What Six discovered in the lab was completely unexpected - every monitor displayed a new message, converting numbers into letters. White, Bobo, and Rex watched as Six read aloud, "Take Rebecca Holiday and Rex Salazar with you, or more lives will be lost. This is our last warning!" Frustrated, Six slammed his hand in one of the tables. Suddenly, his burner phone beeped, breaking the tense silence in the room before he could even process his thoughts about it.
"What's going on?" asked the hacker. "I'm receiving an overwhelming number of messages from Providence; the computers are going haywire! They're trying to disrupt the power by flooding Providence's mainframe with errors!"
"Can you stop them?" The hacker on the other end of the line let out a sigh in response to Six's question.
"I could temporarily disable their computers by sending a virus, essentially freezing them and allowing Providence's system to restart to fix any issues. However, this would leave you vulnerable while the system regains control. So, while you wait, I hope that no one plans on attacking Providence."
After Six finished speaking, he looked up at the pitch-black environment they were now in. The mainframe was rebooting to identify and fix any errors, leaving only one monitor on.
"That should be enough, but the doors won't work while the reboot is ongoing, so everyone will be confined to their current location," The hacker explained.
Rebecca immediately jumped up from the couch as she heard the door locked automatically and the lights turn off. Was there an attack happening?
Six's thoughts turned to Holiday, and he quickly activated his earpiece to check on her safety.
"Holiday..." he said, hoping the hackers were too busy fixing their own network to notice. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Six. I'm just sitting on my bed to avoid bumping into things. What's going on upstairs?"
"The gang tried to stop our mainframe by sending it a barrage of errors, but our hacker retaliated by sending a virus to their computers, freezing their system and allowing ours to restart and fix the issue. However, this means our defense and power systems will be temporarily down while the mainframe works on fixing itself. We might be stuck here for a while, and some of our data may not be accessible."
The soldiers clicked on their flashlights, and Rex moaned in frustration. Being confined to a room for the duration of the reboot wasn't "fun" for anyone. Six decided to grab one of the flashlights and move away so that he and Rebecca could talk in private.
"I assume you kept backup copies of your research." Holiday sighed on the other end of the line as he carried on with their conversation.
"Of course, yes. Just a bit of time-consuming having to restore all of the lost data. If only I could remember where you left the emergency flashlights," Holiday's voice still sounded frustrated. The man decided to resume the topic they were discussing, before he had to leave her room.
"Rebecca..." Six said softly, pointing his flashlight around. Bobo and Rex were simply looking at each other, while the teen tapped his foot against one of the walls. White seemed to be talking with a few soldiers, which made him wonder if they were getting an insight into how Holiday must be feeling being confined against her will. "I never expected to get shot yesterday." He wasn't sure if it was the best way to start the conversation, as expressing love, obviously, was not something that came easily to him. He also doubted that saying those words in such a difficult moment would fix anything.
"Of course, you didn't!" He could imagine Holiday raising an eyebrow at his choice of words.
"What I meant to say is that I appreciate your concern for my and Rex's safety. Still, these incidents are unavoidable. Rex could potentially end up in a coma from just fighting Van Kleiss, and you could have been seriously hurt from something as simple as slipping in the shower."
"Is there any point to this?" She wondered. He could tell that she didn't want to come across as rude, but their conversations were becoming repetitive and meaningless.
He almost blurted out, I simply don't want to lose you, but stopped himself just in time. "For your mental well-being, it's better to focus on the thought of all this being over soon, rather than worrying about what could happen to me and Rex."
"This is," she began, but as soon as the lights returned, her attention was focused on something else. "Well, at least the electricity is back up. We now have to wait for the system to correct whatever mistake these morons caused to our network." Even though he knew they wouldn't be able to leave the laboratory until the system defenses were back online, Six heard the door activating on Holiday's end.
"Please keep the door closed as the system defense is still not fully restored yet," were his final words before turning off his flashlight and facing Rex, who was approaching him with his hands behind his head.
"The longer we are trapped in this place, the more I despise it," the teen remarked, and he couldn't have agreed more. "And just when I need to pee!"
"Captain Calan should be contacting us shortly. I'm sure he had difficulty reaching us due to the system being down." Six said, trying to ignore the fact that the teen started to walk around one of the tables and counting from one hundred to one, to stop thinking that he needed to use the restroom.
Naturally, the higher board wasn't happy that Providence was forced to suspend operations while the system corrected itself. White's decisions were being questioned because it seemed like the man was still unable to stop the gang's threats despite the multiple meetings and agendas. Six couldn't even think how much of a circus the media would convert their situation and soon every citizen would doubt their abilities to keep them secure from any EVO attack.
Rebecca could have gone on talking, but Six was not even looking at her or his plate while they were dinning together. It felt like the whole thing was falling apart, and these bastards were laughing at their faces.
"I have made a decision." The woman's tone silenced his internal ramblings. She sounded determined.
"A decision?" Even though he had no idea what she was talking about before, it seemed like something he should be aware of. "What sort of decision?"
"I'll give them what they want and bring this to an end. White's position is in danger, and even Rex's life is also in danger. We can't carry on like this because now that everyone is involved..."
