by RB Stutz
“He is no one you have ever known, another one of our agents.”
If he really was another agent like Rachael and James then why hadn’t he shown up when the truck driver friend was tracking their approach? I guess it didn’t really matter at that point and speaking of the truck driver, what the hell had happened to her?
“Since we have some time, let’s talk,” James said. “Please remove your mask.”
I went ahead and removed my head cover.
“What would you like to chat about? I don’t suppose you would like to tell me what this is all about?”
As expected James didn’t answer my question.
“There is certain information I want from you. If you comply and give me the information, none of your friends will be hurt. If you do not, only one of them will return to the HUB alive with you,” James explained.
Now that I could see his face, I noticed when he spoke it was a calm mask, void of any expression or emotion. It wasn’t the smug sneering James I’d known. This was just a tool of Titan in a James shell, conveying the message they wanted to send.
I mustered the best acting skills I could to keep up the façade of total compliance. “I’ll answer what information I can,”
Of course, if I didn’t come up with some sort of plan my false compliance would end up being genuine.
“What is the current location of the woman who calls herself Laura, the one who assisted you in your flight from the HUB?” James’ intense gaze bore into me.
He had no idea that I had no idea how I even made it out of the HUB. If there had been a woman named Laura who helped us out, I didn’t remember any of it. If I was honest about not knowing what he was talking about, it would have either given them more information or he just wouldn’t believe me. They already knew enough of us, enough to track us. The less they knew about anything regarding Alex, Sara or myself was best.
I was just about to answer his question when his calm stone-like expression twisted into agony. Rachael’s face screwed up in the same way. Neither made any sound to correspond to the intense expression, but both raised the palms of their hands to their temples and seconds later fell to the ground, motionless.
“Well that didn’t exactly go as planned now, did it?” said a woman’s voice from further in the warehouse.
The voice was familiar. It was the same voice I’d heard over the ear piece, the voice of the truck driver.
From the shadows the girl behind the voice appeared. There’d been some distant recognition of her voice when I’d first heard her over the ear piece. Not a voice I knew well, but one I had at least heard before. It was twice before in fact. The girl who stepped out of the shadows was the same I had met in Montana, at the gas station and then later at the café.
“Laura is it?”
CHAPTER 25
Laura smiled. “Hello Michael.”
Her dark brown hair was pulled back tight and her emerald eyes shone kindly at me. The contrast of the light blue ski jacket I’d seen her in before with the black jacket made out of a heavy canvas she now wore was significant to the perception of her. The contrast of the black with her pale sculpted face gave the impression of strength, a certain amount of toughness, not apparent before. She carried tablet in her left hand and her right index finger was busy moving on the screen.
“I have to be honest. I didn’t expect to ever see you again,” I smiled.
She walked closer until just a few feet away. “It’s good to see you again Michael.”
“So, I guess you’re the mysterious friend?”
“That’s right.”
I moved over to where Sara and Alex’s bodies still lay motionless. I knew they were okay, I could somehow just feel it, but I checked to see each was still breathing all the same.
After removing their headgear I confirmed they were both fine, out cold, but fine. The injury Alex’s body endured when he fell from the rooftop down into a twisted heap already seemed to be healed.
Relief swept over me and the frustrated fear I’d been building up inside started to fade. It felt good to have control of the situation again, well at least someone did. Sara and Alex were unconscious due to whatever sedative the darts contained, but nothing more.
The look on Sara’s face was peaceful and of course beautiful, but peace and beauty were not the words to describe the emotions I felt coursing through me, replacing the retreating fear and concern. I had no doubt what James said was true, no doubt they would have killed at least one of us. I’d seen that when I’d looked into the cold mind of Caldwell back at the HUB.
It was clear they had the means to control us and sacrificing one to get two powerful assets to do their bidding, whatever the purpose of their bidding was, could only be a plus for them. On top of that, I knew absolutely nothing about what was going on. What the hell had they been doing for the last year? Who was Laura and how did she know so much about all of this?
I decided to put those thoughts aside for the time being and I turned back towards Laura, now standing above the still bodies of James and Rachael.
I forced a calm composed state of presence. “What happened to them?
“Well, if everything has worked as I anticipated, I just corrupted the signal they were receiving and well, essentially fried the interface of the chip to their brain.”
I guess she recognized the cringe of pain and worry on my face because she quickly added “Oh, sorry, I do think they’ll be okay. What I just did will have damaged some of the tissue surrounding the chip, but their bodies should be able to repair the damage, at least the damage inflicted directly from the overloaded chip. I believe Sara and Alex explained that we cannot be certain if the damage caused from long-term exposure to the active chip can be repaired.”
“If all would have gone as according to plan, I would have waited to corrupt the signal in a more controlled manner, but with the way everything played out I was left with no other choice.”
“How long will it take to know if they’ll be okay?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I really have no way to know. The tissue damage should heal fairly quickly, but like I said, I just don’t know.”
“What about the third agent who stepped outside?”
