Who Watches the Watchmen?

[Barbara Nolan]

Who Watches the Watchmen?

Barbara stared at the stark black and white headline on her laptop, and chewed her bottom lip. It was cliche, of course, and unoriginal, but it got the point across.

I'll just re-title it after I'm done with the post. She sipped her double shot espresso, her second one of the evening, and scratched her brow before repositioning her fingers on the keyboard. The Santa Ana winds were kicking up, and with them her allergies. Itchy face was perhaps the least annoying of her symptoms, but was also the one that her allergy medicine didn't touch. Claritin clear, yes, but still itchy itchy. More moisturizer needed.

Barbara closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on her blog post. Unfortunately, the coffee that was supposed to keep her awake and working on her self imposed deadline was also making her mind jump about like a rabbit on crack. Perhaps two double shots was over doing it.

She drained her cup and decided that she'd quit coffee tomorrow.

Three hours later, around two AM, she had finished her blog post. She had the day off the next day - TOday, she amended - and she had a bit of a trek planned. Well, a drive. A drive and then a trek.

A STAR TREK, she hollered in her head, and then posted the post and hobbled into the kitchen. "Don't sit on your feet, Babs," she chastised herself. "Two hours sitting on your feet, no wonder I can't walk."

Thankfully her roommate was asleep and couldn't hear her raving to herself like a lunatic. Also -

She put her cup into the dishwasher and lost her train of thought entirely. Tomorrow will be fun. A long drive out to Joshua Tree and 29 Palms. Fun? Maybe. Interesting? Hopefully.

[Barbara Nolan]

Who Watches the Watchmen?

July 30, 2009



Perhaps you've heard of them. Homeland Security's Vanguard division. Most likely you have not, unless you have had the unfortunate experience of being detained by their soldiers.

Not agents, soldiers, you heard me right. Vanguard was originally developed as a cooperative agency between the US Military and the Department of Homeland security. Their charter is "to speculate on potential terrorist threats and to provide recommendations to U.S. law enforcement and military forces." However, I believe that they have vastly overstepped their original purpose.

For instance, their sudden and continued presence here in Los Angeles and the surrounding cities. It was not widely reported in the media, but Vanguard assisted in neutralizing the mutant rally on June 28th on the steps of the Stanley Mosk Courthouse. Neutralizing is a very kind word for what happened to the hundreds of people gathered peacefully in the park. I have several eye witness accounts that report widespread use of an unknown drug, injected into mutants that caused their abilities to go haywire. This drug, the name of which I have not yet found, reportedly caused more incidents and increased the danger for everyone around the affected mutants.

Several people (why tag them as mutants? They were all people, though yes, allegedly all had the X-gene) were detained by the Vanguard units that descended on the park across from the courthouse. A few people were brought in by the LAPD, and you can search for and find their charges and subsequent court dates or fines. The ones Vanguard took? There is no trace of them in the judicial system.

No trace, you say? Then how do I know this even happened? WHAT PROOF IS THERE?

Not enough proof, I admit. Not enough for the print or television media to pick up this story, though the Rally was well covered by both. Or perhaps any evidence has been expunged from the record, and the media is complicit in hiding it from the public.

Oh, it's another "damn liberal/conservative media" rant you may say. Don't dismiss this. Vanguard is very real, and you can find them on the internet. But their stated purpose and their actual purpose are, I believe, two different things.

Just because they seem to be targeting mutants and not so-called Regular Humans (I hate that this is even a thing, we are ALL HUMANS) doesn't mean you can afford to turn a blind eye. Be aware of what is going on in your state, Californians! Call your representatives and ask them what Vanguard is doing in California. What national security threat do our own citizens pose?

If no one else will, then we must watch the Watchmen. They say they are looking out for us, but at what cost?

[Jo Holloway]

First, her cousin had asked for a place to stay. Then she had actually come, and stayed. Jo's sanctuary, her little 1920s bungalow that bordered an orange grove that hadn't actually been built over yet with a strip mall, had been invaded.

