Stained

Secret

“Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”

-Khalil Gibran

                I dug my toes into the sand and watched the cold water lap at my feet. I couldn’t help but grin and let this momentary pause in everything that had happened since Father died. I sighed and closed my eyes as I let the sun warm me.

                “Mr. Bane! Mr. Bane!” A man’s voice yelled out to me and I cracked my eyes open and looked over my shoulder to see someone running to me with files in their hands. “You asked for any report on the base in Spain. I came to tell you that nothing has changed.” He smiled as if he were immensely proud of himself.

                “You came to tell me that nothing has changed? You felt it was urgent enough to run towards me, screaming my name, and interrupt my few minutes of free time? Are you new?” I asked as I snatched the folders from his hands and grabbed my shoes with my other hand and started walking back to the lab.

                “I’m sorry sir, I just—”

                I cut him off before he started babbling. “Don’t talk; just go back to wherever you came from. I’ll deal with this. Tell Head of Security to call me about Sean Lark in half an hour.” I said as I waved him away and walked into the white lobby room.

                “Yes sir.” The man blinked a few times before scurrying off to find the Head of Security and tell him to call me later.

                I walked behind the desk and opened the door to the actual building. I started to walk to where my old office had been, but did a last minute turn and walked up the stairs to my new room.

                Once inside I sat in the new suede chair behind the desk and opened the file. It was mostly just a general report, but then I got to the back of the papers.

PROJECT WINGS

                STATUS: Escaped/Kidnapped

                Requires immediate retrieval. Cannot be injured in process.

                I continued reading the report, which was the basic information about Project Wings and what had happened. Once I had finished the two papers informing me on it, I knew what had happened. “Nic.” I growled as I threw the papers off the desk and stood up.

                I paced back and forth quickly. “She’s alive still. I told Alex he had to kill her before he got his lab back. He probably handed that Chance character over to her as well. Which means she’s got at least three others with her. Maybe even Zoey. She did say that she didn’t like the idea of the Stained Project. Then again, Nic may not have let her come along, but I can’t be sure. Zoey hated the Stained Project, and Nic needed people to help. Dammit!” I slammed my fist on the table. “They’ve got the upper hand. Nic has an advantage over me. I don’t even know how many they have on their side!”

                I ran my hand through my hair angrily and strode over to the window and glared out at the ocean. “I may not know the exact number, but I know I have more. I know that I have numbers and strength on my side. I know that they don’t know where I am. I am still ahead in this game. I will still win. I just have to kill her before she becomes even more of a problem. She’ll show herself soon enough. She wants to be found because she wants to find me. When she slips up, I’ll send out a skilled Unit to finish her. A Unit that will perform better than the other ones.”