Chapter 253 - 253 The Setup

253 The Setup

A few minutes passed, or more so an hour passed. I was in my room, scrolling on my phone, because I had nothing else better to do.

It was lunch time, so I had to do something.

The orange light from the sun poured inside my room, emitting light throughout the entire place. It was cool, and it actually looked nice, aesthetically sort of.

I heard a knock on my door, which I wasn’t sure who, but I wasn’t exactly excited to see who.

I opened the door, and I saw Nikki right in front of me. “Hi, Connor,” she said, smiling a bit. “It’s been a bit of a while since we actually talked with one another.”

“What do you mean?”

She sighed, and she walked inside of the room. “Listen, these past few days we haven’t really been focusing on us as actual friends.”

“Friends?”

“Friends, somewhat,” she said. “I miss you.”

.....

“Well, some things have been happening a lot I guess,” I said. “Do you think now’s a good time to talk?”

“No, definitely not.”

That was very unexpected. You usually don’t start talking about making time, and then when someone offers you too, that wasn’t the point anyways.

“What are you here for then?”

“Dr. Mord is giving us the location. He just met with him, somehow after an hour and thirty. Come,” she said, leaping off the bed.

I muttered, confused about what to say, which in the end, I sighed and followed after her.

We went back into the briefing room, and the next thing you know, a giant screen which presented a live video of Dr. Mord met my eyes.

He was a bit too close to the camera, so hopefully I can keep my serious face on and not start snorting in laughter.

“Alright guys, sit down, because something major has just occurred,” Mr. Drails said, before turning his chair around to face the screen.

“So you said you got the location?” Mr. Drails asked.

“You’d be correct,” he said. “I got it.”

“So where did you set up the location?” I asked, very interested.

“It’s somewhere that I used to meet with the TSA. Not the place before I made the virus, but the usual place. It’s a park called Winston Trail and based on my location, it’s thirty minutes from here.”

“Where are you at?” Mr. Drails asked.

“I’m actually in this old cabin not close to there. I called up one of my buddies–who is not in the BMO, just as a little disclaimer–who was just leaving this cabin. He was on here for a trip, and I knew this because…never-mind…anyway, just head to this street: 2100 North 5th Avenue, apartment 721. I will be waiting there for a few hours, but make sure you bring plenty of supplies and backup. If it gets hairy, I won’t be able to help you,” he said.

“Did you contract the BMO to be here?” Mr. Drails asked.

“Yes, but they’ll be here, from very late. They aren’t too far, but they’ll be here pretty late,” he said. “Alright, I’ll be waiting.”

“We’ll be there,” Mr. Drails said. “Good luck.”

“Yeah,” September added.

“Good luck,” I repeated.

Mr. Drails then turned his chair around again, facing the screen. “Alright guys, I’m going to go over the plan. I don’t know how long this meeting is going to take, so we’re going to split up into two groups. One group is going to be the actual team, and the other is going to be the support team.”

“Alright,” I said. “Who?”

“Malachi, September and Tisiah will be the main team, whereas Connor and Nikki will provide support. Make sure that no one actually dies in this, probably except Luthor Bane with the dart gun…okay? Now, I know it’s hard to tell when the meeting is going to start, but we should be fine. We’re not going to need any backup at this point. This is a reconnaissance mission, so we’re only going to be observing. The meeting should be at the usual place, so I’m going to assume that it’s there, so let’s do this. Get your weapons ready, and we’ll be there at the first minute.”

***

We were close to the Winston Trail park, which was empty with no soul in sight. We were teleported, or at least transported in a portal to the location, and the first thing I saw was the emptiness of the road. It was as if a pandemic happened, which it will soon be if we don’t stop Matthew Lock.

“Goodness sakes, this place is deserted. No wonder he chose this place,” Malachi said, sniffing carefully. “I hope this isn’t some radioactive area.”

“Why would it be?” Nikki asked.

“I don’t know. It could have been a nuclear war zone, I suppose.”

“It’s just a park,” I said. “And it’s best that’s silent. Come on, let’s take our places. We don’t want to mess this up.”

