Undercover (Phan)

Chapter 30

Dan's POV

"Her name is Maria," I'd started to explain to Phil after telling him I'd almost gone back to Eden. After the phone call this morning and being informed that she'd had her baby, I couldn't help but think that that kid's fate is already determined for him, and it's not exactly a good one. He won't get to decide anything at all for himself. He'll end up, well, pretty much exactly like me. I couldn't let that happen, but I couldn't let Phil worry about me either and since I didn't have my phone to call him and tell him what I was doing, I decided to head to the hide out and tell him what was going on in person.

"She's from the Aries Project - I'm assuming you know who they are."

Phil nodded.

"She tried to hack into Eden's computer systems some time ago, and they caught her. I was the one in charge of interrogating her with two other Eden agents. Normally, under those kinds of circumstances, someone who had some such a thing would be killed no questions asked, but...I found out she was pregnant, and this was after I'd met and gotten to know you so I'd started to regain some of my humanity and...after finding out she was pregnant, I insisted we wait until she had the baby to punish her. My excuse was that we could use the baby in some of the experiments for Eden's ideas for new forms of education systems - that I was an experiment kid and turned out just fine, so that kid would too. But really it was because I honestly didn't want to see either of them die...Anyway, this morning, I'm not sure how much of my phone call you heard, but before I 'resigned' from Eden, I was told that Maria had her baby, and...I was tempted to go try to rescue him."

Phil gasped, "What?!"

"I know, I know. I knew you'd be worried sick about me if I didn't show up here before sundown, and it's not like I'd know what to do with the baby once I rescued him - which is why I wanted to ask you if The Red Core by any chance has done that kind of thing before, taking the kids from Eden, and if so, if there are any orphanages or anything that would be trustworthy and safe enough to take him to."

"The church by our school has an orphanage built into it that would probably be safe," Phil says, "Actually, I know it would. Red has affiliations there...but that doesn't mean you should go to try and rescue that baby!"

"But - "

"Dan, I know your heart is in the right place, but if you go back to Eden, it'd be like returning to the scene of the crime! If anyone there sees you, you're dead."

I sighed and looked down at my hands, "I know."

Phil then knelt down in front of me, "Look, tomorrow when we get to my agency, we'll tell them what's up and we'll have them go rescue the baby. But please, please don't try to do it yourself."

I looked to Phil, then reluctantly nodded, "I won't."

x

After talking a little more and watching the Back to the Future movies - which, by the way, were fantastic - Phil and I got settled for bed. We snuggle for a little while, and despite my body relaxing, my mind is racing. I don't know if I can wait for tomorrow for Red to go rescue Maria and her baby. What if they don't believe me? What if they think I'm sending them to Eden for them to get attacked? What if Maria is dead by then? What if she's already dead? What if Eden is already finding ways to manipulate the baby straight out of the womb?

These were risks I couldn't take.

So after cuddling for a little while, once I was sure Phil was asleep, I got out of bed. I tiptoed around the bunker as quietly as I could, trying not to bump into too much in the literal pitch black darkness. I got redressed, then put a hand on the wall and slowly stepped forward until my hand found the ladder that led out of the bunker. I climbed up as softly as I could, then opened the tree door slowly and quietly, and did the same with shutting it. I'd stolen Phil's car keys before I left because I figured my motorcycle wasn't the best means of transportation for baby rescuing.