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Unsung Heroes: Mission Two	By : RavenLadies Category: +G through L > G.I. Joe Views: 1326 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the cartoon(s) that this fanfiction is written for, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 5
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Chapter Six

The door to the Ready Room was already open when Lifeline reached it. Poking his head in the doorway, he saw Main Frame seated at the large conference table. The computer expert was tapping away on a keyboard, his eyes on one of the personal sized flat panel LCD monitors that were set up along the length of the table. Open in front of Main Frame, was a nondescript looking manila folder, a small pile of yellow legal sized papers inside. “Main Frame?”

“Hey, buddy.” Looking up at the sound of his name, Main Frame gave his fellow Joe a small smile as he ceased typing.

“Your message said you had some information,” Lifeline said as he stepped through the door.

“Yeah, pull up a chair.” The computer specialist waited for the medic to get himself settled. “I got a few leads on that stuff you asked me to check into.”

“That was quick, thanks.”

Main Frame shrugged his shoulders. “Piece of cake.”

Rebecca came walking in a few minutes later, hastily tying her hair back and doing her best not to look as hurried or as frazzled as she did. Smoothing down her lab coat, she looked at each man in turn. "Hope I'm not running too late," she said in her most apologetic tone.

“Right on time,” Main Frame replied, flashing the young woman one of his patented flirty smiles as he did so.

“Rebecca ...“ Edwin started to rise to his feet.

Rebecca blinked at the reply, the sight of Main Frame's smile bringing a blush to her cheeks as she smiled shyly back. She was grateful when she heard Lifeline's voice, however; flirting was all well and good, but now was not the time to address it. "Good morning ...or whatever it is now," she said to the medic.

“I didn't know you'd be here, too,” Lifeline said as he once again resumed his seat.

"Well you two have been joined at the hip since Doctor Chambers arrived. So I figured I better invite her along, too." Main Frame looked at the medic as he spoke. “Now I know why the lovely Ms. Van Mark gave you the boot.” There was a teasing tone in the specialist's voice.

“That's not very funny, Main Frame.” Edwin said, nonplussed.

"If it's all the same to you, gentlemen, can we get on with this please?" Rebecca asked, doing her best to keep her voice level.

“I'm always willing to oblige a lady,” Main Frame responded as he turned his attention to the monitor in front of him. “Let's get this show on the road.” The computer specialist tapped a few keys which in turn brought up the image of a map on the screens that were in front of Edwin and Rebcca.

“Using Regarthon as a starting point, I did searches within a five hundred mile radius.” A red star indicating the military prison flashed on the screens. “I only came up with two places, neither of which fit what you guys were looking for.” Pressing another button, several small blue dots appeared as the map zoomed out. “Spreading the search out to fifteen hundred miles, I found three more. Out of those, two of them handled more violent cases.”

"Military-affiliated, or government-funded?" Rebecca asked thoughtfully as she studied the map.

“They were both privately owned, but yeah, one of them did handle some military prisoners,” Main Frame replied before hitting another series of keys, changing the map.

Edwin looked at Rebecca for a moment before turning his dark gaze back to Main Frame. “So what is this place?”

“A sunny little hideaway called the Lakeview Institution for the Criminally Insane.”

"What a terrible name..." Rebecca said softly, slumping back into her seat.

“Could you see what you can dig up about it for us?” Lifeline asked the other Joe.

“Already there, buddy.” Returning to the keyboard once again, Main Frame tapped the keys once again, the map on the screens blanking out to replaced by what looked like an aerial photograph of a building. “Lakeview Institution was opened in nineteen sixty, headed by a Doctor Malcolm Weissman, some kind of psychiatric maverick who had some, for that time, way out theories on dealing with violent cases. He apparently took in some of the worst of the worst. Weissman's successor started taking in military prisoners in the late seventies, not many though.”

Rebecca frowned. "What ...kind of theories?"

