BREATH . OF . LIFE . ~ { ReGenisis Chronicles Book I }

Chapter Twelve [Part 3/3]: The Escaped Captive

                       -Jake Aylesbury -

The door swung open, Swan standing the other side of it with a raised eyebrow. "We've been called by Doctor Daniels, apparently a recently apprehended captive got loose and we're the only two who can sniff her out and subdue her." Her every word slipped a little more pent up poison out in to the air.

Skinner and Jennings shuffled uncomfortably where they both stood in shock.

"I think you mean three," the playfully light voice of Immanuel Garner rung from just behind the doorframe.

Swan stiffened a little. "You cannot sniff her out, you're only here because Mister Andersen wants his little pet project in on the hunt."

"Captive?" I frowned, less interested in their banter, "what?"

"Petrichor, Jake," Her violet eyes softened, glancing down.

"Rin?" I realised.  My body felt heavy, muscles relaxing with relief and straining with a new worry.

 Swan gave me a telling look and moved away from the door for me to follow. "we're to go to the deadlock cell where she broke loose. Hopefully find out why we weren't informed of her being caught and brought in, in the first place, hmm, Aylesbury."

"I don't understand." I followed her out into the hall anyway.

"I honestly wish I suspected less." She admitted sullenly.

"I'm not sure I get it either. From what I remember of Takeichi, she was always elusive and never beaten.  Except the day she died, her one failed mission." Immanuel was an uncomfortable tag along, simply because he was tuning in to things I didn't want him to. Especially as it was burning under my skin that she was weak and that the same arsehole who managed to beat her as a human, had just about managed it again as a Nocturnal.

"Daniels has something to do with it. I'm sure of it. He knows too much." Swan cut through Garner's talk, I suppose his comment about only being beaten on the day you die was like rubbing salt into an open wound. She died a few months after the rest of us, but it was the one mission she ever really failed. She never forgave herself for it.

"He's always in the know, Natalia, he pulls the strings, we all dance." Garner's response didn't really surprise me, but he'd lost the tone he usually used to get at her. Just for a second.

"No, just... how things played out. His back tracking. The mistakes made." Swan was slightly flustered trying to explain it.

"What do you mean?" Young Garner and I said in unison, then exchanging the same clueless expression.

She sighed, "he knew about the body count of five very quickly, he was the first to know of her arrival despite it not going through official channels. When the body count changed he was flustered with his explanation message."

It made sense to me that it was Daniels. But knowing who only made me feel a little more dread if it were true. He's more than simply formidable, he could call out traitor without evidence and be believed. The fact he hadn't yet made me wonder what he had planned.

"She's right. When he explained the sixth death and Takeichi's subsequent escape, he was perturbed. But..." Garner shook his head, eyes low to the floor. "No, it's nothing."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "If you were a Nocturnal, you'd know it's never nothing. Especially if it's that obvious to a human."

"He seemed more like he was covering over smugness on the conference call. No anxiety in his voice at all. I mean her being loose is bad, but..." He trailed off and we decided not to press for much more of an explanation. For someone without serum in their veins, Immanuel had a very good read on situations, voices even. That struck me as odd, it sounded as if all of these transactions went over the phone, I understood a call or two. But staying so low key that he didn't seem to be making a personal appearance made me wonder what he was up to even more.