Hunting White Raven (Unedited Old Draft)

Chapter 3: The Apartments on Quaker

Knot jogged ahead of Adi, her black rubber boots squeaking against the asphalt. She wore purple thigh-high socks and khaki shorts, which clashed terribly with the rest of her outfit. Adi smiled. This kid was almost like a sister. When they had met, Adi was thirteen and Knot was eight. Back then she hadn't earned her nickname. An orphan, O.M.E.G.A.S. took a girl into the orphanage sect under the name of Nadya Arielli, and at the young age of nine, recruited her to Level High-08-tech.

"C'mon, slowpoke!" Knot shouted, breaking Adi's trance, "I think we're almost there!"

Adi sighed, "Do you actually know where you're going?"

Knot stopped and glanced back, her face portraying a look of you've got to be kidding me. "Lex has the picture," she said, "I'm just following her."

"Yep," Lex said, "I took a Webscan and I'm pretty sure the address is on Quaker Street."

"Woohoo! Quaker! Land of the cheery!" Knot shouted, wagging her butt in a sarcastic dance of joy.

"Yeah, you're one to talk," Adi scoffed, "You live in a paranormal investigation set."

Knot rolled her eyes and asked, "So, why do you still like Ransom? You know he probably only sees you as a friend. Or a sister."

Adi hesitated, "Well, I like him because he's my friend. When two people cooperate and have similar interests, there doesn't need to be a whole slew of reasons to like one another."

"You are pretty one-sided in this though," Lex argued, although Adi could tell she wasn't trying to be offensive.

Adi sighed. Both of them were right. Ransom had never shown her any special interest besides an occasional hangout or a partnering in unit missions. Then there was Misha Nguyen. Sleek-black-hair-that-sweetly-framed-her-face Misha. Unbelievably skinny Misha. Perfectly straight, white teeth Misha. Voice-of-an-angel Misha. Time and time again Adi tried to convince herself that looks didn't matter so much. She was pretty too. Just... not pretty enough for Ransom. She frowned.

"Sorry," Knot said, "I didn't mean to make you mad."

Adi sighed again. "It's fine."

"We're here," Lex stated, staring at a rundown apartment complex painted an ugly shade of fading grey. The bushes hadn't been trimmed in a while and most of the windows were covered in some sort of foil with A.C.s sticking out of them. Rusty trucks were parked at odd angles in the lot, surrounded by an assortment of beer cans and glass. An old man sat on his balcony, eyeing the newcomers with distaste. Somewhere from an upper level, a man yelled at a football game. Two mangy cats rolled around together under a staircase. Lovely.

"Which one?" Knot asked.

"2401," Lex responded.

Adi glanced up and down the doorways. 2411, 2409... ah. There it was. 2401. "I feel like we're investigating as an O.M.E.G.A.S. unit again," she groaned.

"Except this time we don't have trackers on us or drones buzzing in our ear," Knot grumbled.

They stopped in front of a door identical to any other except for the numbers and a wide scratch in the upper left-hand corner that Lex recognized from the Webfeed interview.

Knocking, Adi pursed her lips. "Let's hope she's home," she muttered. The group stood in silence. Adi strained to hear anything behind the door. There were some faint whispers and a few dull clicks. Finally, the door swung open a couple of inches. Adi could see nothing but darkness.

"Don't come any closer. I'm loaded," a boy's voice, maybe thirteen or fourteen years old, shouted beyond the opening. Adi raised her hands above her head with Knot.

"Who are you, where are you from, and what do you want?" A different voice. This time female. Definitely Mycah.

"Addison Marshall, Nadya Arielli, and our robot Lex." A defiant hum came from the latter. Lex didn't enjoy being referred to as a robot, even if she was all gears and chips. Adi continued, "We're from O.M.E.G.A.S., but we retired two years ago. We're looking for Mycah because our friend has gone missing."

Mycah threw the door open the rest of the way. A boy, possibly her brother, stood to the side, pointing a pistol at the ground. He scowled at the strangers. Crossing her arms, Mycah grunted, "Prove it."

Then, Adi did something she hadn't in months; she pulled her O.M.E.G.A.S. pendant out of her backpack and passed it to Mycah. Knot did the same.

"They look legit," Mycah sniffed after a few moments, handing the necklaces back. "Come in I guess." Her black roots were beginning to peek through her bubblegum hair. "So," she said, leading the troop to the small living room, "what do you need from me?"

Adi glanced at Knot, who seemed to be staring at the boy. Adi started at the beginning. The music box, the message, seeing Mycah on the news. "We figured you had more information than us, and we suspected that the break-ins were connected to Ransom's kidnappers."

"Number one, our information is limited," Mycah stated, leaning back on the arm of a baby blue couch, "Number two, it's classified anyway so maybe you should have thought harder about retiring from O.M.E.G.A.S., and number three, yes, they're connected and I'll tell you this much; they call themselves White Raven."

Adi's ears hummed. She needed more answers.

"Can you tell us anything else?" Knot asked. Her eyes were still trained on the boy and... was she... blushing? Almost as if saying one sentence had embarrassed her.

"No," Mycah replied.

Adi didn't want to sound whiny, but she asked anyway, "Can't you talk to the lead? I'm sure he'll help us if he's still in that position. We're old friends."

"If you're referring to Jackson, he died four months ago," Mycah bit back.

"What? How?" Knot gasped, her head snapping to attention. Adi could tell that she was upset. Jackson had found her when she was little.

"Shot through the left armpit by a White Raven sniper. He didn't last more than a few minutes," the boy spoke up.

"Adrian I told you to shut up," Mycah glared.

The kid, Adrian, rolled his eyes. "Yes mother," he said in mock falsetto.

"So, if Jackson is gone, who is the new lead?" Adi quizzed, losing hope.

Mycah scowled. "Me."