London's Burning

[Pan]

"So whoever made this bomb would've needed significant experience in nuclear... engineering?"

His attempt to cover up his last blunder wasn't flawless but in the space of two questions, Henri had just given them a signifcant amount of headway, and he wanted to make use of it. The advisor gave him a curt nod, distracted by his own breach in confidentiality.

"Does the name Aslan Sagidev mean anything to you?"

All three men looked up immediately, each with the same expression of surprise, and the inspector was the first to find his voice.

"How do you- That's confidential information."

"He's a suspect, isn't he?"

"We're not at liberty to just-"

Duncan gave Henri a nod.

[Veritas]

"Mr. Sagidev has a sordid career, and even caused trouble for us when I was back with Gendarmerie. I believe then it was smuggling heroin for the Taliban."

"We're aware of this."

The Inspector noted with some new anticipation. Apparently he recognized that Henri and Duncan were potentially useful. Henri continued.

"Of course. There is also his involvement with al Qaeda, Shamil Basayev's Chechen mujehedeen, and other Islamist movements.These too are old news.

The news you do not have is that Mr. Sagidev is similarly gifted, though in ways apart from myself and my colleague."

"A mutant?" another MI-5 minder queried.

"Correct."

Henri approached the issue from another angle, prodding the inspector and MI-5 with a question.

"Your forensics teams, how much plutonium did they find in the station? How much uranium? How much of anything like this?"

He wasn't using his gift. They were now legitimately working in tandem.

"None at all." the senior MI-5 man said in a quietened tone.

Henri glanced to Duncan, who knew enough to follow his lead.

[Pan]

"Aslan Sagidev, or Neutron as he is known in some circles, is a dangerous mutant. I say dangerous because he is willing to use what we call gifts to inflict pain and suffering upon others."

While he spoke, Duncan had been scanning the collage and found what he had been looking for - a black and white surveillance shot of the terrorist climbing into a humvee. He pointed to it.

"Here. Do you see his hands? Look at what he is wearing: that is no bizarre middle-eastern fashion trend nor is it a weapon. The weapon lies beneath."

He raised his hands to emphasise his point.

"These are his weapons. Years ago, he was exposed to massive amounts of radiation and recieved terrible burns to his hands and forearms. The meltdown didn't kill him. In fact, the radiation didn't effect him in the slightest. That is his mutation: he is immune to the negative effects of radiation and as such, is able to use his super-charged limbs as lethal offensive weapons."

He dropped his hands and saw that the men were baffled. It was nice to feel like he had the edge over them in the conversation. He folded his arms.

"What I'm saying, gentlemen, is that he can power weaponry with massive amounts of nuclear radiation and it is likely that he is directly responsible for these attacks. That absense of raw materials in the bomb is practically him signing his handy work."

[Veritas]

The Inspector looked as if he could use a bit of fresh air.

"You're taking the p-"

Henri met his eyes and shook his head.

"All this time we've been looking for answers to a Litvenenko or a 7/7, but you're telling us it's worse? We have a walking atom bomb in our boroughs?"

Henri attempted to dampen the shock. Panic was of no use.

"It is not such a dramatic sort of thing. You are thinking atomic like..."

He approximated a mushroom cloud by slowly bringing his clasped hands apart.

"...pow. I do not think this is likely. He is like your Lady MacBeth. Out, out, spot. He is dirty and cannot get clean. Anything he touches is dirty."

"What explains the explosion then?"

A very good question, and one that Henri hadn't found an answer for.

"This is a puzzle to me as well."

[Pan]

"Well, I don't want to get all Dr.Who on you and all but it's like I said, he can power weapons and machinery with this energy. Surely he could find a way to do the same with a bomb?"

Outside he heard a distinct cry of pain, it came from a child and it bothered him. He looked to Henri for support on his somewhat outlandish theory.

"He has access to bomb materials. He's demented enough to try something like this, surely? If he could do this then there's nothing stopping a man with such connections to get such a bomb inside King's Cross and have it detonated remotely. I'm no forensic expert or anything so I'll leave that to you."

