Eli took a step back, dropping his bag. His eyes snapped to Mia as the policemen walked closer. "What the fuck did you do?!"
"I-I didn't—"
The police men passed by Mia and went for Eli who instantly stepped back and begun fighting them when they grabbed him.
"Get your fucking hands off me!"
"You have the right to remain silent, anything you say or do—"
"Will be the same I fucking do to your mama!" He snarled and violently shoved the officer away, balling up his fists. That only resulted in one them using his baton, striking him repeatedly. Mia screamed as Eli blocked the hits with his arms, trying to grab the baton from him. That's when all four policemen forcefully grabbed him and shoved him up against the wall, face first. They pinned him there, locked his arms on his back and then cuffed him, all the while Mia and Anna both stood there, watching; Anna in shock, Mia crying and shaking.
"Let's go, Elijah."
"Wait!" Mia protested. "On what grounds are you arresting him? He didn't do anything wrong!"
"They're not fucking police, Mia."
"Come one," The officers said again and yanked Eli along who refused to follow. "We have a tranquilizer and we've been ordered to use it if you don't follow willingly. Either follow us on your own two feet or get dragged out of here unconscious. What's it going to be?"
"Why don't you fucking take that needle and fuck each other backwards with it—"
"Eli!" Mia breathed, shocked. "Eli, just stay calm, we can fix thi—"
"Miss, were going to need you to step aside," One of the officers said and pushed her away, not-so-gently.
"Hey! Don't fucking push me, and leave him alone!"
The men ignored her and started dragging Eli away who with all his strength was fighting against them. He had been right; there was no way these men were police. They wore the right uniform, but they were all big, strong and muscular and looked exactly like government officials.
Shattered, Mia watched as they dragged him down the hall, towards the exit, towards the media madness. She ran after him, forcing her legs to move, but stopped up abruptly when they opened the school doors and shoved him out; the cameras went off.
Everyone took his picture. Everyone shouted at him. The 'police' men were rushing him away from them all, shoving aside the crazy mob of people who wanted to get a glimpse of him. Eli kept his head down, trying to shield his face from the flashes of the cameras. Even so, Mia managed to get a glimpse of his face. He looked murderous, even more so now when people were trying to reach out and touch him like he was a holy, famous celebrity. Which, in the science world, he now was.
"The notorious Genius has finally been revealed—"
"The police is escorting the surprising and mysterious Genius out of the building—"
"Close eyewitnesses describes the Genius as urban-looking, with tattoos on his skull—"
"Everyone out of the way!" The men yelled at the people and paparazzi who were shoving each other aside to get a picture of the Genius. Eli and the 'police' finally made it to a black vehicle, and all Mia could do was watch as they sealed him off behind the tinted windows of the van and then drove him off.
"I'm sorry," Anna said besides Mia, having watched the whole scene play out behind the glass doors as well. "God, I didn't know they would arrest him. I just thought—"
"You thought what?!" Mia snapped, her anger suddenly exploding like the crowd. She turned to her 'friend' and glared harshly at her. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?!"
"I just revealed to the public who the Genius was! It was about time!"
"No, what you just did was turn an innocent guy over to the government!" Mia shouted. Her hands were shaking so badly, she could hardly keep herself from punching her. She knew it wouldn't do any good, but she wanted to hit something or someone. And right now, Anna was the most preferred choice. "Out of all the things you could've done—"
"Mia, I'm sor—"
"Don't fucking say you're sorry to me!" She screamed, clenching her fists. Oh, she was so close. She didn't even care that she had most of the school as her witnesses and that she'd lose her place at the school. It all just didn't matter anymore. She had been so confused earlier, but now she saw it all very clearly; Eli was the only thing that mattered, and watching him get dragged out like that, it made her realize how she truly felt about him.
"Did you ever stop to think about why he hadn't come forward? That there might have been a good reason for him not to expose himself to that?" Mia shouted and pointed to the media madness.
Anna had the decency to flush in shame. "I thought it was just another idiot wanting to p-play a game with the media..."
"You're a joke, Anna. Your mom was right; Smart girls get degrees, pretty girls get whatever they please. Well you got what you pleased, Anna. You took him away from me, that's what you wanted, wasn't it?" Mia seethed. Anna dropped her jaw. "See you fucking around, bitch."
Mia spun around on her foot and had her hand on the door when Anna suddenly grabbed her arm. "Mia wait, please!"
She paused and looked over her shoulder, fighting the urge to hit her again. "What?"
Anna looked at her for a second, shaking. Then finally, she looked down. "Tell him I'm sorry for me."
