Splitsville (Unedited Draft)

Chapter Nine- Mary Grounds Anne

THE BRUNII BUILDING...

Carrie made her way down the dank and poorly lit underground corridor to find Matthew Godunov\'s newly assigned office. She knew the gas from the last time she\'d been in that particular hallway had been vented long ago, but she still felt like she could smell it- or maybe that was just mold. How could such a prestigious and expensive university have conditions like this for its grad students? She arrived at Godunov\'s door- it didn’t even have a number- just a piece of loose leaf with his name on it taped to the door. A drip of water- from where was anyone\'s guess- a drip of water rolled down the door and wetted the already stained name paper. She knocked.

\"Come in,\" called Godunov from inside.

The knob was a little clammy, too. Once inside, Carrie could see Godunov hunched over a computer keyboard, clicking away with determination.

\"Mr. Godunov. I\'m surprised to see you here.\" He looked up at her, startled.

\"It\'s my office. What are you still doing here, Agent Culpepper? I thought that the investigation was closed. That\'s what Agent Dunstan told me,\" Godunov said, while shutting off his computer monitor and closing and stowing various notebooks and papers from the top of the desk, as if they were not for Carrie\'s eyes. She wondered how much he really knew about Miss Twombly.

\"I\'m doing some research on my own time.\"

\"I wouldn\'t think something like that would be encouraged.\"

Carrie shut the door and leaned down on the desk to put her face just a little above level with the still seated Godunov\'s and her cleavage just below his eyelevel so he either had to look at her face- if he was polite- or take a good look at her assets- which would soften him up a little towards her.

\"I\'ll cut to the chase, Matthew. There is something very strange about that little girlfriend of yours. You know it and I know it and I-\"

\"She\'s not my girlfriend,\" Matt interrupted.

\"She\'s not?\" Carrie shook her head. \"That doesn\'t matter. What matters is that I intend to find out what it is-\"

\"What what is?\" he cut her off again.

\"The strange thing-\"

\"What strange thing?\" He was obviously doing it to annoy her. She wouldn\'t rise to the bait.

\"About your girlfriend-\"

\"She\'s not my girlfriend.\" Yes, she would!

\"That doesn\'t matter! Damn it! Stop that.\" Carrie stood and paced the small office. Matt stayed calmly seated.

\"Sorry,\" he offered insincerely.

\"Look, I know you care about her and I know that you think you\'re protecting her, but you might just be hurting her by stalling me.\"

\"How\'s that?\"

\"I have certain knowledge that the recent injuries she sustained- you know what happened to her, right?\"

\"Of course I do.\"

\"Good. I have certain knowledge that the recent injuries she sustained put her in contact with certain doctor-types who have both the ability and the inclination to help her go underground.\"

\"Really?\"

\"Yes and while I can see why something like that might be attractive to her- she does have a mighty interesting secret to keep- I don\'t think it will be enough. She might stay below the radar for a while, but she can\'t stay hidden forever- not without help.\"

\"But you just said she had some doctors helping her. And, you must think I\'m helping her, too, or you wouldn\'t be wasting your time talking to me.\"

\"Mr. Godunov! She could have already had extensive plastic surgery and be unrecognizable! And what with her unparalleled healing ability, she could be out of bandages in less than two days. I need to find her before she\'s completely underground.\"

\"But you\'re what she\'s hiding from in this scenario, aren\'t you? I\'m not helping you.\"

\"There are worst things out there than me, Mr. Godunov- you should know that after what she Maryanne went through.\"

\"She\'s not exactly helpless.\"

\"She was helpless enough when something tore her abdomen open, wasn\'t she?\" Carrie asked plainly. \"Honest to God, Matt. I just want to help her and protect her from whatever did that.\"

\"And find military applications for her abilities.\"

\"You know, I don’t think so,\" she said jadedly. \"I\'ve seen people used by the government in the name of Homeland Defense- it isn’t pretty. I couldn\'t do that to anyone anymore- and I saw what that- whatever it was- I saw what it did to her- she\'s been through enough.\"

