Reconciliation

(At the safehouse...)

(Bell, Marshall, Woods, Sev, and Felix gather around a desk with a pistol, a telephone, a floppy disk, dog tags, and an open journal laid out with the word "IRAQ" over it. More shots of the journal's pages are revealed, including documents from the USSR and Matvey Gusev's profile)

Marshall: The Pantheon has a biological weapon. The papers we found in that bunker, they had a name attached. Matvey Guzev, a Soviet weapons scientist. We think he's still in Iraq. Somewhere. Adler's volunteered to stay behind and track his ass down. I'll have Felix examine the disk we found while the rest of us investigate the origin of the Cradle. If Adler's right, this thing may have come from a research facility on American soil

Bell: A Soviet scientist and an American bioweapon... What the hell are we getting into?

Sev: You've asked Harrow about this supposed research facility?

Marshall: She's not picking up. I told her to look into Livingston

Sev: You think something's happened to her?

Marshall: If it has, it's my fault

(Sev sighs)

Sev: The weight of the world on your shoulders... We know the risks

Marshall: Yeah, well... this isn't exactly what I imagined

Sev: Because it's not just about you

Marshall: How'd you feel about coming with me stateside?

Sev: I'd consider it

(Marshall and Sev start walking towards the kitchen, where Felix is cooking up a pot full of food)

Marshall: Felix still in the kitchen?

Sev: Don't complain. We ate well while you were off wandering the desert

Marshall: He should be decrypting the disk Adler found. We need whatever's on it

(Marshall and Sev enter the kitchen)

Marshall: Hey, chef, you cracked that disk yet?

Felix: Patience, please. Cryptography is like preparing pufferfish. Rush through it and risk losing everything

Marshall: Okay...

Sev: Is he planning to serve us pufferfish?

Marshall: You said no complaining.

Sev: I did, didn't I? Let me know when we're close to leaving

(Woods is trying to carry a TV monitor on his lap, but it falls and breaks)

Woods: Fuck me!

Marshall: Yo. Ask for help, man

Woods: Fuck you too

Marshall: Fine. Have fun

Woods: Does it look like I'm havin' fun?

Marshall: No... That's not what I meant. You got dealt a bad hand

Woods: You're gonna get dealt bad hands, kid. With us, the stakes are high

(Marshall walks over to pick up the TV monitor and puts it back on the desk)

Marshall: To be honest, I don't think I coulda done it. Come back home after what happened in Panama. Trusted anyone again

Woods: You keep believing' in the ones who got your back, go to battle for you. Adler was one of those. When those records turned up after Panama, wore transfers to Adler from Raul Menendez - two-bit dope slinger... I smelled bullshit. Adler? Turn against his brothers for cash? Are you kidding me?

Marshall: Those threads and shades he loves, they ain't cheap now

Woods: Listen, I know he can be a damn psychopath, I get it. But, he's on our side. He's just got his own way of doin' things

Marshall: I don't know what the rules are anymore

Woods: You're figuring' it out, kid. Handling things, makin' calls. I just wish I was out there kickin' ass with you. Kills me to be in this thing

Marshall: Well, hold on now... You're essential, man, all right? Chair or no chair, I know you can't get around the way you used to, but your head? THAT is strong. Maybe you were... maybe you were Captain America before, and now. Now you're like... Professor X

Woods: Who? Get outta my face, man

Marshall: Hey Bell. Do me a favor and check on Felix, will you?

Bell: All over it...

(On the way to the kitchen, Bell stops to see Sev, who's in a chair with her feet resting on a table)

Sev: Bell. Need something before we go?

Bell: Still butting heads with Marshall?

Sev: What, over the Iraq thing? Please. Not worth the energy. Contrary to Marshall's manly sensibilities, I could've helped. But you made it back alive, so...

Bell: Either way you get paid, right? Or are you gonna just leave us for dead and take it yourself?

Sev: Oh, that's not fair. I need to generate revenue, Bell. Taking down Avalon's crime factions isn't cheap. Don't get me wrong. You have a noble pursuit. But, it isn't my fight. I'm not American. Don't have a misguided sense of patriotism like Marshall over there

Bell: Adler wasn't paying you to destroy Avalon's factions

Sev: Adler's only interested in whatever connections Avalon has to the Pantheon, if any. He couldn't care less about my own mission. Or anyone else's for that matter. Don't expect any bleeding heart behavior from him

Bell: Gotcha... So where are you thinking of heading next?

Sev: A very long ten miles down the mountain. To the nearest town. "Rustic" you might call it. Place looks depressing. But I hate having nothing to do, and I'm not keen on being cooped up here with Woods. Maybe I'll take you with me. Could use a good stiff drink and a nice warm body to cozy up to

Bell: ... I'd love that. But the threat of bioterrorism kinda has a way of ruining the mood

Sev: Stay strong

(Bell nods to Sev before he heads into the kitchen)

Felix: I'm afraid I'll need a little more time. Unless you've come to help?

Bell: What are you making?

Felix: Yet to be determined. I found these cookbooks in storage but I'm afraid my Cyrillic skills are not as sharp as they once were. And I am working with ingredients that I could hunt and forage from the surrounding area. So... Let's call it a "stew," shall we?

Bell: Thought you didn't like violence

Felix: I see. Because I no longer desire to take a human life, you believe my heart bleeds for all creatures? It's an understandable assumption. However, these are very different circumstances. To hunt is to be in symbiosis with nature. To take a life without due cause is parasitical

Bell: Which I'm guessing you're speaking from experience?

Felix: Society is a predatory structure. Those with power, whether legitimate or otherwise, prey on those without, and use thugs- Uniformed, as I once was, or otherwise-to enforce their rule. The Stasi. CIA. Organized crime in Avalon. Most assuredly Pantheon. All are institutions of oppression. I bloodied my hands, burdened my soul with complicity, and now... I live in shame. Never again

Bell: So what does that make us?

Felix: I cannot say. I think it makes us a necessary evil. Perhaps this is why I prefer computer systems. Ones and zeroes. However, binary thinking is not conducive to modern existence. Social systems are complex webs. I think we can only navigate the grey and hope that history views us favorably

Bell: What's the problem with the disc?

Felix: Whatever it contains is locked behind some rather impressive encryption. I was able to write a program to decrypt it, but the truth is I am stumbling in the dark at best. Not so much picking the lock as drilling through the tumblers

Bell: Any idea what could be on there?

Felix: Hmm. Considering where you found it, the logical assumption is that it holds data pertaining to a weaponized biological agent. Or pornography. Feel free to come by the kitchen later. Might need a test subject. In the meantime, it seems you have other obligations...

Bell: Well, according to Marshall, the place he's heading to next is a ghost town. Not much need for backup. So yeah, Sev and I have some downtime

Felix: Guten tag. Have fun