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Author's Note: Getting close to the end. The Escape was supposed to end with this chapter but the more I wrote the more I realized that it was going to go at least another chapter. There are a few things in here that were necessary for the narrative, including a tragic death and a shocking revelation.

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Chapter Eighteen:

“Are you sure about this?’ I asked as we rode the elevator up topside.

Mattie nodded for about the fifth time. “Yes. Your friend Frankie is definitely Declan”

The revelation floored me. Frankie was a student here? That wasn’t possible. I mean for one thing he was two years older than me. Weren’t we supposed to only be sixteen? He also came to my foster home about seven months ago, he told us all about his life, he said he was an orphan. I trusted him and he was lying the whole time. My head started to hurt as I got a bit fuzzy, an earlier memory from Becky slower started to surface. He was there; I met him in Becky’s room. He brought me flowers and called me Shrimp. How the hell could I have forgotten that?

“Francesca” said Mattie with a sigh.

I looked at her.”What?”

“You asked me his name before and I said I couldn’t remember. But as soon as you said he was Frankie I realized it. His name was Francesca”

“It's ok, Becca” Greg said reassured. ‘Declan is a Dominator, fooling people is what he does. You’re just lucky he’s only a touch based one, some of the others are much, much worse”

“Sounds like you’ve had experience?”

He nodded. “I’m in charge of Tactical Retrieval Missions. Declan isn’t the first Dominator that the Syndicate picked up”

“How is that possible?” asked Mattie “I’ve been here longer than you. There are no other students here”

He sighed. “This isn’t the only facility the Syndicate has”

The news floored us, all of us. So far Holly had been quiet during our conversation but she even gasped a bit. Son of a Bitch. I thought this thing was over with. I thought if we took this place out, did everything we could to keep them from following us that this thing would be over. But it was never going to be over. There are more of these places out there. How can we contend with that? It was bad enough that there was one Zero, but more than one? I shuddered at the thought.

The elevator finally reached topside. When the door opened, Greg stepped out first, gun raised. It looked kind of strange seeing him do it with one arm, holding all of Clara in the other. I followed suit, we did the whole cover one another thing. The coast was clear for the moment. We have to get her some place safe.

I sniffed the air, the smoke was getting worse.

I listened for any sign of fighting. Unlike before there was nothing. So either Beatrice or the others were done or they were dead. They can’t be dead. Everyone or no one that was the plan wasn’t it. I’m not leaving anyone behind, not even that jackass Declan or Frankie or whatever the hell his name is. I didn’t care if he was some messed up prick that liked to play with people’s heads. A tear rolled down my cheek. He was my friend, he wouldn’t leave me behind? I sighed, but he did. He left us behind. It was clear why now: he was with the Syndicate. He must have been some kind of front man. Which mean he was lying to me from the beginning?

A noise from down the hall caught my attention. At first I thought it was another sparkling wire, there were a lot of those. But it was too distinct. I listened and heard it: a cry for help. Before the others had any idea what I was doing, I took off. Greg called after me. I heard them pursue. I ran as fast as I could. If someone was alive they didn’t deserve Dr. O’s fate. He made of been a bastard but some things were even too cruel for him.

The distress cry got louder the closer I got to it.

As I rounded the next corner, I nearly threw up.

It was Blue and there was nothing I could do for him. I’d seen some crazy things since I’d started here: I saw Holly levitating food trays, Max walking through Mattie, Beatrice trying to barbeque me, Chloe floating the jell-o; even Barry impressed the hell of me. But none of them compared to Blue’s problem. I slowly walked up to him, not sure what to say or do. I heard a collection of gasps from behind me as the others caught up.

‘Holy shit”

Holy shit was right: Blue was stuck in the wall.

I’m not talking about being embedded in the wall like Dr. S. I’m talking about physically being stuck in the wall. It was clear what happened to him. He must have run into Max and tried to stop him. I could see the tazer in his hand, still sparking, his finger still on the button. We’d already seen half the guard sticking out of the wall near Trish’s office but Blue was a whole lot worse. It was like seeing someone floating on top of a swimming pool, with most of their body underwater. Except Blue was vertical and the water was concrete. There were even ripples around his body.

“What the hell do we do?” I whispered, looking for a solution.

Greg sighed. “There’s nothing we can do, he’s literally fused with it”

I approached Blue, trying to find the words to speak. His eyes darted to be and he scuffed.

“Get away from me, freak!”

That son of a bitch. Here I was trying to help him and he was still willing to insult me. I had half a mind to sock him but considering the circumstances, I let it slide. Greg placed Clara on the floor and asked Holly to look after her.

‘Warren” said Greg, stepping around me. “Can you feel anything?”

