Betrayal

Lowering her sight Carla could see that she, too, was shaking, she could even feel all her hair slowly erect due to the fear and the anxiety which could unconsciously activate her power. At that moment, she knew that she had to quickly calm herself, otherwise, Volga would see that and would consequently discover about her secret powers, but whenever she tried, the images of what just happened would flash in her mind, making her adrenaline rise and subsequently reactivate her powers.

Soon, the fear and anxiety left the place to rage and anger. Her mentor had betrayed them. The man she trusted the most, so much that she could even sacrifice her life for him, had just stabbed in the back of the whole army by killing its leader.

" Yes, we should hurry up and go help him, " she said while putting a step forward. Volga raised her arm in front her before she could go anywhere. " You promised me that you won't panic and you will stay calm no matter what happens, " she said without turning her head to look at her.

" But, if we don't do anything quickly he may die, " the young woman replied while tightening her fists, her legs were shaking and she could feel her heart racing, but Volga was silent. Carla stared at her while trying to figure out what thoughts were occupying her mind to make her stay calm after just having seen her friend getting shot.

As her anxiety was increasing her hair became so hard and straight that, on the outside, it was as if sharp spikes were stuck on her back.

" Jamal knew it, " Volga finally confessed after what Carla had felt like an hour of silence. The captain was still staring at the foot of the parking ahead of them, where Jamal had fallen as if she was waiting for something to happen.

In Carla's ears, it was like Volga's voice was coming from afar, she had to concentrate very much to understand what she was saying while repressing all her negative emotions to be able to articulate a reply, " what... what did you say? "

As they were talking Carla could feel her heartbeats slowing gradually while her hair started to lose its hardness and slowly falling on her back.

" I said that Jamal knew that Nelson would do that, " Volga repeated in a calm voice that Carla hadn't noticed before, " our secret conversation... as you have said, it was about this. He told me that Konny would ask Nelson to kill him and that he would accept ".

" But why would she do that? We are here to help her after all, " Carla asked as the story started to become more and more confusing.

" I asked myself the same question and now the answer seems quite obvious. It is because she may not be whom she pretends to be " Volga responded.

Carla frowned, " What does it mean? "

" It's difficult to explain, but patience, it may soon be clear, " she just said.

[ That does not help me much ] Carla thought but didn't say it out loud. " But why Nelson had accepted to betray us like this? " she asked instead as this fact was still bothering her mind.

" I couldn't answer that question and Jamal had some doubts about it but he didn't affirm anything. I thought that maybe... " she shook her head before she could finish as if she wanted to get rid of some bad thoughts. But she didn't have to complete her explanation for Carla to understand what she was about to say, [ Konny was using Sania as means to convince him ].

" That bitch! " Carla couldn't help but snarl between her teeth, hopefully, it seemed that Volga didn't hear that or at least didn't give much attention. Suddenly another inquiry popped up in her head as she still felt something was not right, " but if Jamal already knew that, why did he let him... why didn't you try to stop him or at least fight back? "

Volga sighed while shaking her head, meaning that she didn't know either, " he said that if we wanted to obtain all the pieces necessary to complete that puzzle we had to let Nelson do it... and he made me promise that no matter what, I shouldn't do anything to stop him ".

Carla finally realized she was in the wrong, since they had arrived there she had been acting like a child thinking that her reaction was legit and justifiable while not knowing that her anger was not comparable to what Volga was feeling at that moment. The latter knew, from the beginning, what was about to happen but she couldn't do anything.

[ She must feel completely powerless ] the young woman realized, [ she must have been holding herself, with all her might, to not run to help him, or at least to verify if there is a remaining drop of life in him if there is still a small chance for him to survive. But she can't. All she can do is staying here watching for an unknown something to happen ], Carla clenched her teeth [ her frustration must be way greater than mine ].

Carla finally stepped back, she bent over and remained silent while observing in the same direction as Volga.

Soon, they saw two people, one man, and a woman, running toward where Jamal had fallen. The woman helped her friend to carry Jamal on his back and they started running in the direction they came. " Shouldn't we stop them? " Carla asked as they were about to lose sight of them, Volga shook her head and said, " let's follow them instead, I'm confident that we will get more information this way ".

The two women paid attention to not get too closer to the people carrying Jamal while carefully hiding in some good places where the potential enemies, watching the streets from the windows of the buildings around, would not be able to catch a glimpse of them.