"Oh, no," She said, now turning back to face her. "You get to tell him that yourself. You're going to look him straight in the eyes and tell him how truly sorry you are, you pathetic, useless traitor of a friend."
And with that, she angrily stormed outside, running to her car and starting it up. She drove out of the parking lot, setting up her Bluetooth phone device whilst doing so. She had to call someone she knew she could count on.
After four short rings, the line got picked up. "Hello?"
"Zoe," Mia said, gripping tighter onto the steering wheel as she pulled onto the highway. "I need you to do me a favor. I need you to contact Caleb."
~~~
It had taken some time, but finally Zoe had comprehended the whole story after Mia explained it to her and gave up Ceynius's real identity. She told her to tell him to come meet her at her place where Elana was. She had to talk to him and figure out their next move, how to find Eli, and of course reunite Elana with her brother. Now that Eli had been taken, the coast was, ironically enough, clear.
"Elana!" Caleb bolted towards his sister the minute Mia opened the door. They joined in a warm embrace, clutching on to each other like their lives depended on it. Mia swore she even saw Caleb's eye glint with something that could've been a tear. "Elana, God, I've missed you, angel! I'm back, princess, I'm back."
Mia let them exchange a few ASL words and was just about to close the door behind him when someone else appeared in the doorway.
"I uh... I gave him a ride. He said he couldn't wait for the bus."
"Zoe!" Mia almost jumped her, not realizing how much she really needed a hug, too. Shaking, she held on to Zoe who hugged her back, patting her on her back.
"Hey, it's okay, M. We'll get him back. Don't worry. I, uhm, can't breathe, by the way."
"Sorry," Mia mumbled and pulled away, wiping a tear gone. "I just... really needed that. How are you? How did you two—"
"I messaged her my location and she came and picked me up," Caleb said, rising to his feet with Elana on his arm. Mia had almost forgotten how great he looked. Today he wasn't wearing a hoodie, so those blond locks really came to their rights. He was wearing a white tank top and a loose pair of blue jeans that fell nicely off his hips. Yeah, him and Eli definitely worked out together.
Mia discretely glanced towards Zoe who had fished out her phone and was staring intensely at it. Her cheeks looked red.
"So, uh, how should we..." Mia hesitantly asked.
"Smurf, you working on that satellite image?"
"I'm hacking NASA right now. We'll have a clear vision of the roads within minutes."
"Great." Caleb placed a kiss atop of Elana's head before he sat her down on the couch and then fished a laptop out of the bag he had brought with him. "I'll start hacking into the roadside cameras and see if I can track a black vehicle. Mia, you gotta describe it as well as you can for me."
"Oh, uh. Of course," She replied, a little stunned when both Zoe and Caleb took a seat at in her living room, pulling out their electronic equipments. Zoe had also brought her own laptop, so she set up camp right next to Caleb who was already typing away on his, the same kind of concentrated frown on his face as Eli had had the other day. It made Mia miss him even more.
"Can I, uh... help with anything?" She asked, feeling useless as always. She wasn't a genius, all she could do was draw and paint...
"I'm afraid not," Caleb said and looked up from his screen to give her a little smile. "We'll keep you updated. Smurf and me got it covered."
"Stop calling me smurf."
"Stop looking like one then."
"How about I make you some food," Mia said, going into her kitchen. She left them be alone because she could definitely feel some sparks flying between them. She wanted to see them end up together. How cute would that be? She could just imagine their little nerd wedding. Instead of saying 'I do', they would probably say something like 'I accept the terms of agreement.'
Food was maybe stretching it a bit since all she really had were chips and a few sodas. She put them out for them to chew on while they worked, and then continued feeling useless. She watered her dying plants. Fluffed her pillows. Wiped the kitchen counters. Anything to keep herself busy and distract her from the fact that Eli had been taken right in front of her while she had watched idly by.
After what seemed and probably was hours, Caleb then suddenly cursed loudly.
"Sons of goddamn motherfucking shiteating bitches!"
"Whoa, nice," Zoe sarcastically noted. "Did a smurf teach you that?"
"I've been looking for hours and I can't fucking find any black vehicle!" Caleb cursed and ran his hands frustratedly through his hair. "I think they might've swiped the tapes already. Fucking dickwaxers!"
"Did you try running it through a gridlock—"
"I ran it through every fucking program there is and nada. What a waste of time this was."
"Maybe you missed it," Zoe said leaning in to look at his screen. Mia noticed Caleb raise a brow and look down at her blue hair. She swore she saw him smile. "Did you follow Mia's descriptions?"
