WALKING DISASTERS | Jack Thompson

45.

HEADING INTO THE SSR with Peggy, Sera saw a group of agents gathered at the back of the room and headed over there. They were laughing among themselves, and when Peggy put down her bag, she asked, "What's all this then?"

"Didn't you hear?" asked one agent. "Chief finally asked his girl to marry him."

"Poor Violet," another said. "Doesn't realise she could do better, huh?"

"Congratulations, Daniel," Peggy smiled. "Violet's a lucky woman."

"Thank you," he replied. "That means a lot."

"Can we speak to you for a moment?" Sera asked, trying to diffuse the awkward situation.

"Yeah," Daniel replied, heading out of the office with Sera and Peggy. "Thompson called, poking around for you again. How many vacation days you got left?"

"Plenty," Peggy replied. "I haven't had a day off since Pearl Harbour. How is your disguise department shaping up?"

"For you? Low on evening gowns, why?" Daniel asked.

"I need to sneak into Hugh Jones' office," Peggy replied.

"At Roxxon?" Daniel asked. "Are you sure that's a good idea? Didn't you meet him last year in New York?"

"I'm sure he doesn't pay that much attention to every woman he meets," Peggy said.

"Oh, he'd remember you, Peg," Daniel replied. "The guys at the lab have something new. If it works, you wouldn't have to rely on just a disguise," he took a plate of pie from a passing agent. "Thanks. We'll need this."

"What for?" Sera asked.

"Greasing the wheel."

Sera and Peggy's plan was quite simple. After leaving the cold storage facility, they went back to the house to discuss what Whitney Frost could possibly want with Jane Scott's body, and came to the conclusion that she was after Zero Matter. Wilkes had theorised that she wanted to recreate the same atomic test that was done in the desert and replicate the environment to reopen the rift. To do that, she would need the same atomic bomb that was used the first time, the last two of which were locked in Roxxon's highest security facility that was nearly impenetrable. The only way in was via a key, which Peggy and Sera were hoping to steal from Hugh Jones.

Down in the lab, Daniel greeted Dr Samberly with a smile and the pie extended. "Dr Samberly, I thought you might like some pie."

Taking the plate, Samberly smelled the pie before his eyes narrowed. "What's the catch?"

"No catch, Dr Samberly," Sera replied. "Just pie. We thought you'd enjoy a slice."

"And maybe Agent Carter could borrow that thing you're working on," Daniel asked.

"I knew there were strings attached," Samberly muttered, placing down the pie and picking up a small device. "We call it the memory inhibitor. You place it like so," he held it out to Daniel and the device whirred.

Jerking his head back, Daniel held up a finger. "No."

"You put it to the subject's temples," Samberly explained. "It disrupts the pathway of the prefrontal lobes."

"It makes them forget the last two minutes," Daniel said.

"Amazing," Peggy replied. "And it works?"

"We've run several tests on Jerry with positive results," Samberly replied.

"No you didn't," Jerry smiled, before he walked straight into a wall.

"There is a slight risk of brain damage," Samberly said.