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Mickey sat straight and looked down, avoiding my eyes. A heavy sigh escaped from his lips.
’All those things Zero told us... they really got into my head, you know?’
A bitter smile appeared on his face.
’It’s not that I don’t believe him now. I just... don’t know. I just don’t know anything anymore.’
Whatever happened between him and Zero must have really shaken Mickey. His faith in that bastard was akin to that of a child looking up to their parent. After Mickey’s real father died, Zero filled the void that appeared in his heart -- an emotion that was easily exploited, especially in the case of Mickey, who was simultaneously hotheaded and naive. Losing this trust must have been the last straw that finally broke his heart. I silently nodded, feeling rage toward Zero flooding my mind.
’When we left your place, for a while, everything was great. I helped Zero hide from the PA. He... was not exactly sane all the time, so it was not easy. But, at the same time, he was not out of control. And when we were together, the old Zero would often be back. He was just as I remembered him. Steady, determined, strong. The coolest guy I’ve ever met. Together, we tried to achieve his goal.’
’And what is his goal exactly?’
Mickey wanted to say something, but paused, thinking for a few seconds.
’Who knows? Back then I trusted every word he said, but now I’m not so sure. At least on the surface, his goal has always been to find the Grand Protector of the North American Chapter of the PA. Allegedly, he is somewhere in our city, in a hidden headquarters that very few people know about.’
’But?’
’But... I don’t know. Not everything that Zero did or had me do made sense. Maybe this was just him struggling with the Disease, or maybe he had other plans that I was not aware of. Sometimes he would disappear for a few days or a week and be extra mysterious after. I have no idea where he went or what he did on those excursions. He would just say that he had to take care of this or that, but the answers sounded a bit phony.’
He frowned.
’At least in hindsight. At the time, I sort of lost my ability to questions stuff. It was really weird, Matt. Like... being in a cult. Looking back, I don’t know what I was thinking. But I can’t even really describe it. It was not like I became stupid, just... like... weirdly focused on only a certain set of things.’
’Do you think he put an Affect on your mind?’
The thought made me shiver.
Mickey grimaced with sadness.
’No. I don’t even know if an Affect like that exists, despite what Tanya told us. It would be nice to explain my actions with some sort of magical hypnosis, but the reality, I think, was much more simple. I’m just a fool. I’ve just been fooled.’
’Are you sure that Zero lied to you?’
He shook his head.
’No. Yes? I don’t know. Up until yesterday, I was certain that he was being sincere. I mean, in general... what we were doing was in accordance with what he was preaching.’
’And what were you doing exactly?’
For the first time since we met earlier in the day, a shadow of past Mickey, energetic and excited, surfaced from the deep ocean of his despair.
’That was the awesome part. The part that got me hooked. We were going against the PA, like I always dreamed.’
But that excitement was extinguished in just a second. Mickey became pale, as though remembering something traumatic, and then slowly continued.
’It was not anything terrible. In the beginning. We were not going around killing people or setting things on fire. We were just tracking their movements, trying to find out where the headquarters were hidden. With Zero’s Ability and my skills, spying on the Protectors turned out to be doable. Hard and dangerous, but doable. We were quite a team, you know. Well, at least I thought so.’
He fell silent for a few moments.
’It was like a deadly game. The Protectors were trying to hunt us down, and we were doing the same to them. It was just a question of who was more talented, more cunning, and more dedicated. Either we would find the Grand Protector first or they would find us. I felt like a... like a hero. Stupid, right? I mean, not the kind of hero like they teach us about at school, more like a movie hero.’
My curiosity was piqued.
’Spying on the PA? What did you find?’
Mickey smiled.
’Well, we started with the warehouse where they made the new test chamber. Zero already knew the location of several other cells, but they were pretty much inconsequential. Only lower category wraiths would visit there, so, accordingly, these cells were staffed by low-level Protectors. After tracking their movements for a little while, we ruled them out from the list of people who might know about the PA HQ.’
Seeing my surprise, he chuckled.
’The PA is much more paranoid than even we are, Matt. They guard information like a dragon guards his gold, even from each other. It’s not like they all go to this damn Headquarters to do paperwork and make reports. Low-level Protectors are as much in the dark about most things that happen inside the Agency as we are. They don’t even know that a Grand Protector resides in this city.’
Mickey sighed.
’And then remember what Zero told us about the Agency being highly compartmentalized. That at least was true. Different divisions of the PA exist almost independently from each other, interacting only on the highest levels or when the need arrives. Like Mitchel invading the Protector’s turf with his gang of goons. That is also the reason why Zero was able to remain on the run for so long.’
’What do you mean?’
’Well, think about it. If a division is mostly independent of the main body of the PA and might even be at odds with other factions, the other factions won’t have a lot of information about what is going on inside the division. So when Zero and his friends decided to bolt, they started by destroying all the data about themselves. And with the paranoid, splintered nature of the Agency, that data was not copied in a lot of places. So now the PA knows very little about Zero. They might not even know his name, let alone about his connection to me, you and Tanya.’
It did make sense, but at the same time, it didn’t. No matter how compartmentalized the information inside the PA was, there was no way that Zero and his comrades could manage to destroy all of it. Even if the data was deleted, there were bound to be people that knew of them personally.
Unless, of course, "destroying all the data" meant eliminating those people too.
A cold shiver ran down my spine.