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It really wasn’t Ben’s fault, if he thought about it. He was just looking for a spare shirt, he didn’t mean to come across the box of tapes left in the hidden compartment in the back of Sammy’s closet. No one could fault his curiosity, who wouldn’t want to learn more upon finding something so intriguing? As it was, he shuffled carefully through the tapes, only feeling a little guilty. Sammy wasn’t gonna be back for another four hours, so he had time. Each tape had a label, although they made little sense to Ben. He ended up picking one at random, the label reading ‘Oct 6th, [redacted], Piffling Vale, conflict report #6211414’. He set the tape in the little recorder that had also come in the box, and after a quick glance to make absolutely sure he was alone, he hit play.
The wheels on the tape deck began spinning, and the first thing he heard through the whirring was a crackling voice. Sammy’s voice, low and urgent, subdued in a way Ben had only heard once in his life, when a spaceship had destroyed their radio station. His voice was also restrained, the tone he used when he was talking to someone he didn’t like very much.
“Yeah yeah, my part’s done. The Funns are still missing, but I got the rest of the survivors to gather at the main building.” Sammy was saying, and Ben could recognize when he was uneasy about something, “Told them it was safe. Easier to... to do it when they’re all in one place.”
“Good work, Stevens” an unfamiliar man’s voice answered him, “Once they’re dealt with, we can locate the Funns, start cleanup, and put this unfortunate incident behind us.”
“You’re not even thinking twice about this, are you?” Sammy’s voice was casual, yet pointed, “No qualms at all about our orders?”
“As admirable as your sense of morality is, Stevens,” the voice drawled, condescending in a way that made Ben think of Gunderson, “it will get you absolutely nowhere in this line of work. They’re scared survivors now, but in a matter of hours they’ll be walking plague factories unless we deal with them now.”
“I know, but I still think there has to be a better way than this.” Sammy pressed, “Lab 15 caused this, so maybe they can quarantine the survivors and fix it.”
“If there is another way, it’s above our pay grade.” the man replied smoothly, “We have our orders, Colonel.”
“Damn it, Kepler, we’re spies, not a god damn firing squad!” Sammy snapped, agitation finally beginning to bleed through, “You may be a heartless bastard but some of us still have some semblance of a soul.”
“How poetic.” the man, the mysterious Kepler Ben had heard so much about and now hated with a passion, said derisively, “If you’re done ranting, you and your team need to get to the main building and follow your damn orders like a good little soldier.” Ben nearly growled aloud at the disrespect dripping from Kepler’s tone, but Sammy’s voice was calm as a glass ocean as he replied.
“And you wonder why Daniel prefers my company.” he said easily, emotions once again masked, “But hey, it’s like you say, right? Big picture and all that. So how about this, Warren.” and the sheer venom in his voice, even separated by years, made Ben break out in a cold sweat, “You want those civilians dead? You want the Funns dealt with? Gun them down yourself, I won’t try to stop you. Have fun. I’m sure you’ll love the extra credit.”
“Suit yourself.” Kepler replied coldly, and the sound of Sammy’s footsteps growing fainter signified him leaving, “Arrogant holier-than-thou motherf-“ The tape cut off, and it took Ben a moment to register that his hands were shaking. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, centering himself as he processed the events of the tape. He made a little list in his head, compartmentalizing the things he had learned.
One; the enigmatic Major Kepler was a major jackass. Why Jacobi had harbored any sort of feelings for that man was beyond Ben, but it didn’t endear Ben to him any.
Two; Sammy had done terrible things, but he drew the line at killing innocents. This reassured Ben more than it probably should have. It settled some hidden part of him that he’d been balking at since Sammy had murdered the mugger, a part that screamed danger when his best friend made a sudden movement. This tape helped, it loosened the tension and eased his mind significantly.
Three; the infamous incident at Piffling Vale, the mysterious disappearances of half the island’s population, had been the doing of Goddard Futuristics. The why was still a mystery, but the how was now unfortunately clear. Shuddering, he resolved to look into it later. Or ask Sammy, even if it meant admitting that he’d gone through his stuff.
He was about to put in another tape labeled ‘Case #8675309, Entity: Lonely. Statement of B. Feels regarding his partner leaving and the following incidents of being lost in a mysterious fog’ when light suddenly flooded the room.
“Snooping again, huh?” Lily’s voice startled him, and he whirled around with an unmanly shriek, “Can’t mind your business, can you?”
“I see an open box of tapes with intriguing labels, you expect me to not snoop?” he managed to snipe, though he was still clutching his chest as his heart rate slowly returned to a normal speed. Lily gave a little chuckle at that.
“Guess that makes sense. Even if they were in a hidden compartment.”
“It was a total accident.” he defended, and Lily rolled her eyes.
“Hey, I’m not here to yell at you.” she said, moving to sit next to him on the floor, “Which tape was that?”
