Subject Seventeen: Wraith Among Shadows
Chapter 13

I sprint across the base as fast as I can. The data I just recovered from the servers are just as Nine suspected. From what I saw it seems as if the Chinese Intelligence Agency (MSS), were trying to create Shadow Soldiers to fight back against us.

As I sprint forward I see Ten standing alone ahead of me. His hands are in his pockets and he’s watching me as I draw nearer. It seems as if he’s taken out all the enemy forces that were left by himself. He can’t really get tired since he can absorb heat from his surroundings and even from other people to give himself energy. That’s the main reason why he’s one the strongest. He has a bottomless pit of energy to feed off of.

“Where were you?” Ten asks. He begins moving as I pass, making sure to keep at my pace.

“Dealing with something.” I say. “The dynamic duo showed up again and I thought I saw one of them go into that complex, so I went to check it out.”

“Well we need to move. The jet’s nearly within range of Three’s ghosting. As soon as it enters into range she’s going to take us all up there and One is going to bring the island down.”

“I heard from Nine already.”

“Where’s Seventeen? He went missing a little while ago?”

I point behind me at the figure running after us. Ten laughs at the sight of Seventeen trying to catch up to us. He’s running at a really slow pace, as if deep in thought about something.

“He’s quite slow, isn’t he?”

“I’ve seen him move faster. Maybe he’s just tired. No need to laugh at him.”

Ten continues to laugh as he pulls ahead. It takes me a few minutes to get him back in my sights but he’s already reached the rest of the team.

Seventeen reaches us some seconds later, his face contorted in an expression of deep thought as if he were about give us all a lengthy speech on the meaning of life. I turn to avoid making eye contact with him. He’s the last thing that needs to be on my mind right now.

Nine nods at me as I arrive but Three’s forehead has lines all over it. Clearly she’s angry at me for disappearing suddenly, however she doesn’t question it. Yet.

“Ready, One?” Three says.

“Sure,” One replies.

Everyone but One crowds around Three. We all know exactly what’s about to happen. One is about to cause an earthquake which will go beyond the measurements of the Richter scale. If I had to guess I’d say three times the maximum of the scale. The ground will split into pieces as the force of the earthquake tears it apart. The tremors will hit the sea floor causing an undersea landslide which will result in a tsunami on a scale we’ve never seen before. The island will literally destroy itself and sink.

“It’s here,” Three says.

I look up into the sky and see the tiny silhouette of the jet as it glides through the air. I brace myself, getting ready for One to act so Three can teleport us out straight after.

One stops rubbing her hands together. Next she takes a step backwards whilst releasing her breath. I watch as her entire body rotates, directing all her power into her fist which connects with the ground. The impact splits the ground in half. One doesn’t stay to see the destruction she’s caused. Instead she’s running back to the rest of us. As soon as she reaches Three the familiar black mist envelopes us all, taking us all back inside the jet.

“Whew!” One yells right into my ear. “I’ve never had a chance to do that before! That was fun!”

Eleven laughs at One’s outburst while I rub my ear. She sure does know how to be loud. Looking around I see how exhausted everyone is.

I can hear a loud rumble from beneath us. The island must be disappearing into the ocean right about now.

Ten jumps into a seat and closes his eyes. “I think I pulled a muscle,” he says.

“Serves you right,” I spit back.

Ten shrugs and then falls asleep as if it’s second nature to him. I should probably let him rest for now. He did do the majority of our work for us today. Just this once he deserves a break. I can see rips in his gear where bullets have obviously grazed him and there are bloodstains all over his undershirt. Eleven hasn’t healed him yet so I know he must be in pain but he just acts as if nothing is bothering him. I can’t help but respect him even though I dislike him.

Thirteen is already seated and he’s looking at Seventeen. Or rather, staring at Seventeen – who is already fast asleep like Ten. I hold my breath. When Thirteen gives someone a look like that it’s usually because he’s seen something big that is going to happen to them. Most of the time it’s not good.

One by one most of the team nod off, leaving only Nine, Seven and I as the only ones awake. I don’t blame them considering everything we just went through. I put my hands together and thank god. Now I have a better opportunity to discuss what I discovered with Nine.

Nine is seated on the left; right next to the wall of the jet. I let myself drop into the seat on his right. He doesn’t react to my appearance. Instead his attention remains fixed on the blank view of the wall in front of him.

“I got the info,” I whisper to him.

“Good,” he says without turning. “Is my theory correct?”

“Yeah. They were trying to create Shadow Soldiers. They have the same tech the Doctor used on us. From the looks of it, they already knew exactly how to use it.

“They may have been studying Four and Six to get that information. If I’m right about this then it would explain why Sanders wanted us to take this place out of the equation. I don’t blame her for showing up. Especially if Fifteen is working with Four and Six.”

Nine turns his head at the mention of her name. He nods. However it feels as if he knows something more. He’s clearly hiding something; he knows more about Fifteen’s appearance than he’s letting on.

“They must be working for the Chinese military,” I continue. “It’s the only thing I can think of that would allow them to be able to recreate the same tech used to enhance us.

“I doubt they just want to use the tech to fight back against terrorists like us. I think they actually want to incorporate it into their soldiers.”

“That’s not going to be possible,” Nine says. I give him a look to show I’m confused. He continues. “The reason why all of our team are quite young is for a reason. Even if we were actually soldiers and not terrorists, we wouldn’t have been able to join the army and sign up for the programme because of our ages. We wouldn’t be the legal age. Of course we’ve all been fed the idea that we volunteered for this programme which was only accessible to teenagers like us as some sort of secret military programme.

