Chapter 52
Wilder had just pulled on his shirt when his phone began buzzing violently in his trouser pocket. With a sinking feeling, he fished it out and flipped it open, knowing who it was before they had even spoken.
"Ma'am," he said curtly down the phone with a guilty glance up at the clock.
"Captain," Christine said, a touch of annoyance evident in her cool voice. "Shall I be expecting you today by any chance?"
"I'm just about to come in now Ma'am," he replied as he quickly attempted to do his shirt buttons up one-handed.
"Excellent," she said briskly. "And how goes your little project?"
"It's right on schedule Ma'am," he replied confidently. "Her team are already turning on her. Pretty soon, she'll have no one left but me."
"And you're certain you can get her onside?"
"Absolutely Ma'am," he said with a nod. "She's so isolated from her friends' right now it'll be fairly easy to sway her."
"Excellent," Christine said again, this time sounding marginally more impressed.
Wilder paused for a moment. "You will remember our agreement Ma'am?" he asked eventually, his voice tentative. "Nothing happens to Jenny - "
"Yes, yes, you'll have your little prize once this is all over," Christine replied impatiently. "As long as she plays ball that is. I am rather intrigued as to how you imagine keeping her when she finds out that you've used her to get to her friends - "
"I'm sure I'll think of something Ma'am," he interjected in a colder voice than was probably wise. He'd had enough sleepless nights about that issue as it was without having to discuss the matter with his boss.
"I'm sure you will Captain," she said, sounding unconcerned. "Although if she puts her pretty little nose out of line again - "
"She won't Ma'am," he reassured her. "I can handle Jenny."
"Be sure that you do," she said in a brusque voice. "I'll expect you here in twenty minutes."
"Absolutely Ma'am," he said before slamming the phone shut.
With a groan of frustration, Wilder threw it down on the table and returned to the task of buttoning himself up. It wasn't like he'd forgotten the reason why he'd pursued Jenny again after he found out who she really was, but the prospect of asking her to turn against her friends and colleagues was not one that he relished. He knew that the time was fast approaching of course; now that her team had discovered their relationship, it wouldn't be long before she was ousted. But the thought of asking her to help him bring down the ARC grinded on him. There was always the possibility that she'd dump him on the spot as soon as he mentioned it, which wasn't a welcomed thought. He hated to admit it – even to himself – but he didn't want to lose her. He had thought that any romantic feelings he'd had for her had been extinguished as soon as she turned out to be a traitor, but instead of being hurt by her trickery, he actually found himself impressed. There were very few people who would have been able to work him like she had, and it'd left him feeling a mixture of shame and intrigue.
He knew that he'd have to ask her soon though – it wasn't as if the plan could be put off much longer, and that aside, Jenny seemed to be as emotionally vulnerable as she was going to get. It was now or never.
Making a new resolve that he'd broach the subject with her that night, he quickly patted his hair down and gave himself a brief look over in the mirror before making for the door. He grabbed his keys off the side table as he opened the front door, and when he straightened up, he was taken aback to see Jenny standing behind it, her hand raised as if she'd been about to knock.
"Jen?" he said, surprised.
As his gaze travelled over her, he noticed that her eyes were slightly red as though she'd been crying, but other than that her outward appearance was as cool and composed as ever.
"Can I come in?" she asked in a quiet sombre voice.
"Well . . . of course," he trailed off as he moved aside to let her in. As she brushed past him, he inhaled the scent of that perfume he loved so much. Ignoring the fact that his heart had began to pump faster, he gestured for her to go into the living room. "I was just about to go to work," he informed her as he followed her in.
She either didn't hear his comment or ignored it, but she made no reply as she turned away from him, her hands in her coat pockets and her gaze roving casually from the floor to the wall. Wilder allowed the silence to stretch out between them before he cleared his throat.
"You know, I was really about to leave," he said gruffly, running his hand through his hair. "Could we do this later - "
But before he had even got the words out, she shocked him by putting her hand to her mouth to contain a sob, her brown eyes brimming with fresh glistening tears.
"Jen?" he gaped, feeling himself grow hot around the collar. Crying women made him very uncomfortable, especially when it was a woman that was usually so poised and collected. "What's the matter?"
"Everything's falling apart," she said, her voice cracking as tears streamed down her pale face. "Everything's just going wrong, and I don't know what to do - "
The shock of her reaction wearing off, he stepped forward. "Come here," he said in a voice he considered to be gentle as he pulled her into his arms. "What's happened?"
"I've been suspended," she said as she rested her forehead on his shoulder, her words broken by sharp inhales as she fought to control her crying.
"Because of me?"
"Because I refused to let James tell me who to date," she corrected him as she pulled away, wiping the wetness away for under her eyes. "I just can't believe his cheek!" she burst out as she began pacing around the room. "How dare he!"
"Sit down," Wilder said as he took her by the arm and led her over to the couch. As she lowered herself down, he took a seat next to her. "Now calm down and tell me what happened from the beginning."
Jenny took a deep breath to collect herself, and started to explain exactly what had been said. Every time she mentioned that Professor name, he noticed that she refused to meet him in the eye – something she did frequently now that he thought about it. When she had finished her explanation, Wilder shifted closer to her and took her hand, seeing his opening and seizing it.
"This is what the ARC's like Jen," he explained. "You didn't see it before because you've been on their side, but they're all about repression and control."
She reached up to wipe fresh tears away impatiently. "I can't believe I'm going to lose my job," she said numbly.
"So what?" he scoffed. "The offer to come and work with me still stands."
She looked around at him, her expression a mixture of amusement and annoyance. "I can't work with you," she said. "These people are my friends - "
"Are they really?" he interjected, wanting to plant the seed of doubt in her mind. "Because when I last checked, friends support one another. They don't turn their back on you like they all have."
