An American Villain 4

”MEDIC!! SOMEONE GET THE MEDIC!”
I felt my body being moved as I lay inside the scepter still. I kept going in and out on the flight back. I heard my dad talking with Rae as I went in and out inside my earpiece.
“Hang on son, stay with me! Don’t close your eyes, stay awake!”
I felt his arms wrap around me and lift me from inside the ship and pick me up.
“Dad…”
I faded back out as he lifted me up and started carrying me out. I tried to stay awake but my eyes were so heavy and I just wanted to sleep.
“MAKE A HOLE!”
I came to while in a hallway with my dad above me as I was being pushed on a bed. I tried looking around but I couldn’t make out anyone else from the lights on the ceiling.
“He has lost a lot of blood, we need to operate on him right away if he’s going to live.”
I felt a pinch on my arm and suddenly I woke up more from the pain.
“OUCH!”
I tried sitting up but one of the medics pushed me back down and spoke.
“Stay still Otaza, you don’t want to make this worse.”
I looked down at my arm and saw a tube connected to an Intravenous bag being held up. I felt some more life come back into me and started gaining more feeling in my body. The bed stopped abruptly and I looked towards my feet to see the director with his security team.
“Senior technician Mitchell Raiger, you are under arrest.”
My dad didn’t flinch as the men approached to take him. I felt my blood rushing in my veins and tried to jump up to help him.
“No one operates on him until his father cooperates. If he dies, it’s on his father.”
The security team grabbed my father and spun him around. As the handcuffs clicked around his wrists he mouthed a sorry to me.
“Sir, we need to get him into the medical wing immediately.”
The director stepped aside and walked away with my father and his security team. The man pushing the bed spoke up finally.
“Knock him out.”
I looked up and saw one of the medics pushing a syringe into the bag.
“Wait, no, where are they taking my dad!??”
They kept pushing me along and I tried to fight the drugs from knocking me out.

I opened my eyes and blinked to get the haze away so I could see. I heard people talking outside of the room and the television was turned down low. I tried to sit up but felt a sudden sharp pain on my right side and arms. My arms were wrapped in bandages between my elbows and wrists, every move felt like needles in my arms. I pulled up the medical gown on the side and my entire side was bandaged and wrapped around my stomach. I tried to remember what happened but I was confused about some of the details.
“Welcome back to the land of the living, Otaza.”
I looked at the door and saw a man in a long white coat standing there. I held up my arms to him for answers, I tried to talk but my throat was dry and I couldn’t get words to come out. He walked to the side table and picked up a pitcher of water and a small glass.
“Your arms are going to take some getting used to. Take it easy when trying to move.”
He handed me the glass and waited for me to grab it securely with both hands. I felt the veins in my arms twitching with each movement, causing an itch inside that I couldn’t get to. I moved slowly and started to drink the water. The doctor reached for the glass to pull it back so I didn’t drink too fast.
“Easy now, you’ve been out for a while.”
He took the glass and refilled it, setting it back in my hands so I could sip on it. I felt my throat relax and my mouth wasn’t as dry anymore so I tried talking again.
“Thank you.”
The doctor pulled up a chair and sat next to me and just smiled, it seemed genuine.
“How long was I out?”
He looked at the watch on his wrist and then up to me with a worried face.
“You have been asleep, so to speak, for a week.”
My heart started to race and the monitors next to the bed began beeping. I tried moving more to get up and find some answers. A nurse came rushing into the room and saw me up with the doctor. He turned to the nurse and stopped her before she could speak.
“Get word to Rae that he is awake.”
He put his hand on mine and squeezed it gently.
“No matter what anyone says, you saved a lot of people last week. Don’t worry about the director, my oath to saving lives trumps his position. I will deal with him if he starts giving you any trouble.”
He stood up and pushed the chair back against the wall, adjusting his coat before leaving the room. I waited for him to leave and get out of sight before I reached for the television remote. I clicked through the channels until I found some news. I sat up in the bed and watched, waiting to see if something about the hospital was going to play. Just as I was starting to get into what they were talking about Rae walked through the door.
“Hey, stranger.”
I turned the television off and she closed the door to my room.
“I’m glad to see you are awake finally.”
She pulled the chair up to the bed and sat down next to me.
“What happened? The last thing I remember was jumping through a window.”
She tried to hide the smile and laugh with a straight face.
“Yeah about that, you fly pretty well for your size.”
I understood why she was laughing now, I started to but felt my sides hurt and quickly stopped.
“Oh god that hurts, but that’s funny.”
We both enjoyed the moment for a few seconds and then I needed to start asking questions.
“What happened at the hospital after I left?”
She adjusted herself in the chair and then started to break down the after-action report to me.
“The local police department surrounded the building when the gunfire started inside, right after you brought Archangel back online. The defense system cleared the building of all the hostile forces. We don’t know much about The Forgotten, Archangel didn’t leave any survivors for us to interrogate. The news agencies around the country have been put on notice that they are not allowed to report on this incident. Some people that witnessed it have taken to social media, but their activities get taken down just as they come up. The damage control for this has taken a little bit of work but it’s not overly bad.”

