Chapter Ten

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"PJ, I swear to god I'm not making this up."

"I believe you, I just highly doubt anyone else will."

"Why not?"

Jack winced in pain. He'd made an exasperated gesture with his hands at that last question, forgetting that he'd just gotten his blood taken moments ago, and the sudden movement caused pain in the area the syringe had been inserted.

"Because you don't have any proof," PJ, who was sitting across the table from Jack, replied. He'd pulled up a chair while Jack was getting his blood taken in order to try and gather details on what exactly Jack had seen. He seemed to believe his friend, which surprised Jack, but there was an unexplainable look in his eyes that puzzled him. Was it worry, perhaps?

"Aren't there cameras around?" Jack asked, glancing around the room to find the answer to his own question.

"There are," PJ replied, pointing up to a far corner of the room, opposite to PJ and behind Jack. "Just in case things go south in here. They never have, not that I've seen, but we like to be safe."

"Alright, perfect! So we go look at the footage, and I can show you and everyone else that I'm not-"

Jack stopped himself when he saw the regretful look PJ was giving him.

"What?"

"We can't access the footage."

Jack sighed. He had hoped that there would be an easy solution to all of this, and those hopes had just been dashed.

"Why not?"

"It's not my department," PJ replied apologetically. "So I was never given access. We're assigned to a certain department, like field agent or administrator, and we're given clearance for information that involves our duties in that department. Anything else we can't get our hands on."

"Why is that? Is it for organization?"

"Partially, yes. But it's also to help prevent spies from having easy access to incredibly important information. If somebody manages to infiltrate the IH, they'd have to steal the credentials of several people in order to get a useful amount."

Jack nodded. As discouraging as this hindrance was, it was only logical. But the fact that the IH felt the need to protect themselves against spies was concerning. It hadn't even occurred to Jack that they could have enemies. Who were they against?

And if everyone in the IH was an immortanimus, then what did that make their enemies?

"So there's no way to access the footage then."

"Well, I wouldn't say that."

Jack opened his mouth to ask PJ what he meant, but before he could, PJ quickly brought a finger to his lips, a silent signal that told him to stop talking. He did it so quickly that it took Jack a moment to register what it was he'd done, but once it dawned on him he complied with PJ's unspoken request. He was glad he did too, because about a couple of seconds after he did, the doctor from earlier walked right past Jack and placed a vial of blood on the table in front of him.

"Alright, so now we run the test," the doctor said, grabbing a microscope from one of the other tables and setting it up on the one they were currently using. He seemed oblivious to the fact that Jack and PJ had just been discussing security camera footage, which Jack had PJ to thank for. The other man must have seen the doctor walk in, which had to have been why he stopped the conversation. Jack had a feeling that discussing heir desire to attain information they didn't have clearance to access would get them in quite a bit of trouble, so shutting their mouths was probably for the best.

Jack looked at PJ in confusion, wondering what the doctor meant by 'test.' PJ recognized that expression, as Jack had already made it many times that day, and began to explain what it meant.

"The blood of any immortanimus glows blue under black lights. It's the tell-tale sign that someone's not a regular human."

Jack nodded. "That might just be the weirdest thing you've told me all day."

"Really?" PJ said with a laugh. "Blue blood is the weirdest thing to you?"

"Yeah, because who decided to see what blood looks like under a black light? Was some guy just holding a knife and thinking, 'Let's see if my blood's weird?'"

PJ laughed again. "Probably. We may not be normal humans, but we're just as stupid."

The doctor cleared his throat, causing Jack and PJ to look over to him. He was currently analyzing a small sample of the blood from the vial he'd brought, which Jack knew was the same blood that had been taken from his arm a little while ago, under the microscope he'd finished setting up.

"Could we get back to the matter at hand, if you don't mind?"

Jack raised his eyebrows in surprise at the man's surprisingly snarky comment, but PJ just rolled his eyes, as if this were a regular occurrence.

