Chapter Six: In the Face of Vigilance
Rachel tugged relentlessly at Jimmy’s uninjured arm, receiving an electric shock every few seconds. They became stronger every time, each one threatening to shatter her consciousness, until she had no choice but to let go. She sensed him fall behind almost immediately. The sound of the car’s revving engine was so close behind them.
They had just turned another corner when he called out hopelessly, ‘I… I can’t run anymore!’ His breathing was heavy but short and dissipated and, when she herself skidded to a halt to aid him, the sight of him took her own breath away.
The electrical arcs were no longer confined to his hands, they enveloped his entire being. Sparks jumped across his limbs when they became too close, and Rachel could easily see the pain this caused him. She felt the air around her become thick with electrical charge, her hair and skin prickled intensely with static. She could only imagine the agony that he was feeling.
‘…my god!’ Rachel exclaimed in awe as much as in terror. ‘What’s the hell’s happening to you?’
He struggled to speak, gritting his teeth through the pain, he managed to scream, almost incomprehensibly, ‘My ability…I can’t control it anymore!’
Trying to reach him with her hands, she was thrown back repeatedly, her arms buzzing with static energy.
‘I can’t get close enough!’
She heard the screech of tyres round a corner and bright headlights blinded her. To her despair, she turned to see another car approaching them at speed.
‘Get out of here Rachel! The wall… Get through that wall!’ He frantically tried to indicate the brick wall next to them.
Rachel faced him solidly; her entire profile spoke of sheer determination. Above the sound of advancing engines and squealing tyres, she cried, ‘I’m not going to leave you! Can you stop it?’
The question was lost as the two cars finally screeched to a stop on either side of them.
‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you,’ Sarah said, her gun held firmly against the agent’s temple. She commanded: ‘Drop your weapon!’
Gradually, she let herself become visible as his gun clattered to the ground. She smiled slyly at Chloe, who breathed a sigh of relief and got to her feet. Sarah slowly moved around Agent Fox, jerkily crouching to pick up his weapon, until she was in front of him standing next to her partner.
She noticed the trickle of blood seeping from Chloe’s leg as she passed Chloe her weapon.
‘Jesus, are you alright?’ She whispered anxiously.
‘Yeah, just a flesh wound,’ Chloe reassured her, despite her obvious discomfort in putting any weight on her injury. Sarah, now armed with Fox’s firearm, pointed it once more at his head.
‘On your knees,’ she ordered, unable to hide her nervousness.
He remained standing, a smile spread across his features. ‘You don’t want to do this, Sarah. I’m AUTHORITY. I’m a government agent…’
‘She told you to get on your knees,’ Chloe interrupted him. Fox slowly complied, dropping onto one knee, then the other. ‘Put your hands on the back of your head,’ Chloe added. Her gun was now directed at Fox.
Sarah had lowered her weapon, ‘How do you know my name?’
Fox’s smile grew, as he placed his hands behind his head.
‘Oh, I know all about you, and your sister, Miss Winters. Or should I say Westgate…’
‘Ignore him, Sarah!’
Chloe remained vigilant. Carefully, she edged towards Fox, her gun still aimed at his head.
But Sarah had already heard too much. ‘How…how do you know that name?’
Fox laughed mirthlessly, ‘You think you can just disappear, Sarah? Just drop off the radar, like that?’ He clicked his fingers behind his head for emphasis. ‘We know everything about your past, Winters. And about Rachel’s. It’s just a matter of time before we bring her in.’
Sarah was speechless. She thought she had been so careful…so selfless running away to protect her family. But it didn’t matter how much she disassociated herself from them, everything she had done had put her loved ones in the way of danger. The agent wasn’t lying, if he knew the name Westgate, and Rachel…where was she now?
‘Sarah, don’t listen to him…’
‘No! Listen to me, Winters,’ Fox cut in. ‘It’s over. No more running. You can save them, just do the right thing. Give up, hand yourself in…’
His voice trailed away. Chloe let go of his shoulder, and he slumped forward onto the concrete, unconscious. Sarah stood stock-still, her eyes wide with shock from everything she had just heard.
