Chapter 26

Jean forgot which apartment was Jackson's and wandered around the hallway for a few minutes trying to figure out which one it was. She remembered that it was on the other side of the hall and that it was diagonal to hers, but couldn't remember how many doors it was from her.

After standing in the hallway for some time, she heard a loud crash followed by angry cursing. The noise startled her, but because of it, she figured out which apartment was Jackson's. She went up to the door and hesitated on knocking on it. It didn't look like it was a good time to go in since something did just fall and break in there... again.

After some contemplating, Jean decided to go back to her apartment and ask Jackson some other day but as she turned around, she heard footsteps come to the door. "You clean that up and I'll get a new one." Jean turned her head around just in time to see the door open and for Jackson's face to appear.

"Woah, Jean?"

Jean awkwardly turned her body around to face Jackson. Another man came up behind him, leaning his arm against Jackson's shoulder and taking a look at who the visitor was.

"Who's this lass?" he asked Jackson while looking at her. He was roughly the same height as Jackson and looked like he was in his twenties. He was muscular and had short black hair with sideburns on either side of his face. Overall, he looked very handsome, but the most distinctive feature about the man was the scar on his right eye which made him look very menacing as well.

"Oh, this is Jean. Our neighbor and my friend," Jackson told his partner.

"Really!?" The man gave Jackson a surprised look and said, "I could've sworn that you sucked at talking to girls. How did you manage to become friends with one?"

"Eh, things happen you know," Jackson shrugged his shoulders. "Anyway." Jackson turned back to Jean and said, "I wasn't expecting you to come today. I thought it'd be tomorrow, but come in."

"Sorry, come again?" the other man asked confusedly.

"You know the whole thing we're doing? Yeah, I told her that I'd tell her about it."

"You what!?" The man looked like he was about to strangle Jackson but after a few seconds, he calmed down and sighed. "Why the h*ll would you do that?"

"Well, it's not like she isn't familiar with all this."

"That's no excuse," the man said while shaking his head. "I really hope you know what you're doing." He then walked away without saying anything more. Behind Jackson, Jean saw that there was some kind of broken machine on the floor, and pieces of it scattered all over.

After the man left and went to another room, Jackson turned back around and apologized to Jean. "Sorry about that. His name is Hans. He's a pretty good guy, though he is really clumsy, messy, annoying at times, somewhat rude, but yeah, you get the point."

Jean stared blankly at Jackson, unsure of what to say to him. It looked like he told her about something that he shouldn't have.

"Uh, don't give me that look. I promise you that we're not doing anything illegal. In fact, we're doing the exact opposite," he told Jean.

The two looked at each other silently for some time before Jean finally said something. "I'll come back some other time..." It definitely wasn't a good time to ask Jackson about what he said earlier.

"No no no, it's fine. Come on in."

"No, I don't think I will."

"I'm serious. Everything's all good. Hans won't kill you or anything."

"Yeah no."

Jean turned away and walked a few steps before Jackson said something that made her stop. "I know who is behind the terrorist attacks."

"What!?"

"Shhh! Lower your voice." Jackson looked around the hallway to make sure that there was no one else there to hear them before continuing with what he was saying. "But yeah, I know who the culprits are, how many of them there are, and why they're doing it. And no, it's not because Hans and I are terrorists that I know this information."

Jackson pointed at what seemed to be the living room right behind him in the apartment and said, "I'll tell you about it if you come in.

"But didn't you say that you were going to go get a new whatever that thing is," Jean pointed at the thing that was lying on the floor.

"Eh, I can always get it later. It's not like we're in a hurry to get a replacement anyway."

Jean still wasn't sure if she wanted to go in but Jackson assured her that he and Hans weren't kidnappers either, which didn't really reassure her. But in the end, Jackson managed to convince her by telling her that it wouldn't take too long.

Jean walked into the apartment and looked around the living room which was an absolute mess. There was a small sofa with a cup and what looked like coffee spilled all over it. The table was missing a leg and had things scattered all over it.

"You can sit on the sofa," Jackson told Jean, unaware that there was coffee spilled all over it. He walked to another room and came back a moment later with two cups in his hand.

"What's that?"

"Soda. These things are surprisingly expensive now. I really wonder why. Weren't they just a buck or two a couple of weeks ago?" Jackson handed Jean one of the cups to which she hesitantly accepted. "Don't worry, it's not poisoned or anything. If you want, we can trade cups."

"No thanks, it's not that." She was just hesitant to accept anything from Jackson considering their past relationship.

"Okay then." Jackson went over to the table and swept everything on it off onto the floor before putting his cup down and sitting down on the sofa.

"Uh, I don't think you should-" But Jean's warning came too late. Jackson sat down on the coffee-soaked seat and after feeling something wet on his bottom, he quickly jumped up, almost kicking the table with his feet.

"What the-" Jackson looked back at the sofa and saw that there was something spilled on it. "Ugh, I really wish Hans would clean up his own messes," he grunted. "Sorry, but give me a minute." Jackson went into another room and came out a short amount of time later with a new pair of pants.

"So can we start now?" Jean asked while holding the cup that Jackson gave her, not having taken a sip from it yet. She saw that it was indeed really soda since there was air rising to the top of the liquid and specks of it jumping everywhere, but was still hesitant to drink it.

"Sure." Jackson went back to the sofa and sat down on one of the arms instead of the cushion and took a long sip from his cup before putting it back on the table. *Cough cough* Jackson rapidly hit his chest with his fist while clearing his throat. "Ugh, that's too much."

Jackson stretched his back and said, "So yeah, ask away, or do you shall me just tell everything from the start?"

"Just tell me everything you know."

"Hm, that's gonna take some time. Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Okay then." Jackson took a few seconds to figure out where to start before talking. "Before I tell you, I want to ask you one thing."

"What is it?"

"Do you support what the terrorists are doing?"

"Of course not," Jean answered without a second thought. What kind of question was that. Any person would answer no to that question unless they were a terrorist themselves. Even then, they would answer no to hide their identity.

"Then do you support what I.C.E. is doing?"

"Yes, why wouldn't I? They're trying to save the world after all."

"Yeah, a typical answer. But did you know that I.C.E. hasn't been doing what they said they have been doing for the past year?"

"What do you mean?"

"I think you heard the rumors or maybe your dad told you about this, but I.C.E. hasn't made any progress for some time now."

"Yeah, I heard that. But that's no reason to attack them. It's only making things worse and slowing down progress even more."

"You're right. But what if I told you that there is no progress for them to slow. What if I.C.E. stopped caring about reversing global warming and changed their aim to something else."

"Why would they do that?" Everything Jackson was saying right now made no sense to Jean. What was he trying to get at. If I.C.E. changed its goal and is no longer looking to reverse global warming then it wasn't living up to its name. I.C.E. stood for Intent: Cryogenic Earth and its goal is to as its name suggests, freeze the earth. Of course, not entirely since it would be an ice age then.

Jackson took another gulp of soda, emptying the cup before continuing with what he was saying. "Yeah, why would they do that?" he agreed. "But believe it or not, that's what happened," he told Jean.

"Do you have any proof of that?"

"I do. But before I tell you more about that, let me ask you something else."

"What?'

"Did you know that there are not one, but two terrorist groups?"

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