Barbara was about Jo's age, the daughter of Uncle John, her father's brother. Jo hadn't seen her in years - actually, over two decades. There was a picture of them together in a sun drenched kiddie pool in San Jose when they were both four years old. She didn't really know what had kept them apart so long, except that her father was notoriously bad at holding grudges and Uncle John was too. Must have run in the family.

None of that really mattered, except that there were dirty dishes in her sink, her second bedroom had been re-purposed from a craft room to an actual bedroom, and there was clutter everywhere. Just my luck, groused Jo, her hands at ten and two as she accelerated down the freeway. Barbara had the window down and her hand out, 'flying' it through the wind.

Just a quick trip out to the military base in Twenty-Nine palms. Reason? Don't you want to see some cute Marines? Barbara thought of herself as an Investigative Blogger, and Jo had read her latest article about Vanguard. To be honest, she wondered some of the same things, especially from her lab in the depths of the LAPD.

But actually driving out to the desert, and looking for trouble was so far out of her comfort zone she was sweating through her deodorant just thinking about it. And yet her sweet cousin had talked her into it, and here they were, an hour out of LA and headed into barren wastelands in search of The Truth.

It was out there, Barbara had it on good authority.

Jo pushed her glasses up on her nose, and turned up the radio, trying to drown out her thoughts.

[Barbara Nolan]

Twentynine Palms Strategic Expeditionary Landing Field. Barbara leaned back against the passenger seat, closing her eyes and letting the warm, allergen-filled air blow her short blond hair about. Jo was driving, her hair pulled back in a wind whipped ponytail, and the radio was blaring country western music over the roar of Barbara's open window.

"I have air conditioning you know," Jo shouted over the wind, and Barbara grinned, and finally rolled her window up, giving them both a respite.

"Sorry, I just love driving with the windows down." She shrugged cheekily, and adjusted the climate control to keep them cool as they headed east on Route 62.

Jo sighed, a sort of long-suffering exhalation that she had perfected during the three weeks Barbara had been staying with her. "It's just hard to talk."

Barbara sat up, suddenly alert. "Don't miss the turn! Rainbow Canyon Road, remember?"

"It isn't for at least twenty more miles," her cousin replied. "What exactly are we looking for out there? I can't get you onto the base, if that's what you're thinking."

"Yeah, I know. We're sort of going around the base anyway. Plus I will buy you ice cream and I'm paying for gas. What else were you going to do with your day off? Sit at home and crochet?"

Jo looked sideways at her, and Barbara realized that yes that was exactly what her cousin had been planning on doing. She sighed, mimicking Jo. "You can't just live in the lab and then hide at home. Getting out is good for you, and besides, you have a much better camera than I do."

[Jo Holloway]

"Damn straight I do," Jo muttered, slouching into the driver's seat as her Honda Civic cruised down the narrow highway. "Your phone isn't a camera, by the way."

Barbara held up her iPhone3GS and waggled it. "Three point fifteen megapixels. It's a great camera. But yes, I get your point. Like I said, I can't compete with your five zillion pixel D-three thousand."

"Nikon D-three hundred, and it's only twelve em-pee." Jo tentatively pressed down on the gas, trying to pass a semi truck as a passing lane opened up.

"Well, you take awesome pictures," Barbara said, looking out her window. "Seriously, your landscapes are awesome. I'd buy a coffee table book of them."

Jo rolled her eyes, but also blushed as she managed to pull ahead of the truck just before the passing lane ended. "Joshua Tree will have some great things to take pictures of, if you're not going to be too long staring at Marines in their khaki uniforms."

[Barbara Nolan]

"Can't stare at them for too long," Barbara asserted, a grin stealing over her face. "But really, we won't be seeing any of them. If I'm right."

She looked sideways at Jo, but her cousin was staring at the road. Barbara ran her hands through her hair and opened up Google Maps on her phone, tracking them via GPS in real time. The turn was coming up, and they were stopped along the way by a check point in the road where their IDs were checked by an MP wearing BC glasses. Barbara smiled at him when he returned their drivers licenses and waved them on.

"Okay, so are we going on the base?"

