Chapter 27

"There are two terrorist groups!?"

"Yeah, that's right. There are two terrorist groups that oppose I.C.E. One of them is on the more... extreme side," Jackson said while tilting his hand left and right. "While the other one can't really be called a terrorist group, but they do oppose I.C.E," Jackson explained the difference between the two of them.

"So they're the reason why me, my dad, and my friends almost died today?"

"Eh, I wouldn't say that both of them are responsible. The one to blame for that is the first group I mentioned. They're the ones that blow up buildings and floaters," he told her.

"And how do you know this?" Jean asked him suspiciously. It made no sense for him to know any of this.

"I rather not into that," Jackson said while scratching his head. "It's complicated. But yeah, back to what I was saying, there are two terrorist groups. Surprising, isn't it?"

"Yes, it's surprising. But what's even more surprising is how you even know this."

"Yeah... No matter how many times you're going to say that, you're not getting that out of me," Jackson told her.

"Hm..." Jean stared Jackson straight through his eyes.

"No, that's not happening," Jackson turned his head away from Jean.

"By any chance... Are you part of one of those terrorist groups?" she asked him.

The question surprised Jackson and almost caused his butt to slip from the arm and land back on the wet cushion. He planted his other hand on the other arm and pushed himself back up.

Bullseye. For her to get a reaction like that from asking that question, it meant that she probably guessed right or was relatively close.

"W-woah, I did not expect that question. But what makes you think that?"

"You're a terrible liar, you know that?" It was subtle, but Jean saw some beads of sweat form on Jackson's forehead and she could also hear a hint of nervousness in his voice. Yep, she got it.

"Am I? Wait- I mean no, I'm not a terrorist," he stuttered.

"Uh-huh, and I'm not Jean."

"No, I'm serious! I'm not a terrorist!"

"Yeah, so am I. I'm just someone that looks like me," Jean sarcastically said. Since he was defending himself this much, she had no doubts anymore that he was a terrorist. "Anyway, which group are you part of? The second one?" she guessed.

It was unlikely that he was in the first one since if he was, he wouldn't have told her any of this. She didn't even understand why Jackson was part of any of this in the first place. "You're too young to be working for I.C.E., so I doubt you are an I.C.E. agent and that is the reason why you know all this. Therefore, you have to be a terrorist," she explained her train of thought which led her to the conclusion.

"Ughhh... I'm starting to have some regrets."

"Then you shouldn't have told me any of this to begin with. Why the heck would you suddenly come to my apartment flaunting that you knew these things anyway?" she asked.

"Good question. I starting to wonder that myself. I think I might be an idiot. Any chance you can just forget everything?" Jackson completely gave up on defending himself and instead, begged Jean to pretend that none of this had ever happened.

"No."

"Oh boy... Well, it was worth a try. In the very least, can you not report any of this?" he pleaded with her.

"Depends."

"Depends on what?"

"What you tell me next. What does your terrorist group do, and why are you in it to begin with?" she asked him.

"Hm... I already messed up big time, so it can't get any worse if I tell you more now, can it?"

"Probably not, unless you tell me that you guys bomb stuff too."

"No, we don't do that," Jackson quickly said. He sighed. "I mean, if we did do that, we would also kill people. And if we do that, then that means I wouldn't really mind telling you any of this."

"And why is that?"

"Uh... Cause that means I'd just kill you right afterward or something like that to keep your mouth shut. And before you start panicking, don't worry, I won't do that."

"Mhm..."

"I'm serious, we don't do those kinds of things."

"Yeah, I know."

"Ah, I can't tell whether you're being sarcastic or not anymore. Man, I'm in trouble for all this already, but whatever." Jackson hit his head a few times with his hand and got up from the sofa arm.

"Before I tell you what we do and why we are doing the things that we do, I need to tell you about what I.C.E. is doing." Jackson walked over to a bag that was lying on the ground and pulled a laptop out of it and set it on the table.

