Chapitre 53: Swimming in Mud
"Devon, I sent my assistant to fetch Emma like your message said. Is that who is responsible for the mess down there?" Hassan started.
Devon and I shared a glance and he said, "Which mess are you talking about?"
"Nichole's assault, the destruction of the lab . . . That mess," Hassan said, raising an eyebrow.
I should have expected him to have heard the news about the lab already, but I thought he would have known it was me.
"Actually, I destroyed the lab," I admitted. "And there were three people involved. Mindy—uh, Miranda—Melvin, and Emma. Miranda and Melvin, however, are dead. I think."
Shrugging, Devon said, "I checked Melvin's pulse and he seemed dead but I wasn't too worried about him."
Hassan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "What a day this has been and its barely noon. I believe Chris went home with a broken nose, too, though he wouldn't say how it happened."
I looked away and scratched the back of my head. "Wow, that sucks."
Devon snorted and I kicked him under the table.
If Hassan found our behavior suspicious, he didn't make it known. He pulled up a seat at our table and set his clipboard down, removing a pen from his breast pocket.
"Alright, please, tell me everything," he sighed, poised to start scribbling.
Starting from when I'd headed to check on the progress of the xenomorphs, I gave him the paraphrased tale. Finding Mindy, her plans to release the eggs and the queen, their deaths . . .
I told him the full story of Melvin and Emma, how they'd ambushed me and hidden a facehugger to infect each other with, only to turn it on me. Some of the details were fuzzy thanks to the drug, but I managed.
Hassan listened without looking at me, transcribing my web of half-lies onto the paper.
When Hassan turned his attention to Devon, my partner sat up a little straighter. "And what of you, Mr. Hart? Why were you down on that level?"
"Uh, right. See, I noticed how upset Nichole was, so after giving her what I thought was enough time to cool down, I went looking for her," he said.
"Go on."
"First, I checked to see if she went to the predator, but everything there was already gone. I decided to check the xenomorph lab," Devon continued. "It was in pretty bad shape, and the lab techs there said she'd left already."
Hassan, still writing, said, "But you didn't believe them."
Devon nodded. "I hadn't seen her, so I had to look around to make sure. Something seemed off."
When he paused, I glanced over at him. The muscle in his jaw was taut again, his brow set and tense. "I heard voices down one of the hallways, made out what they were saying. I knew then something was definitely wrong."
"Please," Hassan said in a quiet voice when Devon paused yet again, "what happened next?"
I stared down at the table and worried my hands in my lap. I couldn't look at Devon when he was that morose.
"Yeah, I saw Nichole on the floor with two of the lab techs standing over her. Melvin and Emma."
He took another moment and this time Hassan let him have the time he needed. I almost reached out for my partner's hand but withdrew it.
"They were standing there, and they had one of those implanter things on the floor with her. I shouted at them and when I tried to shoot the ugly thing, the dude just jumped right in front of me, like he was protecting the damn thing," he scoffed.
When I closed my eyes, I could barely make out the fuzzy image of Melvin on the ground. Drenched in blood.
Devon said, "Emma was too busy screaming to do anything so I was able to kill the thing before it could attach to Nichole."
His voice took an edge the further into the story he delved. Knowing how weak I must have looked to him corroded my insides.
Remembering how close I'd been, how the facehugger only needed a few more steps, threatened to pull me under the waves of despair and drown me.
I gnawed on the inside of my cheek and closed my fists so tight my nails bit into my palms. The pain was a focus I clung to. Eyes tight, I struggled to tread water and stay afloat.
It was never going to end. I was never going to free of those demonic abominations. I should have left with Wolf when I'd had the chance.
After clearing his throat, Devon added, "How is he? The, uh, the dude I shot."
Lips pursed, Hassan pursed his lips and adjusted his position in his chair. "I haven't heard anything yet."
Devon wiped his face with his hands and nodded, saying nothing. This time, I did take his hand in mine. He squeezed it back.
"But," Hassan said, pausing as if trying to pick the right words. "Neither of you are in any trouble. I'm very sorry that you had to go through that, Nichole."
I muttered an acknowledgment under my breath.
"I'll make sure that the situation is investigated to the fullest extent we offer. There should be footage and Emma will be interrogated," Hassan concluded.
"Like I said, they seemed to be under some sort of influence from the queen. Maybe now that she's dead Emma will come to her senses," I said.
"Perhaps. Time will tell. For now, I'd like you to go home and rest," Hassan said.
"I can't do that," I said.
He blinked at me. "And why not?"
I bit back my retort. How could I explain that I needed to find the predator? Did I even really need to? Perhaps my best course of action was to go home and call Wolf.
Everything was ruined. Cutting my losses might be my best course of action.
"She's gotta file an incident report" Devon said, glancing at me. "While it's fresh in her mind."
"I suppose," Hassan relented. "I'll take the time to review the tapes while you fill it out, and my assistant should have brought Emma in for interrogation."
"Good. I'll make sure she gets home after she's done," Devon said.
I harrumphed and Devon winked at me—it was all a show so he could help me stall. I didn't even know if he knew what I wanted, but he knew I didn't want to go home yet and was helping. Bless his face.
Hassan sighed, then straightened his suit and looked at me. "Ms. Shain, from what I've heard and what Devon has collaborated, I am at least very certain that you were acting in self-defense."
/There's gonna be a but, isn't there?/ I thought in exasperation.
"However, I'm still uncertain about why you were down there in the first place. You have the clearance, sure, but I'm mostly just curious what brought you down there," he asked, sounding sincere.
