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Title: Black Edelweiss
Series: Zeitgeist
Follows: One Giant Leap
Wordcount: 2,902
Summary: Two weeks after Claire Bennet's televised leap from the Ferris wheel, the 12th handles it's first case delving into the strange world of specials. Evidence points the investigation toward a former Company Agent, a man Noah Bennet would swear up and down doesn't exist.
Details: Minimal details due to inflation. Full warnings and details in main post.
PREV: Interlude 13 // MAIN // NEXT: Chapter Thirteen
Recap: After agreeing to let Peter delve into his mind and bring Konrad back to the surface for questioning, Kevin took the time to say goodbye to his fiance, Jenny, just in case. Locking up his badge and gun, he prepared himself for what was to come. Javier spent the last few minutes beforehand trying to convince Kevin to change his mind. Unsuccessful, he retreated to the observation booth of the 12th's interrogation room with Castle, Beckett, and Bennet. "Gabriel" invited himself in. Javier was forced to watch as his best friend and partner was locked away in a safe corner of his mind. Then, as if to punctuate the wrongness of the whole situation, they watched the cut on Kevin's forehead heal and Peter announced he had "found" Reichardt...
Chapter Twelve: È Chūqù Le (鵝出去了)
That was a simple riddle used by Zen Masters in the training of monks, Joe remembered. You take a newborn gosling and slip it through the neck of a bottle. Month after month you keep it in there and feed it, until it is a fullgrown goose and can no longer be passed through the bottle's neck. The question is: Without breaking the bottle, how do you get the goose out?
—Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, Illuminatus!
Javier watched breathlessly as his partner opened his eyes. For a few moments Kevin seemed slightly confused, then his unfocused eyes fell on Peter. His expression changed to one that struck Javier as faintly surprised, and more than a little curious. His mouth opened, but whatever he might have been about to say was interrupted as Bennet leaned forward, speaking into the intercom.
"Peter, please step outside."
Kevin looked up abruptly at the sound of the voice, eyes narrowing slightly.
"Bennet?"
He shifted in his seat and the chains pulled short. Kevin looked down startled, apprehension dawning on his face. His expression turned guarded as he watched Peter follow Bennet's orders, vacating the room. For a moment Kevin was silent, his eyes searching the walls of interrogation room. Finally he sat back in his chair.
"Was that really Peter?" he asked casually, looking at his shackled hands without apparent interest where they rested on the surface of the table.
After a few seconds passed with no answers given, a faint smile pulled at his lips.
"He couldn't have been...what, more than fifteen the last time I saw him? He's grown up to look so much like his mother."
And dread settled in Javier's stomach, heavy and cold, as the understanding finally began to bleed through. So little had changed, and yet everything had, and slowly the rest of his mind caught up with what he already logically knew...
That it really wasn't Kevin in there anymore.
It wasn't a revelation Javier was given much time to process. When Peter entered the observation room, Bennet turned to speak to him.
"Listen, Peter, I think you should go home," Bennet suggested. "We've got what we need for right now, and it may be safer for you to be somewhere else in case anything goes wrong."
Though it was an effort to drag his eyes away from the man sitting in the other room for even a moment, once he did Javier managed to catch the glance that Bennet threw Gabriel's way. Even as distracted as he was by the monstrous turn his reality had taken, it was obvious to Javier who really held the agent's attention. And he didn't think either Peter or the subject of Bennet's scrutiny were unaware of it. Gabriel's eyes narrowed slightly, though his mouth quirked in a smirk that held more of smug satisfaction than it did offense. For his part Peter passed a dubious glance between his companion and—Konrad, Javier forced himself to think it—a hesitant uncertainty in his expression.
And then Peter's eyes found Javier's.
The atmosphere within the room changed subtly, the cramped silence charged with an energy that was almost expectant. It almost felt as if Peter were looking to him for permission. The thought baffled him for half a moment before Javier remembered that this man had the power to read his mind. He could only speculate what Peter might have seen to grant Javier that kind of authority where Kevin was concerned.
Shaking off the stab of uncomfortable panic that the idea inspired, Javier managed to regroup and give Bennet's suggestion the thought it warranted. He didn't like it—he really didn't like the idea of sending away the only man who could bring his partner back—but he was forced to concede Bennet's point. If anything did go wrong, it was better to wait—hours, days even—for Peter to return than to risk him coming to harm and never get Kevin back at all.
And he must have sensed Javier's agreement, because it was still unvoiced when Peter finally nodded.
"Let's go," Peter said to Gabriel, turning to rest a hand on his shoulder. "They'll call us when we're needed."
Gabriel's amused expression faltered almost imperceptibly, and Javier thought he seemed a little reluctant. He did not miss the glance the man spared his partner—or rather, the imposter that had appeared in his place—nor did Javier miss the downward turn of his mouth as his eyes passed over Bennet. Yet he gave a last look at Javier before he relented, one that apparently left him satisfied. And as both men turned to leave, Javier was surprisingly relieved to see them go. He had only just met the two men, but those brief interactions already left him feeling strangely naked.
At that moment, the question of just how deep their knowledge of him went wasn't a distraction he felt could afford.
"Hey, is he a telepath or an empath?" Konrad asked suddenly.