There was still that unanswered question that he and Henri had pondered in the car and it was to surface again.

"But what does he want?"

[Veritas]

The Inspector bit onto Duncan's theory.

"A conventional bomb...irradiated by Sagidev?"

He glanced up at the MI-5 head.

"You've got a dirty bomb. Highly irradiated, no weaponized material. Could even be common as ammonium nitrate or household products."

Henri agreed with Duncan as well.

"This makes sense. Cause a scene, play on our paranoia and sensationalism."

"Sleight of hand to conceal a kidnapping. Snatch him in broad daylight and blow the witnesses to bits."

[Pan]

"Were you able to salvage any useful security footage inside or outside the station? Did you find anything conclusive?"

"We were looking for the usual suspects for these kinds of attacks. There was no sign of Sagidev. And outside, there was no sign of suspicious activity. Not even transport suitable for abducting a hostage or-"

"But Midridge was definately at the station?" Duncan interrupted eagerly.

"Yes, we saw him at the platform. We saw him board his train."

"Where was he headed?"

"He was taking the 14:10 to Heathrow. He was due to-"

"The flight to Washington DC. And his train left?"

The inspector hesitated, glanced at his colleagues and answered.

"Well... no. It was delayed and was caught in the explosion."

[Veritas]

Alarm bells went off in Henri's head.

"A switch? Another platform, maybe?"

The Inspector was already out the door, shouting for additional CCTV footage.

Henri couldn't prevent a small smile. Duncan had a natural flair for deductive reasoning.

[Pan]

He glanced at Henri, feeling more comfortable insinuating something than asking for it outright from the inspector.

"I reckon we should look at the timetables. If he did board a different train, we need to know if it was a scheduled departure or not."

A shudder of excitement ran down his back at his next thought. In an instant, he got an impression of the life Henri had lead in France. His gaze fell upon the inspector.

"If it was scheduled, we'll also be able to determine its destination. Could an unscheduled transport get very far without catching attention?"

[Veritas]

"Not at all. It would cause the whole damn queue on the L to go to hell."

The Inspector fussed with a subordinate over a tape as Henri chimed in.

"Even if it wasn't on schedule, it's still linear. You cannot steer a train. A kidnapper would have to appear on a closed circuit at some point down the line. But this seems so obvious, he'd surely know it. I am wondering if all this is simply to annoy us and slow us down.

Slow us down for something."

[Pan]

This was where Henri's experience kicked and Duncan was left blank. He mulled over possibilities while the men talked about security footage from other stations. He frowned and left the issue of motivation to those who understood it.

"Even if he is trying to slow down the investigation, he still had to get off that train with Midridge and if he can't do that without being spotted at every station on the line then he'd have to get off in between stops."

He had been talking chiefly to himself but now he looked at Henri.

"The train needed to make an emergency stop. He could steer anyway he wished after that."

[Veritas]

This was perhaps true. Henri stroked his wild hair for a moment.

"Or they could have left the train while in the tube."

So much for linear restrictions.

"Mon dieu." The Frenchman rubbed at his temples and sighed.

"Sir, channel two has something breaking." a uniformed officer barged into the trailer, getting the Inspector's attention.

[Pan]

The inspector dashed outside, Duncan backed away unsteadily, allowing the others to promptly follow. He waited until there some range between Henri and the stairs leading into the trailer before daring to descend. It was an awkward affair since the steps were made of metal grating and his hoof got caught. Once he was down, he jogged over to a growing crowd of police officials, leaning towards a television screen.

"What is this?" he asked Henri, who raised a hand.

The reporter in the newsroom had finished speaking and a video began.

[Neutron]

A home video was played on the newscast, and a disheveled and very dirty Davis Midridge sat in a chair. On either side were two people wearing ski masks and holding Kalashnikov assault rifles. There had evidently been some amount of post-production through Adobe Premier, as the video featured a multi-lingual text crawl of both the dialogue, and other messages. Arabic, English, Cryllic, German, French, Chinese, and a dozen other languages all proclaiming this day to be Mutant Independence Day. Softly playing martial inspiration music could be heard in the background as the legislator was compelled to speak:

"My name is Davis Midridge. As of 3 March, I have been abducted and held against my will by a group known as the Brotherhood of Mutants. Though the nature of my capture was traumatic, I have not been harmed, and my captors have granted me the time to tell my friends and family that I am alive and well."

