Meet Abby Banks VOLUMES: 1-3

by J. A. Cipriano

  I stared at the spot and pressed the tip of the pliers against his flesh. He didn’t even so much as flinch. “You’re making me want to hit you again.”

  “Then do it and get it over with,” he replied, face completely neutral. What was this guy’s deal?

  “He thinks you’re bluffing, Abby…” Donovan smirked. “Show him you mean business.”

  I shut my eyes for a second and took a deep breath. This wasn’t working. Donovan’s way wasn’t going to work with someone who didn’t care about being tortured…

  I opened my eyes and Donovan was gone. The man stared at me, calm and unconcerned.

  “I want you to tell me where my mother’s secret bases are located.” I smiled. Not a creepy smile, but the one I used back home when I asked my teacher for another day to turn in my essay.

  “Would you like directions? GPS coordinates? What?” he asked, raising one bushy eyebrow at me. “How exactly do you want me to give you that information?”

  “You’re just going to tell me?” I said, still smiling. “It can’t be this easy.” I shook my head at him. “Nothing is this easy.”

  “Abby, I can tell you anything you want to know, but it won’t matter. I can’t say for certain, but I’m reasonably sure other agents are on their way here right now. I’m not saying that to scare you, just telling you how it is. Even if you try to find one of the bases, you’ll never get to it.” He glanced around the small abandoned warehouse. “You can’t escape the flit. That’s why we deployed it. There’s fifty people in the room watching it perform and every one of them is a super genius. Every single time you escape, they are working to make it better.”

  He smiled, lips spreading into a grin that chilled me to the core of my being. His body jerked once, hard enough to knock over the folding chair I’d tied him to. He hit the ground with a thump before turning his eyes on me. Only… only they were totally empty.

  “Abigail, come with me.” His voice was strangely metallic now, like one of those voices speaking through a drive thru speaker box.

  I swallowed and took a step back. “I wondered if you’d show up, flit!”

  He cocked his head at me, which seemed like too human a gesture for it.

  “Why is that?” he asked as he tried to rip himself free from the zip ties and duct tape. His muscles strained, cording so tightly, I was sure they were going to pop out of his skin. He tried again, and the zip ties cut into his flesh. I didn’t know how he kept doing it, but I guess soulless machines that don’t care about pain do things like that?

  “I’ve got an experiment I want to try,” I said, wrapping my hand around my taser and driving it into him. He jerked, spasming wildly before slumping against his bonds. He lay there, twitching like a fish, but the strangest thing happened. That weird, uncaring emptiness left his eyes. Had the flit left? Was it because of the taser? I’d wondered if that would work… I was glad it had, because option two was a couple rounds to the face. I wasn’t sure I had been up for option two.

  I sucked in a breath that smelled like ozone, tased him again for good measure, and put the taser against his neck. After what felt like a year, he looked up at me.

  “Hello, did you miss me?” I asked, smiling. “If you move, I’m going to keep jumping you like a bad car battery, capiche?”

  “I understand,” he groaned, body still slack jelly-like.

  “And nice try with the flit.” I poked him in the chin with the pliers. Honestly, it sort of turned my stomach. Who the hell was I? Since when did I torture people? Even if they were murderous creepoids… “I didn’t know agents could get taken over.”

  “We can if we want to be,” he replied, blood ran over his teeth, turning his face into a macabre canvas. “And I don’t know where Gabriella’s bases are. I’m just a field agent. The only people who would know that are the brain trust back at our base.”

  “Where’s that?” I asked, staring down at him, and for whatever reason, he shivered. “Your base, I mean.”

  “Why?” He considered at me for a long time. “You’re not thinking of going there… are you?”

  “Yes,” I said, and I sounded a little crazy and desperate, even to me.

  “I’m not even going to bother to tell you how absolutely insane that is…” He shook his head. “If you look in my coat pocket, there’s a keycard. If you go to the address on the back, it will take you there…” He looked up at me and sighed. “I’m not sure what else to do, short of taking you there myself, which isn’t going to happen.”

