A STEP FORWARD

It was finally the end of the day and I finished the majority of the work I had. It had been a long time coming but I could finally meet with Miranda and Glenn to hear about the good news If we were any step closer to our target or if we still had miles to go in finding XR. In Miranda's book, she counted time with all the lives being lost and I knew in a week the number could be extremely large. It made me wonder what was in Gendwall that was so important for the Executive to keep up with. Considering they still wanted me to get the footage and information from there it seemed like there was something more to the story than just a random country they were trying to press. I knew that I could ask Miranda if she had all her memories intact but for now, it was just important to make sure that The Executive retreated from the area or actually fulfilled their duties of making sure peace prevailed there.

As I was deep in thought I got a call from Miranda asking if she could come up with the Jen Blue voice. It felt odd hearing her talk like that from the start of the day and I wondered why she would call me like that instead of just coming indirectly. She was really selling the whole persona. She was making sure that she completely made Jen Blue a person even doing unnecessary things. We all knew that all our 'end-to-end encryption' was still going to The Executive so she was adding an extra layer to convince them. It was a smart move and I knew it was worth it to always be extra careful.

She knocked on the door and I opened it and she immediately hugged me into an extra tight hug. this was definitely different for her. She would never be this outwardly expressive even if she missed me or was worried about me. She would pretend that nothing happened and act cool about it. I could tell it was another Jen Blue act that she was putting on for show. Considering the recent activities I could imagine the number of cameras they added in my office as a way to keep watch over my activities.

" Are they watching?"She whispered in my ear at such a low tone that she knew the microphones would not pick it up.

By now I knew from my previous interaction with some smug agent that they were planning to keep me under lock. I knew Miranda had a solution to it but I always had a backup solution. They knew I could hack the cameras if I wanted all I had to do is watch when they were physically watching me. I could put the cameras on loop considering for the past hours that I had been in my office they could tell that I can literally sit at my computer for hours on end with some stretches in between. An extra measure I put was wearing the same wardrobe almost every single day so that I can reuse footage. Environmental factors were a non-issue since I always closed my windows at night. With all that I managed to set a scene for any days that I would be absent. Hopefully, there would be no other way they would ever tell if I was in the office or not.

"I set up a loop an hour ago," I said back at her.

"Oh thank God."She said releasing me and removing her disguise," Glenn it's clear." she said cueing in Glenn to enter.

"Finally it has been a week now we can finally talk normally."

"you guys never spoke?" I asked confused.

"Well, you were really the reason that Jen and I would ever be together in the same room it would suspicious if we met up every single time. She just updated me on the whole situation about your mysterious disease. Of which thank God you were not dying it I would never know what I would do with myself if I was left with Miranda to put up with."

"it's not like you are the one who is easier to be around with," she said hitting his elbow.

It was nice to finally get this scene between all three of us there.it felt like I was finally at home.

"Wait what was your plan if I never put up the video loops," I asked Miranda

" Glenn had a plan B."

"Which was?"

"you two...."Glenn started

"Nothing absolutely nothing since you already set up the video loops we do not need to worry about plan B anymore." she looking extremely embarrassed.

I looked at Glenn smirking and knowing him I knew it was probably something that I would not like or it was another way for him to get his chuckles in. He was a mischievous person.

"Okay then," I said as Miranda looked at Glenn with fierce lion eyes that made it feel like she was planning to hunt him down and violently murder him. It sent shivers down my spine and I was glad that I was not on the other side of that look.

"Since everything is good to go I have an update for you guys."She said with her eyes back to the fire of determination.

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"Are you serious?!"I said shocked by Miranda's explanation.

she nodded in agreement and Glenn and I looked at each other in worry.

"Are you sure about it?"Glenn asked

"I am sure."

I fell back on my chair looking at Miranda who stood before me with her arms crisscrossed and looking down at the ground in deep thought. Glenn looked at me trying to study my expression before he could give his own thoughts and opinions on the matter.

"But what have we been working towards all this time!" I said in confusion by everything being told to me suddenly. It is worse when you expect good news and it goes the complete opposite direction in a way that it is not bad news but something so different to the point that it is even difficult for your brain to process all those feelings and emotions all at once. Miranda now looked at me with dark deep eyes as if staring at my soul. It felt like her eyes were begging and commanding me at the same time and I never knew what to do.

By that time it was definitely obvious that I had pretty much followed everything that Miranda had told me in hopes of helping her. To not repeat my mistakes and to make sure that I did right by her. At that time it felt like I could not be the slave to all her commands and I could not even imagine what I could do to help myself from going with everything she wanted me to do. Glenn pretty much was the final voice of reason but even he was stuck in the middle. I held my face with my hands and tried to think. I had to focus on something other than panicking and other emotions. I had to be smart with everything we had to do.