"Sure thing, doc," Jack said, trying his best to be polite.

"Thank you," the doctor replied, still speaking with a condescending tone.

He walked over to another table, one Jack hadn't paid much attention to, and grabbed what looked like a mini-lightsaber from off of it. Despite its appearance, Jack had a feeling it wasn't actually a lightsaber, which was disappointing to say the least.

He walked back over to PJ and Jack, his thumb just about to press a button on the device in his hand, before he spoke again.

"The lights, PJ."

PJ wordlessly got up and walked over to the other side of the room, flipping the light switch near the door and plunging them all into darkness. There was only silence and pitch black for a moment, then the doctor pressed the button on the lightsaber-like contraption. A faint purple glow was emitted from it, giving off enough light for Jack to just barely see the other man's face. About a half-second later, the blood in the vial beneath the light began to give off a blue light, the amount of brightness it held not much greater than that of the doctor's device.

"Woah..." Jack muttered, transfixed by the blue gleam. It wasn't exactly a common occurrence to see one's blood glow, so this was a sight to behold.

"Cool, huh?" PJ remarked from behind Jack, having walked over to take a closer look himself.

"Still weird. But cool."

"As suspected, you're an immortanimus," the doctor said, bringing the black light closer to the vial of blood, as if to further inspect it. "We typically only recruit a person once we're already fairly sure they're not 'normal' by human standards, but we like to run this test as a precaution."

The lights turned back on again, startling Jack slightly, as he hadn't even heard PJ walk back over to the switch.

"So, that concludes your recruitment." The doctor turned off the lightsaber device and began unplugging the microscope.

"Really?"

"Yes. There isn't exactly a million of us in this organization you know, so the paperwork isn't too complex."

There was that harsh tone again. Seriously, what was this guy's problem?

"So I'm free to go?"

"For now. You'll receive a text from a specific number when we need you on a case."

"Where do I get the number?"

The doctor looked over at PJ from across the room.

"The agent assigned to your recruitment is supposed to give it to you."

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence as PJ and the doctor stared each other down, the tension that had emerged so thick you could cut it. There was a look of sheer annoyance in the doctor's eyes, which was reflected in a more subdued manner in PJ's. It seemed this guy had a pretty short temper, but what either of them had done to set him off, Jack still couldn't figure out.

"I was just getting to that," PJ replied, somehow keeping his voice level under the stern gaze of the doctor. "We wanted to get the bloodwork over and done with, you see. Get the nasty stuff out of the way first."

"Right," the doctor said, though the way he spoke implied he didn't accept that explanation. "I would suggest that you hurry along and finish your job, PJ, lest I contact your supervisors."

"There will be no need for that, my friend," PJ answered with a smile as he motioned for Jack to get up. The Irishman complied, not very keen on speaking with this seething doctor any longer. "We were just leaving."

Jack began to make his way towards the door, where PJ stood expectantly while the doctor glared at them both, when suddenly PJ started moving back towards the table.

"Oh, wait, hang on a minute," he muttered, briskly moving back over to the spot he'd been sitting in. In his hurry, PJ bumped right into the doctor, who was standing just to the side of the seat the taller man was dying to inspect.

Jack heard PJ mutter an apology immediately after the fact, though this didn't alleviate any of the tension between the two, and the scowl on the doctor's face only worsened.

"Sorry, I thought I left my phone over here," PJ mumbled as he scanned the seat and the area around it, searching for the item in question. "But I must have left it back in Sarah's room."

The doctor rolled his eyes before turning away, finally getting so fed up with the conversation that he had to exit it.

"Anyways, we'll be out of your hair now. Thank you!" PJ called, walking back towards Jack and gently ushering him out of the room.

PJ closed the door behind them, then started down the hall with an air of exigency Jack hadn't seen him carry on the way in. Not only that, but he had his hand in the pocket of the oversized jacket he'd been wearing around, keeping it there as he walked, as if he were protecting something.

Curious, Jack walked after him, moving at a slightly quicker pace than his friend in order to catch up to him.