\"Look, I almost believe you that you want to help her and you\'d keep the secret and not give her over to your bosses, but- it\'s not really my secret to tell.\"

\"I can\'t help her if I can’t find her.\"

\"Well that I can help you with. She hasn\'t gone underground, She was at her dorm just two hours ago when I visited her.\"

\"You\'re kidding.\"

\"Guess you\'re not so scary after all.\"

\"Guess not,\" she agreed and turned for the door to leave. \"Hey, Godunov?\" Carrie asked, turning back around to face him. \"Just how do you stand it working in these conditions?\" She indicated the water that was seeping in under the door.

\"It\'s not usually this damp- I\'m not sure what that\'s about,\" Matt admitted.

\"Ah,\" Carried nodded and took her leave. Okay, she tried to take her leave, but the door was sticking- maybe from all that moisture. The puddle on the floor of the closet-like office- or office-like closet depending on your point of view- the puddle on the floor was quickly spreading. It now covered most of the floor.

\"Having trouble tearing yourself away from me, Agent Culpepper?\" Matt asked from behind her.

\"The door\'s stuck.\"

\"Here, I\'ll get it,\" he offered and stepped up next to her.

\"I can get it!\" Carrie snapped and pulled harder. Damn, it was really wedged. She pulled again and again and again until her arm hurt.

As Carrie rubbed her shoulder, Matt asked, \"My turn yet?\"

\"Knock yourself out,\" Carrie answered and stepped through the now two inches of water on the floor to sit on the desk and try to save her shoes. Godunov gave it a good try, but the door wouldn’t budge for him either. Then he came over and sat on the desk next to her.

\"I\'m calling Maryanne,\" he told her.

\"What? Why? I mean, not that I don\'t want to talk to Miss Twombly, but you can\'t tell me she has super strength or something, too.\"

\"This doesn\'t seem familiar to you? She and Professor Drake were locked in when the gas leak happened.\" He tried the ancient desk phone, pumped the hang up button and hung the receiver back up.

\"You don\'t mean-\"

\"Yes, I do.\" He pulled out a cell phone.

\"Dial faster,\" Carrie ordered.

\"No signal.\" She pulled out her own cell.

\"Mine\'s no help either,\" she told him and set it on the desk between them. \"There has to be a way out- we could break down the door long before the water gets high enough to drown us.\"

\"It\'s worth a try,\" he agreed and shifted his weigh to put his feet back on the ground, his motion nudging Carrie\'s cell phone off the edge of the desk. It hit the three inches of water on the floor not with a splash but with a spray of arching sparks. Matt jumped back, luckily never having put a foot in the water. \"It\'s electrified!\" he exclaimed.

\"Are you all right? Are you shocked?\"

\"No. I\'m fine, but we\'re trapped.\"

\"Maybe we could step on the chair and get to the door,\" Carrie suggested.

\"Chair\'s metal.\"

\"Right.\"

\"And, the door\'s blocked.\"

\"I get it, bad idea.\"

\"Sorry.\"

\"Any other ideas?\" she inquired.

\"Not really.\"

\"Damn. I thought you were supposed to be smart.\"

\"Book smart- yes. Outsmarting an ethereal madman smart- not so much.\"

\"Ethereal madman? You wanna tell me why I\'m gonna die, now?\"

\"It\'s a long story.\"

\"I\'ve got nothing but time- not much mind you considering how fast the water is rising, but nothing but time.\"

\"All right, since we\'re doomed anyway. . .\"

***

After Matt left, Anne went to eat for them and Mary had a shower and got them some sleep. They hadn\'t slept very well when they were apart. Feeling restless and a need to try to do something productive, Anne decided to stop in on Matt and see if there was anything she could do to help him. Maybe he could take some measurements of her quarks or something.