“Greg, what the hell are you doing with them?” Then his eyes widened in realization. “You’re a traitor. You’re with them. It was you, wasn’t it? You’re the one who deactivated their chips”

“Warren that’s the shock talking. I didn’t betray anyone. We were wrong, these kids aren’t dangerous”

‘Tell that to that bastard Redcliffe”

“You brought this upon yourself” said Greg coldly, touching the wall next to Blue.

Blue spit at him or tried to but his face was only half out. How he was surviving was beyond me? He was in the freaking wall, I could have kissed Max. As I stand here and stare, I can’t seem to muster up the sympathy for him. Greg was right, he did deserve it.

Greg stepped away and whispered to me. “I can put him out of his misery?”

Moment of truth: “No” I said, shaking my head.

Today is Cold Bitch Becca; maybe tomorrow I’ll be forgiving.

I walked up to him. “How does it feel to be defenseless for a change?”

“Go to Hell, freak”

I scoffed. I didn’t even acknowledge it with a reply. I just turned and walked away.

‘GET BACK HERE!” he shouted as we got halfway down the hall. “YOU FUCKING BITCH, YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME HERE!”

To think I actually felt sorry for these people. That was a joke. They were monsters, all of them. They deserved to be slaughtered like the pigs they were. My angered flared. Then the crying started. What the hell is wrong with me? I felt Mattie wrap herself around me, followed a few seconds later by Holly. They both held me, finally giving me the shoulder to cry on. We stood together for a few minutes and I cried. I needed Barry and Trish. My friends were m family now, the only one I had. They were my life and my soul and my whole purpose for living. If anyone tried to hurt them, I was going to pound them into the ground.

“We have to go” Mattie whispered in my ear. ‘Barry and Chloe are probably done already”

Her words struck a chord and a realization.

They weren’t done because if they were people would be leaving. Dr. O, Blue, Dr. S., they were all still here. So were all the Black Suits. If the Lockdown had been shut off, no one in their right mind would stay here. This place was done; it was literally burning to the ground. I could hear the fires roaring and the smoke, I could smell it. Why were people still here? Oh God, something’s gone wrong. Barry was the smartest, most efficient person I’d ever meant. When he set out to do something he did it and as fast as possible.

“They’re not done”

“What are you talking about?” asked Mattie.

“Everyone is still here’

Mattie nodded her head and then realization dawned on her too. “Oh my God, they’ve been caught”

Greg walked over, Clara in his arms. “Who's been caught?”

“Barry and Chloe” said Mattie frantically. “They went to Zero’s office about the same time we went for Clara”

“It should have been pretty straight forward” I continued “but something’s gone wrong. This place should have been opened by now. Something’s happened to them”

‘You don’t know that”

I nodded. I took a deep breath and tried as hard as I could. I need to see them, let me see them. When I opened my eyes, the blackness was there. It was pretty freaking though. I saw everyone around me, bright and blue as usual. But I saw other blues as well. I saw that bastard still stuck in the wall, struggling to get free. I saw several blue people running down a hall, toward God knows where. I saw a Blue Beatrice I think, with her Deviants, fighting off a battalion of guards and Black Suits. I saw Blue Trish and Donovan waiting in the vehicle bay. They were leaning against a large green van. There was another blue character with them, big and towering: Black. So he survived, that made me smile. I followed the path of the halls, passing many more blue figures until I got to Zero’s Tower. The only blue there were four figures on the top floor, in Zero’s office. I couldn’t see faces but I knew who they were: Zero, Declan, Barry and Chloe.

Thank God they’re alive.

A hand touched my shoulder and the blackness was gone. The world came rushing at me and it was nauseating. I fell backwards, Mattie caught me. I was breathing heavily, my heart pounding like a drum.

“Are you ok?” he asked, stroking my hair.

I nodded. “I’m all right”

‘We thought something happened to you” said Holly, bent down at my side. “One minute you were talking and the next it was like you were a statue. We tried to get you to move but we couldn’t. What the hell happened?”

I shook my head. “I’ll tell you guys later”

Mattie helped me to my feet. Greg looked at me, concerned. Maybe he wasn’t so heartless.

“They never deactivated the lockdown” I said after taking another deep breath. “They’re up in Zero’s office right now but Zero and Declan are there too. They must have caught them or were waiting or something”

“How do you know that? Can you hear that far?” asked Greg.

I shook my head. “I saw them”

They all looked at me like I was crazy. “I don’t have time to explain but I have to go to them right now”

I unzipped the pack on Mattie’s back, reaching inside and grabbing two walkie talkies. I threw one to Holly and told her I’d be on Channel 3. She nodded. Then she and Mattie tried to protest and even offered to come along.

“You guys need to get to Trish and Donovan. They’re in the Vehicle Bay with Mr. Black”
“How the hell do you know that?”

