Chapter 31
The next morning I was feeling more myself and had decided that there was only one thing to do. I was going to go to Washington and speak with the Secretary, perhaps the president. Now that may sound like someone just said I'm going to defy the laws of gravity and float, but technically I could meet the president. All I had to do was blackmail a little and they would be agreeing to see me, otherwise they would be sending every known FBI, CIA and NSA agent after me to keep me quiet, but that was a risk I was willing to take. I already sent copies of the files off last night before I went to sleep. All I had to do now was wait for a reply, one way or another.
I walked into the kitchen to find Falcon already up and eating something. That was a surprise; normally he had to have a bomb placed under him to get him out of bed. I grabbed myself a piece of toast and some jam and got myself a quick breakfast and sat down at the table.
"You're up early," I commented. "Can't stay asleep?"
"You try getting to sleep with two girls in the room next door to you," Falcon replied. "I'd like to see you trying to get to sleep while they stay up all night talking about girly things."
"Like what?" I asked, hoping it wasn't the wrong question to be asking.
"Well," Falcon said, "At first it was about the stuff you said last night, about the government betraying us all. I could of sworn I heard a few pillows being murdered. Then I think it was Rei changing the subject."
Falcon stopped there, turning a little red in the face. I guessed that the other conversation they had was something he didn't want to repeat to anyone. Now it had me intrigued, but did I really have to know?
"I'm going to leave it there," I said, "I don't really want to know."
"So what did you do with the information you found?" Falcon asked. "I mean we have to be careful. If the world found out about this, there will be chaos."
"I know, Falcon," I replied, "I know. I sent a copy to the president. I wanted to talk to him in person. I used a relay so they couldn't find where it was sent from. Some poor person is most likely getting raided by the NSA or the CIA or something. If they want to talk to me, they have to use the anonymous e-mail service I told them to send a reply to."
We both smiled into our breakfasts as I finished saying that. We could just imagine the agent being shouted at for making a blunder and arresting a civilian. Suddenly there was a knock at the door and shouting…
Chapter 32
Dark came out of his room at the knocking, Falcon and I already on the move to see who it was. I peered out of the eye hole and was surprised to see military soldiers in the corridor searching the apartments for something.
Crud, I thought, they must have realized that to get the information someone would have to have been in the infected area.
"It's the military," I replied, "They must be searching for whoever got the information from the base. They don't know who it is, but they must have figured it out that the person who stole the information is in the quarantine area."
"Wow," Dark replied, "That was fast. Normally it takes them a bit longer to look at the security footage before finding out who leads the riots we have every now and then around the city."
"Open up in the name of the US military," A soldier shouted through the door. "We will break down the door if we have to."
Falcon and I stayed on either side of Dark as he reached up and opened the door to let the soldiers in. The commanding officer gestured to them to sweep the apartment while he walked in through the door and looked at us. Rei and Flame were shoved into the living room roughly, but surprisingly they were already dressed.
"Line up," The commanding soldier said, "Stand at attention. You are subjected to photo identification."
Double crud, I thought, the cameras might have gotten a photo of me. I can't believe I forgot about them during my escape. Let's just hope they didn't bring…
Yep they bought it, a new, state of the art PID, or Photo Identification Device. It was held up in front of the face and a photo was taken, which is then sent back to a receiver that cross references it with the original suspect, or suspects they are searching for. Then I remembered Falcon. He was only there for a few seconds, but what if they got a photo of him? Things were just getting worse. The soldier approached me and held up the PID. A laser scan created a digital photo of my face and sent it off to be matched.
Seconds ticked by slowly as we waited for a response to the facial scan. I saw the commanding soldier speak in hushed tones with another soldier, the PID receiving the results. I already knew what it said.
"Hold your hands out in front of you," The soldier ordered, "You are all to be placed under military arrest for conspiring to bring about the downfall of the American Government."
Wow, they had really outdone themselves this time. I think we might have a problem, might being the keyword.
Chapter 33
The soldiers escorted us out of the apartment building, handcuffed hands behind our backs, towards an army truck waiting outside. The entire time they held their MP9s trained on our backs so that if we tried anything funny, they could shoot us. MP9s were newer and more advanced versions to the MP5s they used back near the turn of the millennium. Back when my mother was killed.
