Chapter 17

"We can't be sure Neo."

"It's him, it's Harvey."

"Wait, wait, say it is Har-"

"I'm pretty sure it is."

Shadow holds a hand up to tell Neo to stop. Neo sinks a little into herself and closes her mouth.

Toni looks at Neo and Shadow, her face turns slightly red. What's gotten into Shadow?

"U-uh, if it really is Harvey, why did he lie to us about what really happened? It's not much more tragic." Toni says softly,

"Huh, good question." Neo says,

"Hold on. Let's think." Shadow says,

"Maybe the Agency did something to him and he changed it to hide?"

Shadow looks at Neo and tilts her head, but before she can speak, Toni opens her mouth.

"Maybe...a lot of Syndicate members, they come from families or villages and towns that either rejected them, or their families and communities were burned down, usually by Agency members. He could be trying to blend in."

"Makes sense to me, no kid I've ever even heard of can hold his own like this." Shadow declares,

"Whoa whoa whoa!"

The other two look at Neo. She runs a hand through her hair quickly and looks at the other two.

"Okay, this is a theory. What if, um, what if the Agency, discovered Harvey? They found him I mean."

Shadow straightens, "You mean Atlas."

Néo nids while Toni shakes her head, "No, no no no. Absolutely not."

"Toni-"

"He's not with the agency. He saved my life!"

"Hey! Let's just keep our eyes open. We have to have open minds even if it had been me in Atlas's place."

There is a long pause, Toni's heart pounds in her chest. Did Atlas fool her?

"Okay, let's at least consider it, if Atlas is still Agency then he's planning on either taking Harvey or killing him-"

"Holy, Atlas has become his best freaking friend!"

"That doesn't prove anything though Neo." Shadow says,

Toni squeezes her fingers in her hand until they turn a light purple.

"It is interesting. If he IS an agency member, then he is trying to take Harvey probably. Neo has a point, they became friends waaaaay too fast."

"And May?" Toni asks,

"We'll keep a close eye on her and Atlas, and Harvey." Shadow says,

"It should probably be Toni and Ashe watching Atlas and Harvey the most, they are closest to them. Shadow, you see what you can get out of May, I'll watch Harvey from a distance." Neo says,

"Alright. Toni, why don't you go check up on Atlas, I'll see how May is holding up, Neo you tell us what else you find."

"Got it."

****

Atlas taps Harvey, "What?"

"Am I seeing things?"

Harvey gets up and looks out the view point. "What are you looking at?"

"There." Atlas says and points,

Harvey squints and looks to the trees by the mountain. His heart drops and skips a beat. Turner and Tinker have already joined them and are looking.

"Uh...Tips? Are you running any night ops?"

Psheeeww.

Harvey and Atlas throw the other two away, but Atlas manages to also kick Harvey to the ground, not that any of those actions would helps them at all.

Boom!

They are thrown against the back wall, Atlas tumbles down the steps and finally stops at the bottom. His entire body is pounding, his ears ringing. He groans and lies there for a few moments until the ringing fades and he snaps back.

Atlas groans and pushes up to his hands and knees, his head still spins like crazy, he stumbles back up the steps and leans against the wall.

Atlas caughs hard and pushes off the wall, the room is covered in dust and rocks. Atlas falls to George's side and grabs his shoulders and shakes.

"Hey, hey George! Come on man wake up!"

George suddenly coughs and grabs his chest. "Uggghh! Man why does it feel like a horse just riverdanced on my chest?!"

"RPG hit the wall-"

"Oh, knew there was a reason." he mutters to himself,

Atlas let's go as Tinker sits up, "You okay ? Hey okay?"

George nods, "I...I'll manage."

Atlas turns and hurries to Turner who is coughing harshly and is more bloodied than George and Atlas combined.

"You alright man?"

"Yeah, where's the contacts!?"

Atlas reaches for his pistol but it's gone. He searches the ground for half a second but then gives up and looks out the hole in the wall. The attackers have vanished.

Atlas turns and sees his pistol and picks it up off the ground.

"Where's Harvey?" George asks,

"Harvey?!-"

"Harvey?!" Turner shouts,

****

Boom.

The echo makes her smile. "Took you long enough." May mutters,

The alarm sounds just before the cell door opens. May struggles to her feet, "What took you so long?! Look what she freak out jg did to me you prick?!"

The soldier covered metal, yet practically skin tight suits wave her over. She sighs and walks toward them. "You're lucky I fricken need you."

She throws her arms around him and a syndicate member they blackmailed.

The syndicate woman teleports them all out and into the poor district. Silence surrounds them, May groans sharply as she lets go of her aids, she pulls the Guardian's pistol and quickly, yet sneakily shoots the syndicate member twice in the stomach.

She yells and falls back to the ground. The Guardian's piercing reddish brown eyes look from May to the woman.

"What do want done with her?" she asks,

May smirks and grabs her waist and she groans. May hands the pistol back, "Hoist her up, let the city know what we do to rebels, it's time to reveal ourselves. As for the Syndicate, they should be greatful, we relieved them of one of the rats in their ranks."

The guardian grabs the woman's hand and drags her after May.

"All thanks to you, now we can finally start destroying this cancer from our city."

****

"Come on, come on let's go."

Turner and George both lean on Atlas as he helps them down the hall, until finally other people see them, run up and help them to the infirmary.

Almost there, Shadow grabs the man helping Atlas and rips him away and throws him back. Atlas starts to fall but catches himself, as he does, Shadow grabs his collar and slams him against the wall.

"Agh! What the heck Shadow?!"

"Sha-"

"Shut up! Explain yourself right now or I'm gonna paint this wall red, where's Harvey?"

"They took him."

"The truth Atlas right now!"

"I told you the truth, I'm not with the Agency!"

She stares into his eyes, "So you randomly decide its a good time to reveal yourself to us, Harvey gets kidnapped and you set May free?"

"May's escaped?"

Shadow knees Atlas in the stomach and throws him to the ground. "Tell me the truth Atlas right fricken now!"

"I didn't do anything! I saw the guys outside the watch tower, they shot an RPG, I went flying down the stairs! End of story!"

Shadow looks past the pistol she aims and into Atlas's eyes.

"You're so full of crap. Get up. Get. Up." she says,

Atlas, painfully, does as requested.

"What are you looking at?! Go! Pack up! Get them medical attention!" Shadow demands,

The others watching hurry and run in every direction. She throws him against the wall near the central tower, the ginormous pillar in this underground city.

Toni and Neo hurry around the corner. "I know you're with the Agency Atlas! We saw the video of Harvey fighting when he was younger, kept in the Agency's secure files! You're after him to brainwash him and put him on your side!"

"What video?! What are you talking about Shadow?! I have never heard of Harvey till I got here!"

Neo walks up and holds up a phone. The video of Harvey plays, HD swings his knife and jams it into the man's chest and rolls off, turns and throws the knife as he does. The second man that charged after Harvey screams out as the knife sinks into his shoulder. Harvey runs up, jumps onto the man who has now fallen to the ground. And Harvey stabs him again, pulls the pistol and unloads the clips on six soldiers behind him and the video ends.

Atlas turns pale and shakes and looks at Shadow, Toni and Neo.

"Where did you get that video of me?"

"Of you?" Toni asks,

Shadow pulls him close and slams him against the wall again, "STOP lying!"

"That's me! Th-that's....they were watching me?" Atlas mutters,

Shadow's grip loosens, "That's not Harvey?" Neo asks,

Atlas shakes his head.