Season 1, Episode 6 - The Tree Plot XXXII - "Mortal Stakes"

“Piper’s log,” our fearless investigative journalist said stoically to herself, “My investigation has taken me to Palmer Beach General Hospital. During the raid on the Pond last month, the nefarious State Police utilized a certain terrible terrorist named Deborah Freeman. This damnable debonair Deborah allegedly died in a freak lab accident two years ago, yet she appeared alive and well just four weeks ago.”

Piper rubbed her chin, then tapped her pencil on the pad. Unfortunately, portable tape recorders hadn’t been reinvented yet, so Piper kept her log by hand. It wouldn’t stop her from saying it aloud, though.

“My invigorating investigation of newspapers dating to two years ago came up with some new information - this was an official Institute lab run by a Dr. Oswald. After the accident, the lab members were transferred elsewhere - and that’s where the trail runs cold for everybody. That is, everybody except for a certain obscure Ottomar, an intern in that lab who now works for the good General Hospital as a medical orderly.”

She poked at her scalley cap with her pencil for a moment. “After an unsuccessful attempt to interview Ottomar that resulted in me accidentally sending a patient into cardiac arrest, I’ve resolved to embark upon a stakeout outside the hospital until I bring the truth to light. I will remain in these bushes outside the hospital until I have the answers I need. But what to do about the malevolent mercenaries guarding the hospital?”

Very much like the Pond Free Corps and Cambridge Legion, the Institute relied on a private army to patrol and protect its home district. Through her spot in a long row of bushes, Piper spotted several mercenaries walking the grounds of the hospital, abusing their privileges to smoke outside of the designated smoking zone. That zone was important - Piper set herself up just at the edge of the hospital parking lot, in the midst of bushes, to keep an eye on that area in particular.

Piper heard rustling next to her. “Oksana!” she cheered. She tilted her head when she saw the bag her friend carried. “Burger Pal? What happened to the Chinese food?”

Food was important for a stakeout, after all. Piper had sent Oksana off earlier to get some food for them. As mute as always, Oksana finally returned, but there was a distinct lack of a Chinese food smell following her.

“Trouble,” Oksana answered. Piper tore down several bush branches to make a space for Oksana to set the bag down. “High Moon Tavern of the Eight-Heaven Archway blew up.”

“Blew up?” Piper repeated.

Oksana made an explosion noise.

“Uh-huh,” Piper murmured, fishing around the bag for her usual order (the number two burger with extra onions cooked animal-style). “That might play to our advantage. Perhaps it’ll be a distraction!”

As if on cue, a mercenary came rushing out to meet the patrolling mercenaries. All of them left in a huff, leaving this side of the hospital completely unprotected.

Piper cracked her neck. “And now we wait,” she said with a grin. She tossed the burger wrapper out of the bush to feed some seagulls that ventured out from the Palmer Beach harbor and then she started eating and kept on talking. “As I was saying before you left - who really needs a house in Hackensack, wherever that is? You don’t. But everyone just wants to spend, Oksana. Nobody wants to save. These go-go corporate takeover lifestyles are destroying the fabrics of our neighborhoods.”

Uncomfortable moist sounds drifted through the bushes as Piper licked her fingers. “At least, it seems that way. They demolished an entire neighborhood in Neponset to build a Squanto Bank Shopping Center. I mean...well, they have a lot of nice things there. We should go shopping there after this. Got some nice fur coats.”

Oksana watched her friend closely. “Are you sure about this?”

After her macabre display, Piper wiped her fingers on her scarlet bomber jacket to finish things off. “Sure about what?”

“Continuing our investigation.”

Piper nodded vigorously, then tossed several fries out of the bush for a flock of birds to peck at. “Of course! The truth is out there somewhere, and I’m gonna find it!”

Oksana’s expression remained neutral. “Deborah works for the State Police. If they find out about this investigation, they might imprison you in Piscataquis. Or worse.”

Piper felt unconcerned about her friend’s worries, even if she emphasized worse. “Let them! Any good journalist is going to run into opposition. This one guy had to hide out in the Peruvian embassy for almost a decade! Imagine that, spending a decade away from home, all the way in Peru. What do they even eat there?”

