Author's note:

Read author's note at the bottom of this chapter before reading the chapter, it'll help a lot.

We were in front of the Front again, two days later. Except this time, Arya was with us. And we were inside a huge delivery van.

The two day duration was filled to the brim with productive hard work – although to be fair, the whole past month had been that way; first the whole frat house scandal turned out to be the biggest flop I'd ever seen, and our failure two days ago didn't exactly brighten up the mood, either.

But this was our day. And it had to pay off.

Arya was purposefully dressed in the blazer and pencil skirt, which Amanda had provided her with. Twenty-five percent of the reason why this took two days was that Arya was reluctant to play her part. The girl was as adamant as an extreme left-wing politician. The only thing that made her agree in the end was the certain possibility of my death if this wasn't done.

"Okay, Arya, this part is important," Amanda said. "The cameras in the Inference room aren't connected to the van, which means we won't be able to see you as soon as you enter that room. This is why you need to listen to the next few instructions very carefully."

The van, in which all four of us occupied currently, had one whole length filled with screens. The screens displayed what the security cameras in the Front captured – as manager Amanda, had access to the whole lot in her home, and with manual work, the set was transferred to our van. The other twenty-five percent of the reason why this took two days to set up was because of the hard time and effort needed to carry those damned things into this blasted van. For the record, Everest and I did all the work.

Another 25% of the reason why it took two days to execute this plan was because we needed to ensure our target doors will be guarded by as few guards as possible. That meant hours upon hours of observation.

"Now, there will be a guard in front of that room. His name is Dominic; I don't know him too well, but what I do know is that he will let you through if you are a senior member of the Front."

"You are not a senior member at the Front, Arya," I said, "so you'll have to bring in your A-game, and act the hell out of this one."

"In other words, just pretend you are important," Everest said.

"What do you mean 'just pretend'? How can you be sure that they're going to let me through?"

"We're not. But you're our best shot," I said. "You are the only person who knows exactly what's going on, is on our side, and isn't connected to the Front. We can't go in there, because the Front is swarming with enemies, at this precise moment."

"That's comforting," Arya replied dryly.

"Listen," Amanda interfered, "once you are in the Inference Room, you need to collect a red hard drive with Reynolds' Attack written clearly on it. It will be in the R locker – R for Reynolds' Attack. You will see a few R lockers, the Front is just as obsessed with Reynolds Corporation as much as Reynolds is obsessed with the Front. Thankfully the word 'attack' comes up pretty early in the alphabet, so you go for the first R locker."

"Wait, wait, wait," I stopped. "They've got multiple lockers with dirt on Reynolds?" I asked.

"Yes, of course, they do," Amanda said in a matter of fact tone. "The 'E' section itself takes up two lockers: Reynolds' Economy, Reynolds' Equipment, Reynolds' Employees, Reynolds' Energy, Reynolds' Efficiency, Reynolds' Energy-efficiency... the files outnumber the joules needed to melt diamond."

"I bet you that Reynolds have twice as much on the 202 drug," Arya responded.

"Crazy people," I muttered.

"There are two other hard drives you need to get," Amanda instructed Arya. "One titled Original Cure, black; and another titled 202, silver. Once y—"

"Woah, woah, woah," Arya stopped her. "202 doesn't have any letters. Which locker would I find that in?"

"It will come under E, for Emerald."

Everest said that. It was literally the first time I heard him say my name. I knew that he would never say it to me personally (despite it being the sole purpose of having a name), but I couldn't help thinking how nice it sounded coming from him, and I momentarily found myself pondering why he etenerally insisted on calling me that wretched 202 name.

"Once you've got the hard drives, walk right out of there," Amanda ordered. "Okay?"

Arya processed this information for a couple of minutes. Then, "Which E locker?"

"The first drawer of the first E locker," responded Everest in a tone that suggested he had experience doing what Arya was about to do.

"Wear this," I gave Arya an earpiece. "Amanda will talk to you through it."

"And this," Amanda handed Arya a fake ID – the last twenty-five percent of the reason why this plan took two days to prepare. "You will be Catherine Lowe for today."

***

"Alright now take the second left," Amanda spoke into the mic. Her voice journeyed into Arya's ear. Arya figure was shown in one of the screens in the van. She did exactly as she was instructed.

So perfect and calculated was our timing that there was not a single guard on duty in the hallways that Arya was required to walk through.

Everything was going exactly as planned. The security – Dominic, a bald dude with an ironically full mustache – was standing before the door in the isolated hallway; quite a boring job if you asked me, I hoped he was getting paid well for rotting his life away in front of a door which barely anyone even walked through.

