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Not only did Rep claim to be unaware of how he became immune, he also refused to name his superior on the mission. Refused. Nobody refused to name their superior unless they were trying to hide something - or someone. Classified, he'd said. Robert's expression was openly suspicious.

Robert had nothing else to say to Rep. He waited, darkened with doubt, until the man had moved out of earshot. It took a long time for him to put his ideas together, but when they came together, he could only manage one answer with the information he had.

He bent in and whispered gently into Mimsy's ear. "He's not immune." He'd believed Rep until the moment that attitude had come out, and he'd turned back into the man Robert was used to working with. The liar. "He's doing this because somebody has to, but in the end - " In the end, Rep was expendable. Every one of them were, in the eyes of the organization. Whoever was really heading this mission had no qualms about putting Rep in the line of danger - the immunity was just minimalizing losses to one. Rep, eventually.

It made sense, and it was still ******** up as all hell. But if someone had to die for a lot of people to live, Robert was glad it was someone he wouldn't miss, for once.

"Give her the antidote. Quickly." His eyes darted to Harrison's encroaching form, and his expression lost none of the suspicion it held.

"Watch it!" He hissed, the suspicion immediately replaced with worry as he covered Alice's ears with his hands. Robert's priorities were exposed in that moment, caring more about a little girl hearing a curse word than who was about to die for what. "And yeah. We are. Because that's the kind of people we are, Harrison." Did he know? Did Harrison have any idea of what the higher ups felt about Rep's survival chances? Would he be this calm, this understanding about the situation, if he did?

Maybe. There was never a good way to read Harrison, he realized. He could have come to terms with things long ago, and no one would ever have known. Or - maybe not.

"Are you saying you feel confident enough to be the guy who gets to label winners and losers? To put importance of one life over another? Because that should be your call? Or anyone's?"

"You're not gonna go out alone again anyway," Noah said firmly, then, "I told you I wasn't gonna save you a towel. I mean, that's mostly because I don't have a towel to save for you or anyone else, but . No towel, sorry."

Al's HP: 15 +1 = 16

"Why did Rep tell you not to set the sprinklers off earlier if they were just gonna turn them on anyway?" Noah was thinking out loud, frowning slightly. "Unless it's like. If it's supposed to flush something out that they didn't want to come out before?"

"I, um, no," he admitted. "But I'm gonna put a change in my mission bag when we go home. For sure."

Al's HP: 16 +5 = 21

"Notebooks and pencils, sample vials, a pocketknife, duct tape, rubber bands, plastic baggies, antibacterial wipes and tissues, a couple of bandanas, a lighter don't play with it you'll use up the fluid, a sharpie, some aspirin, a bottle of water," Noah answered promptly. "Oh and some rocks. ... Just kidding about the rocks."

Al's HP: 21 +3 = 24

"No," Noah protested, affronted. "It's useful stuff, you never know what's going to happen on a mission or what you're going to need to handle or bring back or deal with. Anyway it's not that heavy, the water bottle is probably the heaviest thing in there and it's clean water."

There was some sulking.

Al's HP: 24 +2 = 26

Noah huffed. "What are you looking for? Anyway with the sprinklers on you're just going to get wet again." He paused to scoop up the carelessly tossed aside supplies.

Al's HP: 26 +7 = 33

"Get what off? The stuff? Use your scarf," Noah instructed, sounding confused, and took his own off to help. "I didn't think about towels before, that's all ... "

Al's HP: 33 +7 = 40