Chapter 1.3: ‘Stranger at the tree’

Year: 2483 Month: May 27th

In the morning Kent called Kai to the sofa. He stumbles out of bed, rubbing his eyes he looks at the TV. A news report reads,

‘BREAKING NEWS, OFFICER ATTACKED IN SOUTH-WEST LONDON. POWER ENABLED SUSPECTED’

Kai flinches as he realises what it was about and slowly turns to look at Kent. He was stood with his arms folded, a menacing glare on his face. Kai looks down,

‘’ Sorry, but… I’m sorry’’

Kent sighs and walks over to kai, patting him on the shoulder.

‘’No more cover, but don’t worry, I’ll try to figure something out.’’

He walks away to his room, leaving Kai alone. Kai clenches his fists; he couldn’t bear having Kent do everything for him. Pulling out his phone, he looked at the message he received the day before. It was his only lead on anything, it was either a trap or an opportunity. Grabbing a scarf and face mask, he quickly got dressed into all black clothes and made his way outside the apartment.

He makes it through the city without getting caught by any officers. They had a description of him but not a tracker. He removes the mask and starts climbing the hill to the tree. As he reaches the top, he spots a woman stood at the foot of the tree. She had long black silky hair with matching black lipstick. She wore a black halter dress with grey high heels, and she was holding a black umbrella. The woman spots kai approaching and smiles sweetly. Kai didn’t like it. He stops a few metres in front of the woman and questions her.

‘’Did you call me here?’’

‘’Yes, I did’’ she nods and sticks out her hand ‘’ I’m someone who has been dying to make your acquaintance. I hope we get along well.’’

Kai ignores the gesture ‘’what’s your name?’’

The woman pouts at his rudeness.

‘’You know it’s not nice to ignore a woman’s greeting’’ she lowers her hand and smiles again, putting a finger against her lips’ ‘I’m afraid I cannot tell you as of now. However, I can assure you I am not someone who wants to hurt you.’’

Kai tuts and sighs deeply. ‘’ So why call me here?’’

The woman pulls out a handbag seemingly from nowhere and reaches inside, taking out a small folder. She places down the handbag and holds the folder out towards Kai. ‘’This is why’’.

Kai looks at the folder, then the woman. She stood there with a blank stare, yet still had a smile on her face. Kai steps forward and grabs the folder, the woman lets go and steps back. She motions towards the folder, ‘’Open it’’.

Kai looks down at the folder and does so. Inside were two sheets of paper, one of them had a map of a location North of London with some blueprints on the other side which looked like some sort of prison. On the other sheet of paper there was what Kai could only assume was a Criminal file. It had a picture of a young man with Dark hair and murky brown eyes. He had a thin scar over his left eye and a look that screamed death. Kai shuddered. The rest of the page was barely readable, but one thing caught Kai’s attention. It read:

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

‘Inmate requires max level containment and security. Inmate is capable of causing cataclysms of S class power.’

Kai almost dropped the folder. Cataclysms? S class? What was this guy’s ability? He had heard about how people with tremendous amounts of magical power could cause events know as ‘cataclysms’ but this folder is saying there are also different levels of cataclysms? He looks up to see the woman on her phone. She catches his stare and smiles again.

‘’Interested in him?’’

Kai gulps, who the hell was this woman? This information has to be confidential. If the public were to find out that someone this strong exists, there would be mass panic.

‘’W-why would I be?’’ Kai stutters.

The woman giggles and wags her finger,

‘’I’ll tell you why. Because if you are, you will never have to worry about the government again.’’

Kai’s eyes widen. Never worry about the government. It was too good to be true, but it would mean he could keep Kent and Nyx safe.

‘’How does worrying about an incredibly powerful criminal get the government off my ass?’’

The woman smiles widely, showing pearly white teeth.

‘’It’s simple, if you manage to break him out of the most secure prison in Britain then he will protect you.’’ The woman throws her hands up into the air, ‘’Doesn’t that sound amazing?’’

Kai takes a step back. She was insane.

‘’Oh, you don’t believe me?’’ she tilts her head, lowering her hands, ‘’Well I guess all I can give is my word but I assure you that he and I have made a deal’’

Kai still didn’t get it. ‘’what’s in it for you?’’ He glares at her.

She stops smiling. ‘’what’s in it for me? Well, that is simple’’ She drops the umbrella and lunges forward grabbing Kai’s hand, staring madly into his eyes, ‘’ I want to see the Government fall’’

Kai jolts backwards almost falling over. The woman lets go of his hand and steps back over to the tree. ‘’Have a think about it. Contact me if you want to help out. It’ll be worth it, I promise’’ The woman turns and winks before her eyes go a cloudy grey and a whirlwind of smoke surrounds her. As the smoke vanished, the woman was nowhere to be seen. Kai clutches the Folder in his hand and furrows his brow. She wants to see the Government fall huh? He liked that idea. He turns and heads back to his apartment.

Kai slams the door behind him and throws the folder onto the kitchen table. Kent looks at him oddly and then glances at the folder.

‘’what’s that?’’

Kai locks eyes with him.

‘’Plan B’’

Kent opens the folder and skims through it, his eyes widening as he progresses.

‘’Where did you get this Kai?’’

Kai shrugs and sits down on a stool.

‘’I guess you could say from a friend’’ He didn’t think it was a good idea to tell Kent he met up with another power enabled. He would go nuts. Kent rubs his forehead and places the folder back on the table.

‘’what is this ‘plan B’ anyway? All I’m seeing are potentially top-secret government files that could’ve been forged.’’

Kai gulps and stands up. Kent was gonna be mad.

‘’The map is of one of the most secure prisons in Britain, the Plan B is to break out an inmate from the most protected cell inside.’’

Kent stares at Kai with a completely blank stare. Kai stares back anxiously. Kent comes back to his senses angrily.

‘’This is stupid. You really believe you could pull this shit off? And even if you do how is that going to help us?’’ Kent angrily waves his hands at kai and paces back a forth.

‘’ I know that it would be difficult Kent, but we have blueprints here that show specific back entrances and luckily enough the phone Cayde gave me shows guard shifts at the prison as well’’

Kent places his palm against his forehead.

‘’Are you really that stupid? Simple entrances and guard shifts aren’t going to break a maximum-security terrorist out of prison Kai! This idea of yours isn’t just stupid, its suicide!’’

Kai nods.

‘’Exactly, but if we don’t attempt it, we get caught. If we attempt it and fail, we get caught. If we attempt it and succeed, we will at least spend the rest of our lives not in custody.’’

Kent slams his hands on the table and closes his eyes, gritting his teeth. Nyx hears the commotion and creeps out of Kai’s room, curious of the noise. Kai spots her and shakes his head, signalling that it was a bad time. She quickly whips round and enters his room again.

‘’Listen Kent, I’m not going to be alone. I won’t fail.’’

Kent looks up quickly, locking eyes with Kai.

‘’Of course you’re not going to be alone, if you’re doing this, then so am I.’’ He grabs Kai’s hand and pulls him into a hug ‘’Fuck it, let’s go.’’

Kai hugs Kent back. He had made up his mind. He won’t fail. He’s going to teach this government a lesson. He’s going to protect his family. He’s going to survive.