“Just trust me and go quickly. There’s a bunch of Black Suits heading this way”

I didn’t stay to debate it. I didn’t have time to discuss things. Barry was quite possibly the best thing that had ever happened to me. I’d be damned if I was going to let some Lex Luthor wannabe and his pet Mind Controller take him from me.

_______________________________________________________________

There were four of them at the end of the hall.

I cursed and tried to weight my options. I had the element of surprise but they had machine guns. I could probably get two shots off before they reacted but they still had machine guns. There was a possibility I could distract them but they still didn’t get over the fact that they had machine guns. Damn those machine guns were a real fricking problem. Why was it that in every scenario the bad guys always had machine guns? Those things had to be damn heavy and expensive. Even in the really bad action flicks, the cheapest of bad guys have machine guns. How the fuck can they afford them? I know I’m rambling but I was so damn close.

Right down the hall and to the left, that’s where I had to go. I was doing pretty well. I already avoided three platoons of those bastards. I guess I got too cocky and overconfident. I have to do something. I weighed my options for the third time and everything went back to the obvious, again. I felt like kicking myself for not taking Mattie and Holly up on their offer to tag along. But they needed to be with the others. If Trish and Donovan got overwhelmed, they would need Mattie and Holly to save their asses. Even with Greg and Black, the others didn’t stand a chance of escaping without Mattie and Holly.

It was times like this that I wished I had a more active power. Not that I’m complaining, I love being Super Senses Girl (God I’m going to have to come up with a better superhero name than that). But I just wish I had a bolt of lightning or a ball of fire, hell I’d even go for being able to turn invisible. There has to be something I can do.

Just then that something I was praying for happened.

“Down there” shouted one of the guards.

Shit they’ve seen me. But they weren’t pointing at me. They were pointing down the hall, in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go.

“It's that Ghost kid”

Ghost Kid? What Ghost Kid? Wait, oh God Max.

Two of the guards took off, leaving me two. I smiled, two I could handle. But it’d have to be without the gun. I took a deep breath and stepped out into the hall. The two of them just caught me. I threw the first star, hitting one of them in the neck. HE dropped pretty quickly. The other one snapped his gun up and prepared to take a shot. I threw my second star; it arched through the air and hit the man on the top of the head. When he fell backwards, a stream of rapid fire drove into the ground and then the ceiling. I dropped to the floor, avoiding the possible hail of bullets coming my way. They definitely got someone’s attention. I got back up and heard the other two running back toward me. I took off, running as fast as I could.

I whipped around the corner, heading toward the elevator.

Yes, elevator in sight, mission accomplished.

I got within twenty feet of it and the door opened. I slid to a halt, six guards came out. They raised their weapons and I backpedaled. Oh shit no. I stumbled along the wall, going backwards, crying. I heard them shut for me to stop and then heard the fire. I flinched and the whole word disappeared. There was a rush of air, strong hands on my shoulders and then they were gone. I started patting myself down, trying to feel the multiple holes I should have. Instead there was nothing, nothing except the hands on my shoulders. What the hell just happened?

The arms wrapped around me from behind in a big hug.

“That was too damn close”

It was Max. I spun around and hugged him as tight as I could. Then I kissed him. Hey you’d kiss him too if he just saved your life.

He laughed. “I enjoy the enthusiasm but I actually don’t swing that way”

That caught me off guard. I pulled away, confused. “You’re gay?”

He nodded. “I’m sorry about everything. I wasn’t myself. It was that thing they put in my head, it made me an asshole”

We hugged again.

“It’s ok. I’m just glad you’re all right”

We filled one another in real quick. He told me most of the stuff I already knew and I told him about our escape plan. When he hugged me again, giddy and giggling, I knew there was no way his early affection for me could have been real. When I got to the part of finding Blue in the wall, he seemed to get real quiet. He started to tear and I knew the two of them had a history.

“He was a molesting bastard” was all he said and I left it at that.

I gave him another hug. God I’m full of hugs today.

“Let’s go get our friends” he said, grabbing my hand.

We started running down the hall but instead of taking the turn that would have led us back the way we should have gone, we kept going. Right toward the wall. I tried to dig my heels into the ground but Max laughed.

“No, no, no” I shouted.

“Trust me” he shouted.

We ran at the wall and right into it. My whole body was tingling, like I was being pulled apart from the inside. I wanted to scream but I didn’t want to swallow wall. So I just kept my shut and went with it. It was the craziest feeling ever. I wanted to open my eyes as we passed through the wall but I didn’t. It lasted only seconds. Max laughed and told me it was over. When I opened my eyes, we were in another hall.

“Never do that again”

He laughed even harder. “No problem”

I heard him before I saw him. It was the light patter of boots, military ones. He came around the corner, moving one foot in front of the other. It was the Corporal, Henderson. When he finally got within shooting distance, I noticed his silenced pistol. Why did everyone have silencers around here? He stopped when he saw us, his face unreadable.

