Title: Love, War and Bruises
Chapter Three
Author: Stormhawk
Twenty minutes ago.
After seeing Cray walk in the door, Stevie ran upstairs, grabbed her jacket and jumped out her window. After walking about a block from the mansion she called a taxi.
It took a few minutes for it to get there and when it did she jumped in and said the address for Rana's house - she was hoping to stop this meeting before it started.
When the taxi pulled up in front Rana house, Stevie looked at the taxi driver, "can you wait here a few minutes? I might need to go somewhere else."
"No problem kiddo," he said with a smile.
Stevie jumped out of the taxi and ran up to the front door, she knocked furiously on it and pressed the doorbell, "come on Rana," she whispered, "I never thought you were stupid."
"Ok! Ok! Got the idea already!" a voice yelled as someone ran to the door. Rana's little brother Tom opened the door. "Oh, hey Brooke. Is there some reason you're attempting to break the door down?"
"She went to Angela's about half an hour ago. Is something wrong?"
"No, are you sure she went to Angela's place?"
"Well, that's what she told us. Is she in trouble?"
Stevie shook her head, "no," she said with a reassuring smile, "this just isn't a well-organized night."
"Oh, ok."
Stevie ran back down to the taxi, "somewhere else?" the driver asked her.
"Yeah, do you know where the Half Moon Club is?"
"It closed down last year, but yeah."
"There please."
"Ok," he said and started the car. "They rent the building out for private parties sometimes, you going to one of them?"
"No, it's not a party," Stevie said sadly. "More like a funeral if I don't get there in time," she muttered to herself.
Why don't you call your dad? He can help you. One part of her mind asked.
Because Rana is my friend and I can handle myself. She answered it.
"Hey driver, can you drop me in the street before the club or after the club? I don't want to stroll up to the front door."
"You're the boss."
Then her cell rang, she pulled it out of her pocket and looked at the number. Seeing that it was the mansion she knew it would be Cray so she cancelled the call and dumped it back in her pocket.
"She hung up on me," Cray said as he ran up to Darth's room.
"Well that had to be expected. Her friend's password is 'kitten,' how lame is that?"
"Where are they meeting?"
"'Above the moon and under the stars,' do you have any idea where that is?"
"It's always specific to the contact. It would be somewhere Rana knew."
Darth flexed his finger and then started typing furiously, he brought up a search box and typed the phrase into it.
"Where are you searching?" Cray asked him.
"Her computer, which may I add had no security whatsoever. If this place is important it may be mentioned somewhere or as a file name of a picture."
"Hurry..."
"Here!" Darth said and double clicked on a picture. The picture showed Rana and a group of friends standing on a floor painted like a moon. "Any idea where this is?"
"Umm..." Cray said as he shook his head.
Darth copied the image and then zoomed in and enhanced the corner. "Half Moon Club. It's written on one of the signs."
"Great, now we need an address."
"That should be much easier."
The taxi pulled to a stop, "ok," the driver said, "the club is down the bottom of this street."
I knew I should have brought my gun, Stevie thought as she looked around at the dark streets. "Thanks," she said as she pulled out her wallet to the pay him.
"Hey kid, I got another fare lined up a couple of blocks away, you want me to swing back in half an hour or something?"
"Yeah, that'd be great. What I'm doing shouldn't take that long."
Stevie got out of the taxi and watched the taillights disappear and she was left alone in the dark street.
Cray looked at the address, "I know where this is."
"Ok, I'll call a taxi."
"Something faster," Cray said with a grin as he heard their neighbor pull into his driveway.
"You're going to steal his bike?"
"Why not?," he said as they ran downstairs.
"Do you even know how to ride one?" Darth asked as they ran out the front door.
"Sure, Galli uploaded the program ages and ages ago, I just never used it. Dylan!"
"Yeah?" their neighbor Dylan said as he pulled off his helmet.
"I'm borrowing your bike," Cray informed him as he grabbed the helmet and sped away.
Dylan looked at Darth, "what just happened?"
"You don't mind if he borrows it for a while do you? We'll pay if it gets broken."
"It's only got half a tank of gas. What did he need it for anyway?"
"A...reason."
"Ok...," Dylan said shaking his head, "just...dump it in the garage and we'll talk tomorrow."
