All three specials stared at him.
"What? It was free and I thought it would be fun. I didn’t know they were some sort of corporate cult then."
Claire’s stack turned out to be mostly boring travel expenditures. The church had missionary work all over the world plus several start up branches they were fostering. Several of the countries in the reports were decidedly anti special so if the church was looking for recruits they would find a willing special population.
There were domestic missionaries too, she read. All over the United States, particularly the Deep South. Fearful churchgoers, Claire thought. A special geared non-denominational faith would look appealing to a lot of people with abilities down there.
"I don’t suppose we could just index search evil plan with the online data, huh?" West asked.
Molly laughed but she looked just as bleary eyed as the rest of them.
"I found some project names," Micah said not looking up from his tablet. "They could be Company related. I will have to cross search the names with my Company files to be sure."
Claire shifted and sat on her left leg. "What sort of names? Maybe my dad mentioned one."
"White Lotus, Freefall, Project Stephen, Moonset Initiative."
"A couple of those sound like band names," Molly joked. "Bad bands."
"Was your dad in a band, Claire?"
She smiled and shook her head. "None of those sound familiar."
"A couple of them might to me," Micah mused. "I think they might have been related to rare abilities the Company was documenting second hand until they were able to prove them. Stories of stories, that sort of thing. I’ll make a note and check them out."
"I’d like to know what sort of ability Freefall could mean," West said. "Might be handy not to run into Mr. Freefall while I’m cruising along the friendly skies."
"I was a project file too in the beginning," Molly said. "It might not mean what you think it means. It is just a code word for agents to use."
"So if the church is looking for rare specials what could they want with them? If they’ve avoided the Company’s radar, Pinehearst’s, and Building 26 then chances are they don’t want to be found."
Micah shrugged. "Samuel was off the grid too. But it is possible they are just looking to add them to the fold. Or the Company could have high level specials tucked away so deep in a maze of dummy corporations and lost paperwork that the founders themselves couldn’t find them.
"Maybe the church is looking to unleash someone on the world."
That thought hung heavy in the room. Both the idea that there could be another highly powered individual out there and the horror that the Company might have numbers of them imprisoned and forgotten about around the world.
"Other people have normal Christmases," West said, trying to lighten the mood.
"What’s that?" Claire asked.
"Would anyone like some more tea?" Molly asked. "I would."
"Yes, please." Claire handed the cup back just as her pocket started to ring. She blinked in surprise at the late hour and pulled her phone out. The caller id brought a smile to her face.
Claire stood and moved to the foyer for privacy before touching the answer button. "Hello, Elle. I’m-"
"Turn the news on, Cheerleader," the voice on the other end of the line cut her off. "We’ve got a huge problem."
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