Haywire Ranger

Chapter 22: Choose Wisely

"Welcome to my office," a harsh feminine voice said behind a large, white-leather office chair the morning after the brutal carnage. "First off, the mere existence of this meeting and what we shall discuss is absolutely classified. You will not say a word about it. That's why your phones have been confiscated for the duration of this meeting and you've been forced to sign an NDA right before entering my office. Do you understand the need for secrecy and the gravity of the situation, ladies?"

"Yes, Mrs Evergreen," Halle Falcon and Hazel Beam replied as they stood before their boss' office desk with a stern expression on their faces.

"Good," Mrs Evergreen replied as she turned around to face them. "Let's go down to business, then. I've summoned you today to ask you some questions and assign you a special mission."

"You may ask away, Mrs Evergreen," Halle replied, bowing like the loyal employee she was.

"I'll do my best to provide all the information you need and help in any way I can," Hazel replied, doing the same.

"That's good to hear, especially now that I'm trying to solve a mystery," Mrs Evergreen replied casually.

"Which mystery?" Halle asked.

Mrs Evergreen stood up and grabbed her metal cane. As she took a couple of steps towards the enormous glass wall behind her desk, giving her back to them once more, she went on, "The mystery of Sky Falcon's stunning performance." Her tone faked being jovial and genuinely interested. "Ever since he claimed to bring down a Sonic Echo Ranger, everything's gone smoothly for him. Wouldn't you agree?"

Since no reply came, she chuckled as she stared at the ample city skyline under the unforgiving morning sun of that unusually hot May.

"First, he gets Naomi Hardy to slot him into the Elite Academy despite failing the admission test," she continued. "She became some sort of amateur detective as she questioned the security team in my Control Tower. She found out that they were tracking the fallen phoenix, which somehow Sky claimed he didn't bring down after the fact... for some reason. The team I sent to retrieve the Sonic Echo Ranger found a small swarm of phoenixes instead and had to fall back. The signal stopped shortly after. What an extraordinary coincidence, isn't it?"

Her playful tone didn't escape Halle and Hazel, who raised an eyebrow as they listened intently.

"I know Sky disappears for hours on end every day," she went on seriously as she turned around to face them once more. "My security cameras and drones have caught him on tape as he takes the glass elevators down to the ground level. After that, he escapes from my technologies' grasp, which are forbidden to leave the premises unguarded. The ID chip in his hand isn't used at all, so it can't be geolocalised. And whatever he does doesn't require traceable technology or he's found a way to block it."

Her annoyance stung her like a thorn pricks a finger. The alluring sweet scent of the rose she coveted, namely the truth, eluded her.

"Halle, do you happen to know where your son goes and what he does?" she asked as she put a hand on the table and leaned a bit on it. Her piercing gaze held an unwavering intensity, like shards of ice that could cut through steel.

"No, I don't." Halle's face betrayed a deep sense of disappointment and frustration, etched in the furrowed lines of her brow.

"Have you ever asked him?"

"No. I assumed he didn't want to spend time at home since we had had an argument. But we talked about it, and..." Despite her efforts to hide it, the disappointment lingered in her gaze, a silent plea for things to have turned out differently.