Sebastian woke to the sound of an explosion. He was standing at the cell door when his rescuers slid it open. It was the cold, brooding detective from earlier, decked out in his signature trench coat. Chuck or Chase or something. What was he doing in Triumphia. Next to him was a woman with long red hair and a fashionable suit. She had one hand on her hip and the other wrapped around a sleek, navy-blue handgun. It looked identical to one of his.
The woman trained the gun on Sebastian’s forehead. “Why did they kidnap you?” she demanded, twisting her face into the most intimidating expression she could muster. How cute. If she wanted to play bad cop, then Sebastian could certainly play innocent victim.
“That’s no kind of introduction!” he said brightly. “I’m Sebastian, what’s your name?”
“I need to know why they kidnapped you or I will lock you up for a long, long time,” she said.
“You’ve already got me in jail.” Sebastian made a sweeping gesture to his living quarters. “Why should I answer you?”
“Because I’ll kill you,” she said.
It’s not like Sebastian knew why they kidnapped him. Well, he did know why. He stole some of Triumphia’s technology. But it’s not like the dictator had personally paid him a visit to explain what they wanted from him now. Maybe they wanted to kill him. Maybe they wanted to turn him into a clone! And who was she, anyway? She looked like all of the other Malum officers: tall, pale, wiry, and powerful, with smooth movements, striking hair, and a vicious smile.
“You kill me, and you’ll never get the information you want,” he said.
Sebastian could see the wheels turning in her head, and he knew that he had the upper hand as always. Chase seemed completely lost, his head swinging between the two of them like he was on a pendulum.
“Fine,” said the red-haired woman. “If you don’t want to tell me now, then I guess you’ll just have to come with me. I can torture it out of you.”
“Like the way Malum was planning to torture me?”
“Good, you’re familiar.”
Chase chose that moment to push the agent next to Sebastian and slam the cell door shut on the two of them. Sebastian sighed. He watched the agent’s eyes go wide– she hadn’t been expecting Chase to turn on her.
“Braya, you can either explain what’s going on, or I will lock you both in here and leave myself.”
“Chase, there’s no way you can get out alone.”
“Watch me!”
“I’ll explain everything if we make it out of here. All three of us.”
Sebastian listened to them go back and forth, and sat back down on his cot. This was ridiculous. He finally had a rescue mission (not that he needed to be rescued), and his rescuers weren’t even on the same page. Chase started talking about Goliath industries, and the agent– Braya– kept apologizing for using Chase as a human shield. From what Sebastian could gather, she had received some mission to capture Sebastian, and then Triumphia had sent in more experienced agents for the job. Poor girl. She had no clue what Triumphia was capable of, and she didn’t even know why she was here. And in the meantime, Braya had roped in a bumbling detective probably because she thought he was attractive and Sebastian just wanted to be alone.
Finally, after an endless conversation where Chase demanded to know how Braya had wiped out thirteen agents, and Braya explained Triumphia’s narcolepsy bombs and how they can be programmed to protect the person or people deploying it, they fell silent and Chase opened the cell door. Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Are you done?” he said.
“Well, she said the bomb’s effects last ten minutes. We have to go,” said Chase.
“And what’s your grand plan, agent?” Sebastian said, striding past Braya. He walked down the long expanse of hallway into the control room, where the fallen agents were just starting to twitch.
“I’m taking you both to the Hub as prisoners,” Braya said behind him. “On the way there, we’ll conveniently disappear.”
“Wonderful,” he said. At least she had a brain. “Luckily, I know a place to hide.”