Shattered-The Trust: Episode 6

Shattered-The Trust

Episode 6: Breakout

- Hank petitions the director of Alpha Site to assist in the retrieval of Jenna West.

- Jenna and Phoenix make a break for it as the Echelon zombie killers come after them.

Check out the next episode of Shattered-The Trust over at my Shattered-The Trust blog...
http://shatteredseries.blogspot.com/2011/12/shattered-trust-episode-6.html

Cloak & Dagger - Episode 3

Episode 3: Strange Case of Amnesia

"What's happening to her?" Daniel Fouts had been called to the infirmary not long after Michela was brought in.

"I haven't seen anything like it. She's having a strange case of amnesia. The last thing she remembers is in 1987." Lee Myers, the medical professional who headed the infirmary tapped a pen against his mouth. "It could be a new virus one of our enemies are working on," he surmised.

"Or the Nightingale program has finally taken its toll on her brain." Fouts muttered.

Lee glanced at Daniel in surprise. "Isn't that program a little before your time?"

"I was fully debriefed about everything the Foundation found... troubling. This was Chandelor's fear. One of Franklin's experiments going sideways."

Lee patted Fouts' shoulder. "I wouldn't jump off the deep end just yet. Sometimes these things have a way of working themselves out."

"I hope you're right, Dr. Myers."

___

Michela Forsythe thought she was having a dream. Maybe this whole spy agency deal was just a figment of her imagination. Things like this couldn't possibly be real They were only things people wrote about in books.

The doctors had come around taking blood and mentoring her heart rate. She really doubted they'd find anything enlightening in those readings. She was beginning to wonder if this was some kind of freakish time travel accident like "Back to the Future." Maybe she was in the future for a reason.

She sat up and felt her hair. It was probably a rat's nest. Maybe one of the nurses would have a brush. She made her way to the mirror to make out the damage. The second she glanced at the reflective surface she screamed.

"Holy Freaky Friday! That is not me!" She shouted stumbling away from the mirror and then began pounding on the metal door. "Nurse! Nurse!"

Dr. Myers and Fouts appeared at the doorway in seconds. They'd been watching her from the two way mirror in the next room.

"What is wrong with me?" she screamed at them. "Have you seen my face? I'm old! Yesterday, I looked like myself and today I don't! What have you done to me?"

Michela tried to elbow her way out of the room, but with Myers and Fouts securely clamped on each arm, she knew she wasn't  going anywhere.

"Calm down, Miss Forsythe. We'll figure this thing out." Lee Myers tried to soothe her but his voice wasn't doing the trick. Fouts motioned to a nurse to apply sedative.

"Figure it out? Figure it out? How old am I now? This isn't something you can fix!" She pulled at he skin which wasn't as peaches and cream as it once was.

"You turned forty-two on your last birthday." Fouts said in a stiff monotone.

"Forty-two? My God, I'm ancient!"

Fouts grimaced at her declaration. As the sedative began to take effect, Michela curled up on the bed and began to weep.

"I guess we can rule out the theory that she's faking it," Lee said.

Fouts showed no emotion. "I want a brain scan done immediately. There has to be some medical reason this."

The medical staff didn't question his order. They wheeled her bed out of the door leaving Fouts alone in the room. He pulled out his encrypted cell and called a familiar number.

"I didn't get the intel, but I'll let you know when I do." Fouts didn't say goodbye. He snapped the cell closed and shoved it into his jacket pocket.

____

In a hidden mine under a mountain, masked agents guarded two men housed in separate cells. One man, the older of the two, had been there for many years. He was gaunt and sickly. Much too skinny for his height. He had lost count of his days and nights in captivity, but he knew it was a long time.

The younger man in the other cell was healthier and full of motivation. The idea of staying her for any amount of time was out of the question for him. It was something he couldn't fathom, something he wouldn't accept.

The older man's name was Franklin Fairchild and he had no idea the atrocities that had been committed in his name. He didn't know the Black Council had created a necklace device that could change any man to look like him. He didn't know about the experiments in the Legacy on its agents. He didn't know what had happened to his family since he fell off the grid. But it was the memory of his children that got him through each day.

