Journey Into The Aftermath |✔

Chapter twenty eight: Schematics of the Heart

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On a hill fifty-seven kilometers away, Adrian had a sniper trained on Nick as he and Joana went back and forth, overhearing the final modifications to the stabilizers. He always knew Nick was smart but tonight he really proved himself and Adrian, very deep down, was impressed.

He mission was to take Nick out and he had his finger on the trigger to do just that.

The 'striker team' was split into five different groups to keep monitor of the five most likely places Nick might show up. Adrian and three other guys were assigned to Joana's house and had set up camp here for days.

The strange thing was, the unit had been getting smaller and smaller since the day it was created. Talk that people simply couldn't make the cut floated about within the group but Adrian knew she was just weeding out suspects to get to the traitor.

There would always be a random series of tests and questioning that was uniquely disguised as background checks but were secretly ticks on the list of attributes that would only belong to the traitor. Adrian knew to stay calm and bite his tongue through the advanced polygraphs, that Nexus itself, taught him to lie through. He had to be extra discrete because he knew Nexus would look for signs of forgery, but on the trust level Adrian established with Melinda, she would have no reason to doubt him.

Adrian figured out that she was trying to kill two birds with one stone. Rather the 'assassins' eliminate Nick, or the traitor tries to protect him once more, thus revealing himself. Either way, something she wants gets done.

He fiddled with the trigger as he steadied his aim a fourth time.

"Captain, what's the hold up?" one of the men asked, holding binoculars.

"He told us to hold on so he can learn what they were talking about." another called out, but to his rescue. His Russian accent always gave the rest of the group chills so he always had his way in arguments, though he wasn't always that bright. "Never doubt the captain, ever."

Adrian stayed silent.

The guy to the right shifted. "But she's leaving." he grumbled in a squirrely voice. "We heard all they have to say."

The last guy was much farther up close to Joana's house hiding behind a tree. "Any time now, commander."

Adrian knew it was up to him to put Nick down, but then he thought strategically.

He refocused his aim onto Joana.

If she got that message to Eric then Melinda will have everything...and by everything, it means everything. On top of that, he was looking for any reason not to kill his only friend, even if there are a million secrets buried behind his easy-going composure.

I can't let this discovery be made Adrian and Nick thought to themselves. Nick purposely placed a certain flaw in the schematics that would shut the stabilizer down when they would try to activate it. He made sure that it wouldn't cause any damage to the building when doing so.

As he watched Joana pull over one of her coats off the rack, she threw him a key. "Lock this place behind you."

Nick knew he could have just locked the place from the inside when she left so his imagination ran off a little.

"Is this an invitation?" he jested.

She turned back with a smirk. "It's wh--"

A neon blue bullet penetrated its way though the side window, ripping through the glass like it was Styrofoam. It traveled at maximum velocity across the living room as it made its way to the unsuspecting Joana. The sound of the glass shattering gave enough of an impulse that their heads had just ticked to the left when the bullet soared though her right shoulder.