“Ceviche.”

“Huh?”

“A fish-based meal.”

“Ah. I see.” Piper rubbed her chin in thought, then added Peru as a potential place to find a hideout in (it was already on her list of places to restore democracy to).

And then she gasped. Their target had left the hospital front doors and was now walking around the side of the building, into the area where the mercenaries had left.

“Sometimes, you just gotta get lucky,” Piper whispered with a wide grin. Oskana kept her face neutral.

Their first attempt to speak with Ottomar resulted in a big argument in his office that sent a nearby patient to the brink of death; the mercenaries promptly threw Piper (literally) and Oksana out the front doors. Oksana seemed to think that this defeat meant the end of the investigation, but Piper would never allow The ManTM to hold her back. They immediately scouted out the perimeter of the hospital and found a set of good bushes to wait in until Ottomar performed his daily outdoors ritual.

You see, Piper had observed peculiar indents on Ottomar’s fingers that marked him as a habitual cigarette smoker. Well, that’s what her memoirs would say. The truth was that she spotted a pack of cigarettes in his office.

As expected, Ottomar arrived in the designated smoking area at the side of the hospital. He was all alone, sitting in an isolated spot shielded by a few walls.

Piper punched her palm with the other fist. “Showtime,” she whispered in excitement.

She tossed the Burger Pal bag behind the bush, then emerged from the shadows in a full-on dead sprint towards the hospital. Oksana briefly glanced behind her; the sudden emergence of the bag shocked the pack of birds eating the crumbs from Piper’s wrapper, causing them to scatter. One bird flew erratically, right into the path of an incoming white van coming down a street. The van swerved and took out a public telephone booth. Babs Duran and Marty emerged from the van in shock; Marty fell to his knees and started crying.

Oksana shrugged and followed Piper. Her friend was already halfway across the parking lot, running so fast that her cap was in danger of falling off her head. Oksana followed her route; Piper moved far quicker on her feet than you'd expect and was already at the smoking area.

Ottomar only had time to look at her in shock before Piper lowered her shoulder into him. He smashed backwards into a concrete wall, the cigarette flying from his mouth.

“PLATINUM DISCO!”

Utterly blinded now by industrial-strength strobe lights, the stunned Ottomar could do little as Piper grabbed his collars and raised a fist.

“This one’s labeled Free!”

Piper punched him across the face with her right fist.

“And this one’s labeled Speech!”

Piper punched him across the face with her left fist.

“You’re a loose cannon cop who doesn’t play by the rules!” Piper barked at him. “I want your badge on my desk!”

She paused and thought about it. “Wait, wrong genre.” Her grip tightened. “I want answers, and I want them now!”

Ottomar went to yell for help, but Piper stuck Free into his mouth. Ottomar’s eyes darted around in fear, desperate for anyone who could intervene. After the news about the explosion, the mercenaries left to go investigate and all the other orderlies had to get their (medical) battle stations ready for any incoming casualties. Ottomar, of course, decided that this would be the perfect time to avoid all that work by taking a smoke break. Thus, he was nearly alone on this side of hospital - unfortunately for him, the few people still in this area were distracted by the car accident. Nobody would be coming for him.

Piper removed Free from his mouth. “What’s the story with Deborah? Tell me!”

Ottomar started hyperventilating. “I swear I swear I don’t know anything-”

Piper slapped him. “You know everything!”

“Okay, okay, I know something!” Ottomar admitted.

“That’s what I thought.” Piper grinned and nodded her head at the arriving Oksana. “You think that was tough? I’m the good cop here. My partner here knows how to make a long pork souffle, if you catch my drift.”

Oksana stared quietly at Ottomar and bared her teeth. “I’ll eat you.”

Ottomar didn’t want to be eaten, so that seemed to break him for good. “Okay, okay,” he sighed, swallowing nervously. “I’ll tell you what I know. Two years ago I was just an intern at Dr. Oswald’s lab.”

Oksana tilted her head. Piper passed him off to her, then started writing in her pad. Ottomar tried to make a break for it, stepping right through Oksana’s grip as if she wasn’t even trying, but Piper immediately roundhoused him back into the wall. Oksana reclaimed her grip and upon looking at Piper, tightened it to a proper amount.