"I just wanted to make sure the xe—packages were going to be transported properly," I muttered, catching myself just in time to remember we were in mixed company. "But they had already been moved when I got there."
"And," Hassan said, brows raised, "that was when you met with Miranda."
"Correct." Not bad for a half-baked story I'd just made up.
"Understood. For now, go and write the report while you can, then go home. Take as many days off as you need to recover, just let me know," Hassan said, standing up and collecting his things. "I must make a call and see if I can't find out what happened to Chris."
I tried not to grimace. I wasn't sure if Dixon would tattle on me or not, though it probably didn't matter. I'd only accomplished a small bit of my goal and now I was going to have to decide between calling Wolf or waiting even longer so I could find out what became of Jailbreak and the rest of the xenomorphs.
Wolf was looking to be my go-to, though.
Hassan left me and Devon to sit for a moment longer. We were in silence, and then I stood up at last and said, "Thank you, Devon. I really appreciate everything you've done for me today."
He shrugged and grinned at me. "What can I say? I love you."
Groaning, I covered my face with my hands. "Don't remind me! I was a completely different person at the time!"
Devon just snickered and offered me his arm, but I shook my head and said, "Thank you, but I can walk on my own now."
"But it'll look weird if I'm confessing my undying passion and you're not holding my arm."
"Devon I promise you I can still kick your ass now," I snapped, playfully throwing my empty water bottle at him.
All he had to do to avoid it was lean in either direction, but he let it hit him square in the chest anyway. He clutched at the spot and reeled, groaning as if in pain.
"Ahh, I'm hit! Man down, man down! Oh, cruel fate . . ." He dropped to the floor and grasped at the air with his free hand.
Rolling my eyes, I stepped over his prone body and said, "Stop being such a fucking spaz. I know you're just trying to make me feel better."
He lifted his head. "Is it working?"
"No." There wasn't any conviction in my voice—it most certainly was making me feel better.
"Damn. Well, I'll just have to try harder.
"Please don't."
"How's your head feel?" he asked me, falling in step beside me as we navigated the forensics lab to get back to our floor and our desks.
"Better, but it might be a bit before those pain killers kick in," I muttered.
"Nurse Lee is pretty good but you might want to go to a real doctor's office later to make sure," Devon suggested.
From down the hall, we heard a call of "Don't call me nurse!" and snickered.
"I'm fine, but thanks."
I wasn't going to go to the hospital for a single sucker punch.
"Well, if it gets worse be sure to go," Devon insisted.
"God, I will DAD. Stop fussing."
He gave me a playful shove and I stumbled somewhat, making him catch me by the arm.
"Ah, sorry," he said.
"It's fine, just caught me off-guard. Guess I'm still a little woozy," I assured him, brushing him away once I was steady on my feet.
We were in the elevator now, headed up to the floor. The way it was moving and shifting made feel a little dizzy, but other than the occasional disorientation, I was feeling right as rain. I really had to use the bathroom, though, so when we made it to our floor I parted with Devon.
"I'll be back, just have to use the restroom," I said.
Devon waved and went for his desk. I took a moment once in the restroom to check out my face in the mirror.
The bruise looked worse than it felt, at least. Thanks to the ice pack I'd abandoned, the swelling didn't seem to be bad, either. It was right over my left cheekbone, circling under the eye somewhat. Still tender to the touch, too.
I washed up when I was done, splashing cold water on my face on the way out, and took a seat at my desk. Devon was already there, tip-tapping away at his keyboard. He acknowledged me with a smile and I started working on that report, though I didn't try very hard with it. Not when I knew it wasn't going to last.
Why bother, right?
None of this would matter in the long run. I deleted some try-hard sentences I'd made and spent my time doing other things.
Like researching the best way to California, and figuring out where the Weyland office was. I tried to see what security was like at Weyland Corp., but there wasn't much information about the company at all.
After quite a bit of procrastinating, I decided to actually finish the report and get it over with, then go home and figure out what my plan was. The beacon was waiting there and the temptation to use it was strong.
I threw the date and time of incident up as a document header, then dove into the report: "I ran into the xenomorph observation room and found some bitch named Mindy making goo-goo eyes at the queen." What followed that was probably some of the most 'professional' and 'articulate' sentences I had ever written.
Once printed, I stuffed the papers under some paperwork already on Hassan's desk. I hoped it would be a while before he saw them. Anything to stall the shit-storm I'd receive once he discovered my 'well-written' recollections.
"Wow, you finished pretty quick once you actually started writing it," Devon remarked with a knowing smirk.
"Oh, hush. If I'm just going to go home and do nothing I'd rather stay here and get paid to do nothing," I said in an undertone to make sure no one else heard me saying such things. Not that I thought they'd tell on me.
Most of us kept to ourselves.
"True enough. You heading home now, though?"
Sighing, I sat down and rolled a pen across my desktop. "I don't know. Probably. I do think I need to take a nap."
"Well, I told Hassan I'd make sure you got home so I'll take you."
"You don't have to do that."
He was already standing, though, and collected his jacket off the back of his chair. "I insist. It's no trouble, anyway. You'd do the same for me if I was in your shoes right now."
"Of course I would," I said earnestly.
"Good. So c'mon. Let's get you home so you can take that nap."
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
Imagine_Kayla
Imagine_Kayla Hello, readers!
Sorry I didn't get this done yesterday. We were preparing for a corporate visit at work and I didn't have much to do anything other than work.
I'm still not entirely happy with this chapter so I might edit it more later once I have the next chapter written, but I don't know. What do you guys think? I guess not all chapters can be bangers. Every book has one or two meh chapters.
At least that's what I'm telling myself.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone