Manipulator (26 page)

He felt the young officer's presence in the room. The man was clearly waiting for Sterling to look up at him from his desk so that he could deliver some form of bad news. It was
always
bad news.

"Are you incapable of talking to me unless I'm looking at you?" Richard said to the nervous man without even looking up from the report in front of him.
Las Vegas PRoGRaM Team have been up to a fair bit lately…

"Erm. No Sir. It's just…"

"Spit it out man!" Sterling shouted out of frustration as he finally looked up at the agent in front of him. The officer physically jumped back a little from Sterling's desk out of sheer surprise.

"There's a call from you Sir. It's from the Atom Project. We're unable to transfer it through to your phone."

"That's because I turned the damn fuckin' thing off," Sterling said angrily before letting out a huge sigh. "I'll pick it up from here."

The Atom Project? Haven't heard anything from them in a while. Not since Veridian set the whole project up. Great.
Sterling thought before he picked up the phone, watching his nervous officer scurry out of the room. Whatever was happening at the Atom Project could surely wait. It was probably only going to add more onto his workload anyway.
Always the problem with being in charge of people. They fuck up and for some reason it's the bosses fault. Causes me more work. Can't these people do their own Goddamn work?

"This is Sterling," he said seriously as he picked up his phone and pressed it between his head and left shoulder.

"Mr Sterling, Sir," a deep male voice said to him through the phone.
What a suck up.
Richard thought. He didn't even know who it was but already, Sterling didn't like them.

"What's going on?" Sterling asked in a condescending tone, stretching his words out as he said them. "Power fluctuations again?"
Or something else equally as pointless to report?

"There's been a break in Sir," the male voice said to him, getting straight to the point and causing Sterling to look up from his work. He sat speechless.

"Sir? Are you there?" the voice asked him after not getting any form of response.

"Did you just say what I think you said?" Sterling asked quietly.

"Two people got into our system. They took one of our captives out of the main system world. But minutes later, they threw him right back in."

Sterling sighed. "Who did they take?"

"The inmates name is Alex Morgan, Sir."

"And the perpetrators?" Sterling asked, hoping that whoever was on the other end of the line was about to give him some good news amongst all of this shit.

"We're not sure yet."
Typical.
"Although the captive, Alex Morgan, keeps repeating one word over and over again. I think it may be relevant."

"I'm listening," Sterling replied.

"He keeps saying the word… 'Archer.'"

Oh Archer you stupid…

"Run his memories," Sterling ordered. "I want to see everything that Alex Morgan has seen in relation to the event. I want to know where they took him, and I want to know exactly what happened. Keep me updated."

"Sir," the voice retorted, sounding anxious. "It may take days."

"I don't care how long it takes. Get back to me when you have something solid. A name. A face. Anything."

"Yes Sir," the voice replied sharply, even though Sterling didn't hear it as he was too busy hanging up the phone.

"Archer, you dumb shit... What are you doing?" Sterling muttered to himself.
It has to be Owen Archer.
But until he could prove it, there was nothing that he could do. Richard rubbed his eyes deeply as he realised just how tired he was feeling.
Today isn't over yet. It's just got even longer.

Things were getting serious. He needed to make a phone call.

There was someone else, someone far more important than him who needed to know what was happening.

Chapter Fifty Four

Date: December 11th 2035

Location: New York Streets

The New York City streets all around her were teeming with life. The hustle and bustle of city life provided her the perfect cover as she walked carefully down the streets, waiting for Ethan to answer his phone.
The two of us need to talk.

“I expected an update a lot sooner than this,” Ethan said slowly as he answered his phone.

“I haven’t been alone. I haven't been able to call out without somebody overhearing me.” It was true. For the last few hours, Kate hadn't been able to make contact and update Ethan on their situation. Everything was unfolding too fast. Owen was putting it all together quickly. Together, her and Ethan needed to do something about it.

“I understand,” Ethan replied, keeping his sentences short and letting Kate make all the moves.

“I need to talk to you. It’s about Eli,” she said, getting quickly to the matter at hand. It was her main, if not her only reason for calling.

“I didn’t think that he would be a problem.”

“You’ve got to understand. The man is an absolute genius with PRoGRaM. He even gives you a run for your money,” she said, only to be greeted by a silence on the other end of the phone.
Have I upset him?

“How much of a threat?” he said sharply in response to her statement.

“The man broke us into the Prison System where you put Alex. Owen’s figuring it out. He’s getting closer and I can’t block him anymore. It won't be long now until he figures out what’s going on.”

“Hmm," Ethan hummed down the phone as he thought about what to do next. "Eli is an unforeseen circumstance. Just like the video message to Owen. It was something we hadn't planned for. Eli is exactly the same. We hadn't planned for him. Except… with Eli, we can actually do something about it."

"What are we supposed to do?" Kate asked, almost afraid to hear the answer. Silence hung as she waited for Ethan's reply. She heard him release a long sigh. Many seconds passed before he spoke.

"We need you to kill him.”

Oh shit.
Kate thought, suddenly terrified at the predicament that they were in.

Beep. Beep.

Ethan had hung up. She was all alone.
I never asked for this.
Yet, regardless of that fact, she almost
knew
that something like this was coming. The final outcome was always going to be inevitable.
Eli cannot be allowed to interfere any longer…

This was the exact reason that she had been discreetly following Eli since the two of them had jumped out of the van together. It was also the reason she was carrying a concealed, silenced weapon.

Now, it was all about waiting for the opportune moment.

