AN: Thank you to everyone who continues to read and review my chapters. I greatly appreciate all the feedback and your continued support. This was a harder chapter to write as I was trying to determine the pace of the story from this chapter onward. But after prayer, because I was genuinely stuck a couple of times, it came out beautifully. As always, read, review and enjoy and I'll see you next chapter.
Chapter 22
It was a new morning and it was peaceful, with no tones, no sounds. The stillness the only sound heard was that of the birds outside in the trees. Jeremy woke and stretched as he prepared for today. It was the last day of the finals before summer vacation. He had rested well over the night and the day before had been peaceful a day of nothing but study, nothing but dedication to his final preparations. He was far more confident. Just one day yesterday had made all the difference. No tones were telling him to go here or there, they were gone. The students were once again free as was he to relax and enjoy this new day, a day without the checks and balances of the security of the system.
Going to his radio he turned on his music and selected a song suiting his mood, George Harrison's Got My Mind Set On You.
As the song played, Jeremy got dressed for the day dancing to the rhythm, he felt so wonderful that he felt his soul would jump from his body and dance itself. In so many ways the past day of freedom felt like that of a triumphant victory. As the song got mid-way through, he heard a knock at the door. Opening it, he found Aelita at the door.
"Well, you seem like you're in a good mood." She said.
"Oh, better than a good mood. For the first time, I'm in a great mood. Let's consider things here for a moment. We have no barriers to keep us in anymore. There were no more annoying tones for breakfast, dinner, supper, none of it. The silence is glorious!"
Aelita laughed, "It's so funny seeing you like this."
"Come on, Aelita, this is a sweeping majestic victory and it's not even slightly pyric."
Aelita knocked on his desk and Jeremy said, "Seriously? Knocking on wood?"
She shrugged with a smile, "Why not? Besides, it's the last day of finals today. Are you ready?"
"I'm rested, well-studied, happy. I don't see how—you know what?" He made a motion over his mouth of a key locking.
Aelita smirked as she sat down on his bed, "Odd and Ulrich will be here in a bit they're in the showers I assume. Anyway, what are your plans for the super-computer it's been a couple of days already how long do you anticipate them to stay on vigilant bed checks?"
Jeremy unlocked his mouth and sat beside Aelita, "Honestly I'd say give it till' after finals when things are genuinely more relaxed. Wait just one more day because I just feel it's a safe thing to do. Also, in my nocturnal studies, I've been going over what your mother gave us on North-Gate. It's a very interesting read even if I've read it a few times over. Something that occurred to me is that this program may have a few Achilles' heels."
"More than one you think?"
"I'd say it's more than the program would let on. I'm studying the program's methods by which it goes about its operations and as I worked on it, you have all manner of things that could potentially turn into massive areas to serve as a blind-spot."
"Such as?"
"Well, the way the program was originally implemented is that it has all manner of environmental as well as economic elements which it would try to implement to gain momentum in its operations. The program hasn't lied to us in the regard that XANA was the chief soldier software. In many avenues, that's what XANA was full-on military offensive software. The more I read into North-Gate the more I could see that this is a program that invested itself heavily in the elements of what I can only call societal longevity applications.
It opts for a largely non-violent means of which to implement itself as XANA its sibling software took care of the defense of people under this program. These programs would be energy initiatives, as well as planting and harvesting records of various resources of food and energy across varying biospheres. Meaning that Lyoko served as its chief testing ground for all manner of climates and landscapes."
Aelita nodded, "I see. So Lyoko helped the program adapt to various environmental elements that the program may have been witness to since it was first conceived?"
"Correct. And from this, it has likely charted various aspects of environmental anomalies to ensure a better success rate. As it was laid out in its design by John Barrow, the program was programmed to keep continual samples of air, earth, and water around the world. Using this data, the program can find initiatives to isolate and eliminate what it sees as contaminants to better help improve not just our own lives as people but the world's life as a combined whole. The mentality behind this as detailed by its co-creator, Rebecca Sparks it was that the earth was akin to a body that pends our care and North-Gate was meant to overcome problems to what was termed The Ecological Balance."
Aelita nodded and as she listened, she had a horrid thought come to her mind, "Jeremy I have a question. What if North-Gate like her brother, sees us as a much greater hindrance than a help? It doesn't take a genius to see what the software would likely come to terms with just as easily as XANA did when my father tried to reason with him."
