Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. WWE does.
Chapter Twenty -- Revelations
"Alright Linc. I want answers." Dave took a seat on a black leather couch situated in the middle of Lincoln's office. Lincoln began to pace back and forth between his desk and the glass coffee table in front of Dave.
"OK um... You're sure that Agent Walker didn't tell you anything?" Lincoln inquired.
"Yes I'm sure! I know nothing about this place or what you all do." He growled. "Jackson told me some things and that blonde chick--"
"Oh you mean Maryse?!? I like her. Such fierceness."
Dave crossed his arms and gave Lincoln an icy-cold stare. He could tell the smaller man was slightly intimidated. They clearly had different views about Maryse.
"Right OK." Lincoln acknowledged. He stopped pacing the room and sat down next to Dave on the leather couch. "Well what is it you want to know? I mean where do I begin?"
"Start with what happened to you upstairs" Dave replied. "Why were you strapped down to a chair screaming?"
"OK. You remember when we were about to go interview Mrs. Baker and I said I had to go do something beforehand?"
Dave nodded.
"Well you see the chair is a Neurotransmitter Amplifier. It's used to enhance a psychic's abilities temporarily. Whenever us psychics are about to go into the field, we use the chair to increase the probability of our abilities picking up on something, for me it would be my visions."
"But the pain..." Dave began.
"It's not as bad as it looks, trust me. Most of the time you don't feel anything. It's just your body reacting to the increased neuro-activity. Topher's the one who designed it. He's 'King of the Dollhouse' like he said. Always coming up with tons of gadgets and stuff. He's pretty smart, but not smarter than me of course." Lincoln chuckled and continued. "Anyways I wasn't being tortured or anything, just using the chair to reverse the process."
"Reverse the process?" Dave questioned.
"Yeah. The neurotransmitters need to revert back to their normal state or it can cause all sorts of side-effects. Topher's not sure what they are exactly, but he's sure they won't be pretty. By the way thanks for your concern. I seen how you reacted to what you thought was me being tortured." Lincoln smiled and Dave turned his head, blushing hard. He remembers seeing Lincoln in that chair and instantly went into protective mode. He didn't know why, but seeing Lincoln in pain or in any kind of danger seemed to set him off, ready to beat the hell out of anyone who dared posed a risk to his partner. Clearly embarrassed, he coughed and signaled for Lincoln to continue.
"OK question one answered. What's next?"
Dave sat silent for a moment, thinking of another question he wanted answered. There were millions of them floating around in his head but couldn't figure out which one he wanted to choose next. He cleared his throat.
"OK tell me more about the Dollhouse & The Unit." Dave said, maintaining his cold demeanor.
"Well Kelencine was founded in 1954 by 2 biochemists as a medical research company. For a couple of years they dabbled with pharmaceutical manufacturing and what not. Anyways during the early 60s one of the founding partners wanted to restructure the company, turn it into a genetics research lab. He was obsessed with human evolution and wanted to be on the forefront of genetic discoveries. The other partner however--"
"Wait." Dave interrupted. "What are the partner's names?"
"Oh Steven Hogins & David Braeback. Anyways Hogins wanted the genetics lab to invoke man-made human evolution. A real nutjob in my opinion. Braeback refused to let that happen. They fought and eventually Hogins kicked Braeback out of the company and Hogins began his diabolical plan to advance the human species. Sad thing is he succeeded."
"Man-made psychics." Dave whispered. Lincoln nodded.
"Kelencine would regularly put ads in the papers looking for test subjects for their experiments, operating under the guise that they were researching general human behavior. Well a bunch of people participated in their research over the years and a small percentage of them began to exhibit psychic abilities. Kelencine kept tabs on all of its subjects and regularly evaluated them. One day someone at the Department of Justice discovered what they was doing. They launched a low-key investigation and were planning to indict the company. Somehow Hogins convinced the government to allow the experiments to continue."
"You mean allowing the FBI to use these psychics as consultants in exchange for the government looking the other way?" Dave assumed.
"Yeah. There was a crime wave back then and well the FBI needed help so Kelencine offered it to them. The deal was struck and Kelencine continued their research while the government looked the other way. Thus 'The Unit' was formed. A secret division of the FBI made up of various ex-law enforcement personnel and former test subjects of Kelencine."
"So does Kelencine continue to experiment on people?" Dave asked. He leaned in towards Lincoln, becoming entangled in the story he was hearing.
"Well they say they don't but I have my doubts. After 15 years they apparently ceased being a genetics research company and went back to manufacturing pharmaceuticals. Like I said, bunch of bull. Why would they just stop the experiments when they made the biggest discovery known to man?" Lincoln stood up and began to pace the room.
"And the dollhouse? That's just a code name for The Unit's base of operations?"
"Yeah" Lincoln Acknowledged.
"Why is the dollhouse here at Kelencine? Why not a separate federal building?"
"I don't know" Lincoln explained. "Maybe the government wanted plausible deniability.
"Alright let me ask you this, when we go to arrest a suspect, where the hell do we take them? I mean this is supposed to be a secret place right? We can't just bring them here."
"You ever noticed that FBI branch across the street?" Lincoln asked.
"Yeah..."
"That's where we take em', under the guise were with the FBI, which we are but the public FBI, not the private one." Lincoln beamed.
"Gotcha" Dave replied. He sat back into the couch and sighed, burying his face in his hands. He sat upright and placed his hands on his knees. Being in the FBI your allowed access to certain information the general public otherwise is oblivious too, but Dave was completely unprepared for what he'd just heard, just like then Jackson tried explaining it to him.
"Alright next question. The cases. How does The Unit get assigned cases? Does the FBI just randomly hand us something they think they can't deal with or what?" Dave inquired.
"Well that's kind of difficult to explain..." Lincoln trailed off.
"Try me" Dave insisted.
"OK most of the cases we deal with are of 'unusual' circumstances."
"How so?" Dave asked.
"Well they usually involve some kind of psychic link to them. Kelencine had hundreds of test subjects, maybe even thousands all across the country. We have people who view cases and determine if there is a psychic link."
"A psychic link?" Dave asked confused.
"Yeah. Either the killer or victim could be psychic or have the brain architecture. Also we investigate major crimes and just unusual crimes in general."
"I see." Dave replied. He still have many questions poking at him, like how do they use evidence obtained by psychics during trial, and how The Unit goes about choosing new recruits. Why was he chosen? He began to become overwhelmed by everything he'd just learned.
"You OK Dave? You seem troubled." Lincoln stood in front of the agent and looked on with concern on his face. He knew Dave was having trouble taking in everything he'd just heard. He sat down next to Dave and placed a hand on his broad shoulder.
"Dave you should know that it's hard to accept this reality, you know the government being involved in such practices. I mean it seems harmless at first, even wonderful, but where do we draw the line? Pandora's box is wide open and I fear this will take us down a dark path. But I look at it this way; I'm here to make sure they don't fuck things up." Lincoln grinned and Dave nodded.
"Yeah that's a good way to look at it."
"So...you still thinking about leaving?" Lincoln asked.
"Lincoln?"
"Yes?"
"Let's go arrest our murder." Dave stood up and smiled down at his partner. Lincoln jumped up and they both headed for the door.
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