They shoved us into the back of the truck, one of the soldiers sitting in the back, his gun trained on us; the other two went to the front of the truck. Moments later we heard the engine start and the truck began to move. I sat at the back, or should I say front of the truck, up against the wall so I could see out of the truck. Flame and Rei sat on either side of the truck, facing each other. Dark and Falcon sat down on either side of me.
"I think we might have a problem," Dark whispered to me, keeping his mouth motionless, a skill we had all picked up, "they might have gotten a photo of you."
"You think?" I whispered back, "That might be the reason why we're in this predicament in the first place. They'll want to question us about what we know, about what I found."
"Well I guess the president got your e-mail," Dark replied, "and the CIA figured you were in the quarantine area. All they had to do was search for the culprit and arrest him or her and anyone associated with that person. It looks like you got us all captured."
"Yeah," I replied regrettably, "That wasn't part of the plan. If I play my cards right, they'll get the big guns in. If that happens I'll be able to play my game and get a meeting with our so called Secretary of Defense. Play ignorant, they'll think you're innocent bystanders."
The last part about my plan to play my game, and that they need to play ignorant, I relayed to the girls using telepathy, letting them know so they didn't blow our plan out of the water.
We sat the rest of the way in silence. The Soldier guarding us kept a close eye on our movements, but he didn't bother coming close enough to eavesdrop on our conversations, although we talked about what was going on, pretending we didn't know. Dark came up with a really funny excuse for why my face might have been on video. He said that I could tell them I was part of an experiment where there was a high risk of death, so they stored my DNA for cloning later. At one stage they thought I was dead and began to grow a copy of me, but I came back. The copy must still be running around. I cracked a smile at that one.
We slowed to a stop and I heard the commotion of guards checking security papers and one of them came around the back to check and make sure we weren't smuggling bombs in, although we didn't really need bombs around when I was in the house. After about five minutes passed, we were granted clearance and passed through the gates of the base and were driven quickly along a dirt path until we stopped outside a dark, metallic building that looked like a maximum security prison. I recognized these from my time at both Eden and The Academy. This was where the uncooperative experiments were taken.
The two guards from the front turned off the engine and approached the back of the truck. They climbed on board and hauled all of us to our feet and began to roughly escort us into the building. I could tell the others were familiar with the purpose of the building by the looks on their faces. We entered the building and were escorted down into the interrogation rooms. We were separated from each other and led into different rooms.
Falcon, I thought briefly, get the others out of here when you can. Forget me. I'll find my own way out.
How? He asked me.
Teleport out, I thought back to him. You can get out of these handcuffs, can't you? Then help the others escape.
Just before the door closed I saw Falcon nod to show he understood me. Then I was roughly thrown down onto a chair sitting behind a desk. One guard stood in the room, gun trained on me at all times. I knew there would be at least one other guard with a gun aimed at me behind the one way glass that typically lined the wall. What was it with questioning or interrogation rooms that they had to have one way glass walls? And for the matter, why do I happen to be on the wrong side of the laws when I happen to see one of these rooms?
Chapter 34
Drake sat in the living room watching the TV. He had been annoyed that Falcon had disobeyed Blaze's orders and gone. But Drake couldn't leave Skye, Terra and Max here alone. Blaze had given him the duty of looking after them, and he would. Drake would never admit it, but he looked up to Blaze and the way he was almost always in control of a situation. On the news about two days ago, a reporter had screened a news bulletin about outbreaks of the Virus outside the Quarantine zone. They said officials were still in the dark about how that happened, but scientists were studying the virus to see if they could explain why.
Drake's attention caught the TV as a reporter on the news moved over to her partner who was reporting live from the city that was under Quarantine. She was reporting that the Military had so far found no leaks in their perimeter where people could escape, but had upped their patrols to make sure that there weren't any mistakes. She then went on to mention the distribution of the suppressant that the military now had ready for those infected. Drake watched as the people lined up to be injected with the shot.
Skye had told him what Blaze had seen. He could only look on in pity for the people who weren't saving their lives but throwing them away on the drug. So far everything Blaze had foreseen had come true. Drake had seen the people in his neighborhood getting sick about a day after the report. The Virus was spreading rapidly, faster than Blaze seemed aware of.
