Five and I leaned in closer to the magnifier in front of a grainy set of pictures, attempting to get a better look. These were the pictures he told me Elliott had taken, but honestly, I wasn't quite sure how Five would have been able to figure that out, were it not for Elliott's supposed descriptions of the people that fell. Sure, based on Luther's outline, you could probably figure it out, but it could still seem pretty suspect.
My brother hadn't bothered with much of an introduction to Elliott, but based on the way the man immediately started to go on about meeting the people in the alley, it was pretty clear Five had already filled him in on most matters. He seemed like a good man, if not a bit squirrely. Either way, I'm sure he'd be able to help us out a lot, given the amount of conspiracy theories he seemed to subscribe to.
"Elliott, did you develop these photos yourself?" Five asked as he studied the picture of Allison.
"Of course." I flashed him a thankful smile as he handed me a muffin he'd kept in his fridge. "Can't exactly drop that stuff off at the neighborhood Fotomat. Government has eyes everywhere." Trying my best not to drop crumbs, I turned and watched my brother as he grabbed a pen and scribbled out the date on the yellow box Five had been holding onto.
"I didn't see a darkroom."
"Yeah, I converted the hallway closet," Elliott answered proudly, before he became distracted by the large radio he kept nearby squealing with feedback. I flinched slightly, still unsure about why Elliott was tuned into police frequencies. He really was paranoid, if not a bit off the deep end. That almost made me feel special, acknowledging the fact that he trusted Five and I clearly meant something.
"Can you develop this?" Five asked, holding the yellow box he'd kept in his pocket out to Elliott.
"Hmm?" He took the small object and flipped it over, reading the label on the back. "Huh. 'Frankel Footage'. Friends of yours?" Unless Five's personality had completely turned around, I couldn't see him as the kind of person that had friends.
"Cousins on my robot mother's side." I choked a little on some crumbs as Five delivered that information, impressed that Elliott didn't even skip a beat. "Can you do it or not?"
"Sure I can," he shrugged.
"How long?" I finished off my breakfast, and after dusting off my hands, I made my way closer to my brother.
"Well, I mean, I'm running low on acetic acid," Elliott began to ramble. "Beeker's Cameras is open today, but it's two miles away. I mean, I'd have to take the bus. On the other hand, Gibson's is only ten blocks away, but I gotta cut through the park, and there's pigeons—"
"Elliott," Five interjected, trying to make him get to the point.
"It's like five, may be six hours." Five's eyes closed and he shook his head in frustration, but I was determined to help make the best of this situation.
"Well, kid, is there anything you want to do?" I asked, setting a hand on his shoulder.
Right as Five looked up at me, a voice came on over Elliott's radio, drawing out attentions toward whatever they were saying.
"Attention all units, we have a Code 3-15 at the Holbrook Sanitarium." Something about that name caused Five's expression to change. That must have been the place where he'd found Diego…
"The hell is a Code 3-15?" My brows furrowed as Elliott spooned corn flakes into his mouth.
"Mm, fugitives on the run." Some of the milk he'd scooped up dripped out of his mouth, causing me to gag just a little bit. Meanwhile, Five made his way over to the machinery and leaned closer to the speakers, trying to get all the information.
"Twenty-five patients still at large. Many are considered armed and dangerous." Five glanced back at me and nodded, confirming what I'd been worried about.
"Diego," both of us muttered. If he was out there, somewhere, we had to go find him. We'd get a lot farther on this whole doomsday thing if we had as many of our siblings as possible, compared to Five and I running around and searching for clues.
"Oh, who's Diego?" I paused, trying to figure out the best way to describe Diego, when Five beat me to the punch.
"Imagine Batman, then aim lower." I resisted the urge to laugh, knowing there was some seriousness to the insult.
"Yeah, that's… actually pretty accurate," I acknowledged. "We have to go find him." Five started to pace back and forth a little, his eyes cast down as he attempted to sort through possible locations.
"Of course we do. But we can't do that unless we know where he is."
"It's Diego," I scoffed. "He couldn't have gotten very far."
"Wherever he is, it's probably in connection with…" He stopped in his tracks and looked up at me. "…that one upcoming event. From what I gathered, he's obsessed with stopping it."
"What, the one you told me about?" Five shook his head 'no'. "Then what—"
"The one that's a little closer." It was obvious he was being vague for Elliott's sake, but unfortunately, that left me a little out of the loop as well. After realizing I hadn't caught on, Five made sure Elliott couldn't see his face, then as carefully as possible, mouthed the word 'Kennedy'.
Given all the doomsday and apocalyptic shit that we'd experienced in the past, I almost forgot Kennedy was supposed to get shot soon.
"Oh," I drawled, nodding. "Really? He thinks that's a good idea?"
"It's Diego," Five reasoned. "He's got that whole hero complex thing going on."