He blinked a few times, and continued.

"I wish to go on record of my own volition to the BBC, Sky News, and other media, and inform the body of public that I officially renounce my endorsement of the Genetic Security Act of 2008, and encourage my colleagues in both the Houses of Lords and Commons to follow suit in due method. Such actions represent a clear and present danger to a man's right to the sanctity of self, and the continuing endeavours of the human race."

He looked hurriedly off-camera for a second, and returned his attention front and center.

"The Brotherhood wishes to inform the world that such actions against the natural evolutionary rights of man are an affront to civility. Any institution that respects mutants' rights to sovereignity and self-determination will remain inviolate.

However, any actions to resist or counteract the inevitable march of the improvement of species will be met by the Brotherhood with extreme violence."

His voice faltered a moment, and one of the men behind him nudged him gently with the butt of his rifle.

"The incident at King's Crossing is only an example, and a warning."

[Pan]

When the video ceased and the newsreader returned, the group of huddled officers dispersed and Duncan rounded on Henri, who appeared deep in thought.

"That answers your question then."

He nodded in response. Nearby, the chief inspector barked orders while his intelligence advisors were busy on their cellphones. The cries from the aid station cut through the hullabaloo. He winced and looked to Henri, eager to press on.

"What now?"

[Veritas]

"Now, our suspicions are confirmed. Our wayward cousins are behind this."

Henri glanced back at the Inspector and the other British officials, and made his way casually back to the car.

"I think it is time that we made a call to the Institute. Sagidev is not alone, and even if he was, we're hardly in a position to counter the threat ourselves."

[Pan]

"Whatever could you mean?"

He smirked and went in the opposite direction to retrieve his wheelchair. Wheeling it back, he noticed everyone was too preoccupied with their work to care about his appearance and felt embarrassed for relying on the disguise so much. When he arrived at the car, the engine was already rumbling, and Henri had opened the door for him. He folded the chair, returned it to the backseat, and climbed in.

"I don't know, Henri. Between your walking stick and my stair mastery, we make a fierce dynamic duo. Only drawback is we'd have to wait until Neutron is claiming his pension."

[Veritas]

"I think his half life will remain on the job, even if he does not."

It amused Henri as well, though he was less inclined to show it. They made such a cumbersome, unlikely set of sleuths. Henri was a fraction of a man he was only a decade ago, so he was always eager to dispel any notions that his cane might imply.

"I think perhaps you are in the wrong business, my friend. You are a natural interrogator."

[Pan]

"I don't know about that. I just kept talking so I didn't look stupid."

He laughed, enjoying the release of tension which had been building up since their arrival at King's Cross and he was glad to see the back of it. They were on the move now, slowly trickling out of the city with the rest of the traffic. He mulled over their conversation with the inspectors and grinned.

"Cheers for backing me up in there, man."

For the rest of the journey they didn't say much, it wasn't a contented quiet but an anxious one. Duncan's thoughts were fixed on the next step, what Ethan would order, and if he could help. He imagined Henri felt the same way.

[Saladin]

"To Mutant Independence Day."

There was a carbonated hiss and the sweet scent of champagne. Davis Midridge found a tall flute placed before him on the table.

"It seems our premier is being well-received. A small step, but an important one, toward the cause of ending mutant regulation in Europe. And that is a cause worth drinking to."

Midridge, haggard and sullen, made no move toward the champagne. He heard several more flutes poured behind him.

"It's a pleasure to finally see you in action, Neutron. You know your business well."

Completely ignoring the captive MP, Saladin took a seat in a dusty old armchair, still clad in his shin-length trenchcoat. He took a mouthful of champagne with elegant relish.

"Though we shall have to employ such tactics judiciously. Nuclear fallout has a way of capturing the imagination, but I would like for us to be able to use this planet by the time we're finished."