Chapter 4

They couldn’t be serious? Could they? Nope. This has definitely got to be all a horrible joke. Definitely, a sick twisted joke.

“Ok, just listen up. Your story has a few too many major holes in it. Let’s just say, hypothetically, that you actually are my dad and brother. Well then who in the world are the people I’ve been calling mom and dad all my life? Aliens? Yeah right. Also, I seriously don’t think my real parents would put me through all that pain just to tell me an overused Star Wars line. And if, hypothetically, you really were my dad, why give me away to strangers in the first place and then almost kill me to get me back?!”

“Well first of all, they weren’t strangers-” Carter started.

“Wait, who?” I interrupted.

“Your parents. Well, your temporary ones. Your mother and I hand selected them for what they could provide to you.”

I scoffed at this. “Sorry to disappoint you, but your parent choosing skills didn’t live up to your own expectations. You failed to notice that teachers don’t get a salary that is able to provide much their children.”

“But they could provide you with more than what money could: you got provided with top education in a secluded village where no-one else would have heard of you - that was vital to the plan - and so was you being able to act. Not in the Hollywood sense, but more like being able to convincingly hold a cover. It was all planned.”

“So you planned to kill me?” I asked, shocked.

Carter sighed as if talking to a child. “No. If we planned to kill you, you would have been dead already. We needed you alive.”

I looked at him quizzically. He continued.

“Straight after you were born, we received a message concerning your... uh... future. Or lack thereof.”

“So in other word you were going to kill me before I even had a chance to live?”

“No," he quickly cut in. "Your mother and I wanted you to live. You were our first born and a parent never can lose their love for their first child.”

“Then why did - whoever sent the message - want me dead?” I asked.

“We were their top agents-”

“Whose?” I interrupted.

He sighed irately, “You’re not authorized to know. But starting a family compromises our agent abilities and since we-”

“Agents?” I asked. “What do you mean, agents? As in spies?”

“Will you stop interrupting! Yes, agents as in secret missions. Anyway, your mother and I came up with a plan to place you in a home until you were old enough and then use you as an elite secret agent. One that not even the other agents would know about. That’s why we chose a secluded unheard of village. We posed it as if you had a condition that would kill you by the time you turn 18. That’s what your parents think has just happened. Of course it’s not true because we set you up. Anyway, so they liked our idea and allowed us to go along with the plan,” he smiled sadly. “We were just too happy to be able give you a chance at life, to be able to watch you grow.”

“So wait,” I turned to Drew. “Is this seriously true?” I asked.

He smiled and nodded.

“Oh,” I said and added after a bit of a hesitation. “Sorry about your hand.”

He chuckled softly. “Don’t worry about it.”

Just then the ambulance came to a stop and Carter and Drew quickly stripped off their ‘paramedic’ clothes, revealing black clothing underneath. The lady opened up the back door as Drew unstrapped me. I could see a helicopter in a clearing with Carter starting it up. With Drew’s help I attempted to stand up, but the sudden movement proved all too much for the events of today and I blacked out again. I felt pathetic for being weak and fainting on them again, but it’s their fault for drugging me in the first place.

***

When I came to this time I was lying in a large bed in a nice sized room. There was a large tv screen near the end of the room and a closed door but other than that there was nothing else.

“Where am I?” I wondered out loud.

“At your base,” a women’s voice replied, thoroughly surprising the peanuts out of me.

I glanced around the room but found no-one. Thightly clutching the blanket that was lying on top of me I spoke again.

“Who- who are you? I can’t see you?”

As I said that a computer generated female face lit up the screen, shocking me to the core.

“I am G-X-2,” it replied.

“Oh-kay, um, I’m Melissa,” I said hesitantly, slowly trying to get the absurdity of the situation to sink in. “Uh... G-X-2, can I ask you a question?”

“Yes, agent,” it replied.

“What are you? Like what are you supposed to do?” I asked.

“My job is to assist you in any way possible.”

“Oh... oh, ok. Cool,” I said. “Well then, how long have I been asleep?”

“10 hours.”

“Oh," I tried to think up another question. "And what’s the time?”

“5:42pm. Agents Carter, Jolene and Drew would like to meet you at 6pm to discuss your training.”

I nodded, still trying to take in all that I’ve just learnt. I got up and walked across to the door and tried to turn the round handle, but it seemed to be permanently stuck the way it was.

“Why won’t the door open?” I asked.

“The door handles are heat and fingerprint sensitive. That way, only cleared agents have access to certain rooms in the base. You have not been permitted to leave the room before 6pm.”

Wow, strict much?

“Heat sensitive...” I laughed out loud. “They probably knew I was coming and figured that they just can’t have someone as hot as me walking around, distracting everyone.” I smirked to myself as I slowly made my way back to my bed.

“Hot...? Do you have a temperature?” it asked.

“No, I’m fi-” I stopped. “Wait, I was being sarcastic.”

“Sar- cas- tic,” it repeated. “Please define.”

I snorted as I turned back towards my bed, responding the same way I always do to teachers who ask me the same thing. “Look it up.”

I lay back down, pulling the blanket once more over myself before I heard the computer's voice start up once more.

“Sar-cas-tic: adjective. The use of irony to mock or convey co-”

I burst out laughing when I looked up and saw that GX2 was no longer there but in her place on the screen was a Google page defining sarcasm.

“Again, I was being sarcastic,” I commented with a small smile still on my face.

The face reappeared.

“You were mocking me...?”

“No, I was joking with you. Seriously, you’re like a supercomputer and you didn’t know what sarcasm was?”

“Technically I am not a supercomputer and I have not been programed to-”

I cleared my throat, interrupting her.

“You were being sarcastic, weren’t you?”

“Ahhh... she learns fast doesn’t she?” I teases.

“Yes, I do. I have a continuously adapting operating system allowing me to recalculate and adapt to any number of a variety of situations. This enables me to learn at a rate faster than any human, however, while being able to learn facts extremely quickly we struggle to grasp concepts as easily.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, obviously such as sarcasm,” I mumbled, getting comfy under the blanket once more.

I sighed. “GX2. Is that like your name?”

“Yes, agent. It is unique to only me.”

“Well it’s a bit of a mouthful, isn’t it?”

“It has three syllables, just like your name: Mel-is-sa” she replied.

“Well I think I’m going to call you Nikky.”

“I do not think-”

“I’m going to call you Nikky,” I repeated, more firmly this time.

She smiled. “I appreciate the respect giving me a name implies.”

“Wait what? So no-one respects you?” I asked shocked.

“I am just a computer.”

“Well not to me. To me you’re going to be Nikky.” I stated.

“Thank-you, Agent.” She replied. “It is now 6pm, the door has been unlocked for you.”

I got up and walked to the door, reaching out for the handle. As soon as my fingers touched it, the door slid open revealing a long passageway. All the way down the hall were screens just like the one in the room I was just in.

“Um, Nikky?” I whispered. I didn’t know why I was whispering but it seemed appropriate at the time.

“Yes, agent?” the screen just to the right of me lit up with Nikky’s face.

I jumped, slightly surprised. “Uhh... where exactly do I go?”

“The last door at the end of the hallway,” she replied as a screen next to the end door lit up with an arrow.

I chuckled. “Thanks, Nikky.”

Her screen went blank once again so I wondered down the hall to the door, testing an odd door here and there to see if it would open. Surprize, suprize... they didn’t. But there is no harm in checking anyway, right?

When I reached the door that the arrow on the screen was pointing to, I touched the handle. The door slid open and I could hear all conversation stop as I entered the room.



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