"To a T. I ran it through all my filters and all the known databases; still nothing." Caleb sighed and shook his head. "Maybe you got the details wrong, Mia. Are you sure the car was mat?"
"I'm positive," Mia replied. "Mat black van with black-tinted windows. I didn't manage to catch the license plate or a logo, but I'm almost certain they were taken off either way."
"Then I got it right and I still got nothing," Caleb said and pushed his laptop away in anger. "What about you, Smurf? Found anything on satellite?"
Zoe sighed. "Just a few that could look like it, but none that really matches the type of van we saw at the school. I'm at a draw, too. For all we know they could've changed vehicle and could be driving down the highway in an ice-cream truck."
"We can't just give up," Mia said and stood up from her barstool. "We gotta keep searching, we can't just abandon him—"
"We're not abandoning him," Caleb growled. "We just have no fucking clue where they've taken him. Most likely he's back at the facility, but Eli never told me where it was. It could be in another fucking state for all I know."
"If it is, then..." Mia felt like it was hopeless. This was the government they were messing with. They knew how to hide their secrets, if the Kennedy assassination was anything to go by. How the hell were they going to find Eli?
Mia felt like it was all her fault; She was the one who blabbed loudly about who he was in the bathroom. If she hadn't, then maybe...
Mia sat down and cupped her face, tried to fight the tears again. They had been threatening to spill these past many hours, but she had managed to keep them at bay. But now...
Plink!
"What was that?" Her head instantly lifted again and she frowned at Caleb's computer.
Caleb blinked confused and looked down at his laptop, pulling it closer. "What the..."
"What is it?" Mia persisted. She saw Zoe lean in to look at his screen, too, then saw her brows fly to the sky. "What is it, seriously, guys?!"
"Come see."
Mia bolted towards them and then turned Caleb's laptop so she could see. A black box had opened, the same kind that Caleb had talked to Zoe through. Mia had dubbed it the hacker-chatterbox.
An anonymous person had texted something to Caleb.
'A: Chck yr nbx. Snt adrs.'
"Who is that?" Mia frantically asked. "What does that mean?"
"Check your inbox. Sent address," Caleb translated and frowned. "I don't know the sender. I've never met any 'A'."
"Well do as they say!" Mia almost shouted. She didn't know who A was either, but they sounded like help. "Come on!"
"Alright, alright!"
Caleb opened his inbox, and after a moment of staring at the screen, they all three looked at the hacker-chatterbox again with gaping faces; 'A' had sent them an address.
'A: Go gt yr frnd.'
"Well..." Caleb said after a moment. "It's all we've got. I don't trust this A, though. It could be a trap set up by the government. They could be leading us into a trap."
"That address is only two hours away," Mia said, standing up. "I'm going there. You two stay here and try and track down whoever sent that text, I'll go check out what that place is in the meantime."
"At least let us run the address through my laptop first and see what comes up," Caleb begun while Mia grabbed her jacket.
"You can do that, but I'm still going."
"But Mia—" Zoe begun, but Mia cut her off too.
"Zo, I gotta do this. I've been sitting still for hours while you guys worked, and this is all we've gotten. I'm going nuts. Just let me check this place out while you two keep working. If it's really a trap, it's better that I go than you two. I'm not a genius, so if they're after you guys, all they'll get is me. I'll text you a message every ten minute to let you know I'm OK, though, okay?"
"Mia..." Caleb said and creased his brows. "You can't give yourself up like that, I don't even think it's fair to not call you a genius, you—"
"I'm sorry, Caleb, but it's not up for discussion. I have to find him. I can't just sit here doing nothing when this is all my fault. I should've kept his secret better, should've been more careful—"
"It's not your fault, but it's fine, Mia, you should go if you want to," Zoe said, getting up. "Go find him. We'll track this 'A' person down, just go find Eli, but stay in touch. Okay?"
Mia frowned for a second. Before she had told Zoe about everything, Mia had assumed that Zoe was just being understanding because she thought she needed her privacy, but now she was being supportive of an undoubtedly rash and crazy plan. What was she up to?
Mia couldn't be sure, but it felt like Zoe was hiding something. "Alright... you guys stay in touch, too, if you find anything new—"
"We'll text you, promise! Drive safely!" Zoe said, actually almost shoving her out.
Mia frowned a little again, but then grabbed her keys and left her apartment. As she walked down to her car, turned on the engine and started driving, she couldn't stop feeling like something was wrong.
What was Zoe hiding?
• • •
We all have fun secrets.