"Sure."
Someone tapped Stevie on the shoulder, instinctively, she grabbed their hand and slammed them against the wall with their arm bent up behind their back.
"Brooke! Let me go!"
"Rana?"
"No, Santa Clause," Rana said sarcastically as Stevie let her go. "How did you do that?"
"Reflex action."
"Some reflex. What are you doing here anyway?"
"I came to help you."
"Help me what? Get a broken arm?"
"You have no idea what you are walking into."
"And you do?"
"More than you can imagine," Stevie said honestly.
"Feel like sharing?"
"All you know is you're going to meet Jeremy and the computer group he's with, right?"
"I didn't buy they bull your friend said."
"Look Rana, you want me to level with you?"
"Sure. Say your piece."
"If you go to this meeting and Jeremy asks you to go with him, what are you going to say?"
"I'll say yes."
"Even if he doesn't tell you where you're going?"
"Look, the only reason he and I aren't together at the moment is because he moved away. We both know that so if he wants me to go with him then I'll go."
"Even if it means you never get to see your family again?"
"I'm sure he didn't move that far away."
"Answer the question. Is Jeremy worth giving up your family, your home, your friends, real food, TV and everything you ever knew?"
"You're starting to scare me Brooke."
"I know what I'm talking about, whereas you have no idea what you're walking into."
"You aren't making any sense!"
"And if you with him, nothing will ever make sense again and you will never be able to have a normal life."
"Can you prove any of this?"
"I am trying to save you from making the worst mistake of your life."
"Go away Brooke, just go home and leave me alone."
"Do you want me to say good bye to your family for you?"
"Leave me alone." With that, Rana turned on her heel and walked toward the Half Moon Club.
Stevie drifted into the shadows and quickly made her way up to the roof of the building beside her so that she could follow Rana from above. She knew that some people didn't want to be saved but she was going to do everything she could to try and help her.
One thing was comforting her, at least this seemed like a second-rate operation, not the kind of thing they would bother 'his almighty One-ness' with. The last thing was Anderson doing aerial surveillance while she was walking around rooftops.
"Speaking of the freak show..." she muttered as he saw a black dot in the sky, but at least he wasn't anywhere near her. His crew was probably looking after something much more important. "Just stay over there freak boy, don't come bothering me."
She jumped over to the next roof and then saw the Half Moon Club in all of its dilapidated glory. From the look of it, it would have been a fun place when it was open but the whole area was like a ghost town, the crime rate had probably driven out all of the legitimate businesses.
There were a couple of lights inside, showing that the rebels at least could operate a light switch and there was a young man waiting outside the front door. Probably Jeremy.
Even from way up on the roof, Stevie had no doubt that he was a rebel. It was written all over him...and the fact that she had caught a reflection of a gun inside his trench coat only strengthened her presumption.
"Jeremy!" she heard Rana call out.
Jeremy stood and held out his arms, "I thought you weren't coming."
"I wouldn't have missed this for the world."
"You want to come inside and meet my friends?"
Stevie shook her head, this Jeremy must have a lot of sway with his captain to have convinced them to take out a naive coppertop like Rana. That was, unless, something else was going on.
Stevie slapped herself, there HAD to be something else going on. She seen it before because all she had been worried about was Rana, but now she thought about it she knew there was something more going on.
The rebels would use a naive coppertop like Rana instead of one of their normal potentials if they were testing something and they weren't sure if the subject would live or die.
And this supposedly wonderful Jeremy could be either only using her as a test subject or taking the chance that this...whatever it was...would work and they could be together.
"I have to get Rana out of there. Now." I know I'm not overreacting, Stevie thought to herself, I know how they think. Coppertops are expendable, I've heard them say that.
"I wish I brought my gun," Stevie said as she jumped down from the roof. "Coppertops are not expendable." She ran around the side of the building and found a service entrance.
She lifted her leg and kicked it in. She ran down a short hall and into what had been the kitchen.
She saw a lighter on the bench, she shook it and smiled, there was still some fuel in it. Then she pulled open a cupboard and four half a can of spray oil. "Primitive," she said with a grin, "but it'll do."
She walked out of the kitchen and toward the lit room. She came to a swinging door with a porthole in it, she peeped through it and only saw one rebel - the rest of them must have been in another room - and opened it quietly.
