by T. C. Edge
“Is to transfer her consciousness into a synthetic host,” came Wexley’s voice, doubtful. “Your mind is running away with you, Hunt. Do you really think the MSA could develop this science under our noses? And those of the WSA inspection teams as well?”
“Yes sir, I do. Oversight has become increasingly lax in recent years, given the heightened state of conflict between the WSA and NDSA. LA and New York have not been paying attention, Commander Wexley. It’s hubris, sir. We ignore the downtrodden, and they rise up to defeat us. I assure you that the MSA have developed this capability. As you say, there would be no sense in them trying to retrieve the data unless they could use it. I’ve been chasing up on this for days now, sir, and I’m completely convinced of it.” He drew a breath, calming himself. “Commander, you once put great faith in me, and I broke that trust. However, there is no reason for me to lie about this. I am not trying to deceive you. I am merely letting you know that the MSA are about to make a significant breakthrough, and we have to act before it’s too late.”
Ragan stopped, his words cutting off, drifting off on the wind and joining the dust and detritus floating by. He looked back to the falcon, to see that the others had gathered outside, looking over to him with questioning eyes. This was it, right now, the crux of it. He needed Wexley to believe him. The whole goddamned world needed it.
“I will concede,” began Wexley after a time, “that you do have a point over our relaxed oversight. We haven’t been quite so diligent of late in observing and scrutinising the MSA. Other concerns have become of far greater import.”
Ragan listened silently, refusing to interrupt. Wexley went quiet for a few more moments, as if trying to siphon through his options, work out whether or not his old agent was being truthful.
“However, after recent events, it’s very hard for me to take you at your word,” he went on. Ragan felt his heart sink. “For all I know, this could all be part of some grand ploy of yours, a distraction of some kind, some sort of game you’re playing that I cannot yet perceive.” He drew a breath. “Do you have any actual evidence to support your claim?”
Evidence, Ragan thought, shaking his head.
“I…I don’t need evidence, sir,” he replied with conviction. “I have spent the last few days gathering information, trying to make up for what I did. I need you to take it seriously, sir. We need to begin scanning immediately for possible research sites across the MSA, with a particular focus around Lake Michigan. We need to…”
“To do nothing,” cut in Wexley, abruptly shutting Ragan down. “You’re telling me to divert important resources and manpower towards searching for something that probably isn’t there. Your actions of late have made you untrustworthy. For God’s sake, man, you haven’t been in contact for days, and the last we saw of you, you were helping Chloe Phantom, the most wanted person on the continent, break free of the CID! And taking out a host of Panthers at the same time! How can you possibly expect me to trust you?”
“Because of what we’ve discovered, sir!” breathed Ragan, exasperated. “I’m not lying to you…”
“We?” murmured Wexley.
Shit, Ragan thought.
“Ah, I see,” continued Wexley. “So she remains with you, does she? You’re still protecting Miss Phantom. It’s no surprise, I suppose, after the lengths you went to to save her. You’re operating alongside a fugitive, Hunt. And you’re becoming one yourself…”
A silence fell down the line. How could Ragan make him believe? Everything he’d said was fanciful, if within the realms of credibility. Ragan acted like this occasionally. He had to make him understand.
Ragan looked again at his companions, waiting patiently. At Chloe, standing beside the falcon, with Remus on her shoulder, hands clasped nervously together. She smiled at him supportively, and he felt some stress fade. He loved that smile. He loved it…
He loved her.
And then he said it.
“I love her,” he whispered. His smile grew as he spoke the words. He repeated them again, louder. “I love her, sir.”
“What?” grunted Wexley, incredulous. “You…love who? Miss Phantom?”
Ragan knew it was the right thing to say. It wasn’t a lie. Not this.