"Dude, what was that?"

"What was what?" PJ replied innocently. His words would imply that he was clueless as to what Jack was talking about, but the distant and thoughtful look in his eyes said otherwise.

"That whole thing with the doctor back there?"

"I-"

"I know you know what I'm talking about."

PJ shut his mouth after Jack said that, and Jack knew he'd caught him in a lie.

"What was with him? Do you two not get along?"

"You could say that," PJ replied, though he still seemed absentminded, even after Jack had gotten him to quit feigning ignorance. His eyes were still glued on the hall in front of them, but every so often his gaze shifted to certain and oddly specific spots in their surroundings.

"What does that mean?"

"There are some people in this organization who are kind of arrogant," he replied, still scanning the hallway. "They think they're better than everyone else because they've been here longer, that sort of thing. It's the same with every workplace, or every place in general. There's always assholes."

Jack was ready to accept that answer, but PJ's currently suspicious behaviour told him there was a bit more to it than that. There was something else he wasn't telling him.

"Peej, are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine," PJ said dismissively, as if he barely even registered the question.

He stopped walking suddenly, causing Jack to almost trip over his taller friend's now stationary foot, before turning down another hallway to the right and dragging Jack along with him.

"No, you're not. Where are we even going?"

"Just trust me on this, okay?" PJ nearly whispered, lowering his voice, stopping in the middle of the hall again and finally looking Jack in the eyes. On the surface, he looked self-assured in whatever it was he was doing, but now that Jack could actually see his face, he noticed there was something else. It looked like nervousness, hidden behind a layer of false confidence. Like there was a film that PJ had put up in order to hide what he was really feeling. If Jack didn't know him as well as he did, we would've missed it entirely.

If even PJ was concerned about whatever it was he was planning, then maybe this wasn't a good idea.

"Not until you tell me what's going on."

PJ sighed in exasperation, then grabbed Jack's arm again and lead him a bit further down the hall. Jack didn't even have time to start to panic before PJ pulled him into what could only be described as a miniature hallway leading to a boarded-up door. He pulled out something from his pocket, the same pocket he'd been keeping his hand in, and pulled out a flat and rectangular object.

PJ held up the thing in his hand for Jack to see, however the lighting in this particular hallway was fairly poor, and even when squinting Jack still couldn't make out everything on it. There appeared to be a lot of writing, and a photo of an unsmiling man that took up about a third of the surface.

"What is it?"

"The doctor's ID. I stole it off of him back in the room."

"But I thought-"

"My phone is in my other pocket," PJ explained, pulling it out for a moment with his free hand in order to provide proof. "I just needed an excuse to get close to him again, since I missed my opportunity when he was running the actual test because he assigned me to light duty."

Jack looked at the ID for another moment before smiling.

"So this is what you were going to bring up before the doc walked in."

"Precisely," PJ said with a hint of pride. "This place has a lot of rules, most of them there for good reason, but all rules can be broken somehow. We just need to make sure the cameras don't catch us with this thing. If any of the information or the picture on it is visible, the security system will run a scan and then immediately figure out that neither of us match the ID."

Jack had to admit, that was impressive. Who knew PJ was good at pickpocketing? It seemed strange to him, as he'd thought he knew his friend very well, but this was starting to make him question just how much he really knew.

Worries aside, the doctor's ID in PJ's possession explained his odd behaviour. He must've been trying to hide from the cameras in order to show it to Jack, and judging by how much older this small hallway looked compared to the rest of the building, Jack had a feeling PJ had found a good spot. The likelihood of there being any cameras in such a run-down and insignificant section was slim.

"Right, so what now?"

"Now, we pay a quick visit to a room on the other side of the building, one that happens to hold and store all the camera footage. We'll be able to catch whoever was in the room with you on the tapes."