The rebel turned when she clicked the lighter on, he pulled out his gun but she pressed the button on the spray oil before he could fire.
His hair caught on fire immediately so he dropped to the floor screaming, trying to roll the flames out. She stamped on his hand and picked up his gun. "Thanks," she said sarcastically.
Unfortunately, his screams had brought the rest of the crew coming. There were two others, plus Jeremy and Rana.
"Brooke what the hell are you doing? Did you set that guy on fire? Why do you have a gun?"
"Rana come over here now."
"Who the hell are you?" one of the trench-coat-wearing rebels asked as he aimed his MP-5 at her. "What are you? Recruit?"
"Not quite," she replied as she the safety off her gun. "Whose in charge?"
"I am," said the man standing near Jeremy and Rana. "Now are you going to walk out of here or are we going to shoot?"
"What do you want her for?" she asked as the burning man finally put the last of his flames out. He collapsed in a heap - no threat from him.
"Do you know who we are?" Jeremy asked.
"I know what you are. She doesn't."
The man in the trenchcoat made a move so Stevie turned the gun a little and fired. He dodged the bullet so she fired again, this time he wasn't so lucky. Ok, that was better than expected, maybe efficiency with firearms is genetic. She mused as the man fell down.
Rana doubled over and puked, "you just killed him!" she shrieked, "Brooke, you murdered someone!"
"And you think you're going to come out of this alive?"
"You're going to kill me too?" she asked as she took a step back.
The man near Jeremy made a move, "don't even think about pulling a gun on me," Stevie said with a cold stare. "You the captain?"
"Eval," he replied, "second in command of the Copernicus."
"Copernicus, that's the ship that carries out all of the morally-challenged science experiment. Why don't you tell my friend Rana what you had in store for her?"
Eval didn't move. "Tell her," Stevie said, "or I shoot both of you."
"It will take too long for us to set this up again," the captain whispered to Jeremy.
"I'll get backup," Jeremy said as he grabbed Rana's hand and they ran into the next room.
"Rana!" Stevie screamed but then Eval drew his gun.
"Why are you trying to stop this?" he asked as he aimed his gun at her.
"Why are you experimenting on innocent people?"
"How did you know?"
"She doesn't know anything about the Matrix, she's not looking for you people, therefore this meeting could only mean you needed a test subject."
"So what if we did?" Eval asked. "What's it to you?"
"I have no intention of letting you use my friend as a test subject."
"Who are you with?"
Stevie smirked, "if I said my father was Agent Smith would that answer your question?"
"Shit..." Eval said and started to fire.
Stevie ducked his shots and then brought her gun up and fired. The shot hit him straight in the chest and he went down. She walked over to him and kicked his gun out of his hand and pressed her gun to his forehead. "What is this experiment?"
"When we take someone out of the Matrix there are quick flashes of information as they are detached from the system. We needed to slow it down so we could see what it is."
"You've been helpful," she said as she ran after Jeremy and Rana, not bothering to shoot him because he'd be dead soon enough anyway.
Stevie ran down a hall and opened each door until she found the one with Rana in it. "Oh no, Rana..."
Rana was lying on the floor with silvery goo covering her feet. Usually the 'goo' spread quickly but it was just crawling on Rana. Jeremy was sitting beside her looking at data on a laptop. "Are you getting this?" he asked someone on the other end of his cell phone.
Stevie raised her gun and fired at Jeremy, blood splattered on the laptop. She kicked his body out of the way and yanked at a wire had been placed in the goo. The feed to the laptop went dead.
Rana was shivering from the cold, "Brooke? I'mmm sss...s...sorry I ddidn't lisssten tooo you. You wwwere right."
"Did he say anything?"
"Ssaid sorry but Zzzion more important than me."
"Did he give you a pill? A red pill?"
"Noo, injected me." Rana weakly lifted her hand and Stevie saw an empty needle.
"Ahh!" Rana yelped as the goo started to crawl higher.
"No red pill, no trace program, no phone line, I broke the connection to the laptop. They never were going to take you out, there's no hard line in here."
"Wwhat? Help me."
"I don't know what to do."
"Get it off me."
"That might hurt you."
"Do it Brooke!"
