Chapter 99

99 The Pursuit of Fear

When Vickie spoke, her voice sounded like the flowers that bloomed in springtime in a forest with its clear voice that could calm anyone that was around her at the moment. “Hey, guys,” she said in a nervous voice. “Just came back from a-”

“A little mission, we all know,” Malachi said. It almost felt as if we were investigating her or something like that, but we just came here to speak about the robot we would destroy. Vickie nodded her head in response to his statement before she sat down on one of the red chairs with her legs crossed. “So, what do you guys need me for?”

Malachi cleared his throat. “I’m pretty sure you heard the news of that big incident some days right?” he asked with a serious face as he looked at her. Vickie nodded again as she folded her hands in front of her chest.

“We were unfortunately the causes of it I’d guess I’d prefer. We have this robot, well pieces of a robot, that this facility has thoroughly inspected. We need to take it back to the man named, Dmitri Petrov, or at least find him, which I believe you may pull up a photo of him perhaps if I’m correct. Apparently, he only has the tool to destroy it from your captain’s information. But, we are being actively hunted by the TSA and we need to hurry up and give this to him. Also, we have a bit of a personal thing to do while we’re at it, and it’s to retrieve our radios from the boat. We get that, we get back home,” Malachi explained. “We can prevent chaos if you agree to help us.”

Vickie sighed, sounding very reluctant about our request as she shook her head from side to side before she finally looked at us. “That sounds very risky,” she said. Tisiah chuckled, “An agent always goes for the risky stuff. That’s what makes them the best agent.”

She seemed stuck for words as if she didn’t know what to say in response to that, but after a while, she got up from the chair and stood in front of us. “Give me a day alright,” she said. All our faces plummeted downwards as we looked at each other.

Malachi took a deep breath as if he was trying to calm himself down before he spoke up again. “We will,” he said. She left the room with a proper walk that made me wonder if she had been taught how to walk properly when she first started her job as an agent.

“Well, we’ll just have to wait a day I guess,” Greg said with an exasperated face as he rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers as he sat down on one of the chairs and crossed his legs before he stared at the wall in front of him.

I didn’t know how to feel about this whole situation as I looked around the office before I noticed the painting on the wall behind Captain Vance’s chair. It looked like a school picture or something similar as I saw a young girl with brown hair that fell her back smiling at the camera with her eyes full of happiness as I stared at it.

.....

It looked like Vickie as she must have been when she was younger. The picture wasn’t too old but it showed Vickie’s features as it showed her face which was a little round but it was not an unattractive feature on her face as her skin was slightly tan colored.

I could only sigh at this point as I knew that I had no choice but to wait until the next day.

The sun began to lower down into the ground, and no its not the next day yet, calm down. It gave my room a certain light that made it seem like a cave rather than a room as the walls were covered in dark green and red paint that made the room look even more gloomy than it was before.

If we had the privilege to change it, I would definitely have made it white or something that would brighten it up and make it feel less confined. But who knows, maybe I’m just being overdramatic because I don’t like this room that much to begin with. Then all of a sudden, I heard the door knock once again.

Again? Who’s knocking so many times?

I went up to the door and opened it up to see Malachi standing there with his hands in his pockets as he stared at me. He looked nervous, very nervous, and he had bags under his eyes as if he had not slept in days. “Hey, there’s something you might want to see.”

Quickly we headed towards the office once again, and Captain Vance and Yvonne were there, with a screen that showed the one face I never wanted to see. “Rocke...” I muttered in fear. It was a video, which looking at the time was about a minute and thirty.

Captain Vance played it once again as we all watched it with our eyes wide open in horror as we heard Rocke’s voice speaking to us. “Hello, Connor,” he said with a chuckle in his voice. He was wearing a black suit that was made of silk that made his body seem like it was glowing in the darkness of the video.

“How are you today? Are you still in Florida, maybe heading towards another area, or maybe even back at your YMPA?” he asked. My face moldened into a frown as I heard his voice, but I couldn’t help but look at him as he smiled at me with his lips slightly curled up into a grin. “Yeah, possibly,” he said with a chuckle. “Or maybe, you’re hiding with the FMA.”

Our eyes widened at this statement, and Captain Vance stopped the video as he looked at us with a serious expression on his face. “How does he know?” he asked.

I could only stammer, but then he resumed playing. “I’m pretty sure you’re now shaking in your boots aren’t you?” he chuckled again. I felt my heart beat faster as I tried to calm myself down, but I couldn’t help but look at him with fear in my eyes. “But I’ll make a deal, and perhaps it may be for the best. Captain Vance, if you happen to be watching although this was hacked directly to your email, give me the Cybertron and I’ll leave you alone.”

Captain Vance seemed shocked by this statement, and he looked at me as if he was trying to figure out what was going on in my mind as he stared at me. “Or, you don’t and I kill every single one of your students, and you and their families will be the ones to watch.”

Fear struck my heart as I looked at him with my mouth wide open. I didn’t know what to do at this moment, and Captain Vance seemed just as shocked by this as well.

Terror resembled in everyone’s eyes as we all looked at each other before Captain Vance resumed playing the video again. “Remember my deal, Captain Vance. Remember. I’ll give it until the end of this week, just for my generosity.”

Then the video ended.

I was genuinely terrified at this moment, but Malachi seemed to be calmer than I was, but his expression looked as if he were in pain as if he had been punched in the stomach. Greg looked horrified as he looked at me, and then he turned to look at Captain Vance. “We need to get you guys out of here soon,” he said. “But we’ll be here to assist you at any time.”

“Vickie needs to help us now,” Nikki said as she stood up from the couch she was sitting on. Greg and Malachi stood up from their seats as well. “She needs to.”

“It’ll take three days to start prepping the mission though,” Captain Vance said. “For missions like these, we need to make sure that the higher-ups know about this.” Malachi sighed, and I could tell he was disappointed by this, but I understood where he was coming from as I was disappointed too. What if Rocke busts in here and kills us all?

Stress was already beginning to affect me, and I knew it was affecting everyone else as well judging by how pale we all were looking. “We can’t leave Vickie a day,” Nikki complained, but I knew we would just have to wait until the following day.

This is bad. This is very bad. I kept thinking about this over and over again. But it’ll be okay, we’ll all be alright...I hope. But there is so much going against us right now, especially when you add in Rocke’s threat. We need to hurry up and prepare for the mission though, if we don’t then we’ll just be stuck here for ages. But what about Vickie though?

I don’t want anyone to die. Why does it have to take so long just to approve a mission? Why can’t they just approve it right away? Maybe it’s because they know we’re in trouble or something like that? But that’d even be more of a reason to let us out of this base already.

In the YMPA, it usually takes one day or two to get approval for a mission unless it’s really urgent, which was for me and my friends. How come this is taking so long?

I’m beginning to wonder if it’s because Rocke is making us go through all this trouble. Maybe they need to be careful or something? I don’t know why they would need to be careful if we’re just trying to help them out, but they could be making excuses so they don’t have to lose their resources.

I don’t know, but it doesn’t really matter right now since we have to do whatever they want us to do since Rocke has threatened us so much. Only time will tell.