The sound of the emergency response team and nurses clamouring jeered Ryan the moment he burst through the clinic's sliding glass doors, carrying Holly with her weight pressed heavily against his side. Her jacket was soaked in blood and her face pale as her breathing grew shallow.
The main emergency ward was in absolute disarray. Senior staff and head surgeons were completely absent, pulled away into the high-security surgical wing where Detective Quive's miraculous transplant was still wrapping up.
Only a young, flustered ER resident in oversized scrubs hurried over to intercept them, gesturing frantically to a gurney.
"What happened to her? Is that a gunshot—"
"Ah, it's a tool handling accident, the drill and screw bounded off the home furniture we were working on....humm" Ryan lied through his gritted teeth, hoisting Holly onto the narrow bed.
"A nail also shot past the frame and cut through her arm. Just stop the bleeding and patch the wound please."
Before the doctor could press further, Ryan's phone vibrated violently against his hip. He pulled it out, seeing the name, He brought the receiver to his ear.
"Ryan," Fiona's voice escaped the speaker, laced with absolute urgency.
"So....ummm, things have gone a bit awry, but we need things up to speed. Em could you show up near the Bar at Bill Curt's workshop. Lira's vision is blurring—we've only got a five-day opportunity before things get...never mind, the mark on her wrist is already burning out, shoot ."
"Wait, Fiona, I'm at the clinic with Holly, she's—"
"There is no time,hurry" Fiona cuts him off before he could even finish his sentence, her tone gave no room for debate.
Click.
The line went dead before Ryan could even pitch his response. He stared at the darkened screen, his chest heaving as a bitter curse escaped his lips.
He turned back toward the gurney where the young ER doctor was already cutting away Holly's blood-stained sleeve, prepping a local anesthetic.
Holly caught Ryan's eye, offering a faint, strained nod through the pain. "Go," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "I can take care of things from here."
Ryan swallowed the lump in his throat, silently praying her metallic skin residue wouldn't flare up under the doctor's scalpel and expose them both. "I'll ring Dr Gadhi," he muttered, turning on his heel and vanishing out the rear exit toward the industrial district.
Five miles away, the wailing sirens had finally quieted down inside the central precinct.
Rose and Scarlet sat side by side on steel chairs in an enclosed interrogation room on the second floor. Having been picked up by state troopers near the collapsed fire escape under suspicion of grand public vandalism and reckless endangerment, both black-ops operatives sat with their hands folded neatly in their laps, completely unbothered by the heavy lock on the door.
When the leading precinct officer stepped in, clipboard in hand, Rose offered a polite, practiced smile, answering every mundane question with seamless civilian cover stories—a tragic structural failure of an old building while they were out shopping.
"I've heard enough of the tourist narrative," the leading officer grunted, slamming his pen onto the table.
"Four tons of steel don't just 'fall off' a brick facade while two out-of-towners happen to be standing right beneath it."
Before he could pull out a set of cuffs, the door clicked open. Janvis stepped into the room, her grey linen blazer pristine gave her a air of authority compare to the last time they had previously met.
"Leave us, Officer," Janvis commanded softly, holding up a high-level administrative clearance badge. "I'll handle the secondary deposition personally."
The officer obviously discomforted with the situation, looked between Janvis and the two unbothered women, before gathering his files and stepping out into the hall, shutting the heavy door behind him. The lock engaged with a solid, echoing click.
Silence settled over the interrogation room. Janvis stood near the observation mirror, leaning against the ledge as she adjusted her eyelashes with her left hand—completely unaware of the microscopic, iridescent catalyst that had absorbed into her skin hours prior.
"You two certainly know how this goes so I suppose I won't need to follow procedures with senior officers such as yourselves ," Janvis said cautious of any one trying ti eavesdrop.
"The precinct is calling it a domestic terror threat and as you know the state troopers want to vent their frustration of the recent back to back incidents ."
Scarlet tilted her head, her dark eyes locking onto Janvis through the dim fluorescent light. "The state troopers don't have the security clearance to know what we do, neither do you Janvis. Unless of course you want your name attached to a Grishile audit."
Janvis's gaze narrowed. "I'm not the enemy here, Rose, need I remind you that you are here as cooperatives even if you have been given authority to oversee things here."
Rose leaned forward slightly, resting her elbows on the cold steel table. "Hehe, since you put it that way, then listen carefully, we encountered former fugitives from our manhunt list. Unregistered superhumans or better still anomalies who were deliberately omitted from your regional sector reports."
Janvis gave a slight tremble, though a subtle flicker of tension which crossed her jaw was more obvious.
"Anomalies ?"
"Yup, trust me if the lot of you were to go after then you'd most likely drop dead," Rose confirmed with a soft playfulness.
"One of them is a high risk one while the other well that seem like a new person not recorded in our logs. Seem like someone here has been quietly hiding intelligence from Detroit, Detective Janvis. Or worse, someone locally is covering for them."
" There is a possibility that they are creating a dangerous group if people with similar ideals " Scarlet added, relaxed.
Janvis held Rose's gaze for a few seconds, before answering, "If you think I'm shielding rogue assets, you're welcome to run my comms and data logs. But if those anomalies are creating their groups, it isn't because of a local oversight. It just means you people ought to have noticed us"
" And then what?, if information leaks through that process, then panic spreads and when that happens, violence becomes unavoidable. Then we become short staffed and then what?" Scarlet scoffed.
"Well that's true, so how do we move forward with the whole situation" Janvis asked stepping closer to the table, " there's also Bill situation as he had done four more abductions as go recent. It can't be that are in cooperation with him...right?."
" Most likely...or not. Well just have to see" Scarlet let out a quiet amused hum.
While janvis was busy thinking and digesting all she heard, the sound of chain snapping brought her back to reality. Rose and scarlet had broken off their handcuffs with their sheer force almost effortlessly.
"Just so you know these locks were fragile" rose playful voice was heard.