Anachron - 09

In the sub-basement of the IRS Building

Alex and Lauren were all that remained of the Anachron Team.  Jeremy lay dead in the archives, and Saren and Silvia lay dead inside the Anachron room.  There was no time to lose, Weiss could return any moment, so Lauren and Alex decided to use the Anachron one last time before they were forced to flee.  They hoisted Silvia's body up onto the Anachron, and Alex took the her spot next to Silvia.  With Lauren as her unskilled operator Alex loaded back into the Anachron.

Lauren and Alex hoped that reliving the scene of the murders that they could learn more about Weiss and perhaps learn his motive were for killing the team, if not learn how to protect themselves from him in the future.

Silvia's sequence was short due in part to a lack of skill on Lauren's part as an operator and also to a lack of skill on Alex's part as a proxy.  The sequence began just as Saren was shot by Weiss.  Jeremy and Silvia both immediately drew Lauren and Alex's handguns from their holster as they lay unconscious of the situation.  They took Weiss by surprise and drove him back, but not before he shot Silvia cleanly through the abdomen as she fired her gun from her station.

Weiss fled the Anachron room and Jeremy charged after him leaving Silvia scrambling to maintain Alex's synchronization within the Anachron as she bleed out from her wound.  Silvia's sequence ended just as she got Alex's levels back in line and heard an unanswered gunshot ring out somewhere out in the basement archives.

Waking back up in the Anachron room Alex gathered herself as quickly as she could and helped Lauren swap Silvia's body on the table for Saren's.  The women switched seats, Alex operating and Lauren going into the Anachron as proxy to witness Saren's final moments.  Alex made the final adjustments to the Anachron and Lauren loaded in.  Before long Alex realized that she was completely comfortable in the operator's seat watching and maintaining Lauren's synchronization.  Something of Silvia's skill seemed to have rubbed off on her.  All of the sudden Alex was a wiz at using the Anachron.

Saren's sequence began back in the Anachron control room.  The Team had just loaded in and Saren was watching the myriad of monitors showing everything from Anachron synchronization levels, to closed circuit video of the Anachron room, to live news broadcast.  Suddenly all of the screens went black except for the Anachron synchronization levels.  Saren had seen this before, it was exactly what happened just before the explosion went off in Burnett Plaza.  Someone had turned on a jamming device within the sub-basement.

As that thought set in, Weiss walked out of the elevator and started to make his way to the Anachron room.  Saren recognized the threat and headed him off just as he entered the room.  The two men made small talk, both dancing around the suspicion that the other was somehow onto them.  Weiss asked about the Anachron mainframe, Saren stumbled over the question and that's when Weiss drew his gun and said "I'm going to shut you down permanently."

Weiss leveled his gun at the mainframe of the Anachron and Saren dove, putting himself between the gun and the machine.  Weiss fired and Saren was killed almost instantly, but not before he mentally made a final plea to the cosmos that his work not be wiped away by evil men like Weiss, especially since the Anachron had just begun to prove itself a useful tool in deciphering the Actual Truth of recent events.

Lauren sat up on the table in the sub-basement.  There was little time to exchange what they had both witnessed in the Anachron before the elevator made a noise indicating someone was headed down to their level.  Given the circumstances whoever was on the elevator probably wasn't friendly, so they hid within the Anachron room as quickly as they could.

The elevator doors opened and Weiss stepped off the elevator surrounded by 5 SWAT guards.  Weiss called out "give yourselves up we know what you've done."  Getting no response he had his men spread out.  From her hiding spot inside the Anachron room Lauren spotted a maintenance panel just within her reach.  She quickly pulled herself up through the panel and dropped down to the floor outside the Anachron room.  Thinking fast she pulled out a laser pen and aimed it at the light sensors in a row of the archives.  The laser tripped the sensor and lit up the row.  Lauren lit another few rows leading away from the Anachron room.  The guards saw the lights turn on and reacted immediately.

Weiss left one guard to check the Anachron room and took the other 4 guards with him in pursuit of the false trail laid by Lauren.  Alex was alone in the Anachron room still hidden as the single guard approached the Anachron room.  She tossed a small part she found on the ground near her at the light switch across the room.  Her aim was good and the lights to the Anachron room shut off.  The guard outside took notice.  He crept to the door and opened it slowly.  He stepped into the room sweeping the area with his flashlight mounted to his rifle.

Alex waited for him to step all the way into the room before she attacked.  She jumped up and kicked the guards wrist that held his rifle.  A sharp snap told Alex that she fractured or broken bone.  The guard dropped the rifle and Alex pushed past him shutting the door behind her as she fled to muffle the guards shouting.

The two women took their chance to exit and made for the exit stair next to the elevator leaving behind Weiss and his men.  They were leaving everything behind them, all of their evidence, the Anachron, and their fallen teammates.  If they were going to make a case for their innocence and a case for the actual events of the plot to assassinate the President, they were going to have to make new allies and start over.  Only this time, they were being hunted.