We took our positions. I was the one to look into the distance, where I could see the field of trees. I was in the back of the group, with Nikki behind me. I felt like a sniper, but I wasn’t. I was the one who would have to provide support for the others if anything went wrong.

As we cleared through the trees, I saw a gathering of BMO vehicles, and Dr. Mord there. There was a guy behind a few meat shields of BMO spies, with this vest with black-strapped boxes attached to it. The fake bomb. We were not super close, in fact, we were on a hill behind the border of the park.

“I think we’re good,” Nikki said. She was in the middle of our group, just beside me.

“We’ll see soon enough,” I said. I got the radio, and dialed the right number, before connecting to his channel. I spoke through it, hoping I wasn’t too loud. “We’re here, when will the TSA arrive?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Depends,” he muttered. “I told you that they’d be here, and they are, but not immediately. I can’t say how long they’re going to be.”

“Alright,” I said. “We’ll wait.”

I knew what I was doing. I wasn’t the one who would be going inside. I was just the one providing support and watching the whole situation.

“Hey, Connor,” Nikki said, making me snap back. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was.

“Oh, sorry. What did you say?”

“Nothing, I just wanted to talk to you for a bit. I haven’t talked to you in a while, and I feel like we should.”

“So now’s the best time?” I asked. She shrugged. “We aren’t rushing exactly, just saying.”

“Well, you never know. It’s been a while since I’ve talked to anyone, and I wanted to get away from this whole situation.”

“Okay, yeah. You’re right. Let’s just chill out, though. We can do that.”

“I can’t believe I’m actually hanging out with you,” she said, smiling.

“Well, I can’t believe it either,” I replied. “I’m usually the loner, and you’re the social butterfly.”

“Yeah, well, maybe that was before.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I don’t know. I guess that I’m changing. I don’t want to be alone anymore. I don’t want to just sit and do nothing, because that’s how I was before, but I’m not that person anymore.”

“Or maybe you don’t have the choice to be alone. Maybe, all this has made you more…confident,” she said. I leaned back my neck, and turned to look at her. “Confident? Were you just calling me a wimp just now?” I asked, which I was a bit offended by her.

“I didn’t mean it like that. I was just thinking that maybe you just became confident in yourself, and that’s why you’re acting this way.”

“I’m not sure about that,” I said. “I don’t think that’s the reason. I just felt like I had to act differently, and it’s just something I did.”

“And look at how it worked out. I think dealing with Demetrius Rocke changed you completely. Just how much he tried to kill you messed you up completely,” Nikki said. “Or upgrade you completely in this case. So you can’t deny that something has changed you.”

“Yeah, I guess so. But I’m still the same person,” I said.

“Well, I think it’s good that you are.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’m glad you’re different than you were before. You can be whatever you want to be. I think you’ll be great at whatever you choose to be.” I shot a smile at her. Just seeing her smile made my heart flutter in adoration. “I guess,” I said.

But then the radio decided to disturb the moment, as Dr. Mord announced, “The TSA is here. Luthor Bane has just arrived.”

“Wait what?” I asked, quickly getting my binoculars. I rested them on my eyes, zooming in closer to see another gathering of vehicles, except it was on the opposite side of them. They were facing each other. TSA spies poured out of the vehicle.

“So, we have two groups,” Nikki said.

“That’s not even the main group,” I said.

“No, but it’s still a lot.”

“That’s a good sign,” Malachi said. “Anyone got sight of this?”

“Yeah,” I responded. “There are two groups of spies, and they’re facing each other. There are four people in the first group, and they’re looking around, but I don’t know if they’re scoping us out or what.”

The BMO vehicles were almost staring at the TSA vehicles, just like the spies that were exiting their vehicles.

“They’re definitely scoping us out,” Nikki said.

“Maybe we should just start moving,” I said. “If they find us, then we’re screwed.”

“Stay still, it’s going to be fine,” Malachi said. Then, the man of the hour exited his vehicle, and Dr. Mord approached him. “Hello, Luthor Bane. You clearly know that we’ve met before, correct? Well, I’m glad to see that you’ve brought some friends with you.”

“I guess so,” he replied.

“Well, we’re going to start the meeting, so make sure that your team is ready.”