Chloe stood upright and looked at her seriously.
‘Sarah, listen to me.’ Her voice was firm, yet uncertain. ‘Listen. There is nothing you can do. We have to go…’
Suddenly Sarah sprang into motion. She dived at Fox’s body, desperately digging in his jacket pockets.
‘They took my parents, Chlo.’ She found what she was looking for. Stuffing the car keys into her own pocket, she stood and faced her partner. ‘They’ll take her too. Chloe, she’s all I have left.’
Chloe was speechless for a split second, and then she regained her senses, ‘Sarah. Don’t…I know you don’t want to hear it, but the mission is more important. You can’t help her. We have to go now! That’s an order!’
Sarah was on the verge of tears. Looking Chloe straight in the eyes, she whispered, ‘I’m sorry.’
She vanished.
Car doors opened and slammed shut in Rachel’s ears, but all her effort and concentration were on tirelessly trying to reach Jimmy through the cosmic web of arcing white light.
Gruff voices shouted excitedly, ‘That’s them!’
‘Yeah, I saw them come through the wall!’
‘Shit! What’s happening to that guy?’
Unfamiliar figures slowly appeared all around them in Rachel’s peripheral vision. They certainly didn’t sound like soldiers. And, from what she could make out of them through the thick electrical haze, they didn’t look very soldier-like either. By this point Jimmy was shaking uncontrollably. Rachel desperately glanced around for escape.
‘I have no idea! What did he swallow a microwave or something?’ One of them jeered.
There was violent laughter from around the group, but then someone yelled seriously, ‘He’s going to explode! Someone shoot him quickly!’
At this Rachel gave them her full attention. She had been right. They weren’t soldiers, they were just civilians. With a sawn-off shotgun, and a tacky handgun between them, they seemed to have formed a group of vigilantes. Ordinary people become thugs. Obviously with the sole purpose to hunt down terrorists… people with abilities…people like her. What had the world turned into? She didn’t have time to come up with the answer. She just tried to stall them.
‘No! Don’t shoot!’ She screamed at them. They seemed to only just notice her presence but instantly all eyes were suddenly on her. ‘He can’t control it. Please, help us!’
Rachel’s logic was that it would be easier to reason with these people. Unlike the hardened soldiers that professionally hunted ‘terrorists’ like the one from Jimmy’s flat, these people were just civilians. They had led normal lives, had just been fed false propaganda. Their hatred of her kind was synthetic, invoked by the government to fuel support for their evil campaigns. She thought that with simple reasoning she could make them see sense, see the injustice and cruelty of their ways. She had no idea how wrong she was.
‘Oh re-eally, sweetheart?’ The man with the handgun jeered callously. He was evidently the leader. He stepped towards her coolly. Rachel cowered away, frightened. ‘You’re a pretty young thing, aren’t you? Too bad…too bad you’re one of them. And what do we do to them, boys?’
There were mixed shouts, which basically amounted to the same thing: ‘Kill them!’
The leader nodded approvingly, and then raised his hand as if about to strike Rachel…
‘Don’t you touch her!’
The man’s hand paused in mid-air. Everyone’s eyes flashed back to Jimmy. He seemed to have gained some fragile control over the wild electricity, and his eyes were full of utter contempt. No one but Rachel noticed the flash of something silver that he stuffed back in his pocket
Rachel’s would-be-assailant smirked, ‘what are you going to do about it?’
This man was malicious and conscienceless. Rachel no longer cowered under his raised hand. He was the pathetic. When she realised this she resolved to fight back with tooth and nail as soon as it came to it.
But Jimmy had a reply; his being now emitted confidence alongside the immense static charge. ‘You don’t want to find out…’
The man stepped away from Rachel, and squared up to Jimmy, who was visibly swelling up with potential energy. The sudden absence of arcs in the air seemed to go unnoticed by the onlookers, but Rachel understood. He was holding it in, building up the charge inside himself. How he was doing it, she didn’t know, but she knew that he was now completely in control of his power. She readied herself. For what she had no idea.
