Chapter 16
The door creaked as I pushed it open. Matt had asked me to meet him in one of his clubs/abandoned warehouses. I had speeded home, hopped in the shower, changed clothes and reloaded my back pack, yet still had enough time to get here fifteen minutes early.
When I went into the club it was dark, almost completely black. Then across the room a light flipped on. Matt walked into the room dressed in black. He walked strait into he middle of the room, picking up something off of a black table I hadn't noticed before. Turning to me he tossed what he had picked up in my direction. I easily caught it.
"Turn on the TV. Change it to any normal news station," Matt said, his voice a shade colder than usual.
I looked down at the remote he'd given me and hit the power button. The big screen TV attached to one of the far walls immediately turned on. It was on a news station that was reporting a story on some disaster down town. The station went on a commercial break so I changed the channel. The second station was more informative. I had switched it there just in the middle of a speech.
"… The accident took place around an hour ago…" there was a brief pause to show a picture of a few buildings covered with people in yellow suits completely covering them. They looked like they were protecting themselves from some toxic gas. I was beginning to get confused. The news anchor continued, talking about a bio-attack on several downtown buildings. No one knew yet what they had used, but it was killing almost everyone. Several of the people infected were being rushed towards a hospital. I stood in shock for a moment until the anchor mentioned my dad. "Heero Yuy is leading the rescue party."
"What exactly is going one?" I asked.
Matt walked over to me. "I was going to ask you. You're dad seems to know what he's doing, so I figured you might have a clue. I don't."
"I-I could guess, but I don't know for sure," I murmured. The report continued but I wasn't really listening anymore. A bio-attack in the middle of a city that was killing everyone who came across it. It could be the virus. That was my guess, but I had never seen it's work in public. No one had ever been able to let it lose.
"What's your guess?" Matt asked.
I didn't answer right away. Then I realized Matt was really ticked off and really wanted to know. Maybe he would help. "I think it was Gabriel."
"Gabriel?" Matt asked, not sounding that surprised.
"Yeah, but why did you call me?" I asked. "The attack was only an hour ago."
Matt shrugged. "I was going to start on Mariemaia, but we have something more important to take care of."
"Yeah," I said. "So what are we doing now?"
"We're going to see Gabriel," Matt stated. "Switch your guns with something from the closet and I'll give you a ride."
I frowned. "Why am I exchanging my guns?" I asked.
"Because whatever you bring is going to be taken away," he explained, "and unless you want to lose your guns take something of mine."
I didn't like that idea. I wasn't sure what Matt was getting us into but it didn't sound good. Unfortunately I didn't have much of a choice about what happened so I followed Matt's directions and switched guns. Matt was waiting for me in his car.
I guess Gabriel had a laboratory somewhere out in the boonies, cause that's where we went. We were standing right in front of a huge fence, to top it off it was and electric fence, as we wondered about how to get in. I'm assuming that Matt had an idea, because I didn't. We just continued to walk around the base until finally we stopped.
"There's a tunnel somewhere around here…" he said. "It leads into the main building."
"And you know this how?" I questioned.
"I have contacts just about everywhere," Matt explained.
I raised an eyebrow in question, but didn't ask anymore. Of course he had ways of getting information, just like I did, but his were probably better at this kind of stuff. I wasn't used to sneaking into military bases anywhere but in space, and everything was different on the colonies.
Matt found it first. It was hidden under a layer of what could have been real grass, probably was, but when you walked on it the ground sank a little. Matt found the corners of the layer of grass, pulled it aside along with a board that had been supporting it. We both climbed in. I followed the tunnel, not being able to see anything after we left the entrance.
We walked for a few minutes before Matt pulled me to a side and showed me where a ladder was. I followed him up it. We had climbed into a supply room, emerging from a trap door in the back.
"Where to?" I asked.
