The Center: Face of the Enemy - Part Nine (Conclusion) by: Enemyoffun One month has passed since escaping the Syndicate and Becca is now in The Center. But everything is far from good. Even though she's escaped the Syndicate, she's not sure if she can trust the Center.

-----

Author's Note: Here's chapter nine, the last one of this story. I apologize because its so short and it jumps around a bit. But I think I told what I needed to tell. It opens things quite nicely for stories to come.

-----

Chapter Nine:

There was a knock on my door. I groaned, throwing the covers off. I crept out of bed, trying not to wake Stella who was sleeping soundly. At least I think she was sleeping. Though her bed appeared empty, I could hear her breathing. When I got back early this morning, she was waiting for me which was a fantastic feat because she stayed up all night to do. As soon as I walked through the door, she jumped and gave me the biggest hug of my life. She told me she had to make sure I got back safe. When I told her I was fine she practically fell asleep in my arms.

As I looked over in her direction, listening to her sleeping, I wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed with her and snuggle. I had a meeting with Dr. Tipps in the morning; apparently there were some things that she needed to discuss with me. When I asked why only me, she said she thought I could handle it better on my own first. That didn’t sound ominous or anything.

The person knocked again. When I opened the door, I was assaulted by another hug, this time from the Mattie variety.

She nearly knocked me over, which got us both laughing.

“You had me so fricking worried” she said as we walked into my room.

“It was supposed to be a super top secret mission?” I said, giving her the evil eye.

She shrugged. “Can I help it if I hear things that others can’t?”

She walked around the room, giving it the once over. She made a lot of fussing sounds. The decorator had yet to be there, so it was still very white and hospital room like. I sat on the edge of my bed and she was about to sit on Stella’s but I quickly grabbed her arm and stopped her. She gave me the strangest look, until I explained:

“You know how some people sleep in the nude, well Stella likes to sleep in the invisible.”

Mattie looked at the bed then cocked her head. “That’s where the breathing is coming from; I thought you had one of those soothing sound CDs playing.”

“I’ve already sat on her once; it was a bit of an eye opener for both of us.”

Mattie nodded. “How in the hell is she doing it. I thought she bent light around her?”

I was confused for a second before I realized the light was off. I sometimes forgot that I could see in the dark. It also didn’t occur to me that Mattie was wearing the special glasses they issued her so I would be more comfortable.

“I think she absorbs the light too. I’m not really sure how it works but it’s definitely cool.”

Mattie nodded. I was glad she was one of those cool best friends and not the jealous type. After all Stella and I were roomies and we were going to be spending a lot of time together. If I hadn’t been in “solitary confinement”---as we like to call it---she and I would have been roomies. But I’m glad it worked out this way. Stella and Clara were a lot alike and I think they both needed people like me and Mattie. There was something else too, something about Stella. I had this overwhelming urge to protect her, like a knight in shining armor. It was one of the things that I wanted to talk to Dr. Tipps about.

“You want to tell me about the mission?” asked Mattie as she sat opposite me on my own bed.

I sighed and told her everything. She was a real good listener---pretty funny, right? When I got to the part about Declan, she squeezed my hand. He hadn’t hurt just me; he’d done a number on all of us. Mattie was just as pissed at him as Barry and probably even Beatrice. When I mentioned Melanie, the color drained from Mattie’s face. She let go of my hand and got off the bed. She looked a little shaken and I knew the two of them had a history.

“You’ve met her haven’t you?”

She nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I thought they locked her away somewhere?”

“They did. They took her to Section One and put her in a medically induced coma. How did you two meet?”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

I nodded. I gave her a big hug and told her everything was going to be all right. I asked if she wanted me to continue and when she nodded, I did. I told her about the illusions and about being able to fight off mine. She called me lucky and cried a little more. I let her cry; it was good for people to cry. When she was finished, I helped her up.

“What about the rest?” she asked, sniffling.

“I’ll tell you later, I’m kind of tired. I only got about five hours of sleep.”

I walked her to the door and walked over to the bed, sighing. I’m not even sure what happened after we left the building. We got about as far as the fence, carrying our wounded, when they came out of nowhere. At first we thought they were with the Syndicate. They were dressed in black and wielding MP4s. Kit and I jumped at the ready, pointing our guns at them. But one of them barked for us to stand down. He didn’t identify himself but he said they were our back up. I knew about the Backup but they were only on reserve, supposed to come when I called them in. They were also supposed to several miles from here, waiting by a helicopter, not jumping out the shadows at us. Their leader, Major Baker, told us they were here to evac the wounded and to help us with Melanie.

