Too Many Secrets

[Ashlie Minamida]

Ashlie digs out Lt. Buren's private phone number and goes to establish a secure connection before initiating the actual call.

[Lt. Sara VanBuren]

"Van Buren," the quick response came.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Lieutenant? This is Ashlie Minamida again. Do you have a moment?"

[Lt. Sara VanBuren]

"Minamida? Sure, I've got a few minutes. Is something wrong?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"In a way. Will has run into some issues, namely that somebody tried to get rid of him by using a number of exotic substances and concoctions. One of them we found out is produced exclusively by Setec Astronomy."

[Lt. Sara VanBuren]

"'Get rid' of him? What do you mean by that?" she said, apparently louder than she intended to, as her next sentence was much quieter. "Is he alright?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"He was separated into several pieces with the intent to be scattered. We managed to restore him by removing most of the cocktail used to inhibit and manipulate his shapeshifting except for one. The one produced by a company that is directly connected to the Alfred McGuffin Institute."

[Lt. Sara VanBuren]

"The Institute? You're kidding! They'd never be involved in something like this!"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"It's possible they're not aware. Or someone is selling it. The reason I'm calling you is that you have a better idea of who can be trusted and might know something about how this happened."

[Lt. Sara VanBuren]

"'Who can be trusted'? You make it sound like there's some conspiracy going on or something.

This is a biochemistry issue going on? Tissue engineering or something? Those are my areas of expertise..."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"What if there was? The circumstances of Will being found have been intentionally obfuscated as was the site he was found at. You're the one person involved in this I am fairly certain I can trust. If you could tell me what you know about Setec and the Alfred McGuffin Institute that'd already be very helpful, but if you're willing to sacrifice more of your time I could see about sending you a sample of Will. The substance has bonded to him and my expertise lies mostly in Physics and Engineering."

[Lt. Sara VanBuren]

"Setec? They're the exobiologists, aren't they? I could get one on the line if you needed to talk to them.

Maybe you'd better go into more detail about what happened."

[Ashlie Minamida]

And so she does. She leaves out who precisely Roland is and his motivation, as well as the fact that he turned Will into money, because she'd rather not inform people that her X-Team robbed the Royal Mint, but she tells her all the relevant parts.

[Lt. Sara VanBuren]

"Well, crap on a cracker. That's not good at all. But I can't imagine anyone here would have tried to hurt Will like that! I mean, why on Earth would we?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I honestly don't know, but then I'm not entirely sure about any of the Major's motivations beyond protecting his Antarctic secret. It is possible the substance was stolen, but then the question remains of why it was developed."

[Lt. Sara VanBuren]

"I'm afraid that's above my pay grade, headmistress. I'm just worried about Will. If you want bigger answers, you might have to go up the food chain."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I suspect they don't particularly feel like sharing that kind of information with me. If you happen to hear anything anyway, let me know?"

[Lt. Sara VanBuren]

"I mean, I will...I'll talk to people right away, and we'll get back to you?" she said, hesitantly.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Thank you. I appreciate your help. Goodbye." she says before severing the connection and digging out the contact information for the Major. She still had his personal cellphone number, but using it would probably set them off on the wrong foot, so she tries it the official way first.

[Major Briggs]

It took a while. Secretary to secretary, official to official, scheduled appointment to excuse. But finally, finally, after hours of tedious navigating beurocracy. ASHLIE got through to Major Briggs.

"Minamida. I had been hoping I had heard the last of you."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Pleasure talking to you as always. I just thought I'd call and let you know that we found a compound produced by Setec Astronomy, that was being used to influence Will Stanton's shapeshifting. In case you weren't aware of it already."

[Major Briggs]

There was a pause on the line.

"...Alright, you're going to need to run that by my again. Slowly."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"A compound produced by Setec Astronomy - a subsidiary of the Alfred McGuffin Institute, I believe - was used by what I can only assume was a rogue element to suppress and control Will Stanton's shapeshifting, with the intent of incapacitating him indefinitely. An act that I'm sure Setec had nothing to do with, but the question remains of how this person gained access to the substance and, in a matter of personal curiosity, why such a substance was developed in the first place."

[Major Briggs]

"...Give me five minutes."

The Major stopped talking on the phone, but ASHLIE could pick up plenty of shouting and yelling -- the Major ordering people around, demanding reports from people, threatening to shove his boot so far up someone's ass their tongue would have treadmarks, and the like. Most notably, he ordered someone else to start recording the call -- whether he knew ASHLIE could hear him or not was unclear.

"Alright. We're going on careful ground here. Before I answer your questions, there are some questions I need answered, to understand the scope of what we're talking about.

What are the effects on the 70-N? What is the ratio of chemical to 70-N? Is it still sentient and able to communicate? Are there any signs of uncontrolled mutation or spontaneous growth? Is the campus safe and secure from these rogue elements? Do you require assistance with containment or quarantine measures?" he rifled off, rapid-fire.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I'm assuming you meant for me to hear you are recording this, because otherwise that would violate numerous laws and treaties. The campus is safe, the rogue element has been detained and is being prepped to be moved to Muir for long-term holding. Will is generally fine, he is conscious and under normal circumstances manages to hold whichever form he wants to, it seems." she pauses for a moment, then seems to make a decision to be the better person. "His shape-shifting is being overridden by the needs and demands of those around him. The chemical seems to be at about .02% total mass but we haven't run extensive tests yet no how his mass-shifting affects that. If I had to extrapolate then the effect does not seem to lessen through reasonable mass increases. The substance has bonded on the molecular level and is likely affected by the same replication mechanic that increases his overall mass. Nothing is out of control, if anything the issue is that he is under too much control from outside influences."

