To Be A Hero

Chapter 45: Hit Me Baby One More Time

"Ready, Runners? Veronica?" Sam asks.

"Yes, Sam. I am standing here, appropriately attired. I am aware of the mission. I am unsure what level of further readiness you require," Veronica states in a professional tone.

"Uh, yeah. Uh, okay... good."

Nadia punches Veronica in the arm lightly. "Stop it, Ronnie. She's winding you up, Sam."

She puts a hand to her chest in mock offense. "I'm not. I don't even know what that means. What am I winding?"

"You know what it means. You're doing it now!"

"Mr. Yao, can you confirm that this mission is secured by Starlight Protocol?" Janine asks, her voice firm, her face unflinching.

"Uh, yep. Secure channel, need-to-know data, encrypted recording. Anyone planning to tell me what the cloak and dagger is all about?" He asks.

"I will update you when we leave Abel, Mr. Yao. For now, just understand that my interrogation of Mr. De Luca has reached an impasse."

Nadia frowns. "An impasse? Is that what you're calling that massive bruise on the side of your face? An impasse? I hope you hit him back."

Janine's face darkens. "I can remove you from this mission, Miss Al Hanaki."

"You can't, actually," Nadia replies, crossing her arms.

Veronica takes a step closer to Janine, studying her face and the multiple bruises on it. "You do appear to have a series of cosmetic injuries, Janine. There's also a contusion on the bridge of your nose."

"Our pursuit of the Viking's secret cure for the zombie plague proceeds, but slowly," Janine says, ignoring their comments. "We've yet to discover why my brother attempted to steal the baby, or who created the double of Runner Five-the zombie we encountered who Five calls Anna. Tom must, however, have been monitoring coms traffic for months to plan his crimes. We must find out what he knows. To move on with my interrogation, I need to break through my brother's psychosis. We are going to find something to help us do that. Mr. Yao, the gates?"

Sam gives no answer, but seconds later the gates are raising up and the alarms going off. We all start off, the December air filling our lungs as we go.

It's weird, seeing Nadia outside running with us. I haven't ran with her since we went out to Treetop Base for the first time. We used Amelia's automated operator system and it nearly got us killed.

Man, that seems like forever ago.

It's a bit weird seeing Janine run out with us too, but we did run together a little over a week ago while trying to catch Tom after he snatched Sarah, so it's not as weird as running with Nadia.

But her words ring into my ears. We're going to find something to help Tom because he's a nut job who knows things, basically. I'm not sure why we would need to use Starlight Protocol for this. I mean, everyone knows Tom is crazy, and everyone knows we're trying to figure out why he took the baby, and they know we've giving him antipsychotics to help stabilize him, so what the hell could we possibly be getting that would make Janine want to put this mission under the protection of Starlight Protocol?

I don't know how I'm supposed to feel about this, but right now, I don't feel good.

Although, whatever Janine plans on doing can't have been worse than what I was planning to do to Tom. I would have killed him if my conscience hadn't kicked it. I would have killed him and had one more life on my hands, the blood of another dripping off my fingers. It's a rhythm that plays in the back of my mind sometimes, and I would've just added more to it.