I had been a little pissed but there was nothing I could do. He had been right in a way and he outranked me. So I reluctantly had Kit hand Melanie over. I made Samson go with them but Kit refused to leave my side. I could have ordered her to do go but I’m not that kind of person. So after Bake took Melanie and Samson, we made it to the vans. HE told us he’d take good care of her.

There was another knock on the door. I sighed. Now what the hell was it? I got up from the bed again and approached the door. But I didn’t need to go any further because whoever was there was gone now. But they left something behind: it was another folder slip of paper. You’ve got to be kidding me. I walked over to it and picked it up. I took a deep breath and unfolded: HE’S A LIAR. What the else is this? First someone is a Cheat and now they’re a liar.

I angrily crumbled up the note and tossed it into the trash bin where the first one still sat.

I flopped back onto my bed and closed my eyes but sleep I did not find.

___________________________________________________

“What the hell does that mean exactly?”

What the hell was bonded?

Dr. Tipps sighed. She was a very relaxed woman. She had brown hair and the most striking blue eyes. She couldn’t have been much older than Trish but she dressed kind of relaxed too. I guess I noticed it when I met with her briefly before but I wasn’t really paying attention given the circumstances of our earlier meeting. She was giving me a psyche evaluation and it wasn’t going very good for either of us. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this but I’m not a fan of shrinks. Hell, I beat the hell out of my last one---but Dr. V deserved that.

Dr. T was the complete opposite.

“I don’t know how I can make it any clearer” she said in that sweet tone she liked to use. She sighed. “Something happened during Stella’s change. It happens from time to time. She bonded with you. The same thing happened with Kris and Liz, now they’re like mother and daughter.”

I was wondering about that?

“So is Stella like my daughter now?”

Please say no. There’s no way I can be attracted to someone who thought I was some kind of mother figure.

She laughed. “I don’t think it’s like that with the two of you.”

I sighed heavily. “Then what’s wrong with us?”

She asked me to explain how I felt around Stella, so I did so in as many details as possible. I told her about the attraction I felt toward her and the way she made my body feel. I reiterated a couple of times that I had a boyfriend and had no desire to cheat on him. She smiled and nodded. Then she told me how it was.

“With you two” she explained. “It's like a sisterly bond. She came to talk to me yesterday morning while you went off on your mission. She was having the same trouble and wanted to know what to do. She thought about getting another room but I talked to her about it. She was scared because she wanted to be your friend but she was having these strange feelings. I had her describe them and it turns out it was sisterly love. She sees you as her big sis. It’s one of the reasons why I suggested putting you two in a room together in the first place. I realized what happened after Kris reported how Stella wouldn’t leave your side after they took you out of the woods.”

I nodded. It made sense but the attraction thing still threw me off. “Why am I attracted to her then?”

She smiled slyly. “It’s the pheromones. We’re working on a counter agent to them right now but it’s going to be some time before its ready” She laughed. “Unfortunately for you, it might not be so easy. It’s your nose that’s the problem. That Super Sniffer of yours seems to be more affected by outside smells.”

Was that all it was?

Dr. T decided to change the subject. She still had me for another hour so she decided she wanted to talk about my mission. I wasn’t really in the mood but I humored her because I had nowhere else to be. Kris told me this morning after we got back that me and my team were on leave for a few days. This meant, according to her, we were supposed to relax and recharge. My debriefing with her and Mrs. Fine was scheduled at 1200 hours today.

All Dr. T wanted to talk about were my feelings. She was convinced that the mission had affected me personally and that I was burying my feelings deep down inside. I was definitely burying my feelings but I wasn’t going to share them with her. Through the years, after my shrink sessions, I got pretty good at telling them what they wanted to hear. So I made up some crap and it seemed to work. Dr. T scribbled some stuff on her notepad.

“Is there anything about the mission that you’d like to discuss?”

I sighed and grit my teeth. “They still don’t trust me.”

“How so?”

“They put a team in reserve and had them there the whole time. I knew they were there but it still annoys me. They were supposed to wait to be called, not charge in there after the fact. We didn’t need them. Then they took Melanie. Major Baker said it was to help us but it still kind of pissed me off.”

