WnW 3.13

I reached the cafe and spotted Mac sitting near the window. He waved cheerily at me and I smiled and waved back even though I felt a tremor of trepidation at seeing him in his work clothes. Well, his more normal work clothes. I could still imagine him in full tactical gear, with guns and grenades strapped to his vest, gas mask reflecting the red tint of the sky.

“Hey,” I said as I sat down across from him.

“Hey,” he repeated back to me, smiling fondly. He pushed a plate towards me with a sandwich on it. “It’s on me. I remember the life of being broke in uni.”

“Thanks,” I said, my stomach already growling at the sight of food.

“How’s your first day so far?”

I took a bite and examined Mac as I chewed. He was wearing his glasses, which he typically only wore when he was tired. I’d grown reliant on that tell because his posture was always straight-backed and his face never betrayed fatigue. He seemed content for the moment to watch me eat, smirking at the awkwardness.

I swallowed. “You’re not going to believe this. Someone tried to recruit me for a sports team.”

Mac stared at me, aghast. “Seriously?”

I snorted and kicked him under the table. “Don’t be that surprised.”

“No, you actually talked to someone already? The apocalypse must be near.”

I feigned an angry scowl and Mac laughed.

“Well? How did it happen?”

The sandwich tasted wonderful. I would have to remember this place. “They walked in on me experimenting.”

Mac’s face froze. “Experimenting?”

I realized what I had said too late. I slowed my chewing, trying to think of an explanation. But my brain had abandoned me. I swallowed and sighed. “Yeah, I thought I had a safe spot to try things. They didn’t see anything that strange.”

His smile faded. “You’re experimenting with your… changes?”

I dropped my eyes to my half-eaten sandwich. “Yeah.” Why had I mentioned that?

“That seems dangerous. What if you changed and couldn’t change back?”

“It doesn’t work like that,” I said, frowning. “I bet you know it doesn’t work like that.”

Mac sat back in his chair and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “You need to think about the consequences if you’re found out.”

I tried to push down the anger, but my response had some venom in it. “Well I can’t really do that can I? You haven’t told me what the consequences are.”

“Can’t you just trust me?”

The sandwich suddenly looked a lot less appetizing. “I do trust you. But it’s just too much, Mac. I need to know what’s happening to me. Is it common? Is this happening all around the world, or is Sillwood just on top of an ancient burial ground or something?”

“Nick, I postponed my honeymoon to search for you after the wedding. Understand that all I am doing by keeping you in the dark is making sure my best friend doesn’t get himself killed.”

“You still haven’t gone, right?”

Mac just looked at me with his arms crossed.

My knee started to bounce under the table. “That means things are still bad, right? You can’t take time off because there is some sort of crisis going on. H.E.S.P. needs all the soldiers it can get.”

Annoyance crossed his face. Some vindictive part of me was satisfied I could get a rise out of him. “I am not a soldier.” He said slowly, pushing a cup towards me. “Calm down, take a drink.”

I stared at the dark liquid inside the cup and wrinkled my nose.

“It’s just coffee,” he said exasperated.

I glared at him. My hands curled into fists on the table. “You know I don’t like it.”

“Calm. Down.”

My hands shook. “You know that you saying that is having the exact opposite effect.”

“You don’t understand how much this could disrupt your life. If the higher ups knew about Nell, the fact that she is the likely progenitor of the Tree…”

“She is not the villain here!”

Mac looked down at my hands and made a small noise. I looked down and saw that there was a large spine growing from my wrist. Mac gripped my arm and yanked it towards himself as he leaned forward to hide it. The table rattled as I had to bend forward across it.

Mac stared at me with intense professionalism. “Stop it,” he whispered in a tight voice.

I retracted the spine with difficulty.

“Is everything okay over here?”

The server had come to check on us, glancing at our faces nervously. Mac released my arm and flashed a bright smile at the server. “We’re fine. Thanks for asking. The sandwiches were excellent by the way, thank you for the recommendation.”

The server’s cheeks flushed. “Oh! I’m glad you liked them.”

I sat, mortified at what I’d just done. This is why you can’t be around people. I sat listlessly as Mac finished talking to the server and she walked away.

“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling the waves of shame pour over me.

Mac didn’t say anything. He stared at me intently, like he wanted to ask me something. Then he took off his glasses. “Fine. You want to know the consequences? Fine. But you aren’t going to like it.” He raised his head and looked at me sadly. “The Cathrow children have disappeared. They were in a foster home last week when they vanished along with their foster parents.”

My heart sank.

Mac continued. “Our opponent is better at this than us. They’ve been in the game for far longer. They know more, they are better equipped, they outnumber us. We are always two steps behind. We have some idea of what they’re after but there’s still so much we don’t understand. And they leave a trail of traumatized, changed people in their wake that we have to care for. We thought that was the worst of it, but now it seems they’re returning to take back some of their test subjects. Our resources are stretched too thin, Nick. We can’t protect everyone.”

My head spun, trying to think of some way I could have changed this outcome.

“I’m afraid. That we will be too late to make a difference against their cruel plans. So I need you to lay low.” Mac put his hand over mine. “I can’t lose you.”

I just stared at the table, sinking deep into the whorls and lines of the wood.

“I’ve got to get back to work,” Mac said, standing from the table. “Focus on school, Nick. It sounds like you’re making friends. Don’t blow it on something that’s all risk with no reward.”

He left and I was stuck feeling like a piece of shit. I had scared him, I could tell from the way he spoke so curtly.

My chest felt heavy, like my heart was failing again. Am I not in control? I breathed in, trying to relieve some of the anxiety. But it didn’t help. I didn’t want to think about school. Not when I knew that something terrible had happened to Jason and Gail.

I knew there was one thing that was sure to drive away the bad feelings. I just have to hope that Mac will forgive me one day.