Plain Jane (Preview)

Chapter 6

The cold concrete walls of the room made the headquarters feel more like a prison, even more so than any prison cell could. Jane hated it, but it was the safest place within the facility and even the city. It was an impenetrable fortress nearly seventy feet underground, and for a lone wolf type like Jane, it was utter hell. Watching as her three superiors conversed, Jane merely reclined back in one of the chairs surrounding the desk in the centre of the room. She closed her eyes for a moment as the others continued to go back and forth about the task force's next move with no likely conclusion. Their voices slowly turned into white noise for Jane as she was in the process of falling asleep.

"Epsilon, wake up!" Jane's mother yelled. Clearly noticing the signs and knowing Jane was a heavy sleeper. She didn't stop there, though, as she kneed the back of the chair Jane was sitting in, forcing her body to jerk back into reality.

"What's going on?" Jane gasped as her body fell forward, and her arms caught her when they met the wood finish of the desk, stopping her from falling any further.

"We've come to a decision, and you're not going to like it," Alpha muttered from the other side of the table, with his arms crossed against his chest.

"Why? What happened? Am I fired or something?" Jane blurted out questions left and right when she heard a subtle laugh come from Bravo sitting beside her.

"No, we're all just going to be regularly armed from now on, which includes you. You can't turn this one down like you have in the past." Alpha continued while the sound of Jane's mother's heels finally stopped at the head of the table.

"So what does that mean then? Like a gun? Knives? Maybe a sword even?" Jane asked, putting a humorous spin on the sword comment to try and lighten the mood, but the others remained cold.

"The gun is a yes, and you will need to carry it on your person whenever you step out of your dorm room. Second, you will be getting some knives as well as a prototype weapon that's custom-made just for you." Her mother explained while Jane looked at her brethren. Her mother knew she was ultimately against guns, and blades were still not ideal, but Jane could at least bear to carry them.

"Seriously? Do I need to take the-"

"Yes. You don't have a choice in this matter, and if you run into that situation again, you have kill-on-sight orders." Jane's mother commanded as the others lowered their heads.

It was rare that they ever got a kill-on-sight order when usually they had to make it look elaborate or like a suicide, but it made sense why this was an immediate takedown. It made Jane's heart skip a beat at the thought of just straight up killing someone. Jane had taken a life many times before, but something about this one felt different. She couldn't place it as the rest of the team got up from their seats and faced her mother.

"You still lost in thought, Epsilon, or are you going to be joining us in the armoury?" Jane's mother growled through her teeth, forcing Jane out of her trance while her feet forced her to stand up. Kicking the rolling chair out from under her. The sound of the wheels rolling across the concrete floor before hitting the wall echoed out behind Jane. "Very good, follow me."

The two boys followed Jane's mother while Jane brought up the tail end. Entering the long service tunnel-like room once more, they veered off to the side, making a sharp right. The two guards watching the war room split up, as one joined the travelling party while the other stayed back to watch the war room. After a brief walk, they arrived at a cast iron door at the end of the tunnel. Jane's mother stepped forward and scanned her fingerprint, then her eye causing the sound of locks disengaging to echo out in the hallway. Suddenly there was a plethora of noises, and Jane could only imagine the inner workings of the door as it started to open. When Jane finally got a good look at the door's width, it was genuinely remarkable and had to be close to eighteen-inch thick steel. Everyone in the general vicinity could hear the utter strain it put on the pneumatic door system as it continued to slowly open.