She sighed deeply and looked away again, pulling her hand out of his.
"Listen," he tried again. "I'd never ever turn you away like they have. You can trust me . . ." he trailed off, unsure of how to casually slip it into conversation. "I may have a little job for you to do as it happens," he landed on eventually.
She turned her gaze back to him, her eyes narrowed with suspicion. "What?"
Heart pounding somewhere in his throat, Wilder braced himself for the fall out. "I need you to get me admittance into the ARC."
She looked at him for a moment with a blank expression, as though she thought she'd misheard him. "I – I can't do that," she stammered eventually, sounding aghast.
"But you've got to," he pressed further, knowing he couldn't stop now that he'd started. "This is the only way that the ARC can be run properly. Have you ever heard the silly story about the villagers and the river?"
"No," she answered, still looking at him with disbelieving eyes.
"Well the villagers noticed the dead carcass's of animals floating down the river in the current. They didn't want their drinking water getting contaminated, so they began pulling them out, but when they did, more and more bodies began floating passed - so much so that soon enough, it took all of the villagers to drag them out of the water. One villager studied the scene in front of him before he began walking upriver. Another villager chided him for not helping them, but he replied 'You're pulling the dead animals out of the river – I'm going to see who's putting them there in the first place' - "
"What the hell has this got to do with anything?" Jenny interrupted impatiently.
"That one villager wanted to sort out the cause of the problem, like we want to do with the anomalies," he replied patiently. "The others were simply dragging out the dead bodies for a short-term resolution and weren't solving anything. Just like Lester's doing. Every time he's sending you all out to deal with an anomaly, he's just blocking a leaky dam with his finger. It's not helping anyone. The only thing that will is finding out what's causing the anomalies in the first place."
"And you can do that?"
He hesitated for a moment, knowing that one misstep meant he was done for. "There are things we're willing to do that the ARC isn't," he said carefully. "To protect the public. Desperate times call for desperate measures."
"So what exactly are you asking me to do?" she said, her brown eyes studying his face.
"I told you – we need you to get us access to the ARC," he repeated. "In the dead of night, whilst everything's quiet."
"Why?"
"We have a plan," he continued, wanting to give her the general idea without confessing the entire operation to her. "To make Lester relinquish his power over the ARC. We need to make him look incompetent to the Minister so that he'll put the anomaly operation under Christine's control instead."
"And how exactly are you planning on doing that?"
Again Wilder hesitated, knowing that the next words out of his mouth was likely to earn him a slap. "Let's just say we're going to put the creatures we've acquired to good use," he answered reluctantly. "It'll appear to the Minister that they escaped from the ARC's menagerie, so it looks like Lester's lost control of the situation. There'll be no casualties," he lied quickly, seeing her expression. "Like I said, we'll slip them into the ARC in the dead of night - "
Jenny stood up abruptly and turned her back on him, moving to stand by the window. "I can't do that," she stated in a voice barely above a whisper. "I won't."
"Don't you want to get them all back Jen?" he pushed, standing up himself and walking up behind her. "Tell me you wouldn't love to see the smug look wiped off Lester's face. He blamed you blowing your undercover work, and now he's suspended you for trying to be happy. He deserves it - "
"These people care about me," she stated in a shaky voice, her gaze set out of the window.
"I care about you," he insisted, resting his hand on her shoulder. "I love you." The words were out of his mouth before he had mastered any control over them and he felt her freeze under his touch, but he figured that as he'd come this far he might as well continue. "I'd never abandon you like they have. You and me – we're in it together."
She turned round to face him, a guarded look in her eye. "You don't know what you're asking me to do."
"I'm asking you to pick a side," he insisted, holding her firmly by her upper arms. "You're either with me or you're against me."
She pulled herself out of his grasp with a humourless laugh. "God, you sound just like Lester," she stated venomously as she turned back to the window.
"Well Lester's right," he snapped. "You can't have it both ways."
She sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of her nose. Inspired by the fact that her resolve seemed to be weakening, he stepped towards her again, adopting a friendlier tone as he put his arms around her.
"I've been thinking that when this is all over, I might go into early retirement," he said as he planted a kiss on her shoulder. "I've done my time in the military. Maybe you and me could go away together?"
"Where?"
"Anywhere," he breathed, ghosting his lips up her neck. "As long as I'm with you, I don't care where it is. Maybe somewhere hot? Would you like that?" She didn't reply, but instead turned around to face him. He was pleased to see that the wary look in her eyes had vanished. "So are you in then?" he pushed, needing to know her answer before he let her out of his sight.
She bit her lip and glanced away again, her brow furrowed as though she was in deep thought. When she returned her gaze back to him, she looked resolved. "I'm in."
Relief flooded Wilder's stomach and he smiled genuinely as he reached forwards and pulled her into a kiss. She kissed him back, winding her hand through his hair as she did so. After his euphoria had died down, they broke apart.
"Right," she stated briskly as she adjusted the smudges in her lipstick with her fingertips. "Well, I'd better let you get to work."
"Alright," he said, still beaming that he'd succeeded in getting her over to his side. "I'll come round to yours when my shift ends, yeah?"
"Yeah," she smiled before pecking him on the lips again. "Bye," she added as she turned to leave.
Jenny waited in her parked car as Wilder drove off from a few cars in front of her. As soon as his SUV disappeared around the corner, she reached into her handbag and pulled out her mobile.
The phone was answered after only two rings.
"James Lester speaking."
"James, it's Jenny," she said, forcing her voice to come out firm and assured. "I need to come and speak to you. Now."