Anne could tell that something was wrong as soon as she got down to the basement level- the floor outside Matt\'s office was flooded where it dipped some from the building\'s shifting foundation. As she got closer, she could see that there was a hose feeding the puddle. It was wedged under Matt\'s office door but large amounts of water were coming back out from under the door making the puddle. That was strange. There was also a hum- like a buzz in the air.

She didn\'t want to loose another pair of cute shoes, so she stopped short of the puddle and gave a shout, \"Matt! Are you in there?\"

What sounded like two or three muffled voices shouting at once came in response. Then the voices stopped and a moment later one voice- Matt\'s voice- came through, \"Stay out of the water!\"

\"Stay out of the water?\"

\"Yes. Stay out of the water. It\'s electrified.\"

Anne looked down at the water- it didn\'t look electrified. She pulled a coin from her purse and flicked it into the puddle. It sparked. \"Okay. I\'ll stay out of the water!\" she consented.

\"Mary, that you?\" Matt asked.

\"No, Anne. How can I help you?\"

\"We need to get the wire out of the water.\"

\"The wire? I don\'t see a wire.\"

\"It\'s in here and we- Agent Culpepper is here, too- we can\'t get to it.\"

\"Of course. Matthew, when did we tell Agent Culpepper everything?\"

\"Uh- we were dying. I figured there was no harm. Sorry.\"

\"Hey, I think I can get rid of the hose.\" Anne bent down to pull the hose out from under the door.

\"No! Don\'t get yourself wet.\"

\"Oh. Right. So what do I do?\"

\"We need a way to ground the wire. I\'m not sure how yet.\"

\"And how do we do that?\"

\"We give the electricity a path.\"

\"Let me call Mary. We work better as a team.\"

\"You\'ll have to call her from upstairs.\"

\"Okay, be right back.\" Anne raced up the stairs and woke Mary via the phone. By the time she returned, the puddle was much deeper. \"Hey, you guys still all right in there?\"

\"Just fine, princess,\" Agent Culpepper\'s voice informed Anne. \"When\'s your other half gonna be here?\"

\"Soon, I hope. She has to wait for the bus.\"

\"So, what exactly are you going to do to fix this? One of you just going to brave the current and let the other heal her?\"

\"That\'s not exactly how it works.\"

\"How does it work, Anne?\" Matt asked. \"You haven\'t explained how it is either of you survived the attacks by Moores.\"

\"Well, when I had to crawl through fire to get out of the burning building, Mary kept me from burning by getting under water. And when Mary should have suffocated from the gas, I breathed for her and she gave mouth to mouth to Professor Drake so he had oxygen, too.\"

\"And what about the dying of a gut wound?\" Agent Culpepper demanded.

\"We only survived because both of us were getting medical attention at the same time. Nunzio didn\'t save me on his own.\"

\"So you were the one with me in the alleyway?\"

\"Yes, and Mary was at the hospital being attacked by Moores.\"

\'You know what? I think I can work with that,\" Matt told her. \"Anne, call Mary back and have her go over to the Engineering Building. They have a Faraday Cage.\"

\"Sure thing. What\'s a Faraday Cage?\"

\"It\'s like a giant Leyden Jar.\"

\"Oh, of course. And for the non-geeks in the audience?\"

\"You remember Ben Franklin and the kite?\"

\"Uh-huh. What about it?\"

\"He directed the lightening into a Leyden Jar to keep from getting completely fried.\"

\"So we put Mary in a big jar and I don\'t get fried if I go in the water?\"

\"That\'s the theory.\"

\"But will Mary get fried?\"

\"She shouldn\'t. The Faraday Cage should- that\'s what it\'s meant for.\"

\"Okay. I\'ll call Mary.\"

\"Anne, wait up there until you know she\'s inside. If you go in the water before she\'s in the cage, that\'s it for all of us.\"

\"Faraday cage, wait for Mary to be inside or we all bye it. Got it. I\'ll be back as soon as I can.\"

Once Mary had found her way to the Engineering Building and found the room with the Faraday Cage, Anne lost the phone signal. A moment later, Mary called her back- the mesh metal box had interfered with the Mary\'s phone, but she promised she\'d get inside again as soon as they hung up and stay there until she could verify that they were all safe. Anne raced back downstairs to the edge of the ever increasing puddle of death.