"No, no. Past it. Here..." Barbara held up the phone to show Jo the route. "There's an installation past the main base where... Well, we're just going to check it out."

"Mmhmm." Jo eyed the little map, and took a left turn. "Just tell me where to go, Cuz. And if we get arrested I'm never going to forgive you."

Barbara laughed. "Don't be ridiculous, we won't be arrested." Shot, maybe. She directed Jo through the next few turns, and then they were pulling off the side of the road and parking in a small turnout. She hopped out of the Civic and stretched, adjusting her sunglasses in the bright desert sun.

[Jo Holloway]

"Ha, ha, arrested. How silly," Jo parroted, punctuating it with a magnificent eye roll she made sure Barbara could see. She reached back into the car and retrieved her camera, putting it carefully around her neck.

Taking a few steps back along the road, she took a picture of Barbara shading her eyes next to the Civic, staring off into the scrub brush that dotted the land around them. "Come on, it's hot. And there isn't anything here. And -"

"And we're having an adventure!" shouted Barbara, running toward Jo and then past her before slowing down. "Okay, it's this way." She held up her phone and pointed to the east. "Just a little way, we can't see it from the road but it isn't far, I promise. Unless an inch on Google Maps is further than I think it is. I'm joking, don't worry."

Barbara hitched up her bag that held their bottled water and a couple of granola bars, and Jo followed her, already regretting the trip and wishing for a big floppy hat. "I'm going to get sunburned out here. Why do I always forget sunblock?"

[Barbara Nolan]

"Because you consciously choose not to use your luck," guessed Barbara. "Don't start with me about consequences and things like that, I got the whole speech two days ago. I still remember it!" The land was pitched at an angle, and they were soon hiking over a rolling hill which hid the part of the base they were aiming for from the road.

Jo turned and snapped a picture of her car as they reached the top, the sun glinting fiercely off the windshield in the distance. Barbara had eyes only for what lay ahead. "There it is," she said, starting down the other side of the hill. A fenced installation was about three hundred yards in front of them, complete with airstrip and hangars.

"Now, remember, we're just hiking around in nature."

"Of course," said Jo, stumbling a bit as she caught up with her. "But really, what are you hoping to find?"

Barbara waggled her eyebrows. "Vanguard, of course."

[Jo Holloway]

"Shit," Jo stopped walking. "I mean, I figured it was something like that, but you know what they are capable of. Or, what we think they're capable of. And we're both mutants. I don't even want to know what would happen if I got shot up full of Nectar."

Barbara whirled around so suddenly Jo nearly jumped backward. "What did you say? What's Nectar?"

Oops. "It's just... I'm not supposed to talk about it outside of work." She looked at her camera and fiddled with some of the light balance settings. "Look, we're family but really, we barely know each other. I could get fired over this leaking onto your blog."

[Barbara Nolan]

Barbara stopped herself before she stalked up on her cousin and shook her by the shoulders, and instead found a bit of shade by a scrubby tree and sat down. After a moment Jo joined her, checking the ground thoroughly for snakes first.

Kid gloves, Barbara decided, opening up her bottle of water and taking a sip before sharing it. "Look, I'd never breach your confidence. If anything did end up on my blog it would be layered in so much 'anonymous tip' bullshit the LAPD would never know where it came from. And now that I think of it, Nectar sounds a little familiar? Something to do with a gang or something?"

"It is turning up on the street," admitted Jo, taking a drink of water. "But it's a designer drug, shit, don't tell anyone please, okay?"

"Stop saying that! If we're on the border of a possible Vanguard base and they can assume we're snooping even though we're not, okay we are but they don't know that, I need to know if this was really stupid or not. I don't know about Nectar, the general public doesn't know about Nectar, and if it's a weapon -!?"

"It is a weapon," Jo sighed. "At least, that's all it could be. It's been designed specifically to interact with the biology of a mutant, triggering their ability in an unnatural and uncontrollable way. After the mutant 'overloads', so to speak, they fall unconscious for a while. And if that wasn't enough, after they come to they cannot access their abilities for hours. It's as though it was all used up and burnt out in the space of a few minutes."

