Chapter 9
“Come on, Tubbo.” Sam said quietly, turning.
“I don’t like this.” Tubbo frowned.
“I know. Neither do I. But I don’t want them running again before we can figure this out.” Sam told him, opening the door to a white room devoid of anything but two occupants. They stepped in, making it four.
Techno with his eyes closed and his head leaned against the wall, one hand laying on a bent knee and the other on a straightened one. All of his weapons had been taken, except his arm, but even that had been disabled. Phil had been up and pacing the room. He had his uniform on still, minus the headpiece. His shield lay with Techno’s discarded stuff. Techno didn’t react when Sam and Tubbo, just breathed in. Phil glanced sharply at Sam, his eyes narrowing when he noticed the one behind him.
“I have a solution, I think.” Sam said.
“Really, Tubbo?” Phil said, ignoring him to fix his gaze on the kid.
Tubbo rolled his eyes. “I tried to help you. It didn’t work very well. Now we’re on a ship thousands of feet above an ocean, what do you expect me to do? I’m doing all I can here, man.”
Phil didn’t answer. Sam tried to catch his eye. “You know what Tubbo’s powers are, right?”
“Yeah, I do, and you can fuck right off with that idea.” Phil told him.
“It might be the only thing we can do right now. If we can get Ross to see what happened, where he was when the bombs went off, then-”
“It’s not happening.”
“Tubbo can help, though. It’s your only shot.” Sam said.
“You’re not getting into my head.” Techno said, his tone set.
“That’s not what I’m asking. We just need to be able to confirm that you were still in New York when the bombing happened.”
“And I’m saying no,” Techno snapped.
“If we can get everyone off your back, we can refocus them to whoever you think is trying to get at you.” Sam tried.
Techno opened his eyes, giving him a hard stare. “You don’t believe it wasn’t me.”
“I,” Sam paused, “don’t have an opinion. But if you let Tubbo show us what happened-”
“No.” Techno cut him off. “I had people inside my mind for a long time. It’s not happening again.”
“Even at the cost of your life?” Sam asked him.
Techno’s expression hardened. “I would rather die.”
“And your friends’ freedom?” Sam continued.
Techno turned away, and they could all see the hesitation in his eyes. “I don’t care about that.” Phil cut in. “I don’t want him to go through that again if he doesn’t want to.”
“I wouldn’t go through anything else.” Tubbo said quietly. “If you just brought that memory to the very surface, it’s the only thing I could possibly see. I wouldn’t dig any deeper. It would be enough to share with Ross so he could see.”
“I don’t trust that.” Techno told him. Tubbo nodded understandingly.
“Okay, look. It’s not just your ass on the line here. If we can’t get some damn evidence to Ross and soon, I’m going to lose half my team, possibly my whole team if they find out I’ve kept you here this long, and the ability to do basically anything after that. I’m running out of time to help. Please work with me here.” Sam said exasperatedly.
“I don’t think you actually care about anythin’ other that keepin’ yourself out of trouble.” Techno snapped. “Have you even tried lookin’ for other options that don’t involve digging around my brain?”
“I don’t want you in prison or dead any more than you or Phil do! You’re giving me absolutely nothing here. There aren’t any other options that we have right now, unless you have something to suggest.” Sam grit.
Techno and Phil glanced at each other. “If you let us go, we can find the doctor and put an end to this.” Phil told him.
“The thing is, I can’t do that.” Sam crossed his arms.
“It’s another option, isn’t it?” Phil challenged.
“Another option for you, maybe. If I let you two run off, the whole rest of the team is fucked.” Sam snapped.
“This is more important than that, if we don’t get to that doctor a lot of shit is going to go down-”
“If you would just let Tubbo do his thing, we could all get out of this-”
“Boss.” Friday’s voice came through the speakers. “I have new information, a priority upload from Berlin police.”
Sam stepped back on his heels, trying to relax his posture a little. He shot a dirty look at Phil, then turned his head upwards. “Yeah, what is it?”
“Here.” Friday said. Sam’s watch beeped. He looked down at it, glanced up at Phil, and tapped it.
The face of a dead or unconscious man popped out at him. “What am I looking at?” He asked.
“The Task Force called for a psychiatrist as soon as Barnes was captured. The UN dispatched Doctor Theo Broussard from Geneva within the hour. That’s his body.”
Sam ran his eyes along the white wall, thinking. He looked at the two supersoldiers across from him, his expression neutral. “Give me a minute. We might…. Have another option.” He said as he walked out.