Eli had absolutely no idea that he was being followed, and that was what made it so easy.
Not the killing part though,
Kate said to herself as she followed him at a distance.
I really never wanted to kill anyone because of all of this. Right now it's him or me. Remember why you're doing this Kate. Remember what's in it for you. For your family…

Slowly but surely, Kate followed and followed, waiting for the perfect time to strike. Eli made his way into a quieter part of the city.
Do I really have to follow him all the way back to where he lives? Maybe if he just went somewhere quiet before then…

And then Kate got just what she asked for, as Eli turned and walked down a dark, seemingly empty back-alley.
He's taking a shortcut.
Kate realised as she visualised in her head the route back to Eli's place.
Perfect.

It was time to pick up speed. She had lost line of sight if only for the moment, and she couldn't afford to lose her only chance here and now to take Eli out. Picking up the pace, Kate quickly caught up to the alleyway in which Eli had walked into. Carefully, she pressed herself up against the concrete wall and peeked around the corner. There weren't many people around to notice what she was doing, but either way, it didn't bother her. As long as no-one else was in the alley, that was all that mattered.

Kate spotted Eli walking alone, almost halfway to the other side of the alleyway. Inconspicuously she followed, quickly closing the gap between them, hoping that he didn't turn around and look at her.
Even if he does, he'll suspect nothing of what I'm about to do. And that moment of surprise will be enough for me to put him out of the game.

She reached into her jacket, and quickly pulled out a concealed, small, silenced pistol now that she was was close enough not to miss. Kate quickly looked backwards over her shoulder, checking her surroundings and making sure that there was nobody else around. Without breaking pace or missing a step, she raised the pistol with both hands firmly around its grip and did exactly what she had been told to do.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Three shots slammed into Eli's back.

He never knew what hit him as he stumbled and fell forwards, landing in a huge pile of garbage. It was over. Eli wasn't moving at all. Satisfied that the problem was dealt with, Kate walked away without even looking back, as if nothing had ever even happened, just as she had been trained to do.

Chapter Fifty Five

Date: December 11th 2035

Location: Owen’s Apartment, New York

Owen hit his bed for the afternoon as soon as he got himself home. After the experience that he had been through, he needed it. He quickly fell into a dreamless sleep until a knocking at his front door in the distance woke him. He found that his earlier headache had just about subsided.
How long have I been out? It surely can’t be nine yet, could it!?

He got up and jogged haggardly through his living room and moved nearer to the front door. “Give me a minute!” he called out to whoever it was that stood on the opposite side. At the very least he had to make himself look a little bit presentable before he let anyone in. He managed a quick glance at the clock on the wall as he quickly made his way back to the bedroom. it was just before nine now, and Owen could barely believe just how much he had managed to sleep.
Well, at least I got some rest and managed to shift that damn headache.

Less than a minute later he was acceptably dressed. He jogged back over to his front door and opened it, not wanting to keep whoever was on the other side waiting. Kate was stood there, leaning on her shoulder up the doorframe.

“Hey,” Owen said to her. He gestured to her with a quick head movement, signalling her to come in. She walked past him as he closed the door behind her.

“Hi,” Kate replied as she walked in. “Am I the first one here?”

Owen turned away from the entrance to the apartment and walked into the front room, sitting himself down on the sofa. “Yeah. No Nick or Eli yet,” he responded.

“You want some coffee? You sound a little rough,” she shouted jokingly to Owen as she walked over to the open plan kitchen and helped herself by putting the coffee pot on. Owen didn't mind, in fact, he found it quite nice that she was willing to just help herself and not have to always ask his permission. She was finally becoming a true member of his team. Yet, Owen didn’t answer her question. Instead, he ignored it and waited until she looked over at him. He had a hard look on his face as he hit her with a difficult statement.

“We need to tell Nick and Eli about what happened.”

“What about it?” Kate asked, not seeing what the problem was.

“About how Alex saw our faces. About how he knows who we are. It’s only a matter of time until they analyse his memories and find us.”

“You think that will happen?"

"Yes!" Owen shouted at her non-threateningly. "Of course they're going to! Kate, I have no idea how many laws we broke in doing what we did. We can’t drag Nick or Eli down with us. You know this." She looked away from him, her eyes averted to the ground in shame as Owen continued to talk. "We need to at least give them the chance to distance themselves from us. To not get caught up in the consequences of what we did. And you. What you did in there was just plain stupid.”

“What?!” she replied, shocked by his accusations.

“Me taking my mask off and exposing myself to Alex was my own call. It had to be done so that he could see who I was and to get him to co-operate. There was nothing I could do about that," Owen said before his tone turned on her. "But you? Taking your own mask off? There was no excuse for that.”

“It was my decision to make," Kate spat back at him. "Besides, if they find you, they’re bound to find me anyway.”

Owen couldn’t argue back with that. The fact was, If anyone came looking for him, then they were going to find Nick and Eli too, regardless of whether or not they distanced themselves. It was just a matter of time, and Owen and Kate both knew it.

"I'm trying to protect you," Owen said quietly, more to himself than to Kate. A slight tension hung in the air between the two of them as they both stared at each other with neither one of them knowing what to say. Right on cue to break the tension, there was another knock at the door.

“Let me handle it. Please?” Owen said to Kate, trying to defuse the situation.

“Fine,” she said reluctantly in agreement.

Owen walked over to the door to see who it was. He opened it to find Nick standing there, looking slightly over-cumbered. He had a huge, heavy looking duffel bag in each hand, a laptop shoved under his left armpit, and a hefty looking backpack on.

“Hey. Give me a hand would you?” Nick asked Owen as he lifted up both of the duffel bags in an attempt to pawn them off onto his friend. Owen grabbed both of the bags off him and brought them into the apartment. He dropped them gently onto the floor at the opposite end of the room near the kitchen. Nick followed him over and put his laptop and backpack on top of the two bags.