Matt pulled out a gun, checking to make sure it was loaded before answering. "Follow the red line," he gave me a map, "you'll end up in a lab. Make sure someone sees you there. When they sound the alarm follow the green line. It'll take you near the least guarded exit. You'll get caught before you leave though, we're counting on it. So if you don't get caught, which is unlikely, procrastinate before leaving."
"Wait, so I'm going to get caught?" I asked.
He nodded. "That's the idea."
"So what am I, a distraction or something?"
"Again, that's the idea," Matt said.
"So if they kill me everything's still okay," I said somewhat sarcastically.
Matt grinned, reminding me a lot of Duo. "Don't worry. They won't kill you. Gabriel doesn't want to kill you personally. If he did he'd never have hired me."
"Glad you're sure," I muttered.
Glancing at the map I left the room. It wasn't hard to get to the lab unseen. Inside was a different story. People were everywhere, security guards included. Matt wanted this to look real. To make it so I couldn't be seen right away, and I couldn't look like I was staling later on. It just wouldn't work that way.
I continued to creep forward, staying out of sight as I took everything in. glancing at the map again I memorized the root out. Quickly I stashed the map in a box, not caring what else was in it. Maybe no one would find it for a while, and whenever they do I doubt they'd relate it to me.
Biting a lip I looked around the room. What would be a good way to be seen without looking like I was trying to be seen? There were some stairs that I could try to go up. It didn't sound like the best of plans, but if I moved quickly and tried to blend in I might not be seen, which was kind of what I was going for. It was something that looked probable.
I went for it. Walking behind two scientists I made my way through the large room. People were doing experiments all over the place. I didn't pay attention to any of it. When I reached the stairs I switched groups, following closely behind someone else. Glancing around the room I saw a guard look up at me. I turned and looked strait ahead, trying to blend in. There was this big problem of most people being dressed in suits and lab coats and me being dressed a bit more casually.
It wasn't until the guard started walking for me that I started looking for exits. I knew the idea of where I was going. I just had to get to a spot I could take off from. I could try to stay on the top story awhile if I had to.
At the top of the stairs I turned and kept walking, cautious of the guards starting to head up the stairs. The moment I was out of sight I took off at a run. I found the first staircase I could and ran down it, jumping the last few steps. Back on the first floor I looked around. When I knew where to go I went on at a light jog, stopping to walk whenever I saw someone.
I was beginning to worry that I might have to find a way to procrastinate when the guards found me. There was a lot of shouting, most of it being "There she is!" I glanced at them, and sprinted. I knew where I was going, and the way out wasn't that hard to find. The good thing was that the bad guys were smarter than most. Guards were waiting for me in hallways that I needed to go to, some were dressed in lab coats so not to stand out.
I sneaked into a side room while two groups passed each other. They were literally checking every hallway. It wouldn't be long before they started checking rooms. Matt would be happy. Everyone was searching for me in this part of the lab. He was probably on the other side breaking into something. By now Gabriel probably knew I was here, and he wouldn't even be expecting Matt.
I decided to camp out in this room. It wasn't safe to go out into the hallway, and if I pretended to hide when they came in it might even look right. It was at least an option of what I might do if I wasn't trying to get caught.
Sure enough they were checking rooms, and when they got to this one they found me twirling in a desk chair. They looked at me as if I was crazy when I waved and asked how they were doing. If anyone asked I'd just say I knew I was going to get caught so why bother hiding?
Chapter 17
"Alex, how nice to see you again," Gabriel said as he walked into the room. He sat down at a desk across from me. It was like we were in a meeting, except that my weapons were laid out in the back of the room and there were two men holding guns pointed at my head.
I smiled at him, perfectly friendly, just not really. "I truly wish I could say the same thing but for some reason I really can't." I sounded like a girl who was being forced to apologize to a sibling.
Gabriel laughed. "And what would that be?"
"Oh, let's see… where can we start," I murmured dryly, with absolutely no intentions of elaborating.
Gabriel understood and so changed the subject. "Well, why don't we start with something simple. What are you doing here?"
