Stuck in the Middle (Ep.9) "Wanted"
03 Oct 2021Isabella Levine
Previous Ep.8 Ahh, late with uploading this one and being around because I had a lot happen recently. Sorry I guess. Halfway point now. yaayyy! Here's Ep. 9 with an edited photo I tried to make look good with a basic editor. It's meh lol. But please enjoy and thanks for reading
"That's a load of bullshit! Are you kidding me!? Ohhh, she's dead. She's so dead!"
Isabella said, reading the TV screen. There her face was with soft features, chestnut red hair, and green lipstick. Green!?
"They couldn't even get the color of my lipstick right?! Are you kidding me!? It's purple! Purple!"
Violet tapped her arm and she turned to see her with a finger over her lips. She was getting overworked.
"Isabella, it's not that serious. They messed up your lipstick color, I mean who cares? Really."
She covered her face with both hands and groaned with overt exaggeration. Violet smirked to her frustration at something so trivial and tried to tease her.
"Sorry to break it to you girl, but your lipstick is fading anyway."
Isabella huffed and walked over to an open crate that was full of tools and mining equipment and sat down against it. She sprawled her legs out and leaned her head back looking at the ceiling staring off into space thinking.
"So how do we get out of this one?"
She said out loud to particularly no one directly. Violet walked up and sat down next to her.
"Well. I was doing some research on my Datapad and I learned that the guy we bumped into in the bar; well he was the second candidate running for election against Sterling. If we maybe contact him and convince him about what actually happened we cou-"
Isabella smiled and then started to chuckle slightly, still staring up at the ceiling. Violet arched a confused brow at her sudden unexpected behaviour.
"Uhh. I wasn't trying to be funny, Isabella."
She shook her head slowly.
"No. No. I'm just thinking about me punching that cheeky uptight bitch in the face like I did before they took me away."
Violet rolled her eyes and stayed quiet as Isabella continued to chuckle again at the thought of her punching Jayden in the face. Once the thought got boring, she turned to look at Violet who now pulled a Personal Computer Tablet from her suit's largest pouch and was swiping through pictures. Pictures of herself and her father smiling and enjoying whatever it was they were doing. One was of them with big milkshakes in their hands at some poolside resort on some Earth-like world. Another was the two holding fake guns with an odd headset on with goggles. Some virtual reality?
This was a much better way at keeping relaxed and unstressed than imagining beating the person who got you in the mess. Watching Violet swipe through the images of her, her father, and a few friends of hers made Isabella slightly jealous of a life she missed growing up. She tried to think if she even had pictures of herself and her father. Thinking about that made the jealousy become sorrow and self-pity. Why couldn't she have something like this? It bothered her to her core so before she drowned in that self-pity she pointed to Violet's tablet.
"Where did you get that tablet? How'd you get that tablet?"
Violet keeled back as if she was offended by the last sentence. She was.
"It's mine! Well, my father's but I took it from him so it's mine. He had photos in his photos folder on here."
Isabella went to reach for it but her hand was slapped away and slapped hard.
"Get your own tablet! Leave mine alone!"
She hissed as Isabella took her hand away quickly.
"That's your father's?"
Violet nodded.
"May I please see it? I want to check for something."
She looked at Isabella with suspicious eyes.
"Why do you want to see something? What?"
"I just want to see if there's anything on it from the manufacturing plant. See if there's something. You never know."
Violet reluctantly handed Isabella her Personal Computer Tablet and she took it. She looked at the photo in front of her of a much younger Violet, another female that must've been her mother and her father standing in front of some large metal tower that reached into the blue Earth-like sky in this weird "A" type shape. The tower looked oddly familiar from something she read in a book. An old structure from old Earth. She couldn't remember the name of the tower so she closed the picture out and began to fan through several files she didn't understand the names of unlike "Photos", "Reminders", and "Payments". She did this for a few moments before she slowed down her swiping and her eyes brightened with realization. Violet noticed.
"What? What are you looking for? What do you see?"
Isabella smiled seeing dates as file names. Today was 09-13-3307. The first file she found was simply 09083307. Looked like gibberish until you found the pattern because the next file was 09093307 and 09103307. The pattern was obvious with the end four numbers always being 3307. Dates.
"Holy shit. You're father's a genius. He kept logs and settlement reports on a hard backup file aka this device in these folders. He didn't just leave the data in the Dataport that they wiped. He must've been very careful about what was important to keep."
Gitty laughter came from Isabella as she prodded and poked at the tablet. All of this could be an absolute game-changer to their current predicament.
"Hold on. That incident happened roughly two or so days ago. So…"
She swiped through the files and found 09113307. She tapped it and found traffic reports of ships that entered settlement airspace, shift changes, audio logs, data that was trafficked through their main system, and a 24h video recording of that day. Bingo. That's what she was looking for. Video recordings.
"Here we go! We have it, Violet!"
She looked over Isabella's shoulder at the tablet's screen.
"Violet. This…"
"Play it."
