Meet Abby Banks VOLUMES: 1-3
Page 51
“What if I refuse to help you?” I blurted before I could stop myself.
“Then I’ll have Chuck shoot your father in the face, and Stephen will kill you. In the odd event you somehow win, well, I’ll have you hunted down like a dog. It would be much easier for both of us if you agree to do one more mission for me.”
“What makes you think I’d help you at all?” I asked as calmly as I could because he had just told me he didn’t care about me at all. If he didn’t care what happened, why did I think he’d keep his word about saving Roberto? No, the more likely scenario was I’d be eliminated as soon as my usefulness was over. Strangely, as I started to get up, the director reached out, offering me his hand, which I so did not take.
“It’s honestly the easier path for you,” the director said. “I have a roomful of guys just like Chuck. You aren’t special. Well, you are special, Abby, but you’re not that special. You wouldn’t last fifteen seconds if I actually tried to kill you.” He shrugged as if to say he wouldn’t mind that outcome either.
“So why do you need me, then? Why not send Chuck and the goon squad?” I replied, folding my arms over my chest.
Before he could respond, the wall next to us exploded, flinging all of us down the hallway like toy soldiers. I hit the tile hard, but somehow it didn’t hurt even though I knew it should. My ears rang so hard, I couldn’t hear anything besides a high-pitched whine.
That’s when a guy about my age dressed in blue jeans and a grey polo shirt stepped through the hole in the wall. He was just under six feet tall and had eyes the color of storm clouds just before they spilled rain onto the earth. His black hair was cut short, but not so short I’d have called it buzzed. His nose was crooked to the side like he’d broken it a couple of times, and it hadn’t healed quite correctly.
He moved past me, not even bothering to look in my direction as he did so. Evidently, I wasn’t the target. Stephen started to stir, and without so much as a glance, the man put two bullets from his gun into the superspy. Blue electricity arced across Stephen’s body, and I realized it was the same weapon Chuck used to incapacitate me during training. They weren’t killing shots, but I doubted Stephen would be doing much of anything for a while as his head lolled to the side. I don’t know why, but something about seeing him get electrocuted made the deepest darkest part of me smile. He deserved it, the bastard.
“Hello, director,” the teenager said, and he had one of those hunky, surfer voices. “Miss me?”
“Abby, stop—” the director’s order was cut off by a bullet to his forehead. His body slumped backward to the ground as electricity leapt over his body. The boy knelt down and pressed his weapon against the director’s throat and fired again. He stood up and grabbed the director’s body by the foot before dragging him back toward the hole in the wall.
“What are you doing?” I asked, and the boy glanced at me like he was seeing me for the first time. Without thinking, I put my hands up in surrender. He smirked at that.
“I’m going to burn him to ash. You can’t trust just shooting agents. They’re like bad pennies. No matter how hard you try to get rid of them, they always seem to turn back up.” He shrugged. “I’m guessing you’re my replacement. Here’s a word of warning. I don’t mess around.” With that, he vanished out the hole along with the director.
I shot a glance at Stephen who, while pale, was starting to stir.
“Is this part of the training?” I asked, and he shook his head.
“No,” he wheezed. “That was who we were training you to stop.”
“Oh. Good to know.” I got to my feet, not sure how I felt about finally seeing the person they’d gone through so much effort to ensure I’d kill. But that was the strange thing. If I was so replaceable, if a squad of the director’s goons could take me out in a breath, why bother? Why not send them after the target. The short answer? The director was lying. I could walk out of here right now, and he couldn’t stop me, even if he somehow wasn’t incinerated.
I threw one last glance at Stephen before leaving him there and walking outside into the sunlight. It was brighter than I’d expected.
28
I’d barely made it ten steps outside the compound when my cellphone rang. It was weird because I hadn’t realized I still had a cellphone. Shouldn’t Graham have taken it? I reached into my pocket and pulled out the hot pink phone. I glanced at it as ‘unknown’ scrolled across the screen where I was sure the number should have been.
I let out a little huff of breath before answering and putting it to my ear. The jungle around me stared back at me, strangely quiet and ominous, but that was likely because everyone had either retreated or been killed during our earlier assault. Who knew what Flash and Bang had done once I’d gotten inside.
