The 4th Subject

Chapter 27: The Chase

The next Monday rolled around all too fast. Matt ,Sam, Woods and I sat in MegaOffice, looking around at each other. Matt was just about to text Syphus and tell him the deal was off.

"We're not powerless in this," he said, his fingers flying over the keyboard.

The phone vibrated, that stupid ringtone jumpscaring me. If I ever heard that Blackberry buzz again, I was going to throw that phone out the nearest window.

"Oh, dry your eyes, it was just a machine," Matt read, scoffing and then beginning to type again. "No, you know it was more than that."

"He can't seriously think... does he really think this is all over?" I said incredulously. "I mean, busting the machine and taking the serums, that's all he did. And I know that that's still bad, but we still have so much evidence, we have the emulator, we have so much else riding against him. This isn't over."

"You know it was more than that, Nelson. The deal is off."

A moment passed. The ringtone turned our heads. Matt raised the phone to his face, eyes scanning the new message. His brow furrowed.

"Nelson?"

"What?" I said, confused.

"Nelson... Nelson question mark?" Woods asked.

"Yeah, Nelson question mark." Matt answered as he typed.

"What does that mean?" Sam said.

"It's Syphus. Nelson Syphus." Woods said, now standing.

The phone chirped again.

"This is the same person you've always been texting, looks like your detective work is a little sloppy."

"Wait, is he saying that we've never actually been in contact with Nelson?" I asked, eyes darting from Matt to camera.

All of a sudden, everything we knew went out the door. Who was this person? Was Syphus just trying to throw us off? Or was this really a completely different person and we just have no idea who?

"It doesn't matter." Matt's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "We need to get the evidence to John Doe now."

We quickly collected all of the evidence, packed it into a large briefcase, and made a plan.

"Good luck," Matt said to Woods and I as he, Sam and Bailey exited Blue Base and drove off in Matt's car.

The two of us only waited a moment before we headed out to Red Base. Woods and I pulled the dust cover off the Mountaineer, its red paint bringing back haunting memories. Woods started the car up as I loaded a second briefcase into the trunk. I then climbed in the passenger seat and we sped off towards a park in the opposite direction as the others.

"You think this'll work?" Woods muttered, shaking his head.

I sighed. "It's got to."

The rest of the drive was silent. We pulled into a parking space, looking around for the undercover cop. Yes, this was our plan all along.

We climbed out the Mountaineer and grabbed the briefcase. In a small grassy area a few feet in front of us stood our elusive John Doe. I set the case down as Woods handed over the keys, camera pointed at our feet.

"Is that it?" He said as we stepped back.

"Yeah, that's everything." I replied.

Suddenly, he produced a small black box. Woods reached out and took it, asking what it was.

"She wanted you to have that."

Who's she? Deb? Did we really just receive something from Deb?

We looked at it, then between the two of us, then to him. I nodded in thanks, then we watched as he grabbed the case and made his way to the Mountaineer. The tires scratched against the gravel as he drove off, leaving us. We sat on the curb while we waited for Matt and the others to pick us up.