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Sabin Duvert Vice Captain
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 Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 1:50 am
Sabin's eyes flicked up, seeing the look of greed settle upon the man's face. Oh it was very obvious what this man was here for, and the language that Sabin needed to speak.
His eyebrows migrated to the top of his forehead when he saw the liver. He leaned forward, tapping the side of the tube gently. "And who's to say this is genuine? You could have a fetal dog liver in here by appearences alone. We'll have to have the lab take a look at it before we give you th emoney. But.... if this IS the real deal..... you could be looking at a sum... double... triple the cost of the hide." Sabin leaned his head on his hand, looking curiously to the man in the chair across from him.
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 2:02 am
Seth was a little taken aback by that remark. He opened his mouth as if to speak, then promptly closed it again.
Bugger.
Damn that logic. This Dr Duvert guy could have very well been right - who did know if it was genuine or not? Seth hadn't thought of that. He hadn't even thought to ask his friend if it actually had come from the thylacine preserved pup or not. But... what reason would he have to lie about that? If he was getting paid a large sum of money to hand over something like this, why would he want to lie about it? He wanted the immense sum of money, sure, but he didn't exactly want to scam this guy by giving him something that wasn't genuine.
Realizing that the wind had gone from his sails and that Sabin was waiting on a response from him, Seth handed the test tube out for him to take, intending to actually hand it over this time.
"Sure thing, take it with you and test it out. See if it really is genuine or not." Seth said, relaxing back in the chair once more, his entire attitude much calmer and more reasonable than just a few mere moments ago. "I want you to be content with it, afterall. You need to get your money's worth."
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Sabin Duvert Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 2:07 am
Sabin nodded with a satisfied smile, setting it carefully down on the desk beside the pelt. "we have state of the art facilities here... and if you would be so kind as to spend the night with us, we can have it analysed by the morning. We can see to it that you are comforatble here."
Sabin opened a desk drawer, withdrawing an envelope. "In the meantime.... I have the bank account number, pin number, and other necessary information for a Swiss bank account made out from an... anonymous benefactor, concerned with the well being of the Thylacines and the Australian museum."
Sabin gave him a knowing wink.
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 2:16 am
Seth was quite pleased with how things were going now. This Dr. Duvert fella was quite reasonable and knew what he was doing, that was for sure. Seth sat up properly in the chair, his attention turning to the envelope, though he tried not to look at it for too long as he did not want to come off as being greedy.
"Very good." Seth nodded, grinnng back at him. "The museum will be glad to receive it." He covered his mouth and closed his eyes, tiredly yawning. "I'd be glad to hang around here for a day or so until you're satisfied with the goods you have there. We can discuss an appropriate sum once you have your results. I could really do with a nap in any case. Planes aren't the most comfortable of places to sleep."
"Once you've got your results and the transaction is complete, I can be on my way again." He reasoned. "Can you think of any really nice places to take a holiday? I've never been out of Australia before, and now I'm travelling, I might as well go somewhere fun before going back home."
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Sabin Duvert Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 2:21 am
Sabin nodded, looking pleased as well. Standing up, he left the hide and the bottled liver on his desk. "Excellent. We've got a room in the labs here we can put you up in. Should be able to find everything you need there. And we'll contact you tomorrow with the details after our labs have analysed the samples."
Sabin grinned. "Well, there are some really beautiful places. You're in the Carribbean now. And maybe will even have time to explore the beaches. I've always been partial to the French countryside... but that's where I'm from." He smiled nostaligically for just a moment.
"But you're tired... so let me show you to your room, you've traveled about halfway around the world to get here."
Sabin led him back out to the elevator, this time speaking "Floor 3", and it started downwards.
Opening this time into another hallway, Sabin led him down tto the fifth door on the right, and opened it up, gesturing inside.
"There is a cafeteria at the end of the hall if you need.... but there's your room, there's an attached restroom inside... and feel free to make yourself at home."
Inside, there was a very nice living quarters - like something out of a holiday inn - clean, and unpersonable. And... pretty much exactly like the duplexes in layout.
"Anything else that you need?" Sabin asked, setting down Seth's bags inside.
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 2:28 am
Seth followed Sabin to the elevator, carrying his bags with him. He glanced into the room before stepping inside, placing his laptop carry bag down on the table beside the bed.
"No, no," Seth shook his head, seeming to approve of the room. He definitely approved at the sight of the bed. "This is quite adequate. As long as there's a power outlet to charge up my laptop batteries, I'm quite good, thanks." He glanced out the window. The scene outside was quite nice, but at that paticular time he was too tired to care. He drew up the blinds in an effort to make the room darker, and he sat down on the bed.
"I don't need anything at all. Just flick off the light, I'll crash right off to sleep here." Seth mused. "Thanks for such a hassle free trade."