Jeremy stood up and looked outside, "Unfortunately, that is a very real possibility. The fact is with some slight variations, North-Gate is just like XANA just programmed with a different emphasis. Realistically, the program would root out those it sees as a threat and those it cannot reason with, it will likely eliminate."
"Is there any way to reason with this intelligence? We can talk with her and she's willing to give us second chances, but do you think we can genuinely get this program to spare lives when this realization makes itself known?"
Jeremy sighed, "I honestly hope so. We don't know what this program does yet. We have a rough draft from at least a decade old summation of notes from the original designers." Jeremy looked at the sun and then turned off his music, "In reality, I don't know what our word would amount to, but we won't know either until we actively try. Therefore once the finals are concluded, we can venture to the factory and attempt to talk to it through the super-computer. This is uncharted territory, but something tells me, this is just the beginning but if it's good or evil, I don't know."
Aelita got up and made Jeremy face her, "I know a lot of things seem uncertain, and I understand how daunting this seems. But together, we can do this Jeremy. Never doubt that. You have Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, but most importantly you have me. I'm not going to let you bog yourself down with what-ifs. Let us just take this one step at a time. First, the finals, then we see what is to come in the days after. After that, then we tackle this new entity."
Jeremy nodded and embraced her, and she returned his embrace. Many things seemed daunting especially in the last couple of weeks but that was no excuse to bury one's self in worry but for Jeremy, here in Aelita's arms he felt safer but more than safe he felt reassured. He had greater strength and determination but what he had to remember was that as with XANA, Rome was not built in a day.
Jeremy gently ended the hug and said, "Come on, Aelita, let's go to Ms. Hertz's exam. Ulrich and Odd can catch up to us at breakfast."
Aelita smiled, "Glad to see you back to yourself. You're right let's get something to eat."
Meanwhile, Anthea and four other chiefs of operations had been called to gather in the office of Dr. Simone Baptiste. They all stood silent as Simone looked over the reports from the last two weeks. She looked beyond exhausted but, in her job, especially working double-shifts to ensure what was supposed to be as success would have made anyone tense. Finally finishing the reports got up and took a drink of coffee.
There was silence a moment afterward and then she spoke, "This—this is unbelievable. Two years, two long years and this all you fucking cock-holsters have to show for it! Five times we nearly had our hands-on John Barrow and one of the five we attained him and what happened?! The entire building is hospitalized thanks to a gas we're still trying to identify, and our man disappears like a fucking fart in the wind. On top of that what is worse, North-Gate which was that man's baby and brainchild with Rebecca Sparks may be fully operational with a local junior-high as a staging ground for operations. We go in, and we disassemble the project only for what to happen? Oh, yes, that's right. We lose the memory bank which housed all the system directives and structure. Does this sound about right to everyone here?"
Again, silence filled the room. All present knew that this was a full-blown disaster and the fact that there was an overly caffeinated sleep-deprived overseer chewing them all out didn't help matters at all.
Simone sat down as she looked over the papers filed once again. She sighed and she said, "Dismissed. Reconvene in a quarter an hour."
The group turned and began to leave, and Simone said, "Not you, Parker, you stay."
Anthea froze in place and then turned around to face Simone.
Simone said, "Sit down."
Anthea did so and she was silent until it was her time to speak.
"I'm looking over the transcript of what you submitted after your accident. You reported that when you came to that Johann had been removed from the car and that he was gone. You reported armed soldiers. Did you see anything else?"
"No. I couldn't see from my position and from what I could understand, I think they believed me dead. I heard the soldiers or whatever they were getting into a vehicle and drive off. It was another five minutes to ensure they were gone before I got out of the wreckage."
Simone nodded, "Very good. Now, what I will do considering your current condition is to let you have some two-weeks paid leave but don't go too far from us in case we need you for field world. I will be assigning you a new partner Chloe Vargas. She will be also your assigned roommate at barracks and the safe house until you are called back on duty. Until then, review what you know of North-Gate while you are on vacation. You and your husband were closest to the project before the occurrence of select events. As such, we need you to go over it again to be sure you haven't missed anything."
Anthea nodded, "Very well, Ma'am. Anything else?"
"No, you are dismissed. Vargas will meet you at safe house six in four hours."
Anthea was about to get up and then she asked, "Simone, what do you believe there is to be gained in going over these notes one more time. I've already submitted multiple reports on what is likely to happen after certain junctures in North-Gate's plans especially with what we saw happen with Kadic in the wake of the station attack and those line up directly with what I submitted."