She sighed and nodded. “Sometimes those kinds of calls come from higher up. I’m not saying this is the case but perhaps you can voice your concerns during your debriefing later today.”

‘What about Melanie? Is she ok?”

Dr. T nodded. “She’s resting right now. She’s a very special girl. She’s a very troubled one as well. It’s going to take some time but we’re very confident that we can rehabilitate her and allow her to enter the population soon.”

I knew the company line there: she was being kept isolated just like me until they could figure out if she was trustworthy or not. It pissed me off but I promised to play nice with these people so I guess I was going to have to accept it for now.

We talked about the mission for the rest of my hour. She was interested in a lot of things but when it got to my fear, I almost broke down. I kept my cool but nearly lost it for a second. Apparently Cori told her all about Dave. I couldn’t blame her and I wasn’t surprised either. He’d hurt her too. I just didn’t think Dr. T would bring it up. I finally conquered my fear and beat his ass for once. It made me feel good and I told her that. She smiled. She told me that conquering one’s greatest fear was a very powerful thing and that I should feel extremely proud.

I left after the hour was up but she made me make another appointment with her next week.

I looked at my watch as I left Dr. T’s office. I still had an hour and a half to kill so I went to the cafeteria. There was an early lunch crowd there. But there were enough empty tables to sit by myself. With such a small group of kids, the room wasn’t divided like before. There were three boys and eight girls in the room. The girls seemed to be sitting together but the boys each had a table of their own. I looked at each of them in turn and groaned when the third boy and I locked eyes. It was that creepy black eyed kid.

He smiled and stood up, bringing his tray with him. Please don’t come over here. But that’s exactly what he did. He waltzed across the room like he owned the place and plopped down in the sit across from me. I looked at his tray, the only thing on it was a plate of green jell-o---how messed up was that?

“Hi” he said, his voice was cool and comforting. “I’m Dixon. I don’t think we’ve officially met, you’re Becca right?”

He stuck his hand out and I limply shook it.

“You’re the poison guy right?” I asked and he nodded. “I just used some of your darts in my mission. They worked like a charm.”

His face lit up. It was strange because for the first time I noticed his skin had a slight green tint to it. It was barely there but it was definitely apparent. How had I missed that?

“Barry told me you guys were going to take them but I never thought you’d get around to using them. Did they kill your opponents?”

God, morbid much. Here I thought I was dark but this guy was the poster child for it. He had three times more ear piercings than I did and there was a little stud in his nose. He had spiked bracelets on his wrists and his nails were painted black. I’m sure he would have been dressed head to toe in black if not for the uniform. Not that he didn’t alter it a bit. I could clearly see his black undershirt peeking out of his collar and he was wearing black and white striped socks that his pant legs couldn’t quite hide.

“I killed a few with them. It’s a pretty potent thing that comes out of you. It dropped my targets in about two minutes. It was very impressive.”

That made him smile real big. He looked like a kid in a candy store.

We spent the rest of my time talking about his poison. He seemed to think it had a lot of real world application. But all I could think about is how quickly it killed. Never once did I mention that we called them Pee Darts but I think he knew that. It was strange that this guy had been staring at me for so long and now he decided to open up to me. He reminded a lot of Mattie and Clara. Both of them were a bit shy at first but once they opened up they were good people.

When it got close to noon, I stood up and apologized. I told him about my meeting and he smiled, nodding his understanding. I told him he was more than welcome to sit with us at lunch any time he wanted but he declined. He didn’t say why but I saw as soon as he got up. He walked by a group that was entering the room and they stepped away, giving him a wide berth. People were afraid of him. Kids can be cruel.

As I was walking toward the door, I accidentally bumped into a blonde and she reiterated my early thought.

“Watch where you’re going?” she snapped and flipped her hair, flashing a pair of red eyes at me.

I scoffed and walked out of the cafeteria.

__________________________________________

When I walked into the conference room, Kris and Mrs. Fine were already there. Once again the Colonel was absent but apparently he was a busy man. They were working on setting up both Beta and Gamma site. The Colonel was personally overseeing Gamma site and was leaving Kris pretty much in charge. Which was fine by me?

I smiled as I walked into the room and took a seat.

I wanted to start the ball rolling but Kris beat me to it.