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Sabin Duvert Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 2:35 am
Sabin tipped his hat with a smile. "And then I wish you a pleasant evening, Mr. Callaghan. There's an electical outlet underneath the desk."
And with that, Sabin closed the door after him, and went back to his office to fetch the treasures that the man had brought with them, sending them down to the laboratories to extract the DNA as rapidly as possible.
THey would have to get at least the preparatory serum made quickly, preferably while the man slept. Fortunately, only a very little bit of the DNA had to be added into that admixture... and there would be weeks to be able to set up the full series of the serums before he needed his followup injections.
How poetic, after all... that he bring his own fate with him.
***
That night, while Seth is asleep, a gas is filtered through the vents, making certain to keep him under. He is injected, chipped, and then him and his belongings are brought out to a duplex in the village. Under Sabin's orders, the room is set up precisely as Seth had set it up in his room in the labs.
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Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 5:13 pm
Huh? Something's Not Right Here... Seth remained out of it for at least the next twelve hours. Partially because he had been really tired out from his long journey here, and partially because of the effects of the sleeping gas that had leeched into the other room he had been in before he was moved to Duplex #65. In any case, he was quite literally an inanimate lump while he slept - not a storm, earthquake, volcano rupture, explosion, not even heaven's rapture would have woken the man up if it had come.
He woke rather slowly at first. A soft groan escaped his throat a few minutes before he shifted positions, and he debated to himself whether or not he should just sleep longer. He lazily pried open his eyelids, but they were still heavy with sleep and his eyes would not focus for him just yet. So, he lay on his side for another few moments and just eased into the process of waking up. There was a dull ache in his arm and the back of his neck was sore - but he thought nothing of this at all. Pains were quite usual when one woke up, usually caused by sleeping on a limb or an area getting cold during the night. He put a hand to the side of his neck and tilted it in an attempt to move the area, more concerned about the stiffness than the pain.
"Mmmph..." He yawned for a moment, finally rising to a sitting position. He scratched the back of his neck as he surveyed his surroundings, his bleary eyes finally focused enough to allow him to see where he was. At first, he didn't know exactly where he was. Then slowly, as he woke up further, it all came flooding back to him. The agreement, the plane flights, the helicopter ride... negotiating with that rather strange man with the funky top hat.
"It wasn't a dream. Good." Seth mumbled to himself as he stood up. Something felt unusually strange about this room, but he couldn't quite place a finger on it. He did not place much thought into this however, and shrugged it off. He ensured his door was locked before yanking off his tie, tossing it casually onto the floor, and stepped into the bathroom area, stripping down completely to take a shower, tossing his old clothing onto the floor out the room.
The water was cleansing and helped the man to wake up properly. He spent several minutes under the showerhead and began humming loudly, beginning the standard ritual of cleaning himself. He placed the available shampoo in his hair and vigorously rubbed it in, washing it out again after he was done, making a mental note to himself that he could probably do with a haircut... eventually. After he was done and properly clean, he stepped out of the shower again, wrapping a fluffy towel around his waist, noting how nice and plush they were. He picked up another and began to rub himself dry with it.
"Note to self - steal some towels from this place before you leave. Everybody pilfers towels from hotels, and they usually expect you to run off with one or two."
Once he was adequately dry, he spent only a brief moment to comb his hair, and then he began to fumble through his luggage for suitable clothing to wear. It only took him a moment to pick out some comfortable clothes he liked, a pair of nice jeans, and a plain light blue button up shirt. He probably would have selected something more casual, but he didn't know the dress code of the fancy place that was currently housing him. When he was satisfied with his attire, he sat down in the chair near the desk, taking his prized laptop out of its case to set it up on the desk. The batteries were flat, but he had a chance to charge them now. He plugged the power converter into the wall, and plugged the power cord for the device into that. Once the laptop had booted up properly, he tried to access the Internet. It had been quite some time since he had checked up on his emails, and the other stuff he normally puttered around with when he was online. He frowned as he tapped the D-link wireless card in a disapproving manner - there was no connectivity. This place didn't have a wireless LAN connection in the area.
"Bugger," He grumbled to himself. "Perhaps this place isn't so top rate after all." He shut the computer down again and left it sitting on the desk to let it charge. He made another mental note to himself to ask about where an internet connection port was in the area. Somebody in the building had to know how.
"Why not do that now?" He asked himself. He was bored, and there was nothing else he could think of to do. He had time to kill. And it seemed like a good idea at the time. So why not? He sat down on the floor nearby the door, grabbing up his sneakers so he could put them on. Then he stood up, walked over front door and opened it...
...promptly staring outside with disbelief. He stood in the doorway, dumbfounded.