"Good question," I said, "I'd tell you if I knew." That was a lie. I wouldn't tell him if I knew. The fact that I didn't really know didn't change the fact that I wouldn't tell him. Maybe Matt would have, he knew after all, but I wouldn't. I wasn't sure if Gabriel could tell if people were lying psychically, but he knew I wasn't telling the truth.
Gabriel's smile faded a little, but other than that he looked like he was completely in control. "So you don't know why you're here?" He was trying to get me to say something I'd regret.
"I rarely know what I'm doing in places until I find something which tells me. Unfortunately I underestimated the guard factor and was caught before I found anything," I stated.
Now Gabriel frowned. "You're lying."
"Why do you say that?" I asked, tilting my head to the side.
Gabriel said, "Because you always take a second to think up a plausible lie right before you say it. It's just this thing you do…" he trailed off, thinking of a way to explain. He shook his head in defeat. "I don't know, just something you always do when you lie."
"Hmm…" I murmured. "That's probably how my dad always knew I was lying."
He shrugged, "Maybe."
I sighed, rubbing my eyes. "Well, at least you're not a psychic lie detector. Met up with one of those, it was hard to stay undercover."
"Vince Barton?" Gabriel asked.
I nodded. "That's right, he's your brother," I said, having just remembered. It was hard comparing Vince to Gabriel. They just didn't seem in the least bit alike. Imagining Gabriel as Mathew's son… that was easy.
Gabriel looked at me thoughtfully. "Yes, well, I don't like to think of him that way. He was more of an idiot, but I didn't have a problem with that."
"He wasn't an idiot," I stated.
He raised an eyebrow, "No? He could have teamed up with Mathew, he'd probably been leading Oz right now, or he could have used his power to go against him. I would have done the first, except my father would never have trusted me. The only reason Vince was with him almost constantly was so that he didn't get any ideas and go against Mathew. He never had the guts to kill people outside of a mobile suit."
"Sure he did," I murmured.
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "When?" he asked, not expecting an answer.
"About a minute before he was shot," I stated.
Now Gabriel was really thinking. "I heard he was caught in the explosion."
"Oh," I said. Maybe mentioning the whole Vince dying before the explosion was the bad thing. Right now I was just stalling so I might as well keep talking. "Well then, I guess he was caught in an explosion."
I was receiving several 'yeah right' looks from behind me. I didn't have to look to know the two guys with guns were listening. Gabriel was just smiling. Glad to know I was funny. If funny kept me from being shot it was a really good thing.
"So I don't think you've met much of my family," Gabriel said. I shook my head. "Well, you should meet them sometime. They're all really interesting. You should have been at Mathew's funeral, everyone showed up. It was very… loud."
"They don't all get along?" I asked.
He laughed. "Not in the slightest." A brief pause to think, and suddenly Gabriel turned serious. "Jack was there, no one knew why, but he was there. He helped keep things interesting."
I tilted my head again. "How'd he do that?"
"Well, he's really not supposed to be around, and he didn't come to Vince's funeral, though that was considerably smaller. He was at Rob's, I think. I could have just imagined it. I don't know," Gabriel seemed to be talking more to himself then me. It didn't mater I was still confused.
I thought a moment before asking, "Why exactly would Jack be doing at Rob's funeral?" Rob had been on the colony when it blew up. His family was rich enough that they could afford a fancy memorial, which really wasn't a funeral, but had a casket anyway.
Jack smiled, not a happy smile, but a smile nonetheless. "He and Rob were good friends when they were younger. Up until Jack's thirteenth birthday I think. Then Jack 'died' and everyone was sad and Rob never knew that Jack was still alive. V didn't either, I think. Mathew was big on keeping it a secret."
I frowned. Asking why was getting annoying, but it was the only way Gabriel would tell me. So I said "Why" and he continued.
"It's quite simple. Mathew had an affair, Jack was the result of it, he didn't want anyone to know Jack was more than a good friend's child, and Jack didn't like the way Mathew was setting up Oz, so when Mathew purposed the phony death Jack didn't disagree."
