Project Perses: Redemption

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty One

I hadn’t like walking in to find Mitchell here.  I won’t lie.  It wasn’t like Li hadn’t told me that he had her watching me, babysitting as it was, or that I didn’t know that he was on his way to intercept me.  It was the sudden appearance in my space that was bothersome. 

It didn’t help that he had a pissy attitude either.

We had stared at each other in contemplative silence for a least a minute, my not acknowledging him and him refusing to start the conversation.  Finally, after realizing that neither of us was going to win this battle of the wills, I caved.

“I didn’t ask for you to come.”  Okay, maybe not the most positive way to start, but it was exactly what was on my mind.

His eyes studied me, the hard glint telling me he didn’t give a damn what I wanted or asked for.  “We really didn’t have a choice in the matter, did we?”  His eyes glanced over at the news footage that was looping over and over again.  One of the cameramen from the helicopters had clearly caught me right as I had leaped from the window.  His skills were pretty good too, the camera holding steady even though you can hear him screaming over the correspondent who was speaking.  The shot followed my somersaulting body as it arced out over the fire truck, missing it completely and then downward, where I slammed into the ground, bending all the way to the concrete before straightening and sprinting off.  The speed of my takeoff had been so fast that it looked like I was there one minute, and gone the next.  Poof.  He had then lingered on the stunned girls who I had scared with my sudden appearance and equally sudden disappearance.  The looks on their shocked faces was priceless.

I was doing everything I could not to smirk a little at what my antics can do to the uninitiated. Shaking myself from watching it again, I focused on him.  “Look, I appreciate your sending Li, she’s been helpful, but I have the Intel I need now to do what I have to do.”

“Oh, you think so, do you?”  His tone was amused but under it there was sarcasm.  “Just like when you attacked the bunker, you just know it all don’t you?”  His hand moved slightly, gesturing to my wrist.  “Li has enlightened me to your activities, and I do mean all of them.”

Of course she would have told him about the Starbucks incident. “It was an isolated occurrence, nothing more.”  My hand rose to run it through my hair but instead I stared at it, covered in soot with enough muck under my nails to cause me to rethink touching anything at all.  I needed a shower, like yesterday.

“Isolated my ass.”  He stood suddenly and stepped out of the shadow, his height towering over me, which is rare. “ Like everything else you've done is 'isolated'? Tell me that bracelet is working and I’ll tell you you’re full of shit.”  He didn’t wait though, instead he kept talking.  “Your reaction back in Chicago, your issues here only confirm the serum isn’t working.  At least the damn GPS proved beneficial.”

Like he needed to remind me of that, a dark expression passed over my face.  “Yeah, no worries there, your pet is still on his leash.”

“And just what do you mean by that?”  He’s only three feet away now, eyeing me like I might explode any minute.

“What do you think I meant?  Ever since I met you, you’ve had me on a leash, and don’t you dare throw the Twelve in my face and what I did back there.  You’re the one who sent me on that mission if I remember correctly.”

His face got stony then, his eyes hard.  I had never spoke this way to him before, never flat out called him on it.  He was probably right then trying to figure out when I grew a pair, and he’d be right.  I had followed him blindly before, but that infantile trust I gave him was long gone.  Matter of fact, I didn't trust anyone any more. To me everyone was a pawn in this game, a game I was sick of playing.