With just me hanging alone on the cross, I finally have enough time to analyze my location. It's dim, but not dark. I can see the floor, walls, and ceiling clearly. It's concrete, the floor and walls holding most of the cracks. Ignoring the cross that I'm tied to, there's no furniture or windows. My best guess is I'm underground in some basement. Doesn't look residential, much too big for an average house. Maybe some company building that isn't being used right now. There's a small smell of mildew. Could just be the bad upkeep of the building.
I look at my wrists and feet, both tied using Manila rope. Tough rope made for sailing, but not tough enough to hold an Ispio agent. If memory serves correct, they've taken my phone and gadgets again, but what they didn't take was my wit, also the technology under my skin. This one is chemically activated, I have to cause pain so it'll work. I struggle against the rope on both wrists, hardly moving an inch as I try. I twist and turn my hands, letting the rope chafe my fur so much that the skin starts to expose. It feels like fire! Why won't it work?
Finally, my brain sends the right signals to the nanobots in my bloodstream, releasing a powerful shockwave of an unseen force. The ropes come flying off, and the cross gets pushed to the wall behind me, adding more cracks to the concrete.
"Ow..." I get up and follow the chameleons through the same hallway, climbing some stairs to reveal that I was in fact in a basement.
"Clyde," I say, using the comms implanted in my ear, "are you there?"
"Troy?" His calm voice answers the other side of the line. "You know you can't use the comms unless it's mission-related."
"Listen, the chameleons are back, and they know how to track you. Scramble your signal right now and follow mine."
"Hold on one second, what the hell are you going on about? Where are you?"
I look around the room I'm in; there are windows here, but they're boarded up. I rush to one and peer through the spaces between, only seeing a bit of street and some grass, but not much else. "I'm not sure, but I know I'm in town."
"Oh, that's helpful. Guess I'll search all the buildings in Hartford."
"Just use the chip tracker!" I say, louder than I planned to.
"I can't, ya dink! I don't have it on me, and something tells me I don't have time to get it. Do I?"
I sigh. "No, I can't risk you running to HQ, that's where they stole me." I look at where the door is, but there's something strange about it. It looks completely inaccessible, a rectangle with no features except a hole in the middle, not even a doorknob. "I'll try and find a way out so I can tell you my location."
"And what, am I suppose to sit on my ass?"
"Find a hiding spot, keep me posted, and just this once, don't go looking for a fight."
"Whatever, I'm always calm. Scrambling my signal now."
A sharp ring came from the comms, making me flinch, but it soon faded. Clyde is out and unreachable, even by Ispio for the time being. I walk to the door, touching the smooth surface of the blank wood. It feels old but somehow refurbished like it was worked on from the inside.
Another voice appears in the comms."Troy? Hello? Can you hear me?"
"Hello? Amy, is that you?"
"Affirmative. I saw that your comms went online along with Clyde's, but Clyde's died down. Is he alright?"
"No, listen, Clyde is scrambling his signal right now, there's some bad men in town. Can you track my location from where you're at?"
"Bad men? Scrambling signals? What are you talking about?"
"Bad men, Amy. They kidnapped me right out of our parking lot. Can you track me or not?"
"Hold on, let me pull up the program on my computer."
I can faintly hear the typing going on.
"It's strange, it says you're online and located 16,000 feet under sea level in the Pacific Ocean."
"That can't be right. This building I'm in must have some signal interceptor or something. It's throwing off the tracker's GPS."
"Well, then you need to get out of there so I can pinpoint your coordinates. What's stopping ya, Mr. Legendary Agent?"
I look at the door again. "You mean besides no exits to be found?"
"There's always an exit, you're just not looking hard enough. Those bad men got out to look for Clyde, didn't they? Have you tried using that gadget thingy that tracks traces of activity?"
"Gadgets won't do here, they took everything away from me. All I have is my comms and the augments in me." I notice the chairs and table are set like a dining room, a picture frame of a red farmhouse hanging above on the wall. It all looks old, and there are still doorways leading to other rooms I haven't checked yet. "Stay on the line, Amy, I'm gonna search around."
"Okay, just don't stay silent for too long. Should I call Adams or something?"
The last thing I need is for Adams to rub it in my face that a past mistake came to bite me now. "No no no, we don't need to use too many resources here. I have you, that's the best help I can ask for."
"That's sweet, but this IS life or death, isn't it?"
I walk over to the doorway into a room that's spacious and well furnished. There's a moldy couch sitting in the center facing a television, a big crack in the glass lets me know that it's not in working condition. A window is set to the right of the couch awkwardly placed too high for anyone of average height to see out of. "There's a window, and it's not boarded up like the rest. It's narrow, but I think I can fit through if I can open it."
"That's great, Troy. I'm looking at the screen now, I'll let you know if I catch the correct signal."
Quickly I scurry up to the window, placing my hands on the glass. I push up, but it doesn't budge. Two prongs sat on the bottom corner of the frame, asking to be flipped and unlocked by my nimble fingers. I jimmy them in hopes of a satisfying click, but instead, a heavy shock stuns me, and I yell. "Ow, that one hurt!"
"Troy! Are you all right!? What happened?"