I rubbed my hands one over the other and took in everything she told me. I knew The Corporation had power over the nation but not this much. The amendments still stood and the right to free speech seemed like it was under fire. I was conflicted about them containing this incident but I also knew it was for national security.
“What happened to my dad?”
She leaned forward and clasped her hands together on the side of the bed.
“Your dad is being detained, he told me about the code file you found in Archangels systems. I believe just as you do that it wasn’t him. Someone got ahold of his code and used it against us to carry out this attack. Everything in his lab is being combed through to make sure that It wasn’t him, but the Director is looking for someone to pin this on. Your father and he go way back to the start of the Corporation, so I think this has something to do with removing him. In a way, your father kind of keeps the Director in check regarding what technology gets put to what divisions of The Corporation.”
Rae knew more about my father than I did and she was around the same age as me.
“So how do we get him out of this? There has to be something we can do to prove his innocents in this.”
She sat back up and stretched her arms and then stood up.
“Your father told me that he will handle this himself, he begged me to stay out of it, that means you as well.”
She walked to the door and opened it, poking her head into the hallway.
“Wait, where are you going?”
She turned around and smiled.
“I’m going to try and get you out of here.”
I just woke up and now she’s trying to break me out of the medical wing, this girl is going to get me in more trouble than I signed up for. She walked out into the hallway and I could see her talking to the doctor through the window. She put her hands together in a praying motion and then wrapped her arms around the doctor. He looked into the window and winked at me then walked away. She came back into the room and smiled at me.
“Come on, you are leaving. The doctor is going to process your paperwork tomorrow for discharge. This gives us a day to get ahead of everything.”
She walked to the table under the television on the wall and picked up some clothes.
“I had some clothes picked up for when you woke up. I’ll help you get up, but you are on your own for getting dressed.”
She set the clothes at the end of the bed and then walked around to get me up. I pulled the sheets off and swung my legs out to the floor. She reached out to help me up as I tried to stand up straight.
“Easy, your muscles haven’t worked in a week.”
I let go of her hand and stretched upward to stand at my tallest. She looked up at me with wide eyes.
“What, is there something wrong?”
She corrected her expression and then just shook her head.
“No, I just didn’t realize how tall you actually are. Now hurry up, we are wasting time.”

