~~Young~~

Chapter Two

   “I know what you’re thinking Sissy, and yes, sometimes it is just that easy.”

   With a crook of her mouth Sera shook her head and thought of espionage, definitely going to make a great leader.

   “Come on, you’re a big believer in karma right?” Duncan nudged Sera with his elbow, knowing Lizzy’s words had her resolve beginning to wan, “maybe this is karma finally handing us some good for everything we’ve done. Can’t say it isn’t about time after all the bullshit we went through the last time.”

   The last time being when four of their six comrades out that night ended up charged with felony assault amongst other things after a sting gone wrong. It should have been an easy job, one they’ve carried out many times before. They were out to contaminate a facility-and as such shut down their production-that produced just one of the thousands of behavioral modifying drugs out there. The same one a friend of theirs had overdosed on when he couldn’t handle the pressures from his own family.

   But that pharmaceutical company must have gotten wind of their operation because they were prepared. Before they had even made it to the fence line they were greeted with armed guards. The Angels weren’t a violent operation by any means, they didn’t even carry weapons themselves, but that didn’t stop the guards from firing on the group. Good news was no one was actually shot, but the bad news was a fight broke out. And since her group didn’t belong there they were charged as the instigators and sentenced to some serious time.

   They had lawyers working on the appeals though and it was only a matter of time before they were free. It was political showboating and no more. Her Uncle was the one to make sure they did time because ‘offenses such as that would not be tolerated in British Columbia and he would make an example of them for all the others who thought they could take justice into their own hands’.

   Little did he know that one of their leaders had been standing just feet beside him at that press conference in mock support of her family. Sera heard the message, she had numerous times before, but then as now it wasn’t going to keep her from doing what was right.

   Nobody outside her organization knew her name never mind her face. She wasn’t just their leader but their most valuable asset in their war because of the intel she herself could gather from her family’s connections. And as such she had to keep her identity hidden, they all did. They had code names when in mixed company and when they were on a mission she was simply Sissy, as in sister, it didn’t get much vaguer then that. She herself owned dozens of different tokes and facemasks to hide her features, and like a true political leader she was smuggled out of situations when it was clear things were going wrong. If she were exposed not only would it tip off exactly who they were out to take down, but her family would disown her in a moment’s time. And as much as she despised her parents she needed them and their money, for her organization and her sister.

   She knew without her in the picture they would take their frustrations out on Josephine. And that Sera just could not allow. She had worked so hard to make sure her sister had the perfect childhood she never did. She wouldn’t let that little girl be broken because of her parent’s antipathy of the other, or worse, medicated into a state of numbness should she ever try to fight back. Her parents had tried that several times over Sera’s childhood, sent her to this or that phycologist when she “acted up” for a new round of drugs meant to calm her overactive state or the antidepressants to curb “self destructive” behavior.

   It was called being a kid. Kids were rowdy, kids were defiant. Were there those out there in a serious need of the meds, she absolutely believed it. But the truth of the matter was that most of those kids were on the medications simply because their parents didn’t want to deal with them. And giving them a pill rather than finding a constructive outlet for their energy, or encouraging them in pursuits other than their own tired ways was just too easy to pass up. Sera couldn’t let that happen to her sister. At fourteen years old the girl was proving to not only be a brilliant artist, but a true free spirit. An honestly good person who only wished the best for others, not like Sera’s own world weary vision of the future that had her doing the things she did.