The idle question regained Javier's attention very sharply. Konrad still sat in the chair, face almost serene, showing the slightest bit of amusement. Yet, though it was very faint, Javier could see a subtle tension in his shoulders that made that good humor ring false, somehow. He was briefly reminded of Kevin's impressive composure when they were being interrogated by Hal Lockwood. Javier crushed that thought quickly, however, uncomfortable at havnig made a comparison. Though, as Konrad's fingers drummed a bored rhythm on the table, it was harder for Javier to ignore a sick sense of recognition.
It was the same gentle beat that numerous stakeouts and late night investigations had rendered painfully familiar...
"It has to be one of those two," Konrad speculated, apparently unconcerned with being ignored. "I felt him in my head earlier..."
Konrad smiled then, brightly, smugly.
"Of course, if he's an empath then Bishop owes me sixty grand."
But, when he looked at the window as if seeking a some reaction to his words, Konrad's breath caught and the cocky expression was wiped from his face utterly. He stared at them—at his reflection, Javier realized belatedly as Konrad ran a hand over his face with a distant kind of shock. And of course that made sense, didn't it? Kevin was visibly in his thirties, but according to available evidence Konrad had been a youthful twenty-something for more than fifty years...
Konrad gave a sudden blink and then he sat back, chain pooling beneath his hands with a soft clatter. It was a very quiet few seconds that passed before he spoke again.
"Hello?" Finally it seemed Konrad's cool was slipping, and Javier could hear frustration beginning to creep into his voice. "I don't suppose you could at least give me an idea of what year it is?"
Konrad's attention moved from the window as the door opened to his right.
"2010," Bennet answered, coolly, and to the point. And as focused as he'd been on Konrad, Javier hadn't even noticed either Bennet or Kate leaving until the agent entered interrogation.
Konrad seemed to consider this new information briefly.
"Maybe eleven years, then, since I went AWOL?" Konrad said, more as if thinking aloud than asking for clarification. "Though it looks like I'm missing eight or nine in the middle there, which is just a bit worrying, Noah, to say the least."
His tone was familiar, almost chiding, and Javier recalled that Konrad and Bennet had worked together, even if Bennet didn't remember it. From what he had experienced of the man so far, Javier couldn't imagine that disadvantage was something that Bennet, however adaptable he was, could possibly be comfortable with. Not that it showed outwardly. Bennet still displayed his usual impassive calm. He leaned casually against the wall beside the door—if casual was even a word one could apply to Bennet—regarding the other man in silence.
And if, in some bizarre scenario, Javier had been forced to interrogate his own partner, he could not imagine a better tactic to use than silence. Nature abhorred a vacuum, and so, always, had Kevin. Apparently, in this respect, Konrad was no different.
"I guess since you weren't supposed to know you should be looking I ought to be impressed you found me at all," Konrad mused with a slight shrug and a deceptively good-natured smile. "I mean, either I screwed up bad, or you really are as good as Ivan always said you would be."
That was when Kate walked in the door.
"Flattery will get you nowhere, Konrad," she said, and it was an impressive rendition of her usual, confident entrance when she did so. To anyone who didn't know her well, it wouldn't have seemed strained at all.
If there had been any doubt which category Konrad belonged to, it was quickly settled by his reaction. He paled visibly when he laid eyes on her, face turning blank with a kind of stunned horror Javier had never seen on his partner's face before this bizarre nightmare had begun. While Javier didn't understand the reason for the reaction, Kate managed to seem unmoved as she took the opposite seat. She slid a small piece of paper on the table in front of him.
Konrad stared at it for a moment.
"Nandayo konoyarou," Konrad muttered, voice low in bitter anger, tossing a glance at Bennet that was just this side of murderous. "Hitono kokorowo heikide moteasobiyagatte."
Javier could only assume from Konrad's tone that it was some kind of accusation or insult, though Bennet showed little sign of affront.
"He says Bennet...very cruel to him,"a soft voice said behind him.
And Javier couldn't keep from jumping at the words, because while he may have missed Bennet's exit, he was pretty sure Hiro Nakamura hadn't been in the observation room a few seconds ago. Though turning around served to remind him of Castle's presence, and while the writer was visibly disturbed by the events playing out in front of them, he didn't seem to share Javier's confusion.
"I don't understand," Javier finally admitted, eyes turning back to the window where he watched Konrad study the paper in front of him.
"You read Nakamura Senior's letter, right?" Castle asked him. "It mentioned a woman Konrad knew from Auschwitz, and her granddaughter, Hana Gitelman?"
Javier nodded, recalling it vaguely.
"According to Bennet, Kate looks just like her," Castle told him, sounding intrigued despite the tense situation. "So, Konrad thinks she's some ex-Mossad special who works for the Company..."
"And she's playing along," Javier said, finally getting it.
And something about that new information didn't quite compute—something about coincidences—but Javier wasn't given time to challenge it. It had taken almost a full minute, but Konrad finally managed to regain some of his composure. He reached out slowly to turn the paper around in front of him, leaning forward. Then Javier saw him run the back of his hand over his left cheek, smiling weakly, and realized it had to be the photograph from Auschwitz.
