I stared at the three corpses lying in the cells that had previously held Xander and Ryker. Two bodies were in the one that had been Ryker’s and the third was in Xander’s. Blood had pooled around the bodies and covered much of the floor of the cells. I clenched my fist angrily.

“Who did this?” I asked as I looked over at the guard who had come to the pits. “And how the hell did they manage to kill three of our guards, free those boys, and get out of the facility without us knowing?”

The guard just shrugged and opened his mouth to speak before an alarm started to blare. An alarm that only went off when things in the pits got out of control and we needed to send extra security to get things in order.

“WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE?!”

I stormed out of the prison block and ran for the pits with a small army of guards behind me. People were running around and shouting, many were getting their weapons out and ready to fight. I shoved my way through the hallway leading back to the pits when I heard gunfire coming from what sounded like a few hallways over.

“Go find out what’s going on down there!”

I turned away from the guards I had just ordered towards the gunfire and ran the rest of the way to the pit. When I arrived I found Spencer lying in the doorway grasping his thigh to stop blood from flowing.

“What happened here?”

“Aidan… it was all Aidan… he just opened fire, took me down before I could react,” he answered through gritted teeth, “after that he jumped down into the pit and shot the guards. He’s trying to free the kids.”

I punched the wall beside me so hard that I put a large dent in the stucco.

“Aidan… fucking… Colt,” I said as I shook my hand to ease the pain from the punch, “you finally snapped huh? Damn it!”

“I called for some guards that were running by the doorway to come in and start moving the injured to the medical wing. If Aidan had really done this I needed everyone in top condition. I glanced down into the pit, glowering at the bloody scene. I tapped on my C-Watch and the display appeared. I tapped a few buttons, requesting an emergency meeting with the Chronos leadership that oversaw the projects I was head of. Instantly they accepted and I made my way to my office. I slammed the door shut behind me and locked it, then sat at my desk and turned my computer on. When I joined the meeting all but one of the councilors was already waiting.

“Maria, what happened?”

“I don’t want to repeat anything… where is Councilwoman Kera?”

“Here,” a woman’s voice answered after a quiet beep notified us that someone had joined the meeting, soon followed by a new hologram joining the four that already sat in front of me, “what is the meaning of this, Maria, I was having a lovely time in my garden.”

“Aidan Colt,” I answered simply, instantly all the councilors sighed and muttered angrily.

“We told you that boy was a bad choice. A risk we should never have taken,” Councilman Veillon said as he glared at me.”What has he done?”

“Exactly what you were worried about him doing. I admit that I thought I had control over him, and that I was wrong,” I replied as I crossed my arms and sat back in my chair, “but I do not regret using him for everything we’ve used him for… even what he didn’t realize he was being used for. I need Archangel activated.”

All five of the councilors scoffed indignantly.

“Absolutely not. Archangel was authorized to begin barely a week ago and is nowhere near ready,” Councilmember Calder responded instantly as they crossed their arms over their chest. “You only have one active agent, and you know that Arch-1 is not ready for this.”

“Arch-1 is as ready as possible right now… I did most of the early training myself… and even better yet we won’t have to worry about infiltration,” I replied as I leaned towards my holo-projector, “Arch-1 is already with Aidan.”

The councilors all looked at each other then back at me with mixed expressions, disbelief, surprise, and suspicious.

“Give us a moment to discuss this amongst ourselves,” Councilwoman Kera muttered as she pushed her hair over her shoulders and tapped a button which caused her holographic image to blur and her audio to cut out.

The other four councilors' images also blurred and I was left in silence as I watched blurry images have an intense discussion which I couldn’t hear. I sighed and started to pace behind my desk impatiently. I pulled my C-Watch display back up and sent a message to my chief biological engineer instructing her to prepare to put Archangel into full effect then started tapping away so that I could activate the transponder in Arch-1’s head when the council inevitably decided to allow me to take my requested action. The councilors’ images refocused at the same time as C.B.E. Beyett responded to my message saying she would gather her team immediately.

“Maria… you are authorized to activate Arch-1, and to start preparing more Archangel agents,” Councilwoman Hyden said in a somewhat defeated tone, clearly she had voted against allowing this but had been outvoted.

“There is one condition though,” Councilman Dai picked up from where Hyden had stopped, “you have to loop all five of us into all your communication with Arch-1 for this first mission, and if it seems like things are going bad for Archangel then we’re pulling the plug and sending an extraction team to get our asset out safely.”

“Done,” I responded as I activated the transponder then linked the new line of communication with the five councilmembers.

I typed a message and sent it.

Operator: Arch-1, this is your operator, you are activated. Your mission is to spy on Aidan Colt and the group with him. Report everything that happens to me immediately.

After a short moment a message came back.

Arch-1: Acknowledged. We’re currently in an ACR safehouse on the edge of Talpolis in the abandoned district. ACR team on the way, arrival expected in about three hours.

Operator: Good. Keep reporting with any news.

Arch-1: Acknowledged.

I looked up at the councilors to ensure they had seen the messages, they all nodded at me and turned their C-Watch displays off.

“Good. It’s settled then, send a team out to hunt Aidan down and take him out. Keep as many of the people with him alive as possible, but kill anyone you have to.”

“I’ll assign a team of Phantoms now and, with the council’s permission,” I said as I squinted my eyes at them in a challenge, “give them a small army to assist.”

“Granted… send fifty soldiers of your choosing with them.”