Barbara sat back, staring off into the middle distance, the fenced airstrip a blur. "Wow."

"Yeah, wow is right. So if my ability was enhanced by Nectar, I have no idea what might happen. Maybe a satellite would come down on top of us all and turn me into a smoking crater." Jo shuddered.

"I still don't see how your ability could influence a satellite," Barbara said, looking at her cousin. "But I see your point. We'll be careful... I just want to get close enough that you can get some pictures of the place with your telephoto lens. I mean, good pictures. I can look at them and analyze things later."

"Pictures, and then ice cream," said Jo, managing a smile.

"Ice cream is a must. It's hotter than biscuits here." Barbara laughed, and helped her cousin to her feet. "Look, we'll head over there to that bunch of trees, or tall bushes, or whatever those are, and see if that's close enough. I'll set it up like we're having a snack during a hike so if anyone bothers us we have an alibi."

[Jo Holloway]

The sparkle in Barbara's eyes belied any seriousness that might have lurked in her words, and Jo trudged behind her resignedly. It wasn't like they were even going to find anything, so why did her stomach feel so upset at the thought of pointing her camera at the fence and taking some innocent snaps?

To distract herself Jo peered through her camera viewfinder, slowing down even further and taking some pictures of the plant life around them. Teddybear cholla, creosote bushes and hedgehog cactus in full bloom caught her attention. She knelt down and took a few close ups of the pink flowers on the little prickly cacti, her mind slowly calming as she focused and adjusted her camera.

After a few minutes she caught up with Barbara, who was standing beside the grouping of Joshua trees she'd pointed out earlier and looking at the base. Jo checked the ground for rattlers again, finding it blessedly barren of snakes, and knelt down, focusing on the not-far-enough-away chain link fence.

"For God's sake, Barbara, stop staring and do something else," she said, camera clicking as she took pictures. "It's only getting hotter and I'd rather not -"

Jo's body clenched, and she gritted her teeth, fingers clamping around the camera. She winced, the sensation of a full body sneeze passing as quickly as it had come. "Oh fucking shit," she moaned.

[Barbara Nolan]

Barbara laughed. "You sound so funny when you swear. It's like you enunciate the words too much." She looked up at Jo from where she was setting out a small blanket from her bag. The look on her cousin's face sobered her up immediately. "What is it?"

[Jo Holloway]

"Oh nothing," Jo said, her voice pitching higher with every word. "Just my luck kicking in! Nothing to worry about!"

"Shut up, that can happen? I thought you had to ...do it on purpose." Barbara looked around them, and then up at the sky, no doubt recalling the earlier conversation about satellites.

"Yeah, well, usually, sure. But if I don't use it for a while it just will randomly kick off and then it's a crapshoot." Jo determinedly clicked away at the base, focusing on a hangar door that was opening and where a small knot of soldiers were gathering. They were wearing nondescript olive green uniforms, and didn't appear to be US Marines, despite their location.

"Okay, that's okay, we're going to be fine. Right?"

"Yeah, if it's good luck," muttered Jo. "If I don't do it on purpose then it's a coin flip as to what's going to happen."

"Fucking shit."

"Mmhmm. Wait, can you see that?" She pulled her face away from the viewfinder and looked without the aid of the telephoto lens. "The hangar. What is that (http://i.imgur.com/KcUEV48.jpg) coming out of it?"

[Barbara Nolan]

She squinted through her sunglasses at the far away hangar, filtering what she could see through a few different light wavelengths. Barbara didn't really talk about it, but being able to see the entire light spectrum was useful. Sometimes, anyway. In this particular case it didn't make much difference except that the radio waves made the entire base light up in a bizarre, blinking way that made her instantly switch to the 'normal' side of things.

"Is it a tank?" Barbara held out her hands and Jo handed over the camera, letting her look through it for a better view.

"I don't think so. Or, at least, it's not one that I'm familiar with."

"Are you familiar with a lot of tanks?" She quirked up an eyebrow as she gave her cousin the camera back.

"Well, no." Jo pressed her face back to the viewfinder and set to work.