"You know, I miss that scar," Konrad said, voice touched by an unmistakable note of nostalgia. "I mean, I'm probably better off in the long run. They aren't exactly in style these days."
Konrad took a slow breath, finally managing to meet Kate's eyes.
"I still remember your savta," he told her softly. "We never really spoke, but she made it impossible to forget her."
He looked down at his hands.
"She used to have a nickname at Auschwitz, you know," Konrad said with a faint smile, though it was bland, and more than a little bitter. "I think it was Fritz—er, Adam—who started it. We used to call her die Zahnfee—the tooth fairy. It's...a funny story how she got that name."
Though from the twist of his mouth, Javier doubted Konrad really thought it was.
"The day she was transferred to the camp, I dropped my guard, and she kicked me in the jaw." He ran a thumb over his lower lip with an expression that, while gently abashed and almost fond, was nothing close to a smile. "Knocked out two teeth right in the front and loosened two more. Of course, I got those back too when Adam's ability manifested...
"And according to the rumors, I wasn't the first. When they first caught her back in Berlin, one of the soldiers lost not only a tooth but half his tongue."
Konrad looked up at her again, though his eyes didn't manage to meet hers for very long.
"You look...so much like her," he said, forehead creasing faintly. "She had dark eyes just like yours. It sounds melodramatic to say it, but her eyes still haunt me sometimes. I mean, all their eyes haunt me, when I let myself remember, but hers...always. I don't know what it was, what...connection sparked between us, but something must have, because I took a piece of her with me after that day, and it's never left me..."
Konrad trailed off with a shake of his head.
"I'm sorry. I— I shouldn't be saying these things to you. Slichi li."
Kate straightened slightly, and though her back was to the mirror, Javier could imagine her poker face as she played her part.
"I've read some of the files about your time with the Company," she said, her voice carefully flat, all business. "You rode others pretty hard on their ethics. Was being a moral voice for the organization your way of addressing the guilt for your crimes during the war?"
"I was just performing a necessary service," Konrad said, managing a slightly smile, though the humor in it became something else in his eyes. "Guilt...is a useless emotion on its own. It doesn't heal anything, it fixes nothing. But helping others avoid making the same fatal mistakes? That I could try to do. Because it doesn't ultimately matter why you set your principles aside, whether it's for duty, science, survival—or even someone you love. The moment you do that, you're lost."
Shaking his head slightly Konrad gave a pained smile.
"It's something I understand more deeply than most."
"Science?" Kate asked, grabbing onto the opening, "You mean your frequent clashes with Dr. Zimmerman?"
"Zimmerman," Konrad said, his voice charging the name with undisguised dislike. "Jonas Zimmerman couldn't learn from the past to save his life. He would have been a child during the war—too young to have been involved, but old enough that the its lessons should have meant something. But he was always too quick to suspend ethics in the name of his research, and it didn't matter how many times I spoke of the...inhuman things I'd seen men do in the name of science, he refused to see himself in them."
"To this day I don't know what Bishop and the others were thinking, hiring that man," Konrad said, frowning. "I'm sure he was a brilliant scientist, possibly the best in the field of genetics back in the day, but..."
Kate picked up the thread as he trailed off.
"I can see how exploring the potential of your ability would have been valuable to his research," Kate lead.
And Javier thought she and Bennet must have spent some time preparing some of this prior to the interrogation—most likely while he had been preparing Kevin.
"Zimmerman's explorations were punishing," Konrad admitted, ticking another weak smile, "but I'd been through worse. And my participation wasn't exactly enthusiastic, but I did give my consent. Some of his other projects, though..."
"Such as?" Kate prompted when no more seemed forthcoming.
"Such as..." Konrad mused unhappily. His eyes dropped to the table as he worried some unseen mark on its surface with his fingernail. "Such as infants being used as guinea-pigs? Such as drugging specials with dangerous psychedelics to push the limits of their power? And what Bishop let that man do to his little girl—"
Konrad cut the words off just as they climbed to a plateau of anger Javier was shocked to hear in his partner's voice. Kevin had never been an easy man to anger, though once you got him there the sight could be impressive indeed. What Javier was hearing and seeing now, however, surpassed anything he had experienced from his partner.
And when Konrad's eyes lifted from the table, leveling all that emotion on Bennet...the effect was chilling.
"Well I don't have to tell you, do I Noah?" Konrad said. "You were there."
And Javier thought— It was subtle, but he saw Bennet's jaw tighten, his eyes narrowing briefly with some dark emotion before it was gone. For a man who seemed to hide so much so well, it was as dramatic as seeing him flinch. Not at the glare, though. No... Javier had the feeling that, whatever else Bennet might have forgotten, the events of which Konrad spoke remained crystal clear.
The display must have effected Kate as strongly as it had Javier, because it took her a long moment to regroup.
"And you pushed to have him removed from the Company," she managed after a long pause, clearly intent on steering the interrogation back on track.
Perhaps her intent had been a little bit too clear.
"You're very interested in Zimmerman," Konrad pointed out with a frown, eyes narrowing slightly.
And his forehead creased with puzzled wrinkles before smoothing into an expression that Javier recognized quite well. It was the one Kevin always wore when he had figured out some clue that was crucial to their case.