  “Why not? If you took me back to base you could set a trap for me to walk in. Probably get that promotion you’ve been waiting for.” I eyed him carefully as he shook his head.

  “You only think that’s a good idea because you don’t know what it’s like to work for the Agency.” He shook his head. “You may think it’s suspicious that I’m helping you, but I’m following protocol in the event of capture. The Agency doesn’t like it when you violate protocol.”

  “Why is that?” I asked, staring hard at him, trying to figure out his angle.

  “Typically people stupid enough to capture agents don’t live long enough to put the information to use, therefore, they’d rather we be as accommodating as possible.” The agent shrugged.

  “Okay… thanks,” I said and grabbed the keycard out of his pocket. It was all silver with no discernable information on it. “Um… what do I do with this?”

  “Swipe it against any GPS. It will show you how to get there,” he replied, a tiny smile creasing his lips. “Like magic.”

  “Great,” I said, and shoved it in the pocket of my too big pants. “I’m going to leave you here, hope you don’t mind.”

  “You mean you aren’t going to kill me?” he asked, surprise filling his voice.

  “Not if you don’t make me.” I swallowed. “What do you think I am? Some kind of soulless killing machine?”

  He shook his head. “You should kill me, Abby. It’s the smart play.”

  I didn’t even respond. Instead, I walked over to the lights, switched them off and stepped outside into the brisk parking garage air. I looked around because the silver Jetta I’d stolen to get us here wouldn’t do. Fortunately, I spotted exactly what I was looking for, a car with a GPS.

  I ignored the swelling feeling in my gut that using such a vehicle would allow them to find me, and what’s worse leave me at the mercy of the flit. But, well, I was pretty sure they already knew where I was thanks to the flit taking over the agent. Even if they didn’t, I was pretty sure I didn’t have a lot of time anyway.

  As I approached the Toyota, I thought about trying to jimmy open the lock, but decided against it. I smashed the driver’s window with my elbow and reached inside to unlock the car. I tugged the door open and had the car running in a second. I swiped the card on the GPS. It sort of locked up for a second. Then it flashed a series of directions across the screen in scrolling black text.

  It took me six tries to commit all of them to memory. I shut off the car and considered, you know, lighting it on fire, but it seemed like a mean thing to do, especially given that I’d broken a window… I settled for snapping the keycard in half before making my way out of the parking garage.

  The air outside smelled of the cold and damp. A fine layer of moisture clung to the sidewalks, making me wonder if it had rained while I was inside. As I scanned the city streets, I noticed absolutely no one which was good, but not really odd since it was close to three in the morning.

  “He was right, you know. You should have killed him. Right now the agency is honing in on his implant, if they haven’t already.” Donovan shook his head as he stared at me from the reflection in a puddle.

  “Yeah… well…” My yawn caught me off-guard, and when I looked back, he was gone. I stared at the murky black water for a long time before making my way down the winding streets.

  I kept my head low. I wasn’t sure it mattered, but better safe than sorry, right? Then I stole a motorcycle because you know, it was
there, and I was tired of walking. It had nothing to do with the three pizzas strapped to the back either. Or the fact that I was so hungry I could barely see straight.

  I even sort of felt bad as I left the screaming delivery boy in the dust. I mean, it was partially his fault for delivering pizzas at 3AM, right? I didn’t even mind when he transformed into a soulless sprinter and chased me for half a block before I left him in the dust.

  5

  Rain fell from the sky, splattering across the decrepit lawn and turning it into a patchy mishmash of crabgrass and mud puddles. The chain-link gate in front was so rusted, I was pretty sure the hinges on it wouldn’t work. The lights wound along the sunken cobblestone walkway flickered constantly, but even when they were on, they didn’t really illuminate the place. I couldn’t see much of the building because it was still too dark, but I didn’t exactly have high hopes.