“That’s far enough” he said.

Max flinched, gripping my arm tightly.

Henderson pressed his throat mike. “I have her sir. She’s in the hall adjacent to the elevator with Redcliffe”

“You don’t have to do this” I was willing to try anything.

Henderson had a laser sight on the pistol, moving it to my head. He completely ignored me.

“Drop you weapons, put your hands on the backs of your heads and get on your knees”

I reached for Reta, grumbling. Out of all the grunts here I thought Henderson was the most reasonable. Apparently I was wrong. I took Reta from “her” holster and dropped her on the ground, then kicked her over. I started to move my hands to my head when Max grabbed my wrist. I saw the look in his eyes. It was one I didn’t like: that of resolution. He smiled and kissed me on the forehead.

“Remember what you promised”

I nodded.

“Goodbye Becca”

It took me about ten seconds to process what he just said. It took less time than that to try and stop him. But my hand passed through him. He turned and ran at Henderson at full speed, yelling as he did. Henderson fired twice. Both shots hit Max in the chest but he kept going. The Corporal panicked and even at point blank range his shot went into the floor. Max was on him in a second. He shoved his hand into Henderson’s chest. The Corporal screamed at the top of his lungs and dropped to his knees. I’m not sure what Max did but it didn’t take Henderson long to stop screaming.

I screamed too. I ran down the hall, tears flowing off my cheeks. Max was motionless and if I could have felt, I probably would have said cold. I scooped him into my arms, cradling his head to my chest. There was so much blood. Max was barely conscious, his eyes fluttered but he smiled. One of his hands was still in Henderson’s chest and when he pulled it there was a heart clutched in it. Oh God Max. His other hand he reached up and stroked my cheek.

“What the hell were you thinking?” I sobbed.

“I had to protect you” he said weakly. “You’re the best friend I’ve ever had”

“It's ok. We can get you to Trish, she can help you” I was trying to rationalize but I wasn’t stupid.

One of the books that Greg gave me was on human anatomy. He told me to study it from cover to cover. Both of the shots were upper mass, one went into a lung and the other was pretty close to his heart. They were kill shots but I couldn’t accept that. I put my hands over the wounds, trying to stem the flow of blood. He started to cough, spitting up blood. Please God not Max. Why did it have to be Max? I pressed harder but he shook his head.

He reached into his pocket and pulled a wrinkled letter from it. He held it out to me but I ignored it.

“Please” he gasped, spitting more blood. “You promised”

I moved my hands from his chest and took the letter, my hand shaking as I did so. He smiled and tried to lean forward to kiss my cheek but didn’t have the strength. I leaned down and kissed his instead.

“Take care of Jessie for me”

“Always”

He died in my arms. It was almost as if I could feel it as his life slipped away. For about ten minutes afterwards I sat there, holding him in my arms, clutching his head to my chest. It took me quite a bit of internal coaxing to get myself to move. My limbs were like lead and my chest felt like someone put an anvil on it. I stumbled the first time I tried to get up. The second time I slid over to the wall and sort of climbed up it to stand. When I grabbed Reta off the floor, I didn’t put her back in the holster. I was going to hold her and then put one in Zero’s head as soon as I walked into his office.

As I started walking toward the elevator I heard the six guards there. I forgot about them. They were milling around, trying to contact Henderson. They never saw me coming. I dropped two of them with headshots. I caught the third three times in the chest. I shot a fourth in the four then in the neck. The fifth and sixth were the only ones who got shots off. One bullet grazed my left arm but I didn’t feel it. The other buzzed by ear. Neither was shot from the machine guns. I blew out the kneecap of the fifth one and put a bullet between the eyes of the sixth. The fifth guy was still alive and started to crawl for his fallen gun. I turned and emptied the rest of the clip into the back of his head, splattering it into pulp.

I dropped all of them in less than a minute. A new personal best.

I expelled my empty clip as I walked toward the elevator and loaded a new one as I pressed the button and waited.

_________________________________________________________________

This time in the great glass elevator, I pulled the hood down around my face.

I took a deep breath and chambered a round. It was game time now. I had one target: Zero. If Declan was indeed up there, he’d get the next bullet. There were some people who could not be left alive and he was one of them. I don’t care if he was my friend; he was too dangerous to be left running around. They called him a Dominator but he should be called a Violator. It was horrible what he did to people, getting into their minds like that, messing with their heads. What kind of sane person can do that?

The elevator ride was as slow as before but it gave me a chance to survey the damage. Looking through the glass, I could see everything. The damage didn’t look as bad I thought. There was a lot of smoke and I could clearly see fire. There was even one hallway that looked as if it collapsed. Some of the fire had even spread to the forest beyond. There were several trees burning. There were no fire trucks though. On our trip to the mall it was very clear that we were all on our own out here. As the elevator rose higher I could see mountains off in the distance and what I guessed as the Pacific way off out there. It would have been a pretty sight if not for the circumstances.

