Chapter ten
Reggie learned her name was Nelly. She didn't let him speak and started her own story almost immediately. It was ridiculous, she even offered him a seat on his own couch, but he took it and said nothing. Her sentences came out wary and wiry and sometimes he'd a hard time to follow her.
Nelly worked for the DUP. That much was obvious. She started her speech with saying she came here in the name of the DUP. Much like a religious person would do when they came and rang your doorbell. Reggie had always slammed his front door closed in their faces, but it wasn't an option to do this with Nelly. She wasn't about to be denied and it became clear quite fast.
Nelly was a talker. Not once could he get a remark in or a comment. Nothing, nada, noppes. He felt like a kid getting lectured and in some way he was. She told him about conduits or how she preferred to call them: bio-terrorists. She didn't tell him a thing he didn't already know and he spaced out till she began about the invasion from just a few days back.
Her words were grand and so were her gestures. The small female waved around frantically and glared at him once in a while. She continued with her story about the danger the bio-terrorists brought them, like Reggie didn't know that already and how he could stop that.
His ears perked up at that part. He could stop them? In what for fantasy world did Nelly live in?
Then he understood. Understood why she didn't want him interrupting. If he knew they would come to that point in the end, he'd have ran. Far, far away, maybe to the house where Marcus lived. Marcus was the business man. Not Reggie Rowe. Never Reggie Rowe.
The Deal. She wanted the deal now.
The Deal being a shipping of a Mother Everlight. It wouldn't have a normal effect on an conduit. No it would burn the skin it was aimed on away. Till the bone, nothing left. Yet that was crazy, insane! They never tested the Mother Everlight. He was just there to guard and sometimes help, because Reggie did have brains. Ok, so maybe he helped a whole lot. Being one of the five to create the Mother Everlight ,even though that wasn't in his job description.
It was crazy, undoable. And why did this Nelly girl came to him?
He asked that, screamed through her stupid speech and she was rendered to silence. First she was shocked with his interruption, but he couldn't care less and kept repeating his question, louder and louder. Then she was annoyed, flicking he hair out of her face angrily and glaring at her and the last stage was giving in. With a sigh she answered his question. The reply he received wasn't the one he hoped for.
''They're dead, mister Rowe. They died by the hands of the bio-terrorists. It was a miracle you could get away, your colleges on this project died the moment one of the bio-terrorists made their building fall apart.''
She mentioned for him to follow her out and just then Reggie noticed the sirens that came from just outside his doors and the flashing lights. She hadn't come alone. She pulled at his arm, looked up at him and saw his devastating face. His hurt expression and then like she had to think about it, she added:
''I'm sorry for your lost.''
But Nelly wasn't sorry.
Cole smelt the DUP members before he saw them. The conduit was hidden in the shadows of an alleyway and from his place, if he peeked around the corner, he could see the house where his dear friend Reggie was located. First he saw one car, then two and then three. All where an hideous yellow with black striped, DUP painted on the side messily.
What did the service want with Reggie?
Or even better what did the service want with Nix 2.0?
As far as he knew the DUP didn't attack any of their citizens if they weren't conduits. Reggie wasn't an conduit, didn't even have a trace of the gen inside his veins. If he'd the gen somewhere, anywhere, Cole should've seen it. Feel it. He was god after all. But nothing, just the little red and white blood cells like every normal human, nothing more.
Why the hell were there three DUP cars parked in front of the man's house now then?
The beast watched with a hawk eye how Reggie was led to one of the cars by a small human female. She wasn't strong from what he could see so why wasn't he even trying to get loose? Maybe it was just that humans were natural cowards, he'd seen enough of it from his trip around the world. People who gave up their firstborns if it meant they weren't murdered, he still killed them of course, but that was another story. It showed what their real nature was and Cole didn't like it one bit.
Just then he noticed the guns all pointed at the poor human man.
Oh.
Oh.
Sometimes he forgot that humans weren't quite as instruct able as himself, but Trish and Zeke were examples of that. His heart constricted and his vision went foggy.
No. Don't think about that now.
He willed himself to get his head in the game and wait and watch what was going to happen.
Alexander wasn't so stupid to let the man leave his sight another time and sneaked after him. He was quiet, deadly, but he knew even if he'd the chance he never could take on the man. His arms bulged with muscle and his scars proved he'd taken down enough enemies himself. Besides the glimmering thing in his backpack made him uneasy. It wasn't a gun, it wasn't the right form, but what was it? He felt like he didn't really want to find out and he just followed slowly.
The DUP member had a feeling this man wasn't what he looked like. Sure he was absolutely a thug, but maybe also something more. Danger. He reeked of danger and somehow it called out to Alex. Just like the DUP job had done when he was faced with three year cell. Maybe the danger aspect of the job had played a big part in his choice too and had he just never thought about it.
Alexander liked danger, but only when he wasn't involved himself. Quite logical. If you were in life danger you also wouldn't just lay back and enjoy the moment now, would you? No, not any sane person would do that, but then again also no sane person would enjoy seeing others in death or alive situations. Alex did however and maybe that made him a little more insane than he would like to admit.
The man shot into an alleyway to the side and seemed to slink into the shadows. He certainly knew the rules of the street. Fade in was one everyone knew and followed. Don't stand out. Standing out, in the spotlight wasn't something good. Not here, not on the streets.
His mystery man suddenly jumped up in the air and a fiery glow appeared around his balled fists. He unwrapped his fingers and lines of orange electricity rushed from his palm. One of the lines glued itself to the building across the street, the other to a lantern. The man first pulled himself towards the lantern and not much later to the wall of the complex. Like it was nothing he landed on the roof with a thud. The orange lines dissolved and went up in smoke. He just jumped like two blocks. Two.
Oh.
Oh.
If you asked an insane man what he thought about that, his answer and that of Alex's would match almost a ninety percent.
That made it all just a little bit more interesting, but how the fuck was he going to get on that roof?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing happened. When Reggie was sitting safely in a car seat, the girl just took the place next to him on the back seat and gave a faint smile at the driver. The tires screeched when they speeded out of the street. Reggie hadn't taken his coat, because the pulse from his handy magnet still pulsed from inside the home.
Cole was a little disappointed he didn't get any action and shrugged. Undercover, he remembered himself. You're undercover. He flung one of his cables to the building and then to one of the streetlights. Two meant steady and the conduit liked steady.
It helped he'd done parkour in another life, because that seemed far longer ago than seven years. At least fifteen. He gripped the top of the house with his fingers, curled them around the brick wall and heaved himself up in the air. It was nothing anymore. Back in the day such a jump would mean his death, but now he could do it with ease and much, much more.
Like that one time he made his way over the volcano, straight over the hot, bubbling lava. He remembered the conduits who tried to stop him, but with one flick of his wrist those that tried were thrown in the lava themselves. He was the beast, god, if he wanted to do something, he damn well did. He launched himself with his thrusters over the magma and landed safely on two feet on the other side. He was the beast, god, he damn well knew what he was doing.
The vibrant pulse willed him to haste and he gave into the feeling.
Go. Hurried steps over the concrete of the roof and he searched for a way in.
Go. His way in was clear and out in the open. A smirk made its way on his face and he nodded. An chimney.
Go. Ho, ho, ho, children. He broke open the top, metal ducking in under his hands. Twisting and turning.
Go. Here is Santa!
Christmas would come early that year.