Barbara chewed her bottom lip, gazing around their little 'picnic' site. Viewing the plants and flowers of the desert landscape through her ultraviolet vision lent an entirely different sort of beauty to it. "Maybe this is good luck, whatever that is it could be a Vanguard..thingy."

[Jo Holloway]

Jo snorted, "If this was good luck then there would be some sort of sign unfurling about now with ..." her voice trailed off.

"With their evil plans written on it?" Barbara supplied helpfully in the interim silence.

Jo shook her head silently, looking with unbelief at the scene unfolding in front of her camera lens. Someone was cutting a ribbon by a podium that hadn't been very visible from the angle they were at, and there was a sign. It read "Project Sentinel" and the uniforms gathered there had quite a few stars and bars on them. Her mouth got a little dry.

"Maybe we should get going, Cuz. I have a feeling the backlash from this is going to hurt."

[Barbara Nolan]

"Why? Do you see something else?!" Barbara peered at the airstrip, her eyes trying to make sense of a mush of data as she blinked, filtering the scene a variety of ways. Infrared was particularly useless, due to the desert temperature.

"Let's just get going, I don't want to be here when the other shoe drops." Jo popped the lens cap onto her camera and scrambled backward. "Hurry, hurry, please?"

Barbara whisked the thin blanket off the ground and started stuffing it back into her bag. Unfolded and wadded up, it refused to fit back inside, and she spent what felt like an age silently cursing at it before giving up and just holding it under her arm as Jo started back the way they'd come.

[Major Mackenzie Keller]

The ridge where the two would-be paparazzi had made their perch unfolded like a slumbering dinosaur on the dusty flats, a lazy S-curve with the Vanguard installation on one side and a gravel access road on the other. From their high vantage point, the two women could easily see the bend in the road where they'd parked their unassuming Honda Civic, just as clearly as they could see the pair of tan Humvees flanking the diminutive car, and the knot of distant figures in black uniforms that had gathered around it. Rifles and radios glinted in the noon sun as the soldiers fanned out.

[Jo Holloway]

"The Other Shoe," Jo sighed, slipping the SD card out of the Nikon and switching it with the spare she had in the pocket of her shorts. Paranoid? Maybe. No one had ever died from an abundance of caution, however.

Okay, that wasn't true at all, and now her heart rate was starting to spike as they got closer to their car and the Humvees and the soldiers who actually were Marines fanned out and closed in on them. Their only plan was to look like a pair of twenty-four year old girls who were out taking pictures of nature, so Barbara stopped walking and they nervously held hands and let the rifles and soldiers do whatever it was they were going to do.

Apparently this involved taking them into custody. At least, that was the best case scenario. "Stay right there, we're coming to you," called one of the Marines, his eyes shaded with a camouflage cap.

"I didn't know the national park was this well protected," Jo managed to quip weakly, her grip tightening on Barbara's hand.

[Barbara Nolan]

"Standard operating procedure, Ma'am," said the Marine with a southern drawl. "You ladies have wandered too close to Twentynine Palms Strategic Landing Field. You aren't authorized to park here," he gestured behind him at the Civic, lonely no more with two big Humvee boyfriends.

Barbara stepped slightly in front of her more timid cousin, and said, "Oh, I'm really sorry. We were just taking a nature hike."

They were surrounded by soldiers with scary looking weapons, none of which were pointed at them but really, that hardly mattered. If the purpose was to make her want to pee her pants with fear they were well on their way to doing their job. "We'll just go home, I really don't think all this is necessary."

"Sorry ma'am, I can't let you go home just yet. We have to run your ID back at the base." He sounded apologetic. "Like I said, standard procedure. And ma'am," he looked at Jo and held out his hand. "I'm going to need your camera. We'll return it just as soon as you're cleared."

Barbara looked back at her cousin, worried about the sudden protectiveness that Jo was displaying over her precious Nikon, but then she reluctantly handed it over after making sure the lens cap was secure. "That's a six hundred dollar camera," she said nervously as the lieutenant handed it off to one of his subordinates.