“I dunno,” Main Frame responded as he looked at the young woman. “I really didn't pay much attention.” He thought for a moment. “Color therapy ...sensory deprivation tanks ...hallucinogens ...I can look into it some more if you want.”

"Would you, please?" Rebecca said; and then after a beat, went on, "Deprivation tanks?"

Main Frame shrugged. “Maybe I got it wrong.”

“What about Lakeview?” Edwin prodded.

“Yeah, uh, anyway, like I said, they started taking in a limited number of military prisoners – again the most violent and dangerous – until about three years ago.”

“What happened three years ago?” the medic inquired.

“The place closed down.” Main Frame answered. “Some kind of scandal, mistreatment of patients or something. Nothing was ever proved though.”

Rebecca looked down at her hands, folded in her lap, as she tried to let herself process what she had been told. Her brain, however, was being most uncooperative, flooding her mind's eye with images of what horrors Billy may have seen while in that place. It made her wonder, fleetingly, if he truly didn't remember any of his stay, or simply had blocked the memories, leaving them accessible only by his subconscious. “Rebecca?” Edwin had turned to regard the young woman.

"H-huh?" came the shaky reply, as she was jarred from her thoughts. Embarrassed to be caught unaware in the middle of such a meeting, she gave herself a mental shake, and looked back up.

“Are you okay?” the medic asked gently.

"O-of course." Rebecca offered up a smile she didn't feel, and tried to pull herself together. "I'm sorry."

Edwin looked at her silently for a few moments before turning to look at Main Frame once again. “Anything else?”

The computer specialist nodded his head. “Weissman and his successor ...“ Main Frame looked down at the folder in front of him. “a Doctor Marilyn Trine, did a lot of funded studies. One of their biggest contributors was Umbrella Pharmaceuticals.”

"Oh god ...they were...using the patients..." Rebecca felt the sudden urge to be ill at the implications, and how sickeningly perfect such a place would have been for experiments in mind-altering drugs.

Lifeline's hand went to his mouth as he squeezed his dark eyes closed. Oh god, Billy...

Main Frame tapped on the keyboard one last time, the LCD monitors blanking out. Rebecca rose from her seat, mumbling a quiet "excuse me" to both men before hurrying out into the hall, hugging herself a little as she went. Hearing the chair being pushed back, Edwin opened his eyes. “Rebecca?” he said as he dropped his hand and started to rise to his feet. “Thanks, Main Frame,” he said as he pushed his own chair back and started towards the door. As he passed through the doorway, the medic looked down the hall to the right and then the left, spotting the young woman several yards away. “Rebecca...”

Rebecca was slumped against the wall her face covered with a hand, the glitter of tears on her cheeks. At the sound of her name, she started, wiping hastily at the tears and coughing nervously. "L-Lifeline..."

The medic's coffee brown eyes were soft as he looked at the former S.T.A.R.S. agent before starting towards her. His long stride quickly took him to her side; and reaching out, he lightly touched her upper arm. "I-I'm sorry..." Rebecca said softly, not looking up. "This ...is hardly the time for me to be losing it..."

Edwin gave her arm a small squeeze. “It's alright. I can't believe it either,” he said softly. “Just the thought of what they were probably doing ...it makes my stomach roil; and when I think of Billy being there, at their mercy ...“ the medic trailed off and shook his head.

"There's a chance ...they don't always destroy the files when places like that are shut down ...Billy's records may still be in the building..." Rebecca whispered. "If we could ...get a look at the place..."

“Do you really think they would keep records of something like that?”

"Probably not ...specifically about that ...but anything at all might help..."

Lifeline was silent for a few moments as he looked down at Rebecca. “I can try talking to Duke, about sending someone out to take a look around.”

Rebecca shook her head. "Only if he'll let me tag along. This may sound stupid but ...I don't want just anybody looking at that file."

“Rebecca...”

