Chapter 28

GMN-1 had acted like nothing happened when she hit GMN-5 intentionally with the key holder and watched as GMN-7 nearly stepped on her. She turned and headed to the door with a lighter mood while the rest followed behind her. GMN-4 shook his head, 1 was more mischievous than anyone except maybe 6, especially when you want to play pranks on her. He remembered watching the video of her carefully lacing GMN-7's stored food and drinks with his own medicine. GMN-6 had recorded the whole thing as a keepsake. GMN-1 definitely gave 'a taste of your own medicine' a deeper meaning. GMN-9 followed them out confused, he didn't understand what was going on, did she just hit something? There was nothing there. One thing he did know was that he was going to be left behind, it seemed like the two of them understood each other perfectly that words were unnecessary. They made their way out of the building towards the garage. The two of them walked a few steps then turned back and looked up and then turned and resumed their walking. He turned back to see what they had been looking at but he didn't see anything. He was surprised that they weren't running because it would be faster and he loved speed. He had noticed that GMN 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 weren't in the habit of breezing in and out like they did in earlier days. It was like they were nonchalant and weren't in a hurry to get to where they were going, especially this two. He had nothing against them, actually admired them but some things were better done from afar not in the same car with them.

They got to the garage and GMN-1 looked over the cars musing to herself. If there was one thing she liked around here it was the collection of cars. They were absolutely beautiful. She gently ran her fingers over the smooth surface of the one she had picked seeming to enjoy the sensation then snapped out of in and said

"Get in"

GMN-4 entered the car and watched GMN-1 do her seat belt. He took the initiative and did his. He had seen the look on her face when she entered. He hadn't seen her around cars but he knew how to read people. She liked cars. He turned to the back to check on GMN-9 he sat there somewhat uncomfortably. 4 knew that their company kept 9 on edge. He was like someone sitting on dynamites. GMN-4 signalled to his seat belt but the guy shook his head.

"Nope, I'm good. I like my freedom" GMN-9 said

GMN-4 ignored him as 1 started the engine and backed out of the garage. GMN-9 observed the both of them look up again. He didn't bother because he knew he was likely not going to see what they saw. GMN-1 drove the car out of the facility as GMN-4 inputted the details into the GPS. When he was done, GMN-1 took one look at the GPS, changed gear and zoomed off. The change was abrupt that GMN-9 was lurched about in the back seat and it only got worse. They were flying and he was afraid that she wasn't even seeing where they were going. Everything was passing so fast that it was almost a blur.

GMN-1 was enjoying this feeling. The feeling of exhilaration, the feeling of freedom, the quicken of her pulse and heart rate. Yep, she had figured out that they have a heart and pulse and other vital organ that she thought were human and animal specific. She was enjoying this heady feeling, this feeling of satisfaction, concentration, the blend of skill and attention. The road from the facility to the city was usually free. It seemed like the facility was in the middle of nowhere. She didn't care right now because what she felt right now was the need for speed.

"I feel the need for speed" she said increasing her speed. She had been going 180 miles per hour. She increased to 200, 220 going to 240

"Careful" GMN-4 warned

As for GMN-9 ,he found himself some common sense and strapped himself with everything he could. GMN-1 wasn't just crazy, she was mad, a lunatic! He loved speed, wanted his freedom, forget that he wanted to stay alive! GMN-1 was trying to get them all killed. He felt the car accelerate and accelerate. He chanced a glance at the speedometer, she was doing 220 and heading 240. His heart began to beat faster. He couldn't comprehend anything past the sound of his heart and the sound of the car. His laptop lay forgotten on the floor, lurching with the movement of the car.

"A car is coming up ahead" GMN-4 said

"I know" GMN-1 said increasing her speed. Now GMN-4 had to look at her like she was insane and she was. He had no idea what she was doing but the look on her face showed that she was enjoying this.

GMN-9's mouth dropped open. Did he just say a car was up ahead and GMN-1 was increasing her speed. He wanted out! He saw the car as soon at it came into sight.

The driver of the car was honking, he didn't know why the crazy driver was accelerating. He kept on honking but the person kept accelerating. The man just parked his car and fled for his life. GMN-1 was tempted to laugh. She crossed the car with her speed that she was sure if the driver had been driving, it would have rocked. Up ahead she did a dangerous right turn at full speed that would have sent 9 out the window had he not been strapped down. They had left the main road from the facility they were heading towards the city. She took another right turn and 9 could practically feel his lunch begin its journey up.

"There's a truck and it's on the wrong lane" GMN-4 simply stated. What was wrong with this guy? GMN-9 thought

"I know" but she didn't slow down, if anything...

