Chersky, Russia
"Mum, watch out!"
Megan's eyes jerked open as she felt a touch on her shoulder and her sensation returned to the sound of tires screeching against the tarmac. The Chariot had landed, she realized.
She looked up to see Ricardo standing in front of the pulled back leather armchair she had dozed off in with a worried look on his face. "Are you okay?" he asked. "You were moaning in your sleep."
"I'm fine," she replied, shaking away his hand from her shoulder- he was the one that had jerked her awake- alongside the last cobwebs of sleep in her eyes. "I'm just tired, that's all."
Ricardo didn't seem to be buying any part of that expla
The ride had gone on for about ten minutes before Ricardo suddenly coughed and Megan looked at him. "What is it?" she asked with a look that said that she had been expecting him to say something all along."Well," he looked a bit unsure on how to proceed, "I want to say that I really appreciate you saying that I could be trusted. I know the director would never have allowed me to continue on this mission if you didn't vouch for me.""But I didn't vouch for you, Mr. DiSanto," she returned, her tone cold and impassive. "What I said was that you're a man that will do whatever it takes to stay alive, which is about the only truthful thing about you.""That's not fair, Megan." Ricardo turned to glare at her for longer than she was comfortable with it and for a split second, she feared he wa
Megan approached the front of the warehouse with Ricardo and Adolf in tow. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary as they went- in fact, nothing appeared to be in the environment at all besides the building- but just to be safe, she signaled that they all keep their eyes peeled and be ready for anything at any moment- bad guys tended to have a knack for springing out of nowhere, she thought with a look around, it was highly unlikely they were going to suddenly stop exercising that bad habit.The trio finally got to the building's frontage after about a minute of cautious walking and Megan waved two fingers back at the SUVs; her signal to Kei and Jay to maintain the two minutes count before they came out after them."Alright," she gestured to Ricardo when she looked to see a computerized keypad on the wall, "looks l
"So, there's more than one Item 13 now. Is that what we're going with?" Kei asked when the group finished opening all the shipment crates and discovered that Megan's deduction was correct. All of the crates had containment boxes potential of being the one used to house Item 13.But there couldn't be more than one Item 13, Megan thought to herself. From what she recalled of the story Dennis had told her, the ingenuity that created the weapon had died with Ernest Ruskin; and even if his supposed apprentice who created the updated version had shared it, it was unlikely that he had the time to pass it on to someone else who then went ahead to create more five years later.Plus, if the group had the technology to create another Item 13,why then did they need go through all the trouble of stealing the original one
Megan wasn't sure for how long she was passed out but she figured it had to be a long time cos when she regained consciousness, she saw that the sky had become a lot darker than when she and the group had arrived in Chersky.Well, it was good thing she was still alive, she thought to herself, although considering the numerous aches torturing every pore of her body, she sort of wished she wasn't.Megan looked down, surprised to see that she had been put strapped to a metal chair by the hands and legs with steel chains so heavy that she doubted even Adolf would be able to get her out of them if he tried.And speaking of Adolf, she turned to see him hanging from the ceiling of the warehouse- what remained of it after the pulse explosion, that is- by his wings.S
Before Martin or any of his men could comprehend what Jay was saying, the chains used to restrain him suddenly grew red-hot- apparently they had been heating up before he spoke up- and exploded, releasing almost the same type of pulse energy in the bombs the men had used against the group earlier. The energy hit and the men fell backwards, a lot of them knocked out cold in the process.Jay rushed out of his seat just as the energy blew and got to Adolf when the men were falling down, putting his hands on his chains to melt them instantly on contact. "Thanks, man," the latter greeted as he got back to his feet, stretching his wings to test their recovery.A shot rang out just then but Adolf stretched his wing in front of Jay to shield him from a bullet that would have found home in his back and it ricocheted away harmlessly. The two of t
The person with the gun was the boss. That was what Megan used to hear people say, and she believed them too.However, as she stood in the clearing with the pier to her front, looking at Martin grinning unabashedly at her even with the pistol trained on him, she knew that she was anything but the boss in that situation.There was no way he could have known about the incident, she thought to herself. No way at all.But then again, there should have been no way for Arthur to have known about the incident either but he had enough to use it to threaten her. There were times when she even suspected that Dennis and Ricardo knew about it too but were just being too polite to call her out about it.But how could
The steady hum of the Chariot in flight was the only thing that Megan could hear as she looked at the faces staring back at her around the battlestation. Ricardo, Adolf, Jay, even Kei; none of them spoke as they awaited what she presumed was her reasonable explanation for what she had blurted out in Chersky.Thing is, after Megan's confession, she had walked away from the warehouse to one of the SUVs and drove away without a word, leaving the others to catch up with her at the airstrip; and while none of them had spoken a word directly to her in return about her actions- Megan was actually surprised that Kei hadn't but she figured the others had forced her not to- she knew it was only a matter of time before they physically demanded an explanation.Well, looked like the time had come, she realized when Ricardo stood up. Apparen
"Your activities have not gone unnoticed." Arthur's displeasure was very vivid in his demeanour as he stared at the faces seated around the conference table. "Rio, Havana, Chersky. Your debacles have made headlines, and all in the presence of an unauthorised personnel who could very well be an enemy combatant too. Tell me, is this how the Supermen are supposed to operate?""All due respect, Mr. Principal Officer, none of this is our fault," Kei returned. "In fact, I'm willing to bet that we would have recovered Item 13 by now if-" Whatever she wanted to say got stuck in her throat as Dennis shot her a very stern glare. A silent debate ensued between the two of them as she seemed to insist on going ahead with her statement and he preventing her with his glare.Finally, Kei huffed. "You deal with this." She kicked back her chair and zoome