After a long walk, they finally stopped at the foot of a tall building, probably one of the highest in the whole quarter. Volga and Carla found a place to hide and observe, at the same time, what was going on. They saw the woman stepping toward the entrance, a glass door on which she knocked many times following a particular rhythm, [ probably a secret code ] Volga guessed, and a moment later the door was opened. A man came out, he said something while pointing to Jamal, Volga understood that he was probably asking some explanations about him and it seemed that the woman had pretty good reasons since the guard nodded and let them enter.

When the guard closed the door behind them Volga turned to Carla and told her with her eyes full of determination, " we have to find a way to enter in ".

They both started to observe the building carefully looking for a way to penetrate it but they couldn't find any. There were two entrances, the one in front of them and probably another in the back of the building, the windows were sealed and way too high to be attained while the walls were too smooth to try to climb, and even if they could they would probably get noticed.

Suddenly, Carla's sparkled as she just got an idea, " I have a plan " she said to Volga.

The latter turned head excitedly and asked, with her full of expectations, " really? "

" Yeah, let's directly pass by the entrance, " she responded.

Volga released a sigh of disappointment and was about to continue to inspect the building when Carla grabbed her arm, " hold on hold on, don't get disappointed so soon, and let me explain my point first ". She leaned forward toward Volga's ear and exposed her plan.

A few moments later, they were running toward the entrance, Carla had noticed that on that side of the building they didn't risk being seen by anyone as there were no watchmen in the construction in front. They both went to stand in front of the walls, at both sides of the main entrance to avoid being exposed by the transparency of the glass door.

Volga nodded at her as to tell her to go ahead. Earlier Carla had revealed to her that she had memorized the secret code the woman had used to open the door. Volga was quite surprised and was even worried that she may have got it wrong but the young woman ensured her that it was the good code and, in the end, Volga decided to just trust her.

She knocked at the door while following the rhythm she remembered the young woman of earlier had used and they waited silently for a short while, as the suspense was getting heavier at each second passed until the guard finally opened the door.

" Who the hell is there? " he shouted while he was pushing the door. Volga, who was then just next to him, punched him hard on his chin and before he realized anything he fell unconscious on the ground. Carla helped her to pull him inside where they tied him down and locked him in a locker.

" Now what do we do? " Carla asked Volga in a low to not take the risk to be heard.

The latter was already inspecting the surrounding. She noticed the stairs leading to the upper levels, at two meters ahead of them, and straight ahead was a dark hallway. The building was surely used to be a residence for people so Volga could guess that upstairs were the apartments. " We have to find where did they bring Jamal " she responded in a low voice too.

" And how are we supposed to do that? "

" We could wait for this guy to wake up and torture him and extract the information we want, but... we don't have time and I'm not in the mood to torture anyone, " she responded casually, not aware that she just increased the fear Carla had of her. She thought a little bit and said, " until here we can suppose that this building is actually their HQ, which means that those guys of earlier were bringing Jamal to their boss ".

" So we just have to figure out where is their boss, huh? " Carla directly understood and gave a suggestion right after, " let's go up. Normally people with power love staying in high places, maybe because of their egos ".

" That is a reasonable proposition but I don't think it's the right answer ". Volga raised her forefinger before Carla, " Remember, Konny has said that Phil was a very cautious man, the kind of person that prefers not to be at the center of the attention so do you think this kind of person would want to show off his power by placing his room on the top of the building? "

The young woman thought and shook her head negatively. " I don't think so too " Volga confirmed, " this kind of person would only feel safe in some places... in the underground ". She looked at Carla and the latter nodded at her and as they were about to go on their way Volga gave her another instruction, " this place must be full of guards so let's be careful. Guns are prohibited, we don't want to be noticed so use them only when it's a matter of life or death, otherwise, use your bare hands ". Then they walked straight toward the hallway.

They were both not familiar with that kind of residence so they couldn't know directly how to access the cave. At a moment, they ran into a guard, Carla reacted as fast as Volga as if they had been training that move since long ago and were just waiting for such occasion to use it. Carla pulled him by his arm, twisted it while bringing it back as she moved behind him, she then blocked his movements while placing him in front waiting for Volga to finish him with a strong punch in his belly just below his chest what blocked his respiration and made him lose consciousness.

After they tied him and hid him somewhere, they walked back to where he seemed to come from and they finally found the way leading to the cave. They went down the stairs which were quite dark and only lit by the weak light coming from downstairs. As they were reaching the lower level they could hear the voices of the people there and who seemed to be in the middle of an argument.