‘Oh, but I reckon I do want to find out,’ the thug said cockily. ‘Why don’t you show us all what you’re going to do, you junkie…’
He was stopped in mid-sentence as a huge arc of lightning breached the gap between the two figures. The man was thrown back almost instantly, the sheer force smashing him against the windscreen of their car. There was moment of silence, they all stared in disbelief. Then there was the distinct noise of a shotgun being pumped that cracked the silence, and echoed ominously into nothing.
Jimmy bellowed, ‘Rachel, get on the ground! Now!’
She complied and threw herself flat on the tarmac. Above her the air was full of white electricity once more. For several seconds there was nothing but screams and commotion and, finally, stillness.
Chapter Seven: A Matter of Time
‘…and you completely understand what we’re asking you to do, Major?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘This is high treason. You are aware of this fact?’
‘Entirely, sir.’
John Taylor kept his eyes ahead of him constantly, not daring to look the man in the eye in case he gave away any of his fear. He had made his decision, it was just a matter of time until he would have to face the consequences.
‘The bodyguard, MacArthur, he’s one of us. He’s a plant. The other guy has been taken care of. It should be easy enough but… After the operation is initiated, you’re on your own, you understand that, Major?’
Taylor paused for several slow heartbeats, before answering with complete certainty, ‘Yes, sir.’
The man’s voice became less severe and more respectful, ‘OK, you have everything you need. Briefing over.’
As Taylor was getting out of the car the man grabbed his arm firmly, then said, ‘And John…good luck.’
Sarah slammed her foot onto the accelerator. The truck skidded round the bend recklessly and straightened up, sparks flying off the road from where the damaged bumper scraped on the tarmac. She switched her foot to the brake pedal and slammed on that, bringing the truck to a rapid halt outside a familiar house.
She ran up to the house, entirely visible, screaming, ‘Rachel! Rachel!’
The house seemed unoccupied, the lights were out and the shutters closed. Then again, it was the middle of the night. However, none of these facts registered with Sarah, she simply ran to the front door and battered it with her fists.
‘Rachel! Rachel! Are you in there? Rachel…’
Suddenly, a light in the house flicked on. Sarah heard footsteps and muffled curses, ‘Jesus! What the hell is going on?’
Sarah stood stock still on the porch, her heart beating at hundred miles a minute. Was that her? She couldn’t tell. She hadn’t heard her voice for nearly a decade, it was impossible to know...
‘God, what time is it?’ The occupant stopped right at the other side of the door. The voice was definitely female, but it sounded English. ‘Who the hell is that?’
Sarah didn’t answer. Unconsciously, she concealed herself from visibility. A thousand thoughts ran through her mind that had been desperately trying to get in since she had abandoned Chloe. How did even she know Rachel still lived here? She would have inherited the house, but what reason would she have to stay? All her family were either detained or on the run. She had moved on. She must have moved on…
‘I’m not opening the door until I get an answer…’ piped up the woman inside. It definitely wasn’t Rachel, Sarah was certain by now. She’d been a fool. She’d done exactly what that Agent had wanted her to. She’d jeopardised the mission, and now Chloe and Sam were on their own. That was if Sam was even alive…
‘Right, then.’
Sarah heard the woman move away from the door. In a split second she made her decision, and her instincts took control.
‘Wait,’ she regained visibility. ‘Wait. My name is Sarah Win…Westgate.’ She said hurriedly.
OK, what now? she wondered, dumbly. She didn’t have to think herself an adequate reply though. The door unlatched and opened, revealing a woman who appeared to be about thirty, with an astonished expression on her face.
‘Did you say “Westgate”?’
Fox came to. Realising what had happened, he cursed his carelessness. HH
He should have taken out Sanchez as soon as he’d seen her. It was a wasted opportunity to kill a wanted terrorist. Winters wasn’t priority one, he could’ve left satisfied with Winters still out there. But Sanchez was classified as ‘kill-on-sight’. Why hadn’t he done just that? Perhaps he was getting too old for this.
