Risk and Rebel

45: ELSEWHERE IN THE POLICE STATION

[ Third Person POV ]

Detective McCann hadn't a clue in the world about what to do with the four teenagers. So far, he had only spoken to Risk, but even walking through the interrogation hall, watching through the one-way glass, he felt uncomfortable.

Risk's male companion was, in a word, terrifying. No one looked at him for very long. Not that he was looking at the glass; no, he was staring straight ahead, his jaw set, eyes dark. His hands rested open, palms up, on the table.

McCann moved on from him after only a few seconds.

The black girl hadn't stopped moving since she'd been arrested. She was fidgeting like crazy, and out of the four of them, she seemed the most uncomfortable. She concerned McCann, but didn't terrify him. Though given the fact that she was one of the two that had created the explosion, he had a feeling he should keep his distance. With her dark curls cut short, and her large, doe-like eyes glinting with some untapped energy, she was definitely a character.

The other girl looked Hispanic. She was the least muscular of the four, but still visibly well-built. She hadn't moved an inch since she had sat down, her entire posture relaxed. Actually, the longer McCann examined her, the more he began to wonder if she was sleeping ... her eyes might actually have been closed—

McCann stepped away from that room as well and scrubbed a hand over his face. An exasperated sigh escaped him as his partner approached him.

"You look awful," Detective Elson stated. He stood half a head shorter than his partner, but had a more intimidating presence. "Aren't you supposed to be interrogating this lot?" he asked, waving around the hall and arching his brows at McCann.

McCann swallowed another sigh. "I did. One of them, anyway."

Elson quirked a brow. "Oh yeah? Which?"

McCann nodded toward Risk's room. She sat patiently within, but unlike the others, her eyes were now focused on the glass. As though she knew she was being watched. "That one," he said carefully, before looking back toward Elson. "She's ..."

"Small," Elson observed, his brow furrowing as he peered at Risk curiously. "And looks kind of like a murderer." He turned back to McCann, jerking a thumb toward Risk, "Does she know we're standing here?"

McCann cleared his throat. "Ah, no. She does not."

"Huh," Elson mused, eyes narrowing for a moment before he shrugged. "All right, so what's the hold up? Why is that look on your face?"

McCann exhaled slowly, taking a moment to pull himself together. He shouldn't have been letting this girl get under his skin, and he knew that. But there was something eerie about her, and she didn't have any ticks that would've indicated she was lying. It was disconcerting. "First of all, her name is Risk."

Elson's brows shot up his forehead. "Her actual name? It's not an alias?"

McCann nodded. "Actual name. And she doesn't have a surname."

Elson scoffed. "Surely she's lying. What information do you have on her? Or any of them, for that matter."

"That's just it, Elson," McCann said slowly, "none of them exist. On any network. We had MI6 look into them, and they came up with nothing. They have no social media, their faces don't show up on any criminal sites, there's no personal information— none," he waved around the hall, "of these teenagers exist. At all."

"That's not possible," Elson said.

"It shouldn't be, but that's the situation," McCann stated.

Elson considered that in silence before he nodded slowly. "All right, then what's her story?" he asked, looking up at McCann. "Not the explosion thing— I was briefed on that."

"You're going to think this is crazy," McCann forewarned.

"Hit me with it."

--

[ Alternate Third Person POV ]

Outlaw turned her attention to the door when it swung open. The man who entered was short, wide, and had beady eyes and a crooked smile. He didn't give her any degrading once-over, nor did he seem wary of her.

It was a refreshing change of circumstances, but she still didn't understand why she was even in an interrogation room in the first place.

"Unless you're here to tell me my friends decided we're leaving, you and I have nothing to talk about," Outlaw informed the man in a bored drawl.

He took a seat across from her, studying her face for a long moment before chuckling. "No, I don't think that's going to be happening any time soon, ma'am."

Outlaw scoffed. "Clearly you haven't talked to Risk or Rebel yet."

He didn't make any move to respond to that. "I'm Detective Elson. Given your unusual circumstances, I'm going to be straightforward with you. We have no information on you. You and your friends, essentially, do not exist. So if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to know your name."

Outlaw's smile was wide, and a tad bit demented at that. "I'm Outlaw. And you, sir, are so far in over your head," she let out a laugh, "you have no idea."

Elson hummed at that, watching Outlaw carefully. "Enlighten me."

Outlaw shrugged. "Not sure I'm allowed to."

He seemed to consider that. "Your friend, Risk, she told my partner that there's a ghost organization that's infiltrated Britain's government."

Outlaw arched a brow, her smile never fading. "Did she, now?"

"Was she wrong? Or was she lying?"

She scoffed. "Shocking though this may be, that wasn't a lie. Don't know why she didn't bother lying to you lot— not like you can do us much good, given the nut jobs we have after us. But nah, she wasn't lying. And given it's Risk— she sure as heck wasn't wrong."

Elson wasn't certain about what to say to that at first. "If you think we're useless to you, then why would your friend think otherwise?"

Outlaw let one shoulder rise and fall in a shrug, though her eyes still shone with intense intelligence. "Can't say for sure. My best theory would be that she has a plan that she didn't get to share with the rest of us before we got arrested. And if that's the case ..." This time Outlaw's laugh was long and loud, "Oh, you coppers are in for a ride."

"Risk's plans ... they're bad?" Elson asked warily.

Outlaw just smiled. "Nah, Risk may be many things, but she's not a bad planner. No, Risk ... let's just say if she's looking to team up with law enforcement," her smile faded, "then this entire ordeal is worse than we thought."