\"How you guys doing in there?\" Anne called.

\"Just peachy, super-girl,\" Agent Culpepper responded. \"Your better half in the cage yet?\"

\"Mary\'s waiting in the Faraday thingy, yes.\"

\"So, what are you waiting for? We\'re not getting any less electrically conductive, in here,\" Culpepper snarked at Anne. Nunzio was right, Culpepper needed to get laid.

\"Okay. I\'m gonna give it a try,\" Anne shouted and dipped the toe of her pretty satin pump into the water. These shoes were gonna be goners. She needed to start wearing combat boots. Her foot felt fine- maybe a little tingly- but fine. She put her entire foot in and hey, it was warm. \"Hey, it\'s working!\"

There was a conjoined shout of joy from inside the office.

\"I\'m coming, guys. Just hold on.\" Anne stepped gingerly over to the door and pulled the metal rod that was wedging it closed out of the way. She swung the door open and a wave of water up to her knees swept past her into the hallway. Matt and Agent Culpepper were sitting very cozily on the desk together with their feet up to avoid the water. \"Where\'s the wire?\"

\"Over there in the corner.\" Matt pointed to a slender wire running down the wall that was cut just above floor level. \"Okay, what do I do to it?\"

\"Uh-\"

\"Matthew?\" Agent Culpepper asked him like she was scolding a petulant child. What was that about, Anne wondered to herself.

\"I hadn\'t really thought that far.\"

\"Well think that far, sweetie,\" Culpepper ordered gruffly. Sweetie? That was just freaky.

\"Uh- well Anne could just help us out of the electrified area by holding our hands and then we could get the power shut off from the main.\"

\"And we didn\'t just have her shut off the main because?\"

\"It\'s in a locked maintenance room.\"

\"You mean she can\'t walk through walls? I\'m shocked.\"

\"Hey! Standing right here and not liking how the people I\'m risking my life to rescue are arguing and insulting me instead of taking my hands and getting us all out of danger! Gimme, right now!\" Anne ranted. They each took one of her hands and they all walked out of the office and then out of the puddle. Anne let go of their hands and kept right on walking. She wanted to get to Mary and be sure that Matt was right and Mary hadn\'t gotten fried.

\"Anne, where are you going?\" Matt asked her retreating back.

\"Gotta check on Mary!\" Anne shouted and didn\'t look back.

***

MARYANNE\'S DORMROOM...

Mary woke to the sound of her cell ringing. She would have let it ring, but the only one who called her on the cell was Annie and there was no way Mary would blow her off. She rolled over and found the phone on their desk.

\"Hey, baby,\" she slurred into the receiver.

\"Hi, sweetie. I need you awake, okay?\" Anne soothed into the phone and Mary sat up because despite her attempt to be calm, Anne\'s voice told Mary that this was serious.

\"What\'s wrong?\"

\"Moores has trapped Matt and Agent Culpepper- who Matt has told the big secret- we can kill him later, after we\'ve saved his life.\"

\"They\'re trapped?\" Mary asked as she got up and shuffled around the room getting dressed and gathering her wallet and keys. \"Where are they trapped?\"

\"In Matt\'s office- the Brunii Building.\"

\"I\'ll be right there. Hey Annie?\"

\"Yeah?\"

\"I love you.\"

\"You really are narcissistic, aren\'t you?\"

\"Can you blame me?\"

\"Nah- so am I, since I love you, too.\"

\"Bye Annie.\"

\"Bye Mare.\" Mary hung up and bolted out the door for the bus.

When Mary had just gotten on the campus bus, her phone rang again. \"Talk to me Annie.\"

\"Matt wants you to go to the Engineering Building, find something called a Faraday Cage and get inside.\"

\"Okay. What will that do to keep them from getting electrocuted?\" Mary queried.

