Black Mirror

Chapter 10 - Paris Is Burning

***FIONNA***

As a demon, I'm aware it's weird of me to say this. But I gotta say it to this redheaded Dana Jackson's face anyway. "What fresh hell is this?"

"You heard me," says Dana. "You have to get that missing piece. Do I have to spell it out for you? Honestly, I thought you kids were smart." She eyeballs Russell and Ariel balefully. "And you not-kids," she adds.

"You're doing a good job of sending us on our way without clueing us in to how high the stakes really are," says Gabe.

Harris eyeballs Dana fiercely, as does Kensi.

Ariel clears his throat. "I could do with a refresher course myself. My information is...well, it's incomplete."

"Are you just saying that to get me to spill more secrets?" Dana wags her finger at him. "You sly dog." Ariel gives her the silent treatment, completely expressionless. "Fine," she growls. "If you want me to talk, I'll talk. So...the Black Mirror. Peppermint's trying to mass-produce it, but only I know - and now, so do you - that their product is doomed to fail."

"Because it's not authentic Black Mirror obsidian like this," Russell says. "And we're sure this is authentic too, right?" He tries to insert his finger into the arrowhead-shaped hole - it doesn't fit, not beyond his first knuckle.

Dana reaches out, grabs him by the wrist, and pulls out his finger. "Don't electrocute yourself," she says. "Even natural-born scrivs have the same voltage tolerances as the rest of us."

"I can't help being pokier than your average puppy," Russell says, pouting at her. Of course he also puts his big brown eyes to use.

"The Israeli's a sly dog, and you're a cougar hunter."

Ariel wrinkles his nose at her. "Dana. You locked me up in that basement of yours for a reason. Get to the goddamn point."

"Maybe because I'm a shit party planner." Dana gazes out onto the waterfall. "I have a way of moving forward before I get all my ducks in a row. Something I'm sure some of you guys can relate to all too well." She slings a wink at us.

"You're doing it again," I say. "Seriously, stop dancing us around the maypole, mama."

"I'm not your mama."

"You know what I mean!" I swear to God, this woman's giving me a fucking migraine. It wouldn't be the first time I had one from stress alone.

"Look, here's the thing," Dana says, spreading her arms as she turns around. "The enemy thinks the Black Mirror can do so much more than its one specialized purpose. They want it for the usual reasons anyone large and in charge wants a powerful artifact such as this" - she points to the TV - "to take over the world with it. Of course, it's not so simple. But tell that to the people from Peppermint."

"After they sent me to steal it from you," Ariel says sourly.

"And look how well that turned out - you grew disillusioned during your captivity."

Gabe looks over to Ariel and asks, "How long were you trapped here?"

"A while." Ariel pretends to count on his fingers, even muttering what sounds like Hebrew math to himself. "Two months? It's hard to keep track when you go so many days at a time without seeing the sun."

What? Seriously? And we're supposed to help this lady? Well, if she's the lesser of two evils compared with the Peppermint people...but we're mostly going on her information for that assumption. Not the best train of thought to ride on, is it? It's rickety, the brakes are failing, and there's a dangerous curve ahead. If we don't stop this thing, we could all derail and crash into some chemical plant and poison everything and everyone in a thirty-mile radius-