They Called Her the Devil

Chapter 28, Kate

Code orange. Why did it have to be a code orange of all things? Code purple would have been fun. Code pink would have meant a few evacuations. But Code orange.

High-level prisoner escape. Xander.

I sprinted down the hall surrounded by a group of guards. Sirens had started to go off and they were getting on my nerves.

How had this even happened?

I passed the interrogation room Xander should have been in. Guards scoured the area for any clue about who had helped him. Whoever did this was going to pay.

Then we saw them. We turned the corner just as Xander killed the last guard standing. He'd gotten a gun and had wasted no time using it.

Xander and Leo both turned at the same time and started shooting. Two men jumped in front of me and fell to the floor, dead. Within seconds all of my guards had fallen.

I ducked around the corner and pulled my gun. I managed to shoot Leo's gun out of his hand then Xander's. I'd never liked the odds of dying in a shootout.

I walked out and smiled. I was the only one with a weapon. I'd won.

But something was off. I hadn't shot them yet. Why hadn't I shot them yet?

"Kate, please," Xander begged.

"I'm sorry."

I pulled the trigger.

The bullet hit the wall three inches to the right of Xander's head. I tried again but my gun clicked.

Out of ammo.

Xander and Leo, seeing their chance, took off running. They made it to the end of the hall and out the emergency exit. Outside security wouldn't get them; in all the madness they'd be securing the ground perimeter.

The exit they'd gone through led to the helicopters.

I hadn't missed a shot like that since I was fifteen.

I would have stood staring at that wall for hours had I not heard a faint coughing noise. Sam, one of my best agents, was lying on the floor half-dead in a pool of her own blood.

She coughed again and tried to sit up before collapsing to the floor. Xander could wait. I pulled off my light sweatshirt and applied pressure to the wound.

I yelled at the top of my voice for someone to come. I heard footsteps coming down the hall and breathed a sigh of relief. I wasn't going to lose her.

Two men walked over. They clearly hadn't recognized my voice or they'd have sprinted. One of the men, actually he was more of a boy, laughed.

"What are you doing here girl?" he smirked, "I don't remember ordering a stripper."

I picked up a gun and shot him.

His friend clearly had more common sense as he ignored the body and pulled a first aid kit out of a pocket on his belt. He handed me a syringe of MC-57, saluted, and left.

Seven minutes later Sam was sitting up complaining about the hole in her favorite shirt. I normally would have laughed along with her but I wasn't in the mood.

How had I missed that shot?

Ten minutes later I'd called together my best people and a few people I didn't mind killing to make a point. We were going to figure out how two boys had managed to break out of the most secure prison in the world.

I'd changed into a sleek black dress and matching blazer. I'd also strapped several knives to my belt and a gun in case anyone tried to question me. I'd even bothered to stick my face in a makeup machine for two minutes.

When I walked in everyone stood at attention. I sat down at the head of the table and started fiddling with my mother's knife. After a minute I smiled.

"Robert," I addressed the head of the guards, "care to tell me how two unarmed kids managed to break out of the base."

"We think they had help on the inside, I mean how else would they be able to disable the security cameras?"

"And who exactly helped them?" I asked.

Robert pushed a button on his x-com and it displayed an image of a man in a guard uniform. After a second I recognized the idiot who'd thought I was a stripper.

If Bigfoot had made it into the Silver Order it didn't surprise me that this guy would have ties to them. And considering I'd already shot him that would make my life easier.

"As of now we don't know where he is, but I have guards looking for him as we speak," Robert delivered the news as if he were a brilliant strategist and not an idiot doing the most obvious solution.

"Did you bother to check the bodies?" I asked.

"Of course we checked the bodies, we aren't idiots," he lied condescendingly.

I, of course, shot him.

"If he were telling the truth he'd have noticed that I killed this boy earlier." I gestured to Robert's body, "this is why you don't lie to me."

"Are you sure killing the captain of the guards without your father's permission is a good idea?" one of my strategists asked.

I shot her as well.

"And that is why you don't question me. There is one person who can question me, he is not here."

Everyone else shrunk into their seats. Sam and Lia, the only two people in the room I actually trusted, smiled at me. Lia had the audacity to wink.

I would have smiled back. But I'd failed; I didn't want to smile now.

Then the door burst open and Derek stumbled in. Had it been anyone else I probably would have shot them. I was that pissed.

"Kate," he panted, "there's something you need to see."

He pulled out his x-com and a file appeared in front of me. My heart dropped as I read the first few lines.

"Do we have a location?" I asked Derek.

"A warehouse in Baltimore."

"Sam I want you on this."

***

Hey guys! What do you think now that Xander and Leo have escaped? Will Sam get away with helping them escape? What document did Derek show Kate? Please vote and comment, I want to know what you think!

-Jade