"This isn't just the Company wrangling in one of it's wayward children," Konrad said, and though he said it very slowly it absolutely wasn't a question. "You're after something specific."
He seemed to reexamine Kate very carefully, and after a moment he shook his head.
"You're not Hana, are you?" Konrad asked her, voice turning surprisingly soft. His eyes softened slightly as well. "You're the other granddaughter. Johanna's daughter."
And as Javier's mouth went dry, ears ringing faintly from his sudden shock, Konrad paused as though trying to remember.
"It's Katherine, right?" Konrad asked her carefully. "Katherine Beckett?"
PREV: Interlude 13 // MAIN // NEXT: Chapter Thirteen
Author's Note: Is this "dundundun" worthy? It almost feels that way, but at this point I've hit that note so many times, it's starting to sound tired.
Big thanks to the folks over on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
linguaphiles. Especially ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
akibare, who saved me from making a really sad, awkward mistake. I love writing in Konrad's multilingual moments, but whenever it branches out of the languages I either know enough to fake (like English *rimshot*) or know someone who speaks it, I really am pretty clueless. At least I don't hit up Google Translate.
As far as the title goes, the translation is stolen from a book, so if it's incorrect, at least that one isn't my fault.
A question about these, though. I'm very fond of them, and I try to give meanings by context when necessary, but they're mostly for flavor. Are they annoying? Should I start including translations at the end, or is it fine without them?
I was trying to be cute by having Hiro's translation of Konrad's long sentence be so short. What Konrad was said is closer to calling Bennet a soulless, heartless, manipulative asshole, which wasn't something I could imagine Hiro being comfortable repeating in detail.
Translations:
È Chūqù Le - "The goose is out."
"Nandayo konoyarou. Hitono kokorowo heikide moteasobiyagatte." - (basically calling Bennet a soulless, manipulative bastard. Which...I don't think Hiro could repeat without having a coronary)
"Slichi li." - "Forgive me."
Series: Zeitgeist
Follows: One Giant Leap
Wordcount: 2,902
Summary: Two weeks after Claire Bennet's televised leap from the Ferris wheel, the 12th handles it's first case delving into the strange world of specials. Evidence points the investigation toward a former Company Agent, a man Noah Bennet would swear up and down doesn't exist.
Details: Minimal details due to inflation. Full warnings and details in main post.
PREV: Interlude 13 // MAIN // NEXT: Chapter Thirteen
Recap: After agreeing to let Peter delve into his mind and bring Konrad back to the surface for questioning, Kevin took the time to say goodbye to his fiance, Jenny, just in case. Locking up his badge and gun, he prepared himself for what was to come. Javier spent the last few minutes beforehand trying to convince Kevin to change his mind. Unsuccessful, he retreated to the observation booth of the 12th's interrogation room with Castle, Beckett, and Bennet. "Gabriel" invited himself in. Javier was forced to watch as his best friend and partner was locked away in a safe corner of his mind. Then, as if to punctuate the wrongness of the whole situation, they watched the cut on Kevin's forehead heal and Peter announced he had "found" Reichardt...
Chapter Twelve: È Chūqù Le (鵝出去了)
That was a simple riddle used by Zen Masters in the training of monks, Joe remembered. You take a newborn gosling and slip it through the neck of a bottle. Month after month you keep it in there and feed it, until it is a fullgrown goose and can no longer be passed through the bottle's neck. The question is: Without breaking the bottle, how do you get the goose out?
—Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, Illuminatus!
Javier watched breathlessly as his partner opened his eyes. For a few moments Kevin seemed slightly confused, then his unfocused eyes fell on Peter. His expression changed to one that struck Javier as faintly surprised, and more than a little curious. His mouth opened, but whatever he might have been about to say was interrupted as Bennet leaned forward, speaking into the intercom.
"Peter, please step outside."
Kevin looked up abruptly at the sound of the voice, eyes narrowing slightly.
"Bennet?"
He shifted in his seat and the chains pulled short. Kevin looked down startled, apprehension dawning on his face. His expression turned guarded as he watched Peter follow Bennet's orders, vacating the room. For a moment Kevin was silent, his eyes searching the walls of interrogation room. Finally he sat back in his chair.
"Was that really Peter?" he asked casually, looking at his shackled hands without apparent interest where they rested on the surface of the table.
After a few seconds passed with no answers given, a faint smile pulled at his lips.
"He couldn't have been...what, more than fifteen the last time I saw him? He's grown up to look so much like his mother."
And dread settled in Javier's stomach, heavy and cold, as the understanding finally began to bleed through. So little had changed, and yet everything had, and slowly the rest of his mind caught up with what he already logically knew...
That it really wasn't Kevin in there anymore.
It wasn't a revelation Javier was given much time to process. When Peter entered the observation room, Bennet turned to speak to him.
"Listen, Peter, I think you should go home," Bennet suggested. "We've got what we need for right now, and it may be safer for you to be somewhere else in case anything goes wrong."
