Wakers

Watching a video he took of Carmilla Black while they were in Madripoor, Troy Goddar decides to call his father for help since Carmilla is involved in some kind of trouble. All he has to go by is the satellite phone she called him from. His father is amused when Troy says that he is willing to do anything for this girl, even come back home. As Troy talks to his father, he is unaware that he is being observed by AIM assassins who were sent by Lars Branco, who knows Carmilla called the boy and could use him as leverage to control her, as the memetic antibodies in her body are not affecting her, thus they can’t control her like the others. When the operatives ask what their leader, Monica Rappacini, thinks of all of this, Lars tells them that she has other things on their mind right now. He tells them not to screw up as they are embarking on the most important operation in the history of Advanced Idea Mechanics and doesn’t want their leader’s sentimentality to compromise their goals.

By this point, Lars is taking Carmilla to finally meet her mother. When she isn’t very talkative he asks why and she says she is thinking. Carmilla is thinking about her past and how for years she thought he past, prior to her adoption by Tim and Julie Black, was a big mystery. Now that she has learned who her biological mother is, and that her adopted parents were AIM sleeper agents, things are starting to become clear to her. She remembers one night during an election, Carmilla asked her adopted father who he was going to vote for. At the time, he told her that he is not going to vote because the candidates are just corporate mouthpieces. Later, when she didn’t make the cheerleading squad, her adopted mother tried to console her by saying she was a special girl who has so much to give to the world. She knows that Derek Khanata — her SHIELD handler — was keeping something secret from her. She started this mission excited to find out who she really was, but now these revelations are making her sick to her stomach.

They soon arrive at motel in Washington, D.C. where Carmilla — who is called by her birth name of Thasanee — is introduced to Betty Sumitro, Abu-Jamal Rodriguez, Njeri Damphousse, and Hyun Rahman, who are glad to see that the final “waker “ is with them. Carmilla asks what they mean and Betty explains how they were all materialistic teens until the memetic antibodies in their bodies kicked. They were compelled to come to AIM Where they were trained every day and were indoctrinated by AIM into thinking that society was run by fascist oppressors that need to be eradicated. Betty admits they were worried until she took out an army of enemy soldiers who were smuggling biological weapons. Seeing that they are preparing for a chemical attack of some kind, Carmilla wonders what kind of insanity she was born into.

By this time, a credit card used by Abu-Jamal Rodriguez has set off alarms at SHIELD and Derek Khanata mobilizes his team to head to Washington. However, Agent Ayna Sareva is upset that they have taken on another operative, Agent Reyes. Derek tells her that Reyes has been seconded from the US Marine Corps and has a spotless career as a cleaner. While Ayna isn’t questioning Reyes’ career, she thinks that the Scorpion deserves better than being killed.

Back at the hotel, Lars passes them patches that contain pre-coded hallucinations to carry a message to each of the operatives from Monica Rappacini. Carmilla thinks this is a joke until she puts the patch on. Suddenly she’s in a white void face-to-face with a hallucination of her mother. Monica tells her daughter that it was so hard having to give her up. She explains that everyone in AIM was forced to give up their children. She then tells her daughter that they used Madripoor’s lax adoption laws to have each of the children smuggled into the United States where they could grow up without being tied to their parents in AIM. When Carmilla tries to ask her mother who really killed her adopted parents, Monica ignores this and goes into explaining that Thasanee is to attack the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Derrick. Four floors under the building is where the facility contains the most lethal viruses in the world. Ignoring Carmilla’s further questions, Monica details how — in the event of a terror attack — the Vice President will be relocated to to the USAMRIID facility and that AIM will launch an attack on Washington to trigger this evacuation plan. Thasanee and her fellow Wakers will then take control of the train and detonate as nanobacteria bomb that will unleash all the illnesses contained at the facility. Everybody in a twelve-mile radius will be wiped out and the American military will take the blame. Carmilla dismisses all of these instructions, demanding her mother actually talk to her after ignoring her for nineteen years. However, the hallucination ends as quickly as it starts. As she snaps out of it, she sees the other Wakers almost in rapture from their hallucinations and realizes that her unique “stinger” allowed her to metabolize the drugs. That’s when she realized that the same stinger prevented the memetic antibodies from brainwashing her into being a teenage AIM drone. Realizing that she has a choice in this, Carmilla decides to bail on this.

