54. CHECK
THE SUSPECT:
AS OUR COUNTLESS BLACK SUVS PULLED INTO THE CARLTON County High football field, I set my sights on the gymnasium less than 200 meters away. The prom had been underway for nearly an hour by that point, and it was almost time for me to make my grand entrance.
We all knew the plan. The wireless and landline communications were being disabled within a fifty-mile radius, as nearly 500 Strangers poured out of the SUVs and made their way toward the gym. In addition to our normal combat gear, we all wore hooded cloaks which hid our masks. The theme of the prom was a masquerade ball. Therefore, as the swarm of hooded Strangers surrounded the building, the few stragglers that remained outside thought this to be nothing more than a part of the festivities.
At the entrance, two faculty members held the double doors open for Tango and I. Just as I suspected, the only security presence was comprised of teachers and parental chaperones. Once the crap hit the proverbial fan, my Strangers would have no problems maintaining control of the perimeter that we had just established.
I had made a generous, yet anonymous, donation to the prom committee with the caveat of the masquerade ball theme in order to set my plan into motion. They had definitely put the money to good use as the interior of the gymnasium was decorated so beautifully that it resembled a genuine ballroom.
On the stage, set up at the end of the dance floor, they were getting ready to crown the prom King and Queen. The DJ beckoned for me to take the stage as I took the floor. I nodded to Tango as I stepped forth into the crowd and made my way to the stage. The ballot for prom King was rigged of course. If I had to trouble myself with a prom in order to carry out my plan, I figured I may as well make myself King.
The gym fell silent as I took the stage and positioned myself next to the masked female student that had been voted Queen. She was dressed as Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. Her beautifully crafted golden mask and the golden trim of the stunning white satin dress that she wore matched perfectly with her equally lovely amber colored eyes.
“As you know, ladies and gentlemen, this year’s King and Queen were voted on based on their costumes. Well, the votes are in and I now present your new Carlton County High Prom King and Queen!” the DJ yelled to the crowd. Applause erupted from the crowd as he faced us.
“And now comes the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The unmasking of the King and Queen!” The crowd exploded with applause once more, to the DJs delight.
By that point, my Strangers had taken out the pitiful excuse for security and locked down the exterior of the building. As the crowd watched in anticipation the female standing beside me placed her hands on her mask and paused in order to build suspense.
My heart beat a bit faster as she pulled the mask from her face. The crowd applauded as the female revealed herself. My God, she's beautiful, I thought as watched her smile and gracefully waved at the crowd.
“All hail Queen Monica Stripling!” the DJ screamed as the crowd cheered on. My heartbeat quickened as the crowd finally turned their attention to me. None of them noticed the countless hooded Strangers silently pouring into the gym and surrounding the dance floor.
“And now for the King!” the DJ exclaimed.
Now indeed, I thought, as I stepped forth and placed my hands onto my hood. As I pulled back the hood in one swift motion, the collective gasp released from the crowd said enough. The Greek Tragedy mask that I wore beneath my hood was one that they all knew and feared. The gym fell silent as I took a small step forward.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It is with the utmost gratitude that I accept your nod as King,” I started, my voice electronically distorted by the device within my mask.
“You’re not our King! Get off the stage, you clown. This isn’t funny!” Matt Connors shouted from within the crowd.
The very sound of his voice brought my blood to a boil. The fact that he had interrupted me made me even angrier. I quickly hopped to the floor and walked toward the tall muscular teenager. The crowd parted as he too started toward me. Standing not too far away, Tango moved quickly to intercept him.
Matt threw a wild punch at Tango and pulled back a severely broken arm. The onlooking crowd panicked and turned to flee, but they halted as they noticed my assault rifle-wielding Strangers completely surrounding them.
“For those who have still not gotten the point, this is not a joke. I am The Suspect, and this facility is now under the control of The Strangers,” I said as I retook the stage. I glance at my counterpart before looking back to the crowd. The lovely Queen Monica was cowering at the opposite end of the stage as I addressed them.
“The prom will go on as scheduled. Any deviations from that schedule will be punishable by death. This gentleman’s broken arm is the only non-lethal warning that I am willing to give tonight. This event is being broadcast to one of your fellow classmates. But this individual is no mere high school student, for it has come to my attention that he is in league with the mutant freak that some of you may know as The Reaper.” I paced across the stage as I addressed them.