Jean walked over to Jackson and looked over his shoulder as he clicked on a file and an image popped up on the screen. "Recognize this from anywhere?" he moved out of the way to show her the picture.

Jean looked at the image for a good minute before responding with, "No." She didn't even know what she was looking at. It looked like a dark room with a bunch of glass cylinders lined up on the walls.

"That's expected. I would be very surprised if you did know what this is," he told her.

"What is it?"

"I.C.E.'s secret underground lab," he answered.

"Since when did they have an underground lab?"

"I don't know. But that isn't the important question. The question you should be asking is why they have an underground lab."

"Okay, why do they have an underground lab," Jean repeated Jackson's question.

"Why do you think?"

"If I knew, why would I be asking you?"

"Man, you're really no fun. What I mean to say is take a guess."

"Because they can't make the building any taller or else it would interfere with the lights on the ceiling?"

"I guess that's a reason, but that's no the main one. It's for illegal experiments," he told her. "And as for how we know, according-"

"Wait, before you tell me, how do I know that you're telling the truth and that you're not just making this up. And if you're not lying, then how do I know this place actually exists? Have you actually seen it for yourself?" Jean asked.

"Um, didn't you just say that I'm a terrible liar? If I were lying, I'm pretty sure you would catch on by now."

"That's true."

"And for your second question, no, I have not actually seen this place in person before. But I know this place does in fact exist because one of the members in our group helped dig out the space for the lab."

"Okay, and how do you know they're doing illegal experiments in there? What do you mean by illegal anyway? What kind of experiments are they even doing?"

"We don't know what kind of experiments they're carrying out in there, but!" Jackson put his hand out and said before Jean could interrupt him again. "As I was saying before," he continued where he left off before he was interrupted by her, "We don't know what kind of experiments they are carrying out in there, but according to our expert, in the very least, they are not working on a way to fix the earth based on the equipment in the picture."

"You mean the giant glass cylinders?" she said while pointing at them in the laptop.

"Yes."

"You're sure telling her a lot despite her not being with us," came a voice from behind them. The two of them turned to see Hans leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and a stern look on his face.

"Hans? How long have you been here?"

"Long enough to hear you practically tell her everything about us."

"About that..." Jackson laughed nervously. "You see, I kinda messed up, and yeah stuff happened and here we are."

Hans wasn't amused by Jackson's excuse and told him, "None of this would have happened if you just kept your mouth shut."

"Well, to be fair, Jackson didn't tell me everything about you guys. He just told me a little," Jean said to Hans. The man gave her an angry look which scared her. Combined with his scar, Hans really looked like a villain from a movie.

"Hey, don't scare her. I didn't actually tell her that much," Jackson put himself between Hans and Jean.

"Yeah, you only told her a 'little,' which is still a 'little' too much in my opinion," Hans said sharply. "Sometimes I really wonder what goes on in your head. Actually, scratch that. Make it all the time."

Hans wasn't the only one. Jean also wondered the same thing. She really didn't understand what went on in his mind at all.

"I wonder the same thing too," Jackson agreed with Hans. "But since it's already too late now, might as well tell her everything."

Hans didn't look very happy with what Jackson said but he didn't care anymore and walked away. He grabbed something off a shelf and continued to the exit.

"Where are you going?" Jackson asked him.

"Getting a new 'that,'" Hans pointed at the broken machine

"on the floor. "It doesn't look like you will be going outside anytime soon so I might as well do it myself."

"Oh. Well, have fun," Jackson waved goodbye to Hans but Hans just ignored him and walked out the door, slamming it behind him.

"Hm... He isn't in a good mood," Jackson stated the obvious.

"I really wonder why..."

"Beats me. It's totally not because I told you all these things when I'm not supposed to, right?" Jackson said while giving a thumbs-up. It really didn't seem like he care at all about anything that happened.

"I really hope you know what you're doing."

"I hope so too."

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