Octagon Project 2: Kaylee Halloway

~-9-~

Days and weeks of missions went by for every agent and division yet to Zack it felt like it was just yesterday that he was on a mission where he got in a brawl with a woman wearing a wig who turned out to look identical to Mel. And to Kaylee, it felt like an eternity ago since she last got to see, last got to hug her sister whom her delusional partner believes is still alive despite the body that is in the Octagon's morgue. Every mission the two just went through the motions, neither saying much. Nothing in fact unless it was the occasional duck, shut up, go, and so on.

"Zack," Dean said quietly, making his voice sound like he was asking permission to speak to him. Lately, Zack's spoken even less and had taken up a massive portion of the interrogating for McHall which scared everyone at how torture has practically become Zack's second nature; if not his first. Zack stopped from where he was walking down the hallway towards his room from the training room, his sweat soaked shirt hanging over his shoulder and his earbuds blasting music too loud to comprehend. He took one out and looked down at the hand Dean kept closed tightly before eyeing Dean's face, only to receive an unreadable if not depressing expression.

"I was taking out the trash and found this in your bin." He refused to make eye contact as he held up the small black hard drive. Zack's face went dark and he snatched it out of Dean's hand. "Sorry bro." He muttered. "I didn't look at it, that I swear. I just had a gut feeling." With a hard look, Zack stalked into his room and tossed the hard drive into the trash before slamming the door shut. When he listened to Dean sigh and walk off, he grabbed it out of the trash among the many scrunched up papers of nanotech ideas that didn't work out in the ways he hoped for them to. Clenching the drive tightly in his hand, he clenched his jaw before releasing a loud, heavy breath and snatching his laptop off of his desk. At first, there was static, then the screen went black.

"Hello Zack." A familiar voice spoke through his headphones so clearly he almost thought she was right there with him. More static sounds entered his ears as the camera must have been moved around before a flash turned on and she was looking directly into the camera. Her bright green eyes caused Zack to hold his breath and sit as still as possible. Dark circles under her eyes made it clear that she hadn't been getting too much sleep and her frizzy dark brown hair was pulled into as sleek of a ponytail as she ever managed to make it.

"You may want to get a paper and pen because I'll only say this once." She then stated more professionally. Zack furrowed his eyebrows and glanced down at his blue notebook sitting on the floor. "The Octagon Agency is made up of eight organizations all across the World. Your station, is T.A.O. Tao in Chinese philosophy is the absolute principle underlying the universe, combining within itself the principles of yin and yang and signifying the way, or code, of behavior, that is in harmony with the natural order. Basically human behavior overwriting." With wide eyes, Zack leaned forward with furrowed brows. "The other seven divisions you might have heard of such as B.L.A.K, H.A.U, T.R.O, and so on." She continued.

Where did she get all of this information?! He thought, quickly pressing pause and looking up at the door when there was a knock and Roy called Zack's name. He didn't say anything for a long moment before watching Roy's shadow disappear and he pressed play again.

"The Octagon is an illegal facility built without any government approval in 1967. The Octagon was first created as a test to see how diligent younger minds can be in comparison to older in field work." She took a deep breath, causing Zack to do the same, and she leaned closer to the screen. "The Octagon is now divided amongst itself, each branch is training its agents to better the others. The Octagon has to be stopped. The lead targets of each branch are: Tyson Woods, Rachel Penira, Lium Foltson, Drake Sanders, Benjamin Holt, Hannah Platt, Valorie Horsley, and Andrew McHall. You have a choice now Zachary Levi." She said. "Make a wise one." She gave a soft smile. "Oh yeah, shut off your laptop and unplug this USB." He furrowed his eyebrows when the camera went black again and a mechanical voice broke through his earbuds.