“This menace has gone completely unchecked, as far as the so-called authorities are concerned. But fear not, children, for I am on the case. The official prom schedule calls for one more hour of dancing. Thirty minutes for pictures, and at last, the final dance of the King and Queen. To your classmate, Howard Vargas, I say this: you have until the end of the King and Queen’s dance to get your friend, The Reaper, to show his face. He must stand before me and unmask himself for all the world to see, that we may know the true face of the beast that hides amongst us. Should you fail to uphold this decree, know that you will be sacrificing the lives of everyone you see here. At the end of the dance, I will execute the Queen, followed by the rest of your classmates, should you attempt to call my bluff.” I reveled in the sounds of their frightened gasps.
“That’s right, children, breathe deeply; for I assure you that if you do not follow my instructions to the letter, these next few breaths shall be your last. I would ask that you now resume dancing.” They all stared at me without moving or making a sound.
“I said, dance!” I shouted as I held my .50 caliber pistol above my head and fired. They all scrambled to resume dancing as my Strangers and I looked on. I pointed my gun at the Queen's throne behind us and gestured at Queen Monica, who still cowered across the stage from me.
Good girl, I thought, as she walked over and sat in the throne without a word of objection. I smiled beneath my mask as I took my seat beside her.
“Your move, Vargas,” I uttered so softly that only I could hear.
55. PUPPET MASTER
REAPER:
I REMEMBER HEARING THEIR VOICES BEFORE ACTUALLY seeing their faces. I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but I knew they were talking about me.
My head hurt even worse than the time Agent Wells’ men drugged me with that mysterious yellow gas, but I guess swallowing a bullet from a magnum revolver has that sort of effect.
A wave of depression washed over me as I realized that my death wish had gone unanswered. The roof of my mouth was throbbing with excruciating pain and my head pounded to the beat of my own heart, but I was still alive.
“Get a nurse! He’s waking! Hurry!” a voice said from within the haze of blurred images before me. It took my throbbing brain a few seconds to process the voice and realize that it was Jason.
“Hey, bud. How are you feeling?” a hazy figure asked as I felt a hand touch my shoulder.
“I’m fine,” I lied. “Is that you, Howie?” I asked, ignoring the pain.
“Yes, it’s me. Are you not able to see me?”
“I can see. It’s just sort of blurry. My eyes are still adjusting. I just need to get out of this bed and walk around.”
“Reaper, you need to take it easy. You sustained a concussion after the accident,” Howie responded, his voice dripping with concern.
“What accident?” I asked, confused.
“You probably don’t remember because of the concussion, but you were fooling around with Charlie’s gun when it accidentally fired,” Jason quickly replied before I could say anything else.
Why is he lying for me? I thought as I sat up straighter. After a few moments, my vision finally became clearer and I could see Jason and Howie standing beside the hospital bed that I lay in. The room appeared to be the same room that Howie had been placed in after we rescued him from The Strangers. Because of my unique physical make-up, they couldn’t have taken me to a regular hospital so Agent Wells’ Knightsville facility was their only option.
I looked Jason in the eyes and could almost feel the anger that hid behind his rigid expression.
“Jason, I-” I started before trailing off into silence.
“It was an accident,” he said firmly.
“Jason, you know-”
“It was an accident! There’s nothing else to discuss!” he snapped before I could complete my sentence.
I took a deep breath and nodded at him.
“We're meeting with Wells in a few minutes, Reaper, but we’ll stop back and check on you as soon as it’s over,” Howie said.
“Why are you meeting with Wells? Are you working for him now?” I asked.
They exchanged weird glances, which let me know that something was wrong.
“What’s wrong?” I demanded.
Jason shook his head in objection as Howie sighed and looked to me.
“There is a situation that requires our attention,” Howie said carefully.
“What kind of situation? Is it a Stranger situation?” I demanded.
“Yes, it involves The Strangers, but it’s under control,” Jason replied.
Howie shot him a peculiar look that let me know that Jason wasn’t being truthful.
“That’s not true, is it? What is this about? Somebody had better tell me what’s going on here. If you're thinking about shutting me down just because I'm not at 100 percent, then you’ve got another thing coming,” I barked.
“You're not well, Reaper. You should rest,” Howie suggested.