I blinked, only able to think of one thing. "What?" I asked, surprised, very surprised. Gabriel looked at me as if I answered a question. Jack was Mathew's kid… no one had told me. No one had hinted. Did anyone know? That was a good question. At least it explained why Zechs didn't like Jack's family. I didn't either.
"Well, I guess he didn't tell you then," Gabriel said softly. He looked happy with himself, very smug.
"What?" I repeated. "So he's your brother? And what about Jack not liking Mathew. I'm so confused." At least saying I was confused made sense.
"It's explained on the disk you stole. All downloaded and decoded on your computer. I left it there just to see if you would read it. I guess you simply had too much to do," Mathew explained. "You must have had a busy night. Talk to anyone interesting?"
"Oh yeah," I murmured. "That reminds me. What the hell did you do to my mom?"
Gabriel blinked. "Well, that's an interesting conclusion. I thought you'd be yelling about something else first. I should have know better than to try to guess your moves." He sighed, glancing away from me for a second. "I didn't do a thing to you mother. Surly I could have done it, we both know that, but I didn't."
My voice was cold as I replied, "I don't believe you."
"I didn't think you would," Gabriel agreed, "but it's the truth." Neither of us said anything for a minute often Gabriel spoke. "Anything else?"
Of course there was, and he knew it. I just wasn't sure what to yell at him for. He'd sent two assassins after me and a pack of zombies, not to mention the bio-attack. Carefully I chose my words. "Did you really think any of them would kill me?" I kept my voice soft, controlled, and very angry.
Gabriel frowned. "I know one of them can," he murmured.
"Would that be me?" asked Matt as he casually strolled into the room. his hands were shoved into his pockets and he was grinning. I hope that was a good thing, but I really didn't know.
Gabriel looked up, very surprised. "Matt, I didn't know you were here."
"Yeah, that was kind of the point," Matt murmured as he looked around the room. his eyes stopped on me. "Well, hello Alex, how nice to see you again." I didn't return the smile. Turning back to Gabriel he asked, "I don't suppose I'm allowed to kill her?"
"No, you're not," replied Gabriel. He didn't look too pleased that Matt had walked in.
"So what was the bio-attack for?" I asked, getting an idea.
Both Matt and Gabriel gave me a look. One was a glare and the other a look of such intense curiosity that I felt like jumping out of my skin. Glares I could handle, and Gabriel's wasn't anything special, but Matt's undivided attention wasn't something I wanted.
When Matt finally turned away from me I took a long sigh of relief, but I was worried about what was on Gabriel's enraged mind. Guess I had said something wrong. The more I thought about it the more I was happy with the idea.
"So you launched that attack?" Matt asked, his curious voice shooting daggers.
Gabriel nodded slowly. "Yes, but it's no concern of yours. If you want I can even give you the anti-virus so you don't have to deal with it." Anti-virus? I never heard of it, but if it was possible…
"No, thank you," Matt stated, "but I think I'll be leaving. I must warn you though, I'll be waiting outside for Alex so you might want to let her out first."
Gabriel nodded. He motioned to a man behind me. One of them came over, grabbing my arm and pulling me to my feet. Following instructions I stayed directly behind him as he took me to a way out. We ended up in the garage. He motioned me into the limo and I slid inside. Then it was moving and I left the lab.
I was told I'd be dropped off at home. For some reason Gabriel was trying to kill me but didn't want me dead. He kept not killing me but he continued to stick bad guys on me. I had to figure out what to do.
Ello again, sorry I took so long getting these up, and that even together they're short... I'm working on the next one, but I wasn't able to do much because I had written these last two at my dad's house and his internet survice wasn't working so I wasn't able to look off them. ... Hope that made sense. Anyway, I promises to have more chapters up soon. Christmas break is here so they'll be lots of time to write. Thanks for your review Ryston, and out of curiousity, is Lucas really reading this? *shrugs* Thanks again to Mooncancer, too.