[Major Mackenzie Keller]

As with all things military, the procedure took time. A corporal took the their driver's licenses into the back of one of the Humvees and toiled away at a laptop while the sergeant questioned the two cousins. Barbara spun together a decently innocuous alibi seasoned with sheepish apologies, and after the ten-minute mark the sergeant started asking her about her favorite nature trails in the area, and asking Jo about her photography. As the afternoon heat intensified, the marines offered them canteens. It was almost social.

"No, I just transferred at the beginning of the year," he was saying. "I haven't made it to Mojave yet. I hear it's incredible, though."

"Sir!" A smooth-faced young marine came rushing out of the Humvee and muttered something into the sergeant's ear. The sergeant's face remained unreadable behind his aviator's glasses.

"We've been instructed to bring you two ladies to the guard post on base," he said, with all the portent of a summary judgment. "You'll be riding with us."

[Jo Holloway]

Jo was finding it hard to concentrate on anything but the hard lump in her stomach as time stretched on, and the ride in the Humvee didn't do anything to calm her down. The military vehicle was rough and bumpy, and the noise of the engine made it difficult to hear oneself think.

Subsequently there was nothing but silence in the vehicle during the short ride to the base, in contrast to the jovial conversation from the roadside.

[Barbara Nolan]

Barbara smiled brightly at the young Marines; most were her age or younger and she was determined to make being a pretty little blonde work in her favor. Jo, on the other hand, looked like she was about to throw up.

The Humvee rumbled up to a gate in the fencing, and was waved through. They parked shortly after that, the girls' destination a dull cinder block building painted tan with a boring roofline. Once inside, however, Barbara was relieved to discover it had air conditioning. She took Jo's arm reassuringly, and the two girls were escorted to a small room that held a table and a few chairs. They were seated together on one side, and left alone.

"Okay, well, I'll admit, this doesn't look good..." Barbara examined the room in the infrared wavelength, and found that the thick walls were great for masking what might be on the other side of them. There wasn't even a two way mirror to play with.

Jo just put her face in her hands and then rested her elbows on the table.

[Major Mackenzie Keller]

A black Humvee ground to a halt next to the tan Marine vehicles and disgorged a pair of soldiers who were decidedly not part of the conventional armed forces, judging from their black uniforms and unusual chevron crests. One of them opened the passenger-side door, and out stepped a woman in a charcoal gray duty uniform with the oak leaf pins of an Army major on her collar. It rode stiffly, even by Major Keller's standards, as she crossed to the guard hut's entrance.

The marines inside broke off their conversation and saluted as she entered, but she noticed their eyes dipping to the unfamiliar jacket she wore. In many ways she was the public face of Vanguard, but this was the first time she'd exchanged her Army dress blues for Vanguard gray, something that hadn't even existed until a month ago. Even though she'd been folded into General Vasher's organization years ago, the Army uniform had carried a sense of continuity, of familiar authority. Everyone knew what it stood for, and it lent her Vanguard duties a certain legitimacy. But Vanguard was a mystery, and now she was charged with solidifying its authority. It wasn't just the uniform that rode stiffly.

"You have the intruders detained?"

"Yes, ma'am," the marine sergeant replied, and he plucked a folder off a cluttered desk and handed it to her. "Two women, both have California licenses. Ms. Josephine Holloway is a registered mutant. Probability manipulation, TL of one. Works as a forensic investigator for the LAPD."

"I'm familiar with Ms. Holloway," Kenzie replied. "What do we know about the other one?"

"Ms. Barbara Nolan, says she's Ms. Holloway's cousin. Librarian from Santa Clara. Not so much as a parking ticket on either one of them." He paused as Kenzie shuffled through the meager documents and pulled out two California driver's licenses. "Mind if I ask what we're dealing with, ma'am?"

"Suspicions, mainly," she replied. "You've examined their cameras?"

"Wilderness pictures, mainly. And what looks like some... party pictures on Ms. Nolan's phone. Nothing of the base."

"Are the wilderness pictures from this area?" Kenzie asked.

"No, ma'am. Mostly mountains and forest."