The young woman held up a hand before Lifeline could protest. "No one'll know better than I do just what I'm looking for, Lifeline. And if this place for some freak reason turns out to be associated with Umbrella, I've got field experience with their complexes already. That's something even your anti-B.O.W. people don't have, except for Billy."

As much as he didn't like it, Edwin knew that she was right. “There is no guarantee that he's going to let you tag along.”

"I know..." The former medic sighed and slumped a little against the wall again. "And I'm hardly his favorite person right now..."

“But even he can't deny that this is an important lead and at least one of us needs to go,” Lifeline said gently. “As much as I hate to admit it, you are the best qualified.”

Rebecca nodded. "We should go tell him what we've found..."

“Yeah...”

# # #

“Absolutely not.” The tone of Duke's voice was resolute.

“Duke...”

“The answer is no, Lifeline.”

“But its the best lead we've got,” the medic tried again.

“Doctor Chambers is a civilian.”

“Yes she is,” Lifeline agreed. “And she's also the best qualified to go. Besides her previous experience inside Umbrella facilities, she knows exactly what she's looking for. If there is anything at Lakeview to find, she'll be the one who will know whether or not it's valuable information.”

"Look, if it makes you feel any better, Duke," Rebecca said, doing her best to keep her voice soft and even. "Send some of your people with me. Give me a military escort. Whatever it takes. But we can't just ignore this.”

“This might be our only chance.” Edwin added quietly.

His fingers steepled in front of him, the hard-eyed blonde silently regarded the two people sitting across from him for a few moments. “What size of an escort would we be talking about?” He asked at length.

"Whatever you'd be willing to give, the smaller the better," Rebecca replied. "I'd rather not stir up too much fuss over the trip."

“Possibly a couple from Devil Dog's team,” Lifeline suggested, glancing from Rebecca to Duke. “They might not have the actual experience that Re – Doctor Chambers has, but they were all personally trained by Devil Dog, and his experience with Umbrella and their creations is at least equal, if not greater than hers.”

“True,” Duke said, turning his blue eyed gaze to Rebecca. “But technically, they're still Green Shirts. I can't send you out with a pair of untried recruits, Doctor.”

"Maybe a compromise, then? Two of the Lieutenant's men, and two of your Joes?" Rebecca replied evenly, meeting Duke's gaze calmly.

The blonde seemed to consider for a few moments before nodding. “But it's just a recon mission. You go in, poke around for a couple of hours and then get out. You find anything other than file cabinets, you high-tail it out of there, got it?”

Rebecca nodded. "That's reasonable."

“I want to go too,” Lifeline said quietly, his eyes on Duke.

“Out of the question.” Came the immediate reply.

“Why not?” the medic asked. “I can be part of Doctor Chamber's escort.”

“You're needed here, Lifeline.”

“But if it's just a short recon mission ...”

“One of you needs to be here in case something else happens with Devil Dog.” Duke said, cutting the medic off.

"I need a trained medic with me," Rebecca spoke up. "And last I checked, Hancock has only been cleared for light duty. He could man the consoles and see to Billy's care while we're gone. It would keep us from having to bring in too many people." After a moment, she went on. "The more people start figuring out what's going on, Duke, the more rumors are going to start to fly, and the harder it's going to be to keep the truth quiet."

“You don't need a medic for a simple recon mission in an abandoned building.”

"No, I need a medic to help me sort through all the medical claptrap so I can find relevant material quickly, if there's relevant material to find."

Duke's icy blue eyes flicked between Rebecca and Lifeline. “Alright,” he said at length. “But I still want two other Joes. No offense Lifeline, but just in case you do run into trouble...”

The medic nodded his head. “I understand.”

Rebecca nodded, and smiled just a bit. "Perfectly understandable."

“Remember, you go in, look around and then get the hell back out,” Duke said.

"Of course."

Lifeline nodded his head in agreement. “Understood.”

As he looked at Lifeline and Rebecca Chambers, Duke couldn't shake the feeling that this simple recon mission was going to turn out to be anything but.
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Unsung Heroes: Mission Two