Night of the Alphas

Chapter 26

If I hadn't already been sitting, I probably would have fallen over. Lightheadedness began to overtake me. What?! No. I can't do this. Not after everything.

"Are you kidding me?!" Zaria yelled, standing up. "We're not doing this. My sister was there, and she still gets nightmares."

"Well, I'm afraid you don't have a choice, Miss Chapelle. This is an order," Major Evans shot back.

"That makes no sense," Alex said. "You just said that you were offering it to us, not ordering us to."

"Fine, then let me rephrase it. I have a task that I need you guys to do. Better?"

Abel sized him up. "Why us? You could choose anyone else. There's thousands of other people that can do your dirty work."

"Yeah!" Joshua shouted. "Plus, what about the others? Why can't Willow and the other adults come?"

"Well, for starters, Willow has an infant to take care of, and she isn't trained to fight. But as for the adults..." He shook his head. "I have no idea. But I have a feeling about you guys. There's just something there, some motivation that I haven't ever seen in anyone else."

Summer rolled her eyes. "And you choose now to tell us? After our friend was freakin' murdered?"

Somehow, Major Evans was able to keep his cool despite Summer's snarky remark. "There's another thing I wanted you to know, though. It may just motivate you guys to do this."

"And what's that?" I asked. I was trying to keep my cool, but inside, I was panicking. My mind was swirling with grief, anger, and fear, so I wasn't very enthusiastic about having another weight to carry.

He took a deep breath. "We ran a DNA test on Nurse Fernard shortly after her death and found her murderer."

Everyone seemed to perk up at that statement. He had our attention.

"Her murderer was a man named Akiran Machado." Major Evans paused and waited for our reaction.

"Machado..." Alex whispered. "You mean the leader of the Alpha Freedom Movement?"

The Major nodded. He pulled a photograph out from under all the things on his desk and handed it to me. My friends crowded around me, trying to get a glimpse of the picture. It was a picture of Akiran shaking hands with the president, Marilyn Denzer. He was a ruggedly handsome man, with graying black hair and a light stubble on his face. His mark was that of a skull, and he was absolutely enormous- nearly seven feet tall and probably 270 pounds in muscle. I gulped and glared at the photo in disdain. It wasn't a fair fight, I thought bitterly. She could never have overpowered him.

"Your mission," He began, "Is to go into AFM. Gather as much information as you can. Work your way up the ranks, no matter how much lying and deceiving you have to do. And then, once you get high enough in the ranks to interact with Machado, kill him."

Abel grabbed the photo and shoved it in his pocket. "Got it. You have our word."

"Wait!" I said. "I have one condition."

Major Evans looked down at me. "And what would that be, Fernard?"

My face twisted into a snarl as I remembered Akiran's appearance. "I kill Akiran Machado."

Summer's eyes widened. "Zane, you can't-"

"I kill him," I snarled. "If I die in the process, I'll teach him a lesson that he'll never forget. But, by God, if he dies, it'll be by my hands."