Zero.

Chapter Twenty-Two

AGENT ONE
I RAN a hand over my face and relooked at my screen for the hundredth time. Days had passed since I first hacked into Chief’s computer and I still couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing. The women was deceased, but she had my face. Or one very similar to it. The only changes between here and me were the shapes of our lips and cheekbones. Mine were a tab bit fuller and my cheekbones were more visible. I looked over her body measurements and they were exactly like mine, height, bust, even the birthmark on her stomach, but it couldn’t be.
Clicking back to the original page, I looked up Agent Zero’s profile. Chief had more files on her than I thought necessary but there was next to nothing on me and the women who shared my face. The amount of information he had on Zee though, now that was borderline obsessive.
There was even data on her brain activity while she Slept. I glanced at those and surmised that Agent Zero had a very restless Sleep compared to mine. I had looked through every file on his computer except one. This one was too heavily protected, the only way I would be able to gain access was if I had his personal computer. With a sigh, I slammed my laptop shut and headed to my training room. There was a commotion on the way there, apparently a small team had returned badly injured.
“What’s happening?” I asked a random person.
“Another Squad just returned. There even worse off that Agent 219’s team.” She answered.
“What are you talking about?”
Her eyes widened in surprise
“You don’t know?”
I felt my fact twist into an irritated scowl.
If I had known, would I have wasted time asking?
“Oh, um Chief’s been sending squads in to track down a rogue agent, but everyone they’ve sent had just come back badly hurt.”
“How many squads has he sent?”
“Well, Agent 219’s was the first and that was about a week or so ago. Since then he’s sent 3 more squads in, but no success.”
I felt my heart drop “Any deaths?”
“No, just broken bones and egos.” she tried to joke. My straight face must have stopped her laugh.
“Who’s the agent they’re after” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
“It’s classified. No one knows.” She whispered. The sound of the medical team shouting at people to get out the way cut our conversation short. I only got a glimpse of the injuries, but I could tell Zee hadn’t went easy on them.
I turned and walked robotically to the training room.
Hours of me pummeling the air passed before I finally tired myself out.  I had hoped coming here would give my mind a break from all that had been happening, but all it did was remind me that Zee was off somewhere beating up agents and that I had a dead women’s face.
Sweat coated every inch of my body and my hair stuck to my face by the time I left the room, but adrenaline still coursed through me. I couldn’t tell if I just needed answers or to hit someone.

Or a nice combination of the two.

Chief had been absent from headquarters since I told him I wouldn’t go after Zee, I wasn’t sure where he went exactly but I had only seen glimpses of him and it was always in passing. It was curiosity rather than worry for how he was doing that lead me to his office.
As expected, the door was unlocked but he wasn’t in there. I was going to turn and leave when I remembered that Chief’s office was the only room that didn’t have cameras. Shutting the door behind me, I hurried to his computer. My heart beat widely in my chest at what I was going to do. If I was caught I didn’t know how I would explain myself, but I pushed that to the back of my mind and searched for the file I wasn’t able to hack into. It would be easier to get into on his personal computer because there were less firewalls, on any other device I couldn’t get close to it.
But now… after a few long minutes, I gained access. I would have loved to go through everything, but I didn’t know when Chief would make a surprise visit.
I skimmed through the file until something titled “Gene Cross” caught my attention. As soon as I clicked it, the photo of the deceased women came into view, but this time she had a name: Cynthia Jones.
My palms were slick with sweat as I searched deeper into the file. Gene Cross was apparently a failed experiment to completely erase Cynthia Jones and cross genes with another women named Mila Stone.
 The experiment failed because a few components from something titled “Original Sleeper Trials” were missing. Instead of a full transfer, it was only partial. It didn’t say what was transferred over.
My vision blurred as I tried to focus on what I was reading.
Zee had called my Cynthia.
..Was- was I this person? This failed experiment?
Was Agent Zero actually Mila Stone? There were no images of her, only Cynthia so I couldn’t be sure, but my gut told me I was right.
How had Zero known about Cynthia?
The sound of Chief’s expensive shoes rounding the corner had me closing out the windows before I could learn anything else. I stood from his desk and ran to the couch instead. Wiping my face, I prayed that he attributed any redness in my face to me training.
My body was too ridged, so I laid down on the couch and plugged in my earphones. 
My heart rate had just started to calm when I felt my earplugs being pulled.
“Why are you taking a nap in my office?”
Chief stood before me, his suit was slightly disgruntled, and his hair messed up probably from running his hands through it. I noticed that he did that whenever he was stressed.
“Must have dozed off. Took you long enough to get here.” I yawned.
He glared at me, seeming unimpressed with my nonchalant tone.
“What is it that you want?”
I stood so we were facing each other. Just to annoy him further, I took my time stretching my muscles.
“Who are the agents going after? I heard that you’re sending in squads to get a rogue agent. Is it Zero?”
He eyed me before a slow smirk spread across his face. “It’s classified.”
“So unclassify it.” I retorted.
 “Why do you even care? You told me yourself that you’re not going to get her.” He smirked.
“Answer the question.” 
He brushed past me, walking around to his desk instead and sitting. I averted my eyes from his computer.
“Yes, I am going after Agent Zero.” He finally responded.
“Why are you sending a bunch of rookies? You know as well as I do that they’re no match for her!” I yelled.
“Who else can I send?” he snapped back.
That cooled my anger.
“I’ll go." I said.
“What did you just say?” I could tell by the change of his tone that I had surprised him. Heck, I had surprised myself more, but Zee had called me Cynthia and it was too risky trying to find answers here and she seemed to know more than I did. If anyone could explain what was truly happening, then I had no choice but to listen to what she had to say. But first I had to find her.
“Send me. I’ll go after her”