We finally arrived after weaving through traffic with the sirens at full blast. Part of me wondered if they even asked Anna about this. I couldn’t picture her allowing it. Police and TEO blocked off a large perimeter, along with the entrance to the subway. I stepped out of the vehicle and high above us, a glass pane from a skyscraper broke, and through it a TS flew down to us. Its hands were up, in the surrendering position. Even though it wasn’t armed, the TEOs still attempted to detain it.

“Halt,” it’s robotic voice warned, “I am here to instruct how to defuse the bombs. I am aware that you have no experience with this type. Allow us to do it.”

“Us?” Serrette asked the android.

“Myself, and Jared Ugo. Only he holds the key to defusing them. Also,” the TS opened a part of his chest to reveal a device, “this is a bomb as well. If you attempt to do anything to this robot, the bomb will be detonated, as well as all the bombs in the subway.”

Hmm. How elaborate. The android and I walked toward the subway’s entrance. Esther Serrette followed grasped onto my shoulder to stop me. “You don’t have to do this, Ugo!”

The bomb squad officers kept their ballistic shields up at all times and their guns cocked at the pale android. “I don’t have much of a choice. You should probably stay up here. You know…”

She calmed down, and somewhat accepted it. The TEOs didn’t question it much, but they were still required to shadow us. At the train door was a bomb laid on the ground. “This device has a proximity sensor. I will defuse it remotely.” The TS stopped for a couple seconds. “Device has been defused. You may enter.”

So, I followed its instruction and entered. There were three people with devices on their laps, trying their utmost best not to divert the attention away from the bombs. “Those without bombs on them may leave,” the TS announced, and people rushed out, bouncing one a young man a device on his lap. An explosion blasted several people away and stole my sense of hearing for a while. But my eyesight would still work unfortunately. It was horrific.

Blood, entrails, brain matter, and everything you can think of was scattered about the car. The smell of burnt metal from the surroundings and iron from the blood wafted over to us. The car was painted wine-red. Screams was the first thing that entered my ears when they returned to working as usual. “The devices on the people are detonated if the metal sphere touches any of the walls, therefore, the victim must maintain balance to keep the sphere from touching. To defuse it, you must input your blood into the container at the side. Only your blood will do. Good luck.” The TS’ instructions were heard, but it was hard to pay attention with the car adjacent to us in shambles. I was bothered by it, but not to the point where I couldn’t function. That composure made me a little scared of what I’d become. But that was the path I chose to follow – the thorny path.

“What the hell do you want from me, Cennet?”

After a few seconds, the android spoke. “I want Jonathan back.”

I closed my eyes and hung my head down, taking a deep breath. Of course. “It defuses after sensing my blood, right?” I asked, rhetorical. A knife from a nearby TEO would do. My wrist was slightly slit open, but healed in seconds. If I wanted to fill the miniature container, I’d have to cut deeper. My hands were trembling as the sharp pain hit me, but it began numbing soon enough. The first blood container was filled, and the device powered off. The TEO quickly confiscated it and brought the petrified woman out the subway.

At this point, paramedics were rushing to the scene. Those that were first to scamper from the car only had minor injuries, except one man whose leg was close to being totally blown off. I tried my best not to look at the gore. In order to complete this–whatever this was–I’d have to filter out all the distractions, no matter how much I abhorred it.

Next was a young kid, probably no older than seven. He was the calmest of all the people here today, even after all the people in his car abandoned him.

“Hey. My name is Jared. What’s yours?”

“Timothy,” he answered. “Will I be okay?”

“Of course you will. You just need to stay like this a bit longer, okay? Make sure to keep the ball away from all the walls and we’ll be just fine.” I proceeded to dig into my wrist again and his eyes shifted to me. “Focus on the ball, Timothy. You’re doing a great job!”

After a few tries, the bomb was defused and automatically powered off. The TEO got him out of there immediately. I breathed a great sigh of relief, despite a clear failure at first. The officers immediately aimed their guns at the TS when we walked out the subway, but we needn’t remind them what would happen if they shot at it.

Serrette had just gotten off the phone and sighed at me. “Kid,” she said, calling me over. “There’s another problem.”

“You mean besides the fact that the army nor the TEO can’t catch one guy?” I glared at her, but I knew fully well my anger was misplaced.

Her face contorted, despite her trying to mask how hard my question hit her. “There’s a bomb attached to a news helicopter,” she said calmly, refusing to make any comments on my earlier question.

“And only I can defuse it, correct?”

She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth, her fists balling in frustration. “Yes.”

I sighed, looked at the TS and awaited it to say something. “This TS is no longer needed,” its mechanised voice explained, “however, if it does not return to where I’ve set it, this country shall have some bad surprises. Ms Serrette will keep you updated. Good luck, Ugo.” It took its leave afterward, and all we could do is watch it fly away.

I placed the headgear on, calling my TK over as well. “Well? Are you going to give me the details or not?”

The question seemed to jar her out of her own mind. “Y-yeah.” She explained that the bomb was found only when Cennet contacted her and she contacted the television station. The news team and pilots didn’t even know until someone told them.