Now focusing on the younger man in the other cell, the man he couldn't see was keeping his mind off how miserable he felt. Having the young man to focus on was now the only thing keeping him alive.

___

Mila Ferguson thought visiting her father in England would be fun and exciting. She'd never been to the home of her father's employer before. The house was an estate in the country, much bigger than she ever imagined. She had marveled at how lovely the mansion where her father worked truly was. The entire trip had been very exciting until she took a wrong turn on the stairwell and ended up outside of Chandelor Knight's office.

"She's more beautiful than your photos," Chandelor steepled his fingers in thought.  "She has Julian's eyes."

"That hasn't been determined yet, sir," Fergus said. "We'll know much more after the blood tests."

"I know this has to be hard for you. You see her as your daughter, but I thank you for keeping her safe all these years. You were well compensated. She was even living under Quentin's roof and he never once suspected she could be his granddaughter."

Mila was horrified by what she'd overheard. Was it possible she really was someone else's daughter? She ran into her room, gathered her things and fled from the estate.

Cloak & Dagger - Episode 2

Episode 2: The Unknown

London, 2011

"Technically, she didn't blow him up," Director Daniel Fouts explained to Ethan Fairchild. "A detonator malfunctioned causing the death of Cal Yates."

"I set the charge," Bette Marstan said. "His death was my responsibility."

Ethan didn't respond like he wanted. He still needed time to assess his new recruit before passing judgement.

"Disrespecting your superior officer, even in death, just isn't done, Agent Marstan," Fouts said.

Bette nodded. "Duly noted, director."

Fouts motioned toward his office. The three entered and as they were seated the fiberglass walls morphed from see-through to opaque. This part of their conversation was confidential.

"Ethan, I know you were surprised by my knowledge of the search for your brother but your new assignment has everything to do with your past."

Ethan didn't like the idea of others getting involved in his recent obsession. Even his sister, Faith, knew nothing about his search for Ian. She and Ian had never been close. Even though Ian was Ethan's twin.

"We've been aware of your brother's location ever since Bulgaria. We thought the problem eventually would work itself out, but unfortunately it didn't."

"Problem?" Ethan asked. "What exactly is the problem?"

Daniel wasn't comfortable revealing this truth even though the decision concerning Ian weren't his.

"Ian believes he's you."

___

Gateway City, 1987

Michela Forsythe was in a rush, per usual. Her boyfriend, Cade, the newly crowned King jock of Gateway High was waiting in the car. She gave her mother a wave and blew her a kiss.

"Please try to be on time tonight," Mrs. Forsythe asked her daughter who was already out the door. She sighed and turned back to her Eggs Benedict. "That girl is going to be the death of me."

Michela and Cade walked onto campus as seniors at the top echelon of the social scene. Cade migrated toward the footballers and she found her best friend, Bliss, slamming poor, dorky Alison Corday into a locker and pouring soda on her head. Not exactly one of Bliss' better moments but the all consuming power of being a senior from the popular crowd was going straight to her head.

Michela's theory was that everyone was allowed at least one pre-season foible. Bliss was just getting it out of her system early.

"You're going to hell. You know that, right?" Michela said trying to keep the smile off her lips.

Bliss pulled out a string of her mother's pearls and began rubbing the beads dramatically as if they were a rosary and the key to her salvation.

"I'll say ten hail Mary's and then all will be good. I have Father Benedict in my back pocket. He can put in a good word for me upstairs."

"So, that's how it's done?" Michela snickered. "I knew I'd been doing something wrong."

Michela couldn't say she had it bad. In fact, her life was pretty awesome. Could she help it that she wanted everyone to know it?

Michela's father owned one of the biggest publishing companies in the world. And all the money he raked in being a workaholic was very attractive to all her friends. Sometimes she wondered if what money didn't stick to me might be transfered to them.

She knew being popular wouldn't get her anything in the outside world. Her older sister, Diana, spoke the theory like a mantra. Once out of high school, she'd lost nearly everyone of her best friends to other people who had things her friends wanted that Diana couldn't give them.

In the end, Michela took advantage of the perks of her father's job. She had the best of everything she wanted. Super-sized birthday parties and clothes from designers who had collections that weren't even out yet. Everything under the sun was available to  her... except more time.

