Rage and Ruin | 2

1 | 6

J A X O N

      We all sat in the room, combing through articles and newspapers in our search for the masked assassin's next target. We were searching for any clue as to who he'd want to kill now. Other than us, of course.

     I glanced up as Hunt, who'd been sitting at the table going through news articles on his phone, excused himself from the room to take a phone call.

      He'd been surprisingly helpful lately and it made me wonder. Had his heart suddenly turned to gold overnight or did he want something in return? I wanted to believe that he could do something out of the good of his heart, but I wasn't sure if that was the case.

      Letting out a breath, I turned my attention back to the newspaper articles piled on my lap. I obviously had not found anything helpful and it made me angry. I felt like I should be doing something to help and I hated that I couldn't. My hands itched for the tools I kept in the toolbox in my room. I wanted to work more on the new weapons I'd been designing recently. I wanted to be useful.

     One of the articles caught my eye as I rifled through them. I pulled it out of the pile and scanned the page until I found the words that had caught my eye in the first place.

     Sherman Penitentiary. 

     An upstate prison that was infamous for the dangerous criminals it housed.

      It also housed an unfortunate part of my life.

      The police were everywhere. Red and blue lights were burned onto the backs of my eyelids. Sirens faded to the background.

      I met the gaze of eyes identical to my own. All my life, I'd gotten compliments on my light blue eyes. People had praised me for it. Little did they know, I'd inherited them from my father.

      My father and I were pushed apart by the police. Despite his part in the situation, his face was still set in firm disapproval. The lines of his face creased deeper as he looked at me.

It was the last time I'd seen him.

I inserted the article into the middle of the pile, not wanting to see it anymore. That time of my life was over.

      Hunt walked back into the room, pushing his phone into his pocket. He walked into the center of the room, looking like he had something to say to us.

      "I might have something," the director announced, making all the eyes in the room lay on him in expectance.

      "Did you all hear about senator Steve Harding?" he asked. Had he been killed by Imperium?

"No, what did he do?" Riley asked curiously, always one for gossip.

"He got caught in a massive scandal a few days ago for getting accused of tax fraud and paying off the authorities."

"Interesting," I said, also loving gossip.

"What does this have to do with Imperium?" Gigi asked.

"I'm getting to that," Hunt insisted and went on. "He was going to have a very public press conference and an apology speech today. There was a lot of publicity for it. However, it was moved back two days and is now being held in Boston instead of Providence."

"That is suspicious," Finn said. "Do you think that someone was paid off to change the venue because he's the next target?"

"I'm not sure," the director admitted, "But it's worth investigating."