Though it was an effort to drag his eyes away from the man sitting in the other room for even a moment, once he did Javier managed to catch the glance that Bennet threw Gabriel's way. Even as distracted as he was by the monstrous turn his reality had taken, it was obvious to Javier who really held the agent's attention. And he didn't think either Peter or the subject of Bennet's scrutiny were unaware of it. Gabriel's eyes narrowed slightly, though his mouth quirked in a smirk that held more of smug satisfaction than it did offense. For his part Peter passed a dubious glance between his companion and—Konrad, Javier forced himself to think it—a hesitant uncertainty in his expression.
And then Peter's eyes found Javier's.
The atmosphere within the room changed subtly, the cramped silence charged with an energy that was almost expectant. It almost felt as if Peter were looking to him for permission. The thought baffled him for half a moment before Javier remembered that this man had the power to read his mind. He could only speculate what Peter might have seen to grant Javier that kind of authority where Kevin was concerned.
Shaking off the stab of uncomfortable panic that the idea inspired, Javier managed to regroup and give Bennet's suggestion the thought it warranted. He didn't like it—he really didn't like the idea of sending away the only man who could bring his partner back—but he was forced to concede Bennet's point. If anything did go wrong, it was better to wait—hours, days even—for Peter to return than to risk him coming to harm and never get Kevin back at all.
And he must have sensed Javier's agreement, because it was still unvoiced when Peter finally nodded.
"Let's go," Peter said to Gabriel, turning to rest a hand on his shoulder. "They'll call us when we're needed."
Gabriel's amused expression faltered almost imperceptibly, and Javier thought he seemed a little reluctant. He did not miss the glance the man spared his partner—or rather, the imposter that had appeared in his place—nor did Javier miss the downward turn of his mouth as his eyes passed over Bennet. Yet he gave a last look at Javier before he relented, one that apparently left him satisfied. And as both men turned to leave, Javier was surprisingly relieved to see them go. He had only just met the two men, but those brief interactions already left him feeling strangely naked.
At that moment, the question of just how deep their knowledge of him went wasn't a distraction he felt could afford.
"Hey, is he a telepath or an empath?" Konrad asked suddenly.
The idle question regained Javier's attention very sharply. Konrad still sat in the chair, face almost serene, showing the slightest bit of amusement. Yet, though it was very faint, Javier could see a subtle tension in his shoulders that made that good humor ring false, somehow. He was briefly reminded of Kevin's impressive composure when they were being interrogated by Hal Lockwood. Javier crushed that thought quickly, however, uncomfortable at havnig made a comparison. Though, as Konrad's fingers drummed a bored rhythm on the table, it was harder for Javier to ignore a sick sense of recognition.
It was the same gentle beat that numerous stakeouts and late night investigations had rendered painfully familiar...
"It has to be one of those two," Konrad speculated, apparently unconcerned with being ignored. "I felt him in my head earlier..."
Konrad smiled then, brightly, smugly.
"Of course, if he's an empath then Bishop owes me sixty grand."
But, when he looked at the window as if seeking a some reaction to his words, Konrad's breath caught and the cocky expression was wiped from his face utterly. He stared at them—at his reflection, Javier realized belatedly as Konrad ran a hand over his face with a distant kind of shock. And of course that made sense, didn't it? Kevin was visibly in his thirties, but according to available evidence Konrad had been a youthful twenty-something for more than fifty years...
Konrad gave a sudden blink and then he sat back, chain pooling beneath his hands with a soft clatter. It was a very quiet few seconds that passed before he spoke again.
"Hello?" Finally it seemed Konrad's cool was slipping, and Javier could hear frustration beginning to creep into his voice. "I don't suppose you could at least give me an idea of what year it is?"
Konrad's attention moved from the window as the door opened to his right.
"2010," Bennet answered, coolly, and to the point. And as focused as he'd been on Konrad, Javier hadn't even noticed either Bennet or Kate leaving until the agent entered interrogation.
Konrad seemed to consider this new information briefly.
"Maybe eleven years, then, since I went AWOL?" Konrad said, more as if thinking aloud than asking for clarification. "Though it looks like I'm missing eight or nine in the middle there, which is just a bit worrying, Noah, to say the least."
His tone was familiar, almost chiding, and Javier recalled that Konrad and Bennet had worked together, even if Bennet didn't remember it. From what he had experienced of the man so far, Javier couldn't imagine that disadvantage was something that Bennet, however adaptable he was, could possibly be comfortable with. Not that it showed outwardly. Bennet still displayed his usual impassive calm. He leaned casually against the wall beside the door—if casual was even a word one could apply to Bennet—regarding the other man in silence.
And if, in some bizarre scenario, Javier had been forced to interrogate his own partner, he could not imagine a better tactic to use than silence. Nature abhorred a vacuum, and so, always, had Kevin. Apparently, in this respect, Konrad was no different.
"I guess since you weren't supposed to know you should be looking I ought to be impressed you found me at all," Konrad mused with a slight shrug and a deceptively good-natured smile. "I mean, either I screwed up bad, or you really are as good as Ivan always said you would be."
That was when Kate walked in the door.
"Flattery will get you nowhere, Konrad," she said, and it was an impressive rendition of her usual, confident entrance when she did so. To anyone who didn't know her well, it wouldn't have seemed strained at all.
