The Freaks

13

Black Phoenix walked into the room full of techies. She was aware of the eyes on her, but at this moment, she really couldn't care less. 

"You. What's your name?" she spoke, stopping beside a dark skinned man. He looked up at her, away from his computer. He was shocked that she came in there, she never goes in there.  

"Andre." he replied. Her face was neutral. 

"Okay, Andre. I need you to do something for me, is that okay?" 

It wasn't a question meant to be answered. In fact, in all seriousness, her asking if it was okay was completely rhetorical. He was gonna do what she asked whether he had a broken nose or not. 

"What can I do for you?" he asked, sitting up straighter than before. 

"Find whatever you can on a Dr. Stanley Burke and bring it to me. No one else." She told him. 

"We're really not supposed to do that..." he trailed off. Black Phoenix clamped her hand on his shoulder. She watched him quiver beneath her grip, under her shadow as she lowered her head down toward him. 

"I'm gonna put this in words you'll understand; you're going to bring what you find to me and you're not gonna bring it to anybody else, if you don't, I'm gonna hunt you down and I'm going to hurt you." Black Phoenix threatened. 

"Am I making myself clear, Andre?" 

He nodded. He knew that her threat was anything but empty. 

"Yes, ma'am." he stuttered. She let go of his shoulder. 

"Thank you." 

With that, she was gone. Not just from the tech room. From the entire building. She had business to take care of. She'd be damned if anybody was gonna get away with what Stanley Burke did. 

~

Evie walked into the alleyway with the black bag slung over her shoulder. She dialed the number that she'd memorized only hours before. 

"This is Andre." 

"Andre. Change of plans. Meet me at Three forty-two, Hazlehurst Avenue at midnight tonight." she spoke. 

"No, no way. This is getting sketchy. I'm gonna get fired or worse." he argued. Evie growled. 

"Worse is going to be what happens to you if you don't show up, you fucking pussy." she snapped. There was a long pause on the other line. 

"I'll be there. I'll be there." 

"See you then." she grumbled before hanging up and dropping the phone to the ground. She dug her heel into the glass screen. The glass crumbled beneath her foot, leaving it a shattered piece of garbage. She heard a loud thud in the garbage can a few feet away. 

She turned her head. Red Veteran stood on top of the lid. Before he'd arrived, there was no dent in this lid. But, now there was a dent and a dead guy between him and the lid. 

"What do you want?" she questioned. He jumped off the garbage can, leaving the body. One would say he didn't care, but he did. He didn't want to kill the guy, but RV was being shot at by the man and it was in his blood to take down the guy that tried to kill him. 

"I've been looking for you all morning." he stated.

"Just tell them that the Phoenix's going dark to take care of some business." she spoke before trying to walk past him. He grabbed her wrist. Not tight enough to hurt her, but tight enough to make sure that she wouldn't go anywhere. 

"There's a guy from statistics that's balling his eyes out cause of that business." 

"He didn't listen to me." 

"He was doing what he was authorized." Red Veteran corrected. Evie kept her gaze forward, she didn't pull her arm. She just stayed there. 

"I needed some information to solve a problem. Whether he was authorized or not, I was getting it." she stated. 

"What kind of problem?" Red Veteran questioned. 

"Don't worry about it, it's being handled." she spoke. Her tone was calm, cold. She was too smart to give away any information about what she was doing. 

"Threatening a tech guy and going dark is telling me different." 

Evie scoffed. She didn't want anybody to know. It was her problem and she was gonna solve it herself. 

"You didn't change into your civilian identity." 

He shook his head and let out a breath. 

"Evie, just tell me what you're doing." 

"Why? You're gonna go and tell Caitlyn and she's just gonna make it all worse." she sighed. 

"Not if you don't want me to." he told her. She paused. She was torn between doing what she always did and what her gut was telling her to do. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. 

"My identity's been compromised." she admitted. 

"By who?" 

She shrugged. She still hadn't looked at him. 

"That's what the techie's for. He'll get whatever he can on Stanley Burke and give it to me." Evie told him. 

"What exactly happened, Evie?" Red Veteran inquired.  

"My roommate, Betty called me a couple days ago and said that some guy named Stanley Burke stopped by our place, that he was some kind of doctor and he wanted me to call him. Last night when I got back, I decided to call him. He knew things about me, things that could only mean that I was being watched. He knew about my mom and he might as well have threatened me. I'm not letting him get away with it." Evie responded. He finally let go of her wrist. 

"I'm helping you." he stated. 

"No, you're not. This is my mess, I have to fix this." Evie told him, crossing her arms. 

"If I don't help you, they're gonna reveal your identity to the world. Like it or not, you need my help. You can't do this on your own." Red Veteran told her. She rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. 

"Fine. But if this goes bad, it's on you." 

~

Hello, readers!! How are you guys, tonight? I want to thank you for reading the book. 

Also, I'm thinking of changing Evie's name to Katie or Kate, I don't know yet. Let me know what you think. 

Please, comment below and vote. That's what gives me the courage to keep going!!