The Facility

Chapter Two

I met with the fact checker from the BBC at a previously scouted coffee shop, I had mapped out various escape routes.

I waited in the coffee shop with the wall to my back and a cup of tea while I waited.

"Are you Miss Anderson? The one that sent the USB" a man asked with BBC credentials hanging from his neck.

"Yes I am" I said.

"Wow this is amazing for me, so tell me about growing up in a place like The Facility?" he said right off.

"Failure isn't an option, they tell you it's 'For God and Country' but I'm not sure about that anymore" I said.

"Why is that?" he asked.

"Some of the things I've done for them, just didn't seem like it was the best interest of my country" I said vaguely.

"Is that why you decided to turn on them and expose them?" he asked.

"I exposed them because they wanted to kill me, they told me it was in the best interest of my country because I knew too much, but I think it's because I knew too much about their dark secrets" I said.

"A lot of countries are now coming forward wanting to know if this Facility and Agency are responsible for the deaths of some their prominent citizens, places like Russia and Saudia Arabia. Can you tell us if that's true?" he said.

"I wish I could say no, but yeah I've killed people that The Agency deemed a threat to the future of our country" I said.

"How are they perceived as a threat?" he asked.

"Anyone showing resistance to my country is perceived as a threat, especially if they're in a position of power" I said.

"This is all great, do you think you could come in for a live interview?" he asked.

"No that's out of the question" I said.

"I'll bring this back to my bosses and we'll be in contact" he said shaking my hand before leaving.

The interview brought back a memory that I would much rather forget, I was in Kuwait going after a target that had been supplying a terrorist cell with bomb making material and had a few times severed the heads off hostages, I used his son to get to him by strapping a suicide vest to his chest and it was one that couldn't be easily disarmed.

The boy was only six years old and the man's only son, I knew that a reasonable person would feel bad about it, but that's not how I was raised at The Facility because I got the guy and that's all that mattered to them.

Then I noticed someone watching me from across the street, since it felt like he was trying to herd me out the back I went through the front and he paced me as I headed for the underground tube.

But just as I was about to go down the stairs someone pulled me into an alley and started choking me.

"Did you really think you could blow the whistle and live happily ever after?" the guy said.

I used my weight against him and broke his hold, that's when I saw it was Drew, we had both gone through The Facility at the same time and he had always come in second and hated it.

"They sent second best to kill me, now I'm insulted" I said before jumping a dumpster and breaking his neck. "I always wanted to do that" I said as I dragged his heavy body behind the dumpster.

I remembered the time when we were eight years old and learning combat as I made my to the tube, Drew had always been a little taller than the rest of us and he liked to use that to his advantage.

One time when we were assigned to fight each other he came at me so hard, he never gave me a chance to recover, that is until someone came up from behind and threw him four feet away, he rolled up on his feet to see who the attacker was.

"Hey you aren't in the right age group Daniel" Drew said upset.

"Do you think they care about age groups in the real world?" he said as he gave me a hand up.

Of course it was after that, that I realized I could never let Drew get the best of me again and he never did.

Then it reminded me of Daniel who was most likely dead because at the time he was twelve going on thirteen and on the verge of graduating from the program, Daniel had always been nice to me even though we were never supposed to talk to each other outside of combat lessons.

I remembered the time after wilderness training and it was early spring and we were learning to survive in harsh environments always just in case, my whole body was shaking and freezing from the various training scenarios we went through that I had to sit down.

Someone approached me and I thought it was an instructor who was going to reprimand me, but it was Daniel holding out a small daisy for me, against my better judgement I took it.

"You're very pretty" he said sitting down next to me.

I didn't say anything in case an instructor was within earshot, because then we'd both be in for it.

He took my hand and despite the chapping and the bloody knuckles, he kissed it.

"I'm sorry you have to go through this" he said as our instructor called for his age group to come in.

For the longest time I didn't know how I felt about him because I wasn't sure if he was trying to psyche me out or if he was being genuine, the way I was raised though was to never trust anyone.

I went back to my rented room and couldn't help watching the street from my room, I ordered something to eat and watched the news for more information.

It seemed that they were now dismantling The Facility and The Agency, it made me wonder though if they had set aside money and assets for just such an occasion, I guess I would find out though if they continued to come after me.

A watch group was going through the paperwork, which wasn't an easy task, to see who all was impacted by The Facility and The Agency and it made me hope that I had deleted all the files on me and my parents.

For all I know though they kept hard copies somewhere, that would just be my luck though.

I decided to get some sleep while I could, I hated the feeling of never feeling safe but it was the only constant for me.

I had already decided that I shouldn't stay in one place longer than a day and was going to leave in the morning, but in the early morning I heard a lot cars pull up and a radio downstairs.

They were coming for me, it was probably Scotland Yard wanting to know more about me and what I knew, how they found me I don't know since I always make sure to never leave a trail but I have a feeling they were getting tips from The Agency since they'd be the only ones to know how I got around.

I slipped out the window and headed for the restaurants around the docks since there was probably a ship there I could talk my way onto, sure enough I found a crew about to head for New York City and I jumped at the chance to get away from this place.

It would also be the first time since I was fourteen to set foot on American soil again, I couldn't believe how excited it made me.