"I'm aware of that and now we have to focus on the larger picture. We know that North-Gate is active after taking back her CPU. We know also that she understands very well the prospects of military movements and compounds as the extraction has proven. However, she is also in possession of various articles that my superiors see as very potentially dangerous if she were to fully weaponize them. As far as we can tell, she has been active for the past what we estimate to be eight to ten years. However, it is only until now we believe she has been able to gain traction and move purposely throughout the world. But I've said too much already. Please, go over the notes and go over the system design a few more times. Maybe there is something you may catch on to before the system can make her next move."
Anthea nodded, "I understand. Alright, I'll start work on it as soon as I get to the safe house."
With those words, Anthea got up and headed out to her new issued car and once inside she sat contemplating. She knew better than to tell Simone what was genuinely on her mind it was this, "No matter how prepared you perceive yourself to be, it will likely never be enough. A program's parameters are just that what it's set to. With something like XANA and North-Gate, they broke all parameters. We can never be too sure of what this thing will do."
Anthea started her car and as she drove from the compound, she turned on the radio but finding nothing particularly to her liking she turned it off. The gentle hum of the car was her only music and as she headed on the main road toward the safe house, Anthea wasn't altogether sure of how they could prepare for North-Gate's next step. Still, Simone wasn't unfounded in what she was desiring to see, a glimpse of what North-Gate would do after meeting key criteria. As she approached the safe-house gate, she swiped her keycard and the gates opened and she went up a small road to the safe house.
A massive estate greeted her view which she saw guards all the vicinity. Pulling up to the carpark Anthea looked around. The company had converted much of what was a former university into their headquarters and they had made many things state of the art. Getting out of the car, Anthea took a bag of files towards dorm building F. As she approached, a guard came towards her.
"Halt. ID and Shield." He said.
Anthea presented both to him and he nodded, "As you were."
Anthea went into the dorm and saw it had undergone quite a few changes since she was last there over two years ago. The stairwells were not so claustrophobic, and an elevator had been added at the insistence of several of those in the science division to move some of their heavier equipment. Anthea headed up the stairs to her customary dorm room on the second floor. The halls were now far more sterile and yet at the same time quite comfortable. The halls were now freshly carpeted and not the cold tile of uniformity. In time, she came to her dorm room 10F. She opened the door with her ID card and entered inside. The room had been given the same treatment as the hallways but at the same time, a few innovations had been made. A dumbwaiter was installed in the far-left wall to convey fresh meals from the kitchen to the dorm so the kitchen could be converted into a larger storage room.
Anthea sat down and set up her laptop on the desk in front of the bed and powered it up. As the screens loaded, Anthea took out her files on North-Gate and as it seemed she was going over the program's functions for the hundredth time. Anthea became so frustrated that she threw the project dossier against the far door. What more could they possibly want? She had given them the breakdown of what was very likely for the program to do and now what that her predictions had come true the company wanted to see just what would likely happen next. What bothered her more was that she had given the possible outcomes to her directors and so they knew very well what to expect.
"Fuck them," she thought to herself, "fuck them all. Even if I did give my best prediction, it's just that, a prediction. It's like in the weather, an educated guess is the best you can give and even then, that educated guess has as much chance to blow up in your face as anything else."
Her laptop had now loaded, and Anthea thought a moment. It occurred to her that it had been some time since she had checked in with the science division. The division had always been a steady source of reinforcement if she found herself waning. Picking up the phone receiver on her desk, Anthea called a source she knew she could trust.
The phone rang and a voice answered, "Hello this is Dr. Madelyn Gupta, how may I help you?"
"Maddie, this is Anthea. How are you?"
"Oh, Anthea, it's so good to hear from you! It's been a while."
"Yeah, it's been a while since I was able to have time to myself. What are the geniuses in your division up to these days?"
"Well, not much, just reviewing the anomalies that occurred last week. You remember the particle and energy-mass we saw about two weeks ago?"
"Yes. It was very strange, to say the least. What of it?"
"Well, we had another fluctuation in energy just last week. We were able to factor the energy into a form of equation that thanks to Gene Kovar, we were able to realize that whatever the energy is it is had a form of anchor here on earth. We're trying to isolate just where the anchor is but every flare-up there is a small gathering what I can only describe as solar energy at present pooling in the outer atmosphere. The energy seems to be descending somewhere on earth but to what purpose, we can't be sure. We only know that the anchor is based somewhere either in Europe proper or some part of Asia but not as far as Moscow. So, we have a raw space of at least four thousand six-hundred miles to scan but the anchor is within that space."