“And then what?” Piper demanded to know. “What did Oswald research? I couldn’t find that in the papers.”

“Brain waves,” Ottomar huffed out. “The brain uses electrical signals, right? If you were to find a lighting-style Rddhi user with enough precision, then theoretically, you could manipulate someone’s brain with it.”

“I take it Deborah was that user?” Piper asked.

Ottomar nodded vigorously. “Th-that’s all I really know on that side.”

Piper stared at him for a moment, then leaned on him. Sweat glistened on his forehead. “Perhaps I’ll have to put the screws on you,” she warned. She reached into her pocket and produced a sharp nail.

Ottomar swallowed. “Okay, okay. I was an intern there, but I really worked as a go-fer. You see, Deborah was never happy with Oswald. He did the calculations, but she did the actual electric signal work, you understand? She thought he got too much credit and too much money. So Deborah starts a little side hustle. Worm syrup.”

Piper narrowed her eyes. “You mean that new drug hitting the streets?”

Another vigorous nod. “Worm syrup used to be king in New England. Then the government started cracking down on it. The stuff selling now is New York-made. I bet they reverse engineered the New England version once that supply dried up.”

“Keep going.”

“I sold it for Deborah. We were a small-time operation, but the money rolled in. Enough money to get the attention of the State Police.” His eyes looked wildly, but no State Police - or anyone who could help, for that matter - could be found in the immediate area. “They got to me first. I…I sold out Deborah in exchange for my freedom. They left me in the lab to inform on her.”

Piper looked away for a moment in thought, watching a bird return to her former bush to peck at the remaining crumbs. “Foul play,” she muttered.

“When Deborah learned the heat was on her, she came clean to Oswald. But, all along - that brain wave research was contracted by the State Police. Oswald says he’ll keep quiet about the affair as long as Deborah continues researching with him - rather than for the Institute, it’ll be the State Police directly. But Deborah just wanted out.”

Piper kept writing as Ottomar continued. “She tried to overdose on worm syrup. I found her in her apartment - she was brain dead. I tried taking her to the hospital, but Oswald and the State Police arrived. They said they would be taking things over from now on. The State Police placed me in this hospital to spy on and inform on the staff for them. And if I don’t do it, they’ll kill me. Or worse.”

Piper rubbed her chin. “Brain dead, huh? Yet she was clearly kicking in the Pond last month. And now we got this Oswald figure working directly for the State Police, bringing Deborah’s brain dead corpse along with him until she went from almost dead to not dead at all.”

She caught a whiff of the ocean scent coming from the nearby harbor. “Seems fishy to me.”

“Please…just kill me,” Ottomar begged. Piper and Oksana gave each other glances.

“I want this to end,” he continued. “I don’t want to see anybody else dragged out of the hospital because I told on them. I don’t want to destroy any more families.”

“You got arms and legs and a mind that can think for itself,” Piper told him. “Take a stand for once.”

Ottomar looked at the ground. “But…they’ll torture and kill me.”

Piper shrugged. “Then it’s your choice. Your suffering or others'. But, if you take that stand…that might get other people to take a stand, and maybe we’ll win in the end. If that's the case, then nobody will have to suffer.”

Ottomar looked at her with bugging eyes. “How can you say that? You can’t beat the State Police! They’ll find you if you keep saying things like that!”

Piper adjusted her scalley cap and gave him a confident grin. “Good. It’ll make my job easier if they come to me.” She then patted Oksana on the head. “Thanks for your help today, Ottomar. But don’t tell anybody we talked today. Don’t go telling on me, alright? Otherwise, I’ll sick my dog on you.”

Still gripping his collars, Oksana barked at him.

Ottomar gulped. “U…understood.”

“Oksana…ice him.”

Ottomar gasped, and then Oksana kneed him in the groin. As Ottomar doubled over in pain, the two girls high-tailed it out of there. As they crossed the street without looking, another van had to swerve out of their way, smashing into the back of Marty’s van. Piper and Oksana continued on, paying no mind to the anguished cries and broken hearts that came with their travels.

Freedom isn’t free, after all.