Project HALO

Chapter 19

Mikey jolts forward so sudden the seat belt tightens over his chest. "The Phantom? Are you serious?" His voice is so high it hurts my ears. "Are you guys Phantoms?"

His gaze darts between me and Will, his smile growing, his eyes widening when they finally stop at Will. "I'm Wormer03!"

"Wormer?" Frank exclaims and glances at Mikey in the rearview mirror. He sounds excited. "You're Wormer? I'm Frankenstone!"

Mikey's gaze moves over to Frank. "What?!" The happiness spreading on his face makes me feel a little better about this situation. "I can't believe we're meeting like this." He shakes his head. "After, what, 3 years of talking over at the forum?"

"So you're a Phantom, too, huh." Will's face lights up. She looks at Frank, who seems to be returning the big smile underneath his bandana. "You helped us take down that disgusting neo-nazi."

"Yeah, when Will almost forgot to delete our zero-days," Frank adds and bumps his elbow gently against Will's shoulder.

I stay quiet like a question sign.

"I'm not a great hacker, okay. I mostly handle the planning and nitty-gritty details," Will says with a slight roll of her dark eyes. "Malcolm is one of the best hackers. DoctorX, if you remember?"

"The DoctorX?" Mikey gasps as if he just broke a firewall, or whatever it is hackers get excited about.

Mikey could giggle like a little kid right now and I wouldn't be surprised. He asks about the other members of Phantom. From what I can tell, Mikey and Frank have been friends online for years. I want to ask Mikey why he's never told me about Frank, but after all my negativity toward Phantom I can't really blame him.

They're discussing some infamous cyber-attacks and hackers, but I have to interrupt. I'm relieved Mikey knows these people and it makes me feel safer, but their conversation only creates more questions. Regina has made it clear what she wants from me, but what is Phantom's goal?

"So what the hell does any of this have to do with me?" My tone is sharper than I wanted, and they break off their conversation mid-sentence.

And we're back to reality.

Mikey's droops back into his seat with a loud exhale and stares out the window. There isn't a single skyscraper to see anymore, not even in the far distance. We drive past the typical Norwegian rural houses with white fences and orange roofs, few and far between, placed among green fields and blooming, full trees. It's all something I've seen before, but at the same time I haven't seen any of it. Definitely the countryside.

"What do you want?" I ask again.

"To be honest, you were never meant to be a part of this," Will starts. Her voice is flat now, the enthusiastic smile vanished from her face. "We've been planning this for months, and we knew this would be our last chance to infiltrate the NIC. Last year, when Malcolm discovered the real reason why they'd hired him, he knew we had to act. He made it a cause for Phantom to destroy their plan and that's what we're going to do this summer." She tilts her chin a little. "And even though none of you were meant to be here, we have to go through with it. We just have to protect the biochip. It's very important."

From the way she says the last bit, the chip seems to be most important part. I don't know how to feel about that. It's like a part of me isn't me anymore.

"The biochip for experiment six was supposed to be implanted into a Phantom, someone Malcolm already had gotten approved as a test subject by the NIC, but when you came along, Regina intervened. She chose you so she could prove a point to your father, despite Malcolm's reluctance. He tried to get you out of it, but she was determined."

"Regina might be the mastermind behind this," Frank says, "but your father approved Project HALO. The government is backing them up as well..." He shakes his head. "They make me sick."

Will casts a cold glance at Frank, as if he said something he wasn't supposed to, but Frank doesn't seem to notice.

"We think your father started to doubt the project, and when Regina saw you being taken into the police station, it was perfect timing for her to make you the next experiment and at the same time show your father how wrong he was about the project," Will says. "Because if she can show that even the CEO's criminal son can be monitored by a chip, how can anyone object to it? If she can control the evil and reckless, how can anyone say no?"

My eyebrows automatically lower at the word evil. I've been called careless, stupid, and even brutal, but never evil. But I guess all those words equal into the same thing anyway: Me.

"Hey, no, I don't think you're evil, okay," Will quickly corrects herself. "But that's the picture Regina wants to paint to the public. There's a reason all the former experiments have been criminals. They thought their sentences would be shortened if they volunteered. The only problem was that the older versions of the biochip never released the vaccine properly."

"Which killed them in the end," Frank adds in a solemn tone.

"Regina will do whatever it takes to make Project HALO successful," Will says. "But Malcolm deactivated your chip, and deleted every trace of the project from NIC's computers and hard drives before he helped you escape, so her plans are already at a halt." Will turns to face the road again. "He saved everything on a flash drive that only he knows where is. Regina will never find it."

I feel carsick all of a sudden.

Why would he tell them about the flash drive but not where he hid it?

My head spins with theories, but none of them are convincing.

The key burns in my shoe.

Malcolm told me to trust no one, not even his own people. There must be a reason why he warned me. A very good one. Why else would he warn me against his own ex-girlfriend and fellow Phantoms? It's not like I can ask Will or Frank why Malcolm doesn't trust them. But Malcolm trusted me with the key, and it's my turn to repay the favor.

I lock eyes with Mikey and shake my head so slowly it's barely noticeable, but he understands.

We can't tell them about the key.