"What the hell?" Seth blinked. "What happened to the corridor? What's going on here?" He peered outside cautiously, glancing in one direction, then the other. He shook his head in confusion, pulled his head back inside and shut the door again. He folded his arms and waited a minute or so, opening the door again. Yep, it was still there. He stepped outside onto the sandy ground, kicking at a stone on the ground. It wasn't an illusion. Perhaps it was somebody's idea of a joke?
It had to be.
Seth had to grin as he pondered that. He wasn't much of a prankster himself in his adulthood, but he had pulled some rather amusing stunts in his time. He did enjoy a good practical joke.
"Very funny." He mused. He had some time to kill before that Dr. Duvert bloke got back to him on the authenticity results from the wares he had so kindly transported over here. So, he shut the door to his complex and decided to go wandering. He had no idea which direction to go, but as long as he could remember the path he took, he could get back.
"Interesting place. It's nice, but I wouldn't want to live here." He said to himself as he glanced back to the duplexes, before he walked off into the surrounding area to explore.
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Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 8:41 am
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Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 6:08 pm
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Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 11:04 pm
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Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 8:39 am
Getting Some Answers
Seth paced back and forth across the floor of his duplex, aggitated and tense. He'd been here a number of days now, had met some pretty strange people, and had been told some really outrageous stories. What he had seen only confirmed the validity of those stories but in his mind he still refused to believe it all. Okay sure, the frog guy had done something wrong in the eyes of the company and was being punished for it. That was morally wrong in itself, but that was the case, the way things were. The younger male that Seth had met in the cafeteria later had explained the dark nature of the island in more detail and had showed him the needle injury that he had received from them. But Seth could not find one similar on his person anywhere, and so doubted from that observation alone that he was going to suffer the same fate.
Maybe it was his optimism, his stubborness, or his outright refusal to deal with it, but the man just wouldn't accept the fact that he very well just might be condemned here as well like the others he had met, stuck here for the rest of his days only to be experimented on and turned into some animal freak of nature. What made things worse was that Dr. Duvert hadn't got back to him on the test results of the goods he had brought over. He said he would get back to him after a day or so, but it had been longer now. Just how long did it take lab people to do things like that? Seth did not know.
"Bloody buggering hell, Seth. Why'd ya have to be so damn materialistic for? Just look at the mess you've got yourself stuck in now." He scolded himself aloud, punching himself in the gut with a closed fist. It hurt and he was mildly winded by it, but he did not care at that point in time. "Stupid, stupid, stupid idiot. God, I shouldn't have done it. I should have told James to go to hell. I should have just kept my head down and said no. I knew the offer was too good to be true."
In hindsight, he realized that he probably shouldn't have done many things at all.
"Okay, think man. Just think." He flopped down on his bed, face first. "You're still a human. You have a phone. You know how to contact that crazy doctor guy. You have two reasons to call him now, you might as well just do that now, yeah. Not much else you can do right now."
Seth sat up on his bed, and reached out to grab the receiver of the phone mounted on the wall. Then, he reached out for the keypad, pressing the "0" button. He could hear the ringing tone in the earpiece and he sat there, eagerly waiting for somebody to answer.
"Just keep it together, man..." He assured himself. "There's probably a reasonable explanation for all of this. You'll be out of here in no time."
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Sabin Duvert Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 12:17 am
Sabin had just cut the connection with Sid when he noticed that the call button was flashing again. The islanders must be very bored today ... or he was popular?
Who was it... ahhhhhyes! Seth... that's right, he never "got back to him" with an offer. He couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he patched him through.
"Mr. Callaghan! How good to hear from you again! How has your vacation on the island side of the fence been going for you? I remembered you had mentioned wanting to 'get away from it all' after your ... stint. I figured you'd enjoy it better out there than the lab halls."
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 12:25 am
Seth did not like the friendly tone of the person whom had picked up on the other end, immediately recognising it as Dr. Duvert's voice. Something seemed rather odd to him also, didn't businesses usually go through phone switches or exchanges first before you spoke to whom you were supposed to?
"It's alright out there I suppose," Seth began, the cautiousness in his voice easily noticable. "Look, I'm going to cut the formalities and get straight to the point of this phone call. This island sucks. Really bad at that too. It's hot and it's humid. And there's stories of... well, things going on that don't sound right."
He paused, tapping the receiver with his fingers.
"So what were the results on those specimens I gave you?"
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Sabin Duvert Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 12:32 am
"Sucks? Oh, I wouldn't say that! If you can get over the heat and humidity. But if you like beaches, then this place can't be beat. Only shared by your neighbors! What is there not to like, I mean you're from Australia, right? I'm sure you can get used to the heat."
Sabin skipped the mention of the experiments. "And the specimins! Yes! I got the results just this morning! The liver is fantastic - it checked out as legitimate and is going to be absolutely perfect for the research! I think that you might be quite impressed by what we think we'll be able to do with it."
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