"Rana," Stevie said as she put her hands down near the goo. "My name is Stevie. My real name is Stevie, not Brooke."
Rana smiled and Stevie grabbed the top of the goo. It wasn't completely liquid, so it was possible to hold onto it. The problem was that it had a glue-like quality, it didn't want to let go of Rana.
Stevie stood up and with all of her strength managed to pull it off Rana's legs. She threw it toward the corner and it shattered into a thousand small pieces.
"Hello?" a voice called. "Is there anyone left in here?"
Stevie jumped up and aimed her gun at the door as someone walked down the hall. She did a double take as the taxi driver walked in. "You?" Stevie asked in surprise as she lowered the gun.
"Yeah, you asked me to come back."
"Didn't the bodies scare you off?"
"I'm very old kid, not much bothers me anyone." He looked down at Rana, "she's a mess, she needs to go to the hospital and one of them suits might need to look at her as well."
"Suits?"
"Don't play dumb kid, cause I'm not. But I have no intention of walking up to their doorstep so I'll take her to the hospital and get them to contact the suits."
"Who...what are you?" she asked as she put the safety of her gun on.
"I'm just one of those people who knows what's going on in this world. You need a lift home?"
"No," she said as she shook her head, "I think I need to walk this off."
"All right, but be careful," he said as he helped Rana to stand.
Rana looked up at Stevie, "thank you."
"I'll ring you tomorrow, I think we need to talk." Rana managed a weak laugh as the taxi driver walked off with her.
Stevie ran a hand through her hair and pulled out her phone. She started to dial her dad's number as she walked out of the club and saw the taxi's disappearing taillights.
Something blotted out the streetlight above her and she felt a chill go over her heart. She'd rescued Rana, she'd just forgotten one thing.
"You little bitch," Anderson snarled.
She looked up and saw him floating about ten feet above her head. She tried to finish dialing the number but her phone flew out of her hand and into Anderson's. He snapped it in half and let the pieces.
She aimed her gun up at him and pulled the trigger before she took the safety off. The gun went flying as well and he bent it in half.
Stevie ran for her life.
Anderson smiled sickly to himself and then took after her.
Author: Stormhawk
Twenty minutes ago.
After seeing Cray walk in the door, Stevie ran upstairs, grabbed her jacket and jumped out her window. After walking about a block from the mansion she called a taxi.
It took a few minutes for it to get there and when it did she jumped in and said the address for Rana's house - she was hoping to stop this meeting before it started.
When the taxi pulled up in front Rana house, Stevie looked at the taxi driver, "can you wait here a few minutes? I might need to go somewhere else."
"No problem kiddo," he said with a smile.
Stevie jumped out of the taxi and ran up to the front door, she knocked furiously on it and pressed the doorbell, "come on Rana," she whispered, "I never thought you were stupid."
"Ok! Ok! Got the idea already!" a voice yelled as someone ran to the door. Rana's little brother Tom opened the door. "Oh, hey Brooke. Is there some reason you're attempting to break the door down?"
"She went to Angela's about half an hour ago. Is something wrong?"
"No, are you sure she went to Angela's place?"
"Well, that's what she told us. Is she in trouble?"
Stevie shook her head, "no," she said with a reassuring smile, "this just isn't a well-organized night."
"Oh, ok."
Stevie ran back down to the taxi, "somewhere else?" the driver asked her.
"Yeah, do you know where the Half Moon Club is?"
"It closed down last year, but yeah."
"There please."
"Ok," he said and started the car. "They rent the building out for private parties sometimes, you going to one of them?"
"No, it's not a party," Stevie said sadly. "More like a funeral if I don't get there in time," she muttered to herself.
Why don't you call your dad? He can help you. One part of her mind asked.
Because Rana is my friend and I can handle myself. She answered it.
"Hey driver, can you drop me in the street before the club or after the club? I don't want to stroll up to the front door."
"You're the boss."
Then her cell rang, she pulled it out of her pocket and looked at the number. Seeing that it was the mansion she knew it would be Cray so she cancelled the call and dumped it back in her pocket.
"She hung up on me," Cray said as he ran up to Darth's room.
"Well that had to be expected. Her friend's password is 'kitten,' how lame is that?"
"Where are they meeting?"