He chuckled, and thought to himself, ‘Thinking of an early retirement, are we?’ Well, he would happily retire when the world was rid of criminals and freaks like Chloe Sanchez.
His ringing phone cut into his resolution. It was Staunt again.
‘Commander, we picked something up. A massive EMP brought down three blocks in lower Manhattan-’
Fox interrupted excitedly, ‘It’s O’Brian! It has to be. Get 2 units down there ASAP! And Staunt… Do not mess up this time! You hear me?’
‘Yes, sir. I’ll get right on it. What about Westgate?’
‘Bring her in. And kill the electrolyte. He’s useless to us now.’
‘Understood.’
Fox reached the empty road, where his truck should have been.
‘Son of a…’ he muttered, frantically searching his pockets for his keys, already knowing that they weren’t in there. He smiled to himself. Perhaps it wasn’t such a wasted trip after all. Maybe he could hit two sisters with one stone.
‘What’s that, Commander?’ Staunt was still on the other end of the line.
‘You have my location?’
‘Yes, 5th junction off the…’
‘Right, send someone to pick me up.’ Fox was about to hang up, then remembered. ‘And update the mercenary. Stall Winters...’
Sarah sat nervously at the table, and warily took the cup of coffee Maria handed her.
‘It’s not decaf, I’m afraid.’ The English woman smiled apologetically.
‘’s fine,’ Sarah murmured, caffeine not being the substance she’d had in mind. ‘So, you know Rachel?’
Maria nodded. Then, obviously deciding that was an insufficient answer, after a brief pause went on.
‘Met her about a year ago. I rent a room upstairs. I’m doing a year here in New Jersey, for my research grant. I must admit, your sister didn’t really take to me at first,’ Maria chuckled, and smiled wryly. ‘But when I showed her what I could do-’
‘What you can do?’ Sarah cut in.
Maria hesitated, then reached over the table and put a finger on Sarah’s mug. For a split-second nothing happened, and then it started to freeze over. Sarah felt a twang of pain in her gut; she had seen Sam do this before, on many occasions. She desperately hoped he that was alright. She already hated herself for leaving him and Chloe, but she couldn’t go back now…
The coffee was completely frozen solid, and the mug cracked.
‘Woops,’ the cryokinetic laughed. ‘That always happens. Can I get you another one?’
‘That’s…that’s very impressive,’ Sarah managed, distractedly, as she struggled to stay afloat in a pool of guilt.
Maria looked puzzled, and slightly disappointed. ‘No offence, but people are usually a bit more…a bit more, well, mystified.’
Sarah shook her head, ‘sorry. You do have an incredible gift, Maria.’
Suddenly, the woman seemed to understand. ‘You’ve seen someone do this before then? You know people with abilities?’
‘Everyone knows about them, Maria. It’s not exactly the world’s best kept secret-’
‘You know what I mean. Really know about them? Did Rachel have one?’
‘Honestly, I don’t know.’ That was a bit of a white lie, Sarah mused.
Maria seemed to sense this as well, ‘well, you don’t seem to be in any rush to call the government and get AUTHORITY on me. Most people would-’
‘Why did you show me, then?’ Sarah said, rather impatiently.
The woman didn’t speak for a few seconds then, sounding uncertain herself, replied, ‘I guess I just had a feeling about you…’
‘Well, you don’t have to worry. I’m not going to turn you in.’
Then Sarah quickly made up her mind. Maria would probably see eventually…or rather, not see. ‘I do “know about” abilities. Quite a bit about them, in fact…’
She became invisible, then dodged behind the bewildered woman and spoke softly into her ear, ‘because I can do this.’
With a tweak of with his head, Hex returned reality to its original state. The office blurred once again, illuminated suddenly with the restoration of power from the grid. The duplicates of the office disappeared, and outside the door the corridor stood once more and streetlight shone faintly in through the window. The other man, Kashin, swayed slightly on his feet.
‘Dizzy?’ Hex remarked. Personally, he had managed to entirely overcome the nauseating side-effects of his ability, but it was still easy to recognise them in others.