"Cy this is literally the best option for all of us," Miranda said with a downtrodden voice and tone.

"But we did all of these things just to find him. How do we just give it up?"I asked trying to keep my emotions within.

"We can always start over we don't need him. As I said the longer we take to look for him the more deaths occur. The information that they gave me proved to all of us that we might never find XR anytime soon and we don't have an entire year to look for this guy."She said trying to convince me.

"Glenn what do you think."

Glenn looked at both of us. He pretty much was the only one who could logically come up with an answer, considering that both of us were driven by our emotions. Miranda really wanted to save the people of Gendwall and I wanted to make sure Miranda was the one who was saved. As much as my thoughts were selfish and focused on one person I could not form another image of Miranda ever suffering again.

"I think the only way to solve this is--"Glenn started

"Please don't say we have to talk about it," Miranda said

"No that is not the solution here. I wanted us to make a compromise which will allow both of you to get your way."

"How?" I asked to hope that it would actually help the solution.

"DC record this we need something to look back on just in case it brings any future conflicts."

"Yes, Glenntastic," DC said

I looked at him in curiosity

"Glenntastic," Miranda said scoffing.

"It's a name that DC gave me. I think it sounds amazing."Glenn said placing a smug look.

"Whatever you say," Miranda said under her breathe. I already knew that Miranda was going to use that name against our kind-hearted Glenn.

Glenn snapped his fingers bringing us back to the serious issue at hand at that moment.

"Now short recap," Glenn said acting like a lecturer

"Cy."He said pointing his closed hands at me. I nodded in agreement knowing that he would want me to follow his so-called performance. Theatre kids were always something else.

"Starting with you, you were under house arrest, one week, they think Miranda is dead and they gave you a job to continue spying on the residents there."Once he was finished he pointed his hands at Miranda and bent down and looked at her with his eyes on her as if trying to study like her as if she was a piece of machinery.

"Can you not stand so close to my face." She said looking back at him but with a more violent look.

"Miranda. You were the one who told your dad about Cyrus and set up his office computer to show that he was spying on Gendwall so that you can get information on XR. With that information, you were able to isolate a large group of people but do not believe we will ever be able to find XR."

"Yes, I believe that was the first thing I said when we entered here.DC are you sure you don't usually record all these conversations when we are in here because it literally feels like we are giving a useless recap to ourselves."She said looking at DC.

"uuuh nooo, I would never," DC said.

"Did you program him to also be a terrible liar," Miranda said looking at me obviously offending me.

I would never escape my terrible characteristic of lying.

"Well other than that, recapping things is a good way for us to think clearly before we proceed into making a decision. Now can I continue?" Glenn said with a faked disappointed look at Miranda.

"yeah go ahead it seems like you are having a blast anyway."She said with her hands up in defeat.

"Okay so after giving us the information you proposed that we could do it without XR. We just need to recover the physical files without assistance."

"I said with minimal assistance."

"fine with minimal assistance. You see that is why recapping is important."Glenn said smiling at her as if he won in a fight that no one was even aware of.

'Yes. that was your new plan and for obvious reasons Cy here, " he said pausing dramatically to hit my shoulder, "h, for obvious reasons is against this."

"And what about you how do you feel about all of this."

"To be honest I am still processing how Cy managed to build a technological man cave under his money-making machine. My mind has been lagging ever since so what I think does not matter."

We were all used to Glenn hiding what he truly thought in most situations but it would beat me why he never wanted to side with anyone. Just thinking about the place we were thrown in to make such decisions was beyond my human capability of thinking. It was wild to even think about it.

"How were you planning on us to compromise the?"Miranda asked.

"Cy still believes that the competition will work so we can give the competition a one-week deadline and if the winner is not worth the title position of XR we do what Miranda wants."

"We don't have a week, that's the point,t Glenn!"

"That one week you can spend it on your plan, I know it will be more than a week before we can figure out how we can get in and out properly so it won't go to waste."

She looked at him once again with her arms crossed. It did feel like an unsatisfactory solution to the problem. We were both prideful so it was not great knowing that we would not get what we fully wanted.

"The more we deny that this is a solid idea the more actual precious time we wast," Glenn said looking at the both of us with his arms wide open giving a welcoming feel and presence.

"Fine." Miranda and I said in unison.

Glenn grabbed both of us by our necks with an ear to ear smile.

"I knew you would agree," he said.

As we struggled to release ourselves from the tight grasp, Miranda's eyes caught with mine and she gave me a tiny but cute smile. It was good to be back.