“Yes, sir,” he whispered. “I couldn’t help what I did. I couldn’t let her be taken in, punished, even killed for something she had no control over. I’ve chased her, sir, for a long time. I had to save her. I had to…”
He could all but see Wexley’s expression. The discomfort on his face at hearing Ragan’s words. But all men, no matter who they were or what they’d been through, could understand what it felt like to love. Could understand the things you’d do for it. The mad things. The crazy things. The mistakes, perhaps, that it would force you to make.
“I…can only apologise, sir, for everything that’s happened,” Ragan went on tentatively. “I couldn’t get in touch after what I did. I tried my best to get Mikel, to find the data, to make things right. He got away, sir. He bested me again, I’m ashamed to admit. But what I’m telling you is the truth. The MSA have it now. It is out of our reach, Commander. We have no choice now but to find out where they’ve stored it, and destroy the facility. If we don’t, they may just unleash hell upon these lands.”
He stopped, letting his words settle down the line. The din of the command centre seemed quieter than ever, just a distant blur of noise. He waited patiently, hoping, praying, looking over at Chloe, her white teeth shining under the yellow sun.
“I can’t say, Ragan,” said Wexley eventually, “that I understand how you can speak of love for a girl you don’t know. But…I do know that we’re all different. And I know what your profile says about you. You have a sensitive side, son. You’re not the hardened soldier you appear.”
“No, sir,” whispered Ragan, eyes still locked on Chloe.
“But none of it absolves you of your crimes. Your actions have been erratic, and severely detrimental to our nation. But…you have also served us well, and with distinction, for many years.”
Ragan stayed quiet. He let Wexley continue.
“I am at a loss of what to do here,” the commander went on, breathing out. “I want to trust you, Ragan, but you have little support here now.”
“Trust your instincts, sir,” said Ragan. “What do they tell you?”
“My instincts clearly need retuning,” murmured Wexley, a light tone of humour infecting his voice. “I never once thought that you’d betray this agency…”
Betray. Ragan hated the word, cringed at hearing it. He could lie to his old commander all he wanted, pretend that his intention was only to save Chloe, and not take the data for himself, to destroy it once and for all. But he knew the truth. He had betrayed them. He had his reasons, important reasons, yes. But still, the word struck hard, sinking in deep.
“I wish it hadn’t come to that,” Ragan said eventually, softly. “But what’s done is done, sir. I’m passing on important intel that you must believe.”
“Hmmmmm, perhaps you’re right,” said Wexley. “My job here is to assess intelligence and act accordingly. However, the source of the intelligence must first be questioned, and proven valid, before anything else is done. You have yet to convince me, Ragan.”
“Then how?” Ragan asked, growing in impatience. “How am I to prove my loyalty to you, to the CID?”
Ragan paced around, feet scratching over the craggy tundra. His friends still watched on, silent, Remus now fluttering about, like a child wishing for attention. Ragan managed a smile at the sight. Perhaps that was why the little drone was doing it, he wondered. Perhaps he could sense his stress…
“You want to prove yourself, do you Ragan?” asked Wexley firmly. “Then bring me proof of what you’ve said.”
“How? I have no access to intelligence without you,” lied Ragan. He did, he had Dax, but wasn’t willing to mention that now.
“Then bring me a witness,” grunted Wexley. “You say Mikel was working for this Martha Mitchell an
d the MSA. He can corroborate your story. Bring him in, and we’ll take this seriously. I won’t be able to convince anyone of a strike against the MSA on your word alone.”
“But sir, he’s…elusive,” said Ragan, backtracking. “If your Panthers can’t find him, why should I?”
“I’m sure you’ll find a way,” said Wexley. “This vamp has a particular liking for you. Get yourself to Cincinnati, and he’ll find you, I’m sure of it.”
“And the Panthers? How can I know you won’t try to lure me into a trap, Commander? I need your word that you’ll let me work on this alone, without interference.”
“You have my word, Hunt,” grumbled Wexley. “And it’s worth a whole lot more than yours. Now get this done, and then we’ll talk. Until then, you’re on your own.”
