’So what about the warehouse?’
Mickey blinked, woken up from his reverie.
’Ah, yes. The warehouse is the place where the Bitch’s personal wards and a few dozen other wraiths take the test. The Bitch herself and the people who work directly under her are the elites of the PA. If anyone knows about the headquarters, it’s them. Not to mention Mitchel, who follows her around like a crazed stalker. So, we paid them special attention.’
Suddenly, I was all ears.
’Really? Did you learn anything about the Protector?’
Mickey only sighed.
’I wish. She’s too damn careful. Even Zero wasn’t able to follow her without risking being spotted. The most we’ve learned is that she likes to smoke before and after each test. Nothing fancy, pretty much the cheapest shit you can buy in any convenience store.’
It was a tiny piece of information, but even in our current situation I was strangely excited to know it.
’Her minions, though, were not that tough. I mean, they were still a pain in the ass to track, but we managed. You know them, by the way. They’re the assholes who used to follow us around.’
I nodded, another piece of the puzzle falling into place.
’We were able to learn a lot about them, thanks to Zero. Where they live, if they have families, what food they like to eat, and so on. For a bunch of psychopaths, they actually turned out to be quite boring.’
What did he expect? That they lived in a dungeon and fed on babies? At the end of the day, Protectors were just people.
’But no matter how much we’ve learned, there was no hint of where the headquarters were located. And as the time went by... things changed.’
His shoulders dropped.
’At some point, Zero started to become restless. With each day that passed without getting any results, his mood worsened. The bouts of insanity came more often, and lasted longer. Even when he was in control of himself, he sometimes behaved strangely. Staring at me without saying anything, or just spacing out, as though trying to understand something. At this point, the PA’s net started to shrink, closing in on us. Giving them the slip became harder and harder, and we had to move around almost constantly, several times we avoided a full-blown confrontation only by luck. My... misguided resolve was unshakeable, but Zero was having doubts, or so I thought.’
I kept silent, allowing Mickey to take his time. After some time, he looked at me.
’I thought that, as the captain of the ship, he was having second thoughts about putting me in danger. But it was just as you said, Matt.’
His nostrils flared in anger.
’He was just thinking if I had any uses left, or if it was time to discard me.’
Then, quietly, he added:
’I think.’
In that moment, I really wished that I had been wrong.
Mickey turned away and slowly exhaled.
’In any case, whatever his reasons were, a few days ago he told me that it was time to escalate our efforts. Passively watching did amount to anything, and time was not in our favor. So, we had to change our approach. Instead of collecting information, we had to take it. We had to provoke the Protectors into revealing their hand. I swallowed it up like a child.’
’That’s why, last night, we attacked the warehouse cell. Or at least we were supposed to.’
I flinched.
’You what?!’
Mickey just looked at me with a brittle smile.
’What? Does it sound crazy to you? Ah, maybe it was. After all, it was Zero’s plan, and Zero has the Disease. I, on the other hand, had no excuse to be that reckless, right? Right. Only, the thing is, I think it was the other way around. Zero knew exactly what he was doing, and it was I who was crazy. Crazy to believe him.’
He laughed.
’The plan was for me draw their attention, and for Zero to ambush them at the right moment, taking Mitchel or the Bitch captive. I didn’t ask how he was going to extract information from them. I would like to say that I didn’t think about it at all, but honestly, I just assumed that he would torture them. I was even looking forward to it.’
There was a pensive, disgusted expression on his face.
’So I did exactly what he told me to do. In the evening, when there were no wraiths in the warehouse, just as we planned, I sneaked in and... and... and went all out, trying to get the PA’s attention.’
In the darkness, his pale skin seemed almost white. He looked at me with wide eyes.
’Matt. I... I think I hurt some people.’
He looked as though he was going to throw up.
’Did you kill anyone?’
Mickey flinched. After a while, he whispered:
’I don’t know. I don’t think so. Maybe. It was all... like a blur. It was nothing like I imagined it to be. I thought that, that when the moment comes, I will be like a vengeful hero, punishing the evil scum. Those thugs. But it wasn’t like that at all. When I first saw th-the blood, and I heard the first scream, it wasn’t like anything I thought it would be. It was revolting. I did not feel like a hero, I just felt dirty and scared. I just wanted for it to be over. For Zero to come and take me away from there.’
With each word, his voice got quieter and quieter. Finally, he took a deep breath and clutched his shoulders.
’But he never came.’
’I waited and waited and waited. It was just a few minutes, but to me, it was like centuries. Every second was like a nightmare. I prayed for him to hurry up and end it, but he never came. At first, I was terrified thinking that he had lost control of himself, and it slowed him down. So I waited. But... but then I remembered how you told me that he was going to use and discard me. And I finally realized that he was not coming. He was never going to come. He wasn’t even there. He threw me away.’
Mickey’s voice trembled and he turned away, trying to hide his tears.
’Maybe he just sent me to die, or maybe he was trying to use me as bait one last time. I really don’t know. Somehow, I managed to get away from the warehouse. The place we were using as a hideout was empty. I was all alone. I didn’t know what to do.’
He stopped talking for a long time, gathering courage.
’I was so scared. Suddenly, I saw everything that happened to me in a new light. It was like... sobering up. And when I did, I become even more terrified. I panicked. And then... please, please forgive me, Matt...’
’I came to you. Because you are the only person I know who I trust.’
The sun has almost disappeared beyond the horizon, and shadows spread, plunging our concrete shelter into complete darkness. In the darkness, I sighed.
A burning lump of emotions burned in my chest, and I had to try really hard to suppress them. Mickey’s trust might have doomed me, but I had no heart or energy to blame him. He was just a naive young man who fell victim to an old and extremely experienced manipulator. After all, Zero used to be a Protector, and Protectors knew all the right buttons to push to make wraiths do what they’re told. There was no point in stirring the past.
Now we just had to wait and see if Mickey was right to trust in me.
If not, we were both going to die.