The elevator finally reached the top.

Here goes, its reckoning time.

When the door opened, I slipped into the outer office, gun at the ready, expecting an ambush. But there was none. The room was quiet and dark. Well not dark for me. I scanned it very slowly and carefully. Everything was exactly the same as before except the secretary, she was nowhere in sight. Might be a good idea. I walked by the wall of flower pots but the smell didn’t get me this time. My nose was much more trained now, more fine tuned. No hindrances today.

I went to the secretary’s desk and buzzed myself in. I took another deep breath. God I take a lot of those. The double doors slowly opened and Zero’s office stood before. I stepped into the room quickly, pointing Reta at the big desk. The chair was turned around, facing the window, the back to me.

“Turn around you son of a bitch”

At first the chair did nothing. Then ever so slowly it began to turn. I felt a bit lightheaded for a second but it passed. What didn’t pass was what I saw in the chair. I nearly dropped my gun. He was smiling at me, sitting there with a candy bar in one hand and waving with the other. How can this be? It wasn’t possible; it had to be some kind of trick? Declan must have got me.

“Who the hell are you?”

I snapped Reta back up, training it at the person sitting in Zero’s chair.

“Ummm... You ok Ricky”

The voice nearly melted me. Once again I almost dropped Reta.

It was Dell but that wasn’t possible. He was dead, I saw him killed. Some black suited son of a bitch slit his throat and stood there over him as he gargled and died. I don’t know who this was in front of me but it wasn’t Dell. It had to be a trick. I looked left and right, even starting slapping my body all over, to see if there were any hands touching me.

“You’re not Dell” I finally found my voice and it was angry.

I snapped Reta up for a third time.

The imposter got out of Zero’s chair and slowly walked around the desk. HE took a step toward me and I shot the ground. He jumped back, screeching. He dropped his candy bar. HE bent to pick it up and I shot him again. This time there was no bullet, in fact when I looked at my hands there was no Reta. What the fuck, where’s my gun? When I looked at Dell he picked not the candy bar up off the floor but Reta. Except this time it was a plastic gun. He pointed it at me and a spray of water hit me in the face.

Son of a bitch.

I reached for my wrist scabbard, going for a throwing star. But they were gone too, replaced my white daisies.

“What kind of game are we playing, Ricky?”

“I’m not Ricky and you’re not Dell”

He laughed and pointed at me. “Of course you’re Ricky, who else would you be”

I realized he wasn’t pointing at me but a mirror behind me. I turned around and nearly died. Well actually I did but only as Becca. In the mirror, reflecting back at me was Rick. Me or rather the former me. I was the same as the day of the change: short, shoulder length reddish hair, grubby clothes from out weeks on the streets. I reached up and touched my face. I wasn’t just Rick in the mirror, I was him for real. I should have been happy; I should have jumped for joy. But I didn’t and I wasn’t. Rick was dead; he died with Dell and Johnny. I was Rebecca Howe and I wanted to be Rebecca Howe for the rest of my life. I had a great boyfriend, fantastic best friends and a true purpose in life. Rick he was a nobody. He lived a dull existence and had no friends. Well except for Dell.

“That isn’t me” I said angrily.

I snapped around. Dell was standing close, too close. HE was holding his candy bar again, like it was something dangerous.

“You’re confused Rick. Everything was a dream. We’re awake now, you and me. We can leave the others and go our own way. I have an uncle a few states over, he owns a farm. Didn’t you once tell me you wanted to live on a farm?”

I remembered that conversation. Dell and I were young and we were talking about the ideal family to adopt us. Dell wanted to be adopted by spies but I wanted to live on a farm. I used to have this thing for horses. I always wanted a pony when I was younger. I was going to call her Buttercup. I know it’s not something a little boy would name his pony but it was what I wanted. It was a dream. They were dreams, our dreams.

“How do you know about that?”

“I know because you told me”

He got closer but I took a step back. I balled my hands into fists, calling upon my Krav Maga training. But it wasn’t there. I tried to find it but I drew a blank. It was like someone erased it from my mind or they were blocking it? I felt a wave of dizziness again, but it wasn’t as strong as before. That was it; there was someone in my head. But not Declan, I’m sure it wasn’t Declan.

“BECCA!” A loud voice shouted in my ear.

It was Mattie. How could she have known?

“Becca, can you hear me?” Her voice was a whisper now.

I snapped twice.

‘They can mess with your mind all they want” she said “but not your ears. Listen to the sound of my voice and use it as an anchor”

Her voice was strong, stronger than it had ever been. I reached out and grabbed a hold of it as if it was a hand grasping for me. I grabbed that hand and it pulled. It pulled hard and I didn’t let go. I felt the dizziness pushing against me, I felt the Control trying to pull me back. But I was stronger, Mattie was stronger. She kept calling my name over and over again. I called her name and the dizziness was gone.