“Abby, thank god!” Chuck cried into the phone, and I could hear him breathing hard, which was weird because he never breathed hard. “You’ve got to get back here quick.”
“Whatever, Chuck. I’m not helping.” I pulled the phone from my ear intent on tossing it into the jungle and forgetting about the whole thing.
“Abby,” he cried before the whump, whump of gunfire exploded from the speaker.
“Chuck, please don’t call me again.” I shut the phone. It sort of made me feel bad because they still had Roberto, but I was headed back there anyway. If the director was really gone, this was my chance to save the supervillain. If I couldn’t, well, I’d try to tell myself he wasn’t really my father. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but I was never really good with plan B’s.
The phone rang again. “What?” I snapped into the phone.
“Abby. They have your father. I’m trying to get him, but there’s so many. I need your help. How soon can you get here?” Chuck screamed into the phone as an explosion ripped through the earpiece. It got really quiet on the other end. A single gunshot rang out, close enough to the phone to make me pull it away. Was Chuck okay? Had that guy hurt Chuck? No, no they couldn’t have. Chuck was unstoppable. They couldn’t have killed him, right?
“I’m sorry. Phone calls aren’t allowed,” said a strangely familiar voice on the other end. The line went dead. What the hell? Was he okay? No… no, this was another trick, and I didn’t care. I shoved the phone back in my pocket angrily.
But I did care. I didn’t know why I did. Even after what Stephen had done, even after everything everyone had done… I did care. I wasn’t sure what happened to Chuck, but he’d always been a pretty good guy, as much as any agent could. Besides…
No, no they were just tricking me.
“Abby, I just got a call,” Stephen said. He was slumped against the hole in the wall behind me. “The agency’s network is going down. We’re the only ones who can stop them.”
“I find that hard to believe,” I said, whirling around to face him with my fists clenched when a strange thought struck me. “Where are Flash and Bang?”
The words had barely left my mouth when a helicopter streaming smoke and debris from its tail rotor crashed into the earth a few yards away. I craned my head upward in disbelief to see that same teenager from earlier flying off through the air on his jetpack with one hand clamped around the director’s ankle.
The smell of gas filled my nose as I turned back toward the burning helicopter and took a step toward it. It was hard to believe someone could have survived the crash because the machine was pretty much a pancake. Even still, someone was moving inside. I sprinted forward even though safety was the opposite direction.
It was Flash! Flash was inside the thing, desperately trying to free someone or something from inside as flames enveloped the downed vehicle. Was she trying to save Bang?
“I’m coming!” I screamed as the helicopter exploded. The shockwave threw me from my feet, and I landed hard on my back and skidded across the sand.
I lay there, ears ringing and stared up into the sky as the teenager slowly disappeared into the horizon. Had he taken down their helicopter? If he had, then he was responsible for k
illing Flash and Bang. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I’d been lied to so much, I probably wouldn’t know a truth if it bit me on the butt, but even still… I kind of liked them in the same way I liked Chuck. And what had happened to Chuck? Was there some kind of simultaneous attack going on? That’s what Stephen had implied.
“Abby, are you okay?” Stephen asked, kneeling next to me and offering me his hand.
Instead of responding to him, I pulled my pink phone from my pocket and called the number for Chuck’s personal phone. It rang for what felt like ever before someone answered but didn’t say anything. Instead, heavy breathing filled the other end of the call.
“Is Chuck okay?” I asked the mouth breather.
“No,” the same familiar voice from before said and panic leapt up inside me. How could Chuck not be okay?
“What about my father, Roberto?” I asked as my heart pounded in my chest. “Is he okay?”
“For now, Miss Banks, but that could change at any time.” Silence filled the space between us.
“What do you want for him?” I asked.
“Kill the agent standing next to you.” The phone clicked off. I stared up at Stephen and bit my lip. Did I have it in me to put a gun to his head and pull the trigger? Again?
“Who was that?” he asked, eyeing me suspiciously as his phone began to ring, but he didn’t even glance at it. “Abby?”
“No one,” I said, slowly getting to my feet and staring at him. “No one at all.”
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