The truck was driving beyond the speed limit, GMN-1 may have crashed the speedometer. The two vehicles were on the same lane heading for each other with no sign of changing lanes.

"His drunk" GMN-4 said again

"I know" GMN-1 replied yet again.

You know and you are facing off with a drunk human with a much bigger vehicle. What exactly was this mission? To get him killed? They were close to the truck whose driver seemed somewhat confused, impact was inevitable. Unconsciously he closed his eyes and began praying... Dear lord, if I get out of this and get back in one piece I'll I'll... He peeked open his eyes.

"Hey hey heh heh heh!!!"GMN-9 blabbered and braced for impact.

At the last minute both GMN-1 and the driver made a left. They were going to crash. GMN-4 braced himself and waited...

The car bobbed up and down and GMN-9 screamed for his life. He was pretty sure his heart made its way to his mouth and joined in the screaming. GMN-1 made a dangerous hard left that put the car away from the truck. The driver if the truck left the wheels and stared mouth open before catching himself on time, grabbing the wheels before he lost total control of the vehicle. He didn't see the driver of the other car but he knew that person must be a lunatic out to kill someone but it wasn't going to be him.

GMN-1 veered the car off the road as she avoided the truck, then accelerated in case the truck decided to fall before veering back on the road and then increasing her speed.

"Stop the car! "GMN-9 shouted from the back "stop the damn car!! " GMN-9 yelled and GMN-1 hit the brake suddenly the result nearly gave him a heart attack. When the car finally stopped. He unstrapped himself with speed and flew out of the car. He swayed and would have hit the ground face first if GMN-4 hadn't steadied him. He lost his lunch and GMN-4 had to distance himself before it landed on his feet.

GMN-9 took the bottle of water offered to him without looking up and rinsed his mouth. When he stood up he was a bit dizzy and very, very angry. He turned to GMN-1 pointing

"You are insane! "GMN-9 said

GMN-1 didn't know how to respond to this "um... Thanks? "

"Thanks? It's not a compliment, you're a lunatic! A lunatic that shouldn't be near moving objects! Have you ever driven before? "

"Not quite"

"And you sought to practice with my life! I nearly died, scratch that, I died back there! " GMN-9 turned away from them trying to calm himself and put his heart back in its right position.

"I'm sorry. Can we get back in the car so that we can get to where we are going" GMN-1 said

"Me? Get back into that car with you behind the wheel, not happening! " GMN-9 said

"Let me drive" GMN-4 interjected. Her driving even surprised him. It was like it was a car race, he could get used to it.

GMN-9 saw the look on his face. "I don't trust you either! I'm driving! "

GMN-9 got into the driver's seat hands trembling.

"Come on, my driving isn't that bad" GMN-1 said and 9 glared at her. She surrendered and took the back seat while GMN-4 resumed his position.

GMN-1 occupied herself with looking through the file while GMN-9 drove, more like crawled but she decided to let him be and not upset him. Poor guy even lost his lunch. She occasionally passed GMN-4 leaflets which he looked over and handed back to her. She couldn't find any reason why Doc would want this guy. Maybe he possessed human information that was why he was needed alive. If he was a former secret agent then he should be very good at combat. She wasn't afraid of him defeating them but of him causing himself bodily harm in the process of combat if it ever came to that. From his profiling he seemed to be a smart person.

They finally made it to the building, they parked in the garage under the building.

"What next? " GMN-9 asked. He was still mad about the whole car thing but they had a job to do.

"See if you can access the layout of this building on your computer." GMN-4 said.

GMN-9 raised an eyebrow. See if he can? Of course he can? He did and showed them. GMN-4 looked at it as if memorizing it and then showed it to GMN-1 who did the same and handed it back to him. "Why? " GMN-9 asked

"We may need it as backup" GMN-1 said as she stepped our of the car. She stretched herself as if she had been in the car for a very long time. GMN-4 got out and he followed going to the back first to get his things. He put the laptop back in his bag and carried it.

