Friend and Foe

Chapter Thirteen

It was too easy to drop out of university.

I spoke to the Student Adviser for half an hour going over my decisions and then I simply signed a declaration and I was removed from that scholar life. I was free. Free from that life that I could no longer stand to be a part of.

Why should I have been pursuing my dreams and living my life when I had taken that all away from my best friend?

I couldn't call him my best friend anymore, but I couldn't help it. It was automatic.

A weight, that I hadn't realised was sitting on my shoulders, lifted as I left campus. It was a slight weight compared to the others that I carried but it was a relief none the less to have it gone.

I could have skipped happily. I didn't though, I just got on a bus. A bus, a train, and another bus later I was standing outside of The Hub.

Deep breathes, my inner voice said to the nerves that rose up at the sight of the deceptively simple façade of The Hub. Deep breaths.

"Deep breaths," I repeated aloud.

I wasn't going to let them see me in the state I had stewed in for the past fortnight. I wasn't going to let them see me weak. That was imperative. I couldn't give them a way to get to me. I wasn't going to let them know that I had never been as strong as I thought I was.

Another deep breath and I pushed the doors open.

I was three steps in the building when every person in the central room came to a grinding halt. Every eye glued to me, heads turning to mark my path. The whispers started the second before the elevator doors slid shut. I hit the button for the top floor and stepped to the back, letting the railing dig awkwardly into my spine.

Gwen was waiting for me when the doors opened, leaning casually against the door frame to her office. She raised an eyebrow at me as I stepped out of the elevator, slinging my backpack of my back.

"Well, Parker, we have to talk about discipline if you think ignoring my communication attempts was wise," she told me in a cool voice.

"My Companion was dead." I shrugged and dumped my bag at her feet, "Sorry."

"You are aware that a Companion is constantly transmitting audio back to your handler." It wasn't a question, so I just smiled and shrugged again, thinking about all the swearing I did to it in the past fortnight.

"Oopsies?"

"There were a few choice words on the transcripts sent to my office. I'd never have thought of you to be the one for such creative language," she said, pushing off the door frame.

"Look I'm really loving chatting with you," Gwen snorted in amusement, "but I'm here for a reason."

"And that would be to do what?" She looked down at my backpack with distaste. "Deliver a bomb?"

I ignored her. "I'm here to retire. The bag has both my suits in it and my Companion. I am now going down to the Medical Ward where they will remove the damn chip. I am then going to leave and none of you will see me again. And you are going to call down to the Medical Ward and give them the clearance to operate." I backed into the elevator and hit the button for second floor.

She didn't look at all surprised by my demands. Instead, the last I saw of her as the elevator doors slid close was her turning her back to go into her office.

Or at least that was what I thought to be the last of her.

When the door slid back open on the second floor, she was waiting for me, gripping the strap of my bag in a grip so tight that her knuckles were white. I bit back my cry of surprise at seeing her there and stepped out of the elevator. I found a little bit of satisfaction at the slight pant to her breathing.

"Enjoy your work out?"

"No, this time you listen to me," she snapped, throwing the backpack at me. I reflexively caught it before dumping it on the floor. "You are not retiring. You don't get to be in charge after you have a little mood swing. I'm the boss and therefore you do not tell me what to do. You will take this damn bag, go have a bullshit life-affirming moment or whatever little drama you need to make yourself feel better and then when I call you in two weeks you will cooperate and report for duty."

If my back wasn't already raised, it definitely went up then.

I kicked at the bag, sending it spinning across the floor. "No. I am no longer a little puppet for this... shitshow pretending to save the world. There is something so wrong with this organisation that you can ask me to kill a man and I'll do it blindly."

"That's called obedience. Apparently, you haven't been trained in it enough," she said.

"What about values?"

"People without them tend to be easier to manipulate." Her next words weren't spoken but we both heard them clear enough. You, for example.

I almost punched her then, my hands curling into fists so tight that my nails bit into my palms as a roar, tore through my brain. A sane part of my mind echoed its earlier words in a quiet voice.

Deep breaths.

I took one. Two. Three.

On my fourth breath I spun and hit the button for the elevator. The roaring was in my head and I still wanted to punch Gwen, but I had just enough sense not to.

The button didn't light up. I pressed it again. Still, nothing.

"The elevator must be out again, it does that sometimes," Gwen said, in a self-satisfied way that was no better than her infuriated tone of moments before. "You could take the stairs."

I didn't look at her, "Where are they?"

"Second door on your right."

When I looked up, she was gone. The bag was still on the floor, I kicked it as I passed, making my way to the door. Pushing it open, I expected a stairwell.

Instead I got a bedroom.

It took me a moment to comprehend what was going on and, in that moment, I was able to take in a few details. The room was sparse and appeared unlived in, except it was occupied by a gangly young man with a mop of dark brown hair. I froze as the familiar form turned to me, convinced with every fibre of my being that I was hallucinating.

His eyes widened in shock when they landed on me. "Wisp?"

The nickname that only he called me sounded wrong. So wrong on his lips.

He stepped towards me. "Parker."

My name. My secret identity, that he was never intended to know, was foul from his mouth.

Magnet's mouth.

I didn't give him a chance to come any closer before I spun and fled.