Project X - Agents & Assassins [COMPLETE]

Chapter 22

They walked, like Scarlett predicted, about a quarter when they finally arrived in the right street. Scarlett led them to a small house on the corner of the block and opened the garden fence for them. Richard wasn't too keen on going inside the house and looked around him suspiciously. They rang the bell and waited patiently for someone to answer the door. After a moment of silence, they heard someone approaching on the other side of the door. Kalea could've sworn she heard a vase or a glass braking in the process.

The door opened with a hard swing and Thomas stood in the doorway. It startled him, to see the four teens before him but a sigh of relief left his body once he laid his eyes on Scarlett.

'Scar,' he sighed as he pulled her closer and held her body to his chest. The sweet moment didn't take as long as Scarlett would've hoped; Thomas grabbed her ear and pulled her inside. 'You're in deep shit, kiddo,' he said as he walked to the living room with firm steps. Scarlett hopped after him, trying to get her ear loose one way or another. The rest followed in silence and closed the door behind them. Once in the living room, Thomas grabbed her by her collar and showed her to the man sitting on the couch like a well-earned trophy. August's eyes looked up in surprise. Scarlett noticed that he had bags under his eyes and probably hadn't slept since she left. There wasn't any joy on his face, just resentment and anger.

He took a deep breath, stood up and walked to the hallway where he looked at the other teens in surprise. 'Who are they?', he asked as he turned to Thomas.

Thomas shrugged his shoulders and let go of Scarlett. August now turned to Scarlett. 'You are these people?', he asked again in a forceful way.

'They're acquaintances,' Scarlett answered frustrated. She didn't want to say friends.

It was the first thought that came to her mind but reminding herself that one had knocked her out with a baseball bat and one was an experiment of the enemy, she left that word off the table.

Richard walked forward to August and stretched out his hand. 'My name is Richard,' he said, 'and we need a safe place to hide.'

August noticed how Thomas flinched when he heard the name Richard, but August decided to ignore it.

August nodded understandingly and accepted Richard's hand. 'Perhaps we could all sit in the living room,' he gestured, 'and discuss about what happened.'

The group shuffled towards the living room and took place on the couches, chairs and on the ground. 'Dad,' Scarlett said after she sat down on a chair, 'I just want to say, before we begin, do not get angry.'

August rolled his eyes and looked pleadingly to heaven. 'Oh God, it's never any good if you start a conversation like that.'

Richard felt the tension in the room and decided to take the floor. 'Let's just start with introducing ourselves,' he said to Felix and Kalea. They both nodded in silence and still looked nervously around themselves. 'This is Felix and this is Kalea,' he said as he pointed to the teens next to him. 'And as I stated earlier; my name is Richard.'

August and Thomas nodded understandingly, while August noticed again how Thomas flinched when that name was pronounced. It wasn't surprising either, since his son's name was Richard.

'Can you tell me where you met my daughter, Richard?', August said, now with his full attention. Richard sighed with a smile and looked down.

'Well, I sort of hit her with my baseball bat when she and Kalea were fighting on the street,' he said with his head still down. Scarlett grinned. It did seem funny in the way he put it, but the smile disappeared when she saw the cold look in Thomas' eyes who looked at her in fury. This was no time to be laughing.

Richard explained everything to the two men before him, even things that Scarlett wished he would've kept for himself. How he had been Raphael's servant for his whole life, how Kalea was Agent 2 and even the fight on the street was described to the last detail. August and Thomas kept quiet the entire time and occasionally nodded towards him.

It made Felix uncomfortable to talk about all these things he didn't even know himself. The girl he had a crush on since the first day she appeared on school, was now apparently a lab experiment, the man who kidnapped them was somehow a big enemy and this other girl had a huge basement full of weapons.

After Richard was done, the room fell quiet for a few moments.

But then August opened his mouth again.

'So, if you had worked for my brother your entire life, why betray him so suddenly? How can we trust you?'

'That is beyond my power to explain to you, Mr Wood. But I can say I never liked working under Mr Addams' commands. He made me do-', Richard hesitated, 'he made me kill.'

August nodded. 'And you saw a chance to escape when my daughter ended up in your prison,' he concluded.

'I saw a chance to do the right thing,' Richard answered.

August now put his attention to Kalea. 'And why have you taken her?', he asked in abomination. Everything he knew about Agent 2, Kalea, was about how strong and dangerous she was. She was a threat and an experiment of Raphael. Kalea looked at him with her bright blue eyes and frowned her eyebrows.

'I beg your pardon?', she said in confusion.

Richard shushed her immediately by putting his hand in front of her mouth and spoke, 'Because she is innocent, Mr Wood.'

'She's from the enemy!', August exclaimed.

'I have watched Kalea develop herself the last months and I can assure you, she is innocent. Whatever you think she has done wrong, it wasn't because she wanted to. She was a prisoner until this moment, a child. Treat her as such.'

The room fell quiet again and Kalea pushed away Richard's hand. The silence was broken by Thomas who sniffed his nose. All the attention was now pointed towards him and August saw how a single tear dropped down from his dry, round cheek. His gaze was entirely focused on Richard who looked at him with uncertainty.

'You have your mother's nose,' he whispered after which he stood up and quickly left the room, covering his eyes which only showed him the world in great amounts of water.