I Am No Prey

5- Bad Luck or Just Me?

I startled awake to the blare of an alarm. Brandon let out a groan from where he was draped over me and buried his head in my hair. Groggily, I looked to see my alarm clock beeping. It read two o'clock, which meant not a second to lose. I shut it off and gently pushed Brandon off me before I stood up.

I quickly changed into black jeans, a black shirt, and loosely braided my hair before throwing on a jacket and pulling the hood up. Flinging open the suitcase, I took off the film that managed to get all my gadgets past security without incident and put everything I'd need in my belt.

Outside was dim, all the lights off, for which I pulled out my flashlight, keeping the glow faint. On the wall, I could make out a camera a few feet away, slowly fading. I pulled out one of my inventions from my belt; it was long with an antenna in the front. It garbled the cameras with a press of a button, and I knew that whoever was checking them at two in the morning would find that the camera on the sixth floor just turned black, but as soon as I was ten feet away from it, it would turn back on, so hopefully they wouldn't get too suspicious. With their level of firewalls and security, it was nigh impossible to play the last hour on loop.

In the elevator, the horrible music wasn't playing anymore. Instead, it was quiet, and I practically stabbed the third-floor button in my haste. The ride down was quick, quicker than expected, and I almost forgot to turn on my security camera warbler. Of course, I still didn't give it a name, but the name with which I was calling it in my head made me want to burst out laughing or cringe.

I arrived at a hallway with a similar arrangement of rooms. Except the doors were locked with electronic keypads. Was the office behind the third door to the right? Or was it the left? Damn, why didn't I memorize the layout better?

Crossing my fingers, I tried the right. I knelt in front of the electronic keypad, holding my flashlight in my mouth as I fumbled for the code-scanner – a name for the gadget that could discover any code and unlock any padlock. Usually, I didn't use it because it made my job too easy, but I needed to hurry right now. A few seconds later, the door popped open. Putting everything back on my belt, I took the flashlight out of my mouth and held it, slowly making my way into the room. I was relieved to see myself assuming the office's location right.

Not wasting a second, I went to the desk and turned on the giant computer. If those people did have anything on Operation Phoenix, there was no way it was only in a file. I had work done quickly with the password and sighed in relief when I discovered that the Commander had the desktop in apple-pie order. It took me no time to find what I was looking for, and as for the discovery, it was wow; they had a lot on this Operation Phoenix and whatsoever. I downloaded everything into a flash drive before deleting it. Then I went to search the cabinets because there was no way he didn't print everything. And besides, one could never be too careful. After checking the third cabinet, I finally found something and pulled out the thick file. I probably should've just left right then and there to destroy it, but I opened it.

The first page had everything I already knew about, and I was relieved to find out that they didn't know who was experimented on fifteen years ago either. While there was more information-or more like guesses- on how papa managed it, there wasn't enough for them to recreate it themselves, not without the experimented person. What got my attention was what this Operation Phoenix could do. Of course, Dad gave them wings, the ability to heal quickly, and they had extraordinary strength and were way faster. I paused in shock the moment I read they could control fire and shadows.

I knew papa was ahead of his time, but to be able to do that? Times like these were when I wished he was still alive.

I snapped the file shut when I heard the unmistakable sound of someone walking outside.