Chapter 3 – Page 2

Julia Parkins was the general secretary of Pandora. She kept all the files in order and was the coordinator for everything that happened within the complex. Her schedules had schedules.

Normally, she considered herself a practical woman not easily swayed by emotions. That is until the arrival of Andan Bach. He was a very handsome man, late twenties, just around her own age. He had a low, smooth voice and chocolate brown eyes that seemed to swallow you whole. She had a thing for eyes. It was always the first thing she noticed.

He was different than any man that she had ever met. He had a dangerous air about him that made him hard to resist. She had fallen for him the first moment she saw him.

Andan notices her flittering around him in an effort to make him notice and promptly wrapped her around his finger. He found that she would do anything for him. While a bit annoying, she was a useful little play toy. He amused himself with their jaunts in dark rooms.

But, it was all coming to an end now. Tension between the United Social Communist Union and the Confederate of North America had risen. Project Whitehill was almost complete. One super soldier was never the plan, though Number 7 had undergone “training” just in case. Andan laughed whenever he thought about it. That training was just a farce.

In the end, the USCU needed an army, and now they would get it.  Several days ago, a serum based on Number 7’s DNA had proven successful. His regenerative powers could be passed on to others. All that was needed was to mass produce the product. With the project over in just a few more days, Andan hoped that he would be allowed to deal with the clone however he saw fit.

In the mean time, he decided to enjoy himself with Julia one last time in a way that would be most pleasurable. He smirked as she eagerly followed him to the quiet, seldom used morgue, unaware of what he had in store for her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seven had taken to watching Andan’s meta-link over the past few days. It allowed him to see where the man was in the complex, and if he wanted to, see directly what the man was seeing.

It made him feel safer, being able to track the man without him knowing, and it gave him a feeling of being in control, however slight it was.

More importantly, Seven knew that he needed to know where the man was when Lex came. Andan was by far the most dangerous person in Pandora. So, he kept a mini map of the complex open at all times, tracking everyone in the building through their links. A heavy emphasis was placed on Andan. His dot was by far the biggest.

Seven glanced at his map while practicing bouncing off walls. His eyebrows scrunched up when he noticed Andan and Julia were both in the morgue that housed his mom’s body.

Normally, he wouldn’t change to Andan’s view. He accidentally did that once, and though he couldn’t see much, the sounds that Julia gave him the creeps. He never looked again. This time, however, he had an uncomfortable feeling that he couldn’t place. After a moment’s hesitation, he switched views.

Screaming assaulted his ears. This wasn’t at all the sounds that had come in the past. It was full of pain and horror. The only other time he had ever heard screaming like this was from the soldier Andan had killed in the video.

“Calm down, love. No need to get worked up. It will only hurt at first,” he heard Andan say. Seven was horrified. The sergeant was going to kill her.

Seven never had much of an impression of Julia. She was nice, but distant. Most of the time, he forgot that she even existed. But this was wrong. Nobody deserved to die at the hands of a psychopath.

He discovered for the first time that he had a deep ingrained sense to helping those in danger. He never noticed it before because nothing like this had ever happened. Maybe he gained it when the world turned his back on him. Maybe he had an inherent need to prove that he was different from them. However it came to be, there was no question that Seven would help Julia.

He’d have to use his escape route, the one he had been planning on using when Lex arrived. It was the air vent on his ceiling. Every night since Lex contacted him been working on getting it open. He’d loop the security feed of the camera they installed two years back and slowly work the screws loose with his fingers. It was hard and sometimes made his fingers bleed, but it was well worth it. He had finally gotten it off last night If he leafy the screws lightly attached no one would notice. It disappointed him that he probably wouldn’t be able touse the route anymore after this.

Quickly, he pulled off the vent cover, not even bothering to loop the camera feed, and swooped through the vents towards the morgue.

Traveling through the vents was harder than he thought. Even when making himself weightless and pushing off walls, he still found himself getting stuck at random corners and curves it slowed him down substantially.

His map showed that Andan and Julia were still there when he finally got to the morgue. He was glad he made it in time. Except, he hadn’t thought far enough ahead to figure out how he was going to get the vent cover off.

He hadn’t even thought about what he was going to do if he did get it off. Should he surprise attack Andan? Wouldn’t that just get him killed? Did he even have any other options? He should have gotten someone to help him, but who would? And he couldn’t now when he was stuck in a vent.

Then he heard Julia give a weak cry, more of a gurgle than anything else. Seven felt desperation wash over him. He leaned on the vent grate, and it collapsed underneath him. He fell through the opening.

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