Victory for the People

Chapter 13

Ava POV

I was flustered, out of breath, tears streaming down my face as I began to process everything that had just occurred. Collin's birthmark, for some unexplainable reason, had started to glow, a book with a prophecy in it that you'd only see in fiction, and how sad I was that I hadn't figured all of this out sooner.

Collin groaned in annoyance, "Ava, did you know about this? Why is my birthmark glowing? Ava? Come on, you have to know, you work for the government, Is there some kind of alien race I'm apart of? AVA!?" He shook me and I recovered from my confusion.

"What? Collin, I don't know!" I cried. "It's not like Griffin tells us everything! I know I work for him, but he still has his boundaries. He's very limited on who he tells these things to. As for your birthmark, I have no idea. Don't even get me started on the prophecy because your guess is as good as mine when it comes to that. For all we know, that prophecy could be Griffin's experimental poetry from high school."

Collin shook his head. "Ava, that doesn't explain why.... THIS!" He shoved his forearm with the birthmark in my face, "Started to glow!"

All of a sudden, we heard shuffling and muffled talking.

"Guards." I said, a chill running down my spine. "You've gotta get out of here, Collin. Take that book with you, Study it, do whatever you want, just take it and leave now!"

Collin nodded, a scared, yet grim look on his face. He rushed out of the room, the book tucked under his arm.

I scrambled around, trying to put everything away in it's proper place. I felt sweat start to bead on my forehead. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it in time. Sure enough, the guards entered the room. I stood up, flustered.

"Agent Smith, you seem troubled. What's wrong with you?" one of the guards asked.

The other guard stared at me, a bit suspicious. "You do understand that many of this is confidential information only intended for the eyes of General Griffin. You'd better have a good reason why you're in here."

I bit my lip and lied on impulse. "Griffin asked me to be here. He said he needed me to do some special research for him. He trusts me and knows I'd never do anything to betray him." I cringed. I wouldn't have believed that lie if I was born yesterday.

The guards looked a bit confused, but they both shrugged. "Alright, if you say so," one said. They left without a second thought.

I breathed a sigh of relief, But I still kept my guard up. There was no way they genuinely believed that terrible fib. If they ended up telling Griffin what I had been doing, I'd be a dead man. With the spare minutes I still had in the room, I had to continue the interrupted research Collin and I were conducting. I flipped on the holographic projection we were looking over earlier, it's contents still a mystery. That's how a lot of things were lately: one big mystery. I played the hologram over and over, observing the contents, trying to fill in the missing pieces, but I was clueless. Studying the hologram frame by frame, I began taking extensive notes. One thing I knew for certain: there were big changes after Griffin was conducted. We knew he was slowly becoming more and more mad, but when would he COMPLETELY lose his marbles? We simply didn't know, and the truth is, I don't think we were ready for when it does happen. At least, not yet.