Kashin steadied himself on the desk behind him. When this failed to remove the feeling, he made his way behind it and slumped in the chair. ‘Yes…I must admit, I have never witnessed anything quite like that before.’
Noting the heavy Russian accent on the man, Hex evaluated him. Kashin obviously had very strong telepathy to immediately recognise that the distortion hadn’t been a mentally projected hallucination. He would have to be careful; this man could easily manipulate minds. Who was to say he couldn’t trick Hex’s? But everything he had heard so far had sounded completely logical, and his ability came with a certain level of Reality Perception. He could tell that Kashin wasn’t lying. Still, he had a few more questions for the man.
‘How do you know so much about the Firm?’ Hex knew not to let his guard down. He wasn’t about to trust Kashin yet.
‘I can’t go into it now, just be sure that I’m an ally.’ The man seemed very relaxed now, leaning back comfortably in his chair. Somehow, Hex suddenly felt on the back foot, if in any way this was a dual. Although, it didn’t seem to be. ‘You must understand the importance of this operation. I, myself, have put many years of my life towards seeing it become a reality.’ He smiled, amused. Hex didn’t. Kashin went on, ‘Only a few select individuals know about this plan, you are now one of those individuals, Mr. Rodriguez.’
Hex hesitated; it all seemed such great lengths to go to achieve such a simple outcome. But, if anyone understood the importance of details, it was him. It was the butterfly effect. One event, be it significant or trivial, could trigger earth-shattering consequences. This single event would be that trigger. If a butterfly’s wings could cause a hurricane, could the assassination of one man change the fate of the world for the better?
He made his decision, ‘Right, I’m with you. Tell me what I need to do.’
Chapter Eight: Trust
Rachel lifted her head slowly. Jimmy was the only one left standing. He was bent double, breathing heavily once more. His clothes were torn and smouldering where the bolts of lightning had been released. All around him, the floor was strewn with motionless bodies. She stood, cautious against another outburst.
‘Are…are they dead?’ she asked, weakly.
He raised his eyes to look her full in the face, and then answered indifferently, ‘With any luck.’
Rachel’s expression filled with shock.
‘I had to do it, Rachel… It was either them or me; I was overloading. Did you see me?’ He paused to catch his breath.
Rachel blinked in disbelief at the massacre that lay at her feet. ‘You didn’t have to kill them!’ She shouted angrily.
‘They were going to kill us!’ Jimmy retorted. Sparks flashed in his eyes. ‘Look, they were nothing. They were just thugs, Rachel, violent thugs. No one will miss them…’
The air surrounding them seemed deadly silent after all the commotion. No longer heavy with static charge, it closed in on Rachel alongside her sudden realisation of Jimmy’s agenda. He was a killer, like them. He was unstable and out of control. This wasn’t the grinning teenager she knew from childhood. This was a dangerous criminal. Would he kill her if he needed?
‘Rachel.’ He moved towards her. She backed away. ‘Rachel. Look at me. I’m not going to hurt you.’
She glanced up at him. He held out his hand.
‘You have to trust me. Please, I’m on your side. We can’t stay here. That amount of electrical discharge doesn’t go unnoticed. They’ll be coming. Not do-good civilians this time, soldiers…with guns. You need to get us out of here.’ He repeated his gesture, beckoning for her to take his hand. She did so, though her hand shook before he grasped it firmly.
‘Where are we going?’ She inquired, as evenly as she could manage.
Jimmy hesitated, in thought, and then decided.
‘To find Sarah… To find your sister.’
‘Hex! Where the fuck are you?’ Chloe shouted down the phone, over the roaring engine of the car she had stolen. She sped down the highway, keeping her eyes peeled for the turn-off.
‘Leaving the Russian Embassy. Why? What’s going on?’
‘The Russian Embassy? Is that your assign- Holy shit!’ She swerved off at the last minute, just making the junction.
‘It was…’ Hex sounded awkward. ‘Chloe, what happened? You still with the others?’