"What if he's not home? " GMN-9 asked

"Then we wait" GMN-4 replied

GMN-9 felt that somewhere along the line there had been a change. GMN-4 was now fully his business, indestructible, no nonsense self. He looked at GMN-1, she had a serious expression. He didn't know why Doc wanted this target alive but he was convinced that this mission was going to be more than successful. He wore his back pack and followed them to the elevator. GMN-4 called the elevator and when it came they all entered. They stopped at the twelfth floor, got out and walked to the room that was written in the file. The door was locked. GMN-9 stood aside preparing to wait, who knows for how long. GMN-4 rested his body on the wall beside the door partially blocking it while GMN-1 brought out her hair pin and got down on the door. GMN-9 was surprised that in three seconds the door clicked open and they entered and GMN-1 used the hair pin again to lock the door from inside. It would appear that nobody ever tampered with the door. The place was dark but they could see clearly. A quick surveillance showed their target wasn't home. GMN-4 switched on the light and he and GMN-9 set to work. GMN-1 moved around lazily as if she had nothing to do. GMN-9 set to cracking all the devices with storage space and downloading their information while GMN-4 gathered information from the surveillance camera scattered all over the apartment. GMN-1 moved around the room like she was looking for what to do. They both left her to her own device. The apartment was very spacious. GMN-1 thought. Williams or Timothy was quite the collector. GMN-1 surveyed his collection. He had them scattered all over the apartment. There were painting, miniature sculptures, craft works, artifacts even music. She wondered how he got these things. She passed by a small sculpture of a dragon, more like a Chinese dragon. It looked fierce but was looking the wrong way. GMN-1 shook her head, one of the tells of a secret room or safe. She paused her hand over the dragon in her attempt to set it right, she noticed something else. Dear dragon had its mouth half open. She bent down and studied it. Just then GMN-9 crossed her wondering on her fascination with the miniature dragon. Suddenly she stood up and walked towards the opposite direction. She studied the painting on the wall. It was like a tablet painting whose canvas seemed to be a replica of Chinese wood. She stared at the painting of sky and water and scoffed.

"Beautiful painting " GMN-9 commented

"Just smart" GMN-1 said pushing the sky away from the water. Surprising GMN-9 the picture moved apart reveling the wallpaper beneath. Okay. He thought. Maybe she wasn't so crazy.

GMN-1 walked back to the dragon and adjusted its head. Immediately she did that she stepped back and gave it time avoiding obstructing any part of it. Few seconds later the dragon shot something from its half open mouth that flew right to the opposite wall. It was a dart-like object. Like she suspected one of the circles on the wall paper was a hole. The wall paper gave way to reveal a safe. GMN-9 stopped what he was doing and starred at her and the safe that had just appeared. It needed some kind of combination. She grabbed the knob and turned it half way to the right, 180° to the left, 270° degree to the left again then 360° to right before aiming for a 154° to the left. The safe opened, she raised both eyebrows and then abandoned the safe.

GMN-9 actually thought that the safe was empty but when he got closer, there was a file in there as well as some cash.

"Don't forget to pull out the inner compartment " GMN-1 said casually.

What inner compartment. GMN-9 put his hand inside and touch the wall inside the safe, there was no inner compartment. He decided to push the walls. The one by the left fell forward it was a thin slab that was painted to look like the rest of the walls. He was impressed, at one glance he didn't notice anything. He brought out the files there.

GMN-1 uncovered four more secret hideaways while GMN-9 collected their contents. GMN-4 went about his business ,he didn't disturb them and they didn't disturb him. GMN-9 wondered what he was doing but didn't ask. He knew that GMN-4 was done with collecting the feeds from the security cameras.

GMN-9 used Williams computer to connect to the security camera out front and in the lobby, then activated a program that would alert them once he appeared. He settled down to sort through the information they uncovered. When 4 was done with what he had been doing, he joined 9. GMN-1 sat on one of the chairs she had dragged from one of the tables, of course she had inspected all the tables and their location, nothing unusual. She still had this nagging feeling that there was something she was missing.

GMN-1 watched the two of them from her vantage point. They seemed to have unconsciously divided the work between them so as not to be disturb the other. She looked GMN-9 over and remembered his reaction to her driving. He was OK, not self-centered or self-absorbed. He was what the humans would call a geek minus the glasses. He preferred the company of his computers and gadgets. GMN 5 and 7 won't spare him in their antics but she was unsure how he would react if they told him some of the things they knew. He hung out the the tech guys more than he did with any of them. Maybe he knew something they didn't. Her eyes brightened. How to get it out of him?

GMN-4 watched 1 study 9 and felt unhappy. He didn't seem to like it when she paid attention to other people. Then he saw her eyes brighten. Oh oh, she wanted something. She seemed to hesitate.

GMN-1 hesitated. Something caught her attention. She moved over to a covered piano and removed the white sheet spread on top of it. It revealed a polished mahogany piano that screamed expensive. How does a former secret agent own something like this? The more she looked around, the more she was convinced that there were a lot of details missing in between.

She opened the piano, beautiful but some keys were missing. Two to be exact.