It was replaced by a scream.

The room was different. I started to pant heavily, looking around. It was still Zero’s office but the man himself was nowhere in sight. Instead there were four people. Over by the desk stood Declan (Frankie). He had Barry and Chloe in front of him, his hands on both their shoulders. Standing in front of me was a girl I’d never seen before. She was wearing a black dress and spider stockings. There was a stud in her nose and her face was done up in black makeup. She looked like the anti-me, especially with her bright red hair. In her hand, where Dell’s candy bar had been was a knife.

Who the hell was this girl?

Declan smiled. “I’m really impressed Shrimp, there’s very few people who can break a hold like that. I’d clap for you but you can see I’ve got my hands full”

He was smug. He was dressed in a black suit, his hair slicked back. He looked like a Junior Mr. Green. Stuck in his waistband was a gun, I recognized it as a Desert Eagle. It was one bad ass pistol. It would definitely hurt if he shot me with it and no amount of pain suppression could remedy the nice hole in my chest.

‘What the hell kind of sick game are you playing?”

He smiled. “A rather entertaining one actually” he said, moving a few steps, making Barry and Chloe step with him.

They had blank looks on their faces. Their eyes stared at me but it was like they weren’t seeing. They were kind of glassy. Declan was like some kind of twisted puppet master. It made me sick. It also confused the hell out of me. How could Zero let him traipse around in his office like this? Clearly the big man wasn’t here. But I could have sworn that I saw him? But maybe I didn’t, maybe it was this girl I saw.

“Scarlet why don’t you step away from my friend, she’s got a nasty trigger finger”

The girl, Scarlet, curled her lip at me and slowly backed away.

Declan leaned forward and spoke into Chloe’s ear: “Get the gun for me, sweetheart”

Chloe raised her hand. I felt the tug and pull. Reta was yanked out of my hand and floated into hers. It was so fast and precise. How the hell had she’d done it. Chloe could barely move a tray before. Now she was like Super Magnet Girl or something (ok so I’m not going to be picking out the superhero names). But the Chloe I knew could never had done what she just did.

“What did you do to her?”

“Nothing. I just tapped into that hidden potential of hers, the one she’s too afraid to use. It’s a shame really because she was a great B-Ball player. She had such great confidence as a guy and now look at her. She tried to kill herself, twice”

Chloe started to drool. Declan and Scarlet laughed.

I weighed my options but there was nothing I could do without him hurting my friends. I was screwed as long as they were still in the picture. The only option I had left was to take them out of the equation first.

“So what’s this all about, Declan?”

“Frankie” he snapped “my name is Frankie”

I smiled slightly. I found the raw nerve. Good, now I can use it against him.

His eyes narrowed. “Scarlet get her again but make it stronger this time”

The girl looked at me and back at Declan. “I can’t, you know that”

“You did it before”

‘That was different, he was already dead”

Dead, who was dead? I looked around the room and finally realized why Zero wasn’t here.

“Where’s Zero?”

Declan smiled smugly. “Mr. Zarkov isn’t here right now. Tonight the Head of Section Four will be played by the dashing rogue, Declan St. James”

I scoffed. St. James, he had to be kidding. It sounded like a soap opera name. In fact I was pretty sure it was. What a fricking douche. But there were more important things to think about. Zarkov must have been Zero but what the hell was Section Four. I so wanted to kill these two but first I needed answers. I asked my two questions and Declan’s smile grew.

“Peter Zarkov” he said as he sat on the edge of Zero’s desk, keeping his hands on my friends. “He and Mr. Zero are one in the same. He used to work for the Syndicate, he was head of…well I’m not really sure what he did. But he was Manager of this place or at least he used to be”

It was clear the two of them killed Zero or Zarkov or whoever the hell he was.

“I’m assuming this is Section Four?”

Declan nodded. “I’m not sure how many of them there are. I’ve only been to one or two myself. There’s one in the desert somewhere, Arizona or New Mexico or something like that. There’s also one in Maine, I’ve been to both of those”

He pointed at Scarlet. “That’s where I met her. She and I are kindred spirits”

Scarlet scoffed. She looked at me; apparently she liked to hear herself talk too. “He thinks he’s like me. But he’s only a Level Two” She put her hands on her hips. “His skill is nothing compared to mine, I’m sure you figured that out the hard way”

Great another Dominator. But she did it without touching me. I’m not sure exactly what she did but it had something to do with illusions. She must be able to tap into minds, how else could she have turned into Dell and knew stuff that only he and I knew.

