Changing Tides [JohnProudstar]

08

I quietly prance down the hallways of the headquarters, just looking for Zingo before going to bed. I walk into the vault room where she usually spends most of her time, but instead of Zingo I find Lorna laying on the old couch.

"Hey, why aren't you in your room?" I take a seat on the arm of the couch, next to the green haired girl.

"Marcos." She huffs. "I talked to him about the other day."

"What'd he say?" I ask.

"I went to Carmen to save you. Part of the deal was working for her." She mocks Marcos' voice.

"That part is true." I begin to play with a strand of her hair.

"Yeah, well he could've started with not enjoying it so much." She crosses her arms. "You saw him Tate. You saw the look on his face as he torched that truck. You saw her kiss him when he was done. How are we supposed to raise a baby? Our world is falling apart, and we can barely protect ourselves."

"Hey, I'm your best friend. Marcos or no Marcos... I'll be here for you and this baby." I place my hand on her stomach. "You can sleep in my room with me. It's cold down here." I stand up, pulling her up with along me.

"It's cold everywhere." She looks at me, before grabbing her blanket.

"Not true, I stole the heater from John's office."

—
"So she was sent here as a spy?" I question, while eyeing the woman in the cage. From what I'm hearing she tried to attack John, Marcos, and Clarice back in Perry where they were picking up refugees earlier.

"Something between a spy and a suicide bomber." Marcos answers. "She had a beacon in her bag she could've activated when we brought her in. It would've sent sentinel services right to our front door. She had weapons, too."

"Yeah, it sounds like the station in Perry was hit by another one of these, uh, things." Lorna says, watching as the spy continues to thrash against the metal bars of the cage.

"If sentinel services is planting these things out there, we may need to stop taking in refugees." Sage suggests.

"You don't turn your back on desperate people because one of them might be dangerous." John says, and Sage sighs. "Reed— we should get on the road. Try and figure out whatever we can from your dad before it's too late."

"Yeah." Reed agrees, standing up.

"Hey, what about Little Miss Vicious?" Lorna motions to the spy.

"We got to get what we can out of her. See if you can figure out who she is. Do you think you can handle this?" John asks, specifically to Lorna and Marcos.

"Yeah." Marcos says, unsurely.

"We'll be fine." Lorna nods, putting on a pretend smile.

—
"Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?" John asks, pulling me away from Shatter and a few others.