Outcast

She pulled her hand back and scanned the room. The table was filled with files scattered around and most of them were marked confidential.

She grabbed one file after another and flipped through but nothing came up in the area of her expectations. She continued till she came to a file that only contained one piece of paper.

She looked at it and even though it didn't contain what she was looking for it was interesting. It talked about the process of 'crafting' a power generator to power 'it'.

It went on to list the benefits of using a nuclear reactor instead of normal rechargeable batteries for 'it' and the limitations of course. The reactor would make 'it' more unstable and prone to explosions.

Priscilla frowned deeply. The file used the term 'it' excessively to refer to something unmentioned. She thought for a while about it then came to a preliminary conclusion. She flipped to the end of the file and then closed it and threw it on the table. She dashed out of the room and ran down the corridor. The fumes were almost fully dissipated. The moment she returned to the lower floors, she heaved a sigh of relief. That was intense.

Although she was calm she knew that it was inevitable that the investigations—if there would be any—would still lead to her. The A.I., after all, didn't confirm her exit on the floor before the fumes started.

Then there was the man he had knocked out. 'So far so good.'

….

She waited the whole day but didn't hear anything from the higher ups. She waited around but nothing happened. No one came to look for her.

She nodded slightly and decided to ask Maya. "What happened this afternoon? I heard there was smoke on the higher floors?"

The walls lit up with a projection as Maya threw lines of words then the feminine voice followed. "Immediately after you left, the corridor was filled with thick fumes and it blinded my sensors for about six minutes two seconds. I do not know what happened exactly and every other information regarding this matter is classified."

'Good,' she thought. 'At least I know I'm safe. Damn I've never done this for a long time and even after 15 years with K9 I still can't pull off a secret mission. Infiltrating the military is not such an easy task.'

She exhaled and carried her bag and walked out of the medical lab. She had taken the circular disc with her when she had left and had crushed it afterwards.

The moment she was out of the military HQ premises she dialled K9. The other end connected quickly, "what's your status?"

"I barely got away with it." she sighed almost dejectedly.

K9 heaved a sigh. Even if she didn't find anything he'd still be happy. He didn't want her to get compromised otherwise the mission to take down the country's military would topple over and fail.

"That's good. What did you find?" he asked.

"The weapon, it's not in the Headquarters." She said and paused, recalling the content of the file she had read. "'It' is housed at another military base just miles from the HQ but it's still in the capital."

"An underground base, huh?"

Priscilla grunted. "It's labelled 'Base 52'."

The line fell silent for a while. "Report to base immediately, K7. We have important matters at hand to discuss."

"Okay, where's my ride?" K9 never let anyone know where the actual base was. In fact, there was no actual base. They had their meetings at random locations and one needed to make an appointment or be invited.

"Look to your right, there's a white car parked across the street." K9 replied.

She looked around and there was indeed a white car parked by the side of the road. She sighed; of course he did plan this along. "I see it."

….

Valerie was sitting in her usual spot—the couch in the living room. She didn't have much to do these days and she didn't want to do anything. She just wanted to wallow in her sorrow and maybe die?

Did she really want to die?

She shuddered. Although she was angry. She was sad, hurt and broken she had never had it in mind to take her life. She didn't want to take her life.

The only murderous thoughts that crossed her mind were towards Oliver. In her head she could imagine different scenarios where he died. How he died.

She could imagine poisoning him, she could imagine choking the life out of him, she could imagine stabbing his guts out, she could imagine castration and so many others.

In the end she could only sigh and go to bed.

Valerie instinctively massaged her head as she stood up to go get dressed. She was having slight headaches these days and sometimes she would feel nauseous. It was getting a bit worse so today she had made up her mind to go see the doctor for her test result.

She got dressed and left the house. She locked the door but she knew that Oliver had his own set of keys. She wished he didn't. One day she would be able to lock him out of the house and let him sleep at the doorstep. If only she had the only key.

She pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind and took a cab. She arrived at the hospital a few minutes later.

Another thing that crushed her soul's motivation was the fact that her parents had never thought to call or visit her in these past five and half weeks since she was forced into a marriage. They weren't there the day she was shipped off.

She knew why they never tried to make contact. To them she was a kind of stain to their ambitions and political and social reputations. They didn't want her to ruin things for them. She had become an outcast all of a sudden and it was all the fault of one man. Oliver.

She clenched her fist as she waited for the doctor to come and give her the test result.