“Okay, I’m listening.”
“We were adopted by Father. That’s just a name he likes to call himself. We weren’t the first, and we weren’t the last, and he’s about to take a new generation of children, and we can’t let that happen. He is the Marshall of the Royal Air Force with a penchant for experimenting on children.”
“Experimenting? On children?”
“Yes, he was trying to create super soldiers. He was doing all sorts of bat-shit crazy stuff. Anyway, most of us died, ya know, because that shit is bullshit. Anyway, we were subjected to rigorous training and”—I give her my jazz hands—“We were turned into assassins.”
“James wasn’t an assassin. He was kind, really liked me, gave me what I needed, then just disappeared.”
“Father killed him because I disobeyed him and saved someone he wanted dead, someone I loved, if that’s even possible.”
“So why do you need my help?”
“Because I’m going to kill them all, but then when it’s all over, I need you to go after the corrupt ones who fund it all, the politicians, the governments. I have enough evidence to take them all down. But I need someone to do that side for me. Because I won’t be able to do that and do what I need to do.”
“Why, where are you going to be?”
I glare at her, and she nods.
“Oh.”
“Yes, oh. Chances of me making it out alive are slim to none. There’s a massive meeting going on at their headquarters in five days. That’s when I’m going to bring it crashing down around them.”
I grab the laptop out and fire it up. I turn it to face Shelley. “Read it. I will be back tomorrow. 9 a.m.”
I turn and leave. She can’t do anything with the laptop. It's locked down tighter than Fort Knox, but I don’t know if she will take it somewhere, so I slide into the car I stole that’s outside her building. I watch, and I wait.
Her light has been on most of the night. And when the sun comes up, I head back inside. If she says no to them, I’m screwed. If she says yes, then it will be gruelling getting Shelley’s side together. Mine is the easy bit.
I’m on the base. I head down to the tunnels with my trolley. I have Shelley and her guys keeping an eye on the mound so no one comes out. Once I’m in the tunnels, I secure all the doors with chains and locks, adding the C4 as I go. There are four tunnels underground, which all lead to one, which then leads to the underground bunker. I secured the main door and then secured the four branches off it. I can’t have cockroaches sneaking through the cracks before implementing our plan.
“That should do it,”he whispers toward me.
Once these are all sealed, I make my way back towards Shelley.
“It’s done. Do not let anyone come anywhere close to this area. No one in or out. See that line there?” I point out roads on the map. “Keep everyone away from this area. I don’t care if you have to shoot them. I need you to clear the way out from the mound, then hold everyone back. Can you do that?”
Shelley looks at the team of forty or so guys and nods.
“Keep everyone away till I give the signal. Only then can you release the information. I’m counting on you, Shelley.”
“I won’t let you down, Vic. For Xav.”
“He loved you, ya know.”
She gives me a sad smile. “I wish he knew I loved him too.”
“I’ll tell him.”
She grimaces but nods.
I smile. “Ready?”
“Ready. See you on the other side.”
I give her a tight-lipped smile and head towards the door of the mound, dragging the trolley with me. There’s one on either side. I step to the first one and lock it up tight, then I head inside to the other, locking that behind me. There’s just a lift that opens on either side. I climb in and head down. Once I stop, I turn the key in the lock of the panel and send the elevator back up to the top. It won’t be coming back down now. I drop some C4 into the bottom of the shaft and step through the double doors, securing them behind me. There’s a largeconference room, two large labs, the old cells we lived in as children, the three large training rooms and the library. I start at one end, and I clear each room, securing the doors as I go, making sure to flush the cockroaches further underground towards the tunnels. Once I have the other areas barricaded, the doors chained, and furniture or equipment pushed in front of each door, I start moving internally. I need to flush them all down into the tunnels. A guard comes around the corner, and I fire, double-tap between the eyes.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” I sing down the corridor. It echoes around the ceilings, the eerie quiet broken by my laughter, sick, feral, and mildly demonic.
