The Breach

3. The Unknown

Opening her eyes was suddenly harder than it has ever been before, but Anna tried nonetheless. She felt exhausted, her mouth incredibly dry and muscles pulling hard, pain concentrating somewhere around her shoulder. And her calf. Fuck, why did it hurt so much?

It all started coming back to her slowly, like random scenes from an old black-and-white movie. The conversation she had with Theo, how she agreed to get on with his plan and escape Blaze's pursuit. Why did it have to be Blaze of all people? She didn't want to get him involved with this. She just wanted to know things. Apparently in this world it's not something that can ever be so easy.

She remembered ducking behind a car and listening to Theo explain his plan. If they separate us now, he said, who knows if we'll ever get a chance to talk again. You need to come with me, he said. If you want to know the truth, you can't go back with him. They'll question you, they'll revoke your system privileges and who knows what else for meeting with a rogue agent. You can try and lie that I abducted you or took you hostage, but they'll never believe you. Come with me and give me a chance to prove that I'm right.

And then there was confusion. Shooting. Searing pain in her leg, searing pain in her shoulder. Did she get shot? What the fuck happened after she used Parnell's Firefly to blind Blaze? Was he the one who shot her?

A dull headache finally made her open her eyes and the first thing she noticed was that she had absolutely no idea where she was. It was so hard to move her head around; almost as if it suddenly weighed a ton, her body not able to support it at all. Judging by the crates around her, she was in some kind of warehouse. She tried to move her legs, her hands, anything.

That was when she realized her left hand was handcuffed to the bed. And that Theo was sitting in a chair right next to her, peeling an orange. Noticing that she opened her eyes he immediately stood up and approached her.

„Hey, you're safe now," he said, hovering over her, his voice strangely soothing, the smell of freshly peeled orange suddenly overwhelming. „Dragov helped us, just as I hoped he would. This colleague of yours really got you good, you know. Two centimeters to the left and he would have gotten your heart."

She wanted to react to that, to say something, but she couldn't move her tongue. Parnell left her line of sight for a second and came back with a water bottle fitted with a straw. He helped her sit up a little and despite the pain Anna drank greedily, cool water suddenly the most soothing beverage she ever tasted.

„Thank you," she said as soon as her mouth felt a little more normal again. „How... are you?"

„Oh, I'm fine. My nose was hit hard but luckily not broken. And I got shot in the arm but the bullet went through. I've been through worse. You, on the other hand, well... you slept for two days."

Two days. Fuck. She immediately wanted to reach for her watch and check it for herself, but wasn't surprised to realize that it was nowhere to be found. They must have removed it when they were putting the handcuffs on.

„Why am I handcuffed to the bed?"

Theo shot a quick glance towards her left hand.

„I'm sorry. Dragov's precautions. He doesn't trust the Division and thought it would be safer to, you know... incapacitate you. Just in case."

„How did he know I was with the Division? I specifically made sure... to not be on the network."

„Your shoes. He's way smarter than he looks and he's the king of black market. He knows who orders what and in what quantities. He took one look at you and I couldn't have convinced him otherwise even if I tried. But I should be able to persuade him to take it off. Sorry."