Prototype

“Every one of those officers was just doing their job,” Nathan said angrily as Reggie was driving his car. “Did you have to kill them all?”

“I killed none of them,” Reggie replied calmly. She removed her borrowed firearm from the small of her back and handed it to him. “Check the ammunition, you’ll find it’s customized.”

Nathan removed the magazine and saw the rounds were lancets with some powered substance that would be injected upon impact. There was no lethal projectile.

“What are these?” he asked.

“Tranquilizer blanks,” Reggie replied. “They are the reason I took so long to retrieve you. I had to ensure they would only incapacitate, not kill, anyone hit by them.”

Nathan chuckled; the innovation she showed was like nothing he saw before.

“You risked your life for me,” he finally commented. “None of those people in that jail knew you were only knocking them out… you could have been killed.

“You did that for me as well,” Reggie confirmed.

“But you have a purpose in all this, I’m just a tag-along. You could have left me there; it wouldn’t have made a difference to you.”

“We’re partners,” Reggie said. “You’re the closest to a friend I have ever encountered. I’m not about to leave you in prison.”

Reggie paused in her mind; she never associated with anyone before, but she trusted Nathan. The short time she spent in the outside world taught her people could be deceptive, but she was trained to see an individual’s quickened pulse if they attempted to deceive.

For some reason, she avoided accessing Nathan. For the life of her, she knew not why, but he was different to her. She was better off alone, she knew that, but she needed him by her side for some reason. He mattered to her; his presence proved infinitely useful thus far in her mind.

Again, she decided to push her thoughts from her mind as Shelby informed her she was receiving a phone call.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Reggie,” Paul started to say. “You need to come back to my place as quickly as you can. Something’s happened; it can’t wait.”

“We’re on route, Paul,” Reggie assured him. “We’ll be there shortly.”

* * *

Everyone on earth, at some point in time, wonders what death would be like.

Springer thought he knew what it was like to die. Black. Nothingness.

But he was wrong. He was just knocked out. And now that he was waking up, his skull throbbed in the most incredible headache he’d ever felt in his life. An officer was leaning over him asking him a question, but the sound was muffled to him.

“What happened?” he asked. He couldn’t even hear his own voice.

“You were shot, you’re going to be alright,” the officer was repeating. Springer was beginning to lip read and understood what was being said finally.

“I was shot?” he asked.

“Yeah, it was some kind of tranquilizer,” the officer informed him.

Springer sat up and looked around. He was amazed when he saw Reggie; her lack of fear was astonishing. She didn’t fear killing him; she didn’t fear being shot at. She was completely without fear. She risked everything to come after someone who obviously wasn’t involved with anything; she was showing loyalty.

She wasn’t just showing loyalty; she was showing a commitment to people that was unusual. All of that was interesting enough, but what frightened him the most about her was her precision and accuracy. If she wanted to kill him, she would have.

“Why didn’t she?”

“Sir?” the officer asked.

“Why didn’t she kill me?” Springer caught himself asking.

“Who sir?” the officer asked.

“That woman,” Springer said. He was more in his own head than he thought, apparently. “She could have killed me. I thought she did.”

“Isn’t she wanted for murder sir?” the officer asked.

“Yes,” Springer answered. “But I think that might be a mistake…”