~Rave
The door creaked as I pushed it open. Matt had asked me to meet him in one of his clubs/abandoned warehouses. I had speeded home, hopped in the shower, changed clothes and reloaded my back pack, yet still had enough time to get here fifteen minutes early.
When I went into the club it was dark, almost completely black. Then across the room a light flipped on. Matt walked into the room dressed in black. He walked strait into he middle of the room, picking up something off of a black table I hadn't noticed before. Turning to me he tossed what he had picked up in my direction. I easily caught it.
"Turn on the TV. Change it to any normal news station," Matt said, his voice a shade colder than usual.
I looked down at the remote he'd given me and hit the power button. The big screen TV attached to one of the far walls immediately turned on. It was on a news station that was reporting a story on some disaster down town. The station went on a commercial break so I changed the channel. The second station was more informative. I had switched it there just in the middle of a speech.
"… The accident took place around an hour ago…" there was a brief pause to show a picture of a few buildings covered with people in yellow suits completely covering them. They looked like they were protecting themselves from some toxic gas. I was beginning to get confused. The news anchor continued, talking about a bio-attack on several downtown buildings. No one knew yet what they had used, but it was killing almost everyone. Several of the people infected were being rushed towards a hospital. I stood in shock for a moment until the anchor mentioned my dad. "Heero Yuy is leading the rescue party."
"What exactly is going one?" I asked.
Matt walked over to me. "I was going to ask you. You're dad seems to know what he's doing, so I figured you might have a clue. I don't."
"I-I could guess, but I don't know for sure," I murmured. The report continued but I wasn't really listening anymore. A bio-attack in the middle of a city that was killing everyone who came across it. It could be the virus. That was my guess, but I had never seen it's work in public. No one had ever been able to let it lose.
"What's your guess?" Matt asked.
I didn't answer right away. Then I realized Matt was really ticked off and really wanted to know. Maybe he would help. "I think it was Gabriel."
"Gabriel?" Matt asked, not sounding that surprised.
"Yeah, but why did you call me?" I asked. "The attack was only an hour ago."
Matt shrugged. "I was going to start on Mariemaia, but we have something more important to take care of."
"Yeah," I said. "So what are we doing now?"
"We're going to see Gabriel," Matt stated. "Switch your guns with something from the closet and I'll give you a ride."
I frowned. "Why am I exchanging my guns?" I asked.
"Because whatever you bring is going to be taken away," he explained, "and unless you want to lose your guns take something of mine."
I didn't like that idea. I wasn't sure what Matt was getting us into but it didn't sound good. Unfortunately I didn't have much of a choice about what happened so I followed Matt's directions and switched guns. Matt was waiting for me in his car.
I guess Gabriel had a laboratory somewhere out in the boonies, cause that's where we went. We were standing right in front of a huge fence, to top it off it was and electric fence, as we wondered about how to get in. I'm assuming that Matt had an idea, because I didn't. We just continued to walk around the base until finally we stopped.
"There's a tunnel somewhere around here…" he said. "It leads into the main building."
"And you know this how?" I questioned.
"I have contacts just about everywhere," Matt explained.
I raised an eyebrow in question, but didn't ask anymore. Of course he had ways of getting information, just like I did, but his were probably better at this kind of stuff. I wasn't used to sneaking into military bases anywhere but in space, and everything was different on the colonies.
Matt found it first. It was hidden under a layer of what could have been real grass, probably was, but when you walked on it the ground sank a little. Matt found the corners of the layer of grass, pulled it aside along with a board that had been supporting it. We both climbed in. I followed the tunnel, not being able to see anything after we left the entrance.
We walked for a few minutes before Matt pulled me to a side and showed me where a ladder was. I followed him up it. We had climbed into a supply room, emerging from a trap door in the back.
"Where to?" I asked.