If there had been any doubt which category Konrad belonged to, it was quickly settled by his reaction. He paled visibly when he laid eyes on her, face turning blank with a kind of stunned horror Javier had never seen on his partner's face before this bizarre nightmare had begun. While Javier didn't understand the reason for the reaction, Kate managed to seem unmoved as she took the opposite seat. She slid a small piece of paper on the table in front of him.
Konrad stared at it for a moment.
"Nandayo konoyarou," Konrad muttered, voice low in bitter anger, tossing a glance at Bennet that was just this side of murderous. "Hitono kokorowo heikide moteasobiyagatte."
Javier could only assume from Konrad's tone that it was some kind of accusation or insult, though Bennet showed little sign of affront.
"He says Bennet...very cruel to him,"a soft voice said behind him.
And Javier couldn't keep from jumping at the words, because while he may have missed Bennet's exit, he was pretty sure Hiro Nakamura hadn't been in the observation room a few seconds ago. Though turning around served to remind him of Castle's presence, and while the writer was visibly disturbed by the events playing out in front of them, he didn't seem to share Javier's confusion.
"I don't understand," Javier finally admitted, eyes turning back to the window where he watched Konrad study the paper in front of him.
"You read Nakamura Senior's letter, right?" Castle asked him. "It mentioned a woman Konrad knew from Auschwitz, and her granddaughter, Hana Gitelman?"
Javier nodded, recalling it vaguely.
"According to Bennet, Kate looks just like her," Castle told him, sounding intrigued despite the tense situation. "So, Konrad thinks she's some ex-Mossad special who works for the Company..."
"And she's playing along," Javier said, finally getting it.
And something about that new information didn't quite compute—something about coincidences—but Javier wasn't given time to challenge it. It had taken almost a full minute, but Konrad finally managed to regain some of his composure. He reached out slowly to turn the paper around in front of him, leaning forward. Then Javier saw him run the back of his hand over his left cheek, smiling weakly, and realized it had to be the photograph from Auschwitz.
"You know, I miss that scar," Konrad said, voice touched by an unmistakable note of nostalgia. "I mean, I'm probably better off in the long run. They aren't exactly in style these days."
Konrad took a slow breath, finally managing to meet Kate's eyes.
"I still remember your savta," he told her softly. "We never really spoke, but she made it impossible to forget her."
He looked down at his hands.
"She used to have a nickname at Auschwitz, you know," Konrad said with a faint smile, though it was bland, and more than a little bitter. "I think it was Fritz—er, Adam—who started it. We used to call her die Zahnfee—the tooth fairy. It's...a funny story how she got that name."
Though from the twist of his mouth, Javier doubted Konrad really thought it was.
"The day she was transferred to the camp, I dropped my guard, and she kicked me in the jaw." He ran a thumb over his lower lip with an expression that, while gently abashed and almost fond, was nothing close to a smile. "Knocked out two teeth right in the front and loosened two more. Of course, I got those back too when Adam's ability manifested...
"And according to the rumors, I wasn't the first. When they first caught her back in Berlin, one of the soldiers lost not only a tooth but half his tongue."
Konrad looked up at her again, though his eyes didn't manage to meet hers for very long.
"You look...so much like her," he said, forehead creasing faintly. "She had dark eyes just like yours. It sounds melodramatic to say it, but her eyes still haunt me sometimes. I mean, all their eyes haunt me, when I let myself remember, but hers...always. I don't know what it was, what...connection sparked between us, but something must have, because I took a piece of her with me after that day, and it's never left me..."
Konrad trailed off with a shake of his head.
"I'm sorry. I— I shouldn't be saying these things to you. Slichi li."
Kate straightened slightly, and though her back was to the mirror, Javier could imagine her poker face as she played her part.
"I've read some of the files about your time with the Company," she said, her voice carefully flat, all business. "You rode others pretty hard on their ethics. Was being a moral voice for the organization your way of addressing the guilt for your crimes during the war?"
"I was just performing a necessary service," Konrad said, managing a slightly smile, though the humor in it became something else in his eyes. "Guilt...is a useless emotion on its own. It doesn't heal anything, it fixes nothing. But helping others avoid making the same fatal mistakes? That I could try to do. Because it doesn't ultimately matter why you set your principles aside, whether it's for duty, science, survival—or even someone you love. The moment you do that, you're lost."
Shaking his head slightly Konrad gave a pained smile.
"It's something I understand more deeply than most."
"Science?" Kate asked, grabbing onto the opening, "You mean your frequent clashes with Dr. Zimmerman?"
"Zimmerman," Konrad said, his voice charging the name with undisguised dislike. "Jonas Zimmerman couldn't learn from the past to save his life. He would have been a child during the war—too young to have been involved, but old enough that the its lessons should have meant something. But he was always too quick to suspend ethics in the name of his research, and it didn't matter how many times I spoke of the...inhuman things I'd seen men do in the name of science, he refused to see himself in them."
"To this day I don't know what Bishop and the others were thinking, hiring that man," Konrad said, frowning. "I'm sure he was a brilliant scientist, possibly the best in the field of genetics back in the day, but..."
Kate picked up the thread as he trailed off.
"I can see how exploring the potential of your ability would have been valuable to his research," Kate lead.
And Javier thought she and Bennet must have spent some time preparing some of this prior to the interrogation—most likely while he had been preparing Kevin.
