A hard choice.
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I am not associated with Kyle XY. All characters and events are fictional. US President's party affiliation is largely for dramatic purposes – it is not meant to endorse either party.
Jessi Trager. 14 minutes into the UN hostage crisis.
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"This is an extremely well fortified facility Jessi. We need a plan." Declan said driving towards Amanda's location "Jessi!"
"What…" Jessi woke up
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, it's a trick I learned from Kyle. Meditation allows my wounds to heal faster… It is a bit draining on my mental energy though." She got a mild headache, but the bullet wounds were no longer bothering her.
"Don't you need mental energy to save Amanda?"
"I have 6 guns and 245 bullets. I don't need Kyle's Jedi mind tricks to do this."
Declan shook his head. Jessi scared him a little. She shuddered to think what would happen if she was ever working with the bad guys. "Fine. What do you need me to do?"
"Saving Amanda will be easy; if we are to retake the UN we are going to need some serious firepower."
"I liked you better when you were modest." Declan chuckled
Sarah XX. 14 minutes into the UN hostage crisis.
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Sarah was watching the TV in awe. She realized that whatever she was doing facilitated one of the biggest terror attacks on US soil. The brotherhood infiltrated every branch of US military, the secret service… everything. There was in fact only one person who for sure wasn´t a member of the brotherhood. The one who stalked the leadership of the Brotherhood in their nightmares. The one they all feared. XX. There was only one note-worthy mention of XX she found. She was a prisoner of the CIA, released into Kyle Trager´s custody. Sarah will have to find her…
"Hey you are not supposed to be watching that!" one of the guards approached her angrily
"It is nothing to be worried about." She said staring the guard in the eyes
Her green eyes were staring deep into his soul.
"It's probably nothing." The guard agreed sheepishly and went back to his post.
Kyle Trager was an impressive man. In the entire UN general assembly he was the only person who stood up to the brotherhood assault team. When they threatened to kill hostages he put down his gun. But he was never afraid, he kept talking about freedom, about democracy, and some other stuff she did not understand. Sarah was watching him live with her mouth open…
Kyle Trager. 15 minutes into the UN hostage crisis.
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Life comes down to choices. Some choices are simple – how to treat those around you, whether or not to help a friend in need, what to get your wife for her birthday. When I was younger, I used to get worried about the little things, but now I held another person's life in my hands. It all started that fateful night more than five years ago…
Flashback.
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Kyle was pacing back and forth in front of a fancy restaurant. He was wearing a white button down shirt, a pair of slacks and a pair of his fanciest shoes. In his hands he held a bucket of roses.
"Waiting for someone pumpkin?" Hillary walked out of a nearby coffee shop
"I am worried. Jessi is 17 minutes 24 seconds late…"
"Obsessive compulsive much…" Hillary thought to herself
"Oh don't worry. The girl is crazy about you." She said with a trace of sadness. All the good ones were taken.
"Really?" A bright smile lit up Kyle's face
"Of course muffin. You are her prince charming…" she said dreamily "…or anyone's prince charming" she thought to herself. "You'll live happily ever after…"
"Thank you Hillary." He said reassured "I think I better call her."
…………………………………
2 hours later Kyle left 16 messages on Jessi's cell phone, as well as contacted all their common friends. Jessi was nowhere to be found.
"You are still here honey bun?" Hillary was walking out with a group of friends
"Nobody knows where she is…" Kyle said looking miserable
"So you got stood up, it happens to the best of us." She walked over and hugged him "There are other girls out there, you know."
"I don't want other girls…" he said quietly "…I wanted today to be special…"
"Special?"
Without saying another word, Kyle took a little box out of his pocket. Inside was an engagement ring with a rather large diamond in it.
"Wow…" Hillary was impressed admiring the ring "…this must have cost you a fortune…"
"I went to Las Vegas last weekend; poker comes down to rudimentary probability and recognizing emotional responses of people…" Kyle stopped; he didn't want to tell Hillary his secret. "…I am pretty good at it…" he said dismissively
"Well then go find her!" Hillary said amazed Kyle was content to just stand there. "Live your fairy tale!"
"I will not ask you again Nate!" Kyle was getting physical. "Where is Jessi?"
"She is not coming back!" Nathan said defiantly "That bitch shouldn't have poked her nose in Latnok's business…" a blow to right below the rib-cage took the air out of Nate's lungs and rendered him speechless.
"You will address her with respect!" Kyle responded putting his hand on Nate's neck "I am warning you!"
"Oh you are going to love this!" Nate really hated Kyle, and he was assured that Kyle was harmless. He wanted Kyle to suffer. "We captured her with a barrage of rubber bullets. That shit must have hurt, her face was a bloody mess, and the rest of her body was covered in bruises" Nathan was staring at Kyle, whose eyes were flooded with anger. "Then we strapped her to one of those mind-wipe chairs Madacorp designed…" Nate continued, not noticing the cracks that were appearing in the windows and the light fluctuations. "10 thousand volts every time she moved or tried to resist were keeping her subdued…" Nate's heart started beating faster… a lot faster from the adrenaline, or so he thought. "Now your little girlfriend turned out to be more trouble then she is worth – once most of the information was downloaded from her brain, the computers short-circuited and the fire started…"
Kyle was gasping for air, as if he was the one burned alive. His anger was taking over…
"What happened to her…" he was making quite an effort not to snap Nate's neck in half
"We left her there of course… I doubt she…" Nathan stopped from a chest pain overwhelming his senses. His Aorta has burst from the blood pressure… Kyle threw the lifeless body away and hurried to Madacorp. By the time he got there, the building has been utterly destroyed – Latnok made sure to wipe all the evidence with a gratuitous use of explosives on the bottom floor of an already burning building. As result not even distinct body parts were recovered. Just DNA traces… one of which matched Jessi.