Arya walked rehearsed-like through the hallway and towards the guard.

"Okay, Arya, show him your ID and tell him that your name is Catherine Lowe."

Arya did just that. She even put on a sweet voice.

Dominic inspected her with a peculiar smile before asking what she wanted from the room in the strongest Essex accent my ears had ever accepted.

" 'I'm sorry.' Then giggle a little. 'I can't discuss that information with you. Highly confidential, restricted to senior members only.' " Amanda told Arya.

"I'm sorry, I can't discuss that information with you." Arya then giggled. It was the worst giggle I'd ever heard in my life. This was a good thing. I would have disowned Arya if she had pulled that off impeccably. Stupid things they were, giggles.

"You are not a senior member of the Front." Arya finished following her knock-off giggle.

"Shame," Dominic purred. "You ought to be prominent on the board. How comes I haven't seen you 'round, eh?"

"Make up some lie," Amanda said. Very helpful.

"Let me speak to her," I told Amanda. "I'm a psychopathic liar. This will be a breeze if I'm instructing.

Everest gave me a weird look.

"What?" I asked. "It's true."

But before I could demonstrate my outstanding lying abilities, before I could get another word out, something weird happened in the screen. Boy, I never saw this coming from a million miles away.

It couldn't have been mistaken from any camera angles nor any crappy quality. All hyperboles aside, it struck me with the uncontrollable urge to plunge my hands through the goddamn screen and choke the living hell out of that blasted security guard.

Dominic had said something, but I didn't hear it as I was preoccupied with arguing with Amanda and Everest. But when I looked back at the screen I saw that his – the guard's – right hand, which had a golden ring on the middle finger, had found it's way to Arya's backside. In a highly illegal way.

"Amanda..." I started.

"Stay calm, Arya," Amanda said into the mic.

Stay calm.

But Arya looked like she was about to commit bloody murder.

"What the hell is he doing?" I hissed. "Get her to leave." I reached for the mic.

Everest stopped me. "Wait."

I had to give it to Arya, though. Ultimately, she successfully managed not to punch the imbecile in the jaw – however, the way her fingers flexed signified that she fought the urge to. I saw Arya try to edge away, but Dominic, or rather the predator, shifted her towards a long white wall.

"Hey, man, listen," she negotiated, "I just need to get into the room and then I'll be on my way..." She might as well have been talking to the white wall itself, because the guard didn't look like he was going to comply anytime soon.

"No, seriously. Get her to leave. I'm not kidding," I told Amanda, stern as hell. I was rarely ever stern with Amanda – it was always the other way round.

"No," Everest, the emotionless son of a bitch, interrupted as cold as Antarctica. "Just tell her to play it cool."

Play it cool, my ass.

"Arya, play it cool," Amanda said into the mic. "Say something natural."

Screen Arya rearranged her face, and flashed a PR smile. The girl had talent. I can give you that. "Hey, I just need to get to the Inference Room. So if I could just..."

But the predator guard didn't move. "Of course you can," his eyes sickeningly raked Arya up and down. "In just a moment."

"I don't know what your problem is," camera Arya growled. The poor girl. I could just about see the vein protruding out of her forehead. "But you better watch it, or I'll have you sacked, yo," camera Arya lied compulsively.

"Arya, you are a senior member at the Front, please try to use formal language for the sake of pretense," Amanda said.

Arya made a facial expression as if to say is this bitch being serious? At least that's what I was thinking.

"Sir. This isn't work. Appropriate," camera Arya bit in a homicidal tone.

"You know, I think you just need to relax a little, that's all," camera predator replied.

"Oh my god, you are a literal creep," Arya exclaimed.

The guard shrugged carelessly. "Tell me something I don't know."

"After Cyanocobalamin is synthesized with bacteria, the human body has the ability to convert any form of Cyanocobalamin to an active form by enzymatically removing certain prosthetic chemical groups from the cobalt atom and replacing them with others?" Arya responded cockily.

Yeah take that, asshole!

The guard seemed dazed only for a moment before advancing on her yet again.

"Okay, yeah, that's enough," I exclaimed. "We're getting her out of there." I reached or the mic.

"202, wait," Everest stopped me once again. The '202' the epitome of sour in his mouth. You know, to be completely honest, I was getting quite sick of his presence.

"Are you mad? Can't you see–" Instead of finishing my sentence, I gasped, as the best idea bombarded my mind, just then. "You can go in there!"

"What?" Everest asked tonelessly.

"You can go in there, get her out, and leave with the hard drives!" I explained.

"I don't–"

We were wasting time.