“Two hundred?!” Is she crazy?! I asked myself, then realised I directed my displeasure at the wrong person again. Is Cennet mad?! My head leaned back onto the SUV and I wondered how I would defuse a bomb on a helicopter than wasn’t allowed to drop below two hundred kilometres an hour. That was insane. “Wait… Why don’t they just throw it out?”

“Because there’s another bomb hidden somewhere on the bird. Cennet won’t tell us ‘til we defuse the first one.”

“How do I track it?” I made my resolve, focusing on what to do next instead of the ridiculous situation.

“One of the reporters are sharing her location.” The old grumpy woman who especially hated when people tried being heroes had no choice but to accept what was going on, as was the army. Cennet had them by the throat, as he had me. She threw her phone to me, “Make sure and bring that back to me, you hear?” She commanded just when the TK arrived.

“Gotcha.” I flew off with the TK next to me, fixing my goggles and full-throttling straight to the location. The helicopter kept circling some mountains away from the city, but couldn’t go too far away lest they have problems with mobile connections. Around seventy-five kilometres after, we got to that mountain and saw the helicopter circling a particular range. Like true journalists, they immediately began recording once I was in sight, but at least they were kind enough to remember and open the door–not at easy task at that speed. The TK shadowed us from outside.

When the door closed, they gave me a headset to speak through.

“You’re Jared Ugo, right? You know how to disarm that thing?” Someone asked, but I was busy looking for the actual bomb so I didn’t know who did.

“Um, I suppose so. If it’s anything like the previous three, then I–”

“Three?!” the woman cut across me and I looked at her, finding her somewhat familiar.

“Never mind! Where is the bomb anyway?”

The cameraman gulped and pointed downwards.

“But I don’t see it!” I complained.

“That’s because it’s stuck underneath the chopper!”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” I immediately got agitated, but had to swallow the bullet. “Do you have anything here I can store liquid in? Like a bottle or vial?”

The woman handed me her water bottle.

“Thanks! Hope you’re not planning on reusing this!” I chuckled and she gave me a strange look. That strange look turned into a gaping stare when I emptied the remaining water and began cutting my wrist to extract some blood.

“Why the hell are you cutting yourself?!” the reporter yelled.

“Why the hell is it healing?!” the cameraman followed up. I didn’t bother answering.

I had no idea how much blood Vasc could rebuild, but I could only have faith that it would do a good job. Seeing as I would have to fly underneath the helicopter, I’d have expected some of the blood to waste from the air resistance and turbulence, so I filled up more than I did for the previous couple bombs. I got a little dizzy, but it faded within half a minute.

The co-pilot grabbed a parachute and began attaching it to me.

“I don’t have time for this!”

“You are not going out there without one!”

“But I can fly…”

“I don’t care what you can do, kid!” He continued strapping the parachute on. I shrugged, and let him do his thing. Once he instructed he how to use it, he opened the door for me and I jumped out, favouring the side without the tail rotor.

The minute I jumped out, the cameraman followed, without a parachute even. My heart almost failed me and my grip on the bottle tightened. Thankfully, with quick wits, I was able to make the TK catch him. Even then, he still recorded nonstop. My first thought was to get him to safety, but I didn’t want to take the risk of my TK leaving us even for a moment. Did he, do that on purpose? I questioned, catching up to the helicopter again.

When I got close, I opened the bottle, popped the lid off the container on the bomb and tried to pour my blood into it. Even with the mouth of the bottle touching the rim of the container, the air resistance made sure most of the blood was wasted. I had to find a way to block some of the wind, but unfortunately, only two ideas came to mind. My first thought was to simply raise an arm with my shielder, so that the field of energy would negate the turbulence, but that would mean sacrificing the use of an arm. The only other option would be to use the TK’s shielders, but its shielders were embedded into the chassis.

What a pain! How do I do this?! I wondered, imagining the type of position the TK would have to take. First, I let it block with its body, but that still invited a lot of air resistance. I knew the shielder would throw the helicopter’s trajectory off-course, but the pilot would have to deal with it. The TK took an awkward position in front of me, close to the front of the bird, but slightly lower than me. The shielder turned on and the helicopter began gaining altitude. I had to work fast. The helicopter wavered in its direction, forcing the pilots to try balancing altitude and shaking the bird in response. The TK held the reporter with just one arm and flew upside-down, with its back facing the ground. Its free arm held onto one of the landing skids for stability.

Just when I began pouring my blood, the reporter’s hat flew off and hooked onto the bottom of the bottle, springing it out my hand. Shit, shit, shit! I flew behind it, pushing my boosters as much as I could and finally grabbed hold of it mid-air. Just a little remained in it. This better be enough! I rammed my hand against the mouth of the bottle and found myself below the helicopter again. Into the container, the rest of my blood went. But it didn’t defuse! Whatever device he had in there to scan my blood didn’t do it. Is it busted?! I inspected it closer and realised the tube at the bottom of the container was kinked and didn’t allow my blood to pass through. Once I rolled it a bit, the kink disappeared, but the blood wasn’t going in. That’s when I realised, this bomb was essentially upside-down as well, but the blood container for it was turned the other way. There didn’t seem to be a pump to push the blood where it needed to go either. We needed gravity’s help.

