Their Deadly Design // Minho

The Right Arm Pt. 2

"Enough." In a deep voice. Everyone promptly shut up. "I don't have time for your stupid childish fights. What the hell do you kids want?" He demanded, leaning his arms on the table and glaring at us.

"We want to know why you're kidnapping people who are Immune. Are you selling them back to W.I.C.K.E.D? Trying to start your own trials? What the hell is your endgame?" Vince scoffed and leaned back in his chair as Thomas continued.

"Gally spoke very highly of this damn organization but come to find out you're no better than W.I.C.K.E.D. How much are you getting paid to sell human beings off to them?" I tried again but Vince didn't seem to care about what I was saying. Some leader. Vince looked towards Gally, completely ignoring us.

"You trust these people?" He demanded. Gally shrugged.

"Yeah, they're better than most." Vince exhaled slowly before turning to look at us.

"We're not selling them boy. We're trying to mimic W.I.C.K.E.D." I furrowed my eyebrows, confused.

"What?"

"Those Immunes are our only way inside the building." We were quiet as he explained. They were going to infiltrate W.I.C.K.E.D under the guise that they were selling Munies to them. It was actually pretty fucking smart.

"That's not half bad actually." Thomas finally said. Vince laughed a bit sarcastically.

"Glad you fuckin approve kid." He rams a hand through his short cropped hair. "We've already made contact, come up with a deal. We need to stop these people. They've already wasted enough resources as is. If they restarted those damn trails, we're done for." Vince shakes his head. "We need to preserve some of our crappy civilization."

"Do you believe in W.I.C.K.E.D'a cure?" I asked. Vince started to laugh.

"Hell no. You kids don't believe in it, so what makes you think I do? You escaped for a reason and now you want revenge. I think I can give you a slice of it."

"We don't want revenge. We just want to stop them." Thomas said slowly.

"Well, what the hell do you kids have to offer me?" I nudged Thomas.

"Go on, tell him how damn important you are." Thomas shook his head a little but nobody asked questions so Thomas began his story.

"Two days ago one of the higher ups in W.I.C.K.E.D contacted me. He said, actually he swore to me that I was the key to unlocking the cure, that I was the only missing piece. I didn't believe him but he said it was the truth and that if I just went back to them, no one else would get hurt and I could help save the world. They've lied so many times and manipulated us so consistently that it's amazing I haven't lost all sense of trust."

"How many of you are there?" Vince asked. Thomas looked towards Brenda and I.

"Maybe a dozen back more back where Lawerence picked us up. Three of us worked for W.I.C.K.E.D, Jorge is a pilot, Brenda was a lab assistant, a doctors assistant and I was whatever the hell my mother wanted me to be."

"Your mother?" Vince questioned.

"Yes, the only person Thomas and Teresa kept around after their... Cleansing. She's one of the Creators of W.I.C.K.E.D." Thomas gave me a funny look. Of course he wouldn't remember, he didn't have any of his memories. Brenda nodded her head in confirmation of what I said.

"How many people do you have in the Right Arm?" Thomas asked, turning his attention back to Vince. Gally answered this time.

"That's a tough question. It's hard to say you know. We're spread out, we're not always in contact with one another. When they started maybe there was a thousand or more now, it's probably a couple hundred."

"Are you all immune?" Vince shifted in his seat and shook his head.

"No, a lot of us aren't. I'm certainly not and after being in this infected city so long, I no doubt have the virus." I swallowed hard. How chilling is it to know you're going to go crazy and die? "Now will you kids sit. You're making me anxious." There were three other seats in the room and a couch pushed up against the left wall. Lawerence went and sat over there, hunched over, his arms on his knees as the rest of us took our seats. "Now what do you have to offer the Right Arm?" Not much unfortunately.

"We know the ins and outs of W.I.C.K.E.D's headquarters. The two of us have worked and lived there long enough to know everything about that crummy place." Brenda spoke up.

"That's it?"

"It's not much, we know, which is why we knew we were going to need help and weapons." Thomas said with a sigh. Gally seemed to perk up, smirking a little.

"Weapons won't be a problem." He said with almost an air of triumph.

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

"There's a women, her name is Charlotte. She used to work for the weapons manufacturer that made all of W.I.C.K.E.D's weapons and she's been working for three years on a device that will render them useless." I looked towards Brenda and Thomas. Neither of them seemed convinced.

"And how'd she figure that out?"

"All of the pistols, the launchers, everything that W.I.C.K.E.D uses has the same processing chip and all of these chips are connected to a computer system which can be hacked and controlled. She created a device that will jam all of W.I.C.K.E.D's weapons. Which also means ours would be jammed as well but.." Gally shrugs. "It's worth it in the long run."

"W.I.C.K.E.D's security team is highly skilled. They're their own little army. But we're hoping that's mostly with weapons and that their had to hand combat is a little lax."

"You're gonna have a good old fashioned brawl in W.I.C.K.E.D." I nodded my head slowly, liking the idea. "Well, I don't think you're wrong about the lax in combat skills. At my sign of trouble, the guards would always turn to their guns. It's more intimidating true, but I've lived there sixteen years and the only fist fights I saw were between other kids." Gally smirked, probably remembering that he caused some of those fights.

"We're planning on planting the device inside the building when the first batch of Immunes are sent in but it would be better fix it was there even before then. As soon as those first Munies go through, we don't want to wait long to go in after them. We still need a day or two to prepare everything but.." Vince slowly looked toward Thomas, pausing.

"That's where I come in." Thomas said without hesitation. "You can take me to the outskirts of W.I.C.K.E.D's headquarters and I'll just, stroll on over and pretend I came back to finish the trials." I could already hear Minho yelling at me for letting Thomas go so easily. But it's hard to stop him once he's made up his mind.

"Exactly." Vince said with a grin, as if he had said it himself. "Gally will take you to talk to Charlotte and we'll arrange for the girls to go back to your friends." We all nodded slowly before heading out separate ways. Gally and Thomas one way, Brenda, Lawerence and I another.

Lawerence ended up taking us to a quiet room on a different floor, probably thinking we might be tired and I was, but I didn't feel much like sleeping. I was too wired from everything we had been told. Brenda and I didn't really talk, only to debate how angry Minho might be and how this could all go horribly wrong but neither of us wanted to dwell too long on that. When Thomas came back, it was nearly dawn. Lawerence took us down to the garage where we began to say goodbye.

I lingered by the van as Thomas and Brenda hugged it out, taking in hushed tones. They were both smiling lightly, staring at each other a bit intently. I could only guess what the two of them were saying. Eventually, Thomas made his way towards me. "You don't know what this whole final candidate stuff is do you?" Thomas asked, a question that came as a surprise.

"I.. No, I swear. I may have been W.I.C.K.E.D's Daughter but they trusted me about as much as you guys trusted me back in the Maze." Thomas nodded thoughtfully before opening his arms. I hugged him lightly.

"You're a good person Mallory. I know you are and I believe you."

"Thank you Thomas." We let go of one another. "Don't get killed okay." I said with a smile. Thomas nods.

"I'll try. You'll keep an eye on Minho right?"

"Both eyes actually since he's such a liability." Thomas chuckled and without another word, got into a separate van and left the building.