Once they arrived, the two women quickly went to hide behind a nearby pillar before getting noticed. They bent slightly at each side of the pillar while trying to have a vision of what was happening.

" ...I saw them with my own eyes, they betrayed him and shot on him. You can even ask Wallace, he was with me when it's happened ". The one who was talking was the young woman they saw earlier, she seemed to talk to someone sitting on a sofa. But since the pillar, Volga, and Carla were hiding behind, was a few meters ahead of her, they could not see that person whom she was talking to, besides the shape of his head from the back.

As they were close now they could distinguish the traits of her appearance. She had brown skin like Jamal but less dark, with brown hair reaching the middle of her neck, she was wearing black trousers with a khaki shirt and a pair of military boots. The man named Wallace, she was pointing to and who was wearing a dark blue suit, was a red-haired man who seemed to be older than her and slightly taller than her and.

" Yeah, that's true boss. It's happened exactly as she said, " he confirmed while nodding.

" But the fact is that I don't care who shot who, my problem is that why did you bring that dead guy here, and took the risk to expose us? What if one of Konny's men had followed you? You would have put all of us in great danger! " Phil replied slightly angry.

" He's not dead, just a little injured " the woman replied in a low voice " and only here can we get the materials necessary to treat him ".

When she heard that, Carla could feel a breeze of happiness and relief gently stroking her heart, she couldn't help but smile at that news that Jamal was not dead. And she didn't have to turn her head to know that Volga was feeling the same way.

" Weren't you the one who told me that he got shot on his chest at a close range? And now you're telling me that he is still alive ".

" Yes da-... boss, when we went to take him we saw that he was wearing a bulletproof jacket, it's most probably the 3 meters fall which has injured him " she explained.

Phil stayed quiet for a moment before he suddenly opened his eyes wide with an expression of terror, " Oh God no, it's a trap! " he shouted, he jumped out from the sofa and drew his revolver, " that's what they wanted to bring him in so they could attack us. Oh God, what did you do? We're all doomed. Hurry up, send someone to go finish that son of bitch! "

The woman walked toward him while raising her hands in the air, " dad please calm down. It's not a trap, he had indeed been betrayed by Konny's men and when he will heal, he will definitely help us to get our revenge on her ".

" For God's sake, Pam, can you stop being so naive for one second, " Phil replied, not convinced at all, " listen to my orders, I'm just trying to fix all the problems you have brought upon us ".

Tears started to roll on Pam's cheeks, which surprised the few people in that room, even Phil. " Why can't you ever trust me? I just made one mistake and since then you're treating me like your enemy. I was right when I suggested you ask help to our neighbor cities, I was right when I told you to send our townspeople to Stainfall and evacuate them from any possible danger, and despite your opposition it was I, who decided to entrust them our townspeople what saved them all. I did all those things by myself, but still, you can't trust me. Why? Why? What should I do for you to see me as your daughter once again? "

The revolver was shaking in Phil's hand and he didn't know what to reply. Suddenly, a voice, very familiar to Volga and Carla, came to break the silence, " you should believe more in your daughter, mister Langston. Because, thanks to her, you have now a hope to win over Konny, " Jamal said while slowly walking toward him. Both Pam and Wallace stepped aside to let him pass and he went stand just at a few steps from him.

" Who... who are you? " Phil articulated.

" Jamal Sabani " Pam answered with a voice broken by the emotion while wiping out the tears on her face. She turned to the man and asked him, " but how did you manage to leave your bed, the shock was so violent that you should not even be awake? "

" Anything will soon be explained but firstly... " Jamal turned his attention to the pillar behind which his two friends were hiding, " it's alright, you can come out, " he said to them.

The two women slowly left their hideout and walked toward the gathering.

Phil raised his gun to aim at them, " you see? It's exactly as I told you ".

Jamal put gently his hand on the revolver and slowly pushed it down, " it's okay they are with me " he said gently.

When they were enough close Volga jumped on his neck to hug him, " don't ever do something like this again. Never. I really thought you were dead at a moment, " she whispered.

" I know but I had to. And I told you that all things will be fine, didn't I? So you should not have been so worried? " he replied while gently patting her back and, a few seconds later, she slowly let go of him.

Carla was standing timidly near them, not daring to hug him as Volga did, maybe she considered that they were not close friends enough to do such things yet. Jamal extended his arm and patted her head, " you did a great job as usual, thanks " he praised her.

He took a deep breath, stared at the little audience around him and he smiled " well, shall we proceed to the explanations? "