BEFORE INTERROGATION

"Are you sure?"Glenn asked me.

"Not completely but it is a strong hunch."

"I guess we'll just wait for Miranda to reach then."

It was the next day and Glenn and I was on X-floor talking about the events of the previous day. A lot had happened during that impromptu belated graduation party that Glenn planned for me. I had suspected Brandon Kelly from the moment he acted as if we were the best of friends and yet I have no memory of that ever happening. It was too suspicious, plus the rest of the people who I had talked to that night showed no sign of being XR. They all looked like they lived normal lives. Although I had this suspicion in mind we had to wait for Miranda to say what she was exactly thinking.

On the computer screen, I had already opened a file up for Brandon with every single piece of information about him. I had to go through his medical information to make sure he was not lying to me when he said that he was injured and could not pursue a career in sports. Together with that, I checked on what he was currently working on and apparently he never even went to college for software development. He just knew. I tried to trace at what point he learned this skill and if it was something he did outside of school I wondered why the hell he would want to hide it from anyone. It made me suspect him more and more.

"What if we look through his messages?"Glenn asked, looking at the screen.

"That's an invasion of privacy."

"Oh c'mon Cy that's no fun."

"It's still an invasion of privacy Glenn and if he is XR he would affect my systems if I try to hack into his devices."I said, making an excuse.

Glenn looked at me with questioning eyes as if he did not believe what I told him. He probably caught on that I was lying to him.

"You are a genius Cy, do you really fear being hacked?"He asked, watching my reactions. His eyes were burning through my entire body. Trying to expose all my lies.

"Fine I tried it once and let's say that I don't want to do it again."I said, my voice going faint.

"Now I have to know, what happened?"

"That's as much as i will say."I said holding my hand up.

I avoided Glenn's gaze as he looked at me. Even without looking at him, I could picture the expression that he had on his face. He would try to act cute by putting puppy dog eyes and frowning at me. I knew Glenn and all his little shenanigans and I knew that I could not lose to him. As much as I made it sound like a death match between my best friend and me, it was something I was willing to die for. Considering if Glenn knew he would hold it over my head forever.

"Okay then if you won't tell i know someone who would…..DC what is Cyrus hiding."He said

"Oh Cy---"

"DC if you dare finish that sentence I will do what we discussed last time you wanted to reveal my secrets."I said aggressively.

Suddenly the elevator opened and Miranda walked in heading straight towards DC without saying a word. We looked at her curiously at her weird entrance.

"No Hey, hi, update--" Glenn asked confused.

"Oh sorry i didn't want to ruin the mood you two had. Talking like a married couple.It was just too cute."She said smirking.

"You were eavesdropping on us."I asked

"Of course.Plus i wanted to hear if DC would reveal what happened. "

"You too--" I said.

"Oh don't worry Cy , DC told me last week and your secret is safe with me."She said, winking at me and making me feel embarrassed.

I knew Miranda was nosy so it was kind of her job to be nosy and gather information about other people but it was worse knowing that she knew.

"Anyway, break over."She said, her face going to her serious phase,"I have a visitor in your office and I wanted to know if it was okay if he could come down here."She asked while giving us the camera footage of the outside of my office.

I looked at the image and it was Brandon with his phone in hand waiting patiently outside. It seems like Miranda was suspicious of him like I was.

"Isn't it like eight at night. Did you drag the poor guy from his home so late at night?"Glenn asked looking at the footage of him.

"I just said Cy wanted to see him." she said.

"At this hour?"I asked.

"Well maybe i might have told him that Digicliff wants to work with him in a secret space missio…...anyway it doesn;t matter. What matters is that he is here, can I bring him down?"She asked, looking at both of us.

I looked at Glenn and from his shocked face, he was more concerned about how Miranda got the guy into the office so late at night. We had many questions but we simply nodded. Miranda took the go-ahead and walked over to DL with different energy surrounding her.

"She's like a tiny beast."I said as the Lift closed.

"I can still hear you."Miranda said before it went up.

I had to admit at that moment I remembered that Miranda could be scary sometimes. It was just the execution that really frightened me the most. Before she went to Gendwall she used to have that scary presence around her but this time round she is scary and we know that she could murder and attack anyone she felt like as long as it was a way she could achieve her goals.

"Are we gonna--" I started.

"Nah no need to ask."We said looking back at the camera footage.

Miranda had changed to Jen Blue by the time she had reached the office. Her whole body language was different. She walked gracefully and the initial aggressive aurora that was around her was gone. As I mentioned it was scary how good she was and the extent she would go just to accomplish her goals. From just the way she carried the whole Jen Blue persona was flawless. She molded Jen Blue into a whole new human being and watching from a different far god-like perspective you could really see the time and practice that went into building that persona.

She opened the office door and patched a gentle smile on her face.

"He's ready to see you."She said with a happy welcoming tone that sounded like you were being talked to through a cloud of cotton candy. Weird expression but you get the point.

He smiled at her, put his phone in his pocket, and walked in with the same excessive energy he expressed. He entered the office and looked at the empty desk confused. He looked back at her.

"Where's Mayday?"He asked looking at the empty desk.

"Oh I might have lied to you."She said smiling but it was not the normal mischievous Miranda smirk. It was more of a Jen Blue being a cute smile.

"Ummm then why did you call me here."

"Well maybe i had some other things in mind."She said looking at him with intense eyes.

Glenn and I looked at each other in disbelief. Miranda was definitely pushing it.

"Should we be looking at this?"I asked him

"Morally it's wrong, but we are in the middle of trying to bring salvation to a war-torn country so it's totally fine. "

"You just want to watch how far she'll go.Don't you."I said disappointed.

��Yes. Yes I do."

Still disappointed I went back to the footage to see Miranda tracing her fingers up and down his muscular arm. Brandon looked visibly uncomfortable looking at her tracing her fingers up and down his arm like that.

"Well I think that is enough, I don't think Mayday would approve of something like this happening in his office."He said holding her hand.

"What is happening?"She asked with a manipulative tone, "I am just conversing with another human he would not be offended by that she said swiftly removing her hand

She looked at him staring at him intensely. She moved closer to him leaving little room for movement. It was like she was capturing her prey in a trap. She moved closer and closer to him and he responded with nervousness. She whispered in his ear before piercing him with a syringe, she quickly caught him before he could fall to the ground.

Glenn gasped holding his chest.

"How could her evil manifest so easily."He still held his chest.

It reminded me of the first time she came and pinned me to the ground just to check if I was the one she was sent to look for. I knew she could be aggressive but this time round she added the spice of manipulation which was cruel. I felt bad for the guy.

Miranda then turned around and faced the cameras and gave us a thumbs-up as if she did a spectacular job. I had to admit it was a good job even if the execution was excessive.