“Anyways, for us to be enhanced it’s the opposite. Adult genes can’t be mutated and adapt to the Nano-mites so easily. If you tried to use them on an adult they would almost certainly die. Even so, the success rate of the bonding and re-coding process for children is still quite low.”

“If it’s so low then how can there be this many of us?”

“I’m guessing that they tested hundreds of children and only managed to produce us seventeen. It’s impossible for Sanders and the others to have achieved successful results without hundreds of casualties.”

I lean back in my chair and bow my head down. This whole thing is getting more and more complex by the minute. I try to wrap my head around it. The whole thing is so messed up that I’m beginning to doubt what is what.

“But there’s something else,” I say.

Nine raises his eyebrows. I’ve had a feeling for a good while now but I’ve never told discussed it with. Yet given recent events, maybe my assumption is correct.

“What’s the point of this whole project?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Nine says.

“No… There’s something else going on. I doubt that China would have been able to get so far ahead in creating enhanced soldiers simply by studying Four and the rest. Something feels off. Remember the last mission we had to take out the research center? I don’t feel as if they were developing a chemical weapon. Nor do I feel as if we were even in Russia.”

“We weren’t,” Nine says. “Or at least I don’t think so.”

This catches my attention. Clearly he knows something that I don’t and hasn’t bothered to tell me.

“What do you mean?”

“Sanders told us our headquarters is based on the Shetland Islands which is just about one-hundred miles north of the Scottish north east coast. So think about it, how long would it take to reach Kursk from there?”

“Well, considering the speed of our jet we would get there a little faster. So we should have gotten there within three hours. But we took around six hours didn’t we?”

“Exactly. Five hours and fifty-one minutes to be precise; I kept track.”

“So the question is, where did we hit? Even if Russia is our enemy, we hit somewhere else entirely didn’t we?”

Nine nods, his eyebrows lowering as he thinks hard. I’m wondering the same thing. We need to find out where we attacked and we need to do it soon. Otherwise who knows what can happen?

“Also,” I continue, “Six mentioned something earlier. She said the people we’re actually receiving our orders from are-”

Thirteen stands up and walks towards us, causing me to fall silent. I watch him as he approaches. His brown eyes flash white for a few seconds as he walks towards us. He’s seen something. He doesn’t talk when he reaches us. Both Nine and I hold our breaths as he walks past. Then he stops right behind us.

“Not that I care, but you two should probably stop discussing that particular topic if you’re trying to avoid dying. I suggest that you leave it to me.”

With that he walks off. Nine runs his hands through his hair as he bites his lip. I don’t know how to react. Thirteen just told me I was going to die. He’s never made a wrong prediction. More importantly, this means Thirteen knows everything that's going on. The question is how long and what does he plan to do about it?.

“Well, I think we hit the mark…” Nine says.

“You’re not quite there yet!” Thirteen half-yells from behind.

How much does he know? We’re going to die if we continue investigating? Is digging for the truth really that dangerous? Moreover, what does he mean when he says we’re not quite there yet?

“So, Three definitely knows the truth,” Nine says. “There’s no way she doesn’t, especially considering her actions as of late. Her attempt to kill Four and Six just shows that.”

I can’t believe that until just a short while ago I looked up to her. Now I feel like I’ve been betrayed. It’s almost as if someone has dragged my face across tarmac. It hurts.

“I know we should take Thirteen’s advice,” I say. “But firstly, Thirteen can get us killed at any time if he’s not on our side. And secondly, I think he knows a lot more than he’s letting on.”

Nine nods, but holds a finger up to his lips to tell me to be quiet. I can see why when I turn my head. Three is waking up from her sleep. I guess we should take Thirteen’s advice and be more careful in when and where we choose to have our discussions on this matter.

Three slowly picks herself up from her seat. Her hair is messy and full of dust. She looks like crap. That’s the nicest way I can put it. She begins to stretch her arms. As she leans forward some of her hair slowly slivers down from her shoulders and hang loosely in the air.

“How long has it been?” Three asks Nine.

“Five hours. We’re halfway there,” he replies.

Three blinks twice before looking around. Her eyes scan the interior of the cabin carefully, not leaving one detail to chance.

“Where’s Thirteen? I need to debrief him.”

“I think he just went into the toilet,” I say. “Can’t it wait till we get back? He’s probably tired from such an exhausting mission, not to mention the stress he’s been put through from having barely survived being shot to death.”

“Well…”

Three’s eyebrows slowly drop and she turns her back to us as she stretches. Her hair falls backwards as she tilts her head and stifles a yawn. After a moment she returns to her seat. I'm still struggling with the fact that such a beautiful girl could be so evil. She’s truly the live incarnation of the saying: la belle dames sans merci.

Nine shifts uncomfortably before finally rising out of his seat. Sliding past me, he walks away in the same direction as Thirteen. I can’t help but feel something fishy is going on.

We’re on to something big. I can feel it. But somehow I feel as if we’re wrong about something; the pieces don't all fit together perfectly and the answers we need lay somewhere in Seventeen’s memories. In all of our memories actually. To unlock it we need Fourteen. In fact, if we’re right then we need to take down the entire project. And to do that we need the entire team despite the fact that three of us have somehow gone rogue.

Nine said something earlier about Three failing to kill Four and Six, meaning that if any of us are no longer needed or defect in any way we’ll be killed. Four and Six can’t take on Three and survive, so Fifteen clearly must have helped them. If so it makes sense. But then there’s the matter of who they are working for - if anyone - and what exactly it is they want. Showing up both at the research facility and the military base can’t be a coincidence.

I sigh and bow my head down. Something is going on and I intend to get to the bottom of it.

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