Max began crying again. She seemed to be doing it more recently, as if missing her father. It was only after she had been crying for five minutes that Drake began to realize something was wrong. Normally Skye was quick to respond to her daughter's needs. He raced up the stairs to Max's room and picked her up out of the crib to stop her crying. As he picked her up, she felt warmer than normal and Drake placed a hand against her forehead and was surprised to see she was burning up. He raced into Skye's room and saw Skye lying asleep on the bed, covered in cold sweat. Drake gently shook her awake.
"Are you feeling ok?" He asked, concerned. Any sign of sickness had him on edge. For all he knew it could be the virus that was striking down his family.
"I'm fine," Skye replied, "Just feeling a little under the weather. What's the point in having healing powers when you can't heal a common bug like this?"
Drake placed his hand on Skye's forehead and found that Skye had a temperature as well, close to the one Max was experiencing. This was not good.
"Skye," Drake said, "Max is burning up, and so are you. This isn't a normal bug that goes around. I think you might have been infected. I think Max is infected."
"No," Skye said, fiercely. Drake picked up the despair in her voice, "She can't be infected."
Skye held Max close and lay back on the bed. Drake left the room and walked downstairs and picked up the phone. He dialed Blaze's cell phone, but got no response, which was unusual for Blaze unless he was out on a mission or had been captured. If he was on a mission, one of the others should have picked up, so that meant they had been caught. Drake was torn between decisions. Got out there and find Blaze, or look after Skye and Max. Then the sudden impact hit him. What if he had been infected?
Alone in an empty apartment, a cell phone lay on a bedside table, a light flashing to indicate a message had been recorded. By the time anyone sees it, if they do, it could be too late...
Chapter 35
I sat on the chair with the harsh light glaring down at me. I should be used to making enemies in the government, yet here I was again, sitting in another interrogation chamber and I could do nothing but sit around and wait for them to analyze me before sending in an 'expert' to 'question' me. Normally they analyzed me wrong and the first guy would get nothing out of me. I'm good at doing that. Most profilers, criminal or not, couldn't pick up anything about me from watching me, they would have to talk to me first. But something told me that these people were serious and if I didn't talk, more unpleasant things awaited me. I hope the others would be fine. As long as they plead ignorant, except for Falcon, who would be in trouble as well. Things could not be any worse, could they?
The door opened and in walked a man dressed in a black suit, black tie and white shirt on underneath the suit. He looked like one of those Men in black from all the conspiracy theories people dredge up. They need more original clothing if they want to impress anyone.
"Mr. Corway," The man said, "My name is agent Jackson. Do you know why you are here?"
"Well let me see," I replied, pretending to think it through, "It wouldn't happen to be that I blew up an abandoned military base used for illegal experimentation, nor is it the death of a DR. Reilly; perhaps it might be about how I was able to breach Quarantine and get in the city in the first place. Oh wait, now I remember, it wouldn't happen to be that information I acquired from your database that acknowledges that you are the ones who authorized the murder of hundreds of my kind, and thousands more of the Altered. That about sums the past year or two of my life in possible illegal activities. I'm sure it's in there somewhere."
The agent looked a bit uncomfortable at the list of things I had told him, but continued as if it didn't show on his face or in the way he held his body.
"You infiltrated and extracted confidential information that can be used to bring about the downfall of the American Government," Jackson said. "You can get the death penalty and be killed by firing squad. You'll be classed as either a traitor or a Terrorist."
"Like I care," I replied casually, annoying the heck out of Jackson. "I cannot sit back and watch my kind as they are ravaged by this disease that your president, your kind let loose on all the Altered. I'm doing what I can to let them know what is going on. You are committing mass genocide and you don't give a stuff. Well I won't be answering any of your questions for you."
"Oh I think you will be," Jackson said, slightly miffed at my little speech, "If not now, then you will be later. I think anyone would talk. I want to know what information you stole, there was more than you are letting on with. I know you stole another file. I want to know which one."
Oh, that file. I forgot I even borrowed it. I didn't have time to ponder it as the guard in the room nudged me to stand up with a gun barrel at my back. I stood up, not wanting a bullet in my back or the butt of the gun to crack me across the head. I didn't have to worry about that as Jackson injected a syringe into my neck and the world swam. I saw the look of disgust in his face, I could tell he didn't like our kind, none of them, then darkness filled my vision, but not before I saw a guard move to pick me up, his partner coming into the room to help move me.