"'Above the moon and under the stars,' do you have any idea where that is?"
"It's always specific to the contact. It would be somewhere Rana knew."
Darth flexed his finger and then started typing furiously, he brought up a search box and typed the phrase into it.
"Where are you searching?" Cray asked him.
"Her computer, which may I add had no security whatsoever. If this place is important it may be mentioned somewhere or as a file name of a picture."
"Hurry..."
"Here!" Darth said and double clicked on a picture. The picture showed Rana and a group of friends standing on a floor painted like a moon. "Any idea where this is?"
"Umm..." Cray said as he shook his head.
Darth copied the image and then zoomed in and enhanced the corner. "Half Moon Club. It's written on one of the signs."
"Great, now we need an address."
"That should be much easier."
The taxi pulled to a stop, "ok," the driver said, "the club is down the bottom of this street."
I knew I should have brought my gun, Stevie thought as she looked around at the dark streets. "Thanks," she said as she pulled out her wallet to the pay him.
"Hey kid, I got another fare lined up a couple of blocks away, you want me to swing back in half an hour or something?"
"Yeah, that'd be great. What I'm doing shouldn't take that long."
Stevie got out of the taxi and watched the taillights disappear and she was left alone in the dark street.
Cray looked at the address, "I know where this is."
"Ok, I'll call a taxi."
"Something faster," Cray said with a grin as he heard their neighbor pull into his driveway.
"You're going to steal his bike?"
"Why not?," he said as they ran downstairs.
"Do you even know how to ride one?" Darth asked as they ran out the front door.
"Sure, Galli uploaded the program ages and ages ago, I just never used it. Dylan!"
"Yeah?" their neighbor Dylan said as he pulled off his helmet.
"I'm borrowing your bike," Cray informed him as he grabbed the helmet and sped away.
Dylan looked at Darth, "what just happened?"
"You don't mind if he borrows it for a while do you? We'll pay if it gets broken."
"It's only got half a tank of gas. What did he need it for anyway?"
"A...reason."
"Ok...," Dylan said shaking his head, "just...dump it in the garage and we'll talk tomorrow."
"Sure."
Someone tapped Stevie on the shoulder, instinctively, she grabbed their hand and slammed them against the wall with their arm bent up behind their back.
"Brooke! Let me go!"
"Rana?"
"No, Santa Clause," Rana said sarcastically as Stevie let her go. "How did you do that?"
"Reflex action."
"Some reflex. What are you doing here anyway?"
"I came to help you."
"Help me what? Get a broken arm?"
"You have no idea what you are walking into."
"And you do?"
"More than you can imagine," Stevie said honestly.
"Feel like sharing?"
"All you know is you're going to meet Jeremy and the computer group he's with, right?"
"I didn't buy they bull your friend said."
"Look Rana, you want me to level with you?"
"Sure. Say your piece."
"If you go to this meeting and Jeremy asks you to go with him, what are you going to say?"
"I'll say yes."
"Even if he doesn't tell you where you're going?"
"Look, the only reason he and I aren't together at the moment is because he moved away. We both know that so if he wants me to go with him then I'll go."
"Even if it means you never get to see your family again?"
"I'm sure he didn't move that far away."
"Answer the question. Is Jeremy worth giving up your family, your home, your friends, real food, TV and everything you ever knew?"
"You're starting to scare me Brooke."
"I know what I'm talking about, whereas you have no idea what you're walking into."
"You aren't making any sense!"
"And if you with him, nothing will ever make sense again and you will never be able to have a normal life."
"Can you prove any of this?"
"I am trying to save you from making the worst mistake of your life."
"Go away Brooke, just go home and leave me alone."
"Do you want me to say good bye to your family for you?"
"Leave me alone." With that, Rana turned on her heel and walked toward the Half Moon Club.
Stevie drifted into the shadows and quickly made her way up to the roof of the building beside her so that she could follow Rana from above. She knew that some people didn't want to be saved but she was going to do everything she could to try and help her.
One thing was comforting her, at least this seemed like a second-rate operation, not the kind of thing they would bother 'his almighty One-ness' with. The last thing was Anderson doing aerial surveillance while she was walking around rooftops.
