Chapter 226

226 The Next Case

“What the...” Dr. Mord muttered in shock before he turned to the window behind the cockpit. I felt as if my eyes were about to burst from the brightness, and I began to stumble before I gained myself to my feet. My entire body was trembling slightly from shock, and my head was hurting from this flashlight attack. It was getting harder for me to see through it, as it was flashing back and forth so quickly that I couldn’t even concentrate.

But then I felt the harsh tug on my jacket and I was thrown to the ground.

I looked up, seeing that it was still that guard that didn’t defeat, and now his goal was to defeat me.

Oh boy.

But suddenly, blood shot out of his head as he stayed there for a moment, then he dropped dead to the ground, collapsing with a loud thud on the floor. “Dr. Mord, please put your hands up, and don’t even think about moving!” someone shouted in their PA system. We were cornered, but more figuratively-Dr. Mord was cornered.

I rushed over to the window, hoping they would see me. But being that they had those helmets that looked like they could see through a slither of glass, I’m not sure they did. Dr. Mord rose his hands up and stood to his feet, as the agents began to flood the boat, surrounding us and pointing guns at us.

“Connor, you okay?” one of them asked once they entered the boat, which I nodded back. The man nodded and put his hand on my shoulder, his eyes giving a certain impression of relief. “Come on, let’s get you back to the YMPA,” the man said, before Mr. Drails and the rest of my team entered the boat.

Mr. Drails gave Dr. Mord a side eye that screamed disgust, although Dr. Mord didn’t seem to mind it that much. The YMPA agents began to apprehend him, as Mr. Drails approached me with a certain expression of relief, even if it wasn’t evident enough for me to read through it yet. He threw his arms around me in an embrace before pulling back away from me slightly so he could look me over with those piercing grey eyes of his.

“You okay?” he asked with a smile, and I responded before responding breathlessly, “Yeah, I think.”

.....

“I hope so,” Mr. Drails said, as he sighed before turning back at me. He smiled again, before he patted me on the back, “Good job.”

I smiled back in a weak manner before saying, “Thanks.”

Mr. Drails chuckled lightly and nodded before looking at Nikki, who seemed to be a bit disheveled with her hair messed up. “I hope that we don’t have to deal with that again,” he said. “But we don’t know where the virus is.”

Right then, a smirk came across my face, as I turned my head and looked at Dr. Mord.

“I think we will soon,” I said before turning back to Mr. Drails. “Where do you think that Dr. Mord got the virus?”

“Let’s try and get back to the YMPA first, how about that?” Mr. Drails asked me, and I shrugged in response, unsure of what to really say.

***

Two days have passed since that boat incident, but my head still kept racing about Dr. Mord. Where would the virus be? Was he holding it over our heads? Would he turn it over to the wrong people? If so, how would I know? Did he get the virus somewhere else? All these questions were dashing inside my head inside of the busy school halls.

But soon enough, footsteps retracted me from my thoughts. I turned around, seeing Greg’s wide smile. “Hey Connor,” he said with a chuckle. “How you doing?”

“I’m doing well,” I said, even though it came out as a very forced voice-like someone else was using my vocal chords. “We got Dr. Mord, but we’re not sure where the virus is though.” Greg nodded and then gave a very quick smile before he added, “I knew that, I was told by Fulton.” My smile instantly changed into a disgusted frown. The thoughts he gave and the warnings he tried to fall upon me about my father. Rubbish.

“So, would you happen to know who has it?” I asked.

Greg shook his head. He laid his arm upon the top of the row of lockers before he turned his head towards my direction, “Nope, but it’s definitely someone close.” He paused for a moment as he took a breath and then he continued, “They’re probably holding it over our heads right now.”

“Most likely, but perhaps something might change,” I said, before opening my locker.

“Very strange indeed, did Mr. Drails say anything?” he asked.

“No, it was quite normal the past two days. Maybe there was no virus,” I said, before closing my locker. Greg seemed disturbed at the thought, but maybe I was wrong.

“That would be great,” he said, as he seemed to be a bit depressed about it all. “Let’s hope so.”

“Trust me, I’m hoping,” I said with a laugh, before my phone began to ring. There were three minutes to get to class, so hopefully this call or whatever doesn’t waste my time. But when I looked at the screen, it was not one of those important calls I was hoping it’d be.

It was Nikki.

“Oh, who is that?” Greg asked, noticing my intrigued face. I glanced up and chuckled, “Nikki. Apparently she’s deciding to call me now for some unknown reason.” I answered and put it by my ear.

“Yeah, is there something?” I asked her, and her voice responded back as if she was scared for her life, or like someone was chasing her. “Is school almost done for you?” she asked.

