Whisper

Chapter 46

"Conrad!" Rienhart jogged over to his brother who was staring at a nearby monitor that was displaying a news clip. "Who's that?" 

"Project Spring," Conrad pointed at a blurry figure who sat beside Spring, "And that's Project Frost." 

"So that's Clarise's van?" Rienhart questioned. 

Conrad leaned forward, pressing a key causing the screen to switch over to picture taken by a speeding camera. A blurry black-haired figure was in the driver's seat. 

"Oh," Rienhart stared at the photo as it slowly rendered, "Oh jeez." 

The two Carson brothers stood in silence as they stared at the photo. The woman in the driver's seat was staring dead in the camera. Rienhart could almost swear the corners of her mouth were raised slightly in a cunning smirk. 

"We think they are heading towards Los Paraiso," Jennifer peaked her head over the monitor across from them, looking between the brothers who were processing all this information slowly, "You know what's there, right?" 

"Headquarters?" Rienhart asked, extremely confused. 

"But headquarters doesn't hold any Projects or Abnormals?" Conrad spoke aloud, not really talking to the rest of them but to himself. "What else could she want there?" 

"Maybe she's just hiding there? It's a big city." Jennifer was also racking her brain for so many possibilities. "She isn't stupid enough to be close to headquarters so she's probably gathering supplies to be on the run." 

"Well she was in that small town doing that, and according to some of the locals they took a local girl with them too." Conrad recalled the reports he read while he was at home. He's still technically on medical leave but he was too determined and too stubborn to relax. 

"A girl?" Rienhart was so out of the loop he was almost ashamed.

"Loralie DeMacarre, age 19," Jennifer clicked around until she pulled up the rather small and plain resume of the young adult. "Graduated high school last year and did not apply to any colleges. She used to work at her parent's hardware store." 

"And they kidnapped her?" Rienhart was genuinely surprised. Clarise was the reason he was able to stand beside his brother, alive, but kidnapping someone seemed so out of character. Not that he knows much about her character. Her company was the reason his brother was in the hospital. 

"Uh no," Jennifer furrowed her brows, "it appears she went on her own free will, leaving her parents a quick goodbye note." 

"What did the note say?" Conrad didn't see this on the reports, or maybe he glossed over this fact as he tried to pry into the mind of the woman who quite literally knows everything.

"Something about a deep secret that she wants to hide and she basically told them that they were terrible parents." 

"Oh shit." Rienhart didn't have the best memories of Mr. and Mrs. Conrad, but he'd never tell them to their faces. Besides, he loved his family very much.

"Secret? Is she an Abnormal?" Conrad ignored the less filial part of the not and focused on the more interesting thing. 

"Probably," Jennifer started biting her thumbnail, one that was already stubby and chewed thoroughly. She picked up this habit after she stopped using chewing tobacco. An old-fashioned but still unhealthy habit. "But no reports mentioned anything - well - abnormal about her. Witnesses barely remember her name." 

"Back to Clarise, do you think she could actually be going to headquarters?" Conrad was more interested on a different young girl shrouded in mystery and misery. 

"Well there isn't much there that she wouldn't already know of, like base locations, current operations, etc." Jennifer began chewing her skin, not realizing she broke the skin, even when the metallic taste of her blood was on the tip of her tongue, "Wait." 

"What." 

"The key for the Genovia City compound." 

"A key?" 

"Yes, it was the only way to keep the Abnormals at bay," Jennifer finally gave her poor thumb a break. "A classic lock and key was one of the many security protocols taken to keep those freaks underground." 

A ball or something formed in Conrad's throat, feeling like he was choking on his words. A mixture of emotions he was literally being suffocated by just building up in his esophagus.

"So you think she's trying to get this key?" Rienhart was a bit slow, more of a do-first, think-last sort of man. His elder brother had the instinct to survive that sort of lifestyle, but when it mattered there was a bit more action in his brain. 

"We should inform headquarters, with everything going on there is barely any security there." Conrad was already pulling out his phone as he was speaking, speed dialing the director.

"Shit you're right! It's just the security guards there, right?" Jennifer too pulled out her phone, just informing anyone. 

"Wait, why?" 

"It's all hands on deck with Projects breaking out left and right." 

"Oh, right." 

It was like dominos, a few free Projects and Abnormals freed others and their numbers had exponentially grown overnight. Now the few bases that were in charge of keeping these projects under wraps and out of the public eye were stretched thin and who knows what BEYOND is doing to keep their Projects hidden. Though, BEYOND is just as secretive as ARC. 

Who was the catalyst? 

It wasn't Clarise but she surely is the fuel that keeps this wild fire going.