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Freeman Investigations, Chapter Five

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Alyx Vance, dammit, it all came back to her. I had been run raw for the better part of a week, and she had been there for practically every moment in it. I wasn’t even sure how many times she had run into me from out of nowhere - don’t get me wrong, I’m not some curmudgeon who wants everyone under eighteen to be locked up at all times [I probably wouldn’t complain if it was made a law, mind], but I still made a mental note to talk to her father Dr. Vance one of these days.

The saying goes “Once is happenstance, twice coincidence, and thrice enemy action.” By that count, someone was out to get me more than twice over. And so, after getting the girl out of my hair, I went back to my apartment on the double.

Being the consummate professional, when I got home my first action was to mindlessly surf the internet. Sue me, but sometimes I just feel the need to drop out and bask in the glow of some vitriolic thirty-something expressing their intense distaste at poorly-made fiction. It’s not the best coping mechanism, but it’s healthier than smoking and cheaper than therapy.

As I read, I got to thinking. Assuming someone was indeed using the girl to get to me, the first question was not one of who but of how. For instance, how did they get Vance on their side? Or, how much does she know about what their plans are?

I didn’t want to discount the possibility that Vance herself was behind everything - the moral of about a quarter of all fiction ever produced is “Don’t underestimate someone just because they’re young/ugly/outwardly stupid/downright unfit for their job.” Whatever - it would be nice to have a contingency for it, but I put the possibility on the back burner.

The girl had given me the case in the first place, in fact. Slipped me enough money for a week at my usual rates - I was going to be eating off that for a while. She had told me to find out who was behind tomorrow’s experiment, and get them to stop it - the point was stopping it, but that would be made much easier if I knew who was responsible for starting it. If I didn’t know that, the easiest course of action would probably be to just up and go to the test chamber and try to interfere in some way...

Now, there was an idea. Come to think of it, it was probably a better move than my previous plan: none. It would be logical to assume that whoever was behind the experiment would, if not show up themselves, at least send an underling along to make sure everything went according to plan - which means they would try to stop me, making it easier to sniff them out. Perfect.

I had to think about this, though - I hadn’t been down to the materials testing labs, down in Sector C, since I had worked there. The goings-on down there was double-dog top secret, even for everyone else at Black Mesa - only the Lambda Complex clear at the other end of the base had higher security. The test labs were crawling with armed security guards, retinal scanners, and made you feel like a rat in a maze to boot - the brand new maintenance ducts I had seen were probably bigger than some of the Sector C corridors.

Would getting this done be easy? Probably not.

Would I enjoy it? Definitely.

After some deliberation, I decided to go to Izzy Kleiner for help - he was the one who was paying me for this, after all, and I never got the chance to talk to him after that party I went to. I opened a new tab and started to chat with him - it took him a while to respond.

-YOU THERE?

-NICE TO HEAR FROM YOU GORDON

-HEY DR., SORRY ABOUT RUNNING OUT ON YOU ON SATURDAY.

-DON’T WORRY ABOUT OT GORDON
-IT


-THANK YOU
-I WAS WONDERING
-DO YOU THINK
-COULD YOU GET ME INTO TOMORROW’S EXPERIMENT?

-THERES AN EXPERINEMT TOMORROW?

I bit my lip.

-OF COURSE, YOU SENT ALYX VANCE TO TELL ME ABOUT IT
-LAST WEEK
-RIGHT>

-I RECALL NO SUCH THING
-I SENT ALYX
-TO GIVE YOU AN INVITATION TO TAHT PARTY
-WHY WOULD I TELL OU ABOUT ANY EXPERIMENT?


-DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT THE EXPERIMENT IS?

-I HONESTLY DIDN’T EVEN KNOW WE HAD AN EXPERIMENT
-ARE YOU SURE ABOUT IT?
-WE USUALLY HEAR ABOUT THIS IN ADVANCE


-WELL, I WAS SURE UNTIL JUST NOW
-ANYTHING YOU HAVE THAT MIGHT BE AN EXPERIMENTAL ORDER?

-I CAN CHECK
-I CAN NEVER SEEN TO GET MY FILES STRAIGHT
-BE BACK SOOON


I didn’t even move, all but bating my breath as stared at the little window on my monitor, the light sending motes of disturbance dancing across my eye, making them water.

After staring at the screen so long I had started to count the individual pixels, they started to change. Dr. Kleiner was back.

-I THINK I FOUND THAT ORDER
-IT WAS IN M SOCK DRAWER
-I THINK I REMEMBER PUTTING IT THERE


-CAN YOU REMEMBER GIVING A COPY TO ALYX VANCE A WEEK AGO?

-NO
-BUT
-I CAN SEE WHY SHE WANTED TO TAKE IT TO YOU
-THIS EXPERIMENT MIGH LEAD TO A RESONANCE CASCADE SCENARIO
-EVEN WORSE THAN THE ONE WE EXPERIENCED A DECADE AGO
-WHO COULD HAVE AUTHORIZED THIS?


I paused. If Dr. Kleiner hadn’t even known about it until now...

-OH YES
-ON A HAPPIER NOTE
-I CAN DEFINITELY GET YOU INTO THIS EXPERIMENT
-YOU WERE INSTRUMENTAL IN THE LAST ONE, YOU WILL BE A SCIENTIFIC CONSULTANT
-I ASSUME YOU KNOW WHEN TO ARRIVE?


-OF COURSE
-THANK YOU SO MUCH, DOCTOR

-THIS ISN’T JUST FOR YOUR BENEFIT GORDON
-I HOPE YOU WILLL HELP THE EXPERIMENT PRCOEED AS NOMINALLY AS POSSIBLE

**ISAAC KLEINER IS NOW OFFLINE**

I drained my flask, sighed, and packed up a few things. I wanted to be ready for tomorrow - back when I had worked at Black Mesa, I had gotten into trouble a good few times by waking up late...
Both this chapter and the next are on the short side, so the next chapter is going up in a week rather than 2.

On another note, I disavow any previous knowledge of this Escapist Magazine article: [link]
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lethe-gray's avatar
lol I love the chat spelling ;)