THE FARAWAY LANDS OF OZ - Book One

Part Three, Chapter Nineteen: The Government

They are coming. I knew the risk when I placed my research underneath their very home; the place where they would first search for answers and base of operation. Everything was at stake. Everything that I had worked on was in jeopardy. The specimen's magic should do perfectly fine to get us out of here. She was powerful and my key component.
Now, not even the Government's protection was of use to me. The project has to be moved. Back to LEGION where it was the safest. I don't even know why I ever thought of moving it in the first place. But yet again, Cattle Valley had always intrigued me, and Phoenix went even beyond those expectations. One little press on the screen and we would be gone. They are already at the door. One little thumbprint and the agent did her purpose. There is no place like home...

*

EVANORA

Following the plan proved harder now that all our minds were occupied with the mystery involving the disappearance of an entire lab facility. But we fought our way through it, nevertheless. Taking care of Hardy was our primary focus and when we got to him, we could always ask him about the lab. Our answers lay with him and that is where all of our paths led.
For one week exactly, we maintained the ruse of having captured Soleil, threatening to end her life if we were attacked. Every other day or so, we gave Glinda a commlink and made her speak to Hardy, feeding him our intelligence. She was quite the actress, pretending to have been tortured day and night.
After the week was out, Marcy and Josie sent Hardy a personal message while I remained in the room next-door. Hardy should not know that they had a new ally in me, freed from the cryo-pod. Thankfully, I was able to hear everything.
"Brave of you to call me, Bada Bing. I see that you have treated my colleague just like I had expected from the monsters you were."
"At least we don't do experiments on her."
"I don't know what you mean... You're playing with fire, little girl! You don't know what you're getting yourself into. Release Soleil and I will grant you a merciful death."
Marcy laughed, "Don't play dumb, Hardy. Although, you always were... You should know that we are coming for you, filth. It would be a shame to kill you without a fight. We'll keep Soleil with us but don't be fooled. You'll hear from us sooner than you might think."
A loud beep told me that she had hung up. I slowly opened the door, peeking out to see whether Hardy really was gone. Glinda was just standing up when I entered. They had pretended to have her under lock and key. She tossed the fake shackles aside and peeled the layer of fake blood off her face.
"So... We ready to roll?" I asked with raised eyebrows. But their eyes told me that something was up.
"What is it?" I looked into Marcy's concerned expression.
"He said that he doesn't know about the experiments." Oh man. How could this concern her?
"Come on, sweetheart. It's Hardy: he's lying!"
She shook her head and I looked towards the others. Josie and Lazarus didn't seem convinced either. Glinda didn't look like paying attention and was busy with removing the stains from her clothes and skin. "He didn't look like it though..."
I scoffed. They did not seem to understand Hardy's persona at all. He was a disgusting filth and an actor. I remember his pretended kindness when he had Noa. I will never forget and never forgive.
"No! He was concerned as well. You cannot hide panic that easily, auntie..."
I wish that I had seen anything. Now, I couldn't evaluate what she was saying and whether it was legitimate or not... I didn't trust that though. I imagined that there was little that would horrify Hardy. He was a psychopath.
"I see that you don't trust what I'm saying but you have to believe me! He had nothing to do with those experiments."
I scoffed once more. When I had an idea in my head, there was almost nothing that could convince me otherwise. "Anyway, we're gonna see sooner or later whether he was lying or not. When I hold his throat in my hand, he'll tell us the truth..."
The discussion was over. From here, all was easy. We had our plan of infiltrating the Government and all we had to do about it was execute it. Josie, Marcy and Lazarus would support the Soleil, Bada Bing and Ash District fighters and distract Hardy as long as they could, while Glinda and I sneak into the Government with her Voyager clearance codes and go save our family. I had never been as excited and anxious as I am now, ever since graduation. Back then, school was my only worry.