[Major Briggs]

"Alright. Alright. This is classified on a need-to-know basis, so use appropriate security precautions with this information.

Four months ago, a pair of highly experimental chemical compounds were stolen from a test site in Tonopah, Nevada. They were part of a strategic defense initiative, designed to protect agents in the field from telepathic control. I don't need to tell you how dangerous telepathy can be to sensitive information. The other compound was for attempting to stimulate and develop telepathic abilities in an adapted form of Terrigenesis. We've been on a Code Red scramble to retrieve the shipment, but this is the first we've heard of a solid lead.

Could the purpose of introducing it into the 70-N been to create more of the compound? It is extremely difficult to synthesize in lab; our investigation has been focusing on the limited number of individuals who might have access to the proper technology. If, however, a method was found to introduce it into a substance like 70-N, farm it and then purify it of the compounds, that would remove the need for quite a bit of our technology.

The compounds have never been tested on someone with as...unique abilities as 70-N. I'm concerned about it's longterm viability and, frankly, quality of life."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"We're working on removing the substance, but so far it seems that it'll be too involved to be worth considering as a means of production. If you want I can send someone to investigate. No offense to the capabilities of your men and women, but we have access to unique abilities. I will try to interrogate the rogue element in regards to this, but so far he has not been very cooperative and he's shown to be rather resilient to telepathic incursions."

[Major Briggs]

"No need to send anything down here; we'll liaison up there. It'd be less traumatizing for the 70-N, anyway. No offense to the capabilities of your staff, but we have access to history and data regarding these substances."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"You're sending people here? To the University?"

[Major Briggs]

"Yes. You can expect a small team in approximately 48 hours. There's some tests we need to run, and some possible remedies worth trying. We also want to ensure that the 70-N is able to handle the increased stress of the chemical bonding, as well as ensure that the chemical isn't falling in the wrong hands."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Meaning ours? I'm not sure how comfortable I am with allowing people to run tests on him who still believe him to be a particularly ambitious substance. He's a Mutant, you know. And even if the paperwork doesn't reflect that yet, it does say I'm his 'owner'. So if you want to send people to UK soil to visit a private University and experiment on my property then it's going to happen on my terms. And I would appreciate being asked for permission first."

[Major Briggs]

"Name your terms, then," the Major said. "We're not looking for a fight here. We all want what's best for the 70-N."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"No soldiers. Scientists only. They will clear anything that happens with me and all experiments will take place either in our workshop or the hospital lab. Any results they find go through me or Dr. McCoy first. No airlifting them into my school, we can send transportation to pick them up if needed, but US military does not make for a good look for the school, especially considering your country's current stance on Mutant rights. And they will refer to him as Will Stanton, not 70-N."

[Major Briggs]

"My scientists are soldiers, Minamida. I'll agree to sending only scientists, but this is a military base, with military operations. We are military personnel.

I believe the facilities on location should be more than adequate, though we'll have to bring in some of our own proprietary equipment. You're welcome to examine that to make sure it won't harm any of your systems, and you can have access to any and all results we obtain.

If you or one of your students need to be present during any investigations and experiments, that is acceptable. We will not run back and forth to you in some office to ask for permission, but it's fine to work with you in a joint operation in your facility. You run your facility; you can revoke our access to your equipment if you are concerned, at any point, with our methods.

Sending transportation to pick is up is a waste of everyone's time, but if you're that concerned about optics, it will be acceptable.

We will continue to operate under the same procedures set in place four years ago, when the subject was first discovered. I trust that will be acceptable, as it ended up with the decision to send the 70-N to you in the first place."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I understand that all your personnel is military. I simply don't want combat troops wandering through. And I don't wish to impede your people. My nature allows me to be available at any time in any place on school grounds and I will do my best to make this convenient. I wish I didn't have to be concerned about public opinion, but unfortunately that's the world we live in. One last thing. Your people will have access to all relevant areas on campus, but surely you understand that some areas have to be off-limits. There is a lot of proprietary technology in our facility."

[Major Briggs]

"Assign whoever or whatever you need as escorts. We're not coming in looking to undermine your program, Minamida. We just need access to your scientific and technological equipment if we're going to fully analyze the 70-N on-site. I'm sure there is technology that isn't relevant to our investigation, and I wouldn't expect access to that, in this scenario."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"We're on the same page then, assuming Will is okay with this arrangement, though I don't believe he's going to turn down help. And I do appreciate your support in this matter. One last thing... We have suspicions that some of the substance might have found it's way to what we believe to be connected to Russia. People who seem to be responsible to the recent attempt on the President's life. It might be worth collaborating on the theft of the substance and I will gladly look through the findings of your investigations."

[Major Briggs]

"We'll be happy to work with any information you may have on that account."

[Ashlie Minamida]

Ashlie makes the conscious choice not to sigh. "Look, I understand you have to keep your security details under wraps, but surely there's something you can give me without compromising your facility."

[Major Briggs]

There was a pause.

"I'll see what I can clear with my superiors. I can't promise anything."