"Puzzle puzzle puzzle "GMN-1 muttered to herself.

GMN-9 wondered how GMN-4 worked together with 1. She was a freaking roller coaster. You never know when she's going to start or stop. She had been seating down watching them and suddenly she was up again. GMN-4 noticed the change too, she seemed less serious than she usually was, maybe it was the drive or the near death experience. Whatever, he was cool with it as long as she didn't get hurt.

GMN-1 went into the bedroom and appeared with a CD and then sat down and began to play. The music sounded sad but angry. Somehow she knew how to play this instrument and play this song. It was like the music communicated to her on such a deeper level. That girl was back in her head again. It was as if she could see her clearly. She was playing the song in a different place in a different time. The girl wasn't paying attention to what she was doing. She was sad and lonely and played to avoid crying. Somebody was coming but she didn't stop, her playing became erratic. There was a hand on her shoulder but she ignored it. It shook her she ignored it, the hand turned her forcefully and said...

"GMN-1!" GMN-4 shook her. She stared at him blankly as if trying to remember where she was. She blinked up at him, her eyes were red as if she had been crying or was about to.

He had been surprised when she started playing the piano, he didn't know she could and wondered where she learnt. Then the music had changed, subtly at first then erratic. He remembered what happened recently when she went haywire. He had called her but it seemed she wasn't in this vicinity. He had walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder but she didn't react to it rather she began to play more angrily, it was like she was possessed. He turned her to face him and her eyes were blank.

GMN-1 blinked up to see GMN-4 right in front of her while GMN-9 suspended what he was doing. They were both starring at her. Beside the piano, the wall pushed in and opened. A secret room. GMN-9 stood up and walked to the room occasionally casting glances her way.

"What is wrong with you? " GMN-4 asked. There was concern in his voice. She didn't know how to explain it. How could she explain that a human child had the tendency and capability to make her and sometimes force her to see memories that wasn't her own or the fact that she felt she shared some kind of connection with this child. So far aside Doc she had told no one. He wouldn't believe her and even if he did, he'll think that she was malfunctioning.

"Nothing" She said. It was very convincing but from the look on his face she knew, he knew it was a lie. She tried to push past him and get up but he prevented her, holding her down.

"Start talking " He said his voice taking on a dangerous note. He knew something was wrong and she was probably suffering in silence. He wasn't going to let that continue. GMN-1 wasn't in the mood to argue, since he wanted to know then she'd tell him. They had unconsciously agreed that GMN-9 wasn't a threat.

"I've been seeing things that are not actually there or rather have never been there or ever happened"

GMN-9 stopped in his tracks. What was she saying exactly? That she was seeing things? What things?

GMN-4 quirked a brow. He knew that since she had been skeptical about telling him, she would try to make the truth ambiguous. Too bad he wasn't letting her go until she starts speaking in plain and understandable English. GMN-1 seemed to realize that too. She sighed.

"I've been seeing a girl. It's like she's inside my head and I can't seem to get her out... " At this GMN-9 swallowed. GMN-1 was scarier than he thought. She was seeing a girl in her head.

GMN-1 continued "I see her memories, I feel her pain. It's like reliving her life. I seem to know most of the things she knows and can do most of what I've seen her do. Like the piano, I've never played before but she has."

This was serious. GMN-9 thought. Who was the girl she was seeing and why? GMN-9 shook his head trying to clear his head. This did not concern him, he was here for a mission. He thought walking towards the room that just opened. The lights were already on. This person had too many safes in his house that made one wonder. He got to the door and stopped in his tracks. He stared speechless with his mouth opened.

"Go on" GMN-4 prompted 1. He knew something was definitely up but he didn't expect this.

"It's like she's trying to tell me something or show me but... I get scared of being trapped again." GMN-1 just said.

So this was the reason for the sleepless nights and nightmares. The reason she was battling for consciousness when she was ill. The erratic thoughts. No wonder she had approached him to help her create a hologram of her sleeping. It hadn't stopped.

"How long? " GMN-4 asked

"About three weeks now. Just bits and pieces. Told Doc and she wanted to book me for more tests. She was lying about something and she was afraid. Her memories makes me uncomfortable around Doc and Deccan. It's like they are hiding something and she's trying to tell me but...I'm too afraid to...you know go back there"

GMN-4 was about to say something when...

"He-e-y?... " GMN-9's voice was trembling. "...You've definitely got to see this! " he said turning to them with his face pale. They hurried over to where he was and looked into the room. Both of them stood frozen, starring with wide eyes.

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Author's Notes

I really appreciate you all for taking the time to read my book(novel). You all put smiles on my face.