"We all were involved since the beginning."
He blinked a few times to make sure he wasn't dreaming everything that was happening, but that was definitely not what he was expecting. Six didn't even think he would see the intensity with which her green emerald eyes were staring at him again. It was not the same when she was furious. It appeared to be the same look she had when she struggled to free Beverly from being an EVO.
"Are you listening to yourself?" he asked her, his hand instinctively going to his lower abdomen. This was the last straw for Rebecca. "What about your sister, Rex, and Bobo?" He questioned.
What about him?
"Because of them... and you," she said, her gaze fixated on his hand holding the wound. It was as if he believed her words could magically open it and cause him to bleed out. A nagging headache was also starting to bother him, causing Six to rub his temples with his free hand. He took off his glasses and left them on the dinner table.
"No." he replied without even looking at her. "No way."
"No? You can't be serious..."
"After all we've done to keep you hidden and safe, your brilliant idea is to offer yourself up as a piece of meat to end this?"
"Then what? We let White lose his position and Rex lose his life because of my foolish research?"
"Foolish?" His eyes finally met hers as he slammed his hand on the dinner table. "Do you think you're here just because of some math homework?"
Rebecca sprang up from her seat, nearly toppling her chair, as she strode around the room. With an unwavering determination, she gathered all the scattered pieces of paper filled with notes to unravel the case and with a forceful gesture, she hurled them onto the table, the sound of paper hitting wood echoing in the room. The man's eyes widened in surprise as the stack of paper crashed into his chest and scattered around him. Holiday's heavy breathing reverberated in the room, her hands slamming down on the table with a resounding thud, matching the man's earlier action.
"C'mon, take them! Use them to finally stop this madness!"
The sound of his burner phone beeping couldn't happen at the worst moment as he glanced down from the infuriated woman's eyes to the message he was receiving. The hacker seemed to have found a way to falsify Captain Calan's information as another member of the gang but warned him that it was possible that as big as their list of members was, they sure would find out that he wasn't precisely one of them and after causing a massive system fail, they would have even less time to act.
"Captain Calan is currently inside their base, strategizing a plan to defeat them from within."
"Six, please refrain from making jokes. I am not in the mood for your humor, especially after dealing with Bobo."
"There's no way I will let you risk your life because of this. You have been confined for days, a month now. Don't take me wrong but you lack of the proper skills for such a risky plan. Even Rex and I had problems escaping from there without losing a considerable number of soldiers in the process."
"Then, please train me!"
Train her?
His mind quickly raced through the potential risks and dangers. How could he train her without causing her any harm?
"Do you have any idea how dangerous that could be?" His voice rose a notch. "I didn't earn the title of the sixth deadliest man on earth for nothing."
"I don't care! If you're able to train with Rex, you can do the same with me!"
"Rex can stop me or at the very least make a good attempt with his abilities. I don't want to hurt you."
"Oh, so now you think I'm weak just because I don't possess any special skills!? Does that mean I can't put up a good fight!?"
Clenching his teeth and crossing his arms, the man appeared to struggle with conveying his emotions in a way that would effectively communicate his concern for her safety.
"I never said you couldn't put up a good fight. What I'm trying to say is..."
"I'm not going to change my mind, Six. No matter what you say."
Yes, of course, she could put up a good fight. Her battle against an EVO while trying to save her sister was a constant reminder that she should not be underestimated. However, this fight was completely different. While EVOs were much more dangerous than humans were, facing an entire army of soldiers was something she had never done before.
His wound complained again and his head followed soon after.
It was not unusual for someone like Six to be the first person on the meeting table. The peculiar aspect, though, was the way he was seated with both legs crossed over the table, as if he was lost in thought.
White chose to believe it was because of the pain from his wound. But there was more to it than that.
"Six," White Knight greeted him from the other end of the monitor. Six lifted his legs off the table and adjusted his green coat and glasses. He laced his fingers together, intertwining them in a tight grip.
"White. There's something we should discuss."
The man raised one of his eyebrows adjusted himself in his seat and nodded as a gesture for him to go on.
"Holiday wants to leave her confinement and voluntarily offer herself to the gang members to protect Rex's life and also keep you from losing your position."
As the silence stretched on, Six couldn't help but feel a sense of unease creeping over them. Was he the only one who thought that it was a really stupid idea?
"Captain Calan's life may be in danger, so it would buy us some time if they believed they had finally captured Holiday."
"So, are we just going to trade Holiday's life for Calan's life like it's nothing?"
"Well, we already have one of our men inside, so Holiday should be safe. Maybe it would help us if you taught her how to defend herself and basic survival tactics during an interrogation, hence her life wouldn't be in danger too."
"She wants me to train her too..."
"Perhaps it's our last resort before more innocent people get involved."
Shaking his head, Six stood up from his seat and walked past White without saying anything else, with both of his hands in his pants pockets. Teaching Rebecca was the last thing he ever wanted to do. He didn't want her to become some sort of killing machine. It was already enough with one bastard in the entire organization, and he was content with being that bastard.