Matt pulled out a gun, checking to make sure it was loaded before answering. "Follow the red line," he gave me a map, "you'll end up in a lab. Make sure someone sees you there. When they sound the alarm follow the green line. It'll take you near the least guarded exit. You'll get caught before you leave though, we're counting on it. So if you don't get caught, which is unlikely, procrastinate before leaving."
"Wait, so I'm going to get caught?" I asked.
He nodded. "That's the idea."
"So what am I, a distraction or something?"
"Again, that's the idea," Matt said.
"So if they kill me everything's still okay," I said somewhat sarcastically.
Matt grinned, reminding me a lot of Duo. "Don't worry. They won't kill you. Gabriel doesn't want to kill you personally. If he did he'd never have hired me."
"Glad you're sure," I muttered.
Glancing at the map I left the room. It wasn't hard to get to the lab unseen. Inside was a different story. People were everywhere, security guards included. Matt wanted this to look real. To make it so I couldn't be seen right away, and I couldn't look like I was staling later on. It just wouldn't work that way.
I continued to creep forward, staying out of sight as I took everything in. glancing at the map again I memorized the root out. Quickly I stashed the map in a box, not caring what else was in it. Maybe no one would find it for a while, and whenever they do I doubt they'd relate it to me.
Biting a lip I looked around the room. What would be a good way to be seen without looking like I was trying to be seen? There were some stairs that I could try to go up. It didn't sound like the best of plans, but if I moved quickly and tried to blend in I might not be seen, which was kind of what I was going for. It was something that looked probable.
I went for it. Walking behind two scientists I made my way through the large room. People were doing experiments all over the place. I didn't pay attention to any of it. When I reached the stairs I switched groups, following closely behind someone else. Glancing around the room I saw a guard look up at me. I turned and looked strait ahead, trying to blend in. There was this big problem of most people being dressed in suits and lab coats and me being dressed a bit more casually.
It wasn't until the guard started walking for me that I started looking for exits. I knew the idea of where I was going. I just had to get to a spot I could take off from. I could try to stay on the top story awhile if I had to.
At the top of the stairs I turned and kept walking, cautious of the guards starting to head up the stairs. The moment I was out of sight I took off at a run. I found the first staircase I could and ran down it, jumping the last few steps. Back on the first floor I looked around. When I knew where to go I went on at a light jog, stopping to walk whenever I saw someone.
I was beginning to worry that I might have to find a way to procrastinate when the guards found me. There was a lot of shouting, most of it being "There she is!" I glanced at them, and sprinted. I knew where I was going, and the way out wasn't that hard to find. The good thing was that the bad guys were smarter than most. Guards were waiting for me in hallways that I needed to go to, some were dressed in lab coats so not to stand out.
I sneaked into a side room while two groups passed each other. They were literally checking every hallway. It wouldn't be long before they started checking rooms. Matt would be happy. Everyone was searching for me in this part of the lab. He was probably on the other side breaking into something. By now Gabriel probably knew I was here, and he wouldn't even be expecting Matt.
I decided to camp out in this room. It wasn't safe to go out into the hallway, and if I pretended to hide when they came in it might even look right. It was at least an option of what I might do if I wasn't trying to get caught.
Sure enough they were checking rooms, and when they got to this one they found me twirling in a desk chair. They looked at me as if I was crazy when I waved and asked how they were doing. If anyone asked I'd just say I knew I was going to get caught so why bother hiding?
Chapter 17
"Alex, how nice to see you again," Gabriel said as he walked into the room. He sat down at a desk across from me. It was like we were in a meeting, except that my weapons were laid out in the back of the room and there were two men holding guns pointed at my head.
I smiled at him, perfectly friendly, just not really. "I truly wish I could say the same thing but for some reason I really can't." I sounded like a girl who was being forced to apologize to a sibling.
Gabriel laughed. "And what would that be?"
"Oh, let's see… where can we start," I murmured dryly, with absolutely no intentions of elaborating.
Gabriel understood and so changed the subject. "Well, why don't we start with something simple. What are you doing here?"
