A/N: Hope you enjoy this chapter! Please, don't forget to review!
The scent of something metallic filled the air as a young woman ran down cobblestone streets. Her breathing was labored, but somehow she knew in her gut that she could not slow down. The woman saw an alcove; a place to hide. She quickly slipped off of the street and hide in the shadows, trying to quiet her breathing.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," a voice said with an evil tone.
The woman could just sense the smirk that was most definitely on the man's face.
"Come out little birdie, come out and play with the big cat," the voice said, sounding louder and louder.
Just then a hand reached out and grabbed the young woman, covering her mouth and preventing a scream.
"There you are," the man whispered in her ear. "Now what to do with you…You've cause too much trouble…"
The woman held her breath, and used her free hand to claw at the wall, looking for a loose brick to pull out.
"Afraid, little birdie?" the man asked.
He lifted his hand just a little without realizing and the woman took her chance.
"In. Your. Dreams." She replied, bringing her hand up and hitting him in the head with a brick. "I am not afraid you and I never will be."
The woman dropped the brick and started running for safety. When she turned the corner of the street tough, she was staring at yet another man, who was pointing a handgun straight at her face.
"Not so fast," the man said darkly.
Imogen sat bolt upright in her bed; heart pounding at what felt like a mile a minute. Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she got out of her bed and after getting dressed, made her way out the room for the day. She felt confident today, like she could somehow do anything that she wanted to do, or set her mind to. The thing was she had no idea what would have brought this on, especially after last night, and her argument with Birkhoff.
Shaking her head, Imogen sat down at the table with her breakfast and began to eat in silence. That is she was in silence up until Thom and Alex sat down at the same table.
"So Imogen," said Alex. "When's your evaluation?"
"I don't know," she replied. "I just woke up so I haven't found out yet."
"They told me right away," Alex said.
"That's nice," Imogen said. "But like I said, I only just woke up."
Taking an apple, Imogen got up from the table and made her way out of the dining area, but not before saying "See you later" to Thom and Alex. Imogen walked towards the computer lab and immediately sat down at her regular computer. Once she turned it on, there seemed to be an odd message on the screen, directed at her.
Immy,
Computer lab around lunchtime.
-B
Imogen quickly closed the message as she heard footsteps coming towards the lab.
"Amanda would like to see you," a guard said to her.
She turned off the computer, and walked out of the room, passing the other recruits and Birkhoff on the way. There was a questioning look in Birkhoff's eyes; he wanted to know if she had seen the message. With a curt nod of her head, she let him know that she had indeed seen the message. She then continued on her way to see Amanda.
On her way there, Imogen thought of reasons why Amanda would want to see her. She came to the conclusion that it was going to simply be to tell her the time of her evaluation. Finally arriving at Amanda's office, she pushed open the door and stepped inside.
"Welcome Imogen," said Amanda, sitting on a chair.
"You called for me?" she asked.
"I did," Amanda replied. "Please sit down."
Imogen moved to sit across from Amanda on the couch, and once she did, Amanda poured two cups of tea.
"Drink," she said.
Not wanting to get in trouble, Imogen picked up her cup and drank the tea, even though she detested the taste. Give her something sweet any day, but never tea.
"You must be wondering why I called you in today," Amanda said, setting down her cup of tea.
"I did think about it on the way here, yes," Imogen answered.
"As you know, some of the recruits are going through an evaluation today," Amanda continued. "They are going to interrogate a prisoner that we just brought in."
"I see," Imogen said, trying to seem polite.
"You have not received word about your evaluation yet, have you?" Amanda asked.
"No I have not," she responded.
"I just wanted to inform you that you will be interrogating a Chinese man today, about halfway through your lunchtime," Amanda said.
Imogen knew enough to just nod and agree in response, and not reveal that she knew that Alex and a couple other recruits were interrogating a different prisoner. Why was she, Imogen, being treated differently? She was also smart enough not to reveal that she was supposed to go somewhere else during lunch.
"You may go now," Amanda said, interrupting Imogen's thoughts.
"Thank you," she replied, and exited the room.
I'll just have to go there and tell Birkhoff that I can't talk and need to go to my evaluation. That should be ok…right? She thought to herself.
Imogen walked into the computer lab near the beginning of lunch. A few minutes earlier she had seen Alex going off for her evaluation; so Imogen knew that she only had limited time to talk to Birkhoff before she herself had to go.
"Hello Birkhoff," she said, a little stiffly.
"Hey," he replied, getting up from his desk and walking towards her.
"What did you want me here for?" she asked.
"I just wanted to say sorry," he answered. "For last night…I'm sorry that I kept pestering you. I'm just worried; that's all."
"Don't worry about me," she said, softening just a tad. "I'm perfectly fine."
"Also, I just wanted you to know that…if you ever weren't okay and you needed someone to talk to…" he said. "You can talk to me."
"Alright," she said.
"Friends?" he asked.
"Friends," she whispered.
A minute or so passed with the two of them just standing there, looking at each other but not saying a word. Birkhoff's arm twitched, like he wanted to reach out to her and grab her hand or something. Imogen shook her head, getting that thought out or her mind, blinked, and then looked up at the clock.
"I have to go now," she said. "I've got my evaluation in ten minutes."
"See you later?" he asked.
"Goodbye B," she said, and then Imogen turned and left the room, leaving Birkhoff there on his own.