“He’s down as well. He’s just outside the door.”
“I thought you weren’t able to get a signal from the third agent?”
“It’s strange. I didn’t at first. It wasn’t until several seconds after I sent out the corruption signal that the third agent’s signal appeared for a second and then disappeared. He’s down. The signal I sent to run interference corrupted all incoming Titan signals in the immediate area. The only possible explanation I can think of as to why I couldn’t see him before is there was some variant in the signal he was emitting, but that still wouldn’t explain the reappearance after I corrupted the incoming signal…” she explained, starting to trail off into a conversation with herself.
She realized what she was doing. “Sorry, like I said, I can’t be sure.”
I opened the door and saw the third agent lying on the ground just a few yards away. There was just enough shade cast from the building to allow me to step out and carry him in without having to re-cover my face. I brought him inside and laid him next to James and Rachael.
Once settled I removed his mask and as James had said, he was someone I didn’t recognize, close to my age with cropped sandy colored hair and pale skin.
I turned my attention back towards Sara and Alex. “How long do you think they’ll be out?”
“At least a couple of hours. The sedative Titan uses is very similar to the one we used on you. We don’t have a couple of hours though, we need to get out of here, and soon. Titan knows where their agents are at all times. They track them the same way I was able to. When the corruption signal was sent, both the incoming and outgoing signals were killed. The second their signals dropped off of their radar they would have rounded up a team to be sent here to investigate.”
�
�How do you know so much about them? Who are you?” I asked.
“Believe me Michael, that is a really long story and we just don’t have the time right now. You’ll just have to trust I know what I’m talking about.”
I was sick of being blown off and had to force a sharp reply back down. If what she said was true there wasn’t time to sit around and talk. Trust me, I’ll tell you more later, it’s a long story, blah, blah, blah.
My feelings and emotions were so jumbled. I wasn’t sure what to feel or how I should feel. As happy as I was to know Sara was alive, that they were all alive, I couldn’t shake the bitterness I felt.
For the last several weeks they’d known where I was but I still mourned their deaths. For the past year, as I felt the devastation of my failure to them, to Sara, and had to live with that despair and anger, they’d been here the whole time. The anger at what had happened, what I thought had happened had been the only fuel I had to keep myself going, all the while poisoning me. Meanwhile, they were working together in their little group or club or whatever the hell it was. It turns out I was the one left behind.
Again, I had to push back those thoughts. “So what’s the plan?”
“We have another vehicle, a van, hidden in the next building over. We need something quicker than the truck we came in. We dropped off the van in preparation last week. Even though we didn’t know we’d be doing all of this today, we knew it would happen soon. We prepared and set everything up so there would be options. As long as we can get out of the immediate area, it will only be a twenty minute drive to a place I have set up.”
I nodded in understanding. It seemed the general idea was to get out of there and I couldn’t argue. I tried to break into her thoughts as she was talking and couldn’t. It was like before with Sara. I couldn’t pick up anything. The only real option I had was to trust her.
Laura moved towards the exit but paused before leaving. “There hasn’t been a second over the past year where you haven’t been a part of Sara’s thoughts. It was my fault we lost you and Sara never gave up trying to find you. We’ve all done what we’ve done for a reason. Sara has done all she has done because she loves you.”
She turned back towards the door, exited the building, leaving me with the five motionless bodies.
As I waited for Laura to return with the van, I mulled over her words and tried to reconcile my feelings. It was comforting, reassuring for her to say Sara loved me. It shouldn’t have been, I should have just known it, but it was.
I wasn’t sure what was going on with me. I was so happy to have Sara back. I loved her and I knew she loved me, but was it just stubbornness? Was I just pissed off I wasn’t able to be a part of her life over the past year? Did it really come down to petty jealousy that she’d been able to spend more time with both Alex and Laura than the few weeks we had together at the HUB? That they might know her better than I did?
I didn’t know the answer, but was disgusted with myself once again. Sara deserved someone better.
Laura returned with the van five minutes later. I heard the rumbling of the motor outside the door and then a few seconds later she came back into the building.
“Okay. Everything’s ready.”
CHAPTER 26
Sara was beautiful, so peaceful as she slept. I’d never had the opportunity to lie next to her and watch her sleep. It was comforting, calming, heaven.
Breaks of the setting sun through the open blinds were all that lit the modest room, decorated mainly in shades of blue and chocolate. The bed was the softest thing I had any memory of ever laying on. It seemed to melt around us and was a definite upgrade from the thin mattresses at the HUB or anything I’d slept on during my stint of motel hopping over the past year.
Like Laura said, the drive only took twenty minutes. The van was a monstrous full size white cargo van with plenty of room in the empty back for all five of our unconscious passengers. It took only a few moments to get everyone loaded and secure before we were off.
As we pulled away from the factory grounds, a thought occurred to me. If Titan showed up and found the large truck we’d come in, could they trace it back to us? I voiced my concern to Laura. She smiled and said it was taken care of. A few seconds later there was a loud explosion.