"Good question," I said, "I'd tell you if I knew." That was a lie. I wouldn't tell him if I knew. The fact that I didn't really know didn't change the fact that I wouldn't tell him. Maybe Matt would have, he knew after all, but I wouldn't. I wasn't sure if Gabriel could tell if people were lying psychically, but he knew I wasn't telling the truth.
Gabriel's smile faded a little, but other than that he looked like he was completely in control. "So you don't know why you're here?" He was trying to get me to say something I'd regret.
"I rarely know what I'm doing in places until I find something which tells me. Unfortunately I underestimated the guard factor and was caught before I found anything," I stated.
Now Gabriel frowned. "You're lying."
"Why do you say that?" I asked, tilting my head to the side.
Gabriel said, "Because you always take a second to think up a plausible lie right before you say it. It's just this thing you do…" he trailed off, thinking of a way to explain. He shook his head in defeat. "I don't know, just something you always do when you lie."
"Hmm…" I murmured. "That's probably how my dad always knew I was lying."
He shrugged, "Maybe."
I sighed, rubbing my eyes. "Well, at least you're not a psychic lie detector. Met up with one of those, it was hard to stay undercover."
"Vince Barton?" Gabriel asked.
I nodded. "That's right, he's your brother," I said, having just remembered. It was hard comparing Vince to Gabriel. They just didn't seem in the least bit alike. Imagining Gabriel as Mathew's son… that was easy.
Gabriel looked at me thoughtfully. "Yes, well, I don't like to think of him that way. He was more of an idiot, but I didn't have a problem with that."
"He wasn't an idiot," I stated.
He raised an eyebrow, "No? He could have teamed up with Mathew, he'd probably been leading Oz right now, or he could have used his power to go against him. I would have done the first, except my father would never have trusted me. The only reason Vince was with him almost constantly was so that he didn't get any ideas and go against Mathew. He never had the guts to kill people outside of a mobile suit."
"Sure he did," I murmured.
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "When?" he asked, not expecting an answer.
"About a minute before he was shot," I stated.
Now Gabriel was really thinking. "I heard he was caught in the explosion."
"Oh," I said. Maybe mentioning the whole Vince dying before the explosion was the bad thing. Right now I was just stalling so I might as well keep talking. "Well then, I guess he was caught in an explosion."
I was receiving several 'yeah right' looks from behind me. I didn't have to look to know the two guys with guns were listening. Gabriel was just smiling. Glad to know I was funny. If funny kept me from being shot it was a really good thing.
"So I don't think you've met much of my family," Gabriel said. I shook my head. "Well, you should meet them sometime. They're all really interesting. You should have been at Mathew's funeral, everyone showed up. It was very… loud."
"They don't all get along?" I asked.
He laughed. "Not in the slightest." A brief pause to think, and suddenly Gabriel turned serious. "Jack was there, no one knew why, but he was there. He helped keep things interesting."
I tilted my head again. "How'd he do that?"
"Well, he's really not supposed to be around, and he didn't come to Vince's funeral, though that was considerably smaller. He was at Rob's, I think. I could have just imagined it. I don't know," Gabriel seemed to be talking more to himself then me. It didn't mater I was still confused.
I thought a moment before asking, "Why exactly would Jack be doing at Rob's funeral?" Rob had been on the colony when it blew up. His family was rich enough that they could afford a fancy memorial, which really wasn't a funeral, but had a casket anyway.
Jack smiled, not a happy smile, but a smile nonetheless. "He and Rob were good friends when they were younger. Up until Jack's thirteenth birthday I think. Then Jack 'died' and everyone was sad and Rob never knew that Jack was still alive. V didn't either, I think. Mathew was big on keeping it a secret."
I frowned. Asking why was getting annoying, but it was the only way Gabriel would tell me. So I said "Why" and he continued.
"It's quite simple. Mathew had an affair, Jack was the result of it, he didn't want anyone to know Jack was more than a good friend's child, and Jack didn't like the way Mathew was setting up Oz, so when Mathew purposed the phony death Jack didn't disagree."