She took a step back and then walked out of the room so I could get dressed. I went through the pile of clothes and then reached for my left arm. My heart began to race, my data pad that I keep on my arm wasn’t here. I began to move faster trying to get dressed so I could track that down. I felt the skin stretching and pulling under the bandages. I pulled up the wrapping on my left arm and saw multiple spots that had stitches in them, the cuts looked close to being fully healed. I finished getting dressed and opened the door to the hallway, Rae was talking to the doctor once again.
“Rae”
She turned and saw me standing ready to leave. She hugged the doctor once more and then patted my back to walk with her.
“We need to get you back to your apartment before we can go to your lab.”
The elevator opened as we got closer to it, the chip in her arm was working with the building’s interface. Once we stepped inside and the doors closed, she reached into her back pocket. She pulled out a small arm band and slid it up to where her chip is.
“The chip can track my movements, I don’t want to give away what we are doing if I am being watched.”
She pushed the button to take us down to the lobby.
“Wait, you can block out the chip and its functions?”
She adjusted it on her arm and then turned to look up at me as we went down.
“There is a lot going on that is kept very secret around here. Since we are all chipped, we had to come up with a way to disable the chip.”
The doors opened and I followed her out and into the street. She looked around and then started walking towards my apartment. I was looking around as well, I felt like I was being watched.
“Stop, you look paranoid. Just relax and walk with me.”
My apartment wasn’t that far from the medical wing. It took about twenty minutes to reach it and when we got to the building I realized I didn’t have my access card.
“Missing something?”
Rae pulled out my access card from her pocket and swiped the door to let us into the building.
“How did you get that?”
She opened the door and pushed me inside the building.
“Seriously Rae, how did you get my access card?”
She wasn’t answering me but kept insisting that I keep moving. Once we got to the door she swiped the card and it opened. We walked inside and it closed behind us. She looked around and checked the bathroom to make sure no one else was here.
“Here”
She handed me the access card and then opened her arms to give me the floor.
“How did you get this?”
I held up the access card.
“Your dad took it off you when he pulled you from the scepter so that he could come here to get anything you would need. When he was arrested he dropped the card on the bed for the doctor to pick up.”
I shook my head and then leaned closer for her to finish explaining.
“The doctor was the man pushing you on the bed when you got back. He is also my grandfather, so when I told him I was your coordinator for the operation he passed it to me.”
Things started to line up for me about what was going on.
“Alright, where is my data pad? I went out with it and it wasn’t with me when I woke up. I need that data pad Rae, I have to find out what’s going on with my dad.”
She looked down at the watch on her wrist and then pointed at the door behind me. There was a double knock on the door.
“Open it, it’s the Tactical Commander.”
I opened the door and he tossed the data pad in the air for me to catch as it fell.
“Don’t thank me just yet.”
He walked past me and then high-fived Rae. I noticed on his arm he had a band like the one she had. I opened the data pad to see that the security was still intact and no one was able to get into it.
“My guys couldn’t get past whatever security you have on that thing. Must be pretty sensitive to have a self-destruct protocol active on it.”
Rae looked at him and then at me shocked.
“Wait, so that thing is a bomb!?”
I set it on the counter and pulled a pair of scissors out of the drawer.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a bomb, but it will blow the lower part of my arm off if someone tries to access it too many times or bypasses the security.”
I cut the wrapping off my left arm with the scissors and looked closer at the stitches. The Tactical Commander put his hand up to his ear and then nudged Rae on the shoulder.
“That’s my time, I’ve got to get back before someone starts asking questions.”
He looked me up and down and just stood there for a second.
“Thank you for bringing this back to me.”
He waved his arms up and then laughed.
“I know I said don’t thank me yet, but damn at least say thank you anyways.”
He put out his fist and I met it with mine, he nodded at me and then Rae and stepped out of the apartment.
“Rae, what is going on? Why all the clandestine activities? What am I not being told?”
She reached into my backpack on the couch and pulled out my multi tool.
“Come sit and I’ll explain what’s going on. Plus we need to get those stitches out. God forbid you don’t have your arm bomb strapped to your crazy ass.”

She snipped the stitches and worked them out as she explained what was truly going on.
“The Director isn’t who everyone thinks he is. About two years ago we found out that there is going to be an attack on American soil. No one knew who it was or when they would attack at the time. We managed to find some transcripts from a phone call that was made from this installation. The person who called was Director Evans, the one he was talking to doesn’t make sense though. He would talk, and the answers would come back in just a stream of numbers. We have been secretly trying to decode those numbers to try and figure out what was said. It was a very scattered phone call from what we have put together. The only thing we know now is that whoever it was, they were starting to supply and arm an organization on the west coast.”
She finished working the stitches out and then rubbed the area to help message the skin so it didn’t itch.
“When the first agent was inserted and killed, it didn’t make sense who “The Forgotten” was. Then while you were out I did some more looking into those transcripts. One of the words was Forgotten, assuming that Director Evans knew about them already and knew this attack was going to happen.”
I strapped the data pad to my arm and got it comfortable.
“That doesn’t explain how my fathers code file was used to shut down the defense systems at the hospital though? I know for a fact that this was a string of code that he wouldn’t have put into a system here or even written down in a notebook.”
She ran her hands through her hair and then sat back against the couch.
“Does the word “Reisu” mean anything to you?” It was the only word we could decipher from the numbers.”
My heart dropped into my stomach and then turned upside down as the chills overtook my body. She saw it hit me and knew that I knew something.
“It’s Japanese.”
She leaned closer and wanted to know.
“What does it mean?”
I leaned back and took a deep breath as I rubbed my hands over my head.
“Wraith”.