"Listen. Dumbass. You grew up in the west wing; you know it better than anyone. So, you go in there, work your hypnosis magic and make this sicko get the hard drives for you. I can't do it because I don't know how to work telepathy. Yet. I suffer these agonizing headaches whenever I try—" But the back door of the van had flown open, and Everest had already left.

Unlike Arya, Everest didn't have an earpiece, so we'd lost contact with him the moment he stepped out of the van.

The guard muttered something to Arya in the screen, but I didn't quite catch it. I did see, however, his ringed hand travel up in her back.

Now, old Arya'd lost it. In the space of a nanosecond, her hands travelled up to the guard's throat. It looked like a murder scene was about to unfolded right before my eyes. But the guard merely looked amused.

I grabbed the mic. "Arya? Everest is coming, hang in there."

Her hands loosened. "Hang in there?" Camera Arya yelled, forgetting herself.

"What?" The perverted guard quizzed.

"Shut up," she snapped.

"If you insist," he neared her again.

I sighed. Everything was already falling apart. "We should have sent her in there with a weapon or something, at least." An AK-47 would have smoothed out this Dominic's attitude.

"Just try to get him away from you as further as possible," Amanda said into the mic.

It was easier said than done. The only way Arya could step away from the pervert was if she would walk through a wall. Impractical.

The asshole guard maintained that perverted smile in on his face and said something else to Arya, but again I didn't catch it. Judging by Arya's face, though, it couldn't have been anything amazing.

Just then, a third voice spoke.

"Ah, just the man I was looking for." Everest's voice.

The guard immediately leaped away from Arya, as though she were a bomb about to detonate any second now.

"How many times have I told you..." Dominic glanced at Arya's ID, "...Catherine! I don't want anything to do with you!"

That killed me. I just about died laughing.

"I keep telling her, but she wouldn't listen," he told Everest.

"Women," Everest responded dismissively. "Listen," he said gently to the guard, completely disregarding Arya's presence, "I need a favor."

"Name it," pervert Dominic replied, rather shakily.

"Well, my friend and I consistently argue over the colour of my eyes. She thinks they're completely blue, whereas I think they're only blue around the edges. Could you take a look into my eyes, and tell me what you think?"

The guard did just that. He peered into Everest's eyes. "I mean... they look quite dark—"

Everest's eyes narrowed.

There was a glint in his sea coloured eyes as he purposefully stared back. The very next moment, before I had time to let out my breath, the guards eyes stilled. Lifeless and limb.

I saw a sort of smile formulate on Everest's finely molded lips. "I want you to go into the Inference Room and get me three hard drives labelled Reynolds Attack, 202, and Original cure." His words were imperative, but his voice was soft and smooth, so full of arrogant triumph.

The guard mechanically turned and entered the Inference Room. A few minutes passed, and the guard returned with three objects, red, black, and silver in his hands. He handed them to Everest in a robotic motion.

Everest took them and gave them to Arya, who slipped them under her blazer.

A short moment later, I saw that some life enter the guard's eyes. "–a bit blue around the edges," he finished.

"Appreciate it." Everest held out his hand. The guard shook it with the hand that had the golden ring on it. But something seemed off. Everest didn't shake hands. "Thank you," he said, "for your help."

Then, he twisted it. One motion. That was all it was. But it was a deliberate, detrimental angle. There was a cracking sound; the nauseous sound of bone breaking. The guard gasped a little– no, he screamed and automatically clutched his wrist, as Everest let go of it.

Tears swarming the guard's eyes. "You– you..." I guess, what ever the rest of his sentence was going to be will always remain a mystery, because a second later his eyes closed and he dropped to the floor, probably hypnotised into unconsciousness.

The screen showed Arya and Everest walk out of the corridor, Arya with a slight smile of her face. Everest expressionless as ever.

I glanced at Amanda and she glanced back at me. Pregnant silence inhabited the van.

That silence was then broken when the door flew open. Arya stepped through it, followed by the iceberg

"Holy– You are the man!" Arya shouted, punching Everest in the arm. "Did you hear me? You are the motherf–"

"Yeah, I heard you," Everest told to her, but his voice lacked the usual coldness in it.

"Everest, you broke that man's–" Amanda started.

I scoffed. "Man."

"You broke that potential rapist's wrist," Amanda amended her sentence. "And I'm not sure if I'm complaining, or not."

"You definitely shouldn't be," I said. "The bastard deserved it. Good job, Ev," I patted his shoulder. That was a good shoulder, there.

"Why did you bring him out of the hypnosis before you– you know... broke his bones?" Amanda asked.

"Why do they use anesthetics in hospitals, 202?" Everest suddenly asked me.

"To numb pain."

Everest turned to Amanda. "I wanted the opposite."