Hardly a smoking gun. But the entire situation reeked of espionage. Two women with a high-powered camera had arranged themselves on a ridge with a prime vantage into the military installation where Vanguard was staging a hardware demonstration for several military VIPs. A demonstration that, against Major Keller's better judgment, had been moved to a less secure location at the insistence of one of their distinguished guests. If it wasn't planned, then it was one hell of a coincidence, which was potentially just as damning in this case.

She dropped Jo's license back into the file and tucked it under her arm. "I'm ready to see them now."

---

In the silence of the holding room, the rattle of the doorknob may as well have been a gunshot. Two Vanguard troopers entered and stood against the back wall, followed by Major Keller, who shut the door behind her. Then she slipped into the chair sitting across the table from the two detainees.

"Good afternoon," she said, folding her gloved hands on top of the file on the edge of the table. "I'm Major Mackenzie Keller with Vanguard Operations. I'd like to ask you both a few questions about your activities earlier today. Can you tell me what you were doing on Mission Ridge this morning?"

[Jo Holloway]

Jo had straightened up when the door opened, and was working hard at keeping her anxiety at with some measured breathing. "Just having picnic. My cousin wanted to see the park, and we stopped to take some pictures and eat something before driving further in. I'm sorry if we parked illegally, I really thought it would be okay in the turnout, and please don't break my camera it was really expensive."

She took a deep breath and then pressed her lips together to stop herself from babbling more.

[Barbara Nolan]

Barbara looked at her cousin who seemed to be on the verge of hyperventilating and added, "Yeah." She looked at the woman in the unfamiliar uniform, trying to fix it in her memory for googling later. "We just ate some granola bars and had some water. I think the cooler stuff is further in the park, right?"

[Major Mackenzie Keller]

"I'm afraid I wouldn't know," Major Keller replied. She flipped the folder open and leafed through a few pages of printed material. "I see you passed through the checkpoint on Rainbow Canyon Road at 10:26 this morning. Did you receive any instructions at that time about which areas are off-limits to civilians?"

[Barbara Nolan]

"No, no one said anything." Barbara looked at Jo again, who shook her head in agreement but kept her mouth shut. "I guess I figured since we weren't going to the Twentynine Palms base then there wasn't anything to worry about?"

She grimaced, "Guess that wasn't right."

[Major Mackenzie Keller]

Kenzie offered no response either way. "Have you taken any photographs, or made any audio or video recordings during your time in the park today?"

[Jo Holloway]

Oh crap. "I took a few, I think. They'd be on my camera." Or on the SD card in my pocket, stop it stop thinking it they don't know you switched - just stop! "I-I mean, I was going to after we were done eating and then we saw the soldiers by my car."

Jo pressed a cool hand to her warm face and added, "I'm really sorry, I'm just really nervous. Because of the situation. Not because we did anything - we didn't do anything. I work in a lab for the LAPD," she added randomly, closing her eyes lightly and taking a slow breath.

[Barbara Nolan]

Jo was about to completely melt down. She'd probably end up curled on the floor in the fetal position, mumbling about crochet stitches in five minutes at this rate. Barbara butted in, trying to derail the inevitable anxiety attack. "Can you get her a glass of water? Someone? She really does spend a lot of time in air conditioning, the stress and heat is probably melting her head. No offense, cuz, but you're babbling."

She patted her arm comfortingly, and Jo flushed bright red with embarrassment. Barbara looked at Major Keller. "I think I took a few pictures of the trees with my iPhone that was taken from me, you're welcome to check it as I'm sure you already have."

[Major Mackenzie Keller]

Kenzie looked back at one of the troopers and nodded, and he disappeared out the door. Major Keller then returned her attention to Barbara.

"If you were planning on coming this far north, you should have been warned against straying near the landing field," she said. "Especially with a camera. It's a restricted area, and there are signs to that effect posted at regular intervals on the accessway where you parked your vehicle. The two of you were spotted on a ridge overlooking the facility. You were trespassing on government property."

[Barbara Nolan]

Barbara chewed her bottom lip a little. "Um, it was really an accident. This is all some sort of hilarious misunderstanding." Oh God we are so screwed.