  I’d ditched the motorcycle a couple blocks away and hoofed it the rest of the way. Now armed with my taser, a pistol, and a bellyful of pizza, I was about to storm a super-secret spy base. I looked up into the sky and closed my eyes as rain splashed against my face, plastering my pink hair to my skin and running down the back of my too large uniform.

  “You should have brought more guns so you could kill ‘em all and let god sort ‘em out. How are you going to satisfy your bloodlust with a pistol and a taser?” Donovan asked like a devil on my shoulder.

  I tried to ignore him because he wasn’t real, but it was harder to do than I’d expected. I took another breath. It tasted like smog and old tires. I opened my eyes and made my way to the fence. In a bout of athletic prowess that would have left my gym teacher in awe, I scrambled over the fence and dropped down on the other side.

  I waited, listening for sirens or sniper shots, anything really. A moment passed, then another, and another. After what felt like forever, I began making my way forward, sticking to the shadows as the first rays of sunlight began to spread across the horizon.

  The building slowly came into view… only it wasn’t a building at all. It was a house, so old and unkempt that it made a shiver run down the back of my spine. A stone gargoyle stared at me from its perch above the covered porch, and I fought the urge to run away as its eyes seemed to follow me.

  “Are you sure you’re in the right place?” Donovan asked, sauntering in front of me like a carefree figment of my imagination that left bloody footprints in its wake. “I mean when I was in the service, our digs were always a little more upper class.”

  “You lived in a sewer,” I said before I could stop myself. “An actual sewer.”

  “But it was a nice sewer,” he replied, turning and walking backward.

  I moved past him in a low crouch and approached the house. There was a knocker in the middle of the door that reminded me of a lion, only its tongue was the actual knocking part. I glanced around, not really sure how to get inside. I shrugged and grabbed the knocker in one hand. It was warm and slick with the rain so it felt like it was coated with saliva.

  It struck the door with a sound so loud it made me look around for a place to run and hide. When I wasn’t immediately gunned down, I let loose a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

  “Looks like no one is home,” Donovan said, peering into one of the curtained windows, the upper half of his body disappearing completely through the glass.

  “Yeah…” I muttered. As I stepped off the porch to join him at the window, I wondered, not for the first time, if the agent had been lying. Maybe I was on some wild goose chase or worse walking into a trap. Besides, what did I expect, someone to open the door and be like, “oh you want the secret government base? That’s on the third floor just passed the dentist and onsite daycare.”

  The door creaked open, scraping against the stone floor like a lumbering monster. My heart leapt into my throat as I spun, pointing my gun at the opening. Smooth, Abby. Real smooth.

  A man with long white hair and an eyepatch looked at me like I was something he’d stepped in. “What do you want?” he asked, voice cold and annoyed.

  “I’m looking for a secret government base so I can go inside and kill everyone,” I said before I could stop myself. Why the hell had I just said that?

  He smirked at me and shook his head. “Interesting. It’s not here, but it’s interesting nonetheless. How did you find this place?” he asked, and for whatever reason, I got the feeling he was telling the truth.

  “I swiped a super-spy locater card on a GPS in a stolen car, and it gave me directions to this place.” I’d thought about lying, but before I could, I’d just responded, which was a little odd… that was the second time it had happened. What was going on?

  “Oh,” he replied, staring off into space like he was visualizing what I’d told him.

  “Um… I should go,” I said, backing away.

  He quirked a shaggy eyebrow at me before stepping out of the doorway and walking over to me. He did it so fast, I scarcely had taken a single breath. He leaned down close to me, so his lips were right next to my ear. “Go two blocks to the left. You’ll see an old motel. Go inside, step into the elevator and hit the buttons for floors four, twelve, and six. In that order. Make sure no one else is in the elevator with you. Also, avoid being identified by the camera in the top left of the elevator or poison gas will fill the chamber.”

  He stood, spinning on his heel and vanishing back into the gloomy house before I could even blink. The door shut with an air of finality that rippled over my flesh.

