Chapter 1.8: ‘Another ally’

Year: 2483 Month: June 2nd

Kai wakes up to a screaming headache and blinding lights all around him. He winces and squints, trying to figure out where he was. His attention is drawn by the sound of clicking, he turns to see Apollo sat at a desk in an office chair seeming to be working on a desktop computer. Kai groans and tries to get up, only to find his wrists to be bound to the bed. He starts to panic and, in a futile attempt, tries to break free. He struggles at the bonds and they dig into his wrists, causing him to yell out in pain. Apollo whips her head round towards Kai and hurries over to him. She turns off the lights above him and then grabs his face.

‘’Kai, stop struggling.’’

Kai stops and falls limply back onto the bed. Apollo unties the bonds and puts them onto a tray. Kai sits up and rubs his wrists. He looks around at the blank walls, he didn’t recognise the room. It had nothing but white paint on the walls, the room was quite small and the only furniture in the room was the bed, desk and tray.

‘’Where are we?’’ Kai mutters.

‘’In my office’’ Apollo responds. She smiles and then adjusts her glasses. ‘’The others are downstairs, I’ve got things to finish here so you go on ahead.’’

Kai stumbles off the bed and out the door. He closes it behind him and stretches.

‘I need to ask Harrison more questions’ Kai mumbles.

As he reaches the bottom of the stairs, Kai spots Harrison and Cayde discussing something. As he approaches them, he sees Cayde holding Harrison’s mask. Kai calls out to them,

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‘’Hey! What you guys doing?’’

They turn towards him and both wave slightly,

‘’Nothing much kid, just showing Cayde here my mask’’ Harrison takes the mask back off Cayde and puts it back onto his belt. Kai gulps and looks down,

‘’So, I just wanted to say.. that, I.. I’m sorry.’’

Harrison and Cayde both snicker and then burst out laughing, Kai frowns and sighs. They continue to laugh for around 2 minutes, mocking Kai and laughing at their own jokes. As they settle down Harrison wipes a tear from his eye and pats Kai on the shoulder.

‘’Its fine kid don’t worry about it. You wouldn’t have done much harm anyway.’’

Kai felt like his veins were going to pop.

‘’What’s that supposed to mean!?’’

Harrison grins and shrugs.

‘’You figure that out.’’

Cayde clears his throat and hands Kai the folder, jolting his head towards Harrison. Kai nods.

‘’Harrison, it’s time for your end of the bargain. We helped with your bullet wound, you help us out.’’

Harrison grabs his chin.

‘’But I did didn’t I? I gave the you an upgrade on your ability, and it seems the horn is gone as well.’’ Kai quickly feels his head, he didn’t even notice the horn was gone. ‘’And besides, depends on what you want me to do.’’

Kai takes a deep breath.

‘’We need help breaking someone out of a maximum security prison.’’

‘’No’’

Kai’s stomach drops.

‘’Why not?’’

Harrison palms his face.

‘’You saw didn’t you? I’m not that popular with the government right now, and breaking into a maximum security prison is just suicide.’’

Kai hands him the folder.

‘’Just take a look’’

Harrison scans through the folder, nodding to himself as he reads.

‘’Alright I’ll help.’’ Kai’s mind went blank. That didn’t take much convincing. ‘’But only if I can stay here.’’

Cayde grabs Kai’s shoulder. Kai turns around, Cayde nods.

‘’You can stay here Harrison, just go easy on the smoothies.’’

Harrison lets out a hearty laugh.

‘’Fine, Fine! Pleasure working with you kid!’’

Kai shakes his hand. Another strong person was on his side. This might go well. But only god knows what fate had in store for them.