Refusing to touch the device that may cause our deaths too recklessly, I instead figured I’d get the pilot to turn the bird upside-down, so the bomb would be right-side up. Cennet, you piece of shit! I cursed him mentally for putting me through all this. I decamped that spot and flew at the side of the helicopter, where its inhabitants could see me. I mouthed, “Hold on,” and motioned it with my hands as well. I then went farther to the front of it so the pilots would see me and gestured with my hands for them to go upside-down for as long as they could. Then I eventually did it myself, to make sure they understood.

At that point, I noticed many other helicopters, some military, some from news channels circling with us.

The pilots began doing what I said, and the TK helped them stabilise once they were turned over. I looked at the bomb intensely, wiping the bug or two off my goggles. Finally, the lights on the device switched off. I immediately ripped it off the helicopter, but didn’t throw it away just yet. The cameraman and I went back into the helicopter and I texted Cennet–or who I supposed was Cennet–from TEO Serrette’s phone to ask where the other bomb was.

‘There is no other bomb. Congratulations, Ugo. You saved the day. Somewhat. Best get that phone back to the owner.’ I breathed the biggest sigh of relief when that text came through. We jumped out the bird and my TK carried me back to the subway scene at its full speed. Probably shouldn’t’ve done that, I regretted, landing on the blocked-off street and feeling a bit woozy. The minute I touched down, Serrette directed me out the immediate area. Anna rushed out of a vehicle and grabbed me in a hug with the intentions of squeezing the life out of me.

“Hah, missed me?” I wheezed. She released when she heard my straining voice. Her lips formed but couldn’t mutter the word she wanted them to. Instead, she simply hugged me again.

“Ms Stone,” Serrette got our attention, “we’d like to ask Jared a few questions at HQ. Would you mind?”

Anna looked at her in the most scornful way imaginable, but contradictorily agreed. It felt like she gave up on trying to control the situation. And so, in the bright afternoon sun, we were escorted to TEO headquarters. I met with the bland interrogation room again. Samuel Andino walked in while after.

“Hey, Ugo. Nice to see you in good health.”

“Likewise, Mr Andino. How’s Cindy going? She alright?”

He tittered, “Cindy’s great. So, Jared, we want to ask you a few questions.”

My face turned serious at that point. I looked around the room, occasionally knocking my finger onto the table. “Those were bombs, Mr Andino. Now I know how antsy people get when those things are concerned, so I know that there are bigwigs behind that glass. I also know that it wasn’t your decision to question me like this, but it’d be nice if you guys could not treat me like a suspect. I’d rather just, have some coffee while we discuss what you guys need to discuss, all you guys.” I emphasised, finally glancing at the one-way glass.

Mr Andino palmed his face and chortled, “What the hell kind of kid are you?”

“That’s something,” I smiled, “I’d like to know myself.”

“Alright, guys. You heard him. What’s your decision?” Mr Andino spoke to whoever was listening in. They took a while, probably considering it, then finally allowed it.

I entered the room finally, and of course, so did Anna. To no surprise, Michael Asher, the minister of national security was there. Franklin Donovan, the TEO’s director who I met when I visited Ferris in the hospital was there also. He was the one who allowed me to work alongside the TEO to find and stop David Cennet. Whilst Michael Asher wants me kill David Cennet, or help him do it. No one knew of the agreement between Michael Asher and I. But a select few knew about the agreement between the TEO and I.

Not surprisingly, they allowed Samuel Andino to stay, assuming it would give me some reassurance of safety so I could answer whatever questions they might have more accurately. He was my teacher, after all. I sat between him and Anna.

The most shocking though, is the military’s involvement in this meeting of sorts. I could sense the animosity between Franklin Donovan and Esther Serrette in concern with the three decorated military officials that Michael Asher had with him. That would explain the bodyguards outside the room. The TEO commander, Esther Serrette started off, introducing the entire table to Anna and I.

A knock was heard on the door and Sean Murray, the TEO’s criminal psychologist entered. That’s, weird. I didn’t expect him to carry a platter with coffee, but he did. He gave Anna one of the two. When it was my turn, he rested the cup down gently, almost like a waiter, and dropped a small listening device on my lap in the guise of the platter. “Please excuse me,” he said and took a quick exit.

Soon after he left, Franklin Donovan began speaking to Michael Asher, highlighting–albeit subtly–how audacious and inappropriate it was to have military officials be part of a ‘meeting’ that would be deemed confidential, and therefore not for military ears. Like that, they began bickering between themselves. I stayed out of it, as did Anna. In fact, she hadn’t uttered a word since we took our seats.

Looking out the glass wall of the room, someone important-looking encroached with a couple bodyguards around her. One of the bodyguards opened the door, and she came in. Everyone stood up, and I was in the middle of taking a sip of coffee. I was late to the party, but I stood up as fast as I could anyway.

“Home Secretary,” Franklin Donovan smiled.