"The Class of 2012"
37. One Cell & Another
The Phisto Hub
They were just slightly dry by the time they passed into the Phisto Hub's atmosphere. They left behind their stolen ship, having decided that, if it was at all possible, they would find a way to return it to its previous owners, who were stranded on an island back on Mo Eeset.
"How do we find the others?" Mike asked. The place looked different this time, like it was later, and most everyone had gone away.
"If the Doctor isn't back yet, then they'll need to find a…" Gillian was saying, until Jaime held up his hand: hold on, be quiet, it said. He looked around.
"We're being watched," he spoke, his voice low. The others tried to look around, as discreetly as they could manage, which was achieved with varying levels of success and failure.
"Let's keep walking," Gillian suggested, "We might be able to draw them out."
"Alright, let's go this way," Jaime told them, and they started walking. Whoever was watching them would have to know that they knew they were being watched, but there was nothing to be done for it. Now the best they could do was to keep going, without giving any reason for them to make a move.
"Can you see them?" Brittany whispered, to no one in particular.
"No, but he's right," Alfred said. "There's someone, I can feel it."
"What if we draw them out?" Agnes asked. She didn't want to wait for them to have the upper hand.
"If that's what all of you want," Jaime replied. "You know what might happen once they're not hiding anymore."
"They're going to come at us anyway, right?" Puck shrugged. "I say we get on with it."
"Yeah, okay," Santana agreed, as much as she hated having to agree with him after the swimming/ship debacle. They stopped where they stood, presenting themselves ready to face whatever was about to come their way.
The man who stepped into view appeared to be alone at first, but then the nearer he came, others stepped into view, uniformed guards, armed. The group did their best not to seem as though they suddenly regretted their decision. The man stopped three feet away from them.
"And you are?" Jaime asked.
"I represent the Office of Contractors, here on the Phisto Hub. And you," he nodded to Jaime, "You were seen earlier with a young boy. We would like to speak to this boy." It took the McKinley contingent a moment to understand he meant Dex. They hadn't spent nearly as much time with him as Jaime and the others from Twelve's group had.
"Well, as you can see, he's not here," Jaime indicated his team.
"Indeed, I see," the Contractor agreed. "We know he has not left the hub, so there is hope yet that we might locate him, with your help."
"Yeah, good luck with that," Puck spat.
When the guards had started closing in on them, they just barely had time to feel as though they were right back on Mo Eeset, about to be locked up. Then Jaime struck one of the guards and managed to get his weapon from him, keeping the man as his shield.
"I've had about enough of this for one day," he aimed at the other guards. "All of you, get out of here, now!" he told the rest of the group.
"No way," Puck refused.
"Noah, this is not the time for you to play hero, and you know why," Jaime gave him a look. He couldn't say 'because if you die then I won't ever be born,' not in front of the Contractor and his guards. All this would do would be that they'd shoot Puck. "Now do as you're told."
"You heard the man," Santana grasped his arm and tugged, and he followed.
"They're not following us!" Tina reported.
"Of course not. They want Dex, and they saw him with Jaime before, they said so. They have him now," Agnes pointed out. She'd realized it, and so had Jaime. When they stopped to look again, they saw he had thrown down the weapon and surrendered. If they could have, they would have killed him, but the Contractor wasn't letting them; they needed him. So they carried him away.
"We could have stopped them!" Puck shouted.
"Because that would have made things so much better?" Santana frowned. "Look, I know what he means to you, we'll get him out of there."
"She's right," Gillian jumped in. "They'll let their guard down, and that'll be our chance."
Knowing better than to make it too easy on the guards to see them, they'd had to keep their distances as they followed Jaime's escort. The perpetually dark skies did serve to give them the occasional cover, just as it made so that there were a few times when they almost lost track of their target. But then they saw a building up ahead, and they knew: this was the seat of the Office of Contractors. The hardest part was to stand back and watch as Jaime was taken inside, and the door closed behind him.
"So what's the plan here?" Puck asked as they tried to get closer without being too exposed. "How are we going to get…"
"Puck?" He looked up, recognizing the voice calling to him. There was Finn, crouched across the way, same as he and his group were. Looking past him now, he spotted a few of those others who'd come in with Jaime earlier, Jenny, and Rada. There were a couple others, a guy and a girl he didn't know. The girl had only one arm.
Careful as they jogged to meet them, Puck and his team moved to join Finn and the others. There were a few hugs, and the strangers were introduced as Constance and Remy.
"We saw them take Jaime," Jenny reported. "I thought you'd all gone…"
"We came back, and when we got here, they ambushed us. They're looking for Dex, where is he?"
"Hiding, with the others. It wasn't his idea," Constance reported.
"What about you, why are you all here? How did you know?" Mike asked.
"We didn't," Rada told him.
"We were… spying," Remy whispered.
"Right…" Puck frowned. "We need to talk to everyone else, whoever we've got. The Doctor's not back yet?" They shook their heads. "Whatever, we'll just have to get Jaime back ourselves."
TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)