\"I\'m not sure I remember it right, but Matt says that if you\'re inside I should be able to get through the water,\" Anne recounted.

\"How sure of that is he? I don\'t want you all fried up.\"

\"He seemed pretty sure. I don\'t think we have much choice- it\'s the cage or let them die and I can\'t have that on my conscience, can you?\"

\"You know I can\'t. It sucks to be so unselfish, doesn\'t it?\" Mary pondered.

\"Sucks big dusty rocks with slugs under them.\"

\"Nice,\" Mary complemented.

\"I thought so.\"

\"Hey, I\'m coming up on the stop. It\'s a Farrell Cage?\"

\"No, Faraday Cage.\"

\"Okay. I\'ll call you once I\'ve found it.\"

\"I\'ll be waiting.\"

THE ENGINEERING BUILDING...

Mary had to ask about six different dweebs until one of them knew where the Faraday Cage was. Unsurprisingly, it was in a dark and forgotten corner of the basement. Mary called Anne back, lost the signal, called her again and got in the cage to wait for either sudden shocking death or Mary\'s arrival to tell her it was all okay.

Halfway through her ninth time through ninety-nine bottle of beer on the wall, Anne came in and Mary broke out of her cage to grab a hold of her.

\"You all right, Mary?\" Anne asked into her hair.

\"Fine. How are you?\" Mary pulled back from their embrace to look at Anne\'s perfect, perfect face.

\"It didn\'t even hurt- just got a little tingly.\"

\"Yeah? Me, too. Where\'s Matt and Culpepper?\"

\"They stayed behind to get the power turned off, I think.\"

\"So, that\'s weird, huh- those two together?\"

\"What an odd thing to come out of your mouth, all things considered.\"

\"Since when do I consider all things before I speak, Annie?\"

\"True- that\'s my job, isn\'t it? So, we\'re done. I want to get you home. The less time we\'re together in public the better.\"

\"Right.\"

***

THE STANDARD DINER...

Matt had told Agent Culpepper all he knew about Maryanne and Moores and the incident with the particle accelerator and had been surprised when she had hung on every word instead of doing that sort of heckling thing she had done during the interrogations. He guess that this situation was pretty different than those had been- last moments alive. And she was really smart and pretty, so when she had laid her head on his shoulder, he didn\'t think twice about wrapping his arm around her. And then, she had looked at him with her big brown eyes and then they were kissing. And kissing and kissing until Anne had shouted from the corridor and come to their rescue. As much as he had been glad to have the chance to live, parts of him wished Anne had arrived fifteen minutes later.

Now that they were safe and the power main had been shut off, the power company on the site to fix the problem. Matt and Carrie decided to go to an all-night diner and talk about their next move. Carrie had wanted to call Mary and Anne to go with them- it was their future they were talking about, after all, but Matt had made Carrie aware of the nature of Anne and Mary\'s relationship and convinced her that they would want to be left alone for a while. They ordered lots of fatty salty foods to celebrate that they were still alive and discussed Matt\'s theories.

\"But if he can\'t be hurt, why doesn\'t Moores just keep attacking and attacking until he wins?\" Carrie asked, while munching some gravy-topped fries.

\"I don\'t think he can. I was looking at the timing of the attacks right before you came to my office. They\'re getting farther and farther apart and I think there\'s a constant defining the spacing. It might be some variant of the wavelength of the particles he was bombarded with from the accelerator. I wish I still had his research, but it was in my old office.\"

\"Think what you need might be on Moores hard drive?\" Carrie suggested.

\"That went in the fire as well.\"

\"No it didn\'t. We confiscated it. I could get it for you.\"

\"Oh. I think I love you,\" Matt joked.

\"Right back at ya,\" Carrie said, casually. \"So, provided you get what you need from the hard drive, how do we stop this guy the next time he appears?\"

\"Not sure yet. I\'m working on it.\"

\"You keep at it, sweet cheeks,\" Carrie ordered and Matt decided that he really like strong women.