Holographic memory is gift, but it can also be a curse. I have tried to forget the things I have done in the few months following that night. But they will forever haunt me in my dreams…
………………………………………..
I have never admitted it to anyone except Declan, but I have taken a life before. And perhaps, perhaps killing those terrorists would have been the right thing to do… But all these hostages, these innocent men and women would stand in the way. With just one gun and 12 bullets in it I would stand little to no chance. Reluctantly I put down my gun.
"You got what you wanted." Kyle said "Now stop hurting people."
The leader took his gun away from Kyle and immediately hit him in the face with the metal part. As Kyle was disoriented, another hit in the stomach followed.
"You are lucky we still need you Dr. Trager." The leader said and motioned a few of his men to escort Kyle away.
President Brown. 30 minutes into the UN hostage crisis.
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President Brown was running through the building with a dozen men of his security detail. Once they reached the panic room, one of the agents keyed in the code, sealing them from the outside world. Suddenly four of the Secret Service agents who were inside the room with him opened fire on the rest. Before the agents could react, only 4 traitors were standing.
"President Brown…" a shadowy figure in the back of the room said "…it is so nice to finally meet you."
"Who are you?" the president asked still in awe of the killings
"I am the Grand Archont of the brotherhood – the leader, if you will."
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"It doesn't matter what you do with me. You are not getting out of this building alive!" Brown said with bravado of youth. "You may have staged this attack, but the entire force of the United States military will come down on you…"
"Mr. President your military is impressive, of course. Once they know you are safe, they will storm this facility and secure it at the expense of a few dozen hostages. The media will declare this a victory against terror." The Archont stared at the president watching for his reaction
"Sounds like a horrible plan for you to be honest." The president smirked
"I didn't finish. You will walk out of here a hero, your popularity will go through the roof, and you will wipe your feet at the legislative agenda of the Democrats."
"Now I am intrigued…"
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"You will have the political power and the outcry to enact any laws you want. Of course you would need an advisor to help you guide the country on the right path. Luckily I am available…"
"So all this for a job interview? A bit extreme don't you think?" Brown tried to keep his cool. If he is going down, he will do so in style. "The question is…"
"Once you don't have four guns pointed at you, what would prevent you from sending me and my associates to an offshore prison where your secret service will do very unpleasant and very illegal things to me?" He asked and motioned the agents. They grabbed Brown and held him tightly.
"Right"
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"Well besides it being illegal and immoral, as your friend there would say…" Archont pointed at Kyle who was taken from the main hall by several of the attackers. President wondered if his differences with Trager were as irrevocable as he originally thought.
Let's face it, Kyle's kung-fu moves were pretty badass, and he was the only one in the assembly with the stones to do something. Well, okay, the Costa Verde president tried to get difficult, but was subdued very quickly. And clearly the leader of the terrorists liked Kyle even less than he did, and had something very unpleasant planned for the 'genius'. "…we have a few tools to keep you on our side…"
With that the Archont pulled out a syringe and a helmet-looking thing with wiring all over it. The president tried to struggle, but it was in vain, the secret service agents held him motionless "…nobody can resist the treatment Mr. President. The more you struggle, the more it will hurt."
Kyle Trager. 7 hours 34 minutes into the UN hostage crisis.
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"Dr. Trager" one of the leader's of the attackers approached Kyle who was counseling a freaked out woman in a corner "Care to come with us."
"Fine." Kyle said and followed him to the main hall.
Once in the main hall, Kyle looked around. There were a lot of cameras pointed towards the podium. Many of the hostages were present as well.
"What is going on?"
"We are going to have a little demonstration." The leader said and motioned a few guards to bring forth a prisoner. The prisoner was wearing a baggy coat that concealed her form. She had handcuffs on her hands, and a baggy hat covering her face. "You are going to shoot her."
"I will do no such thing."
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"Dr. Trager, you have said that terror cannot intimidate 'the people'." He scoffed putting emphasis on people "…that you would never abandon your principles under a threat. Now you have a chance to prove it. We have captured your wife and child. Unless I instruct our brothers otherwise they will be dead in 30 minutes. And there is only 1 bullet in the gun, so don't get any ideas."
Kyle's eyes widened at the thought of his family in danger.
"In the more immediate future, we will kill these five hostages..." he pointed at the group with bags over their heads "as well as her if you fail to pull the trigger." "1 life or 8? It is a rather logical choice." The man told Kyle while turning to the cameras so he could be seen by the TV audiences.
Kyle raised a trembling hand with a gun and pointed it at the prisoner. "You want me to kill an innocent person to prove a point?"
"Innocent?" the girl raised her head abruptly knocking the hat on the floor. She looked at Kyle with those deep hazel eyes, and an air of defiance emanating from her very being "I am hardly innocent…"
"Jessi… "
Oh snap! Will Kyle shoot Jessi? Does Jessi have something up her sleeve? What happened when she tried to rescue Amanda? Review please!
