QED

Chapter 17 - Joanne | Keira

"Take a deep breath, Phoebe," Joanne instructed her. She held her right hand tightly, rubbing her thumb over her sweaty hand. Currently, the subway was passing the 23th Street like a bullet. For a short time, lights from the station illuminated the train, then, they again disappeared in the black tube.

Phoebe sniffed. "I can't do this," she whispered and wiped a tear away. Her whole body trembled like she was experiencing a heavy cold right now. Joanne completely led her attention to the girl and turned her in-earpiece off. Right now, the signal was again bad.

"Phoebe, look at me." She raised her hand and slowly touched Phoebe's cheek. The woman stared into her eyes, a horrific expression lying on her face. "I know this here is a disaster. And I don't wanna give you some hope with false information. But you need to relax. If Alex is really just playing with us, all we need is an eye for the details."

"What details?" Phoebe cried out.

"You'll notice the real Alex. She might be a mirror of herself, but you can shoot through her. She acts like a hologram. Unless it's the real Alex..." Phoebe frowned. Apparently, Joanne's explanation wasn't helping at all.

"If she approaches you, stop the time. Walk over to her and kick her with a single Mawashi-Geri. We've trained that, you remember?"

Phoebe nodded slightly.

"Perfect. If your foot will go through her, you know she's just a simple illusion. If not, run and call me immediately!" Although the overtaxion didn't fade away, Phoebe nodded. She got rid of her hand and repeat it by herself. Joanne more felt like giving therapy lessons than being on a mission...

"I can do that..."

Suddenly, a man appeared in front of them, eying both Phoebe and Joanne skeptically. "Is she okay?" he asked, raising on of his way to sharp eyebrows. Joanne looked up and pressed her lips together.
"She is fine, thank you. Just some nervousness before an exam."

Her bittersweet smile probably scared the man. He vanished in the crowd of people, leaving them alone.

"Yes, you can do it," Joanne confirmed again, watching Phoebe with a soft expression. Finally, the trainee stopped crying like a child. They had already attracted more than enough attention...

"Joanne, turn on your in-earpiece," Phoebe whispered, pointing at her left ear. She tipped at the piece, immediately hearing some cracking.

"Lights-..." Crackling. "They are not-..." Crackling. "Leave-... now-..." Freya's voice reached them. She could barely understand a world.

"Repeat, Freya. Repeat," Joanne said clearly, pressing her finger closer to the black piece.

"Our Alex-..." Crackling. "We are going to-..." Crackling. "Direction-..." She squinted her eyes, desperate to understand something. She exchanged glances with Phoebe who was as lost as her.

"The signal is too bad, I can't understand you." Apparently, Keira and Freya could understand them good since the latter's voice appeared again. Still, it was just random pieces of a sentence, nothing that would help Joanne at all.

For a short time, the train stopped. The plate hanging at the platform showed '14th Street- Unison Square'. Just two more stations.

"Isa, can you catch any signal from Freya or Keira?" Joanne tried. They waited. And waited. And waited too long.

Nothing came back. Not even an annoying crackling.

They were so, so fucked up. "Okay, alright. They have seen Alex. Isa's program has also detected Alex. Now is the question: Which one is the real one."