V Files - Chapter 3: Undoing Knots

By Sama Khawaja

‘So what we got, Keido?’ Gear inquired. Keido continued to type away on the massive computer system in Vice’s department for information, research and reporting; or Omega for short. Surprisingly enough,Keido was in charge of it.
‘Well, you guys got what we AIMED for. Sort of,’ Keido answered as he tapped a few keys on the sensitive keyboard, his face bathed in the blue of the screen.
‘Whaddaya mean ‘sort of’??’ Tito demanded angrily.
‘Welllll, we know the GroundUnders are up to something,’ Keido remarked as he ruffled his mane of shaggy flaming red hair. ‘But the government is not aware of it as we thought. In short, we’re back to where we started.’
‘Damn it!’ Tito groaned and covered his face with one hand.
‘Where did those creepy things come from anyways?’ Adriana said with a shudder.
‘Due to my brilliant hacking skills,’ Keido boasted and Adriana rolled her eyes. ‘We found data on them in the Hova Project side files. Apparently they were failed experiments that should have been disposed of but somebody had been collecting them instead. Wonder what they were doing near our branch in Tallow…’
‘Wasn’t that chip supposed to explain that to us?’ Destiny pointed out.
‘Well, I can’t seem to find anything on it!’ Keido snapped.
‘Maybe we got the wrong chip,’ Gear suggested.
‘I told you we shoulda gone for the vanilla chip!’ Tito groaned again.
‘The mom had placed the cookie jar too high on the shelf,’ Adriana pointed out.
‘Huh?’ Keido uttered as he paused to stare at the group in confusion.
‘It’s our code, Keido,’ Adriana sighed. ‘It means that security was tight and the chip was still a few floors above us when we were detected.’
‘I told you we could have come up with better codenames,’ Destiny muttered.
‘HI EVERYONE!’ a bubbly voice crackled over the speakers in the room. ‘Guess who’s here?!’
Everyone groaned.
‘Just spill it, Chi!’ Tito growled impatiently. ‘What is it this time?!’
‘Well, you guys aren’t going to believe this butttttt…’ Chi sang and then paused for dramatic effect. ‘Will’s back!’
An excited murmur broke out among Vice Lethal. Will was gone to research on ‘family matters’ as he put it and nobody expected him to be back after only three days.
‘And that’s not all!’ Chi continued excitedly. ‘He’s got something REAL IMPORTANT to tell us in the Zeta! Well, what are you waiting for?? You know how he is!’
The Zeta. A crucial room despite it lacking any pizzazz. All it contains are wooden crates for seats and faint yellow lighting. When the whole of Vice entered the room, they found William standing in front, arms crossed over his stark white shirt, his crimson cape draped over his shoulders and his revolver tucked into his belt. William always liked to dress elegantly. It revealed how he wasn't exactly part of this century.
Destiny glided in and settled her place in the corner, far from everyone else. William observed her with his large blood red irises. Normally, people would shudder when they see William’s eyes. After all, it’s not everyday one sees red eyes. But Destiny was one of the few who wasn’t perturbed. She grew up under that gaze as she had trained to be a part of Vice and now, it has a comforting intensity to it. Rumour has it that it was an aftereffect of the asteroid crash.
‘Sup, fool,’ Tito greeted William.
‘So what is it? Everyone’s here,’ Gear drawled.
‘River isn’t,’ William said curtly.
‘When is he ever? Come on, Will, I'm holding in hyperness and it’s getting hard!’ Chi whined as she bounced on her feet.
‘I heard about you mission. Useless, wasn’t it?’ William said coolly.
‘Keido’s still working on it,’ Adriana said defensively.
‘How sure are you that it will be worth the trouble?’ 
William gave her a side glance and she was silent. He then reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a nano CD the size of a pine nut. He opened up one of the boxes to reveal a hologram projector and popped the CD into it. The CD was flooded in light that then shot out to project a 3-D view of a laboratory. Suddenly, images of horrible twisted human beings limped onto the scene and began to wreck havoc. Destiny squinted. For some odd reason, the laboratory looked familiar.
The creatures cackled and toppled filing cabinets before the film finished.
‘What was that?’ someone inquired.
‘That was proof that the GroundUnders are after something in the Hova Project,’ William explained. ‘In a secret side project that is.’
‘William,’ Destiny asked hesitantly as she stepped out of her corner. ‘Whose lab was that?’
‘My father’s old laboratory,’ William answered. He paused and then added as an afterthought, ‘And his partner’s, Alicia Crescent.’
‘Alicia…’ Destiny murmured as the room began to spin.
‘Destiny?’ comes a soft voice and the blurry outline of a woman comes into view. The whirlwind ceases and Destiny can get to her feet, crying.
‘Aw, honey, what’s wrong?’ the woman asks soothingly.
‘Mage…Mage was playing rough and he didn’t let me come help you!’ Destiny sniffles and wipes her nose on her sleeve.
‘Baby, that was sweet but Mage is right! You didn’t need to come. Dr. Templeton was there!’
‘But…but you screamed!’ Destiny stammers.
‘But I’m fine. See? Now come here,’ she says and spreads her arms out. Destiny steps back. Something is really wrong and not…right.
‘Samuel,’ Alicia whispers nervously.
‘Yes, Alicia.’ The mysterious man appears behind Destiny and stuns her in the neck with a stun gun.
‘She won’t get hurt if we keep doing this, will she?’ Alicia whispers.
‘She won’t, Alicia,’ Samuel assures her. ‘It’s alright. It’ll all be over soon.’
‘Destiny,’ Alicia murmurs softly. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘You got that, Dee?’ Tito boomed.
‘Huh?’ Destiny looked up to see that William had disappeared and in his place, Keido was giving orders.
‘See,’ Chi chimed in. ‘ Keido walked in saying that according to the chip, there was a secret project carried out in Tallow that was abandoned years ago. The same place as Will’s dad’s lab! Will suspects that the creepers will be back since they are looking for something important so you, me and Tito are supposed to go and get it before they do! Keido said it was a file called the November file or something like that!’
‘Where’s Will?’ Destiny inquired.
‘He’s already off to more research,’ Tito thundered as he clamped Destiny on the back and almost sent her sprawling. ‘And we’re off on our OWN hunt, Little Dipper!’
‘Oh, joy,’ Destiny groaned as she rubbed her sore back