Before Ragan could speak again, the line cut off, leaving a silence hanging in the air. He looked up to the group, now growing increasingly restless. He drew the earpiece from his ear, and shook his head.
He’d screwed that up entirely.
They weren’t going to like this.
75
Chloe stood at the briefing table, Remus on her shoulder, a holographic map of Cincinnati lit up before them. She’d never been to the city before, which wasn’t much of a surprise. For some time, it had been a place beset by tragedy, one of the major points of conflict between the great militaries of the NDSA and WSA. With the latter ever creeping on and trying to assert their authority in the east, the city had fallen to rubble and ruin, a burnt out shell of a place. No different, then, to so many others.
A few minutes ago, Ragan had marched back into the falcon, head shaking, eyes half covered in a frown. He’d gone on to quickly update the group on his conversation with his old commander at the CID, Richard Wexley, which was, apparently, preceded by a bit of interesting news from Dax.
Mikel had been spotted, and now, once again, they needed to take him in.
Tanner was bemused by it all, his smile one of utter stupefaction at this latest turn.
“So, we have to find Mikel again,” he huffed, shaking his head and laughing. “We’re like a broken record here.”
“But it’s good news, right?” asked Chloe. “I thought you wanted to find Mikel?”
“Yeah, in order to kill him, not hand him over to the CID,” retorted Tanner with a snort.
“Well, to be fair, that’s Ragan’s loss more than yours, Cliff,” said Nadia. “Let’s not forget who has most cause to hate the vamp.”
Tanner shrugged.
“Sure, and I feel bad for him. But anyway, that’s missing the point. We’re talking about going to a war zone here, to find a ghost. Mikel probably isn’t there anymore, and if he is, he’ll be hard to track down.”
“Sure, hard, but not impossible,” said Ragan, glancing over to Chloe. But, more specifically, Remus. “You reckon he can find him?” he asked her, referring to the drone.
“If he’s in the area, maybe,” Chloe said. “Remus has had plenty of time to gather data on Mikel by now. He’ll be able to spot him if he’s around.”
“But he didn’t spot him when we were in Devil’s Pike,” countered Tanner. “He came out of nowhere over there. Remus’ scans didn’t bring up anything.”
“True,” said Chloe, “but Remus hadn’t properly encountered Mikel by that point. The more time he spends analysing someone - their gait, their scent, their body shape, and so on - the more easily his sensors will pick up on them when he scans for them again. Hell, he’ll know all of you like the back of his hand - or wing, I guess,” she smirked, “- by now.”
“You’re just full of surprises, little guy,” smiled Nadia, reaching out a hand for Remus to flit onto. She giggled as he landed, turning almost girlish. Remus seemed to have that effect on her.
Ragan looked over to Tanner.
“Good enough for you?” he asked.
Tanner shrugged.
“Sure. I’m not going to pretend I understand how he works, but sure, I’ll go along with it. We could do with a general area to start, though,” he finished, looking at the map.
Ragan pointed to a section in the southeast.
“Dax mentioned a last known location around here. He’ll keep an eye out, update us en route. We’ll start there if we hear nothing else.”
“And…if we run into soldiers?” asked Tanner. “It’s not going to be easy just creeping around in there, you realise. There might be thousands of soldiers there for all we know.”
“Yep, but Mikel won’t be creeping around in the thick of it either. You know what vamps are like. They keep to the edges, pick off the weak when they’re alone or undefended.”
“Right, and you’re going to trust this Wexley guy?” queried Tanner, frowning skeptically. “We go there, and they just take us all out. I mean, did he really believe what you told him? You didn’t mention anything about wanting to destroy the data?”
“No,” said Ragan firmly. “And I didn’t say anything about you two either,” he added, looking to Tanner and then Nadia, who continued to be distracted by Remus. “I convinced him, at least to a degree, that I did what I did for Chloe only.”
Tanner raised a brow.
“He bought that?” He sounded incredulous. Understandably.
“To a degree, I said,” repeated Ragan. “Enough to get our foot in the door. If we get Mikel, then maybe he’ll be willing to listen. But there’s no way any of you are getting involved in this…”
“What?” asked Chloe. “What does that mean? We’re going together, right? To catch Mikel.” She looked to the others for support. Tanner nodded firmly. Nadia looked away from Remus, the drone fluttering off, and did the same.
“We’ll catch Mikel together,” said Ragan. “But that’s the extent of it. I’ll have to return to New York with him alone. None of you can come with me.”
“Now hang on a minute…”
“Chloe,” said Ragan sternly, shutting her off. “This is the only way. Cliff and Nadia are from different nations, and the CID don’t know anything about them. We have to keep it that way. I have to convince them that I’m still willing to be loyal. I can’t do that if I turn up with a bunch of rogue operatives. It’ll raise too many questions.”
“Yeah, and me?” asked Chloe, frown dropping, arms folding.
Ragan smiled at her softly.
“I got you out of there once before. I’m not going to just bring you right back. Stay with Cliff and Nadia. I’ll go and smooth things over, and then come and join you again once I’m done.” He leaned towards her, seeming suddenly embarrassed by the attention of the others. “I’m not leaving you, Chloe,” he whispered, his words for her alone. “This is just how it has to happen.”
Nadia moved over to Chloe’s side, drawing her eye.
“He’s right, honey,” she said consolingly. “We’re just gonna muddy things up if we go too. It’s best this way.”
Chloe grumbled, but nodded reluctantly, hating the idea. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. Perhaps she was naive to think anything else. To think that Wexley would just believe Ragan and then agree to help. It wasn’t ever going to be that damn easy. Nothing ever was.
“OK, well we’ve got all that settled then,” said Ragan, voice perking up. “The jet’s well charged and ready to go. Let’s go hunt some nano-vamp, I guess,” he finished with a casual shrug.
The group glanced around at one another.
“Hell yeah,” said Tanner, grinning.
He moved from the briefing table, and headed off for the cockpit. Ragan spared a look at Chloe, before following.
Her eyes then followed him, a sigh falling from her lips, loud enough to seek attention. It found it in the form of Nadia, still beside her, following her eyes as they followed Ragan.
“He’ll be fine,” Nadia said with a breathy whisper. “Don’t worry about him.”
Chloe turned to face her southern, brown-eyed friend as Ragan disappeared down the passage.
“This is non-stop,” she
murmured. “When’s it going to end?”
Nadia draped an affable arm over Chloe’s shoulder, and began leading her towards her seat.
“Who can say,” she said, warmly. “Soon, I hope. Sometimes missions just go like this, you know.” Chloe raised an eye. “I’ll admit, this one’s pretty…”
“Hectic,” said Chloe. “Not that I’ve got any experience of this stuff.”
“Nothing like a good old baptism of fire,” grinned Nadia. “To your credit, honey, you’re handling it like a star.”
They reached their seats, and sat down, strapping themselves into their harnesses. The jet began to rumble and rise, drifting up into the cloudy skies.
“Anyway, we’re onto the final stretch,” said Nadia. “Soon as we convince the CID of what’s been going on, they’ll take the reins. I’d say we’ve done enough.”
Nadia sat back, taking in a long breath as the falcon continued its ascent. The engines began to rumble louder, set to shoot the jet skyward. Chloe hardly even noticed the change in motion.
Done enough, she thought, pondering Nadia’s words. Somehow she got the feeling that there was plenty more to come.
76
Mikel basked in the shade of a rundown building, the sunshine outside so very unpleasant to his sensibilities.
A general blur of noise echoed from the distance, the central streets of this haunted old city chattering with gunfire and occasional explosions. Here, way back towards the southeastern suburbs, there were few soldiers in sight. Through the shattered windows of this derelict apartment block, he might occasionally see a unit or two pass by a little way off. But none ventured close enough to be of concern.