“I wasn’t 100 percent when I saved you, was I? I'm fine!” I shot back. As I slid my feet to the floor and got out of bed, my stomach turned as I realized that my left hand was handcuffed to the bed. My eyes widened with rage as I glared at Jason and Howie.
“What the hell is this?” I demanded.
“We need you to stay put, Reaper. You’re not fit for combat right now,” Jason said.
“Combat? Are we talking about an attack?” I asked.
They didn’t respond, but their silence said enough.
“There’s been an attack, hasn’t there?” I asked.
“Yes, Reaper. There’s been an attack. It’s underway as we speak, but you’ve got to sit this one out. It’s too complicated.” Something was wrong. I could see it in his face and hear it in their voices. As I searched my brain for a reason why they would become so insistent on me sitting out, it hit me like a ton of bricks. The thought was so devastating that I physically stumbled backwards as my knees weakened.
“Where is she?” I growled as I gained my composure. Jason and Howie exchanged glances without responding.
“Answer me!” I yelled and balled my fists.
“The Strangers attacked the prom at our school an hour ago. Monica is in the gym with the rest of the hostages,” Howie finally replied.
“Is she still alive?” I demanded.
“Yes, they haven’t killed anyone yet. They’re forcing the prom to go on as scheduled. The Suspect has demanded that you arrive before the end of the King and Queen’s final dance and unmask yourself, otherwise they mean to kill everyone there,” Howie said.
“How long before the final dance?” I asked.
“A little over one hour.”
“I’m going,” I said as I jerked my left hand upward. To my surprise, neither the handcuffs nor the bedrail to which they were attached broke.
“That metal requires over 20,000 pounds of force to break, Reaper. You’re gonna have to sit this one out and let us take care of it,” Jason said.
“He will kill her if I don’t show! Do you understand that?! I’m the one he’s asking for!” I yelled.
“That is exactly why you can’t go. There are hundreds of them, Reaper. He doesn’t mean to simply unmask you. He means to kill you,” Jason shot back.
I could see in their eyes that they had no intention of releasing me. I was done talking. Every second that I wasted debating with them brought her a second closer to death.
I yanked on the handcuffs once more, but to no avail. As I leaned away and pulled at the cuffs with all my strength, they both yelled for me to stop but I could barely hear them over the sound of my racing heartbeat.
I realized this was no ordinary metal as the cuffs cut into my extremely dense skin and blood trickled down my wrists. As I continued to pull backward, Jason and Howie didn’t realize that I wasn’t trying to break the cuffs. The concrete beneath the bed to which I was cuffed finally cracked and I stumbled backward as the entire 3000-pound bed sprang out of the floor and landed beside me with a heavy thud. The bed appeared to be made of the same metal as the cuffs, so I knew that my only means of escaping would be to yank it completely out of the floor.
I ignored Jason and Howie’s pleas as I trudged toward the door, dragging the massive hospital bed behind me. As I neared the exit, Special Agent Wells and ten armed agents filed into the room and blocked my path.
“Get out of the way,” I snarled as I clinched my fist.
“No can do, sport. You’re too important for me to allow you to run off and get yourself killed,” Agent Wells replied.
“If she dies, you’re gonna have a much bigger problem on your hands than The Righteous because you’re gonna have to deal with me,” I growled as I yanked the massive hospital bed from the floor and prepared to charge.
“Don’t threaten me, boy,” Wells said coldly as his agents readied their weapons.
I decided that Wells would be the first to go. As I gritted my teeth and prepared to hurl the bed into him, Howie threw himself between us.
“Wait! He’ll do it! Just let him help us take down The Suspect and he’ll help you fight The Righteous!” Howie screamed at Agent Wells.
“Is that right, Reaper? Are you finally willing to play ball?” Wells asked, smugly.
“Not a chance,” I barked.
“Reaper, you don't have a choice. You won’t make it out of here if they use the gas and we need their helicopters to get to the prom,” Howie said sternly. “We can end it tonight if you agree to this.”
As always, Howie was right. I let the bed fall to the floor as I realized that I had no choice. I took a deep breath and then looked to Agent Wells.
“I’m in…but only if we take him down tonight.”
Wells nodded and dismissed his agents. He unlocked my cuffs and watched as I exited the room. As I walked away, I couldn't shake the feeling that Agent Wells was still playing the puppet master with my life.
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