“Um, something about a lab on Piffling Vale?” he said warily, and Lily wrinkled her nose.
“That was a miserable place.” she said, “Never go to England, Ben.” His interest piqued, and with the new hope that Lily wasn’t gonna castrate him for snooping, he leaned forward.
“What happ-“
“Classified.” she said immediately, and Ben pouted.
“Can you tell me anything?” he whined, “Anything at all?”
“Such as?”
“Who are the Funns and what was the deal with them?” Lily thought for a moment, and then sighed.
“They’re not as important as the tape makes them out to be.” she started, “Just a pair of siblings who kept messing up our operations on the island. Morticians. Real gloomy, real dumb, but the sister was… something.” she bit her lip a little, eyes going a bit hazy, and Ben really didn’t want to know.
“Sammy mentioned Kepler wanting them dealt with, did they...?” he prompted her, almost afraid to hear the answer. He relaxed a little when Lily only grinned.
“Well, turns out our two operatives on the island had gotten attached to the Funns.” she chuckled, “They turned on Goddard to protect them, got them off the island and disappeared with them to parts unknown. No idea where they are now, but that’s probably a good thing.”
“That’s a relief.” he smiled, “And the civilians Sammy refused to kill?” Lily’s smile faltered, and Ben felt a rock grow in his stomach, “No...”
“Sammy’s capable of detaching when he needs to.” she shrugged, “And he’s also petty. Kepler did kill those civilians, in the end, even Sammy couldn’t stop him. But he made sure Kepler’s darling Jacobi saw him do it.”
“Sammy didn’t... try to save them?” he asked, voice small, and her expression softened, just a little. Unnoticeable to anyone who didn’t know her.
“There was no saving them, Ben.” she said quietly, “If the bioweapon didn’t kill them, Goddard would have. So Sammy did the next best thing he could think of; plant the seeds of discord in the ranks of SI-5.”
“By... making sure Jacobi saw Kepler g-gunning down innocents?” he asked, trying not to let his upset show. She nodded.
“Yep. As much as I give Maxwell and Jacobi shit, they weren’t completely bad people. And Kepler denied it, but those two were all he cared about in the world. Sammy...” she frowned for a moment, eyes going distant, “Sammy knows people’s weak points. He’s the best I know at finding and exploiting them, it’s what made Goddard so keen on keeping him around despite his lingering sense of morality.”
“And Jacobi was Kepler’s weak spot?” Ben guessed, earning a tiny glimmer of approval in Lily’s eyes. It shouldn’t have made him feel so proud, but it did.
“That’s right. And the first step in breaking Jacobi’s blind loyalty to Kepler was shattering the illusion that Kepler was this all-knowing mastermind who always had a plan and was always right.” she shrugged, “Seeing his perfect Colonel coldly murdering innocents just because he was ordered to was as good a place to start as any. It certainly led to a hell of an argument between them.”
“How do you know so much about this? Weren’t they like, a rival team? Were you in on the drama?” Ben asked curiously, and Lily shrugged.
“Maxwell and I were close. Not as close as I would have liked us to be, but... our friendship was enough. We trusted each other.” she grinned and added, “And she was a chatty drunk.”
“Seems like a bad trait for a spy to have.” he mused, and Lily laughed.
“Agreed.” there was quiet for a moment, and then Lily spoke up, “Hey, Benny?”
“Ben.”
“Whatever.” the teasing smirk faded, and she gave him a look he couldn’t quite decipher, “Just... be careful, alright? Sammy can be... insidious, even when he tries his hardest not to be. If you’re not careful, he’ll become your whole world.”
“What do you mean?” Ben blinked, tilting his head. She sighed, suddenly looking like she’d rather be anywhere but here.
“In SI-9, we each had our role.” she said, “I was tech and communications, I generally monitored everything and fed information from the outside, only going in if I had to or an outside feed wasn’t necessary. Jack was infiltration and distraction, he was the social guy, the charmer. The people person.”
“And Sammy?” Ben asked in a quiet voice, listening with rapt attention. Lily frowned.
“Sammy was the manipulator.” she said, “He was the guy we handed off captives to. No one dragged information out of people like he did, and he didn’t even have to use force that often. He could lure an elephant off a cliff with nothing but a smile if he had to. He was also... He was the go-to mole.”
“Mole?”
“He’s great at getting people to trust him.” she explained, “And he’s even better at making people need him. No one ever suspects Sammy, he’s the gentle dad-friend, he’s the lovably sarcastic big brother type. He couldn’t possibly be a double agent, he couldn’t possibly betray them.”
“That’s...” Ben swallowed, mouth suddenly dry, and Lily fixed him with a look.
“He either breaks you down bit by bit until he’s wormed his way into your mind as your only constant, or he slowly slips into the cracks of your life, growing and growing his hold on you until you can’t imagine being without him.” she warned, “And the worst part is, he doesn’t know how to turn it off. It’s ingrained in him, it’s who he is.”
