The Hunters

Epilogue: The Resolution

Leslie wasn't sure if her ID chip was still active, so the intern she had grabbed used hers to activate the elevator; albeit under duress. The frazzled researcher with the dyed black hair knew that she had a target on her back, so exiting the building in the midst of a shootout with opposing hunters was not going to be a viable strategy. Instead, after parting ways with Lance and Jillian, she decided to find the only other person in Pacifica that might side with her; even if he might end up being an unwilling ally. The elevator opened to the fourteenth floor, and she released the terrified intern and went to the office of Dr. Matthew Douglas.

Due to the security lockdown, all office doors had been locked, so the increasingly frustrated woman beat on the heavy wooden door.

"Matthew, open up!"

"Who... who is there?"

"It's me, Leslie! Open the damn door!"

Moments later, the surprised pharmaceutical researcher released the electronic lock. "Leslie?"

After everything she'd witnessed over the past few weeks, Leslie Kelley was done being timid. She pushed him back into the office and closed the door behind her. "Matthew, to be blunt, I need your help, and I need it now."

"My help? You people said that you were done with me!"

"We were, but Dr. Clark and I did something without alerting the Hunters beforehand," she stated. "The data is gone, erased from every mainframe in the system, but Dr. Clark reversed engineered the virus to give us a little present. We have proof: logins, data, video clips... everything we need to blow the lid off this whole damn conspiracy!"

"Leslie, those logins... they will implicate both of us!"

"We're turning state's evidence. Reduced sentence; maybe probation? But Matthew... it's the right thing to do!"

Dr. Douglas sighed heavily. "No, you're right. What do you need me to do?"

Leslie forced a weary smile. "Right now, Lance and Jill are fighting two other Hunters, and I can't get past them. I need to get this flash drive to PCN, but first, I need you to make a copy."

"Can we erase anything that pertains to us?" He joked.

She glared at him.

"Okay, okay, you're right. I'll back it up on my laptop, and then we can use the executive exit in the basement."

"Executive exit? I was a senior researcher... why wasn't I aware of this?"

A look of shame crossed Dr. Douglas' face. "Honestly? Your genitals."

"Seriously?!"

"Don't be so offended, Leslie. I'm the only manager of African descent, and I'm sure that if there was another white man with qualifications anywhere close to mine, I would just be a senior researcher like you. Welcome to modern America."

"Maybe dethroning President Michaels will change all that," Leslie replied quietly.

"We can only hope, Leslie... we can only hope."

                                                                 *** a few months later ***

Lance awoke and opened the worn but clean curtains that covered the window in his small apartment on the second floor of the State Capital Building in New Sacramento. He proceeded on to his morning workout, and then grabbed a towel and headed downstairs to the communal shower. The room used nothing more than rainwater that was heated through makeshift solar panels, but the lukewarm spray still allowed the former Hunter to clean himself to the degree that he had become accustomed, and after clipping his nails and brushing his hair and teeth, he left to go speak with Arthur Stevens, the leader of the local militia.