Mission: Betrayal Part 3

...continued from two weeks prior...

An hour later, the agents were all gathered in one of their own personal secret hideout. Sarah was confined to a room with insulated walls while they had their meeting. The others weren’t sure whether they could trust her or not yet.
“What’s going on?” Emmy was the first to speak up, no surprise there.
Ryan held up his hand. “Now don’t panic, we’re just being hunted down and taken out one by one; it’s nothing to worry about.”
“Nothing to worry about? You always take things too lightly, Ryan!” Emmy shot back.
“And you take them too seriously,” Ryan retorted, an irritated frown gathering on his face.
“Well, somebody has to,” Emmy finished, folding her arms.
“Hey, hey, guys,” Laz stepped in between them. “Let’s not fight here…” Both Ryan and Emmy shot him dirty looks and he trailed off. “Never mind, go at it.” Laz swallowed nervously and stepped back.
Ryan and Emmy promptly turned to each other and started to bicker once again.
Emmy’s eyes flared. “Kayla said that you and that bumbling idiot,” she pointed to Laz, who gave a shocked, ‘who me?’ look. “Are the ones responsible for Cathy’s death.”
“No I didn’t,” Kayla protested, but neither Ryan nor Emmy paid any attention to her.
Ryan skipped the ‘who me?’ look and got right to the outraged one. “What?” he growled, looking about as serious as her ever had. “You’re trying to blame this on us?”
“Well,” Emmy said, walking towards him and laughing coldly. “If the shoe fits.”
The room fell silent. They all understood what she was doing; she was challenging his authority (and not talking about his shoe size as Laz originally thought).
“Do you wanna say that again,” Ryan said calmly. Make no mistake, he wasn’t feeling very calm at the moment; think of it more as the quiet before a storm.
“IF THE SHOE FITS,” Emmy said loudly and slowly.
“All right that’s it!” Jordan yelled. He separated them from each other and held them at arm’s length. “We have got some important things to figure out right now, first of which being how we’re gonna stay alive. Second, we need to decide whether we can trust Sarah or not. Now you two better quit the bickering or we’ll all end up dead. Please, just kiss and make up.”
“Ew, don’t kiss,” Laz protested. “That would be like, romantic.”
Jordan frowned. “Figure of speech, man.”
There was a string of silence, and Emmy and Ryan considered what Jordan, and Laz, had just ‘laid down for them’ as Jordan would say.
Ryan and Emmy looked at each other. “Aw, what the heck,” Ryan waved her off. “We’ll fight later, right now we have some strategizing to do.”
“You’re right,” Emmy nodded. “I forgive you.”
Ryan rolled his eyes and shot the other guys an, I’ll-never-understand-women look. They just nodded and shrugged in return. There was yet another awkward silence.
Michelle broke the silence. “I think she sounds all right.” She was referring to Sarah of course. “She did help you guys escape, right?”
Ryan nodded. “That’s true. She also said that she was part of IMF.”
“That doesn’t mean that she is, though,” Christophear pointed out.
Zach nodded. “I agree with Chris. We can’t just blindly accept everything she says.”
“What do you suggest,” Ryan asked.
“Well,” Zach began. “I think we should hear her out. Maybe consider what she has to say.”
“Okay, sounds good,” said Ryan. “Call Sarah in,” he ordered Chris. Chris opened the door where Sarah had been staying and let her out.
“Well, I hope you have decided to listen to me,” Sarah said, a little irritated at being locked away during their conversation.”
“We’ve decided to hear you out,” Ryan informed her.
“Thank you,” Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. “Look, what I’ve been trying to tell you guys all along is that the emperor is trying to hunt us all down and kill us.”
“But why would the emperor do that?” Emmy asked.
“Because, we know too much about him, you know how paranoid he can get about losing his power. The emperor has convinced himself that IMF is endangering his reign as emperor.”
“And how do you know this?” Ryan asked, trying to sound smart.
“Cathy.”
“Cathy?” they all asked.
“Yes, Cathy received some incriminating information about the emperor, don’t ask me how. Anyways, she learned of all kinds of crimes the emperor had committed. Like, killing journalists, executing innocent people, who just so happened to be bitter rivals, and, among other things, trying to kill us.”
“And how can you prove this?” Kayla asked.
“Well,” Sarah said weakly. “Most if it’s circumstantial; Cathy had all the real evidence.”
“And where’s this evidence?” Ryan asked.
Sarah hung her head. “I don’t know.”
“Of course,” Jordan smirked. “You really expect us to believe all this?”
“I was hoping that Cathy’s death, and Tim’s disappearance would convince you.”
“Well,” Ryan said thoughtfully, stroking his chin. “Maybe we should sleep on this. Tonight, everyone go back to their own homes and think it over. We’ll meet here tomorrow at exactly 0730.”
“Should we go back to our houses if the emperor is after us?” Michelle asked.
“No,” Sarah said. “That would be stupid.” “Yes,” Ryan contradicted. “We should go home; even if the emperor is trying to kill us, we don’t want to tip him off that we know something.”
“Good point,” Laz agreed.
“Thank you,” Ryan gave a look as if he came up with good ideas all the time.
“Where will I go?” Sarah asked.
Ryan pondered this for a minute.
“She can go home with me,” Kayla offered.
“Okay, sounds good,” Ryan nodded. “Everyone agree?”
“Everyone who agrees say, aye!” Laz shouted. “Aye!”
Everyone looked at him disdainfully.
“Okay, never mind, just say yes.”
“Yes,” everyone said. Everyone except Sarah, who still wasn’t happy about their plan.
Nobody cared at the moment though. They all departed and went to their own homes.
As they walked out the door, Emmy grasped Chris’ hand. “Don’t worry,” she said. “We’ll figure this out.”
Chris nodded and pulled his hand away.
Emmy just coughed awkwardly and walked away.
“That was weird,” Chris muttered.