That evening she stood outside the school all alone waiting for someone to pick her up. She assumed it would be Pierre, her father's driver, but he'd been detained with some corporate bigwig.

She dialed her father's phone for the third time but it kept going to voicemail. She guessed this was what it felt like to be truly forgotten. She experienced a good five minutes of feeling sorry for herself. It was cruel but she needed it. These were the things that could truly keep her grounded in the future.

Fifteen minutes later, her sister came tooling down the avenue in her new Buick. As she watched Diana's car round the corner, it took her sister too long to react as a dog ran into her path. Diana immediately lost control of the vehicle. She swerved back into her lane but the damage was done. The vehicle was coming straight at Michela faster than the speed limit in that area condoned. The terror in her sister's eyes was the last thing Michela saw before everything went black.

___

London 2011

The streets of London were still bustling when Ethan exited headquarters two hours later. He hadn't heard much of the debriefing after Fouts dropped the bomb about his brother. The notion completely boggled his mind.

Ethan clearly remembered the Bulgarian mission. At least, he thought he did. There were technologies out there that could easily do what Fouts explained. It made him wonder momentarily exactly who was the impostor. Maybe Ian's memories of Bulgaria had been implanted to cover up a conspiracy. Anything was possible when it came to dealing with his father's experiments. If he wanted to know what really happened back then, he had to go to the source.

___

Bette Marstan wasn't a newcomer to the world of espionage. Fouts wanted her to stick to Ethan like glue, and that's what she intended to do. The only problem being that he was very good at ditching a tail. Which is why she found herself outside the London branch of ForeCross Publishing wondering where he could have run off to.

The Legacy wasn't  good at sharing the details of an agent's life, but Bette had run across a photo of Ethan with a  brunette woman she didn't recognize and a man frowning in the background. She fingered it as she searched the scene for Ethan. The other man in the photo resembled a picture she'd once seen of Ethan's brother, Kevin. There was plenty of bad blood between the brothers. So, she was more than surprised when she spotted Kevin Fairchild entering ForeCross. The coincidence was too strange. It gave Bette the perfect motive to follow Kevin inside.

___

Undisclosed Location 2011

Michela found herself lying on the street. The gritty surface covered her hands and cheek. She must have passed out. And Michela wondered how much this fender bender was going to cost her daddy. All she could think was that she was glad she wasn't the one driving. Diana would have to take the blame for this accident.

She opened her eyes and scrambled to her feet but what she saw wasn't the parking lot at school. It was a dark alley way too close to a pier that reeked of fish guts and motor oil

"Michela? What are you doing?" The voice seemed to come from nowhere. She wheeled around looking for the source.

"Who's there?" she whispered. She looked around seeing no one in the darkness. "I think I'm losing my mind. All she could wonder was how had she gotten here and where exactly was here? It definitely wasn't the high school parking lot.

"Lose your mind later," said the voice again. "You have a mission to complete."

"Mission? If this is God, you're barking up the wrong cheerleader. The only mission I have is to go home and practice my routine until all eyes are on me."

It was in this moment she finally realized something was in her ear, some sort of device like a hearing aid. She studied it momentarily.

"Your technology is cool and all but ... can I get a ride home? Mom and Dad are going to be miffed if I'm late again."

Another voice came over the ear piece. This one was distinctly feminine and perfectly familiar. Alison Corday.

"Michela? What are you talking about? Your mother's been dead for years. Have you been compromised? Is this channel being monitored?"

Michela stilled. "Dead? I just talked to her this morning."

"You couldn't have. You've been on this mission for the last forty-eight hours." Alison's voice was speaking in riddles and nothing she was saying was making sense.

Michela shook her head. "No, no. That's not right. I've just started my senior year. I've never been on any sort of  mission. Alison? You believe me, right? You saw me this morning."

"We've got to get her out of there." Alison was speaking to someone else. Someone Michela couldn't hear. "She's been affected mentally. We knew this could be a problem."

The sound of a car engine roared to life near Michela's position. She flinched and her heart raced. The more she focused on her surroundings and the dark shadows, the more fearful she became.

