Chapter 6 (Act I): Threats Of Agreement

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Welcome back to another chapter of "Lightspeed: Drug Detectives", everybody! My name is Ariel Axilas, and I'm your protagonist for this adventure and, as of Chapter 4, the sole first-person point of view for this narrative! Last time, Erica and I drove from my house—the Axilas Residence—to the Cambridge Hospital to meet up with my.....boss.....Marle Atkins of the Mastermind Conspiracy, a somewhat secretive and somewhat public organization aimed towards stopping police brutality on all fronts.

Yeah.....long story short, Marle and I don't have the best history, despite her helping me with my revenge quest in the past (you read my last novel, right?). She regularly makes fun of me for my "author" ravings, keeps trying to get me to join the Mastermind Conspiracy full-time, and even constantly flirted with me during our very first meeting even though I had just lost my fiancé on the exact same fucking night. The nerve of her. The absolute fucking prick.

But I'm getting worked up again.

I kept Erica close by, even as I talked with the Cambridge Hospital's front desk receptionist and had him summon an employee to inconspicuously bring us to the employees-only storage room where the stairwells to the Mastermind Conspiracy's base were located. And when we got down there.....oh, boy. I shudder to think of what Erica would've suffered through had I not been present and accounted for. They looked like they wanted to tear her apart.....and things actually got momentarily worse when Marle herself showed up.

It took her a while to recognize Erica, even though the two of them did work together during my last solo adventure. Maybe she's just been shaken up with work and shit, kind of like I've been recently. Maybe she's not all right in the head for the time being. But it's fine; I let her know as much. Good news, though; not only did she take it back, but she revealed that she was joking even before she realized Erica.

The chapter ended with Marle cheerfully greeting us both—though I couldn't help but think that there's still some smugness there—and asking us to meet her in one of the break rooms so we could discuss things further.

This time, Marle proves to be very uncooperative, so I'm forced to resort to some drastic measures in order to get her on my side.....

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-Mastermind Conspiracy's Cambridge Branch, Cambridge, Massachusetts-

"A drug cartel?" Marle Atkins verifies. "You want me and my team to help you take down a drug cartel?"

She says this to me as she and I sit around one of the round white tables in the Mastermind Conspiracy base's many break rooms, in orange chairs with steel supports. My best friend, Erica Shields, is also with us, and Marle was at least kind enough to brew three cups of coffee for all of us.....though I will admit that some part of me believes that it's poisoned. Either that or at least spiked with something.

"I do," I confirm to her. "Please. You would be an invaluable asset. You have a fucking arsenal at your disposal, for crying out loud. Weapons, manpower, vehicles.....the whole lot. And, if I'm being perfectly honest with you.....you could really use a chance to get out of the base for once."

Marle looked very unimpressed. ".....During our last adventure together, I went to the Everglades National Park, outer space, and a freaking alien spaceship, Ariel. You really think I didn't 'get out of the base' back then?"

I let out a soft but resigned sigh, knowing that she's right. She had been dragged on quite the adventure the last time she and I had seen action. She, of course, is talking about our campaign against the Cosmic Armada, where we tried—and failed—to prevent them from using their figurehead to destroy all sentient life on Earth in an event known as the Decimation.

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