She turned back to him. “Tell her the best part, my love”

Declan smiled some more. “Zarkov has been dead for three months”

He let that set in. How the hell was that possible? I talked to Zero a couple of weeks ago. I sat in that chair over there and he gave me some crazy ass speech. Then it dawned on me. It wasn’t Zero; it was her, Little Miss Mirage. Somehow she must have tapped into my mind and made herself appear as Zero. God that was freaky.

“We killed him” she said, sauntering around the room. “Well actually I killed him. Dec doesn’t like to get those pretty manicured hands of his all dirty”

He glared at her.

She laughed and continued talking. “We took over after that. We took turns being the boss. Dec’s a master at being in charge. He likes it I think, bossing these insects around, making them jump through hoops”

She ran one of her long nails across my cheek as she passed by. “I mean, he sure had fun with you”

Declan growled through his teeth: “Nobody likes spoilers sweetheart”

She laughed. She was really starting to piss me off.

She was still standing in front of me. She placed her hands on my shoulders and leaned in real close. I could smell her perfume: it was Au de Le Slut. She leaned forward and kissed me. Not on the cheek either but right on the lips. When our lips touched, it was like kissing an ashtray. She tried to force her tongue into my mouth but I wouldn’t let her. Instead I kneed her in the ribcage. She gasped, stumbling backwards. I swung with a quick left, connecting with the side of her head and sending her sprawling across the floor.

She banged into the desk.

Declan laughed. “I told you to get away from her”

Scarlet sat up, rubbing her face. Then she licked the blood from her lips and blew me a kiss. What the hell was wrong with this chick? She used the desk and pulled herself back to her feet. But she didn’t pace around the room anymore. She sat on the edge of the desk, looking like a gangster’s moll.

“You can’t blame her” he said with a smirk “you turned out absolutely beautiful. I couldn’t believe it the first time I saw you in the medical room. You were an absolutely knock out, it gave me a hard on”

I scoffed. “I bet you just loved that Dec”

He growled again. “I hated it. I hate everything about this”

He pointed down at his crotch. “Men are disgusting, vile creatures. I can stand how anyone would ever want to be one. Every time I look at myself in the mirror I want to puke. I don’t know how you did it for all those years”

“So why not change it. There are things called sex changes, you ever heard of those?”

He laughed. “I wouldn’t be the same. I’d be different. Daddy doesn’t want me to be different; he wants me just like I was”

Daddy, who the hell was Daddy?

He caught his slip and smiled. “Cat’s out of the bag” He sighed. “I was going to wait for this part, you know until I was sure you were with me but there’s no point now. My name is Francesca Elizabeth Carson, only child of prominent computer software Guru Jason Dominic Carson. Daddy created the Syndicate especially for me”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

He sighed, shaking his head. “Stromberg was right. All the kids here and all the others elsewhere, you’re all rats, rats for me. Daddy’s convinced that one of you, one of the special hundreds out there, holds the key to my salvation”

I tried to remember anything coherent out of Dr. S’ last ramblings. The only real thing that made sense was a cure and that was just plain crazy. But as I looked at Declan, listened to all the girly inflictions in his voice, the way he referred to his father as “Daddy” I realized there was nothing crazy about it.

“He’s looking for a cure?”

Declan smiled. “He thinks there’s someone out there with it. He’s convinced that one of you have some kind of ability that can help him unlock the secrets of the water and reverse what was done to me”

I shook my head. “That’s crazy”

Declan nodded. “That’s what I told him. But he didn’t listen. Then I tried to tell him what Zero was doing here. This place is the Behavioral Control center of the Syndicate. Those chips, the BMCs, their sole purpose is to make all of you more docile and controllable guinea pigs. But Zero had other plans. He started to use them to make soldiers”

“The Deviants?”

“When I found out, I tried to tell Daddy but he wouldn’t listen to me. He just wants his little princess back. So I took matters into my own hands. About three months ago, Scarlet and I cornered Zero in this vey office and stabbed him to death. It was absolutely beautiful. After that Scarlet used her gift and became Zero. No one was the wiser”

“And the Colors?”

“At our beck and call. They did anything we asked them too, including getting frisky with certain people”

Those sick fucking bastards. I was going to kill them and then shoot their dead bodies.

“Why do it? Why take over in the first place?”

“This is the good part” Said Scarlet with a laugh.

“We don’t belong here. WE belong out there with everyone else. Why should we allow them to dictate what we’re supposed to live and what we’re supposed to do? I’m trying to help our kind, all of us. We Emerged need to stick together”

“So you’re building an army then?”

He shook his head. “Not an Army, a Coalition”

“That’s crazy”

He didn’t like one bit. He almost slammed his fists on the desk but doing so would have freed Barry and Chloe. Instead he glared at me. I don’t think Daddy’s former little girl liked being told she was stupid. It was ridiculous. I looked at the person before me, my former friend, a person who’d liked to me for several months all the while he was waiting for me to start the Change. It was the only answer. He may have been there for Syndicate duty but what he was really doing was recruiting me.