“Well, I have two classes and then I’m done, is there a problem?” I asked her, now starting to get worried. “Is there a problem?”

“Not exactly, but Dr. Mord says he doesn’t know where it is,” she said, and my eyes widened and my mouth opened agape in shock. “How doesn’t he know?”

“I’m not sure,” she said, taking deep breaths in between, “But, he says he knows who has it.”

“He does?” I asked, feeling relief soothe my mind. “Who?”

“A rogue agent from the YMPA,” she said. “A guy who was like-on the run or something. Matthew Lock. He works for the TSA now.”

“That means they’ll be protecting him,” I said, feeling my heart pump at an unhealthy, rapid pace. Nikki sighed. “Yeah, for sure.”

“That’s why I’m scared,” Nikki said, before sighing again. “And Dr. Mord doesn’t know where he is.”

“But we should,” I said, taking a deep breath to calm myself. “Yeah... we should.”

“We should do what?” Nikki asked, cutting me off from my self-control session. “You’re being pretty vague here.”

“We should find him, get the virus, stop this uprising,” I said, as Greg’s eyes began to widen in thought, realizing what I was suggesting. “Yeah, we should definitely do that.”

“I think we should,” Nikki said with a sigh again. “I’ll call you when we have more details on the problem, just for now, hurry up with those classes.” I sighed, then added a quick nod. “Yeah, I will,” I responded, before I hung up. Greg’s eyes were wide in intrigue, and I could only just chuckle. “Well...” he said with a smile.

“Well what?” I asked with a smirk and a slight chuckle.

“Well,” he started again with a smile on his face, “I hope that we’re able to stop the virus.”

“You heard everything didn’t you,” I asked him, and he nodded with a very wide smile. “Most definitely,” he answered, and I sighed as I put my phone away. He walked over towards me, probably to keep this not as open as it seemed. But that’s okay, because this conversation was not for the ears of everyone else-just me and Greg.

“Matthew Lock, never heard that one before,” Greg muttered and I nodded with him, because he wasn’t wrong, the name hadn’t even been on any of the lists. It was new to us, but we could easily find out more about this man in question. But then again, Greg was in the FMA, not the YMPA. “That’s because you’re in a different agency than me,” I returned quickly at him before I closed my locker.

“Well he might be a YMPA rogue agent, but I’m pretty sure he’d concern us,” Greg said with a shrug. I shook my head and chuckled, but Greg didn’t seem to get the memo. “And you say that we like to butt in to everything,” I said, adding a laugh in the end. Greg sighed and shook his head, and then looked up at me.

He walked closer to me, and he began to point.

“This is a very important matter, Connor,” he said, and I nodded slowly-understanding that fact.

“I’m aware of that,” I said with a nod and a slight smile.

“This deals with all of us, every single one of us. This is a plan that is being executed by the TSA and their goons-in fact, all of MSTO. We don’t even know their plan. Maddie Cone, Dr. Mord, even Demetrius Rocke are connected to something, but we don’t know what,” Greg pleaded to me, which it was starting to make sense to me and that Greg was right.

“This really matters Connor,” Greg remarked, sighing before he backed off. “So it definitely has to deal with me. Anyways, as I was saying-Matthew Lock.” I nodded, before taking a deep breath, as Greg continued to speak. “Does anyone have a location on him?”

“From what I’ve heard from Nikki, not even close,” I responded frankly, and Greg gritted his teeth with tight pressure, before letting out a deep sigh. “Well he must have been on the run,” I said, before thinking of something. “He’d be able to hide somewhere.”

“Off the grid would be child’s play,” Greg said quickly, and I had to agree with him on that part, not gonna lie.

“But we can find him,” I said with confidence.

“Yeah,” Greg said, agreeing with me again. “We can find him. But he wouldn’t be off the grid.”

“But being off the grid would work,” I said, my eyes enlarged to emphasize the point. Greg winced with his cheeks popping out like balloons, “That would be very-very risky as a matter of fact. He’d have to be somewhere more safe, more-secret.”

He began to smile as his eyes lowered, giving off this crazy-mad scientist look that was making me way more uncomfortable than before. “You thought of something-” I asked, before he completely disturbed me as he said, “Think of the most secret place you could ever think of, or even imagine.”

“Um, an underground base?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“A different country?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“His house?” I asked.

This time he gave a cross look. “No, no-think, think!” he said, with his teeth blinding my eyes. I tried to think hard, but nothing would reveal itself to me. What? What else? Then, the idea shot up inside of my mind, and I looked at Greg who was now nodding with a very confident smirk.

“A private island.”

“Yes, a TSA private island. He’d have to be there-it would be completely under someone’s name and no one would think of checking,” Greg said, and I nodded, now realizing the step that we just took. We’re going to find the virus in no time.