“First things first, I have to apologize” she said, tapping the folder in front of her. “We sent Major Baker and his team in when we lost visual contact with you and your team. We feared you were overwhelmed. The Major has also asked me to apologize as well, he said they were unable to radio you because someone was jamming them.

“Jamming them?”

The only person I could think of was Declan. He had easily slipped onto our emergency band so it was possible he was jamming our reserve team. But it still didn’t make sense as to why. Nothing about him being there made sense for that matter.

They moved onto the debriefing after that. Kris took a remote out of her pocket and clicked it. On the screen behind her, the video footage that Kit recorded started to play. They swiveled in their chairs and together we watched the whole thing. It was pretty intense stuff. It was a little wobbly because it was being shot by a hand camera but Kit did a real good job covering things. About an hour into it though, the video cut away and went to static. I tried to think of when that happened and then remembered Kit taking off her vest and throwing it down the hall. The video didn’t catch Kit being a hero or my Dave vision or any of the stuff that happened in the Server Room.

Kris clicked the remote and the screens went blank. “You can see why we were so worried.”

I nodded. I guess I could see where that would make them cautious.

“Would you mind filling us in?” asked Mrs. Fine.

I sighed and spent the better part of an hour detailing everything from the beginning. I wanted them both to get a full picture. I told them everything, not leaving a single thing out. I even managed to squeeze in Samson’s nicknames and Kit’s dry humor. Only Kris smiled at those. Mrs. Fine was like a robot or something. I finished my debrief with what happened in the Server Room and how we all kind of contributed to Melanie’s capture.

They had several questions. The first few were about Dr. Phillips and my inability to protect him. I knew that was coming and I defended my actions. I told them about not hearing the bullet until it was already too late, I think he used some kind of supersonic ammo, Mrs. Fine nodded her head. I told them I did my best to make sure my other two teammates were out of the range of fire. Kris smiled at this but Mrs. Fine only nodded again. After the Phillips stuff, they wanted to know about Stetson and my reasoning for letting him live---I left out the part where Cori mercy killed him. I reasoned that he was a dead man anyway. Mrs. Fine frowned but Kris had no emotion. The last group of questions were about Melanie. I told them that my team acted with grace under pressure and if we had to do it over that I wouldn’t do anything differently.

“I would have done the same in your shoes” said Kris. “You showed great leadership, you were calm and kept your cool in a very dangerous situation. You made the right decisions, followed your gut instincts and got your team out of there with only minor injuries. I’d say under the circumstances that it was mission accomplished.”

I shook my head. “With all due respect, ma’am, I disagree.”

Kris smiled. “You don’t think you did all you could do?”

“We failed our mission. We didn’t get into the servers and any information we gathered can’t be confirmed because our main source died before he could be properly questioned.”

“Specialist Rodriguez recorded the entire conversation. We’ve had a team analyze it a few times now” said Mrs. Fine “they’re very adamant that Dr. Phillips confession was the truth. You did a good job, Miss Howe.”

I smiled but I still didn’t agree with her.

Mrs. Fine looked at Kris and Kris nodded.

“I think we’ve seen what we need to see,” she stood up and walked around the table, holding a folder as she walked over to me. “I believe an official congratulations are in order.”

She stuck out her hand but I didn’t take it.

“I don’t understand?”

She smiled. “Your temporary rank of course. From this moment forward you are officially assigned the rank of Staff Sergeant in the US Army. It’s as official as you think. You’ll have to wear the uniform on occasion and salute your superiors when necessary. You’ll get the proper credentials and identification.”

This time I beamed and shook her hand. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. They actually trusted me enough to make me an NCO. This was absolutely nuts.

Kris handed me the folder. “I’ve got some official business to attend to but I’d like to have dinner with you later to discuss some things. How does 1900 hours sound to you?”

I nodded. She smiled and left the room.

Mrs. Fine asked me to sit back down. So I did as I was told. She sat and stared at me for the longest time. I was a little surprised that I hadn’t been dismissed yet. I was getting kind of nervous wondering what I did wrong. Then she slid a folder across the table, it ended up at my fingertips but I didn’t touch it.

“I’ve been watching you, Howe,” she said in flat tone of voice.

“Watching me?”

She nodded. “I’ve been putting together a little project for quite some time and have been looking for the right person to lead it. I think that person is you.”

I nodded, not sure what to say to that.

“Let me tell you all about the Stealth Infiltration and Reconnaissance Squad.”

Photo Credit: MeetMeByTheLake2Nite