"Fair point." I started to put things together in my head, and I vaguely seemed to recall that Lee Harvey Oswald—the most likely person Diego would go after—worked at something to do with books.
"The person that does the thing," I piped up, still trying to leave out as many details as possible. "He worked at, like, a library or something, right?" Five thought things over for another couple of minutes, then thankfully, he remembered.
"A book depository!" he shouted, probably a little too enthusiastically for Elliott to think Five was sane.
Then again, none of this really seemed like the sort of thing that made us look like rational, normal people,
"Elliot, is there a book depository around here?" I asked enthusiastically. He stumbled back a little, caught off-guard by our sudden shouting, but he was able to compose himself on a moment's notice.
"There's the Texas School Book Depository over on Elm Street," he informed us, pointing as though it were right around the corner. We couldn't make absolute certain that Diego would be there, but it was a pretty good place to start.
With a starting place established, Five and I nodded to each other, then started toward the door.
"You get started on the film," he ordered. "We'll be back as soon as we can."
The two of us waited until we were outside of Elliott's sightline before I started to turn and move, attempting to build up enough of a charge so that both of us could jump without putting too much of a strain on Five. Since it was completely clear and sunny, that task proved to take quite a while, which gave me enough time to find the hole in our plan.
"Are you even going to be able to Elm Street?" I asked, keeping my eyes trained on a wall so I wouldn't get dizzy. "That's pretty far away."
"I remember what the building looks like. We should be okay," he assured me. After a few more turns, I'd built up what I thought was enough of a charge and the second after I stopped, I lunged forward and grabbed onto my brother's hand, and the two of us jumped.
The hot, Texas sun beat down on our heads as I let go and took a quick glance around. Sure enough, Five had managed to get us to our destination, and not far ahead, I could see a car with a broken window camped out under the shade of the trees planted across the way. There was a woman in it I didn't recognize, but the person right next to her was undeniably Diego.
"Can you do a jump without a charge?" I whispered, trying to keep from drawing unwanted attention toward us.
"Yeah, that's close enough." Just as quickly as we landed, Five blinked both of us into the back seat of the car, somehow without either party in front of us noticing.
"Then why are you doing this?" the woman asked, staring at Diego with one brow raised.
"Because he's an idiot."
The sound of Five's voice caused the woman next to Diego to jump and whip around, staring at us with confused, wide eyes. Diego, on the other hand, remained completely still, almost looking as though he wanted to swing around and hit Five. Despite that, a relief washed over me when I cast my glance to him. It was just so good to know the others were here, and seeing him again made me feel comforted… even if he was an asshole at times.
"Who the hell are you two?" the woman demanded. Most likely, she was someone that had been locked up with Diego that managed to get out and ran with him.
"Hi. I'm his loving brother." Five waved, that annoying snark now returning to his voice.
"And, uh, I'm his sister," I replied, feeling slightly awkward about just barging in here.
"The former of whom left me to rot in the nuthouse," Diego muttered, malice dripping from his words as he slowly turned to glare at Five. "Nice to see you, Mina." He didn't even break his gaze for a moment.
"You too, Diego." I cast my eyes toward the woman next to him and shrugged, trying my best to put her at ease.
"I did that to protect you from yourself," Five argued, the anger in his voice rising.
"That's quite sweet," the woman deadpanned. She and Five had only been in each other's presence for less than a minute, but it already seemed like she wasn't the biggest fan.
"Okay, all three of you, out," Diego ordered, casting his glance primarily toward the woman that had been accompanying him. As expected, Five wasn't having it.
"Lose the crazy lady and come with me," he shot back. "We have important business."
"Diego, you should really hear him out," I vouched, pointing toward my younger brother.
"I am not going anywhere with either of you."
My gaze moved to Five, the expression on his face starting to make me wary. Whenever that bitter smirk took over, it wasn't a good sign, nor was the mischievous way he wrung his hands. He looked in my direction, and a split second later, he shot past me, pushing me down in my seat so he could stick his head out the window.
"Officer!" he shouted, causing my heart to jump out of my chest. Immediately, I grabbed onto Five's arm and yanked him back, glaring at him.
"What are you doing?" Diego snapped as he leaned over into the back seat. Now that I was getting an up-close look at him, I had to admit: he definitely had a bit of a crazy-eyes situation going on.
"I hear there's a reward out for you two," Five smirked.
"He's bluffing." Diego and Five continued to stare each other down for a moment, silently daring one to break first. The silence remained awkward and tense until, finally, Diego relented.
"He's not," he grumbled, still uncomfortably close to Five. "Fine. I'll go with you."
"What about me?" Diego's companion looked directly at Five, trying to persuade him more than the rest of us in the car.
"And I'm bringing the crazy lady."
The way she smiled caused a warmth to thump in my chest as Diego turned around and the 'crazy lady' turned on the car and pulled away.