“There’ll be nothing left they can use to trace back to us,” she said.
The rest of the trip went without many more words said. It seemed we were going to make it and I was exhausted. So much had happened over the last several hours. I had so many questions, but wanted to wait until Sara and Alex were awake. I knew them, I didn’t know Laura.
At some point I dozed off, I hadn’t meant to and it couldn’t have been for long, but enough that I woke with a start at Laura’s voice announcing we’d made it.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” I apologized, wiping some drool from my chin.
“No worries. The drive was uneventful.”
When I got out of the van I was surprised to see the place she’d brought us to. I’d expected a nondescript hovel somewhere in the woods. The large estate sized lake house wasn’t a part of my expectation spectrum.
We parked on a covered circular paved area just behind the white three storied modern looking monster of a home, with endless windows and multi-tiered flat roofs. The lake was about twenty yards away. A path to the water led away from the parking area and ended at a good sized boat house built at the lakes edge.
Laura explained she had a lab down in the boat house and once we had Alex and Sara situated on beds in the house, we would need to move the others to the lab so she could get started on determining and monitoring their conditions.
Once everyone was situated, I left Laura in the boat house and came up to the main house to watch over Sara and Alex.
The house was huge. Definitely nicer than anything I was used to. Whatever it was Laura did, outside of helping to foil the plans of Titan and hunt serial killers living in the Seattle underground, she didn’t seem to be doing too badly for herself. How old was she? She couldn’t have been any older than nineteen. Maybe she’d inherited money.
We brought Sara and Alex in through the back, through a large kitchen area and then towards the front of the house. The front of the house had a large open foyer area with a grand dual staircase that led up to the second floor. Seven of the ten bedrooms were on the second floor. Sara and Alex each occupied a room.
To be honest, I’d only checked in on Alex who was in a room just across the hall when I first came back. I’d spent the rest of the time next to Sara. Those moments lying with her seemed so right, so perfect. I could imagine the room was ours and I was just lying in bed with the girl I loved. I wished it was easier to forget the rest of the story and the fact she wasn’t really asleep, but sedated.
After just over two hours in the bed, Sara started to move some. She let out a small moan.
I stroked the side of her face and spoke softly. “Can you hear me?”
If what they’d shot her with was anything like what she’d given me, she wasn’t going to feel much for a while still, but the motion on her face comforted me.
She moaned some more, her body trying to move.
“Sara?”
This time she was able to answer in a weak slurred voice. “Michael?”
I took her hand. “Yes. It’s me.”
“What happened?” she asked.
“You were hit with a tranquilizer. You’re safe now. We’re in one of the rooms at Laura’s lake house.”
“So Alex did hit me then?”
I laughed a little.
“No, he was hit as well. James and Rachael brought a friend and they were able to get the drop on us. He got behind us and shot you before we knew he was there. Rachael was able to take out Alex on the roof. It’s only thanks to Laura we’re here now.”
“Is Alex okay?”
“He’s fine. He’s resting in a room across the hall.”
“Good.” Her voice already starting to sound strong
er and more steady.
I could see the effort on her face as she struggled to fight the sedative’s lingering effects and her eyelids fluttered as she tried to open them. Very slowly, she was able to work them open. With what looked like a significant amount of effort, she held them in place, looked up at me and smiled.
I stroked the side of her face again. “Hey there.”
“This isn’t a bad way to wake up. I wish I could feel more of you next to me, but this is nice,” she said. “So what happened?”
I explained everything that occurred after she was shot, how Laura corrupted Titan’s signal and how she was now down in the lab with James, Rachael and the third agent.
“Sounds like a close call. I’m sorry I slept through it all. I’m glad you’re okay.” She paused. “Are you okay?”
“It’s been a really strange day. A lot of things have gone wrong, but finding you again… By finding you again, I’ve found myself again.”
I choked up some. I felt Sara move in closer.
“I’ve been so lost, so alone. I don’t want to be that person anymore. I just want to be happy. I just want to be with you.”
Her eyes were now wide looking intently into mine. “I want that so much.”
I kissed her forehead.
“Is it possible to have that with Titan still out there looking for us? Is there anywhere we can hide, where they’ll not be able to find us?” I asked and then turned my questioning from philosophical to directly at Sara. “Where have you been all of this time?”
“What has Laura told you?”
“Nothing. She said it was her fault I was lost, but that’s it. How did we get out of the HUB?”
“What do you remember?” she asked.
“I found you strapped to a table screaming and I was being held by Caldwell and his agents. Dr. Roberts came in and injected me with something and everything went black. After that, I woke up alone at night in the forest.
“I had no idea what had happened, how I was free from the HUB. As for you, Alex, everyone, I could only assume the worst. I didn’t understand. I wandered for several days through the forest until I came upon a small town. I figured out where I was and found transportation. Since then, I’ve stayed on the move, trying to get by.” I paused. “So what did happen?”