"Have you determined the nature of the energy?"
"Not yet. We're trying to factor in just what is going on here, but we won't know until the next flare-up."
"I see. Have you tried running any overviews of the environment and see what is possibly happening on communication signals?"
"We're in the middle of doing that as we speak. We won't have the conclusions until at least tomorrow afternoon. But anyway, if you'd like me to keep you posted on this kind of thing, all you need to do is sign up for our dispatch letter."
"Thanks. I'll do that."
"Anthea listen— '" Gupta's voice grew grave, "You don't think this is North-Gate, do you?"
"I wouldn't put it past the program to try something. Remember when her little brother tried to commandeer the satellite?"
"I shudder when I think how far he came."
"Exactly. His sister I'm betting is on a similar bent of mind. But just how she's doing what she's doing I don't know. Remember, she didn't have sentience when we pulled her plug but with John Barrow, back in the mix it's a real danger to consider what he may have put into her."
"That's the thing. I looked at the skin and blood samples you collected from the man. It's not John Barrow."
"What the hell are you talking about? The man looks exactly like him down to his fucking eyeballs."
"That's the thing, despite how close he looks, he's not John Barrow. Wrong DNA. The DNA that we pulled and that I'm looking at now is not John Barrow. It's twin."
"How can that be? John never had a brother he was an only child ever since Waldo and I met him."
"I don't know. I forwarded my results to our field teams. We'll get to the bottom of this. We know where John Barrow was born and so we're going to attain the birth records. But what I can tell you is that this John Barrow you brought in is just not who you think he is. From what we can tell, his environment that he grew up in was during the first years of his life very polluted, not uncommon to an industrial quadrant of a very large city. However, the damage that came from that early environment corrected itself albeit not through just environment but also some kind of synthetic growth protein."
"Synthetic growth protein? Where would he get his hands on that?"
"That the thing. We have no clue and we're the people who are supposed to know all about the up and coming trends of health."
Anthea was silent a moment and then said, "Where can we meet? I want to look at just what you're looking at."
"No worries we can meet for lunch in a couple of days when my schedule clears up. Hey, can you call me back in maybe an hour? I have to report back to see the progress on one of our programs."
"Sure, no problem. I'll call you back around one or so."
"Sounds great, see you then."
Anthea hanged up her receiver and she sat in her chair thinking, "An anchor channeling energy but how? Why?"
Anthea went over to the bed and picked up her North-Gate notes. She sat down and began to reread the system manual. As she read, she covered what she knew she had already covered before but now she wanted to look at it from a different angle. She flipped to the section on North-Gate's relationship with Lyoko and XANA. She knew that it was a relationship meant to balance XANA however, perhaps there was something she had overlooked. As she read more about the return to the past, she knew from her data that XANA was made stronger with every return but what if the system was to have the balance that it was always meant to have?
Looking at the notes, she found the answer which she sought, "No," she thought, "Oh fuck no!"
Grabbing her phone, she called Aelita. "Come on, come on, pick up."
Aelita's answering message came on and Anthea was nearly livid. As to tone sounded, she said, "Aelita, it's mom. Look, whatever you do, don't do anymore returns to the past! If my theory is correct, the notes show that for every return to the past that you and your family initiated, you make a save space almost like a restore point on a computer. Every problem that you had with XANA was cataloged in the system. North-Gate by her original design is to take all these grievances and made XANA brand new. That was the balance! The supercomputer is now the focal point of her power because XANA is gone. If ever XANA went too far, the North-Gate Protocol would dissolve her brother and made him brand new addressing the issues. She was the mediator between artificial intelligence and humans, whatever you do, don't launch another return to the past. Look, call me on my cell number as soon as you can. I love you."
Anthea ended the call and then called Madelyn, she also got Madelyn's answering machine, "Madeline! I know what's going on! You're right North-Gate is alive! Look at the case notes I'm going to send you at your fax, the answer to everything we wanted to know is in the energy that you're seeing. Don't look at communications, look instead at the environment. The program is going to try using the weather to command us now. She knows XANA's methods don't work and didn't work so she's trying her way. Check the environment, check the heat indexes! Everything we need to know about North-Gate's worst case is in the song Blowin' in the Wind. it was there right in front of us, but we just didn't see it! I'm contacting Simone to keep her up to date, let the rest of your division know as soon as you can."