"Well, I think you are awesome," Arya remarked.

I learned two things from that day: The Front employed perverts, and Everest would make one hell of a feminist.

***

Jay opened the champagne. Our earlier success called for a mini-celebration in Amanda's vast kitchen.

I pulled Amanda's t-shirt over my shoulder for the five-hundredth time. Since my clothes were all at the Front, I had to wear Amanda's, which proved to be too big for me, as previously described.

There was an energy of victory in the room that evening. For once in a long time, I was in the presence of a normal atmosphere. For the first time in a long time, we were able to take a break from everything. One thing I can promise I didn't do though, was go anywhere near that champagne.

But taking in the surroundings – hearing Jay and Arya exchange knowledge on quantum chemistry and engineering ("Even better! Chemical engineering!" Arya beamed) and seeing Amanda busily cook away – I realised that Everest wasn't looking so celebratory. I wondered shortly if it was because a certain black hard drive titled Original Cure was sitting somewhere without the security of a locker, ready to expose his private affairs to whoever gains entry into his chasm of secrets...

I sat next to him. "What's up?"

"Nothing," he responded without elaborating, and I didn't prompt him either.

My subtly eyes wandered over the kitchen and its many kitchen-y equipments. "Do you know where the hard drives are?"

"Two are in Amanda's office. I have mine." So he acknowledged the fact that, although the hard drive was vaguely titled Original Cure, it belonged to him. Possessive. I liked it.

However, the possessiveness also indicated that he wasn't going to reveal anything more about himself anytime soon. It was okay. I had another request in mind. I put a sweet voice on. "Everest?"

"Hmm?"

I turned to fully face him, practically batting my eyelashes at him. "Teach me how to master hypnosis."

He looked at me oddly.

"Well?"

"You want me to teach you?"

"That's what I said."

"But you should know how to—"

"Well, obviously I don't. Not without suffering the worst migraines, anyway. I would have gone to help Arya myself if I could. It's quite difficult to concentrate when your head feels like a thousand needles are viscously poking into it."

"That would be acupuncture."

"Shut up. Will you help me, or not?"

"How am I even supposed to help you?"

"Just tell me what you do," I replied.

"I stare."

"Everest! Don't be coy!"

"Being coy is one of my most prominent personality traits."

"Your only personality trait," I muttered, halfway through rolling my eyes, but stopped realising I needed to make a good impression on him if I was ever going to make him teach me the very common art of hypnosis. Sarcasm.

"If a soldier in the middle of No Man's Land during World War Two has control over an entire tank, yet has no idea how to operate it, what would he be?" I asked in a nicer tone.

He shrugged unenthusiastically.

"He would be me!" I exclaimed. "He'd be useless!"

So much for the 'nicer' tone.

"Besides, you owe me," I promoted further.

He thought about it for a moment. "Okay, fine. I'll help you become less useless," he finally said.

I opened my mouth to argue against what he had just called me, but instead closed my mouth, smiling.

"Meet me in Amanda's yoga room—" yes, Amanda had a yoga room, "—at seven in the morning. Don't be late." With that, he got up and walked out the kitchen, Arya announced that she was going to call Noah and Fluorine and exited the kitchen, as well.

I sat there for a while with a stupid grin on my face.

Jay replaced Everest's seat. "What are you all happy about?"

"You should fear me," I replied. "I'm going to have unforeseeable power in my hands – or rather eyes – very soon."

Jay let out a breath. "Forget I asked. Listen, Em, I don't mean to harp on you, but Amanda wants to and you know, the woman's—"

"Scary. Yeah, I know. What is it?"

"The testimony... it's two weeks away. She wants to know if you'll give it. You know, the amended version of it."

The grin evaporated away. Right. The testimony.

"Jay..." The truth was, I didn't want to give it. Even though I wasn't mad at Everest anymore, I still didn't want to give the false testimony, which had the potential to save him a lot of trouble.
And it was this reality that made me feel selfish and hypocritical. How could I ask for his help if I wasn't willing to help him?

But the other side of my mind told me that it would be much, much worse betraying my parents.

Would it? Everest was a living person. And my parents were–

I clenched my fists. Nope. No way was I about to compare my parents to Everest. What an idiotic thought. It was absolutely preposterous.

"Jay, well, here's the thing." I tucked in a strand of black hair behind my ear. "I– can't," I admitted. "I want to– I mean, I wish I could, but my parents—"

"It's okay, Ems," Jay said, although it wasn't okay at all. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to."

"I do, though!" I fussed. "I just wish it wasn't so complicated." Ugh, I sounded like some stupid damsel in distress. Which I certainly was not! I was a tiger in distress.