As she leaves the motel, Carmilla dismisses the idea of using her bracelet to call Derek Khanata, as she is not sure she can trust SHIELD either. However, her departure doesn’t go unnoticed as Lars Branco watches her leave. Once she is away from the motel, Carmilla pulls out the satellite phone and debates who she should call. She decides to call Troy Goddard and tells him to get in touch with the authorities and warn them about AIM’s planned chemical attack. As she is telling him everything, she is unaware that Derek and the rest of her SHIELD handlers are arriving in the area in one of SHIELD’s flying cars. That’s when she discovers that Troy is right behind him, as he — thanks to his father’s resources — managed to track her down. Thinking that Troy must be some kind of spy as well, Carmilla demands answers from him, unaware that she is in the sniper sight of Agent Reyes who is preparing to shoot her in the head. He tells her that he’s not a spy, but his father is the owner of Goddard Aerospace a defense contractor. He tells her that he was traveling the world in order to reinvent himself and put some distance between himself and his father.

By this point, Derek Khanata tells Agent Reyes to take the shot, but she tells him to tell the cell on the building on the other side of the court to stand down. Derek doesn’t know what she is talking about and when he looks into his binoculars he discovers that these are actually AIM snipers. He orders his people to get to cover, but the AIM snipers open fire, killing Agent Reyes in a hail of bullets. Fleeing from the gunshots, Carmilla and Troy are ambushed by Lars, who takes Troy, hostage. He tells her to stop interfering with their mission or the boy dies. As Lars flees with Troy, Carmilla decides to do something after all and removes her Scorpion costume from her backpack. She soon saves the SHIELD agents from the AIM assassins. She then demands that Derek confirm if SHIELD really killed her adopted parents. Khanata tells her that he was telling her the truth when he said AIM murdered them. As she tries to make sense of this, AIM launches their decoy attack on the World Bank headquarters. Telling Derek that this is just a decoy, she tells him that if he wants to save the world to come with her.

Recurring Characters

Scorpion, SHIELD (Derek Khanata, Noriko Nagayoshi, Ayna Sareva), AIM (Monica Rappacini, Lars Branco, Betty Sumitro, Abu-Jamal Rodriguez, Njeri Damphousse, Hyun Rahman), Troy Goddard, Julie and Tim Black (flashback)

Topical References

A flashback that depicts the Black family watching the 1996 election coverage. Janjaweed. References to real-life viruses like Ebola, Machupo, Zaire, Junin, and Lassa, particularly any reference to them being incurable.

Interview with the Vampire by Night

A night, Nina Prince the Vampire by Night is out on the prowl looking for a new victim to feed on. Fate provides her an ideal victim when a drunk is kicked out of a local bar for acting to rowdy. Immediately attracted by Nina, he tries to hit on her, but this only lures him into a sense of false security leaving him open to being fed upon by the vampire.

The following morning, Nina is told that she needs to hire a personal assistant to track her expenses if she is going to continue “working” as a location scout for Imperial Studios. This is basically so Nina’s father can write off her frequent trips as a business expense. Resigning to the necessity of it all, Nina begins doing interviews of potential candidates. Everyone turns out to be a dud until she interviews a young woman named Inger Rinfeld. She impresses Nina when she says that she managed the financial dealings of her family ranch since she was 14, allowing her parents to retire five years later. Impressed, and learning that Inger has a number of Fortune 500 companies interested in hiring her, Nina tells her that she’ll make a decision by tomorrow as she has some other business to attend to.

Leaving the office as the sun begins to set, Nina is unaware that she is being followed by Inger to the local zoo. When the full moon rises, Nina turns into a werewolf and attempts to attack two janitors. Quickly deducing the situation, Inger quickly takes charge by finding a tranquilizer gun. She shoots Nina’s wolf form with a dart and contains her until dawn. This saves the lives of the two janitors who fled the zoo for their lives. In the morning, Inger opens the cage to discover that Nina is now back to normal. Impressed with her resourcefulness, Nina hires Rinfeld. On their way out, Inger asks how Nina became a werewolf, Nina tells her that it is a long story.

Recurring Characters

Vampire by Night, Inger Rinfeld