"Alright Imogen," said Amanda. "This man is a part of a drug smuggling ring. Problem is, he is not one of the 'big fish', so to speak."
"You want me to get the names of the leaders?" she asked.
"Exactly," Amanda replied. As she handed Imogen a tablet computer, she continued talking. "This is all of the information that we have. Use it well in there."
"Alright," Imogen said, nodding.
"Try not to fail; remember that this is an evaluation," said Amanda. "Before you go in I have one more thing for you. This is the remote that will trigger the electrocution device we have attached to this man."
"Negative motivation," Imogen said, staring down at the remote in her hand.
"Exactly," Amanda said, before turning and walking back down the hall.
Imogen took a deep breath, clutched the tablet to her chest and clenched the remote in her fist. She opened the door and stepped inside. She was facing a Chinese man, like Amanda said, who looked to be in his mid thirties. He had wires coming from various places on his body. There was one on each side of his head, and about four on his chest.
"You are interrogating me?" he said incredulously.
"Got a problem with that?" she asked harshly.
"You seem a bit young," the man replied.
"I'm twenty three, asshole. I think that I am perfectly capable of this," she said, walking around the room.
"I disagree," he said. "You don't have much power here, I can tell."
"I have enough," she said.
"Really?" he asked. "Prove it."
"You're an only child and your mother and father died years ago, otherwise you wouldn't be involved with this type of thing. You are part of a drug smuggling ring called the Black Dragon. You're only a middle member. They tell you some information, but not enough in your opinion. You think that they should trust you more and let you up higher in their ranks." She said. "What I do know is that you know the names of all the high-ranking members. I want names and locations. You have nothing else to live for; no wife, no girlfriend, no one. You'll be put in jail for the rest of your miserable life if you don't give up this information. If you do, I will personally make sure that you are cut a deal. You could lessen the punishment on yourself, wouldn't you like that?"
The man in the chair just stared straight ahead, directly at the door, and did not respond to Imogen's interrogation. Imogen put down the tablet onto the other chair the room, and moved closer to the prisoner.
"This remote in my hand, should I press the button, will trigger an electrical shock straight to your chest and your brain. It won't kill you, not right away, but it will hurt like hell. Do you want that?" she said, an angry tone in her voice.
"Try me," the man said.
Imogen could tell that he was goading her, and as much as she didn't want to press the button, she knew that she would have to. She thought about it in her head, and came to the conclusion that since it wouldn't kill him….she would be fine. Her finger hovered over the button for a moment, not quite pressing down on it.
"You have one last chance. You tell me what I want to know, and I won't press the button," she said, looking at the man straight in the eyes.
The man just stared straight back at her; his confidence wasn't shaken a bit. He didn't think that she would press the button, Imogen realized. She slid her finger over the button one more time, and then pressed down hard on it. The man in the chair convulsed a little bit, but did not scream at all.
Imogen, steeling herself, increased the volts of the device and pressed the button again. She knew how much it was hurting the man, she had been electrocuted in the past, but she had to do it. She knew that. They would punish her if she didn't and Imogen could not let that happen. She wasn't afraid of them anymore, but she still needed to get through this if she was going to take her father's killers down.
When Imogen looked down at the remote again, she saw how high the next level would be. It would start to cause some serious damage and she didn't know if she could do that to him. She stood there, looking at him for a moment, hesitating.
"You ready to give up the information?" she asked.
The man glared at her, and then spit in her face. Imogen raised her hand and wrapped it around the guy's throat.
"Don't you ever do that again," she said, then released his throat.
She turned around and walked away from the man. She knew that she would be expected to continue the electrocution, but after a few minutes, Imogen realized that she couldn't do it. She looked up at the camera in the corner of the room briefly, and then heard Amanda's voice in her ear.
"You may go now Imogen, I'll take it from here," she said.
Imogen turned and looked at the man one last time. He glared back at her, and then she left the room
Imogen was in the training room with the other recruits when Michael came down the stairs.
"Everybody listen up!" he said. "You'll spend today's tactics lesson handling sniper rifles. But…here's the rub. You'll be at one of our offsite training grounds. The bus leaves in thirty minutes so gear up…and bring you're A game."
As soon as Michael left, Imogen rushed out and headed towards the showers. She knew how to handle sniper rifles, though she had never had any practice with them outside of Division. Then again, the other recruits would not have had much, if any, practice either.
Thirty minutes later, and Imogen was sitting on the bus. The windows were all black out so it was pointless to have grabbed a window seat, but she liked it anyways. She just imagined what be outside the windows. Rolling hills maybe, and trees. She hadn't seen the outside world since her mission, and that wasn't much either. She knew that they weren't in the city; she couldn't hear the sounds.
Just then Imogen was thrown forward into the seat in front of her and she heard a loud noise and a crash.
"Everybody get down!" one of the guards yelled.
Imogen ducked under the seat and curled up on the floor, seconds before a large number of bullets began flying through the air and pierced the windows and killing the guards. Masked people stormed the bus and one of them yelled out, "Everybody off now!"
Imogen got up and walked into the aisle, punching one of them in the face. Sadly, she didn't notice that there was one behind her. That one hit her over the head, and placed a weird smelling cloth over her mouth. Imogen suddenly felt dizzy and then the whole world went black.
muahahaha! Cliffhanger! Again, please review, it makes my day!