The Heroes We Weren't

Chapter 26 - Reversing The Recipe

I remember M having referred to Number Three as 'Ashanti'. This Ashanti was not much for small talk, it seemed. My many questions had been left unanswered as I had hurried after her down the streets.

Her every step seemed to bring her towards her goal much faster than my own; every once in a while I found myself jogging in a try to keep up.

I had bumped into a man as we had taken a turn around a corner – he only giggled hysterically as another sweat drop trickled down his forehead; He then continued his walk down the street as if nothing had happened. I raised my eyebrows. Odd.

I hurriedly turned back to keep up with Ashanti once more.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

She soon enough pushed a door open and first then did I notice that we were headed to Adam's apartment.

She soon slammed a post-it note onto a wall; the address of the little note matched with a door and she did not hesitate to enter the apartment without so much as bothering to knock.

She stomped into the hallway, leaving spots of dried mud on couple Adair's carpet. My stomach turned from the vague fragrance of Tanya's perfume.

Her many fur coats hung above her collection of heels and handbags, yet something told me that the owner of said objects wasn't coming to retrieve them. I wondered if Adam knew already.

"Identify yourselves!" Ashanti called out after having pushed the door open to the guest bedroom.

A wide-eyed Miranda hurried out of the room, closing the door behind her while hunching from the intimidating character that had just called her out.

"It's okay," I said, "she's with us."

It didn't surprise me that Miranda was at Adam's apartment; she had most likely escaped Rick just like we had planned. And I was glad, I was glad that she was safe, and yet I couldn't help but to think that she wasn't the best add to our team.

I shook my head; I blamed myself for having had such thoughts, did we even have a team? Johnson did - a strong one at that.

The front door opened behind me as the owner of the apartment had come back. Not the fancy fur-coat-and-glittery-bag one, mind you, but the oblivious one.

"Felicity!" Adam exclaimed as he wrapped his arms around me after dropping his bag. "I am glad to see you are quite okay!"

Fancy words in proper places, everything back to normal - Newsflash, extra extra – Detective misses case right under his nose – Lives happily ever after with his new wife Oblivion.

It was obvious that he didn't know about Tanya for if he had, he would have cracked completely already. And so I figured – I would have to be the one to tell him. Just not right there and then and in front of the others. My arms hung lamely by my sides, too immersed in thought to hug him back.

Adam then pushed away to get a better look of me, yet his eyes quickly wandered off to the one standing behind me.

"And who-" He furrowed his eyebrows, "-who might you be?"

How was it that Ashanti had found her way here (with the help of Adam's address on a post-it note) if Adam hadn't been the one to invite her in the first place?

She once again stomped loudly as she took the proper position of a soldier – feet wide apart and hands resting behind her back.

"Sir, I'm a soldier, sir!"

She was on our team.
That was a start.

"You found her." The detective seemed impressed. "You found Soldier Number One!"