"Zimmerman's explorations were punishing," Konrad admitted, ticking another weak smile, "but I'd been through worse. And my participation wasn't exactly enthusiastic, but I did give my consent. Some of his other projects, though..."
"Such as?" Kate prompted when no more seemed forthcoming.
"Such as..." Konrad mused unhappily. His eyes dropped to the table as he worried some unseen mark on its surface with his fingernail. "Such as infants being used as guinea-pigs? Such as drugging specials with dangerous psychedelics to push the limits of their power? And what Bishop let that man do to his little girl—"
Konrad cut the words off just as they climbed to a plateau of anger Javier was shocked to hear in his partner's voice. Kevin had never been an easy man to anger, though once you got him there the sight could be impressive indeed. What Javier was hearing and seeing now, however, surpassed anything he had experienced from his partner.
And when Konrad's eyes lifted from the table, leveling all that emotion on Bennet...the effect was chilling.
"Well I don't have to tell you, do I Noah?" Konrad said. "You were there."
And Javier thought— It was subtle, but he saw Bennet's jaw tighten, his eyes narrowing briefly with some dark emotion before it was gone. For a man who seemed to hide so much so well, it was as dramatic as seeing him flinch. Not at the glare, though. No... Javier had the feeling that, whatever else Bennet might have forgotten, the events of which Konrad spoke remained crystal clear.
The display must have effected Kate as strongly as it had Javier, because it took her a long moment to regroup.
"And you pushed to have him removed from the Company," she managed after a long pause, clearly intent on steering the interrogation back on track.
Perhaps her intent had been a little bit too clear.
"You're very interested in Zimmerman," Konrad pointed out with a frown, eyes narrowing slightly.
And his forehead creased with puzzled wrinkles before smoothing into an expression that Javier recognized quite well. It was the one Kevin always wore when he had figured out some clue that was crucial to their case.
"This isn't just the Company wrangling in one of it's wayward children," Konrad said, and though he said it very slowly it absolutely wasn't a question. "You're after something specific."
He seemed to reexamine Kate very carefully, and after a moment he shook his head.
"You're not Hana, are you?" Konrad asked her, voice turning surprisingly soft. His eyes softened slightly as well. "You're the other granddaughter. Johanna's daughter."
And as Javier's mouth went dry, ears ringing faintly from his sudden shock, Konrad paused as though trying to remember.
"It's Katherine, right?" Konrad asked her carefully. "Katherine Beckett?"
PREV: Interlude 13 // MAIN // NEXT: Chapter Thirteen
Author's Note: Is this "dundundun" worthy? It almost feels that way, but at this point I've hit that note so many times, it's starting to sound tired.
Big thanks to the folks over on
linguaphiles. Especially akibare, who saved me from making a really sad, awkward mistake. I love writing in Konrad's multilingual moments, but whenever it branches out of the languages I either know enough to fake (like English *rimshot*) or know someone who speaks it, I really am pretty clueless. At least I don't hit up Google Translate.As far as the title goes, the translation is stolen from a book, so if it's incorrect, at least that one isn't my fault.
A question about these, though. I'm very fond of them, and I try to give meanings by context when necessary, but they're mostly for flavor. Are they annoying? Should I start including translations at the end, or is it fine without them?
I was trying to be cute by having Hiro's translation of Konrad's long sentence be so short. What Konrad was said is closer to calling Bennet a soulless, heartless, manipulative asshole, which wasn't something I could imagine Hiro being comfortable repeating in detail.
Translations:
È Chūqù Le - "The goose is out."
"Nandayo konoyarou. Hitono kokorowo heikide moteasobiyagatte." - (basically calling Bennet a soulless, manipulative bastard. Which...I don't think Hiro could repeat without having a coronary)
"Slichi li." - "Forgive me."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: Monday, 4 June 2012 12:13 pm (UTC)From:As for the translations, I can do with them or without them. I like seeing the different languages in there where they fit. It's a reminder of the past for Konrad, a frequent cue to the reader of what he is. A translation at the end would be nice, along with the language used, but it's not necessary if the words are either sensible in context or you have a character provide in scene translation.
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Date: Monday, 4 June 2012 03:25 pm (UTC)From:I love playing with details, and I love stories that grab you somewhere toward the end or middle and say "Hey, remember this random thing in the beginning you thought was totally inconsequential? You really should have been paying attention." So I try to do that a lot.
Sometimes it's foreshadowing, mostly it's just author wank.
You know, originally this story (with the working premise "write a Nazi character who doesn't eat babies") was going to be a crossover with Highlander rather than Heroes, but for some reason my brain latched onto a single panel in one of the comics with the thought "Hey, wouldn't it be funny if he was that guy who got his teeth kicked out?"
(which didn't work, because I misremembered a few details, like how the incident took place in Berlin, not at Auschwitz, but I managed to make it work anyway)
It pretty much wrote itself from there, though the driving force somehow became "Throw more canon in there and they won't notice that it's crack!" And Heroes just has such a rich history to work with, and that picking out those little details that people maybe don't often think about and trying to find a place for them to live was just fun.
And somehow it turned into a sort of Company history, completely on accident.