I flick my wrist to shake the pain off, only easing it a little bit. "The window's booby-trapped. The lock is wired to electrocute whoever tries to unlock it. Sneaky lizards..."
"Goodness! Is there anything else you see that could get you out?"
The room gives off a "Living Room" vibe, but there's no front door. There's a chimney resting near the t.v.
"A fireplace? I could try to climb out."
Looking into it only shows that they clogged it up completely, placing fresh bricks into the venting area. "Nope, they sealed it up. I hope they know that's a fire hazard."
"Ugh! Can't you just let me log into your augmented eye so I can see what you see?"
"No way am I getting my eye replaced with robotics! They're such a pretty green color."
"You didn't take the upgrade? Fine, just tell me what you see."
"Um... it looks like an ordinary living room. A couch, a television, a rug, and a coffee table. There's also a creepy picture of someone I don't know; they're painted in old-fashioned oil paint, kinda like the president's portraits."
"Anything unusual about the furniture?" she asks with a hint of annoyance in her voice. I'd probably be feeling the same way if I was on her end. She should be glad she's not on my end.
I walk closer to the painting. It was a picture of a human man, dark curly hair, has on a nice suit, sitting in a chair staring at me. I touch the picture, feeling the rough texture that oil paint leaves behind. "Nothing I can tell." I move my fingers to the ornately decorated wooden frame. I move my hand underneath the frame, and I touch something metallic and pointy.
"Wait, I think I found something."
"What is it?"
My hands grope the object, familiarizing the structure of a switch. I push it down, and a loud clicking sound happens behind me. I look but notice that nothing has changed. "It's a switch, but I don't know what it does."
"Could it have opened something somewhere?"
"The room looks the same, what could it have opened?"
"No walls popped out of place? No secret door on the floor? You said there was a rug, try pulling it out of place."
I pull the rug out, and sure enough, Amy is right. The floor opened up underneath it, the hatch door still swinging from the momentum. "My God, there's another level beneath this one."
"Ah-ha! I was right! Go in."
"What? I don't even know what's down there. It looks dark, there's probably no lights."
"Oh sorry, this whole thing is starting to feel like one of my video games."
"I hope you've practiced Iron Man mode because we only have one life here. Fine, I'll go in. Wish me luck."
"Break a leg, Troy!"
"Yeah, let's try not to." I jump in, not knowing how far the drop would be. Luckily I landed within a second, a 5-foot drop at most. All around me is dark, the only light coming from the hole where I fell through. "I'm alive."
"Yay! What do you see?"
"Nothing. It's all just darkness. I'm gonna feel around the room, hopefully, find a light switch."
I begin my journey forward, inching my cautious feet carefully across the floor. I keep them sliding along the concrete in case another hole decides it's going to pop up in front of me. My arms are outstretched ahead, but I don't feel a wall yet. This room must be spacious.
"Troy?" she says, her upward inflection suggesting that she's bored on her side.
"Yeah?"
"Are you and Clyde dating?"
"What!?" My voice echoes in the chamber I'm in. Well, at least I found out there's not a lot of furniture in here. "Why would you ever think that?"
"I dunno. I just see the way you guys hang out with each other when you're not at work. Plus you guys try way too hard to act professionally when you are at work. No units try to be that business-like with each other unless they're dating, or if they're hiding something."
"That's ridiculous," my hands finally hit a wall, and I start gliding along with it, "you shouldn't just assume a situation is what it is because of a couple of factors." My knee bangs something metal and hollow, I think it's a desk.
"You both have also been acting very distracted. Your unit is known for having the best track record on case solving, but your recent stats show a success rate of only 94%."
"You're looking at our statistics right now? Aren't you suppose to be monitoring my GPS? And 94% is still a high number." My hands run over the desk, quickly feeling a couple of foreign objects I'm not too sure of. There's a heavy, cylindrical object too; a flashlight I think!
"Ugh, computers can have more than one program running, duh. And yeah, maybe for an average unit, but not yours. You guys used to be 100%, but now you're making rookie mistakes. How'd you even get captured in the first place? You were standing outside our office."
"I was distracted!" I say, my anger raising my voice for me. "I mean, they just caught me off guard is all." I turn on the flashlight, my prayers being answered when its bright light reveals all the nooks and crannies of the room. I shine it on the desk, looking at the newly revealed torture tools laid there, still some dry blood on a saw I didn't touch. "Guh, disgusting."
"Distracted by what?"
"Does it matter?" The beam of light travels the room and stops on a door on the wall furthest from me. I get to it and get ready to open it.
"I'm just curious. Is it something about Archer?"
"I'm not going to talk about Archer right now. That's personal." I open the door, but as I do a clicking sound starts up from the other side. Suddenly a large ax on a wire connected to the ceiling flings itself straight for my face. I scream and move as quickly as I can to the side, the rusty blade snatching my shoulder in the process. Pain takes a second to accompany my nasty wound, my body and mind still in shock.
"Are you okay!? Hello? Are you there? Answer me!"
"Giant ax," I mutter, "got my shoulder. It's pretty bad."
"Troy, your nanobots are updating your status. They say they've found traces of Atropa Belladonna in your bloodstream. You've been poisoned."