Chapter Five:

Conduits and Cartels

The next day, after the firefighters and police had left, I returned to the shack to see if Cole and Alec had left anything there that I'd be able to find. They'd probably try to put it someplace fireproof, as they are handing information to the infamous walking lighter.

If I were still eighteen, I would've been freaking out, unsure of what to do. I'd be swearing and beating anything I could get my hands on, but that was six, seven years ago. I knew I was turning twenty-five, and now I had a kid. I needed to act like an adult, and so I calmed myself and searched quietly.

The pieces in my head were jumping around, trying to find their place. Alec and Cole were brainwashed, and were now called "Eleven" and "Twelve", respectively. Connor… I didn't know what number he was, but his friends were "Three" and "Five".

In-between the time of Alec's last phone call to me and the time I was fighting them, they were beat-up, brainwashed, and forced into very bad clothing. That meant that whoever they now worked for, they did what they did fast.

I opened one of the floorboards and smiled. "Bingo," I whispered. I picked up a safe (a fireproof safe, might I add) and put it on the floor. There was only a padlock guarding its secrets. "I knew they wouldn't leave me with a stupid code I'd have to figure out…" I sliced the padlock with my nodachi and opened up the safe. Inside was a single, blue file folder, containing several interesting documents about l'il old Laredo.

I tucked the file under my arm and replaced the safe into the floor, then put the floorboard back and hurried out of the shack. There was no telling if the police or a cartel would show up, especially since I didn't know Laredo very—.

"Well, lookie here!" someone said from behind me. "A thief, trespassin' on our land!"

I rolled my eyes. Speak of the damn devil…

"Last I checked, this land was burnt to the ground and up for grabs. These kind of places sell easy."

I heard laughter behind me. "Aw, man! The girl's a damn clown! Makin' stupid jokes and tryin' t' get outta trouble!"

I turned around and faced seven men, most wearing bandanas and cowboy hats, while the rest bore scars on their faces.

"Well, I'm leaving now, so you can have it. I'm not interested in the property," I told them. "No one needs to get in trouble today."

They laughed again. "What's that y'got under there?" one asked, pointing to the file under my arm.

"Work," I told them (semi-honestly). "Boring stuff. It doesn't matter if you drop out or graduate from high school, it seems. Everything after that's boring."

One of them, the rare one without a bandana, grinned. "Hey, guys, I call dibs."

"This'un looks dangerous, Eddie," a man with a hat and bandana whispered. "Maybe it'd be best t' leave this'un alone."

"It sounds like a good idea," I told them. "I'm not really in the mood for a fight, and I've had a bad few days. If you just turn around and forget I even exist, then we can all get past this day quicker."

Eddie grinned again. "How 'bout we letcha go if you can knock me out?" he said. "Betcha couldn't do it, girl."

I arched an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"

"Really," Eddie repeated. "Here; I won't even move. One nice hit in the face. I ya knock me out, we'll leave ya alone."

One of his friends laughed. "That's damn cruel, Eddie! Ya know that it's harder to knock you out than it is a bull!"

I smiled. "Great! A challenge!"

Eddie stepped forward and pointed to the side of his head. "Right 'ere, sweetheart," he told me.

I flexed my fist for a second and smiled. "Don't bite your tongue."

He smiled back at me, just as my fist came around and socked him in the head. He flew a couple of metres before he landed hard on the ground and slowed to a stop, unmoving.

"You lose," I said to his unmoving form. I then waved to the rest of the cartel and said, "I'll be going now."

They stared at me in disbelief as I walked away, smiling until I got into my hotel room. Unfortunately, they'd followed me home. I frowned at them as I opened the door and looked back at them.

"What?" I asked. "You have your damn shack."

"How the hell'd you do that?" one of them demanded.

I looked at the crowd of six. "Um… where's your friend?"

The quickly looked amongst themselves. "Darryl, I told ya t' get 'im!"

"I thought ya told Dane!" Darryl exclaimed.

"I told you, ya dipshit!"

I rolled my eyes as they argued for a bit and tossed the file inside my hotel room. "Look, guys, you're disturbing the guests here. You wanna know how I knocked him out? I'm stronger than I look, and that's that."

"Eddie was our top gun!" Dane exclaimed.

"Good for him. Give him congratulations for me." I started to close the door when one of the men lodged a gun in the doorway.

"Are you one of 'em freaks?" the man demanded.

I mentally facepalmed. Oh great… After beating the crap out of the Militia, I'm right back to where I started…

"What gave you that idea?" I asked. "Stop waving that thing in front of my face! If that Eddie guy was your best, then how much are you gonna improve by using a damn gun?"

He looked at his gun, and wisely lowered it.

"I'm asking your guys nicely to leave. I have stuff to do." I shut the door and went straight to the file, where I placed it on the bed and started to flip through it. "What did you guys want me to find…?" I asked, as if Alec and Cole would hear me.

I checked through the pictures and documents in the file. The man in the pictures had thinning black hair and a hard, expressionless face, and was wearing an expensive suit. I couldn't help but think that I'd seen him before, but I couldn't make any connections. I moved on to some documents that had records of all known Conduits, and some more with the Conduit gene. I frowned as I saw the names of many people in my family (namely Cole, Alec, Violet, Kayce and myself), and came upon Connor's.

"Something's wrong…" I muttered absently.

I flipped through the pages again and re-read the file, but I couldn't shake the feeling I had. Something was definitely off about the file.

I heard a knock at the door a few hours later and opened it. No one was there.

I peeked my head out. "Hello?" When there was no answer, I tried again. "Hello?"

I waited a few more minutes before I shut the door and sighed, taking a long gulp of my hot chocolate.

"Probably just some kids randomly knocking on stranger's doors," I decided. "Stupid kids… They've got no respect for people older than them these days…"

I heard a whistling sound too late, and felt something sink into my neck. I dropped my hot chocolate as my hand flew up to my neck, and latched onto a dart. It wasn't long before I started to feel extremely dizzy, and had to fight to keep my eyes open. I felt another impact, this time in my leg. I dropped down and looked at the roof, where Alec was holding a tube for blowdarts.

"A-Alec…?" My eyes started closing. "Why…?"

I hit the floor, and delved into darkness.