"I know," Jay said solemnly.

Then, there was only silence between us.

"I care about him a lot, you know," I confessed in a quiet voice. The moment I said that, I hoped to hell that Jay hadn't hear it. God, I hoped he hadn't heard it.

"Everest?" Ugh, he did.

Well, there was no going back now.

I nodded sheepishly, and a warm grin buttered across Jay's face.

"Of course, you do. Amanda tells me you took three bullets for him the other day."

"You know. Reflexes."

"Of course." Then he started smiling more broadly.

"What?"

"It's funny."

Hello? Do I look like a mind reader? "What's funny?"

"It's funny – and quite cute, as well – that Everest said that same thing the morning after the frat house."

I blinked and swallowed slowly. "Everest said he cares about me?"

"No, he said he cares about himself."

I wrinkled my nose in respond. What a narcissistic—

"Sarcasm, Em. Yes, he said it about you."

I didn't believe it for a second. No way had he said that! Possessing trust issues as high as the Everest itself, I refused to believe what Jay said was true. He was jesting. He had to be. He probably just wanted me to butter me up, so I'd feel really shitty for not doing the testimony...

But at the same time, a part of my mind – a more hopeful part – sort of believed what he had said. And by that, I mean I took it to be gospel truth.

I mean, it did kind of make perfect sense. After all, in a weird, totally subtle way, he did sort of care an awful amount about getting Gemma's cure – GOD, I guess – when he could just as easily be getting on with his own perfect life. He could have just finished the job on the night of the launch evening, and continue living the perfect life that Director had provided him with.

But then again, all of this required something. A conscious thought. A conscious thought that could only arise from emotions. Which he, scientifically speaking, didn't have.

Later that night, I hopped over to Amanda, an urgent inquiry in mind.

"Amanda? Sweet, sweet Amanda?" I called.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing much. Just a quick question, you know?"

"Go on."

"Uh, well– how much do you know about Everest's– impairments in neurotransmission?" I selected my words carefully, the way a person selects flowers which would make someone else most happy.

"Not a lot. Why?"

Oh great. "But you know something, surely?" I asked hopefully.

"I don't know, it depends on what you're looking to find out. You're being way too vague."

Amanda's annoying t-shirt slipped off my shoulder again, and I lifted it up.

"I was just wondering, you know," I scratched my ear, "if there's still any bizarre way for him to– to, you know, potentially, maybe, possibly, perhaps... feel... emotions. Generally speaking, anything to do with grief, empathy, shame, fear, remorse... love?" So much for 'general'.

"Well, it's unlikely. But not impossible? Why?"

"How do you know that?"

"I don't," she replied. "Why are you asking?"

I ignored her question. "Do you know how they removed his emotions?"

"Don't say emotions, that sounds horrible! Neurotransmission is better," she corrected. "And I have a vague outline, but not the ins and outs. I can only think of two people who would know, and that's Director and Everest himself."

Interesting.

"He said they used aversion therapy and something to do with his brain," I mentioned.

"Well, there you go."

"No, not there I go! How did aversion therapy get rid of his emotions? It doesn't even make sense! How could you get rid of something that you can't even physically see, touch or feel?"

"I don't know, Emerald," Amanda told me irritatedly. "The only reason Director even removed Everest's emotions in the first place was so that Everest – being the only person who could, you know, kill you–" she said the word as if it were blasphemy, "–would be able to do so without feeling grief, empathy, fear, shame, remorse or love. I didn't know anything about 202, then, so Director never disclosed what he was doing with Everest, with me."

"Oh. Just to be clear," I said, "you don't think he's unable to feel the emotions that Director had supposedly removed?"

"I think, whatever method they used to rid him of his emotions hadn't worked very well."

"How do you know that?"

"Because you wouldn't be standing here, annoying the hell out of me, right now, if it did."

I raised my eyebrows. The woman had a point, there. An important one.

In other words, I'd have been very dead, right now, if that treatment had worked right.

"Don't swear, Amanda," I mocked.

______________________________________________________

Author's note:

A bit about aversion therapy:

Aversion therapy is a treatment where a patient is exposed to a stimulus whilst having to experience discomfort, at the same time. For example, this is used on alcoholics, where the patient is given alcohol to drink, but are also are given a tablet which causes them to vomit. By doing this, the patient will associates alcohol (pleasurable stimulus) with vomiting (discomforting stimulus), which ultimately puts them off alcohol.

I'm sure you're dying to find out what's in Everest's hard drive.

Stay tuned for future psychology lessons lmao.

Thank you for reading, please vote and comment if you liked it ;)

P.s. This is the longest chapter I've ever written.