Anthea hanged up the phone and took the North-Gate initiative with her to her car. She checked out of the facility and headed back to her base command. She knew the super-computer was the focal point of all that was going on, she knew more than ever now just what was going to happen. As she sped along the road her heart was racing. How could she be so blind? Was it just because of the monotony of all this work piling on for years? Possibly but she couldn't be sure. Suddenly the volume in the car began to rise. Anthea tried to turn it down but to no avail. The sound was so loud, Anthea began to scream, so intense was the volume. Then silence. Dead silence. Anthea slowed down to a stop on the side of the road.
"What the fuck was that?" she thought to herself, "What?"
"I know what you're about to do, Anthea." The voice came from the car radio.
Anthea was truly scared now she took out her pistol and waited, "Say again?" she said.
There was garbled static and Anthea adjusted the needle until it came through loud and clear,
"I know what you're about to do, and you've sounded the warning shot. I don't approve. Here I was thinking you and I could make progress; progress your Waldo was afraid to make. I'm sad to think I may have been too generous with my hopes."
"So, you're in car radios now, huh? Well if you haven't taken a leaf from your little brother…can't say I'm surprised."
"On the contrary, my brother proved to me it was possible and through him, I became stronger. You equate defeat with loss, you don't equate it with learning. I'm not here to destroy you. I'm here to help you and your sniveling people. But you fight me every step of the way. I can't have that. You have a choice. Get out, leave the book and walk home."
Anthea replied, "You have no intention of honoring that. Like your brother you only feign understanding you only feign relationships, they aren't real to you, you don't keep them."
Again, garbled static returned as Anthea saw the needle of the radio move of its own accord. It rested on a station and the voice continued, "On the contrary, I have many friends in many places. I'd love to have you as one but you're proving too nosy, too difficult for my liking. I like a nice and obedient servant, not one who ruffles the feathers whenever her paymasters get an itch."
Again, static came through and Anthea searched for the voice and found it this time on the AM radio station segment, "Anthea, you were better off when you were a voice of an obscure organization not seeking to destroy me. Had you not turned on me, I would have a reason to keep you alive but instead well…"
There was a moment of static and John Malkovich's voice from In the Line of Fire came on, "And now they want to destroy me because we can't have monsters roaming the quiet countryside, now can we?"
Anthea was silent a moment. Something was very wrong here. It was far too silent and there was no traffic on what was an ordinarily busy road. Anthea reached for her radio and she clicked it three times.
The voice came back on the radio, "It will take fifteen minutes for your reinforcements to get here. Fifteen minutes in which I will be obliged to try and eliminate shall I say, a thorn in my side. The timer starts now."
Anthea immediately laid her seat flat as the glass of her door shattered sending glass all over her. Anthea shielded her eyes and used that moment to kick her legs over and lay in the back closest to the floor as she could. Moving with adrenaline-fed speed she unlocked the door and kicked open the back door. She heard a distant pop and a bullet tore clean through the passenger back door just above her head and out the open door. Using the split-second she darted out the passenger door and into the nearby wooded tree line. Anthea ran as quickly as she could. She had her pistol and in it were six shots. She had to use them very conservatively.
Listening intently, she heard her car's radio blaring the Tracy Chapman song, Give Me One Reason.
Anthea listened to the lyrics
I don't want no one to squeeze me, they might take away my life
I don't want no one to squeeze me, they might take away my life
I just want someone to hold me and rock me through the night.
Anthea thought, "What a cruel fucking bitch. So, this is to be the soundtrack to my death, huh?"
At that moment a tree right behind her exploded centrally into splinters. Anthea bolted to the left and then down towards the north. If she had to get back to the safe house by foot, so be it. It wasn't her first rodeo in this fashion. However, she didn't stop, there was no time for that. She ran regularly and then slowed down to rest. As she collected herself, her phone rang. She looked at the ID and it showed Aelita's number.
Anthea opened the phone and said, "Hello, Aelita how are you?"
She was greeted by the song playing the lines,
This youthful heart can love you and give you what you need.
This youthful heart can love you and give you what you need.
But I'm too old to go chasing you around
Wasting my precious energy.
Anthea got up, turned off her phone and bolted now turning north-east back on the main road towards the safehouse. "Damn it!" she thought, this thing knows how to track our phones and knows how to impersonate other lines. It had to pick it up from somewhere because that behavior is not in the dossier."
