Super

Chapter 19: Plot, Counterplot

She met Lex's eyes again, and Lex could feel her expression turning incredulous, sad, and worried. Riss shook her head and continued. “So it was wasted time figuring if there was a way I could get out of here based on proving someone else's guilt.”

“What do you mean?” Casey asked with a frown. “Surely if you could prove your innocence–”

Riss' sigh stopped the other woman. “That had nothing to do with it. I guess since I'm a prisoner the people that run the facility felt they could be more honest with me. They made it clear to me a while back that they have no intention of ever letting me go. I just didn't know at the time that it meant they were the ones who made sure I ended up here in the first place. That, of course, made me curious about other people who have been on these teams. So, I did some research.”

She brought up a team roster on the screen. “This is the list of all of the teams in the country, and all of the people who've been on them since this system was put into place about 15-20 years ago,” Riss said, pointing out their team and their names. “At first, you can see that a number of people moved on to other things, but within the last decade, the government made some new laws to govern us. As you can see, no one from then on has been allowed to leave.”

“What?” Serena looked at Riss quizzically, almost skeptically.

“The people that run the facility said as much to me, that they'd never allow me to leave, and that there were much worse places to be. Let me show you.”

She pulled up the roster that she'd showed them before, then pointed out a name on it. “Casey, do you remember Ivy Walker? The records say that she was on the team when you arrived.”

Casey frowned for a moment, and then nodded. “I didn't know her well, especially since I spent the first couple of months here on the medical floor. She seemed really nice, but I remember that a few months after I'd really recovered she got sick, and we didn't see her anymore. A while after that, I remember being told that she retired, and I never heard anything more after that.”

Riss nodded. “I'm sure that's probably what they told you. In reality, she was moved from the facility we're at to the main facility. I'll show you a live video feed of her today,” she continued, clicking up another window and maximizing it to the whole screen.

All four women watched the screen closely, and then the other three of them glanced at Riss, puzzled. “It just looks like a greenhouse,” Casey finally said, confusion in her voice.

“Look now,” said Riss, pointing at something.

And Lex jumped in surprise as they all saw human eyes suddenly appear in the greenery, and something that had appeared to be a plant moved. As they watched they could see she wasn't a plant, although she didn't appear very human anymore, either.

Lex stared at Riss in horror as the other woman minimized the window. “What the hell happened to her?” Lex asked, listening as her voice shook.

Riss sighed. “That's what it took me a while to figure out,” she said, pulling up another document. “Once we were attached to the other facility, though, I found out lots of interesting things. This shows the list of 'treatments' that Ivy was given, the first of them dating a couple of years before she disappeared, around the time she was put on the team.”

“What were they for?” Casey asked, frowning.

“To find out, as well as translate what I found, took time,” Riss said, pulling up yet another document. “They gave her a standard regimen that they put together at MSI headquarters, which is a biological research facility.”

Everyone just stared at Riss blankly for a moment, so she sighed again and continued. “They assigned Ivy an experimental gene therapy protocol designed to modify human bodies to go beyond normal human abilities. Lex, you are currently being given this regimen, and so is Casey.”