Undercover

Chapter Eight: Unknown Substance

It's been a long two weeks. I haven't seen much of the prince lately, except during dinner. Everyone (including the queen and king) dine together every day for dinner. I've been pretty avoidant with the prince, which is not good. I don't really care at the moment, I have other things to worry about.

T'challa found the prince's room which is good. One of the spiders have been monitoring him, and I have yet to discover anything. It's been two weeks and I have nothing to report. It's so frustrating because in another two weeks I have two meetings. I have to give a monthly update to the U.S. government and the U.W. about any discoveries.

On top of that T'challa couldn't even find the queen and king's room, which is very odd. Here are my theories: 1) They must not live in the palace. 2) Their security must be high tech and can camouflage their location well.

T'challa also brought to my attention about some suspicion in the palace's basement. He detects a lot of odd body heat activity. Also, when he tried to hack the basement's systems it backfired. We're going to figure out what's going on tonight. Hopefully, I'll be able to sneak in there without any interruptions.

Now, I'm here standing alone admiring the palace's gorgeous garden. Especially this beautiful pond in front of me. I wore a simple white fitted dress that stopped mid-thing and white heels. My wash-and-go was still intact from last week. A soft breeze greeted my skin. Today we're celebrating someone's birthday. I didn't really pay attention to the details when King mentioned it. I'm kind of pissed because we have to be here all day. It does not take the whole day to have a birthday party! Whoever it is must be very important. Earlier, there was some ceremony that lasted at least four hours. Four hours of my life I couldn't get back. Luckily, I was able to sit in the back and have a good nap session. Sky sat next to me in the back as well. She kept waking me up and it was so annoying, yet she thought it was funn-

"Heaven." Someone yells from behind making me lose my train of thought. I turn to see two versions of Sky greet me. That's not normal. I'm starting to feel light-headed again. That's been happening a lot lately. Sometimes I feel light-headed, in pain, start coughing, or other odd symptoms. It's just weird because I can't be sick. I've never been sick a day in my life.

"Woah woah." I feel a pair of hands catch me before I lose my balance.

"I'm ok. Thanks Sky."

"What was that?" She demands.

"Nothing to worry about. Why'd you call me over?"

"You've been staring at that pond for the last thirty minutes. I had to make sure you weren't a statue. Maybe you should go sit down. Come on." She starts to walk away and I guess she expects me to follow. My feet stay in place.

"I'll catch up with you. You go on ahead." She stops to face me.

"You sure?" Sky asks while lifting a questioning eyebrow.

"Yeah."

"Miss West." Whispers a robotic voice. I lift my wrist to my mouth so T'challa can hear me better from the bracelet.

"What's up."

"Your health. It seems to be a bit off. I checked your vitals and the problem seems to be coming from your wrist..." He continues on as I investigate my wrist. Peculiar thick dark purple veins stretch from underneath my bracelet. They seem to be slowly spreading throughout my whole arm. What the heck...

I try poking at a vain and receive a repulsive sting from my arm. It feels like my whole arm is on fire. I don't want to draw any attention to myself, so I drag my feet away from the party. I end up running around the pond I was staring at earlier. I spot a trail behind me and decide to follow it. Minutes later, I'm sitting against a tree. The pain in my arm is starting to increase. For some reason, it's getting hard for me to breath. It's also harder for me to stand and I lose my balance. My hands grasp a tree near me to catch myself.

Unexpectantly, the tree I'm leaning on starts to lean as well. It crashes into another tree, and that tree collides into another tree, and so on. It's like watching dominoes. Soon I'm staring at a maze of trees resting on the ground. Great Omi looking what you did.

The sound of a boisterous alarm screams in my ears. The sound of footsteps approaching activates my sympathetic nervous system. Then all of a sudden, my vision in replace by darkness. I feel something cool grip my wrist. Maybe a hand?

A cloth with an odd sent is pressed against my nose suffocating it. The odd scene smells familiar and it hits me. I've used this same cloth on missions when I want my opponent unconscious. If my premise is correct then it will be a matter of seconds before I'm knocked out. I've got to act fast. I feel the pressure of someone's body behind me.

"I found someone! Take her!" A deep and raspy voice booms. With all my force I knee the person in its side. Hopefully praying to hit their abs. My vision and air are given back and was followed by a groan from behind me.

I turn around to find an unconscious man laying on the ground.

Oops....

The sound of numerous footsteps was approaching.

"Soldier where are you?" Another deep voice boom not too far behind. That was my cue to make a run for it. I raced into the forest, ditching the trail behind me. I followed the maze I created with the fallen trees. I don't know how I'm running in these heels -

My heel got caught on a branch slamming me to the ground.

Spoke too soon...

The taste of dirty greeted my tongue. I immediately spit out its contents, before hearing numerous footsteps in the distance.

"He's unconscious." A squeaky voice peeps. Whoever that is sounds like their in their stages of puberty.

"Follow those fallen trees and stay alert. I feel we are not the only ones after those royals. Half of you go with him. The rest of you follow me." Booms the familiar voice from earlier. He must be some type of leader.

I try to rise, but the pain spreading throughout my body pulls me back down. When I glance at my arm I notice that it's missing. My arm doesn't look like an arm. It's swollen three times its sizes. Blue and purple replace the warm hazelnut color my skin use to display.

"Omi, a substance has entered you bloodstream. Your immune system doesn't seem to be taking the substance well." T'challa informs.

"Where did the substance come from?" I ask.

"Your brother created the bracelet to tame your power and - "

"I know that much T'challa get to the point."

"When ever the bracelet senses your power activating, it sends this substance through your bloodstream. It's supposed to act as a vaccine, but it's actually making your immune system very weak."

"Get this bracelet off of me!" I yell, which was a big mistake.

"I can't without Mr. Ryan's fingerprint," T'challa replies.

Ryan are you kidding me! He's not even here and he still makes my blood boil. I'm gonna kill him! Well, I can't actually kill him, because I need him....but that's not the point! Ok, breath Om -

"I heard someone over here! Follow me." Bellows a voice very close by the sounds of it. Footsteps approaching interrupt my train of thought.

"T'challa I can't see anything, but I can hear people coming. Can you be my eyes?" I question.

"One of the spiders will be here in five minutes."

"Five minutes? I don't have five minutes." I whisper, conscious that the footsteps are getting closer. I can't feel anything. My arms and legs prohibit me from moving.

Why me?

"Omi, you body is going to shut down in one minute."

What? I really dislike T'challa today. My vision starts to get very blurry. I fight to keep my eyelids from closing, but it's hard.

I don't know if I'm hallucinating from the substance, but something odd happens. The ground swallows me under its surface and everything goes black.