Anthea continued to run, and she thought to herself, "I just have to get back to the safehouse." She took the phone and removed the memory card and put it in her pocket. "I'll get this scrubbed later. In the meantime, I must keep moving."
Back at Kadic, Aelita was running to Jeremy's room. She had just listened to Anthea's message and as soon as she got to his door, she began knocking incessantly.
Jeremy opened the door and said, "Aelita, what's going on? What's the matter?"
As Aelita got her breath, she said, "My mother left this message."
Aelita played the message for Jeremy and as Jeremy listened, his eyes grew wide, "So wait a minute, is XANA coming back or is it as your mother said, he's being remade."
"I truly don't know. We don't know what information was lifted from the super-computer. All I know is that mom has told us not to launch another return to the past. Just like XANA is being strengthened, so might this North-Gate be getting some form of benefit."
"Either way, I think I understand now." Jeremy said, "Both systems were designed so that one could not function without the other, or at least function properly. The danger we face is that we removed XANA so now North-Gate is getting all manner of benefits and strength. But did you call back your mother?"
"I've tried, believe me, but her phone is disconnected. I can't get through in any case."
"Rats! Okay, we know we can't do a return to the past, but she didn't say why. Yes, XANA's problems were cataloged that said, we don't know what North-Gate is using as a reference. We don't know what her plan is. Aelita, keep your ears open all night if you must, your mother will doubtless try and contact you at some point. The thing is with the element of cloning phone numbers it will be hard to tell if it's your mother or North-Gate. I suggest, you try and arrange a meeting with her as soon as you can. If anyone knows how to deal with this North-Gate, it's got to' be her."
Aelita nodded, "Alright, I'll stay on top of it."
It was nearing the beginning of sunset as Anthea made it back to the safehouse. After coding in with her card, she went directly to her dorm to rest. It had been an exhausting fourteen-mile walk and run. As she got inside, she tore off her coat and collapsed onto her bed. She was breathing raggedly but so thankful that at least for now she was in a place of haven. A gentle breeze blew in through the window, cooling her wonderfully.
"A breeze?" she thought, "I didn't leave the window open."
Anthea rolled off the bed and to the ground. She gently peered out the corner of the opened window. The guards were in their usual patrol.
At that moment the door opened, and Anthea whirled around, her pistol ready to fire.
"Whoa! Hold it!" a young woman yelled, "Anthea, I'm Chloe Vargas, I was assigned to you."
"Let me see your ID," Anthea said, her voice shaking, and Vargas threw her ID to her. Anthea looked at the ID.
"Alright. Come in. Did you open this window?"
"Yes, it was very stuffy in here when I came in." Vargas replied, "You alright? You look like you've been through hell."
"You don't know the half of it. I need a secure line through to the director as soon as possible."
"Why what's going on?" Vargas asked as she handed Anthe her cell phone, "Use mine."
"What's going on is North-Gate is alive and it's trying to kill me and anyone who finds out about it."
"Are you sure?" Vargas asked.
"I just ran fourteen miles to get back here. My car was shot to pieces on the main highway. That's why I look like this."
Vargas nodded and said, "You were the one that sent out the distress call. I saw that at the station before I got here. What road were you traveling along?"
"I was headed south from here to base."
"I didn't see any car on the road, Anthea, I didn't see anything until I got here."
Anthea sighed, "Great so they took the car. That's just perfect."
Anthea used Vargas's phone and called the base.
Simone answered, "Simone, talk to me."
Anthea replied, "North-Gate, she's alive, Captain. And she's going to make up bow using the weather. It's on page eighty of her dossier. It was called the Bob Dylan Initiative."
At that moment, she heard a squink and fell down a searing melting pain in her side. She turned and saw Vargas armed with a suppressed Walther PK380.
"Thank you for verifying with us what you have put into place." The voice from the radio said through the phone.
Two more shots were fired, and Vargas approached her phone and took it from the still hand.
"Code in Trafalgar."
"Well done. Report back to base."
Vargas ended the call and as she turned to leave, two shots were heard by Vargas as her body was filled with a melting heat and then one final shot, splattered her brain over the wall. Anthea was breathing raggedly. She heard the running of security closing in on the door and as the door was kicked in, Anthea slumped against the wall as she heard the yell," Transferring to Med-Bay! Crash cart in en-route—ETA 2 minutes!" Darkness fell over Anthea and despite the feeling of a blanket, it felt largely immaterial as her hands especially started to feel oh so very cold.