"Speaking of the freak show..." she muttered as he saw a black dot in the sky, but at least he wasn't anywhere near her. His crew was probably looking after something much more important. "Just stay over there freak boy, don't come bothering me."
She jumped over to the next roof and then saw the Half Moon Club in all of its dilapidated glory. From the look of it, it would have been a fun place when it was open but the whole area was like a ghost town, the crime rate had probably driven out all of the legitimate businesses.
There were a couple of lights inside, showing that the rebels at least could operate a light switch and there was a young man waiting outside the front door. Probably Jeremy.
Even from way up on the roof, Stevie had no doubt that he was a rebel. It was written all over him...and the fact that she had caught a reflection of a gun inside his trench coat only strengthened her presumption.
"Jeremy!" she heard Rana call out.
Jeremy stood and held out his arms, "I thought you weren't coming."
"I wouldn't have missed this for the world."
"You want to come inside and meet my friends?"
Stevie shook her head, this Jeremy must have a lot of sway with his captain to have convinced them to take out a naive coppertop like Rana. That was, unless, something else was going on.
Stevie slapped herself, there HAD to be something else going on. She seen it before because all she had been worried about was Rana, but now she thought about it she knew there was something more going on.
The rebels would use a naive coppertop like Rana instead of one of their normal potentials if they were testing something and they weren't sure if the subject would live or die.
And this supposedly wonderful Jeremy could be either only using her as a test subject or taking the chance that this...whatever it was...would work and they could be together.
"I have to get Rana out of there. Now." I know I'm not overreacting, Stevie thought to herself, I know how they think. Coppertops are expendable, I've heard them say that.
"I wish I brought my gun," Stevie said as she jumped down from the roof. "Coppertops are not expendable." She ran around the side of the building and found a service entrance.
She lifted her leg and kicked it in. She ran down a short hall and into what had been the kitchen.
She saw a lighter on the bench, she shook it and smiled, there was still some fuel in it. Then she pulled open a cupboard and four half a can of spray oil. "Primitive," she said with a grin, "but it'll do."
She walked out of the kitchen and toward the lit room. She came to a swinging door with a porthole in it, she peeped through it and only saw one rebel - the rest of them must have been in another room - and opened it quietly.
The rebel turned when she clicked the lighter on, he pulled out his gun but she pressed the button on the spray oil before he could fire.
His hair caught on fire immediately so he dropped to the floor screaming, trying to roll the flames out. She stamped on his hand and picked up his gun. "Thanks," she said sarcastically.
Unfortunately, his screams had brought the rest of the crew coming. There were two others, plus Jeremy and Rana.
"Brooke what the hell are you doing? Did you set that guy on fire? Why do you have a gun?"
"Rana come over here now."
"Who the hell are you?" one of the trench-coat-wearing rebels asked as he aimed his MP-5 at her. "What are you? Recruit?"
"Not quite," she replied as she the safety off her gun. "Whose in charge?"
"I am," said the man standing near Jeremy and Rana. "Now are you going to walk out of here or are we going to shoot?"
"What do you want her for?" she asked as the burning man finally put the last of his flames out. He collapsed in a heap - no threat from him.
"Do you know who we are?" Jeremy asked.
"I know what you are. She doesn't."
The man in the trenchcoat made a move so Stevie turned the gun a little and fired. He dodged the bullet so she fired again, this time he wasn't so lucky. Ok, that was better than expected, maybe efficiency with firearms is genetic. She mused as the man fell down.
Rana doubled over and puked, "you just killed him!" she shrieked, "Brooke, you murdered someone!"
"And you think you're going to come out of this alive?"
"You're going to kill me too?" she asked as she took a step back.
The man near Jeremy made a move, "don't even think about pulling a gun on me," Stevie said with a cold stare. "You the captain?"
"Eval," he replied, "second in command of the Copernicus."
"Copernicus, that's the ship that carries out all of the morally-challenged science experiment. Why don't you tell my friend Rana what you had in store for her?"
Eval didn't move. "Tell her," Stevie said, "or I shoot both of you."
"It will take too long for us to set this up again," the captain whispered to Jeremy.
"I'll get backup," Jeremy said as he grabbed Rana's hand and they ran into the next room.
"Rana!" Stevie screamed but then Eval drew his gun.