Bringing the wheel under control, she put the phone back to her ear. ‘Shit! Hex, it’s not good! We hit an agent, it was Fox, I think. Hex, Sam’s dead….’
‘What!’
Fighting back her emotions, Chloe went on, ‘He’s gone. I was too late. Sarah bailed on me. It was Fox, he got to her. She went to find her sister.’
Hex knew this was not good. Everything had just got a whole lot more complicated. ‘Her…sister? Rachel, right?’ He didn’t understand. ‘But she hasn’t seen her for years… For that reason, in order to keep her safe. What’s she doing running after her now? She’ll only put her in danger.’
Chloe swerved again, cutting up a lorry, whose driver punched their horn angrily. ‘I know. I tried to tell her. She wouldn’t listen. I couldn’t follow her…you know Sarah. I have to get to Washington. I can still stop this assassination.’
Hex swallowed, conscious of the rapidly crumbling situation. Resolving himself, he spoke firmly, ‘Chloe, this isn’t going to make a whole lot of sense right now but…you have to trust me on this one. You have to let the assassination go ahead.’
The car almost went right off the road, Chloe was so astonished. She pulled it back on, barely appreciating the near-miss: she was doing close to 90. ‘Tell me you’re kidding, Hex!’ Somehow, she knew he wasn’t.
‘I never joke, Chloe.’ That’s how she knew. ‘I can’t explain it now. Look, do you trust me?’
‘What…what do you mean?’
Hex’s voice radiated impatience, ‘just answer the question.’
‘Yes, of course I do. What’s going on Hex? What happened at the embassy?’
‘I can’t say. Chloe, you’re just going to have to take my word for it. This is bigger than us, bigger than the Firm. We can’t interfere with the assassination. Just stay out of the way. Stay out of DC! Understand me?’ He was breathing heavily on the other end of the line. Chloe knew her answer even before he asked the question.
‘I can’t do that, Hex.’ Her voice was full of defiance.
‘No wait, Chloe, please…’ His voice died away, as she hung up.
The car sped on towards the glowing city, the sun rising behind the buildings. She looked at her watch: 5:47AM.
The plane began to descend. Anton closed his eyes tightly, and pretended he was somewhere else. Apart from taking off, this was the part of the flight he hated the most.
The pilot’s voice sounded over the intercom, ‘OK, Mr President, we’ve started our descent. We should be landing in Washington in roughly 5 minutes.’ The speakers crackled off. Opening his eyes, Anton glanced at the President who hadn’t even looked up. He was still deeply engaged in a file on his laptop. He looked agitated, nervous even. Then again, thought Anton, who wouldn’t feel nervous when they were about to arrive in the country which had just threatened nuclear war against the nation he led?
‘Not much of a flier then?’ The now distinctly American accent of McArthur broke into his thoughts. Anton turned to him sternly. ‘Sorry, I couldn’t help noticing,’ the young man added.
Anton’s expression softened. He smiled, ‘no I guess not. I’ll just be much happier when I’ve got my feet back on solid ground.’
McArthur nodded, and smiled himself. ‘Does it matter where that solid ground is?’
‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire, I guess.’ Anton chuckled. ‘Nothing like a bit of danger,’ he muttered to himself, not entirely sure whether he meant it.
A few minutes later, the aircraft shuddered, as the wheels bounced on the runway.
Hex tried Chloe’s phone a few times before giving up. He just hoped she didn’t get herself killed, He wished he could have told her, but Kashin was completely clear. Too many people in the loop would jeopardise the operation. He was, of course, right.
Putting his mobile back into his pocket, he kicked the support from underneath his motorbike and started the engine, revving it a few times, before setting off. The back wheel skidded round, and then gripped the tarmac and the bike accelerated.
He was just at the barrier, when machine gun bullets ripped into the silent dawn. The glass in the booth just next to his head smashed. Hex reacted instantly, throwing his body down on the bike, driving his wrist back, he urged it forwards. With his ability, he warped the barrier open, allowing him to pass though unimpeded.
