[HIATUS] The Tide Rises

Chapter 7

It was a seemingly perfect night. It was a cloudless sunset in a beautiful canvas over the distant mountains, yet The Fortilla was anything but peaceful as a handful of agents searched in a frenzy for their youngest kin. Before the flood, Skye was known to disappear every once and a while in search of new adventures, but this time, it was as if she had gone off the radar completely. She never left without uttering so much as a word, and any attempts to reach her now only resulted in static from her end of the earpiece.

"Skye? Come in, Agent Skye," Ocean tried over comms again. Still no result. The same static had been buzzing ever since they began questioning her whereabouts. "Nothing, still nothing for hours. If she's playing some sort of game with us, she's got a killer hiding spot."

"I shouldn't have left her by herself when we got back," Maya lamented, sitting down on the dock with a sigh. "This is all my fault."

Tina sat next to her. "Hey, we'll find her," she reassured, but even she was seeing past her own brave facade. She dropped it almost immediately, running a hand through her hair with a huff. "How the hell does she just sneak off without anyone seeing? She's always around us, for damn sake!"

"We'll have to branch out, guys," Maya said. "We checked this entire place at least three times. I don't think she's even here."

Ocean frowned. "If she really left, then where'd she go? You guys know her better than me."

Maya's brow furrowed as she thought. "Well... if I had to guess, there's The Shark... well, what's left of it. Or maybe somewhere in the mountains?"

Ocean nodded and pressed a finger to her earpiece. "Ocean to General Comms. Hey, we might have to get a search party going. Can we get a group out to the mountains, first-"

"That won't be necessary," Brutus interrupted, poking his head around the corner from inside. Ocean sighed and spoke into her earpiece again to cancel the order.

"What's the big idea?" Tina demanded. "Skye's gone, and you're not-"

"Tek's been at work tracking her earpiece location," he interrupted. "We finally have some results."

He didn't say anything further, and an unreadable expression crossed his face as the agents looked at him expectantly, instantly alarmed.

"Well? Where is she?" Maya finally asked for the group.

Brutus scowled, lowering his sunglasses. "Her last known location was our recently seized GHOST Academy, before losing connection. Whoever has her managed to disable the GPS in her earpiece, and now there's no sign of her."

A dreadful silence froze the air almost immediately, not even the sound of a breath as the agents collectively assumed the worst. Tek emerged from the building then. "Hey, boss? Bosses?"

His eyes were wide, even fearfully so as he gestured for the group to follow. "So we found her at a SHADOW base, right...?" He began as they made their way to the control room. "That's not all—we received a transmission from SHADOW just minutes ago. You guys... aren't going to like what you see."

Tek typed at a computer until a holographic screen popped up for everyone to see, and any extra chatter died as soon as an image was projected. It was none other than Jules, pointing Midas' drum gun at Skye in front of a series of empty prison cells.

"I damn knew it!" Tina snarled, throwing her hands in the air. "I fucking knew she was lying and now look where we are!"

Ocean set a hand on her shoulder, which Tina shrugged off immediately. "Hey, we can't assume anything yet, can we? Let it play out first-"

"She's about to fucking shoot her!"

Brutus shot a warning glare her way to silence her, before turning back to the transmission on screen. "Play it."