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Chapter 64
By Shell97
The door to their makeshift cell opened suddenly and Byrce and Paula found themselves rushing forward to catch Talehn. Talehn's face was covered in sweat and tears. His expression was one of utter despair and self-loathing.
Paula brushed his hair out of his face and tried to comfort him when she suddenly found herself being pulled into a standing postion by a hand grasped firmly in her hair. She twisted her body around, trying to free herself, but she went motionless when she saw the gun trained on Bryce.
"What are you doing?" Byrce demanded as the security guard began to drag Paula out of the room.
"I'm taking her in for questioning," the man said with a smirk as his partner came forward to train his pistol on Byrce. "Don't worry, she'll be in good hands."
Talehn had already joined Byrce and they were both ready to attempt to overpower the guards, regardless of their lack of weapons. But they both stopped in their tracks as the man holding Paula wrapped his arm around her neck and squeezed.
"Don't get any funny ideas, or I might just have to sign this little lady's death certificate."
As soon as the door to the storage room slammed shut Bryce and Talehn rushed forward. It was futile but they drove their shoulders into the door anyway.
Groggily, Jarrick brushed potting soil out of his hair. Damn Julia and damn that prick she had brought home with her. He sure as hell wasn't going to let them get away with making a fool out of him. Jarrick rose shakily to his knees and moved towards the bedroom to make a call.
It was hard to believe that it was almost noon. In less than half an hour they would know what fate had planned for them. Cisia wondered how the others had done. Was Talehn alright? Did Paula succeed in convincing the Ministry of her intentions? Had Darian cleared things up with the Syndicate? She looked over to where Nakano was siting, the sergeant didn't seem to be worried.
Cisia was wrong, Nakano was very worried. The chances that Darian and Paula had succeeded weren't very good. Add to that the fact that Lydon was still out there looking for Cisia and you had a potentially volatile situation on your hands. Nelson wasn't about to let the others see his dread, they had enough to deal with, so he kept his silly grin plastered to his face.
The grin slipped a little when Anika entered the room. The tan suit she was wearing was the one Mia had worn to her police department interview. Only then, Mia had worn that suit with a bright blue blouse while Anika had a lavender stripped shirt on underneath the jacket.
When Phoenix joined them Nakano tossed him the keys, "Why don't you drive this time?"
Phoenix relaxed as he pulled the car out of the driveway. It was fitting, somehow, that he drive away from his childhood neighborhood. He could take care of himself now, and he could prevent Cisia from suffering. It felt good knowing that, with Paula's technology, no one would ever have to be put through that torture again.
And it was torture, no matter what the Ministry told the public. The physical pain had been nothing compared to the pain he could feel coming from the planet. Phoenix wasn't sure if the other interfaces felt it the way he did. For one thing, Phoenix wasn't really a mage, he couldn't weave spells like some of the others. The skill he did have--the one that brought the Ministry knocking on his door--was the ablily to empathize with other living things.
It was this empathy that had him turning right, towards his apartment rather than going straight to the airport.
His companions noticed the detour. "Where are you going?" Anika asked from the backseat.
"I just need to pick something up," Phoenix said in reply. He brought the car to a stop and hopped out. "I'll just be a minute."
To say that his companions were surprised when he came out carrying a houseplant would have been an understatement. Phoenix looked at their surprised faces defiantly. "I couldn't just leave Alfie to starve to death, now could I?"
Nakano coughed a little. "Definately not."
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