The Shrink Program

Chapter 112

"Once Garmen has recovered enough, we'll evacuate him and the kids out of the facility." Peri declared enthusiastically, his contrastingly serious eyes meeting the gaze of every supervisor in the room.

At this Garmen grimaced silently, obviously annoyed that he had been put in the "Vulnerable Civilian" category with us.

"What about the other patents and staff?" Havoc sent a nervous glance at the three of us sitting on the desk. "This place is still crawling with the Underground intruders. If they start taking hostages...."

"If they were willing to do that, they would have done so by now." Reece intercepted gently, hand reaching up to straighten his small glasses.

"Instead, they sent a single boy to sneak in and get what they wanted, using the chaos to distract us from their real goals. It's obvious that they wanted to keep their intentions and motives a secret, to make this as quick and clean as possible."

I stared at Reece in unconcealed hero-worship. Not only was he nice and could kick ass, he was smart too.

Finally. A genius who isn't plotting against me.

"Exactly." Peri smiled appreciatively at the small man, holding up a lecturing finger to the people sitting in the "This plan sucks" corner.

"That being said, our best option is to get the children out of here. Once their mission becomes too prolonged and complicated, these intruders will have no choice but to abort."

At this, I glared moodily, not all that convinced that this was a good plan.

The idea of running away while every else was left to the whim of these criminals made my brain ache.

I was more of a "crush anyone who defies me" sort of girl anyway, so what I really wanted was to stay here and fight...

But being completely outnumbered and outgunned, the only other real option beside run would be for us to surrender...

"Why are these people even here in the first place?" Winkle demanded, glaring down at Jack frustratedly, who was all butterflies and smiles at the attention.

At this, most of the supervisors turned to stare at us.

Great, not this again...

"Ahem" I cleared my throat wryly. "Well, you guys are not going to believe this, but according to this week's teen magazine, I am the chosen one, destined to become the Dark Lord." I shrugged delicately. "These guys just came to pick me up for my Coronation party."

"What about me?" Nigel asked with an eager smile, to which I gave him an appraising look.

"You are my baggage." I declared, ignoring Nigel's crestfallen look as I pointed a haughty finger to Artemis, who had been sitting quietly beside him. "That goes for you to Shorty."

Startled out of his thoughts, Artemis blinked at me in confusion before comprehending what I had said.

"Honestly, Love." He sighed, leaning back. "If I'm going to be anything in this fantasy, I'd rather play the role of escort." Artemis sent me what seemed to be his most charming smile, but even I could tell it fell flat.

He's worried about something...

I glared, my face screwing up like I had just bitten down on a lemon."Not happening, Arty. One, you're old. Two, you're short, and Three, you're related to the guy who put me in not one, but three jars." I stared down at him like he was the scum of the earth. "Just be happy you get to come to my party at all."