Whisper

Chapter 16

Taking shelter in a nearby alley behind a dumpster, Mateo went through his shopping bag, pulling the tags off and handing her her new clothes, turning around as she quickly took off his clothes and threw on her new ones. 

He managed to grab her a sports bra, underwear, sweater, joggers, and socks, since all of those were labeled a size S. He was going to grab her sneakers at another store and was looking up places that sell women's shoes before Clarise had run into him. 

He was keeping a lookout, seeing only passerby's, until Clarise tapped him on the shoulder. She was finally dressed in well-fitting clothes, and you'd think she is a normal, run-of-the-mill, city girl. Even her lack of shoes really sold the look. 

"Perfect," Mateo pulled out his phone, wincing at the low battery before calling Harrison. 

"Mateo? What's up? Did something happen with the Project?" Harrison knew Mateo wouldn't call him for no reason. 

"Some men tried to take her, I don't know who though," Mateo and Clarise began to walk down the street, he glanced at her as she just looked around the busy streets with curious eyes, "We lost them in the neighborhood around my place, but I don't have any weapons on me." 

"What?!" Harrison once again nearly deafened Mateo, "Does the Project know who they were?" 

Mateo looked to Clarise who could hear everything Harrison was saying. 

ARC.

"She says they are ARC." 

"ARC? Never heard of them, I'll ask around with the higher ups. Head towards the Keaton building, I'll tell them you're arriving earlier than expected." 

"Understood." 

With that Mateo and Clarise began walking towards downtown. Mateo letting out a tired sigh as Clarise just took in the scenery. The sun was setting, dying the sky a pinkish-red color. The windows of surrounding buildings reflecting the same lovely shade. 

For the girl who could know anything about everything, actually seeing the world in person could never replace simply just knowing. 

"Do you think going to the Keaton building is a good plan?" Mateo was already tired from today, anymore incidents and he just might collapse. 

We won't make it to the Keaton building. 

"Great," he groaned, "Then what should we do?" 

We need to go to the Westminster building. That is the temporary headquarters of the ARC. There we will both be captured. 

"Huh?!" Mateo was so thrown off by her response. They just evaded the ARC now she wants to go straight to them. 

Capture by them is inevitable, nothing you do will prevent that. 

Clarise didn't even know what she was saying, she too was confused by her words. But Mateo reluctantly nodded, pulling out his phone to get directions to the Westminster building. 

The pair was finally located via surveillance cameras by the ARC, several operatives were scrambling to get another team together, this time lead by Captain Conrad Heath Carson. Peter had reported back unsuccessful so they scrambled to find out where the Project could have gone. 

A person with gifts posed a threat to society. 

"They are on 23rd street, heading to what appears to be downtown," a surveillance worker was typing away at something, "There is a building 12 blocks away from here under the name of Albert L. Glenway." 

Albert Glenway, the alleged CEO of the corporation that has been secretly gather Projects and conducting tests on them. That's all ARC knew about him anyways. 

"Is that where they're headed?" Conrad never looked away from the monitor displaying the two, taking mental notes on both. The three they took out were some of ARC's best, but 1 man took all three out like they were rookies, and based off the background information they pulled up on Mateo Alaverez, he shouldn't have been able to pull off what he did. 

It was 3 against 1, and the odds were stacked against him. 

But he seemed to know of Evan's old knee injury, was able to dodge Ben's shot, and knocked out Peter within seconds. 

It was the woman. 

No known information on her. Not her name, age, nor origin. The teams were unable to find much information at the burned down facility, especially not about this woman. 

"We're not sure yet, but you and your team should be able to intercept them here." 

Conrad looked at the map, memorizing the layout of the land. He was basically burning holes into the monitor with his glare. 

"Remember, we need her alive, preferably both of them alive." Conrad's superior's voice cut through Conrad's thoughts. 

"Fine, let's move out!" Conrad signaled to his team, a small team of 6, all dressed fairly casually. Each armed with a mixture of lethal and non-lethal weapons. "The main priority is the woman." 

Chills ran down Clarise's spine. She was unsure whether or not it was because of how lightly she was dressed compared to the weather or just a gut feeling of dread. 

Is this really the best plan? Turning ourselves in? 

ARC has just sent a team to retrieve us, we won't make it to the building before Conrad Carson shoots Mateo. 

"Wait what?" Mateo was just watching her talk to herself, seeing how he too was having second guesses. 

Mateo gets shot? 

Yes. 

Will he die? 

No. 

Can I prevent that? 

Yes. 

How? 

During the encounter with Carson's team, I need to take Carson's gun from his holster from his left side. You can proceed to fire at his team, two will be directly behind you, and the other 3 will be stationed around the alleyways. They will not enter the fray until Mateo and I flee the scene. 

This was a lot of information for both of them to take in, but now Mateo is aware of what's to come. 

"When and where are we going to run into them?" He mentally prepped himself, preparing for the worst. 

In 9 minutes, in the parking lot of the Rutledge Hall buildings.