Accidents Made Right 1: Pistanthrophobia

Chapter 34: A Position Of Power

17 years before The Split

As the chopper flew over the forest trees, quickly getting closer and closer to the government base we called home, I looked over at Isabelle, who was standing across the chapter from me, not even letting Rose stand next to her. She was clearly dealing with some internal conflict, but with what I didn't know.

What's up with her? Hope asked curiously.

I dunno. Though, knowing her past, I'd assume it's something to do with me disobeying orders, I responded.

...

Was it hard?

Sort of. I'm not exactly used to disobeying orders, but I'm also used to improvising when I already have a set objective.

Eventually, Rose walked up to Isabelle and hugged her, trying to lift her friend's spirit. Not surprisingly, it did seem to lift her mood a bit. After all, hugs are the best.

I looked out of the side of the helicopter again, and saw a town in the middle of the forest, with three different circles of buildings, each having different types of buildings. In the middle circle was the town hall, hospital, and police station. In the second circle of buildings were apartments, houses, and slightly essential buildings like a garbage building and mail office. In the final circle contained the other necessary buildings for the town like a grocery store and fire department.

In truth, the town was merely a disguise so random people would see the town as normal, when in actuality it was in fact the a government base. The United States government was very adamant on hiding all of it's most important facilities, either through camouflage and cloaking tech or through disguises like this.

I have to hand it to them. Despite how dumb the government can be with logic, their disguising techniques are impeccable, I thought.

The helicopter approached the police department's helipad, and slowly landed on it. My unit hopped off the copter with me, and then I turned around to see the helicopter change colors, making it look like a police helicopter. I turned around again and walked with my unit into the "police department".

10 minutes later, in Cooper's office

I now stood in Cooper's office, watching as he tried to keep from letting his temper show. Eventually, he spoke, saying in an annoyed tone "You had one job. Get the information, and get out without being seen. But instead of doing that, you decide to blow up the plant, and now the Egyptian government is saying they're getting reports of their citizens thinking civil war is starting!"

In response, I said "Sir, with all due respect to the mission, we had no choice. Robert was building a-"

"I don't care what he was building there! You were supposed to be unseen!"

"If I allowed that plant to stand, he would've had an army powerful enough to take over all the governments in the world."

"I don't care what he could've had, we would win against him. If it ever got too much of a problem, we could just nuke it."

"All you people think about is money and nukes," I accused. Continuing, I explained "And besides, even if we did try and keep it silent, we couldn't have. Alexander, Robert's son, already knew we were coming."

Cooper took a deep breath, and then said "Well, from what I hear you ended up interrogating him anyways. So I guess things would've led to him in the end anyways. Which means you could've gone after him, gotten the information, and escaped with an important prisoner as well."

Continuing, Cooper said angrily "But instead of getting a successful mission, I nearly lose the smartest and most powerful skilled alive, Egyptians are thinking they're in the middle of a war, and the other governments are blaming me for your idiocy!"

He took another deep breath, then turned around to look through the glass that showed the facility's soldiers walking throughout the facility, or hanging out with their friends. He held his hands together behind his back, and then he explained "The U.S. government has always been seen by the world as the most powerful and reliable government on earth. We can't be seen making mistakes, or every government will seem incompetent as a result."

I stared blankly at him as he continued to speak. "And if the most powerful man in the world is seen making mistakes, it'll make us look like idiots. And if we look like idiots, there'll be more people committing tax fraud, and we'll earn less money."

After a long pause, he said "There's a reason we're one of the most profitable countries in the world. Even if citizens know we're greedy, they still don't care, because they all know that without the U.S., the entire world would shut down."

I continued to stare at him, barely even showing I was listening to him. After a few seconds, Cooper said in a sinister tone "Wanna know something? I can simply snap my fingers, and I can ruin your entire life by making everybody you care about hate you. One small order, and you'll have nothing."

I looked at him, my expression slightly shifting, and responded with "First off, even if you did try and make everybody hate me, either with a rumor or something else, there'd still be Dylan and Issac, who adopted me and would know I'm not whatever you'll try to make me out to be."

"Second, it's kind of hard to ruin the life of somebody who is already in ruins. Making everybody hate me would only be a small pebble in a huge pile of rocks. And third, even if making everybody hate me would somehow work, then you'd just be giving me a reason to kill you, your superiors, and everybody else who'd dare try and make my life miserable. And believe me, we both know who'd win if I went on a rampage."

Cooper smiled at me, walked up to the swivel chair behind his desk, sat in it, and said  "Oh believe me, I know just how bad of a life you've had. Especially what with your little crush on Robert's other son. What was his name? Rowan?"

Cooper proceeded to blink at the end of that sentence, and before he opened his eyes again I had already grabbed his head with one hand and a combat knife out of my belt with the other, and held the knife right against Cooper's throat, putting him just a couple millimeters from losing said throat.

"I'd advise you think your next words very carefully," I said menacingly. In response, Cooper said with no fear "Even if you could kill me, the entire base would be on high alert, and you wouldn't even make it out of the building."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a gas-like liquid covering the security camera in the corner of the room, and I realized what Cooper meant by 'if you could kill me'.

Fuck. Knightmare.

"Correct-a-mundo," Cooper said cheerily, as if he was reading my thoughts. "Now you know. Cooper's the one I replaced."

I thought for a moment, and eventually released Cooper from my grip, put my knife back on my belt, and before waking out of his office, I said "Fine. Guess you win, for now." As I walked out of the room, I heard Cooper say "I can't believe you still think you stand a chance against me."

Help! If you can hear me, I'm still trapped in the flashback!