“Why kill Dell and Johnny? Why take Joanie?”

Scarlet smiled at the mention of Joanie but I ignored her.

Declan shrugged. “Johnny was an ass, I happily pulled that trigger. Dell was unfortunate. He may have been a Norm but he was a good kid. As for Joanie” He looked over at Scarlet. ‘She was on my side from the beginning, isn’t that right, sweetheart”

I looked at her. She smiled and waved. But it wasn’t possible. I knew Joanie long before I knew Frankie. I looked at her and she shook her head.

Declan laughed. ‘It's amazing what you can do with a little mind control. Did you know we weren’t on the run for six months; it was actually about a week. Did you also know that a little suggestion and tweak and a new person can be created”

“You were such a sweet little boy Ricky” said Scarlet as she blew me a kiss.

Joanie, this slut was Joanie?

That’s it. I looked about, trying to figure out the odds of attack. I could take Scarlet. Didn’t she say she could only do her thing once? Declan would be a problem but only if he got his hands on me. My biggest worry was Barry and Chloe. If I tried something there was a possibly that he might make them hurt themselves. I couldn’t let that happen so whatever I did I would have to do it fast.

Declan seemed to read my mind. His eyes narrowed.

He whispered into my friends ears but I heard him: “Kill her”

Scarlet was first. She came at me with her knife. She was pretty good with it too. I pulled my own from my belt and deflected her first slash long before it reached me. She kept slashing after that and I kept dodging. I threw off slice after slice. While she kept me preoccupied, Barry came from the side. HE was like a lethal zombie. He came at me with everything he had. First it was Krav Maga. HE was a fury of punches and kicks. It would have worked perfectly for him if not for Scarlet. She was a lousy fighter but a very good shield. For me. I moved and let her get between the two of us. Declan seemed to figure it out.

Chloe was still standing next to him, still holding Reta.

Declan snatched the Beretta from her hand. I’m not sure if he was frustrated or just plain bored with her. But he took aim at Scarlet’s head and fired. It was a clean shot, right into her right temple. Scarlet never saw it coming. There was no mess, just a little hole and she dropped to the ground. It was like watching someone pull the key of a life-size walking slut doll.

“The bitch outweighed her usefulness” he said. “I have an opening if you’re interested”

“Go finger yourself” I said smugly. Then smiled. “Oh wait, you can’t”

That seemed to piss him off. He turned the gun away from me and at Barry. I saw Barry come out of it, Declan’s control now gone. He blinked and looked a little confused. Our eyes met and then Declan pulled the trigger. Declan was shocked and confused because usually this was the part where Barry died. But nothing happened. I turned to him and smiled smugly, reaching into my pocket and taking out the clip. I waved it in the air. There was only one bullet in the chamber, the one I put in there in the elevator. Don’t forget I’m an excellent shot and only needed one bullet.

Declan screamed and lunged at Chloe. The bastard knew I’d kill him if he went after me. So he was a coward and went after my defenseless friends. HE went from her throat and I went for him.

He was closer but I got there first. Well actually my throwing star did. It hit him in the shoulder. He screamed in pain, knocking into Chloe as he stumbled forward. I pulled Chloe’s arm before he took her down with him. He slammed head first into the wall. But it didn’t knock him unconscious like I thought it might. Instead he got to his feet and laughed, spitting blood out of his mouth.

“You can’t win against me” he said as he stood against the wall, panting. “I’m Francesca Carson”

“No” I said as I threw my knife. “You were Francesca Carson”

I didn’t kill him. I could have but in the end my conscience got the better of me. The blade hit him in the palm, pinning his hand to the wall. He screamed louder than before. I closed the distance quickly as he recovered and reached for the knife, trying to pull it out. I punched him in the face, breaking his nose. It wasn’t a very strong punch but let’s face he was always a wimp. It dropped him like a sack of potatoes. He sagged forward, hanging by his hand.

“What the hell just happened?”

I turned around as Barry looked around the room, very confused. He looked at dead Scarlet, unconscious Declan and still zombie dazed Chloe. Then he looked at me. He cocked his head, trying to figure it out. I rushed forward and threw my arms around his neck, kissing him like the first time but only ten times better.

When I pulled away I asked him if he was all right.

“I don’t know. What the hell happened to me?”

“Long story. Let’s just say that Declan is a former spoiled little princess and leave it at that”

Chloe came out of it a few seconds later and was just as confused as Barry. I didn’t bother to explain it to her either. Instead I told Barry to shut off the Lock down, the reason we were here in the first place. He ran to Zero’s desk and accessed his computer. He typed away quickly. It didn’t take him long, just like I thought.

An alarm sounded like before and that was it.

“Now let’s get the hell out of here”

Photo Credit: MeetMeByTheLake2Nite

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