Project Perses: Redemption

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Two

“You are such a dumb ass.”  Warner is saying around the spoon that is sticking out of her mouth, waving her hand at the TV.  “You could have found how many other ways to do whatever you were thinking of doing, but no, you had to be all ‘super’ and make a spectacle of yourself.”

Teddy is eying the pint of ice cream in Warner’s hand, waiting for her to spill it, no doubt.  “Geez, stop giving him so much grief.  What was he supposed to do?  Tip toe around the cameras?”

“How about not leaping over fire trucks?  How about not jumping out an eleven story window? You got a thing against stairs or something?”

I glance over at Warner and Teddy, who are both sitting on the end of my bed watching the little television on the bureau.  Mitchell is still down in the lobby, making calls and sending emails to God knows who.  Having all four of us cooped up in this hotel room is making me batty, but Mitchell refuses to let anyone out of his sight, save Li who is still at the Ministry. 

The last time he had checked on us, he had calmly informed the team it had cost him a small fortune to pay off the hotel manager to “forget” he had ever seen me.  I already knew the manager was shady, so it wasn't a surprise to me.  I hadn’t responded at all to Mitchell, choosing to stare out the window instead.  All the other times he had addressed me since I had come to, I hadn't responded either.  I woke to find all three of them hovering around me while I lay on the floor.  I hadn’t been out long, but it had been enough to scare the shit out of Mitchell and Teddy.  Warner was another story.

She had, up to this point, shown very little reserve in sharing her opinion of me and my actions, nor did she seem too concerned about the fact that Mitchell had just dropped a bomb on me.  I am sitting in the rickety wooden chair over by the window, my feet propped up on the window ledge, staring out through the street grime at the building next door.  Someone’s laundry is strung up there, fluttering in the breeze. 

To be honest, I don’t know what to think, how to act or how to deal with her or any of this.  Between my total distrust of Mitchell, my discomfiture in having them here and the revelation regarding Vanessa, it would be an understatement to say I’m confused. I’ve tried so hard to put the pieces together in my mind and so far am coming up empty. 

Finally I can’t take her attitude any more. “If you hadn’t noticed, the place was kind of on fire.  What’s more important, saving lives or hiding my secret?” I stretch then and the chair creaks under me. 

"Yeah, but did you do it to save lives or just to act out?"

I turn my head from her, choosing to ignore her again.  All I want is to get out of this room, to walk, run, leap or whatever to clear my head, but given the amount of press coverage I am getting, my face would be a liability right now.

Teddy is hammering away on his laptop, grumbling every few minutes which seems to amuse Warner. 

“Give it up, you can’t fix this.” She says to him, shaking her head and waving her spoon.  “Aiden screwed up, there’s no way to counter that much network chatter.  It’s on the TV, the internet and there are even videos on You Tube.”