Just who is this guy?

Captain Wayfinder was confused. He was visibly over the moon when she brought him food so she thought food was the way to get him to talk, but all it resulted in was him asking her if he could work for her. She was so confused now.

The guy wanted to be her assistant? Why on earth did he think she would accept that?

The one good thing though was that halfway through her conversation with him he stopped denying that he was not Torra. However, what he said at the end was the reason she was now running down the prison to the class 12 containment center.

“Captain Wayfinder, you’re clearly very intelligent and I am sincere in wanting to helping you as your personal assistant. To prove my value, allow me to say this,” he cleared his throat before continuing, “Torra meant for you to bring me to this place where there are no electronics, and you wouldn’t have any communication devices. That way, you would be out of reach while he frees the class 12s.”

Free the class 12s? Why? Captain Wayfinder was confused for a moment.

Then realization dawned on her.

Dr. Ratine had been captured way too easily, as if he wanted to be! He had allowed himself to be captured so he could meet the class 12s, her only hope of catching and containing him. Now that he knew where they were, he was going to remove them from her arsenal!

No, no, no, no! She screamed internally. She desperately hoped she wasn’t too late.

But reality proved that desperation was useless. When she finally arrived at the class 12 prison cells, they were gone.

Her father, the old man, and Sally. Their cells were empty and on the floor there was a note. It read:

—

Dear Captain Wayfinder,

I am terribly sorry for this intrusion, however let me be frank with you. The dude that is in the cell you had put Dr. Ratine in is also not me, Torra. He is in fact, another class 13 like me who has been hiding in the shadows. I haven’t the faintest hint of an idea what he wants with you folks at ASMR but I doubt it’s good. Most likely, since he didn’t help you catch me he has some nefarious plans for my world saving solution.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Please kindly lock the poser up. He isn’t actually capable of escaping from the class 12 prison cells. He just used you to get out.

And for the last time, Dr. Ratine really isn’t me.

Courtesy of,

The one and only, Torra P.

—-

What? Captain Wayfinder was suspicious of this note. Especially that last line.

Yes, she could no longer deny the possibility that Dr. Ratine wasn’t Torra but at the same time, if he really was and she had managed to catch him by surprise, this is probably what he would write. Most importantly, how did Torra find out about the class 12s if he had never been brought here? A class 13 was smart and certainly capable but at the end of the day he was an individual.

This facility had been created by the greatest minds of the government working together. Even if it couldn’t contain a class 13, it should be impossible for a class 13 to have followed her without her knowledge. Was the MSRA really that incompetent?

She didn’t believe so.

But then again he did hack into her computer a while back. This situation was incredibly confusing, it was nearly impossible to figure just what all Torra was capable of and that made determining what was really his intention or him just pretending to be flawless nearly impossible.

However all that wasn’t what caught her attention the most in the letter. It was the fact that Torra was pointing to the actor who she had found in Dr. Ratine’s cell as another class 13. She had no idea there was another one! Could he be lying? But why would he do that?

It didn’t make any sense. She better talk to him again.

Mulling over this she went back to the place she had locked him up. She decided to take her time because she wanted to test him. If he really was a class 13 who had some plans for the MSRA, he would be gone. If he didn’t have any plans for them, he would stay. Or he wasn’t a class 13 at all and was just too incompetent to escape. Or maybe he was and because she thought he would escape he wouldn't to lower her guard? God damn it, the more she thought the more confused she became! Where could she find a nice person at this level of intellect who would be honest with her? She sorely needed that kind of person in her life!

When she opened the door to the interrogation room, she found it empty.

Crap.

However as she was about to leave she noticed something carved on the table.

—

I really enjoyed dinner today Captain. I think you are a really smart and capable woman and would love to dine with you again sometime. If you’re free next Thursday, how about a lunch date at that cafe you frequent on 12th street?

Warmly,

A class 13 that is interested in taking you out, and unlike what Torra probably said, is not planning to use the MSRA for nefarious purposes: Laico

—

What the…?