“Why are you telling me this?” he asked, a lump in his throat.
“Because he’s been doing it for years. Even when he actively tries not to.” she said, “Remember how jovial and friendly he was when he first came here? How he managed to get you on the air despite your determination not to? How he was the absolute perfect friend for you, the exact kind of person you needed?”
“I remember.” he whispered, remembering. Sammy had been a force of nature from day one, coming in with a dumb man bun and a confident smile, talking circles around Ben until before he knew it he’d found himself in a chair beside him, doing a show he’d been determined not to do, “But what does that have to do with anything? Sammy hasn’t done that to me.” He wished he felt as sure as he sounded, suddenly reevaluating every moment spent with Sammy, searching for any sign of manipulation.
“No?” she asked idly, and Ben felt his conviction grow in the face of her doubt.
“No.” he said, injecting certainty into his tone, “No, he hasn’t. I’m capable of saying no to him, I’m able to be without him, I can still function if we’re fighting. He hasn’t done anything like that to me, not even on accident.”
“So answer me this.” she said calmly, “Imagine Sammy leaves tomorrow. Just packs his shit and vanishes. What would you do?” Ben’s heart clenched at the mere thought, and he could tell by Lily’s expression that his thoughts had shown on his face.
“I’d hunt him down and demand to know why.” he said, “Not because I’m dependent on him or anything, but because that’s a dick move.” The argument sounded hollow even to his own ears, and Lily’s frown deepened.
“He’s got to you.” she said bluntly, “If it helps, I’m absolutely positive he didn’t do it on purpose. And I know for a fact that his affection for you is genuine.”
“Sammy is not manipulating me to love him!” Ben snapped, and Lily held up a placating hand.
“He doesn’t know any other way.” she said, maddeningly calm, and wasn’t that a new thing, “Being in Goddard fucks you up mentally, and Sammy was already in a bad place before Goddard found him.” Ben was still angry, still incensed that she’d even suggest that his affection for his best friend was anything besides painfully real, but her words piqued his damnable curiosity, and he reluctantly dropped the subject in favor of asking.
“What... kind of bad place?” he asked cautiously. Lily paused for a moment, and Ben could almost see the gears turning in her sharp mind, weighing the pros and cons before she sighed.
“You wanna know why he was really called shotgun?” she asked quietly, her face shadowed by the daylight behind her
“Why?” he asked, trying not to sound as apprehensive as he felt. He knew Sammy wouldn’t approve, but he also knew he’d never hear this from Sammy himself.
“Because when he was fifteen, his parents were real jackasses.” she said, “I don’t know all the details, but when he was fifteen they decided to send him to a conversion camp. He was scrawny and beaten down, so he went. And then, once he got there, he waited until nightfall, and then killed every employee there and freed the other kids. Armed with nothing but a rusted shotgun and rage.”
“Jesus.” Ben breathed, seized with the sudden urge to run to Sammy and hug him. No child should have to go through that. He wanted to hunt Sammy’s parents down and beat them, he wanted to burn their house down. But more than that, he wanted to hold Sammy.
“That little incident was what got him on Goddard’s radar.” Lily continued, tactfully ignoring the anger that must surely be showing on his face, “What got him hired, however, was how effectively he lied about his involvement. He’d managed to convince all the police officers involved that it had been an employee who had done it, and he’d gotten all the kids to go along with that story.”
“That’s kind of impressive.” Ben admitted, and Lily nodded.
“And the rest, so they say, is history.” she stretched, “Hey, be a doll and don’t mention this to Sammy, alright? You know how secretive he likes to be.”
“I promise.” he nodded quickly, and Lily clapped his shoulder, all tension bleeding from the room with the simple gesture.
“So, which tape are we listening to next?” she asked, easily changing the subject, “I’d recommend the ones in the Hephaestus sub compartment.”
“How come?” he asked even as he searched for those ones.
“Because it’s a record of the incidents aboard the Hephaestus station, also known as the greatest space soap opera known to man. Those guys were absolutely wild.”
“Why does that name sound familiar?” Ben asked as he located the tapes, pulling them out and offering them to Lily, who immediately began flipping through them.
“Jacobi was sent up there with SI-5.” she said, “He’s probably mentioned it.” It rang a bell, but Ben was distracted when Lily let out a crow of victory as she found whichever tape she’d been looking for.
“That it?” Ben asked, feeling eager as he settled in to listen, and Lily grinned.
“This is the one with the whole board game incident.” she laughed, “You’ll love it. Here, put it in the tape deck.” Ben did as she asked, and the two of them relaxed against the wall. He hit play, and Lily grinned even as Ben frowned when Kepler’s obnoxious voice filtered through.
“Officer Eiffel? Timeframe?”
“Just one moment...”