  “What the hell was that about…?” I mumbled to myself which was great because now, not only was I hallucinating, but I was talking to myself. Someone needed to get me some meds… stat.

  “So what’s the plan?” my hallucination asked as I began walking back across the lawn. “Are you seriously going to just follow the directions of some weird old guy?”

  “Why not?” I shrugged. “What’s the alternative? Go find an orphanage and let the flit take over children one by one?”

  “Now you’re speaking my language,” Donovan replied, smirking at me in a way that made me wish he was real so I could smack him. “But maybe you should set it on fire first.”

  “Why? So there’d be no chance of escape?” I asked before I could stop myself.

  “Well you know how they spell orphan, right?” Donovan sang in my ear, and the sound of it made me shiver.

  “O is for obliterating everyone inside.

  And R is for rockets to get those that hide.

  P is for plutonium, enriched of course.

  Because H is for hitting with unnecessary force,

  A is for artillery to pick off ones left behind.

  While N is for not forgetting the exit is mined.”

  It didn’t take long for me to find the motel despite the lines from his horrible song ringing in my ears over and over again. The place was so ordinary looking I probably wouldn’t have noticed it if I wasn’t looking for it specifically. The big sign in front was missing a whole bunch of letters so, even though I was pretty sure it was supposed to advertise rates, it didn’t really say anything intelligible.

  Even still, I approached the fading blue hotel and made my way toward the elevators, careful not to look up and be identified by wandering cameras, even though the idea of surveillance in a place like this was laughable at best.

  Then again, maybe that was the idea. Maybe it was supposed to look like a place no one would want to enter. If it looked nice, there might be random customers…

  “I remember this one time there was this Asian restaurant by where I used to live. The whole time I lived there, I never saw a single person eat there,” Donovan said, glancing around the narrow hallway with peeling yellow wallpaper. “I think it was a front for some drug dealers. I always meant to go back and check it out, but well, someone shot me in the face.”

  “Yeah…” I mumbled, stepping in front of a pair of elevators and pressing the up button. It lit up for a second before winking out.

  “I
know, right? Who shoots people in the face for no reason,” Donovan said, running one finger along the bullet hole before peering at his finger. “No open casket funeral for me. What will my cats think?”

  “You have cats?” I asked as the elevator doors opened to reveal a wood-paneled room filled with the smell of damp laundry and old cigarettes.

  “I don’t know, you’re the one making all this up.” He shrugged. “Do I seem like a cat person?”

  I rubbed my face with one hand as I stepped inside, careful to stare at my feet. I had the hood of the stolen uniform up, but I wasn’t exactly confident of it keeping my features secret. If this was a spy base, wouldn’t they have crazy tech that could identify you through smell? I thought about asking Donovan, but that seemed crazy… and pointless.

  I stared at the keypad for way longer than I should have before pressing the buttons for four twelve and six. The elevator doors shut with a hiss of compressed air and lurched sideways, throwing me off my feet. I smacked against the wall and stars shot across my eyes as I slumped to the ground.

  Before I could get up, the doors slid open to reveal a small chrome room. There was no one inside, which seemed a little odd, but maybe that room was wired with explosives to keep untoward visitors out? Still, what if someone had accidently pressed the buttons in the order I’d pressed them…

  “Step out and place your hand on the scanner for identification,” a robotic voice intoned from somewhere above my head. I fought the urge to look for a speaker, but I didn’t. What if it was a trick to get me to look at a camera? Well, I wasn’t going to be that easy to identify. You had to get up pretty early in the morning to fool this little black duck…

  I shook my head and scrambled to my feet. Just outside the door, a panel in the shape of a splayed hand glowed with eerie green light. I took a step toward it, looking around as much as I could. What if my hair fell out and they identified me? Sigh. I really should have dyed it again, but I didn’t exactly have time to run into a convenience store and get hair dye, let alone actually color it.