Chapter 40

Nell and Chloe investigated the penthouse until they discovered Rattis in a side room, carrying the stolen railgun.

"That is not your property." Nell stated.

"You have no business being here. The party has begun." Rattis stated.

"We're lot more curious about what's going on here. Especially since you're hoarding stolen goods from King Owl, The M.R.C., and my father Jacob's." Chloe stated.

"He is not your biological father. Jacob only took you in because he cared for you. You are not a true Borge. You will always be an orphan." Rattis smirked, prompting Chloe to step closer to hit him, only to be blocked by Nell as Rattis held up the gun.

"That's not something I'd do. Badger, Little." Rattis stated.

"How did you find out that I was an orphan?" Chloe growled.

"Oh, because I engaged a poet to write the answer for me a few months ago. To be honest, all I wanted to know was who King Owl was. But once I realized that it wasn't hard to figure out that you're his little sidekick." Rattis stated.

"He's your best pal." Though he knew it was meaningless, Nell reminded him.

"He was, indeed, the best. King Owl could never be normal; he had to have more dead children than me." Rattis stated.

"You have no right to be envious of that. Owl King was never attempting to outperform you. He literally saved your mother's life." Chloe stated.

"Yes, and instead of receiving my fortune, I had to wait 13 years for her to pass away. He is a monster who bound me to a nasty gold-digging bimbo." Rattis stated.

"Why wait till he's wearing a bulletproof suit if you want to kill him?" Chloe inquired.

"I didn't know who damaged my life until recently intel. That's what King Owl did. And, while Kid Owl may have taken his position, I'm confident he can entice King Owl and Microsoft X back to town. And if he can't, I'm confident his old sidekick can." Rattis stated.

"I'm going to hell." Chloe gave him a smirk.

"Careful. Do you honestly believe I wouldn't be ready for this?" Rattis stated, holding up his phone to show security camera footage of the elevators.

"What is it?" Nell inquired.

"Incentive. You have one hour to provide me the Microsoft X location so I can get the remaining files to finish everything." Rattis stated. "That's not enough time, Rattis." Nell stated. "The answer is incorrect. And here's a little peek at what will happen if you don't fulfill my deadline." " Rattis muttered as he hit a phone button, and they heard an explosion before watching one of the elevators fall.

"No," Nell replied.

"Give me an hour to bring Microsoft X or his whereabouts. If I fail, the folks in the next elevator I drop will be people this city cares about." Rattis explained that the original elevator was solely used by servers and bus boys and girls. "All well, we'll figure something out." Chloe concurred.

"Good. Get moving now." Rattis stated, and both Nell and Chloe knew they couldn't help but obey him as long as he had both the rifle and the elevators fixed.

"All right, let's go." As they both exited the building, Nell stated and Chloe nodded.

"Are you still fusing Data?" As they rode the elevator down to the M.R.C.'s headquarters in Maryland, Nel inquired.

"Yep. This is a two-person project. One must deal with Rattis and the other to save the prisoners he'll undoubtedly abandon when he realizes Microsoft X hasn't arrived." As the elevator doors opened and they entered the M.R.C. Bottom Headquarters, Chloe stated and Nell nodded.

"Chloe," Robert explained.

"It's lovely to see you again, Robert." Chloe stated.

"I'm glad to see you're back in town, and I'm assuming you're here to assist Nell?" Robert inquired.

"You're right," Chloe said.

"Do you think the suitcase I discovered on Nell's desk while you were at the party contained your Data Artifact?" Robert inquired.

"Yep. I had a hunch I'd be returning here, so I merely sent my item ahead. What is its location?" As Robert tossed the bag to Chloe, she inquired.

"That's OK. Let's incorporate Data Fuse into our forms." As they both moved to fuse up, Nell murmured.