A dark figure wearing a black coat walked up to the gate near Michelle’s house. The person’s figures were mostly hidden by the dark, but it was definitely a male. He walked up to her security system and placed his thumb on a pad that came out of the wall.
“Access granted,” a computer-animated voice said.
The gate opened slowly and the man walked inside. “Welcome, Christophear Danaford,” the voice said as he walked inside.
He walked up the pathway and up to Michelle’s door. He knocked on it three times, looking up at the security camera by the door as he did.
He waited a minute as Michelle checked who it was. Suddenly, the door opened.
“Hey, Chris!” Michelle said from where she was standing in the doorway.
“Hello, Michelle,” Christophear said.
Michelle welcomed him in. They walked inside and sat down in her kitchen.
“What brings you here?” Michelle asked, curious.
“Just one thing,” Chris said, standing. Michelle turned to face him, with a coffee pot in her hand.
“What?” she asked.
He reached inside his coat, which he had never taken off, and withdrew a Colt .45. “Emperor’s business,” he said.
Michelle’s eyes opened wide. “Chris, no!”
A wicked smile spread across Chris’s face. “Yes.”
Suddenly, Michelle sprang into action. She threw the coffee pot at Chris’ face; hitting him square in the chin and spilling hot coffee all over him.
Chris screamed and howled in pain. Michelle rolled to her right and ran to where her nearest gun was hidden.
Chris had recovered quickly, however, and he snatched up his .45 and shot at Michelle three times. Michelle jerked and fell on her face.
Chris walked over to her and stood over her body. “Thought you’d get away, didn’t you?”
“You’re not really Chris, are you?” she moaned.
Chris laughed. “No, I’m not.” He or whoever it was, lifted his gun and fired a fourth shot. A scream could be heard, and then it was cut short. The birds listening outside flew frantically away, warned by some intuition give to them in all stories and movies.
The figure walked out, making sure to glance at the security camera once again, and headed back to his vehicle.

Timothius sat in his cell, cold and alone. He was shivering nonstop and muttering to himself.
“I should have seen this coming,” he muttered. “Should have seen this coming…”
Suddenly, someone burst into the room. Light came streaming in, blinding Tim for the moment. “Who are you?” he asked, blinking.
“Your worst nightmare,” said a spooky voice. The voice laughed wickedly.
Tim strained to see who it was, but several days in a dark dungeon had made him very sensitive to light, so he couldn’t see.
“I’m the interrogator,” he said.
Tim’s heart sunk. The emperor had sent the interrogator to his cell; that couldn’t be good news.
The interrogator slammed the cell door shut and turned on a light that was sitting on a small desk.
“Where’d the desk and the light come from?” Timothius asked. He was determined to show the interrogator that he wasn’t afraid.
“You have to have a light and a desk to do interrogations,” the interrogator explained.
“Why?” Tim asked.
“Well…” the interrogator pondered this for a while. “Oh, I don’t know. You just do, okay? Now let’s get this interrogation started.” He pulled out a long and thin, yet still strong, needle.
“What’s that?” Tim asked nervously.
“This,” the interrogator said, with another one of his wicked smiles. “Is a most interesting tool. Looks harmless, right? Wrong. When I stick this needle in your shoulder, I’m going to start asking you questions. If you don’t answer the way I like, then I push the needle farther. Once this baby hits the bone, it’s gonna be pretty painful. Might even knock you out.
Timothius bit his lip and closed his eyes.
“Scared, huh?” the interrogator laughed.
“No,” Tim said through gritted teeth. “And I won’t give up my friends. No matter what you do to me.”
“Well,” the interrogator smiled again, walking towards Timothius. “You won’t have to.”
Timothius looked up surprised. “What?”
“Do I have to repeat myself? You don’t have to give up your friends. The emperor already has a way to wrap those guys up, pathetic bunch. The emperor wants something different from you.”
Timothius stared at the interrogator, still not getting it. “Want to explain what that is?”
“Sure…”


To be continued next week...