PJ stuffed the stolen ID back into his pocket and began to walk out of the hallway again, but before he could fully egress back into the main hall something occurred to Jack. He'd heard Egan mention something about a guy named Alex when they first came in, and then PJ and Sarah spoke about him again when they were visiting the latter's office. Then, suddenly, a mysterious dude who said some really creepy shit and caused some unexplainable happenings shows up, and it turns out he has the same name. There was no way that was a coincidence.

"Hey, you and Sarah were talking about a guy named Alex, right?" Jack asked tentatively.

PJ froze after hearing the question, his posture visibly stiffening even in the poor lighting that sill surrounded him in the darker hallway.

"Yeah, why?"

"The guy in the room. He said his name was Alex."

For a split second, Jack could've sworn he saw PJ's fist clench.

"Let's hurry," PJ said, his voice sounding much graver and more urgent than it had a moment ago. He took the final few steps back into the main hall, and Jack followed him out, now even more concerned about the events that had just taken place.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This is it."

PJ had stopped in front of a more modern looking door made entirely out of metal. It didn't have a room number, which made it stick out from all of the other doors, and instead had a picture of an eye drawn in black paint on its surface.

The taller man held up the ID he'd swiped to what looked like some sort of scanning device built directly next to the doorframe. There were a couple of seconds of silence as PJ and Jack both waited nervously before the machine made an affirmative beeping noise, which was followed by a clicking sound that signified the unlocking of the door.

"Careful not to touch too much. If too many things get moved around, the next person in here will get suspicious and check the tapes, and either of us getting caught isn't a good thing."

Jack nodded in understanding, looking PJ dead in the eyes as he did so, before the two of them shuffled into the room as quickly and quietly as they could.

It only took about a second for both of them to nearly trip on something.

Jack heard PJ cry out and was confused for a moment, but that changed once he felt his foot catch on something directly in his path. The slightly surprised man had to stagger forward in order to catch himself and prevent his body from colliding with what he knew would be a hard and unforgiving floor.

"What the hell..." he muttered, pulling out his phone to turn on the flashlight. He needed to make sure what he just tripped on wasn't dangerous, however unlikely that was.

To his relief, the object his phone she light on was just a box filled with papers. No bomb, no dead body, no secret door. Seeing such an ordinary thing be the cause of a misfortune today was honestly a breath of fresh air, so much so that Jack barely even registered the dull pain his foot was experiencing.

PJ, on the other hand, didn't share the same feelings.

"What the hell is that doing there?" He asked. The slight panic in his voice made the relief Jack had felt wash away in a cold sweep of dread.

"I don't know. Somebody must've been grabbing something and forgot to put it back."

There was silence from PJ, which Jack didn't take as a good sign. He moved his phone so that the light was illuminating PJ's face without hitting him straight in the eyes. The expression Jack was met with was one of deep thought, and that didn't bode well. Jack had begun to notice that if PJ made that face when the IH was involved, something was up.

"Let me guess, this is a big ol' pile of suspicious?"

PJ nodded. "Yep. Very big pile of suspicious. Nobody who works for security just leaves boxes around. I think it's part of the job description to keep everything in here organized."

Jack stared at the box again, inspecting it for anything that looked out of place. Or out of place to him, at least. He didn't really know what qualified as out of place for people here.

After a minute of looking, he gave up. There were no signs of damage to it, no stains or marks, no loose papers. It was as if somebody had just walked in, taken the box from wherever it came from, put it on the floor, and then walked out again. It made no sense.

"Do you think someone took something from it?" Jack asked, handing his phone over to PJ so his friend could take a look at the object for himself.

"Probably. That's the only reason it could've been here." PJ's expression grew more and more confused the more he scanned the box. "But it doesn't look like something was taken. Whoever stole a document was very careful about this."

Jack scoffed. "Careful enough to leave the box in the middle of the room."

PJ chuckled at Jack's remark. "They weren't as smart as they thought they were, were they?"

PJ handed Jack's phone back over to him,  his expression falling again. "But still, this isn't good. There was someone in here before us, and I don't think it was a

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