"Why are you trying to stop this?" he asked as he aimed his gun at her.
"Why are you experimenting on innocent people?"
"How did you know?"
"She doesn't know anything about the Matrix, she's not looking for you people, therefore this meeting could only mean you needed a test subject."
"So what if we did?" Eval asked. "What's it to you?"
"I have no intention of letting you use my friend as a test subject."
"Who are you with?"
Stevie smirked, "if I said my father was Agent Smith would that answer your question?"
"Shit..." Eval said and started to fire.
Stevie ducked his shots and then brought her gun up and fired. The shot hit him straight in the chest and he went down. She walked over to him and kicked his gun out of his hand and pressed her gun to his forehead. "What is this experiment?"
"When we take someone out of the Matrix there are quick flashes of information as they are detached from the system. We needed to slow it down so we could see what it is."
"You've been helpful," she said as she ran after Jeremy and Rana, not bothering to shoot him because he'd be dead soon enough anyway.
Stevie ran down a hall and opened each door until she found the one with Rana in it. "Oh no, Rana..."
Rana was lying on the floor with silvery goo covering her feet. Usually the 'goo' spread quickly but it was just crawling on Rana. Jeremy was sitting beside her looking at data on a laptop. "Are you getting this?" he asked someone on the other end of his cell phone.
Stevie raised her gun and fired at Jeremy, blood splattered on the laptop. She kicked his body out of the way and yanked at a wire had been placed in the goo. The feed to the laptop went dead.
Rana was shivering from the cold, "Brooke? I'mmm sss...s...sorry I ddidn't lisssten tooo you. You wwwere right."
"Did he say anything?"
"Ssaid sorry but Zzzion more important than me."
"Did he give you a pill? A red pill?"
"Noo, injected me." Rana weakly lifted her hand and Stevie saw an empty needle.
"Ahh!" Rana yelped as the goo started to crawl higher.
"No red pill, no trace program, no phone line, I broke the connection to the laptop. They never were going to take you out, there's no hard line in here."
"Wwhat? Help me."
"I don't know what to do."
"Get it off me."
"That might hurt you."
"Do it Brooke!"
"Rana," Stevie said as she put her hands down near the goo. "My name is Stevie. My real name is Stevie, not Brooke."
Rana smiled and Stevie grabbed the top of the goo. It wasn't completely liquid, so it was possible to hold onto it. The problem was that it had a glue-like quality, it didn't want to let go of Rana.
Stevie stood up and with all of her strength managed to pull it off Rana's legs. She threw it toward the corner and it shattered into a thousand small pieces.
"Hello?" a voice called. "Is there anyone left in here?"
Stevie jumped up and aimed her gun at the door as someone walked down the hall. She did a double take as the taxi driver walked in. "You?" Stevie asked in surprise as she lowered the gun.
"Yeah, you asked me to come back."
"Didn't the bodies scare you off?"
"I'm very old kid, not much bothers me anyone." He looked down at Rana, "she's a mess, she needs to go to the hospital and one of them suits might need to look at her as well."
"Suits?"
"Don't play dumb kid, cause I'm not. But I have no intention of walking up to their doorstep so I'll take her to the hospital and get them to contact the suits."
"Who...what are you?" she asked as she put the safety of her gun on.
"I'm just one of those people who knows what's going on in this world. You need a lift home?"
"No," she said as she shook her head, "I think I need to walk this off."
"All right, but be careful," he said as he helped Rana to stand.
Rana looked up at Stevie, "thank you."
"I'll ring you tomorrow, I think we need to talk." Rana managed a weak laugh as the taxi driver walked off with her.
Stevie ran a hand through her hair and pulled out her phone. She started to dial her dad's number as she walked out of the club and saw the taxi's disappearing taillights.
Something blotted out the streetlight above her and she felt a chill go over her heart. She'd rescued Rana, she'd just forgotten one thing.
"You little bitch," Anderson snarled.
She looked up and saw him floating about ten feet above her head. She tried to finish dialing the number but her phone flew out of her hand and into Anderson's. He snapped it in half and let the pieces.
She aimed her gun up at him and pulled the trigger before she took the safety off. The gun went flying as well and he bent it in half.
Stevie ran for her life.
Anderson smiled sickly to himself and then took after her.