The gunman let out several more bursts of fire, but Hex easily diverted them away from himself. He wondered whether he had been tagged, how had they found him so quickly? Turning back to get a look at his attacker, he quickly registered the uniform of an AUTHORITY soldier. The man seemed to be standing by himself, but Hex knew better than to assume he was alone. He assumed correctly as, that very second, a huge 4x4 burst through the fence ahead of him.
More soldiers leant out the windows, wielding high precision firearms. Muzzle flashes faintly illuminated the pale surroundings, and more bullets whizzed by. Again, he distorted their paths away from himself, but it wasn’t easy. There was only one of him and a lot of them. And that meant a lot of bullets. Moreover, the huge vehicle was moving towards him, right in the middle of the road. Defying common sense, Hex twisted the accelerator further, and continued riding directly in the path of the massive 4x4, still mentally deflecting the bullets away from him.
The crash seemed inevitable, and to anyone other than Hex it would have been. But, just as the two vehicles were about to violently unite, the whole world blurred. When reality returned, the road was stretched wider than before. Hex swerved the bike at the last second, and pulled it dangerously around the 4x4. The soldiers were too astonished to fire, at him. Besides their guns were pointing ahead, as the bike passed to the side of the car.
Hex laughed beneath his helmet, as he caught a glimpse of the dumbfounded soldiers. He shouted back at them, ‘Yeah, I can do that too!’
However, he knew that wouldn’t be the last of them. If they knew who he was, and he was pretty certain that they did, they would not let him get away easily. He had to get onto the freeway. The soldiers would complicate things even more, but Kashin had given him a mission. Hex was going to complete it, despite any complications.
Monica listened intently to Chloe on the phone. If what she was saying was true then their situation was not enviable. How could Hex turn on them? His assignment had been simple, find Kashin and keep him out of the picture. She had sent Hex because she knew he was a match for the Russian’s strong telepathy. She knew that, if anyone could get the required information from the mole, it was Hex. Above all, she had sent him because she had thought she could trust him. Now they had no idea who the assassin was, and Chloe was on her own.
‘-I don’t know what’s going on any more, Monica. He said it was bigger than us. That it would help protect Evolved Humans. I don’t understand. Titov is our ally, he’s always objected to the treatment of us as terrorists here. How could killing him help us in anyway?’
Monica didn’t have the answers to any of her questions. She had been naïve to think that sending just Sarah and Sam with Chloe would be adequate. Now it was too late, she couldn’t dispatch anyone there fast enough to help Chloe They had lost all their teleporters when...
It was already a failed assignment, her task was impossible to act out alone. Monica had failed her. But now, she had to reassure her.
‘OK, Chloe. I’m sending Grace. She’s all we’ve got right now-’
‘Wha- hang on!’ Chloe cut in, desperately. ‘Danielle? She’s 12 years old, Monica! You can’t send her here on her own.’
‘She’s already proven herself. I know she’s young but she’s the best chance you have of stopping this thing.’ Monica realised the rashness of her decision, but also that there were no more options. A year ago there would have been plenty, but they had lost so many…
‘She’ll never get here in time, Monica. What’s the point? I’m on my own.’
Monica knew she was right, but couldn’t admit it. She didn’t have that luxury. ‘Chloe…’
‘Look, I’ll try my best. But if I don’t….if I don’t make it. I love you, Mo-’
‘Chloe wait!’
On the other end of the phone, Monica suddenly heard gunshots then screeching tyres. Then the line went dead.
‘Chloe!’ She cried into the handset. What had happened to her? Pray god she was all right, pray god she was safe…
Suddenly the door to her office flew open, and a man and a woman burst in. She wasn’t familiar to Monica, but she instantly recognised him. She stared at him, in amazement. All thoughts of Chloe slipped from her mind, as they were replaced by utter disbelief. Could it really be?
He was panting, but stood up straight, in his burnt and ripped clothes. Looking her fiercely in the eye, he greeted her.
‘Hello Monica.’
After a few seconds of silence and suspended shock, she brought her wits about her. She replied coolly, ‘James… This is a surprise. Have you come to take your old job back?’
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