Episode 14-2: Ispio Exists!

McAllen, Texas: Cinemark Movies 6

Alisa's P.O.V.

"Jackal, what did you do?" I asked covering my mouth with my hands in astonishment. He had knocked out a poor kid working in the projection room of the theater, using only his elbow to deliver an effective blow to the unsuspecting head. The kid fell with a thump.

"Don't worry," Jackal said, "he'll be just fine. He'll wake up with only a small bump on his head. Now then, shall we get to work?" He makes his way to the modern projector sitting at the end of the room, already in use to show the latest movie that's come out this month. He stares at it for a moment, "Alisa dear, could you help me with this. I'm not as technologically advanced as you are."

I don't know which personality I prefer: the one where he's spasmodic is scary enough, but when he's prim and proper, that makes me feel like he's got something wicked cooking up in his head.

Hesitantly I step over the unconscious kid, gripping the laptop that I brought with me even tighter. I placed it down next to the projector and unrolled the necessary wires I stashed into my jacket pockets to hook up the two devices. The computer powered on and was properly synced up with the projector.

"So, everything is set up?" Jackal asked.

I nod slowly, "Uh-huh. All we gotta do is boot up the media player and launch the video. It'll play at the same time the movie is playing."

"Fantastic work, Alisa." He reaches down to play the custom-made media we created, showing images of the newspaper clippings and photos we've gathered throughout the years. The opacity was less than that of the movie, but it was still enough to catch the attention of the viewers in the audience. Whispered words of "Ispio" could be heard among the crowd, asking what that word meant or what it was, and more importantly, why was it taking up the screen that the movie they paid to see was on.

"Well, that was effective," I said peering down towards the audience.

"It's only a matter of time before more people start getting interested in this particular group. They just have to, right?" he asked me sincerely; I could only shrug in response. "I mean, don't they want an explanation as to why so many scary organizations are popping up on the map? People who are that smart don't just have a slip up somewhere and get the cops called on them." He walks over to me and takes a peek at the crowd too, "Damn blind sheep."

I turn to him, "Why is it that you want to expose Ispio? You seem to admire their work a lot."

He laughs, "I'm tired of secrets, Alisa. Aren't you?"

"I... I suppose so." Truthfully, the secrets are the very things that fascinate me. It's why I got into conspiracy hunting in the first place. Catching wind of Ispio has been the most exciting news I've ever received, and I wanted nothing else but to learn more about this strange secret society hidden within plain sight.

A banging on the door startled me out of my thoughts.

"Hey! Whoever is in there, you better stop tampering with the projector!" a man's voice shouted. The doorknob started to jiggle, and abruptly stopped once he figured out that it was locked. Jackal seems unaffected by the sudden intrusion as he continues to lean on the tiny window slot.

"I think we've overstayed our welcome," he whispers to me.

"You think!?" I shouted frantically. "I don't want to get in trouble! You said this was something safe! I can't afford a fine for vandalism of private property, Jackal!"

He grabs a strong hold of me to keep me still, "Easy there, Ms. Granite. We'll just politely leave the premises."

He's joking, right? He's got to be joking about that plan. We can't just "politely leave the premises," they're going to want to detain us once we step out of here. Not to mention the unconscious employee on the ground that they'll no doubt press charges for. Suddenly, the room fell quiet as I noticed that the man has stopped trying to come in. Jackal feels the uncomfortable silence too as he gradually loosens his grip on my arms.

"I don't like the feel of this," I told him.

"Hush, Alisa. Do you hear that?" he says darting his eyes from side to side.

I listen intensively but hear nothing besides the movie still playing below us. I look back at the door, "What are you talk-"

BANG

The door echoed a loud knock from the other side, frightening me right out of my skin. I clung to Jackal in pure reflex, pushing his body towards the door while I hid behind him. Another loud bang rang out, with the sound of hinges snapping off the wall. Soon after, the door fell flat on the floor, and in walked a rather large gray dog covered in what looked to be frosting. Frosting? Oh, wait...

"Cute prank," his deep voice boomed in the confined space, "but your joy ride is over."

A small slender fox wearing flamboyant clothing appeared from behind him, "Ah-hah! We've been running all over town looking for you." His smooth and delicate voice did no help in calming my nerves down.

The big dog looks over to the fox, "Hey, guess it's not a 'he' at all. It's a 'they'."

"He. They. What does it matter, they're both going down," says the fox. Although coming from him, it didn't seem as threatening as it should've.

Jackal started stepping backward, pushing me along with him, "Troy Hearth and Clyde Barker, right?" he asked them.

"You know what we look like, I'm not surprised that you know our names as well," says the fox while the dog cracked his knuckles and stepped closer to us.

"No no, easy there! Violence is never the answer, right detectives?"

"Tell that to the unconscious kid on the floor," the dog said. "Now tell me, how much do you know about us?"

Quickly, the skinny fox dashed past both of us and yanked out the cords from the laptop, shutting down the exposing media from the public's eyes. He looks at me and smiles, "First rule of Ispio, don't talk about Ispio."

I felt my heartbeat race like when I have one of my anxiety attacks. I knew I shouldn't have trusted Jackal, even if he was my old friend. He escaped from a mental asylum for God's sake! Serves me right for being so stupid, now we're gonna get creamed by some Illuminati guys in an unholy way. They're probably thinking up ways to torture us to our dying breaths right now.

"Please don't kill us!" I sputtered out, letting my held-back tears pour down my cheeks like some spastic fountain. "I won't say a word about you or this! You can blank my memory with that Men In Black thingy if you've got it!"

The fox laughed, "It's true, we do have a memory blanker. Though, it's not as portable as the one in the movie is."

"Stop giving them information, ya dink!" the dog barked, causing the fox to shrug his shoulders and blush slightly. "Now then, to deal with you two..."

A lump that was too big to swallow formed in my throat. I look at Jackal's face; a wicked smile pulling the corners of his mouth. Suddenly he dashes quickly at the dog and hurled his entire body at him in a cannonball style. The dog grunts in surprise as he falls onto the floor, and Jackal springs up quickly on his feet as he makes a run for it.

"Oh crap!" the fox yelled as he sped off after Jackal. I took that as my chance to get the hell out of here. I headed for the door but screamed in fear as I felt a giant hand wrap around my ankle.

"Stop right there, missy!" said the dog who recovered quickly and wrapped me in a tight hug.

"No! Lemme go! I'm sorry, I don't wanna die!" I kicked and screamed at the top of my lungs, but he just wouldn't let go.

"Easy there. Calm down, I won't hurt you." He squeezed harder until it started to hurt. That's when I decided that it would be best to just do what he says.

*** *** ***

Troy's P.O.V.

This crazed coyote had a unique, horrible smell wafting from behind him, and I didn't even need the trail of thrashed movie products he was knocking over to follow. I hurdled over fallen trash cans and pushed through the bewildered people he had already shoved past. Once I made it to the main lobby, I caught a glimpse of a frazzled tail leaving through the main doors. I busted through, looking down the sidewalk and watching him pull a poor old man out of his car.

"Hey," I shouted while drawing my gun, "don't you dare drive off in that!"

He slammed the car door and floored the gas pedal, speeding down the street and vrooming right past me. I turned and took a couple of shots at the car hoping to pop one of the tires. No such luck, the car continued down unharmed and turned a corner.

I holstered my gun and stomped my foot in frustration, "Great! Just perfect!" I pulled out my phone and pressed Clyde's contact. We can't use the communication gadget right now, HQ could be listening. "He stole a car and got away."

A heavy sigh comes from Clyde's line, "It's fine, we've got a hold of one of them at least. I'm coming out, bring the car around."