I blinked, only able to think of one thing. "What?" I asked, surprised, very surprised. Gabriel looked at me as if I answered a question. Jack was Mathew's kid… no one had told me. No one had hinted. Did anyone know? That was a good question. At least it explained why Zechs didn't like Jack's family. I didn't either.
"Well, I guess he didn't tell you then," Gabriel said softly. He looked happy with himself, very smug.
"What?" I repeated. "So he's your brother? And what about Jack not liking Mathew. I'm so confused." At least saying I was confused made sense.
"It's explained on the disk you stole. All downloaded and decoded on your computer. I left it there just to see if you would read it. I guess you simply had too much to do," Mathew explained. "You must have had a busy night. Talk to anyone interesting?"
"Oh yeah," I murmured. "That reminds me. What the hell did you do to my mom?"
Gabriel blinked. "Well, that's an interesting conclusion. I thought you'd be yelling about something else first. I should have know better than to try to guess your moves." He sighed, glancing away from me for a second. "I didn't do a thing to you mother. Surly I could have done it, we both know that, but I didn't."
My voice was cold as I replied, "I don't believe you."
"I didn't think you would," Gabriel agreed, "but it's the truth." Neither of us said anything for a minute often Gabriel spoke. "Anything else?"
Of course there was, and he knew it. I just wasn't sure what to yell at him for. He'd sent two assassins after me and a pack of zombies, not to mention the bio-attack. Carefully I chose my words. "Did you really think any of them would kill me?" I kept my voice soft, controlled, and very angry.
Gabriel frowned. "I know one of them can," he murmured.
"Would that be me?" asked Matt as he casually strolled into the room. his hands were shoved into his pockets and he was grinning. I hope that was a good thing, but I really didn't know.
Gabriel looked up, very surprised. "Matt, I didn't know you were here."
"Yeah, that was kind of the point," Matt murmured as he looked around the room. his eyes stopped on me. "Well, hello Alex, how nice to see you again." I didn't return the smile. Turning back to Gabriel he asked, "I don't suppose I'm allowed to kill her?"
"No, you're not," replied Gabriel. He didn't look too pleased that Matt had walked in.
"So what was the bio-attack for?" I asked, getting an idea.
Both Matt and Gabriel gave me a look. One was a glare and the other a look of such intense curiosity that I felt like jumping out of my skin. Glares I could handle, and Gabriel's wasn't anything special, but Matt's undivided attention wasn't something I wanted.
When Matt finally turned away from me I took a long sigh of relief, but I was worried about what was on Gabriel's enraged mind. Guess I had said something wrong. The more I thought about it the more I was happy with the idea.
"So you launched that attack?" Matt asked, his curious voice shooting daggers.
Gabriel nodded slowly. "Yes, but it's no concern of yours. If you want I can even give you the anti-virus so you don't have to deal with it." Anti-virus? I never heard of it, but if it was possible…
"No, thank you," Matt stated, "but I think I'll be leaving. I must warn you though, I'll be waiting outside for Alex so you might want to let her out first."
Gabriel nodded. He motioned to a man behind me. One of them came over, grabbing my arm and pulling me to my feet. Following instructions I stayed directly behind him as he took me to a way out. We ended up in the garage. He motioned me into the limo and I slid inside. Then it was moving and I left the lab.
I was told I'd be dropped off at home. For some reason Gabriel was trying to kill me but didn't want me dead. He kept not killing me but he continued to stick bad guys on me. I had to figure out what to do.
Ello again, sorry I took so long getting these up, and that even together they're short... I'm working on the next one, but I wasn't able to do much because I had written these last two at my dad's house and his internet survice wasn't working so I wasn't able to look off them. ... Hope that made sense. Anyway, I promises to have more chapters up soon. Christmas break is here so they'll be lots of time to write. Thanks for your review Ryston, and out of curiousity, is Lucas really reading this? *shrugs* Thanks again to Mooncancer, too.
~Rave