I probably will start including translations. I tried to be funny with this one, because Konrad obviously says a lot, but what Hiro translates it to is very short. A fuller translation would supply that Konrad more or less calls Bennet a soulless, manipulative bastard. XD
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Date: Monday, 4 June 2012 11:06 pm (UTC)From:I love your badass Noah.
Your style is what I love to read and try to write. (When I'm not distracted writing endless smut.)
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Date: Tuesday, 5 June 2012 01:41 am (UTC)From:Writing from Javier's perspective, Noah gets to be the boogeyman again, and it's really fun to write.
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Date: Monday, 4 June 2012 04:42 pm (UTC)From:I liked the way that you handled Hiro's translation of the big long sentence. I didn't read it as particularly funny until you pointed out the length differences (and then I was all "Oh, hee! Clever), but there was certainly enough context. And I think as long as there's adequate context for your multilingual bits, then they're just fine -- certainly not annoying.
As for translations as a note at the end -- I don't think they're *necessary* but I also don't personally think you'd lose anything to have them. It would just be a little easter egg for anybody who wanted to know. If you want to give people the option of whether to see the translation as they scroll from the post to the comments, you could always give a little "here be translations" label or something and then put the actual text behind a spoiler cut.
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Date: Monday, 4 June 2012 07:14 pm (UTC)From:And yeah. I spent at least a year and a half plotting this one out, so there's a lot of stuff. It's like one of the longest, most convoluted things ever...
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Date: Tuesday, 5 June 2012 03:55 am (UTC)From:You are one of the good ones; don't let anything, external or internal, tell you otherwise. I adore this story. Keep it up!
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Date: Tuesday, 5 June 2012 07:09 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: Monday, 11 June 2012 01:45 am (UTC)From:ye gods I need to catch up on Castle. I've missed like, the last five or six episodes of the season I think. Damn early workdays.
And the other granddaughter? Kate and Hana are cousins? IT MAKES SENSE NOW! And Konrad knows her. Or knows of her at least, and Johanna. Of course he does, if he never forgot her grandmother.
Yes, that was totally "dundundun" worthy. And I'm just gonna sit here and wait for the next installment and maybe catch up on a few eps of Castle. ...and maybe take another stab at Heroes which I still haven't watched. >_>
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Date: Monday, 11 June 2012 02:00 am (UTC)From:*has been known to paddle around in de Nile*
Glad you enjoyed the chapter. I've been sitting on the story so long (in outline) I always worry the suspense is going to fall flat. :)
(also, so watch Heroes, but if it's still reading well without having watched it, that puts my mind at ease in a big way)
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Date: Monday, 11 June 2012 02:18 am (UTC)From:(also when you said wedding episode for a minute I had no idea what you were talking about so... *joins you in de Nile*)
...so on the show there have been werewolves, superheroes, fairytales and zombies...do you think the writers read fic? XD
Well, as I saw the new chapter up I remembered where it had left off and immediately got an anxious knot in my stomach, so I'd say the suspense is holding up. XD
I keep meaning to watch Heroes, but...well, I've watched the first episode like, five or six times now. I'm thinking maybe I should just skip to the first episode with Sylar in? I don't know why I have such a hard time getting into the show, the premise is exactly my kind of thing and I love this fic and a lot of what I know about the series facinates me, but...idek. When I'm actually watching it, it fails to consistantly grab my interest.
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Date: Monday, 11 June 2012 02:33 am (UTC)From:*does the happy author dance*
I actually don't recommend jumping to the first episode with Sylar, because it's really a flashback episode, and it's probably one of the better examples of having to see point C for points A and B to have their proper impact. (er, see influence...lol)
For me, the "grab me" point of the series was the second or third episode, I think. That was the one with all the heavy foreshadowing for the rest of the season, introducing Matt (My favorite example of blessed with suck-ness in the whole series, really. His power never leads him anywhere good.), Sylar (at least in name and menacing-shadowy-bogeyman form), and featuring Hiro's first big jump (I'm a fan of starting with a big scary time jump? Get out...)
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Date: Friday, 22 June 2012 06:41 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: Friday, 22 June 2012 06:50 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: Saturday, 28 July 2012 11:32 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: Sunday, 19 August 2012 07:33 pm (UTC)From:This deserves more than a review on an iphone.. Sadly, the whether these past few days has been so awful that I kept my computer off. (Withdrawal will start soon)
I wonder when life is going to stop torturing Beckett with her mom. I'm also not really sure where we're at in Castle's timeline on that subject, but.. Damn.
I already want Kev back. :(
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Date: Sunday, 19 August 2012 07:58 pm (UTC)From:As for life stopping it's torture of Beckett...that's an interesting way of wording it, given what I have planned for the role Johanna's case plays in this 'verse.
I'm actually pretty sure you're not going to like it...
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Date: Monday, 20 August 2012 10:14 am (UTC)From:Well, I'm off to get some lunch now, I'm hoping to be able to squeeze a chapter in before I get back to working.
I'm crossing my fingers, maybe a surprise will be waiting for me in the mailbox when I get home tonight? (They said they'd deliver the Kindle cover today, i got it saturday, so... since the kindle's supposed to arrive wednesday.... who knows?)
Oh, god, I thought I was going to die last night. I'll tell you about it tonight.