Looked like it was time for them to be dragged off to some hole for the rest of their lives. Rendition time! "Is it like, a fine or something?" She had her hands clasped together in her lap, and they were starting to feel a bit clammy from sweat.

[Major Mackenzie Keller]

"I'm afraid it's a little more complicated than that," Kenzie replied.

The door swung open again, and the Vanguard trooper returned with a styrofoam cup of water. He set it on the table in front of Jo, who was quietly shaking in her seat.

"Knowingly or not, the two of you placed yourself in a position to photograph a secure military installation. Now, I may believe you when you say that your intentions were innocent. Unfortunately, for the sake of national security, we have to consider the possibility that your actions were influenced by a third party. Possibly even without your knowledge."

She began pulling at the fingers of one of her gloves. "It may interest you to know that I am a mutant myself. Much like Ms. Holloway."

[Jo Holloway]

Jo felt mesmerized watching the Major remove her glove, the anxiety fluttering in her chest finally settling down into the pit of her stomach. She swallowed a sip of water and set the cup down. "Like me because you're a mutant, or like me because our abilities are similar?"

She smiled, hopefully. A luck ability shouldn't hurt too much, even if they were going to end up sequestered in Timbuktu for the rest of their lives. Or maybe her ability could counteract Major Keller's... No, no, that was probably a felony, using a mutant ability on a military officer, and that would be bad.

Worse than Timbuktu bad, or just bad? Well, if it didn't work, that is. And if it did...

[Major Mackenzie Keller]

"The former," Kenzie replied. Her gloves landed on the tabletop with a leathery slap.

"In fact, I have the ability to scan memories. Replay them. Experience them. At times I can even enhance their clarity, help people to remember things they've forgotten. Or failed to notice the first time around."

The major laid her hands on the table, palms down. "I have no intention of forcing my way into your memories. To do so would be a clear violation of your privacy. However, if you are willing to let me see the events of your trip to Twenty-Nine Palms, I can expedite your situation tremendously. You can walk out of here in fifteen minutes, and all of this will go away."

[Barbara Nolan]

Barbara tried to keep her tone light. "...And if we don't let you?" She smiled tightly.

[Major Mackenzie Keller]

"You'll be subject to due process for trespassing on restricted government property," Kenzie said. "I'm not trying to blackmail you, Miss Nolan. I'm trying to give you a way out. I thought your cousin might appreciate that, given her position with the LAPD."

She smiled slimly at Jo. "You'll know exactly what I'm doing and where I'm going. I won't dig into anything you don't want me to see."

[Jo Holloway]

"Right, well, that makes sense." Jo shrugged, trying to convey confidence while she felt no such thing. "I'll go first. It'll be fine."

"If you say so," Barbara said. "How do we know there aren't any...side effects to being mind raped? Sorry, having our memories scanned." She looked completely uncomfortable, and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Babs!" Jo looked at her askance, and then at the major. "Sorry about that. I'm sure you're very careful with your ability if the ...Army," she couldn't help but give the unusual uniform a glance, "allows you to use it."

After a moment more of hesitation, Jo held out her bare hand toward Major Keller, taking a deep breath and feeling the holding in a large sneeze sensation as she activated her ability as the other woman made contact with her skin.

[Barbara Nolan]

The wind whipped in her short hair as they drove through the desert. The sun was getting low in the sky but there were a few hours of daylight left, Barbara judged. She turned to her cousin, grinning. "This was a great trip. I told you we'd see some great..." She paused, her brain cycling through memories. Something didn't seem right. "...Great scenery."

Barbara smiled uncertainly, brushing her hand through her hair. "Yeah. A good day."

[Jo Holloway]

She felt like throwing up, but she couldn't figure out why. "Yeah, a lot of scrub brush and weird trees. Hope you got some good pictures."

Her cousin was looking at the back of the camera, flipping through a bunch of nature shots on the preview screen. "Mmmhmm."

Jo looked over at her, and then back to the road. "Did we get ice cream?"

"You know we did."

"Right." Jo accelerated a bit, and sighed. "I'm sorry, I feel sort of out of it."