Footsteps sounded like gunshots as they drew closer. "Someone's coming," she whispered. "Alison, you have to help me!"

"Some things never change," Alison muttered. "We're sending in an extraction team. Stay put."

The only problem was that Michela didn't stay put. She ran off toward the dock and the ear piece she'd been studying was now lying on the ground.

Cloak & Dagger - Episode 1

 
Cloak & Dagger

He should have known better. Getting involved with another Kassoff would only lead him down the road of misery. But in his life, misery had been a strangely faithful friend.

Ethan jogged through the tunnels near Westminster Abbey not seeing the popular tourist attraction the media had recently claimed was leaning. His eyes followed the dark waters of the Thames as his feet pounded the pavement.

He had returned from a mission more confused than he'd been before. All the leads he'd uncovered on the disappearance of his brother, Ian, took him down deserted roads that led to nowhere. Each scrap of hope had become yet another piece of disappointment.

He'd run into Athena Kassoff on his last journey and that chance meeting had been messing with his head.

"You think you're the responsible one?" she taunted. "You left me behind to bear the consequences of both our actions."

He'd attributed her words to consuming too much ale. She was spouting other threats but that one had stuck with him as he traveled back to London to rejoin his team.

The holiday had not been as relaxing or productive as he would have liked. And the memories nipping at his heels had faded with time.

His flat was a cookie-cutter brownstone that resembled every other on the block. Nothing stood out. Nothing distinctive. Being a ghost was something he did well in all aspects of life.

His breaths came in an even rhythm. He was an athletic man who kept himself in good physical condition. He didn't have movie star good looks like his older brother, Carter, but his chiseled jaw and rough appearance had its admirers.

Ethan ran down a familiar tunnel nodding at check points, men dressed as bums wearing wireless microphones. The last bum directed him to the entrance of the day with a simple playing card lying on the ground.

Ace of spades. So, it was the front door today. But the front door of the headquarters of The Legacy wasn't exactly a normal store front. It had a door, yes. A door to an empty room filled with pipes and hanging wires. He clamped two specific wires together, spun a handle counter clockwise two times and engaged the handle on the power box after flipping two breakers to the off position.

A door opened next to the power box and he stepped into the darkness. It was a small elevator leading him down into the bowels of the earth.

He emerged into what looked like a normal office. A receptionist sat behind a tall desk. She grimaced at his sweaty appearance.

"You look ghastly," Becca Ramsey told him. She was in her mid-fifties with hair the color of artificial chestnuts. "The director is expecting you in ten. You might want to change before then. A shower, perhaps?"

"Yes, mum. Always so concerned about me."

"Someone must. It's not like you'd do it on your own prompting." She returned to her computer monitor.

Ethan breezed past her and into the locker room. It wasn't one of those offices where you were familiar with everyone. Besides Becca and the director, he didn't have contact with anyone else on site at headquarters.

The analysts were too focused on their current assignments to worry about a strange man entering the locker room. But unusually, one analyst did observe him with a watchful eye as he wandered around the office. Her screen was dark, as if she was only occupying a cubicle and not actually using it.

She moved the typing glasses farther down her nose and followed Ethan with her eyes as he entered the director's office. Daniel Fouts was a dark-haired, hard-eyed man who rarely showed any emotion. He accepted Ethan into the fiberglass-walled office and gestured to a chair.

"Thank you for meeting with me. I know it's unorthodox to come all the way into Headquarters especially when you're spending every off minute searching for your brother."

Ethan's eyes narrowed. No one was supposed to know he was looking into his brother's disappearance. Especially no one in the upper echelon of management.

"I assume there is a reason you wanted to see me?" His voice was gruff. Any happy-go-lucky manner he had in his demeanor previous to now was completely extinguished.

"I'm adding someone to your team." Fouts motioned to the woman standing near the doorway. She was a beautiful blonde that looked like she'd been pulled straight from a Betty Crocker manual. "Bette Marstan, this is Ethan Fairchild. Your new team commander."

"What happened to her last team commander?" Ethan asked curiously.

Bette smiled impishly. "I blew him up."

By Any Other Name

Check out my web serial, By Any Other Name over at its own blog...
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