Nothing Less than Extraordinary

xx5xx

"So we have to disprove this Cure, figure out who's in this extremist group, and find a group of students all while trying to get enough shit to pin this on Macintyre," Cheshire concluded.

"We aren't 'pinning' it on him; it's his fault. No pinning. Just pure guilt," I corrected. When we have enough on him, I still wanted to meet him again...and ask him what possessed him to do all of this. Who could be this genuinely menacing?

"You know what I mean," he told me, nudging my arm.

"Saving the other surviving students is going to be hard considering you don't want to call your friends or Sentara," Tyler muttered, avoiding looking up, which was in his best interest.

"She probably went back and got them all once she recovered, I'm sure," Cheshire said. Anything else he said was tuned out. One thought of Sentara had me remember everyone else.

How Indica would be clutching to her brother Isaac for the fear she'd lose him again. How Skye was probably reunited with her double-agent brother Draco who saved some of our lives. How Anthony and Andres had to be strong for once for the sake of caring for the others. How Cariba reluctantly cried at Warren's bedside and found the only reason for her to be nice to him. How Zaine was hooked up to tubes and wires like the lab rat he used to be...or covered in a sheet. I didn't even know how my brother was—if he was hearing or processing or cuddled up to Jane.

And the worst part was that I didn't even know if that's what was even going on because I wasn't even there. I wasn't really anywhere because even in Tyler and Cheshire's company, I felt absent. Even as the boys explained how Macintyre's old base was in Alcatraz, shielded from the publicly toured jail, I was listening without much of a response.

"You okay?" Cheshire asked while we were "undercover" as tourist in the rundown and historic jail of Alcatraz.

"Yeah," I lied with a frown that he easily saw through. "Tyler and I just got into an argument last night and then this morning I kept thinking of the others..."

"Well once we get enough info to nail Macintyre, we have to go back to D.C. anyways, since there is an arraignment and all," he said.

"Arraignment?" I asked. "For what?"

"A bunch of things," he said. "The Agency for breaching, the rogue group under Jase and 'Chevy' for terrorism, all of us for many crimes, Maxwell for treason...I'm sure there's more."

"Maxwell for treason?" I asked, but before Cheshire could answer, the tour group was walking around a corner in a maximum security facility and Tyler was hissing for our attention behind a dusty panel.

"Come on," Cheshire dismissed before we slipped away from the group and followed Tyler. I looked over my shoulder and met eyes with someone who looked familiar even though I had never seen them before. But soon enough, they were departing from the tour group themselves to enter the public bathroom and I parted ways with Cheshire.

=XXX=

Five minutes into the control room to some research lab and I was beyond pissed at Macintyre. We found all of Zaine's files and videos and any piece of analysis. Every test and documentation of how Zaine was basically trained to be a soldier for half the time and a lab rat for the other was found.

"They trained him as if they were going to use him for war," Cheshire said. "No wonder he's such a stick in the mud."

I remembered Zaine telling me the story of how he knew Macintyre. How his parents were in the military and were under the impression that the Agency was going to be of some use to their family...how they made him pick up heavy objects and bite his tongue for blood and—