She said flatly. Isabella looked at her with sorry eyes. She shouldn't have to see this again. The massacre. Damn. Her eyes showed determination. She reluctantly tapped the play button and skipped over the hours of recording that had nothing happening. She continued this until reaching roughly around 17:00 hours. This was where a bunch of armed men in the same black tactical combat armour she saw from earlier entered and what could only be the admin to the settlement, Violet's father, approached with several of his security team. All of them clad in white standard-issue security gear. The men gathered in the Industrial building's main floor and talked for a minute.
"Audio, Isabella."
Violet said and tapped the screen. Audio played and an ID popped up over the individual speaking.
Emmett Watkins: "...that offer is...generous Mr. Waters but we're not taking it. We don't need your men's protection or even want you here."
Tyrese Waters: "Haha, alright. I don't know exactly how to put this to you but it really isn't an offer. I'm sorry if I came off the wrong way. Head Administrator of Styx Galactic Incorp, Ms. Sterling wants this place under new management. Us. So we'll be taking your weapons and your security team will undergo dissolution. They may join us or find another job. Workers are the same."
Gavin Weber: "Like hell. This facility is run by Emmett under Bureau of Styx. If you guys have an issue with that then bring that little Ms. Sterling lady here to negotiate terms. Otherwise piss off, squaddy."
Waters: "Watch your mouth, boy! You have no idea who I am or what I'm capable of!"
Weber: "Sure I do. Like killing Rawlinson? I've seen that work before. I know your type. You doing wetwork for your girlfriend there too, huh? How much she paying you boys?"
Felix Kimberly: "Enough, asshole."
Waters: "Shut your goddamn mouth, Corporal!"
Watching, Isabella noticed one twitchy military gunman on their left flank, slightly raise his weapon. It wasn't just her who noticed as one of the security guards noticed as well and raised his weapon upright. Once that happened, everyone started aiming weapons and shouting demands. it was amazing how everything went downhill in less than 5 seconds. The shouting continued until a gun went off and struck one of the military gunmen in the leg. He howled in pain and that's when Tyrese Waters just suddenly shot Gavin Weber in the face with a Tormentor Plasma pistol. Isabella flinched at the gruesome sight but continued watching as she saw Emmett lunged forward and get shot in the chest several times by Tyrese Waters. Then the full-on bloodbath commenced.
Violet stood up and walked away so Isabella stopped the recording. Wincing from being sore and sitting too long, Isabella stood up carefully and approached her from behind and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Violet."
She slowly shook her head and whipped her face.
"I'm going to kill that bastard. Whether you let me or not I'm finding him and killing him."
Isabella crouched and turned her around to look straight into angry but saddened watery eyes.
"Listen to me. I'm going to tell you a story, alright. What you're going through and how you're feeling is understandable. I get it. I lost my father too, Violet. But I lost my father to someone who was seeking revenge against not just him but my mother ultimately. For something horrible, she did in the past. I could understand his anger and his sadness but what he wanted was revenge against someone who took something away from him. That blind vengeance ended up costing me to lose one of the closest people to me. My dad. I...I just wanted to protect him but I put him in harm's way by being brash and uncaring. I was taken hostage and used as a pawn to get to him. He…"
She stopped for a second feeling her face become warm and her eyes burn the more she thought about him and how much was unsaid before he was gone. She tried to speak but found it too difficult so gave herself a second before trying again. Her voice was slightly hoarse as she strained.
"He...he made his decision that day when he went off with them to find my mother. He lied about the location just to... just to protect her...and he...he had a CSAR team ready to come rescue me. He bought us time by sacrificing himself. He cared more about family for what felt like the first time since...ever than he did the bloody Empire his entire life. I was wrong my whole life about my dad. He...he...ugh god...he cared about me."
She struggled to hold her composure so she just broke down as warm tears poured down her face. She stood up fully and faced away to wipe them. She tried to get her stoic composure back but failed as she continued to sob and that's when Violet took her hand.
"Isabella. It's okay."
Violet grabbed around her waist and hugged her tightly for a few moments. Isabella didn't expect it but it made her feel...cared for and loved almost. Violet eventually let go and grabbed the tablet off the floor bringing it back to her.
"Isabella, we can take this to the guy I mentioned. His name is Adam Darlington. He was running against Sterling but lost by only a small vote. If we take this to him, maybe it can reach media coverage. We could expose the truth!"
Isabella wiped her face again and nodded, getting her composure back after her full breakdown. If what she said was right, then this could be huge in getting out of this mess.
"Where is he?"
"Habitation wing C. A floor above us. We just need to wait till it dies down a bit because they'll be looking for you in numbers right now. Also, cameras. They're automated meaning usually someone's not watching them because there's too many. But since they're automated that means sudden or suspicious movements like running, fighting, etcetera will trigger the camera and focus in on the disturbance with audio. Yes, big brother is listening and watching. So...wear your helmet and move like we're just taking a casual stroll. They can only ID you via voice recognition and facial recognition but only if you give it a reason to."
"Where did you learn this?"
Isabella asked. A slightly impressed expression was written on her face.
"Gavin. He showed me security a few times."
Isabella smiled and sat back down against the same crate as before. Violet's idea was brilliant. Especially her father, Emmett, for having backup files. Apple really doesn't fall far from the tree. All this really was a game-changer. A chance to expose the truth. Now all they had to do was wait until the time was right and move.
